Dying to Live

by Roxy De Winter

  “HUNGRY?” He yelled at it. “WELL SO AM I!” And with that, he pointed the barrel upwards under its chin and fired.

  The amount of blood was spectacular; it fountained upwards and spurted out like a water feature, showering down on Bao and anything else in the vicinity.

  Bao stood there, breathing heavily. Pete and Xin looked at each other.

  “Wow,” Pete breathed. He struggled to contain his amusement as he said, “That guy really wants dinner.”

  Xin couldn’t help it, she cracked up laughing. It was the most terrifying moment that any of them had ever experienced and Bao had shouted at the zombie about food. Pete laughed along with her. He always said that ‘if you don’t laugh you’ll cry’ and this was definitely an accurate situation for the phrase.

  When Bao found himself again, he wandered around and leaned into Xin’s open window.

  “Are you going to sit here laughing all day or are we going to get this over with?” He asked, sounding somewhat embarrassed.

  “Sorry,” Xin apologised, trying to make her face straighten itself.

  “Yeah. Sorry, Bao.” Pete aimed for sincerity but barely kept the laugh from his voice. Bao sighed and walked away. “We’d better join him, he’s obviously starving,” Pete said in a hushed tone, starting up fresh giggles.

  The three of them found the right building. It was very clearly marked ‘CAFETERIA’. They even found a side door that led straight into the thankfully empty kitchen.

  “You know,” Pete started as they pilfered through the fridges and cupboards. “It makes things worse that they’re ‘Dawn Of The Dead’ zombies rather than ‘Shaun Of The Dead’. The Shaun ones would have been much easier to deal with.”

  Xin snorted in amusement, but the reference went over Bao’s head.

  “Excuse me?” He enquired.

  “Not a fan of zombie films?” Pete wondered earnestly.

  “I prefer to watch the old classics...” Bao shrugged.

  “Well, I mean because they run. They don’t just... stagger around.”

  “Hmmm,” Bao considered. “I guess your typical ‘Zombie’ is just dead though. The body goes through the decomposition process and the muscles no longer work as well. The foreign tissue that was introduced into ‘our zombies’ systems, appears to turn their death into another stage of life.”

  Digesting this kept Pete quiet as he filled his bag with as many tins as he could fit. Tins would last the longest so they seemed to be a safe bet, especially if they ended up on the move again. However, Xin had the presence of mind to take as many perishables as possible. The limited shelf life of these product meant that they would be going to waste in the not so distant future. Anything else would save and could last a long time. They could come back for when they ran out, giving them a longer supply of food. Bao simply loaded his bags with whatever he laid his hands on.

  The kitchen was so big that once their bags were too full to hold anything else, they had still barely dented the available supplies. Xin guessed that keeping your staff well fed, kept them happy enough to keep all the secrets they learned here.

  “Are we ready to go?” Pete asked, looking at them from where he stood by the door.

  “I think so,” Xin cast a final glance around the kitchen. “At least for now.”

  “Alright, let’s go then.” Pete opened the door a small way and poked his head out. He hastily pulled it back in and shut the door again. “On second thoughts... weapons out.”

  “Are there more out there?” Bao asked. Pete merely nodded in reply, so Bao asked, “How many?”

  “Maybe twelve?” Pete said. “I didn’t really get time to count. The noise from fighting the first few must have attracted more of them.”

  “Can we get to the car before they get to us?” Xin asked.

  “No,” Pete said. “Our best bet is for two of us to hold them off while the other loads the bags. We should use blades instead this time. If we use guns we could draw even more of them down here, then who knows if we’d make it back.”

  “Xin and I have only brought guns with us...” Bao began, frowning.

  “Good job we’re in a kitchen,” Xin butted in, holding up a meat cleaver in one hand and a chef’s knife in the other. She nudged the open drawer in front of her with her hip to close it. “Looks like you’ll be loading the bags, Bao.”

  Remembering how he had already kept himself safe as she rushed into danger once before, Bao protested. “I think not. Pass me the cleaver please, Xin.”

  “I can do this,” Xin argued.

  “I know you can, but it would make me very happy if you would let me do it instead,” Bao persisted.

  “We don’t have time for this.” Pete rolled his eyes. “Xin, give him one of the knives.”

  “Is this because I’m a woman?” Xin scowled, as Pete stepped away from the door and picked up a couple of the bags they had packed. Realising his intent, Xin shut up. “Oh.”

  “Yeah. I’ll load the damn bags, just you guys focus on not letting us get killed.” Pete rolled his eyes again but a smirk tugged at his lips.

  When they were ready, Bao swung the door wide open and charged out. He was followed closely by Xin. Pete waited until they had engaged the nearest targets and provided him a clear path, before darting towards the car with the first of the bags.

  He skirted around Xin as she thrust the chef’s knife into the temple of another khaki clad soldier. Then he sidestepped Bao, as he swung his cleaver at the head of a zombie wearing a torn, yellow boiler suit and blue, rubber gloves. When he reached the car, he wasted no time. He threw open the trunk, dropped in the bags and set off sprinting back to the kitchen.

  It took him three trips back and forth to get everything into the car. When he called out to the others, there was a small mound of bodies at each of their feet and they were relieved to turn tail and run back to the safe confines of the car.

  Xin didn’t know how they had been so fortunate, but she was grateful when they found themselves back in the car with the locks down. Breathing rapidly, they all sat for a moment watching the zombies try futilely to get to them.

  “Let’s get back to Lucy and Frank,” Pete exhaled with relief.

  It was good to be driving back down the road, and with so much food too.

  Xin felt that, dangerous as the trip had been, they had been extremely lucky. She was willing to bet however, that luck wouldn’t always be on their side. Sooner or later she would probably need to venture into the very depths of this base in search of the lab. She was also under no illusions that the further in she went, the more people there would be that hadn’t escaped. So while the canteen was a small victory, it was nothing compared to the bigger picture.

  8.

  ‘I felt like I should have gone down the track with the others. It didn’t seem right for me to be staying behind, while they headed out into untold dangers to provide for us. On the other hand, internally I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to face it myself just yet. I couldn’t exactly leave Lucy by herself either, it wasn’t safe and she needed the comfort of knowing that she wasn’t alone. To make up for staying behind, we wanted to make ourselves useful whilst they were gone. So, we decided to freshen up a bit and then try to organise the cabin whilst we kept an eye on the TV.’

  Left with the offer to use whatever they needed, Lucy and Frank had taken a quick look through the cases and pulled out fresh clothes each. They took it in turns to change in the toilet. Frank had pulled on some loose fitting, khaki, cargo pants and a baggy black band t-shirt. They were things that he would never usually wear, and were a couple of sizes too big for his scrawny build. He was too grateful that he was feeling clean again for it to bother him. Frank hummed tunelessly as he liberally sprayed on deodorant. Lucy borrowed some facial wipes and a hairbrush, and disappeared into the small, dark closet that masqueraded as a bathroom. She discovered that the plain, white t-shirt she had taken was a little tight around her considerably bigger chest. However, the dark deni
m jeans fit her well enough.

  When Frank watched Lucy entering the room after changing, it was all he could do to keep his eyes inside his head.

  “That’s so much better,” Lucy groaned.

  Frank nodded. “Yeah, it feels good. Although, Pete’s music taste sucks,” he laughed, pointing at his shirt.

  “Oh, I don’t know, I don’t mind a bit of rock music now and again,” She smiled. “I guess we should see what’s going on, anyway.” Lucy headed across to the TV set and retrieved the battered remote that sat on top of it.

  As soon as she flicked it on, Frank knew it was a dead end. The signal wasn’t great and it didn’t pick up most of the channels, but the ones it did were showing ‘breaking news’ banners. The news stations weren’t mentioning any attacks or explaining what was happening behind the scenes, they just said that there were fears about public safety in the area. The cameras were filming the evacuation and interviewing scared families who were trying to leave. The people who were interviewed speculated about what was happening. There were theories ranging from totally absurd to scarily accurate.

  One man appeared on screen and even mentioned the Nevada base that they were at. The man in question was old and grubby looking; personal hygiene was obviously not one of his priorities. Even clad in his stained vest, and pants that hung so low that they showed off his equally stained underwear, he seemed in some way too naked and exposed to be on television. He glared brazenly into the camera, unashamedly addressing the nation.

  “...Everyone knows about that dang military place out in the desert! But who knows what they’ve really been up to? Nobody wants to tell ole Doug what’s going on, but near’s I can tell it’s all coming from out that way...”

  The news reporter holding the microphone looked off camera and was obviously given instructions to get the nut job to shut up.

  “Folks out in Lincoln County still getting called Down-winders! All that toxic, horseshit that blew over ‘em in the fiddies n sixties, gid ‘em all cancer di’n it? What else you think it could do, ay?”

  “I’m sorry, sir. I have to hand back to the studio now...” She attempted to hide her shock by smiling politely.

  “Y’all can think I’m crazy!” He ranted, grabbing the microphone and shoving the poor woman aside. “But I ain’t gonna be forced out of my own home! I ain’t gonna be lied to! This is ‘merica, land of the free, home of the brave! The people--”

  He was cut off abruptly when the feed returned to the flustered looking news anchors in the studio. They immediately began to apologise for the man’s language and laugh off his words.

  “Well, it looks like at least some people are putting two and two together,” Frank said. “Even if they’re coming up with five.”

  “I wonder if he’ll come here looking for answers?” Lucy pondered nervously. Frank considered this. The guy may have been correct in his assumptions, at least in a sense, but he also seemed a little crazy and potentially dangerous. They couldn’t know for sure that he wouldn’t show up, and this made Frank feel uncomfortable. Maybe zombies weren’t the only threat they needed to keep an eye out for.

  “I don’t know,” Frank said honestly. “Perhaps, but he’s only one man. Besides, even if he does he can’t catch us unawares, not with all these cameras. Come on, let’s shift all these computer parts out of the way and clean up.”

  Lucy looked guiltily at the computer pieces that he gestured to; they were still scattered across the floor. This got her thinking and she turned to Frank.

  “Hey, what do you think it will be that’s on the files that the old man brought?” She asked him.

  “Who knows?” Frank shrugged. “It’s got to be quite important, though, he wouldn’t part with that suitcase during the entire plane ride here.”

  “You travelled over with him? Didn’t he tell you about them?” She probed.

  “Dr Yuan?” He snorted. “You met him, didn’t you? Does he seem like the kind of guy who pours his heart out to his pilot?” Frank was strolling casually back from the kitchen with a roll of sacks, trying to disguise his curiosity as to whether she was impressed. He tore a bag off the roll and shook it open.

  “Wow, pilot.” Lucy arched an eyebrow at Frank. “But yes, I guess he does seem a little prickly. It was a long drive here, he must have mentioned something?” As she spoke, she began to drop the parts into the bag Frank held open for her.

  “All I know is that he works for some big research facility in China; they told me that when they rang and asked me to fly him over. He was expecting trouble, when we got to the airport it was in chaos and he pulled a gun! He mentioned having to call in some favours too. So he went to some trouble to make sure he got here without many people knowing.” Frank considered for a moment. “I guess the files will be relating to whatever his research facility knows about this... sickness.”

  Lucy looked up at him. The look on her face betrayed a glimmer of the hope sparking inside of her. “Maybe it will be a way to cure them!”

  Frank doubted that whatever the undead were suffering from could be cured, but it was about the happiest he had seen this girl since he had met her. “Yeah, maybe...” He tried to sound as hopeful as she did.

  They finished bagging the useless bits and took them outside, around the back of the hut. When they got back in, Lucy dug out some cleaning products from the back of a cupboard under the sink. She set about the cooker and turned down Franks offer to help.

  “Why don’t you man the cameras for a little bit? I think watching that report has made me a bit paranoid, but it’s worth being careful,” she suggested, shooing him away. The open plan of the small interior, meant that they could chatter amicably as she worked and Frank spun from side to side on the office chair at the security desk.

  “So, whereabouts in England are you from?” Frank asked.

  “Oh, Well I’m a northern girl, of course. I’m from Yorkshire. What about you? South, obviously?” Lucy smiled.

  “Yeah,” Frank laughed. It was hard to mistake the London twang in his accent. He opened his mouth to say something else, but his attention was drawn by one of the security feeds. His mouth dropped open.

  “Shit! Luce, come see this!” He blurted, spinning his chair straight and up to the desk.

  Lucy rushed over, still wearing a pair of rubber gloves and worrying about what Frank had seen.

  The screen flicked to a different camera feed as she got to him.

  “What? What was it?” She panicked.

  “Wait, let me figure out how to get it back,” Frank breathed, looking at the buttons in front of him. “This one?” He wondered aloud, pressing what looked like a ‘back’ button. The previous feed flashed back onto the screen and Lucy gasped. Even though the image quality was very grainy and flickered occasionally, they could see the car on the edge of the car park. It was obviously the one Xin, Bao and Pete had taken. As they watched, a small herd of undead converged on the car, clawing and scratching.

  “Oh, God!” Lucy gulped.

  “They have guns,” Frank reminded her.

  The pair witnessed the first three bodies go down and were thankful that they weren’t watching the High Definition version. As Bao jumped from the car, they both gasped again.

  “What is he doing? Is he mad?” Lucy asked, her voice raising a few octaves. When he blew a hole in the zombie, Frank let out a relieved chuckle.

  “Crazy old fool,” He laughed, shaking his head in disbelief. “It looks like they’ve made it into to the kitchens now.”

  Lucy didn’t respond, she just shook her head, clapped Frank’s shoulder gently and headed back to the cooker.

  He kept a closer eye on the monitors for the rest of his time at the desk. He didn’t want to worry Lucy further by informing her of the second fight, but he tensed as they fought their way back to the car.

  “Thank fuck for that!” Frank sighed, as Xin took down another one.

  “What?” Lucy asked, looking up.

  “Oh, nothin
g,” Frank replied sheepishly.

  Once he’d seen that they’d made it back to the car with all the bags, he put the cameras back on loop and stood up. Lucy was just pulling her gloves off and tossing them in the dustbin.

  “They’re on their way back now... They did it,” Frank informed her. She beamed at him and walked over to pull him into a hug. This took Frank by surprise but he returned the hug.

  The TV that had been babbling in the background suddenly ceased it’s transmission, showing only the coloured stripes of a dead channel.

  “Well, that’s not good,” Frank mumbled, releasing Lucy and retrieving the remote. He flicked past another dead channel to one that was still broadcasting.

  “...Unclear. It seems that various local TV and radio broadcasters have been shut down and evacuated. Others appear to be suffering technical difficulties at this moment, so stay here with us for all the updates as we get them.”

  “I can’t believe that the government are getting away with not telling people the whole story,” Lucy said with frustration. “I mean, what are people meant to think? Families are being asked to abandon their homes with no idea why.”

  “I know,” Frank sighed. “So many people are going to die before they realise that these things are attacking everyone. We might have to discuss telling people more through the radio. If we can warn people then we should.”

  Lucy drifted off into her own thoughts for a while, then out of nowhere she said, “It’s hard isn’t it? Not knowing what to do. I mean... We don’t want to cause panic and make things worse. Imagine what people would do if we told them out and out. There would be riots and chaos, nobody would care anymore. But then, we don’t want people to be oblivious either.” A frown wrinkled her forehead as she finished. She couldn’t quite word how it felt.

  Frank understood, though. He felt conflicted too. They didn’t get much of a chance to dwell on it. The sound of a car engine roared in the distance.