Dying to Live

by Roxy De Winter

  “That is all well and good, Madame Secretary, but it doesn’t enlighten me as to what it is that is actually going on,” The President responded irritably.

  “I’m sorry, Mr President, Sir.” She looked nervously around, hoping that somebody else would rise and take the mantle instead. When they didn’t, she laced her hands together and looked down at the table, as though saying a silent prayer. When she looked up and met his eyes, she appeared to be worried. “It’s an outbreak, sir. There is no good name for it, nor a suitable term to describe it. It’s... cadaver reanimation.”

  “What are you trying to say?” The President asked. The woman squirmed anxiously.

  “When a person is infected, they die. But then they come back to life. When they do, they have a fierce aggression. They attack everyone they can in order to spread their infection to others. In effect, they’re...” She paused and let out a defeated sigh. “Zombies.”

  The President was silent for a moment. Then, with an unimpressed look on his face, he told the room at large, “You better pray to God that this isn’t a joke you’re trying to pull.”

  However, nobody was laughing. Some of the men and women seated around him were looking dismally at their hands, the others bore looks of either fear or confusion.

  “I can assure you, this is no joke, Sir. I wish that it were.” The Secretary looked uncomfortable. “People are already calling this the zombie apocalypse.”

  The President slowly got up from his seat and began to pace the room. He hoped that it would help him to process this development.

  “Are we equipped to handle it?” He asked.

  When The Secretary of Defence rose to his feet, the woman gladly slumped back into her chair.

  “Sir, I too have had contact with The Director at the CDC. We believe that with quick and sure action it can be taken care of.” He drew a deep breath. “The problem is...”

  “You mean that the problem isn’t the zombie outbreak?” One woman spoke up sarcastically.

  “The problem is,” he continued. “That any response now will not be quick enough. This thing has had a head start. Communications were down for so long that we didn’t find out in time. When we did find out, we immediately took military action, but it’s already spread. The people who worked in Nevada got into their cars and drove as far away as they could. Some of those people had been attacked and took the infection with them.”

  “So, what can we do?” The President asked.

  “Evacuate the areas that are in immediate danger to start with. Set up quarantine zones in places that can’t be saved. We’ll need a strong armed presence too,” The Secretary told him.

  “Do whatever you must. Get this under control,” The President warned him. “Is there a cure for this... infection?”

  “Not as yet,” came another voice across the table. “But I was informed that a crucial patient was extracted from the site and is safe. They’re fetching her here as we speak.”

  “How widespread is it at this moment?” The President ran a hand over his head. “I was told that the other world leaders are being informed. Is that wise at this stage?”

  There were a lot of glances exchanged and anxious faces starred back at him, but nobody answered immediately.

  “Well?” He pushed, raising his voice a little.

  “Mr President, Sir.” The Head of the Department of Transportation stood up. “We have closed down all civilian transport services into and out of the country. We are monitoring all other international services and shutting down all but the most vital. However, we... We didn’t know soon enough. People slipped through. Anti-terror protocol has prevented planes from going down, but we’ve had reports of many that have landed around the world with the whole cabin in disarray.”

  “It’s already gone international?” The President enquired with wide eyes, stopping in his tracks.

  “I’m afraid so,” The Transport Secretary nodded. “The best we can do now is damage control. Hopefully each country can manage the situation quickly and efficiently and we can take care of anything that points to us being culpable.

  “This is a nightmare,” The President breathed, rubbing his hands over his face. He walked back over to his chair and sat down. “We need to deal with this immediately and effectively. I trust you all to act in the best interests of this country. You all have my authorisation to do whatever you need in order to get this under control. Keep me informed. I’ll need to consult with a few of you later but I have calls to make and video conferences to be briefed for first. Please, go and do whatever you can.”

  ‘In the beginning I was confident in our capabilities. We were the strongest country in the world. I thought that our various departments could handle anything. Nevertheless, it all just got worse from there.

  Fast-forwarding a month or so, most of them were gone. Many just fled their posts, abandoned their country in order to save themselves and be with their families. Others had posts which called for them to be sent out of state. It was out there in the thick of it that many of them met a much worse fate. By then there were very few of us left. Even our military forces had dwindled, and what we had left we set to defending our immediate vicinity. Even maintaining our safe zone became a struggle. We were fighting a losing battle. The forever multiplying wave of zombies swallowed up everything eventually.’

  “So set up another barricade, damn it!” The President bawled.

  “There aren’t enough men left to hold a barricade, Sir,” The Sergeant Major explained.

  “Then what you’re telling me is that we’ve lost the city? America has fallen? That is NOT ACCEPTABLE!” The President’s days of keeping his cool were gone. He had been capable of dealing with bad news. He knew how to be the calm and collected figure that people looked to in their time of need, but this was too much. It had all escalated too quickly and gone too far.

  “Sir, the... dead ones... They saw the convoy get here. They followed it and got through the last fence.” The Sergeant’s voice lacked any emotion. “Nothing can hold them back now. All of the quarantines, evacuations and barricades that we put into place... they fall, just like the others. Only it’s happening faster and faster each time. Short of taking every man we have and heading out to engage them in a futile battle, there’s nothing we can do. I suggest that we take shelter in here. We can defend the building and wait for help.”

  “Help? There is nobody left to help!” The President was exasperated. This man was trained in war and he could not understand why he wasn’t offering a better solution. “I will not have the last men in this country holed up and cowering! Take them, if that is the only way. Arm them all and fight for this country!”

  “Mr President, with all due respect, that would be a death sentence to each of them,” The Sergeant tried to argue.

  “That was an ORDER!” The president yelled. “The Secretary and I shall wait underground for the patient and escort her to England. Our only hope is to use her to find a cure. Have the men secure her inside and then take them to reclaim that barricade. Once that’s done, then someone can bring her down to us.”

  “I want it to be known that I am not happy with this plan of action,” The Sergeant said rubbing a hand over his greying hair. “I want those men to know that it was your order that sent them to their deaths not mine.”

  “Duly noted, tell them what you wish. Now go!” The President commanded.

  2.

  ‘After we’d gotten over the novelty of our mode of transport, the journey was quite boring. I spent most of it getting to know Rebel better and the others seemed to alternate between sleeping and talking.

  The real shock came when we arrived in England and saw what was waiting for us. There were people who came to greet us straight out of the hyperloop pod and it was so much more than we could have hoped for. The President introduced us as though we were heroes and then he was ushered away to some private quarter. His words cemented us a place there and we were invited to take up residence in
The Fleet Accommodation Centre. We discovered that The Pentagon wasn’t the only location that had an evacuation procedure that terminated on the naval base. During the weeks after we arrived, we learnt that many significant figures were now securely housed in the private barracks, including other scientists, politicians and anyone else who had been deemed valuable or wealthy enough. The whole base was like a sheltered community. It was housed behind a huge security fence, which had been reinforced as soon as they heard word of the outbreak. It was now impenetrable. Nestled safely behind it, the base hosted an array of amenities that one would expect of a small town rather than a just a port. The country had succumbed to the infection but, for now at least, HMNB Devonport was a haven.’

  The group were free to roam most of the base. It was a huge, sprawling complex with room enough to house hundreds of recruits and their families. There were a variety of different recreation buildings and a large mess hall where they ate together every day. Most of the restaurants and shops were no longer staffed, although they were still accessible, and facilities like the pool were not maintained how they once had been, but on the whole, life there was almost too good to be true.

  Xin and Pete arrived at the table with their lunch trays not long after Andy had sat down. He had joined Frank, Lucy and Rebel, after he’d finally gotten served.

  “Alright?” Pete greeted them.

  “Oh hey,” Lucy returned the smile. “I didn’t see you at breakfast this morning, Xin?”

  “Sorry,” She apologised, “I wanted to talk to you about that actually.” She sat down and picked up her fork.

  “Oh? What’s up?” Frank asked her through a mouthful of food.

  “Well, we’ve been here doing nothing for a little over a month now. So I decided to go and find out what they’re doing about the outbreak,” Xin shared casually.

  Andy paused mid chew. “What? ...and they told you? Just like that?”

  “Yes,” Xin said. “I can help them if there’s any work going on, and I think they know that.”

  “WE can help them,” Pete corrected her. “You’re the scientist, but we’re still in this together. We can all help if they’ll let us.” Xin smiled at him and continued.

  “Well, I spoke to The Commander anyway. I told him a little bit about my experience in the field and they’ve arranged for me to meet with the other researchers and doctors that they have here. It’s all set for tomorrow.” Xin paused and took a bite of bread before continuing. “Hopefully they’ll share what they know and what they plan to do. From what The Commander said, they don’t know much about the infection at all. Perhaps they’ll find our knowledge quite useful.”

  “What will we be able to do?” Pete asked. He wanted to make sure that they all had a part to play, so that Xin wouldn’t end up meeting them alone. He didn’t want her to get sucked into anything dangerous without her friends to help her.

  “Don’t worry. I told The Commander that I wanted you all there with me,” Xin reassured him. “He agreed that your experience could be useful and said that you were welcome to be there.”

  “Well, I’m in,” Frank said with a shrug.

  The others agreed, all except Rebel, who remained quiet.

  “Rebel?” Andy asked her. The others looked at her expectantly.

  “Yeah, that all sounds fine for you guys,” Rebel shrugged noncommittally. “But for me it’s gonna mean I’m one step away from being a test subject again. It all starts with me just being there, but the next thing you know, one of the others notice me and I’m strapped to a gurney with electrodes in my brain.”

  “Absolutely not,” Xin shook her head. “We can’t prevent them from knowing who you are, not after The President’s introductions...” She paused as someone walked by their table. “But we won’t sit around and let anything happen to you.”

  “What about when all these Doctors decide that I’m the only one who holds the cure?” Rebel asked glumly.

  “We don’t know that for sure,” Xin said firmly. “The first step towards curing them is to run tests on them. We need to know how they processed the matter and that is entirely different to you.”

  “Fine, if you can promise me my freedom, and that you’ll not let me become a guinea pig again, then I’ll trust your word and come along.” Rebel looked anxious but made an effort to mask it.

  “You have my word,” Xin promised, putting down her fork and placing her hand over Rebel’s. “We’ll do whatever it takes.”

  3.

  ‘During that month on the naval base I’d had a lot of time for reflection. Mainly thoughts of ‘why me?’ and ‘it’s not fair” but also a persistent concern about what I had become.

  They’d plucked me from my life --and trust me, vagrancy is still a life-- and made me into some kind of warped mutant. I don’t know if I’d have rather died than be like this. Nobody knew the full account of what I’d been through either, and I didn’t want to share it. Many of the tests they’d subjected me to had been painful and degrading, even though I could heal as quickly as they could inflict any kind of injury. Some of them hadn’t been as bad, they’d just scared the living crap out of me. For instance, at first I’d felt ridiculous when they’d said they wanted me to hold my breath and see how long I could keep it in, but I’d discovered in that moment that I could do it indefinitely. It caused me no discomfort to deprive myself of oxygen, but the unease that came with that knowledge that was endless.

  I messed up their tests whenever I could. I wanted to make them think that there were still parts of me that were normal, and on that occasion, I’d dramatically gasped in a desperate gulp of air after only a couple of minutes.

  I was placing a lot of trust in Xin and the others when I’d agreed to attend the meeting. Being face to face with new scientists was not something I was eager to do. Even in a new country, with scientists from the other side of the globe, I was convinced that their mindsets would be the same. ‘Cage the freak’. Xin had said not, but I was sure that it would take great restraint on her part if I proved to be the key to finding a cure. I did feel selfish for depriving people of the chance to reclaim their lives, but at that moment, they were all oblivious to their own suffering. If one thing was sure, it was that I would not have that same luxury. Regardless, it had driven me to decide that, if Xin kept her promise, then I would donate some of the samples they needed. I’d do it of my own free will, on my own terms, with the right to change my mind or get them to stop, but I’d do it, because it was the right thing to do. I might physically be at one with these monsters, but I was determined that inside, I would be different.’

  “Hey, are you ready?” Xin asked tentatively, poking her head into the dorm room.

  “Yeah, I guess,” Rebel said, dropping the laces of the combat boots she had just finished tying. Lucy appeared beside Xin at the door.

  “The guys are going to meet us there,” she smiled. Rebel could tell that they were trying their best to make her feel at ease.

  “Where are we going for the meeting?” Rebel asked.

  “The commander has assigned a quarantine area. Apparently, some of the well-to-do people who made their way here were already infected. They didn’t feel it was right to kill them so they’re hoping that they can be the first ones to benefit from a cure. The scientists have set up close to there and that’s where we’re meeting them.”

  “Okay, lead the way,” Rebel gestured.

  Outside, there was a chilly breeze rolling in from the sea. It was a cold November morning and the smell of salty surf was a refreshing thing to wake up to. The lapping waves provided a distant murmur of background noise that was ever-present, no matter where you were on the base. At one time, it may have been too busy with the hustle and bustle of life for the sound to have been noticeable, but since many of the naval troops had been sent to their deaths during the fight to contain the outbreak, it was now a much quieter place.

  When the girls arrived, The Commander was stood outside chatting with Pete, Frank
and Andy.

  “Ah, ladies, it’s good to see you,” He greeted them courteously. “I was just telling the lads that I decided to come along and oversee the introductions myself.”

  “That’s very kind of you. Thank you,” Xin said. She stood beside Pete, he kissed her lightly on the crown of her head and wrapped an arm around her waist.

  “Shall we go in?” The Commander asked. He didn’t wait for an answer before reaching out and taking the door handle. He swung the door open and looked at Lucy who was nearest. “After you.”

  They made their way into an area that was not dissimilar to a classroom. It was averagely sized and had rows of desks lining it. Six men were already inside and didn’t immediately notice their arrival. Five of them were clustered around a table at the front, arguing over a set of notes that lay open upon it. The sixth was silently watching the faces of those who were speaking.

  “Gentlemen,” The Commander interrupted, drawing their attention to the back of the room. “I’ve brought some people for you to meet.”

  The sixth man only seemed to realise that they were there once the others had turned to look at them. One of the men rapidly began translating what had been said into sign language for him.

  “Ah, guten morgen!” A grey haired man said, rushing towards them with an outstretched hand. “I am Doctor Leisenberg,” he said. “Not to be confused with Heisenberg.” He let out a bark of laughter at what he clearly found to be a great witticism.

  Xin smiled and shook his hand as she introduced herself.

  “My name is Doctor Xin Yao and these are my friends Pete Rzewski, Lucy Jacobs, Frank Burton, Andy Miller and Rebel Young.” She pointed to each of them as she named them.