Dying to Live

by Roxy De Winter

  A handful of zombies had already been taken down and Kristy and Stephen stood in front of Sean trying to fend off more of them. Sean held a gun and was trying desperately, through his tears, to figure out why it wouldn’t work. Harry saw the moment that he worked out how to take the safety off and tested the trigger. The bullet zipped from Sean’s gun and lodged into his mothers back.

  Kristy’s back arched before she collapsed with a wail. Stephen saw the movement from the corner of his eye and paused his shooting to see if she was alright. It took only those few seconds for the zombies to overtake him. All Harry could hear was the agonised cries of a father and son as they were devoured.

  “Harry! Help!” Zahra yelped when she noticed him. This stole his attention from the Wood’s and he turned back to the Target. Zombies had broken away and made it to the doors that she and Ahmed were desperately attempting to force shut.

  The frail, elderly couple were overpowered before he could stumble far enough to help them. He fired his gun, hoping to buy them enough time, but from such a distance and whilst hobbling as quickly as he could, the shots weren’t nearly accurate enough. Once he got closer to them, he saw that Zahra’s hijab was already soaked with blood and leaking long strands of black hair. Her entrails were hanging from the jaws of a grotesque fast food worker. Harry put a bitter bullet it’s brain and his eyes prickled for Zahra. It was much too late to save her.

  Ahmed, however, was still alive underneath the bloodied bodies that all fought for a piece of his flesh. His eyes found Harry’s and widened.

  “Please,” He pleaded. “Kill me.”

  Harry faltered and the gun trembled in his hand as he raised it.

  “I’m so sorry,” he whispered and looked away before he pulled the trigger.

  Harry couldn’t mourn for long. He rapidly fought his way into their camp. Jessica was there, looking stricken as she tried to urge Aiden to leave with her.

  “Not without my mom!” He cried, trying to drag Courtney from her bed. Harry shook his head with frustration. One day that junkie would get her son killed he thought to himself.

  “The doors!” Harry yelled. Jessy looked up only just noticing him and he pointed to the exit. “Get the doors open and get them out. The keys are still in the ambulance.”

  She nodded mutely and helped Aiden support his mother’s weight, then pull her in the direction Harry had pointed. Harry watched just long enough to see her set to work on the barricade, before whirling around and starting to shoot.

  His shots were steadier this time and bodies fell before him. There were way too many of them, he knew that in a few short moments he would be out of bullets.

  Harry chanced a glance over at the kids and saw that Jessica was just pushing the door open. When he looked back, the realization sunk in that he might not make it to the doors himself, not on his bad leg. The zombie at the front of the press was only inches away. Harry started backing up as he lifted his gun to fire. He hoped that if he could get out just one more shot, maybe he could buy himself a chance. He took aim and pulled the trigger.

  No explosion burst from the muzzle, just a faint click.

  “Fuck,” He hissed and turned to run, throwing his useless gun aside.

  He felt fingers whisper across his back before he had gotten far and then they wrapped around his shoulders. As the tide of zombies overcame him, he saw Aiden turn back and look at him.

  “RUN!” Harry yelled.

  Horror filled the boy’s eyes and even as teeth sank into his neck, Harry felt bad that the boy would have to bear such a memory of him. Thankfully, Aiden took heed and Harry saw them hastening outside.

  He struggled to turn onto his back and raised his arms to protect himself. Mouths were clamping onto him and he could no longer restrain his pain. He howled as chunks were ripped from his shoulders and arms. He felt more jaws wrap around his thighs and shrieked louder still.

  The last thing he remembered was the sound of the ambulance starting up and the sight of it lurching free of its parking spot. Then the sun caught in his eyes, blinding him as he drifted out of consciousness and gasped out a dying breath.

  5.

  ‘Professor Allmendinger was as good as his word. The room had been sterilised overnight and I was impressed by how comprehensive the lab he arranged actually was. A lot of the tables had been removed to clear space and there was more equipment in there than I could have imagined. I had no idea how he could’ve managed to get any of it to England with him, but I presumed that some of it had been acquired with The Commanders assistance. The hospital was also happy to aid our work in any way that they could and made their equipment available at our disposal. I felt stressed just thinking about trying to tie a zombie into an MRI scanner, but it could prove to be necessary. Oh, how much fun that would be.’

  The next morning, Xin awoke in the early hours and couldn’t get back to sleep. It was freezing cold despite the thick duvet and heavy blankets she was shrouded in. Xin stifled a yawn and rolled over, propping herself up on one elbow. With a cursory scan of the room that she shared with the other girls, she could see that Rebel was still fast asleep and that Lucy’s bed was surreptitiously empty. Xin rolled her eyes. This wasn’t the first time that Lucy had snuck out like a teenager to find Frank during the night.

  Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Xin quietly climbed out of bed and got dressed. She wrapped her new thick coat tightly around herself and left.

  Elsewhere, Pete was sat on a bench looking out at the immense ships that were docked along the wharf. The tide was high and a blustery wind whipped the water into a frenzy. Colossal sprays of sea mist burst against the hulls of the great vessels. He watched the ships bob ever so slightly with the swell of the ocean, as the wind tugged at his hair and clothes.

  The silhouette of an approaching figure distracted him. The sun was rising behind them and casting their profile into darkness.

  As they came closer, Pete recognised the figure that was scurrying up to his vantage point. Her head was tucked between her shoulders, braced against the lashing gusts that pulled her hair up into the air. When she looked up at him, her cheeks were pink, nipped by the cold, but a smile broke across her face.

  “You couldn’t sleep either?” Xin asked by way of greeting. She sat down close beside him and scooted under the arm Pete offered for warmth.

  “Nah,” Pete said, rubbing her arm to generate some heat. “Lucy came over so... you know.”

  “Yeah,” Xin said awkwardly. “They should just ask for family accommodation and be done with it.”

  “Well, you know Frank. I think he wants to pretend he’s still just ‘one of the guys’ for a little longer before he settles down.”

  “Lucy will get her way in the end,” Xin laughed. “She has him wrapped around her little finger.”

  Pete laughed too and for a while afterwards they just sat looking out in amicable silence.

  “Oh, hey guys!” Andy called from behind them. Xin jumped out of her skin and the two men laughed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”

  He was still wearing his leather jacket, which seemed much too flimsy for the current weather conditions. His hands were forced deep into the pockets and his shoulders were hunched.

  “Aren’t you cold?” Xin asked him when he joined them on the bench.

  “I want to act all tough and pretend like I’m not,” he grinned. “But yeah, it’s fucking freezing.”

  “Oh no, dude! Now you’ve ruined the whole tough guy impression I’d formed of you,” Pete joked. “The long hair, the scrawny chicken legs...”

  Andy cut him off with a playful punch and a snort of laughter.

  “I’m tough! I just thought the Brits exaggerated how cold it got here,” Andy laughed, shaking his head. “I still can’t believe I’m in England.”

  “It’s a shame you can’t see it in all its glory,” Xin said.

  “Yeah,” He agreed, looking around them at the grassy hills and tall trees that looked down on the
docks. “I’m still gonna say that it counts and check it off of my bucket list.”

  When the sun began to climb higher the trio agreed that it was probably a good time to hunt down some breakfast and make their way to the new lab.

  “I can’t wait to see all of this science-y shit,” Andy revealed over a slice of toast. He saw Xin raise her eyebrow, “Not that I’m saying it’s shit, I just...”

  “I know,” She smiled patiently.

  “Will I be able to actually do some experiments and stuff?” He asked like an excited child.

  “There’s not going to be any explosions and big puffs of smoke or anything like that,” Xin giggled. “But I’ll let you help me cultivate some bacteria if you like?”

  “Oh, in those petri dish things, right?” Andy questioned.

  “That’s the one, but we usually call them agar plates,” She explained.

  “Sweet,” he nodded. “I can’t wait to grow me some grossness.”

  Rebel joined them whilst they were still discussing some of the other tests that Xin wanted to run.

  “The thing is,” she was saying, “To cure a disease, you need to know how it functions. If you expose it to a multitude of bacterium, you can see how the disease fights them off. For instance, my preliminary test could be to treat the infected blood with E.coli, and then I can observe the reaction. The more scenarios you introduce the disease to, the more equipped you are to successfully fight it.”

  “Hey,” Rebel said, sitting down at their table whilst they digested this information.

  “Good morning,” Xin smiled. “Did you sleep okay?”

  “I had nightmares,” Rebel frowned. “I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever get a restful night’s sleep again.”

  “You’re not alone with that,” Andy agreed. “I’ve had them since we left Caliente.”

  Rebel still stared a little whenever Andy spoke to her, but she was getting used to it every day, along with the sensation that her heart was working tirelessly to escape her ribcage.

  “Hey, look, Frank and Lucy have finally emerged,” Andy pointed out.

  Rebel started laughing to herself when she saw them, much to the confusion of the others.

  “I’m sorry,” She laughed when she noticed the questioning looks. “It’s just... Do you remember how people used to merge the names of a couple into one word? Like Brangelina?”

  “Sure,” Andy nodded.

  “Well, the other day it occurred to me that theirs could be ‘Lanky’.” Rebel barely held back her amusement as she said it.

  They were all cracking up when Frank and Lucy made it to their table.

  “What are you lot laughing at?” Frank asked, puzzled.

  “Oh, hey Lanky!” Andy snorted, to more giggles.

  “Huh?” Lucy frowned.

  “It’s nothing,” Pete smirked. “Come on, sit down.”

  As they ate their breakfast, they were a family. Conversations overlapped and they chatted happily with comfortable familiarity. Even with very little sleep and only fitful rest, when they left the table, the group had the boost they needed to prepare them for the day’s work.

  Upon arriving at the lab, there was a moment of awe when they walked inside. A clear film of plastic had been hung to separate the entrance from the rest of the room, but through it, they could see that there were microscopes, a centrifuge, incubators and a refrigerator, amongst many other things. However, the biggest surprise was the two isolation tents.

  The tents were made from more clear plastic and wrapped individually over the top of two gurneys. There were holes in the side with gloves attached into them. A small decontamination chamber sat at the foot of each gurney, which would allow them to safely take the samples they needed. Xin was eager to see the inhabitants of the tents but made everyone stop before they entered further into the room.

  “We need to put these on before we pass through the curtain,” Xin explained, gesturing to a unit that was stocked with rubber gloves, surgical masks with face shields, hair nets, booties and gowns.

  “Oh, that suits you,” Frank laughed as Andy tucked his long locks into one of the caps.

  “Shut up,” Andy warned lethally, narrowing his eyes and making Frank laugh even more. Rebel thought that actually, he still managed to look pretty cute, even in the ridiculous protective gear. She kept that thought to herself.

  There was a symphony of snapping rubber gloves and they assisted each other with the tying of gowns. When they were finally prepared, Pete held the curtain back and let Xin lead the way into the lab.

  Only two of the doctors were going to be working with them that day. Professor Allmendinger had gotten a message to her saying that he thought it would be better to rotate who was working the lab every few days to prevent crowding. With everything that they would need packed inside this room, there wouldn’t be enough space to work if everyone piled in at once.

  Dr Elstad and Dr Leisenberg had already laid out a selection of vials and slides, sealed swabs and fresh agar plates. They all exchanged greetings but Xin’s curiosity was still distracting her. Her attention returned to the isolation tents. Without even realising what she was doing, she drifted over to them and peered inside.

  This was her first chance to really scrutinise and inspect a zombie that they hadn’t already killed. Looking down on them, even in a safe and secure environment, still gave her goosebumps.

  Visible through the clear plastic of the tent nearest to her, was a male. He was strapped down and fully secured to the gurney with cuffs around his wrists and ankles. Tight leather restraints were buckled around its shoulders, thighs and forehead as an extra precaution.

  The thing that made the creature appear even more grotesque and bizarre looking, was the mouth prop. Some great mind had thought to use the metal dental tool to stop its jaws from gnashing, thus eliminating the immediate threat. Its mouth gaped wide open, offering a hideous, salivating display of teeth and gums.

  The total restriction had an unnerving effect. The only sign of life was the crazed flickering eye movements. She could hear its throaty growls, but with its jaws locked in place, they lost their edge and were muted to a breathy sigh.

  The other tent housed a woman who was restrained in the same fashion. Both were stripped to their underwear, revealing vast stretches of putrid lesions. Some of the particularly bad patches had been eaten right down to the bone and yellow, fatty portions showed around them. The raw flesh that should have been pink was an ugly greyish colour. The patches of skin that weren’t raw and oozing were dry, cracked and scaly.

  Both subjects seemed relatively undamaged by the attacks that had changed them. The woman bore only a single bite wound to her right calf and the man was missing the last three fingers of his left hand. Xin supposed that this was why these two specimens had been selected. Professor Allmendinger must have borrowed a few of the remaining troops in order to prepare them for examination.

  “Ah, Dr Yao,” Dr Leisenberg said, joining her beside the gurneys. “You find our new friends.”

  “Dr Leisenberg, please, call me Xin,” She insisted.

  “Very well then, you must call me Joe.” He beamed at her for a split second and then his eyes moved back to the figures inside the tents. He shook his head at the sight of them. “Ugly things they become. Professor Allmendinger, he has them cleaned before they are being brought here.”

  “Yes, I can tell,” Xin nodded. “But they’re still disgusting. Anyway, should we begin?”

  “Ah, but of course. Whenever you say,” He said, gesturing around at their equipment.

  “Would you assist me in collecting the first round of samples?” She requested.

  “Yes, yes. As you say.” He agreed happily.

  A short while later, Xin had her arms pushed through the holes in one of the tents and encased in the long sleeved gloves.

  Very delicately, she shaved a small, fine layer of skin away from the male’s forearm. She took these samples from a couple of other places t
oo and encased each in a separate sterile vial.

  Next, she worked to take blood. As this was no longer being pumped around the body, she was forced to use a heavy-duty syringe and pierce it straight through the ribcage and into its heart. The remnants of its life essence travelled reluctantly into the barrel of the syringe. Congealed and almost black, Xin was sure it would be quite challenging to process, but regardless, she took as much as she could get. She then divided it between a few clear tubes.

  Finally, she ran a series of pre-labelled swabs over its skin, inside the crevices of its wounds and reluctantly the inside of its cheek.

  When she had taken all the samples she felt she would initially need, she made sure they were all screwed tightly shut and closed them into the decontamination chamber at the end of the gurney. When she removed her hands from the gloves, she exhaled with a sense of relief that she hadn’t anticipated.

  Her friends had eagerly watched the whole process in awe from the other side of the tent, occasionally covering their eyes or turning away.

  “So, what happens now?” Andy asked.

  “Well the tissue samples I took for biopsy will need to be processed. Then they will be stained and mounted onto slides that I can put under the microscope. Some of the blood will go into the centrifuge to see if we can separate the serum, although I’m not hopeful that it will work given the state of the sample.” Xin paused while she activated the decontamination chamber and it began to hiss. “Some of it will be refrigerated for later and the rest of it will be incubated so that we can see if we get any bacteria growth.”

  “And what about the swabs?” Lucy asked inquisitively.

  “They will be used for cultures. This is the bit Andy’s going to help with,” She smiled at him. “The swabs will be wiped over the agar plates, where the growth medium will cultivate a better sample of the bacteria that is present. That should give us a bigger canvas to test on.”