'My office holds absolute proof that the Minister provided information to a terrorist cell, which enabled them to take hostage two young persons, one of whom was zombie torch inventor Steven Reynolds, to be held in the event of their not being immediately successful in obtaining the zombie virus from Breathdeep. I have also been permitted to divulge to the court, that in addition to his crimes in the UK, there were indeed further deadly consequences in a country, the identity of which I am not able to reveal.'
The judge took several minutes to quiet the court sufficiently for the witness to continue.
'Through his actions the Minister caused the deaths of all the terrorists who stole the virus and a number of civilians; in total, one hundred and thirty-eight terrorists and civilians. If the virus had been used as a weapon, the potential consequences are incalculable.'
Even before the additional evidence provided by the Security Services, the judge had already prepared his summary. In clear tones, he declared, 'By your incompetence, negligence and connivance, you have committed gross acts of treason against the British people and the sole defence put forward on your behalf is one of criminal insanity. You have pleaded guilty on a number of charges sufficient to ensure that you will never again see the light of day.'
'You think I care?' It was hard to imagine a more disdainful tone.
A wave of anger surged through the journalists in the public gallery and cries of 'hang 'im', 'murderer', 'take the blighter out and shoot him' were heard, amongst many other suggestions of a considerably more lewd and extreme nature.
The judge hammered furiously on the bench, until finally the roars of outrage in the court subsided. 'I hereby sentence you to life imprisonment. Take him away!'
Chapter 18: Kilkorne Rebuilt
Steve knocked at Alex's new front door. Her mother opened it.
'Hi Steve, you're early!'
Steve inspected his watch and shrugged. He'd walked slowly from his own house but it was only seven-thirty, with the sun still low and a spring crispness in the air.
'Well, the school's open again from today and I thought we could take a walk round the town on the way there.'
'There's only a term and a half to go before you're finished.'
'Yes but we've got all the exams.'
'So don't you and Alex go distracting each other, I want her getting good grades.'
'We both need good grades.' Steve stepped in through the front door and Alex's mum shut it behind him.
'Take a seat. Alex will be down in a minute.'
'I'll be five minutes, mum,' came a familiar voice from upstairs.
On her way to the kitchen, Alex's mother asked Steve if he'd like a cup of tea.
'No thanks. I thought we'd call in the school canteen for some breakfast.'
'Good idea, you need a proper start, what with all that brainwork.'
Ten minutes later, Alex waved goodbye to her mother as Steve steered her towards the harbour.
'Seeing as we're early, I thought we could go and say 'Hi' to my mum down at the harbourmaster's office.'
'The local news said the fishing fleet's due in this morning.'
'I know but she won't mind.'
The teenagers fell silent as they walked down the narrow street towards the sea. Each corner they passed along the way had been the scene of the death of some poor zombiefied creature that had once been a human being. More than a third of the historic village had been burned to the ground and any buildings that had remained intact still bore the scars of battle. As they passed the front of the Black Lion pub, Alex reached out and touched the pockmarks where bullets had sprayed across its walls. After the army had cleaned the place up, the townsfolk had returned to a scene of devastation. It had looked like a war zone, where the zombie attack had torn the heart out of their village.
Being home to no more than two hundred people, Kilkorne hadn't taken long to rebuild, all paid for with funds confiscated from the Minister for Home Affairs. To an outsider, the village would appear to have recovered its previous vernacular style, evident in the jumble of cottages, narrow lanes, and the solidly built inns which had served the local community for hundreds of years and were now more often frequented by weekend and holiday visitors. The quickest way to restore the appearance and functionality of the village had been to build with concrete blocks and face them with the original stone, which was lying around as piles of rubble. Many of the more quaint and lop-sided premises had gone, to be replaced by more angular structures, so that the softness which had resulted from centuries of creaking beams and weathering was lost.
The fishing fleet had a home to return to once more. The fish caught during the breakout had been unloaded at a village along the coast, where there was no risk of contamination, either from zombie infection or the chemicals used to destroy their remains. Once Kilkorne had been cleaned up, the boats returned to their own harbour, with its charming sea wall built of hand-hewn local stone.
A window opened on the first floor of the harbourmaster's office and a face looked down at Steve and Alex.
'Good morning Mrs Reynolds.'
'Good morning, Alex, it's so nice to see you haven't forgotten your manners even after all the troubles.'
Alex smiled to herself at Mrs Reynolds's euphemism for the zombie attack. 'You're welcome,' she said, knowing only too well that Steve's mother was someone worth keeping on the right side of.
'Steven, your father was out early this morning, with that business he's got up at the castle, so…'
'No, mum, I didn't get myself any breakfast.' Before his mother's expression could change, he added quickly, 'But I'm treating Alex to a bacon and egg sandwich in the school canteen.'
'Oh, they're doing breakfast club again are they?'
Steve nodded. 'We'll go straight up there now.'
Alex and Steve walked hand in hand along the wide paving of the harbour wall. It was a full two months after the zombie attack on their school and the fresh smell of the sea blew gently into their faces. They carried on past the sailing dinghies and turned right at the fish processing shed where the last zombie battle had been fought. Then they took the short cut down Fishbone Alley and through the market square behind the Black Lion. After walking two thirds of the way around the village, they finally reached the turn style into the castle grounds at the top of Castle Mount. It was the very place, where not that long ago they had scrambled through to avoid the zombies.
Alex gave an involuntary shiver and rested her head on Steve's shoulder. 'Seems like only yesterday, doesn't it.'
Steve was quiet for a moment, then he said, 'You're coming to the raising of the portcullis after school, right?'
'Of course but you said your dad already had it back up once.'
'Twice actually, just to make sure. The big-wigs from Old English Monuments will be here tonight. And he doesn't want any hitches, not in front of a TV crew.'
'Should be useful publicity.'
'Dad said it was the right thing to do, to give Monuments a bit of a splash, after we used all their food and blankets and stuff.' Steve turned and grinned at Alex. 'We might even get filmed as well, as we were the ones that got the portcullis down in the first place.'
'Only just in time!' Alex's face darkened. 'Does Rachel know about it?'
'Well, as she's made a point of not speaking to either of us since we got back to the village, I haven't had the chance to tell her.'
'She's so full of herself.' Alex folded her arms and sighed. 'Can you believe the cheek of her calling us 'the nerdy pair'?'
'Yes, but she was the one fussing over a pink handbag, while we were doing important stuff, like making sure we didn't get blown to bits by the army.'
'I don't care. It'll serve her right if she misses another chance to be on TV!'
'You know ever since I told my mum that school was doing breakfast club…'
'I know, your stomach's been rumbling.'
Steve nodded and checked his watch. 'The canteen should be open in five
minutes.' Tilting his head and taking a deep breath through his nose, he said, 'I'm sure I can smell bacon.'
'Umm, bacon and egg sandwiches with hot cups of tea.'
'Do you think the dinner ladies will mind that we ate all their pies?'
'Never mind that, do you think they found out it was my idea to nick all the stuff in the van and give it to the army guys so we could sneak out of the village?'
'Nah.'
'They might have…'
Steve put his arm around Alex's shoulders and she moved in close. From the castle gate, they gazed down across the valley. Although the village looked much as it always had, they knew that life there would never be quite the same. Having found each other, they were glad that it was so.
The End
If you enjoyed this story by Peter Salisbury, you can find more by him at:
Smashwords Peter Salisbury Page
British Zombie Breakout: Part One
British Zombie Breakout: Part Two
The First Completely Electronic Robot and Science Fiction Limerick Book (50 limerick rhymes with an SF theme)
The Old Store (26 episodes in a post-apocalyptic world, 54,000 words)
Phantoms of the Quantum Rift
Passengers to Sentience (110,000 word SF novel)
Passengers to Zeta Nine (102,000 word SF novel)
Spirit in the Circuits (anthology of non-gory horror/ghost stories, 18,000 words)
Ms Fixit, a flash fiction SF short story (450 words)
British Zombie Breakout: Part Three Page 7
