by Luke Duffy
Hussein and Ahmed stared and watched in silence, then lowered their heads in silent prayer for their friend.
The commander shouted a few words and then Marcus and the rest were blindfolded and bundled into the back of the trucks and driven away.
It was the unknown that they feared. They had been caught off-guard and now lay at the mercy of their captors without any control over their own fate. Marcus felt scared, but more than that, he was angry, angry with himself.
26
Jennifer paced the lobby, wringing her hands together as she nervously and continually looked to the main door, waiting for Steve to return from the perimeter checks.
She heard the sound of voices as the door opened and Steve stepped inside, speaking loudly with Gary.
“We can’t just leave them there. We need to do something about them,” he was saying over his shoulder to his friend as they entered.
“I agree, Steve,” Gary replied, “but what do you reckon we should do?”
Steve stopped and turned. He hunched his shoulders and cocked his head. “Well, I was thinking we should...” he was interrupted by Jennifer’s anxious voice.
“Steve, have you heard anything?”
He turned at the sound of her voice. “Sorry, Jen, I've no news for you.” He looked at her apologetically.
She looked down, her eyes blurry from the tears and her voice croaky with emotion. “It’s been two days, Steve.” She continued to look at the floor as she spoke. “I know it’s not always possible to get in touch every night, but it’s never been this long, never longer than a day.”
Gary tapped him on the shoulder and said in a low voice, “I’ll crack on, Steve, and leave you to it. We can discuss things later.” He nodded to Jennifer, acknowledging her need to speak to Steve more urgently than he did.
“Okay, Gary, I’ll catch you in a bit then,” Steve said glancing back at him.
Steve turned back to Jennifer and placed his hands on both her shoulders and stooped his head so that they had eye contact. “Jen, listen, I'm sure he's okay. It’s probably just the area where they are, or they're having radio trouble or something. You know Marcus, he gets into all sorts of scrapes, but he always comes out on top, and I'm sure that he will be in touch soon. You'll do yourself and the kids no good worrying about it.”
She sniffed back the tears and wiped her eyes as she looked up. She breathed deeply to compose herself and even managed a faint smile as she nodded in agreement with him. “Yeah, you're right. I just need to stop flapping.”
Steve nodded. “As soon as I hear anything, you'll be the first to know, Jen. Jake is virtually living in the radio room, keeping a round the clock radio watch. If any transmissions come across, he will let us know. Now, go and get some sleep. You look wiped out, Jen. The kids are out with Sophie and Helen, seeing to the animals, so enjoy the peace before they all come back pretending to be lions and monkeys.”
A hoarse and nervous laugh escaped Jennifer’s throat and she turned and walked away toward the stairs. She stopped with her foot on the first step and turned to Steve, who stood watching her. She smiled.
“Even if I'm asleep, Steve, if he gets in touch, wake me.”
“Will do, Jen,” he replied and watched as she turned and climbed the stairs.
Steve was worried too, but he had kept his inner concern from Jennifer. Increasingly over the weeks, he had become more of a leader for the group, and he saw it as his duty to hold his composure. The way he looked at it, if he were to lose his head, then how could any of the others rely on him, or keep theirs?
He rushed to Jake’s room and threw his head around the doorway. “Anything?” he asked hopefully.
Jake looked up from the laptop he was working on and removed the earphones. With a regretful look in his eyes, he gave a solemn shake of the head. “Sorry, Steve, nothing.”
Steve slouched and rested his head against the door frame as he sighed. “Let me know though, Jake, will you?”
“Of course, Steve.”
Later that night, a meeting was held. At the far end of the lobby, a group including Steve, Gary and Lee sat talking quietly. They discussed the food and fuel situation, as well as that of their other provisions. After being given the rough estimates of their supplies, Steve was satisfied with the conclusion. They had enough food, water, and fuel to last for a while yet, and it wasn't a pressing matter at that moment.
Also, the animals and their current condition were brought up by Sophie. “Most of the animals seem fine, the monkeys and the primates seem a little more lively than usual, but it’s the lions and the tigers I'm concerned about.”
“What do you mean, what's up with them?” Gary asked.
“They're agitated,” Sophie replied, “constantly roaring and pacing the fence, and fighting amongst each other. Some of the kids were even scared by it earlier when we did the rounds.”
Gary nodded, as though he had expected this and had an answer ready. “Ah, it'll be the dead. They can smell the rotting bodies. Don't forget, cats have a very strong sense of smell, just like dogs. The scent of the decaying bodies all around will be driving the lions and tigers nuts. Especially with the lot at the gate so close.”
As he made his last statement, he switched his eyes across to Steve.
Steve took that as his cue and moved on to the problem that he and Gary had spoken about earlier in the day as they conducted their security checks.
“The infected at the gate,” Steve inhaled as he looked about the group, “what do we do about them?” He paused and no one spoke. They just watched him blankly, assuming the question to be rhetorical.
He continued, “Okay well, we can’t just leave them there to rot and wander about for a number of reasons. Firstly, they're a health hazard. The weather is getting hotter and animals are feeding off them, as well as the insects and then they're flying around here. I'm not clued up on the whole health stuff, but I'm sure that having a bunch of dead people on your doorstep isn’t wise.” He nodded across to Gary. “We were down there this morning, and we could smell them from hundreds of yards away, before we could even see the gate.
“Secondly, they're making too much noise and movement. The way I see it, the longer they're down there, the higher the chance that other infected will be attracted to the area. The sound of their moaning and rattling of the gate carries well beyond the junction at the top, bearing in mind that there's no other noise to drown it out.
“On top of that, they're constantly moving about. I'm not sure how good their vision really is, but it seems to be good enough to distinguish the living from the dead, so I'm sure that with fifty to a hundred of them bouncing about at the gate, any that stumble close enough to the barrier at the top of the road will see them as well as hear them.”
Helen sat forward. “Yeah, but I thought the trees and their branches would block the view?”
Gary spoke, “Not completely. Remember, it was only supposed to obscure their view, not block it completely. With the wind blowing the branches out of the way, or even the infected hearing the commotion, they can always see past the barrier if they try. The way we see it though, if there's no noise or movement on the other side, then they'll not investigate.”
“Will the barrier not hold them back?” Claire asked. She sat by Jennifer. The two of them had become close over the weeks, helping each other as they struggled through the loss of Roy, and the possibility of Marcus not returning.
“Again,” Gary answered as he took a sip from a glass of whiskey, “it’s not strong enough to stop them from getting in if they want to. And, there's the gap.”
Everyone in the group looked up at Gary. “The gap, we didn't leave a gap, did we?” Helen asked.
Gary nodded as he swilled his drink. “Yeah, we did, between the base of the trees that we felled and the wall. It’s only about a metre wide on the grass verge, but that's big enough for them to get through. If there's nothing attracting their attention though, then they won’t notice the gap
, or have reason to wander through it. We can handle the odd stray now and then.”
Carl nodded. “Yeah, there's always gonna be the odd one that turns up. But we can handle that.”
“So, how do we deal with the unhealthy noisy gaggle at the gate then?” Helen asked.
Steve glanced at Gary then, answered, “We burn `em.”
A murmur sounded from the group as some people hummed in agreement and others gasped at the thought.
Karen was the first to speak. “Can we do that, I mean, just set fire to a load of people?” She looked to her husband for his stance on the matter.
Gary returned a shrug.
“We've killed them before, what's wrong with killing them again? The only difference is the method,” Steve said to the group as a whole.
“Yes,” Karen replied, a look of disgust on her face, “but isn’t that a bit inhumane, setting fire to them?”
Gary leaned forward, rolling his glass between his hands as he spoke. “Karen, there's no other way to deal with them. We can’t risk trying to kill them individually. There's too many. We need a way of dealing with them en masse and from a safe distance with no risk to ourselves. Steve and I discussed it earlier, and fire is the only option we came up with.”
Steve backed him up with his own argument. “Gary is right, Karen. Besides, from what I've seen, they don’t seem to feel pain like we do.”
“Yes, but it still seems a little barbaric and extreme to me. They're still human.”
Steve shook his head. “They ceased to be human the moment they died, Karen. What they are now is some new and unholy creature. I only see them as dangerous rotting lumps of meat.”
“Yeah, that walk about,” Lee said from his left. He was staring straight ahead at the table, a dreamy look on his face as he spoke.
Steve nodded, “Yeah, that too.”
“And attack you.”
Steve hummed his agreement.
“And eat you.”
“And that,” Steve concurred again.
“And turn you into them.”
Steve turned and looked to his friend, “Yeah, Lee, we get the point.”
“And they stink.”
Steve nodded, trying to move on.
Lee was still staring at the table top as he spoke, “And they moan,”
“For fuck sake, Lee,” Steve slapped the table with his palm and rolled his eyes, “we get the picture.”
It was agreed, contrary to Karen’s disdain, that the infected in the area of the gate would be burned. They knew that there was a chance of the smoke and flames attracting the attention of more infected from the area, but they agreed that it would be a case of dealing with them individually as they came in.
Steve and Lee collected the fuel and poured it into plastic bottles that could be squeezed, affording them range so that they could spray the infected from the wall without being too close. They made a bunch of Molotov cocktails from glass bottles that were intended to be thrown to the rear of the group, ensuring that the fire spread throughout the swarm at the gate and not just the ones at the front.
Later, from the house, everyone watched in the direction of the park entrance as they saw the thick black plumes of smoke rise into the sky. Soon, the acrid smell of burning flesh twitched at their noses, forcing them back inside and away from the horrible stench. Some were physically sick and people walked around the house for the afternoon, holding scented tissues to their mouths and noses. Others made a point of getting out of the house for a while and joining in with the animal checks with Sophie and the children.
The next day, a party was handpicked to go to the gate again with shovels and digging tools, to remove the burnt and charred corpses that littered the area. Only those of a strong constitution were asked to volunteer and they made their way there, led by Steve.
“Do we have face masks and gloves and stuff?” Carl asked. “Not that I'm squeamish or anything, I just don’t like the idea of breathing in that shit.”
“Yeah,” Sophie answered. “I've already thought of that. I've got us aprons and boots too.”
Steve hadn't thought of that and he smiled at Sophie, grateful for her forethought. “What about disinfectants and stuff, do we have any of that too?”
Sophie turned on him. “You serious? Of course we do. This is a frigging zoo, Steve. You ever smelled lion piss when they're in heat?”
They moved off to the gate and stepped out, careful where they placed their feet among the blackened and vile smelling remains mangled and mixed into the ground. Charred black skeletons were everywhere, surrounded by a thick, fly-infested, putrid soup.
Steve remembered setting fire to the crowd with Lee. The infected had sizzled as the fire had taken hold. Their skin and muscle tissue bubbling and dripping away from their bones, their eyes had popped from the heat. Many had swelled up as their already gas-filled stomachs had distended further as their innards had boiled inside them, eventually bursting and spilling their stomach-churning, fetid contents onto the ground as the fire continued to consume them.
What had bothered Steve though, was the lack of acknowledgement from the dead of their ultimate demise from the flames. They had made no move to back away from the flames, and continued to scramble at the wall and gate beneath Steve and Lee as they watched from above. Their moans were not of pain, but the usual low wail, with the odd excited screech or holler from within the mass. None had retreated.
Steve and the burial party moved away from the gate and stopped further along the grass verge and began digging graves along the roadside. It didn't take long; there wasn't much left to bury. They stripped from their aprons and gloves and tossed them into the holes too, glad to be rid of the filth-stained garments.
Tony stood mumbling to himself as he filled in one of the holes. Steve and Sophie watched him, a disturbed silence between them as they witnessed his ramblings.
“See, you're dead,” Tony spat into the grave. “I won. You can’t get me. You will never get me. I'm the king, the emperor.”
He was shaking his head and snorting to himself. A shiver ran down Steve's spine as he watched.
Afterward, bleach and any other industrial style cleaning fluids that Sophie thought would do the trick were poured all over the area in front of the gate to disinfect the vicinity.
They returned to the house, feeling better and more secure, knowing that there was no longer a pack of flesh-eating ghouls clambering at the park entrance. Everybody drank that night to wash away the dirt and filth of the day’s task from their minds.
The next day, Sophie did her rounds. It was early morning and she drove the zebra-painted Land Rover along the track to the side of the Monkey Paddock. A flurry of movement to her left caught her eye. At first she struggled to see what had caught her attention, then she focused on something by the trees.
Her eyes grew wide. She slammed on the brakes and jumped out, moving closer to the fence. In the shade of the trees, she saw the figure of a man. He turned and looked at her, then sprinted into the woods after the monkeys.
Steve sat in the lobby talking with Jake when Sophie burst through the door, distraught and looking angry.
“Steve, can I have a word?”
Steve looked up from his seat. “Of course, what's wrong?”
She looked slightly awkward and unsure of how to put her words. “Uh, it’s about Lee.”
He raised his eyebrows and glanced at Jake before returning to Sophie. “Go on,”
“Well, I wasn't sure I had seen what I thought I had at first, but as I was driving the Jeep along the track past the Monkey Paddock I, uh, saw something.”
“You saw what?” Steve was getting anxious and wanted her to spit it out.
She steeled herself then, spoke in a hushed voice. “I saw Lee, in the enclosure with them.”
Steve rolled his eyes. “For fuck sake, what’s he doing in with the monkeys? I wouldn't worry about it, Sophie. I'm sure he means them no harm and I’ll have a word with him about it la
ter.”
Sophie wasn't finished and she hovered, still wanting to say something but unsure how. Steve saw that there was more to come. “What?”
“He,” she paused, “he was naked Steve.”
She had seen him from the corner of her eye as she passed by. A blur at first, but she had stopped and looked again and saw him clearly. He was running and jumping about with the animals, completely nude and when he saw the vehicle on the road, he took off into the trees.
At the dinner table that night, the story broke.
“So, Lee,” Steve said during a hushed moment around the table, “what's this about you and the monkeys being at one with nature?”
Lee stopped, hunched over his plate and his fork midway to his mouth. He looked up across and at the faces that now gazed at him from around the table.
After a moment’s pause, he shrugged. “Ah you know, I was just having a laugh.”
“Sorry, Lee,” Steve replied. “I don’t know. When I want to have a laugh, I’ll watch a funny movie or play a joke on someone. It’s never crossed my mind to get naked and run around with monkeys.”
He shrugged again and carried on shovelling his food into his mouth. “Each to their own, I guess.”
Jake had to ask: “But why naked Lee?”
Everyone wanted to know the answer and the silence around the table as they waited for his reply, was deafening.
Lee dropped his fork onto his plate with a clatter and wiped the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand as he straightened up in his seat.
“Look, I just like the monkeys is all. It’s not that I'm trying to shag them or anything. We just get along.” He looked around, hoping that his explanation struck a chord; it didn't. He sniffed, “As for the naked part, I came here in the clothes I stood in. I didn't have any spares. I've no problems with wearing someone else’s trousers and t-shirts, but I'm not wearing another man’s underpants, I don’t care how well they've been cleaned.”
