by David Tyne
He took in our small group, merely glimpsing past the quiet Jamie and resting his heavy eyes on Serah, whom he seemed to recall temporarily inhabiting his community centre. Before and after its demise.
After ensuring that each and every one of us had glanced away uncomfortably, he turned his attention to the black-hooded Harry. "Brother Mitchell has told me that you’ve been delegating our resources, arming untrained troops to search for a bunch of rats. I never authorised that."
I cringed at the inflection he put on those words, but Harry remained upright and almost cocky. "Nah, guess you didn’t. Wanna make something of it?”
“I have no time for games, Sergius. Our supplier doesn’t take kindly to delays—”
Burkley’s attention aligned with Harry’s pocket, noticing the small-black CB radio he’d been carrying. For whatever reason, the mere sight of it forced an audible flinch from the former policeman.
"...What... have you done?"
"Oh, this? Found it while I was snoopin' around your quarters. Seems like you’ve been chatting with some fella offshore, working for a company called… what was it, 'Telos'?"
The name rung a bell for me, but I was much too invested in Harry's revelation to remember where it was from. He continued on, tossing the radio carelessly from hand to hand.
"Took quite a shine to me, that guy. We talked for a bit about what kinda stuff he'd been doing. Seems you've been keeping a dirty little secret from all these O-Saints. Shame that I didn't know about it though, because I might have said too much about your botched community centre."
Burkley almost vanished from his previous position; in a split second, he’d advanced by several metres and was already gripping Harry's large throat with one hand. "Imbecile!! Do you have any idea what you've done, you sick faggot?!"
As I inserted myself between the two bickering men in an attempt to break it up, Serah appeared to be in her own little world. Pressing her finger deeper against her lip, she looked up at Burkley with sudden enlightenment.
"Telos... as in, the research institute? The one founded by that multi-billionaire, Kress-something?"
Her words suddenly threw me back to a night or two before the outbreak, watching the news as Mr Kress appeared on-screen. He’d been a highlight every now and then, talking about financial plans for his business conglomerate. Everything from pharmaceuticals to private security, his institute had it covered.
"You don't know what... they're capable of,” Burkley hissed. “Now that they know I’ve lost the centre, it's only a matter of time." He seemed genuinely distressed, a change that should’ve amused me… but it didn’t. Now it was Harry's turn to gloat.
"What's the matter? Don't like it when things don't go according to plan? You were working with Telos from the start. They ordered people like you, all over the country. Told you to traffic all of the O-Negative blood types you could find, like fucking cattle. That’s what this O-Saint bullshit is all about. You’re just using them, to fill your damn quota!"
Millie gasped, probably realising the first thing that bothered her about the officer. "That's why you had the community centre sealed off, why you wouldn't let any of us go outside! The people you did test... If they weren't O-Negative, you fed them to the Lost!"
Burkley shook Harry away violently, then fixed his tie in one smooth motion. "It's true, that I worked for Telos. They paid high in cash, and didn't ask how I did things — it was the perfect setup when I was on the force, but circumstances have... changed. I thought for sure they'd go down with the rest of the world, but us operatives keep receiving orders upon orders."
He almost sounded like a reluctant participant, a mere pawn on Telos' payroll. I wasn’t sure whether to buy into it, given our hostile history, but he kept on rambling with genuine dread caught in his throat.
"They collect items of interest, like O-Negatives. These religious zealots gathered here, they’re stupid enough to believe that they were 'chosen' for that very purpose. I was going to replace the stock I’d lost in Danderhall—”
“People,” Millie interjected, still shaking her head in denial.
“ ...People… but now that you’ve interfered again, everyone’s a target. This is the one rabbit hole you should never have chased down. This city, this country is no longer safe. I’m getting the fuck out, while I still can."
Everyone looked bewildered as Burkley leapt towards the ladders, scurrying with visible trepidation. He was a rather intimidating man, and anything that could scare him must’ve been ten times worse than the legions of undead waiting outside those gates.
"W-What was that?” Beth asked curiously, glancing around. “I thought the men in red were the bad guys!”
“They are,” Serah huffed, still processing it herself. “There’s just a bigger one now. Burkley was going to hand the O-Saints over to Telos, but we got in his way. Now, he thinks they’re coming after him. After everyone.”
“Huh?! No way…” Beth slumped against the rugged metal bars, which resonated with a sharp twang. The abrupt jolt brought the background noise of the ocean to my attention.
It had been audible for at least a couple of minutes; when I finally noticed, I realised that it wasn't the waves, nor the groans of the far-off Lost. It almost sounded like something spinning rapidly, the pitch increasing at a frightening rate.
I had another moment where everything clicked into place, leading back to the first day of the outbreak. That shock when I saw Edinburgh burning from a distance, clouded with smoke as Ian and I made our train escape. They were around back then, as well.
Those sleek, black helicopters that never landed, always watching... It was clear who they belonged to now, and what their presence meant. I recalled what Burkley had mentioned before fleeing, how 'this country was no longer safe'. Not him, not us. The whole nation.
Through the corner of my eye, the last sliver of moonlight reflected across four ominous objects in the dawning sky; hurtling directly towards us, galloping through the air like the horsemen of the apocalypse.
They were two weeks late. The end times had already begun.
11 | A New Breed
We could only stare in awe at the graceful dance that the vehicles were illustrating across the murky-dark sky. When they rose to a higher altitude, I saw that something was entirely different from every other time we'd come across the choppers.
They were carrying egg-shaped cargo — heavy containers latched to the bottom of each helicopter. I bit my lip in concentration, scrutinising the amount of time we had left until they arrived.
Twenty… No, Fifteen seconds.
"...We need to get out of here. Fast." Everyone nodded in unison, and with that, we flung ourselves down the ladders, one after another. Immediately lost, I had to wait for Harry to navigate through the maze of upturned cars, trying to find the gate once more.
Red-hooded men pointed at the sky in belated shock, but they could never know the actual threat that they posed. Not until the first man-sized canister was dropped like a nuke, right in front of our feet.
The earth itself folded underneath us, sending tremors across the metal framework. Coughing through the smoke, I held Beth firmly behind me as I peered into the unsettling dust. A thick fog emitted from the narrow crater that tore the tracks apart, nearly punching through the bridge entirely; it would’ve split the whole structure, had it not came crashing down into a cradling beam of red steel.
The metal pod clicked with a strange whirring sound, and the door forced itself open. I didn't even want to look. Yelling for everyone to run in the opposite direction, I just knew that we had to get out of there before whatever was inside could harm us.
What the hell is that, the virus? Poisonous gas?
Considering the nature of our attacker — Telos — anything was possible. The fact that they'd go this far to silence Burkley, they obviously didn’t care about any civilians being caught in the crossfire.
As we twisted and turned through the labyrinth to find the o
ther side of the bridge, I could hear two-ton cars being smashed and thrown around behind us as we went.
My curiosity got the better of me, as it would. I spun my body around to observe what was causing such a commotion. I immediately wished that I hadn't, as the complications made our escape very difficult to concentrate on.
For a brief second, I couldn't even tell what I was looking at. A shaved bear? A lump of pink flesh? Whatever it was, it had more teeth than any earthly animal I'd ever seen — most of them were canines, sharper than those of a great-white shark.
I squinted at it further, starting to realise that this creature wasn't biologically possible. After another bated breath, I saw the resemblance. Taking away its curved spine, adding some hair, trimming back the claw-like fingernails... This was a man.
I placed my hand over my mouth, gagging at its hideous nature. It was feral, naked — those giant eyes were dilated with milky-grey pupils, appearing almost blind in the bonfire’s dim light. The unknown abomination had no trouble seeing me though, that much I could tell from its sudden pounce.
Eight metres. I watched in suspended horror as it flew at me from eight metres away, landing powerfully on my bruised chest. Its legs kicked like a caged animal, pummeling me backwards into a pile of melted tires, where I ultimately fell with a tortured cry.
My head collided with the tar-like rubber as my friends screamed my name, but I knew that there was nothing they could possibly do. Harry pushed them onwards to the back gate, and sprinted back to save me as I scrambled my way out of the black mess.
"What the fuck is that thing?!" He screamed in my direction, a question I was willing to ignore. My bitten leg started leaking again, making it excruciatingly painful to even place my foot on the ground. I crawled across the tracks, unable to defend myself from the monster’s howling advance.
Looking back at the creature, I wanted to say that it resembled a wolf or a bear, with the bone structure of a man. Honestly, there was no comparing it to anything that had been naturally developed. This was clearly created in a lab, or some kind of body horror myth.
The O-Saints ran around us during the chaos, some attempting to defend their base with whatever weapons they could. It only took one flick of the monster’s gangly limbs to cast them down into the dark water. I could hear distant screams on the south side of the bridge, as well… Whatever this thing was, there was more than one.
Those untamed eyes feasted on me again; it was reminiscent of that vacant look, the empty stare that occupied the eyes of the Lost. Examining its bare chest, the only clothing or accessory that adorned the man was a pair of dog-tags, hanging loosely as it breathed them in and out rapidly. The symbol only served to remind me of its inhumanity, the brutal force it was capable of.
I felt Harry pulling me to my knees, but I wasn’t co-operating at all. My feet coiled in agony, dragging along shards of broken metal as the beast bounded towards us on all-fours.
Raising its flayed fists, much like a kangaroo's kick, a flash of red struck Harry square in the face. My transporter was sent flying into a nearby sheet of metal, collapsing on top of him to reveal a dark shadow hiding in the background.
It seemed as though he was waiting for our distraction. Officer Burkley desperately leapt out of his cover, scrambling for his taser with a determined look in his eyes.
A red dot projected itself onto the creature's shoulder as it jumped at me, ready to rip my skin off with his razor-sharp fingernails. A wire shot out from the officer’s device and sunk into its target’s flesh, sending the nude mutant into an electrified fit of muscle spasms.
Not even checking back on Burkley or his new tased friend, I focused on crawling towards the injured Harry, who was already recovering his stance. Leaning against each other for support, we continued to follow our group's trail until we finally saw them waiting for us, a stone’s throw from the back gate.
"Daniel! Harry! You're okay... What was that?! I mean—" Millie was interrupted by a low, creaking sound. It was faint, but only half a second later, it repeated even louder.
"Get back!!" I screamed abruptly, the snapping sounds of overhead cables instilling fear in us all. Underneath our feet, the concrete cracked and shook with a heavy force, as though hell was literally about to tear itself open. After all of the O-Saints’ added weight and bombardments from the helicopters, the Forth bridge was coming down with us still on it.
I grabbed onto the nearest person I could find, which ended up being Serah as the ground crumbled away. Hanging on for dear life at a forty-five-degree angle, we scrambled desperately against the slope in an attempt to ascend and avoid the unrelenting waters below.
"Daniel!!" I heard Millie screaming behind me... There was no chance that I could reach her, across the widening void. A tiny hand appeared in front of me, which I quickly identified as Jamie’s — he seemed to finally be aware of what was going on, and not a moment too soon.
Grabbing onto both Jamie and Serah, I was impressed at how they both managed to pull me up and onto what seemed like stable ground. We all coughed out the dust and rubble we'd inhaled, trying to catch a glimpse of our surroundings.
"J-Jamie! Daniel? Any of you guys, answer me!!" I heard Millie call, letting me breathe a sigh of relief.
She’s okay. She’s still there.
"We're fine! It's me. Jamie and Serah are right here... We made it across. Where's Beth and Harry, are they safe?" I shouted over. The cloud composed of concrete particles had begun to subside, and I could see the three of them on the other side of the massive split. We’d survived, for now.
I could hear the roar of that horrific monster, echoing behind them. Everyone’s head swung back in alarm, and Millie’s hand jerked over to the bridge’s side.
"We’ll never make it over this gap!" Her fingers pointed to the West, where on their side of the landmass, a boating dock was barely visible in the pale light. "I think there's a boat over there. Give us some time, we'll try to come across tomorrow at noon! Watch for us on your side... If we don't make it by then, get out before the Lost come!!"
Harry pulled Millie away as she screamed our names, not even realising that they could be targeted at any second. Beth followed hesitantly, looking back to wave at us before disappearing behind a pile of scrapped cars.
The three of us remaining were already close to the back gate, which opened gradually as we pushed feebly against it. The smoking sky began to clear, and the four helicopters disappeared into the now-rising sun as dawn cast the most gruesome shadow across the Forth Railway bridge. We had arrived at North Queensferry — or at least, half of us had made it.
I was concerned about being separated from Beth more than anyone, but I reassured myself that she had Harry and Millie to protect her. I wasn't so confident about protecting Jamie in my current state, leaving a fatigued Serah as our only line of defence.
Now that we had another 24 hours to kill, I found myself more worried about the three of us surviving until the next day. We mutely stumbled forward as we left Edinburgh in our wake, and began an entirely new struggle in the quaint region known as Fife.
12 | Keeping Busy
The waves had begun crashing against the weathered-black rocks. The three of us sat in stoic silence, each with our legs hanging over the side of the beachfront. To our left, howls and screams emanated from the collapsed bridge.
Those creatures were still feasting on the remaining O-Saints; their 'noble' mission along with Burkley's had failed, although the death toll was too high for any of us to celebrate. Serah dangled a silver piece of jewellery in front of her face, having found it lying beside one of the open pods that the helicopters deployed.
It was a pair of dog-tags, identical to the ones I saw around the neck of that creature. It was imprinted with strange details:
Shez-Ident-0370
Nigel Steele
Flesh Quotient: 0.17
Class: Fenrir
As Serah had concluded earlier, the fact that these identification
tags were attached to those unique monsters, it pointed to one logical conviction. "They had to have been humans... at least, at some point."
I gazed into her tired eyes, puzzled by the implication. "At some... point?"
She seemed troubled by the implication as well, plaguing her scientific mind. "We can agree from Harry’s testimony, that Telos is the group controlling those private helicopters, right? They sent those... things here, after Burkley failed his mission. Why didn’t they just blow up the bridge, if they had that kind of influence?"
The gears in my head turned and turned, until it suddenly clicked. "Well yeah, unless they were using that opportunity to test something..."
My hand slapped over my mouth as I said it. Serah nodded, and brought the tags closer to her dust-covered glasses. "It's only an assumption, but I believe that Telos may have been bioengineering living people as test subjects, resulting in those creatures we saw. I wouldn't say it's too much of a stretch to accuse them of creating the reanimation virus, either."
I recalled what Harry told us, about the true plan for the community centre. How in hindsight, our deaths would’ve been for the greater good. "This is all our fault—”
“No, Daniel. It’s not.”
“Yeah, it is! Because we got involved, a hundred fucking people on that bridge are dead… We don’t even know if the others survived. We should’ve stayed out of this one."
“If we didn’t stop Burkley, someone else would have.” The med student curled up into a tight ball, unmoving. “He threatened our families, the man was a complete tyrant. We had no choice, okay?”
Neither of us said a single word, at least for a couple of minutes. We stared across the vast blue expanse for any sign of our distant friends.
"...I doubt they're coming today,” Serah finally sighed. “We'll wait for them tomorrow at noon, like Millie said. There's no use sitting around moping, in the meantime." It was easy to say the words, but everyone still looked pretty rough, sleepless and exhausted.
