Patient Zero
by
James Loscombe
GET 136,000 WORDS OF SHORT STORIES AND NOVELLAS FOR FREE
Tales of the Apocalypse contains nine short stories and novellas set before, during or after an apocalyptic event.
Get your free book now:
http://jloscombe.com/totafreebie/
Copyright © 2016 by James Loscombe
The rights of James Loscombe to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
All characters in this publication are ficticious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
www.jloscombe.com
Table of Contents
Title Page
Free Book
Copyright
Table of Contents
Patient Zero
About the Author
Other Books
CHAPTER ONE
Dale stood in front of the white building and watched a red bus go past. There were exactly three passengers sitting on the top deck and no one on the bottom. A man in a yellow jacket cycled by. He turned to look at them but didn’t slow down. There was no other traffic.
He had been to London before. He knew this wasn’t normal but news about the outbreak had already begun spread. People talked and seeing loved ones turn into cannibals wasn’t something you kept quiet about. The television was calling it a virus but the internet said they were zombies.
“Are you ready?”
He turned to his right. A man in full body armour with three guns stood beside him. Dale nodded.
“How many civilians?” Dale said.
“It’s a busy day,” said the man. His name was William. He had been an officer before being seconded to the zombie squad. Dale called him ‘Cambridge’ on account of his accent.
“Do we have a heat map?” he said.
Cambridge shook his head. “It’s an old building, lead lined. We can’t see anything inside.”
Behind them, there were two trucks. One that had carried them there and one that was full of officers who were watching live footage from inside the station and from the head-mounted cameras that both Dale and Cambridge wore. Across the road, the entrances to the station were guarded by soldiers. No one would get in or out until they had finished their business.
“They’re in the tunnels,” Cambridge said.
“What about the civilians?” Dale said.
“Try not to kill too many,” Cambridge said.
Dale nodded. So far they had the outbreak relatively well contained. London was worse because it was ground zero and the population density meant that the virus spread more quickly.
“Let’s get it done then,” Dale said.
Cambridge nodded and they set off across the road. Dale checked and re-checked his weapons as they approached the red-walled building.
* * * * *
Their footsteps echoed in the empty street. The shutters had been pulled down across the entrances to the station to prevent people going in or coming out. Dale turned the key that had been left in the lock. With a mechanical whir, the shutters started to rise.
“When we get in head down,” Cambridge said.
Dale nodded.
“There’s about a hundred and fifty people inside.”
“Couldn’t we let them out?” Dale said.
Cambridge shook his head. “Not yet, they might be infected.”
“Children?”
Cambridge nodded.
Dale felt his heart sink. There was a good chance the zombies would come up to the surface. He didn’t like the idea of discharging his weapon when there were children around.
The shutter finished opening with a clang.
“You ready?” Cambridge said.
Dale nodded.
They adjusted each others head mounted cameras. Dale heard a crackle of static in his ears and then the muttering of the officers who were watching from the safety of the van. Then there was silence.
* * * * *
They jumped over the turnstiles and landed heavily on the other side. Ahead of them, Dale could see the hundred and fifty people standing around. Commuters looking lost and confused. They turned around as he and Cambridge approached.
A man in a high visibility cycling top walked towards them. He was wearing a white helmet and black glasses. His shorts were too tight.
“What’s going on here?” the man said.
Dale tried to ignore him. The man stopped in front of them and blocked their way.
“What is the meaning of keeping us locked up in here?”
“Stand aside please sir,” Cambridge said. He didn’t look at the man.
“Not until you tell me what’s going on!” the man said.
“Sir please–“ Dale said.
Cambridge raised his gun and pointed it at the man’s head. For a moment, Dale thought that he was actually going to shoot him.
“Stand aside sir,” Cambridge said.
As Dale had seen too many times before the man lost his shit at the sight of a gun pointing at his head. He could barely even move his head to nod. The people behind him who had turned to watch were suddenly silent.
Dale took the man’s arm and pulled him aside. Cambridge lowered his weapon. They continued towards the escalators.
“Asshole,” Cambridge muttered as they began to climb down.
Dale didn’t say anything.
* * * * *
The lights were off at the bottom of the escalators. A creeping sense of claustrophobia settled over Dale. He switched his goggles to night vision mode and the rounded walls jumped out of the darkness. It did little to settle his fears.
He followed Cambridge, who was now a bright oval shape floating in the air. Like Dale’s, his body armour was made of a material so dark that even the infrared cameras couldn’t pick it up. It was battlefield stealth but hardly required in the present situation. As far as Dale knew people didn’t suddenly develop the ability to see heat signatures when they turned into zombies.
They remained silent as they passed from one tunnel to the next. At each turning they stopped, listened and, when they were sure it was safe, passed with their guns drawn and ready to fire. The further they went the greater Dale’s feeling of claustrophobia became.
Eventually, they reached the end of the tunnels. The furthest point they could get from the surface without going onto the platform and down onto the track. So far there was no sign of the zombies which was good. The reports had said they were moving towards the surface.
They walked onto the platform. To his right, Dale saw the back of a train that had been forced to stop. Dull faces were pressed against the window as passengers that had been trapped inside for hours tried to see what was going on.
Dale wondered why they hadn’t let the trains leave.
He followed Cambridge onto the track. The power had been switched off there as well. Dale felt uneasy. They walked towards the entrance of another tunnel and he began to hear the moans of the undead though they were still out of sight.
* * * * *
They stopped and pressed themselves against the wall. Cambridge made a series of hand gestures. Dale nodded and they continued more slowly than they had before. Cambridge led the way and Dale
kept a couple of metres behind him.
The tunnel opened up a few metres ahead. The single track that they had followed from the platform intersected with half a dozen others. There was a maintenance walkway around the side and a door hanging open. It looked tiny against the scale of everything else.
There were too many zombies to count. A train full, Dale thought. He raised his gun to start shooting but Cambridge put his hand on the barrel and pushed it down.
Dale looked at him and Cambridge shook his head. “Not yet,” he mouthed. “Wait.”
Dale squeezed the gun but didn’t try to fire. He watched the swirling mass of bodies moving around. Slowly coming towards him but unaware he was even there. With even the emergency lights were off, the tunnel was in complete darkness.
They were getting footage for the people that studied these things and attempted to predict the pattern of the outbreak. He hadn’t known that was part of their mission statement but maybe Cambridge was using his initiative. It was rare to see a group this large in a contained space.
Minutes passed. The zombies that had been coming towards them began to move in other directions. They couldn’t see where they were going and would only get out by luck.
Dale turned to Cambridge. “Can we start shooting them now?” he said.
Cambridge nodded slowly and raised his weapon. There was a barely audible click as they switched off the safety mechanisms.
“On three,” Cambridge said.
Dale nodded.
Cambridge nodded his head; one, two, three.
He squeezed the trigger and the machine gun burst to life. The noise was deafening and each shot put out so much light that he had to switch the night vision off to avoid being blinded.
The first dozen zombies fell to the ground before the rest had even turned to see what was happening. Their eyes looked like dark holes as they began to come towards him, heedless of the fact that Dale and Cambridge were both carrying several automatic weapons each.
Dale fired until his gun clicked dry. Then he pulled his second gun up and emptied that one as well. Cambridge did the same. He emptied half of his third gun before the zombies stopped coming.
He switched back to night vision and looked down. The track was invisible beneath piles of zombie corpses. He turned to look at Cambridge.
“Time for the cleanup crew?” Dale said.
But Cambridge didn’t look at him and after a moment, Dale turned to see what he was looking at. The tunnel ahead of them was dark but there was something moving. He watched as more zombies began to pour out of it towards them.
* * * * *
The zombies continued to come out of the tunnel. There were thousands of them. Too many to count. They moved like water, rushing to fill any available space.
Dale stepped back.
“Stand your ground,” Cambridge said.
“I’m out of ammo,” Dale said.
“You heard me, Dale.”
Dale turned to look back down the tunnel towards the train that was out of sight but still there. He turned back to the zombies who were moving towards them, more quickly than seemed possible. Those at the front had already reached the first of the dropped bodies.
“There’s too many of them,” Dale said.
“You have your orders soldier,” Cambridge said. He hadn’t turned away. His gun was raised and pointing dead ahead.
“We need reinforcements,” Dale said. What he thought they could really use was a bomb. “They’ll overwhelm us.”
Cambridge didn’t bother to reply. He fired his gun, took out three zombies with neat head shots.
Dale watched him for a moment and then decided that two soldiers who were almost out of ammo couldn’t make a dent against such overwhelming opposition. He turned away and started to run.
He heard Cambridge’s gun click dry before he was out of the tunnel. He turned around without stopping and saw the zombies pull Cambridge to the ground while more kept coming.
Ahead of him, the train was still there. The zombies would go for it but hopefully, it was strong enough to protect the people inside. They had nowhere else to go. Even if they could get the doors open, the tunnel wasn’t wide enough to climb through.
Dale glanced behind again. The zombies were still coming.
The people on the train began to bang their hands against the glass. Dale made a split second decision (there wasn’t time for anything else now). He changed course and ran towards the train.
The back door was just far enough out of the tunnel to open. He hit the emergency release button knowing that not everyone would have time to get out and that the zombies would get in. Most of the people inside would die but they would have died anyway. At least this way some of them had a chance.
People began to climb off immediately but Dale was already running towards the exit. The zombies getting closer as if the sheer number of them was pushing the rest forward more quickly.
He ran through the dark tunnels. The people he had released from the train were coming too but when he turned around, he couldn’t distinguish them from the zombies. He heard screams. He carried on running.
When he got to the escalator, he tried his radio. He pressed the button on one of the earpieces but he didn’t hear the static crackle. He spoke anyway:
“There’s more than we thought. Hundreds… maybe thousands of them. I’m coming out. Request immediate backup and evacuation of all civilians.”
He didn’t know if they’d heard him. He did know that he would be in trouble for abandoning Cambridge and disobeying an order. He might be court marshalled and given his papers but at least he would be alive.
Dale reached the top of the escalator and heard the banging of feet behind him. He didn’t look around. The hundred and fifty people who had been there when they’d entered were still there now. He turned towards the exit but the shutters were still down.
“Everybody back,” he shouted.
“Where’s the other one?” somebody said.
“Get back!” Dale shouted. He raised his mostly empty gun and they did as he said. If the doors weren’t opened soon, he wouldn’t be able to save them but at least he could keep them alive for a little longer.
The first people reached the top of the escalators. Dale turned towards them as he continued to shepherd the other people away. He could see blood and bite marks. Torn clothes the proof of a struggle. The first ones hadn’t turned yet but it was just a matter of time.
He raised his gun again. This time pointed at the people he had rescued from the train. He moved his aim from one to another and they stopped at the top of the stairs. More people arrived behind them and then the first of the zombies.
Dale couldn’t shoot people while they were still people but everyone he saw was terminal. You didn’t survive a bite. They were going to turn as surely as the sun would rise. His finger hovered over the trigger but he couldn’t do it.
There was noise everywhere. He couldn’t focus. He swung his aim from one face to another, unable to tell the difference between who had been bitten and who was just covered in the blood of friends or family.
Something tugged at his arm. He turned around with his finger poised to pull the trigger and found himself aiming into the face of a teenage girl. Her eyes bulged. She looked terrified. Dale realised that even with a thousand zombies climbing the stairs at least some of that terror was reserved for the man with the big gun.
She looked as if she might start crying. A moment too late he lowered the gun.
“Stand back,” he said.
“My… my brother…”
Dale turned away from her. The first victims from the train had started to turn. Their eyes had turned glassy and black. He raised his gun again as they started coming towards him.
A child screamed.
Dale turned towards the sound as he felt something grab his arm. Assuming it was the girl again, he tried to shrug her off. Whatever it was wouldn’t let go.
He saw the child. A li
ttle boy standing at the far escalator. A wet puddle at his feet.
Dale felt pain in his arm and turned without thinking. A zombie. One of the fresh ones. It staggered backwards when he struck it in the head with the butt of his gun. Not hard enough to kill it but knock it senseless for a moment. The fresh ones were almost as hard to kill as a human.
He ignored the pain in his arm and ran towards the boy. Swept him up in his arms moments before an elderly woman with half of her neck missing tried to grab him. Dale had seen child zombies before and he had no wish to put a bullet in another toddlers head.
The boy was barely heavier than his gun but Dale’s arm ached as if he had been stabbed. Still holding the boy he ran towards the exit. Everyone else could fend for themselves or go to hell. He only had a few bullets left and he didn’t intend to die at Oxford Circus.
He hit the metal shutter. He could see out into the street where there were more people than he remembered. They weren’t zombies but he thought for a moment they might be.
“Open up!” he shouted. He banged on the shutter so that the whole thing shook. The boy tried to wriggle out of his arms and for a moment Dale considered letting him go.
Other people joined him. They rattled the shutters and shouted at the people outside. The zombies continued to move towards them, adding each person they met to their number.
* * * * *
Dale could see open-backed vehicles that looked like ambulances. Men and women in white lab coats walked around purposefully. No one turned towards the station.
Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Patient Zero Page 1
