by James Somers
The store is dark inside. The power is still off here as well. She can’t see any sign of them, though one of the windows to the store has been busted out. Holly sees broken glass on the pavement there to one side of the main entrance doors. Somebody has been here. Surely it was them.
She calls again. “Jonathan!”
“Holly,” Cassie cries out, “they’ll be upon us soon if we don’t leave!”
“We’ve got to go!” Garth hollers to her from the back seat.
Holly bangs her fist upon the roof of the battered and bloodied Escalade, cursing in frustration. She’s about to get back inside and forget about this. Something must have happened to them, something went wrong.
Then she hears Jonathan’s voice crying out to her from the store. No, not the store; from above the store. Holly looks up, in time to see a body tumble over the edge of the roof above.
“Jonathan?” she cries out.
He’s tumbling like an Olympic diver. The body crashes through the windshield of their SUV. Holly realizes it’s the body of a woman—an infected woman who’s dead now. She sees Jonathan’s head up top and someone else. No, two others fighting with him.
Garth is out of the Escalade, followed by Cassie. “There upon us!” he says. “Follow me!”
Garth goes for the broken window. Holly and Cassie follow. Thousands of zombies close in on their vehicle. Shopping carts have been piled on the other side of the broken window, but Garth uses his strength to heave them aside, allowing Cassie and Holly through.
“Help me with this security gate,” he says, once they’re inside.
Someone has left the gate almost all the way closed, but not quite. Garth jumps up onto the gate using his weight to bring it down. Cassie and Holly jump onboard also. The gate comes down, fastening into place when it connects with numerous locks embedded in the floor.
A moment later, the wave of zombies crashes into the front of the store. The windows smash through in a giant cacophonous explosion of glass against steel. However, they can’t get past the gate. At least, not for the moment.
“What are we going to do?” Cassie screams.
“Garth, I saw Jonathan on the roof,” Holly says to him, ignoring Cassie hysterics. “I saw at least two of the infected up there attacking him. He’s the one who threw the woman off of the roof onto the car.”
Garth whips his katana free from its scabbard, heading toward the back of the store. “I’ll help him!” he calls back, already leaping over the cash registers. “You two find somewhere to hide. With so many, it won’t take long to break down the security gate!”
Holly wonders if Jonathan is still all right. Can he fight off two at once? She hopes it really is impossible for Jonathan to become infected. One bite didn’t do it, but what about multiple bites? Where is Vladimir Nesky? There’s no sign of him at all.
That Which was Lost
3 Hours Earlier
Vladimir finds avoiding the infected nearly as easy as avoiding the notice of normal people. He’s trained for this. He’s the best. Stealth is his manner, invisibility his cloak. He still has a duty to perform, and nothing will stop him from completing his mission.
First priority is to find the boy. Vladimir smiles when he finds the cell phone branch located in a strip mall less than two miles from the UPS Store where he was left unconscious. He still believes the boy must have saved him from the car crash. However, the boy’s good deed means nothing in the framework of his mission. Vladimir will not look the other way simply because Jonathan saved his life.
Getting into the Verizon branch location takes nearly thirty minutes of his time. When he arrives before sunrise, there are no zombies immediately present. However, the store is locked. Vladimir has nothing with him to pick the lock on the door and no desire to be found standing around trying to do so.
Instead, he finds a tire iron from one of the abandoned vehicles nearby and hurls it through the window. By the time nearly three dozen zombies show up to investigate, Vladimir is sitting across the street inside a flat, eating a sandwich made from fixings found in a still sufficiently cold refrigerator.
He killed an infected woman prowling nearby on his way with a blade inserted quietly at the base of her skull, severing the brainstem. Now, he watches through a breakfast nook window, in a darkened room, as the mob searches all around the store where the noise seemed to come from. Vladimir is curious about their interactions while spying from his hidden location.
There doesn’t appear to be any clear cut leader to the group. Yet, they arrived in several small groups from a few locations. They come together. There is no open hostility between them. No tangible communication, yet they are definitely working together toward some common goal. There is an unstated unity among them. Otherwise, they could just kill one another for food. Yet, food is not their only motivation. They also seek to spread their infection, implying a greater purpose.
By the time Vladimir leisurely finishes his sandwich and washes it down with a glass of wine from the well-stocked cabinet, the zombie mob has dispersed again. They go as they came, in smaller groups, retreating to search again for prey. Vladimir saw some scavenging from bodies, though by now, most bodies of deceased victims have been picked clean. Their appetites are voracious.
However, other than humans, Vladimir sees the infected foraging for other sources of food. Mainly, they appear to stick to protein sources, but not always. Some of the flats in this building were already gone through before he arrived. Only luck provides him with the good meal he’s just enjoyed.
On his way out, he takes notice of approaching dawn. He sticks to the shadows, but it’s still quite dark outside, and a decent fog is present. His environment proves perfect for allowing him to walk across the street unnoticed to the store. A quick leap through the window, avoiding glass fragments, finds him inside.
He grabs a high end phone and begins to work at activating it. He has the latest Samsung model, a Galaxy something or other, with all of the bells and whistles included. The power may be out, but the global network is still up—something he was counting on.
With the phone operating, Vladimir activates the GPS tracking on his own phone—the one he believes the boy might have taken. If his phone was destroyed, then he will get nothing from this. If the phone is still on the street, or in the Porsche, then he’ll find it on the map at the same location.
However, his phone is not found in the same location. It has moved, and it’s not far from where he is here. Because of his security protocols, whoever has the phone will not know he is tracking them.
Vladimir activates his services, his messaging and such, remotely, so he can view the phone’s recent activity. To his surprise, the boy has taken up a conversation already in progress between himself and Raven. In the texts, he poses as Nesky, arranging a meeting a little over an hour from now at a Sainsbury located on Wandsworth—the same location where the phone is currently.
Vladimir can deduce several things from this. Firstly, Jonathan almost certainly has discovered who Agent Smith really is. After all, his phone was set to be used in the Russian language. Presumably, the boy does not speak Russian and figured out a way to get through his security fingerprint pass code in order to change the settings on the phone. Easy enough to accomplish while he remained unconscious.
Secondly, the boy may know already that Raven is Holly Tavers. Vladimir can’t think of any reason why he would contact Raven, unless he knew her identity and wanted to draw her in to rejoin her and the two youths in her care. Still, it doesn’t make sense why he wouldn’t simply call her, or speak openly. Why pretend to be Nesky, unless he now distrusts Holly?
Interesting, he thinks. This is a clever boy.
Vladimir scrounges through drawers and cabinets, looking for anything useful. There isn’t much, beyond the new phone. He keeps this with him. If Jonathan moves again, he’ll have no problem finding him now.
He decides to attend this meeting between Jonathan and Raven himself. He�
��ll find out what the boy is planning before he moves in to secure him. He believes Holly will still be helpful. She still belongs to Russian Intelligence despite all that’s happened here in London. If not, he can always dispose of her.
As for the two youths she had with her from Dr. Albert’s program. Little to nothing is known about them. He saw nothing terribly special about either the boy or the girl when he ran into them in the Tombs. Collateral damage, as far as Vladimir is concerned. No one is going to get between him and the boy.
An hour later, the sun is fully up. Vladimir made his way quickly, using what little darkness remained to his advantage, as always. He secures a perch atop Conrad House, a group of flats on Wandsworth across from the Sainsbury Superstore. Minutes later he is watching the boy stationed on the roof of the department store. He appears to be waiting.
Raven has not made her appearance yet, though it is now a little past the time they were scheduled to meet here. The boy remains near the front of the building scanning with binoculars. Vladimir would like to have a pair right now. Still, the boy is visible enough.
Nesky is glad to find himself correct in his assumptions. It was the boy all along. Jonathan had saved his life, dragging him into the UPS Store. However, the boy also took some of his belongings, including the MP5K. Vladimir sees what he believes must be the submachine gun strapped across Jonathan’s torso.
“Clever boy,” Vladimir mutters.
Then he hears the noise of an engine working hard. It’s too deep for a car. A truck, possibly an SUV. As it nears, coming into view down Wandsworth, Vladimir is not surprised to see it is the same kind of vehicle he drove from Heathrow Airport. A Cadillac Escalade launches itself like a rocket down the road, coming toward the Sainsbury location. This must be Holly arriving late to the meeting with Jonathan. She probably doesn’t realize Jonathan has his phone, or his impersonation of him through the text messages.
More startling to Vladimir is what follows the Escalade down the road. What appears to be hundreds, if not thousands, of zombies mobilize from every building orifice opening to Wandsworth. Holly is attracting the largest gathering of the creatures Vladimir has seen so far.
Probably starving for living human prey, these ghoulish monsters are literally running themselves ragged. Following the speeding SUV, they stumble and trip over one another, engaged in a footrace for a wondrous fleshy prize all of them desperately want to sink their teeth into. The idea of a pack hunting for food is gone now. All that remains is the insatiable kill or be killed manner of dogs scrabbling for the same bone.
Vladimir tenses as the Escalade drifts sideways around a corner, heading toward the parking lot entrance. From his vantage point, he plainly sees Holly wrestling with the steering, deftly keeping the big vehicle under her control. When she hits the entrance, she accelerates hard, lunging toward the department store building, as though this will save them from the zombies.
Unfortunately, it won’t save them at all. Vladimir realizes they are only going to trap themselves in this place. Getting to the boy, with all of these infected creatures piling into the Sainsbury, will be nearly impossible. Stealth is useless in a situation like this. There are too many zombies to deal with safely, and Vladimir has no intention of becoming one of them.
Holly’s SUV races across the parking lot, screeching to a halt before the front entrance. Zombies tear down Wandsworth in pursuit. They aren’t giving up. Foaming at their mouths, eyes bloodshot and wide, they come like flood waters ready to sweep away everything in their path.
Stepping out of the Escalade, Holly yells for the boy. She doesn’t appear to see him up above on the roof of the Sainsbury store. Then Vladimir sees someone else on the roof. He squints, trying to focus. A zombie is up there with him.
The boy turns at the last moment. Two more appear behind the first. Vladimir wishes for his telescopic sight and the sniper rifle it belongs to. He can’t afford to lose the boy. A brief scuffle sends a body flying over the edge of the roof. Vladimir gasps, fearing the worst. He wants to reach out and catch him. Yet, there’s nothing he can do but watch.
The body tumbles through the air, arms and legs flailing, and then crashes down upon Holly’s Escalade, shattering the windshield. Vladimir’s eyes go wide, and then movement on the roof draws his attention. Jonathan is still fighting up there. The zombie went over instead.
Vladimir can’t help but exhale with a bit of a sigh. His country is depending on the cure only this boy can provide. London is becoming a wasteland. Vladimir will not allow Russia’s cities to become like it. Yet, he cannot move in. He has no way to get to him from here without treading thousands of flesh eating zombies.
Then he notices something he saw earlier, but gave little thought to. A garbage truck sits abandoned half a block away. All of the zombies in the area are focused upon Holly’s vehicle and the store. Vladimir realizes he can still do something, after all. It may not work, but he has to try.
Shop til You Drop
I know we all have an appointment with death, but that doesn’t mean I want to show up early—Jonathan Parks
I manage to toss the woman over my shoulder. Her bite didn’t quite happen. Close, but no cigar, as they say. My throw is exuberant, tossing her into the air. She tumbles, flailing all the way to land upon Holly’s vehicle. All I can think is that I am not getting bitten again, if I can help it. If I’ve been gifted with some kind of strength, then it’s time to make use of it.
There’s no time to wonder about the woman, whether she survived or not. Hopefully, she didn’t. Otherwise, Holly and the others are going to have to deal with her. Two more zombies come at me. They don’t hesitate, despite what just happened to their companion from the alley behind the store.
I lunge to my left to keep them from flanking me. Instead, the zombie coming at me from my right is forced to line up behind the other to get to me. The closest grabs hold of my clothes, intending to pull me in for a bite, but I’m mad now, summoning strength I didn’t know I had.
I throw my arms up and out between his hands, breaking the hold, then throat chop the man as hard as I can. The blow knocks him backward against the other guy, but he doesn’t acknowledge the pain at all. That strike might have killed someone else. It should have at least sent him to his knees, but he recovers. The other tries to get around the first to come at me.
I step back, hopping from one foot to a chest kick. The first zombie is sent sprawling by this. The second comes in, hands out to grab me, but I hammer the arm hard. To my surprise, the bones break. The man’s arm hangs there, but he still keeps coming.
I go for my hatchet, or machete, whichever I can grab first. A sword thrust runs the second man right through his chest. He drops an instant later, revealing Garth behind him with his katana. My hand finds the pistol instead. I shoot the other zombie scrabbling from the ground toward Garth.
He looks at me, not quite as adversarial as before in the Tombs when we met. “You have to put them down quick,” he says, sheathing his sword again. “More than one move is too much, too long.”
I nod, unsure if he’s trying to patronize me. Still, something about his attitude feels different. “I got it,” I say, and, “thanks.”
He nods to me, leaving off any smart aleck comments this time around. “We had better get back down to the ladies. That security gate won’t hold for long.”
I realize what must be happening in the store below. I don’t argue. I just follow him. Holly and Cassie are alone down there. The gate I left most of the way down is hopefully locked into place. Garth didn’t say it, but it sounds likely. They would have spotted it there and used it to protect themselves.
Garth takes the ladder swiftly, gripping the sides with his hands and feet to slide down. Ten feet off the stockroom floor, he leaps away, landing as nimbly as a gazelle. I descend the ladder quickly, using the old fashioned way. I don’t feel like having to pick myself off the floor. Garth is graceful. I’m not particularly graceful. I can live with it.
“We look for the girls,” Garth says. “We keep them safe at all costs.”
I nod. “I’ll head straight to the front with this,” I say, indicating the MP5K in my hands. “I can reduce how many get inside, while you find Holly and Cassie. Head back to the roof. Maybe we can keep them away from us there.”
Garth smiles. “Be careful.”
I nod again, and we throw ourselves through the doors into the main store. I run for the front, loaded down with weapons that will hopefully keep me alive. I’m reminded of church, of my grandfather reading to me from the Bible, night time prayers at my bed. I offer up a simple prayer now in Jesus’ name. I’ll either survive this, or I’ll perish. I really don’t have control over it.
Garth heads off in another direction, still going toward the front, but calling to Holly loudly as he runs through racks of clothes and other goods sold a the superstore. I lose sight of him quickly in the pervasive darkness so far back from where sunlight pours through the front windows.
Those windows are all but gone now, as zombies by the thousands press against the security gate. I can see, by the time I reach the registers, the gate will not last much longer. I don’t waste any time. MP5K in hand, I open up on them.
Many of the infected on the front line of their assault have been killed already due to relentless pressure from behind. They are dead against the metal gate, their bones broken and the mesh like pattern of steel rods cut into their skin. Those behind keep coming, all of them trying to get in over their fellows.
