The Dust: The Zombie Apocalypse in Ireland

by Jonathan Lynch

  ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.’ She put her hand between my shoulders and left it there.

  ‘It’s ok,’ I said while keeping my stare through the gap. ‘The coast looks clear, for now at least.’ I pretended to study the outside more than I actually was, while wishing Janet would take her hand away.

  ‘Eric?’

  I turned facing her. She was biting her bottom lip.

  ‘Terrance said something to me before he tried… before he tried it on with me. He said that there was a group of big noise politicians’ all hiding out in Liberty Hall. He said that when his supplies ran out he was going to make his way there to get some answers.

  ‘And you believed him?’

  ‘Well, there might be some truth in it Eric. There could even be –’

  ‘Have you forgotten what that guy did to us Janet?! He shot our car to bits, then he drugged me, and then he tried to rape you! How could you believe anything he told you?!’

  Janet’s mouth hung open at my retort. She took a couple of steps backwards away from me. She licked her lips before replying.

  ‘Our plan was to head to town to find signs of life. Human life, right?’

  ‘Yeah.’ I was already regretting my aggressive response.

  ‘Well then, what if, and it’s only an if,’ Janet held her hand up in front of me to silence any reply that she thought I might have, ‘what if what Terrance told me was true? It could be our best shot at finding someone who might actually know what’s going on, and have some answers as to where Lauren might be. If what he said isn’t true, it still doesn’t change our plan of going to town to try and find something does it?’

  ‘No, I guess you’re right.’ I shrugged. ‘I’m sorry for snapping too. Part of me finds it hard to believe that any important people would have been left behind and trapped like us. I mean pregnant women and the elderly were ushered to safety. So I’m sure the rich and powerful were looked after well in advance. Politicians don’t suffer the way us nobodies do.’

  ‘That’s a good point too. But, like we already said, everything happened so fast and the country went to shit in a heartbeat. Maybe some of the VIP’S did get left behind that maybe shouldn’t have Eric!’

  ‘You might be onto something there. So you ready to do this?’

  Janet wrapped her knuckles on the rifle. ‘Let’s rock and roll.’

  Chapter 22

  Janet had shown me how to open the roller shutter. Terrance had shown her while I was passed out. He had told Janet that he had planned for the two of them to go to Liberty Hall once I was out of the way to take on the dead world. Apparently there was food and supplies a plenty inside the building waiting to be had.

  Janet stood guard with the rifle cocked in front of the shutter while it opened slowly after I clamped one end of a jumper cable onto a 12volt car battery. The other side of the cable ran into a large junction box that contained dozens of wires. Some cables ran to the control box for the shutter, while others webbed across the floor to power god knows what else. The whole thing looked like a box of multi-coloured spaghetti. Terrance hadn’t been tidy in his craftsmanship, but he had still made things work.

  The moment we opened the front door the stench hit us. The air was thick and vile, and the strong wind pushed as much of it up our noses as possible. Janet stepped out into the station ahead of me. I followed leaving the door open and the keys hanging in the lock.

  Janet had the butt end of the gun pressed against her shoulder; she turned in a full circle slowly, taking in our surroundings. I kept a couple of feet behind mimicking her movements. We moved to the front of the garage towards one of the pillars. We crouched down behind it and looked at each other.

  ‘I just need to grab the keys from the car,’ I said speaking over the rain in a louder tone than I had wanted to.

  ‘Why?’ She asked frowning.

  ‘I need – I want to get the keys for my own garage. I put them on the same key ring as the car – I should have kept them separate but…’

  ‘Ok Eric, that doesn’t matter now,’ she waved me off. ‘Just be quick. Make sure the car’s not contaminated before you touch it. I’ll cover you. Ready?’

  I looked all around me before nodding back to her. Then I was up and gone. Janet kept close behind me covering my blind spots. When I stepped out of the garage’s shelter the rain began beating against me. I was sticky and grubby, but I still didn’t want to be getting wet.

  The closer I came to the battered car the more I crouched down. I moved towards the driver’s side, keeping an eye out for the rats through the open doors, while stepping carefully over the shards of shattered glass that were once its windows. I hissed out a yes when I saw that the keys were still hanging in the ignition. I examined them carefully before I took them out and stuffed them inside my pocket.

  I looked over to Janet and stuck my thumb up. I went to the back seat and retrieved my baseball bat. It was no Ruger, but the second I picked it up I felt a lot better. It was like being reunited with an old friend. It was my talisman, a gift from Lauren to help me fight my way back to her. I went and joined Janet in the middle of the road. She eyed my bat and raised her eyebrows, but she didn’t ask me any questions.

  We came upon the cars that Terrance had set up as part of his trap. Janet bent over one of the bonnets and assumed a sniper like position. She peered through the scope and pointed the gun at as many openings as she could see. All of Terrance’s mannequins had been knocked over onto the ground, and a couple of them were covered in zombie juice. I took my bat to the one of the cleaner dummies and broke its head off, and then I threw the head down the street. It bounced twice on the concrete before rolling underneath a car and out of sight. I crouched down beside Janet and looked over my shoulder and then forward again. Janet kept her position across the hood, her finger hovering over the trigger, unflinching against the rain.

  We waited for a long time – staring down the empty streets – while anticipating the arrival of the dead and the vermin. Every so often Janet would shift her sight from high to low and then from side to side, and I’d make sure that there was nothing creeping up behind us. If there were any zombies lurking further down the road, they hadn’t reacted to the dummy’s head. Terrance’s words about them not being as stupid as we thought echoed over and over inside my head. The thought made me squirm.

  Janet turned to me and nodded in the direction of where we were surveying. I nodded back to her and wiped the rain from my face and hair. We stepped around the car and began walking with Janet once again taking the lead. We moved in single file. Every step forward we took I looked behind me. The further we travelled the more obstacles we came upon. The street was covered with overturned rubbish bins, dead animals, cars, furniture, interiors’ from shops, home appliances, and money. I couldn’t believe how many hundred Euro notes I saw matted to the ground with blood and goo. We took every obstacle carefully. Each time we passed a car I held my breath and gripped my bat. The smells from all around were beginning to turn my stomach.

  We passed an apartment building that had a large banner hanging down its front. The message on it had been hand painted in huge black letters and read

  The four horsemen of the apocalypse are zombies.

  Janet stopped and stared at the banner. ‘Do you think there’s anybody in there,’ she asked me stabbing the gun at the sign.

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said shrugging and looking all around me. I didn’t like standing still.

  ‘Well should we check?’

  ‘No I don’t think it’s a good idea Janet.’

  ‘Why not?’ She frowned lowering the gun to her chest.

  ‘It’s too risky. The building is one boxed in trap. And even if there are people in there, who’s to say that they’re not a little messed up in the head like Terrance?’

  ‘You’re right,’ she muttered. ‘Plus who has the time to write such a sign while all of this is going on too? If that was me I wouldn’t be drawing any sort of a
ttention to myself or the place I was hiding.’

  ‘I think the idea of Liberty Hall is a better one.’ I said while observing the sign myself again. ‘If what Terrance told you is right about some politicians being holed up in there, then it’s our best chance of meeting some people who might actually be sane and have some sort of plan or idea about all of this.’

  ‘You’re right,’ Janet answered me. ‘You want to take over?’ She held the rifle out to me.

  ‘No thanks. You’re the expert.’

  She shrugged and wiped the rain from her face. I did the same and rested my bat on my shoulder. The heavy wind bit into my skin, and my head was starting to ache again. When I looked back at Janet her face had grown pale. She was staring behind me in the direction that my bat was pointing, and raising the rifle up to my face.

  When I turned around I saw five of the dead bearing down on us. They were moving fast, and they looked awful.

  Chapter 23

  Janet shot the one closest to us in the centre of its chest. The zombie dropped instantly. She fired another two shots in quick succession but missed her next target. The noise of the shooting caused my head to roar. Janet fired again and dropped another one. She shot it in the leg and it tumbled to the ground.

  ‘Shoot them in the head!’ I screamed.

  ‘I can’t get a good fucking shot. The rain and wind is throwing my sight off Eric! I’ll drop them and you finish them off ok?’

  I bobbed my head but I doubted she saw it. I squeezed my bat with both hands and charged forward. I gave the three remaining zombies a wide berth – even though they seemed to be bearing down on Janet and not me – and focused on the one she had just shot in the leg.

  Janet had blown its kneecap out but it was already trying to get back up. I came at it from behind and raised the bat above my head but behind me I heard some groaning. I turned around just in time to see the zombie Janet had shot first reaching out to grab me. I spun around to avoid its outstretched arm but lost my footing on some glass and fell on my ass. My bat dropped from my hands and rolled along the ground under a car that was surrounded in the same shards of glass I had just fallen on.

  The zombie staggered towards me dripping all kinds of awful shit. Its face and neck looked as if somebody had gone at it with an ice pick. The thing had no ears, instead only two swollen lumps that were teaming with maggots. It lurched low at me – aiming for my neck. I rolled over and shook myself out of my backpack. I went to the car that my bat had rolled under and hunkered down but I couldn’t reach it from a squatting position. I dropped to my knees, then onto my belly and crawled under the car. The shards of glass cut into my clothes and pierced my skin. I grabbed the bat and pulled myself back out. The way out hurt me more than it did on the way in.

  The zombie that had lurched at me hadn’t seen where I had gone. It stood with its back to me looking aimlessly up the street. I climbed up onto the car roof and looked down the street, but I couldn’t see Janet or the dead that had gone after her.

  ‘Hey!’ I shouted. ‘Over here! Come get me!’

  Mr ice-pick came at me with rage. Its black lifeless eyes fixed on me, and its infected mouth hung open. I planted my feet as firmly as I could on the wet hood and brought the bat down hard on its head as it reached for my ankle. The bat cracked its skull open right at its forehead. I hit the opening again, and the zombie dropped against the side of the car. It rolled down the passenger door leaving a slug trail of dark matter behind it.

  The second zombie Janet had shot was finally up and hobbling towards me. It was dragging its defunct leg behind it and chomping its mouth open and closed. They were relentless fuckers alright; I had to give them that. I jumped down from the roof and ran behind the zombie. I cracked it in the back of the head and it fell face down. I stood over it, lined my bat up over its head, turned away, and smashed it in

  When I was done I went to the car mirror and examined my face in the glass as best I could. It looked to be free of blood. I had noticed that when they bled it was thick and slow. It poured out of them like black lava, instead of spraying in every direction. But even so I still made sure that I looked ok. I held my bat out in front of me at length and let the rain wash away the bits of zombie shit stuck to it. I then went to my backpack and examined that before putting it back on. I crept up the street towards where I hoped Janet would still be.

  Chapter 24

  I found Janet sheltering under a canopy outside an abandoned pub. I went to her stepping carefully around the zombies and their innards that she had shot to a second death. She grimaced when I crouched down beside her.

  ‘I think I sprained my ankle Eric. I can’t put my weight on it.’

  I cursed under my breath.

  ‘No, it’s not so bad. I packed a first aid kit into your backpack. There’s a roll of bandage inside it, I’ll use that to strap up my ankle. I’ll be fine. I take it the other zombies back there didn’t give you too much trouble?’

  I shook my head as I took my backpack off and rummaged inside it until I found the first aid kit. Janet took it from me and then handed me the rifle.

  ‘Keep a lookout while I do this. Safety’s on.’

  I took the weapon and spun facing the street while Janet took care of her ankle. Holding it made me shaky. I pressed it tight against my chest and took some deep breaths. The rain was still hammering down, but the canopy offered decent enough shelter. The crying wind pushed litter all around the street and the smells right in my face which seemed to be worse while we were stopped.

  I turned back to Janet, she was struggling to get her shoe back on and had pain written all over her face.

  ‘How is it?’

  ‘I’ll live. Well, I’ll walk.’

  She handed the first aid kit to me and I put it back inside my backpack. I closed the pack, sat on it and put the gun in my lap.

  ‘I was thinking that we should head back to the garage. Just give town a miss. It’s too risky, and especially now with your foot like that too.’

  Janet shook her head and frowned. ‘We can’t Eric. We’ve come too far. Yeah the garage is secure, but we’ve got limited supplies remember? Plus, we would have to go back out eventually either way.’

  ‘I know we would Janet, but at least you could rest your foot up. The stuff in the packs would get us by, and when you are able we could come back out.’

  Janet pulled her soaking clothes away from her skin. ‘I appreciate the thought Eric, I really do. But we both know that time isn’t on our sides. We are closer to town now than we are to the garage, and the bullets may not last us for two separate trips, depending on what we encounter. We’re out now. We may as well stay out. You keep hold of the gun. If we run into trouble and I slow you down, then I want you to keep…’

  ‘No!’ I interrupted her. ‘We are in this together Janet. We’ve both saved each other’s asses. It’s supposed to be about teamwork remember?’

  ‘Yea I remember’ Janet smiled back at me. ‘Now help me up and let’s get moving.’

  Chapter 25

  We took a side street surrounded by buildings that I knew had been abandoned long before the virus outbreak. But we still treaded carefully. I took point with Janet hobbling close behind me. Every so often she would stop and use the bat as a resting stick. And every time I asked her if she wanted to take a break she would shake her head and tell me to keep moving.

  When we reached the end of the side street both of us came to halt and looked at each other. We were only a couple of feet away from stepping right out into Dublin’s city centre.

  ‘This is it,’ I said to her.

  She steadied herself on the bat once more, and wiped her wet face before speaking. ‘If they are congregating anywhere I bet that it’s down there. Rats too.’

  I nodded and studied her pale face. I saw uncertainty in her eyes for the first time since I had met her. I felt the same, but I was doing my best to try and be positive. But inside I was terrified.

  I moved closer
to her and put my hand on her shoulder. ‘If we do get outnumbered then we will use the rifle on ourselves before those fuckers get a chance at us ok?’

  My words had stunned her. She opened her mouth but nothing came out.

  ‘It’s better than the alternative isn’t it?’ I added. You do me and then yourself. Just so that I don’t fuck up.’

  She hung her head and began to cry. ‘We’re just surrounded by so much death Eric. It’s everywhere. The way you talk about killing ourselves without even flinching! It’s like mass murder has become, normal.’

  I wanted to hug her but I felt that I shouldn’t. I stood motionless holding the gun

  ‘I’m so tired Eric. I know we said we’d try and stay positive but I’m just so tired of running. I really, really want you to find Lauren. But if you do, then I guess that means I’m on my own again. I know it’s so selfish to think that way but I just can’t help it.’

  ‘Hey it’s not going to be like that ok? Let’s just focus on seeing if this Liberty Hall is the real deal. If it is, then we can rest up there and hopefully get some answers. Whatever comes after that we will deal with one step at a time. Just like we have been dealing with all of this other shit yeah?’

  Janet’s head bobbed up and down, she wiped her eyes, and then composed herself again.

  Then we walked out onto the quays.

  Chapter 26

  The Millennium Bridge had been destroyed. The whole walkway had been blown to pieces. The shattered metallic parts jutted out from the Liffey’s black water like sharp macabre jigsaw pieces. I studied the whole scene and wondered how it all had happened. We left the broken bridge behind us and moved further into town. I dreaded to think of what other sights lay in store for us.

  We moved slowly up the centre of the road. I could see that Janet was studying our surroundings as much as I was. The once thriving commercial area had become a phantom of what it had once been before. Every shop that flanked us on both sides had been either looted or burned, and they all had copious amounts of congealed blood on their walls and floors. But the worst sight of all was the water.