by Alex South
Chapter 41
Rain soaked into Zack’s t-shirt and pattered against the canvas of the bag. He put it down in the middle of the road, wincing. He rotated his shoulder and rubbed it, trying to get rid of the pain. He bent down.
“You okay Macy?” he said.
“Where are we?” – her voice rose from the bag.
“We’re out of Manchester. I’m having a little rest and then we’ll keep going, okay? I’ve gotta get my bike. I came to get you on a bike. Once I get it, we have to cycle really fast, pick up Stones, and get home, and hide.”
“Did you leave Stones a lot of food?”
“Yeah.”
Chapter 42
Adam put on his goggles, transporting himself into Laura’s room. He glanced around. Unable to see her, he made all the walls and objects semi-transparent. Her curled up body revealed itself – she was in one of the wardrobes, the clothes hanging above her.
“Laura… I’ve checked everything. It’s okay. It was just a… a… there was nothing wrong. You’re totally fine.”
She didn’t respond.
“Laura… Laura… you must believe me. Maybe you just had a headache? Or perhaps you had a panic attack. But the scan is fine. It can’t possibly have done you any harm.”
Laura turned and looked up. A streak of blood ran from her nose, down her face, onto her shirt. He felt his heart sink. A long silence passed. Laura just kept looking up, her eyes moving, as if searching for something, as if searching for him.
“I don’t know what to do…” said Adam.
“I don’t… I don’t want to go back in that room.”
“It’s not supposed to be dangerous. It’s the best technology… in the world.”
“I don’t know… but… I… I won’t go back in there. You took out my fillings anyway.”
“I have to do it. It’s very dangerous to go in there with metal.”
“So… don’t put me in there, then.”
“I have to.”
“I don’t have any metal.”
“I know but… it’s just a precaution.”
“Precautions make you safer. You’re killing me.”
Another long silence.
“Would you let the guard check you instead?”
“Yeah… of course, whatever.”
“And… you’ll have to do it naked, just in case… something got stuck on your shoe, or a pocket or something.”
“Whatever… I don’t give a fuck. Just… don’t want to go in there.”
…
Chapter 43
Could he ditch the bag? He was close to the bike – no one was around. Macy could get out… walk the last few steps.
No.
He kept his legs moving, trying to ignore the hot pain in his shoulder. He dragged his feet forwards, watching the corner draw closer, until it opened up and a new road stretched ahead – the house a short distance away. Drawing closer, he caught sight of the door.
Still closed.
He came to the front, and put the bag on the ground. He bent down.
“Don’t move,” he whispered.
He moved to the empty window frame, and climbed over, dropping into a ground-floor bedroom. He headed to the door, and came into the hallway, relief crashing down on him as his eyes fell on the bike – untouched, unmoved. He opened the front door, wheeled it outside, placed it on the ground and unzipped the bag. Macy squinted up at him.
“We’re here. Get out, quick.”
He brought the bike into the middle of the street and climbed on.
“Come on, get on this,” he gestured to the rack over the back wheel.
Macy climbed on, wrapping her arms around his stomach.
Chapter 44
Adam watched Laura enter the white, cube-shaped room. An urge to scan her hit him, to ignore everything she had said and to do it properly. He pushed that away, watching as she took her clothes off.
What should he do? Surely not a cavity search, she wasn’t trying to kill herself. Make her stick out her tongue? Just to show her how important this was. How careful they had to be.
“Would you mind opening your mouth Laura?”
She did so – the guard looked inside. Once he was done, Laura closed it.
“Oh… sorry, open it again so I can check too,” said Adam. He zoomed closer, and peered inside.
Nothing.
“Lift your tongue,” he said.
Nothing there either.
“Laura lift up your feet. I’ll check nothing is stuck to them.”
She showed him each sole in turn.
“Can… you… can you check your intimate areas,” he said.
Laura rolled her eyes, “I think I’d notice.”
“I know but…”
She sighed, “Fine,” she began to check herself.
“All clear?” said Adam, once she was done.
“Yes… of course,” said Laura.
“Okay wait there, don’t move.”
Adam moved his perspective closer to the floor, slowly he moved along the white surface, before passing onto red carpet, checking every inch until he arrived outside the crystal room. He moved back to Laura.
“Okay, you can go,” he said opening the door. She walked forwards – still naked. He watched her move through the corridor, her speed increasing as she turned the corner and saw the crystal room. He waited for her to enter, then closed the door behind her and began the process.
Each second he waited for it to happen, for her to drop to the floor, dead. He had checked – he told himself – he had checked everything. The process ended. Relief washed over him. He opened the door for her and she moved towards it.
Chapter 45
The blue washing line was slack on the ground.
No.
“Stones!” he shouted, looking around, “Stones!”
He looked back at the washing line, then moved forwards and picked up the end, inspecting it – it had been cut. A hot sensation spread through him. His body and his gut tightened up. His thoughts fell away from words, replaced by a kind of corrosion.
His mind flashed through ideas, ways this didn’t mean what it meant. They could be close by. They could be coming back. Stones could have escaped and gone back to his old house.
It couldn’t be true… It couldn’t be…
He looked at Macy. All the colour had drained from her face.
Chapter 46
Laura sank into the chair. The voice began:
“I understand a lot of what I’ve told you might be difficult to hear. Perhaps you feel hatred towards us. You feel like we used you. Or that we’ve been cruel. Perhaps you want to go back to your planet. And don’t want to come to ours.
“I must reemphasise to you that everything we did was necessary. Unfortunately humans have never passed through the great filter. We tried many times, by placing them in many different environments, in many different planets. It is a statistical certainty, that no matter what, humans are destroyed, or they destroy themselves.
“The only way for us to give you life was to limit your progress. That is why everything on your planet must return to how it was, and humans must begin again. An everlasting loop.
“Let me also reemphasise that M.N.A. can only evolve through organic means. And humans are the only organic life form that we wanted to carry this great technology. Despite the problems we’ve had in our past, we recognise the unique genius of humans, their ability to think in ways we can’t, their spirit and resourcefulness. We wanted you to be the ones to carry this torch.
“Perhaps you are happy that we gave you life, but unhappy with how it ended. The zombie virus, I understand, is a crude and ugly method. But despite our best attempts, this was the most humane way we could find. This method was the only method that worked. M.N.A. is a complicated technology and it required complicated solutions.
“On our planet, you will live a life that’s better that you could have ever imagined. You will experience happiness beyond you
r current experiences. We will take care of you. You have won the ultimate lottery, and there is no need for you to want anything. To need anything. To feel anything that you don’t want to feel. You have made it.
“Meanwhile on your planet, things are moving backwards. You have seen how fragile your society’s existence was, how it all ended so quickly. But this is just the first stage. Back on your planet the zombies have entered the second stage of their infection, becoming semi-human again. They have become less aggressive, and more intelligent, but only to a point. In this secondary stage, the purpose of humanity is to undo itself. They will destroy technology. Information. History. Humans will dismantle everything. This is for their own protection. This is to stop them reaching the great filter. Do you wish to be a part of this? For you, would it not be frustrating to go backwards? Once a certain level of regression is reached, they will live a simple life. A life within nature. I can’t tell you for how long. Maybe thousands of years. Maybe less. Maybe more. One day we come back. And we will restart the planet, we will set everything back to zero, and the humans must be taken away and replaced by the next wave. But until then we let them live. Think of it as retirement for your wave of humanity. We want them to live on the planet whilst we aren’t using it. For us, this is the real golden age for humans, living within nature until we are ready to restart the planet and begin again. This may sound nice, but it is many generations away still. You would not get to be a part of the retirement, only a part of the move towards it.
“And that move will not be pleasant. You will not fit in, you will know the truth, whereas they will be propelled by a strange ideology to dismantle, and to fear anything but the most basic of tools. And unfortunately, the virus becomes more unstable with time. Despite our best efforts we could not perfect it. There will be moments when they revert back to being zombies. It will be temporary, but not necessarily short. And they will turn on you, if you are unlucky enough not to find shelter from them.
“I hope you understand. You are a part of something better now. You have escaped the fate inscribed in your genetic code, and with us you can live forever. And together we’ll do great things.”
“Okay then,” said Adam. “That’s it for now. Do you want anything?”
“No thanks.”
“Okay then, well that was a short lesson, because now it’s your opportunity to ask questions… anything at all. You see, we’ve come to the end of the first block of lessons. And after each block you can ask me anything you want to know. That’s how we’re going to do it. So that it doesn’t just feel like we’re throwing information at you.”
“I’m okay.”
“You don’t… you don’t have any questions?”
“No.”
“But, that’s… I’ve scheduled in this time so that… I want to give you the opportunity… just… you must want to know something.”
“No… I just want to revise.”
“That was a very short lesson, there’s not much to go over. You don’t want to know about me for example? Where I come from? Or perhaps more about what you just heard. Or… about what the planet you’re going to is like.”
“Maybe I’ve heard too much, you know? This is all, like, difficult for me… everything’s different now. I just want some time alone.”
“Okay… okay… I understand of course. I’ll send up some food and some drink. What would you like?”
“Anything. I don’t mind.”
“Okay then, just relax. I’ll come back in a little while. Is orange juice okay?”
“Yeah.”
Laura headed over to the food area. The little door revolved, showing her a plate of various sliced meats, cheese, crackers – with some nuts and raisins at the side and a glass of orange juice. She took everything over to the twin tables on the other side of the room and sat down. Her ears took in the absence of Adam’s voice as she flicked through a couple of pages. She waited, until she could not bear to wait any more. She reached underneath the table and pulled off the ball of foil. Wrappers that had encased each piece of gum – gum that she had used to stick the ball of foil underneath the table. She quickly put it in her mouth and swallowed.
Chapter 47
Zack’s hometown grew around him. As the world had begun to anchor itself around a single point, he felt a force pulling him closer and closer. As all of this had happened, Zack had begun to feel he would do it.
Every corner brought hope, every uninterrupted moment made him more certain no one else was here. This was his ghost town. Macy holding onto him. And a front door key. All that he needed.
The last few corners unfolded before him. He pulled into the car park of his building. He got off, unlocked the communal door and brought the bike inside to rest against the steps – Macy following him. The door closed under its own weight – and a feeling of safety wrapped itself around him.
He and Macy ascended the steps. First floor. Second Floor. Third floor. Then his flat, right at the top. He put the key in the lock and turned it.
The sensation of the lock clicking, as he gripped the key, sent a simple bliss to the pit of his stomach. He stepped inside. Macy passed him. He turned and pushed the door – it swung into the frame. Zack knelt down on the floor, put his head against it and closed his eyes.
Chapter 48
Zack kept going over his last moment with Stones. The same thoughts ran around his mind, as he lay in bed – staring into space, with Macy to his side, completely covered by the duvet – he had let Stones down. He had failed him.
If only he had done it differently. All three of them would be here right now, making a new life together.
Stones didn’t deserve this, he wasn’t even human. This was a human mess. He had to be alive. He had to be. Some force had kept Zack alive through all this. Why would that force kill Stones? Every one of those people that met Stones had loved him. They would surely keep him alive.
But would they feed him? They didn’t eat themselves…
Zack felt too much at once, his thoughts weren’t coming in any order. All he knew was that Stones had to be okay. He couldn’t believe anything else.
Chapter 49
Laura hadn’t slept. She hadn’t even tried, although she had tried very hard to seem asleep – which meant hiding under the duvet and keeping her eyes closed. The room was starting to brighten. It was time.
Should she pretend to wake up? She couldn’t just jump out of bed – that wasn’t realistic. She lifted the duvet off her head and stared at the sun, waiting for an acceptable amount of seconds to pass. Once the sun was a little higher, she slowly got up and walked across to stare at the pine trees.
“Morning,” said Adam’s voice eventually. Adrenaline surged through her, she felt her heartrate quicken.
“Morning,” she said, trying to sound normal.
“Come and meet me in the lab.”
“Okay.”
She turned and headed to the open door. Where was the ball of metal now? The corridor walls passed her sides. Her stomach? Surely her gut? Her intestine, somewhere… right at the end? Or her colon? Would it shoot out? Quick like a bullet? Or just stretch against her organs, slowly dragging through them?
She came into the room with the MRI machine.
“I already know what it’s going to say,” said Adam.
“Okay,” said Laura.
“But you know… just in case.”
“It’s fine,” said Laura, lying down.
The machine began to move her. Laura watched the darkness grow. Would it come right out? He had said it was a magnet, but that could be his way of explaining it, his way of warning her against metal. He treated her like an idiot. What if it wasn’t magnetic? What if it just changed the metal? What if it made it grow, or explode, or get really hot? Regret passed over her. She fought it out of her mind.
The machine began to move again. The darkness faded away, replaced by the white ceiling and the lights.
“Okay. Let’s proceed to the scan room
,” she heard Adam say.
“Okay,” said Laura, getting up and heading back to the corridor.
If she died, she died on her own terms. They thought they had her under control, like a cow, being guided around the farm. She would die in the light of the crystals and leave Adam totally alone. Totally fucked. What could he do without her? This whole place was built around her, for her. The whole process, from Earth’s creation, to the zombie virus, to her kidnap, was for her to be here. To help them.
No. Not her. The others maybe, but not her.
Laura stepped into the scan room and quickly began taking off her clothes. The guard circled her a few times and Adam opened the next door.
There was nothing left to do. Naked, she began to walk, focusing on not going too quickly.
As she saw the purple light, she prepared herself. She was ready.
Laura stepped in and quickly moved close to one of the walls. She felt sick. An incredible fear pushed down on her and at the same time she felt the same wonder, the same joyful anticipation.
She stood there for an eternity. The crystals seemed more beautiful than ever. She couldn’t imagine that they would cause her harm.
Smash.
She looked down. A small hole had appeared in the glass. An alarm sounded. Deafeningly loud. She knelt and put her finger through the hole, pushing as hard as possible.
She pulled her hand back out and switched to her middle finger.
Contact. The skin of her finger lightly touched the crystal. A total clarity washed over her. She no longer felt any urgency. Time no longer held her in its grip. She felt herself within the room, and the room within the building.
She took a few steps back. The door opened. The guard charged towards her. She lifted up her hand and felt the life drain from him. He fell on his face. Laura felt a sense of return. As if she had just woken up again. She walked over to the guard, stepped over his body and moved down the corridor.
