Great Bitten: Outbreak

by Warren Fielding

  “That’s a very rushed plan, Austin. Is there any way we can see in to the centre? The swarm was big and they’re still coming.”

  “Well we’re waiting until they’re gone. You know, like those crabs that all go to the same beach to lay eggs or whatever. Millions of them, but they’ll run out. When they do, there just can’t be much left in the town. So we’ll have a quick window to run in. I say we – I mean you.”

  “Can we get five? That makes much more sense. Two to guard and three to carry.”

  “But more noticeable?”

  “But then you said there would be nothing to notice us, right? Do you actually believe that Austin?”

  Austin chose that moment to have a coughing fit. We all waited patiently for him to finish. He punched himself in the chest a few times. “Sorry ‘bout that. Well that explains why I won’t be going on any runs.”

  We all exchanged looks of amused nonchalance. Austin missed them all. I wasn’t expecting him to catch them. The man couldn’t catch snot in a tissue. I had no problem going out on the run. I’d been silently assessing Andrew since arriving. He seemed like the quiet efficient type. I wouldn’t have a problem going on any kind of treasure hunt with them. I couldn’t care less if there were three of us – especially if that mean no Gollum. There weren’t exactly a great deal of able-bodied men to go around.

  “Is Goll – sorry I mean Jez – the only one working the gate?”

  I had tried not to sound too patronising, but the man was all limbs and teeth. Andrew must have sensed my grasping effort as he came to my aid again. “If there might be a few of them then it might be worth having a second pair of eyes. You know, so we can either warn people or take action if they start making too much of a ruckus.”

  “You can go and have a little party down there if you want. Just keep quiet and by every god and his dog, don’t let any of them see you!”

  I waved at Rick and Andrew. “Come on then. We’ll keep an eye on the gate with Jez. Means we can plan the run properly whilst the Lemmings hobble over the road.”

  “Lemmings?”

  “Yeah,” I said “Lemmings. Easy. Those jumpy ones? They’re at least threatening in some way. You do not want one of those coming at you. The slow ones? You ever play the game Lemmings? Point where they go and they won’t turn around. Not for anything. Those slow ones are walking into the sea. I bet you they’d walk off the top of a high-rise if they thought they were going to get a snack.”

  “Okay Warren, Lemmings. We need to keep your brain occupied, the journalist in you keeps leaking out. Come on.”

  Rick patted me on the shoulder and threw Andrew a toothy smile. Time to start planning. Time to get the adrenalin running.

  +++

  Chapter Eight

  “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it” – Margaret Thatcher

  “Open the gate.”

  “That’s the first thing you said to me. Pretty much the second thing, too.”

  “Just shut up and open it, Jeremy.”

  I could imagine Gollum’s pouty chin as he worked the chains and bolts. Fair play he was trying to be quiet. He had to be. I didn’t know how Rick or Andrew felt, but for the last hour or so we’d been nothing but tensely quiet. My limbs felt like they were wrapped in cotton wool and almost detached. It was the loose tension I suppose I used to feel before stage plays or sports days. Well, maybe not sports days. Or plays. But you know, tension. I even had butterflies. I held a hand out in front of my face. It shook. Rick saw this and nodded. It was starting to be a relief to have him by my side. He was coming on leaps and bounds from my first incredibly low estimates of his worth.

  Carla had been nuts. She didn’t want either of us to go. Rick told her it was to help Thomas. She didn’t argue after that. She pretended not to be bothered about me, but I could tell she was. It was odd seeing her like that. Sure, she was rested and you could see she felt safer. But without her makeup, without her professional sheen, there was nothing to mistake there. I could see lines around her eyes. I could see concern actually etched on her face. It made me feel truly protective of her for the first time in my life. I hadn’t been a bad brother, but I hadn’t exactly been what you’d call observant.

  So now, I would go running in to a zombie-infested town in the falling dusk to get us medical supplies and water. Because otherwise – well not a lot. Right now. We’d be a bit thirsty tomorrow but we’d survive. But there was no better chance than now. I looked over the side of the iron fencing that edged the pier. It had been painted white who-knows when ago. Underneath us now were throngs of the wandering dead. It was a petrifying sight. Watching it gave me goose bumps. The tops of their heads were pretty much all that was visible. The tide was starting to move in, but that wasn’t shifting them up the beach. Whatever had grabbed their attention had moved on, so they simply stayed exactly where they were. There was cluster upon cluster of heads. So many different colours. Silently waiting. Just waiting for their next meal. Their next accelerant. Their next lure. We couldn’t be the ones to give it to them.

  Gollum finished with the chains and drew it away slowly. He curled it in his arms as Pete gently peeled back the gate. He only opened it enough for us to slip through. Carla was standing nearby. Her arms were folded over her chest and she was trying to give us a smile of reassurance. But the smile was tight and her eyes were full of unshed tears. I counted down from my fingers and as my fist clenched closed, we slid out and on to the end of the pier. We bore left; opposite to the side most of the dead appeared to be gathered now. I was in front. Rick was at the rear. Andrew stayed in the middle, as he hadn’t yet actually faced down one of the undead, Lemming or otherwise. The dimming twilight offered us more than enough to move by, but the streetlights were still working. We tried to avoid them. The less attention we brought to ourselves, the better. We had a brief list to work on from Mary. Then we had to find water. It was simple enough; there was a Boots Pharmacy shop in the middle of town. A nice big one, too. We could even get some bottles of water from there, if it hadn’t been looted. Then we had our pick of town centre supermarkets to get water and anything basic we hadn’t been able to scavenge.

  The route was simple, and both Andrew and Rick knew the way. I was happy to lead still. I didn’t expect to get lost going straight up one street and left. The narrow street we were using was more than a little nerve-wracking. It was an afterthought of a street straight out of Victorian Britain. High walls loomed either side, choking our route in darkness. Now whilst I’d already established this was to our benefit, I was hearing and seeing zombies everywhere. Things skittered on the edge of my vision. I pair of eyes shone at us in the dark. They were low to the ground. I imagined another undead torso waving bloody stumps at me in a desperate attempt to feed itself. Not paying attention, I tripped over something in the road. I fell flat on my face and held my breath in a hiss to hold back a curse that would have alerted anyone nearby to our presence. At the same time I kicked out, panicking that my daydream was coming to life to get me. It was just a handbag. Andrew kicked it to one side and both men helped me up. They didn’t ask if I was okay; it was pretty obvious. We carried on, ignoring the darkness and the unspoken menace implied by every silent shadow.

  We stopped at the end of the alley. Bunched up together, we must have looked like a militarised Three Stooges as we tried to discretely peer around the corner without being seen. There didn’t look to be any avoiding the street lamps this time; the high street was lit up like a Christmas tree. I asked Andrew how far the pharmacy was, and he pointed. I could see its noticeboard lit up limply in the distance. Just beyond that I could see the sign for the first supermarket.

  “Run?” They shrugged in response. There didn’t seem to be any point in going slowly. “Weapons?” Andrew held up his axe. Rick held up his hammer. I too had stuck with the hammer. We weren’t exactly spoilt for choice. We had decided against the shotgun. In these quiet streets, any use of it would alert every zombie within
a mile radius. We just had to hope we didn’t get outnumbered.

  I kept seeing things out of the corner of my eye as we sprinted the short distance to the automatic doors of the pharmacy. These slid open without pause. I wondered how long it would be before the power would finally give up. It probably didn’t matter in the longer term; so many of the store fronts had already received smashed doors and windows from the riots that ended up being the calm before the apocalyptic storm. Inside was utter chaos. There were boxes strewn in all directions. I sniffed. A pungent cloud hit me, something I’d expect to smell in a low-class brothel. Perfume? People had been looting the perfume? No wonder so many had been turned already. Talk about a complete lack of priorities. Andrew stepped in front of me and pointed up the stairs.

  “That the pharmacy?” He nodded. “Everything else we need up there?” He briefly scanned over his list from Mary and nodded again. We re-shouldered our empty bags and hustled up the escalator, the stairs static and destined to likely never move again. At the top of the stairs all the departments were clearly posted. I pointed to each section indicating we should split up. Rick frowned, and I shrugged emphatically. Nothing was making any noise. We were the only ones in here. He looked like he didn’t like my decision, but he didn’t put up any fuss, and jogged off to start filling his bag from the first aid area. I headed to the pharmacy proper. If the Lemmings were hid away anywhere, it was most likely going to be in there. A fluorescent light flickered over the serving hatch and behind it, the pharmacy stock room was swathed in darkness. I took a deep swallow as my heart began to accelerate. What should I do? Risk the darkness and increase the chances that I wouldn’t be detected? But I wouldn’t even be able to see what I needed to get. I couldn’t risk a wasted run. I scanned along the back wall and saw a cluster of light switches behind the till. I gently opened the hatch and with wide and deliberate steps, moved towards the light switches. I slipped, and my trainer squeaked loudly on the vinyl floor. I winced and braced myself for any reaction from the dark stock room. There was nothing. Letting out a relieved sigh I reached for and flicked on all the switches I could see.

  As I turned around to resume my hunting, the Jumper leapt on me. My hammer went skidding and underneath the disgusting stench of blood and dirt, I smelt urine. I screamed for help as I tried to hold it off. It was a heavy man, his goatee flecked with foam and his hair in dried clumps, which I realised were probably strings of blood. His teeth snapped at me as I held my palms to his shoulders, desperately trying to hold him at bay. I swung my head to one side and could feel the warm putrid air from his lungs tickle my ear. I started kicking, hoping to gain some sort of purchase. I turned underneath him and my feet came up flat against the back of the serving counter. With my legs bent, I tried heaving upwards. I managed to jog him a little, but this served nothing more than giving my arms a short reprieve. As he fell back down I realised I couldn’t hold his weight, and I felt lips graze my exposed cheek. I shuddered, waiting for the feeling of teeth tearing in to me. He roared, seeing his prey prone and his kill ready. The roar was silenced halfway as an axe was buried in to temple. It almost cleft the head in two, and I held my breath and closed my eyes as blood spattered everywhere. There was a grunt, and the weight was off me.

  “Did he get you? Are you okay?”

  I felt my arms being grabbed and was hauled up to a sitting position. I opened my eyes to see both Andrew and Rick looking at me, faces full of concern.

  “I don’t think so. He came close to my cheek. Did he get me there?”

  “I can’t see, you’re covered in blood. Here, let’s get something to sort that.”

  Rick quickly reviewed the shelves and grabbed some antiseptic wipes. The pack was ripped open and I took a generous handful, holding my breath again as I rid myself of gore, tossing each red rag aside. I took a fresh wipe and blew my nose – it came away clean. Nothing had got in there. Hopefully. My eyes were reasonably okay, and both men confirmed I wasn’t injured.

  I held out my arms and each man grabbed hold of me. Back on my feet I wiped my legs down and looked around for my hammer. Rick held it out for me. “Looks like someone’s starting to catch up with your tally.”

  I laughed. “You’re going to have to go some to catch up with me, boyo. I’ve got too much of a head start. How much stuff have you two got?”

  “Got the majority of the basics. You need help with the pills?”

  “That sounds dodgy as fuck Rick. Yeah, come on. Last thing I want is more of those Jumpers coming at me. Hey, you think he alerted anyone else?”

  “With all the noise you mean? The place seems deserted. I don’t think so. We’ll hear soon enough if they’re coming for us.”

  “Unless it’s one of those silent creepy things. Urgh. Creep me right out.” Andrew shuddered as he withdrew his axe. “Silent ones are what kept on getting me caught out.”

  We set about pulling boxes of medicine and bottles of ointment down from the shelves. We covered all Mary’s list and more, without an issue. We overstocked, knowing we couldn’t afford to miss out on this opportunity. Water can always be carried. Fuck, we lived by the sea, we could even try to filter it somehow. We wouldn’t always be able to get medicine and there would be others that would loot this one day.

  “Right. That’s the nursemaid list. What about the go-go juice?”

  “You mean the only guaranteed non-infected water? Ah man Warren, you really got everyone worked up on that.”

  “Damn right I did. No one’s actually disproved me yet. You want to risk tap water now to disprove me?”

  “Ha are you kidding me? I’ve been happily sipping on that tap water since this thing went wild. I didn’t even give it a second thought. Now? Not going anywhere near the damn taps. I’m even scared to take a piss in case something comes out the pipes at me!”

  “You pussy Andy. You take these things out with an axe, and you think something’s going to take a swipe at your little cock?”

  We all had a laugh at that. We were laughing so much that we completely forgot to keep up our guard. As a hand covered in blackened infected blood clamped itself down on Rick’s shoulder we all jumped. Rick spun around and down, ducking out of the reach of a gummy silent black maw. I was stunned by Andy’s reaction. He dropped his rucksack, hefted his axe, and brought it round in a woodcutter’s arc. The skull was virtually cleaved in two and the Lemming collapsed to the floor, finally lifeless. It was an obese woman. Now, she was only so much globulous jelly, spilling all around us. Black ooze and pus spread out and we all held our noses at the putrefied stink.

  “Okay,” I said through my clenched nose “that’s fucking disgusting. But you are catching up. Rick, you’re lagging behind. Man up.”

  “I will, if you two stop hogging all the kills.”

  “Fine. You go out front for the water run. See how many wrinklies you get with that little hammer. You need an axe like me boy. Then you’ll start stacking up the body count.”

  “Is this it? This Lord of the Rings now? We counting bodies?” Rick and Andrew looked at me as if I were an alien. “You know? Gimli and Legolas, they have a competition to see who can kill the most?” Still blank. “You know what, never mind. But for the record, you’d have both probably been Legolas.”

  “Which one are you?”

  “Aragorn. Steal it from a book shop and start getting some culture. It’s not as if any of us are going back to work any time soon.”

  “I’d rather play “Piss on the Zombies” if it’s all the same to you.”

  “Whatever floats your boat. Hey, where is the nearest…”

  “We’re not on a shopping trip you two, shut your traps. We need to go and get the water.”

  Andrew and I exchanged a wry look and followed Rick out of the pharmacy. We didn’t even look out this time. To say we were getting complacent would have not been an exaggeration, but the streets were literally deserted. There weren’t even any looters. Or anyone else trying to get supplies. Maybe we were the only
ones that had seen the swarm go. There had to be others in the centre still alive. People in flats and houses. Unless they were somewhere else.

  Not that I actually cared. As long as we got our stuff, in and out easy and alive, then I couldn’t care less what any other survivors were doing.

  Rick led the way in to the store. It was much worse in here. People obviously wised up to the fact that maybe there wouldn’t be lorries restocking the shelves for quite some time, even if they did rob the perfume to keep smelling good whilst the world burned. There were rolled tins and half the lights in the store were out. Judging by the smell coming from the chilled aisle, the fridges had given out as well. But over there was bottled water, so we held our noses and made a go for it. In here now we saw more signs of looting. I suppose in our rush to the stores we had ignored it, and in Boots there was really no sign of it. But in the supermarket, there were signs everywhere. Of rioting and of struggle. There were smears of blood on the floor, some in the shape of fingers dragged across the floor. In my head in its place I put the screaming person, their struggle as they sought any handhold to stop themselves from being pulled in to the clutches of the hungry undead. I envisioned fingernails being torn out as they dug desperately in to the vinyl. I saw the hungry teeth biting in to the leg, the thigh, visceral blood spouting out across the floor.

  “Oh holy fuck.” Rick stopped short and pointed at the floor. There were two dead bodies curled together on the floor. ‘Bodies’ was the best conservative estimate. A pool of dried blood surrounded them both. One of the hand-swipes ended there. Perhaps my daydream hadn’t been too far away from the brutal truth. Andrew slid forward slowly, his axe extended to the full reach of his arm. He prodded at the heap of meat, tentatively at first, but then with growing confidence smattered with a degree of revulsion. When we were all satisfied that they weren’t going to roll over and try to eat our feet, we did the only thing we had been holding back. We all bent forward and heaved, emptying our guts of any nutrients we had left in our bodies. After my stomach stopped convulsing I tapped at my ears. I thought they were still ringing, but then I realised the sound was a buzzing, and it was coming from the bodies. The sour tang of rot was disgusting. I can’t even begin to describe it properly. Try leaving some rotten meat in a sauna. Then mix it with liberal amounts of shit and urine, then put it back in the sauna for a day. That’s coming close.