Great Bitten: Outbreak

by Warren Fielding

  Andy actually laughed. “Trust me, they don’t have any interest in reproducing. I don’t think they see this as a long term commitment.”

  I could see from the way Andy flinched as soon as he finished talking, that those flippant words were a suicide statement. And I thought I was often guilty of talking before thinking. Rick launched at Andy with a roar, the fury he had dealt Matt absolutely nothing by comparison. He heaved Andy bodily through the partially open window, which was pushed back and its hinges broken in the process. Andy fell to the ground below, mouth open but with no time for sound to make its way out before he finished his short trip to the pavement. Below, the grateful fingers of the undead closed around this unexpected deposit in their midst. I was glad I couldn’t hear the sound of their silent feeding above the ringing of the alarm. I pulled at Rick’s sleeve, drawing him back from the window.

  “Come on, that’s the distraction we needed. Let’s get Gollum and get out of here.”

  I stepped over Matt’s body to pick up the skinny man. Rick didn’t come to help me, and I raised a querying eyebrow. “Come on, it’s not as if we’ve got all fucking day.”

  “You want to take him, after all your whining earlier?”

  “Well I was obviously wrong, wasn’t I? Because we’re alive, and those two cocks aren’t.”

  “Leave me.” Jez mumbled. His eyes opened and the whites rolled around for a short time before a pair of dazed eyes slid in to view. “Leave me. I’ll just slow you down.”

  “No chance. Come on you skinny prick, you’ve earned your chance at life.”

  Jez weighed virtually nothing. I could have bounced him to his feet, though he had trouble with balance when I did get him upright. I looked around for the tell-tale exit sign, and in the sparse room even unlit the green running man was a welcome inconspicuous sight. I shoved the two men towards the door and Jez yanked the door open. He squawked as a body flopped down in to the room. We all jumped, but it didn’t move. On close inspection, but not too close given the smell, this corpse had joined the ranks of the true dead at least a few days ago. A grotesque wound in the side of the head exposed the brain, and at least part of it had been eaten away. I covered my mouth and nose with my hand and Jez and Rick made for the door. Jez lost control and started vomiting over the safety rail outside.

  “Oh no no no, don’t do that, you’re just going to get them looking back at us!”

  Too late, Jez couldn’t stop retching and there was no defying gravity. I should have been glad for the alarm, but I filled in the chunky splattering against the pavement in my head and my stomach turned. I grimaced and yanked Jez around so he was facing down the stairs. A stream of vomit arced and coated the handrail and some of the steps, but it seemed to stop him from puking anymore and it at least stemmed any more potentially indicators to our presence. He started apologising profusely as we all stumbled slowly down the stairs. I wanted to step over the vomit but didn’t dare to in case I lost my footing. Rick hopped over it and nearly slipped on his backside, making my case in point. I huddled us together in the alleyway at the bottom of the steps, looking around for the undead. Two slow ones had seen us and were shuffling in our direction. No quick ones were about. I hoped they were still in the shop, and that they would remain out of sight and out of mind.

  “We all good?”

  “I can’t do this Warren I just can’t.”

  “Get it together Jez. I will leave you if I have to, but you don’t deserve it. You’re coming with us. Come on.”

  I shoved him down the alleyway, pushing him ahead of us to make sure he didn’t fall behind and just lay down in front of the undead and die. With Rick alongside me, I didn’t think ahead that there might have already been undead in the street ahead of us. Jez had also forgotten we were treading apocalypse cobbles as he walked out in to the path of one of the quick ones. I know it was quick because it looked fresh. That, and it had Jez on the floor within seconds. Rick and I darted forward, kicking at it. I went to pull a weapon and realised I didn’t have one. Rick did the same. We both looked at each other like the idiots we were, leaving a potentially loaded shotgun back in the office. Still, better the bloody way than drawing attention to ourselves. The undead was getting back up again. It was a young woman in what had probably once been a rather fetching shift. I still felt instinctively bad at kicking a woman, but when her lips curled back to unleash a snarl the ‘us or them’ of the situation took over. I kicked her full in the jaw. There was a snap and her mouth flopped to one side. There was a strangled cry and blood flecked across her dirty straw blonde hair. Rick kicked his heel in to her temple and she crumbled to one side. We went to pick up Jez again and he cried out in pain.

  “Don’t move me! Don’t move me!”

  I sighed inwardly, getting tired of his self-pitying nature no matter what I thought I might owe him. “Come on Jez we’ve been through this. We’ve got to go.”

  “No you don’t understand. It hurts!”

  We rolled him over. I clamped a hand over his mouth to try to muffle his cries of pain.

  “Ooh shit.”

  I whistled, unable to actually improve on Rick’s basic statement of surprise. A shard of glass stuck out from Jez’s midriff. It must have impaled him as the woman tackled him to the floor.

  “How deep is it Jez?” I asked stupidly. The man’s breathing was getting rapid and blood pumped out around the transparent glass.

  “I don’t fucking know! Just don’t touch it!”

  Rick pulled his hand away as Jez screamed this. “Shut up you cretin, you want all the undead to come after us?”

  I looked around then, just remembering myself that we were meant to be looking out for the undead. There were lots of them closing in on us. All blessedly slow, but too many for us to tackle if we just sat and waited for them to arrive. And it looked like they were coming at us from all directions, too. Rick looked at me for answers, eyes bestial and clouded with adrenalin. “Come on Warren. Leave him. We’ll die otherwise, then what point is this all for?”

  I looked for a clean way out. There wasn’t one. “How far to the pier from here?”

  “Not far. Why?”

  I looked up at the sky. It was still dark, but it was turning in to the midnight blue tinge that said daylight was on its way. How long had I been out for in that room?

  “I’ve got a plan. Jez?”

  “Yes?”

  “Don’t scream again.”

  I yanked out the shard. It came out clean, but Jez screamed. I had feared he would, but couldn’t exactly berate him for it.

  “Sit up. Come on.”

  Rick helped me push him upright. I stripped the top off his back and wrapped it tightly around his middle. I knotted it tight and Jez hissed again. It wasn’t my finest first aid moment and I had no idea if it would stem the flow of blood coming from Jez’ belly, but it was the best I could do.

  “How many other alarms are going? I would expect more undead than this.”

  “Fuck knows Warren, there must be shit going off all over the place by now. Count your blessing and let’s get the hell out of here.” Rick glanced at the shard. “I take it I’m going to be carrying the invalid?”

  “Got it in one. Which way are we going?”

  Rick pointed towards another alleyway opposite. “Down there. Then it’s a diagonal run to the pier. We’re literally two minutes away from it.”

  There was one shuffler in the way. An easy take-down, even with just a thin glass shard to my name.

  “Right. Let’s go and get the bastard.”

  +++

  Chapter Twelve

  “Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war” – Donald Trump

  Dawn’s foggy tendrils were still lingering around the pier. It was murky, but it wasn’t enough to keep a helicopter from landing. I still found it hard to believe Oz was going with such a ludicrous plan but there it was, from Andy’s suicidal lips. I had no reason to disbelieve him – what would he have
gained? He had been trying to save his own life after all. And I had no reason at all to trust any intentions Oz might have towards the pier’s women. It hadn’t seemed suspicious, the amount there were compared to men. Nor the amount of able-bodied men that had been around, or the lack of. There had been enough to cope, and that had been enough to assuage suspicion. I felt like a fool and Rick not only felt worse, he looked worse too. He was leaning against the wall head back and eyes closed. Splashes of blood laced his neck and chest and absolutely doused his legs. I looked over at Jez’ slumped form. His head was still in his lap but a small rise and fall of his shoulders told me that he was still alive. But the movement was shallow and the breaths few and far between. I wasn’t sure how much time he had left and whether Mary could even do anything for him.

  “Rick? Rick!” He snapped his eyes around to me, looking more scared than alert. “How are we getting back up there? He’s not going to open the gates again.”

  Rick shrugged, looking tired and nauseous. “I don’t know Warren. I can barely stay awake, let alone think. If a zombie comes for me now, I’m fucked.”

  “You’re not. I’m looking out for you.”

  “With what? We don’t even have a teaspoon. You’re not going to kill much with a shard of glass.”

  “I know I know. One step at a time. They’re all hanging around alarm central anyway, they won’t be coming for us any time soon.”

  “The ones that have heard the alarm. Do you think deaf people stay deaf when they become zombies?”

  I looked at Rick with mild annoyance, a slight twinge tickling at my temples. “I have no idea. You’re right. You definitely need sleep.”

  I locked my eyes back on the pier looking for any signs of movement. I wasn’t expecting any. I could see a distant nodding head on the roof of the club, and this was most likely Pete failing to pay any attention to proceedings. Then amidst the silence I heard an odd noise. After days of no traffic and no technology, and most certainly no planes, it took me some time before I threw my eyes to the sky. They widened in horror as I realised that it was a helicopter approaching us. Coming from the west, it was hugging close to the shore. I squinted at the road parallel to the coast and refused to believe what my eyes were showing me. No no no, it wasn’t possible. They hadn’t been that stupid surely, and we just couldn’t be that unlucky.

  There were dozens of the quick undead all heading down the road. More had already started joining them – pouring out of side streets and hearing the curdled dead warcry that blessedly hadn’t reached my own ears yet. The dead of Bennington had been roused by the helicopter that Oz had arranged for his own selfish escape, and the ones that were left behind would be overwhelmed by the swarm that this new stimulus would attract.

  I punched Rick in the arm and crouched down to Jez. I shook his shoulders and his head lolled back and forth. He started shouting at me groggily and I was thankful; any reaction was better than none.

  “Come on Jez you’ve got to wake up. We need you with us pal this is a very fucking tricky situation.”

  “What the fu… is that thing here already?”

  “Looks like it. And if we don’t hustle then Oz is going to be flying off with your missus in it. He wanted to leave us behind. You remember all of that?”

  Rick looked down wearily at Jez’ slumped form. We were both sick of picking the man up. He swayed on his feet slightly, squinting down like a drunk person trying to focus on white lines when they’re walking. Stuck between two half-dead hunks of uselessness, I felt like leaving them both. It would be easy enough to explain away, with the amount of undead bearing on us now. And that helicopter was moving in along the coast quickly. I checked the streets and now more Jumpers were heading our way, closer and closer to the pier. I wondered grimly if the new noises would draw the rest of the undead back out of the town and down to our location. I could just leave them and say they had been killed by the undead. It wouldn’t be a lie. It wouldn’t be something I could be blamed for. But it wasn’t something I could live with doing, not to someone like Rick. And Jez had, after all, saved my life. I slapped him, hard. My palm even stung at the force of the impact. Jez barely lifted his head so I pushed his head up against the wall and slapped him again, this time backhanding him on the way back.

  “Come on you dying bastard, wake up.”

  Cloudy eyes lifted from under heavy lids to meet me.

  “We at the pier?”

  “We’re at the pier. But I need you to get up, Jez. We’ve got to move quickly, otherwise we’re all dead – again.”

  He coughed, and a bubble of blood rose and broke on his lips. “Feel dead already. Feel like shit.” His eyes moved around and I shifted out of his way. The eyes moved up and I knew they took in the site of the helicopter. “That mean what I think it means?”

  “What do you think it means?”

  “That it’s waking up anything that didn’t already know we were here to eat?”

  I nodded. “There’s a lot of undead following it. That’s why we need to go.”

  Jez nodded dumbly and started fumbling around to get up. I grabbed his forearm and hauled him up. Rick was looking helplessly at us both. I turned both men and marched them in the direction of the gate.

  “Oz’ll see us.” Jez mumbled.

  “Oz won’t see shit. He’ll be all eyes on his ride. It’s either going to land on the club or they’re going to send down a ladder, but I can’t see it staying for long. Come on.”

  The chopper was nearly with us now. I could make out the figure of a pilot but nothing else. I had about as much idea on helicopter models as I did on planes, heavy weaponry, and the inner workings of the female mind. But it was obvious that it wasn’t a big model – something designed for pleasure flights and inland work. There might be two of them coming to us, but it was clear as day that Oz had never ever intended for all of the pier denizens to make it off and out to land.

  The crack of a gun underlined the truth of that. I heard a faint screaming. I hoped beyond hope that it had been Pete or Sammy that had been shot. I sincerely doubted it would be Oz himself. Jez and Rick both got to the gate and stared at it dumbly. I came up between the two of them and wrapped my hands around the firm iron bars. I gave it a fruitless shake; it had been chained up tight. I ran to the far side and looked around to see if there was any way I could scramble around the fencing and on to the other side. There were some thick end posts, but with a wide leg around and a strong grip it should be possible for us to just shimmy around. I hailed the other two over and they shambled across not unlike the undead themselves. I pointed at what I wanted them to do.

  “I don’t think I can do that Warren. I feel too weak.”

  “Me neither.”

  I frowned at them both, incredulous at their apathy. “If we don’t get on the other side of this gate, we’re going to have a load of Jumpers chasing that helicopter like dogs land on us. In less than a minute.” I was going to say minutes, but the copter had now reached the end of the pier. I could see it hovering, and something unfurled down to the deck of the pier. My blood started to boil. He was going to get away, and I wasn’t going to be able to do a single thing about it.

  “You go Warren. You’re fine. Go and stop him. We’ll… we’ll try and think of another way.”

  “I’m not leaving you. Here, I’ll boost you both over, then I’ll do the hop around. There’s another way.”

  I looked over their shoulders and had lost sight of a few of the undead. That was unnerving. Hopefully they would be running under the pier to try to directly get to the copter. I looked over the pier and could indeed see a few milling around. But I looked up the other end of the coast and could see yet more undead heading towards us from the other direction. Law of averages stated that eventually some of them would make their way up the steps instead of down the beach, and then we’d be lunch.

  “Come on. Boosting it is. You first Jez.”

  “No Rick first. He’s… he’s just more likely t
o be okay.”

  Jez pushed Rick forward and didn’t really have the time or compulsion to argue. I cupped my hands and Rick awkwardly put his hands on my shoulders to steady himself before putting his boot in my hands. Too late I thought to ask if he’d stepped in anything unpleasant. I couldn’t smell anything foul though and decided to keep my mouth shut. With one ungraceful moan I heaved upwards. Rick scrabbled to get a grip and his arms went firmly over the top of the gating. I pushed at his thighs and in short order forward momentum took him the rest of the way over. He landed on the decking awkwardly, all the wind being taken out. He rolled over wincing, but managed to give me a limp thumbs-up. I looked to Jez. “Right, your turn.”

  As I looked to him I saw the first of the Jumpers come around the corner to the gates. A pair of eyes bleeding with fury and hate locked on to us and howled. Jez spun and I could immediately smell the acidic tang of urine. The zombie was a truly fresh specimen and was barely covered in blood. I don’t know how he’d been turned, but the only clue aside from his lunatic charge was a grey pallor to his skin. In life he must have done something physical for a living. In death he was primeval, and petrifying. He launched himself for Jez and I stumbled back. The strength of the impact took both of them skidding to the floor. Jez tried to fight back but he was clearly too weak. It couldn’t be long before others would rise to the bestial roar and come looking for the prey that had been so vicariously announced. I kicked it in the side of the head. I managed to dislodge it, but it quickly started rising back to its feet. Jez was on his knees, and looked up at me regretfully.

  “Run, Warren.”

  He stood and moved in front of me as the jumper came in once more for the kill. Jez was pushed up against the fence of the pier and howled as the bloody ravenous maw leant to his shoulder and took a deep, hard bite. I saw one way over the gate; the pair of them were now blocking my route around. Heart thundering, I jumped and boosted myself off the back of the Jumper. I clambered gratefully at the top of the gate and fell over. Hitting the decking on my shoulder, I yelped out as a sharp pain lanced down my arm and across my collarbone. I took a deep breath and cried out again; the pain flared twice as great. I rolled on to my good side and tried to get to my feet. I stumbled forward and hit the fencing myself, jarring my other shoulder. I looked for Jez, to see if there was anything I could do to save him. He was already gone. Tear streaming down my face, I tried grabbing the railing to look over. I couldn’t make a fist with my right hand, so I pulled myself up awkwardly with the left. I fell straight back to the pier in fright as a hand lashed through the gate, bloody nails grasping for my flesh just out of reach. The Jumper snarled, calling others to join it. There were half a dozen before I realised that counting didn’t matter and that for now, we were safe. Jez wasn’t though. I gritted my teeth and yanked myself back over the fence. Below I could see the dead wading through the water again. And directly beneath me, Jez’ empty eyes stared pitifully up in to the sky. His body was still and the dead were even now ignoring him as blood bloomed out around him. I didn’t know how to feel as I saw it spill out of his mouth. I had hated him. I had wanted him dead not a single day ago. Now I found myself staring at a man that had saved my life not once, but now twice. I couldn’t even save him from becoming one of the undead; as soon as the virus worked whatever evil it needed within his nervous system, he would arise as one of them and he would seek out my blood, regardless of what has already gone before.