“Hang on,’ Lex said, her voice returning to a normal level. She rushed back to the bodies and zipped up all of the bags she had opened. Sam stared at her, refusing to give her the satisfaction of asking what she was doing. “Just out of respect,” she mumbled in response to the question that hung unsaid in the air.
Sam was still angry. In his heart, he knew that Lex had done nothing wrong. Had she called him a prick and told him to man up, he would have just shrugged it off. It was the comfort and sympathy she offered. His mind could not differentiate between empathy and pity, and he had lashed out. Now he was angry at himself for his words, yet he could not find the words to apologise. Instead, he turned on his heel and left the tent.
Watching him storm through the opening, Claire asked in a quiet whisper, “What happened? Why were you arguing?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Lex said. “Some of his friends are in here … he didn’t take it well.” While she was fuming with Sam, at his words and his behaviour, she knew that he was upset and lashing out. So she would not repeat his words to Claire.
“Okay, but why …” Claire started, sensing that Lex was holding something back. It occurred to her that if this were the case, then Lex would have a good reason. So instead she changed the subject. “Why were you looking at them?” she gestured towards the rows of bodies.
“Ah… I have a theory!” Lex said, her face coming to life as she remembered the conclusion she had reached. “So, every one of the bodies …’
Claire interrupted. “We should probably wait until we’ve caught up with Sam.”
“Fine,” said Lex sullenly.
The sky had lightened as night turned into early dawn. It was easy to make out the form of Sam sitting on the ground ahead of them. He held his head in his hands and even from a distance it was easy to see that he was crying. The two girls approached him.
Lex stood back a little, arms crossed, glaring down at him. Claire crouched next to him and put her hand gently on his shoulder. “Lex told me about your friends. I’m so sorry Sam, I can’t begin to imagine how you are feeling,” she said gently. Sam looked up at her, his tear-filled eyes meeting hers. Her concern was genuine, and her words were heartfelt.
“They’re gone …, all of them,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. A solitary tear rolled down his face. “I think it might be my fault.”
“Oh Sam, of course it’s not, how could it be?” she said, wrapping both arms around the sobbing young man.
“I told those squaddies about Trev … That they had seen him get bitten… then they… they took them away,” he sobbed.
“Bitten?” asked Lex, her curiosity getting the better of her. “What happened to him?”
“Well, I don’t know. I wasn’t there... But Dean said that some locals came and kicked him to death. Kept kicking him in the head. But they didn’t go near him, so if he was infected, they wouldn’t have caught it. I don’t understand why they took them away.” Sam replied, the tears making his eyes shine in the dawn light.
‘In the head… hmmm… That’s interesting.’ Lex said.
“Fucking interesting?” Sam said. “How the fuck is that fucking interesting?” Realising her insensitivity, Lex looked shamefaced.
“Sorry Sam, I didn’t mean it like that.” she said, her tone softening. “It’s just that I have an idea about what might be going on … I get a bit carried away.”
Sensing another argument brewing, Claire stepped in, “Look, guys, we need to work out what to do next. Lex, why don’t you tell us your theory, it might help us decide.”
“Okay,” Lex said. “That guy in the suit bit Paige, right?” She continued without waiting for an answer, “some of the people in the other tent looked like they’d bitten people. Your mate, Trev,” she nodded at Sam, “was bitten.”
‘Yeah... so?’ Sam said, failing to grasp Lex’s point.
‘Ah,’ Claire said, “You’re saying that something is making people bite each other. It would be too much of a coincidence otherwise.”
“Exactly,” Lex nodded enthusiastically. “I think it’s safe to assume that it’s the Black Flu and it is passed by being bitten.’
“Why?” Sam asked looking confused.
“Because the soldier shot Paige, even though she wasn’t attacking anyone. The only reason he would have done that is because he knew that if he didn’t, she would start biting people too. Which also explains why everyone in the other tent had been shot, they all had injuries, which could have been from being bitten.”
She looked at Sam, who seemed to process the information before nodding slowly.
“Right, that makes sense,” he said, relieved that he finally understood what Lex was talking about. “So you’re saying they are zombies then?”
“What? No, of course not.”
“There is an infection. The infected bite people. They die by being shot in the head. Zombies.” Sam’s face lit up in a grin.
“That’s absurd.” Lex states matter of factly. “Firstly, while the people in there were shot in the head, they might equally have died if they’d been shot anywhere else. Secondly, zombies are reanimated corpses. We have not seen anyone die and rise from the dead. Therefore, we have insufficient evidence to draw a conclusion.”
“Bet ya it’s zombies,” Sam replied.
“Although, suit guy did collapse before biting Paige. How do we know that he didn’t die and reanimate?” Claire added.
Lex opened her mouth to respond and then closed it again. She had forgotten that.
“See, it’s totally zombies,” Sam said, the delight at beating Lex to the conclusion evident on his face. Then the realisation hit. “Oh shit. Zombies.”
“Maybe,” Lex conceded.
“What I don’t understand is how suit guy got infected in the first place, and why he was in with us,” Claire said.
Sam thought back to his conversation with suit guy in the queue for food on Sunday night. He had been rude, not getting involved in the conversation about bacon butties. About whether to have brown sauce or tomato ketchup.
“I know,” Sam announced. “I talked to Suit Guy in the food queue. He had a red stain on his shirt. He told me it was ketchup. What if it wasn’t what if it was blood and he had been bitten?”
“How big was the stain Sam?” Lex asked.
“Er …’ he paused thinking back, “It was tiny. About the size of a pound coin. Why does that matter though?”
“If it’s a bite it would be likely bigger than that,” Lex replied absentmindedly. She went quiet for a few long seconds. “What if it was a scratch though?” she finally added. “What if you could become infected by being scratched?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “It must be bodily fluid. Saliva from a bite would get direct into the bloodstream, but a scratch … any residue from the nails would get into the blood stream too. Although …” she paused again, “It might take a bit longer.”
Sam looked at Claire, who shrugged her shoulders at him. “You get used to it,” she said in response to his unspoken comment. “She goes off at tangents every now and then. What I think she’s saying is that the infection is passed by bodily fluids. So saliva, blood, etc.” She turned to Lex, “Right?”
“Yes, exactly,” Lex replied. The sun was now dawning on the horizon, the sky now light. “We’d better get back before anyone realises we’re gone. I don’t want to tell anyone about this until we know more.”
“Why?” Sam asked, the familiar look of confusion back on his face.
“It will cause panic. We don’t know these people, and don’t know what they’ll do if they are scared. I’m worried that they’ll start a riot. Let’s go back to our tent and figure out what to do next.” Lex replied, already heading back to their tent. “We might not have much time, though.”
“Why?” Sam asked again. Lex was really smart and in comparison, he felt like an idiot.
“Because I don’t think those soldiers are coming back, and it won’t take long for people to start as
king questions.” She replied as she opened the entrance to the marquee and tiptoed quietly back inside.
Ten
Wednesday 19th September
Chloe,
Well this is weird. Writing to you I mean. I can’t even remember the last time I put pen to paper to write an actual letter. Although is this a real letter? It’s not as if I can pop to the local shop, buy a stamp and expect the Royal Mail to deliver it to you. So why am I writing? I don’t know. I don’t know if you’ll ever read this. After what I found out today, I can’t even be certain you’ll survive the week. Wow. Sorry. That’s harsh. But I am worried sick about you. And there is nothing I can do about it.
Except write to you. It makes me feel closer to you, like we are having a conversation. You may never read this letter, but knowing it is intended for you does give me some comfort.
Anyway, I got here yesterday morning. I don’t know what I was expecting, but the drive here was alright. A little quiet on the roads but after what we watched on TV, I was foreseeing some sort of Mad Max experience, but it wasn’t like that at all.
As soon as I got here, they put me on a condensed training course. Mostly refreshers on what I learnt in Basic all those years ago. I’ve got to do quite a lot of PT (Physical Training), which has been great. Well, for me at least. Some of the other Reservists here - well, to put it kindly, they haven’t put quite as much effort into staying fit and healthy as I have. There was this one guy who I thought was going to have a heart attack, and that was just on a one-mile run. The problem is while we all know we could be called up, no one expected it to happen, and the excesses of civilian life have taken hold of some of these guys.
Weapons training, or Skills at Arms, as they call it, was interesting. We’re all basically retraining ourselves to take head shots rather than the centre of mass. I guess these things really are zombies. Hah! Maybe your zombie obsession will come in handy.
So anyway, we’re being assessed, and there seems to be an abundance of clipboards. I guess it’s to be expected, we’re definitely not a fit group. It would have just been nice if they’d told us what they were looking for. We didn’t even know if we’d all be allowed to stay. I’ve been living on civvy street a bit too long and forgot how little we actually get told in the military.
But we didn’t have to wait long. We had a briefing this afternoon. This was the first time I had seen any of the men currently serving that had been in the thick of it. Jesus, Clo, you should have seen some of their faces.
These lads must have seen some hideous things on operational tours, but whatever happened out there must have really freaked them out.
There was still the typical banter, but I don’t know how to explain it, they just seemed frightened.
If this was a real letter, I couldn’t tell you what was in the briefing, but as you’ll never read it, here goes.
Turns out it was a terrorist attack. The virus was released in all major European and American cities. They, you know, the powers that be confirmed that the South America and other earlier outbreaks were trial runs. Get this, they believe it was contaminated water given to commuters. It scares me to know how easily it could have happened to you. But Jesus, how did we not know this was coming? The planning that must have gone into simultaneous attacks around most of the western world. Jesus.
Sorry, I’m digressing. We heard dire warnings about how this was unprecedented and unlike anything we’ve faced before. Yeah, no shit. What was fucking scary though, thirty-seven percent of the population of Britain is infected. In only two days.
More in the big cities. London is at eighty-two percent. That’s six and a half million people infected in London alone, and it’s getting worse by the day. The funny thing is, other than a few frowns, there was no real reaction around the room. Well, that is until they told us that we hadn’t had any military casualties yet. That got massive cheers. I guess the numbers are too vast to comprehend, but no military causalities, now that is something we can all relate to.
The officer giving the briefing pissed on our parade quickly, he made it clear that it’s not going to last. He even used the words extinction level event. Seriously, he used those words. I suspect the plan was to scare the shit out of us. Needless to say, it worked, well it did for me anyway. He then went on to tell us about how it is our responsibility, the army that is, to create a safe environment to ensure the survival of the British Empire.
Then he dropped the bombshell of a plan on us. The mission. We’re going to be creating safe zones, all over the country. Areas that will start small and then expand out until we create a sustainable living space. That’s right. They aren’t talking about stopping or containing this. Sure, we’ll fight it, but only to create the safe zone.
The zone we’re assigned to is Zone E. At its heart will be Linthem Barracks. Everyone who is here will join the guys already posted there.
Basically, we need to secure the safe zone, eradicate all presence of infected in the area. Then create a secure perimeter. Secure, but it will need to be movable for when we expand. Then lastly, we’ll need to build a liveable and sustainable living environment. So yeah, quite the task!
I’ll be honest, I’m shocked that we aren’t going to be fighting back and regaining control of the country. It feels like we’ve given up before we’ve even tried.
We just don’t have the resources to spread ourselves out across the country, so we start small and get bigger. It’s logical. It’s sensible. It’s utter bullshit. Civilians already living in the areas will be used to help with the third part of the plan. Civilians not in the area will just need to fend for themselves until the safe zones are big enough to include them. So yeah, basically we’re leaving people to die.
I can tell you that did not go down well. One guy started kicking off. He’d left his wife and two kids to re-enlist. Like me, he assumed that this would be easily controlled and over quickly. He did get invited to leave and go back to his family, he even stood up ready to go. Then the officer said, and I quote, “Intelligence suggests that failure to secure areas will ultimately result in total annihilation of the population of the UK within twelve months. However, by following this plan, we can achieve up to a forty percent survival rate.”
The guy that kicked off didn’t leave. Total annihilation of the UK versus forty percent survival? You can’t argue with that. If everyone one of us left, the plan would fail. Everyone would die.
We then got told why we’d been assessed over the past couple of days. Everyone is staying. The less fit guys are assigned to some shitty tasks, like clean up and disposal. I’m lucky, at least I think I’m lucky. I’m assigned to front line infantry. Hopefully, I can make a difference. I need to make a difference. I need my decision to leave you to mean something. If I’d only known how bad it would get so quickly, I wouldn’t have left. No, that’s not true. I would still have left, but I would have taken you with me.
Before the end of the briefing, we got told just how different this enemy is.
I am going to quote this again; “The days ahead are going to be difficult. This is a new type of enemy. He does not sleep. He does not love or hate. He has no pity or remorse. He will not listen to reason. He could be your mother, your little sister, your grandfather or your best friend. So tonight, do whatever you need to do to relax, because tomorrow, we are going to war.”
Quite the motivational speech!
I love you, stay safe.
Steve xxx
Eleven
I’m angry. In fact, no scratch that. I’m fucking angry. I’m really fucking angry. At myself. How is it possible to have been so stupid?
When Steve left on Tuesday morning, my anger was directed at him. I spent ages drafting messages on my phone, only to delete them and start again. I spent so much time writing those damned texts, by the time I’d finished, my anger had abated. Whether I liked it or not, he had done the right thing by leaving. The army needed him more than I did. They would get this thing sorted, and
he would be home before I knew it. I could not articulate in so few words, that I understood now, could not bring myself to admit that I had overreacted and had been selfish with it. So, in the end, the text that I sent was simple.
I love you xxx
He still has not replied.
I called in sick to work that day. We had been up all night, talking and fighting. I just couldn’t bring myself to face anyone, even remotely. I rang George and was so relieved when it went to voicemail. I knew that I would cry if he asked me what was wrong. I had made myself a promise a long time ago; George Carlton would never witness me cry. The cold bastard would probably take pleasure in it.
I spent the rest of the day wallowing in my self-pity. I came to accept Steve’s decision, but I was still selfishly thinking of myself. The events that had led him to leave took a back seat. All I thought about was me.
Stupid.
It was only late on Tuesday evening when I became bored of moping, that it occurred to me to find out what was happening.
Who would have guessed how quickly the world would descend into chaos when the dead started walking the earth? Well, me for one. I should have known. I should have least considered it. I have read so many zombie novels, and seen so many films. Even when I first watched the news with Steve, my reaction was to plan and prepare. Instead, I did nothing.
I guess somewhere in the back of my mind I had assumed that it would all be sorted quickly. Just like it had been in South America and Germany. I did not consider the fact that containing a virus in a small village is relatively straightforward. Containing it in cities, cities with transport links to the rest of the country, is an altogether different matter. So, by the time I’d switched on the TV, I was shocked to discover just how bad things were.
Many channels were showing a particularly unhelpful emergency message. Advising viewers to stay in their homes. Warning us not to approach the infected.
All the other channels that were still broadcasting were only showing the news. Except for E4. They were showing reruns of “The Big Bang Theory”.’ A smart move, why let the apocalypse get in the way of good viewing figures?
Safe Zone (Book 1): The Greater Good Page 7
