The Beginning

by Mark Lansing

  As he began to climb the stairs, the upstairs landing coming into clearer view and he went up the incline. He held the cleaver tightly in a hammer grip, raised to his eye level. The dripping sound got louder as he ascended the stairs and he noted it seemed to be coming from the bathroom.

  Martin felt his heart rate jump as his parents door come into view. It was just as scratched and clawed up as the front door. Martin’s hand reached for the door knob and turned it.

  Locked.

  He let out a deep sigh of relief. They were safe. Martin knocked on the door and whispered: “You in there?”

  There was a quiet shuffle inside and Martin heard furniture being moved away from the door and then the click of a lock being released. Finally the door swung inwards and there stood Collin North. The ever present smile had disappeared from his face and he grabbed Martin by the shoulders, giving him a once over, his eyes lingering on the cleaver in Martin’s hand. Between the blood covered pyjamas and the increasingly large bump on his head, he must have looked a state.

  “What happened to you?” He pulled Martin into the spacious bedroom. “You should have stayed in the bunker, they could be back any minute.”

  “Where did they go?” Martin asked as he helped to push the cabinet in front of the door.

  “One second they were outside the door, banging and scratching and howling. I didn’t think the door was going to hold any longer.”

  Mollie North’s life had ended, but nobody knew it yet.

  Martin sat beside her on the bed and placed the cleaver quietly on the bedside table. He looked down at her white face and the waxy complexion of her skin. His eyes moved down to her bandaged wrist where blood had seeped through. Her blonde hair was plastered to her skin with sweat from a fever. Behind her eyelids Martin knew there was a set of piercing blue eyes, but now all he could see was the dark bags under them.

  “How is she doing?”

  “Been sleeping like that for about four hours now. Earthquake couldn’t wake her.” Collin paced the room, readjusting his cap.

  “So Dad, do you mind explaining why we have a bunker in our barn?”

  “Aha, Bunker Z. That ha-“

  Collin’s sentence was cut off by a crash downstairs.

  Chapter 8

  Martin leapt to his feet and Collin froze mid-step. The sound seemed to echo throughout the house, resonating off every surface and lingering in the bedroom.

  They had returned.

  Collin raised a finger to his lips indicating silence and Martin picked up the cleaver, touching the unloaded revolver in his pants belt. He didn’t know why he did it, but for some reason it made him feel safe. Safety in technology.

  There was another loud bang downstairs and an animalistic bark.

  Collin tensed and then walked over to the cabinet in front of the door, grabbing it with both hands. “This is my house. I don’t care what’s wrong with them, they have no right. Stay here with your mother.”

  “Dad, stop! You don’t understand! They’re crazy!”

  But it was too late. Collin had already ripped the cabinet from the door and had unlocked it before Martin could get halfway across the room.

  Suddenly the door was open and Collin was through the door, striding out into the landing, bellowing loudly: “Come on then!”

  There was a sudden rapid movement bounding up the stairs, too fast to be human. Martin heard the gush of wind rush out of Collin’s mouth as something collided with him at the top of the stairs.

  “Oh, it’s you.” Collin breathlessly croaked.

  As Martin rounded the corner he saw a golden retriever on top of Collin enthusiastically licking his face. This image was quickly followed by the sound of footsteps climbing the stairs.

  A woman’s wearily spoke as she climbed the stairs. “Duke, down! I’m so sorry Mr North. I dropped the lead when I saw-“Her eyes rose abruptly as the climbed the stairs and locked with Martins. “Oh, hi Martin.”

  “Kelly. Hi.”

  **

  The dog growled as it entered the bedroom. The heckles on its back spiked up as it approached the bed where Mollie lay. Kelly jumped back.

  “She’s infected.” Kelly blurted out bluntly as she pulled Duke back by his lead. She glanced between both Collin and Martin, as if to check if they knew.

  Collin stared down at his wife, not breaking his eye contact as he replied to Kelly. “Infected? She’s just got a fever. A girl bit her hand out shopping today.”

  “Did the girl have black pupils?”

  “Yes. But you know what kids are like nowadays, with their black fingernails, black leather coats. It doesn’t mean she is infected.” Martin had never seen his dad so distraught, as if he was battling something he couldn’t beat; himself.

  Kelly looked towards Martin for back up, almost pleading. “She’ll come back as... one of them. You need to get rid of her.”

  Martin held her eye contact. She hadn’t changed a bit. Her long brown hair was still cut in the same style she had in high school, but it looked unkempt and a bit greasy now. She’d put on a bit of weight, but it fitted her well.

  Martin had seen how dangerous the infected were, but this was his mom. “Get rid of her? Is there no cure?”

  “I don’t know. It is way worse than the news broadcasts make it out to be. The cities are overflowing with them, the army has retreated. I barely managed to get out. I came back to here as I thought it might be safer. When I finally got to my parent’s house on the other side of town it was deserted. No note. Nothing. You guys were the only people I knew here.”

  The shock of the news was apparent on both Martin and Collin’s faces. How had a minor outbreak of measles suddenly turned into a nationwide crisis leading to the army retreating? It must be bad.

  “How?”

  Kelly sat down on a wooden chair in a corner of the room, Duke curled up underneath the chair, but kept two wary eyes fixed on the bed. “It’s the numbers. The infection spreads so fast as the infected are so aggressive that the army couldn’t handle it. Once infected they actively seek to infect others with it. Not on purpose though. The infection seems to kill off most of their brain cells, but leaves them with their survival instincts. The survival instincts that we honed for thousands of years before we invented cappuccinos and heated seats. The instinct to eat. But when they bite you, it transfers. ”

  They all looked over to where Mollie lay, a tension settling over the room.

  Collin was the first to speak. “She might not be infected. We have to wait till she wakes up.” That seemed to settle the issue.

  “Okay.” Kelly’s eyes suspiciously surveyed the room, lingering on the windows and the cabinet in front of the door, before resting on Martin. “This is where you’re staying then? Is it safe?”

  “I only arrived last night from the coast. There wasn’t any infection there. Here... I’m not so sure. But we have a bunker over in the barn.”

  “Great. Let’s go there.” Kelly smiled for the first time that day and in that moment an ocean of memories flooded back to Martin. They had been high school sweethearts until they both left for college. The last time Martin had seen her was when she’d adopted one of Collin’s golden retriever puppies.

  Collin continued to dab Mollies brow with a damp towel, pushing her hair back gently behind her ear. “We’re not leaving without Mollie and she can’t move like this.”

  “Plus, if we did take her and we ran into any of the infected, we’d be screwed. No way we could outrun them while carrying her.” Martin pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a deep sigh. “We’ll have to stay put for the night.”

  Kelly looked anxious. “We’re going to need to fix this place up then. They get crazy at night. And the stronger ones come out too.”

  As if on cue, a low deep howl echoed in the distance.

  Chapter 9

  “Like what? We’ve got some old bits of chip board in the garage downstairs we could use to board up the door.” Collin stroked the end
of his salt and pepper beard.

  “That’ll only hold them back for a while. Their sense of smell is ridiculous.” Kelly fidgeted with her hair and flashed a look towards Mollie’s stationary figure. “We need to cover our smell.”

  “With what?”

  “The only thing I saw work when I was in the city was a dead infected. Petrol, paint or chemicals don’t cover us. But when the infected die, they seem to rapidly digest themselves. It gives off such an awful smell.” Kelly swallowed hard, as if forcing down a rising glob of sick.

  With a surprising taint of venom in his voice, Collin roared: “You’re not touching her. She might not even be infected. She is just... sick.” Collin looked to Martin for help, but even he was unsure.

  Martin walked towards the window and stared out at the fields below, in the distance the barn cast a long shadow as the sun got lower. “I shot one of them from the bunker. From in the bunker.” Martin glanced curiously at Collin. “I’m not sure what with though.”

  “.50 Cal mounted turret.”

  Kelly’s eyes grew wide at that answer. “Wow.”

  “But she isn’t dead. When I made my way over here she was crawling across the ground. But if we can get to her, we could use her.”

  Kelly stood and Duke bolted up as well, eyes focused on Kelly. “Okay, let’s go. It’ll be dark soon and believe me, you don’t want to be stuck out there out night.”

  **

  Martin and Kelly stood at the threshold of the house, looking out onto the field.

  Duke was sniffing around the hallway, taking a particular interest in the broken picture frame. Collin had given them his old hunting rifle and a few rounds which Martin had taken. Kelly had the cleaver in one hand and the Duke’s lead in the other.

  Kelly squinted into the distance, craning her head forward slightly. “Where is she?”

  “Over there somewhere, she was still moving when I left her a few hours ago.” Martin pointed vaguely towards the left side of the field.

  “Duke should be able to sniff her out. When he starts going crazy, you’ll know she is near. Let’s hope there aren’t any more of them out there.”

  They walked out the door and crossed the porch in three quick steps. Duke padded alongside them, ears pricked up and tail low.

  “How have you been then?” Kelly tried to fill the silence that surrounded them, she’d always hated awkward silences.

  Martin was looking ahead for any signs of movement, the gun was slung over his shoulder loosely. He took a second to consider his answer, lie or be honest. Honesty. “Shitty to be honest, Kel. That’s why I came back here. I lost my job on the force and then Karen left me.” Martin hesitated, he didn’t want to tell her he’d start drinking again.

  Kelly forced out a smile. “Well, none of that matters at the moment. Until they find a cure, the only thing is survival.”

  They’d been walking for a couple minutes now without seeing anything, then Martin stopped abruptly, gazing into the distance.

  Kelly leaned in close to Martin and dropped her voice to a whisper. “What is it? What do you see?”

  Martin put a finger to his lips and then pointed to a rock on the floor about 20 metres in front of them. Then it moved, and Kelly realised it wasn’t a rock at all, but a very slow moving woman.

  Duke let out a low growl and lowered himself to the ground, his snout level with his haunches.

  The women was crawling away from them, dragging her body along and oblivious to them behind her. Martin drew up his hunting rifle and rested the butt in his shoulder, aiming at the gradually moving woman’s head. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

  Out of the corner of his vision a hand rose up sharply and pushed down on the barrel of the gun. Kelly mouthed no and handed Martin Duke’s lead, then, cleaver in hand, started to quietly creep towards the woman.

  **

  Collin paced the room restlessly.

  The only sound in the room was Mollie’s deep breathing. His Mollie. The love of his life.

  He’d checked under the bandage over an hour ago and it hadn’t looked good. The blood around and in the cut had turned black, the veins around the bite-mark were raised and shockingly violet.

  He looked out of the window, plunged his hands into his pockets and watched his son and Kelly cross the field. Behind him, Mollie’s eyes opened.

  Chapter 10

  Crunch.

  The nurse whirled around at the sound of Kelly’s foot breaking a branch and let out a high pitched shriek. She began dragging herself along the ground with new found vigour.

  The nurse’s awkward movement reminded Martin of a documentary on the Discovery Channel about the Komodo dragon. The commentator had said that despite its awkward gait the Komodo dragon was deceptively quick and was able to reach speeds of 12 mph.

  It seemed the woman had some Komodo dragon blood in her as she was soon racing towards Kelly.

  Kelly didn’t hesitate and plunged the cleaver into the forehead of the woman in one motion. The woman went limp immediately and had the image of clinging onto Kelly’s cleaver, almost like a puppet.

  Kelly pulled the cleaver out. “Right, you grab her under the arms.”

  “Wow, wow, wow. What the hell just happened? Kelly Aldrich. The girl who was pissed when she broke a nail, now stabs people in the head like it’s an ordinary cheerleading move or something?”

  Kelly let out a low chuckle. “You guys out here really have no idea do you? These fuckers will kill you. It’s you or them. Now, let’s go. It’s getting dark.”

  Martin looked down at Duke and gave his lead a tug as he started walking towards the woman’s body.

  “She’s scary isn’t she, boy? Hold Duke while I pick her up.” Martin flung the lead towards Kelly before she could react.

  “NO!”

  But it was too late. Duke was already running.

  Followed closely by Kelly, sprinting off towards the forest.

  **

  “He’s got to be the worst behaved dog ever.” Martin mumbled.

  “Wait. Listen.”

  They both stood still and listened. To the left of them came a faint scratching sound and then the unmistakable whimper of Duke. Kelly pressed her finger to her lips and then began slowly walking towards the sound.

  They came to the edge of an opening and caught sight of Duke. He was scratching at the bottom of a tree looking up towards something in one of the branches. As Martin and Kelly entered the opening it became apparent what had fixed Duke’s attention.

  “Oh Jesus Duke. A squirrel? Really? Don’t you know what’s out here?” Kelly crouched and wrapped both her arms around the dog. “Don’t you ever do that again. I thought I’d lost you buddy.”

  Martin glanced up at the orangey sky through the upper canopy. “The sun is setting.”

  Kelly grimaced and stood up. “We’ve got to hurry.”

  Kelly bent over and reattached Duke’s lead to his collar. She wrapped her end of the lead around her hand once, then after shooting a look at Martin, wrapped it around her hand again.

  “Let’s go pick up the nurse before it gets too dark.”

  They retraced their steps out of the forest and crossed the field quickly in a hurried walk. The daylight gradually decreased and the night crept in all around them as they approached the spot where they’d left the woman’s body.

  Martin let out an involuntary gasp. “What the-“

  “What is it?” Kelly fired back, not bothering to stop.

  “Something.. gooey.” He peered down at his feet and squinted his eyes. “Oh god, its blood.”

  Kelly’s eyes darted across the floor. “This is where the nurse was. Where’s the body?”

  “Maybe they just disappear when they die?”

  “No. They just sit there and rot. The smell is..” Kelly’s voice trailed off and she shuddered.

  “She’s gone then. Now what?” Martin started to pace.

  “We won’t survive the night without something to c
over our smell.”

  Kelly and Martin were looking towards the house in the distance, silhouetted in the last shades of daylight. Something suddenly became apparent to them both.

  “None of the lights are on.”

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  Other “Bunker Z” Series Books

  Bunker Z: Dawn of the Droners (Excerpt below)

  Bunker Z: Subnation (Coming Early February)

  Excerpt from Bunker Z: Dawn of the Droners

  Martin and Kelly saw lone infected, some stalking darkness with fierce aggression, others—perhaps further along in the virus-cycle (or recently fed)—barely moved, occasionally walked full-on into walls, trees, even one another. A few sat gazing blankly in neatly mown front yards, not reacting to the splash of the SUV's lights.

  Martin killed the headlamps, wishing they hadn't been necessary, but with practically the entire grid down...well, he hadn't experienced this degree of darkness since a vacation years ago in the Sonoran Desert. It seemed like decades ago; another world.

  "Here's Vine," he said. "I know you don't need me to remind you, but—"

  "This pistol is now part of my hand."

  "Okay. Good."

  He tapped the brakes, tail-lights redly flaring against black buildings. Too bad those weren't disconnected.

  The tires hummed over the old brick street, and Martin dreaded the noise. Right now he didn't want to attract any attention. "We're gonna be getting out in less than five minutes. Sure wish I'd thought to toss a few bottled waters into the front here...I'm dehydrating. What about you, Kelly?"

  She ran a hand through her hair. "Hell yes I'm thirsty, and from the way Duke's panting back there he's probably feeling the same way. He's not growling or thrashing around, and I know he should be."

  "It's possible he can't pick up their reek in here, with our body odors and all the plastic and rubber shit this thing is built from."