Chapter 21: The Website
Within the shortest time possible, the fugitives worked together to get a meal spread out on one of the café tables. Janet had washed the utensils they needed, Steve wiped over a couple of tables, then Maisie and Fred set out plates, cutlery and napkins. Alex had made pancakes, Sarah produced a large pan of scrambled eggs with cheese and bacon, and Karen had heated up the contents of her three tins of beans with mini-sausages. Graham kept watch while Bill backed the lorry into a side street and checked the fuel, water and oil levels. Rachel, meanwhile, had been busy in the shop, finding a handbag she liked.
Fresh vegetables didn't feature anywhere but everyone felt as though they'd enjoyed a feast.
'There's still some coffee left,' Bill said, standing up offering to make some.
'Well, what next?' Graham said. 'We can't just keep aimlessly driving about.'
'Fuel tank on the lorry's gone down a bit,' Bill said.
'Can't we like try the phones again?'
'Now, that's a good idea,' Janet said.
'But we can't use them because of being tracked,' Alex said.
'My mum and dad will be, like, so worried.'
'We could each send one text, couldn't we?'
'Ten phones all zinging off a text at once is going to attract some attention. They'll have our numbers and phone IDs on an alert list.'
'Nine, mine's still in Kilkorne, probably under a pile of rubble,' Fred said.
'What if we use one single phone to send one text, giving the phone numbers and a list of names for everyone else, so they can relay the fact that we're all OK? Then switch the phone off immediately.'
'They'd still be able to locate us. The computers will pick out the numbers from the thousands of other calls, then work out whereabouts we are.'
'What about the internet?'
'Brilliant, Alex! Much harder to trace.'
'But where are we going to be able to do that? This is a clothes shop.'
'There might be an internet café near the centre of town.'
'Hmm, I bet that would be well zombied up.'
'You're probably right.'
'Computer shop?'
'Haven't seen one yet.'
'The office in this shop might have had access to the internet.'
'Being part of chain they'd definitely have had a network linking all the stores. Only trouble is, it would all be passworded and may not have had external access.'
'Let's take a look, see if there's a laptop or something.'
Within ten minutes they had a laptop up and running on the office wifi. It took rather longer to decide what to say and to send all the messages to their families.
'You know, now we've got internet access, we can try and get in touch with the Ministry about getting the army off our backs.'
'Or go direct to Breathdeep.'
Rachel was horrified. 'Go there?'
'Contact them direct, through the internet.'
'I wonder if they've got a website?'
'You must be joking. A secret bio-research centre?'
'Well, OK, what about the government website?'
Chapter 22: Photographic Evidence
'Is that Mason?'
'This is Professor Albert Mason, head of the Breathdeep Biological Research Facility. What, Minister, can I do for you this time? Mason was not in his office, he was supervising the collection of inoculation data from the inmates of the holding facility. It was a tricky job, requiring full protective gear and restraint equipment for holding down individual zombies, whose sole mission was to tear open the scientists' protective suits and infect them.
'This is indeed a quite remarkable weapon,' he thought to himself, 'as long as you don't mind there being no survivors at all, on either side.'
'You can tell me why it is,' the Minister for Home Affairs said in a cutting voice, 'that my own department informs me of a method for detecting early exposure to the zombie virus, rather than your facility.'
'First I've heard of it, Minister,'
'My point precisely.'
'Well right now, we're examining and recording the results for all the inmates we have here. So far, the new vaccine appears to be working, albeit rather slowly in the most chronic cases.'
'That, at least is some good news.'
'Alright, what's this early detection system you've heard of?'
'The fugitives that neither you nor the army seem to have been able to track down…'
Mason sighed. 'Kilkorne residents, got past the roadblock yesterday?'
'They've managed to use the internet to contact the government website.'
'Resourceful.'
'I believe we've mentioned that before. Anyway, apparently one of the kids heard your broadcast about UV showing up zombie blood, so he went in the school DT room and converted a torch.'
'The school was totally cleared out and hit with an RPG later, how'd they manage that?'
'We keep coming back to resourcefulness again, don't we?'
'So, they made a torch. We've done that. So what?'
'Apart from showing up zombie blood, it makes the eyes of anyone infected fluor… fluor-something. Whatever, they glow. The kid says it works after only a few hours.'
'Fluoresce is the word that's escaped you. We've got some hand held units for detecting zombie blood. I'll get someone to bring one down immediately.'
Five minutes later, the professor was briefly shining one of his portable UV lamp near the eyes of every patient whose temperature was taken and whose blood was sampled. He didn't want to use the almost invisible beam directly in case it damaged the retina.
'Minister, I'm seeing a weak effect on some patients. With the full infectees, I'm getting a slightly stronger reaction. You said it was very pronounced after only a few hours?'
'That's what your fugitives are reporting.'
'They got any photographic evidence?'
'I asked that. They said it was rather hard to obtain, as they were keeping as far away as possible from other people, especially zombies.'
Mason stopped to think for a moment. 'We need to know the exact type of UV LED they used. Ours don't do the job. There can be small but significant differences in specification. I need the manufacturer and serial number.'
'If you think that'll do it.'
'Send me their email address and I'll contact them directly. I need to find exactly which type of emitters they're using.'
'As you wish.'
Chapter 23: Contact
Professor Mason exchanged emails with Steve and ascertained that the UV LEDs he'd used were a longer wavelength variety than the Breathdeep ones. Steve used the webcam built into the laptop to send a video of the light emitted by his torch and added that he'd left one of the boxes of UV diodes in the school. He also showed that his own eyes didn't fluoresce when scanned by the torch.
Mason radioed the Kilkorne commander. 'Doug, we've made some progress with early detection.' He explained about the UV LEDs and the need to obtain the box from the DT room in the school.
'They'll be flown over to Breathdeep the instant we have them, Albert.'
Two hours later, Professor Mason called the Ministry.'
'Good news, Minister, we have a working detector torch.'
'Already? Explain.'
'I had a box of spare LEDs from the school flown over. We used the kid's design and made one up by adapting the zombie blood torches we have here.'
'And?'
'The eyes of the full infec… the full zombies light up like Christmas trees. The eyes of subjects which have been infected for a short time show up to a lesser degree but it's immediately recognisable. Very bright.'
'What about those who are not contaminated? Do you have anyone left?'
'Yes, of course. The UV has no effect on the iris of someone whose blood shows they are clean.'
'Is it reliable?'
'We've correlated the LED results with the blood tests and there are no false positives, or negatives.'
/> The Minister snarled with impatience. 'Which means?'
'It means it works. On everyone. We can worry later about exactly how soon after contact it shows up.'
'What now?'
'I'll have our electronics lab go into full time production, then get the army to distribute them. They can be used all along the cordon we've set up, at any borders in fact.'
'You'll need to ramp up production. I'll get one of the government research labs to go into production, too, until we can get these into the commercial sector. I have a venture capital company set up for just such an opportunity as this.'
'You have?' Mason was beginning to think the Minister was more devious than he had previously thought.
'There could be a lot of profit in these world-wide. Every customs and security officer at every border control centre in every country will want to have something which will detect second variant zombieism.'
'OK, I'll have a unit made up, tested and flown over to you.'
'The sooner the better, Mason.'
'What about the fugitives who made the discovery?'
'Given the potential profits involved, it may be necessary to avoid them getting to safety.'
'But Minister, if it weren't for them…'
'Would you like me to expose your research methods to public scrutiny, Mason?'
'Not while I'm alive.'
'That, too, could be arranged if required,' the Minister said in a particularly chilly tone.
Chapter 24: The Double-Cross
'Well, done, Stevie,' Janet said, hugging her son unashamedly.
'Aw mum, leave off.'
Alex smiled. She was beginning to recognise that there was something rather endearing about Steve. And several times over he'd proved to be someone you could rely on in a tight spot.
'Yes, well done, lad,' Graham said.
Alex looked up at Steve's face and was surprised to see him already looking at her. Finding the term 'cute' floating up in her mind made her look away quickly.
'Have we done now?' Rachel said. 'This bit is so boring.'
'Yes, there hasn't been any fighting for ages,' Fred said.
Bill was quick to interrupt that train of thought. 'Fighting is something to either avoid or leave to the professionals.'
'But, like, does it mean we'll be on TV now?'
Janet laughed. 'Sorry, girls we're not out of danger yet. And Bill's absolutely right, Fred. This is not a game.'
'We should use the scanner again, see what the army and the bio-whatsit place are up to,' Karen said. She extended the telescopic aerial and set the unit down on the counter in the office, next to the computer.
'Won't interfere, will it?' Graham said.
'Might do.' Karen moved the scanner a couple of feet away and set it running. Within a second it stopped at a public service channel.
'…successfully developed an early detection system…'
Sarah smiled. 'See, we're not on TV yet but we're being mentioned in public service announcements.'
'The long-awaited system was designed at the Breathdeep facility and…'
'What?' Alex said. 'They're claiming credit for Steve's invention!'
'Shh, there's more.'
'Ten fugitives from Kilkorne are still on the loose. Any member of the public outside the quarantine cordon who believes they have had contact with these potentially infected individuals should contact the police immediately on the following number…'
'What are they playing at?' Steve said. 'I sent them the video clip of using it on myself. They know we're not infected.'
'Did you tell them we were all clean, lad?'
'Of course!'
The Announcement continued:
'…large group of zombies escaped the quarantine cordon during the night. Any member of the public still remaining in the town of Stannicvale is instructed to leave immediately, following the previous warning two hours ago. If you are still in the vicinity of the south of the town, you are certain to come in contact with the zombies. Now that they have been located, the army is in pursuit.'
'That's us!' Rachel screamed. 'They're right here.' She ran to the window and looked out.
Chapter 25: Attack On Stannicvale
'We should be, like, out of harm's way.' Maisie said, her eyes starting to fill with tears. 'I mean, like, up here, shouldn't we?'
'Three floors up in a clothing store is better than in the street,' Janet said, 'but not that much better.'
Karen sat down with a thump in one of the office chairs. 'Just when we thought we were free.'
'I don't like the sound of this at all,' Graham said. He went to the window on the other side of the office, giving a view over the car park at the rear of the building.
'But what can we do?'
'Those clothes rails on the floor below are made of metal tube,' Fred said. 'A three or four foot length of that would make a good weapon.'
'I'll come with you,' Bill said, heading to the stairs after Fred. 'We might as well have a few of them.'
'Karen, keep scanning, see if there's anything else you can pick up.'
'Yes, we need to know what the army's up to.'
'I know I've already said I don't like the sound of this,' Graham said, 'but if we're unlucky, we could be caught right between the zombies and the army units sent to wipe them out.'
'They're probably got orders for wiping us out, too, going by the announcement!'
The scanner dropped onto another channel but it was scrambled.
'What was that?' Rachel said.
'Next!' Karen said, pressing the 'scan up' button.
'…helicopters are on approach from the west. Another three from the east. ETA in ten.'
'Any sightings yet?'
'Unit four reports movement on the main road on the edge of Stannicvale.'
'Confirmed. Zombie group heading north on Vale Road.'
'Vale Road!' Sarah said. 'I saw the sign, that's the main road into town. The one where we stopped at the first café.'
'So here, we're on the next street over and about a mile from where the zombies are.'
'Did you hear that?' Bill said. He'd run back up the stairs, carrying several lengths of metal tubing.
'No, what?'
'Gunfire.'
Graham opened the window and let in the intermittent rattle of automatic weapons, interspersed with a 'whoomph' of something larger.
'Here come the helicopters.'
'It's not safe here, is it?'
'Like, we're all going to be killed,' Maisie wailed.
'I could try getting hold of that professor again. He might be in contact with the army.'
'Brilliant,' Janet said, resisting the urge to hug her son again. 'Karen, you're the fastest typist. Steve, move over, tell her what to say.'
'We don't even know if he's on our side,' Bill said, 'After that message where they said his department had made the detector torch.'
'Quick, open another browser tab. Put the postcode in. Here it's on this store letterhead.'
'Now what?'
'Click 'Search', it should display a map with our location. Yes, there, read off the grid reference.' Janet scribbled it on a scrap of paper. 'Right, now go back to the email and send the postcode and the grid reference.'
'How will that help?' Karen said, clicking the 'Send' button.
'If that gets through to the army, they should at least avoid shooting us as being zombies.'
The sound of weapons fire grew closer and the explosions became louder and more frequent. Through the window, they saw a whole building collapse two blocks away as a helicopter hovered nearby, strafing into the streets below.
A moment later, the helicopter stopped its strafing run and turned in the direction of the fugitives who were all gathered around the window.
'Duck!' Janet screamed.
Everyone threw themselves to the floor and crawled under the nearest desk or counter, expecting a blizzard of bullets at any moment.
Chapter 26: The Message
'I'd say someone's got your message, lad.'
'Yes, and now they're coming to get us!'
The roar of the helicopter's engines drowned out every other sound. The whole building vibrated, until there was a shudder through the office ceiling. Then the engines cut and the vibration subsided, until the whirr of the blades could be heard winding down.
'Has this place got a flat roof?'
'It must do. And I think we're about to have visitors.'
A soldier burst through the fire escape door from the roof.
'You the Janet Reynolds party?'
He was quickly followed by another four men, all in full flight gear and each with guns pointing only slightly above the fugitives' head height.
Bill and Fred slowly lowered their sections of tubing. Steve swivelled his chair towards the men and raised his hands. While the helicopter had been landing, the gunfire outside had stopped.
Janet carefully extricated herself from under the counter and stood up. 'I'm Mrs Reynolds.'
'And are there are nine or ten of you here?'
'Ten,' Janet said, adding in a defiant tone. 'And we are not infected.'
'That's what we've been told, Mrs Reynolds. I have orders to escort you down to street level but first I need to do a weapons check.'
'I have a flare gun and Sarah has the spare flares,' Janet said.
'Put them on the desk, here, if you please.' The airman passed the flare gun back to one of his men. 'Anything else?'
'Look here young man,' Bill said, handing over his revolver. 'Have you come to rescue us or to take us to that Breathdeep place?'
'The Commander will inform you of that shortly.'
'What about the zombies?'
'The other units have seen to them. You'll be quite safe with us.'
Commander Douglas Hodgeson greeted the fugitives in person. After introducing himself, he said, 'I'm pleased to see you all looking well. The word about your resourceful escape from Kilkorne has been quite doing the rounds.'
'We heard on the radio you were still trying to capture us.'
'I'm sorry, we had to give that impression. It was necessary to let the public announcement continue, until the Minister was taken into police custody. If he'd been alerted, he'd have vanished into hiding. Professor Mason put his life on the line defying him, though of course he was assured of my back-up.'
British Zombie Breakout: Part Two Page 6
