by Russ Watts
Roach had stayed up front. He never spoke and he began to tire after an hour of walking in the sun. Kelly strode on ahead of him. She was determined not to falter and told him not to lag too far behind as she passed him. He acknowledged her with a brief nod.
Suzy followed at a constant six feet behind Kelly. Nobody spoke to her, and she spoke to nobody. That was how she wanted it right now. She felt better not having to talk and was pleased they were leaving her alone. She had so much to consider, and so much to solve in her mind that, any attempt at conversation with her would have been pointless. She could barely put one foot in front of the other. She walked and she thought. She thought and she walked.
Mark purposefully hung back as Roach slowed. He wanted to speak to him while he could. He had no idea what to say to either Kelly or Suzy now, so he used the opportunity to pick Roach’s mind. “You think they’ve gone? The Deathless?”
Roach shook his head. “They’re out there somewhere. Just far enough away from us for now. Let’s not tempt fate. I’d rather talk about something else, if you don’t mind.”
“Sure, sure...so...how did you survive? I mean, really, did you spend the whole time in that mall with...Min was it?”
“Well, not at first. Min and I moved from house to house. After we got out of the city, we ransacked a garden centre and found plenty to defend ourselves with; shovels, pitchforks, crowbars...eventually though we lost them. They either got embedded in some poor sap’s skull or we dropped them when we had to run. The mall was sheer luck. We didn’t plan too far ahead. We were barely getting by day to day. Min wasn’t around for too long with me anyhow. After I lost her, I just decided the best thing to do was see it out. I set up home there, made it as secure as I could and stayed put. You can get by without much food when you have to. You get used to it. The only thing I truly missed was my family. Of course, I still do, but I expect they’ve moved on. My wife and son will have been fed the same lies as everyone else. I’m a murderer, a terrorist and an anarchist. I hope they were able to move on and Agnew left them alone. I hope...”
A faint squawk came from above and Mark looked up just in time to see an eagle swoop up from a field adjacent to them. The bird’s wingspan looked as if it easily reached six feet and in its grasp was a hare, struggling to free itself from the bird’s sharp talons. Mark whipped out his camera and took as many shots of the titanic struggle as he could.
Kelly saw it too. The hare was twice as big as it should have been. The eagle was powerful, but it was losing the battle to carry the weight of the hapless creature up into the air. The eagle managed to get twenty feet up before it dropped the doomed hare. Kelly winced as she heard the whump of the body hitting the ground. The animals were growing larger too, as was the island’s flora. Whether it was because man had left, or because of the Aqua-Gene, she wasn’t sure. She also wasn’t sure she cared anymore. She turned and carried on down the road toward the city.
Roach watched Mark sling his camera around to his back. Once the hare had been dropped, the eagle swooped down behind the bushes and they could see no more. What would have been a marvellous spectacle on another trip was now just a passing curiosity. Their focus was on other things - like survival. They resumed walking and Roach carried on talking.
“Where we’re going...you know in reality, there are no boxes of food. The complex is there and once a month the helicopter lands so four or five well-armed soldiers can get out. But they are not off-loading food and water. There are no scientists there. There are no living people on The Grave. No, the cargo is much more than just a few crates of supplies. I should know because I was once dumped here.
“The military comes in under the guise of releasing prisoners. In reality, they are escorting people to their death. I saw them on our second day here. Min and I were barricaded in an apartment and we watched them. The chopper landed on the embassy rooftop and I counted six men before the helicopter left. The men were dressed in plain dark clothes. One had shackles around his ankles and his wrists were handcuffed. As the helicopter left, the six men waved at it, shouting for it to return. I heard them begging and pleading not to be left here, but the soldiers either didn’t hear them, or more likely, chose to ignore them. The chopper hovered in the air and then the six men were shot where they stood. The soldiers were just taking pot shots at them, like target practise. Two of the men scrambled down into the yard, but the Deathless were there waiting for them. I suppose I should be thankful that I was given a chance. The soldiers don’t care what happens. They know there’s no retribution for them.
“Look, Mark, I have not exaggerated anything or been untruthful. I have to tell you the whole truth so you are ready. When we get to the city, you’ll see there’s no base, no experiments, no scientists; nothing. The embassy story is a trick. You understand, we can’t risk flagging the military down. Min tried that and they didn’t hesitate. Shoot first and ask questions later; that’s the way it is. We have to get to the embassy and ambush them. Force them to take us back. When you’re on that chopper, make sure you get your story out before you get back to the naval ship. If they get hold of you, they’ll just bury it. Don’t let them cover this up.”
Mark rested a hand on Roach’s shoulder and they stopped walking. “Not to be morbid, but I want proof and if you don’t make it...at least I’ll have documented this. I need a picture of you here, with us. I’ll have cast iron proof then that you’re not living it up in South America, but stranded here. It might not be enough to convince everyone, but it should get questions asked and will put Agnew under pressure. The Grave will be re-examined and then the truth will come out. He’s finished. We owe it to everyone who has died here.”
Roach nodded and stood as Mark took a photo of him. In the background was a sign indicating Wellington City was ahead. Mark then stood next to Roach and held his camera at length, taking a photo of both of them. When Mark was done, Roach held out his hand and Mark shook it.
“Thank you. Thank you for believing me.”
“Come on,” said Mark, “Let’s get a move on. We’ve a helicopter to catch.”
They picked up the pace and caught up with Suzy and Kelly. The road just seemed to go on and on. The elements had crumbled the tarmac and frequent deep cracks appeared, splitting up the road markings. Weeds grew in the cracks and between slits in the walls of nearby buildings. A black cumbersome rat squeezed out from underneath a red and yellow courier van. Its body was matted with jet black hair and its pink tail left a greasy trail of slime as the rat waddled across the street. Its entire left side had rotted away, exposing its small ribcage. It moved slowly, inelegantly, dragging its bloated body on weak legs over the asphalt toward Kelly. It had heard them coming and ventured out from its resting place. The rat was dead, but its teeth still sharp and its jaw raised and ready to bite them.
Kelly swung her hatchet down on the rat’s head and the iron blade crushed its tiny brain on the tarmac. Fragile bones and blood squirted out over the road and Kelly swung again, making sure the rat was dead. She carried on walking, leaving the kill on the road behind her. Suzy, Mark and Roach skipped around the mess, leaving the rat’s decomposing, fetid carcass to fester in the heat. Nobody said a word about it.
Kelly was forced to walk along the side of the road, closer to the vegetation to avoid a multiple car crash. Between two tall Nikau palms stood a large leafy tree with tiny clutches of yellow seedpods hanging off the low branches, looking like the swollen fingers of a baby. Kelly shuddered as she walked beneath them, trying to shut out the image. Every time a pod brushed against her hair, she would imagine a dead child above trying to grab at her, its pudgy fingers wispily sweeping through her greasy hair. The part of her brain that knew it was a member of the Kowhai family had switched off. Now every bush, every tree and every blade of grass was an enemy. She could not trust anything she saw. A pool of water, a fallen apple, a bird, a rat, everything and anything might be contaminated with the Aqua-Gene. It had tricked them all. Claire had succu
mbed, and with it, death had taken Tricia and Will.
Kelly looked over at Suzy. She was morose. Her eyes were vacant, looking around but seeing nothing. Kelly daren’t say anything or touch her for fear of setting her off. It was better to let her grieve in peace for a while. She had stopped crying, but she looked pathetic. Her eyes were bloodshot and her smooth cheeks carried the tracks of her tears, staining her smooth skin with the raw emotion of death. Her arms swung loosely as if controlled by the breeze. She almost looked like one of the Deathless.
What could Kelly say? She knew what Suzy was feeling. Will had been one of them. She had thought he would be around forever. Everyone at the museum loved him. She remembered how he had bumbled his way through the job interview. Yet, she had taken a chance on him and boy had he impressed her. The more Kelly thought about it, the more she wondered if she did know how Suzy felt. Suzy and Will were close; closer than anyone else on this trip was. Kelly had lost a colleague, and yes, a friend. However, Suzy had lost something more than that. Other than her parents, Kelly had never gotten close to anyone else and had never really experienced the death of a loved one or a lover. She glanced over at Mark, but he was lost in his own thoughts. Kelly really didn’t know what to say anyway. She couldn’t put herself in Suzy’s shoes and decided it was best to let Suzy deal with it in her own way. If she wanted to talk, she would.
Their feet walked in rhythm like a military procession. Kelly and Suzy, Mark and Roach, all striding down the highway toward the city, side by side as if in a funeral procession. The air was hot, musky, and smelt of the sea. Kelly noticed the hillside to their left was steep and covered in gorse, and to the right just more decayed houses. She knew over the hill lay the open expanse of the ocean. She wished they could just sail away, as Mark had suggested, but she knew it was impossible. If Roach was being honest, then Min had tried and she had paid the price. The land and the ocean were separated by a thick chain-link fence that muzzled the sun and kept a harsh, mesh screen between the island’s inhabitants and freedom.
They passed a slip road and Kelly felt the ground become soft and spongy. Her sneakers were soaking in water and she skipped off the grass back onto the road. There was a large overflowing pond, covered in scum and flies. Whether it was a natural pond or merely the result of a blocked drain she couldn’t tell, but a creek ran away to the east, the water sluggish and dirty. Skeletal arms, femurs and scraps of undeterminable organic matter broke the surface of the pond. Human arms and legs poked above the surface, breaking through the algae and flotsam. Kelly gasped as she saw movement. A hand reached up from the long grass nearby.
“Shit,” said Mark racing ahead of Kelly brandishing his knife. Nothing raced out of the undergrowth though, so he slowly crept forward to see what it was. Kelly, Suzy and Roach were right behind him.
A woman, her body almost entirely obscured form the road by the tall grass, was pinned to the ground by a road sign. A rusted metal pole with a circular head showing the number eighty protruded from the dead woman’s abdomen. Unable to get up, the Deathless woman had lain there for years. Someone had deliberately left it there, deliberately skewering the woman to the ground. The body had wasted away and the skin had peeled back from its face. The woman’s jaw was twitching, teeth clacking together as they stepped closer.
“Jesus,” whispered Mark. The woman’s arms and legs flailed uselessly and she looked like an upturned beetle trying to get on its legs again. The ravaged fingers clawed at the ground and even its own guts to get free, but the dead woman was too weak.
“Look at the bird feathers and bones around its neck. I guess it must have eaten anything that got too inquisitive.” Kelly had overcome her shock and stood beside Mark. “Leave it. Take it as a warning to watch your step. All of you.”
As Kelly and Roach walked off down the road, Suzy peered over Mark’s shoulder and turned her nose up at the foulness permeating the air. “I hope she was dead before she got stuck with that sign in her guts,” she said coldly.
Mark left the woman as he’d found her, just another husk littering the roadside. He had to believe she had already turned before she was trapped in the ground like that. Self-defence; that was all it had been. He had been to many dangerous parts of the world and seen some terrible things, and this was right up there with the worst of them.
Suzy waited, staring into the murky water as the others walked on ahead. She fumbled in her pockets and pulled out a small plastic bottle. She unclicked the cap and threw two of the paracetamol into her mouth, remembering how she had given some to Claire last night. There were still four left and she rattled them around their lonely container. Suzy looked around, making sure the others were not watching her and then bent down, scooping the plastic tub through the infected pond water. She sloshed it around, letting the bloody water and Aqua-Gene soak into the tablets. Then she drained the water out, replaced the cap, and shoved it back into her pocket.
Suzy smiled as she hurried to catch the others up. No one else would understand. Nobody needed to know. She had felt so helpless watching Will die. Now she felt bolder. She fingered the rattling tub in her jacket pocket, making sure it was tucked down deep. When she got back to New York, she planned on meeting up with President Agnew. One way or another, he deserved a little present for what he’d done to them, her and to Will.
As they made their way onward, the road edged uphill slightly. Mark looked across to the west as they rounded a bend and the houses that had grown to be such a familiar sight receded. Fertile pasture gave way to a muddy patch of land where nothing grew. Almost a straight line had been carved into the earth dividing the two. On one side, the grass was thick and dark green, growing freely and in abundance. He thought he could see patches of colour where roses grew and ferns reached up from the rich soil. On the other side of the line, a barren stretch ran for miles, utterly devoid of life as far as he could see. It was littered with the bones of the weak and the dead. Aphids and musk-flies danced deliriously over the ruinous, desolate graveyard. The atrophied land was cold and dark despite the glorious sunshine overhead.
“What is that?” said Mark to Kelly as they walked. She pointed at the line in the earth.
“You really want to know?” Kelly kicked a gigantic beetle off her shoe that had crept up unnoticed. It could be infected and she couldn’t take any chances. She ground it beneath her feet leaving nothing but a black sticky splodge on the tarmac and two feebly twitching antennae.
Mark nodded and Kelly explained. “This is one of those places I read about, I’m sure of it. Before The Grave became what it is today, the infected were put down. There was no cure, no way of dealing with them, and no one else wanted them. So they were...executed is the best word, I guess. A hundred thousand people had been slain in the first week and they were buried in massive pits outside the city’s boundaries. They just scooped them up, dropped them in, and covered them up. There were rumours that some of the Deathless were put in the pits as they were. Just rounded up and buried alive. Now the land is as dead as the people buried beneath it are. Nothing grows on it, not a tree, a plant; not even a solitary weed. Technically, there’s no reason why the ground shouldn’t be able to support life.”
“It’s in mourning,” said Suzy. “If you ask me the earth knows of the dead in its bowels and the terrible things that went on here. I doubt anything will ever grow there again. Who knows how many people are buried beneath the surface. Their bones and tissue would’ve meshed with the dirt now, making it soiled, barren, and infected. Even the weeds that sprouted there have died. You can’t even see moss growing on the rocks. Nothing could take purchase in such poisonous filth.” Suzy spat out the last word, as if the earth’s very presence offended her.
Kelly was as surprised at Suzy’s outburst as much as the fact she was speaking at all. “That’s one version certainly. But even weeds need something viable to put their roots into. Maybe the ground was already barren and cannot stimulate or support growth. The soil might have been disturbe
d and just lost its minerals and nutrients. Don’t dwell on it, Suzy. We should keep moving.”
“Have you taken everything in, really?” Suzy stared straight ahead as she spoke. “The wild weather, the houses that are just derelict shells now, homes and belongings forgotten, photos and family heirlooms left behind in the rush to leave. The Grave has claimed everything. It has assumed an identity of its own now. I think it has an aura of death and devastation. There is a strange conflict going on, I’ll give you that. There is bountiful vegetation in places and certainly, some exotic plants are thriving. Yet alongside this, all evidence that man once lived here is dying. Only corpses and death remain. The Grave pulls you in, doesn’t it? You try and you try but you can’t escape.” Suzy saw Will in her mind, spewing blood, and walked away.
Mark felt hollow. Suzy had cut right through the bullshit. The Grave was pulling them all in, slowly and inexorably. “We’re going to die here, aren’t we.” He didn’t mean it as a genuine question; he was just thinking aloud.
“Fuck that,” said Kelly, turning away from the desolate vista and resuming her path toward the city. “Suzy has her own issues right now, but don’t fall apart on me too, Mark.”
He hurried to keep up with Kelly, keeping Suzy and Roach in sight just up ahead. He admired Kelly’s spirit, even though he was finding it hard to find that same resolution to keep going.
Kelly wiped the sweat from her face. The heat was becoming unbearable. There was no breeze or wind to offer any respite, no shade from the intense sun. “You ever head of the Brugmansia flower? It has beautiful, fragrant flowers, yet it is also very toxic. You wouldn’t know it to look at it, but it contains hyoscyamine, potentially lethal to animal life. You eat some of the leaves and you are going to be ill. You might feel like dying, you might want to die, but it’s not a given. There is no certainty, Mark. You can live. We can live. Understand? But you have to want it. Suzy is suffering right now, but she’ll pull through. She can’t see much of a future I suppose. She’s thinking about the here and now. But I’m not giving up. The Grave hasn’t beaten us yet.”
