The Zombie Proof Fence

by Tony Thomas

  As they walked up to the lobby doors, they were surprised when they didn’t open. There was a security guard inside the door. Mick tapped on the glass and called out, ‘Can you let us in? We’re guests here.’

  The guard came over to the door. ‘Show Hotel Key Please,’ he called.

  The four Australians searched their pockets and pulled out their keys. The guard then pointed to a door to the side of the lobby where he let them in.

  ‘Thanks, mate,’ Chris said, as they came in. ‘Why the shut down?’

  The guard looked uncomfortable before replying, ‘There is some trouble in the city. The police advised us to lock down the hotel.’

  ‘Do you know what kind of trouble?’ Lara asked.

  ‘Sorry, that’s all I know. You should go to your room now,’ the security guard nodded and then walked back to his post by the main entrance.

  ‘Hmm,’ Lincoln said, ‘This doesn’t sound good to me. Let’s sit and plan a little before we go to our rooms.’

  Mick looked across the lobby, ‘It looks like they’ve already closed the bar. Must have happened as soon as we walked out for it to be empty already.’

  Lincoln said, ‘Bugger it. Come up to my room. We can talk there.’

  The lobby was virtually empty as they walked across it. The link passage to the shopping centre had been blocked with a heavy metal grille. It looked like all the doors were locked. The restaurant and bars were closed and there were few people in the lobby. It was not all that surprising given the time; however, normally there were always a dozen people in the lobby, coming or going.

  A lift was waiting and it quickly took them to the thirty-fourth floor. Lincoln guided them to his room and let them in. He had been upgraded to a suite on his arrival. The room was as big as an apartment, with a lounge and dining area, as well as separate bedroom. Lara and Chris took the lounge. Mick sat on the desk chair. Lincoln grabbed four beers from the mini-bar and handed one to each of them before pulling a chair from his table and sitting.

  ‘So. . .’ Lincoln began.

  ‘How about we get a news update before we do anything?’ Mick said. ‘I haven’t really seen any of this so far, I’ve just heard what you’ve told me.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ Lincoln said, picking up the remote from the table and turning on the TV. He quickly changed to the Australia Network. ‘I don’t think it’s going to take long to get a report.’

  As Lincoln predicted, the news was still focussed on the violence spreading through the world. The restrictions imposed by the Australian Government were repeated, and then the newsreader started listing the countries that had also imposed quarantines and curfews. Every Western country was listed. Most of Europe had issued a lockdown. As the list went on and on, it appeared that the only countries that had not instituted martial law or a curfew were the countries in Africa and Asia that rarely did anything openly or honestly.

  ‘Fuck me,’ Mick said. ‘I thought you were exaggerating.’

  ‘It looks like it’s gone completely global now,’ Chris observed, in the calm tones of the truly shocked.

  Lincoln changed to CNN Asia, ‘Maybe there’s some local news,’ he said.

  The CNN desk was following outbreaks of violence across the United States. It seemed like every city had erupted into riots. It was a wonder the news was still broadcasting. The current story was from a roving camera crew, they looked like they were filming from inside a van. The commentary was panicked and fragmented

  ‘My God! That woman is attacking the policeman.’

  The video showed a woman in a business suit running towards a cop. The cop looked like he didn’t know which way to turn—he started to draw his nightstick as the woman leapt at him.

  ‘It looks like she’s trying to bite him!’

  It did indeed look like the woman was trying to bite the cop. She kept lunging towards him as he held her back with his nightstick. The cop took a step back and tripped on the gutter. As he fell, he managed to twist and roll to the side so the woman fell beside him rather than on him. He sprang up quickly and raised his nightstick. The woman sprang into a crouch and then lunged at the cop. He was ready this time and brought the nightstick down on her shoulder as she approached. She collapsed but again reached for the cop. As he drew his nightstick back for another blow, she latched on to his ankle.

  ‘Oh my god! She’s bitten a piece out of his ankle.’

  ‘Can you believe this?’ Chris asked.

  The cop struck the woman hard in the head, and she dropped like a stone. He staggered back a step, taking a deep breath and looking around. As he turned back towards the woman, pulling his handcuffs from his belt pouch, two men started running towards him from a side street. He bent to grab one of the woman’s wrists just as the first man crashed into him, knocking him to the ground.

  ‘He’s being attacked by two more men. We’ve got to help him!’ the reporter yelled. The camera jerked in a fast pan to the reporter as he opened the door of the van.

  ‘Are you nuts?’ said a voice from off-camera.

  The reporter didn’t look back as he jumped out the door.

  ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ the off-camera voice asked.

  The reporter ran forward and disappeared from view. The camera shook and then appeared to be placed on the floor of the van. They saw the door shut and then the shot refocussed on the reporter running to help the policeman.

  ‘Ballsy reporter,’ Mick said, ‘that’s not a fight I’d run towards.’

  The policeman was now curled in a ball on the ground, with both of the men on top of him, beating him. The woman slowly sat up, rolled onto her knees, and began clawing and scratching at the policeman.

  ‘Jesus wept,’ said Lincoln. ‘Do you think that woman was dead and got back up?’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Chris said. ‘She was probably just stunned. I can’t believe the reporter was stupid enough to run into that.’

  As the reporter approached, he was yelling something that couldn’t be heard. The three attackers turned, looked at him, and then almost as one forgot the cop, climbed to their feet and started running towards the reporter. The reporter stopped, as if realising the danger at last, then turned to run back towards the camera. He had taken only two steps before being tackled to the ground.

  ‘Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,’ the cameraman was droning.

  At that moment the scene cut to the studio anchor. After a moment of obvious confusion, the anchor shuffled some papers and said, ‘Some truly shocking footage.’ She again shuffled papers uncomfortably before saying ‘We now cross to Atlanta for the latest headlines.’

  A scroll banner started to flow across the bottom of the screen. It started with ‘SINGAPORE UPDATE.’

  ‘We better watch this,’ Lara said.

  The scroll continued. ‘MARTIAL LAW DECLARED IN SINGAPORE. QUARANTINE DECLARED. CURFEW DECLARED. ANY PERSONS ON STREETS AFTER 4AM WILL BE DETAINED. STAY INDOORS. LISTEN TO TV OR RADIO FOR FURTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS.’

  ‘That was short and to the point,’ Lincoln said. At that moment, all four of them received a text message. Quickly looking at his phone, Lincoln said, ‘Wow, that’s a neat trick. The same message sent as a text—did you guys get the same thing?’

  All four of them had received the text at the same time.

  ‘It’s going to get pretty interesting around here I think,’ Chris said, in what must have been the understatement of the century.

  04:30 AEST: Sydney

  As Rita hung up the phone and sat, stunned, Brick leapt into action. ‘We need to get out of here,’ he said.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Rita replied.

  ‘I mean, things are going to get pretty bad here before they get better. If nothing else there’s gonna be a panic, food will run short if no one can go to work, you name it. I think we should head down to Robby’s farm.’ Robby was Brick’s cousin. He lived on a property at Rocky Hall, near Eden in Southern New South Wales. It was a six and a half ho
ur drive to get there.

  ‘Are you serious? There’s a curfew starting at 6 a.m.’

  ‘I know, that’s why we have to pack and leave as soon as we can. If we’re on the road, they won’t be turning us back.’ Brick walked out of the room calling back, ‘I’ll get the car and trailer ready—you get started on packing. We’re leaving no later than five thirty.’

  Rita was gob-smacked. There was no arguing with Brick when he was like this. She just hoped that she could pack a reasonable amount of gear in enough time. First things first, she had to wake up the kids. Max would love the idea. He enjoyed time with his cousins and was happy to miss school. Sharn might be a bit trickier. There were no other girls at the farm and she usually didn’t enjoy it all that much.

  Brick went straight to the garage, he backed out the Forrester, did a quick turn on the street, and reversed back into the yard to connect it to the camper trailer. He had been unsure about buying the trailer, but it had proved a real winner. They had taken a four-week camping trip earlier in the year and it had really worked well. They could set up camp in less than ten minutes and could carry a tinny on the roof of either the car or the trailer, so it made fishing holidays work as well. Best of all—they kept all the camping gear in the trailer—so it took next to no time to get ready to be on the road. Brick figured that it might be better to leave the boat at home this time. He checked the connections and then filled his two water tanks.

  He then went into his garage, grabbed a stack of plastic crates that they used for food when camping, and headed back into the house.

  ‘How’s it going, darl?’ Brick bellowed, as he walked back in the door. He knew he would need to hurry Rita along, normally they took the best part of a day to pack and there was no way they could afford to take that long.

  Rita had just finished waking both kids and was struggling to get them to understand they needed to pack for a surprise ‘holiday’. She walked into the kitchen to find Brick emptying the pantry into plastic crates. ‘I can do that Brick,’ she said.

  ‘No, you’ve got half an hour to get clothes packed. You know you need longer than that. Just go get packed, okay?’

  This level of reasonable was so out of the ordinary for Brick that Rita just numbly agreed, ‘Yep, okay.’ She went into the bedroom and started to grab clothes. Brick being reasonable made her nervous. The last time she had seen him this calm and controlled was when they had been forced to evacuate from a campsite because a bushfire was threatening. Normally, he was a bit manic. It made him a lot of fun to be around, but she knew it bothered her sister and Dan. A calm Brick made Rita nervous.

  It took Brick another five minutes to fill the crates. There was no kind of order but he figured that they could sort things out later. He took the first crate out to the trailer and stacked it in the food compartment. Feeling the pressure of time, he grabbed his big Esky and went back into the kitchen to empty the fridge. As he walked into the house he called, ‘Max and Sharn, can you come into the kitchen please?’

  He put the Esky down next to the fridge, just as the kids came in. ‘Did Mum tell you we’re going down to Uncle Robbie’s?’

  Sharn answered, ‘Yes, but I have a party I’m sup. . .’

  ‘Did Mum tell you why we were going?’ Brick interrupted.

  ‘Sort of, but. . .’

  ‘Something bad is happening,’ Brick said. ‘I think we might be away for a long time. I need you to pack anything you can’t live without, and I need you to do it fast. That means clothes, phones, iPods, laptops, or whatever. You got it?’

  Sharn and Max looked shell shocked. Max said, ‘What’s going on, Dad?’

  ‘We don’t have time to talk about it now,’ Brick said. ‘Can you please get packed as quick as you can? We need to leave here by half past five and it’s already almost ten to. Anything you haven’t packed gets left behind and you might not ever see it again. Hurry up please.’

  Sharn and Max raced off into their rooms and started piling clothes, toys, and gadgets into their bags. They knew that when their Dad was calm and spoke slowly that something big was going on. When he said, ‘Please,’ it meant do it now and do it fast.

  Brick finished moving the contents of the fridge into the Esky and carried it out to the trailer. It all seemed pretty quiet, as he expected. He made two more trips loading crates of food into the trailer. As he finished loading them, he looked around again, it was still fairly dark and he felt like no one should be about, but he could sense something, he just couldn’t figure what it was.

  As he turned to go back into the house, he heard the sound of running feet. ‘Early for a jogger,’ he thought. He turned and just caught a glimpse in the streetlight as one of the Grange’s teenage boys sprinted past. A moment later, a man and woman he didn’t recognise flashed past as well, it looked like they were chasing the teenager. While Brick knew that the Grange boys were often out late and played up a fair bit, he thought something seemed really wrong. He quickly ducked back into the house, locking the door on the way in.

  He walked into the bedroom. ‘I think we’ve got a problem Rita,’ he said, closing the door.

  ‘What happened?’ she asked.

  ‘I just saw Nick Grange being chased down the road. I don’t know if it’s related but I think we need to be really careful.’

  ‘Oh no!’ Rita gasped. ‘You think it’s happening here already? Do you think it’s safe?’

  ‘I don’t know, but we have to assume it is here and we’re not safe. I think what we need to do is get everything packed as fast as we can. We’ve really only got clothes and sleeping bags to go. We can load the car up in no time. As soon as the kid’s bags are done, you and the kids can get in the car. I’ll lock up the house, jump in, and we can go. No one’s going to stop us once we get the car moving.’

  ‘You make it sound so easy, Brick. What if someone else is out there?’ Rita said.

  ‘We can look out the window before we go. It’ll be fine, don’t worry.’ Brick took the time to give Rita a quick hug, before starting to pack his own clothes. He’d never been much of a clothes horse. It took him only a few minutes to pack the clothes he figured he would need. He took his bag out to the front room and then went to check on Max.

  04:45 AEST: Sydney

  ‘Gen, I just saw Ian in NZ come online,’ Dan called, forgetting she had dozed off. ‘I’m going to Skype him.’

  It took only a few seconds to get through, although it was voice only.

  ‘Hey Dan, how you doing?’ Ian said.

  ‘Not so great, Ian, how’s things over there?’

  ‘Fine, mate, you’re up early, wet the bed or something?’

  Dan was surprised, normally Ian was sharp as a tack and right on top of current events. ‘What have you heard about these shutdowns and riots?’

  ‘The what?’

  Dan was amazed. ‘Have you seen any news today?’

  ‘No, why? Has something happened?’

  ‘Well yeah, Ian. Australia is in lockdown. They’ve closed all the airports, there’s a national curfew and things are going a little crazy.’

  ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’ Ian said.

  ‘Mate, there is a global plague happening. The Middle East has disintegrated. Europe is collapsing. The US has riots breaking out throughout the country. We’ve had some sort of incident at the airport. It seems like everything’s turning to custard.’

  ‘Are you taking the piss? I’ve just got out of bed turned on my PC. I’ve read maybe two emails and I haven’t heard crap about any of this.’

  ‘Ian, you aren’t going to believe this until you see some news, but it looks like the world is going to hell. Have a quick look at a news web site—there’s an email from Marcus Kopfer you should look at as well.’

  ‘Right-o, hang on a sec.’

  Dan heard some rapid key strokes. Three seconds later, he heard Ian saying ‘What the fuck?’ followed by some mouse clicks.

  ‘Pretty incredible eh?’ Dan said.<
br />
  ‘Is this everywhere?’ Ian asked.

  ‘So far as I can tell, it seems to be all over the place, you remember Piotr that ran the training in Melbourne last month?’

  ‘Yeah, sure, nice bloke. Just had a new baby.’

  ‘Well, I just talked to him on Skype. While I was on the phone to him, his neighbour that lives across the street had infected people dive through his window and attack him. Piotr is hiding in his upstairs rooms trying not be noticed.’

  ‘You’re kidding? Is he okay?’

  He was when I spoke to him a few minutes ago. I’m not sure how long that will last.’

  ‘What else have you heard?’

  ‘The late call I have with the global team got cancelled and Marcus shut down all offices and told everyone to go home. No one’s replied to any of my emails. Piotr told me that Munich was really bad. The news we’ve been getting here says that it’s happening pretty much everywhere. He said that he had heard it started in Pakistan and might have been biological warfare.’

  ‘No fucking way. That’s just nuts.’

  ‘Well, that’s what Piotr said.’

  ‘It’s not much of a weapon if you can’t aim it. That sounds like bullshit to me.’

  ‘I don’t know, the news had the British PM saying it started in the Middle East a few weeks ago—maybe it just got out of control.’

  ‘Maybe, but it could have just started there. Really, it’s beside the point at the moment. What did you say about a curfew and all that?’

  ‘The Australian Government declared a state of emergency. There’s a curfew and a quarantine. No one’s allowed on the streets today. The news said there had been one incident at the airport but that it was under control. A whole pile of countries have announced quarantines.’

  ‘Have you heard anything about New Zealand?’

  ‘Nothing on our news. The only report I saw with areas of infection had you guys as clear. The way this thing is spreading I doubt that will last.’

  ‘I’ll put the news on in a sec, but the NZ Herald web site doesn’t say anything about quarantine here—lots of reports of it happening in other places though. So have you been awake all night? It’s either really early or really late there now.’