The Zombie Proof Fence

by Tony Thomas

  The monitor camera was mounted above and to the side of the front door. It was aimed down towards the front porch and gave a profile view of anyone standing on the porch. The fisheye lens gave some peripheral view of the path and his driveway but really did not show much of the yard or street. Dan checked the monitor, knowing the view was limited but hopeful that it might show him more than just the front porch. He could see part of his driveway, but there was no view of the street. He went to his bedroom and tried looking out the top of the window on tip toe before conceding that the only way he could see the street was if he walked down his driveway, it was not something he really wanted to do.

  Dan walked back into the lounge and said, ‘Gen, I can’t see the road from inside. I can walk out to the road. . .’

  ‘No way, Dan,’ Gen interrupted. ‘Not after what happened last time.’

  ‘Or I can adjust the monitor camera. How about you come and stand guard while I do it? You can warn me if you see anyone and save me ducking backwards and forward looking at the monitor.’

  ‘Alright, that makes more sense,’ Gen said, she turned to look at Joanne. ‘Will you be okay on your own for a few minutes, Jo?’

  ‘I’m okay now, I think.’ Joanne still looked shell shocked, but she was no longer sobbing or shaking.

  Dan took a long look through the monitor. The people he had seen earlier were nowhere in sight. He cautiously opened the front door and looked through the security grille. There was still no one in sight. He unlocked the grille and propped it open with a chair. Then he carefully climbed onto the chair and adjusted the camera so it was pointing horizontally.

  ‘How’s that, Gen?’ Dan asked, glad that he didn’t need to yell. He looked back towards the street, still worried someone might see or hear him.

  Gen quickly ducked back inside, had a quick look at the monitor, and came back to the door. ‘It looks pretty good to me. You can see all the way to the fence and the street above it. The top of the picture has part of the eaves so I don’t think it will get any better.’

  Relieved, Dan climbed off the chair, picked it up, and walked back inside. He caught the security grille before it slammed and quietly closed and locked it before shutting the front door and checking the security monitor.

  ‘Wow—got it right first go,’ he said. The view was about as good as it could be. The top of the frame had a touch of eaves as Gen had said. The frame showed the entire driveway, most of the front fence including the gate, a partial view of the street, and almost all of the front yard.

  ‘I’m going to stay here and keep an eye out for the army.’

  ‘Okay, Dan, I’ll go check on Jo.’

  Dan didn’t have long to wait. Almost as soon as Gen had walked back into the kitchen, he saw a large green truck drive past his driveway and heard the sound of brakes squeaking as it stopped in front of Joanne’s house.

  Dan opened his door. As he went to unlock the security screen, he heard boots hit the ground. A man’s voice called ‘Halt! Don’t move any closer.’ A guttural cry rang out followed by the sounds of running feet. ‘I said don’t move, dammit!’ The feet kept running. ‘Oh fuck,’ said the voice. There was a loud crack followed by the sound of a scuffle. A scream was cut short and became muffled. Dan then heard a calm voice say, ‘That’s got him, you all right, Luke?’

  ‘I’d be a lot better if we could just shoot the buggers, sir.’

  ‘I know, me too. Tying them up like this isn’t going to work forever.’

  ‘Bloody hell’ Dan thought. Now he didn’t know what to do. He dithered for a few moments and then decided that no matter what, he had to see what was happening. He unlocked the security door. Looking around, he opened and carefully closed it after him. As he shut it, Gen came up.

  ‘Was that a gun firing?’ she asked.

  ‘I’m not sure. I heard someone telling someone else to halt. Then I heard some running, another order to stop and then that cracking noise. Then there was a scuffle and they talked about tying someone up. They wouldn’t tie up someone they shot would they?’

  ‘I don’t know, why are you going out there?’

  ‘Well, I don’t know how else to find out what’s going on. If he tells me to halt I’ll damn well do it.’

  Gen looked at Dan. ‘I suppose so, just be as careful as you can, okay?’

  ‘Yeah, okay.’

  Dan walked quickly to the gate. As he got there, he saw the military truck parked in front of Joanne’s driveway. Two soldiers carrying rifles were standing next to a man lying on the ground about 3 metres behind the truck. He was gagged and his ankles and feet were strapped together with plastic cable ties. Another two armed soldiers were standing near the front of the truck. Dan cleared his throat.

  The four soldiers turned, aiming their rifles at Dan.

  Dan lifted his hands above his head. ‘It’s okay, I’m not sick,’ Dan said.

  ‘Return to your home sir,’ the closest soldier said.

  ‘Okay’, Dan said, ‘but can I just ask—are you here for Joanne Spencer?’

  A soldier with two stripes on his sleeve walked from the front of the truck. ‘Stand down fellas,’ he said to the soldiers. He turned to Dan. ‘Can I ask your name please, sir?’

  ‘Dan Mayer, I live here.’

  ‘Why do you ask about Mrs Spencer?’

  ‘She’s in my home. Her husband went crazy and tried to kill her. She left him locked in the house.’

  ‘Was she injured? Is she showing any signs of infection?’

  ‘No, she seems fine, apart from being shocked. Can you tell me what’s happening?’

  ‘I advise you to watch the TV and listen to the radio. We have orders to enforce the curfew. We’re just here to pick up Mr Spencer and anyone in his household showing signs of infection.’

  ‘You’re not killing them? I thought I heard a gunshot.’

  ‘No sir. That was a Taser. We are authorised to protect ourselves if necessary, but we’re just collecting people who are infected and taking them for treatment.’

  ‘From what we’ve seen and heard on the news, there is no treatment.’

  ‘Those are our orders. Now, do you know anything that might help us capture Mr Spencer safely? The house layout, that kind of thing?’

  ‘Uh, okay, well Jo said he was in the kitchen last she saw him. If you go in the front door, it’s down a hall and the second door on your right. I hope you can take him without hurting him.’

  ‘We’ll do everything we can,’ the corporal said. He turned to his soldiers, ‘Dave, Johnno—put our new friend in the truck.’ Two soldiers brought a stretcher from the rear of the truck. They carefully placed the man onto the stretcher, and then zip-tied him to it. Dan noticed they were wearing gloves. Even though the man kept struggling, the soldiers were calmly efficient as they carried him to the tailgate. A pair of hands reached out from behind the canvas flap and helped drag the stretcher into the rear bay.

  The man continued to writhe and groan as he was moved into the truck, but his cries where muffled by the gag the soldiers had used. His entry seemed to trigger a bout of other cries from inside the truck. Another two soldiers jumped from the rear bay.

  Before Dan could say anything, the corporal looked at him and said, ‘You should return to your home. Please advise Mrs Spencer that she will be able to return to her home after we leave. We’ll take it from here. Luke, please escort Mr Mayer to his home.’

  The corporal nodded to Dan, turned, and gathered his soldiers with a glance as he walked towards the front of the Spencer’s house. ‘Fitzy, when Luke gets back, you both stand guard on the truck. We should be pretty quick.’

  Dan watched the six armed men move towards Jo’s house. They stopped in her front yard and seemed to be discussing how they would approach the Spencer’s house. A soldier walked with him towards his house. As they turned into Dan’s driveway and were out of sight of the corporal, the soldier held out his hand and said, ‘Luke. Thanks for telling us that Mr Spencer is on t
he loose.’

  Dan shook the soldier’s hand and said, ‘Dan. No worries, you guys look like you have it all under control anyway.’

  ‘I’m not so sure of that,’ Luke said. ‘I think it would be a good idea if you shut your gate. You have a pretty solid fence and it should keep people out.’

  ‘Do you really think we need to worry about it?’ Dan asked, turning to look at his fence and gate.

  ‘Sir, this is going to get worse before it gets better. We caught three crazies on the way here, and then the one just now. It’s not even close to being under control. You need to lock yourself in and rely on your fence to keep the infected people away from you.’

  Dan stopped and looked at the soldier. ‘It can’t be that bad already?’

  ‘The orders we got said to come out and pick up a single infected person. We didn’t expect to see anyone apart from him. The first time someone ran at the truck we didn’t even know it was someone sick until they tried to attack us. We collected that guy and then another man and woman on the way here. This bloke makes it four when we expected none. You should try to keep yourself out of sight until it’s under control, if we can get it under control.’

  ‘Have you heard anything about other places?’ Dan asked.

  ‘No—we got mobilised at about 3 a.m. We’d only heard the public announcements before we got orders to do pickups. This was our first run. What have you heard?’

  Dan stopped as he got to his gate. ‘Luke, this thing is just about everywhere. It sounds like it’s out of control in the US and Europe. I just spoke to a mate in Poland and he saw an attack across the street from him. There was an attack here earlier this morning we reported to the police. We haven’t heard from them yet.’

  ‘There was an attack here? On the street?’

  ‘Yeah, just after 6 a.m. We reported it straightaway.’

  ‘Shit. You should lock your gate and secure your house. Stay inside. I’m going to talk to the corporal, I think this area might be really unsafe.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘We hadn’t seen anything on the drive from the barracks, it was only in the last few hundred metres we ran into the ones in the truck. Look, I need to go talk to the corporal now, you should shut down and hold tight.’

  ‘Okay, thanks Luke. You take care.’

  The soldier turned and held up his rifle, ‘At least I can defend myself. Let’s hope it doesn’t get that bad.’ He walked back towards the truck and called out, ‘Hey Corp, there’s something you should know.’

  The corporal indicated that his men should hold position and walked back to Luke as Dan walked down his driveway.

  Dan unlatched the gate from the bolt holding it open. It screeched as he swung it closed. The latch had a heavy dual-bolt mechanism—it was one of the reasons that they rarely closed it. The gate was made with a heavy steel frame with light steel bracing, and blanked out with welded steel panels. Dan couldn’t imagine any way to force it open short of driving a heavy truck through it.

  Dan and Gen had laughed at how paranoid the previous owner must have been to spend so much money on gates and fences. As Dan walked to the front door, he looked back at the fences and gate and thought that maybe the previous owner hadn’t been paranoid enough.

  05:00 SST (07:00 AEST): Singapore

  ‘Uli, thanks for calling me back, have you seen the news now?’ Mick said, as he answered his phone. He listened for a moment and then said. ‘Hold on a second, mate. I’m going to put you on speaker. I’m in a room with Lara, Linc, and Chris.’

  Mick pressed the speaker button as he put the phone on the table. ‘Can you hear me okay, Uli?’

  The voice coming from the phone was clear but heavily accented. ‘Yes, we can hear you. Stefan is now in my room with me.’

  Lara and Lincoln shared a look. ‘Really glad to hear that guys,’ Lara said. ‘You’re in the Pan Pacific, right?’

  ‘Yes, we are in the Pan Pacific, in Uli’s room,’ Stefan replied. ‘We were surprised by the news and messages from the government. We have not been downstairs but when I came to Uli’s room, I looked over the balcony into the lobby and it seemed completely calm. Do you want us to come to your hotel?’

  ‘Fuck no!’ Mick said. ‘We’re watching Boat Quay burn out the window right now. We’ve been watching riots and seen a guy attacked. There’s even some of these crazy bastards running around in the hotel. You definitely don’t want to come over here.’

  ‘Mick—you are talking truth?’ Uli asked. ‘It is not one of your jokes?’

  Lincoln spoke up, ‘Uli, if you have seen the news, you know Mick isn’t taking the piss. It is extremely bad over here. We are all in my room and are waiting to see if things calm down. We’re pretty sure there are sick people in our hotel. We’ve had the news on and have no idea what to do next.’

  ‘What about your flights?’ Stefan asked.

  ‘All cancelled,’ Chris said. ‘We tried to get other flights but no joy. I think we’re stuck here for some time.

  ‘We have not heard from Lufthansa, so our flights might still be good,’ Uli said.

  ‘I don’t think so Uli,’ said Lincoln. ‘Singapore airport is closed. You won’t be flying anywhere soon.’

  ‘You said you have seen riots and attacks from your window?’ Stefan asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Lara said. ‘I saw an army jeep get overrun. The soldiers were infected and then joined the mob. We all saw another man running from a pack of infected people before he was attacked. The really scary thing was that they seem to be hunting for more victims.’

  ‘Hunting for victims?’ Stefan asked.

  ‘Yes, it seemed like that,’ Lara said. ‘The big group that was in Boat Quay chased an army truck. When it got away, they started splitting up and trying to get into buildings. We saw them chase someone down and attack him. I think they’re hunting.’

  ‘Lara’s right,’ Chris said. ‘They definitely looked like they were searching for more people to attack.’

  ‘It is calm here, do you want to come to our hotel?’ Uli asked.

  ‘I don’t think we can make it,’ Lincoln said. ‘The streets near us are crowded with sick people. The only way to get there is on foot and it doesn’t look real safe.’

  ‘Linc’s right,’ Chris said. ‘We’re here for the duration. I reckon we should block up the door and try to get some sleep while we’re still safe.’

  ‘Okay my friends,’ Stefan said. ‘Call us if you change your plans.’

  As they exchanged goodbyes, Lara walked to the door of the room and looked through the peephole. The fisheye lens gave a somewhat distorted view of the immediate surrounds of the door. No one was in view, much to Lara’s relief.

  07:00 AEST: BA275

  Theresa had checked on Karen half an hour after the incident, and then again after a further fifteen minutes. Karen had told her not to worry. She said that she had taken some sleeping pills and would be fine. Twenty minutes later, Karen was fast asleep. As Theresa walked past her, she noticed she was tossing and turning in her sleep. ‘Hardly surprising,’ she thought, and continued to the galley. William was preparing a snack for another passenger.

  ‘Hey Will, I just checked on Mrs Gould. She’s fast asleep.’

  ‘That’s good. Poor thing, what a horrible experience!’

  ‘She was tossing and turning a bit when I went past—I guess she might have been having a bit of a nightmare.’

  ‘To be expected, I suppose. I’ve just got to drop this to Mr Davies. I’ll check on her on the way back.’ William stepped out of the galley and walked towards the front of the upper deck.

  Theresa ran through the checklist – normally it would have been time to for a rest period – the unscheduled stop had really played havoc with the normal processes. She decided to work backwards from the estimated time of arrival. Theresa figured it would be about six hours until arrival, which meant it was still the rest period. As she started a perfunctory tidy-up of the already spotless galley, sh
e heard shouts coming from the cabin. ‘Not again,’ Theresa muttered as she rushed into the aisle.

  Mrs Gould had returned to her original seat after John McCormack had been removed from the flight. She had settled in comfortably and the empty seat next to her had made it easier for the flight attendants to take care of her. William was leaning in over the empty seat next to Mrs Gould. He seemed to be off balance and looked like he was struggling in some way. Theresa moved quickly up the aisle. She wasn’t quite running but was moving fast and quickly reached William.

  To Theresa’s horror, she could see that William was struggling to pull himself away from Karen Gould. Karen had her left hand hooked around William’s neck and Theresa could see Karen’s right hand raking at William’s face. William was struggling to get away. He was clearly trying to avoid hurting Mrs Gould but could not easily pull back.

  Theresa helped William to pull away and he twisted and broke free. He had blood streaming down his cheek, and staggered backwards, stumbling into the passenger seat opposite. Theresa rushed forward to help him and was shocked to see that Mrs Gould was thrashing in her seat in much the same way as Mr McCormack had done before they put him off the flight. Her seat belt was the only thing holding her back, and she seemed completely unaware of it.

  Theresa turned back to William, he had regained his feet but was looking pale and disconnected. He held his hand to his face and had blood streaming through his fingers. Theresa assumed he was going into shock. She took him by the arm and led him back to the crew seat in the rear of the top deck. William seemed to be almost comatose. Theresa sat him in the seat, fastened his seat belt, and went to get the first aid kit from the galley.

  Most of the people in the upper deck seemed to be either asleep or engrossed in their entertainment systems. The whole incident had passed with very little passenger reaction. None of the passengers had stood or looked around. Even the passenger William had fallen on had barely noticed, and gone straight back to watching his movie. Theresa could hear Mrs Gould’s moans and cries as she walked back into the aisle. She was amazed there was no reaction from anyone else in the cabin.