Lockdown

by Stephen Lewis

  ‘I hear some of the older kids go out there to drink and make out. Is that true, Steph?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ she responded and looked out the window.

  ‘But they’re some of the kids in your grade. Your friends.’

  ‘I don’t have any friends,’ she replied softly, still looking out the window.

  ‘Sure you do...’ Nkata said.

  ‘Have you ever seen me with friends?’ she turned and looked at him.

  Nkata frowned as he thought.

  ‘Well, there’s...’ He trailed off realising he couldn’t think of a name.

  ‘Exactly. I haven’t had time for friends. I’m always studying or at athletics practice.’

  ‘What about the athletics team?’ I asked. ‘I’m sure you have friends there.’

  She glanced in the rearview mirror again. ‘Those girls are so competitive. There’s no desire to be friends.’

  ‘Oh,’ was all I could feebly say as we lapsed into silence.

  ***

  ‘Here we are,’ said Nkata, pulling over again, but this time keeping the tires from bouncing off the pavement.

  The security car was still parked with its headlights on, but they had dimmed as the battery was running out of power. To the left of it were the beginnings of a house being built. So far, the foundations were dug, and only a few walls had gone up. It looked very different from last night – it’s definitely less scary when you can see your environment.

  ‘I’m sure your Mom is close by.’ I put my hand on his shoulder.

  ‘Think there’s a zombie out there?’ asked Nkata.

  ‘I hope so.’ I never thought I would ever say that.

  ‘I don’t see anything,’ exclaimed Stephanie, turning her head from left to right.

  ‘Walter popped up from that long grass over there,’ I pointed.

  ‘And if one pops up again?’

  ‘We film it and run,’ I replied. ‘They are pretty slow. You saw the one at the gate. As long as we keep our distance, we can get what we need and get out of here fast.’

  ‘Easier said than done,’ said Stephanie and opened the passenger door.

  The grass was wet and dewy, and clung to my track pants as we slowly walked through it. We agreed to keep the talking to a minimum and fanned out roughly five metres apart – Stephanie was in the middle with Nkata and me on either side.

  I had my phone in my left hand ready to film any zombie we may find. In my right hand was the axe. I didn’t say it to Nkata, but I hoped if we did find a zombie, it wouldn’t be Walter. Seeing him the night before was frightening, like something from a nightmare you can’t wake up from.

  As we ventured through the field, we could see the back of another house still being built – behind it was a white sedan. I snapped my finger to get Nkata’s attention and pointed towards the car. From where we stopped, we were unable to see it from the road.

  ‘That’s my ma’s car,’ whispered Nkata.

  I nodded and gestured that we go in that direction. Still keeping our distance from each other, we approached the shell that would one day be a multi-bedroom mansion.

  ‘We have to split up,’ I whispered, analysing the structure and what was the best way to approach.

  I signalled Nkata to go around the front and indicated I would go around the back. Stephanie agreed she would go through the middle, which was nothing but a flat concrete foundation. I nodded and told her to keep alert.

  I took a deep breath – my heart was pounding, and I could feel it beating in my throat. I trotted around the back of the house. The wall had already been built and was easily two metres high, blocking my vision of the other two.

  Hopping over loose bricks, I could feel the sweat collecting on my forehead – and the sun wasn’t even properly in the sky yet. I took a wide berth and could see Nkata’s mom’s car... when I heard my name.

  ‘Lucas...’ It was soft and I wasn’t sure if I imagined it. I spun around, looking for the source, but couldn’t see anyone.

  ‘Lucas.’

  It was a whisper and sounded raspy. I took two steps forward before I saw the movement out of the corner of my eye. I jumped, and lifted the axe - then I saw the waving hand on the ground belonged to Nkata’s mother.

  ‘Mrs. Radebe!’ I whispered loudly and rushed towards her.

  She brought her finger up to her lips, urging me to keep quiet. I dropped to my knees where she lay. I instinctively grabbed her shoulders, wanting to help her stand.

  She winced and pointed to her leg. I looked down and saw she had fallen into the foundation and twisted her leg. It was swollen with shades of purple and red below the knee. I had seen enough of my dad’s medical journal to know it was broken. She grabbed the front of my hoodie and pulled me in close.

  ‘Tha... that thing is in there...’ her voice quivered, and she was cold to the touch from lying there all night in nothing but a dress and thin cardigan. ‘If I didn’t move it cou... couldn’t find me.’ She was shivering.

  ‘We’re going to get you home,’ I said, rubbing the top of her arm gently.

  ‘We?’

  ‘Nkata is with me.’

  Her eyes flashed with panic. ‘You find him Lucas, before that monster does.’

  I tried to stand, but her grip tightened around my wrist.

  ‘It’s here...’ she said, not whispering anymore.

  I turned my head and saw a figure emerge from behind the corner of the wall, only a few metres from us. I flinched and felt my phone drop out of my hand.

  It was the security guard Walter attacked last night. He looked like the other zombies – the same sunken, milky eyes and yellow gunk around his mouth.

  His neck was torn open where Walter bit him and the blood had streaked down his uniform and tactical vest. He walked slowly, his eyes focused on us, his boots shuffling in the dirt, kicking up loose stones as he moved forward.

  ‘Lucas run!’ Mrs. Radebe said, trying to push me away from where she was lying.

  ‘No, I’m not leaving you.’

  I stood up, feeling the panic set in when I saw how close the zombie was. I wanted to scream, but it felt like I had lost my voice. My hands were shaking, and I felt paralysed with fear.

  ‘RUN LUCAS!’ Mrs. Radebe screamed.

  There was a surge of adrenaline, and I swung the axe at the zombie. It groaned as the blade thudded against its shoulder, the momentum almost throwing me off balance. I felt the zombie’s cold grip on my shoulder. That’s when I let out a scream and swung wildly again with the axe.

  There was a cracking sound as the blade lodged in the zombie’s forehead. It didn’t make a sound and just stood there motionless, like someone had switched it off. I let go of the axe handle, and the zombie fell backwards onto the gravel, the yellow handle still protruding from its head. My legs lost their will to stand, and I fell to my knees.

  Stephanie appeared from around the house, then Nkata came running from the opposite direction.

  ‘Ma!’ Nkata called out and ran to where his mother lay.

  ‘Lucas, are you okay?’ Stephanie crouched next to me and put her hand on my back.

  I was just sitting there, staring at the dead zombie.

  ‘I killed it,’ I said, my hands trembling beside me.

  ‘Did you get the video?’ Stephanie asked her hand still on my back.

  I looked behind me where my phone lay on the ground.

  ‘No. Damnit...’ I cursed. ‘It all happened so fast. The zombie was suddenly there and I got a fright... I must have dropped it. Sorry... I was just so...’

  ‘It’s okay,’ she replied, rubbing my back. ‘We can take a picture of it now.’ She walked over and picked up my phone.

  ‘There’s no point. All we have is a photo of a body with an axe in its head. If anything, it’ll look like I k... killed some random person.’

  I choked on my words. Stephanie crouched in front of me.

  ‘Lucas... are you sure you’re okay?’

  My hands
were still trembling and it felt hard to breathe.

  ‘I’ve never killed anyone before.’ I looked over at the body, still lying motionless.

  Stephanie grabbed both my shoulders and looked into my eyes. Her eyes were blue with flecks of green I hadn’t noticed before.

  ‘Don’t fall apart on me, Boy Scout. That wasn’t a person. It was some sort of monster that was going to kill you.’

  ‘She’s right, Lucas.’ Mrs. Radebe looked over at me and smiled warmly. ‘You saved our lives.’

  In my mind, I knew she was right, but it didn’t feel like it.

  ‘Nkata, go get the car. I won’t be able to walk,’ Mrs. Radebe ordered and Nkata dashed off towards his dad’s car.

  Helping her snapped me out of it and I stood and started to look for something she could use to take the strain off her broken leg. Nearby was a pile of sticks that were used to mark out the foundation. I picked one up that was long enough to act as a cane and used my sleeve to clean it off and remove the plastic hazard tape that span between them.

  I gave it to Mrs. Radebe and she used it to support her weight as Stephanie and I helped lift her off the ground. She cried in pain a few times as we got her onto one foot, her weight supported by the stick. I crouched and looked at her leg – it looked really bad.

  ‘I’m pretty sure this is broken.’

  ‘I thought I was going to lie in that hole forever.’ Mrs. Radebe winced again as she shifted her weight. I took her arm and placed it around my shoulder, letting her put her weight on me. ‘Thank you, Lucas. Is your father home?’

  ‘He’s at the hospital,’ I replied. ‘But we’ll call him. What happened?’

  ‘After Nkata went on and on about Walter, I drove out here to look for him. I parked over there and as I was looking around, that thing came out and scared the daylights out of me. I dropped my phone and in the dark I fell into that hole and hurt my leg. I just lay still praying it wouldn’t find me. What was wrong with it?’

  ‘It was a zombie,’ I replied.

  ‘A zombie? Ha, Lucas! You guys watch too many movies.’ Despite what she witnessed, Mrs. Radebe seemed to reject the notion of the walking dead.

  ‘Did you see Walter?’ I asked.

  ‘No. It was dark. If he was here, I didn’t see him.’

  Nkata rounded the house in his dad’s car and pulled up as close to us as he could. He took the sheets from last night, and we wrapped it around his mother to help her get warm.

  We helped Mrs. Radebe into a reclined front seat, keeping her broken leg straight. It was agreed to leave her car at the site and collect it later. Before I got in the back, Nkata leaned over his mother and shouted from the front seat.

  ‘Brah! My dad’s axe.’

  ‘Really?’ I replied, shooting him a look of disbelief.

  ‘He’ll tear us a new one if we lose it.’

  I sighed and walked back towards the zombie’s body.

  I stopped, looking at it as if it would suddenly sit up again. But the axe was firmly embedded in its skull – that’s how you kill a zombie, right? Destroy the brain, and it's dead... I hope.

  Taking a deep breath, I took another step forward and grabbed the axe handle. I could feel it was stuck, so I put my foot on the zombie’s chest and pulled.

  There was a soft cracking sound as it came loose. From the gash, a creamy-yellow pus started to ooze out.

  It smelt ten times worse than Walter’s sheets.

  Covering my nose, I backed away, watching the pus slowly secrete from the gash in its skull. Turning around, I got in the back seat and we drove back to Nkata’s house.

  ENTRY 9

  We got Mrs. Radebe home and put her in her bed. Being the son of a doctor, everyone looked to me to know what to do. We elevated her broken leg, put on an ice pack, and I made a splint using some wood from the garage, and bandages from their first aid kit.

  ‘You’ll call your father?’ Mrs. Radebe asked for about the tenth time, squeezing my hand.

  ‘Yes.’ I felt bad about lying. Well, technically, I wasn’t lying. I just wasn’t going to call my father until we got our zombie footage.

  She took a handful of painkillers and passed out from a combination of fatigue and pain. We closed the bedroom door and sat back down in the lounge.

  Stephanie handed me another glass of cola, which seemed to be the cure for zombie encounters. I didn’t realise how thirsty I was and gulped down the sugary drink, then asked for another.

  ‘What now?’ Nkata finally asked, lying flat on the couch, looking up at the ceiling.

  ‘Well, we found your mom, so that was a win. But we didn’t get the video.’ I paused. ‘Sorry guys, that was my fault.’

  ‘No big deal. You killed a zombie, brah.’ Nkata made it sound like an amazing accomplishment.

  I looked down at my hands again – the trembling had stopped, but there was still a hollowness in the pit of my stomach.

  ‘We just need to go back down to the gate and film the guard we saw earlier,’ suggested Stephanie as she handed me the second glass of cola. ‘He couldn’t have wandered too far. You saw how slow those things move.’

  ‘Let’s hope it didn’t attack anyone else,’ I mused.

  ‘At least people are staying indoors,’ Stephanie said.

  ‘Most of us.’ I shot her a look, and she stuck her tongue out at me.

  But she was right. During the lockdown everyone was staying indoors, so if there was a zombie security guard wandering the streets, hopefully no one would see. Plus, Walter was out there somewhere. The quicker we could send my dad the video, the quicker he could send help and this could all be over.

  ‘Sounds like a plan,’ agreed Nkata, sitting up. ‘Let’s get this over with. I prefer my zombies in video games.’

  I nodded and drained the rest of my glass of cola.

  ***

  The neighbourhood was still quiet. It seems like everyone liked to sleep late during the lockdown, no doubt binge-watching shows until the early hours. At least that worked in our favour. As we slowly took a corner, something flashed in the corner of my eye.

  ‘Stop.’ I said.

  Nkata stepped on the brakes too hard, and we all lurched forward, the seatbelt tightening across my chest.

  ‘What? Did you see a zombie?’ Stephanie asked looking around through all the windows

  ‘No, I saw something... a flash.’ As I said it, it happened again to my right. It was a set of headlights in an open garage.

  ‘Over there.’ As I pointed, the lights flashed again in two quick bursts.

  Nkata reversed a few metres and we got out the car, leaving it in the road, blocking the driveway. As we got out, the lights flashed furiously. We stopped in our tracks and stared at the car, not sure what was going on. The window on the driver’s side slid down and a voice whispered loudly.

  ‘Look out! It’s out there!’

  Looking around, we saw nothing but empty streets and once perfectly manicured lawns that were a week past being mowed.

  ‘Think he saw the zombie?’ Stephanie asked, clutching her rock pick and still looking around nervously.

  ‘Only one way to find out,’ I said and started walking towards the open garage. As I got closer, I noticed blood smears and handprints on the bonnet and window of the silver hatchback. There were also dirty smudges on the driver’s side window and a smell I was becoming all too familiar with.

  ‘A zombie was here,’ I said, slowing my stride and carefully looking down both sides of the car as we got closer.

  The head popped out of the window again. ‘You don’t understand. There is something very dangerous out there. Run!’

  ‘A zombie. We know brah,’ said Nkata.

  ‘You saw it?’ the voice asked surprised.

  ‘Which one?’ asked Stephanie.

  ‘There’s more than one?’ I could see a man in the car now as he swore several times and gripped the steering wheel.

  ‘What happened?’ I asked, holding the axe tightly and
still looking around for the zombie.

  ‘I was getting ready to leave, and when the garage door opened there was someone... or something, in a security uniform in front of the door! It was a zombie, man. The blood around the mouth, the rickety walk and everything.’

  ‘Where did it go?’ I asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ he replied.

  ‘How so?’

  There was a brief silence.

  ‘I fainted,’ he said sheepishly. ‘When I came to, I saw your car and that’s when I tried to warn you.’

  The car door opened and he stepped out. He was tall – easily 1,8 metres, with round glasses, shaggy black hair and thick beard without a moustache. He was wearing loose jeans and sneakers, and his black golf shirt pulled tight across his stomach. Embroidered on the chest were the letters IT in white. He paused when he noticed our weapons and raised his hands.

  ‘You guys part of some sort of gang? Are you going to rob me?’

  I lowered my axe and he relaxed immediately.

  ‘I need a drink.’ He swore more about zombies and walked towards an interleading door. He pushed a red button on the wall and the garage door started tilting closed.

  ‘If this guy tries to kidnap us...’ Stephanie muttered and looking at me as we followed the man through the door.

  He was standing in his kitchen, pouring something into a glass from a bottle with a pirate on the front. Was that rum?

  ‘I’d offer you a drink, but you don’t even look old enough to drive.’

  ‘I have my learners,’ Stephanie replied, as he gulped the drink and poured another.

  ‘My name is Freddy.’ He toasted us with his glass and poured the dark liquid down his throat.

  ‘Not used to drinking this early,’ he wheezed.

  We introduced ourselves as he screwed the cap back on the bottle. I looked around his house – it was sparsely decorated, but very high tech: 80-inch curved television, state of the art sound system and a full set up to stream and download music and movies.

  Along the back wall was a workstation with four computer screens and a keyboard and mouse that had red lights glowing between the keys and buttons. There were computer parts, hard drives, and tools neatly laid out on a rubber mat. Then to contrast everything, there was a suit of armour standing in the corner. Random!