Authors: L A Taylor
FORTY-FOUR
Kevin was overcome with shattered emotion, keeping his distance as the two medics performed the task of bagging one of his academy friends. Mike watched one of the men scrape up the chewed remains of the decapitated head before placing it inside the darkened material, and finally, ensuring the rest of the body followed suit.
The chief sensed rustling in the air around him, but there was no wind at this time. He held out a hand to touch the atmosphere. The coldness of the invisible wind blew through his skin, flesh and bones until it finally escaped out the other end. For that split second Mike imagined the ice-cold blast freezing his fingers together as the vision of George returned to haunt him. That feeling of an old man who’d lost his life and was stuck in limbo, soul searching for a new home, was back. Somehow, it became as clear as daylight. This was a sign from George, and maybe this coldness had come to guide the men to the dismembered, old recruit.
Mike glanced over at the sad figure that’d ticked all the right boxes in the performance department. “Kevin, are you okay?”
Even though the younger member of the group was at his final stages of normality, his mind remained in touch with what was going on around him. “I’m still here. I’m still standing, so they say.” Kevin turned, giving the body-bag one tearful glance before retracing his movements to focus on Mike again. “I’ll miss him.”
“I know you will. I never really knew him, but I bet he was a fine cadet.” After a short but needed sigh, Mike spoke again. “We must go and look for George now.”
“Shall I tell the medics what we’re doing?”
A quick nod of the chief’s head and the cadet made his way over to the other men.
That cold feeling swirled around Mike again and tugged at his clothing. The invisible unknown wanted him, needed him to search for George. Nobody else was aware of the strange sensation and so Mike couldn’t let it slip, nor would he want to anyway.
Kevin had a rough idea where the body was, but the chief was reluctant to follow him. Somehow, this unseen ghost was going to be his guide. Whatever direction the cold wind blew was the way they were going.
Shane and Todd had been busy recently, so had decided not to evacuate the area after all. The reporters had been racking their brains for versions of events. A lot had been said, but who knew how much had been believed? But what a story this was going to be for the tabloids.
Chris had been given the go ahead to do another television bulletin. Now everyone was going to know about these freaks of nature. The word zombie had been around for many years, so to actually imagine seeing a real life zombie would be hard to believe, but not anymore. The world was going to be woken up today. If this could happen in a small town like Clifton Falls then what would happen if it escalated into larger areas, like the Cities? Or even the whole World?
The announcement was to be broadcast at 9.00am, and all stations would come to a halt. Chris had fifteen minutes to prepare his speech. It had to be short but perfect. No more bullshit. This was for real this time.
“What are you going to say?” Todd asked, as he walked over to
Chris.
“The truth, mate, it’s what everyone deserves. You can’t deny
them that.”
“Are you nervous?”
“Me, nervous, what makes you say that?”
“You keep dropping your pen.”
Chris looked down. Todd wasn’t fooled by the macho approach
and easily spotted Chris’ shaking hand picking the pen up again for
the fifth time in a minute.
Chris’ worry was aimed more toward failing to deliver the truth
than being nervous to speak. He didn’t want to fuck it up. He had to
show the world that there’s evil hidden in the unlikeliest of places.
You never know what’s around the corner or when your time was
up.
The two, traumatised searchers of the forest closed in on the area of land that was the home to George’s open grave. The strange, but tingling feeling had gone again. Mike stood and admired the beauty of the green grass, the wild flowers and the vast area of surrounding trees before sucking up a deep relaxing breath.
This was the place, but where was George?
he thought. Both men moved forward about fifty feet, until a trail of dried blood led them to the body. Mike placed the lightweight stretcher that he carried with him onto the ground, while the younger man handed him a rolled up body-bag. He then whispered a little prayer as the covering process began. It was now time to blank the mind for a few minutes and just get on with what needed to be done.
The chief took the responsibility of grabbing the head and shoulders, as he knew Kevin would be put off totally by the sickening sight. George’s head snapped backwards as soon as it was lifted off the ground, and the rest of what remained inside the skull slipped out onto Mike’s shoes. Splashes of blood, mixed with brain fragments were trod on as Mike desperately elevated the dead man’s head back up. It was a losing battle, but he tried in vain to stop the release by holding one hand over the hole while the other held the body. After a few seconds of fumbling and awkward eye contact, the body was secure. Mike made sure that this fine officer wasn’t going to be piled up alongside the demon-faced ones, and so the tiresome walk back to the ambulances was needed. He trusted the medics would do likewise with the body of young Simon, so there was a good chance that the four figures would bump into each other during this walk.
The time had reached 9.00am. Chris stood near to the caravans as the television camera zoomed in on him.
“I’m here at Clifton Falls Holiday Village, and I’m pleased to inform you that the mystery virus being spread from human to human has now been dealt with…”
Chris’ happiness spilled over just by the way he moved about and he made sure that whoever watched knew about it. He turned around to face the ambulances. As he did this the camera picked up the movements of Mike and Kevin returning with their find.
“You can see behind me that the last of the bodies’ are being recovered and everything will be back to normal very soon.” Chris tried to make everyone feel relaxed, but knew there was a good chance that many questions would soon be on the way to the police station. “Please take this information very seriously. I should know what happened, as I was one of the survivors of this catastrophe. There’ll be a full story later on today, so please go back to doing what you’re doing and be thankful that you weren’t involved in this. I’m Chris Maudlin, reporting for Channel Ten News.”
Mike left Kevin for a few minutes and sneaked back inside the caravan. A necessary phone call was required, but he didn’t want the eagle-eyed reporters and camera crew spying on him. He needed to check on Susan’s state of mind, but also to see if she could help. He needed more people to come and find the remaining corpses. After this job was done he rejoined Kevin and walked over to Chris, who’d just finished his report. “How did it go?” Mike asked.
“I think I said what was needed to say.” After a small pause, Chris carried on. “It’s over now, Mike, thank God.”
Somehow, the recent words thrown by Chris caused Mike to think that the reporter was blaming him. Mike felt that he was right to do so, as he blamed himself. After all, if only he’d cornered off the cemetery earlier then the dirty dozen would’ve been eliminated as soon as they reached the upper regions of the dirt piles.
“Yeah, it’s over,” was all Mike could manage.
Chris took a swift look around him. “I’d best help Todd and Shane. Those reporters will smother them if I don’t get over there quickly.”
Mike glanced over at Shane. He’d some bad news for the scientist and it had nothing to do with his cat. “I’ll go with you.”
Chris intercepted the snapping, camera happy reporters before they asked the wrong questions. You know the ones, those questions that would send a man over the edge, the really sickening, interrogation ones just to get a reaction from the dazed survivors.
“Come on guys, that’s enough for now, can’t you see they need a break?” he said, while ushering Todd and Shane away.
Mike closely followed, and waited until they’d covered some distance away from the pack of reporters. “Haven’t you got a home to go to?” he asked Todd.
Todd welcomed the words with pleasure. “Yes, I have, so if I’m not needed anymore then I’m off.”
He said farewell to his new friends at a speed not normally registered, then the ecstatic man ran over to where the medics were. They’d just brought back the body of Simon, so one of the ambulances was close to leaving.
“Can you give me a lift back to my car?” Todd called to them.
Roger was on the verge of resting his behind in the comfort of the driver’s seat when he turned and listened to the sound of the other man’s desperate voice. “Where’d you want a lift to?” he replied.
“My car’s parked over the other side of the forest.”
“Get in,” the medic said.
A few seconds into leaving the area and the reality hit the foreman. He broke down. He couldn’t hide his distress anymore, especially as he would soon reach the car which Karen had sat in not so long ago. Roger comforted him the best he could, and was grateful that he hadn’t been caught up in this chaos.
Mike had something very important to say to the scientist and now was the time to do it. The reporters were busy taking more pictures and writing notes so wouldn’t overhear. Shane watched Mike’s approach, happily certain that he would be free to leave and could return to his neighbourhood, but he was in for a shock.
“We need to talk,” Mike said, but it didn’t sound very friendly.
“Can I go now? There’s nothing more to be done here.”
“No, you can’t,” Mike said firmly. Shane sensed something was wrong. “Can you remember how this all started?” Mike was doing what all good officers should be doing and that was finding the culprit who’d been behind the disaster. “Your fertilizer was the reason to why we had so many deaths on our hands.” The chief played the joker card as the speech ended.
Shane wasn’t sure how to react, but still thought he would be able to walk away. “What are you trying to say? You know that I was very sorry for what happened. I didn’t know the outcome. I thought if I helped you out then I would be okay?”
Before this developed into a full-scale altercation, Mike made it clear that Shane would be charged. “I’ve got no choice but to arrest you and take you down to the station. This’ll be investigated and you’ll be going to court. You can either make it easy or I could use the handcuffs. It’s your choice.”
Shane was too numb to answer back, but Kevin found the situation a bit fucked up and had to say something.
This didn’t feel right. Shane had helped, even risking his own life and for what?
he thought.
“Chief, what are you doing?” Kevin said, closing in on the other two.
“Back off, Kevin, if I let Shane go then my job would be on the line. If my superiors found out that I had the famous scientist with me and hadn’t taken him in to custody then I would probably be arrested for failing to do my job properly.”
“If you were going to arrest him then why didn’t you do it ages ago? Why wait until now to do it?”
Kevin sounded more like a lawyer than an academy cadet, but had a point.
“I know I should’ve done it a long time ago, but we needed him. I was so short staffed that I wanted him to see the chaos with his own eyes. I suppose I was angry that my men died, but I didn’t want the man behind their deaths safe behind bars while we fought the evil on our own.” Mike glanced back at the scientist, determined to do his duty. “Deep down I think Shane knows I’m right.”
Deep down he did, and Kevin backed off. Whatever Mike said made sense, and Kevin understood the decision. There was definitely no need to produce the handcuffs. Shane did what was told and didn’t fight the decision anymore. He hoped that after all this mess was sorted out he would be freed and found innocent of murder. Manslaughter would still be looked at so basically, Shane just had to pray that the judge understood the facts.
The special crime squad had been flown in to investigate the devastation more thoroughly, and, after a brief warning from Mike of what these men were to come across, they’d now cornered off the entire area of the caravan site.
Extra staff searched the forest for the dead. They were to pile them up for when the medics arrived. Slowly, very, very slowly, stability had been welcomed back into the area.
Mike watched ‘Operation Zombie’ taking place and seemed satisfied with progress. He now didn’t want to be here anymore. He needed to return to the station to talk to his superiors. “I think we may be struggling for a ride back to my car, so I suggest we use this time to think as we walk back.” There was no argument from Kevin or Shane, but there was however a slight doubt in Mike’s mind over this idea. “Shane, you aren’t going to use this has an opportunity to escape are you?”
“No, I’ll do what’s right,” the tearful man replied.
“Good, as I wouldn’t want to shoot you for trying it.”
This was definitely a serious moment to deal with, well it seemed serious for five seconds, but the fact that the chief was now laughing was enough information that Shane was going to be safe from his gun.
Chris remained with the Channel Ten News crew to prepare an up-to-date report. It was to be screened live at 11.00am, so hadn’t noticed the others leave the scene.
FORTY-FIVE
One thought had a strangle hold on the chief’s mind as his small group neared the parked vehicle. That was, working out the whereabouts of the missing man.
Was Blake one of the walking dead
? seemed the most logical thought to float around inside Mike’s mind.
He needed to examine the situation with a fine toothcomb. News had spread that everything was back to normal, but now there was still a chance that a survivor was a zombie. That thought changed in less than five seconds.
Blake was no zombie. If he was, then he would’ve been the first walking dead fuck-up to drive a car.
Thoughts rained down on him, but he was still lost in finding out the truth.
A few more steps and Mike’s tug of war mind games had him thinking the worst again.
Maybe he was bitten, but managed to drive out of the area.
He had to stop and focus on his next move. “We have a problem to deal with before going back to the station.”
“What’s up?” Kevin said.
“I can’t help but think about Blake. He could be infected,” Mike replied, while rubbing his chin with a hand.
Heartbreaking emotions developed again as Mike opened another can of horror shows. Kevin just wanted this to end but somehow Mike fought his own battle on the subject, and unless he backed down, this day could go on forever. “I don’t want to sound rude, but don’t you think we should make a decision on Blake when we’re back at the station?” Kevin asked.
The words knocked Mike back into an unconscious smile. It wasn’t expected and Kevin hadn’t planned the recent outburst. Mike was totally tired and needed to escape these thoughts for a while. “Kevin, what would happen if Blake was infected?”
The young man wasn’t in the mood for this. The chief was right and it would be much easier to give in, help find the missing man, but a rebellious side now emerged from the youngest member, a side yet to be seen.
“Have you got an answer for me?” Mike shouted.
A depressed looking Kevin frowned. “I know you want me to follow your orders but I can’t, chief. Wherever Blake is at this time and wherever he’s going is still unknown to us.” Mike seemed confused by these words. “What I’m trying to say is we could search for him more quickly when we got back to the station. You can send out search parties, call local police stations. There’s much more we can do there than here.”
Mike’s eyes squinted as he stared at the young cadet for a few seconds. “Kid, you’re something else.” Kevin waited for a kick up his behind, but it never arrived. “Maybe you’re right. Let’s go and get my car.”
For now at least, Mike felt more positive.
Another set of tyre tracks were spotted as the tired band of heroes reached the destination.
“This must’ve been where Todd was parked,” Mike said.
Kevin sat in the back with Shane, in case the scientist had a change of heart and wanted to escape out of a moving vehicle. No one would believe he was capable, but it was a necessary precaution because Mike didn’t want to look a fool again.
The journey was short, silent, and relaxing for Mike, but it was sure to kick off again as soon as they entered police headquarters. Mike escorted Shane into the building, and Susan greeted them from behind the reception desk. She looked extremely tired, but needed to occupy her mind through the personal trauma she’d faced. Mike smiled at her. Susan sensed a touch of distance in his approach and knew that he was still thinking about what could’ve happened on the night Wayne died. After a quick kick up his own arse, Mike let go of the frosty appearance, realizing that Susan was just very happy to see he was fine. She placed her arms around him, planting a sweet kiss onto his right cheek. Mike did the same in return. It was plain to see that he was pleased to see her as well.
“Thank God you’re okay, Mike. Is it all over now?” Susan said worryingly.
Mike smiled again, but what else could he do or say at this time? Blake was missing, but this wasn’t the time to mention that. “It’s all over…all finished with,” he said.
Mike let go of Susan as a sudden shift in his memory box flashed a vision of her late lover. He had to erase it just as quickly as it arrived because if the poor, grieving woman spotted a change within his eyes then she was sure to collapse again, and he didn’t want that.
“I’ve got to take the scientist down to the cells until we know what to do with him. We’ll talk later,” he said, trying to change the content of the conversation.
“Why have you arrested him?”
Mike didn’t want to tell her the full story but knew that she knew more than she let on, so quickly told her about the fertilizer and that Shane was behind it. Susan glared over at the scientist as Mike turned to walk away. Shane couldn’t look at her, as the glare made him feel even smaller than before. He now thought that perhaps he would be a lot safer behind bars after all.
The cell door opened. Mike watched the scientist silently step into his new home, sitting down. No speech passed between them, as there was nothing to say. The door closed and Mike walked away.
Susan was extremely busy with incoming calls when he returned. There were a lot of anxious people out there. Some phoned because they were worried about relatives that they’d not heard from yet, while others were just being nosey, wanting to know what a zombie looked like? Kevin was helping to deal with the volume of calls while earning Susan’s gratitude. Mike watched him, knowing Kevin was keeping himself busy because he didn’t want to think about the problem of Blake.
The chief had three, very important items left on his list of things to do. One was the subject that’d been on everyone’s lips over the past half an hour. Another was to phone Frank’s relatives to pass on the agonizing news of what’d happened to him, plus, Mike needed to find out who was picking up the lorry that was parked outside the police station. After this was sorted out, the left over fertilizer issue needed attention before some crazy fool from out of town decided on stealing the stuff for some weird awakening ritual.
There were twenty-four unused sacks in police storage. Mike felt nowhere near strong enough to shift them on his own so needed to recruit help from somewhere. Kevin was doing a fine job working with the lovely Susan, so Mike needed to inform his superiors about this. “Susan, Kevin.” Both figures turned to look at him, but remained focused on doing what they were doing. “Will you two be all right? I’ve got stuff to get on with.”
They nodded, but immediately forgot about Mike as they continued with their work. He headed off to his office. He felt stressed at the thought of explaining the last few days to his boss. He hoped that the news report had been swallowed up by the police commissioner and he would be very understanding after all the turmoil, but the only way to be certain was to accomplish the call altogether. Mike hadn’t heard the full version of the 9.00am bulletin, but surely someone at head office had? He’d received no calls from anyone and this made him ten times more nervous. After all, his job was on the line.
Mike listened as the phone rang on the other end of the line. Three, heart-wrenching rings later and slight breathing sounds penetrated his eardrums, then, a masculine voice said: “Hello.”
“Hello, Harry, it’s Mike,” he said, as his tonsils slightly shook.
“Not Mike from Clifton Falls? Not Mike who thought it best not to inform me that there was a very serious and life threatening catastrophe going on?” The tone of his voice became a foghorn in loudness as each passing word sent shudders through Mike. “Did you know that I had to see it on the television? Why wasn’t I informed of what was going on? Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”
Mike removed the phone from his ear as water splashed out of the tiny holes in the handset. Of course it was only in his mixed up mind, but Harry was belting out spit as he directed his disapproval. “Harry, I’m sorry for not letting you know what I was doing. The truth is; I thought the matter was over and sorted out, so there was no need for the cavalry.”
“It wasn’t over though, was it?” Harry shouted.
“No, I fucked up. You’ll have my resignation in the post.”
“You know you can’t carry on being an officer after this, so I’ll accept your letter.” Mike was left to absorb the agreement for a few seconds while Harry thought of more things to say on the subject. “You’re a good chief, but the line was crossed and there’s no going back once you’ve stepped over to the other side.” There was another slight silent moment before he spoke again. “How many officers were killed?”
He lessened his tone now. Mike admitted failure and accepted the punishment. After about ten seconds of going back to the horror inside his mind, the answer was revealed.
“Six officers and two recruits from the academy,” Mike replied.
Harry increased the heavy breathing sounds, so Mike now expected a barrage of abuse to blast him out of his chair. “You asked the academy for help, but not me. Those were just kids in there. My God, man, you used kids for a man’s job. You’re going to need help when you tell their parents. Bloody hell, man, why did you get the academy involved?”
Mike could only mentally agree with every word.
Why did I do what I did? Harry’s right, they were just teenagers doing a man’s job. I’ve failed everyone
, he thought, as two streaks of liquid raced down his cheeks.
“I wanted the job done without needing more people from outside the area. This town was infected and the safest place for the contamination was to remain here, in this town. If it spread to the city then who knows where the horror would end?” Mike said, while wiping the juice away from his face. Harry had been given an honest and very reasonable answer. “The city would’ve become a much bigger nightmare. There are hiding places, exits to other towns and cities via there, so the whole country could’ve been swamped with the living dead,” finished Mike.
He has a point but still, he shouldn’t have involved the young in this battle of survival
, thought Harry, as he tried to come to terms with what’d happened in Clifton Falls.
“In a way, Mike, you’re right. If I’d come down with my men and killed off the vermin then we would all be fine now, but what if the infection was amongst us and no one knew until we got back here. Your men sacrificed their own lives to save millions of others. I’ll always remember the bravery of your crew and I’ll make sure they receive a heroes’ burial service.”
Harry couldn’t retain his hard man image. Angry as he was over what Mike hadn’t done, he also felt sad that so many of Mike’s officers had sacrificed their lives to prevent the virus from spreading.
“For that I thank you, Harry. I’m truly sorry to have not informed you.”
Harry spoke more sympathetically. “I should be the one to apologize. You saved the lives of many, but sacrificed the lives of a few, so God bless you when you face the families of the departed. If you need my assistance then you only need to ask.”
“I’ll be okay.” Mike changed the subject slightly. “I thought I would inform you that I arrested the person responsible for the virus.”
“I thought this virus was passed amongst the dead?”
Mike went over old ground, explaining the scientist’s role in the event before changing the subject again. “By the way, I’ve another twenty four sacks of the stuff in storage so I was wondering if you’ll give me the go ahead to burn it?”
“Now you want to ask for my help.” Harry produced a little giggle. “Listen, Mike, you’ve done this all by yourself so I don’t want to receive any credit for this. Burning the stuff seems like the right thing to do, but I’ll let you decide. Anyway, I’ve got to make a speech, but thanks for telling me your version. It’ll make things easier for me. Speak soon.”
The conversation was over, but Mike still couldn’t forgive himself for the deaths of the other men. Even though Harry had swayed in favour of what he’d done, this still couldn’t convince him to withdraw his resignation.
Destroying the compost was the ultimate priority before typing up his letter and making special announcements to the poor, grieving family members. He could easily phone for help, but needed some fresh air and quick. More excess water was wiped from his eyes. He exited the office and slowly walked toward the people who were still busy on the phones. “Are you two okay here? I’m off out. I need to find a van to take that fertilizer away.” There was no reply, just the usual nod of heads. “I’ll see you later. Don’t forget to take a break,” Mike said, relieved that he wasn’t doing their job. He was just about to leave the building when he suddenly halted, reversed, and spoke again. “Oh, does anyone want a burger bringing back?” That definitely received the attention of the busy pair. They looked up, feeling confused by his words. “I’m just kidding. You carry on.”
Now he was gone.
His next stop was the local hire company to arrange for the removal of the sacks. Once there he walked confidently up to the front desk. “All right, mate. I need to hire a van.”
A sudden surge of brain activity caused the teenage, green haired youth from behind the counter to act weird. He’d seen the news update and felt suspicious of Mike.
If there’d been unexplained happenings going on at the caravan site then was the chief human? Or was he an alien?
the teenager thought.
“Stop right there. Who are you?” he said, nerves creeping into his every move.
Mike looked confused by what he heard.
What was this kid going on about?
“I’m the chief inspector, and I want to borrow a vehicle from you.”
“How do I know you aren’t from outer space? Or one of those man-eating monsters you’ve been going on about?”
Was this arsehole taking something or what?
Mike now thought.
“I tell you what I’ll do, I’ll ask you one more time and I want you to give me a more useful reply, but if you go on about aliens and monsters once more then I’ll arrest you and lock you up forever. Have you got that?”
Mike’s approach worked. The assistant was back to normal, responding with a clearer attitude. “All right, I believe you. You want to hire a van you said, no worries, anything to help.”
“I almost forgot; I also need a driver as well?” Mike said, while producing one of his rare, sneaky smiles.
The lanky trainee moved away from the desk and headed for a doorway on his right. “Just leave it with me. I’ll tell the boss what you require.” He then slipped passed and out of sight.
Mike didn’t know if the person was doing what he said he was going to do but thought it best if he trusted him.
Two minutes later and another man appeared, escaping from the same doorway. “Hi, my colleague told me what you’ve asked for.” The hire company boss stroked his grey, curly beard. He examined Mike’s movements for a few seconds before speaking again. “We heard about what’s been going on, so if you need assistance with anything then we’ll help you, no charge of course. I’ll send two helpers. Steve and Billy will be with you shortly.”
Mike was pleased with the reply. He thanked the man before waiting outside for the two men. He explained the situation once they arrived, and they followed him to the police station. Once there, the van reversed up to the storage unit while Mike unlocked it. “I just want to say that I’m truly grateful for your help, guys,” he said, while staring over at the crate with the left over compost bags on it. “As you can see I would’ve struggled lifting all those on my own.”