The Z Infection (28 page)

In other news, the government has
declared a state of siege in Swansea, Sheffield, Dundee and Newcastle.  The
royal family remains at Windsor Castle.  Government advice is to stay indoors. 
Do not approach the infected under any circumstances.  The armed forces are
preparing for a counter offensive and you will be rescued soon.’  

‘So they are still at Windsor,’ said
Sophie.  ‘I’m happy to try to get through, if you are, but it has to be the
right decision for us both.’

‘We might as well have a look,’ I
said.

I had a quick look at our map, to
remind myself of the route, and then turned the car out of the car park.  As we
left, I caught Sophie sneaking one last look at the roller coaster as it dipped
down the track in the distance and disappeared from sight.

Thomas Buckle

11:00 hours, Sunday 17
^th
May, North Weald
Airfield

When I first heard the noise it took
me a few minutes to work out what was going on.  I had slept soundly that night
and much longer than I would normally, secure in the knowledge that Pancho
would wake me in the event of some of the infected finding us.  Now, as the
sound of the engine became louder, I sprang from my sleeping bag and ran to the
window. 

I couldn’t see anything from there
and so ran to the door and opened it.  I went out into the car park and
searched the sky.  There it was.  A small plane, heading in to land at the
airfield nearby.  I went back inside and packed my things as quickly as I
could.  Then, calling to Pancho, I loaded everything into the boot of the car. 
He was into the front seat in a flash and we headed out of the car park and
towards the airfield.

We were at the entrance within a minute
or so.  I drove through and stopped on the edge of the field.  I could see the
aircraft.  It was on the runway, in the distance, slowing down after the
landing.  I couldn’t see any other aircraft in the sky, so I drove across the
runway to a collection of buildings.

There were several aircraft parked
nearby, all small machines with propeller engines.  As I drew up to them I saw
the door of the plane open.  A figure stepped out.  It was a woman.  She looked
to be about forty to fifty years old and the look of surprise on her face told
me she hadn’t been expecting a visitor.

I stepped from my car.

‘Where did you come from?’ I asked.

‘I could ask you the same question,’
said the woman. 

‘I drove from London yesterday,’ I
said. 

She walked over to the car and
suddenly Pancho leapt out and ran to her.  She patted him and spoke soothingly
in his ear.  He was loving the attention.

‘What’s it like there?’ she asked.

I remembered the morning rush hour on
that first day, when I had to abandon my train and run along the tracks to
safety.  I remembered hearing that my wife’s hospital had been overrun by the
infected, the deadly quiet streets of my neighbourhood and the close shave I
had had with the swarm of infected on the motorway.

‘It’s like hell,’ I said.

‘An accurate description,’ she said,
then held out her gloved hand.  ‘My name’s Laura.’

‘Tom,’ I said.

‘I flew in from an airfield just
outside Bournemouth, once the evacuation began,’ said Laura. 

‘Evacuation?’ I said.

‘Yes, the navy are evacuating huge
numbers from the beaches there,’ she said.  ‘Didn’t you know about that?’

I shook my head.  I had heard a lot
of reports on the news in the last few hours.  It might have been something I
heard, which then became lost among all the thousands of other news items.

‘The army is holding back the
infected, while they get them off,’ she said.  ‘Or at least they were.  I don’t
know if they still are.  The word was that they were being swamped, that’s why
I decided to fly out.’

‘Is this your plane?’ I asked.

She shook her head.  ‘My husband’s. 
He disappeared yesterday.  I don’t know where he is.  He might have tried to
get to the beach.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ I said.

She looked at me again.  There was a
tough interior to the good looking exterior.

‘Don’t be,’ she said.  ‘He was a
shit.  Probably tried to get his girlfriend to safety first.  The only good
thing he ever did for me, was to give me flying lessons, otherwise I would be
on that beach now too.’

‘Have you ever been here before?’ I
asked.  I was uncomfortable and wanted to steer her off the subject of her
husband.

‘Never,’ she said.  ‘I heard there
was a safe zone to the north of London and this was the closest airfield I
could see when I opened my map.  I somehow thought things might be better up
here.’

‘No chance,’ I said.  ‘The city is
too dangerous to be in and as far as a safe zone goes I would be surprised if
it’s still there.  I’m heading north.’

‘Is it safer up there?  I heard that
places like Manchester and Liverpool were infested.’

‘So I heard,’ I said.  ‘I was
planning to go even further.  Scotland might be the best bet.  Less population,
more remote.’

‘And how were you planning to get
through the midlands and the north of England?’ she asked.  ‘Tell me you
weren’t thinking of driving.’

I had.  It seemed stupid now.  The
areas to the north were becoming riddled with the infected.  Getting through
would be difficult indeed, but remaining in the south was also dangerous.  My
run-in on the motorway told me that.

We chatted for a few more minutes,
before Laura announced that she was hungry.  The airfield seemed to be totally
deserted, but we had no way of knowing if there were any infected in the
buildings.  The few aircraft remaining probably belonged to people who had been
unable to get to them and were more than likely dead by now.

I walked to the first building, a
single storey rectangular structure, and looked through one of the windows. 
Pancho was by my side.  He made no noise at all.

‘This one is clear,’ I said.

‘How can you possibly know?’ asked Laura. 

‘The dog,’ I explained.  ‘He can
sense when the infected are close by.’

She looked sceptical. 

‘Honestly,’ I said.  ‘He’s done it
plenty of times already.’

I went to the door.  It was locked. 
I gave it a shove but it wouldn’t budge.  I went back to the car and got my
gardening tool.  I shoved it into the gap and levered it back and forth.  It
took a few strong efforts but eventually the lock gave and the door sprang
open.  It was at the expense of the tool however, as I felt the rod crack as
the lock broke.

I checked it over.  It was finished. 
It would be too weak to use as a weapon now.  I would have to find something
else.

I went inside the building.  It was a
café bar type of place with some seating. 

‘Take a pew,’ I said.  ‘I’ll rustle
up some breakfast.’

I went through a door and into the
kitchen.  My confidence in Pancho’s abilities were growing all the time and,
since he was lying by Laura’s feet, obviously relaxed, I felt that way too.

I checked in the cupboard and fridges
and found enough food to feed a small army.  Before long I was hard at work and
a delicious smell of coffee, bacon, sausage, eggs and fried tomatoes was
drifting through the door towards Laura and Pancho.

When it was ready I dished up. 
Pancho got his very own breakfast of sausages and eggs, which he demolished
with his usual speed, while Laura and I ate at a more leisurely pace.

When we had finished she started to
clear the table.

‘I wouldn’t bother,’ I said.  ‘Even
if we stayed here for a month there are enough dishes to last us without having
to do any washing up.’

She sat down again.  ‘Habit, I
suppose,’ she said.

‘What are your plans now?’ I asked. 

‘Scotland seems like a good bet,’ she
said.  ‘But I don’t think a car is going to get through.  How about we pool our
resources?’

‘What resources?’ I asked.

‘Well,’ she said.  ‘I can fly and I
have a plane.  You have Pancho, who can sniff out the infected, or so you say. 
You can also cook a pretty good breakfast.  So why don’t we fly north.  It’s
quicker, safer.  No infected up there.’  She pointed to the sky.

It was a good idea.  But the aircraft
looked very small.

‘Will we manage to fit everything
into it?’ I asked.

‘Of course,’ she said.  ‘I travelled
light, so there’s plenty room.  But I suggest we take only what we need.’

We shook hands and smiled at one
another. 

‘Right,’ she said, all business. 
‘You unpack your car and put everything you need into the aircraft.  I’ll have
a look to see if there’s any fuel.  We’ve got enough to get quite far, but the
extra weight will eat into it and I’d rather have a full tank.’

‘Take Pancho with you,’ I said.  ‘He’ll
warn you if there’s a problem.’

She set of with the dog.  He was
happy to go with her and the two of them wandered around the buildings,
checking each in turn.  Meanwhile I emptied the car of all that was useful and
loaded it into the plane.  I was surprised by how much I could fit in, once I
had worked out the best configuration, and there was still plenty room left
when I was finished.

I went back to the restaurant and
rummaged around in the kitchen.  There were decent knives, all sorts of pots
and pans, as well as the food in the fridges.  I found a couple of cool boxes
and stuffed as much into them as I could, then I went back and loaded that onto
the plane, along with the other things.

When I was finished I sat down on the
grass.  Laura and Pancho were back with me a few minutes later.

‘I found a fuel tank on the edge of
the field,’ she said.  ‘The problem is that it’s locked and I can’t get into
it.’

‘Where would the keys be kept?’ I
asked.

‘No idea,’ she said.  ‘They would
probably be in an office, maybe in a safe.’

‘How far will we get with the fuel we
have?’ I asked.

‘The tank was full when I took off,
so it should last for about another six to seven hundred miles.’

‘That’ll do me,’ I said. 

‘I did find these in a hangar,’ she
said, producing several maps.  ‘They show all the airfields in the UK.  Once we
get airborne we can have a proper look at them and make a decision about how
far we will go.’

We were as ready as we could be.  I
took a look around the airfield for the last time.  It was so quiet and
peaceful I could have stayed there all day.  But I knew we had to move.  Laura
climbed into the pilot’s seat and I lifted Pancho up and put him in the back. 

As I climbed aboard, Pancho suddenly
gave his low throaty growl.  I looked out across the field but couldn’t see a
thing.

Laura laughed.  ‘Maybe he’s not as
good as you first thought.’

I grunted and pulled over the seat
belt as Laura started the engines.  Moments later we were taxiing down the
runway, before lifting off and climbing into the blue sky.

‘Take one turn around the airfield
before you head north,’ I shouted to her, over the noise of the engine.

She shrugged and banked the aircraft,
indulging my wish, and as we passed over the main airport building I tapped her
shoulder and pointed below.  On the fields, heading towards where we had been
just moments before, was a swarm of infected.  There must have been ten
thousand of them, walking together like some hellish army.  An army of the
undead.  It was a chilling sight.

‘Not as good as I thought?’ I said.

She didn’t reply.  She just smiled
and turned north and headed for Scotland.

Xioafan Li

11:02 hours, Sunday 17
^th
May, Central
London

That first night in the flat with
Claire was the first time I had slept in a real bed, with proper sheets and a
duvet, for many weeks.  I was warm, clean and well fed, all at the same time
for the first time in months.  The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on me. 
It had taken a cataclysmic world event, where most people were suffering like
they never had before, to see me in the best position I had been in for a long
time.

The next morning I didn’t get up
until late.  I could hear gunfire from somewhere to the north of the city.  It
didn’t last long and there had only been a few shots.  I hoped whoever it was
had managed to kill a few of the infected.  Every one that was wiped out was
one less that would bother me.

I made myself a coffee and sat out on
the roof garden, enjoying the warm morning sun.  I was still there, half an
hour later, when Claire finally surfaced and came to join me.

‘My head hurts,’ she said.

I was confused at first, then
realised she was hung over.  We had finished off three bottles of wine between
us, while we had soaked in the hot tub.  I didn’t get hangovers any more.  My
body had built up a fair tolerance to alcohol over in the last couple of years.