The Z Infection (44 page)

The pilot turned the machine around
and we headed for the headquarters at Windsor Castle.  On our way we passed
over the Northern Operating Base once again.  It was now completely overrun. 
Nothing living remained inside the compound.

About half an hour later we were over
Windsor castle.  I gasped when I saw the numbers surrounding it.  The defenders
were completely cut off.  Only the walls of the great fortress kept out the
damned, but they were sturdy.  This was no flimsy chain link or barbed wire
fence.  It wasn’t even the main gates to Buckingham Palace.  These were stone
walls.  They weren’t going to be knocked down by a million dead.  Not even by a
hundred million.  Those walls were impregnable. 

As we hovered and then slowly
descended to land on one of the grassy lawns, I suddenly felt a surge of hope. 
For the first time I really felt that we had a place where we could be secure
and from where we could somehow launch our great counter attack on the dead. 
It would take us time, years perhaps, maybe even decades, but I felt sure we
would do it eventually.

Xiaofan Li

13:35 hours, Thursday 28
^th
May, Central
London

That afternoon was the most
frightening one I can remember.  Claire, I’m sure, would tell you the same
thing.  Up until then we either imagined that there were other survivors out
there, or had been lucky enough to make contact with them.

The day we had spent with Callum and
his group, was a good one.  They had told us how they were fighting back and how
they expected to defeat the dead.  It had been inspiring.

So, you can imagine how distraught we
became when we heard that the Northern Operating base had been destroyed and
the garrison wiped out.

It was Callum who had given us the
information.  He had radioed the news once he had arrived at Windsor.  I was
relieved that he was safe, but I couldn’t help but think that it was all over
now.  The largest armed force we had, was destroyed.  With it we had lost a lot
of material as well.  It was a massive blow.

‘What now,’ Claire asked, as I ended
the radio conversation.

‘I don’t know,’ I said.  ‘I don’t
have any answers any more.’

We switched on the television, but
all we got was a white screen.  The news broadcasters had shut down.  Claire
hadn’t been able to speak to Rupert for days now.  We had no idea if he was
dead or alive, or if his power had simply gone off and he wasn’t able to make
contact.

I suddenly felt like we were alone
again.  It was just the two of us against the dead.

‘We could ask to be taken to Windsor,
I suppose,’ said Claire.

I had already thought about that and
had already made my decision.

‘I’m staying here,’ I announced.  ‘There’s
nothing for me at Windsor.  I would rather remain here and do what I like, than
be ordered around and have to do what they want.’

‘You wouldn’t even consider it?’ she
asked.

‘I already have,’ I said.  ‘I’ve
given it some serious thought.  I have everything that I need right here.  I’m
not moving, but I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to go.’

She got up and walked through to the
kitchen.  I wondered if this was the end for us.  If Claire had simply had
enough of being out on a limb.  I was used to it.  I had been on my own for
long enough, but she was different.  She had a job and friends and maybe she
wanted to have that again.

She appeared in the door way a moment
later, a bottle of wine and two glasses in her hand.

‘If you stay, I stay,’ she said. 

She poured two glasses of the wine
and handed me one.

‘Here’s to Samson-Li,’ she said.

We clinked the glasses together and I
took a long sip of the chilled wine.  God, it felt good.

Dr Richard Bryson

09:30 hours, Friday 29
^th
May, Windsor
Castle HQ, Windsor

‘So what you are saying is that there
is definitely no cure?’ Anthony asked.

We were in his office, along with
General Breck.  I shook my head.

‘There is no chance at all,’ I said. 
‘We have exhausted all probabilities.  It is a physical impossibility.’

‘So is a dead person walking around,’
said the General.

I had spent the past few days working
on a living corpse which had been brought into the castle by Taff and the rest
of his team.  We had locked the man in the secure detention room, strapped and bound
to two metal stanchions.  Then, I had carried out every experiment that I could
think of.  I felt like a ghoul.  My assistants hated every minute of it and I
had to constantly argue my corner with Anthony Ballanger to be allowed to keep
the infected man in the castle.

At the end of it we had finished him
with a knife to the brain, but this time I had opened his skull first so that I
could see his brain while he was still active.  It looked normal.  There was
some discolouration at the front, but apart from that it was fine.  But as soon
as the knife went in, the colour disappeared and his body shut down at once.

It was a strange sight and we were
still no further forward.  In fact about the only thing I had done was to
confirm what we already believed to be true.  That the infected were all dead. 
There was no cure and never would be.

I turned to the General.

‘There’s nothing more I can say on
the matter,’ I responded.  ‘The dead are walking among us.  They can only be
killed by a massive trauma to the brain, otherwise they will be around for a
long time to come.  It sounds crazy, but there you go.’

‘What about them decaying?’ asked
Anthony.

‘They do seem to rot,’ I said.  ‘But
the process is slowed down considerably.  It will take years, perhaps decades
for them to fade away completely.’

‘And what about them eating?’ he
asked.  ‘If they are dead, why do they need to eat?’

I shrugged.  ‘I don’t know.  I can
only assume that whatever is running the brain needs some sustenance.  It’s a
complete guess.’

‘A lot of your work seems to be
guessing,’ said Breck.

‘That’s because we’ve never come
across anything like this before,’ I said.  ‘This is a one off and we don’t
have the facilities to do any more than we already have.’

‘So what have you called this new disease?’
Anthony asked.

‘We are calling just calling it the
‘Z’ infection for the time being,’ I replied.

I thought I detected a slight shiver
from the Prime Minister.

‘What about the army?’ asked Anthony,
switching tack.

General Breck looked uncomfortable.

‘We are down to about ten percent of
our capabilities,’ he said.  ‘The RAF is less than that, due mainly to the loss
of pilots when Brize Norton was overrun.  They are also low on aviation fuel
and are reduced to flying recon missions.’

‘And the navy?’

‘They fared much better,’ he said. 
‘They have completed four evacuations so far and have managed to save
thousands.  They have set up their headquarters on Guernsey and things are
looking okay there, although it is somewhat crowded on all the Channel Islands
now.’

Anthony considered the options now. 
We were safe in the castle and so were the royal family, but we couldn’t move. 
Islands seemed to be the way forward. 

‘The infected don’t like the water,’
he said, almost to himself.  ‘Why is that?’

Again I didn’t have the answer.

‘It might be something to do with
what’s in the brain,’ I said.  ‘It might find water repellent.’

‘Then we must use that to our
advantage,’ he said.  ‘We need a new tactic.  We have plenty islands off the
coast.  We must clear those of the infected and then use them.  These will be
the new safe havens.’

He turned to the General.

‘I want a new broadcast sent out at
once.  All survivors are to make for islands and set up on them,’ he said. 
‘Once we have done that we can then look at ways in which to strike back.  See
to it at once.’

The General wrote something in his
notebook and then left the room.  When he had gone, Anthony rose and poured two
large glasses of whisky.  He took a long sip from his glass before he spoke to
me once more.  His voice was little more than a whisper.

‘This is our last chance,’ he said. 
‘After that, I’m out of ideas.’  

Kareef Hadad

16:00 hours, Friday 29
^th
May, Windsor
Castle HQ, Windsor

In the afternoon, when I was ready
and had assembled all my belongings outside the tunnel, Sophie appeared and
unlocked the door again.

‘We must be quick,’ she said. 
‘Before someone discovers what you are up to.’

We descended into the tunnel and she
turned on the lights.  We walked along the route in silence.  I was nervous
about what I was about to do.  I had taken a rifle and two magazines of
ammunition from the armoury, pretending that I was going on watch.  It wouldn’t
be long before it was found out what I had done.

In my rucksack I had enough fresh
food and water to last me for four days and enough dried army rations for
another week.  After that I would have to scavenge.  I also had a sleeping bag,
knife, axe, matches, cooking equipment and some spare clothing.

It took us twenty minutes to walk the
length of the tunnel and when we arrived at the end we found another locked
door.  Sophie had a set of keys and tried each one in turn, until she found the
right one and opened it.

On the other side was another set of
steps.  We climbed them steadily, until we reached another door at the top. 
Again it was locked and it took several attempts before we found the right key
and it creaked open.

When I stepped out, into the
sunshine, I found that we had emerged through a door which was part of a folly.
It overlooked a small lake in a beautiful garden.  I breathed in the fresh air,
glad to be free of that dank and cramped space.  It felt good.

‘Thank you so much for this,’ I
said.  ‘You’ve been a real friend to me.’

She smiled and gave me a huge hug.  I
was getting more used to this now.  I had never been a hugging kind of person,
but you couldn’t escape it when you were in Sophie’s company.  She was the
exact opposite.

‘What will you say when you go back?’
I asked.  ‘They will probably guess that you helped me.’

‘I’m not going back,’ she suddenly
revealed.

I was taken aback.  It was safe in
the castle and there was food and warm beds. 

‘Why not?’

‘Because somebody needs to watch your
back,’ she said.

‘No,’ I said.  ‘I can’t allow you to
do this.’ 

I had already decided that I was going
to do this on my own.

‘You’ve got no say in the matter,’
she replied.  ‘This is my decision and mine alone.  Besides, I can’t go back
now.  They might shoot me for helping you.’

I realised that there was nothing I
could say that would change her mind.  If I am completely honest I don’t think
I really wanted to change it.  I liked her company.

She collected a rucksack she had
previously hidden in the folly and we walked out and through the gardens.  They
were magnificent and in stark contrast to the army of dead that surrounded the
castle.

I only looked back once, as we
climbed a small hill and were able to see the full magnitude of what the
defenders faced.  Around a thousand survivors, clinging on behind the walls of
a castle from a different era, while a million dead surrounded them, baying for
their blood.  I knew, at the moment, who my money was on.  I was glad to be out
of it and we headed south, in the knowledge that we would probably never see
Windsor again.

Clive Westlake

17:00 hours, Friday 29
^th
May, Hounslow,
West London

That evening, as we walked out into
the park and Peter banged on the huge bass drum we had salvaged from the scene
of the previous battle, I had a huge amount of doubt about what we were about
to do.  I knew we had to fight.  I knew we had to do everything we could to
survive, but part of me just wanted all of this to go away.  I was leading a
small group, of nothing more than kids and people who had never had a fight in
their lives before, and I was expecting them to kill.

I put the thoughts to one side as
soon as the first group of dead appeared.  There were ten of them.  We allowed
them to get close and then retreated into the alley.  We had prepared as much
as we could.  We had barricaded one end, to prevent any others from getting
through.  It would be enough to hold them off for a few minutes. 

At various points we had made sure
that gates into back yards were unlocked.  We had spent a couple of hours
clearing the houses and we knew we could escape through them and lock the doors
behind us if we were forced to run.