Chapter 15: Chapter fourteen

Sorry about the long wait, I'm aware this chapter is pretty crap but stick with it and the action will be all, woah. Baha, thankyou, comments and votes appreciated massively. <3

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Chapter fourteen

The guitar strings felt wonderful against my fingers, the pressure reminding me enough of my life that I could smile with ease, humming the tune to ‘Fast car’ as I played, only stumbling once despite the time I’d been without my trusty acoustic.

‘When you said you could play, I didn’t realise you meant you could play’ Keith smiled cheekily, nodding his head to the tune.

‘I dunno why there was an acoustic in B&Q anyway’ I smiled, not looking up, ‘Never seen one in any hardware store I’ve been in’.

‘In Asda..’

‘You don’t work in Asda’ I cut in, laughing loudly. He looked up at me and laughed, becoming quieter only as Lucas and Percy walked into the isle we were sat in, perched on two large pieces of wood.

‘More are gathering outside the doors’ Lucas stated, ‘We should probably get going’.

‘Right’ Keith agreed, clearing his throat, ‘I’ll rummage around the shop, see if there’s anything useful’.

‘You shouldn’t go alone, I’ll come with you. Percy and Harley can stay put here’.

‘Percy and Harley can speak for themselves’ I stuck my tongue out at him, ducking away as he ruffled his hair and Keith laughed fondly.

‘Stay sharp, yell if you need us’.

Doctor William Tennille

Not long now. Not long till every one of my samples is obliterated, all these days of work go to waste. What do we have to show for it? Nothing. We’ve spent hour after hour rotting away in this lab, achieving nothing. This will be our last chance to find some truth in this catastrophe, find the truth so idiots don’t blame an act of god or Christians blame sinners and others blame fate. No, this is science and I will find out the answers if it kills me.

‘You have the fresh samples?’ Santos asks me, flicking his wet hair out of his face.

‘Next to the sink’ I reply, squinting towards my latest test tube. A deep red liquid bubbles inside the glass but it’s just for show, it’s telling us nothing.

‘Any luck with the blood samples?’ I’m asking but I’m not entirely sure why, he would have staggered through the door with an excited cry if he’d found anything.

‘Nothing, no immunities yet but there are still a few blood types I haven’t tested’.

‘It’s not looking great, is it?’

‘Well, no. But just because there are no immunities in the different blood types doesn’t mean there aren’t immunities in individual DNA, implausible but possible’.

‘It’s all pretty implausible’ I sigh, placing the glass tube carefully back in its holster though I’d rather smash it carelessly across the room.

‘Well this whole situation is pretty implausible. All those years we tried carefully to raise bodies from the dead with some intelligence and some rogue government lab gets there before us and cocks it all up’.

‘I know’ I mutter resentfully, ‘This never needed to happen. Amazing how they were all left to die though, eh? Amazing how we’re expected to find some kind of cure when the big shots won’t even tell us the root of the virus’.

‘Could even be said that we’re pawns in this game’.

The room fell silent as my mind ticked over, contemplating the idea. We’d been told that a helicopter would come pick us up from the roof in around three hours but the details had been sketchy. My brain buzzed as I knitted my eyebrows together, suddenly wondering why they would possibly want to save us.

‘You don’t think they’d just leave us?’ I ask, bewildered.

‘It’s a possibility we have to consider’.

‘No..’ I trail off, but then I I really think. Why do they need us, if we haven’t found a cure yet? Obviously the Prime Minister couldn’t get enough information about the virus before his scientists died so he recruited us to stay behind and test the samples in an environment most would never stay in. They had been awfully held back about the times we would be taken from the country, awfully reserved about the answers they gave us.

‘I think you might just be right’ I say eventually, moving my head down slowly till my eyes are level with my test tubes.

‘Me too, unfortunately. Do we have a plan, William?’

‘We work’ I say determinedly, already haphazardly grabbing goggles and samples from around the lab, breathing heavily, ‘Quickly, very quickly. We can do this Santos, our whole careers, our lives depend on these few hours. Get your goggles on, we’re going to save lives’.

‘Yes’ he said, breathing out of rhythm, excited, ‘We’ll be the bigshots William, us two. Forget the government, forget the rest. This is just another virus, another threat. The only thing in life I’m decent at solving, I can’t even call my wife’.

‘Your marriage can be repaired when we make sure this virus never comes back’ I nod solemnly at his words, smiling towards him genuinely, ‘Now hurry up, these samples won’t keep forever’.

Harley Sawyer

For a few minutes Percy and I sat uncomfortably on the floor as I listened to him hum a tune I vaguely recognised.

‘What is it?’ I asked, cocking my head to the side. He didn’t answer right away but rather let a vague smile slip onto his face, the kind which meant he was dreaming of a place far from here.

‘Hello by Lionel Richie’ he replied eventually, ‘They played it at my parents wedding’. Silence took over as he blinked several times, trying to stay composed. My heart ached for him and I only wanted to make him smile, try and distract him at least a little. I couldn’t though, even though I knew the pain of discussing things like this, I also knew it helped to heal.

‘What happened, Percy?’ I asked tentatively, turning so I was facing him.

‘I don’t know’ he whispered, looking into my eyes for help, ‘They were there and then they were.. gone’.

‘Did you speak to them?’ my voice cracked as I tried desperately to avoid remembering the outcome of my own phone conversation.

‘Yes’ he smiled through fresh tears, ‘We talked for just less than a minute..’ he trailed off and I didn’t prompt him, just waited for him to continue, ‘..my brother was there, my sister and my parents. If I hadn’t gone to school on Monday to hand in that stupid coursework, if I’d just stayed then we’d be together’.

‘That’s a lot of ‘what ifs’, Percy’.

‘I know’ he sighed, ‘The line was going crackly, they were talking louder and louder.. I heard Violet, my sister, screaming and oh god, it was awful, it was horrible Harley! Then my mum was telling me she loved me and she was crying so much and my Dad was shouting at her to move and they were next to the coast, waiting for a boat! They thought I was safe, they thought..’ his words became inaudible as he broke into sobs and I let his head rest on my shoulder, wrapping my arm around his shoulder.

Seeing him like this, seeing someone in this much fresh pain was sobering. It made me realise that it’s easy to tell someone to move on but actually, it’s the most difficult thing in the world to do. A person can’t just force their heart to stop feeling, we don’t choose who we love, it happens. Being in the position of the person who was racked with grief and loss as well as being the person trying to comfort a person in the same position was enough to show me that there is hope, somewhere. I wasn’t alone, Lucas wasn’t alone. In fact, we were the lucky ones who still had the ability to breathe, still had our memories and our lives. We needed to be grateful for that.

‘But you have a future’ I said into his ear, ‘You have this chance like all of us do to be the ones who fight our way through this, to be the ones who make it out. This was never supposed to happen but what is? We can all make a fresh start, Percy, it just takes courage’.

‘I don’t have much of that’ he laughed shakily as he moved his head from my shoulder, wiping his face with his sleeve.

‘Are you joking?’ I gaped at him, ‘You jumped off a car into a crowd of infected! When we met you, you were running around alone which I could never  do and you managed to trust us when you had no reason to’.

‘When you put it like that..’ he smiled at me as I laughed, ‘Thanks, Harley’.

‘It doesn’t matter. Are you going to be okay?’

‘Give it time’ the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes but it was progress, ‘Are you?’

‘I’ll be fine’ I nodded, knowing  if nobody else, I still had my brother, Percy and Keith and perhaps in this existence now, that was something to count my blessings for. I couldn't even bear to close my eyes and think of the people out there, fending for themselves with such grief on their shoulders, alone.

‘We’re back’ Lucas called in a singsong voice, making me jump. I turned my head with a relieved smile, missing the days when someone could leave my sight and I wouldn’t be terrified that they’d never return. Sure enough, the two boys who seemed to be of exactly the same height were sauntering towards us and while I smiled at my brother, the corners of my lips turned up a little more when Keith winked at me and I broke into a grin.

‘Find anything?’ I asked, realising it was a stupid question because of the fact they were carrying mounds of wood, nails and others things I couldn’t make out under the dusty mess.

‘Found everything’ Keith laughed, plonking himself down next to me and dropping “everything” on the floor. Turns out they were right – as I scanned only the top of the pile, I saw several sharp pieces of wood,  a few sturdy power drills, long, sharp nails, buckets, garden shears and a couple of empty rucksacks.

‘Didn’t find any food though’ Lucas frowned.

‘Shouldn’t matter’. Food was the last thing on any of our minds at the moment, we’d pawed at chocolate bars for the sake of our stomach but food wasn’t enjoyable anymore, a mere necessity.

‘No, we’re gonna need it’ Keith said, ‘If that shelter is even open, we could be stuck down in there for days. God knows what they’re releasing into the air, we wanna breathe in as little of that as possible and with the food we have now, we just won’t last’.

‘Shit’ Lucas muttered, ‘What do we have?’

It was me who pawed through the bags, exhaling at the general lack of edible items within the material. To be exact, there was one Crunchie bar, a dairy milk bar, a quarter large bottle of lemonade and a discarded block of chocolate.

‘Ah’ Keith raised an eyebrow, ‘Scavenging time?’

‘Definitely’.

Julia Jenner

‘Cute, isn’t it folks?’ Benton Howell paced the room with a smirk worn upon his face, eyeing every one of the twelve men and women sat at the long table.

‘Explain’ I said sharply, narrowing my eyes at Benton who positively beamed at my voice.

‘Oh, my Julia’ he laughed quietly, ‘Oh, it will be sad when you die’.

‘Fuck off’ I mumbled, pushing my short blonde hair behind my ears. I stole a glance at the people around me, some of them bloodied, some of them sweating, some of them merely breathing heavily, each and every one fearing for their lives. The dead had risen, the dead were walking and yet here we were, locked up inside a conference room with a disgruntled worker who wanted his revenge. Incredibly storybook.

I just wanted to find my sister, at least know for sure if her and her family had made it out. Diane was the only family I needed to fear for, our parents had died long ago and my husband had seemingly chosen the perfect time to go away to France on business. I knew he’d be frantic, crying, assuming the worst. A blind optimist was my Jerry, but even blind hope must have failed him by now.

I knew at least in this bolted building we were safe from the walking, but Benton was slowly losing his mind and it seemed us late workers had been put right in the firing line. Days we’d been holed up in this small news building, frantically trying to connect with anybody and only eight or so hours ago, this colleague had taken the high ground. Benton had always been somewhat of a black sheep to all of us, women would taunt him as he poured his coffee, sniggering to themselves. Men would appear to be friendly but the scathing ulterior motives behind their words never fooled Benton. It seemed I was the only one who gave him a chance and for that, I was the only one he hadn’t held a gun to, the one he had shown particular interest in.

‘Julia, tell me’ he pulled a chair up beside me, sweat dripping from his forehead, ‘What is it about me that you like so much?’

‘I don’t know.. your charm’ my voice dripped with sarcasm, causing  Yvonne from weather to laugh nervously. Benton didn’t even waste a second, he stood up, pointed his gun and shot Yvonne straight through the chest. My breath caught in my throat as she crumpled to the floor and the men on her side of the table moved to try and help her and several people let out piercing screams.

‘Move and I shoot you’ Benton said coldly, waving with the gun for them to sit back down again.

‘You’re sick’ David spat, ‘Sick in the head and you’ll rot for this!’

‘David’ Kate said in a soothing voice, trying to calm him down, ‘David, please..’

I watched silently as my co-workers and friends looked to one another, looked to me for help. But what was I? Julia Jenner, a great laugh, quick wit and fire. Looks good for the ripe old age of forty and still going strong with her architect husband. No, I wasn’t cut out for this as such.

‘Anywho’ Benton started agitatedly, ‘Julia’ I felt uncomfortable as he pawed at my hair, letting strands fall into my face. I tried not to flinch as he wound an arm around me and spoke, still running fingers through my blonde locks.

‘What are you thinking?’

‘You don’t wanna know’ I mumbled, hiding my repulsed goosebumps from him.

‘Pardon?’

‘I miss my family, I said’ I replied steadily, slowly moving my head from his grasp. It had the opposite effect though, as he cooed soothingly and rubbed my shoulder.

‘Tell me about them’.

‘Uh..’ I began, stealing glances at my colleagues who simply shook their head at me, not really knowing what they could do, ‘My sister, Diane – well, she’s lovely, married a doctor, had three children..’ I trailed off, unsure of what he wanted me to say.

‘Children, you say? What are they called?’

‘Lucas, Harley and Joel. Joel’s the youngest, only six’.

‘You see them often?’

‘No’ I said regretfully, letting my eyes fill with tears, ‘No, no I don’t’.

He nodded, seeming to understand my guilt. Standing and releasing me from his grip, he moved towards the other end of the table, still talking to me.

‘You think they’re alive?’ he asked, eyebrow raised.

‘Yes, yes I do’ I said truthfully.

‘Why?’

‘Why? Because they’re strong. Because not everything has to fucking die’ I spat, angrily.

‘Honey, we present the news’ he smirked, amused, ‘We’re the ones who know stuff. Now, we know there aint no-one out there anymore. And even if there is, they’ll burn to death in a few hours. Ever heard of bombers, flower?’

I could only smirk at his words - obviously he didn’t get the memo.

‘Wrong’ I sung, far too pissed off at this total moron, ‘Didn’t you know, honey? Change of plan, oh, three hours ago? I have my sources dear, I’m well connected and clearly you are not. Firebombing is no more, so you can drop the shit’.

‘What?’ He couldn’t mask the surprise in his voice, the apprehension, ‘You’d better start speaking Julia because I’ll blow your brains out, and I’ll aim better than I did with your pal’ he glanced distastefully down towards Yvonne who lay completely still, dead.

‘Rescue operation’ I smirked up at him, ‘Funny, the world, isn’t it? One minute they’re gonna blow us all up and the next they’re reviewing plans and deciding to save our arses’.

‘What.. how?’

‘Reliable sources’ I began, winking towards the shell-shocked man, ‘managed to get in contact with the big ol’ TV guys in other countries and they just kept posting bulletins about all of us, alive and trapped in this news station. Of course I mentioned some of the team getting into contact with family members stranded up and down the country and that’s even more motive to come help us’.

‘Shit’ he muttered, raising his gun, ‘Well that’s boring, I guess I’ll just have to kill you all’ he began to laugh as I suddenly became intensely scared, ‘Actually, that’s fucking hilarious! They’ll all ride in on their white horses and you’ll all be dead!’ he was in hysteria now, bent over in fits of laughter. David took this as his opportunity and lunged towards Benton who was a pretty hefty and overweight man but  he still managed to knock him to the ground.

‘Run!’ His yell was muffled as he grappled with Benton but the command was more than clear. Quickly, we all scurried from our seats and began to kick at the wooden doors which had been locked; the door was old though and we all knew it.

‘Come on!’ Wilson yelled, he was a portly black fellow who had more strength than most of us combined. With a growl, he hurled his bodyweight at the buckling door and open it flew, sending us all careering into the TV sets with cameras still pointed at desks and screens.

‘I’ll catch up’ I muttered, glancing behind me to see three or four men on top of Benton – it was sad, he’d seemed like one of lifes good guys. Turning around and watching the retreating pack move out of the area, I lagged behind and moved towards my desk, rifling through the drawers till I found what I was looking for – a single picture. There I stood next to Diane a few years earlier, my arm around Harley who was growing into the most beautiful woman, Lucas beaming next to her at the camera. Joel was in Diane’s arms because he kept squirming every time Chris lifted the camera but eventually he laughed and the picture was snapped. It physically made my chest hurt, this guilt, this longing. I wished I had seen more of the kids as they’d grown up, more of my sister but being a news presenter meant that I had little time of my own. I just hoped that they were all okay, prayed that they were all okay and maybe had even made it out of the danger zone.

‘Julia, move the fuck on’ Wilson called back to me, gesturing for me to hurry up. With a heavy sigh, I readjusted the pencil skirt I wished I hadn’t worn and jogged towards the group.

‘What’s happening?’

‘They’re all outside the doors, must have heard us all yelling when Howell was waving a gun around’.

‘The doors are metal’ I stated, ‘They won’t get in’.

‘Oh, sweetie’ a chuckle erupted from Wilson’s chest, ‘They’re getting in’. And sure enough, through the clear glass doors on the other side of the studio, what looked like hundreds upon hundreds of decaying, screaming bodies were thudding towards us. The London Eye sat silently in the distance while bodies littered the landscape, each one noticing us through the clear glass and each one only minutes from smashing their way in. None had quite made it to the doors yet but they were getting there pretty fast.

‘Why are they all here?’ A woman I recognised as Mary the tea lady sobbed.

‘Well, I’ll bet they haven’t eaten in a long time’ Wilson boomed, ‘Everything outside these doors is dead, we must look like a turkey dinner to these bastards’.

‘Why now?’ My voice came out sturdier than expected as a little girl started screeching and clawing at the glass. More and more began to join her to smash their heads and arms against the door until there were more than fifty all climbing over one another to get through to us. Morbidly, we all just watched, frozen in fear. It took a minute but my heart started beating again when  thought of my husband, trying to imagine how he would cope if I died. We had dreams together, the both of us – dying wasn’t part of the plan.

‘Roof’ I said simply, ‘The stairwell is next to Devlin’s room, we can block off the stairs’.

‘Plan’ someone muttered, and the majority of us made a move towards our destination. Mary stayed behind though, shivering and scared. She was young, only about nineteen and had been terrified on her first day only weeks ago, so nervous she’d accidentally put salt in Wilsons tea.

‘Mary?’

‘No.. no, I can’t, we’ll be trapped, we’ll..’

‘Die’ I finished for her, bluntly.

‘No, we’ll find a way to g-‘

‘Die?’ I said in a questioning voice.

‘No! If you go up there then yo-‘

‘We’ll live, and you’ll die. Mary, come on’ I tried to coax her into coming with us, my eyes darting towards the glass which was now showing visible cracks, ‘You saw what happened to Derek and god knows, it will happen to us too if we stay down here. The further away we are, the better, so come on’.

‘Right…’ she said thinking, ‘Right! Let’s go’. And suddenly she was with us, running through the corridors until we reached a set of stairs, taking them two at a time till we hit the tough metal door which shut behind the last person as we took in the icy air. We were up here and with little time to spare I guessed, only a door between us and them.

Moving towards the railings, I took in the surroundings for the first time, and almost fell over in shock and I leaned over to take in my first look at the world around us.

‘Oh... my god’ I muttered. THe streets of London were crowded with people, more than ever would have walked the streets many weeks ago. There was not a piece of pavement littered with those walking aimlessly, running, shrieking, fires burning and blood splattered across London like a sick canvas. That was not the issue though.

The problem was that every single person was dead on their feet.

Harley Sawyer

Scavenging operation was finished. We’d found half a packet of salt and vinegar crisps which we couldn’t touch anyway in case it had somehow been infected and a half full bottle of water which we ditched for the same reason. We were lucky with that sealed lemonade, unlucky that we drank it so quick.

‘Percy, what’s in your bag?’ Keith asked curiously, gesturing to Percy’s own tiny backpack which was barely noticeable.

‘Nothing’ he said sheepishly, piquing my curiosity.

‘C’mon, we’re all friends here’ Lucas said with a tired smile, ‘hiding something, friend?’

‘No’ his cheeks were flaming.

‘Aw, quit it’ Keith laughed, ‘It’s his bag’. As he spoke, he glanced back over to me and smiled, but it wasn’t quite that smile which managed to light up his face – it was more of a sad smile than anything else, something I hadn’t seen on him before. I narrowed my eyes in questioning and Keith surreptitiously gestured upwards, presumably telling me I should meet him upstairs. Admittedly, I was the slightest bit apprehensive but quietly I made my excuses.

‘I’m just gonna run upstairs, I left something up there’. I managed to dart off before anyone could respond and soon I was moving up the standstill escalator, battling hints of excitement and fear as one.

‘Sunshine’ Keith pushed open the door to the staff room with a lopsided smile, closing it quietly behind him.

‘Are you going to kill me?’ I asked matter of factly, ‘Because my brother i-‘

‘No, you stupid girl’ he laughed, taking a step towards me, ‘No, I think I’d rather keep you’. My heart faltered a little at his words as I tried to repress the airy feeling in my stomach, tried to repress the stupid smile which was coming to my lips.

‘Sap’ I mumbled.

‘Hurtful’ he chuckled, ‘Look, Harley-‘

‘Wait’ I said, ‘before you say anything, just le-‘

‘If we’re gonna keep cutting off eachothers sentences then I want t-‘

‘To continue what I was saying’ I narrowed my eyes, let me g-‘

‘Come on’ Keith laughed loudly at my annoyed expression, ‘I’ll stop n-‘

‘Anywh-‘

‘Oi! I w-‘

‘Keith!’

‘Harley!’

We stood staring at each other for a few seconds before we burst into fits of laughter, not really knowing at all what was funny. I felt comfortable, like we were sat in my bedroom at home. I wanted to introduce him properly to my parents, I wanted to take him to my favourite café next to the charity shop and buy him a milkshake. I wanted to just walk down the road with him, find everything out that I could before whatever happened, happened.

I wanted the impossible.

‘Come on then’ I started, trying to shake away my frustrations, ‘Why did you bring me up here?’

‘Well’ he began, looking nervous. I had seen fear in his eyes when we were out in the dark next to that bush, I had seen complete bravery in his eyes in every other situation but never had I seen nervousness.

‘Keith?’

‘I.. I’m not great at this, I just wanted you to know that I don’t.. well, thank you, I suppose’.

‘For what?’

‘Making this so much less horrible’.

‘Oh’ I smiled, ‘Well, I suppose I owe you a thank you too’.

‘And seriously, Harley, whatvever.. this is, well I just want you to know that I like it. Love it’ he stuttered, surprising me.

‘I l- love it too’ I smiled to the floor, taking a subconscious step towards Keith who clasped my hand in his own.

‘So, Sunshine’ he lifted my hands up, ‘You finally agree they’re zombies?’

‘Yeah’ I said, meeting his shining eyes with my own, ‘Yeah, they’re definitely zombies’.

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