The Common Cold (Book 1): A Zombie Chronicle (22 page)

Two more miles down the road, they came to a permanent security
installation. It had been populated by soldiers, several of whom remained,
dead, along with their weapons and a few military vehicles. The soldiers had
died horribly, as if they had been routed by some vengeful force that had
deconstructed most of the bodies into their constituent parts. Blood was
everywhere, starkly contrasted on the brighter concrete road surface. A few
zombies were walking around still. After relaxing in the early morning sun, it
was difficult to come back to full alert once more, but the sight of two
Infected wandering around clutching human body parts changed all that. Drawing
their pistols, Rob and Daniel handed them to Morgan and BB. Janet hung back
with the children, keeping them out of harm’s way, hiding behind some scrub
growing at the roadside.

At about fifty feet distance, they crouched down, watching
the security point, looking for activity, official or otherwise. This was their
first real test since leaving the plane on the runway; Daniel suspected they
were in for a lot of this in their near future, and he sure as hell didn’t need
to be clairvoyant to be right about that.

The army had definitely departed, scarpered seemed to be the
correct term, leaving a lot of their equipment and dead behind. From where they
were, they counted four Infected; all appeared to be the slow ones. These four
had spent a fruitful night devouring several soldiers, whose remains lay
scattered on the ground. Slowly, the men edged closer to the check point,
keeping an eye out for more of
them.
There were two more in a lorry cab, not doing anything in particular; one had
its hands on the steering wheel. They both wore uniforms, recognisable in
green, in spite of the ghastly mess on their necks and faces.

As they got closer, the vista opened up onto the field
behind the check point. It was full of corpses, a mixture of military and
civilian. Apart from scraps of clothing, it was hard to determine which was
which, the damage done to them made their recognition even as being human more
of an assumption than a certainty. The stench from the catastrophe reached them
on a wisp of a breeze, and all either gagged or clutched at their noses and
mouths. There had been a pitched battle fought here, the military clearly
losing the struggle. Maybe that was why it was deemed necessary to use a
nuclear weapon at the airport. Crows and other carrion birds were circling in
huge black swirls, those on the ground bickering over the scraps. A rout of
coyotes could be seen at the far side of the field, tearing at the remains of a
man who had been able to get clear of the mass of bodies, before succumbing to
his injuries. Instinctively covering his mouth, and resisting the urge to
retch, Daniel scolded himself for his earlier uncharitable thought of the army
scarpering; clearly they hadn’t. They appeared to have died, right down to the
last man.

Note to self, Daniel thought, don’t take on large numbers of
the undead. If the army can’t handle them, I sure as hell can’t. He brought his
focus back to the zombies nearby. All told, they only counted four walking, and
two in one of the trucks. He wished his gun had a silencer; when they began
killing them, any still in the vicinity would be drawn to the sound.

“We have to check out what’s inside the back of the trucks,”
Daniel whispered to the others. “We don’t want a surprise.”

“Guys,” Rob turned to the captain and BB, “don’t shoot if
you don’t have to. The slow ones really can’t catch us. They certainly aren’t
dangerous until they do. It’s the fast ones you have to look out for.” He strained
to make out more detail of those in the cab, but couldn’t see enough from where
they were. “I can’t tell what the ones in the truck are, they’re just sitting
still, so try and stay out of their detection range. And as for how they do
that, we don’t know if they just smell us, hear us, or can see something
through those white eyes.”

“Jeez, looks like we’re going to have some fun,” BB replied.

“Stay in pairs as well,” Daniel said as they moved forward.

There were four abandoned trucks, three of which had empty
cabs. Covering each other, they moved forward, leapfrogging positions to cover
their advance, just like they’d seen done on the telly. It appeared to be
reasonable practice.

Daniel and Rob checked their two lorries. There was no-one
on board in the rear, although in one there was a large stash of rifles and
ammo boxes. A really good find. A single shot rang out, and Daniel and Rob
leapt out of their lorry to cover the area in case it alerted a fast one, or
two.

“What happened?” Rob called quietly.

“One tried to grab me,” Morgan replied.

“Watch out, there’s three coming in from the field of
bodies. Shit, they’re fast!” BB alerted them to the new threat.

Daniel and Rob turned and saw them. By God, but they were
fast. They made
Usain
Bolt look like a couch potato.
And they appeared to do it with such ease, almost no noise; they didn’t even
appear to breathe. The boys lined them up in their rifle sights, and felled the
first two immediately, leaving pink spray where the heads had been. The bodies
flopped to the ground. The third kept up its pace, and was within only twenty
feet when a pistol shot cracked and he, too, fell lifeless to the ground, dust
rising around him.

“Nice
shootin
’ Tex,” Morgan said
to BB, a hint of pride in his voice. BB smiled and was about to regale them
with an explanation of his skill, when from behind him, came the sound of a
door slamming and feet running.

Next moment BB was on the ground, face down, flailing
desperately, trying to remove the manic threat from his back. On his face was a
look of real fear. The creature pounded on his back with its fists, teeth bared
in a wild ecstasy of violence, as it prepared to go in for the kill. Morgan
reacted quickly, placing the muzzle of his pistol against its head, and pulled
the trigger. Click. He pulled the trigger several times more in quick
succession, but it had jammed. The zombie lashed out at him, momentarily
distracted from sinking its teeth into BB’s neck. Resorting to sheer brute
force, the captain slammed the butt of the gun down hard, time after time, on
the crown of the beast’s head, until the hard, cracking sound of pummelled bone
became the soggy splashing of bloody remains from the now gaping hole in its
skull. It collapsed sideways as BB pushed it away from him, bloody grey matter
oozing from the new hole. The co-pilot jumped to his feet, and shivered with
revulsion.

“Fucking bastard,” he said, and gave it a well-earned kick.

A creaking door sounded, as the other one climbed down from
the cab in search of the excitement. Before it, too, caused problems, Rob shot
it in the head, and it fell to the floor, lifeless. He let out a sigh of
relief.

“Well, that seems to be all of those fast bastards for now,
but stay alert,” he said. “There’s ammo and rifles in the back of this truck.
If it’s got fuel, we might as well take it, and one other for back up. Let’s
have a look at that pistol, captain.”

Handing it over, Rob took it and wiped it clean. Playing
with it, he pulled back the slide. Taking out the magazine clip, a few slug
chips fell into the palm of his hand; one of the lead slugs had broken where he
had sliced the cross too deeply, in his earlier haste on the plane. He cleared
the cartridge out, and checked the rest. Re-assembling it, he offered it back
to the captain, who shook his head.

“I’m better with rifles. Thanks anyway. I’ll choose one from
those lying around.”

Seeing no further threat from fast Infected, BB shot the
four remaining zombies; they still wanted to feed, and he saw them as a threat.
It was also part of his healing process; he didn’t like to be surprised by
anything, and in particular, not something that was planning to eat him.

Daniel waved to Janet and the kids to come over. Together
they began to collect all the guns they could find, without going out into the
field. Sam saw the carnage and stood there, transfixed.

“You’ll have to get used to such things, Sam,” Daniel said,
his voice gentle. “The world has changed, and you will have to change with it.”

“Can I have a gun?” he asked. Seems he’d already started the
process.

“Eventually. Right now, we have more important things to
sort out. I’ll personally teach you how to use one, when we get to safety.”

“Okay,” he said, accepting this offer. Turning around, he
headed back to the others. Daniel took one more glance across the grisly field,
and then turned back to join them.

“So, if we split up, we can take two of these beauties,”
Morgan said, slapping the fender of the nearest truck. “I want to head across
to find my family. I’ve not been able to get through to them, and I have to
know what the problem is.” The captain’s face looked drawn with emotional pain,
he would clearly not rest until he knew.

“Why don’t you come with us,” Daniel offered, “we’ll pick up
Rob’s wife, and then we can all head to Boulder together. It’d be safer.” It
was a good argument, strength in numbers was always a good thing, but the
captain wouldn’t be swayed.

“I’ll go with you, boss,” BB interjected. “Together we’ll be
okay. You guys have at least two of you good with a gun; that splits us evenly,
at least in that respect. Why don’t you make your way to Tom’s house
afterwards?”

“Tom?” Rob questioned.

“My name is Tom, not Captain,” he said, smiling a little. “I
think BB’s is a good idea. We can get into the mountains more easily from
Boulder. I have a cabin a couple of hours from my place; we could all hold up
there until we can sort something more, well, appropriate. I think this will be
a long time sorting itself out, if it ever can.” That last sentiment was almost
mumbled; Tom didn’t want to voice something he suspected might be the reality,
in case he made it so.

“Alright, give me your address,” Daniel asked, opening his
smart phone. Writing it in, he also checked the signal. “We still appear to
have a connection, so we can use that for now. Are there any special
instructions for finding your house, Tom?”

“It’s easy. When you’ve been to Castle Rock, drive back to
this point, and keep going north, past the airport, well, what’s left of it. Go
straight on, the road will take you around Denver proper. I doubt you want to
go through town, there’s probably millions of those bloody things; the roads
might be blocked, anything could be there. Anyway, at the end of the main road,
you’ll hit the Denver Boulder Turnpike; follow it onto Baseline Road, that will
lead you to Chautauqua Park. We live opposite, in a white painted house next to
a pedestrian crossing. You can’t miss it.” His face softened as he thought
about his house, and his family.

As Tom spoke to them, Daniel recorded the directions onto
his iPhone, although the instructions sounded easy enough to follow.

“Okay, if you insist on doing this, we ought to head out
now. We can probably be back together before nightfall.”

“Do you want the green one or the green one?” BB asked, his
spirits returning after his close shave; it appeared little would hold him down
for long. Shooting the four zombies had certainly bucked him up.

“We’ll have the one with the ammo in the back. Take
yourselves a case or two. You never know when enough is enough,” Daniel
offered. BB handed him back his pistol, which he holstered once more. The first
officer had found himself a selection of weapons, and now resembled a walking
armoury. Americans and their guns, Daniel smiled. At least now there was no
argument about there being a bloody good reason to carry one.

They checked both trucks for fuel, and made sure the engines
started. They were perfect, and must have been stationed here and kept
refuelled, because both had topped off tanks. One less worry on their journey,
they probably had a five hundred mile range.

Waving goodbye, they went their separate ways. Rob and
Daniel tossed a coin to see who drove. Daniel won. It was a tight squeeze in
the cab as, although it was enormous compared to anything he’d ever driven
before, with three adults, two children and a dog, there was barely room to
breathe. At least they’d be warm until they could get some proper winter
clothes. None were dressed warmly enough to travel in the back.

At first the journey was easy, as they made their way down
the E470 Southbound; they saw only one other car moving, heading away from them
at reckless, breakneck speed; it left them a little uneasy, wondering what the
driver was running from. Both the roads and countryside were almost completely
deserted, with just the occasional zombie wandering carelessly around. Perhaps
the cold had reduced their violent tendencies, maybe their bodies were
part-frozen. Maybe that was all just wishful thinking.

Although the truck had a top speed of only fifty five mph,
they rarely managed more than thirty; dodging abandoned cars was their limiting
factor. After a while the journey became monotonous, the scenery flat and
uninteresting.

“So, Rob. Glad to be back home? Well almost,” Daniel asked,
trying to break the boredom of the journey; it seemed fatuous that anything
could be found boring during the most complete change to the world since
dinosaurs were rendered extinct, but if mankind is capable of anything, it’s
adjusting to a new challenge. The children had fallen asleep, leaving the
adults to their varied thoughts.

“Yeah, I’ll be real glad to see Sandy. I just never reckoned
on having to come back to a shit storm. If you think about it, we’ve all spent
years building up our own lifestyles, haven’t we? All that heart-ache and
effort at work, travelling, and spending time away from each other. And what
has it all boiled down to? You two have had to leave everything behind,
including your country; chances are that living in the mountains will be the
safest thing for us to do, so Sandy and I will have to leave everything behind,
too.” He was staring out ahead of them, not really seeing the flat expanse as
they passed it by. “If we get safely back to Sandy, I’ll never leave her behind
again. On the phone, she was talking about this woman she met, when was it,
Jeez, only yesterday morning. Apparently, her husband went off to work, when he
should have stayed at home, all because he wanted to close a deal or something.
Dumb ass. Sandy seemed to get on well with this Ella person, but then she got
bit, and it all went to hell after that. Looks like all the decisions we make
from here on in have bigger consequences than we ever considered before.”

“Blimey, I hadn’t thought of it in those terms. I reckon
you’re right, maybe the real change is that the world has suddenly become about
people again, not possessions. The people I pity most are the kids addicted to
computer games and that sort of thing. It’ll be like weaning them off hard
drugs. These two seem to be pretty cool, maybe they didn’t have much access to
that stuff. Looking at their shoes, it appears that they didn’t have much to
lose, other than their parents, of course.” He saw the look on Rob’s face.
“Sorry, mate, not rubbing it in, just saying.” Daniel quickly changed the
subject. “Anyway, the good news is that Sandra is okay, and we’ll be there
soon. She sounds like she’s a real survivor.”

“You have no idea.” Rob had kept her episode with the
machetes and the child to himself, not easy conversation matter, really. He
stared out the window, the conversation dying.

Janet broke the mood. “God, this country is huge. Just look,
as far as the eye can see, it’s just flat plains. It goes on for miles.” Her
first time in the USA, she was looking out at ‘The Big Country’, and was
beginning to see what it was all about. “Maybe there is somewhere here where we
can start again.”

“There’s enough room, even more now, I think,” Rob remarked.

They drove on in silence, as mile after mile fell away
behind them. Off to their right was a massive, diffuse column of smoke, the
city was aflame. Lack of emergency services meant any fire, no matter how
small, went on unchecked, until whole blocks were ablaze. It was nature’s way
of righting an unbalanced ecosystem. They tried not to consider the numbers of
people suffering underneath the smoke; to lose a city to fire meant either a
massive loss of life, or, under these circumstances, the loss of life was being
driven away from the threat of consumption. Migration of massive numbers of
infected was the most likely scenario, and remembering Tom’s last advice before
they parted company, suggesting they didn’t travel through the city, seemed to
be particularly spot on.

“What’s that ahead?” Janet asked, her voice a little
strained. The children’s heads came up; they had detected her concern.

Rob lifted his rifle, ready. Daniel slowed down a little.
“Don’t,” Rob said, realising what they were seeing. Daniel sped up once more.
They had left the rolling plains, passing by Buckley Air Force Base, with its
white radar dishes gleaming on the horizon; they were now approaching a more
built up area. Janet squinted, trying to identify what she was seeing.

“Is that a shopping mall?” she asked, to no-one in
particular.

“Aurora Shopping Mall,” Rob replied.

“Is it as big as I think it is?”

“Bigger, most probably.”

The shopping site clearly extended both sides of the main
road, which was now teeming with people, wandering aimlessly in the ice cold
weather, few dressed for the wintery conditions.

“They are infected, right?” Daniel asked, unsure whether to
slow down or not.

Rob rummaged through the stuff in the glove compartment,
left behind by the soldiers. He discovered a pair of small binoculars. Peering
at the throng, using his latest toy, he smiled grimly.

“Uh huh. They’re infected alright,” he announced. “Don’t
stop, whatever you do.” The children whimpered, clinging to each other. Janet
put her arm around them, and squeezed reassuringly.

The cars were clustered more thickly in this section, and
had effectively blocked both carriageways of the road. Driving down the
emergency lane, Daniel could see a way through, clear of cars, but it was thick
with the dead, all out for a bit of retail therapy. He was glad for the vehicle
they were in; nothing would stop it, it was the ultimate 4x4. As they got
closer, only a few seemed to take any notice of the approaching truck, most
remaining oblivious. Perhaps the cold weather was freezing not only their
limbs, but what passed for function in their brains. After all, if they were
dead, they weren’t producing any bodily warmth. Like normal people, they must
still consist mostly of water, whatever they were. The thermometer in the cab
barely registered above freezing point, outside must be well below that.

Oskar began to growl, his head lifting from his adopted
sleeping position in the
footwell
. Rob put his hand
on the animal’s head, calming it by rubbing its ears.

With no options left, the lorry began to collide with the
lumbering crowd, the thuds sickening in their frequency. It now felt like they
were driving over rough terrain, as the bodies fell under the wheels. Penny
screamed, and Janet put her hand to the little girl’s face, stroking her cheek,
although which one received more comfort was open to question.

Finally, they could see an end to the flood of shoppers.
They kept on moving, Daniel pressing harder on the accelerator to compensate
for the resistance he could now feel. The speed dipped slightly, but rather
than panic, he held fast, and soon they were making better headway as the crowd
thinned.

“What’s that?” Rob asked, pointing. Running down the slope,
just beyond the shopping area, were two people, women as far as could be made
out, both wearing store uniforms. One was slim, and quick in her movements, the
other very overweight, her face blotchy with the cold and the strain of moving
fast.

“We have to pick them up,” Janet cried.

Rob looked behind him, and found the rear window to the cab
could slide open. There was a corresponding flap in the canvas cover to the
rear.

“Don’t stop,” he said, “whatever happens. I’ll get in the
back, and help them aboard.”

Not waiting for a response, Rob launched himself through the
opening, and pulled the window almost fully closed; they would still need to
communicate. The temperature dropped significantly, so Daniel turned the cab’s
heater to full power. He continued to edge closer to the women, slowing
gradually, trying to time the women’s arrival at the edge of the road with that
of the lorry.

From behind the women, a screaming roar erupted, and a
tattered, gore-covered zombie appeared, looking left and right, clearly hunting
the fleeing girls. He was wearing blue overalls, torn in places, revealing
badly injured limbs, the pain of which it was clearly oblivious; clearly he had
been some sort of manual worker before his new desires took over, his arms
muscled and capable. Seeing their pursuer, they both cried out in horror, the
looks on their faces showing shock at being re-acquired so near salvation. They
moved faster, Rob calling to encourage them over the remaining short distance.

“Get to the back of the lorry, quickly!” he shouted. The
zombie had seen what was happening, and ran energetically to get between his
victims and their salvation.

“Give me your pistol,” Janet demanded of Daniel. He passed
it to her as she wound down her window and pushed the kids to the floor, next
to Oskar. Firing shots at the zombie, some striking, most missing, she managed
to distract it long enough for the exhausted women to reach the back of the
lorry unimpeded. Rob hauled the slight one aboard easily, her enthusiasm to
reach safety causing them to land halfway down the rear deck. Between them,
they began to pull the other one off the ground, and over the tailgate, ever
closer to sanctuary.

“Drive, drive!” Rob shouted back to Daniel, who put his foot
down, and the vehicle began to move more quickly up the incline. The zombie was
now alongside the truck; it had attempted to attack Janet, but had mistimed
that opportunity as the speed increased. Instead, it reverted to its original
prey, determined to get at least one of them before they were plucked from his
reach. The truck was going too fast now for it to catch them by running, so in
a last ditch attempt, it leapt the eight feet separating them, a claw slicing
into the woman’s leg before it rolled away, shrieking its frustration.

Finally, both women were on board; all three of them lay
panting on the flat bed, the larger one sobbing in pain as she clutched her
calf. Recovering from the exertion, Rob tied the canvas down to prevent further
possible access from outside. The truck had reached a good travelling speed
now, still rocking occasionally, as the odd zombie found the underside of its
wheels.

“Hi, I’m Rob,” he began. “You’re Stacey?” Seeing her
uncertainty at his apparent clairvoyance, he explained by pointing at her name
badge.

The smaller one, Stacey, looked shell-shocked; they must
have been evading capture for quite some time; they certainly weren’t dressed
to be outside.

“Yes,” she replied finally, her body shaking with adrenalin
shock; hypothermia finally took over, and she collapsed to the floor. Rob
managed to catch her head, preventing it from cracking on the steel grating. He
propped her up against the wall closest to the cab, and went to check on the
other lady.

“Jackie, is that right?” Rob spoke to her; she, too, had a
name badge. She just nodded, wincing and moaning at the pain of the scratch
marks the zombie had left down her right leg. One of its nails had sliced deep.
He helped her over to her friend, sitting them down together; their shared
bodily warmth should help both of them, he thought. Looking around, he
discovered a canvas tarpaulin folded up under one of the benches. Spreading it
out, it easily covered them with plenty to spare.

“It won’t make too much of a difference, sorry, but it
should keep out the draughts at least until we get to our destination, about
half an hour from now. All things being equal, of course.” He smiled, trying to
reassure them with his confidence.

He uncovered Jackie’s wounded leg, and looked at the
scratches. Although most were superficial, one appeared to be very deep. It had
not severed any veins or arteries, the blood only seeping rather than pumping.
She had been very lucky, at least as long as a scratch couldn’t pass this
disease on. That was a lesson still to be learned.

“Let me see if we have something to bandage that,” he said,
having found a first aid tin that had been covered by the wrapped tarpaulin. He
rummaged through, and produced some cleaning agent and bandages. Returning to
Jackie’s side, he squeezed her hand reassuringly. “I’ll have you fixed up in no
time.”

Wiping her leg clear of blood, and making sure the wound was
as clean as could be, he tied the bandage tightly. She whimpered at the pain,
but stoically accepted what he was doing. To his inexpert eyes, it was very
clear that the deep cut would need stitches, but for now a tight bandage would
have to suffice.

Finishing up, he poked his head through the window of the
cab.

“They’re both on board, and we’re secured. Do you have
anything we can give them to keep them warm? We can’t all fit in the cab,
that’s for sure.”

“They can have my jacket,” Janet volunteered. “We can keep
the cab warm enough until we get to your place.”

“Yeah, I can feel it,” Rob replied, a little enviously.

“Here, have mine as well,” Daniel offered, as he held the
steering wheel with his knees, and carefully took his off as well.

“Great, thanks guys. I’ll stay back here with them. The bad
news is that one of them has a deep cut from the
zomb
,
the bastard got her just as she was nearly aboard. I’ve bandaged it, but I
don’t know if she’s infected, or whether this shit’s only passed in a bite.”

“Be careful, Rob. We’ve come too long a way for you to get
caught at the last moment.”

“Don’t worry about me, buddy,
nothing’ll
get between me and seeing Sandy again.” He smiled grimly, and withdrew into the
rear section, closing the window up fully.