The Mulligan Planet (13 page)

Trying to maintain a steady
speed was becoming difficult with the thickening traffic as we
moved through the city roads toward the highway and before long we
were crawling at twenty and I could feel the eyes of the living and
the not so much living boring into the truck, “I don't like this
dude. Get us out of here.” I nodded and threw it into reverse; I’d
rather take our chances in the city for the day. “Hold up, you hear
tha-” a body slammed against his door, I floored the accelerator
and kept watching out of the hole from the shotgun blast, shotgun…
I took one hand off of the wheel and began feeling behind my seat,
the sound of the zed slamming his head against the window thumping
in my ears, there! I tossed Harry the heavy barrelled beast, “What
the Hell am I supposed to do with this!?” I spun the van around
when we were mostly clear and proceeded to squelch the dead under
us, “You’re riding shotgun, figure it out!” I heard him cock it,
“Whoa! Wind down the window first, I like my ears.” He growled
under his breath, and went to unwind the window as the guy clinging
to the side sent his forehead through. “Rescind that, please
shoot.” An arm had come through the hole in the rear of the van's
back door and caused it swing open, “Shoot now!” I heard the bang
as I got elbowed in the shoulder, “Sorry!” I turned down a street,
“Don’t apologise, just keep shooting!” he aimed between the seats
and fired, hitting one of the back door hinges causing the door to
snap off and bounce along the road behind us, taking the zed with
it. “Where are we going?” that was a good question, somewhere high
seemed like a good idea, the van was going to give out eventually
and it was no longer secure, “I have no idea, somewhere high where
we can board up for a while.” I felt another body slam into the
side of the truck, “Get in the back, fill up that duffel with
everything there.” He unbuckled himself and climbed through, “Holy
crap... This is a lot of stuff, what were you going to do?” I
noticed the dead were forming into groups like the one at the
hotel, “I’m an… agent… thing. I had a team but we got separated
after the mission.” A crying man sat in the gutter as we passed, he
appeared uninjured but what can I say? More people, more problems,
the only reason I kept Harry along for the ride is because he
didn’t try to kill me with that lamp.

“Is this C4?” a small brick of
C4 popped up next to my head, “Yes, don’t play with it.” I turned
around the corner, “How about Fortitude Valley? I know the area
pretty well and it might be a good place to hold out for a few
days.” It sounded as good as a plan as any, “Alright then, you keep
them off us and I'll move us as far as this wreck will take us.”
Damn I was feeling good, stronger, I was processing faster, things
were making more sense, “So what's your name?” I hit two more zeds,
“John, John Prince.” he gave a sound of interest, “What?” He
shrugged, “I don't know, I expected some crazy name, like Vladimir
or something.” the road was thinning out again, people must've got
the idea and were hiding, or dead, or running away from the city,
or, again, and the more likely, dead, “I'm from England originally,
not Russia or Transylvania or some alternate plane of existence,
I'm just a dude like you... Kind of.” the engine was starting to
make clunking sounds, “How old are you?” I could feel the steering
wheel start to shake, a few more kilometres and we'd be in the
clear, “Two hundred and sixty five soon.” there was a muffled bang
in the engine bay, “Grab the guns, we're leaving in a few seconds,
and I don't think we can afford to walk just yet. We're running.”
my hands were starting to shake. Alright, I'm going to start to
explain what's happening; think the first energy drink you had,
that moment where everything seems the same, this isn't affecting
you, then you notice there’s something different, you're picking up
on more, your reflexes are slightly better, you feel buzzed up. Now
imagine that you already think at an extreme level, that you are
already fast and dexterous and you just downed six cans for your
first energy hit. I felt like I was going to explode but in a good
way. Anyway, bang, the eventuality of the car giving out happened,
the bonnet nearly flew off, there were at least twenty zombies
around, “Give me the bag.” I unzipped the bag and my hands wrapped
around a wooden handle, I pulled it out and found the fully loaded
magnum, “Where'd you find this?” I tossed it to him before putting
the zipped up bag over my shoulder, “It was under the seat.” A new
friend, a new gun, “It's yours now, I'll show you how to take care
of it at some point. You ready?” he nodded. I popped my door open
and was off, “Where to!?” I had the duffel strap over my shoulder,
“Straight, if the horde gets too thick we'll head into any nearby
structure, hold off.” I jumped onto a nearby car and turned to
check if Harry was keeping up, I couldn't see him, just packs of
the undead running down the road, “Harry!” I felt a tap on my
shoulder, I turned to see him perched just behind me, “How did yo-”
he fired past me and got launched onto the ground, “Woah, that's
got a kick. We should keep going.” I was still flabbergasted,
“What...? Whatever, yeah, let's go.”

I jumped down, pulled him back
up and we ran, dodging dozens of zeds, who each begin to chase us,
we were nearly at the Valley in all its hipster glory before a
group of around two hundred began shambling across our path and
caught our scent, I looked around, at least forty were already
chasing us, “Window! Right side!” I looked to where Harry called
and spotted it, a single open window on the second floor, “Got it!”
I darted over, planted my back against the wall and cupped my hands
together, “Go!” he ran and jumped, his foot planting in my hands
while I brought them up causing him to shoot up, grab the
windowsill and pull himself in. The massive horde was closing in, I
took a few steps back 'You can do this, nice and easy' I ran for
the wall, my first foot hitting the bricks as I began to run
straight up, foot over foot, the bag dragging me down somewhat but
I still couldn't believe what I was doing as Harry's hand shot out
as if to remind me that wall running was not the goal, I grabbed
his blood covered hand and he pulled me in somewhat ungracefully.
We were in someone's kitchen, but they'd left, recently, bowls of
food on the floor, cupboards flung open, they'd left in a hurry and
the smallest part of me had hoped they had made it, “Harry, make
sure the door is closed.” he nodded, “Already done, the place is
empty.” Good, he was truly capable, although... “What was with that
running stuff back there?” Harry plopped down next to me, “I spent
some time in Spain, learned parkour. Good fun.” I slid the gun bag
off and threw it onto the floor. “So, what's the plan from here?”
Harry looked at me like I'd suggested he fly, “How should I know,
you're plan man!” I yawned and stretched, “Not today, today I'm nap
man, last plan I made got me surrounded by hordes of the undead and
made me lose my team.” I wasn't really tired, but I wasn't going to
do any more thinking, I was wet, cold, sad and lonely. I just
wanted Kate and the guys back, yeah Harry was a good asset, but at
that moment he just looked like a flappy hipster to me. I closed my
eyes and let his words wash over me.

A few seconds had passed before
he kicked me in the ribs, “Hey! What th-” his hand shot to my mouth
and when I opened my eyes it was night, I must have passed out,
seconds had definitely passed, hours worth of them. Harry hissed at
me, “Shhh... a couple got inside the building, there's one banging
on the door.” I shot up, “How's the street?” the banging was
becoming more insistent, “Packed, at least four hundred, they know
we're in here, I don't think there's much more 'food' left.” more
hands had joined the banging, plan John, any plan, anything, get
out of here, groans and roars were now joining the slams of fists,
“Alcohol! Have you checked the place?” he looked at me with a
confused expression through the darkness, “Yeah, couple of bottles
of vodka and rum.” I clapped my hands together, “Go get them,
molotov time.” his teeth glinted in the moonlight, “See, this is
why you're plan man.” he ran over to one of the kitchen cupboards
as I pulled a sheet that was sitting on the bar-stool in front of
me, this was actually a nice place, it was kind of hard to see in
the dark but I could make out that they had a nice couch and a
large, wooden kitchen table, made me a bit sad, thinking of all
these people lives completely uprooted, anyway, I tore up the
sheet, “I've got the bottles!” a hand smashed through the door,
“Well... this is going to get interesting, you pick, shooter or
thrower?” he looked at the bottles in his hands then the door now
getting torn down, “Thrower, the street?” I nodded as I gave him
the sheet, unzipped my jacket and pulled out my pistols from their
holsters as the door came down, three immediately in view, I saw
the bright light of the newly lit flame behind me flash against
their blood soaked and torn faces, click, bang, shooting felt
different, like I had more control, the zed dropped, more were
pushing their way into the room, I fired my second pistol, another
head shot, I heard a bottle smash in the streets below, the roars
of the zombies now engulfed in the crackling flames, Harry lit
another as I fired three more times, dropping each of the monsters,
“Do you think they can feel the fire!?” they were now shoving past
each other trying to get near us, me dropping them before they
could get close, “I don't know, maybe, why!?” another smash, “I
feel kind of guilty that I could be hurting these people is all!”
my left pistol clicked, empty, I slid it back into the holster and
kept firing with my right, “Don't! I don't know if these things can
feel pain but I'm sure as Hell that I can! Screw getting eaten!” My
right pistol clicked empty and they were still coming, I slid it
into my other holster, “How are you doing for molotovs?” he lit
another, “Last one.” I turned around and snatched the bottle before
he could throw it and sent it at the doorway, “That's our only way
out! Are you crazy!?” I grabbed the duffel and slung it over my
shoulder, and smiled at him, “More or less,” I grabbed the bar
stool, “We're leaving. Stay close would you?” I ran for the door,
stool brought up in front of me as I slammed into the flaming
corpses, sending them flying back and snapping my make-shift
shield, I discarded it and bounced down the hall, Harry in tow. It
all forced me back to that first night when the team came to pick
me up, “Which way?” I laughed a little as I smashed another zed
into the wall, “Not up. Up is bad.”

The gigantic clear orb that was
the multi-layered command centre of the star-ship Yuik had been
emptied by commander Neysor after the catastrophe of the gassing.
He stood at his post, gazing down at the planet through the open
ports at the base of his ship and felt only broken. The white
pony-tail that normally ran from the front of his scalp to halfway
down his back was resting over his shoulder while his grey-white
face was buried in his strong hands, cradling his flat nose as he
breathed heavily in an attempt to hold back tears. A failure of
this magnitude almost guaranteed the death of his species, a
failure that was only made worse by the reports and updates that
had been flooding his console all day proving that this was not an
isolated event due to a malfunction of the misting system of his
ship. The gas had had the same result on over eight billion of the
planet's denizens and the small percentage that remained healthy
were struggling against the infected. Neysor released a sigh as he
ran his weary fingertips over a console, closing the ports and
sealing him in the false, flickering white light of Yuik's
simulated Sun, filtering almost everything but the necessary
vitamins from the ultraviolet radiation. Neysor chuckled
sarcastically at himself and his ship as he adjusted the black
collar of his mostly red and white skin-tight commander's uniform,
“Another thing to be fixed.”

While making his way toward the
sad grey steel mesh door he realised that a smile was still sitting
on his face and remedied it, straightening his posture and opening
the doors to see several young female faces staring at him in fear,
“Nothing is to be done about this, return to your posts and resume
monitoring of the planet, alert me if anything alters in the
situation.” scattered nods appeared amongst the few of the
remaining ranking officers. An answer wasn't what Neysor wanted
anyway, he just wanted to get off of that depressing bridge and
find Shenim. This ship had traveled long before Neysor and the
brotherhood of nine's time, fighting in great battles, destroying
fleet upon fleet of insurgents. Now it was Neysor's to do with as
he pleased, a gift from his three remaining brothers, and he had
turned it into a beautiful scientific craft during the four hundred
year journey, aiding in the discovery of the cure, the hope for a
species rebirth through the humans after Neysor had foolishly
pushed for the original.

A whisper escaped Neysor's mind
and left through his lips as he heard hits connecting with one of
his crew, “Forty seven percent.” Forty seven percent was when the
once noble and widespread Gralari race had decided that it was time
to test with mass genetic reconfiguration. Female to male ratios of
newborns had dropped to forty seven from sixty two percent in
eighteen months and the council was forced to have a medicine
created to increase the births of female children; a medicine that
had promising results in the first two months. Unfortunately, after
that period, all of the females not born from the medicine began to
die from a sickness while ninety eight percent of men followed;
leaving a generation of solely females. The Gralari were in turmoil
and so the brotherhood of nine was birthed by the last Mother of
the council, Jelar, shortly before she fell to the illness, her
final order putting Neysor and his six brothers as the figureheads
of the brotherhood. Their first command to the now young race was
to return to Earth and rebuild it as a new home. This was the
second time they had tried in seven hundred years.