The Z Infection (40 page)

‘That was a poor choice,’ I said. 
‘But there are ways to win battles against them.  You have to choose your time,
pick your ground and know when to walk away.  They can be picked off in ones
and twos quite easily.  Larger groups are more difficult, but with a proper
plan it can be done.’

‘We don’t have weapons,’ said
another.

‘I know where there are plenty,’ I
said.  ‘Properly armed and working together we can not only survive, but we
could thrive.’

‘No,’ said the janitor.  ‘We stay
here.  I lead this group.  That’s my final decision.’

He was making me angry now.  He
purported to lead this group, but they were nothing more than a disillusioned
mess, fearful and intimidated by what was happening to their world.

The married man stood up now.  He was
in his thirties and was obviously fed up listening to what the janitor had to
say.

‘I say we have a vote on this,’ he
said.  ‘Anyone who is fed up living here and wants something better, raise your
hand.

He raised his and was followed by his
wife.  Peter was next, followed by three of the other youngsters and the older
woman.

‘Well I’m staying here,’ said the
janitor.  ‘If you want to go that’s your business, but don’t expect me to let
you back in.’

We left him there, with two of the
others.  Before I went, I handed a scribbled note to one of the youngsters.  It
had my address on it.

‘If things don’t work out here,
you’re welcome to come and find us at that address,’ I said.

By the evening of that day I had
taken the group safely back to my flat.  It was far too small for all of us,
but it would do for one night.

Callum MacPherson

07:00 hours, Tuesday 26
^th
May, Central
London

Following the information, that there
were people still surviving in central London, it was decided that we would change
our strategy. It came right from the top.  We were to make contact with groups
and, rather than evacuating them all to a central point, we would provide them
with supplies of weapons, food and proper radios.  Each position would be
turned into a mini fortress and would be marked on a map.  It was hoped that,
over time, we would be able to have a detailed map which would show us every
position that was friendly and we could then use those places as safe houses.

We already operated kill squads in
the city.  Taking on large numbers of the infected had proved to be disastrous
and the tactics had changed to limited operations, where we would hunt down and
exterminate smaller groups.  It was going to take much longer doing it this
way, but I think the top brass had already resigned themselves to a long
struggle.  This was not going to be over in a week.

The morning of the 26
^th
I
was assigned to go into London on a chopper with a kill squad.  There were
eight of us and we were to be dropped near to Ground Zero, as it was called,
the site of the first outbreak near Covent Garden on Z Day.

Part of our remit was to try to make
contact with the radio ham our operators had spoken to the day before.  We
carried extra rations, a better radio and some weapons and ammo for them.

The chopper flew high over the city
as we came in from the north.  The destruction was even greater now.  Some
areas had suffered fire damage and with no fire service available they burned
for days, usually until it rained and was extinguished naturally.  Other parts
of the city had been ravaged by looters and scavengers.

We passed over suburban
neighbourhoods where the infected still roamed in huge numbers.  There were
many dead civilians in these areas.  Occasionally we would see a flag being
waved from a window, or some other sign that there were still human beings down
there.  We plotted each one we saw on our maps and carried on.

The closer we came to the centre of
London, the harder it became to see the infected.  The taller buildings made it
almost impossible and we knew that the only method of making sure an area was
clear, was to get boots on the ground and do it the hard way.

We descended to about five or six
feet and jumped.  The chopper didn’t touch down.  It was too dangerous.  One of
the first missions into the city had seen us lose one of them when a swarm had
appeared close by.  They had fought their way inside and killed the crew before
they could take off, leaving the kill squad cut off.  By the time we had
organised another chopper to go and rescue them it was too late.  They found
what was left of them, surrounded by hundreds of infected they had managed to
kill, lying all around them.  After that the choppers weren’t allowed to land. 
The tactic was that they dropped us and then landed on what we called a safe
haven.  These were flat roofs of large buildings which we had cleared and knew
were secure.  Once we had completed our mission we called up for immediate
evacuation and they came back to get us.

The pilot found a safe spot and
hovered while we jumped out.  We then fanned out, checking for danger before
signalling to the pilot who lifted his machine back up into the sky.  This was
the most dangerous time.  If there were infected nearby they would have shown
themselves quickly.

Once I was sure that it was clear we
spread out across the street, four on either side, and made our way towards our
first objective.   Our intelligence, which we received from daily
reconnaissance by the RAF, told us that there was a small group of infected in
the Leicester Square area.  It was also believed that the signal we had
received the previous day, had been in this area.

We crept along the streets.  They
were empty apart from the frequent dead bodies we encountered.  On one corner
we saw a couple of dogs chewing on something.  Packs of the animals were
becoming a common sight on the streets.  They usually left us alone and ran off
when we approached.  They had been as traumatised by recent events as us.

At Leicester Square we slowed down to
a crawl.  There was a noise up ahead.  I signalled for two of my men to check
it out and they moved forward silently.  The tension, in those situations could
sometimes be unbearable.

One of them came back a couple of
minutes later.

‘There are infected nearby,’ he said.

I unfolded a map and he showed me
where he had seen them.

‘How many?’ I asked.

‘About twenty,’ he said.

That was perfect.  We could deal with
twenty without any difficulty but once we had eradicated them we would need to
move out of the area quickly.  We knew that firing would attract greater
numbers.

I ordered the men forward until we
made contact with the group.  They were wandering around near a bar at the far
end of the square.  We spread out silently.  These men were old hands at this
now.  Most of them had carried out at least five similar missions and they knew
their jobs inside out.

Once we were ready I gave another
signal and we opened fire.  A hail of lead cut into the first ones, cutting
them down where they stood.  Almost immediately the others turned and began
walking towards our positions.  This was when you needed a cool head.  Moving
targets are hard enough, but when only a head shot counts it really ups the
ante.

My men were professionals, however,
and one by one we eliminated the dead, until there was only two of them left. 
I had used an entire rifle magazine and so took out my pistol and walked
forward.  The first one I shot at about twenty metres, straight through the
forehead.  The second took two shots as the first one just skimmed his temple. 
He made a horrifying noise as he lunged at me from the last five metres, but I
sidestepped his grab and fired into the side of his head at point blank range. 
It was done.

We gathered together and I ordered
our radio operator to make a call back to base to update them on our success
and ask for the chopper to come back for us. 

‘KS12,’
came the voice on the radio
. 
‘Please be advised that your bird has a technical problem and has had to return
to base meantime.  Please make your way to SH8 and await further instruction.’

That was all we needed.  I took
another look at the map.  SH8 (safe haven eight) was two miles from our
location, right through the area where this had all started.  We knew that the
infected had spread out since the initial outbreaks, but there were still a lot
of them in central London.  I was about to give the order to move, when one of
my men gave a shout.

‘Infected.’

I looked across the square and could
see a couple of them walking towards us. 

‘Take them down,’ I ordered.

Two of the men positioned themselves
and fired a single shot each.  Both of the infected dropped lifelessly to the
ground.

‘More,’ shouted another.

There were another few coming from
another street.  I knew they were being attracted by the noise.  They would be
converging from every side before long.

‘Right, let’s move,’ I said.

There was no point staying to fight. 
We would be outnumbered shortly and it would mean almost certain death.

We were about to run back along the
street when I heard another voice on the radio.

‘KS12,’
it said.
  ‘This is Samson-Li
calling.  If you are in Leicester Square be advised there were infected all
around the southern and western ends earlier today.  Advise heading east to
Ground Z.  We can offer shelter.’

I grabbed the radio.

‘Give us your position,’
I responded.

‘Head for Ground Z,’
said the voice.
  ‘Will advise you further
when you reach it.’

There was nothing else for it.  As I
looked up I could see dozens of the infected now.  Christ they homed in on
noise fast.

I knew exactly what she meant by
Ground Z.  I had flown over the area several times and it was imprinted on my
mind like a map.

‘You heard the lady,’ I shouted.  ‘Long
Acre, now.’

Thomas Buckle

07:15 hours, Tuesday 26
^th
May, Loch Leven,
Kinross-shire

Pancho and I were on the western
shore of the island, fishing and not having a huge amount of luck, when Laura
approached me to give me the news.

‘I’m flying north today,’ she said.

‘North?’

‘Yes,’ she said.  ‘Anna wants a recce
of the area between here and Perth.  Do you fancy coming along?’

‘I’m not having any luck here,’ I
said.  ‘I might as well.’

I packed a few belongings into a
rucksack, along with some emergency provisions and some maps.  Once I was
ready, I spoke to Dave.  He was in charge of the armoury.  All weapons were
signed out through him.  Thanks to our efforts the week before, we had secured
enough guns and rifles for every person on the island and, although we were
still short on ammunition, there was enough for basic defence.  Every time
people went to the mainland they were issued with firearms but the code of
practice was evasion first, killing silently with sharpened implements second
and use of firearms as a last resort.

I took an automatic shotgun for
myself and a rifle as backup.  I also had an axe and a large knife I had found
on another trip.

We were rowed across to the landing
strip by one of the other men.  Laura had made just one flight since we had
landed, just to turn the engine over and to carry out an inspection of the
larger island on the loch.  When she had returned she had left the plane at the
end of the runway, ready for a quick take-off.

The boat scraped along the sandy
bottom as we came to rest on the beach.  We unloaded quickly and before long we
had pushed our companion back out onto the loch and we were jogging to the
plane.

Once we got to it I stashed our gear
and weapons and hoisted Pancho into the rear before I hopped aboard, while
Laura did a few external checks of the aircraft.  The runway was empty as Laura
started up the engines and raced along it.  Before long we were in the air and
climbing to around a thousand feet.

We circled the loch twice, plotting
the positions of several groups of infected, before we headed north.

We followed the route of the motorway
as we went.  There were a lot of abandoned cars on it, but there were no
serious blockages.  A car could easily get through to the town of Perth with a
little care.

The city itself was deserted.  It
didn’t look like a single living soul remained there.  The prison, which
occupied a position to the south of the city centre, had been on fire and was
badly damaged.  There were a few infected within the walls and we assumed that
they were probably a collection of inmates and staff.

The city centre was badly affected. 
Large numbers of infected roamed at will and there was no way anyone could have
lived for long on those streets.

We did a full circuit of the city,
before heading back out past the prison.  There was a large supermarket nearby.

‘This is what Anna is looking for,’
said Laura, pointing down to the building.

It looked like it was secure and
untouched.  I imagined all sorts of good things to eat in there and plenty of
it.

Laura circled it three times.  There
wasn’t a single person, living or dead, anywhere to be seen.

‘If we could get inside that place we
could find enough food to last us a year,’ said Laura.

I agreed with her.  The supermarket
was also well position, on the edge of town.  It would be easy to get in and
out of it without attracting attention from the infected who seemed to be
congregating in the centre.

‘A distraction would be enough to
draw all of the infected well away from the area,’ I said.  ‘And you could
recce it from the air to give us some extra security.’

‘We would need something big, to
transport all the food,’ said Laura.  ‘And we would need somewhere to store it
all too.  The cellar under the tower isn’t nearly big enough.’

We carried on south again, heading
back to the main interchange.

‘There,’ I said, pointing down to the
carriageway.  ‘That’s what we need.’

There was an articulated lorry on the
road.  Both doors of the cab were lying open, as well as the back doors to the
unit.

‘Looks like someone’s been inside it
already,’ said Laura.

‘Can you land on the road?’ I asked.

‘I’m not keen,’ she said.  ‘Who knows
what debris is lying around?’

‘Can we at least have a look?’ I
asked.

She swooped down, making a low pass. 
There was a decent straight piece of road with no cars on it.  It looked
perfect.