Thirteen Roses Book One: Before: An Apocalyptic Zombie Saga (10 page)

'Hi, what… oh, hi, Sam, you came.'

'Of course I came, you were upset.'

'Yeah, but. No, of course, please, come in.'

'Who is she?'

'Huh?'

'The woman who opened the door, who is she?'

'Oh. She's Trish, she's my partner.'

'Your partner.'

'Yeah, about two months now.'

'And she's already moved in?'

'Yeah, well.'

'Your partner... I'm going to go, I should go.'

'Sam, wait, what did you think?'

She scrubbed the tears away and rounded on her. Something bubbled up from within, something she recognised from her father, just once or twice when she was young. Something that terrified her.
 

'WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK, WHAT DID YOU THINK, TELL ME, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK, YOU CALLED ME. YOU CALLED ME. YOU SAID YOU MISSED ME, YOU SAID...'

She trailed off, wiping her chin and dropping her head. Everything was gone, like something had scraped her out from the inside. Tanya stared at her, eyes wide and hands held out before her like she expected Sam to attack her. Maybe she would, if she had more energy.
 

She scooped up the roses and stuck her arm out straight. They looked alien, like they weren't from Earth. The smell was gone. The smell of everything was gone. Her nose was blocked and streaming. Tanya looked at the roses, shaking her head.
 

'Take them.'

Still she shook her head. Sam yanked one from the bag, a thorn splitting her finger open. She looked at the blood, blinking, waiting for the pain to start. She stepped forwards and Tanya backed into the flat, one hand holding the door. Sam shoved the roses in her face and finally she took them.
 

With the one rose gripped between her fingers, she turned and marched down the street. She listened for the door but it never closed, not until she was round the corner and heading towards the green. She looked down at the rose in her hand.
 

'This one's for me. That's who it's for.'
 

She smiled and shoved her nose in it and took a deep breath. The smell was back, stronger than ever and a sort of haze came over her. She felt rather than knew she was getting on the tube, but she only knew she was going home when she stepped out at Chalfont and Latimer and buzzed through the gate.
 

She ran a bath. She put the kettle on, but forgot to make the tea. She undressed slowly, every move taking forever as her limbs refused to follow her instructions. She took the phone off the hook. She walked into each room and ran her fingers over the furniture, straightened pictures that didn't need straightening. She went into the lounge and flicked the switch behind the TV, taking it from standby to fully off. She should be doing that every night.
 

The bath steamed but she barely felt the scalding water as she sank into it. The rose twirled slowly between her fingers and she reached out with gentle, shaking fingers to pluck the first petal. With each one she tore off and dropped into the water, she imagined she could feel the cancer, eating her insides.
 

When all the petals lay scattered across the water, she dropped the blood-stained stem onto the tiled floor and reached for the knife. She felt that, but only for a moment.
 

Interlude

Dammit. Damn, damn, damn. That was the worst choice ever, what the devil had he been thinking? She was so far beyond his control, he'd never had a chance. And what had Tanya been thinking, what kind of horrible bitch was she?

He wasn't supposed to be susceptible to the same emotional challenges as humans, but he couldn't help being angry at her anyway. There was reasonable behaviour and then there was just being unpleasant, and that was unnecessary. The flower seller sighed and shook his head. The bath was red now and her life force sunk down and out, then rushed past him.
 

So that was that. Two from five. That Monday feeling was coming back with a vengeance. He picked up the list. He needed an easy one, a real easy one. Or at least one where he had a chance of making a difference.
 

He found Alex pretty quickly and read through it twice. He was beginning to question his instincts. Three hundred years of this and suddenly he was making all the wrong decisions. What was that about? He was thinking more as well, about things he'd never used to think about. What happened if you didn't meet your quota? What happened to those who went below?

Why was he asking anything? He knew what happened below. He'd invented most of it. Perhaps that was what was wrong. He'd spent three hundred years working against his will, against his values. He shook his head. That wasn't true, not since the Father got through with him. He'd stripped away most of the bad stuff and left him back where he'd started, all those thousands of years ago. But it was there, creeping about inside, longing for a way out.
 

He picked up the list again and focused on Alex. He would get Alex and then it would be all about Sunday. He just had to get Alex.
 

Alex Part One

The wall hadn't changed. He'd stared at it for hours now, but it was just the same. Everything else had changed, but the wall was the same. If he looked at it long enough, perhaps everything else would follow and fall back into line.
 

He glanced at his phone. The screen was dark so he pressed the button. It faded back up and the message was still there and nothing would be the same again. He was lying to himself. The wall was different. Before it had just been a wall. Now it was a barrier.
 

Alex hauled himself out of the kitchen chair and slumped into the lounge. He flicked on the TV, grabbed a controller and spent more time than was healthy shooting things. When his thumbs started hurting, he tossed the controller to one side and looked at his phone again. Same message. Perhaps if he let it run out of battery, the message would go and he could pretend he hadn't seen it.
 

He ran his nails across his scalp and groaned. It wouldn't work. He opened the phone and went into his texts.
 

Hey. I'm pregnant

He lifted the phone, ready to throw it at the wall, then lowered it and laughed. It was a laugh that said more than words ever could. It was a horrible, cynical laugh that carried not a whit of humour and plenty of anger. But what had he to be angry about?

It was his fault. It was him who'd forgotten the condoms and him who'd pushed and pushed until she caved in. He didn't even think he was surprised. He'd been a grumpy bastard for the last month and he wondered whether it wasn't because he'd known, deep down, what was coming.

He started to type and stopped. He flicked to phone and called her.
 

'Hey.'

'Hey. Got your message.'

'Yeah. Crazy, huh?'

She sounded slightly hysterical, a little too high-pitched.
 

'Yeah, that's just the right word. What you gonna do?'

'What do you mean, you?'

'Well it's your call, isn't it?'

'It's our call, Alex, it's our baby.'

'It's not a baby, not yet. It's a, you know, foetus.'

'Right, yeah. What do you want to do?'

'It's not about me, is it?'

'Yeah, actually, it is.'

'Well what do you want to do?'

'It's a baby, I--'

'No it's not.'

'What do you want to do?'

'I don't want a baby. I don't want to have kids. I'm sorry, I just don't. We haven't even finished uni, it's ridiculous.'

'So you think we should get…'

'Yeah.'

'Right. What do we do?'

'We go to the hospital, I think. Look, Lisa, I just think it's too soon and we're too young and--'

'Yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah.'

The phone went dead and he stared at it. Had she hung up? It rang a second later and he jumped and dropped it. It slipped between the cushions and he swore and jumped onto the floor, dragging them off until he raised it triumphantly aloft.
 

'Yeah, what happened?'

'Sorry, just cut off, don't know why. So, we go tomorrow?'

'Yeah. I'll come over yours.'

They sorted the time and he put the phone down. He reached for the controller and pressed start, but the bad guys had been planning and he died before he got anywhere.
 

He slept badly, waking up in pools of sweat and searching for a dry patch on the bed before drifting off again.
 

It was half five when he finally crawled out and into the shower. No point lying there when he couldn't sleep. He slipped out the house and got on the tube heading for Central. The others thought he was weird, but there was nothing he liked better than getting into town before everyone else.
 

It was half six when he arrived and the rush hour traffic was already building up, but Embankment was quiet enough for him to think. He reached Temple when his phone buzzed.
 

I don't want an abortion. Can you come over now?

The phone shook as his hand tightened around it. He shoved it in his pocket. This time he could pretend he hadn't seen it. He could go over to hers at the normal time and just pretend it got lost. He wasn't having that conversation over the phone. And she was wrong. He stomped back toward the station and grabbed a hot chocolate.
 

Alex stared into the river at the swirling dark water, his mind going in circles. He couldn't have a child. He wanted to do things; travel, get drunk. He knew what it meant to have a kid. Well, maybe not completely, but he knew he couldn't stay at uni, and that meant the end of his research. His biological sciences degree would be a complete waste. He'd have to get a serious job. He snorted and turned away from the river.
 

She'd understand, once they had a chat. She knew it was stupid, she just didn't want to admit it. And that was fair enough, she was the pregnant one. He had no idea how it felt, but it had to be pretty intense having something growing inside you. Like
Aliens
. He chuckled and sipped his hot chocolate.
 

There was nothing funny about this. Nothing at all. The scent of flowers drew him back toward the river and he paused. There was a guy selling flowers and they were amazing, the most incredible blooms spread out on this little table. He wore this big puffer jacket and looked cold.
 

'Hi. Nice flowers.'

'Thank you, sir. I am rather proud of them. Can I interest you in buying something? Perhaps there's someone special you could give them to?'

Actually, that was a really good idea. He could soften her up with some roses. There was a bunch of red ones right in front of him that smelled gorgeous.
 

'Yeah, I'll take those, please.'

The flower seller wrapped them up, humming a song that sounded vaguely familiar. He held them out to Alex with a smile.
 

'I've given you thirteen in case one gets damaged on the way to wherever you're going. Maybe you could give it to someone else, if you don't need it?'

Alex nodded absently and paid, not really hearing him. Lisa would love these. He could say sorry and they could have a chat and decide what they wanted. He nipped across the road and up the steps to Embankment Station. Just as he was about to step in, the world went black. He stared up and gasped.

The sky was filled with shapes, huge balloons that drifted like clouds over London. There were glimpses of sunlight between them, but the smog and dirt that hung beneath blocked any that got through. The streets were deserted around him and the entrance to the station was blocked by orange bollards.
 

A screaming sound, like a police siren on crack, started up and he ducked his head instinctively. A car hammered down the street, weaving this way and that before piling into the black railings. Moments later, a different sound cut through the sirens, a whistling noise that grew louder. Alex spotted the rocket just before it struck the car. The explosion washed over him and he was thrown back into the bollards.
 

He raised his head, peering at the flaming wreckage of the car. Two dark grey trucks came into view and screeched to a halt. Men in uniforms the same colour as the truck emerged and surrounded the car. They carried guns and before he had a moment to prepare himself, they unleashed at the burning vehicle.
 

The flames shifted this way and that as the bullets flew into the steel and rubber. After a few seconds of gunfire, the men piled back into their truck and drove swiftly away, leaving Embankment empty and shockingly silent. The siren stopped.
 

'Alex, welcome to London.'

The voice was familiar inside his head and took his mind a little further than it was willing to go. He groaned and cradled his head in his hands.
 

Alex Part Two

'This is London. I'm sure you recognise it. It's changed a little since you were last here.'

He raised his head and saw the flower seller tramping slowly up the steps from the street. What the hell? The roses were scattered around him. Some had gone over the barrier into the dark of the station. He started picking them up, futilely hoping he could get all twelve. There had been thirteen though, so maybe he could. Was this why the guy sold him the extra one?

'What do you see, Alex?'

'Roses.'

'Look around you.'

He didn't want to. He didn't want to think about what he'd just seen. It was an execution, in broad daylight. Only it wasn't broad daylight because of the smoke and the balloons.
 

'What happened?'

'Your son.'

'What?'

'All this could have been stopped. The plague would never have happened and the dead would never have walked, had he been here.'

'Where was he?'

'He never happened. You didn't let him happen and so here we are, where those not 'officially clean' are hunted down by the soldiers of god.'