Dead Tropics (16 page)

"It's more than people rioting, Jodie. These people have been infected by a virus. They are extremely violent and irrational. You need to take every precaution to protect your family."

She looked disbelieving. I sighed. "Do you need help getting your place ready, Jodie?" I knew her husband had left a few months back and she had never struck me as being very self-sufficient.

Mike walked over, his damp shirt clinging to his chest. "Ma'am, if you need help making your place secure, I could come over after I'm finished here."

Jodie looked up at him with interest. I felt a moment of vague irritation.
Time and place
, lady,
time and place.

She smiled at him. "Thank you. I would really appreciate that."

She held out her hand. "I don't remember seeing you here before. I'm sure I would have remembered! Are you a friend of Andy's?"

"Actually, Mike's a friend of
mine
." I stepped forward to stand next to him.

"Ahh. Well, I look forward to seeing you at my place, Mike." Calling her girls down, Jodie waved a coy goodbye and walked back down the driveway.

Mike looked down at me and cocked a brow inquiringly. I realised I had a sour look on my face and hastily rearranged it. Without another word, I turned and headed back to Emma.

As Mike walked away, Emma snickered. "Looks like Mike's got himself an admirer."

I snorted in irritation. I couldn't believe that there were women who had time to flirt even in the midst of a crisis.

For the next half an hour, I walked the street and knocked on doors, trying to convince the homeowners of the seriousness of the situation without ever mentioning the word 'zombies'. Some seemed to get the gravity of the situation but, as I walked back up the hill, I wondered if I'd done enough. Should I have told them the truth?

After finishing the windows, Emma and I discussed whether to board up the back door which looked onto the rainforest. We decided to leave it unbarred in the event we had to escape through the forest.

It was getting dark as I went upstairs to arrange the supplies into some sort of order. Ken and Mike had headed over to Jodie's. Roy was still asleep on the sofa. Poor guy, he must have been very tired, I thought, if he could sleep through all the hammering and the kids playing around him. His ten-minute nap had turned into, I checked my watch quickly, over two hours!

Sarah came running out of the bathroom, naked as the day she was born. Smiling, I opened my arms and she threw herself into them. I loved the way the babies smelt and the softness of their skin. Years of tropical sun had left my arms bronzed and freckly, and they didn't look very attractive against the pale, smooth baby arms of my daughter.

"Ooh, where are your clothes, munchkin?" I teased as I tickled her.

She squealed and wiggled. "Don' haf any!"

"Well, I'm sure your aunty has laid some out for you in your cousins' room. Go have a look." I watched with a cheesy grin as she paddled out of the room. What can I say? I'm a sucker for babies.

Turning back, I gathered all the bags of food and carried them into the kitchen. If we were lucky, they would stretch out our food to five days, although by the end, everyone would be complaining, I had no doubt. The tins of food that remain uneaten in people's cupboard tend to be the stuff no one
wants
to eat, like my impulse purchase of tinned artichokes. Mike and Ken's contributions included tins of kippers, red cabbage, bamboo shoots and spam, which, in my eyes, just proved my theory. Heck, I didn't even know spam was still being produced!

A giggle alerted me to the return of my daughter. As I gathered some bottles of juice and soda in my arms, I heard Roy groan. Glancing over the pile in my arms, I saw Sarah poking Roy in the cheek. Grinning inside, I headed for the kitchen. About time he woke up, I thought, quelling the little voice that said a good mother would teach her daughter that it was rude to poke sleeping people.

And then my world fell apart.

My daughter screamed in pain and fear. I dropped everything as I spun around, a cold sweat breaking out all over my body. Roy clutched my daughter in his outstretched hands, pulling her towards him. The cold eyes, the pallid skin...
oh God, how could I have missed this
?!

I flew into the room and, as he brought his mouth to her arm, I grabbed Sarah around the waist and wrenched her away.

Kaye came running into the room. "What's happened?" She cried.

Ignoring her, I examined my daughter feverishly. There was blood all over my daughter's hand. The room spun as I saw bloody stumps where her middle fingers should have been.

No, no, no.
For a moment, I wanted to die. She had been bitten and I knew, without a shred of doubt, what that meant.

4

"No!" I screamed in furious denial.
Not as long as there was breath in my body.

I knew what I had to do. I saw Kaye staring wide-eyed at Roy as he rose to his feet, a trace of my daughter's blood on his lips. I felt a momentary anguish at leaving my inexperienced sister to deal with the monster that had once been Roy, but my child had to come first. "Stop him, Kaye! I have to help Sarah."

Kaye nodded fearfully and stepped forward as Roy started towards us. I ran past her as I headed for the ironing basket in the corner. Sarah was screaming loudly now, having registered the bloody stumps on her hand. Falling to my knees, I grabbed a sock and wrapped it around her arm. Twisting, I proceeded to make a tourniquet. As I twisted it tighter and tighter,

Sarah's screams turned to howls. "Hurts, mummy, hurts."

Tears dripped down my cheeks. "I know, baby. I'm so sorry."

Glancing up, I saw Kaye spin and land a fierce roundhouse kick that sent Roy flying back into the sofa. I blinked in surprise. While I had known that my sister was a black belt in theory, this was the first time I had ever seen her in action. It was undoubtedly the first time she had ever had to use it outside of the dojo!

Satisfied that no blood - or virus- could get through the tourniquet, I jumped to my feet and grabbed the long handed shovel near the door. As Roy rose to his feet and turned towards me, I ran at him, holding the shovel like a spear. With a violent thrust, I speared him through the throat and propelled him backwards. The shovel tip buried itself into the wall, leaving Roy dangling like some grotesque marionette for a second, before the body fell to the floor. The head rolled off the shovel and bounced along the floor, before coming to a rest against the telephone stand.

Mike, Ken and Emma leapt over the closed baby gate at the top of the verandah stairs and charged into the room. They came to a stop as they took in the scene before them.

"Oh, my God." The aghast whisper came from Michele as she ran into the room followed by Lucas. "You killed Roy."

I looked at her, adrenaline still coursing through my body. "He was one of
them
. And he...he bit Sarah."

Her hands flew to her mouth in horror. "Oh mummy, no, that means..."

Grimly, I turned away from the body lying limply against the wall. "Not if I can help it."

Running past Mike and the others, I bolted down the stairs, clambered over the high fence and dashed to the ambulance. I flung its doors open and started rummaging through the supplies. Within minutes, I had located the scalpel in the trach set, the morphine and the other bits and pieces. I sat back for a moment, trying to center myself. My hands were shaking so badly that I knew I would not be of any use to Sarah if I didn't calm down. I took a deep breath and then another. It would all work out, I told myself, Sarah was going to be just fine.
I can do this.

Upstairs, Mike and Ken had removed Roy's body. I didn't know where they had put it and I didn't care. Picking up my crying daughter, I laid her gently on the dining table. I grabbed the vial of morphine and drew the quantity I would need for anaesthesia into the syringe.

Emma came up quietly beside me. "Lori..."

I sent her a hard look. "If you're here to help, great. If you're going to try to talk me out of it, then get the hell out of the way."

She touched my arm, her eyes searching mine. "I'm not exactly sure
what
you're planning, Lori."

Searching for a vein, I placed the needle carefully against my daughter's skin. I smiled gently at her. "This needle will make all the pain go away, baby."

She hiccupped tearfully. "Hurts, mummy."

I injected the morphine and then stroked Sarah's curly hair. "There. It will be all better soon. You'll see."

As her sobs faded and her eyes slowly closed, I turned to Emma. The others stood around us, their faces reflecting their concern and compassion. My oldest daughter looked sick with fear. I felt sick, too. I could hardly believe I was going to do this.

"I am going to amputate her arm." I heard someone gasp and start to cry. Looking up, I saw my sister's face as she shook her head in disbelief. Closing my eyes for a moment, I looked back at Emma. "Will you help me?"

"You know I will, if you think it will work." She said softly.

I shrugged, struggling to keep the despair I felt from my face. "I applied a tourniquet within seconds. If I amputate now, at least she'll have a
chance
."

"Well, then." Coming to a decision, Emma nodded. "Let's do it."

She turned and briskly issued instructions to the group. Michele and Lucas kept the other kids away while the remaining adults organised boiling water, lights and sheets.

Looking at my daughter's peaceful face, I wondered for a moment how I was ever going to explain this to her.
Hey baby, mummy had to remove your arm...
Emma touched my arm. "Ready?" She asked gently. I nodded, taking a deep breath.

Carefully, I made an incision. I worked methodically and clinically, separating flesh and muscle, until finally, the limb was off and I could focus on suturing the wound. Then I wrapped the stump and, finally, placed a sock over it to keep the bandage in place.

Sighing, I stood back. My baby lay so still, a stump where her soft, plump arm had been. Please let this be worth it, I prayed to each and any god that might be listening.
Let her be okay
.

"You did good, Lori." Emma smiled at me. "She's going to be fine."

I tried to smile back at her but I just couldn't manage it. The emotions I had been holding at bay for the last hour finally overwhelmed me and I started shaking like a leaf. Kaye hurried over and wrapped her arms around me, holding me tight as I started to sob uncontrollably.

****

In the kids' room, I sat beside Sarah, stroking her hair, as she drifted off to sleep. Her brother was already fast asleep at the other end of the bed while the cousins were tucked in the top bunk above.

She looked peaceful. Thankfully, there was enough medication in the ambulance to keep her comfortable for several days. A hand touched my shoulder. Kaye sat down beside me.

"How are you holding up?"

I shook my head. "I saw Roy get bitten this morning, Kaye. How could I have forgotten?"

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Lori. He was barely showing any signs of being ill, let alone that he was about to turn into one of them."

I sighed miserably. "I know. I think...it had been so many hours since he was bitten that I assumed that he was okay. And Sarah paid the price."

Silently, we watched my little girl sleep. Glancing at her watch, Kaye stood up. "I'm on lookout duty. Are you going to be okay?"

I snorted. "As okay as I can be, having just chopped my own daughter's arm off." The thought still made me sick in the stomach.

"You did what you had to do, Lori, to save her life. You have no idea how much I admire your courage."

Startled, I met her eyes. "Huh?"

Kaye leaned forward and stroked my cheek. "That's one of the things that make you special, Lori. You see what needs to be done and you act, no doubts, no hesitation. If it had been my child..." She stopped and swallowed, eyes suddenly dark. "I don't think I could have done it."

"Maybe I shouldn't have." I burst out. "I keep wondering - was I wrong? Maybe she wouldn't have turned into one of them! It's not like I know for sure...What if I cut off her arm for nothing? What if it doesn't even work and I put her through that pain for nothing. What if..."

Kaye placed a finger on my mouth, cutting me off. "Lori, you need to stop torturing yourself right now. You did what you had to do to save Sarah. That's as much as anyone could ask of you, including yourself. So I don't want to hear you talking like that anymore. Got it?"

I smiled tentatively. "Got it, boss." Her belief in me almost managed to reassure me that I had done the right thing.

"Besides, we need your undivided attention here and now, so snap out of it." She grinned. "You don't expect me to make all the decisions tonight, do you?"