Lockdown (AM13 Outbreak Series) (10 page)

Chapter

Eighteen

That evening, we congregate outside again, this time with Jake. Luckily, no one else has bothered with coming out here. They all seem quite happy camped out in the hall, surrounded by the same people they see at work all day. I wonder if they’re gossiping about us never joining them, but then quickly realise it hardly matters. Soon, we won’t be here anymore, and that decision might have the negative ramification that we’re never allowed back, so we won’t ever have to see any of their faces again anyway.

“It looks like we’ll be able to spend most of the journey together,” Jake says, carefully studying the map. It’s definitely good that he’s coming along because route planning isn’t something I’d even thought about. “Which is great, because I think we’ll be much safer together.”

“Safety in numbers.” Michelle laughs nervously.

“We’ll be with you the whole way, Michelle. Then me and you go to
here
together, before splitting up.” Jake indicates a place on the map to me. “I think it’ll take about five days in total. This last section, where you’re alone, won’t last any longer than a day. Is that too much?” His tone is distracted; I can tell he’s thinking about his son—a person who’s far more important than me. I swallow down any fear before nodding. I can last a few hours by myself, surely. I know it won’t be easy, but I refuse to admit that I can’t do it. I can be tough, I can be unafraid. If I just focus on the five days, and how short that is, I’ll be okay. Nothing will go wrong in under a week. It just can’t.

“Okay, so I know it won’t be easy, but we really need to start stockpiling some food. We’re going to have to take
something
with us.” Jake brings me back to our present issues. I can worry about my time alone when we’re
out there
. For now, we need to focus on the getting out part. “We’ve had plenty of food delivered here, so we can grab a few bits unnoticed. Luckily we don’t have to affect anyone; we can just take what we would have eaten anyway.”

I refer to my
‘Bug Out Bag’
notes, grateful that I have them and I can usefully contribute to the conversation. “It says here we also need something for shelter, lots of water, matches…”

“Yeah, I’ll have a think about those things.” Jake clearly wants to take charge of this situation—a fact that makes me
really
glad I invited him. I feel a lot more comfortable knowing I have someone to rely on. I don’t honestly know how far I’d get based on my own limited knowledge.

“And I’ve also found this blog written by some guy who has been surviving on the road for a while. They must have lived somewhere that got overrun really quickly…” I say excitedly, searching through my notes.

“Someone is posting a blog in the middle of the zombie apocalypse? Are you sure it’s real?” Michelle says scathingly. When she puts it like that, it does sound a bit mad.

“Yes, look at these pictures.” I show her what I’ve printed off, proving my point. “Why
wouldn’t
someone be posting online during this? It isn’t like electricity or the Internet is down. If they’ve found a way to charge their laptop or phone—or whatever it is that he’s using—then it’s probably a good way to get everything off his chest. Like an online diary.”

“Okay, so what does it say? Anything we could use?” Jake’s tone is still all business. I’m pleased by this; it means he’s taking my research seriously.

“He says that taking food from abandoned shops is a great way to keep going—which will be good for us, because we’ll be going through town. Also, there’s a bit about weapons…” I pause, scanning through quickly.

“How are we going to get out?” Michelle suddenly bursts, as if this has been troubling her for far too long and the words have finally spilled out of her mouth. She’s right. That’s the only part of the plan we’ve skated over.

“Yeah.” I place my paperwork down, chastened by her tone. “We should probably talk about that first.”

After much discussion, we decide that the best method is to leave quietly, and at night. This idea may not have much substance, but it’s the only thing any of us can see working. That way, we have the flexibility to leave when we’re truly ready, and we don’t have to get anything in place beforehand. It’s not too complex, allowing for things to go wrong. We’re just going to make a break for it and hop over the wall.

Jake thinks he knows a section of the outside area that might not be covered by the security cameras, so we’ll aim to leave via there. It’s a risk whatever we do; I can’t see anyone coming after us when they realise we’re gone, but they might report us to the authorities. The last thing we need is video evidence of our escape.

The only real disagreement we have right now is what to do when we’re out. I think we should get as far away from the office as possible, cover as many miles as we can before anyone notices our absence. However, Jake thinks we should just hunker down in the first suitable place we find. He says they’ll be expecting us to run and will be looking for us further away—if they bother, that is. Michelle is remaining firmly on the fence, refusing to make a decision. She thinks we should just play it by ear. Even though I can’t stand her casual attitude towards it—especially as she was the one who freaked out about our lack of planning—I know that’s what we’ll end up doing. We can’t really make an informed decision until we’re out there. Still,
some
sort of plan would be nice.

***

The next few days seem to drag on endlessly. We all work diligently towards gathering supplies discreetly, during which I become overly paranoid more than once that everyone else knows exactly what we’re up to. In fact, I become a shaky, jumpy mess—no help to anyone. This doesn’t make my decision waver, though. Not even once. I’m just worried about the possibility of things going wrong.

Despite my internal struggle, by Friday we’re completely ready to go. We all agree there’s nothing else for us to do, nothing else holding us back. That makes it time! Half of me is afraid, because I didn’t expect it to come together so quickly. The other half is grateful I don’t have to keep incessantly worrying.

Anticipation frizzes through me as I hunt through my backpack once more. Food, water, washing equipment—just in case the opportunity arises—a torch, matches, bandages, and clean clothes.
I know changing into fresh undies isn’t exactly going to be my top priority—that’ll be not dying—but I’m keeping optimistic that I’ll get a chance. I have repacked my bag a hundred times, happy I have everything from my list. This is going to go really well; we’ve gotten off to such a good start. Much as I’m nervous, I’m also feeling really positive.

That night, we try to act normal, even heading to bed for a bit, fully knowing that none of us will be able to sleep. The adrenaline coursing through my veins is making me so restless that even lying down is difficult, so by two a.m., I’m raring to go. I sit up, noticing that Michelle and Jake are already standing. Clearly I’m not the only one who’s excited.

My heart is racing as I follow behind the others. We tiptoe along the corridors, trying to creep as quietly as possible, with none of us even daring to breathe properly until we reach the front door of the building. As we step outside, I glance over to the gate, wishing I could use my pass to get past the wall. That way would be
so
much easier. Unfortunately it makes so much noise as the gate swings that it would wake everyone up.

I imitate Jake and Michelle, who immediately crouch down and race over to the wall. As we reach the bottom and my eyes travel up it, I’m hit with a sudden panic that we’ll never be able to get over. I’d forgotten just how massive this wall really is. I start to freak out, but am stopped from saying anything by the sight of Jake already giving Michelle a boost up. How are they so calm? They just
know
what to do that without even thinking or speaking. Have I missed a conversation somewhere along the line? I watch my best friend as she hoists herself to the top of the wall and pulls herself over, seemingly with ease. She lets out a harrumph as she tumbles over the other side, but luckily nothing that would be loud enough to attract attention.

“Come on!” Jake whispers to me a little impatiently.

I let out a deep sigh before heaving myself up onto Jake’s hands. I climb in such an embarrassingly ungainly fashion that I can’t help but let out a little giggle at what I would have thought about this just a few short weeks ago, when my main goal was to impress Jake. So much has changed in the last few weeks. Of course,
this
is the smallest of the changes, but it’s still significant to me.

I have no idea how Jake manages to get over the wall without someone to help him, but he does it about a second after I’ve landed. As I’m standing up, I notice that his face has gone pale. I follow his eye line, wondering why he looks so scared, which is when I spot Michelle’s leg. Her trousers are torn, revealing a huge gash on her thigh. This must have happened as she fell down the other side of the wall. The pool of blood that’s gathering at her feet suggests that the wound is even worse than it looks.

I start to feel dizzy. Blood has never been my strong point, and now my best friend is bleeding excessively and we can’t exactly call an ambulance to help her. This is a nightmare; what are we going to do?

“Shit!” Michelle glances down, only just spotting the injury herself. I guess the shock prevented her from feeling the pain right away. She immediately starts to hobble over to the other side of the street, moving as quickly as her wounded leg will allow her.

“Wait!” I cry, tossing my backpack onto the ground. “Bandages. We need to—”

I look around frantically, trying to find somewhere suitable to sit while we fix her up—but I’m quickly silenced. In my peripheral vision, I can see about eight or nine infected people loitering about. And now, because of the racket I just made, they’re all looking this way and starting to move in our direction.

For a moment, I’m stunned, frozen on the spot. They seem weird up close…weirder than I was expecting. They’re completely inhuman and totally gross. All dirty and wasting away. I can’t see
any
emotion whatsoever in any of their faces. It’s as if they’re all just…blank. I can’t understand what they’re all doing outside, blatantly on the streets. It’s almost as if they’re just
waiting
to be caught or killed. Don’t they have the sense to hide? Is there really nothing of them left?

“Come on!” Jake hisses, distracting me from my thoughts, bringing me back to reality.

We take off running, needing to get away from that lot. Right now, we have nothing to defend ourselves—especially if we really
do
have to kill them to stop us from getting infected ourselves—so there’s no sense in us hanging around in such a dangerous area.

Michelle’s injury slows us down a bit, but luckily for us, the AM13 victims don’t seem to be able to move very quickly. This gives us the time we need to escape unscathed. We detour around the backs of houses and through the nearby fields, all while trying to get out of sight. The authorities
and
the infected are a danger to us right now.

Eventually, we stumble across a shed on someone’s land. It’s huge and there’s no one about to see us, so we sneakily slip inside. As soon as we’re safe, we get to work patching up Michelle’s leg the best we can with what we have. We have
some
medical equipment with us, but it isn’t enough. I wish I had access to antibiotics—they can help with just about anything. They would have been great for warding off bacteria and infection, keeping Michelle healthy until she could get some proper care.

She seems really woozy, but I’m hoping it’s just from blood loss. A good night’s sleep should sort that out, leaving her much better in the morning. I smile weakly at her, whilst noticing that all of my bravado has evaporated. It’s easy to feel invincible when you’re locked inside a nice warm building with everything you need on tap. Now, faced with the harsh reality of the decision we’ve made, I’m a lot less sure. In fact, I’m certain we’ve made a mistake.

I started off the planning of this trip, pretty much convincing the others to come with me. If anything happens to any of us, then I’m going to be responsible for even more deaths! In all of our planning, and all my anal note writing, general injuries didn’t even enter my imagination. How naïve am I? And more importantly, what else have I forgotten to consider?

Suddenly, five days seems a very long time…

Chapter

Nineteen

The night seems to go on forever. I’m freezing cold and the shed is damp to the point where I’m convinced I can smell mould. Why did I think I could do this? I’m not even any good at camping! The small, uncomfortable bed that I had at the office suddenly seems like a luxury I can barely stand to live without.

Unfortunately, even if we wanted to, there’s no way we could go back now. If Jamie heard us sneaking in, he’d send us straight off to the specialised medical facilities.

What happened to the warmth that I’m certain was there earlier today? The layers I had on were plenty, but now they feel paper thin. My thin, scratchy blanket is not even slightly helping with the icy chill. I can hear the wind howling as I drift in and out of sleep, and the noise infiltrates my nightmares. All the fears I’ve been desperately trying to suppress come flooding to the surface in my subconscious.

I dream that I’m surrounded by the infected. They’re coming at me from every angle and there’s no escape. Their faces are covered in scars and gore, limbs are missing, and they carry the unmistakable stench of rot. Why do they smell that way? Like I imagine death smells. I turn round and round, trying to get away, trying to find a solution. I can’t breathe as they get closer, my throat is constricted. I’m desperate for air. I can’t think, can’t concentrate. If only my vision wasn’t blurring, I could decide what to do next…

I jolt awake, covered in sweat, already knowing there’s no way I’ll get back to sleep now. I sit up, my eyes wide, panting. I look around the small space we’re in, feeling grateful that we actually have a shelter over our heads tonight. Something to separate us from
them
. That’s definitely not going to be the case every night. The more I think about this journey, the crazier I think we are. There’s so much I didn’t consider in my naïve excitement. How did any of us think that we were ready for this? I don’t even try to stop the tears from rolling down my cheeks; I just allow them to drip, surrounded in self-pity and helplessness.

My thoughts turn to my parents. I really hope they’re okay; I hope Felix is keeping them safe. I’m starting to get worried about what I’ll find when I get there—if I make it, of course. I take out my mobile, thinking maybe I should text them to warn them I’m on my way so they won’t be too freaked out when I arrive at their door, but my phone is out of battery. Typical—just another thing I forgot to think about. I don’t even think I have my charger.

I almost wish I’d told Felix what I was doing before we left. I didn’t want to frighten him so I just kept my communication really basic. His was the same, no detail, just ‘everything’s fine.’ Now I wish I knew
anything
, to keep me going.

When the light starts to shine through the wooden slats, the others give up trying to sleep too and we discuss our plan for the day.

“We need to be wary.” Jake sounds stressed, panicked. “We have no idea whether or not we’re being followed or hunted down yet. It’s likely that Jamie has already reported us missing.”

I wonder how angry Jamie is right now. I bet he’s livid. I can just picture him, pacing up and down, ranting about how irresponsible we are. Threatening the others not to do the same. It’s very unlikely that any of us has a job to go back to. If all of this really
is
under control in two weeks, we’re all pretty screwed. We’re going to look like idiots.

Oh God, this is
not
the time to be worrying about work!

“Okay, so…” I intervene, glancing at Michelle—who I notice is actually looking a little better today, although it’s clear that she’s still in a lot of pain when she moves. “Where are we going to go? What are we going to do?”

“I’m going to scout the area, check that it’s safe.” Jake shuffles outside, leaving me to tie myself up in knots with worry.

“Are you all right, Michelle?” I ask.

She doesn’t answer. She doesn’t even look at me. She must blame me for her injury, for the danger she’s in. She’s probably thinking that if I’d simply ignored her rant that night and took it for fear or madness, she wouldn’t be in this mess now. I can’t say that I totally disagree with her.

Finally, Michelle looks over to me with shiny eyes and lets out a weak giggle. “I think we’re going to be fine, you know,” she says wistfully. Okay, she’s acting strange. I’m starting to worry that maybe she’s starting to lose it, that her wound is infected somehow. “We got out of that hell hole, no problem. We really escaped! And it’s not that far to home,” she continues, still smiling. “Jamie’s going to freak. Fortunately, I hated that job anyway.”

Just as I’m about to respond, Jake’s head pops around the door. “Let’s go!” he insists in a terrified tone of voice that gets me shifting as quickly as I possibly can.

As my eyes adjust to the bright light outside, I can see infected everywhere, which is why Jake sounded so afraid. They’re currently far enough away that if we move now, we’ll be fine, but if we stayed any longer, we would probably find ourselves in trouble.

A glint of metal catches my eye. I spot the axe that’s hanging loosely in Jake’s hand. “I just needed something to feel safe, so I can protect you two if needs be,” he says, seeing me eyeing up his weapon.

Wow, that’s smart. At least one of us is prepared!

***

We’ve been walking across fields for hours. We’ve managed to avoid the roads so far, thinking if we
are
the cause of a search party, the authorities will use cars to hunt.

Michelle is definitely slowing us down. She isn’t talking about it, but her wound is really getting to her. With no painkillers to help, there’s not a lot we can do either. I can see that Jake is constantly on edge because of this. He wants to speed up, but must know it would be incredibly insensitive to mention it, because his mouth remains firmly shut. Despite this, I can feel the tension burning off both of them, and can sense I’m in the middle of a silent war. I keep trying to make conversation, to avoid the subject, but am not getting much response.

I’m about to address the situation, to get rid of the elephant in the room, by insisting that we all rough this out together, no matter what, when Jake taps us both and indicates that we need to crouch down. I open my mouth to question this, but Jake shushes me before I can speak.

I might not know what’s going on, but I can be certain it can’t be good. My heart starts to race as I strain my ears to hear. Voices! I can hear people speaking, which means we aren’t the only ones ignoring the Lockdown. I’m so excited at the prospect of other law breakers like us, people that might have medication for Michelle, weapons, and advice for us about our journey. I start to stand and cry out when Jake grabs me and shoves his hand over my mouth roughly. I look at him in shock, noticing him shaking his head ferociously at me.

When my anger at his actions subsides, I realise he’s right. I pull his hand off my face, indicating that I finally understand. Of
course
those aren’t going to be people like us, blatantly standing around talking. Not unless they’re idiots. It’ll be someone from the armed forces, or paramedics. Someone from the authorities that—as of a few days ago—have been ordered to kill anyone they find outside. I can’t believe how close I was to putting us all in the firing line. I need to be more careful!

We remain crouched down, hidden for ages. It feels like an hour, but in reality is probably about fifteen minutes. The voices continue, getting louder and louder. We can’t make out exactly what’s being said, it’s all too muffled, but it seems to be turning into a heated argument. Just as I’m starting to get really terrified that we’re about to get found out, the shouting begins. Really loud yelling, like the people just don’t care what they’re going to attract. This becomes scuffling, as if a fight is breaking out. I’m physically shaking now, frightened of how this is all going to end.

Eventually, the noise begins to die down. I stay frozen, holding my breath, willing my heart not to beat so loudly, desperately praying it’s all over and whoever the voices belonged to have moved on to another location. Just as I start to relax my shoulders, a gunshot rings out. A yelp passes my lips before I can stop it. Michelle and Jake both snap their heads around to stare at me, eyes wide open. I slap my hands over my mouth, panicked. How the hell did I let that happen? Now we’re absolutely going to be killed! What happened to me being more careful?

None of us dare move a muscle. We’re all waiting, shrouded in tension, just preparing ourselves to be killed. I’m willing every second to hurry on past with us unseen. I can’t hear anyone rustling around looking for us, but you never can tell.

Eventually, to my utmost relief, we hear a car engine roar and drive off—we must be closer to a road than we realised. Once we can no longer hear the vehicle, we each stand up, still silent, and still wary. None of us say anything, we’re all in shock. Michelle powers on forward, determined to find out what happened, her injured leg temporarily forgotten in the flurry of activity.

Jake and I rush after her, scared of what she might find. Someone might still be there, in which case she’s putting us all in grave danger. As we push through the bushes, we quickly find out that there
has
been someone left behind. There’s the body of a man lay on the flood, absolutely drenched in blood. Clearly he was the recipient of the gunshot.

I can’t help but wonder what got this guy killed. He clearly isn’t infected, so was it just an argument got out of hand, or was he killed by a government official in cold blood?

Jake starts to tug on my sleeve, trying to silently communicate something to me. I glance around, looking to where he’s pointing, to see a few guests coming along to join our little party. The noise of the gun must have attracted the attention of the infected, and now they’ve spotted us, which has just piqued their interest.

We move quickly, but I make the fatal error of turning back, just to confirm our safety. I see
them
all feasting upon the dead man’s body as if it’s the most delicious meal they’ve ever eaten. This shouldn’t be too much of a shock, as I did see what happened to Tim, but the way they’re pulling him to bits, dragging out his intestines and organs, is revolting. I know he’s already dead but to see him torn apart as if by wild animals is insane.

AM13 is
not
like any other virus or disease I’ve ever seen. There’s something really different about it, the way it seems to turn people into empty shells of themselves, slaves to a weird hunger that turns them into cannibals, unable to even control themselves. It’s not right. It’s definitely not natural. Maybe the people online—who said it was a government weapon to control population—weren’t nutjobs. They had it right all along. If that’s the case, the scientist that invented this virus did a bloody good job. Too good.

I turn away, disgusted, and jog to catch up to the others. I run for as long as I can before I have to stop and throw up all the contents of my stomach. Luckily there isn’t too much in there since we skipped out on breakfast.

After that terrifying incident, the whole day is spent walking, pretty much in silence, trying to digest the events of this morning in our own way. We’ve succeeded so far at staying hidden by keeping off the road as much as possible and hiding in small lanes and backstreets where necessary. Now it’s starting to get dark and we’re all very tired and hungry. Especially Michelle, who’s looking worse by the minute. Sweat is dripping down her face and neck and she looks very red and stressed out. The blood is leaking through the bandage on her leg, making me silently worry that she’s not going to make it through all of this in one piece.

“We need to find somewhere to rest soon,” I announce quickly, finally being decisive. Michelle looks over to me gratefully. She’s obviously wanted to say this for a while, but must have been worried that we’d think she was weak because of her leg.

Luckily there’s no argument from Jake either. “Yes, I agree. In fact, I know of a warehouse that isn’t too far from here. It’s the stock room of a clothing company, so it’ll definitely be empty. We can use that for shelter tonight. It’ll be warm, safe, and out of the way. What do you think?”

“Do you think we can get something else to wear?” I ask. I don’t think I can go through another freezing night—especially not if I’m surrounded by potential layers. “I’ll pay for anything I take when all of this is over,” I insist.

Jake smiles weakly at me, nodding quickly.

As we break through the door of the warehouse, the alarm goes off briefly. Luckily Jake’s axe comes in handy as he smashes the controls to bits with it, silencing it before it gets out of control. I let out a sigh of relief in the knowledge that we have somewhere to sleep indoors once more.

After a quiet dinner of canned fruit and vegetables, a quick grab of some new clothing, and a last minute check that all the doors are secure, we all find somewhere to settle down and sleep, far too tired to talk or even think.

I feel much more refreshed and happy when I wake up—amazed at what a calm, dreamless, warm sleep can do for my mood. I’m already feeling much more positive about what we have achieved, and how far we’ll be able to travel today.