Week 2

The movies never show just how tired and worn-out the characters are. Getting any sleep is difficult, you just never feel completely safe. This was not supposed to happen, Gerald had a wild imagination, but he was also educated. He had studied science and disease and zombies were impossible. He could not understand how this had happened, but he was now living in a warzone. A girl had given him a heart-shaped locket and he could not resist staring at it. He felt like he had abandoned her when this all started and his only reminder of her was pictured inside. He felt this drive to find her and just try to get one thing right in this impossible situation.

The window drew his attention, however no threat could be seen outside of the suburban home. The previous occupants had abandoned the place, he was slowly working his way out of suburbia, but the infected population seemed to be staying near the homes, he could not imagine what the cities must look like by now. It was quiet, so the last herd must have moved on by now, it was strange that even in death, there seemed to be some order to the zombies, they congregated together and fought as a pack. Each member of the party had no idea how the other members were going to fight, yet they fought and brought down people quickly and relentlessly, then they fed. There is nothing more gut wrenching than seeing a person being devoured alive.

Ultimately when survival mode kicks in, people are selfish. Kids get abandoned as frightened parents flee. The zombies are attracted to noise and movement, a screaming child is just as much a target as a wailing adult. People should have been well prepared, following several lockdowns in a post-Covid world people had stock-piled dry goods, each time restrictions had been handed down by government, despite this, they were not prepared.

People around the world were already screaming that the Covid vaccine was the cause, but that appeared unlikely. People had thought that it was climate change that was going to disrupt humanity and in a way it did, just not how it had been expected. It was time to move, Gerald crept out of the house and locked the door, he would return later, and he did not want any visitors while he was away. He snuck through many houses looking for food and other general supplies, the variety of objects that fascinated him in each house stoked his curiosity. Often the front door was locked, but many times people had fled without a thought for returning.

Gerald knew that his primary purpose was to gather food and items that he might need in the coming days. His children were staying with their mother in a country town not far from home and he would want to meet them in a few days. Australia is densely populated in the cities, but some of the farmland is so vast that it would take the zombies months to get there, by the time they came, Gerald should be prepared.

He realised that once you take away all the distractions it became difficult to maintain focus on a task. Gerald had surmised that the incubation time was fairly short; maybe six hours and an infected person would turn. It had to be viral, because no bacteria could replicate fast enough to cause death so fast.

In one house he found a duffel bag and packed away the food stores. He pulled out a crossbow and some arrows, they would be handy later. He was passing near a window and noticed motion outside. There was a girl shuffling along on the path outside, she looked distressed, but was pacing along toward the end of the road. Gerald decided he needed to investigate to make sure that his residence stayed safe, she was heading in the direction of his current stop-off point. He zipped up his bag and quickly made his way outside.

He stalked her as she passed several houses, he could see that she was injured, there was some dried blood on her thigh, just above her knee, he had to assume she was infected. She was short and looked young, maybe 14 or 15 years old, with blonde hair. She was wearing fit-wear type clothing and had a slight limp. “Hey come over here.” He whispered toward her. Motioning for her to come down the side of a house. She looked up and with tears in her eyes she determinedly approached Gerald. He was at one of the houses he had been recovering supplies from earlier and he easily made his way back inside from a side door. “I’m Gerald, I can see that you are injured, was it from a bite?” The girl cautiously entered the property and it was clear that she was on-edge. “No, not from like a bite, I fell while I was trying to like get away. I am not familiar with this part of town, I was trying to get some supplies from the shop, but it was not safe.”

They found some medical supplies in the bathroom and cleaned up her wound. It was clearly a scrape from falling on concrete or some such and she seemed relatively unharmed. Gerald advised “You can come back to my place to have some lunch, we can then have a look to see if it is safe for you to get back to your home.” Jenny attended the local high school and was in grade 10. They talked for some-time, it had been days since Gerald had spoken to another person and this was quite refreshing.

It would later be revealed that the virus was a strain of Covid that had mutated in human populations and re-entered the animal population. Airborne virus could infect dogs, animals had not been quarantined effectively during international flights. An infected animal became a little aggressive and a bite was all that was needed for the altered virus to enter a human. Once in the human system from this manner of transmission the virus entered the cells and integrated with the host DNA. This is how the mutation came about in the first place. It was the explosion of cases in the Third World that allowed so many new strains to emerge, each version getting ever so much closer to something that again would cross between species.

Late on the first day the military had been dispatched. Men and women in uniforms had been all over the streets, there was a cooperation of forces between the local Air Force personnel, the police force and other emergency workers.

Gerald prepared some snack food to ensure he was well supplied for this minor adventure, you never knew how long you would end up out and he did not want to be stuck out there without general supplies. He packed some supplies in a small backpack for Jenny and they spent considerable time watching the road to ensure there was no movement. As they crept outside once more, they surveyed the scene. It looked line any other warm spring afternoon, the grass was green and dogs barked in the distance. They stayed close to fence-lines and walked up paths and climbed over fences where they could. When they had to cross a road, it was a process of scouting to ensure there was no movement, then they would proceed one at a time, while the other surveyed for movement up or down the street.

After some time, Jenny mentioned that they were close to her home and that they would only need to cross another couple of blocks and she would be safe again. They had been talking for a couple of hours on and off, keeping quiet, but generally getting along. Jenny reminded Gerald of his older daughter, she seemed quite capable of looking after herself and she had friends staying with her at the home.

It was on day two that things had gotten wildly out of hand, who would have realised that in just twenty-four hours the number of infected would go from a few hundred to millions. It was later found that on average, one zombie infected about five or six people in an hour, within six hours that is over thirty. When those zombies subsequently infected others, it meant that within twelve hours a

thousand new cases and so-on. By the end of the second day the numbers were overwhelming. Hordes of zombies numbering in their thousands had over-run anyone that was firing a gun. It was the noise that attracted them. The shots were heard, then an eerie silence. The zombies themselves were not noisy, but they made a guttural hissing sound. It was like their throats were clogged with mucus and they just did not know how to clear it.

Gerald could see the angst leaving Jenny as she finally commenced climbing her own fence. She was finally home, it had only been a few kilometres, but the twisting and turning, scouting and shuffling had meant that it had taken a good two and a half hours to get here. Gerald still had at least three hours to return home, but he accepted that it had been a productive day, in times like this it would be important to have some allies. Jenny’s feet landed on the soft grass on her side of the fence and a faint noise arose. It was the sound of heavy breathing, but the laboured breathing of someone who had been sick and was recovering, but just could not manage to shift the mucus from their throat.

Gerald had spent some time in the ARMY and was aware that certain series of events would lead to an automatic response. Before his thoughts could clear, he dropped his backpack and mounted the fence. He pulled the crossbow ready as he cleared the top of the fence and fell toward the ground on the other side. He landed smoothly and took aim, this was no longer one of Jenny’s friends. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Jenny’s face turn from relief to horror as she recognised that her friend had turned.

Jenny had left early in the morning trying to avoid other people and hoping that there were no zombies travelling toward the shopping centre. She had been staying at a friends place and it was faster to venture to the shops, than to return home and it was a nice idea to be able to get some new clothes while she stocked up on food. She had not realised that there were zombies wandering in the staff areas while she walked through the otherwise silent shopping centre. It was sudden that she had had to flee once she had understood that she had taken a far greater risk than she had originally thought.

She had considered her friends would be safe while she was out, she did not know how a zombie had gotten in, but that did not matter right now. The first crossbow bolt flew out and struck Tom in the face. A thick oozy blood trickled from his wound and he fell toward the ground. The commotion attracted two more zombies from inside the house. “Get back over the fence!” Gerald exclaimed as he reloaded the crossbow. He released a crossbow bolt into the next zombie as it started out of the door. The final one stumbled over the felled zombie as attempted to exit. This gave Gerald just enough time to reload the crossbow as it neared him and after what seemed like minutes the last zombie was down with a crossbow bolt jutting out of it’s jaw. Gerald had made an ally today, but she would return with him to his home that afternoon, she was not going to stay here, not after seeing her friends like this.