The Undead Day Twenty (10 page)

‘She’s in a bad way.’

‘Might look worse than it is. Is she breathing?’

‘Yeah but I can’t find a pulse.’

‘Don’t worry. May I?’

‘Yeah go,’ she pulls back to let him in. Roy examines visually first. Seeing her breathing unaided. Noting how far her chest rises as she breathes. There’s too much blood to see the wounds. She’s breathing so he chooses to focus on identifying the injuries first. ‘get some water…go round the other side. We need to look for injuries…’

‘Marcy…hand please…’

‘Coming.’

Paco moves back. Watching closely as three strangers pour water over Heather’s body gently washing the blood and filth away.

‘Wound here,’ Marcy says, holding Heather’s arm.

‘Bite,’ Paula says, staring at the woman’s shoulder.

‘Look for anything still bleeding…’ Roy says.

They work fast but gentle. Washing blood away. Cutting the legs of her trousers off to inspect her skin. The same with her top until she’s in underwear on the floor of a summer house being watched by the red eyes of a man who hates her being touched but with an instinct telling him this is okay.

‘Christ,’ Paula mutters at the number of bites on Heather’s body. Teeth marks everywhere.

Roy feels her skull for breaks or fractures. He fell over once and banged his head. He called the ambulance himself and put himself in the recovery position until it arrived. Then he made the paramedics examine him fully before they declared he was fine and told him to stop phoning ambulances unless he was actively dying. The paramedics examined his head and spine and told him they were looking for anything that
didn’t feel right.
Roy even went to the hospital later, in his own car, and demanded a doctor check him properly. The doctor did the same thing, with lots of tuts, huffs and deep sighs. Now he does it. He feels the skull and down the vertebrae in her neck for anything
that doesn’t feel right
. With Paula and Marcy’s help he lifts her enough to feel down her spine then down her legs, visually checking for any deep lacerations.

Her legs move like they should. Her arms too. He goes back to the head now looking for contusion marks that could explain concussion. He opens her eyes, shining his torch at the pupils in turn and noting they retract and both look the same. There’s no blood coming from her ears. She’s breathing unaided. He finds a pulse and waits with a pensive look on his face. Deep and strong.

‘She okay?’ Paula finally asks.

‘I’m not a doctor, how would I know?’

‘Fuck’s sake, Roy.’

‘Seems fine. Nothing obvious that I can see…she’s got colour in her cheeks which seems to suggest she hasn’t lost too much blood. Maybe she’s just tired.’

‘Tired?’ Paula asks. ‘You saying she’s asleep?’

‘Passed out…exhaustion or shock.’

‘Shock’s dangerous isn’t it?’ Marcy asks.

‘Oh very,’ Roy says.

‘What do we do?’

‘I don’t know. I’m not a doctor.’

‘We just cut her clothes off,’ Paula whispers. ‘She’s asleep and we cut her clothes off…’

‘She’s not asleep.’

‘You just said she was tired.’

‘I said she might be tired…as in collapsed…exhausted…fatigued…a general state of being bloody knackered…’

‘I know what you meant, Roy. If she was just tired she’d wake up wouldn’t she?’

‘Not if she’s unconscious.’

‘Unconscious now is it? You just said she was tired.’

‘I’m not a doctor.’

‘Well what do we do now?’

‘I don’t know. We need a doctor.’

‘Fuck me…’ Paula says, leaning closer to him, ‘now we look really stupid.’

‘What about internal bleeding?’ Marcy asks.

‘What about it?’ Roy asks.

‘Her boyfriend is right there…’ Paula whispers. ‘And he’s bloody huge…’

‘She might have internal bleeding,’ Marcy says.

‘She doesn’t. It discolours the skin.’

‘Oh…’

‘Right, just blag it.’

‘Blag what?’ Roy asks.

‘Blag it,’ Paula says again. ‘Pretend to do something.’

‘What?’

‘He’s right there. He just watched us cut her bloody clothes off…’

‘We’re only twenty miles from the fort aren’t we?’ Marcy asks.

‘Brilliant,’ Paula whispers then leans back. ‘Yeah so…you think she needs to go in then?’

‘In what?’ Roy asks.

‘Into the fort for examination,’ Paula says, glaring at him.

‘Yeah I suppose so, or…’

‘Or what?’ Paula says, shaking her head in frustration when he doesn’t finish his sentence.

‘Or you know, just let her rest.’

‘With no clothes on?’

‘It’s a hot day.’

Strange voices in her head. Strange hands on her body. Heather surges to consciousness to snap her eyes open and stare at three strange faces hovering over her.

‘PACO,’ she screams out in fear. She’s naked. She’s vulnerable.

She rises quickly, scrabbling away as Paco moves in, sweeping them aside to scoop her up into his arms. She clings to his form, hyperventilating from shock as he strides outside. Men with guns. A dog barking. Soldiers. The army. They’ll hurt Paco. They’ll see his red eyes. They’ll shoot him.

‘RUN...’

He runs. He runs because Heather tells him to run. He can sense her fear. She is awake now. She is back. She doesn’t trust these people.

‘Wait,’ a man with dark curly hair shouts after them, running behind them. The others run too. A huge man with a bald head. She saw him. She saw the man with curly hair too. She heard about them. She’s confused. The fight. The children. Running all day and night. She can’t breathe properly. She was bitten. She is turned. She’s one of them. She’s infected. Paco runs hard, powering on with her held in his arms. She clings to his neck. Looking but not seeing. Hearing but not understanding.

‘Heather…’ The man with curly hair shouts her name. He has a big gun. They all do. The dog is chasing them.

‘HE’S NOT INFECTED…’ she screams the words out, jolting in his arms as he runs. ‘LEAVE HIM ALONE…’

‘It’s fine…it’s fine…It’s Paco…we know him…Heather, it’s fine…’ the man with the curly hair shouts again. His voice isn’t angry. The guns aren’t pointing at them. The dog is running but not chasing. She looks but doesn’t see. She hears but still cannot understand.

‘Subi!’ A woman shouts, running with the others. ‘Subi told us to find you…’

The first prickle of comprehension. The first nudge of awareness in her mind that woke too quickly. Subi. Raj. Amna…the children…the fort…Howie…Mr Howie…

‘Mr Howie…’ she blurts the name.

‘Me! I’m Howie…that’s me…Subi told us to find you…’

She swallows and looks round at them again, ‘stop,’ she whispers. The big man slows but holds her close, pulling her into his body, ready to run again. She clings to him, feeling his body pressing into hers, feeling the heat from him. Paco is safe. Being with Paco is safety. She protected him. She fed him. She cleaned him. He killed for her and she killed for him.

‘Thank fuck,’ a beautiful woman gasps for air, rubbing her boobs, ‘didn’t put a sports bra on.’

‘That was silly,’ the other woman says quietly.

‘I’m Howie,’ the man with curly hair says, standing back. ‘That’s Dave…’ the man gasps, ‘and…other people…shit a brick he runs fast…’

‘He’s not infected,’ Heather says.

‘We know,’ Howie says, lifting a hand.

‘Well actually…’

‘Not now, Roy,’ Howie says. ‘You’re Heather?’

She nods, still unsure. Every instinct tells her to go. People are bad. People with guns are dangerous but she knows who these people are. She saw them. She watched them fight in the square when they had thousands against them. She was hiding in the top flat of a building on the other side.

‘I saw you.’

‘Subi told us,’ the woman says. ‘I’m Paula…’

‘You have that army truck.’

‘The Saxon,’ Howie says. ‘We know Paco…before he…before he died. We were with him when it happened.’

‘He’s getting better,’ Heather says, her voice low and showing the distrust.

‘He will,’ the beautiful woman says. ‘I was infected…another one of ours was too…’

‘You were bitten,’ Paula says. Heather twitches her gaze. ‘I was too,’ Paula adds.

‘And me,’ Howie says. ‘Those men are Blowers, Nick and Cookey…they were bitten too…we didn’t turn…’

‘There is immunity,’ Paula says.

‘Well actually…’

‘Not now, Roy,’ Blowers mutters.

‘We don’t know what we are,’ Howie says, ‘but one of our team is trying to work it out…’

‘The children? Where are they?’

‘Safe,’ Paula says. ‘They’re at the fort.’

‘How many?’

‘Six…Subi said one was shot?’

Heather nods. ‘Man in a house…I tried to…I couldn’t save…’

‘You saved the others,’ Howie says quickly, seeing the pain in her face. ‘They’re safe now. We came to find you…we’ll take you back and…’

‘No.’

‘Er…’ Howie falters, watching her intently.

‘We’ll go,’ Heather says.

‘Go where?’ Paula asks.

‘Doesn’t matter. We’ll go.’

‘Why? We’re no risk to you,’ Paula says. ‘We just gave you medical aid…’

‘Is that what it was?’ Marcy mumbles.

‘I said I’m not a doctor.’

‘Few minutes,’ Paula says, shooting dark looks at Roy and Marcy. ‘Just a few minutes, and besides…your er…your clothes are all torn up and…probably from all that fighting you did so you need new clothes. We’ll get you new clothes…and weapons too, you’ll need a weapon if you’re going…’

Paula is a bloody genius. Blowers listens to her, the way she uses her tone of voice to inflect meaning and sincerity. Her facial expressions, the way she stands. He watches the woman being held by Paco and the way he doesn’t tremble from the weight in his arms. He watches Paco turning slightly to see them all and the passive look now on his face as he simply holds Heather and waits. An idea comes to mind. He glances at the boss then at Paula before slowly drawing his pistol that he flicks round to present the butt towards Paco and Heather.

‘Take this,’ he says. ‘You’re armed then…’

Blowers is a bloody genius. Paula watches him, seeing his earnest expression and the respectful tone of voice. She could kiss him right now for this simple act.

Heather stares at Blowers then down to the gun in his hands. She doesn’t know how to use it but having it would make them safer than not having it. She eases from Paco’s arms, dropping lightly to the floor. Paco moves with her, steadying her drop until he’s sure she is stable on her feet. She keeps one hand on his arm as though just feeling him close gives safety.

As one the men turn their heads, looking away while one of them holds the pistol out towards her. She frowns, unsure of what just happened.

‘Clothes, honey,’ Paula says gently, smiling with pride at her boys all looking to the right. That does it. That show of dignity and respect is seen and understood. Paula takes the pistol and walks towards Heather.

‘Loaded, made ready, safety on,’ Blowers says.

‘Here,’ Paula says, holding the gun out. ‘Know how to use it?’

‘No…’

Paco does. He takes the pistol. His brain is wired differently now. He cannot form thoughts as he should, he cannot extrapolate and reach the logical conclusions that coherent thought processes give, but he does know how to use a gun. He was a soldier, an assassin, a cop, a detective, a superhero, a rogue agent. He was in the FBI and the CIA. He protected the President. He saved the girl and he used weapons in every single one of those action films. He was taught to fight, to shoot, to re-load, to strip weapons and reassemble them. He was taught safe practises by experts and was drilled to perfection to give the sense of realism that his films presented. He knew he couldn’t act that well so he made up for it with everything else. He takes the pistol, ejects the magazine, slides the top back and catches the round that comes out. He turns away, dry firing to feel the weight and balance. He thumbs the top of the magazine checking for pressure and slots the spare round back in. He slams the magazine home, slides the top to chamber the first and turns back with the weapon now held in front of his stomach pointing down to the ground.

‘Oh my god,’ Heather says, smiling at him with that look that makes his heart feel funny. ‘That was so bloody cool, Paco…’

Paula smiles at the complete change in manner as Heather speaks to Paco. The overt show of emotion and the use of facial expressions, the warmth in her voice and the way Paco smiles back at her with such a look pure love in his eyes that it makes her feel weird for a second. Like she is seeing something that should be for them alone, that she should turn away and give them privacy. Without conscious thought she glances to Clarence, catching him watching her before he blinks and looks away.