Day 364 - Untitled Zombie Story Chapter 10.5 - (1,269 words)

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UNTITLED ZOMBIE STORY

By Wayne Webb

Chapter 10.5

“We set fire to the zombies outside the walls, and then they’ll have to fight those fires literally.” James was talking to Derek and Ben from the roof of the cinema building, it was the highest and most secure location they could get to in the short period of time they had when running from the alleyway.

They had the element of surprise on their hands because no one knew that they were there, and then when Angela spotted Derek they all ran off in one direction, circled around to the cinema, travelling unseen while she rallied the guards to search for them. They were looking for one person, probably two by now, as they must have checked the ward where James had been drugged up. Someone must be paying the price for the mistake of letting him wake up alone and unsecured.

From the roof of the cinema they could see down into the town and it was crawling with guards and citizens hastily roused and conscripted into the search. Each of the pairs of searchers were armed with spotlight torches and a stick, not unlike the one that Ben had for distracting the zombies, but with two wicked prongs on the end of it. It looked like a crueler and darker version of a cattle prod.

None of the men wanted to find out what the stick did, it was not pleasant to think about the potential of it. Instead they hid and watched the search take place below them no one thinking to look up at the roofs of the buildings. The guard towers had uninterrupted views across the rooftops except for one or two buildings, and so far no one had thought to check up on top of them. If it came to that then they had back up plans ready to go, escaping across the rooftops to a near section of wall and making their way to freedom.

Neither James nor Ben wanted to leave just yet; only Derek was keen on getting out of town as soon as possible.

“You must want to know what is going on here? I sure as hell do!” James was arguing passionately with his brother, who was trying to convince him to just leave, leave Ben to whatever crazy plan he had and just get out of town and find their own place again.

“No, actually don’t, I just want to get back home and…” Derek shook his head; he knew that there was no going home. No one followed that thought along.

“It doesn’t matter what you want to do or don’t want to do, I’m getting to the bottom of this mess, I could use your help or not.” Ben shrugged his indifference. “I can take this entire town myself if I need to.”

“Why the fuck should I believe you Ben? You come to our town and sell us on this idyllic City where my brother gets kidnapped and … fuck knows… experimented on?”

“I wasn’t experimented on D.” James raised a conciliatory hand, but Derek slapped it down in anger.

“Like that is the fucking point of what I am saying?”

“Don’t be such a dick D.” James flushed at his hand being slapped like a childs.

“You’re not listening to me James! Ben has not been truthful to us once! Not once! We should just throw him off the roof to the vultures down below and get the fuck out of dodge! We can’t trust him!” Derek spat the words and despite the obvious threat Ben did not move or object.

“Are you done?” he finally said in the silence that fell between them.

“I’m done when we’re gone from here.”

“I never lied to you. I never said you could trust me. I don’t think you should to be honest. If you want to go, then go.” His voice lowered and there was a prickly tension to his next words that made Derek go a little cold. “If you want to test the gravity of our postion?” He did not finish the sentence.

He did not need to.

“I just want to leave.” Derek didn’t apologies but he backed away from any threats and his tone softened considerably.

James disagreed. “I want to find out what’s going on.”

“Why James? Why on earth would you care?”

James looked at Ben. “Your people, they’re not who you think they are.”

Ben nodded, that was why he was here, and he knew there was a depth below the friendly surface, something darker under all the community and support of their fellow man.

“They took me in and made me a part of… the surface, the mask maybe? They made me part of something and then I see something or I know something and Bam, I wind up there..” he pointed at the clinic “ So full of drugs and they want me for something, I don’t know what or why and … then you tell me your suspicions, they sound…”

“Reasonable?” Ben offered the word.

“None of this sounds reasonable. That’s why I want to find out what is going on, it makes no sense. We could run and hide, but we’ve been hiding for too long. I loved the City for the first few days, I barely even knew that you weren’t there D. I mean you’re my bro and I love you, but I fucking miss people man. Then they take that away again and it’s all weird clinics and zombie machines and science and …”

The three men went silent, it was getting very late in the night, it could well have been on to dawn very soon and they would lose the cover of darkness.

Derek eventually sighed his agreement and proffered his first positive suggestion. “We need a distraction, something big that will take their attention and then we need to get in there.” He pointed at the building that Doctor Sarah had been taking him towards when his disguise finally fell apart.

“Fire.” Said James and grinned at his brother who did not smile in return.

“I like it.” Ben smirked a little.

“So we’re ok with committing mass murder then? Is that what we’re doing?” Derek asked.

“Don’t be dramatic D.” Ben accentuated the shortened version of Derek’s name that his brother had been using. “The barrier devices will allow them to corral and move the zombies where they liked, and they will contain the fire pretty quickly. It might hit a couple of buildings, but if they’re quick, and they will be, then they’ll just have one or two spots to worry about. Then while all hands are on the fire, we’ll make for the building and find… well we’ll see what we find yeah?”

“It only seems like a couple of days ago when we talked about this last time.” Derek put his hand on James’s shoulder and continued. “It was a piss poor idea then and it’s a worse one now.”

“It was your idea Derek, I had to talk you out of it.” James was incredulous.

“I know.” Derek peered over the edge of the building and he could see a pair of searchers pointing at the building across the street from them, and then walking to yank at the metal fire escape that lead up the short building to the roof. It would only be a matter of time before they made it to check the other buildings.

“I know it was piss poor, BECAUSE it was mine.”

Derek crawled back from the edge to his companions.

“Anyone got a match?”