Tales of the Dead Tropics - chapter 13

Roy was sitting behind the wheel as Emma and I jumped in the car.  He looked at me challengingly, as if expecting an argument from me but I just buckled in and told him to drive.  A quick look behind me reassured me that Michele and Jessie were okay.  I fished out the mobile phone and rang Kaye's number.  My anxiety started to increase with each ring. 

"Hello, Kaye speaking."

"Kaye!"  I released a breath I didn't even know I was holding.

"Hello Lori!" I heard the surprise in her voice.  I rarely rang her while I was at work so she immediately knew something was up. 

"Where are the kids?"

"Playing in the gutter out front.  You know how they love getting wet and dirty."  Didn't I ever.  I closed my eyes in relief.

"Kaye, I need you to do something for me.  Go bring all the kids inside, lock the doors and windows, close the curtains and stay quiet.  Can you do that?"

"Of course."  She replied briskly.  That's the wonderful thing about 40 years of sisterhood - I didn't need to waste time convincing her of my trustworthiness or sincerity.  "Can you tell me what's going on?"

"Not right now, Kaye but I will when I get there."

"All right."  She paused.  "Whatever's going on - stay safe, okay?"

"You too, Kaye." I whispered.  "Give my babies a kiss for me."  She promised to do so, and I reluctantly hung up. 

I looked out the window for a moment, gathering my focus as Emma took the phone and rang her house.  It rang out unanswered.  She bit her lip but smiled tremulously.  "They're probably not even there.  Mum loves to go to Rusty's Markets on Fridays..."  She stopped suddenly as the realisation of what that might mean for her family struck home.

Roy glanced over.  "Uh, isn't that only a block away from Central?"

"We don't know anything yet, Emma." I interjected firmly, glaring at Roy over her shoulders.  "They might just be working in the garden."  Her face flooded with relief at the thought and she smiled tentatively.

****

Emma's street looked untouched by the dramas in town.  As we pulled up beside her parents' home, we looked carefully for any sign of trouble but there was nothing that hinted of danger.  The woman next door was unloading groceries from her car while a couple of doors down, an elderly man walked his little dog. 

The neighbour looked askance at our ambulance as we jumped out.  "Emma?  Is something wrong with your mum or dad?"

"Oh no," Emma assured her.  "Just, ah, hitching a lift with a colleague."  She met my eye and shrugged infinitesimally as if to say 'it was the best I could come up with'.

The neighbour nodded agreeably and started carrying her bags into the house.

"Oh, Mrs Moore, have you seen my mum or dad today?"

"Well, I saw your Dad this morning when he was collecting the mail.  He made one of his jokes about how he wouldn't have anything to read if it wasn't for all the junk mail he receives."

I grinned.  That sounded like Emma's Dad.

"And I think your mum went out somewhere.  I saw the car leave a few hours ago."

I saw the tension in Emma's shoulders on hearing that, so I reached over and squeezed her arm reassuringly.  Stepping back, I looked at Roy as he watched us from the driver's seat.  "Keep a sharp eye out, Roy.  Don't let anything sneak up on you and the kids."

He nodded abruptly.  "Trust me.  Ain't no one sneaking up on me!"

The door was unlocked.  Exchanging a tense look, we stepped into the house.   I immediately tensed.  The house seemed way too quiet but more than that, it felt...wrong.  I could tell Emma felt it, too, as her breath quickened.  Carefully, we peered in the living room but there was no one there.  I jerked my head towards the kitchen and silently we moved down the hall.

The small, normally cosy, kitchen stood empty and chilly.  I touched the kettle. Cold. My tension immediately ratcheted up several knots.  Emma's parents drank tea like it was water yet this kettle hadn't been used in hours.  Don't be ridiculous, I scolded myself, you're letting Emma's anxiety affect you.  Her parents may be visiting friends for the afternoon or something. I didn't succeed in convincing myself one little bit.

As I passed the sink, I saw the steel parang sitting in its block.  Emma and I had bought one each four years ago on a trip to Malaysia.  The heavy hatchet favoured by the infamous headhunters of Borneo worked a treat cutting through boney pieces of meat, like chicken.  Quietly, I slipped it out and grasped it firmly.  It's might come in use later, I assured myself, but I was careful to keep it behind my back and out of sight of Emma.

We headed for the bedrooms, placing our feet carefully on the hallway's wooden floorboards.  My heart started pounding like a drum as we neared the master bedroom.  Please, please let there be no one there, I prayed fervently.  I could see Emma's hands  shaking as she slowly pushed open the door.

The room appeared empty, but before I could breathe a sigh of relief, I heard a familiar sound that sent a knife through my gut.  It was the sound my old dog used to make as he gnawed on a bone. 

Tales of the Dead Tropics - chapter 12

"Can we go now, mum?" Michele asked uneasily beside me.  She still seemed subdued but the colour had come back to her face at least.  I nodded hesitantly.  The sooner we left, the better.  But I knew I couldn't leave just yet, not while there was a little time to spare.  I had to at least try to warn the people here.

Squeezing Michele's arm, I smiled reassuringly.  "Go ahead, honey.  I will be along in two minutes."  With that, I set off at a trot for the office.  Stepping into the airconditioned room, I saw a pleasant looking receptionist with a short blonde bob, and two men talking.  One was the young man Emma had tried to talk to, and the other was an older, pot bellied man with salt and pepper hair.

"I need to speak to the manager."

"I'm the manager." The older man stepped forward, a hint of a smirk on his face. "How can I help you?"

Keeping my voice level, I looked him in the eye.  Somehow I had to convince him that I was serious and yet not a lunatic. "Yes.  I am a nurse and I have just come from the hospital.  I'm here to warn you and your staff that you need to leave.  Right now."

 "Ahh.  You're with the, ah, interesting lady Brad was just talking to, aren't you?" 

"I am." I tried not to show how much his condescension irritated me.    "We work in the ER at the Cairns Base Hospital. There was an outbreak of some kind of...plague this morning.  It is infectious and appears to cause extremely violent behaviour in affected people."

Young Brad grinned.  "Yeah, that's what the other lady said, too, except she said it was making people come back as zombies, or something!" He laughed, looking at the others for backup.

Gritting my teeth in frustration, fighting the urge to look at my watch as I felt precious time slipping away, I looked at the boy coolly.  "You'll have to excuse my friend.  She has been through a lot of trauma today."  I turned back to the manager.  "The virus is spreading rapidly through the city area. We just passed a large number of infected people heading this way.  If you are caught by them, you could be killed or...infected."

The manager looked very dubious.  "I haven't heard anything about this on the radio."

I had to go. The sense that at any moment now, the zombies could appear and block any escape, plagued me like an unbearable itch.  "The authorities may not be aware of the danger yet, or they may be too busy dealing with the crisis.  I promise you that this is no joke.  You have maybe five minutes, ten at the most, to get out of here. "  The blond receptionist's eyes widened in alarm as I continued desperately.  "Please understand - if an infected person attacks you, they will try to kill you.  You won't be able to reason with them or placate them..."

Giving up, I moved towards the door.  I had already spent way too much time here.  "Leave now, find your family and, if you can, get the hell out of town for a while."  The receptionist moved to get up but the manager pushed her down into her seat.

"No one goes anywhere until I contact the authorities and confirm the situation."  He glared at me and then his staff, and headed into his office. 

I caught the girl's worried eyes as I opened the door.  "By the time he contacts someone who knows anything, it will be too late for you." I gestured through the shop window at the two smoke plumes which were clearly visible.  "You can see for yourself that something is going on in town."  Brad looked uncertain but the young woman nodded decisively and reached for her handbag. 

As I turned around, I bumped into Emma.  "Time to go, Lori."  Her face was pale again.  I realised why as I registered the sounds of traffic chaos.  Tires squealed, horns blared and sirens screamed as the madness neared us.  It was definitely time to go.

Tales of the Dead Tropics - chapter 11

In the few minutes that we had been preoccupied in the restaurant, the situation in the city centre had deteriorated markedly.  In the street in front of us, people struggled desperately with implacable corpses.  A zombie pulled a clueless driver out through his car window. Terrified mothers dragged their young children through traffic trying to evade the ever-increasing numbers of walking dead.  Vehicles honked as they tried to make their way through the confusion. 

And scattered amongst these scenes of desperate struggles were the heartbreaking images of battles that had been lost - a father shooing a toddler away as  zombies tore at his body; a large middle-aged woman clawing her way along the pavement as a creature gnawed at her leg; a mother with a baby still clasped to her chest as blood pooled beneath her senseless body.  The zombies crouched over their spoils like jackals at a lion's kill, squabbling over intestines and fleshy chunks.  And then, to me, the most chilling image of all - the newly dead figures slowly standing up and moving off in search of new victims.

Jim whistled slowly.  "This thing is moving quickly, Lori."  He pointed to smoke spiralling into the air several blocks away.  It seemed a good bet that it was related to this catastrophe. 

"We'd better try to get ahead of it," I answered grimly.  "or we might find ourselves trapped in town."

The ambulance, with its lack of obvious occupants, remained largely unbothered by the zombies.  The three creatures that blocked our way proved no deterrent to Jim's picket and my stake and we were soon back in the vehicle.  I slipped into the passenger seat after Michele, allowing Jim to take the wheel.  Having got my oldest daughter back, I just wanted to reassure myself that she was really here.  I grabbed her hand tightly.

"Oh, so kind of you to join us!"

I sighed.  "Nice to be back, Roy." I glanced through the back window.  "Is everyone okay in there?  Jessie?"

Her thin face appeared.  "I'm okay.  It was a bit scary for a while, though.  There was a lot of screaming and banging outside."

I felt a twinge of guilt.  "Yeah, I know.  But you kept quiet.  That was the right thing to do."  She smiled a little at that.

As Jim swung out onto the street, he made no attempt to avoid the zombies making their way towards us.  There were few living people in the vicinity now, having fled or joined the walking dead.  My heart ached as I recognised the dead father standing beside the blank-eyed chubby toddler he had tried so hard to save, watching us drive by. 

As Jim made his way carefully down Sheridan Street, taking care to avoid abandoned cars and the occasional living human,  we sat in silence, trying to make sense of the chaos.  Michele didn't say much, still looking a bit stunned.  I squeezed her hand tightly but left her alone to deal with her emotions.  What could I say that could possibly make things better?

 

"Okay, folks, what's the next step?" I asked levelly.  I desperately wanted to get to the twins but Kaye lived half an hour out of town in the rainforest - I had to believe that they were safe for the moment.  These people, however, had families in more immediate need of rescue.   I swallowed the urge to demand to be taken to my kids.

Jim answered hesitantly, calmly darting around a pileup between a van and a bus.  This far down the street, there were no obvious signs of zombies but the frantic behaviour of the people on the street spoke of recent encounters with the creatures.  "I've been thinking about it.  I think we should split up." He hastened on before anyone could protest. "We've only got a small window of opportunity before this plague infects the whole town.  All our homes are in the suburbs so, hopefully, our families should still be safe.  It makes sense to split into two or three groups, collect our families and meet back at a designated location as quickly as possible."

"My sister's home." I instantly replied.  "It's a pole home in Crystal Cascades.  If we had to, it would be relatively easy to defend it."

Jim nodded and there were reluctant murmurs of agreement from the others, even Roy. 

"I live out in Edmonton." Ken agreed slowly.  "That's a good thirty minutes from Emma's place in Whitfield.  We could cover a lot more ground if we split up, I guess."

"I live in Earlville." Jim added.  "That's on the way to Edmonton so we could ride together."

"What about you, Roy?" I asked, a little surprised at his reticence. 

He snorted, cheeks reddening.  "I left Melbourne two years ago to get away from my bitch of an ex-wife.  There's no one here for me to worry about."

I nodded, feeling a pang of empathy for him, and turned to Jessie.  "What about you, Jessie?  Where will we find your parents?"  She shook her head violently, her eyes darkening with distress, and sank back against her seat.  I met Emma's eyes and saw my sudden realisation reflected in them.  Jessie's parents must have been at the hospital this morning.  I prayed that Jessie had not witnessed her parents' fate but I suspected that it was a forlorn wish.

We quickly agreed that Jim and Ken would head off together while Emma and I would check on her parents and brother, seeing Whitfield was on the way to Crystal Cascades.

"Roy?  Who do you want to go with?"  I asked.  His eyes darted between me and Jim.  It may have been unfair of me but I suspected that he was calculating just who was less likely to run into zombies.  A not unreasonable reaction, I guess.  I still despised him for it, though.

"You girls will have your hands full with the kids." He responded gruffly. "I'd better go with you."

****

As we left the chaos of the city centre behind, I breathed a sigh of relief.  Discussion turned to finding a car for Jim and Ken.  As there was a rental car yard only a few blocks away, we headed over there.  Pulling into the car yard, everything was quiet and business as usual.  Such normalcy struck me as completely bizarre, and I had to suppress the urge to giggle.  I suspected the others would think I was hysterical.

Jim did a quick check of the vehicles in the yard and settled on an old combi van.  "Shouldn't we warn them?" Emma asked worriedly as the rest of us stood around the ambulance, keeping a wary eye out for any sign of trouble.  "They are completely clueless!"

"Yes, but not until we get our car." Ken stated firmly.  We watched silently as Jim filled in the paperwork quickly and walked out with keys to the combi van ten minutes later.  The young man with him was professional and courteous - and completely unaware.  Emma looked at me, and at my nod, hurried over to him.  I hoped she would get through to him but I had the depressing feeling that it was a story that had to be lived through in order to be believed.

Ken and Jim shifted awkwardly from foot to foot; none of us wanted to be the one to say goodbye.  We had been through so much as a group!  It went against every grain in my body to let anything divide us now.  However, I kept my peace and gripped Jim's and then Ken's hands.  "You take care now.  Don't take any stupid risks.  I am going to kick your butt if you get yourself killed!" 

"Once we've checked on Ken's parents and my Lizzie, we'll head for your sister's place.  Hopefully, it will only be a couple of hours."  Jim reaffirmed with a gentle smile.

Emma returned and shrugged hopelessly at our unspoken question.  "I'm sure he thinks I'm mad."  She turned to Ken and her eyes brimmed with tears as she hugged him fiercely.  I didn't hear her whispered words but he closed his eyes as he held her close for a long minute.  Clearing his throat, Ken stepped back.  "See you guys later."  With that, the men climbed into the old bomb and drove out of the car park.  I watched them leave with an aching heart.  Would I ever see them again?

Tales of the Dead Tropics - chapter 10

A commotion in the back of the ambulance attracted my attention.   In the rearview mirror. I saw his belligerent face appear in the window.  "If you want to get your daughter, that's fine,  but you have no business dragging us along with you!  We should be getting the hell out of town!"

I gritted my teeth, ignoring a flare of guilt.  "You don't like it, Roy?  Just say the word and I'll drop you off on any corner you like."

He scowled.  "Like hell.  I'm just saying - who made you captain?"

"Really, Roy, really?" I glared at him through the mirror.  "You want to argue about who's the fricking boss now?!"

He had the grace to look a bit shamefaced as he mumbled "Just saying..."

"Stow it, Roy." The bald man beside me said calmly,  popping a gum in his mouth.  "None of us are going to abandon family."

I glanced at him gratefully as he pulled out his weapon and started loading it.  "Last lot." He glanced blandly at me. "I guess I'd better make them count."

As the large shopping Centre loomed a block away, the phone rang.  I snatched it up.

"Michele? Where are you?"

Her whispered reply sent cold chills through me.  "I'm hiding upstairs in Tosca's, mummy.  We can't get to the stairs.  They are people...killing people with their teeth!" Her voice broke. 

"I'm right there, sweetheart."  Did my voice sound as hard to her as it did to me? "Stay out of sight until you hear my voice."

Jim cocked his weapon.  "Trouble?" 

I nodded.  People were pouring out the front doors of the large building ahead.  Screams of terror and pain filled the air.  Amongst the crowd, I spotted shambling, torn figures grabbing at panicked shoppers.   I drove the car screeching up onto the curb, narrowly missing people and zombies alike.  Reassuring myself that my trusty stake was in my belt, I flung open my door and took the outside stairs to Tosca's, two at a time. 

On the balcony, a zombie held a young blonde girl close, teeth buried in her throat.  The blood poured down her dress as she stood in his arms like a lover, the light dimming in her eyes.  Two more zombies appeared in the restaurant's doorway, stumbling towards me.  One had been a teenage boy before he died and the other would have been a chef.   As the freshly dead creatures came towards me, I felt, rather than saw, Jim's comforting presence at my back.  "I'll handle them." He murmured.  "You get your daughter."

An agonised scream from within the restaurant sent me bolting past the zombies and inside.  A woman in a floral dress chewed upon a body beside the door while another zombie sat near the kitchen bench gnawing on the leg of a large male tourist.  I looked around desperately.  "Michele!"

Another feminine scream sent me running to the back of the Italian restaurant.  As I neared it, I saw a zombie tearing at the face of a prone girl.  A girl with honey hair.   No, no, no!

"Mum!"  From behind a pillar, Michele launched herself at me, sobbing.  "Mum!  It's got Hannah! Help her!" 

I gathered Michele in my arms for a brief moment, absorbing the smell of her warm, live body.  Thank you, God.  Pushing her behind me, I approached the zombie cautiously.  I didn't believe the girl was alive anymore, but she had been part of our lives for four years.  I couldn't just abandon her.  The zombie, a waiter, looked up with its unnervingly blank eyes, blood dripping down its chin. 

Something about that impersonal look infuriated me without measure.  I picked up  a nearby iron-wrought chair and swung it at the monster like I was wielding a baseball bat.  It connected with a most satisfying thud, knocking the monster sideways.  I brought the chair down on his head again and again.  His features became a meaty mash but still I knew he persisted, if not lived. 

"Mum!" A squeal of dismay brought me around and I saw Hannah on her knees, face so torn she could not see anything before her.  Quickly, I turned back to the zombie before me and, planting my knee in his chest, I ended his miserable existence with a stake through the eye.  Swinging around, I grabbed what used to be Hannah around the throat.

"What are you doing?"  My daughter's horrified whisper brought me up short.  I didn't have time to explain all this to her, but I knew I had to try.

"She's already dead, Michele."  I looked her firmly in the eye.  "They all are.  Take a look around you."  Michele looked around and saw the two zombies at the other end of the restaurant as they began to shamble in our direction.  The large gaping wounds all over their bodies combined with their complete lack of pain said more than an hour's explanation possibly could have.

"Oh my God." She whispered.  While she stared at the approaching creatures, I silently finished off sweet Hannah with an ache in my heart that I feared would never go away.  I had watched her grow up, seen her giggle and plot with my daughter, heard her dreams for the future.  All ended with a piece of wood through her eye.

***

Keeping Michele safely behind me, I approached the two zombies slowly. Both were dripping in the blood of their victims.  I needed to get us out of the shopping centre as quickly as possible, before the noise we were making attracted all the remaining zombies in the area.  I did some quick calculations and then without further thought, launched myself at the nearest zombie, bowled it over, staked it, spun up on my feet, kicked the other zombie over as it started to turn, and despatched it with a minimum of fuss.  As I stood up and shook the blood off my stake, I saw my daughter standing it the corner with her mouth hanging open.

A bit discomforted, I muttered a hurried 'come on' and headed for the balcony.  From the corner of my eye, I saw the wide-eyed glances Michele was sneaking at me.  I could almost hear her thoughts.  My mum used to feel faint if she squashed a cockroach and now she's staking humans without blinking!  I guess I couldn't blame her.  Never in my wildest dreams had I ever imagined I'd be auditioning for the part of an Aussie Buffy, either. But, in truth, after the number of zombies I had faced this morning, it would take more than two or three shufflers to faze me now.  

Jim stood calmly within a circle of dead zombies, wiping clean a metal picket he had acquisitioned from the nearby potted tree.  I raised a questioning brow, to which he shrugged.  "Didn't seem worth wasting my bullets on just a few zombies."

I couldn't help it; I threw my head back and laughed out loud.