British Zombie Breakout: Part Two (9 page)

Mason radioed the Kilkorne commander. 'Doug, we've made some
progress with early detection.' He explained about the UV LEDs and
the need to obtain the box from the DT room in the
school.

'They'll be flown over to Breathdeep the instant we have them,
Albert.'

Two hours later, Professor Mason called the
Ministry.'

'Good news, Minister, we have a working detector
torch.'

'Already? Explain.'

'I had a box of spare LEDs from the school flown over. We used
the kid's design and made one up by adapting the zombie blood
torches we have here.'

'And?'

'The eyes of the full infec… the full zombies light up like
Christmas trees. The eyes of subjects which have been infected for
a short time show up to a lesser degree but it's immediately
recognisable. Very bright.'

'What about those who are not contaminated? Do you have anyone
left?'

'Yes, of course. The UV has no effect on the iris of someone
whose blood shows they are clean.'

'Is it reliable?'

'We've correlated the LED results with the blood tests and
there are no false positives, or negatives.'

The Minister snarled with impatience. 'Which
means?'

'It means it works. On everyone. We can worry later about
exactly how soon after contact it shows up.'

'What now?'

'I'll have our electronics lab go into full time production,
then get the army to distribute them. They can be used all along
the cordon we've set up, at any borders in fact.'

'You'll need to ramp up production. I'll get one of the
government research labs to go into production, too, until we can
get these into the commercial sector. I have a venture capital
company set up for just such an opportunity as this.'

'You have?' Mason was beginning to think the Minister was more
devious than he had previously thought.

'There could be a lot of profit in these world-wide. Every
customs and security officer at every border control centre in
every country will want to have something which will detect second
variant zombieism.'

'OK, I'll have a unit made up, tested and flown over to
you.'

'The sooner the better, Mason.'

'What about the fugitives who made the discovery?'

'Given the potential profits involved, it may be necessary to
avoid them getting to safety.'

'But Minister, if it weren't for them…'

'Would you like me to expose your research methods to public
scrutiny, Mason?'

'Not while I'm alive.'

'That, too, could be arranged if required,' the Minister said
in a particularly chilly tone.

Chapter
24: The Double-Cross

'Well, done, Stevie,' Janet said, hugging her son
unashamedly.

'Aw mum, leave off.'

Alex smiled. She was beginning to recognise that there was
something rather endearing about Steve. And several times over he'd
proved to be someone you could rely on in a tight spot.

'Yes, well done, lad,' Graham said.

Alex looked up at Steve's face and was surprised to see him
already looking at her. Finding the term 'cute' floating up in her
mind made her look away quickly.

'Have we done now?' Rachel said. 'This bit is so
boring.'

'Yes, there hasn't been any fighting for ages,' Fred
said.

Bill was quick to interrupt that train of thought. 'Fighting
is something to either avoid or leave to the
professionals.'

'But, like, does it mean we'll be on TV now?'

Janet laughed. 'Sorry, girls we're not out of danger yet. And
Bill's absolutely right, Fred. This is not a game.'

'We should use the scanner again, see what the army and the
bio-whatsit place are up to,' Karen said. She extended the
telescopic aerial and set the unit down on the counter in the
office, next to the computer.

'Won't interfere, will it?' Graham said.

'Might do.' Karen moved the scanner a couple of feet away and
set it running. Within a second it stopped at a public service
channel.

'
…successfully developed an early
detection system…
'

Sarah smiled. 'See, we're not on TV yet but we're being
mentioned in public service announcements.'

'
The long-awaited system was
designed at the Breathdeep facility and…
'

'What?' Alex said. 'They're claiming credit for Steve's
invention!'

'Shh, there's more.'

'
Ten fugitives from Kilkorne are
still on the loose. Any member of the public outside the quarantine
cordon who believes they have had contact with these potentially
infected individuals should contact the police immediately on the
following number…
'

'What are they playing at?' Steve said. 'I sent them the video
clip of using it on myself. They know we're not
infected.'

'Did you tell them we were all clean, lad?'

'Of course!'

The Announcement continued:

'
…large group of zombies escaped the
quarantine cordon during the night. Any member of the public still
remaining in the town of Stannicvale is instructed to leave
immediately, following the previous warning two hours ago. If you
are still in the vicinity of the south of the town, you are certain
to come in contact with the zombies. Now that they have been
located, the army is in pursuit.
'

'That's us!' Rachel screamed. 'They're right here.' She ran to
the window and looked out.

Chapter
25: Attack On Stannicvale

'We should be, like, out of harm's way.' Maisie said, her eyes
starting to fill with tears. 'I mean, like, up here, shouldn't
we?'

'Three floors up in a clothing store is better than in the
street,' Janet said, 'but not that much better.'

Karen sat down with a thump in one of the office chairs. 'Just
when we thought we were free.'

'I don't like the sound of this at all,' Graham said. He went
to the window on the other side of the office, giving a view over
the car park at the rear of the building.

'But what can we do?'

'Those clothes rails on the floor below are made of metal
tube,' Fred said. 'A three or four foot length of that would make a
good weapon.'

'I'll come with you,' Bill said, heading to the stairs after
Fred. 'We might as well have a few of them.'

'Karen, keep scanning, see if there's anything else you can
pick up.'

'Yes, we need to know what the army's up to.'

'I know I've already said I don't like the sound of this,'
Graham said, 'but if we're unlucky, we could be caught right
between the zombies and the army units sent to wipe them
out.'

'They're probably got orders for wiping us out, too, going by
the announcement!'

The scanner dropped onto another channel but it was
scrambled.

'What was that?' Rachel said.

'Next!' Karen said, pressing the 'scan up' button.

'
…helicopters are on approach from
the west. Another three from the east. ETA in
ten.
'

'
Any sightings
yet?
'

'
Unit four reports movement on the
main road on the edge of Stannicvale.
'

'
Confirmed. Zombie group heading
north on Vale Road.
'

'Vale Road!' Sarah said. 'I saw the sign, that's the main road
into town. The one where we stopped at the first café.'

'So here, we're on the next street over and about a mile from
where the zombies are.'

'Did you hear that?' Bill said. He'd run back up the stairs,
carrying several lengths of metal tubing.

'No, what?'

'Gunfire.'

Graham opened the window and let in the intermittent rattle of
automatic weapons, interspersed with a 'whoomph' of something
larger.

'Here come the helicopters.'

'It's not safe here, is it?'

'Like, we're all going to be killed,' Maisie
wailed.

'I could try getting hold of that professor again. He might be
in contact with the army.'

'Brilliant,' Janet said, resisting the urge to hug her son
again. 'Karen, you're the fastest typist. Steve, move over, tell
her what to say.'

'We don't even know if he's on our side,' Bill said, 'After
that message where they said his department had made the detector
torch.'

'Quick, open another browser tab. Put the postcode in. Here
it's on this store letterhead.'

'Now what?'

'Click 'Search', it should display a map with our location.
Yes, there, read off the grid reference.' Janet scribbled it on a
scrap of paper. 'Right, now go back to the email and send the
postcode and the grid reference.'

'How will that help?' Karen said, clicking the 'Send'
button.

'If that gets through to the army, they should at least avoid
shooting us as being zombies.'

The sound of weapons fire grew closer and the explosions
became louder and more frequent. Through the window, they saw a
whole building collapse two blocks away as a helicopter hovered
nearby, strafing into the streets below.

A moment later, the helicopter stopped its strafing run and
turned in the direction of the fugitives who were all gathered
around the window.

'Duck!' Janet screamed.

Everyone threw themselves to the floor and crawled under the
nearest desk or counter, expecting a blizzard of bullets at any
moment.

Chapter 26: The
Message

'I'd say someone's got your message, lad.'

'Yes, and now they're coming to get us!'

The roar of the helicopter's engines drowned out every other
sound. The whole building vibrated, until there was a shudder
through the office ceiling. Then the engines cut and the vibration
subsided, until the whirr of the blades could be heard winding
down.

'Has this place got a flat roof?'

'It must do. And I think we're about to have
visitors.'

A soldier burst through the fire escape door from the
roof.

'You the Janet Reynolds party?'

He was quickly followed by another four men, all in full
flight gear and each with guns pointing only slightly above the
fugitives' head height.

Bill and Fred slowly lowered their sections of tubing. Steve
swivelled his chair towards the men and raised his hands. While the
helicopter had been landing, the gunfire outside had
stopped.

Janet carefully extricated herself from under the counter and
stood up. 'I'm Mrs Reynolds.'

'And are there are nine or ten of you here?'

'Ten,' Janet said, adding in a defiant tone. 'And we are not
infected.'

'That's what we've been told, Mrs Reynolds. I have orders to
escort you down to street level but first I need to do a weapons
check.'

'I have a flare gun and Sarah has the spare flares,' Janet
said.

'Put them on the desk, here, if you please.' The airman passed
the flare gun back to one of his men. 'Anything else?'

'Look here young man,' Bill said, handing over his revolver.
'Have you come to rescue us or to take us to that Breathdeep
place?'

'The Commander will inform you of that shortly.'

'What about the zombies?'

'The other units have seen to them. You'll be quite safe with
us.'

Commander Douglas Hodgeson greeted the fugitives in person.
After introducing himself, he said, 'I'm pleased to see you all
looking well. The word about your resourceful escape from Kilkorne
has been quite doing the rounds.'

'We heard on the radio you were still trying to capture
us.'

'I'm sorry, we had to give that impression. It was necessary
to let the public announcement continue, until the Minister was
taken into police custody. If he'd been alerted, he'd have vanished
into hiding. Professor Mason put his life on the line defying him,
though of course he was assured of my back-up.'

Janet stepped forward to shake hands but the Commander raised
his palm towards her. 'Sorry madam, first we need to make
absolutely certain you are who you say you are and that you're
clear.'

He shone his torch across the eyes of each of them in turn and
checked their IDs.

Commander Hodgeson looked thoroughly pleased with himself.
'Everything is just as it should be!'

'What about my son's discovery?' Janet said, pointing at the
Commander's torch.