Fever (Flu) (7 page)

He sat down again.

“They may look human,” he continued, “but they’re far from it, Ellis. They’re primitive creatures. Drawn to heat, to bright light. Probably more in common with the virus itself than the human host.” He frowned, waved his hand. “But all of this is mere speculation. I would need to do tests.
Proper
lab tests within a controlled...” His voice trailed off.

Ellis sat down again, looked Blake in the eye. “Abe told me you were dead,” she said.

Blake laughed humourlessly.

“I don’t know what to think anymore,” she said, “Who to trust.”

“Abe’s been lying to you, Ellie.”

“How do I know that? Sure, he was wrong about you, but he
saved
me, Blake. Put his own life at risk.”

“You have to trust me. Abe was lying to you. He’s not one of the good guys.”

“Oh, and
you
are? Injecting people with that virus you made?”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake, Ellie, it was a government contract!” Blake stood up. “You know how hard it is for private labs in this current climate? No HSO in their right mind would turn down a contract like that.”

He walked to the other side of the room.

“You know the Milgram experiment, where they asked people to do stuff to supposed human test subjects under lab conditions? And those people agreed to all sorts of shit, just because a man with a white coat and clipboard told them it was okay. Well,
we were those guys
, Ellie. And the government memos that came through, the ones we were allowed to read? They were written on headed paper and I thought to myself,
Surely it must be kosher if it’s on headed paper
.” He shook his head, added, “I was in too deep by the time I realised just how wrong it all was.”

“We can leave,” Ellis said. “Tell the press. Get the word out.”

Blake shook his head. “I’m not leaving,” he said. “What?”

“I don’t
de
s
erve
to live. Not after all I’ve done.”

“Well, what about
me
?” Ellis yelled. She stood up, walked across the room to him. “Don’t
I
deserve to live?!”

Blake held her gaze. His eyes filled with tears as he found more scars, this time on her face. He traced them with his finger. “When did you get these?” he asked.

“What?”

“The scars ... when did you get them?”

“Few days, a week ago, who knows?”

Blake continued to study her.

Ellis felt very self aware. “Stop it,” she said.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that...”

“I should be infected? Walking around with messed-up eyes like all the others out there? You think I don’t
know
that?”

He looked up at her, a smile threatening to break across his tired, bearded face. “You could be immune,” he said. “I’d need to—” He looked to the door.

“What is it?”

“We need to take a blood sample, run some tests.”

“Blake,” she said, her voice more gentle. “There’s
nothing
can be done here. Our only hope is to leave, to find someone we can trust, try and sort this whole mess out.”

“Yes,” he said, thinking. “You’re absolutely right.”

“But you need to come with me. I can’t do this on my own.”

Blake looked at the glass pane on the door. He recoiled as one of the dead sniffed, cleared its throat. “I-I can’t...”

“You
have to
, Blake,” Ellis pressed.

She kissed him, pulled him close. His body was frail against hers. Like the body of an old man.

“Please,” she whispered into his ear, “I need you...”

He moved away from her, rummaged through a nearby set of drawers, pulled out a USB memory stick. “This is everything. The memos, the induction notes. Anything they’ve given me, it’s all on here.”

“Blake, I—”

“Take it,” he said.

“You’re coming with me.”

“I’m not. I can’t. I’m too weak.”

“I can help you, I’ll—”

“Ellie, I’m infected.”

She stepped away from him.

“No, Blake.”

“Yes. There’s no hope for me. So go. Go now while you still can.”

Her eyes were stinging. Had she any more tears left, they would have come. Instead Ellis stood dry and empty before him. “Blake, I...”

The words failed her, but he understood.

“It’s okay,” he said, smiling. “I know. But you have to go.”

It made sense, what Blake was saying. With the flu virus raging through them, blocking their sinuses, the dead
should
have limited sensory perception.

But
blind
?

She recalled Jenkins, by the door to E21, seeming to stare through the glass into the white of her eyes...

A cold sweat ran down her spine.

There were a lot of them around now.

She knew they were drawn to light. Shining a torch full beam hadn’t been the best idea in the world, when she thought about it. Yet Ellis would feel very vulnerable without
some
access to light. So she kept the torch with her, tucked away for now.

Ellis figured the safest way to get around in complete darkness was to half-walk-half-crawl. She used her hands to map her way, feeling along the floor, along the wall, listening for the heavy footsteps of the dead.

She’d managed half the corridor when her hands collided with something.

Ellis stopped, remained still for a second. Her breathing sounded so loud to her that she was sure she’d be heard, even if they were mostly deaf.

She ran her hands over the object, realising it was a dead body. Its flesh was cold and clammy to touch. She felt a gunshot wound on its head. It must have been one that Abe had killed on his way through. Ellis groped her way around it, moving past, all the while worrying it might reach out and grab her leg.

She pushed through a set of double doors into another corridor.

She felt her way along like before, avoiding the shuffling dead she encountered. She reached the end of this corridor, realising that the next would be the main throughway to A Block, back where she had started.

She pushed through another set of doors, immediately hearing the swell of shuffling and grunting noises ahead. It seemed the dead travelled in packs, like a herd of sheep. They were gathered along the end of the corridor, circling the security door Abe had most likely left through. It was the door Ellis needed too, in order to get back into A Block.

She made her approach carefully. Curled against a nearby wall and listened intently.

Ellis noticed a leg hanging out across the exit, wedging the security door ajar: it belonged to one of the dead. The gap created was just enough for her snakelike body to slide through.

She stayed low. Crawling more than walking. Slowly and quietly, Ellis edged her arms and torso through the exit, climbing over the felled body.

She went to pull her legs through, but the body suddenly stirred, grabbing her ankle. Ellis kicked out hard, freeing her leg and pounding the dead thing’s head, sending it back into the other corridor.

She fell back against the door.

The pack of dead were drawn to the commotion. She could feel the weight of their charge upon her back, spurred on by the promise of her flesh. The gap was too narrow for them, but if Ellis moved, their combined might would push through the heavy security door, filling the corridor in seconds.

She heard a gunshot. It came from somewhere in the complex.

“Damn it,” Ellis swore, finding her torch and flicking it to ON.

She’d made it back to A Block, along with more of the dead than Ellis could imagine. They had followed Abe through the complex and were now scrambling against each other, fighting to get through the double doors at the far end of the corridor where the security guard had left.

As Ellis’ light spilled upon them, they turned around.

Ellis moved her torch away, desperately seeking out an alternative exit. She found office doors all along the corridor on each side.

She stood up, pulling away from the door at her back, allowing the dead from the previous corridor to bulldoze their way into this one.

Those from the other end of the corridor moved towards her.

She was trapped, sandwiched between two herds of the dead.

Frantically, Ellis tried each of the office doors, starting with the closest and working her way up.

The first was locked tight. Likewise with the second.

The third was open, and she went to enter, just as one of the dead reached for her, making contact, wrapping its clammy hands around her arm.

Ellis dragged the cursed thing into the room with her, threw it to the ground.

She slammed the door closed, then pushed a nearby trolley against it.

The body she’d dragged into the room was crawling back onto its feet.

Ellis searched the room with her torch, finding a letter opener on a nearby desk. She reached for it, and as the cadaver attacked, Ellis stabbed its throat. She held the blade fast, wedging it further into the rancid flesh. The body shook vigorously and then fell.

Ellis dimmed her torch.

Darkness. Always darkness. It was her friend. Movement from the corner.

Ellis snapped her torch on again, searched the room.

She found a body stumbling towards her. She raised the blade again, still bloodied from her last attack, but the body raised its hand in defence, and then spoke to her.

She recognised the voice. It was Dave Lightfoot.

She caught him as he stumbled, helping him into a nearby chair. His hands covered a stomach wound. “Jesus, who did this to you?”

“A-Abe...” he mouthed, blood spilling from his lips as he spoke.

He tried to talk some more, but Ellis shushed him, setting the torch and blade on the table, grabbing some bandaging from a nearby first aid cabinet and trying to stall the bleeding. But it was no good. The bullet was lodged inside. He was sinking fast.

“H-he’s hunting us,” Dave said. “He’s killed everyone else.”

Ellis was reminded of the storeroom in the canteen. The bodies stacked up inside. Abe told her they’d been infected, that they’d attacked him and he’d taken care of them...

Ellis raised a hand to her mouth, stalled a sob.
Was that what had really happened?

Another gunshot. Abe was close.

Ellis spotted a door adjoined to the next room. She remembered where she was. This was where the clerical staff worked. She could move through some of the rooms here without going back into the corridor.

She grabbed her torch from the table. Pocketed the envelope opener.

“Come on,” she said to Dave, pulling him to his feet.

***

They moved through the clerical rooms, finding the door into Corridor A3. They left A Block, entering C Block. With the cats no doubt still trying to claw their way into the canteen, they were able to pass through C with little trouble, into D Block. There they found the doors leading to the fire exit stairwell.

They’d been ripped open.

Abe
.

With Dave’s energy depleting fast, his burden upon Ellis became heavier. But she managed to help him up the winding staircase, torch switched on and outstretched as they went.

They reached the double doors leading out of the complex. A sign warned staff to only open DOOR 2 when DOOR 1 was closed and all safety measures had been followed. This was important when entering and leaving a potentially contaminated lab. But both doors had been blasted wide open, the last person through not caring much about health and safety.

Ellis slid through the gap. Once in, she helped Dave.

They reached the foyer of the outer building. Ellis shone her torch along the foyer’s generous reception. She could see shutters drawn across the windows. They were still locked in.

She swore under her breath, relaxing Dave into a waiting room chair by the reception desk. She was wracking her brain, trying to work out just how the hell to get out of the complex when she heard a loud crack.

Dave’s head slapped against the wall, a short gasp leaving his mouth. His body tumbled forward onto the floor. A bloody smear was left on the wall, a separate pool of blood seeping across the tiles where his body now lay.

“No!” Ellis screamed.

She knew it was Abe.

“Where are you?!” she screamed. “Show yourself, you coward!”

Silence.

The darkness was paling. Daylight spilled through the tiny gaps in the shutter blinds.

“What are they paying you?” Ellis shouted. “It must be money. Because I don’t think you’re a bad man, Abe. I
can’t
believe that...”

Abe stepped out of the shadows.

He looked ashamed, unable to keep his eyes on her. “Where’s Farrow?” he said.

“Dead.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“He’s in B Block. Take a look if you want, but he’ll be dead by the time you get there. He’s infected.” She looked at Abe, noticed a gaping wound on his arm, sallow skin across his face. “You’re infected too,” she said.

He laughed, and for a second he became the old Abe; the affable Abe who would sit in the canteen and do his crossword; whose eyes would light up when Canteen Carol brought him his chips, or ‘fries’ as he’d call them, making Carol laugh every time. But this wasn’t old Abe, and Carol was no doubt stacked with the others in the canteen store, a bullet in her brain.

“I have an ex-wife,” he said. “Always going on about the shitty money I send her for the kids. How they’ll never make it into college, end up deadbeat losers like their old man.” He smiled, perhaps aware that Ellis had no time for his sob stories. “When the Jenkins thing happened, I shut the lab down, just as they’d instructed. I needed to contain the infection, take out everyone exposed, especially those working on Project QT. Farrow got away, but I knew he’d come out of hiding if I had you, Ellie.”

“It was you who opened the door to Johnson’s office,” Ellis said. “You set me up.”

Abe nodded. He showed her his security card. “It’s not like yours, Ellie. It works. I used it to override the shutdown, open the doors I needed.”

“The people in E Block,” Ellis said. “You killed them in cold blood.”

“I had to,” Abe said. “They’d been exposed to the virus.”