Dead Island

‘Sure,’ said Logan wearily. ‘I’ll take anything you got.’

Five minutes later, dosed up on painkillers, he was snoring quietly in the corner, mouth open. Sam, Purna, Xian Mei and Sinamoi were sitting around the table, hands curled not round mugs of water this time, but hot black coffee. Sam blew on his coffee before sipping it, then sat back with a sigh. Although he normally took his coffee with cream and sugar, he murmured, ‘Man, that’s the best cup of coffee I’ve ever tasted.’

Purna turned to Xian Mei, who so far had barely said a word. ‘So what’s your story?’ she asked.

Xian Mei looked defensive. ‘What makes you think I have one?’

Purna nodded at Sam, then over at Logan asleep in the corner. ‘I can see the connection between the three of us, but you’re the odd one out; the unknown quantity.’

‘You mean the blood drive?’ said Sam.

‘Yes. We’re all here because we gave blood and won ourselves holidays in Banoi. It therefore figures that our mysterious caller is something to do with the NBDC.’ She stared at Xian Mei, narrowing her eyes. ‘But who are you? His spy?’

Xian Mei tried not to react, even though the Australian girl had come startlingly close to guessing the reason she was here. Matching the girl’s intense stare with one of her own, she said firmly, ‘I’m nobody’s spy. Maybe I was included because I gave blood too.’

‘You did?’ said Sam, surprised.

‘In which part of the US?’ asked Purna.

Xian Mei shook her head. ‘Not in the US. In China.’

‘China?’ said Sam. ‘I thought this blood drive campaign was an American thing?’

Xian Mei shrugged. ‘There was one in China too. But it was organized by the Chinese government.’

‘Or at least, that’s what you were told,’ said Purna.

‘What do you mean?’ asked Sam.

‘Think about it. Logan got bit. Xian Mei got bit. We’ve both been sprayed with zombie blood, which means we’ve almost certainly ingested some — but none of us are infected.’

Sam frowned, assessing the implications of her words. ‘You mean we’re immune?’

‘Not only that, but the NBDC, or whoever’s behind this thing, knew we were immune before we came here. That’s the reason we are here. It’s not random chance. Our names weren’t drawn out of a hat. It’s because of our immunity.’

Sam’s eyes widened as the terrible truth dawned on him. ‘But that means …’

Purna nodded grimly. ‘It means that whoever sent us here knew about the virus before we arrived. It means they knew this was going to happen.’

Xian Mei shook her head. ‘No.’

Purna looked at her sharply. ‘What do you mean, no?’

‘I mean that whoever is responsible for us being here didn’t simply know that this was going to happen. That’s too much of a coincidence.’

‘Fuck, you’re right,’ said Purna.

‘You mean they did it deliberately?’ muttered Sam. ‘They created it?’

Both girls nodded in unison.

‘But why?’ Sam asked.

Xian Mei shrugged. ‘To use as a weapon? Biological warfare?’

‘Motherfuckers,’ snarled Sam. ‘So why throw us into the mix?’

‘As guinea pigs?’ suggested Purna. ‘To see how immune we really are? They’ve already got our blood, remember, so we’re expendable.’

‘The question is,’ said Xian Mei, ‘is our mysterious caller working for the people who put us here or working against them?’

‘So what we talking about here?’ asked Sam. ‘Rival governments?’

Purna spread her hands. ‘Who knows? Our guy could be appalled by the fact that we’ve been thrown into the lion’s den and is genuinely working in our best interests by trying to get us out, or he could be working for an enemy government who want to develop a vaccine from our blood in case the virus is used against them.’

‘Or maybe he has a different agenda entirely,’ suggested Xian Mei.

‘Whatever the reason, we’re being manipulated,’ said Purna. ‘Moved around like pieces on a chess board.’

‘So what do we do?’ Sam asked. ‘Go along with it?’

Purna looked at Xian Mei, who shrugged. ‘For the time being,’ Purna said. ‘I don’t see that we’ve got much choice.’

They fell silent for a moment, each of them wrapped in their own thoughts. Sinamoi, who had been following the exchange with apparently little comprehension, now said, ‘More coffee?’

All three nodded and he crossed the room to heat more water on the stove.

Making it sound less like a challenge this time, Purna looked at Xian Mei and said, ‘You still haven’t told us the full story. You’re not a hotel receptionist at all, are you?’

Xian Mei sighed. ‘Is it really that obvious?’

‘Blindingly,’ said Purna.

‘OK,’ said Xian Mei. ‘I’ll tell you my story if you tell me yours.’

Purna hesitated a moment, and then said, ‘Agreed.’

While Sinamoi made coffee, Xian Mei told Sam and Purna the truth about her father, and the Special Forces squad, and her ‘special assignment’. When she had finished she looked at Purna. ‘Your turn.’

Purna sighed and sat back, as though wondering how and where to start. Finally she said, ‘When I was sixteen, I joined the Sydney Police Department. Nothing to do with my dad. I just … I guess when I was growing up I didn’t see a whole lot of justice and I wanted to redress the balance. But being young, and female, and half Aborigine, and — I guess — a bit of a looker, I had to put up with a whole lot of shit. Not just sexism and racism — though there was plenty of both, believe me — but people thinking I was dumb or that I couldn’t handle myself, that I was a soft touch.’

She paused, as if reflecting briefly on her past, then she said, ‘So anyway, all that crap … it just made me stronger. I was determined to prove myself, to be just as tough as the guys around me, if not more so. I’d been in the police force … five years, I guess, when I was assigned to this child molestation case. It was a bad one —’ she barked out a harsh laugh — ‘I mean, when are they not, hey? But this one was really bad. Nine victims we knew of, ranging from seven to thirteen. High level of brutality … I won’t go into details. Anyway, we found the perp. The evidence was irrefutable. He was a twenty-two-year-old rich kid called Jeffrey Lucas. Heir to Lucas Industries, a big pharmaceuticals company. On the surface he was a normal kid — privileged background, good school record, no previous, plenty of friends, girlfriend … the works. But underneath —’ she shook her head — ‘a moral vacuum. I mean, seriously. He was worse than any sociopath I’ve ever come across. He knew he was doing wrong, he understood the concept of human pain and terror, but he just didn’t care. He hadn’t killed any of the girls he’d harmed, but he’d brutalized them so badly that … well, let’s just say that if any of them manage to live normal lives after what he did, it will be a major fucking achievement.’

She was breathing hard and made a concerted effort to compose herself before continuing. After ten seconds of silence, punctuated only by the constant buzz and crackle from the radio, she said, ‘And the thing is, if he’d been allowed to continue he would have killed someone eventually. There’s no fucking doubt in my mind about that.’ She waved a hand almost casually. ‘Anyway, we arrested him, built up a rock-solid case against him, brought him to trial … and the bastard got off. Basically he was legally untouchable because of his wealth and connections. Top-drawer lawyer, money changing hands, a few words in the right ear … whatever. Fact is, he got off and he laughed at us. He fucking laughed. He thought it was all just one big game. So I hounded him, followed him everywhere. I got told to lay off. And when I didn’t I was threatened; someone broke into my house and smashed it up. And then one night …’

Her voice tailed off. She licked her lips.

‘One night?’ prompted Sam.

‘I killed him. Shot him right through the eye.’ She looked at Sam almost fiercely. ‘Best fucking thing I’ve ever done.’

‘You caught him in the act?’ asked Sam.