spoiled.”
“Well, thank you for the recipe tip,” Cannon said.
Cahz started to drop the individual packets back in to the open plastic pocket.
“What’s the main meal, anyway?” Cannon inquired.
Cahz picked up the big rectangular box and orientated it to read the label. “It’s spicy penne pasta,” he answered between loud chews of the gum. He held up the empty wrapper for Cannon to see the bold writing below the menu designation. “It’s vegetarian.”
“Penne with vegetable sausage crumbles in spicy tomato sauce,” Cannon quoted from memory.
Ryan looked up from stirring the pulped-up cracker. “Doesn’t sound that appetising.”
“It’s not bad,” Cannon countered. “Quite meaty-tasting for a vegi meal.”
“One thing we’ve got Iraq and Afghanistan to thank for,” Cahz quipped.
“Why’s that?” Ryan asked. He presented his child with the first spoonful of mush.
“Wanted us boys to feel like we were being looked after. Keep up the morale,” Cannon said. “I guess they thought it made up for not issuing proper body armour.”
Cahz nodded in agreement. “One less thing for us grunts to moan about.”
“Let’s have a look,” Ryan said, holding a hand out.
Cannon picked up the rectangular brown packet. “Not much to see,” he said and passed it over.
“You two serve together then?” Ryan asked.
“No, we only met after all this shit started,” Cahz said. “We’ve both done tours overseas, but Cannon here was a civvie when we met up.”
Cannon’s silence gave Ryan the impression that the big man didn’t want to talk about their first encounter and when Cannon broke the silence only to inform him, “She’s dribbling,” Ryan thought it best to leave the subject.
“She seems to be enjoying that,” Cahz noted.
“Yeah, it’s doing the trick,” Ryan admitted.
Ryan idly flipped over the bland package and looked at the utilitarian information printed on it. “Hey, have you guys read this?”
“Yeah, sure,” Cahz said.
“No, I mean really read it,” Ryan said with a snigger.
“Why?”
Ryan put on his best anchorman voice and read, “Restriction of food and nutrients leads to rapid weight loss which leads to: Loss of strength, decreased endurance, loss of motivation, decreased mental alertness.”
“So?”
“Well, come on,” Ryan said, back to his normal voice. “It’s like it’s describing a pus bag.”
“Hmmm,” Cannon puffed. “I suppose.” He turned to his commander for his reaction, but Cahz was looking the other way. “Boss?”
Cahz turned back from looking at Elspeth. “Not very tactful.”
“Ah shit,” Ryan said, the humour in his voice crashing down.
Elspeth lay on an aluminium tubing and dull blue fabric camp bed, shivering. Her pale skin was laced with dark polluted tracks of infected veins and pricks of cold sweat dotted her face.
“We need to keep a watch over her,” Cahz said.
“How long since she was bitten?” Cannon asked.
Cahz looked at his watch. “Must be close to two hours now.”
“What you reckon?” Cannon asked. “A bite that close to her neck…”
Cahz turned to Ryan. “How old is she?”
“Um… mid-fifties,” Ryan said, uncertain. “I think?” He shrugged. “To be honest I don’t rightly know what year this is.”
“You got the wheel of death on you?” Cannon asked.
“Nope. Thing’s never that accurate anyway,” Cahz said.
“What?
“Yeah, there’s a mortality calculator. It’s like those math wheels made out of card. You line up the dials and it’s supposed to give you a time of death from the infection,” Cahz explained. “High command thought they were a good idea to issue to troops. Truth is, they done a damn good job of reminding you not to get bit.”
“The wheel’s only got one outcome,” Cannon added.
Cahz turned to his companion. “You’ve seen as many as I have; what do you guess? Two, maybe three hours?”
Cannon’s eyes flickered as he worked on some calculation in his head. “‘Bout that.”
Ryan looked across at his de-facto mother-in-law. She looked to be in a deathly malaise. Her eyes tightly closed, a lock of sweaty, sodden grey hair falling across her face. He could see the family resemblance to his lost love. She had Sam’s eyes-Ryan corrected himself-Sam had Elspeth’s eyes. He looked down at the baby girl he was feeding. She gazed up at him with that familiar resemblance.
“She’ll turn any time now, won’t she?” he said in a flat voice.
“We could put her in that office,” Cannon said, looking at the glass fronted meeting room.
“Good call,” Cahz noted. “We can keep an eye on her and when she comes back she won’t be able to surprise any of us.”
“That makes sense,” a faint voice said.
Everyone looked round at Elspeth. Her eyes were still shut, but it was plain she was awake.
“Okay, La-” Cahz stopped himself from addressing her as ‘lady’ again. “Okay, Elspeth, I’ll help you up.”
“Thanks for looking after me,” Elspeth whispered.
“I haven’t done anything,” Cahz said.
“But you will,” Elspeth replied.
Chapter Ten
Apartment
Having detected no movement through the spy hole, Ali cautiously opened the door. He eased it off of the snib as best he could to minimize the noise.
As the door cracked open he peeked round to get the best of the widening view. He heard the moans and the hammering below as the zombies still held vigil over the flat he’d escaped into. He was poised to slam the door shut at the slightest provocation, but nothing happened.
The landing was damp and musty. One of the frosted glass windows on the stairs was broken, the safety glass pixelated into small clumps. Ali heard a sound, a soft cooing then saw the faint movement of a shadow passing. Even with his heightened anxiety he stood his ground and scanned for the movement. The cooing came again and through the broken glass he caught a glimpse of something outside.
Ali stepped forward, beyond the psychological safety of the flat. As he did the shadow fluttered and took flight; it was then he realised a pair of pigeons were nesting on the window ledge. Unlike him they had apparently grown indifferent to the zombies’ eerie cries.
Ali edged further onto the landing, stepping over a rivulet that trickled its way from some burst pipe down its own set of miniature Niagara Falls to the bottom floors. When he reached the banister he slowly peeked over the end. Down below on the bottom two floors there was a mass of undead. They appeared to be jammed in their attempt to pursue him into the flat. The ones at the front had failed to negotiate the shut window, but their calls were still drawing in more of their brethren. They seemed uninterested in exploring the rest of the building, simply jamming themselves tighter and tighter into the first floor apartment.
Then Ali noticed that not all of them were slavishly following the moans. On the third floor a lone figure stumbled its aimless way. It bumped off walls and tripped up and down stairs, oblivious to the commotion the queue outside the downstairs flat was making. The creature made a random stumble that jerked its head backwards.
