But as the evening progressed, the tweets became more and more grave.
Why aren’t the police doing anything?
and
One of them just walked by my window!
and
Just drove by the library—serious, stay away from there, folks! Not a sight anybody needs to see!
Slowly people began catching on to the seriousness of the situation, even though many were still utterly confused. But more and more often, Mille would see the magic word.
Zombies.
People began posting videos from their phones, either filmed from their windows or cars. Some more gory than others. Mille didn’t feel like watching any of them. A video from a press release also went viral, where a spokesman of the police told people to remain indoors and avoid physical contact with anybody until further notice.
“They’re declaring a state of emergency,” William mutters.
Mille looks at the television and sees the prime minister talking to the camera with a very grave expression, her lips quivering slightly.
“The whole town is being shut off,” William says. “About damn time.”
Dan stirs from the couch, and the dog lifts its head.
“How many dead?” Mille asks.
“They aren’t giving any numbers anymore,” William replies, not taking his eyes from the screen, which is now showing a live feed from a helicopter somewhere over town. Three figures are staggering down the street, empty cars are left everywhere, and even from this distance and in the dying daylight, Mille can make out several dark bulges on the asphalt. “It must be in the hundreds, maybe even thousands by now,” William goes on.
“So, Holger’s calculations will prove true,” Dan says, rubbing his eyes, then gesturing to the whiteboard on the wall, where Holger drew a graph and wrote a lot of numbers. “Tomorrow evening, there will be no one alive in the town.”
“Not if they get their act together and send in the military, like I’ve been trying to tell them,” William says, obviously frustrated. He’s been calling the police several times, trying to convey to them the scope of the situation. Mille can’t blame whoever was on the other end of the line—probably some young on-duty cop—for having a hard time believing it.
“I promised to call my dad by now,” Dan murmurs and finds his phone. “Oh, shoot, it’s out of power. Does Holger have a charger, William?”
“Check the bedroom.”
Dan gets up and goes to the bedroom.
William finds his own phone. “I’d probably better call my mom too. How about you, you’re not going to—” He stops as he apparently remembers something, then he just shakes his head. “Sorry, none of my business.” He gets up and goes to the kitchen. A moment later, Mille can hear him talking to his mom.
Mille checks her phone and the seven unanswered calls. Most of them are from private numbers, and she’s pretty sure it’s the police who have been trying to get to her to make sure she is okay, like they probably did with everyone aboard the bus whom they couldn’t find right away.
But there’s also a single call from a number she knows. A single call she didn’t expect at all.
Helle, the display says.
Forty-five minutes ago. Mille saw the call coming, but she just stared at the silent phone. She didn’t try calling back, and Helle hasn’t tried calling again.
Mille didn’t pick up, because she had no idea what to say. What do you say after three years?
Suddenly, she wants to call back, but the thought immediately makes her uncomfortable. There are too many questions. How will the voice sound? Like she remembers or completely changed? Older? Weaker? More loving? Maybe even concerned?
Mille is just not sure she would know how to handle it. Yet her finger moves closer to the Call button, hovering there for several seconds.
Then she sees something out of the corner of her eye and turns her head. Far away over the field, she can make out a wobbling figure in the twilight. No, not one—two. No, three. More and more are appearing. There are over twenty in total, and still more are coming.
Her throat constricts and it’s suddenly difficult to breathe.
The living dead aren’t walking in any particular formation, they don’t even seem to be walking together. But they’re all nonetheless headed in the same direction. They’re all aiming directly for Holger’s house on top of the hill.
At that moment, Dan comes back into the room. “I found a charger,” he says, but his expression changes once he sees Mille’s face. “What is it?” he asks in alarm.
Before she can answer, there’s a loud bang from the bedroom, and Dan whirls around. William’s dog comes barging in from the kitchen, barking at the noise.
But it’s only Holger, who slammed open the hatch in the floor, and now comes tumbling into the living room, his expression wild.
“Shut up, Ozzy!” William commands, as he joins them from the kitchen, phone pressed to his chest. “What’s going on, Holger?”
Holger looks like he wants to run someplace but can’t decide where that place is, so he ends up just standing there. “I saw them,” he pants. “I saw them on the screens. They’re coming.”
The words leave a chill silence in the living room.
“How … how many?” William croaks.
“Many,” Mille says, surprised to hear her own voice. All three of them turn to look at her. She points out the window.
William is instantly by her side. “Oh, fuck me,” he mutters and steps back. He looks from Mille to Dan and then to Holger. There’s a special glow in his eyes—it could be fear, yet to Mille it looks almost like wild excitement—as he says: “Here we go …”
* * *
The story continues …
Grab your copy of Day 4 now at
nickclausenbooks.com/day4
FREE BOOK
What happened to set it all off?
Who was
