Dead meat box set vol 3.., p.27
Dead Meat Box Set, Vol. 3 | Days 7-9, page 27
part #3 of Dead Meat Box Set, Vol. 3 Series
Iver is using the coin he had in his pocket to slowly and meticulously loosen the screws holding the bar. It’s heavy enough that it’ll provide him with an effective weapon.
And he knows he’ll be needing it.
Because the zombies won’t stop until they manage to break down the door.
And there’s no other way out; the window is too tiny to get through.
Even though it’ll be futile to fight back against several hundred zombies, Iver is going to do it anyway. The alternative—just letting the deads have at him and the toddler—is too gruesome to even think about.
So, when the time comes, Iver will fight back. He will try to be brave. Like Leif was. Like Agnete was.
If not for himself, then for Adam. He owes the little guy that much.
He looks at him, his round, pale face glowing in the darkness of the tub.
“I’m sorry, buddy,” Iver whispers, his voice breaking. “It’s quite the mess I got you into. I’m sorry.”
He can’t believe they’re all gone. It all happened so fast. Within a couple of hours.
Now it’s just him and Adam.
And soon, they’ll be dead too.
Iver feels the tears begin to spill down his cheeks. He doesn’t do anything to wipe them away. Instead, he turns back to the wall and continues working on unscrewing the bar, ignoring the sounds from the door.
At least he’ll go down swinging.
THIRTY-NINE
Dan is sitting in Holger’s kitchen, staring at his hands resting in his lap. He’s dead tired. Now that the ritual is over, he can finally feel his energy crashing.
William comes out from the living room. “There you are.”
Dan looks up, barely able to hold his head. “How are they?”
William sits down across from him. “They’re fine as far as we can tell. Physically, anyway. They all ate something and drank a lot of water. They’re also doing pretty well mentally, considering what they been through. They can’t remember being out, but they almost all remember what led up to it. They can recite their names and social security numbers. They can talk and read and give us things like who’s prime minister and what’s five times five, so I’m very hopeful.”
Dan nods. “That’s great news. I really wasn’t expecting that to happen. Did anyone else come back?”
William shakes his head. “So far, only the five of them.” He nods towards the courtyard. “I went out to count them. We cured 104 people total. Five of them coming back is close to five percent.”
Dan just nods. He’s too tired to think.
“This is really big news,” William goes on. “If this is an accurate sample, then 5 percent of the people who died from this thing will come back to life once we break the curse.”
“I know,” Dan says, blinking.
Liv and Dennis join them from the living room.
“You guys ready to shoot the film?” William asks.
“We are,” Dennis says. “I have the camera ready. We just need another … you know, a dead guy.”
“That’s not going to be a problem,” William says, nodding towards the window. “There are already eight more out there. Don’t worry, they are newcomers, I made sure. The others are still just lying around.”
“How is it even possible?” Liv asks in a low voice, nodding towards the living room, from where they can hear the five survivors talking with each other. “I mean, they were dead, right? They weren’t just cursed; they were medically dead too.”
“They were,” William nods. “We talked with a doctor who ran tests and confirmed that. They had no pulse, no heartbeat, no brainwaves. They were most definitely fucking dead.”
“They were,” Dan says, repressing a yawn. “But their souls might not have been far away.”
“How’d that work?” William asks.
“From what I know about voodoo, it kind of makes sense,” Dan says. “Birgit explained that what we’re doing when breaking the curse is opening the doorway for the Big Angel to rush in and clean the curse out. It means we’re basically finishing what would have happened if the curse hadn’t been there to keep them artificially alive.”
“Right, so why do some come back?”
“Because their Little Angel is still present,” Dan says. “That’s the only explanation I can think of, anyway. The Little Angel is our individual soul, our personality or whatever you want to call it. It’s different from the collective life force.”
“So, if the person hasn’t fully left,” Liv goes on, “and the life force comes streaming in, it won’t kill them—it will, like, reignite them?”
“Apparently,” Dan nods.
“But why haven’t they … decayed?” Liv says, lowering her voice to a whisper. “If they’ve been dead for days?”
“Yeah, Dorte told us something about their blood coagulating,” William adds. “That’s something that can’t just be reversed.” He looks at Dan as though he’s supposed to give him an answer.
“Sorry,” Dan says, shrugging. “I just don’t know. I’m not sure I’m even making sense. I’m really tired.”
“But why does it only happen to a few?” William goes on.
“I guess some of them were still clinging to life,” Dan says. “Their Little Angels hadn’t left their bodies yet. Maybe that would explain why their bodies didn’t begin to rot; the life force could still sustain them.”
A moment of quiet in the kitchen as they listen to the voices from the living room.
Then Liv says: “You know what this means, right?”
William, Dan and Dennis all look at her.
“It means the people we knew who got infected and died might still be saved. I mean, it’s a small chance, but still …”
Dan hadn’t thought of that. Now that he sees it, his mind quickly scans through his family.
Jennie was the first one to die. But she was shot by a police officer and died for real; Selina had told him so, just hours before she herself got bitten and died.
Thomas died a few hours later. But he died a second time when Dan and Linda set fire to the car.
Dan’s mother went next. But having committed suicide, she was never infected with the curse and can’t be saved either.
Then there’s Dad.
Dad got scratched by Elias. Then he threw himself from the helicopter. Did that mean he had died for real? Had the fall killed him so that the infection couldn’t?
Dan looks to William and realizes William is staring back at him.
“Your dad,” he says, reading Dan’s mind. “He might still be … I mean, we were flying pretty low.”
Dan swallows dryly. “Even if he survived the fall, he would still have ended up in the water. He would have drowned.”
“Maybe,” William says. “But maybe the infection got him first. There’s at least a small chance.”
Dan shakes his head. “I could never find him, even if he did turn into a zombie.”
“I know,” William says, biting his lip. “If only there was some way of tracking him … wait!” He lights up, snapping his fingers. “Holy hell, it might be doable!” He pulls out his phone and looks at Dan. “Your dad’s phone. I noticed it when he used it earlier.”
Dan frowns. “Are you suggesting I call him?”
“Of course not, numbnuts. But he had the same model phone as I do. And it comes with this tracking thing where you can locate it if someone steals it. It doesn’t matter if it’s dead for power or even if they pull the battery out, we can still track it. We just need his phone number. You have that?”
Dan thinks for a moment. “I remember it, yes. But, William—”
“Holy fuck, that’s great! We can track him, Dan! We can find him!”
“There are so many maybes here,” Dan says, fighting hard to keep his hopes down. “What if his phone was busted when he fell? What if it fell out of his pocket? What if he’s still walking around the bottom of the ocean somewhere? Or if he made it to land, someone could have killed him.” Dan throws out his arms. “Even if we could actually go and find him and cure him, there’s still only a 5 percent chance he’ll come back. With all of those odds put together, I’d say have a better chance of winning the lottery.”
“I know, but … it’s your dad. Isn’t it worth a shot?”
Dan opens his mouth, then closes it again, realizing that of course William is right. That of course he’s going to do it. That even in the face of terrible odds, even the smallest, tiniest chance of getting has father back is more than enough reason that he has to do it.
He hasn’t slept for days. He’s never been this tired in his life. Yet he knows he won’t be able to rest before he’s seen this through.
“Okay,” he says, taking a deep breath. “Let’s track him.”
DAY 9
The following takes place on
Sunday, August 3
ONE
“Right, what’s his number?”
William’s voice causes Dan to startle. He looks around, and it takes him several seconds to realize he’s sitting on a chair in Holger’s bunker.
William is by the computer, looking over at him. “Were you sleeping?”
“I … I don’t know,” Dan says, rubbing his eyes.
William studies his face. “I think you might want to take a nap before we go out looking for your dad.”
“No, I’m fine.”
“You sure? You look like dog shit.”
“I’m fine.”
William shrugs. “If you say so. Give me his number then.”
Dan closes his eyes and searches his memory. It feels sluggish and uncooperative. But one by one, the digits appear and he speaks them out loud.
William types them in, then hits enter.
Dan strains to look at the monitor as the map loads. It zooms in on a coastline, showing half ocean, half land. Then a thin, red, rugged line appears, going from the water and onto land. At the end of it, a red dot blinks.
William lets out a gasp. “Holy shit, we’re in luck. He made it onto land. And looks like he’s still on the move.”
“Where is that?” Dan asks. “Is it Norway?” The thought of going back across the sea is enough to double the feeling of tiredness in his bones.
William zooms out, revealing more of the map. Dan feels a jolt of excitement as he recognizes the area.
“He’s here,” William says, looking at Dan with a nervous smile. “He’s in Denmark. And look, it’s even better than I thought.” He points to the monitor, tracking the red line. “This must be where we dropped him off. We were a lot closer to the coast than I realized, and your dad went straight for it. He only spent like fifteen minutes in the water, tops.”
“That’s more than enough for his lungs to fill up with water,” Dan mutters, biting his lip.
“We don’t know if zombies even breathe,” William encourages him. “And since he’s still walking around, that means he can’t be in too bad of a state, right? I mean, he probably didn’t break anything vital in the fall.”
“Looks promising,” a voice comes from behind, causing Dan to startle once more. He didn’t hear Liv enter the bunker. She’s holding two steaming cups, and she hands one to Dan. “Here, I figured you needed it.”
Dan takes the cup. The smell of the coffee isn’t exactly Dan’s favorite smell; in fact, he’s never learned to drink it, but Liv is probably right, and he sips the hot liquid.
“Much obliged,” William says, holding out his hand.
Liv doesn’t give him the cup, instead taking a sip herself. “Sorry, I didn’t make any for you.”
William glares at her, then looks at Dan. “What did I tell you? She’s got the hots for you.”
Dan swallows too big a gulp of coffee and coughs.
“Actually, I don’t,” Liv tells William coolly. “I just thought that since Dan and I haven’t slept all night and since we’ll be headed out soon, we’ll need all the help staying alert …”
“Hold on,” William says, frowning. “Are you going with him?”
“I am.”
William throws out his arms. “I could use your help here. With all due respect, we’re trying to save the world, and the clock is ticking.”
“Dennis will stay and help,” Liv says. “I already asked him. Plus, Lars wants to help too.”
Dan assumes that’s the name of one of the people who woke up from the curse.
“Okay,” William says, shrugging. “Well, if you’re intent on helping Dan find his dad, who am I to argue?”
“I’m not just doing this for Dan,” Liv says, downing most of the coffee, wincing at the heat in her mouth. “Both my parents are also still out there.”
“Oh,” Dan says, feeling stupid. He didn’t even think to ask. “Do you … know where they are?”
“I know where they might be. My sister told me she had to leave home when my mother woke back up and … and attacked my father.” A brief flash of hesitation on Liv’s face. Then determination returns. “If I’m lucky, they’re still in the house.”
“And where is the house?” Dan asks.
“In Viborg.”
“Hot dang it,” William says, nodding towards the monitor with a smile. “That’s gotta be fate, because that’s on the way to Dan’s dad.”
Dan nods, sipping his coffee. It’s hot in his throat and it lands like lava in his stomach. But he already feels a little better, a little more optimistic. “I’d be more than happy to have company,” he says. “We can take the van.”
“I think you should opt for something a little more cross-country,” William says. “Holger kept a four-wheeler in the garage. It’ll be a lot easier if you need to go off-road.”
Dan glances at Liv. “Do you know how to …?”
“How to drive a four-wheeler?” she asks, putting down her empty cup. “Sure.”
“It’s settled then,” William says, getting up. “Hand me your phone, Dan. I’ll install the tracking app. Oh, and don’t forget to stock up on holy water.”
TWO
When William returns to the living room after seeing Dan and Liv off, he finds Dennis already busy setting up Holger’s camera on a tripod. One of the guys is helping him.
“Good work,” William says. “But don’t you think we should do it outside? Seems less risky.”
“The sunlight is too bright,” the guy says. “We already tested it.” When William looks at him, he says apologetically: “I’m Lars. I’m a graphic designer.”
“Huh,” William mutters. “What are the odds?”
Most of the other people who woke up are sitting or standing around the room, talking in low voices or just following the conversation. Some of them seem to have left. William can’t imagine how it must be, waking up after several days being clinically dead, with no memory of what has happened or how many people you’ve killed, only to find the world is in even worse shape and with very little hope of finding any of your family members still alive …
“We’ll get a much higher quality video if we shoot it in here,” Lars goes on, dragging William out of his thoughts. ”And the more you can tell what’s going on, the better—right?”
“Right,” William agrees. “That’s the whole point of it.”
“There’s also the problem of controlling the environment,” Dennis goes on. “That’s a lot easier in here. Out there, a group of them could show up any time and cause trouble.”
William looks at him. Even though he hasn’t known Dennis for very long, the transformation the guy has undergone is still astounding. When William first met him, Dennis would have never used a word like “environment,” or any other word longer than three syllables, really. And it’s not just his vocabulary which seems to have improved; William can tell just by looking into Dennis’s eyes that a much bigger and brighter lightbulb is suddenly lit between his ears.
“Right,” William says. “So, how do we get a zombie in here? I think it’ll be too time-consuming going through the tarp-tactic again.”
“We can just lure it in,” Dennis says, nodding towards the courtyard. “There’s already a couple of them out there. If we open the front door, they’ll come in voluntarily.”
“Hell,” William says. “Why not?” He nods towards the camera. “Are we ready?”
“We are,” Lars says after checking the camera one more time. “It’s streaming.”
“Streaming?”
“Yeah, I hooked it up to my YouTube account. I figured we might as well stream it live, then put the video up afterwards.”
“Holy shit, that’s genius,” William says. “Is anyone watching?”
Lars shrugs. “I have a few thousand followers. They get a ping whenever I start a live stream, so if they’re still online, some might be watching.”
William looks at the camera thoughtfully. “If only we could send out the link to everyone still alive so they could watch it in real time …”
“We can,” Lars says. “Nothing spreads faster than a viral video.”
“But first we need to make the video for the US military, right?” Dennis reminds them. “That has got to be our priority. We can always figure out how to get the word out to the rest of the world afterwards, but we need to focus on eliminating the threat of a nuclear attack first of all.”
“You’re right,” William says, nodding. He turns and claps his hands together. “All right, listen up folks. A dead guy will enter the room shortly. So I suggest you all go to the bedroom and close the door. We will be curing our guest, but until that happens, just as a precaution, let’s keep the clientel to a minimum. We don’t want to risk any of you getting bitten again, right?”
None of the people present seem to like that idea, and they all quickly scurry to the bedroom, leaving Dennis, William and Lars alone in the living room.
“Right,” William says, looking at them. “So, who does what? Let’s be absolutely clear on the plan so we don’t fuck anything up.”
