Halfway back - Bruno, Steve and Fiona's adventure against zombies that may not be zombies and the secret behind them Read online

  “Elsewhere, like our asses, for example?”

  “They can try if they want.” Steve sounded like he wasn't joking. “We blew them once, we can do it again. This time we'll make sure that they won't get back on their feet. Are you with me?”

  “Your motivational speeches depress me. Yes, I am with you.” They went back home, prepared some microwave pasta and started playing Ball of Hoodie.

  A few hundred dead bodies later, Bruno felt the need to visit the bathroom. While he was emptying his bladder, his right hand found something unusual. “What the fuck?” he said to himself. In English. Good. Not enough weird things were happening, anyway.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Ah, it's not just us after all

  Bruno wasn't able to sleep. He could hear Steve snoring and his mind was scattered all over the place. Where do those strange people come from? What happened to Mr Simonnot's body? Why didn't anyone call the police? His thoughts were interrupted by some sounds from outside the apartment, in the corridor. Steve had just stopped snoring, so whatever was making those, similar to last night's but more steady and on a bigger number, sounds, could have been there for a long time. Bruno got up and went straight to Steve's room. “Hey, wake up.”

  “Huh...? What time is it?”

  “I don't know. Around 4:00?”

  “What do you...”

  “There's some noise outside. Maybe they came back. We should take the guns and be ready,” Bruno said and wasted no more time trying to wake Steve up, even if Bruno was afraid that his roommate would mutter some gibberish and continue enjoying the soft bed.

  “Oh, man... I was sleeping so nice...” Steve put a big effort to get up. He was extremely tempted to go back under the warm blanket, but he knew that this was something that needed to be done. He got up on his feet and followed Bruno to take their weapons. The strange thumping sounds from outside were getting louder. They went towards the door and Bruno took a look outside. But there was nobody.

  “What do you mean, nobody?” Steve asked. “And all this noise?”

  “Maybe they are not on our floor yet.” Bruno looked at Steve worried. “They must be a lot this time!”

  “Well, if they don't have the guns we have, let them be as many as they want,” Steve answered and checked if the pistols were loaded.

  “Oh, great. Bad-ass one-liners again.”

  They waited for about 10 minutes. They couldn't get bored of waiting. The thumping was too loud to let them relax enough and it was getting closer and louder. Bruno was checking in the door's peep hole every minute or so and that's what he did once more when he saw something.

  “Shhh... They are here,” he whispered.

  “How many?” Steve whispered back.

  Bruno's mouth was trying to move as he was trying to understand how many they were.

  “So?” Steve was getting impatient.

  “I don't know exactly. They went in Simonnot's apartment. But they are definitely more than yesterday. They could be fifteen or even more.” He turned to Steve. “Do we have enough ammo for all of them? They are too many.”

  “I suppose we do, but we must be very efficient in our shooting. We can't afford to make even one mistake. Do you get this?” He grabbed Bruno's shoulder. “Not even one mistake or we'll become like them.”

  Bruno got tired of telling Steve how ridiculous this action movie style sounded and he didn't bother this time, even if his 'yippie ki-yay' line earlier made him as guilty as Steve. “OK. Whatever. What do we do now? We wait here or we go and surprise them?”

  “Oh, that's a good idea. If we just go to Mr Simonnot's place and start shooting them, they won't be able to do anything, right? Let's go!” Steve tried to open the door, but Bruno stopped him.

  “Wait! Right now?” Bruno asked anxiously.

  “No, dear. Whenever you feel ready.”

  “You don't mean this.”

  “Clever boy! Now, get your weapons and let's go! There is no time!” Steve said and patted Bruno's shoulder trying to encourage him.

  They took the weapons and opened the door quickly. They didn't expect to see the weird-looking group in the corridor, looking for food which they didn't find in Mr Simonnot's place whose supplies they had already finished. It was a surprise for both sides who looked at each other for a moment. Bruno was sort of stunned, but Steve was almost sure that he was seeing someone familiar. He didn't take his time though. He started shooting and Bruno followed right after him. The zombies didn't prove to be very worthy opponents, since they were impressively sensitive to the bullets, something that their shooters were too busy aiming for the head to notice. As a result, the battle was more like a mass execution performed by a small and nervous firing squad and ended in less than 30 long seconds.

  After the bullets were over, there were 13 bodies on the floor, some of them still moving and moaning, but not posing any threat. Steve loaded his gun and moved slowly towards them. One specific body caught his attention and he waved to Bruno to approach.

  “Is this...?”

  “Yes, it's... It's him,” Bruno said slowly as he was growing terrified.

  “Where had I shot him exactly last night? Do you remember?”

  “Yes. Here.” Bruno showed a part of Mr Simonnot's head where only a small wound existed instead of a quite big hole that, if Mr Simonnot was between them, itwould allow Steve and Bruno to look at each other without Mr Simonnot having to move aside.

  “What kind of zombies are these?”

  “I don't think that they are zombies after all. Look.” Bruno kicked a dead body that had various holes on the chest but none on the head. No reaction. He looked at Steve who was looking at the pile of bodies trying to think of an explanation.

  “If they are not zombies, what are they? And if Mr Simonnot's wound somehow healed, does this mean that he will heal again? And he will come after us, with more zombies this time?” Steve wondered aloud without looking at Bruno. His eyes were moving all over the bodies and the blood that had splattered on the walls and the floor. He was trying to find something to help his thoughts progress, but he couldn't. Bruno interrupted him by showing him a lady.

  “Look at her. Isn't she that lady we greet every now and then?”

  “I don't recognize her. I cannot recognize anyone,” Steve answered while scanning all the bodies, trying to find a familiar face.

  “I know. I haven't bothered to know them either. But this one, I think I remember her,” Bruno said while pointing at the corpse of a woman. The woman, around 55, medium height, with short gray hair, had various wounds all over but her face was still intact. “I think that I've seen her some times. I remember her because she smiled every time she saw us, no matter what. Nice lady.”

  “Nice lady but look what you did to her!”

  “I think it was you. I was aiming for the head.”

  “So was I, clever guy.” Steve turned serious suddenly. “What do you think is going on here?”

  Bruno rubbed a bit his chin. “Well, it looks like these people are all residents of our building.”

  “Residents evil?”

  “Shut up,” Bruno said, even though he had also thought about this joke. Probably he was annoyed that he wasn't the one who said it. “It's obvious that whatever got to the first ones, got to all of them, including Mr Simonnot. This means that what they have is contagious but you need to be bitten in order to catch it.”

  “So, we were the only ones who resisted and that's why we're not zombies yet?” Steve wanted to clarify Bruno's theory in his head.

  “Exactly.”

  “And the meats in the fridge? Why did they eat them?” Steve asked.

  “Maybe they didn't find any humans. Or maybe they prefer this kind of meat and they attack humans when they don't have it. Or maybe they don't have a preference and they eat all kinds of meat,” Bruno said and looked around. It would have been hard to go back into their apartment without going ankle-deep in blood, if the corpses weren't a few meters away from th
em.

  While Bruno was expressing his thoughts, Steve was checking anxiously at the bodies to make sure that they wouldn't suffer a surprise attack. “And what if they are all like Mr Simonnot? Should we just leave them outside our door to wake up hungry?”

  “Let me think...” Bruno rubbed his chin a bit more for a few seconds. “We can go outside and see what we can find. But first we must take some extra rounds of ammo.”

  “What about the police?” Steve asked with interest.

  “We will see. If they come to arrest us, we will explain to them. If they come to eat us...” Bruno shook his gun in order to make the classic “cha-chak” sound of the moving part, but it was blocked somehow and all he managed to do was look stupid.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  They didn't take it so bad after all

  The city was in a general unrest. Even though the public transportation was still working, there were many delays. The TV and the blogs were covered with more and more unbelievable stories of people who healed out of nowhere and everyone had a story to talk about, either about themselves or about a person they knew. People with broken bones woke up and could jump and run. Amputees saw their missing limbs grow back and many of those who were like this for many years or their whole lives had big trouble adjusting and, in some cases, there was even some discomfort. Skin defects from normal pimples to burns, became smooth like new. Every eye, from the ones who had slight problems of short vision to those who were completely blind, all of them could see perfectly. No hearing problems for anyone, either. Even cancer patients, from those who didn't know they were patients to those in the last stage, were 100% healed. Every single person who had even the tiniest health problem (and this makes every single person ever), from baldness to AIDS and from nail fungus to multiple sclerosis, was in a better health state than they had ever experienced.

  Of course, such drastic and sudden changes cause huge unrest. People were running shouting “I'm healed!” and thanking their gods. Others were trying to convince everyone that the end of the world came and that the human race should expect great punishment (Those guys are always so pessimistic... Even in the happiest occasions, they try to find something to ruin the party with). Social networks and blogs were flooding with opinions about what could have possibly happened and people managed even in this hour -that something so important and, well, let's admit it, nice, happened for everyone- to fight. Not to just argue but to actually fight and curse each other in even fiercer ways than they used to. Religious people found their proof for the existence of god, atheists kept doubting it even if they were too confused and unable to come even close to a convincing conclusion and insisted that there must be a scientific explanation that waits to be found, and agnostics still kept avoiding to express an opinion with the most hardcore of them repeating “You don't know what it is, so you can't have an opinion.”

  The TV channels had many guests from all fields that could possibly relate to the matter. Doctors, physicists, astronomers, geologists, theologists, even politicians, everyone was trying to give an opinion that would help in the extraction of conclusions but in the end nobody was able to come up with an idea that could help any further inquiry. Some politicians tried to use it for their benefit but nobody took them seriously. Actually, 'common' people were too busy enjoying their new, better self, to bother about what the minister of health was trying to convince them of, by praising the health system he had created (Even though he had taken the chair no more than three months ago) (And even though he couldn't be responsible for all this, even if he had been in the office for a longer time). A few responsible citizens wondered if the immigrants were enjoying the same health benefits as themselves as well as if they would have to pay for the non-natives' improvement of health with their native taxes. Others found the conspiracy of the government who made a mistake and created chemtrails with the antidote instead of the poison they have been giving the people all these years. And many others just didn't bother to look for an explanation.

  But that was not all. There had been various reports about people who were presumed dead but they were walking. There had even been some attacks by those resurrected individuals but there was no injury since the attackers were too slow and dumb. They were unable to speak and they would just wander around trying to eat. A few of them, in groups, entered some butcher shops and super markets and started eating the meats. They were beaten and kicked out in a few cases. Some lucky ones were allowed to enjoy their feast since the boss was too happy that he could see without those thick glasses and, even if he saw what was going on, he didn't care and he would tell them to eat as much as they like, while swimming in joy.

  Some people, when they realized that even the dead were coming back, rushed to the cemeteries and unburied their relatives, only to see them with absolutely no traces of decomposition but freshly dead because of asphyxia. The most clearly-thinking ones took the dead bodies home, hoping that they would wake up again. And indeed, every single one of them came back to life but nobody was the same any more. They could not speak, they didn't seem to remember anyone and they were a bit aggressive with some of them being successful in their efforts to bite off chunks of flesh of their happy but confused relatives. Of course they were contained easily, since their teeth might be hard but their bodies weren't equally strong.

  That morning, Fiona, also surprised by the sudden restoration of her vision, was ready to leave home to go to class. Habits are habits though. So, as always, she enjoyed her morning reading while having her breakfast, without the aid of her glasses. She didn't bother to turn on the television or to check on the internet. So, she was stunned to see the strange panic of confused happiness everywhere outside. She kept walking down rue de Bruxelles where she lived and she found herself on the boulevard de Clichy which usually has a lot of traffic and especially that morning you could barely walk. She skipped deliberately the Blanche metro station, from where she was usually leaving, and kept walking while looking around. Many people were enjoying their total health restoration by stocking up on sex-shop merchandise and boulevard de Clichy has a lot of them. Fiona kept walking and looking around her as people were jumping around like fools and others joining them and they were all friends, no matter if they knew each other. It was a very nice feast and nobody had a reason not to be a part of it. Or at least, almost nobody.

  Completely off guard, and even if the bouncing people were pushing her around, she got startled by the hand that rested suddenly on her shoulder.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Time to take some action already

  “What time is it?” Steve asked.

  “Almost 5:00 a.m.”

  “Already? Dammit!”

  “What do we do now?” Bruno asked, counting on Steve's determination.

  “We go to sleep for a few hours and then we should go outside and see what we can find out,” Steve said.

  “Sleep? The zombies are still outside!” Bruno exclaimed, surprised that Steve was thinking about sleep even under such circumstances.

  “Don't worry. If I'm counting correctly, judging by the wound on Mr Simonnot's head, they will need a lot of time to heal. We can rest.” Steve was calm once again.

  “You are too confident. I like this, I give you that, but what if you make a mistake?” Bruno argued.

  “Hey, I'm a biologist. I can tell such stuff,” Steve said, raising one eyebrow and being smug once again. It was more than obvious that he was enjoying hunting, or better put, defending themselves against zombies or whatever these people were.

  “Now you speak like a real scientist,” Bruno said. His sarcasm was subtle and gentle. “But I disagree.”

  “Then stay on guard. Wake me up at 8:00. Goodnight.” Steve wasn't in the mood for more talking. He wanted to regain his sleep. It was important for him.

  Bruno's insomnia had left him though. And he trusted Steve's confidence. But, just to be sure, they loaded the guns and slept with them on the bed.

  At 8:00, they got
up straight away as soon as the alarm rang for the first time, both of them. They knew that a big day was ahead and they were torn between excitement and fear. They took the weapons and as much ammunition as they could carry in backpacks and they opened the door, after they verified that the bodies were still dead. Steve took a close look at them before leaving. “The wounds are closing,” he said. “All of them are the same. It's contagious.” He turned to Bruno. “If they bite me, kill me right away.”

  “Are you sure you are a biologist? If I kill you, you will return anyway. What's the point?” Bruno said, happy that he found so soon a chance for a comeback to Steve's scientific-ish little speech.

  “OK, don't kill me then. Let's go.”

  “Where?”

  “To the graveyard. This must be where it started.”

  They went out after carefully checking outside. It was pretty silent at rue Darwin. They walked to rue Caulaincourt, which leads to Montmartre cemetery. A few smiling people were walking up and down and they didn't even bother looking at the two heavily-armed guys, who started feeling like complete idiots.

  “Are you sure that going out with the weapons was a good idea after all?” Bruno asked, seriously puzzled.

  “We can't be sure about anything anymore. Nothing makes sense and we'd better protect ourselves and each other,” Steve said in an expression on his face whose seriousness was contrasting to the calm environment and the few smiling people walking. Yet, it was one more chance for a bad-ass line, which was successfully seized by Steve's always prepared mental reflexes.

  They kept walking down the street, until they reached the cemetery. Walking back to back, in order to eliminate the possibility of being surprised, and with the weapons in hand, they entered through the gates. Most graves were open. Many people were digging. Others were gathered around some holes. Almost all of them looked happy. Or hopeful. Otherwise, why were they smiling?