WalkerZ - A Zombie Apocalypse Story

Chapter 4 - Wave at Stan

"Control, this is Scout 2, do you read me?"

"Merryn! Where the hell have you been? You scared me to death! Gone for days with no news. We've been worried sick. I've been worried sick." There was a pause. "It's good to hear your voice."

"It's good to hear yours too, Mal. Listen, it's going to take a few days for me to get back. And I need to make sure it's safe for you and the others at the base."

"Need to make sure what's safe?"

"I got bitten, Mal."

"Oh hell. But hang on a moment. When?"

"A couple of days ago, when I went in to rescue Hope. But she ended up saving me."

"Hope? Okay, hold it there please. I need to get the Captain."

Merryn sat in silence and looked over at Hope who was eating her way through a tin of pineapple chunks. A zombie staggered past them in the old canteen, and Merryn absentmindedly pushed it away. Hope smiled at her and carried on stuffing her face.

"Scout 2, this is Captain Summers, it's good to hear your voice."

"Thank you sir."

"Sounds like you've had an interesting time of things."

"Er, yes sir. You could say that. I found the young woman you mentioned on the drone footage. She's called Hope. She was bitten, but survived. She'd escaped from a group of men, one of the local gangs, and managed to get into the compound here. Some of the men had died trying to get to her, but others retreated.

"When I got here she'd been living off food in the canteen here. It was as you said sir, the place is pretty much untouched. As I was planning to leave we were attacked by a group of men who came in quietly and were taking out the walkers with crossbows."

She patted the stock of the weapon she'd liberated from one of the dead men and continued. "We stopped them, but I got bitten as we were making our way out. Hope promised not to let me become one of them, but when I passed out after the bite, instead of sticking a bullet in me like she promised she would..." Hope paused in her chewing and stuck out her tongue at Merryn who ignored her and carried on, "...she bit me instead and I woke up staring down the barrel of a gun."

Merryn paused, the memory of waking up after the bite still raw, the insecurity of her current state still gnawing at her.

"So what now Merryn?" asked the Captain softly. "Mal mentioned you were going to take a few days to get back to us."

"Yes, sir. We're going to try sailing up the coast, and that will give me a bit of time to come to terms with this, but also to make sure I'm not contagious to you, or the others at the base. But there's something else sir."

"Yes?"

"Hope and I have been looking around and there's a lot of gear here. We've covered a fair bit of ground, something we can do more easily now the walkers aren't interested in sucking our brains out through our ears anymore. I've got things itemised and catalogued as best I can and will give you a list when we get back. There's a few places we haven't been able to get into and they'll require specialist equipment to get them open, but other than that, there's a lot of good kit here we could make use of."

"Ok, Merryn, that's fine. Thank you for spending some time cataloging what's there, it's appreciated and I look forward to seeing your report."

"Yes sir, but there's something else."

"Yes, Merryn?"

"When we come back, I need to know we'll be treated like humans, not like lab rats. I expect to be questioned, given a medical and have blood samples taken and all that stuff, but if the doctors are intending to stick me in a cell and dissect me then I reckon Hope and I will stay here."