Iain McKinnon - Remains of the Dead

Cahz looked round from his rummaging. Elspeth was sitting with tears streaming down her cheeks. Her short salt and pepper hair combined with the deep wrinkles from her weeping made her look like a pensioner. Cahz guessed she was actually younger than that from the way she talked and the way she had run the gauntlet of zombies.

He gazed at her blankly, trying to decide what to do. He could go across there, sit down next to her, and put a comforting arm round her. But what would be the point of that? Cahz didn’t know her, had only just met her and there was no point investing time in getting to know her as she’d be dead in a few hours.

He might as well go over there and put a bullet in her brain-wouldn’t that be the kindest thing to do?

As prudent as it was, Cahz knew he shouldn’t dispatch her. Elspeth was a longstanding companion of Ryan’s and he’d no doubt want to say his goodbyes.

He sucked in a brisk draft of air through his teeth. He turned back to the first crate and retrieved the dressing.

“Let me have a look at that,” he said as he walked over.

“I’m sorry,” Elspeth sobbed.

Cahz pulled back the blood soaked collar. The bite mark beneath was black. The contagion’s spread was marked against her pale skin by the tendrils of dark veins. He unpeeled the dressing from its packaging and gently placed it over the wound. The stark white plaster showed the contrast of the greying dead skin and infected deep blue blood vessels.

“Nothing to apologise about, lady,” Cahz said, staring down at his boots. “Whole world’s shit and there’s no rhyme or reason to it.”

“I was supposed to look after her.” Elspeth looked down at the baby. The child’s face was still raw looking with a thick red welt.

“You did your best. Sometimes that just isn’t enough.” Cahz paused a long moment. “I was about to try and empathize with you, lady-tell you about the people I let down. But it’s not the same.”

Elspeth glanced down at her blood stained blouse. “No, it’s not. You’ve not been infected.”

Cahz straightened at the comment. He felt the tainted mucus in his mouth rise. He shook his head. “There’s nothing anybody can do for the infected.”

“There is one thing,” Elspeth butted in, looking down at his side arm.

Cahz saw where Elspeth was going with this train of thought.

“How do you want to play it?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I just know I don’t want to be a nuisance. I don’t want to come back and… well, you know.”

Cahz did know.

“When?” he asked solemnly.

Elspeth took a deep swallow. “Not right now, if that’s what you mean.”

She gently stroked the baby’s uninjured cheek. The small child pursed its lips and made a sucking motion in its sleep. “She’s gorgeous, isn’t she?”

“She sure is.”

Cahz meant it. Even with the nasty scratch covering one side of her infant face, her wide eyes and pug nose were still cute. He felt a cold shudder run down his spine at the thought of having to shoot such an angelic face.

He picked himself up and made his way back over to the supplies.

“Best sort through this stuff,” he said, trying to distance himself from the child and the appalling notion.

“Find anything useful, boss?” Cannon asked, looking at the heap of crates.

“Nothing much. The most important things are these.” Cahz stood up and ushered Cannon over. “There are six of these five gallon water bottles,” Cahz said as he gently kicked the first container with his toe. The water inside sloshed against the clear walls.

“Will they be safe to drink?” Cannon asked.

“Should be fine,” Ryan said. “Water doesn’t go off so as long as the lids are on tight. There might be a bit of a taint off the plastic but it won’t kill you.”

“You know that for sure?” Cannon asked.

Ryan thumped his chest. “Never done me any harm.”

“If you’re worried we can drop a couple of purification tablets in,” Cahz said.

“We got some?”

“Over here. There’s a ton of camping equipment.” Cahz looked over at Ryan. “You and your pals obviously didn’t need it.”

Ryan peered into the open crate. “We had as much of this shit as we needed. It was mainly food and weapons we took, when we could find them.”

“Any medical supplies boss?” Cannon asked.

“Yeah, boxes of the stuff,” Cahz replied. “Why, you needing something?”

“Got some gloves and some disinfectant?”

“You carrying an injury?” Ryan asked, suspicious of the big soldier.

“Nope. I just want to get the crud off my kit.” Cannon looked down at the gore soaked body armour and the smudges of gunk on his uniform. “I don’t want to wipe my nose and get the infection off this shit.”

“Here.” Cahz tossed two tissue box sized containers over in rapid succession.

Cannon caught the first box with ease but fumbled slightly to keep hold of the second. When he finally had both under control he read the packaging.

“One hundred vinyl gloves.” Cannon turned the second box round. “And alcohol wipes.”

“Closest thing to a disinfectant I’ve found,” Cahz said.

Cannon sat down on the edge of a crate and started opening the boxes.

“I suggest we all take the time to clean ourselves up,” Cahz said looking round at everyone. He saw Elspeth lying on a camp bed oblivious to the conversation, cradling the infected child. In reality he knew he was only addressing Ryan. It was too late for them.

“So there’s no chow?” Cannon said as he scraped at his body armour with what looked like a moist towelette left over from an in-flight meal. The wad of tissue was becoming more and more discoloured with every pass. Streaks of black, brown, red and even green began accumulating on the white cloth as Cannon went about cleaning.

“Don’t know how you can think of food right now,” Cahz confessed.

“Just taking stock. Need to know our assets and liabilities.” Cannon kept working at the sodden fabric as he spoke.

“We do have dinner, courtesy of Bates.” Cahz held up the webbing Bates had passed him. “But it’s early for lunch just yet.” He placed the pouches down with the rest of the useful material scavenged.

“Fantastic,” Ryan said, eyeing up the pack.

“And I think we should be saving that,” Cahz added.

“Saving it?” Ryan asked. “What for? I mean, your man’s coming back in a few hours and I’m fucking starving.”

Cahz sat down on a crate. “He is, but it’ll be a while.”

“Well, how long?”

Looking down at his watch, Cahz went through some mental arithmetic. “If all goes well I’d expect to see him sometime after seventeen hundred hours.”

“And if it don’t go well?” Cannon said slowly.

“Worst case scenario, old Captain Warden won’t let him fly without six hours shuteye,” Cahz answered.

“That’s a full day then,” Ryan said.

“We’ve got a secure location and enough water. We’ve got one MRE and they’re quite generous so even split between four that ought to keep your belly quiet.” Cahz levelled his last comment at Ryan.

“Come on, I’ve not eaten a proper meal in…” Ryan paused. “Well, for fucking years.”

“You’ll be right at home with the MRE then. It ain’t a proper meal,” Cannon quipped.

“You’re lucid and mobile. I don’t doubt you’re hungry, but the longer we save the food the better,” Cahz said.

“Why if we’re getting picked up in a while can I not have some now?”

“No, we’ll wait and eat it tonight. That will give us the energy we need when we need it. For now just sit tight and wait.”

“You forgettin’ something, boss?” Cannon looked over at Elspeth.