Paul Hardy - The Last Man on Earth Club

“I already had reflexes,” she said, glancing down at my bruised arm.

“So what happened?”

She pursed her lips again. She didn’t want to say. But she couldn’t help looking down at my arm once more as I looked back with utter sympathy. Perhaps it was a feeling of obligation that motivated her, or just the sense she was backed into a corner. After a moment, she began.

“We were going up the coast, the Kernow coast, right? Village after village, little ports all the way along, places they’d been smuggling for centuries so they didn’t like the look of us, didn’t like anyone in a uniform. The navy put us and the marines ashore and they were all the same: no cholera here, ma’am, we closed the gates and didn’t let it in. Balls . They let it in all right — let it in from the sea. Them and their mates in Gaul were back and forth across the Channel the whole time. They were spreading the damn cholera, not hiding from it. So we weren’t any too gentle when we found what they were hiding in the cellar. Cholera killed ’em, and then the revenation bug brought them back, and their families thought they could hide the stink with rosewater and garlic.

“So that was it, one after the other for weeks. I put down hundreds of the bastards before we even got to Tanymouth, and I didn’t get any death-shock from that. ”

“But then there was Tanymouth.”

“Yeh. The big town, the real port. Proper customs house and navy cutters in and out all the time. It was supposed to be safe , do you understand? Revenants were still crawling across the moors but Tanymouth was supposed to be keeping them out and staying clean.

“It wasn’t clean. Not one bit. They’d had the cholera, same as everyone else, probably the navy bringing it in. They’d kept it quiet and hidden all the sick ones far as they could from the harbour. Any sailors that revenned on shore got put down properly, but they weren’t letting it happen to their own. They thought we had a cure, only we were keeping it for the rich folks in the capital — typical Kernish.

“We went ashore on leave, until we saw all the things we’d seen coming down the coast. People not looking us in the eye. The odd one running off all of a sudden to warn someone. And that smell in the air, you don’t know that smell — not the revenants but the cholera. Do you know what cholera does? It makes you shit yourself trying to get rid of it, only you shit water and you end up dying of dehydration. The stink was everywhere.

“And then a couple of marines heard the moans. It’s never screaming with the revenants, they bloody moan. Like damned children can’t get what they want, only what they wanted was human flesh.

“We pulled all the marines out of the taverns and whorehouses and had the townsfolk off the streets in an hour. Men posted at every crossroads to make sure of it so we could start on the house to house. But we thought we’d give ’em a chance, so we went down to the town hall to see the mayor and corporation and ask them what was what and give ’em a chance to come clean.

“The mayor and the councillors came out into the courtyard and gave us all the nonsense: no, no cholera in the town ma’am, no revenants neither, we kept it all in the hospital. We listened to all of that and told ’em how it was going to be: we were searching every house and there was curfew until it was done. We told them to get inside and we’d search them last.

“They went in like good little mice and locked the gates behind them. And that was when it began. Just moans at first, and you couldn’t hear where they came from because they were coming from all round. It was a trap. They knew we’d find them out eventually. They weren’t giving up a single one of their dead, not while they thought we had a secret cure we weren’t giving them because they were Kernish. They used them instead. They had them in sanatoriums all round the town, just warehouses and the like, and they opened them up all at once. There were four hundred of us, Coroner Corps and marines on the streets, and two thousand revenants coming down every road from every direction — they must have been taking them in from the villages nearby as well, like as not they all had relatives in town and that’s where they ran when it started. And we had our men stationed on every street corner so they got surrounded by the bastards, and the townsfolk came out as well with whatever weapons they’d had hidden away. We must have lost a hundred men before we realised what was happening. We tried running for the harbour, but the revenants were swarming there because they’d seen all the marines and sailors on the docks. The dreadnought, Indefatigable it was called — hah! — they’d cast off and were halfway out the harbour by then. Revenants were falling off the docks trying to get to the ship, sailors on board were shooting them as they went, probably the only decent thing the navy did that day.

“So we ran for the main square. Taney Square. Anywhere we could get the space for a decent firing line and form a schiltron, not that we had the ammunition for that but what else were we going to do? The marines were splendid — straight there and forming up, getting the bastards as they trickled in but it was never going to be a trickle for long. There were only a dozen of us from the Coroner Corps in the square, all we had was pistols and not many rounds for those. We saved it for when they got close — keep the revenants off the boys with the rifles, that was the word.

“The revenants got into the square from every side. The swarm from the harbour followed us in first and then the ones from the town came in. Some of ’em had marine uniforms on. We didn’t really know how the disease worked then — they’d probably eaten infected meat and never knew it until revenants ripped them half to pieces or the locals shot them or whatever happened, and then they got up again. I saw a white coat in there as well, that was the Coroner Corps uniform, white coat, army shirt and breeches, long boots. Cap was gone but I recognised him: Lieutenant Miller. Right bastard but he didn’t deserve that. Someone had shoved a bit of glass in his neck and it was still there.

“The Marine Captain in charge told the men to wait until the revenants got to fifty yards. The bastards came on, moaning. I stood with my boys to look after ’em and do what I could. Not a one of ’em didn’t trust me to do what needed doing. Best men I ever knew. Marine Captain tells ’em to take aim. Just what’s in front, nothing else. Then fire .

“Must have been thirty, forty revenants dropped just like that. Right in the head, brains blown back on the faces of the ones behind. But they missed a lot as well. Bullets went into shoulders or necks or chests or just missed altogether and that was no good to anyone. They reloaded and second ranks came up to fire. Another thirty-odd went down. But there were thousands behind ’em and they kept coming, kept getting closer, no matter how many dropped. One got past the others on a blind spot. I put it down with my pistol once it got close enough. Revenants were all over the square, and more coming in from every street. I couldn’t see an end to the swarm behind.

“And that’s when the navy started shelling us.

“The spotters on the Indefatigable couldn’t see an end to the swarm either. So the commanders tried something else. They saw us in the square, thought we were going to fight down to the last man and decided it wasn’t worth waiting until a crowd of two thousand turned into a crowd of two thousand and a few more because we’d joined ’em.

“First shell hit a ways past the square. Finding the range. Then another one just before it. Then they had us, and revenants were flying in the air, coming down among the marines and even just bits of the damn things could be dangerous. All they needed was a head, a torso, and an arm to crawl with. Buildings getting hit as well, shrapnel flying all over, good men cut down before the revenants even got to ’em. We thought we might last hours out there before the revenants finished us but we weren’t going to last minutes with the navy joining in as well. The Marine Captain was down. Me and my marines were cut off from all the others. Shells still coming in, blowing holes in the line and bits of men and rifles falling on us.