Mark Morris - Dead Island

‘OK,’ he agreed.

‘Good.’ She released his face and stood up, stretching herself to her full height. She turned her head towards the door, graceful as a gazelle. ‘Wonder if our friend’s still out there.’

‘You’re not going to look, are you?’

She shrugged. ‘How else are we going to find out?’

‘But—’ Logan began, and at that moment his cell phone rang.

It wasn’t only his phone that rang, though, but Purna’s too. They came alive at precisely the same instant, Logan’s blasting out the old Survivor hit, ‘Eye Of The Tiger’, Purna’s simply giving a no-nonsense double-buzz every couple of seconds. Purna raised her eyebrows curiously at Logan and slid her sleek black phone from her jeans pocket. ‘Unknown number,’ she muttered, and raised the phone to her ear just as Logan was doing the same. ‘Hello?’

The line crackled, full of static, then a clipped, precise voice said briskly, ‘Don’t talk, just listen. I have a certain amount of information to relay, and at this juncture I simply don’t have time to answer questions. This call is going out to four separate numbers, and I see from the information I have here that all four of you have answered. This is good, very good. However, due to circumstances beyond my control, our lines of communication are limited. In fact, this signal could die at any moment — so please, all of you, listen very carefully …’

As if to illustrate the caller’s point, his voice was suddenly overwhelmed by a burst of white noise. Purna and Logan both flinched and held their phones away from their ears. After a few seconds the white noise settled back into a more bearable fuzz of static, out of which rose the caller’s voice, like the auditory equivalent of a ship looming from thick fog.

‘First of all, Mr Carter, could you tell me how you are?’

Logan looked shocked. Purna stared at him in wide-eyed puzzlement.

‘Er … fine,’ Logan muttered, ‘but how did you—’

‘Please be more precise, Mr Carter,’ the voice cut in. ‘What are your symptoms?’

Logan scowled. ‘I was attacked, OK? I have bites. They hurt.’

‘But you have had no seizures? No wild impulses? You are not suffering from lockjaw?’

‘Would I be able to talk if I was?’ Logan snapped. Then he sighed. ‘No … none of those things.’

‘Excellent!’ said the voice. ‘And you, Miss Mei? How are your symptoms?’

A voice came over the line — young, female, hesitant. ‘I’m fine too. My hand aches and I felt a little dizzy earlier, but I’m better now.’

‘Splendid!’ said the voice. ‘Oh, that is truly splendid!’

‘Can’t say how glad I am that you’re stoked—’ Logan began drily, but the voice cut him off.

‘Please, no talking unless I ask you a direct question. Now listen very carefully. There isn’t much time.’

There was a pause, as if the caller was taking a deep breath, and then he said, ‘There has been … an outbreak on the island—’

Instantly, despite his instructions, a voice cut in that both Logan and Purna recognized. ‘What kind of outbreak?’ asked Sam B.

‘Please,’ said the voice, sounding pained. ‘I understand your desire to ask questions but try to resist, all of you. I’ll endeavour to explain the situation as best I can, but before I do, I must warn you that what I’m about to say will almost certainly sound unbelievable. But you must believe me when I tell you your lives will depend on how you respond to my instructions. You must trust me completely and do everything I tell you. I really cannot stress that point strongly enough.’

Once again the voice paused briefly, as if allowing his words to sink in. Then he continued, ‘Now, as I was saying, there has been an outbreak on the island. A constantly mutating form of a particularly aggressive virus is cutting a swathe through Banoi’s population. The first victim was identified in the downtown area of Moresby city just under six hours ago. It was initially hoped that the virus could be isolated and restricted to a small area, but unfortunately this has not been possible. Since the victim first exhibited symptoms of the virus, it has spread at an alarming rate throughout the city and beyond. The current estimate is that the virus has affected around eighty thousand people — over sixty per cent of the population — though numbers are rising so fast that frankly we’re finding it difficult to keep up.’

His words were met with a collective gasp and a babble of questions. ‘Please,’ the caller shouted, and then had to shout twice more before a modicum of order was restored.

‘I realize how shocking this information is,’ he said, ‘and how anxious you all must be. However the reason I am speaking to you now is not to alarm you, but to equip you with the facts you will need in order to negotiate the hazards ahead. Our ultimate aim is to get you off the island, but to do that I’m afraid you must come to us. Already the exceedingly virulent nature of the pandemic has resulted in the instigation of extreme emergency procedures, as a result of which Banoi has been declared a no-go zone for outside agencies.’

There was a renewed crackle of static and both Purna and Logan held their breaths, fearful they were about to lose contact with what might prove to be not merely their only source of information, but a possible means of escape from the island. Then the static died and the voice came through again.

‘… furnish you with full and frank information as to the nature of the virus itself,’ it said. ‘I know that three of you have already had isolated encounters with infected individuals, and so are aware that symptoms of the virus include extreme psychosis, manifesting in a constant and intense desire to devour the flesh of the uninfected. What you possibly don’t realize, however — and I’m aware that this information may prove particularly … ah, indigestible — is that the virus acts by first killing the host body and then by reanimating the dead flesh. In effect, therefore, it is a parasitical—’

‘Zombies!’ cried Logan, his manner almost triumphant. ‘You see! I was right!’

‘Zombies my ass,’ rumbled Sam B. ‘This is bullshit.’

‘Please, ladies and gentlemen,’ appealed the voice once more. ‘Zombies is such an … an emotive word. Not to say …’

‘Cheesy?’ suggested Purna.

‘I was about to say “inaccurate”,’ said the voice.

‘So what would you call them?’ Sam asked.

‘We prefer to think of them as the “reanimated dead”.’

‘Same difference,’ said Logan.

‘He’s right,’ said Purna. ‘It’s just a question of semantics.’

‘Yeah, what she said,’ muttered Sam.

‘Please be quiet, everyone,’ Xian Mei piped up suddenly. ‘I want to hear what the man says.’

‘Thank you, Miss Mei,’ said the caller. ‘Now, in order to make it safely off the island you will need to head inland. To prevent the spread of infection, the airport has been locked down and the main harbour is being patrolled by offshore gunboats. Those trying to escape by sea are being ordered to turn back. Any vessels that don’t comply are simply blown out of the water. All conventional exit routes have therefore been closed off while the authorities try to come up with a solution to the problem.’

‘That’s barbaric,’ said Purna.

‘It’s necessary,’ replied the caller. ‘Would you rather this became a worldwide pandemic?’

‘Of course not. But what about the forty per cent of people on the island who aren’t affected?’

‘That number is dropping all the time — and rapidly.’

‘It’s still a lot of people. So what are they? Collateral damage?’