Shaun Harbinger - Lightning - Fighting the Living Dead

An air of solemnity descended over the room. Even Sam was quiet.

I hadn’t known Johnny for long, but his voice on the radio had lifted my spirits many times. Some of my best memories were of dancing to some tune or other that Johnny was playing. His rich voice, floating over the airwaves like silk, had been calm and comforting at a time when everyday living was full of stress. With the passing of Johnny Drake, we had lost a man who had done more good for the survivors of the apocalypse than anyone, simply by being there when we needed to hear a familiar voice or lose ourselves to music.

I closed my eyes and leaned against the radiator, letting the heat seep into my damp clothes and hair.

While Jax and Doctor Colbert brought Tanya up to date with exactly what had happened inside the building, I checked the time on my watch and put it into countdown mode, beginning at twenty-three hours. I wasn’t sure why I did it except that I wanted to know when my final seconds were approaching.

Sam came over and sat next to me. “Hey, Alex, don’t hog all the heat, man.”

I gave him a flat smile but said nothing. We’d had some disagreements since coming here, and I felt uneasy when he was around me. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing and be on the receiving end of another gut punch.

As if reading my mind, he said, “How’s your stomach?”

“I’ll live,” I said. The truth was, my stomach muscles were still sore where he had hit me.

“I’m sorry about that,” Sam said.

I raised an eyebrow. “You’re sorry that I’ll live?”

He grinned, and I saw the old Sam return. “Nah, I’m sorry I hit you, man.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Then I decided to risk another punch and said, “We’re all pissed off with this virus situation but you seemed more pissed off than anyone. What’s got you so mad?”

“I can’t stand having my freedom taken away from me, man. Before the shit hit the fan, when I was working as a cameraman with Vigo in the jungle, or in the desert, I felt so free. Like I didn’t have to answer to anyone, you know? My old man used to work for a big corporation, and his whole life revolved around his job. He was the original corporate yes man, and the company came before anything, even his wife and his sons.”

“Sons,” I said. “You have a brother?”

He nodded. “I have two. One of them, my older brother, is in the army, stationed in the Middle East, so he’s probably safe.” He laughed. “That shows how bad things are here when being in a warzone in the Middle East is safer than being in Britain. My younger brother is a corporate man just like dear old dad. He works in New York and he probably treats his family just as badly as our dad treated us.

“I hate all that bullshit, man. I’ve never gone down the route of a nine to five job. And I couldn’t join the army like my older brother either; I’m not good at taking orders. So I’ve been working freelance all my life. I probably made less money that way but at least I was my own boss and I didn’t have to clock in. Being forced to work for the authorities doesn’t sit well with me, man.”

“This will soon be over one way or another,” I reminded him.

“Yeah, we know how this is going to end, Alex. If we had stayed away from that island, we’d be on the waves right now, as free as birds.”

“We would,” I said, “but Lucy wouldn’t.”

“No, she wouldn’t.” He looked down at the floor and sadness passed over his face. “It’s good that you’re fighting for her. I don’t really blame you for everything that’s happened since we went to the island, Alex. I don’t blame you for anything.”

His words might have sounded better if they hadn’t been delivered in the grim tone of someone who was trying to set the record straight before they died. Was this how we were going to spend our last hours, gong over the things we were sorry for? I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t going to sit here in this small, hot building and wait to die.

I turned to Sam and said, “Thanks, man,” using his standard term of address as I had once done with Mike.

I got up and went over to the monitors, glancing at the images on them. One of the monitors showed a corridor that was in complete darkness. “Where’s this?” I asked Tanya.

“Johnny and I found it,” she said, coming over and taking a seat next to me. “We were going to show you when you got back, but then… things happened… and I forgot about it. This is a corridor on level two. Remember how all the lights are off on that level? There’s only one main room on that level. This camera is in that room. See those shapes in there?”

I studied the blackness on the monitor. There were bulky square-shaped objects lined up in the room.

“What are they?” Jax asked, leaning in closer.

“They’re computer servers,” Tanya said. “That room houses the servers that run the computer network.” She pointed to one of the maps on the desk. “This room here is the server room, and this is the corridor that leads to it.” She pointed to another, smaller room on the map. “This is the level 2 maintenance room. It contains the fuse box that runs the electricity on level 2. Johnny thought that one of the fuses must have blown, plunging the entire floor into darkness.”

“And cutting power to the servers,” I said.

She nodded.

“I turned to Colbert. “You said that your emails and video calls stopped suddenly, so you couldn’t contact Alpha One.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“And those videos you showed us on Vess’s computer were stored on his hard drive.”

“Yes.”

I looked at Tanya. I was sure we were both thinking the same thing. The servers going down had cut all network connections to the outside world. If we restored power to the servers, we might be able to contact Alpha One.

“Do you think it’s worth the risk?” I asked her.

She knew exactly what I meant. “Turning those servers back on is probably our only hope of getting Hart’s men out here before time runs out.”

I brought up other areas of level 2 on the other monitors. The main corridor by the elevator was packed with zombies, visible as shambling shadows in the darkness. I now knew that because the main corridors were accessible from the main stairs by swing doors, the zombies tended to gather in these areas.

“We can get to the servers and the maintenance room via the emergency stairs, and avoid those zombies by the elevators,” I said.

“Count me in.” Sam got to his feet, his earlier grim mood seemingly gone. “I’ve always been a sucker for a life or death situation.”

“I’ll go too,” Tanya said. “I’m tired of sitting here not being able to do anything.”

I said to Jax, “Could you and Doctor Colbert watch the monitors and help us?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

Before we went across the parking lot to the main building, we emptied our backpacks of rations and water, putting those items into the back of the camper van. We also put all of the H1NZ1 into one pack and loaded that into the vehicle. There was no point taking the precious chemical back into the building with us. If we didn’t come back out of there, Jax and Doctor Colbert would be back at square one with no chemical.

This way, if we managed to get the servers online but didn’t get out alive, Alpha One could be contacted and Jax and the doctor could take the H1NZ1 to the island to save themselves and Lucy.

Tanya and Sam shared the remaining MP5 rounds between themselves so that each rifle was loaded. I took a freshly charged walkie-talkie from the charger in the guard station. I felt like I was in a montage from an eighties TV show where the good guys are getting ready to face the bad guys and prepare themselves while the soundtrack plays a synth-laden piece of inspiring music.