Shaun Harbinger - Survival - Revenge of the Living Dead

“Yeah, I read about them somewhere,” Sam said. “The government chooses a cross-section of society and tells them about the bunker. Then, when the shit hits the fan, those people go there and become the future of the human race or something. The survivors of whatever tragedy takes place. I’m pretty sure a lot of politicians get to go there too, so the future of the human race doesn’t seem so great after all.”

“Imagine being locked away from all this tragedy, though,” Lucy said. This was the most animated I’d seen her in a long time. “Imagine knowing you were safe from all this crap.”

“Booooring,” Sam said.

“At least you wouldn’t wake up every day wondering if it was your last,” she told him.

“Dude, any of us could die on any given day and not just because there are zombies in the world. You could have a heart attack, get cancer, or fall off a cliff. Every day could be your last no matter where you are.”

She looked out of the window at the aircraft hangars and ignored him.

That put a dampener on the conversation and we again fell into silence. When Hart appeared five minutes later, he was a welcome relief from the tension that had descended over the table.

“Bad news, I’m afraid,” he said. “Marilyn got in contact with Bunker 53 and they won’t let Dr Ives come here.”

“So what do we do now?” I asked.

Marilyn is worried about letting Vess’s body off this island but she’s had to concede that Ives may be able to do something important if she has access to it. As you said, Alex, Locke did specify her and he must have done so for a reason. So we’re taking the body to Bunker 53.”

“We?” I asked.

“I’ve been told to put a team together. We’ll be carrying out this operation under the strictest safety measures. Any of you are welcome to join the team.”

We all nodded. Sitting around in a government cafeteria wasn’t really our style. even Lucy seemed eager to go, although I wondered if that was more to do with her desire to see what Bunker 53 was like than to deliver Patient Zero’s body to Dr Ives.

“We’ll meet in the lecture hall in half an hour and go over the plan,” Hart said. “Here are your replacement badges so you can get through the doors. Just follow the signs to the hall and I’ll see you there.”

He placed four laminated cards onto the table. They were identical to our old ones with our names, photos—they’d used the same photos they’d taken last time—and the Ministry of Defence symbol, a crowned wreath encircling crossed swords, a bird, and an anchor.

“Are these bugged too?” I asked.

“Of course,” he said. “All of our badges have locator chips. Don’t complain, Alex. If not for us picking up your location, you’d still be stuck on that roof in Frinton.”

He had a point. I attached my badge to my T-shirt.

“Do we get weapons too?” Sam asked.

Hart grinned. “Of course. After the operational briefing, we’ll get our gear together and head out.”

Sam nodded. “Excellent.”

“See you in thirty,” Hart said before leaving the cafeteria.

“Working for the government again,” I said as the others pinned on their badges. “This wasn’t how I saw my future when I was at college.”

“Don’t worry about it, man,” Sam said. “This is only a temporary gig, just like before. If we play our cards right, we can get some sweet weapons and some more ammo.”

“I wonder what they’re going to call this operation,” Tanya wondered aloud.

“How about Operation Wake the Dead?” I asked.

She hit my arm again. “Don’t even joke about that, Alex.”

“Okay,” I said, rubbing the sore spot where she’d punched me. I may have meant it as a joke but that joke hid a fearful truth. I was worried about what might happen if Vess woke up while we were transporting him to the bunker.

Marilyn MacDonald was right; Vess must never be allowed out into the world. If he woke up and we failed to stop him, anything he did, anyone he killed, would be on us.

Not that we’d be alive to know about it.

The name of the operation was Operation Charon. It was written on a whiteboard that had been set up in front of the stage in the auditorium. Next to the whiteboard was a large flat screen.

The name of the operation made sense. Charon was a figure in Greek mythology who ferried souls from the land of the living to the land of the dead. That was what we’d be doing; ferrying a dead soul.

I just hoped he stayed dead.

Hart stood by the board, along with a white-coated woman who introduced herself as Dr Lake. As a medical doctor, she was the closest Site Bravo One had to a scientist so she’d been given the task of reading the papers from the footlocker.

Three members of Hart’s security team sat on the front row of seats. Hart introduced them as Josh Hamilton, Caroline Waters, and Andy Fletcher. They were all dressed in blue T-shirts and black cargo pants like Hart and—also like Hart—they were in good shape and looked like they meant business.

“Operation Charon,” Hart said, pointing to the title on the board. “A simple transportation of cargo from this island to Bunker 53. The only difference is between this and any other run of the mill transportation operation is that this cargo might wake up en route.”

In any other situation, that might have got a laugh from the audience. But this was sombre business and everyone was silent.

“We take the cargo via Chinook helicopter to this area.” A map appeared on the screen that showed the coast of Western Cornwall. “Here,” Hart said, pointing at a spot a few miles inland from Land’s End, “is where Bunker 53 is located. Takes one hour to get there from here. Once we arrive at the bunker, we drop off the body to a Dr Sarah Ives. Then we leave and return to base. Any questions?”

Caroline Waters spoke up. “What are the safety measures in place to ensure our survival if the cargo wakes up, sir?”

“Good question,” Hart said. “Vess’s body is inside a metal crate. We are going to place the crate inside a small metal cage. If Vess wakes up and gets out of the crate, he’ll still have the cage to deal with. I’m not saying the cage will hold him but it should give us enough time to kill him.”

“Kill him?” Josh Hamilton asked. “If we’re going to kill him, then why not just do it now and save ourselves the bother of transporting him to the bunker, sir?”

“Killing Vess is a last resort,” Hart said. “The blood and tissues of his body are unique. They might even hold the key to defeating this bloody virus someday. The ideal situation is that Vess ends up on an operating table surrounded by scientists who can study him and come up with something that will put an end to this situation the world finds itself in. We’ve fashioned vaccines before and they worked with varying degrees of effectiveness, but with access to Patient Zero, the scientists could come up with something really life-changing.”

“Understood, sir,” Hamilton said.

“Listen, we’re not taking any chances,” Hart said. “We’ll have guns trained on the crate for the entire flight. If anything goes wrong we shoot to kill. Those are MacDonald’s orders. We cannot let Vess escape into the world under any circumstances. Does everyone understand that?”

We all nodded.

“Before we leave, Dr Lake has a few words. Maybe this will impress upon you how important that body is.”

“Thanks, Ian,” Dr Lake said. She addressed the room. “I’ve been studying the papers that came from Camp Victor. It seems that Brigadier James Gordon—the man in charge of the camp—has been doing some experiments of his own. Well, his scientists have, anyway. But instead of using Vess’s blood and tissue to formulate a vaccine or antidote, they’ve used it to develop a bomb.”