To Be A Hero

Chapter 41: Another Brick In The Wall

"We need to talk to Abel," Steve says. "Go to channel seven on the headset, Five. It's an encrypted frequency."

I do as told, cringing at the sound of static that fills my ears.

"Colonel De Luca, ma'am, are you receiving me?"

"Hearing you, Mr. Sissay. Is Dr. Lobatse and Runner Five with you?"

"We're here," Kefilwe responds.

"Very good. Runner Five, you are the senior officer on this assignment."

Steve frowns. "Uh, no. The Ministry told me that-"

"I do not care what the Ministry told you, Mr. Sissay. You had charge of that infant. I had operational responsibilities. We both failed, and we should remember that."

"Well, I still don't know what happened. That zombie back at Battenbury could talk, but... this zombie could fight."

"None of us know what happened. I do not know how I led us outside the safety of Abel and over a roadside bomb, and Runner Five does not know how a zombie doppelgänger of herself was created."

"Not a doppelgänger," I correct. "I have actual doppelgängers. That zombie isn't one of them."

"Yes, well, some of the answers may be inside that building. Runners, begin by making a full circle of the perimeter of that school and tell me what you observe."

"Well, first, it smells like gas," Steve says.

"Circle the perimeter now! That's an order."

Steve frowns. "Yes, ma'am."

We head around the building, as told. There are zombies around, a lot of them, mostly inside the building, those outside trapped by the playground fencing. They're all snarling, groaning. I don't know if they can smell us, but I know they can't see us from where we are. There are trees around to shield us.

But still, the sounds are... unnerving. It's hard to think Sam might make those sounds soon enough. It's hard think about anything bad happening to Sam though. It just... hurts.

I'd rather think of myself hurt. I mean, I get injured often enough that it's not hard to imagine, like at all. I imagine my death so often it almost feels like a memory. Every time I leave Abel, there's a chance I may not come back.

But I have to come back. I have to bring back whatever I find, for Sam. He's right. We need to find out what's going on, why the baby was taken, why someone had a zombie lookalike of me created.

I remember looking into its eyes... It was me. That's what I'll look like if I die from being bitten by a zombie... I only got a few glimpses of it. My focus was on Sam most of the time, but it was disturbing, seeing myself dead like that.

Funny, considering I tried to kill myself just yesterday.

The zombies are louder now. Maybe they can smell us, maybe more of them have rallied up behind the fences, trapping themselves in the playground. I'm not sure. But I know I don't have enough bullets in my gun to take them out.

"God, I hate that bloody noise," Steve grumbles. "It's like they know it's supper time."

"Yes," Kefilwe says. "Were you ever in the Sudan? There's a kind of heron there-"

"The calling heron? Yeah. They do sound a bit like that. I'd forgot you'd been in the Sudan."

"I was at the Battle of Khartoum."

His eyebrows rise in surprise. "Were you? You never said that. Don't like to think of you in the middle of a snafu like that."

"I did not do so much. Killed two or three of the soldiers who were attacking the children. Mostly, I tended to the wounded."