The Colony Read online

  As Bevan drove his hands began to shake, the adrenaline that helped him focus in the crisis was doing other things to him now. Bevan became a cop to help people. He knew that at some time in his career he may end up killing someone, but he also knew that it was very unlikely. He never thought it would be his partner.

  When he approached the bridge, he approached a scene of chaos.

  People were running across the bridge, avoiding cars, who in turn avoided the people. The crazies were attacking anything they could get to. Terrified people were running into traffic, and some even jumped off the bridge into the water twenty meters below. More people were on the adjacent bicycle bridge and there were even some on the railway bridge.

  As Bevan approached, the crazies broke off their attacks and ran towards the sound of the siren. Two ran into the traffic to get to Bevan and were run down by a Prime Mover. The driver stopped next to Bevan's car.

  “Keep going! Take off! Go!” Bevan screamed at him. The driver started going through the gears. A crazy who had dived at the rear of the truck was crushed by four wheels.

  The distraction had been enough for most of the people on the bridge to get away, but a pair of teenagers had managed to get to the left-hand side of his police car and were banging to be let in. Momentarily, he unlocked the doors and they climbed in. Bevan sped off to the sound of sobbing from the rear seats. As a policeman, he'd heard lots of sobbing in the back of his car, but this time, he had no idea what to say.

  Three minutes later, he entered the secure garage of the police station.

  - 21 -

  For the next four hours, Bevan, a security analyst and the Assistant Commissioner watched and re-watched the video from when Bevan and Louise arrived on location until he returned to his vehicle. They also watched the incident on the bridge.

  Elsewhere in the station, the teenagers were being questioned about what they saw in the theatre.

  “It appears that this plague entered Louise through the wound on the side of her neck. She was trying to kill you within fifteen seconds of the bite”, observed the analyst after the first view. “She tried to get her gun unclipped but gave up or was unable to do it. You did the right thing to shoot her Bevan.”

  Bevan acknowledged the comment with a nod.

  “I agree”, commented the Assistant Commissioner. “Replay the vision from Louise's camera”, he ordered.

  Louise's camera caught background action that Bevan had not observed. A crazy attacked a bystander but someone separated them before much damage had been done. It was obvious that the attacker had bitten the victim, but they were seen going into a house as Bevan drove off.

  “Get a car back there to that house and see how that man is. While they're there, get the memory card from Louise's camera. It may have some vision from after the car left.” The Analyst left the room to relay the message.

  The Assistant Commissioner spoke to Bevan, “You should be dead Bevan. That crazy bastard tried to kill you and then Louise nearly finished you off. Once this is all over, there will be an enquiry, but you'll be all right.”

  “Boss, Louise was only married four months ago”, said Bevan.

  “Yep I know, I know, but it's over for her. I wonder if they’d bitten her on the front of her neck? I think she would have died instantly, we’re seeing a fair bit of that. We need to do something about recovering her body, but we have more urgent tasks to do first. I should be standing you down and getting you counselling, but we don't have time for that either.”

  “I don’t think they’re crazy, I think this is some sort of plague, they’re plague victims, not criminals but they’re killing”, commented the Assistant Commissioner.

  “We'll be putting all staff on duty and the Prime Minister is calling the Military out for assistance. But right now, we need information. Why did Louise try to kill you and what happened to that man we saw on Louise’s feed that was being helped by his wife into the house? A gender thing, does it affect men and women differently? Can't be, the other one you shot was a man and he was a crazy. For some reason, one person went on the attack and the other didn't.”

  The analyst returned to the room, “Ok let's watch it again, I wonder if it’s got to do with the severity of the bite.”

  - 22 -

  Bevan and the Associate Commissioner finished up at about the same time that Matthew and Ethan entered Oxley Creek. The body count was six since Ethan had awoken. They had expected to see more, but Ethan was thinking that a specific event had put the bodies in the water. The last body they saw was in the reeds near the Indooroopilly Bridge. By midday, they had reached the closest point to their home.

  For Matthew, the last hour of the trip was the hardest since leaving Juan. The water was no longer tidal and they were just too damn close to the shore. Occasionally they heard shouts and a few cars but generally, it was like a very quiet Sunday. “More like Christmas day”, Ethan commented more than once.

  “It doesn't seem right to leave Juan's boats here”, commented Ethan as they started the last five kilometres of their trek.

  “No, you're right. I think we might get them on the way out tonight. Bring the paddles, they could also be used as a weapon.” On the shore, they had occasionally seen crazies but none had bothered them, Matthew assumed it had something to do with the waterway but now they were in much more danger and the paddles might be their only weapons if attacked.

  They walked along the streets at first, and then along the edge of the railway tracks. As Matthew hoped, they didn't see anyone until they came to Boundary Road bridge. From the top of the railway bridge, they saw rioting a kilometre or so away, besides that, they saw no-one. Not long after they left the railway and arrived outside their home nine hours after leaving Juan.

  Ethan retrieved the spare key from the hiding place under the BBQ gas bottle while his father kept guard and they were safe inside their own home.

  - 23 -

  The house had been locked up for a day and a half and the cats were unhappy.

  “Let 'em out mate, they should be okay. We'll be here until after dark and they're going to be caged for the trip.”

  “First thing to do, find your phone and make sure it's charged, thank God you left it at home, you must be the only kid in the world who goes out without their mobile phone.”

  As he walked off to get it his father continued, “Mine is lost for good. I need to make some calls on the landline.”

  “Valerie, Hi Baby, we made it. We're at home. Yes, about seven I think. Yes, yes, we'll get Florence too. Is everyone up there? What next door? And the camp site? Wow!”

  “Hey, listen, I have another call to make. Bye, bye. Yes, Ethan is charging his phone and I'll definitely ring before we leave.”

  The next call was a little easier, “Juan? Yes, it's Matthew. We've made it to our home and I've spoken to Valerie.”

  “Ha, she didn't tell me that... Where are you my friend? We'll ring you to check in when we arrive. Thanks again, Juan, for everything. Goodbye.”

  “Ethan, Juan's heading to Lord Howell Island. The Plague is now on New Caledonia but he's hoping Lord Howell is clear. He's also spoken to your mother three times. They seem to be old friends.”

  - 24 -

  At the end of their first day at the zoo, Kevin and Linda went to the restaurant for an early dinner.

  After dinner, they had a romantic walk through the zoo. It was very quiet and they could hear the animals in the darkness. The Hyenas cackled at the moon and came close to the fence, scratching their backsides on the wire.

  Kevin and Linda made their way back to their room arriving back by 9:00 pm.

  “It's too early for sleep”, Kevin said to his wife. He was thinking about putting on the ABC news.

  “But not too early for bed”, she said back. He forgot about watching the news.

  Love was wonderful that night. Kevin didn't see the news about the outbreak until the next morning. The events of the next day may have been different if he had. />
  - 25 -

  At 6:02 am Kevin's phone rang, it was his daughter calling from Amsterdam.

  “Dad, are you and mum okay?”

  “Well, I was asleep.”

  “Where are you?”

  “We're at the zoo. My legs are killing me, lots of exercise yesterday.”

  “You haven't seen the news?”

  “No, not for days, why? Terrorists again?”

  “No, at least I don't think so. There is some sort of Rabies outbreak. It’s bad. All over the United States, and it’s in Europe, and this morning… No, not this morning, it was yesterday your time, there was a huge outbreak and riots in Sydney. The Gold Coast; at that Marine Park, that place with the dolphins, it's happening all over the place.”

  Linda sat up in bed, hearing the tone in Kevin's voice and the speed at which her daughter was talking. She was naked, they both were, but they weren't thinking about that.

  “Kevin, what's the matter?”, she asked.

  “Put the news on”, was all he could say.

  Still naked, Linda hopped up and trotted over to get the remote from the lounge table. She clicked on the TV which happened to be on the ABC. The ticker on the bottom of the screen said, “Hundreds dead at Marine Park.” Then, “Sydney under siege, people encouraged to stay home.” And then, “Millions infected across the world.”

  The talking head was saying, “The Prime Minister will be holding a press conference in fifteen minutes.”

  The vision showed a mother and her children getting into a car in the car park at Marine Park. A man jumps on the bonnet of the SUV and then slides off. The car runs over the man and leaves the car park. The man gets up and runs into the amusement park.

  “Are you safe darling?”, Kevin asked.

  “Yes, but I want to come home.”

  “Look, I need to talk to your mum and work out what we're going to do. We’re in the middle of nowhere. The news here is saying to stay home so I think that’s what you should do, stay in your apartment. I'll call you back in an hour or so. I love you.”

  “I love you too dad.”

  - 26 -

  After a quick discussion with Linda, Kevin called the Hotel reception while Linda again called their daughter in Amsterdam. For some reason, she wasn’t getting through.

  “Mr. Cairns, we were about to call you. I assume you've seen the TV news about the riots?”, said the receptionist. “The animal feeding exhibitions are being cancelled and the zoo is going to be closed today. Are you and Mrs. Cairns able to come up to the reception at 7:00 am? We're asking our guests to come to a briefing from our head of security.”

  “We'll be there”, said Kevin.

  “She had her phone on 'Do not disturb'“, Linda was saying. “Everything is fine there at the moment, but she's going to stay home from University today.”

  - 27 -

  Just 30km South of the Plains Zoo was the town of Gilford. It was a tiny town, just a Pub and Garage on the way to the Zoo, people rarely visited there but it thrived none the less.

  On the second day of the plague, James got out of bed at 4:00am as usual, kissed his wife goodbye while she slept and went off to start the work day at the Zoo. Jillian arose at six and started the day as usual, their teenage children sluggishly got out of bed and started getting ready for school.

  They left at 7:30 for the drive to Auckland where she taught primary school. At 7:54 they pulled into the primary school and she parked the car. The teenagers complained as usual about having to do the fifteen-minute walk to school, but she insisted. “You won’t get any exercise at all if I drop you off”, she said to them regularly.

  She ran every day and couldn’t understand anyone who didn’t get a kick out of exercise.

  She went inside to prepare for the day while John-Paul and Faye walked through the park and up the hill towards the high school. When they were nearly at the top of the hill they heard shouting behind them. Two men were fighting down near the roadway, a third man joined the fray. The twins looked at each other and started running towards the school, they ran through the gates a few minutes later and walked up the front stairs into the locker room and started putting their homework books away and getting the new ones out.

  Other kids started coming in and getting ready, the twins were first in and first back out of the locker room and moved towards the form room. Even though they were eighteen and in their final year of school they were still required to line up outside the room like the children that their mother taught.

  They were talking to their friends when they heard a commotion coming from down the hallway, in the direction of the teacher’s staff room. All of the students looked that way as Miss Filcher ran around the corner, “RUN!!!!!”, she screamed. She was three steps further on when pandemonium broke out, some of the students ran away from the classroom but some froze.

  “Move it, fucking now!!” There is nothing like a teacher swearing to make teenagers pay attention. John-Paul and Faye were amongst those who ran and were at the end of the hallway when the first of the attackers rounded the corner and attacked the students. Faye glanced back as she rounded the corner and saw Louise Anderson receiving what looked like a love bight from their Maths Teacher Mister Tyson. It was only another twenty metres to the front door and then they were out.

  As they ran down the stairs John-Paul was fumbling in his pocket for his telephone, he looked over at Faye and saw the panic in her eyes.

  He slipped his bag off his shoulders and let it fall as he ran. “Drop it Faye”, he yelled. Faye dropped her bag also as they were about to cross the road into the park. “Keep running”, he yelled as he stopped so he could get his phone out of his pocket. He looked back and saw kids still pouring out of the doors. Miss Filcher was guiding kids away from the mess, towards the school oval. It took less than two seconds but he had his phone out and was sprinting to catch up with Faye, he had his finger over the finger print recognition, trying to open it when it rang.

  “Where are you?”, his mother said.

  “In…. the…. Memorial… Park.”

  “Faye with you?”

  “Yes!”

  “Right I see you, swing a left, I’m coming up Park Terrace right now.”

  “Faye, this way”, he shouted to his sister. There were people fighting at the bottom of the park. ‘Stuck in the middle’, thought Faye as she turned to follow her brother.

  In less than fifteen seconds they were approaching Park Terrace where their mother had stopped. Faye jumped in the front seat and John-Paul took the back.

  “Lock the doors”, their mother said as she drove up the hill towards the school. She still hadn’t got the concept of central locking. They turned left at the street just before the school but they could see the oval, they saw that the fighting had spread onto it. Faye thought she saw Miss Filcher attack one of the younger boys, she stood out as she was one of the few people there not wearing their pathetic school uniform.

  They drove through town and out the other side towards home in less than two minutes, Auckland’s a small town unlike its famous namesake and they arrived home back in Gilford not long after.

  As they drove down their street Faye said, “Mum, we dropped our bags. My phone was in it.”

  Jillian looked at her daughter and in a moment of insight knew the problem. “Don’t worry honey, we have it all backed up automatically.”

  Faye began to cry

  - 28 -

  Raymond was having the time of his life. He’d now lost count of the number of people he'd killed, but that ninth one? Oh, that was so nice.

  He couldn't tell if people were infected or not most of the time, but that girl definitely wasn't. She was like a scared little rabbit. A cute little blonde rabbit with big blue eyes.

  He wanted more of that sort of action, but what if one of the crazies killed him before he got his fill? Solipsism syndrome was not one of Raymond's psychoses. He knew that other people were real. He knew they were not there for his benefit
alone, but he also knew that they were nowhere near as important as him.

  He wasn't so much afraid of death, more addicted to adrenaline. Raymond, pocketing his Glock, unslung his Steyr Rifle and headed back to his townhouse. He knew what to do.

  - 29 -

  By 6:00 am the next morning, Raymond's saddlebags were packed and he was chugging down to Central Train Station. He hadn't caught the train for years, too many stupid cows and pigs going about their moronic business. But right now, he thought that if the roads were blocked using the railway was the best way out of the city.

  He rode his motorbike under the train bridge and rode up the light-rail tracks into the second story of the train station. He thought Chatswood would be far enough, but he could go further and get off at Hornsby if necessary.