Free The Alpha Plague by Michael Robertson Page B

ground. They ran all the way down the middle, spaced about five metres apart. Four pillars separated him and the woman up ahead. The gap continued to increase as she outran him. Rhys called after her again. “Wait!”  
    But she didn’t stop.  
    Sweat stung his eyes, and his head spun from the exertion of trying to keep up with her. “Wait up, please.”
    For the first time since she’d saved him, the woman turned around and looked at Rhys. She was younger than him, although he couldn’t tell how much younger. She looked to be maybe twenty-four.
    With a raised hand, Rhys repeated, “Wait, please.”
    Although she didn’t stop, she slowed down enough for him to catch up with her.
    Once he was next to her, Rhys wiped his brow with his sleeve and spoke in between gasps. “Thank you… for… saving me.”
    Her cool blue eyes pinched at the sides as she stared at him. She breathed evenly. It made a mockery of Rhys’ fitness levels.  
    A scream shot out of the alley they’d just exited. The woman looked back, alert like a rabbit that had sensed a fox. She tugged on his sleeve and pulled Rhys along with her. “We can’t wait around here. Can you walk at least?”
    After he’d gulped a dry mouthful of hot air, his throat sticky from the run, Rhys nodded.
    As they walked, Rhys continued to chase his breath and neither of them spoke. The tall buildings on either side of the narrow road had been built so close together, they stood like huge walls and cast heavy shadows. The steel armour that surrounded each building nullified the illuminating effect of the shiny windows. Rhys had never seen the city this dark before. Another phlegmy roar from the square turned Rhys’ skin to gooseflesh.  
    The pair walked either side of the line of pillars down the middle of the road. Rhys tapped each one as he passed it. They’d clearly been erected to quash even the idea of driving on the roads.  
    “Did you see how many people ran for the car park as if to get their cars?” the woman said.
    “What?!” Rhys tapped another pole. “Didn’t they see these in the road?”
    The woman shrugged. “Panic turns people stupid.”
    After he’d slapped two more pillars, Rhys glanced at the woman next to him. She scowled as she took in their environment. When his breath finally returned to him, he said, “It was good of you to save me. You didn’t have to. Thank you.”  
    For a moment, she didn’t reply. Then she looked at him. “Why were you running at the zombies?”
    The word nearly choked him. “Zombies?”
    “Well, that’s what they are… or as good as anyway. Didn’t you see them?”
    Who was this woman? A fine physical specimen, no doubt, but where was her head at? “I thought zombies only existed—”
    “In movies?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I remember a line once from an old film—‘The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world it didn’t exist’. By filling you with popcorn and adrenaline rushes, the government kept the ‘myth’ of zombies alive. They kept them fictional so we wouldn’t believe in them. All the while, they were creating them under our noses. They were nearly ready to drop them in The East.”
    “Okay,” Rhys said, “so if they’re zombies, why aren’t they slow, shuffling, brain-craving deadites?”
    “Deadites?”
    Rhys shrugged it off.  
    “It’s more like a virus, a disease. They’re not reanimated corpses like in the movies; they’re infected humans. They may be stronger and faster than your average human, but they die in the same way. There are two effective ways of killing them—serious head trauma or drowning. For some reason, they can’t swim. They can’t climb either. The virus makes them fast and aggressive, but they lose a lot of control over their limbs.”
    “How do you know all—?”
    Another scream came from behind, and the woman’s shoulders pulled into her neck. She quickened her pace. “It’s a virus that turns people insane. It spreads