A Survivor's Apocalypse Story: New Black Plague

By Paul.E.Bailey

When a professor at CERN warns Britain that a mutated viral strain known as New Black Plague has been let loose, very few people take him seriously—until the virus starts to spread! In their millions, people succumb and there is no cure. The only fate that awaits the infected is death, though that's not where it ends. After dying, the virus reanimates their corpse; transforming them into bloodthirsty killing machines.

Ryan Lloyd, a handsome albeit self-absorbed man, has avoided contracting the virus and is accepted into one of the hastily set up, military-controlled safe zones. He quickly decides that he can't handle living under the authority of the army and makes his escape from the safe zone to take his chances living on the outside amongst the undead. It doesn't take long before he happens across other survivors and must work alongside them in order to make it through the apocalypse.

Of course, things can't go quite as smoothly as that for a man who doesn't generally play nicely with others...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul.E.Bailey
• Release date: Nov 3, 2017

Paul.E.Bailey

Writing is my life. It's all I yearn to do when I wake in the morning. Since the age of twelve, I have been writing novel-length stories; however, I lacked the confidence to push them into the public eye. Until now! My latest WIP is something I intend to submit for publication and finally live the dream. In the meantime, I have started a blog called The Adventures of an Average, White Man... (www.paulebailey.com) in order to boost my profile and practice new styles of writing. I have been writing shorter fiction stories on there too, which brings me here. I intend to publish my short stories and novelettes in order to see how they go down with the wider world. Critique from peers and professionals is necessary if I'm going to realise my ambitions and grow as a writer in the process. I hope you enjoy my work and please be sure to leave reviews.

Book preview

A Survivor’s Apocalypse Story

Chapter 1–New Black Plague

The TV was loud; much louder than Ryan Lloyd really needed it to be given as he wasn’t sat four feet from it. He’d rung in sick for the third day running. He wasn’t sick; he just didn’t want to go into work.

Every channel presented him with yet more crap as he flicked the buttons of the remote. Landing on a morning magazine programme, Ryan was intrigued by the headline on the screen that read ‘NEW BLACK PLAGUE THREAT’. Placing the remote control on the table in front of him, he listened to the silky voice of the male presenter.

Rumours of an artificially mutated Black Plague virus are rife at the moment. Video messages from terrorist sleeper cells were leaked explaining their new weapon that could potentially trigger biological warfare. The strain has undergone extensive tests at CERN in Switzerland and here to explain more about this virus is Professor Thorgen Schaffer; a specialist in viral strains. Professor, what can you tell us about New Black Plague?

Well, Simon, Schaffer began with a thick German twang, New Black Plague has been intensely studied and the results are worrying. The original Black Plague strain wiped out somewhere between a third and half of the population of Europe in the 14th century. Fleas living on the back of black rats were the suspected carriers of the strain back then, but this new strain is not transmitted in the same way. As yet, we have been unable to discover how the pathogen transmits, but we do know how it affects its host.

And how might that be? asked Simon.

The infected show no signs of symptoms for anything up to a month. When they finally do show… well, the effects are brutal. An extreme fever is accompanied by large and painful buboes appearing in great number all over the body of the host. Some grow so big that they burst. The flesh begins to rot before the virus finally reaches the heart and brain, shutting down all essential systems. Death occurred within twenty-four hours of the symptoms showing in all subjects

Simon shifted uneasily in his chair; his fake smile suddenly becoming difficult to maintain. Mm-hmm, he replied quietly. And is the information factual regarding this virus having been created artificially by terrorist groups?

"The information is very factual. It is clear that the strain was mutated under laboratory conditions. Having seen the makeup of the virus, I can promise that this is no genetic accident. It has elements of the Kuru strain native to Papua New Guinea. This has been manufactured—of that there is no doubt!"

And the fear that this virus is out there is genuine?

Three test subjects escaped the compound in CERN two weeks ago—all of them very contagious—and we have been unable to locate them since. Schaffer went quiet momentarily and then looked at Simon almost apologetically. I am yet to tell you the worst part of our findings.

There’s more? asked Simon; leaning forward.

As far-fetched as this may sound, I assure you it is the truth. After a given length of time—we assume after enough blood cells have been consumed by the virus—the corpse of the infected reanimates and their decomposing remains are overcome with a vicious bloodlust.

Ryan burst into a fit of laughter. So much so that he fell off the couch, clutching his belly. He’d never heard anything so ridiculous in his entire life. This German bastard is off his trolley! he said; still laughing and missing part of what was said next.

…know that a bite from the reanimated corpse infects the person bitten. Their decline is much more rapid and severe than those infected in other ways. They suffer the effects of the virus and die within thirty-six hours; returning as a reanimated corpse also. Believe me when I say that this virus could very well threaten the entire human race.

Oh shut up, Ryan said derisively at the TV.

Are you close to finding a cure? Simon asked seriously.

Schaffer paused for several seconds; a nervous look etched onto his grey bearded face. He scratched the side of his head, causing his glasses to flick up and down on the bridge of his nose, and then looked back at Simon. We are doing all that we can. I can offer no more assurance than that at this stage.

Is there any advice at all you can offer the people of Britain to safeguard themselves against the threat of this virus?

Stay indoors as much as possible, Schaffer said seriously; looking into the camera.

Get off! Ryan switched the TV off. What a load of bollocks!

He stood up from the couch and rubbed his short shaven coffee brown hair before approaching the lounge window and looking outside. The early springtime sun looked inviting with hardly a cloud present in the sky.

In that moment, he shelved his idea to stay in all day and went to his bedroom to get ready. Stripping out of his t-shirt and jogging bottoms, Ryan admired himself in the mirror for a moment. He stood to his full six feet and one inch, looking his naked form over. "She misses you, Lloyd. She knows she misses you."

Ryan had been finished by his girlfriend of two years just a few weeks ago after she found out he’d cheated on her. The one encounter she knew about!

The twenty-seven-year-old man was deeply good-looking with warm hazel eyes and a naturally disarming smile. He was in good physical shape and his light brown torso was adorned in tattoos, as were his muscular arms. Ryan was mixed race, his maternal grandfather a Bahamian, and that gave him a tanned appearance. The unfortunate by-product of his physical allure was a personality laden with narcissism.

I’ve gotta get to the gym. Get those abs back to their former glory and she’ll be back around here with those knickers down in a flash!

He took one last look in the mirror. With a laddish grab of his manhood and a pout, Ryan finally got himself ready to leave the house. He was dressed in minutes and headed back downstairs into the lounge. Again, he looked out of the window. A neighbour, who’d just arrived home, noticed him and gave a friendly wave. Ryan waved half-heartedly back.

Schaffer’s interview came back into his head and he smiled with amusement. The fact that the man had basically told a zombie tale amused him greatly. How stupid did he think people were? And yet, he briefly imagined looking out of the window to see hordes of decaying undead looking to feed off the living. He shook the image out of his head as quickly as it had gone in and pursed his lips. Crazy German bastard!

Ryan walked away from the window and to the front door of his house, slamming it shut after he walked through.

Chapter 2–To Fight Another Day…

Ryan stared blankly at the white plaster wall some fifteen feet before him. He sat with his broad shoulders resting against the adjacent wall, taking the occasional bite of a protein bar and sip from a bottle of water; the very things that had almost cost him his life around an hour ago.

Several weeks had passed since the day he first heard about New Black Plague. He’d laughed about it in conversations with friends and it was all taken with a pinch of salt. He wasn’t the only culprit. Millions of people across Britain had shunned the warnings too. Professor Thorgen Schaffer was a national sensation overnight for all the wrong reasons; vilified in the media.

Then, one day, everything changed. Schaffer went from public laughingstock to the man everybody demanded answers from. New Black Plague spread quickly and fiercely. All over the news were reports of people falling ill and dying shortly after only to rise from death and begin feeding on any living being in the vicinity. It spread quicker than anybody knew how to deal with and Britain came to a complete standstill just a few days after the first reported incident.

Schaffer’s interview on morning TV was screened everywhere as people sought to learn more about the killer virus, but the simple fact was that nobody knew whether they had it or not until it struck them down. There was no word of a cure either. The streets, houses, and businesses of Britain were quickly becoming festooned by gruesome undead; the flesh melting away from their bodies down to the bone and muscle beneath—a truly ghastly spectacle.

The undead were slow and cumbersome; emitting nothing more than moans that became more exasperated the closer they were to the next living thing they wished to feast upon. Although not terribly difficult to deal with on their own, they were virtually unstoppable in hordes and naturally grouped together; playing an instinctive and primordial numbers game.

Ryan could hear knocking sounds from below and knew it was the lurchers. He wasn’t worried by the noises. This particular floor of the office block was