Glombies

By Rebecca Orr

A zombie romance apocalypse novel with a Cthulhu twist.
All it took was a blink to go from a normal life to a terrifying struggle for survival. A tale of chaos and zombies, as related by a survivor. Action and romance combine in a quest for sanctuary through a darkened and dangerous world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rebecca Orr
• Release date: Nov 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223845355

Book preview

Chapter 1: The Arrival

A golden halo surrounded me as I opened my eyes. Bright sparks flew across my vision, making me jerk and blink. Quickly they faded, leaving only pale sunshine behind. I blinked again, and tried to take in my surroundings.

My most recent memory was of lying down to sleep in my darkened room, the open blinds casting slats of light across the ceiling. I’d been tired from work, heavy with sleep. Those slivers of light had suddenly grown intolerably incandescent, and I’d blinked.

And now here I was, standing in the middle of a wet field, in the early morning light. A faint mist floated up from the long grass, wrapping the whole landscape in a haze of golden gauze. There were no animals or people in sight, but at the lower end of the field huddled a brooding mass, the dark green edge of a forest. I seemed to be on the side of a hill. Turning around, I took a step upwards, and recoiled in shock as the cold dew soaked my foot. I glanced down reflexively and noticed for the first time that I was barefoot, wearing only my black cotton pyjamas.

Convinced that this was now all a dream, I climbed slowly to the top of the hill. A chill breeze whipped against me, lifting my brown hair from my shoulders as I surveyed the area.

A gentle rolling landscape of cosy rurality greeted me; fields and woods dotted with little clusters of houses. The road twisted here and there around them, finally arrowing off to a jagged line of faint grey which must’ve been a town.

Something caught my eye; far in the distance, along the high hummock of the hill, I saw a straggling group of runners coming towards me. Not sure what to expect, I raised my hand and waved. None responded, and as they came towards me, I began to feel a sense of unease. They didn’t run like joggers, but madly; wildly stumbling, their arms flailing and grasping.

My heart began to pound, the primal urge to flee taking over. Their mouths were open, dark holes in their pale faces, which were bedraggled and covered in dark smudges. I backed away a step, and then turned to run, not caring if I looked stupid in front of them. The grass batted at my feet and legs, leaving wet trails as I started to run in earnest along the crest of the hill. Maybe this was just a dream, but as in most nightmares, the threat seemed horribly real.

Wild-eyed, I looked from side to side down the hill, and spotted the road that wound along the bottom. At its closest point it cradled the other side of the hill I ran on, and as my gaze fixed on it, I suddenly noticed a jeep parked there. Light glinted off something in the passenger seat, and I realised that I was being watched through binoculars. The thought was so incongruous that I stopped running, wondering what this meant.

The glint disappeared and the passenger door was flung open. A soldier emerged. It was too far for me to see his face clearly, but he beckoned me with urgent movements. Floating over the sound of the breeze came his shout, and it shocked me out of my daze.

‘Run! They’re behind you!’

Instinctively I looked over my shoulder. He was right; off to the side, coming lengthwise up the hill, the runners were close behind me. I had a momentary glimpse of open mouths and wild black-on-black eyes, ragged clothing and suppurating wounds, before fear took hold again. I dashed away from them, careening down the hill towards the parked jeep.

The soldier urged me on, and I could hear the revving of the engine. It was easy to go fast down the hill, but hard to avoid tripping, and before I knew it, my foot caught in a tussock of grass and I fell rolling. The momentum sped me downwards, and I landed bruised and scraped at the bottom, jumping to my feet with the alacrity of terror. A hand grabbed my arm, and I cried out, trying to pull away, before the soldier’s face came into view.

‘Move it!’ he yelled, and I obeyed, stumbling into the front seat. He pushed me further inside until I was half crouched between the front seats.

‘Go!’ Someone else shrieked as he slammed the door shut. Hands slapped against the windshield as the vehicle growled into action, leaping forward so that I fell backwards, my back hitting the legs of the soldiers in the back seat. Completely bewildered and terrified, I hunched there, hardly daring to look around me at my saviours.

‘Are you bit, are you bit?’ One of the soldiers in the back seat pushed me away from him roughly. He was young, with wide scared eyes and the beginnings of blonde stubble. The soldier who’d beckoned me turned around and shook his head.

‘No, I saw, they didn’t touch her.’

I looked this latter man over warily, seeing him as the main agent of my strange experiences. He was tall and slim in a wiry kind of way, with fringed dark hair that seemed longer than the regular army would allow, and pale, slightly sallow skin. His black-brown eyes focused on me and a wry smile twisted the edge of his full lips before disappearing into a scowl.

‘What happened up there?’ he questioned me intently. ‘Where did you come from?’

I grimaced, casting apprehensive glances around at him and his compatriots. He seemed to be older than the others, who were uniformly young, scrawny, and radiating fear. The driver had milk chocolate skin and a tight buzz cut, but what struck me most was the tic of fear in his jaw as he drove, screaming along the country roads at high speed.

‘Answer the question,’ the soldier repeated doggedly, ‘how did you avoid infection? This whole area’s hot.’ Although his tone was brusque, I sensed an undertone of pity and empathy.

‘I... I don’t understand what you’re talking about,’ I tried to keep the incredulity out of my voice, but it was hard not to start panicking, ‘I was just going to bed, and then there was this light, and... then I was here.’ I trailed off, covering my mouth with my hand so they didn’t see the wobble as I tried not to cry.

‘Hey,’ he reached over and shook my shoulder, not unkindly, ‘get a grip, we need you lucid. We’re near base,’ here he gave a wry sigh, ‘you’ll be as safe there as anywhere under the circumstances. But we need to know what happened. Are there any other survivors?’

These last words accentuated the soft burr of his accent, which had been bothering me for some time now, and as I grasped where it came from, a chill settled over me.

‘Where am I?’ I asked suddenly, blind panic starting to take over. ‘ Please, tell me where I am!’

One of the others looked at me curiously. ‘Near Coventry, why?’ he said.

‘That’s not right! that’s impossible!’ Suddenly I was scared to say anything more; Coventry was not even in the same country I’d gone to sleep in. I drove my knuckles into my mouth and looked at them wide-eyed. ‘This is a dream; this must just be a dream.’ I repeated the mantra over and over to myself.

My dark-haired interrogator frowned and a flush came over his pale skin. He glanced at the mousy haired kid who constituted the fourth soldier of the party, and jerked his head. ‘Give her something to calm her down, Jones. If she starts going off, it’ll bring more glombies.’

Jones fished in an olive drab pouch and pulled out a jar of small blue pills.

‘Put this under your tongue and let it dissolve.’ he said efficiently, handing one pill to me.

I was about to protest, but the idea that this was all a dream took hold of me again, and I wondered dully if this pill was a symbol for wanting to wake up. Maybe I would take it and wake up back in my own bed, staring at the light from passing cars streaming through the blinds, caught up in all my everyday worries.

The pill was bitter under my tongue, and the constant jerking of the jeep threw me around, so that I had to brace myself against the legs of my fellow travellers. I didn’t have much of a view of the outside, only able to see patches of grey sky through the windows from my low position. Shortly a change in the demeanour of the soldiers told me that we must be close to their base. There was a mixture of anticipation and tension as they readied their weapons.

Again, the one who seemed to be their leader, looked around at me.

‘Be ready to move. Follow me, exit on your right. Don’t stop, don’t make eye contact, just get inside the door. How you feeling?’

I nodded and breathed deeply, feeling the weight of the sedative. ‘Calmer.’ I managed to say.

His lips curved again in that wry smile. ‘Good. Keep close.’

I thought the jeep would slow down, but instead it sped up, and I heard the loud pop of gunshots over the revving of the engine. Sweat beaded the driver’s face as he slammed on the accelerator. Darkness covered the windows for a moment, and as we passed through it, he spun the wheel and screeched to a halt. Instantly the soldiers flung open the doors and dove through them. I followed as best I could, gasping at the cramps in my ankles as I scrambled after them. I had a dim impression of grey walls and high barbed fences, and a darker cloud surrounding this that at first I thought were bushes. A sudden movement changed my perception and I saw it was a crowd of people. I had no time to think about this further; the tarmac was hard and jarring under my feet as I focused on the camouflaged back of the man in front of me. A hand grabbed me by the elbow and hurried me along. I could smell stale sweat and fear as the leader urged me to run faster. More gunshots sounded, but I didn’t look round, trying to concentrate on my tunnel vision of the man ahead.

Suddenly a huge dark rectangle loomed in front of us and I was pulled through it. A harsh clang sounded behind as the door swung back into place. Fluorescent light cast sharp shadows, showing me a windowless corridor lined with metal. I was gasping for breath, my legs shaking, and the four soldiers around me didn’t seem much better. They leaned against the walls, shivering, some with eyes closed. The leader recovered first, taking a final deep breath before he stood erect and lowered his semi-automatic rifle.

‘Well, we made it.’ he told his fellows, ‘Let’s check in.’

‘How long?’ burst out the soldier with the blonde fuzz suddenly. He sounded on the verge of a breakdown. ‘How long can we hold out like this?’

The leader shrugged grimly. ‘As long as we have to.’ he countered, and then turned to me. ‘You - what’s your name? Come with me, we need to report in.’

‘Rachel.’ I stammered, balling my hands into fists to try and stop shaking. Things were happening too fast; I couldn’t even square the gap in my memories between lying down to sleep and the events of the past hour.

‘I’m Sergeant Jacques,’ the leader nodded to me, and then waving a hand to encircle his three comrades, added, ‘these are Privates Jones, Parks, and Hamilton.’ He shrugged. ‘Not that ranks matter much anymore.’

I bobbed my head slightly in awkward greeting, but they were already turning away from me. Not knowing what else to do, I followed them down the corridor. They all walked in glum silence; the only sound the knock of their boots against the grilled metal floor.

We passed through a sliding air tight door, branched off down another corridor which looked exactly the same, and then down at least four flights of stairs until we came to a more open level with several rooms on either side of a wider corridor. Every room we passed seemed to be stuffed with boxes and equipment. Here in the open space three of the soldiers turned and entered what looked like a mess room. For a moment I saw other men and a few women look up curiously at me. Their faces were uniformly tired and despairing. I was about to go into this room, but Sergeant. Jacques beckoned to me to continue down the corridor with him, towards a door at the end.

‘Major Chalmers is the highest rank we’ve got left,’ he said conversationally as we walked, ‘he’s alright, he’s kept us together since it all went to shit. He’ll want to know about you.’

I gulped. ‘But I don’t even know about me.’ I protested, hating the whine in my voice.

Jacques shrugged. ‘You’re another Survivor,’ his intonation added the capital letter, ‘and that’s unusual these days.’

‘What happened?’ I dared to ask finally as we reached the door. ‘What was wrong with those people?’

Jacques looked back at me with a strange expression on his face as the door slid open.

‘You really don’t know, do you?’ He seemed about to say something else, but before he could another, older man, appeared in the doorway.

‘Sir.’ Jacques greeted him with a casual salute.

The man I took to be Chalmers nodded and then his gaze lit upon me and his eyes became sharp and intense.

‘A survivor, after all this time?’ he asked, glancing quickly over at Jacques.

Jacques lifted his shoulders in what was becoming a familiar shrug.

‘Sort of. We were on the way back from foraging, saw this light at the top of a hill. Then there was Rachel.’ He gestured towards me and raised his eyebrows.

Chalmers raised only one eyebrow, and looked from Jacques to me and back sceptically.

‘Well?’ he challenged me. ‘Explain.’

Only the calming effect of the sedative stopped me from breaking down in a puddle of tears. This didn’t feel like a dream anymore, and I felt very confused and frightened.

‘I don’t know.’ I repeated. ‘I don’t know about any of this. I was in bed, nothing unusual. And then I blink, and I’m here, and I don’t even know where here is. Survivor of what? What’s happening? Can someone please tell me what’s going on?’

Jacques and Chalmers glanced at each other meaningly.

‘Amnesia? Ptsd?’ Chalmers asked Jacques, speaking as if I wasn’t there.

Jacques frowned. ‘I don’t know. I wish Argyll was still...’ he sighed and bit his lip. ‘We need more expertise than Jones to figure out what’s wrong.’ He turned to me. ‘Are you sure you don’t know anything about the Collapse?’

I slumped, putting out my hand against the back of a hard chair to steady myself. The room was starting to pulse, as tiredness and shock compounded with the sedative I’d taken to hit me in waves. I found it hard to stay upright.

‘No.’ I said shortly. ‘I don’t know anything. Please, can you just tell me what’s going on?’

Chalmers squared his shoulders and breathed deeply, as if preparing himself for something unpleasant.

‘There was a viral outbreak. The infected are cannibalistic and rabid. It’s spread through bodily fluids. Society has....’ he paused, and his jaw tightened, ‘collapsed. We are -’

‘That’s impossible!’ I yelled blearily, interrupting him with a flailing gesture. ‘Everything was perfectly fine when I went to bed! This is insane, this is not happening. This has got to be a dream or something.’

I stopped and grabbed the back of the chair as the pulsing became stronger, the room swaying in time with my heartbeat.

Quickly Chalmers stepped forward and steadied me, seating me in the chair. I gasped and closed my eyes, trying to stop the whirling. It was all I could do to remain upright at that point.

‘This is pointless, I can’t question her like this.’ grumbled Chalmers. ‘She needs rest, let’s try again later. Jacques?’

I felt rather than heard Jacques’ answering nod as he plucked me out of the chair and carried me out of the room. I was afraid to open my eyes, the dizziness was so very alarming. Instead, I clung to his solidity as a rock in the middle of chaos, burying my face in his chest. It smelt of unwashed fatigues and dampness, but it was warm and comforting. It was hard not to reach out to keep hold of him as he deposited me on a camp bed, alone in what looked like some kind of lab. I watched in a daze as he retrieved a thin blanket from a wall cupboard and covered me with it.

‘It’ll be ok, you’re safe here.’ he reassured me quietly, talking as if to a frightened child, which wasn’t far off how I felt at that point.

Suddenly he seemed to be looking down on me from a great height, his voice remote and booming. I let my eyes close again, and passed into oblivion immediately.

***

I was in bed, in my room, watching the car headlights slide past through the slats of the window blinds. For a second, I was ecstatic, thinking that the previous few hours had been just a dream. But as before, the light grew brighter and brighter, until it overwhelmed my senses. Out of that light floated a sharp-edged triangle, spinning faster and faster until those edges became a blur. It was surrounded by other geometric shapes, spinning just as frantically. For just a second, I saw a variety of scenes laid out like flat pictures; racing flames, spinning galaxies, and finally an eye, monochrome grey. It blinked and fixed me with its focus. I felt a sense of incredible pressure, before it was pushed to the side by the central triangular shape. This filled my whole field of vision. All of a sudden, a dot of light appeared in the centre, growing exponentially. Pale blue green blurs resolved themselves into a field in the early morning, a scene I recognised in terror from a few hours earlier. I inhaled to scream and sprang awake.

Chapter 2: Abandon base!

I woke up with a start; it could’ve been ten minutes or ten hours later for all I knew. There was no natural light, and the fluorescents burned with a constant hum. I was alone in the room, but as I sat up, I could see movement from soldiers through the windowed door.

The remnants of the nightmare left me with a sense of unease. This blossomed into borderline panic when I remembered the strange events of the previous day. I gripped my elbows hard enough to bruise, but this action just confirmed that this no longer seemed to qualify as even a lucid dream. Somehow, I had been transported from my normal home and boring life in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to apocalyptic Coventry, UK. Had I been drugged, or was it, as Chalmers and Jacques seemed to think, an amnesiac reaction to trauma? Turning my focus inwards, I found it hard to believe that; I had no idea what amnesia felt like, but I didn’t feel as if any time was missing.

Suddenly conscious that I was absolutely starving, I swung my legs off the bed and stood up. The metal floor was cold under my feet, and my legs felt a bit shaky. Slowly I stepped towards the door, my goal the messroom. Analysis of my situation could wait; the most important thing was to have the energy to react to whatever happened.

Men and women in combat fatigues milled around the main corridor, many of them preparing for what seemed like a patrol or some such excursion. They gave me curious looks, but said nothing to me. They didn’t look like trained soldiers; their ages ranged from very young to retirement age, and they didn’t have that poise that so many career military have.

‘Food.’ I murmured. ‘Where can I get some food, please?’

An older woman with dyed red hair, grey roots now so long that her pony tail looked as if it were striped, waved me towards the room I’d previously identified as the mess hall. I nodded my thanks shyly and stumbled over there, holding my stomach as hunger pangs nearly doubled me over.

The mess hall was another large metal box, with long trestle tables and benches. It didn’t seem to currently be a specific meal time, but there were boxes of crackers on the tables, and large plastic bottles of water. I attacked a pack of crackers, tearing it with my teeth, and stuffing my face as full as I could. The resulting wadded paste was hard to get down, but deliciously salty. It hurt my stomach to eat, but I couldn’t stop. I felt like I hadn’t eaten in days, and this made me wonder if the soldiers were right, and I was just unaware of many days passing.

‘Slow down, might get mistaken for a glombie.’

I recognised Jacques’ voice and whirled around; my face still full of crackers.

He grinned at my appearance, and there was a twinkle of laughter in his dark eyes.

‘Or a hamster, whichever.’

I took a large swallow of cracker paste and nodded in greeting, slightly abashed to be caught in such gluttony.

‘Chalmers sent me to see how you’re doing.’ He explained.

I looked down at what he was carrying in his hands, which turned out to be a pair of army boots.

‘Probly too big for you, but better than nothing.’ he offered, holding them out.

‘Thanks.’ I said, taking them from him and looking them over. They were a little big, but he’d thought to bring a pair of thick socks, and that helped pad them out.

‘How long was I asleep?’ I asked, once the boots were laced and I was standing in front of him, still nibbling on crackers.

He shrugged. ‘‘Bout twenty-three hours?’

I let my eyes go wide, I hadn’t expected it to be so long, but now my hunger made more sense.

Jacques waited for me to swallow some more cracker paste and then drew himself up and said, ‘Ok, the Major’s waiting to talk to you again; you feel more up to it this time?’

I nodded slowly. His words actually filled me with dread, because I had no more answers than before, and being questioned about it would force me to confront the situation. I was withdrawn and apprehensive as I followed him back to Major Chalmer’s office.

Chalmers was slumped in his chair, his face bleak as he reviewed what looked like a report. He looked up with a sigh as Jacques rapped his knuckles on the half-open door.

‘Come in.’ the Major said, rising from his seat. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he sighed again heavily as he waved us into the room.

‘Ah yes, the survivor; Rachel, wasn’t it?’ he rubbed his eyes, obviously trying to wake himself up a bit. His expression snapped into focus as I sat down; instantly he was the professional soldier.

‘Let’s get the basics out of the way first; what’s your name, age, country of residence? You don’t sound British, more like a Yank.’ Chalmers fired off briskly.

Taken aback by this rapid questioning, I stammered and tried to collect my thoughts.

‘Uh, Rachel, Rachel Mah. Twenty-three. Vancouver, BC, Canada. I’ve never been to the UK.’ I added of my own volition.

Jacques, standing off to the side observing our exchange, raised an eyebrow.

‘Well, you have now.’ snorted Chalmers. ‘This base is just outside of Coventry, and last time I checked, we were in the British Isles. So, you have no recollection of coming here on holiday, for a job, nothing like that? You said you went to sleep in your bed in Canada, do you remember what you were doing before that?’

I pursed my lips and furrowed my brow. My memory of the day before was surprisingly hazy. ‘I was working, I think? I don’t remember anything out of the ordinary, but it was definitely my bedroom in Vancouver.’ I latched onto this small memory eagerly; the cream walls reflecting the rainbow colours of the LED light strip I was so proud of; the street light from outside divided by the spaces between the slats of my window blinds.

‘Nothing about the Breakdown?’ again Jacques’ tone ascribed capitals to another word, and I was left wondering what he meant. Chalmers cast him a warning look, and then glanced quickly back at me. He looked relieved to see me sitting there with a confused frown.

I shrugged. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’ It made me anxious that I couldn't give them the answers they wanted, but there was no point pretending to have more knowledge than I had.

‘Never mind that for now.’ Chalmers assured me in a soothing tone. ‘Maybe you just need some time for it to come back.’ He gestured towards the door. ‘Would you mind waiting outside for a moment? Then Sergeant Jacques will help you get settled in.’

Confused at being so abruptly dismissed, I bobbed my head in assent and scurried out of the office. The door shut behind me, and I was left to wait. I waited just long enough to make me decide to lean against the wall and then the door opened and Jacques strode through it.

‘Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.’ He said cheerfully over his shoulder to Chalmers, and then stopped and beckoned me over with a grin.

‘Major says I need to show you the ropes and get you sorted.’ He explained to me.

I nodded, feeling a little lost. Shouldn’t they be trying to contact the Canadian embassy and find me a way home? For a moment the thought popped into my head that maybe there was no embassy left to contact, but I pushed that firmly away and decided to concentrate on fitting in and finding out for myself what was going on later. It seemed best to go along with things for now until I had more information.

Jacques looked me up and down, and made a ‘tsk’ sound.

‘We should get you a gun; you know how to use a firearm?’ He said abruptly.

I shook my head. Nothing in my former life had warranted learning how to shoot.

Jacques sighed. ‘Oh well, better teach you that too; that’s basic anti-glombie survival skills.’

He led me out of the mess hall and to another room which was basically a big weapons locker, less than an armoury, but more than someone’s personal collection. Vaguely, I knew I should be more upset about the situation, but everything still seemed so unreal my emotions were woolly and distant. All I felt capable of reacting to was the little daily things that reminded me of normality. Learning to shoot was not part of that, but I didn’t really feel able to refuse. I still didn’t really understand what ‘glombies’ were, but it sounded sufficiently like zombies for me to be scared. Especially since even these tough, battle-weary soldiers seemed to be terrified of them.

Jacques handed me a pistol - ‘to start’ - as he put it, and grabbed me an olive drab jacket on the way out. I stuffed my pockets with ammunition as instructed, and then followed him along the main corridor and up the stairs one level. There was a shooting range here; seemingly makeshift. The targets were life-size cardboard marketing figures or shop mannequins; pouting women in metal bikinis, or smarmy men in suits.

‘Ok, this is how you load.’ Jacques jumped straight into the instructions, showing me how to load the pistol.

The bullets felt smooth and heavy, and the gun felt strange in my hands, like an armoured animal coiled to strike. He made me practice doing that over and over for more than an hour, by which time my hands were feeling pretty rough. Then we moved on to actually shooting at targets, something I was openly timid about.

Awkwardly I assumed the stance he showed