The Falling Stars (The Vamps and One Direction Zombie Apocalypse)

Chapter 46- The Innoculation

Jake was hard at work for the next week or so, slaving away in the lab with heavy wires and disassembled machinery all hooked up to the army back-up generator.

Louis and I were trying and failing to help untangle some thick cable one day when he realised something. He was fiddling with the window frame and the wall for some reason and called us over.

“Look here” He said, pointing into the gap where the double glazing went into the window frame. We looked, and saw a line of thick metal, as thick as a small wrist.

“What is it?” Asked Louis

“I think,” Said Jake “I think it’s a shield mechanism, you know so if all the back up generators go out the entire base seals so that no one can steal the information from the archives or access the computers”

“Oh, cool” Replied Louis, going back to the wire.

“And we need to know this why?” I asked

“Because it means we can’t ever use all the power in this generator, we can’t afford to burn it out, we’ll get sealed in! There is only one weakness in it but it can only be accessed by one of the outdoor cellars so we’d never get there, and we’d probably run out of breathable air before we’d be able to contact someone”

“So ,let’s not burn out the generator, simples” said Louis, and I smiled in reply.

“It might not be that simple, the power needed for this is probably going to burn out more than one generator, so the two we already use and the backup. It can’t be operated from outside..”

There was a long silence as we contemplated what he’d said.

“Then it’s still simple,” Said Louis, still pulling the coils of electrical wiring about “You all evacuate, I flip the switch and you guys leave me a torch and some kind of lethal injection so I can die in peace.”

“Why doesn’t someone just stay inside, flip the switch and then the others find the weak point and blast it open or something?” I suggested

“That could work, but there’s no solid reasoning. The weak point is only an assumption and even if we found it the people inside may be dead before we had chance to open it.” Jake bit his thumb nervously “And if we’re going with Louis’ suggestion then I will do it, not you”

“No, no, I want to”

“So do I” Jake argued against Louis, and I gulped. They were basically arguing about who wanted to die more.

“Listen, we’ll find a way” I cut them off.

“Connor’s right, we can do this, we’ve come this far haven’t we?” Said Jake “And anyway, we need to gather everyone now because I have prepared the inoculations so that we can all be cured.”

He showed us the inside of a black case, blue syringes shining with a sort of pale incandescence. He lugged the heavy bag across to the food hall, sliding it on to a table and sending Louis and I away to collect the others. It didn’t take long, as most were sitting in the grounds and savouring the small amount of spring sunlight we were being offered after the bitterly cold winter, and they all traipsed up to the food hall in less excitement than we would have thought given the prospect of being cured.

Ava Rose brought up the rear, in a blue short sleeved top instead of her usual long sleeves. Come to think of it, it was the first time I’d seen her without sleeves and it was easy to tell why given the amount of bite marks she had been concealing.

It didn’t take long to reach to food hall and by that time Ellie and Brad were already rolling up the sleeves of their sweaters and slapping veins to the surface.