“G’day, Anton.”

“Why are you living in such a rattrap?” The sharply dressed man didn’t return the greeting. His styled hair and well-groomed beard matched the suit, which must have cost more than the yearly rent Danny paid.

Danny shrugged. “It’s cheap, close to uni as well.”

Anton shook his head. “Get in the car.” He didn’t wait for Danny to reply and simply walked towards the BMW with blacked-out windows parked in the street. Danny hesitated momentarily before taking a breath and readying himself for whatever was about to happen. It wasn’t like he could refuse.

Anton got into the back of the car and Danny entered from the other side. Anton eyed him up as he sat down. Without a word, the driver took off. Danny's heartbeat began to rise.

“Relax. This isn’t about you in particular.” The older man’s words only made his heartbeat spike higher.

“Just so you know, the coglione has been dealt with.” The man said it like he was talking about a simple household chore. It probably was to a man like Anton. Danny knew he was talking about Ralphie but didn’t dwell on what ‘dealt with’ meant.

“What can I help you with?” Danny broached the elephant in the room.

“Straight to business as always, that’s why I liked you, kid.” A minuscule smirk hovered on the lips of the man.

“I know you’re not interested in how I’ve been.” Danny had no doubt the man had learnt everything he had been up to in the last two years the instant he had popped up on his radar again.

“Still curt as always, but you’re right. I want to know what you saw in those tunnels.” Anton’s eyes hardened, his business face returning.

Danny stilled, which Anton didn’t miss. Danny was forced to remember that what he’d seen hadn’t been a dream. “I don-” Danny stopped himself, he needed to be clear-cut with the man before him. He took a deep breath and tried to organise what he could in his mind. Anton didn’t push him and gave him a moment.

“I saw what resembled a man, but in a state that I could only describe as zombie-like. There was strange glowing orange liquid running out of wounds on the thing’s body.” Danny met Anton’s eyes, his expression hadn’t changed, so he continued. “The zombie attacked me without hesitation, like a guy on gear. It didn’t seem to feel pain, from the wounds or when I broke its knee. Even disabled it tried to crawl towards me.”

Danny stopped talking and looked at the man across from him. The man's eyes rolled in contemplation of what he’d just heard. “Cazzo.” he eventually spat.

Danny wasn’t sure it was a good idea, but he wanted any answers he could get. “Do you know what that thing was?”

“No,” Anton answered immediately. “You’re the first source I can trust who has seen it. Just a bunch of junkies and their stories. We sent two guys into the tunnels a week ago and haven’t heard from them since. You only saw one of these things?”

“Yeah, only the one. I wasn’t that far in either.”

“Was it something similar that sent you to the hospital?”

Danny didn’t bother asking how he knew. “Yeah, it was.”

Anton nodded. “Explains why you followed it back to the Station. Do you have any idea what it is? Drug-related?”

Danny shook his head. “I was trying to find out.”

Anton Agostino sat back in the seat of the car, tapping his chin with a finger. Danny said nothing, watching out the window as the car continued to circle his block. He then inspected the man next to him, looking for any changes over the last few years. The late-forties man was still as athletically built as Danny remembered, he clearly hadn’t dropped his gym habit. His suit looked just as expensive as any other Danny had seen him in, another habit that hadn’t changed. He had never been overly close with Anton, knowing full well what being involved with a man like that meant. As he was reminiscing about their shared history Anton turned to look at him again.

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“Do you want to be involved with this moving forward?” He made it sound like it would be a favour, for Danny.

“No, thank you.”

The man chortled slightly. “Haven’t lost your wits.” Anton waved his hand and the driver pulled the car over in front of Danny’s house the next time they passed.

“Look after yourself, kid.”

“Thanks, Anton, you too.”

Danny closed the door and watched the car drive off before going back inside his place. He was immediately bombarded by his roommates.

“Who was that? He was intimidating as hell.”

If only you knew. “Nobody you should bother remembering.”

“What did he want with you? Are you in trouble? One of my mate’s dads is a cop you know, he could probably help you out if you are, like, in trouble with the bikies or something.”

“If I was in trouble, I’m not sure your mate’s dad would be able to do much, but thanks. No trouble, nothing to stress about.” Danny waved the duo off and shut himself inside his room. He could hear them discussing theories on how he was a closeted junkie in trouble with dealers, and whatever else their minds cooked up, but did his best to block it out.

He sat down on a cushion and tried to wrap his head around the last few days. He quickly gave up and searched for his phone. He finally replied to his boss about how he was doing and began to sift through the messages he’d gotten from everyone at work. That quickly got boring and he found his mind replaying the events that had taken place down in the tunnels.

His mind fixated on the ‘blood’ of the monster, the same glowing fluid that Claude had seemingly poisoned him with.

Wait, if he’s a zombie now, did he infect me? Danny ran to the bathroom and stripped down. He began inspecting every inch of his body for anything strange, anything that would say “Yeah, you’re turning into a zombie.” After finding nothing out of place except the burn on his arm, he sighed. Of course, the doctors would have found anything off about his body in far more detail than his rough inspection would ever find. Should definitely follow that up with the doctors.

“Well, I’m probably not turning into a zombie,” he said with a macabre chuckle. He felt better than ever, certainly nothing like the creature he’d tussled with in the tunnels. So what had happened to him? He tried to establish a chain of events.

Drug users started seeing things in the tunnels, which was probably when Anton’s guys had gone to investigate and went missing. Someone, probably Ralphie, started getting more people to go into the tunnels with the promise of cheaper drugs. More people started seeing these zombie things. Claude then enters the tunnel, coming out sick. He came back to the homelessness shelter, looking sick to everyone, but not a full zombie. Then Danny had pulled up for his overnight shift, finding Claude in full zombie mode. Claude had spilt some of his blood on him, causing him to be ‘poisoned’ and enter a state of unimaginable pain and get sent to hospital. Then, he wakes up, feeling better than ever, certainly not a zombie.

Going by movie logic, was Danny not infected because he hadn’t been bitten, or the zombie blood hadn’t come into contact with his? That was the only conclusion that Danny could come to, he’d been poisoned but not infected. He then remembered Claude running past him and out of the shelter, he hadn’t attacked anyone on the way out. Danny felt a pang of sympathy for the man. He was only guessing, but he had the feeling that Claude had run away to make sure he didn’t attack anyone.

So, what now? Danny checked his calendar and realised that he had a full day of uni classes the next day. Guess I go back to uni. That sorted that. It felt strange, but Danny pulled out his laptop and began to make sure he was up-to-date on class content, did some of the readings, and made sure he wrapped his head around the handouts. Hours passed and Danny only noticed that it had become evening when he smelled the curry his roommates had ordered for dinner.

Dinner. Danny realised he wasn’t hungry. He thought about it and realised he hadn’t eaten since brunch with his sister. Two days ago. He chalked it up to the stress he’d been through and decided he needed to make sure he ate something tonight. He went out and cooked up a simple yet nutritious dish, and brought it back to his room. As he ate he found the food was tasty but unfilling. It didn’t sit right in him, literally. Something was off about it, not in an out-of-date ingredients way though. It was annoying, but it wasn’t threatening to come back up so he did his best to ignore it.

He once again turned to his mind-numbing mix of youtube content as he lay on the blanket he called a bed and slowly drifted off to sleep.