Friday – 00:50

A solitary car drove along the tree-lined road, travelling at slightly over the speed limit. Some fifteen miles ahead, the lights of Marrenforth were shining into the chilly December night air.

The driver was a professional young man by the name of Gary Erling; had anyone been watching him, they would have known that from the photo-ID badge still pinned to his shirt like a talisman. He wore it so much that it seemed like a part of him.

Gary glanced at the digital clock on the dash display. Almost 1am Friday morning. What a ridiculous time to be driving back from work. He yawned and risked taking his hands off the wheel for a second in order to stretch briefly and run a hand through his curly brown hair. Staying awake was difficult. At least he was nearly home now, more than ready for a long sleep after what had been an exhausting day.

The team's safety inspection at the chemical plant had been due to continue until Friday lunchtime. By mid-afternoon Thursday, they were considerably ahead of schedule - rather surprising given the age and state of the place. Janine, the team manager, had suggested that they work late to finish the job that night; then they could all take Friday off. Gary had a feeling that Janine was rushing things to suit her own plans, but he couldn't deny that the idea of a long weekend was appealing - and everyone knew that Janine's 'suggestions' weren't ones you argued with. The team had agreed to stay on, expecting to be done by eight or nine in the evening. However there had been issues with the documentation and a few faulty seals that needed replacing, so they didn't manage to get everything signed off until gone midnight.

Which was why now, in the early hours of Friday morning, he was still on the road when he should have been in bed and asleep.

Gary shivered, despite the car's heating being turned up full. He'd been feeling alternately hot and cold since waking up that morning, probably some virus. There was always something going around at this time of year. Now he was exhausted and it was taking its toll. He was torn between putting his foot down to get home as soon as possible and driving slowly for safety. The emptiness of the road and his desire for bed suggested speed, the darkness of night and his inability to concentrate argued for caution. Hence the compromise of driving at slightly over the speed limit.

Almost home now, only a few more miles and...

A shape dashed out from between the trees, running into the road directly in front of him. Gary reacted automatically, slammed his foot on the brake and turned the wheel. Too late. The tyres screamed as the car slowed and span, out of control. There was a sickening thud as the passenger side door smashed into something.

The car came to a halt and Gary quickly switched off the engine. He sat back, his seat belt still tight across his chest from the sudden stop.

Shit. What was that? What had he hit?

Or... who had he hit?

No, it couldn't be a person. Nobody would be walking around the countryside at this time of night. And nobody with even half a brain would step out in front of a fast-moving car. It had to have been an animal.

But he needed to be sure.

Leaving his headlights on, he opened the car door and stepped out. He walked round to the front, heart beating fast. On the road, illuminated by the beam of his lights, he saw...

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A deer.

The body of a small deer lay crumpled next to the side of his car. The headlights glazed the body, shrouding its shape and making the blood-splattered corpse gleam.

Gary let out a breath he hadn't realised he was holding. It had been an animal, not a person. Just a deer.

Even so, it was strange. He'd often seen deer moving through the trees, sometimes along the edge of the road, but had never seen one run out in front of a car like that. Had it become lost and confused? Or had something frightened it?

Whatever the reason, it was dead now. And his car had a nasty dent – did his insurance cover that? That was a problem for tomorrow. The immediate question was, what should he do about the carcass?

He'd never hit an animal before, didn't know the protocol. He should probably report it to someone – the police? – but then he might have to spend hours answering questions, filling in forms and dealing with all sorts of bureaucracy. Right now, all he wanted to do was get to bed. No suicidal animal was going to interfere with that.

So no police. What about the deer? He could simply leave it where it was, but it might be a hazard to other drivers. He didn't want someone's death on his conscience. Which meant that he'd have to get the thing off the road.

As he approached the deer's corpse, the stench hit him: a nauseating aroma of death combined with an unusual metallic tang. He stopped walking as his stomach retched. Did dead animals normally smell that bad before they'd had a chance to start decomposing? He didn't know. It looked as if the impact had split the deer's body open on one side, revealing some of its inner organs. Maybe that was why it smelled so bad?

Trying to breathe through his mouth, Gary walked over to the carcass. He grabbed one of the deer's legs and began to pull, the carcass leaving a trail of blood behind it. He hadn't realised how heavy the creature would be - it took him a good ten minutes of alternately pulling, panting and cursing to get it to the side of the road. Finally he managed to deposit the body in a small grassy area just off the roadside.

He stood there for a few moments, panting, looking down at the corpse with a mixture of sadness and revulsion. Moving it had been an unpleasant task - something he wouldn't want to do again in a hurry - but at least it was out of harm's way.

Gary wiped the blood off his hands as best he could with a handkerchief, then headed back to his car. His heart was still beating fast after the exertion and his head felt as if someone was playing a drum solo in his brain. He closed the door and sat in the driving seat, trying to relax.

After a few minutes, he started up the engine and drove away from the bloody scene. Away from the dead creature that lay lifeless and unmoving, its eyes glowing in the reflected moonlight.

This time Gary made sure to keep well within the speed limit; he didn't trust himself to drive fast after what had just happened.

As he drove, his could feel his pulse continuing to race rather than returning to normal. The pounding in his head was getting worse, not better. This wasn't simply the effects of exertion, he was definitely sick. The slight symptoms he'd felt all day seemed to have turned into a full blown illness. So much for his long weekend, he was going to spend it feeling lousy. Dammit.

The headache was also getting worse, a constant pressure in his brain. And he was tired, so tired. Keeping his eyes open was becoming increasingly difficult. He just wanted to sleep. The blackness of the night seemed to be beckoning him. His jaw opened, the beginning of a yawn, then...

"Ow!"

Gary yelled as a sensation like an electrical pulse shot through his skull. This wasn't the steady pressure of the headache, it felt as if his brain was being zapped by lightning. He instinctively let go of the wheel and put his hands up to his temples. As he did so, the car swerved out of control. It left the road, heading into the trees at speed.

Gary tried to ignore the pain in his skull. Took his hands away from his head. Back to the steering wheel.

Too late.

The car crashed into the solid trunk of a large tree. As it did so, Gary realised that he'd forgotten to put his seatbelt back on.

He was thrown forwards violently, the airbag belatedly expanding beneath him as his body was launched out of the car. His head crashed through the front windscreen and his now bloodied face collided with the trunk of the tree, causing his neck to snap and twist round at an unnatural angle. He fell on to the front of the car then slid slowly off.

He was dead before his body hit the ground.

His corpse lay still, the only sound coming from the still idling car engine. Nothing moved for some time.

A few minutes later, Gary's lifeless body slowly rose to its feet. Its head hung crookedly to one side, dead eyes open and staring without blinking. The creature that had once been Gary Erling twitched a few times, then began moving. It staggered around and, by luck rather than judgement, found its way back to the road.

The lights of the nearby town caught its attention and, acting on instinct not intellect, the zombie that had once been Gary Erling began shambling towards Marrenforth.

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