Issue #152 : Hillside Solutions
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Kayleigh glared down the hillside and into the valley, shaking her head. She had developed a reputation for being able to solve almost anything, find whatever needed to be found, clean up whatever mess there was to be cleaned.
She didn’t think this problem was fixable.
And there would probably be some who would point the finger of blame at her, but was that really fair? After all, when some shit-bag producer phoned her up, begging for her to fix a problem, did they ever care how she fixed it?
No. They just wanted it done.
She still remembered how excited the idiot on the phone had been. It was going to be a live performance of The Sound of Music in Austria, but they didn’t trust actual animals to perform so they thought it would be adorable to have a bunch of children dressed up as sheep. Kayleigh could make that happen, right?
Sure, all she had to do was phone up the shop where they sold the children.
No problem.
Still she had to deliver. They expected to see a bunch of adorable little children. And in the end, she had fixed it. They would get their cute little sheep. How was anyone ever to know that it wasn’t actually children underneath the costumes? As long as she kept them under control, what would the difference be?
Who would ever guess it was zombies under all those adorable costumes ?
Her instructions for the filming crew had been as clear as was possible. Her trailer was clearly marked. No one was to set foot on or touch it, the equipment was sensitive. When the team was ready for rehearsal, she would bring the little things out, obviously making sure they were muzzled under the costumes.
No one had to know.
Everything would be fine.
And everything would have been fine except someone had evidently jostled the latch on the trailer and now they were all out, free and running off down into the valley. There was no way she could catch all of them.
So she had brought a bunch of dangerous creatures onto the set. That’s all they were after all, dangerous animals. It wasn’t like some stupid beast had never gotten loose on a film set before.
This had been the only option available to her, the only way they were going to get what they wanted. Maybe she should have said something, but how exactly does that conversation go? Some things just can’t be explained without the other person freaking out. Just like there was no way to say, sorry I nicked your credit card so I could complete my Firefly DVD collection.
Which she had also done.
Kayleigh ran down the slope, knowing there was no point but not knowing what else to do. She supposed that if this all went to shit, she should at least appear to have been trying to be helpful.
The little bastards were heading straight for the site where the actual scene was to be filmed, already disappearing around the bend ahead of her. She sped up, hoping that no one had shown up to dress the set or start getting the equipment set up.
The scream that cut through the early-morning air obliterated all hope of that.
Kayleigh rounded the bend and stopped short, stomach heaving at the sight of what her little pets were doing.
The star of the show was being eaten by the extras.
Kayleigh turned and began to walk back to her car. No one would stop her, there was no reason to. She took her phone out and tossed it to the side. No point in holding on to that anymore. From behind her, she heard the sound of the crew racing down to save their star and the cries of horror at what they encountered.
Already she was calculating how long it would take to drive to the airport, how long to get out of the country. It was absurd to think that there would ever be a reason for a place like this to be called “Ground Zero”, but she also knew how unlikely it was that it could be contained.
With a little luck, she could get out of the country before any kind of quarantine was put down. There would have to be somewhere remote enough that she could hide out and wait this blew over. The immediate area around here would be finished, there wasn’t any hope for any of them. Eventually the outbreak might be able to be contained but in this flash-fire of new contagion, this area had no chance.
The hills weren’t exactly alive anymore.
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