Blood on the Floor: An Undead Adventure (43 page)

Paco snaps one then grabs another that is hefted and thrown into more. His right hand grips the hair of a woman that is ripped off her feet and sent flying back into the horde. Nothing will pass him. He refuses it. He denies it. He stamps and swings the shotgun to batter into faces that burst apart. He hits so hard the shotgun breaks in two. He drops it to revert to hands the way he did before. Punching and hitting. Swatting and snapping necks. He stamps and throws them back and the lane runs with blood.

How long now? She doesn’t know. She knows only that the pain will come so she gives what she can while she still has life. She drinks tainted blood from the arteries bitten out. Her chin runs thick and crimson. Her fingers gouge and tear flesh. She’s beaten back but the infected pay for every inch given with their own blood. She wills greater strength. She wills to be faster to hurt more to fight back. She gains it too. She gains that which she wishes and rallies with a surge of power that make her eyes wide and crazed. There is just this. Just to destroy them and give the children a chance to breathe another breath.

Subi covers the others. Her body pressing into them, her arms wide to hold them behind her. She will be the first to go when they break through and she will go screaming and hitting to protect her family. She sees Heather bleeding. She sees Heather spitting a chunk of flesh from her mouth and biting deep into the throat of another while gripping two with her hands to stop them getting past. She sees Heather taking punishment and giving her life. Her head twitches to see Paco and the greater number of bodies felled by him. He rages with something that isn’t human but isn’t them either. That gap closes. They get beaten back. The space around Subi grows smaller. She closes her eyes to summon the faces of her mother and father. She prays for them that their rebirth will be soon and perhaps one day they will meet again. She prays that Amna will come back as she is. Strong and defiant. She prays that Rajesh will laugh in his new life as much as did in this one. She prays they will find peace and the world will follow the path it has been set. All things have purpose. All things have reason. Life doesn’t end at death but keeps going for always. Truth is eternal. Love is forever. She gives love for her kin and holds them behind her with the truest courage of all.

Teeth on Heather’s arm. Teeth on her shoulder. She wrenches to break free and scythes the weapon round to fend them back. The blade strikes flesh but the edge is gone. It is but a club to beat them with. She screams out again and swings harder. She punches into a nose making it burst apart with a hot shower of blood. She stamps down breaking toes. She kicks shins and legs out.

Subi watches them. Her eyes opening from the prayer but seeing a thing that isn’t possible. Seeing two holding back many. Two people taking punishment that should be killing them but they don’t die. Instead they fight and keep going, getting faster and stronger, getting nastier and more vicious. She sees the infected fall to the ground to bleed as the night sky fades to a dawn. Paco kills two more. Heather bites one and grabs the hair of another trying to get past. Paco kills another two. Heather kicks into the knees of a female. More killed by Paco. More flung up to be smashed down into the ground. More necks snapped and suddenly there are gaps between the infected.

‘Up,’ Subi sees the gap and struggles to her feet. ‘Raj, get up…Tommy, we can go…get up. Amna, we can go…’

‘GO SUBI…’ Heather screams the words seeing the gaps in the ranks as the infected aim for Heather.

‘We have to go,’ Subi pulls her brother up, pulls Tommy to his feet. Grabs Christian and grunts with the effort of doing what Heather did to make them rise and keep going. The children are beat. There is nothing left within them. Oliver is unconscious. Rajesh can barely open his eyes. ‘Please…get up…Rajesh, you must get up…Tommy help me…’ she tries and fights to lift them with glances at the furious fighting taking place but metres away. She drags Rajesh to his feet and slaps his face, waking him startled and scared. She heaves Ollie up and squats down like Heather did to get the boy over her thin shoulders. Up she goes, grimacing at the effort needed. Amna slaps Christian then slaps Rajesh who blinks at being slapped again. Amna slaps Tommy then slaps Christian again.

‘SUBI GO…’ Heather roars, snatching a glimpse of the children slowly getting up.

Amna slaps Subi then slaps Tommy then Ollie over Subi’s shoulder and carries on slapping until Subi tells her to stop slapping everyone. It does the trick though. Those small hands sting cheeks that make eyes come open.

Paco’s mind also opens. He turns round while swatting one down to see the children getting to their feet but the gaps are not enough. The children will be taken within a second of going in that direction. They can’t come his way either. The dawn is here. Light starts filling the lane giving details to what before were just shapes and silhouettes. The hedge is high and thick, the branches twist and snake round each other forming a tightly woven wall of thorns that will tear the children’s skin apart. Concepts and understanding. Visualisations of ideas from taking an abstract notion through to fulfilment of execution. He spins round and pulls hard with an explosive effort to grab a body that gets lifted and thrown into the hedge. Branches break, a dent is made but not enough. The body he threw was too light and small boned. It needs to be bigger. A woman lunging past him is kicked hard to be sent crashing into the same spot. More get sent that way. Thrown, kicked and hefted. A big man rushes in. Meaty legs, big arms and a solid gut. His neck is broken within a second then lifted spun and sent crashing into the hedge with a splinter of branches and a hole formed.

‘GO,’ his voice. Paco’s voice. American, broken but clear.

‘GO SUBI,’ Heather spots the break in the hedge. Her mouth spraying blood as she screams for them to get away. ‘PACO…COVER ME,’ she sprints hard to grab Amna who is thrown through the gap to land sprawling in the mud on the other side. Rajesh follows, hoisted and thrown. Paco drops back to stand behind Heather, buying seconds for the children to get chucked through. Ollie is ripped from Subi’s shoulders and launched. Tommy is pushed up and through. Christian is grabbed and sails clear to land on Rajesh still trying to roll away. Heather grabs Subi, hefts the girl and plants another kiss on the side of her head. ‘Run and don’t stop…’ she’s thrown hard with a scream of effort from Heather who is taken from her feet by an infected man launching into her. ‘RUN SUBI…’ She bites into the head coming down, tearing an ear off that’s spat aside. Her fingers scrabbling to pop the eyes as Paco’s right foot kicks him away. A flash of movement. Paco’s hand on her top lifting her up once again and sending her through the hedge to land sprawling in the mud. The big man turns with a split second pause to cover the gap with a smile of bloodied teeth and fists clenching at the end of arms that bulge with muscles.

‘RUN…RUN…’ Heather’s on her feet, grabbing the children who cry out from the shock and terror. She hefts Subi up and turns the girl to face across the field. ‘Straight across…go…don’t stop….find the fort…Rajesh, go now…Tommy, get your brother…Amna stop slapping…’

A crash behind her. Paco being rammed into the hedge so hard his head pokes through the gap. A rush of infected trying to crawl over him to get through to the children and Heather. She reacts quickly, striding to slam her foot into a face that breaks the nose. She boots again and again. Forcing them back as pain explodes in her toes from the impact.

Subi gets them going. Fear propels them. They start moving in a cluster across the field away from the hedge that shakes from the impact as the remaining infected aim for the hole to bust through. Paco fights on his back, the thorns and splintered wood raking his skin as much as the fingernails slicing deep. Heather kicks and kicks. Grunting wild and frenzied. Blood covers her body but the battle lust to kill and destroy is there. She spots a gap in the hedge above Paco and dives in to plug it with her body. Going head first to scrabble and writhe. Screaming out at the infected biting her arms. ‘PUSH ME…’ Paco’s hands find her body to send her shooting through with a mighty push that sends her flying into them.

Space is formed. Space enough for her to get on her feet and back into them. Space enough for Paco to come roaring up with his arms spread open to drive them back as two fend off many and hold the line to give the children a chance for life. Side by side they give everything they are. Side by side they make the lane run with blood. Side by side they stay as the infected keep coming.

Thirty Eight

Lessons learnt. Subi is intelligent and now the leader. The torch has been passed and she works hard to keep them together, to keep them quiet and to keep them moving. Across the field they go. Feet snagging on ploughed ground furrowed and pitted. Staggering in pain with exhaustion clear on their faces. The sounds of the fight follow them. She glances back seeing Heather launching herself back through the hedge. When she looks again the field is clear and empty, just the snatch of figures moving seen through the hole.

They reach the far side hedge and along to the break at the end that lets the tractor gain access. On again into a new field, following the hedgerow up to a gate. Shaky hands find the clasp and get it open. They get through. Gasping for air but willed on by a young girl who takes the mantle from Heather and carries the responsibility on her shoulders.

She spots the stable block and aims for it. She finds the hose and pulls it out. She finds the tap and turns it to spray the cooling waters the way Heather did. She soaks her group to cool their skin and wet their parched mouths. They drink from the end without knowing if the water is fit for consumption but glugging thirsty and deep. Bellies fill. Skin cools. Grime is sluiced away.

‘Look,’ Tommy nudges her side. Subi looks to the wheelbarrow propped against the side of the stable block and nods at Tommy.

Tommy rushes off, grabbing the barrow to wheel it back. His brother is laid in. Amna goes next. A handle each, Subi and Tommy push the barrow over the paddock to the gate and through onto another tarmacked country lane. The water has bought them time. Time enough to make distance. They push the barrow together. Not a word spoken unless it’s needed to be said. Rajesh falters and starts staggering. Subi guides him into the barrow, adding to the weight she and Tommy need to push but they do. They push and make distance. A simple device. A wheelbarrow fitted with one wheel but it makes the world of difference with the weight shared between two.

They reach the end of the lane and turn into a wider road. Minutes pass. Time goes by. The wheelbarrow is pushed. An engine behind them. They stop and turn to see a white van slowing down to stop a few metres back. A woman gets out the passenger side. Pulled back curly hair atop a friendly face that shows worry at the sight of the children. A man gets out the driver side. Older with greying temples and deep worry lines at the corners of his eyes. The rear sliding door runs back. Another woman comes out. Her eyes fixing on the children and the wheelbarrow.

‘You alone?’ The woman by the sliding door asks, her voice soft.

Subi stares back. Hardened now. She looks at Tommy who shows no expression. Christian at his side. The other three asleep in the barrow. She looks back past the van then off to the direction she came. Listening as though waiting to hear something, listening as though wanting to hear something.

The woman comes closer, slowly and carefully. She can see the exhaustion on the children. The blood stains on their clothes that have been soaked and now cling to their bodies. Bags under sunken eyes. Her heart breaks at the sight. She smiles the way a mother smiles. She slows to speak the way a mother speaks.

‘We’re going to the fort…it’s not far…we can,’ she pauses to look back at the driver who nods quickly. ‘We can take you…’

Subi stares and waits. She listens and waits but knows. There were too many of them. She blinks and looks at Tommy. ‘Please,’ Subi whispers.

‘Okay,’ the woman says, nodding while moving slowly towards them. ‘It’s okay…’ she comes close as though to drop and hug the children but holds back for fear of scaring them. ‘Phil, Sarah…give us a hand?’

‘Sure,’ the driver moves out, smiling sad and warm, his voice deep and re-assuring. Subi stays quiet. Tommy the same. The youngest are lifted sleeping to be carried into the van to be laid gently down. Subi, Tommy and Christian go with them. Wordless, expressionless. They stay close. Holding hands for the comfort of each other as the doors close and the van starts driving to the fort from a vow that was not broken.

Thirty Nine

The field is hard going. Ploughed and furrowed. Pitted and uneven. He stumbles but stays upright. He has to stop. Fatigue pulls him down into the earth to sleep the eternal sleep but he fights and blinks and walks on. Blood oozes from every inch of his body. His clothes hang in shreds. There is no moisture in his mouth. Even the true state of being cannot bring water where there is none to be brought.

He staggers on. Faltering, weak and broken. He reaches the hedge on the far side and down to the gap that lets the tractor gain access. He follows the hedgerow up to the gate that stands open. His eyes close. His mind becomes a black void. He starts to fall but snaps awake at the last second and plants a foot into the earth to stay upright. He sways drunken and ruined but forces himself to keep moving.

He spots the stable block and aims for it. It’s what Heather would have done. She’d know there would be water there. It takes an age to reach. Each step is paid for with real pain that he feels for the first time since he woke in the true state of being. Even his mutated cells cannot keep the agony away. He spots the hose stretched out still trickling water and knows they came through here. They had water. Water would have kept them going. He looks round to the open gate to the lane. They got out. Heather kept them alive. She did it. The vow was honoured.

Heather. Pain in his heart. Heather kept him alive. Heather cleaned him. Fed him. Gave him water. Cared for him. She gave him love when he deserved nothing save a bullet to his head. Heather kept the children alive. Her willpower gave them the strength to keep going. Pain in his heart again. A deep searing agony at what she gave and the cost. The true cost.

He looks down to the form cradled in his arms. Her face now still and unmoving. Her arms hanging limp. Blood everywhere. His blood that drips on her. Her blood that drips on him. Wounds deep and serious in her body. He stands staring, mesmerised at the woman he holds then finally he lowers her like she is made of glass onto the ground and reaches for the hose. He will clean her the way she did for him. He will wash the tainted blood from her skin and rinse the filth from her hair.

The ground runs red. His gentle hand runs over her soft face. The water pours soft through her hair and cascades down over her forehead and down her cheeks to reach her tender lips that gave him his mind back. He holds her with one arm on one knee, cradled and safe. He runs the water over her body and lets it pour to the ground to form crimson puddles. He holds her now and he will hold her forever. Tears in his eyes that fall to score tracks through the grime on his skin. Tears that fall to land on her. She gave him life. She straddled his lap and fed him from tins. He carried her on his back. She slept next to him. They shared life and healed each other. A dangerous monster. Her dangerous monster. Always her dangerous monster. He bends to press his lips so gently against hers. His heart breaking with a pain that will never heal.

He holds still and in that second the greatest fear of all is that she will be kissed and remain still. That fear grows and becomes a real thing when she remains inert and lifeless. His eyes close in rejection of belief and faith in goodness and dreams. His heart breaks to fall and shatter in a thousand pieces and he holds still with a sadness he never believed possible but to know her was worth all the sadness of the world. He knew love. Just once. He felt loved. Just once. Now he knows it again and he gives that love back. She gave light in his darkest of days. She gave hope where there was none to be had. His eyes close from fatigue, from hope being lost, from the tendril of joy at knowing the children got away, from a mind that came back enough for him to feel this loss.

Next to a stable in a paddock a dozen miles from the fort he cradles her body with his lips holding against hers, not wanting to pull away because to pull away will be to accept a thing that is too hard to accept. The water pours through her hair. Her body bleeds but clots faster than a normal person’s would. The water goes into her mouth easing the dryness in her throat. Her lips move. A twitch that stills his heart. She moves again. A hand comes up. Reaching for his neck. She presses in, her lips parting to kiss and hold on for she will never let him go. Not now. Not ever.

He is her dangerous monster.

She is his.