Dead Ahead (15 page)

Brandon looked up to see his dad fending off far too many husks while Frank was trying to reload his rifle; more zombies were creeping up in the wing mirrors. Brandon planted his foot on the accelerator but all that he got was the engine screaming at him.
You forgot the gears, dumbass!
He ground the gears until something popped into place and the wheels started spinning as he launched the truck forwards and into the zombies his dad was fighting. He slammed on the breaks and the truck cut out again.

Before he knew it his dad was pushing him over into the passenger seat and threading the Naginata uncomfortably into the front of the cab between them; Frank was climbing into the back seat.

“Ba-a-a-h-h...! The fuck...?” His dad shouted, “There’s a hand down here!”

“I couldn’t get it off the keys.” Brandon shouted back.

His dad got the truck rolling and headed back the way they had come, bouncing a few more zombies off of the bumpers as he did. Soon they reached the row of old sheds where they had left their spoils.

“You’re with me son; let’s get the stuff in the back,” his dad said, “Frank, you shoot anything that moves!”

All three of them leapt out of the truck simultaneously. Frank scanned the area, rifle at his shoulder. Brandon helped his dad lift the life raft into the back of the truck and went to collect the diesel, rope and paddles. Brandon dumped them into the back along with the life raft.

“Thanks for the hand son!” His dad said as he tossed something to him. Brandon immediately dropped the hand to the floor when he realised what it was. His reply was lost in gunfire as the husks came around the corner; it was probably just as well.

Brandon pulled his seatbelt on as they pulled away, heading south he presumed. He wasn’t even sure why they were heading to Kendal, it wasn’t going to be better than anywhere else.

Frank popped his head through the gap between the seats in the front, he had the map scrunched up in his hands, “just keep to this road for a good few miles,” he said, “and uh.... remember what you were saying about hand to hand combat?” dad just grunted. “Would you mind maybe showing us a bit?”

“Sure think, Frank. Just as soon as we’re not running for our lives I will give you a full lesson.”

“How are we for diesel, Dad?”

“Not good son, not good!”

“Is the cap still open?” Frank asked.

“Yeah. How?

“Keep her at thirty, I’m on it!”

Before anyone had time to question Frank, he was clambering out of the rear door window and into the back of the pickup. He took the cap off of the diesel can and screwed on the funnel, hung himself over the side of the truck and started pouring the diesel in as they drove along.

“He may be crazy, but he does have his uses.” His dad said.

Brandon just looked back to his father and said, “He’s going to get us killed.”

Chapter

12

Blood and Bones

Cassie could feel her eyes swelling up as she was led towards the Husky. Every delicate step on the loose gravel sounded like a thousand bones being crunched underfoot in the cold and silent dark of the night. She could hear the sad cries of the dead meandering around beyond her sight.

Ethan was already at one of the vehicles, sitting in the driver’s seat with the two doors closest to the house wide open; Gary was in the other vehicle, though with only the rear door open as the driver’s door faced the house and they had one less passenger.

Poor Nathan....

Slowly they snuck towards their allocated vehicles. It was the same setup as before; Cassie, Sarah and Greg were in Ethan’s Husky with Jim on the roof gun and Richard and Carol were in Gary’s with Connor on the roof gun in their Husky.

Cassie was beginning to worry about Carol; she hadn’t spoken a word since they left the complex; she had always been a quiet one, but not this quiet, it was plain to see that she was in deep shock, Cassie worried about what would happen if she snapped.

For now they crept on, Jim led the way; gun raised, Sarah was behind Cassie, her hands tightly gripping her waist, and Greg behind Sarah. Cassie squinted over to the other side where the other three were equally close to their vehicle. Connor led, then Richard, then Carol.

Something caught the corner of Cassie’s blackening eye and the other team froze, she nearly bumped into Jims back as he stopped in front of her.

A first gen’ had hopped lithely up onto the other husky and was sitting on the bonnet peering in the windscreen at Gary. Cassie could feel her heart beating in her chest, she could feel it pulsing in her swollen eyes and broken nose, making her whistle very slightly as she breathed out. Slowly it turned to look at Conner, he tried to turn his gun to it but it was too fast. It leapt at Conner like a cat, landing with its feet on his stomach and hands on his shoulders; he managed to fire a few bullets into it as it flew through the air, but none of them managed to kill it. Conner fell to the ground, the first gen’ straddling him and biting into his throat, he tried to turn the rifle to shoot it but it was too late. He dropped the gun.

Carol ran. Surprisingly, Richard did not; he picked up the gun and started firing bullet after bullet into the first gen, long after it had flopped lifelessly to the ground he kept firing till the gun clicked empty. He didn’t notice the other one on top of the truck; he just stared at the motionless corpses, even as it took him down.

Jim was pulling her along, Sarah pushing from behind towards the Husky. They couldn’t make it, they were everywhere!

The other Husky burst into life: its bright lights dazzling in the moonlight. ‘
He’s abandoning us!’
Cassie thought for a moment, but he wasn’t, he was distracting them, leading them away. The side door slammed shut as Gary shot forward and disappeared into the night.

They made it to the Husky, gently closing the doors behind them.

“Carol, we have to back for Carol,” Cassie begged Ethan.

“I’m sorry Cass, We can’t, it’s too late.”

He started the engine, and turned on the lights. A mass of crooked faces slowly turned to them in the headlights: some more skeletal than human, shredded and lipless faces; and the eyes, those dead eyes looked right into her soul. Cassie felt her heart sink and her skin crawl as they looked at her. They started their march towards them.

Ethan surged the truck, tyres spinning on the gravel, into them encountering much more resistance than they expected, the tyres continued to spin slowly pushing the rotting bodies back but not pushing over them.

“Roof gun, Sir?” Jim asked eagerly

“I think that may be our only way out....” Ethan started.

“Wait!” shouted Cassie, “Don’t open the hatch!” She could see the first gen’s working their way through the crowd, they didn’t just push through; they clawed and clambered their way over them. Cassie could see three of them and they were all headed towards the Husky, they were far too close to risk letting them in.

Bright lights suddenly appeared to their right and the other Husky barrelled through the crowd of corpses before them, a wave of fetid blood spayed over the windscreen as they finally started making headway through the clotted mess.

Gary, unfortunately, lost control of the Husky whilst ploughing through the creatures and clearing the road for them, his tyres slid off of the road on the gruesome filth beneath them and he crashed viciously into the gable end of a house; the Husky sat there for a few seconds, a mangle of twisted metal, before erupting in a giant fireball. Cassie felt the heat on her face and the truck shook beneath her, she had to shield her swollen tear filled eyes from the bright light of the explosion as it threw a grim golden light over the nights darkness.

How could things be going so terribly? They weren’t even out of the complex twenty four hours and already they had lost so many; Cassie started to list the names: Her father, Mr MacMillan, all of the soldiers in the complex, Dominic, Brian, Nathan, Richard, Conner, Gary. Cassie was sure that she could hear a scream from the house as they drove away.

___________________________

Caroline made it back to the house and slammed the door behind her. She fell to the ground sobbing with her back against what she hoped to be a sturdy hardwood barricade between her and the monsters outside.

How could they
do
this to her?
Why
would they do this? The bunker was
safe
! They hadn’t even given her an
option
. Leave and live or stay and die? Leave and
live
indeed...? They had sentenced her to death without even having the common decency to honour her with a trial. How could they
do
this to her?

She could hear one of the cars driving away.
Now
they were abandoning her! It was safer in the house anyway!

‘
Safe as houses...!’
She felt a bump against the door; she yelped and scurried her way into the lounge crawling under the various blankets that had been left there. The other car had started to drive away.

‘Let them drive away! They will all
die
out there. She was safe here. Safe as houses...! Safe as houses...!’
The other car wasn’t leaving; it was just revving its engine and making quite a racket about it.

‘They
will
all die out there.’
She could hear screeching, screaming, moaning, a terrible roar and a great thud.

‘They
are
all dying out there.’
A great orange light lit up the curtains of the lounge and the windows exploded into the room with an ear shattering ‘boom,’ it shredded the thin material into tatters, cutting her face and her forearms as she put them up to protect her eyes.

The moaning grew louder. She pulled the blankets up over her face.

‘Safe as houses...! Safe as houses...!’
The car drove away.

‘Safe as houses...!’
A soft thud, someone was in the room, the shuffling sound of feet on broken glass.

‘Safe as houses...!’
It sounded like someone was choking, groaning. Another thud. They grew closer.

‘Safe as houses safe as houses...!’
She felt a tugging on the blanket. She squeezed her eyes closed as the blanket was torn away. She threw her hands over her eyes to hide from the monsters looming over her, wishing them away.

‘Safe as houses safeas houses safeashouses...!’
She felt vicious tugging at her slender legs. Pain! Nails tore at her clothes and skin, pulling at her arms, wrenching them away from her face.

‘Safeashouses...!’
So much pain! She refused to open her eyes, even as the teeth sunk into her soft skin; skin that she had struggled to keep so tender and smooth, so blemish free since the acne days of her youth. She refused to open them.

‘Who was screaming?’
Even over the repugnant sound of the monsters slurping and slavering, she could hear it, a shrill cry of agony that filled her mind.

‘Safe as houses...!’
Slowly, the pain began to fade. She started to float free from her body as it was tossed and torn violently across the room.

‘Safe as....’
Even with her eyes shut the world spun round and folded in over her in the darkness.

Darkness became a blackening.

Blackening became a peace.

Peace became a hunger.

_________________________

Cassie tried to open her eyes. My god did her nose hurt; she ached all over. How the hell had she managed to fall asleep? She forced her eyes open. It was daylight, morning she guessed, her head was so fuzzy she couldn’t think straight. She looked over to Ethan.

Shock took her as she sat bolt upright. Where is he? Completely awake now she scanned around outside, no one was there, just a twisted mess of cars and trucks in front of her; the road was completely blocked.

“It’s ok, dear. The boys have just gone out to see if there is any possible way around this mess.” It was Sarah’s voice. A comforting hand reached over from behind and held her shoulder. “I thought it best if I wait here with you.”

“Where are we?”

“I’m not exactly sure, Sergeant Rigby said that we hadn’t really travelled that far, not as far as he would have liked anyway, somewhere outside Penrith I think. We may have to travel south.”

“South? But we need to be moving east!”

“I know, dear. Sergeant Rigby said something about the Lake District being ‘an awkward bitch that should have been levelled years ago’ or something like that, I always thought it was quite pretty myself.”

Cassie just made a light grunting noise as a response and popped the door open to take a look around for herself.

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that, dear. Sergeant Rigby said to stay in the car!”

“I just need to stretch my legs, Sarah. I think I’m getting a cramp.”

“Well then, you had better take this.” Sarah stretched out her arm, in her hand she daintily held a pistol “I really wouldn’t know what to do with it anyway.”

“Sarah! Where did you get this?” Cassie asked, shocked, she took the gun; it was a lot heavier than she expected it to be.

“Sergeant Rigby gave it to me before he left. We are to fire a shot if the zombies find us, we are to hide otherwise!”

Cassie climbed out of the Husky; her legs complained after being locked in the same position for so long, she placed the pistol behind her belt, put her hands on her hips and stretched her back till it gave her the satisfying ‘crick’ that she had become accustomed to over the years.

Sarah’s head popped out of the Husky window, “The red dot means the safety is on, by the way!” Cassie just looked back at her confused “The pistol...!” Sarah explained.

“Oh! Right! Thanks!”

Cassie walked around the Husky to get a better look at the traffic ahead. Beyond the heap of crashed cars traffic stretched out as far as she could see. ‘
Why would they even consider trying to get around this
,’ she thought, ‘
and
where the hell are they?’

“You shouldn’t be out here on your own!”

Cassie turned round to see Ethan, Jim and Greg walking towards her.

“I’m not on my own. Am I?”

“I guess not,” Ethan said with a smile, “We just had a look around, doesn’t look like we are going to find a way around this. We are going to have to double back.”

“Yeah, I thought as much,” Cassie said sullenly, “How far back do you think we have to go?”

“Only a couple of miles, though it is tough going having to weave around the traffic.” Cassie had a look behind them; the cars stretched out just as they did before them. How had they managed to squeeze though as far as they had? “It could take an hour or so. I think we would be better heading off road again if we get the chance, we would make better time.”

“Sounds like a plan. But first, can we eat? I’m starving.”

They ate as they weaved their way back through the traffic; it was some kind of fruity granola bar which tasted only a little better than it looked. The driving was so slow going that Cassie found herself being thankful that she had been able to sleep through it the first time.

It was when they were nearing their exit to the right that they began to notice scatterings of second gens making their way through the cars towards them. Jim took it upon himself to expertly place bullets into the brains of members of the undead that got a little too close for comfort, using a specialised, silenced sniper rifle from the roof hatch; Cassie was pleased to note that he took no pleasure in the task, seeing it as more of a chore than an opportunity.

“What’s that?” Greg said, leaning through the gap in the front seats and pointing out of the windscreen.