Dead Ahead (26 page)

The bastard had the audacity to snigger! Frank took the butt of the rifle and smashed it into his face, “Laugh no more, heathen,
heretic
!

“I have a gift for you, Caleb! Call it a farewell gift for the little good you have done in your life!” Frank picked up one of the towel bags and slung it at the fool, he lurched back as the bag landed in his lap and moved, “open it!” he didn’t move, “
Open it
!”

Frank watched with anticipation as Caleb slowly untied the ends of the towel and unfolded it. A grey and withered hand shot out of the bag and grabbed Caleb by the throat.

Carrying what was left of Caleb’s father all this way had been quite the burden, but it was all paying off now. Caleb was struggling desperately with the surprisingly lively half corpse and blood seeped down the traitor’s collar as the fingernails dug in deep,
‘bleed as we bled for you’
the angels sang!

“Can you kill him
now
, Caleb?” Frank screamed at him, he heard the boy scream something but Frank only trained the barrel of the rifle at him to shut him up; his time would come! “Do you
want
to kill him now, Caleb? Just say the word and I
may
help you!” Frank laughed with glee as traitor and corpse fell to the floor in a tangle, but before Frank could say a word there was a sharp black blade in Caleb’s hand and he pushed it deep into the old coot’s eye; the part corpse fell lifelessly to the floor. The traitor looked up at Frank with a bloodlust in his eye and twitched as if to move, but he saw the gun pointed at his son and thought better of it; just as well, Frank wanted the boy to see his father die!

Frank was livid “Drop the fucking knife, traitor!” he screamed “Drop it or we blow the back out of this little fucks face!”

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go! The old coot was supposed to bite Caleb, then the boy would watch him turn, and then Caleb would eat the boy; that was the plan! Caleb had no right to mess with the plan!

He dropped the knife, “Good,” Frank said hesitantly, “Right... umm....” Caleb had messed with the plan; he wasn’t allowed to mess with the plan, now he had to come up with a whole new plan! He looked to the angels,
‘kill them’
they cried, “But we want them to suffer,” Frank whispered.

“Let the boy go, Frank,” the traitor interrupted, “It was me that left you behind, the boy hates me for it! Just, please let the boy go! I will do anything you ask!”

“You
will
do anything we ask, but we see no reason to let him go, let’s just call him our little guarantee, eh?”

“But he is an innocent! Surely the angels can see that?”

“No one is innocent! Everyone is doomed, and everyone is damned until their rebirth! You will not be reborn now, Caleb; you saw to that when you killed your father, your soul can not be cleansed and so you are hell bound. We are your reaper, Caleb, Your angels of death, heed our name or feel our wrath. Repent. Repent! Beg us for forgiveness so that we may save your soul, for your life is already forfeit.

Repent!

The treacherous fool attempted to attack, a wild and reckless attack; he threw himself from the sofa towards Franks waist, screaming at the boy to make a run for it. All Frank had to do was lift a knee to connect with the fool’s chest and Caleb went down; the boy didn’t move a muscle.

Frank looked down upon the pitiful wretch that lay at his feet, “Maybe we
are
right? Maybe we
should
just kill you now? You have fallen so
far
, and
so
fast; our
general
, the leader of our army, to
this
!” Frank gestured down at the pathetic heap on the floor; the traitor tried to rise and Frank planted a boot into his stomach, “This is how it has to be!” Frank said as he pointed the rifle at the fool, and pulled the trigger.

Chapter

19

Meltdown

Caleb’s body struggled desperately to pull air into his winded lungs as he collapsed down onto the thick purple rug.

“Maybe we
are
right?” Frank said.

The words seemed distant. Caleb had to move, he had to get up and attack this madman before he could hurt Brandon. But his body refused; managing only to pull in a couple more staggered breaths.

“Maybe we
should
just kill you now?”

Caleb’s chest burned and his thoughts turned against him. How could he have let this happen? Why didn’t he block up the windows? Why had he fallen asleep? Someone always had to keep watch!

“You have fallen so
far
; and
so
fast”

‘I have to get up! I
have
to get up!’
Caleb told himself, and strained against his aching muscles.

“Our
general
; the leader of our army, to
this
!”

Caleb forced himself to his knees and pushed as hard as he could with his hands, if he could only lock an arm round Frank’s leg he could drop him, maybe into the fire? He raised his right hand to hook the knee but the wet steel toe capped boot swung up sharply into Caleb’s gut, dropping him face down back to the rug.

“This is how it has to be!”

‘I’m sorry, Brandon’
were Caleb’s last thoughts before the ‘crack’ of the gunshot rendered him deaf and everything went black. He felt the pain as the bullet thudded between his shoulder blades, it wasn’t as sore as he expected it to be, but at least he was still feeling pain; pain meant he was still alive, and if he was still alive then he still had a chance to save Brandon. He could hear the boy shouting now.

“Dad...!
Dad...!
”

But why was it so dark, and what was that hissing noise?

Light flooded the room from the fireplace as Caleb watched Frank pull himself screaming from the blazing hearth; he darted across the dining room with glowing embers trailing in his wake and smashed through a window on the opposite side of the room. Gunshots rang out from the adjacent window as he fled, but Caleb couldn’t be sure if any of them landed on target, he had no idea what was going on!

Caleb was desperately trying to reach to his back to feel the bullet wound when Brandon appeared by his side, the boy put his hand on the wound, “How bad is it?” Caleb cried.

“Where did he get you?” The boy sobbed.

“My back; where your hand is!”

“There’s nothing there, Dad!”

Caleb tried to move his leg, fearing that the bullet had severed his spinal cord; thankfully, he drew his knee up on the right hand side and he pulled the rest of his body upright.

“You alright mate?” came a voice from the shadows; as he drew into the light of the fire, Caleb could see that it was another figure dressed in army garb and holding a rifle, he was dripping wet; he had a good strong jaw that had a thick layer of stubble on it that couldn’t be more than a couple of days old, he had white wings of hair above his ears that caught the light from the fire and only accentuated the dark  patches where Caleb should be able to see his eyes, as he moved across the room, he did so with a confident stride; he was definitely not a man with whom to fuck!

“Did he get you?” the stranger asked.

“I thought he shot me in the back, but I must have been wrong!” Caleb answered noticing four other people clamber in through the window.

“Nah, I’m pretty sure I got my shot off first, he dropped the rifle on your back when he fell into the fire; it looked like it must have hurt, you sure that you’re ok!”

“Well, I’m better than I would have been if you hadn’t shot him. Thanks!”

“I only shot him in the shoulder, he should survive, Jim is out there having a quick look to see if he is still around; I’m Ethan by the way!”

“Caleb, and this is Brandon,” when Caleb looked to the boy he had lost interest in his old man altogether and was more interested in the group that were huddling in round the fire.

“This is Sarah,” the short lady with bright curly red hair gave a timid wave between wiping rain droplets from her glasses, “that’s Zoe,” a dark skinned young girl who was toting a shotgun gave a quiet ,“Hi.” as she peeled off a jacket that obviously hadn’t been designed to cope with a heavy downpour, “that’s Greg,” there was an blatant hint of animosity in Ethan’s voice when he said Greg’s name and the robust man only gave a harrumph as a response, “and this is Cassie,” Ethan’s voice changed completely at the mention of her name, and why wouldn’t it? She had two yellowing black eyes from where she had clearly taken a blow to the nose, but beyond that it was easy to see that she was a beautiful woman; her long blonde hair was clinging to her face as she brushed it away, and her wet clothes were clinging to her body.... Caleb had to drag his eyes away from her bosom, and pulled himself to his feet.

“Hi there.” She had a sweet English accent that only complimented her beauty. How long had it been since Caleb had even
seen
a woman? A living one anyway. “Who
was
that guy?” she asked politely.

“That, I’m afraid, was Frank.” Caleb said with a wince.

“A friend of yours...?”

“Not exactly,” he laughed, “We had been travelling with him for a few days, but we didn’t really see eye to eye.”

“Really...? He looked such a pleasant fellow!” the sarcasm came from the other soldier; he had a strong Yorkshire accent and was now climbing in the window and drawing it closed behind him.

“And that’s Jim” said Ethan who was over at the broken window that frank had escaped out of.

“....Pleased to meet you, Jim.” Caleb said.

“You too, Jock are you? What you doing down this way?”

“We were down here when it all kicked off really,” Caleb didn’t really want go into all of the details of his past so decided to keep it simple.

“What the fuck is that?” someone shouted, Caleb assumed that it was Greg as he was stood over by the couch.

“That’s.... was, my father,” Caleb said solemnly as he walked over to the deformed half corpse, “a parting gift from Frank.” Caleb took the large tablecloth from the corner and wrapped his father in it; he then placed him comfortably in a chair through in the next room.

“What the hell did you do to piss him off so much?” Jim asked as Caleb came back through.

“Frank...?”

“Yeah...!”

“Well, we.... I mean,
I
kind’a ditched him yesterday,” Caleb noticed Brandon shoot him an accusing glance that he hoped no one else saw.

“Why did you ditch him?” Sarah asked incredulously.

“He was just plain schizo! I couldn’t trust him!”

“Schizo?” Sarah asked.

“Schizophrenic, he talked to angels in his head; he even believes he is one of them now!”

“Ha! He did sound a bit preachy,” Ethan said, “I thought it was someone taking a sermon till I saw you laying on the floor with a rifle pointed at you.”

“Yeah, well I hope that was the last I see of him, but I doubt it! He still has a pistol and maybe some grenades,” Caleb slowly bent over and lifted Frank’s rifle from the rug and slung it over his shoulder, “Please, everyone, pull up a chair and heat yourselves by the fire; if you can’t get a seat, the rug is plenty comfy, trust me! 

“I’m sure you are all cream crackered, so make yourselves at home. I have had some sleep so I will take watch at the broken window; I don’t think I could sleep any more tonight anyway!” Caleb pulled up one of the last remaining dining chairs to the window and placed his tired bones upon it, “You might want to post a watch at one of the other windows too, just in case he comes back!” there was no need for him to explain who ‘he’ was.

The small group all busied themselves around the fire; Jim took up position by the other window with his fancy looking rifle on his lap, Caleb couldn’t help but notice that the barrel was pointed more towards him than the window, but he could respect that, he wasn’t sure how much he could trust these people either. It was startlingly refreshing to have new people around who were happy to converse in idle chitchat around the fire while they prepared themselves some food. Brandon pointed them towards a large bathroom on the ground floor where the lady’s could get changed out of their wet clothes, the boy was smart enough to warn them about venturing upstairs and hinted at what they may find if they do, he was very tactful for a young lad; Ethan went with them to guard the door as they did, and Greg took the opportunity to change in front of the fire, at which point Caleb was happy to stare out into the rain drenched night; he would have been happier to see Frank appear out of the darkness than to glimpse the sight of Greg’s full buttocks again!

The women returned and everyone sat down to their meal, which smelled delicious; even though he had already eaten, Caleb wouldn’t have minded a bowl full of whatever it was they were eating, it wasn’t long before Cassie approached him with two bowls and offered him one of them, Caleb took it gratefully.

“How long have you been out here?” Cassie asked between mouthfuls of the tomato and bean casserole/soup.

“Out here on this island, or just out here in all this?” Caleb gestured widely with his hands.

Cassie let out a small chuckle that lit up her face “Both, I guess!”

Caleb spread a small smile cross his face too, letting their eyes meet in the dark, “This is our first night on the island, but it seems like a good stronghold, I’m not sure how long it will take for the Infected to reach us though!”

“The Infected...? Is that what you call the firsts, the running ones?”

“Yeah, Firsts...? Where does that come from?”

“First Gen’s, the First Generation of....” she hesitated, “Zombies!”

“Ha! You still feel daft saying it, don’t you?”

“Yeah...! It just doesn’t feel right, does it?”

“None of this feels right, Cassie.” He said solemnly. He left a brief pause before asking, “You haven’t been out in it for long, have you?”

“No, we haven’t, we were in an underground facility until only a few days ago. How did you know?”

“You all seem so.... happy! I don’t want to dampen your spirits, but it does take its toll on you being out here. Why did you leave?”

Cassie regaled her story to him, she told him about Major Michaels and her father, and all the other people that their group had already lost. He told her about everything; Sam, his parents and frank, their wild ride down the Sprint, he even told her about the cow turning into a zombie; she was so candid with him that he felt that he couldn’t hide the truth from her, he told her how he had abandoned Frank to die and for some reason that he couldn’t fathom, she actually sympathised with him about it.

Then she told him about Michaels’ plan and Sellafield.

“What?” he burst out of his chair, “He put Sellafield into meltdown? How, what exactly did he do?”

“I don’t know, but we should have four days to get there!” Cassie said, startled.

“Four days! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” Caleb started pacing, running the parameters in his head.

“What’s the problem?” Greg asked, “We still have four more days till it goes critical!”

“Till it goes critical, what do you mean? By now the plant could be so inaccessible that, even with the wind blowing to the west, you couldn’t even approach it without a radiation suit! If we don’t get the fuck out of here the long term effects of the leak will be irreversible! We have to leave, we have to leave
now
!”

“Excuse me, mate,” Greg said in an overwhelmingly arrogant manner, “But what makes you think that your calculations are better than mine?”

“Well.... I have been on the safety inspection team for every nuclear power plant in the UK for
five
years now; if that doesn’t qualify me then I don’t know what will? But that is beside the point,” Caleb said dismissively, “How was the reactor programmed, what
exactly
was set into action, and
how
?”

Greg was deflated by Caleb’s announcement but he soon puffed back up to his former glory, “The CPU in the DGVMC was linked directly into the Sellafield mainframe: allowing complete remote access to the core directives and most aspects of the plant,” Caleb felt exasperated; he actually sounded proud of what was happening, “I had to hack through some pretty stern firewalls and subroutines, but I eventually managed to shut off the cooling systems!”

“Wait a minute!” Caleb interrupted, “
You
actually did this!
You
hacked into the Sellafield security systems yourself? For Christ’s sake man, why?”

Greg stammered, “It.... It was Michaels; he said he would shoot me if I didn’t!”

“It would have been better if he had!” Caleb said, receiving a chuckle from Ethan, “Right, anyway, was it the cooling rods, the pumps or both that you shut down?”