Dead Ahead (33 page)

Jim tried to lift the pistol but Knox simply kicked it from his hand like it was a child’s toy; he placed one of those size twelve’s on Jim’s chest.

“Where’s the women, Ford? Or do I start plucking?”

_________________________

It was dark when he woke. How long had he been out? Dust filled his mouth as he drew in through ragged lungs. It wasn’t dark, it was pitch black. Ethan recalled it all, the explosions, the falling, the earth swallowing him whole; he cursed the world.

He tried to move his arm, it felt like it was under him but it couldn’t be, when it moved something small fell onto his face and rolled down and off of his cheek. He pushed up and something heavy slid off to the side of him, not far, it stopped just beside him and hit something solid. Ethan reached out with his free arm and felt the dry concrete above him, more dust rained down on his face; he reached to his pocket where his torch was and flicked the switch, it flickered twice then gave out a solid steady beam through the dust.

It was a just a hole in the ground, not much bigger than himself, it was a miracle that his body had fallen into it; it was a terrible situation to be stuck in, but it had saved his life.

Ethan tried to move his leg to reach the knife in his boot but a searing pain shot up his leg, he had to twist his body awkwardly to see the problem, which sent the pains shooting again; after craning his neck round he could see that his calf muscle had been pinched between two large lumps of debris, his leg was twisted to the side so the bone wasn’t damaged, least he hoped it wasn’t, and the upper slab of concrete hadn’t fallen completely to the ground but had stopped inches away from going clean down through his leg. The main problem, though, was that his boot knife was in the boot attached to his crushed leg, and it was the only means that Ethan could think of for freeing his leg.

He let his head drop back down to the dirt in exhaustion with a loud crack, like someone knocking a coconut off of its stand at the fare; he took two deep breaths, he couldn’t take too many as he didn’t know how much air there was, and wrenched himself as far up and to the side as he could, gritting his teeth against the pain; the fingers of his left hand grazed gently against the hilt of the knife, almost enough to ease it out of the sheath, he wrenched further pressing his face hard against the dusty slab above him, his index and forefinger pinched the handle and slid off,
‘why had he bought the brass pommel knife? Damn him!’
he strained again, the pain in his leg was draining but he contorted himself harder and tenderly eased the knife further and further form the sheath till at last he had the blade in his hand.

‘That was the easy part!’
The blood was dripping down his leg soaking into his trousers from the wound in his calf; he shone the light down to assess the damage, using the knife he cut away the material of his trousers to get a better look, it didn’t seem too bad, the slab wasn’t pressing too hard against most of his flesh but there was a strange bulge to the back of his calf that didn’t look like it was because of the pressure upon it. Carefully he slid the blade of the knife between the slab and his leg, it slipped in easier than he expected but soon came to some resistance, he traced round it with the back edge of the blade so as not to blunt it; there was only a small area putting pressure on his leg, much to his pain he put more pressure on the muscle to try to see what it was, and just before the gush of blood blocked it out he snatched a glimpse of the inch thick rod of steel reinforcing that had been driven through his leg.

“Ba-a-a-h!” he shouted at the rubble around him, his voice sounding flat and cold in the confined space. He looked to the blackening bulge at the side of his leg and then to the shining blade of the knife; he took the blade in his teeth and unbuckled his belt, pulling the fine Italian leather from around his waist and strapping it tightly just below his knee, the end was just long enough to grip with his teeth when he removed the blade, he would need something to bite into when he started cutting.

The blade rested against his skin longer than he should have let it, he knew that he should just cut and be done with it, but still he hesitated; he had to fight his body’s natural desire for self preservation, he wrestled with himself, blade shaking in his hand. He had to free himself; if that wasn’t self preservation he didn’t know what was. He felt the blade slicing slowly through the already bruised and tender meat of his leg and howled into the thick leather strip; he cut neatly down the steel bar, one end to the other and felt the taught flesh peel away as his hand was covered in the wet stickiness of his own blood.

The leg snapped away from the slab and steel as the last fibre of muscle was sliced through; he cut away the torn leg from his trousers and tied it tightly around the wound to stem the flow of blood and lay back. He was breathing heavily and was feeling feint, he had lost too much blood; he had never been good with losing blood, not his own anyway, giving blood or any bad gashes and he would start feeling dizzy, it wasn’t the best trait for a soldier, but you can’t fight natural instincts of the body. Luckily he was prepared; a Cadbury’s Caramel, if he remembered correctly, was in his top pocket; probably smooshed out of recognition, but it would give the desired sugar rush to clear his head. He devoured the sweet snack with relish, not caring for manners or decorum; there was still much to do.

Ethan scanned the rubble around him with the torch, probing parts of it with the point of the knife trying to find an area that was safe to move without it all falling down on top of him. Slowly he made progress, moving one piece then another then kicking it down to his feet when a part was free, worming himself along though the dirt. He was actually feeling good about his chances for a while, till he reached a slab of solid concrete in front of him. He probed and poked around him trying to find something, anything that would move, but it was hopeless.

He lay back, the torch flickered in his hand; he could feel that it had been crushed slightly during the fall. How long would it last? How long would
he
last? Ethan couldn’t decide which was the best way to die; should he just lie there until his oxygen ran out or maybe untie the rag around his leg and let himself bleed out? It shouldn’t take too long either way.

He felt the rumble before he heard it, the whole pile of rubble vibrated beneath him raining dirt into his face. All thoughts of his mortality were thrown to the wind by the fear of a lump of concrete landing upon him; he didn’t want to die, not in this hole.

Light, light through a crack above him. He couldn’t believe it; he had almost given up and he was so close to the surface that he could actually reach up and poke his fingers up into the light above. He started digging furiously above him, dragging the damp dust and rubble towards him and pulling himself up towards the light, pushing both hands out in front of him he reached for freedom.

Something grabbed his hands and pulled,
‘Oh God no!’
he thought, picturing himself being dragged from the ground like a carrot and eaten alive by some filthy zombie; he tried to pull back.

“Eh? Bah! What you doing you daft bastard?” a muffled voice came from above; it wasn’t a zombie. Cut and bloodied hands dived into the hole and pulled back at the edges making it much larger, large enough to fit through, Ethan reached out and gratefully allowed him to be dragged free.

They both lay atop the wet rubble catching their breath.

“I saw you jump, I saw you fall into the hole; got here quick as I could.”

It wasn’t! Ethan looked over to the man that had saved his life. It bloody was! It was
Greg
, fuck sake; Ethan would never live this one down.

“Cheers mate!” Ethan said between breaths, “Thought I would never get out of there.”

“No probs. Is your leg ok? We better be moving.”

“I will have a bit of a limp but I should be ok. Where are the others? Was that the reactor going...? What, what is it?” Greg was giving him a very strange look before saying.

“Have you been eating chocolate?”

Chapter

26

Fetid Flesh

White’s head popped like a balloon, spraying Sully’s face with blood; he panicked and ran for the Land Rover, almost making a dive for the back but changed to under it instead, he crawled all the way under the shaking vehicle to the front where he planted himself against the front bumper and realised that it wasn’t just the truck that was shaking but the ground too.

Shouts came from the other vehicle “Did anyone get the snipers position?”

“Negative!”

“Nothing here...!”

“Check the thermals!”

“Nothing on the scope, the whole place is lighting up, I can’t get a true reading!”

“Right!” that was definitely Michaels’ voice, “Everyone back in the truck! Not you, Barnes....” Sully didn’t hear what Michaels said to Barnes but soon heard the pistons on the tailgate hiss closed leaving him out in the cold. “Sully,” Barnes said as he appeared round the side of the Land Rover, “Michaels wants you to go inside and locate Harper and his hostages, bring them out the front exit!”

Sully froze, if he made a break for it the sniper could pick him off, if it was Ford then he definitely would. He could just see White’s boots poking out from beyond the bonnet of the Land Rover where he fell, pristine and shiny like always; White had always kept his boots shiny, even after it all fell apart, Sully had never been able to get his to shine like that.

“Now: soldier!” Barnes shouted.

Sully ran for it, scuffed boots pounding down the tarmac road; he should really have parked closer to the building. He dived into the broken window and rolled across the tiny glass squares on the floor, not stopping till he was safely behind the desk; if Ford had shot and missed he would never know.

Now; where the fuck is Harper? You would think that he would bring Cassie down to present to Michaels; Harper had always had a soft spot for Cassie though, maybe he was... No he couldn’t be. Sully was disgusted at the thought, he couldn’t imagine doing that to anyone;
he
hadn’t even went with the prossies when all the other lads were at it,
‘Fuckin’ filthy if you ask me,’
he thought
‘if Harper
is
at it then he is going to get a crack on the back of the head from me’
. It was all talk, even to himself; he dreaded catching Harper at it because he didn’t really know
what
he would do.

The place was like a maze. How was he supposed to find anything round here? He made his way up two flights of stairs and along a few corridors, until he stumbled across a sign that said ‘Control Centre’, blessing his luck he skipped round the corner and started climbing the set of stairs.

Another pair of boots were pointed at him, definitely not White’s; these ones were well used, the tread worn right down on the inside heel of each boot from an uncommon step, they could only belong to Harper. Sully rushed up the remaining steps to check his pulse, but there was no need, Harper had a bullet hole right between his eyes and most of the back of his head was missing. Sully wrestled with whether or not to call the news in on the radio but was distracted by a repetitive beeping coming from the control room; he decided to venture further before calling it in.

The room was full of machines and computers that Sully would never know the meaning of, a large glass window looked out over a gangway and a pool filled with deep blue water, a series of orange warning lights were flashing through there, it didn’t look good. Only one computer screen was lit up and it seemed to be moving in sequence with the beeping; Sully moved closer.

Beep: Four....

Fuck....

Beep: Three....

....my....

Beep: Two....

....fucking....

Beep: One....

....life!

Beep: Zero!

A moment passed where nothing happened, but that moment was his last.

___________________________

Caleb burst out of the front entrance of Thorp with Cassie close behind. Straight away they were faced with a mass of broken concrete and twisted metal; the ruins of the building that Ethan had been in.

“Oh, God. You don’t think Ethan is still in there do you?”

“If he is, then I don’t hold much hope for his chances,” Caleb said solemnly.

“That.... wasn’t us, was it?”

“Not a chance. This was the work of your army friends.”

Caleb spotted movement to the left of the rubble heap and pulled Cassie away to the right.

“No, Wait!” He heard distantly, “Not that way!”

He looked back long enough to see Greg stood on top of the pile waving his arms. How the hell was he still alive?

“What? What’s going on?” Cassie said, “Is that
Greg
?”

“Looks like it, and holy shit, he’s got Ethan with him too.”

They ran back excitedly until they saw the state of Ethan’s leg, it didn’t look good but Ethan brushed it off nonchalantly.

“There is a breach in the fence at the shore side where that Land Rover smashed its way in,” Greg explained, “the dead are pouring in and spreading out along the west of the complex, our only hope is to head east.”

“North or south would be better,” Ethan said “The crowd is thinner.”

Suddenly the tank thundered round the corner behind them.

“Decision made!” Caleb shouted, “Let’s move!”

They all ran together towards the east of the plant, hauling Ethan along as best they could, they took a turn towards the north to try to lose the tank in the maze of buildings within the complex; but just as they turned to run down the side of the building a large dark green flash fell from the sky above and landed with a wet thud in front of them. It took a moment for Caleb to realise what it was until Cassie started screaming.

“That’s not.... is that Jim?” Greg asked in disbelief.

Caleb looked up to see a large figure atop the building above them; he looked to be pointing something.

“Move...!” Caleb shouted trying to snap the others out of it; the tank was fast approaching as he looked back.

Another dull thud shook the ground; twenty minutes hadn’t been enough, they were still in the collateral zone for the drop of Thorp, they had to move fast. The ground beneath them heaved.

“Run, R-u-u-u-n!!” Caleb shouted and finally the others started to move, “Keep to the middle of the road, these buildings may fall!”

Even Ethan managed to put his pain aside and they all bolted for the end of the road, they had to reach the intersection to be clear of danger. The sound of the cracking concrete echoed around them and the ground beneath them split into fractures, falling into nothingness behind them. Caleb snatched another glimpse behind to see the tank thundering between the crevices in the road, the ground fell away from its right and they veered off to the left nearly colliding with the building as they doubled back and round to escape falling into the pit.

They were nearing the intersection, not far till the safe zone; they called it the ‘safe zone’, but it was all just a theory, no one truly knew how far would be effected by ‘dropping Thorp’, Caleb was about to find out.

A large crack opened up in the ground in front of them, Cassie and Greg made it safely over before it opened widely and the ground sloped back towards Thorp; Ethan tried to jump, but he tried jumping with his
bad
leg and stumbled right in front of Caleb, leaving him no option but to slam into the back of him, pushing him over the gap. Unfortunately for Caleb, it stalled him in mid air above the rent in the earth.

Caleb’s legs fell deep into the pit beneath him, he expected to fall forever, but with a jarring twist to his shoulder he was left dangling in mid air by one hand; the Naginata had bridged the gap above him and stalled his fall, but the edges of the ever widening gap was grinding heavily against the shaft of the pole.

“Give me your hand!” Cassie called, her beautiful face appearing above him. Caleb reached out and grabbed her slender wrist, swinging himself to the edge and allowing him to be hauled up by numerous hands. Just in the nick of time he reached back and snatched the Naginata from the abyss just before it fell.

Caleb looked round to assess the damage; Thorp was gone, taking most of the buildings around it with it, the billion pound complex was reduced to nothing but a hole in the ground topped with rubble; a large red section of the roof was still poking out but that was the only bit he could recognise.

“What now?” Cassie asked.

“I guess we keep heading north.” Caleb said and looked to Ethan for confirmation who nodded his head while wincing in pain as he put some weight on his injured leg.

Just as they turned to move off a bullet ricochet off of the ground beside them; Caleb looked up to see the same looming figure still atop the building across from where Thorp stood, it looked like it was sitting at an odd angle now, the figure dropped something to one side and bent to pick up something else. Everyone turned and ran at the same time.

“It’s Knox,” shouted Ethan as he limped along, “He’s not much of a sniper but he will be switching to a fully auto. Get round the side of the building and we should be safe!”

They rounded the building but dared not to stop again, they slowed to a jog to match Ethan’s pace, he looked to be moving as fast as he could.

“If we take a right at the end here we may be able to lose them further in,” Caleb said, “But we have to take a left next to avoid the main reactor drop site, we don’t want to go anywhere near there.”

Caleb lead them further through the maze of buildings that was Sellafield, all the while he could hear the engine of the tank racing between the buildings searching for them; they had to hide more than once to avoid capture  but eventually they neared the north gate.

Caleb could hear the moans of the dead long before he saw them; they rounded the corner, on the verge of freedom, only to be confronted by swathes of rotting corpses pushed hard against the fence to make a solid wall of writhing fetid flesh.

All four of them skidded to a halt.

“Shit!” said Greg, “What do we do now?”

“I guess we look for another exit,” said Cassie.

“Another exit, and where are we going to find one of them?” Greg said sulkily.

“Well let’s look at our options shall we?” Said Ethan, “The place is surrounded by the dead, but the majority of them are to the east so that’s a no go, the south of the plant is far too far away to get to, plus we would run the risk of Michaels catching us if we went back into the centre.”

“If the dead are coming in through a gap in the west,” asked Caleb, “wouldn’t that thin them out, couldn’t we fight our way through them there? The Infected will be inside already from that are so it should only be the husks we have to deal with.”

“What if we were to work our way along the outer fence from here to the gap in the west?” asked Cassie, “That would keep us away from the rest of the plant at least. Then we could fight our way out somewhere where there are less of them.”

“Well that brings me to our next issue,” said Ethan, “What kind of weapons do we have? I lost my rifle and my sidearm when the building came down; all I have is this blunt knife.”

“I got an iron bar from where I found Ethan.” Greg said lifting up a section of bent steel reinforcement at around a foot and a half long. Ethan winced for some reason when he looked at it.

“I still have the pistol,” added Cassie, “but that’s all.”

All three of them looked to Caleb. “Well I got the staff, obviously, the machete and a selection of other blades; but I lost my rifle when we were attacked by Harper.”

“Harper attacked you?” Ethan asked Cassie, “What happened?”

Cassie’s eyes widened and she looked incredibly uncomfortable with the question, Caleb decided to answer for her, “Cassie, uh.... took care of him.”

Ethan looked shocked but not as shocked as Cassie herself; she only now seemed to be coming to terms with taking another human beings life.

“Right, we had better be moving,” Ethan said changing the subject; but as they all turned to head back the way they had come the Land Rover turned the corner at the end of the road, Caleb turned in the opposite direction but the tank rounded that corner too, finally he turned to look in the third direction, a lone figure stood there in the middle of the road slowly walking towards them.

The enemy closed in from all sides, forcing them back towards the barred gates that separated them from the hoard outside. Nor the roof gun or the rifle held in the hands of the mountainous man striding towards them strayed from them as they approached.

A million thoughts flew through Caleb’s head as they slowly closed in on them, a million missed opportunities to lead them on a different path to deviate from the situation that was now unavoidable, but not one thought of how to escape it.

The tank stopped to their left, the Land Rover to the right with Knox in the middle.

“So here we are,” said Knox in a low grumble, “the traitor, the nerd, the bitch and the.... I don’t know who the hell you are buddy but you landed yourself in the wrong crowd, now drop the stick or you lose your head; all of you, drop your weapons!”