Dead Ahead (36 page)

To her side Cassie saw the two soldiers make it to the perimeter fence and throw themselves upon it, hauling themselves to the top, almost to the top for one of them, Cassie couldn’t tell which one of them was torn from the fence, still clinging to the wires as they started to devour him, but he bought enough time for the faster soldier to reach the the other side and disappear into the lush growth of trees there. Cassie hoped that he would make it, she hoped at least someone would survive this mess: the gunfire and heart wrenching scream she heard moments later, dashed her hopes.

Finally they made it to the mid level of the globe and started running along the railing that encircled it, Michaels sped up a little now that he was on the flat but not enough for Cassie, she found it infuriating that his girth would be the thing that could save him when it should be the very thing that got him killed.

The Infected were close behind, and getting closer, Michaels snatched a look behind them and the terror on his face showed Cassie that she didn’t want to do the same. Cassie saw him reach inside his coat and pull out a pistol, her pistol; he turned around and pointed it at their pursuers. Cassie saw her opportunity and skipped lithely round his inside and ahead of him, she heard the shots being fired and turned to see two of the infected drop, blocking the path for the rest of them and holding them up, but it wouldn’t hold them up for long. Michaels turned and started running again, Cassie did the same, she ran hard, hard as she could; she started to create a gap between Michaels and herself, and started to stretch her lead. She heard another shot from behind her and saw a bullet ricochet off of the metal dome to her left. Cassie spun round, still running.

“What the hell are you doing?” she shouted.

“You have already cost me so much,” he wheezed through his moustache, “I’m not going to lose you now! You will
slow down!
”

“I will do nothing of the sort!” she shouted and ran on, still looking back. Michaels raised the gun, and to her dismay Cassie slowed down; she knew that Michaels wouldn’t hesitate in wounding her to leave her as bait to save his own skin for just a few moments more, so she slowed down.

“Good girl!” he rumbled through a diseased sounding cough.

Cassie ran on, no, she jogged, she jogged so that the fat bastard could keep up; she tried to justify it as saving her energy should he get caught but it was only wasting her lead. She jogged all the way around the globe as the sun caught its metal surface and blinded her momentarily; she moved on to see the decimation that they had brought to the power plant, gaping holes in the earth where sections of the plant used to stand. Hoards of the undead ran and shambled through the streets searching out those who still lived, if there was anyone else alive, bar her and her most foul of company that was.

Eventually they came full circle, only to find more infected streaming up the stairs they had used before: it left only one option, the ladder leading to the top of the globe. Without hesitation Cassie started to climb, Michaels followed at a slower pace but he managed to escape the infected as they struggled to make sense of the ladder. Cassie climbed the ladder and it turned to steps as the globe levelled off at the top, she climbed to nowhere, once at the top they had nowhere to go: they could only but wait.

She gazed out at the plant before her and spun slowly round to see the deep green fields emerge from the other side of the fence and stretch out as far as she could see, she had come so close to escape. Michaels came stomping up to the top of the dome wheezing and panting, gripping the railing for dear life, he had only brought her here to watch her die.

Cassie could hear the infected scrambling up the stairs towards them.

Chapter

28

Blissful Blackness

Caleb saw the question in franks eyes as he spoke to him, he was getting through, making him question himself.

“What happens when you heal, Frank? What happens when they turn on you?” Caleb asked him with hope flowing through him.

Frank’s face changed as his eyes flicked upwards and slowly they rolled back down.

“It won’t work, Caleb!” Frank shouted, with a demonic smile. He slowly drew the pistol from its holster and shakily pointed it at him. “You can’t talk your way out of this.” Frank cackled. Caleb knew what was coming, more of his bloody fanatical angels chatter. “Now is the time of your judgement.” Yup, there it was. “I hold the key. I open the door. I decide who goes in and who doesn’t. Your time has come to an end, heretic!”

Caleb knew that talk was useless at this point, Frank had turned into one of those really annoying people who only ever talk about one thing, someone so single minded that nothing could distract them from it, just like someone who had just got themselves a new mobile phone; intolerable.

There was nothing left to do; Caleb was all out of ideas. All he had left was violence; but sometimes violence is the only answer.

Caleb muttered something, he didn’t even know what it was he said himself, but it made Frank hesitate and his eyes flashed skyward. Caleb ran at him full pelt, covering the ground as fast as he could. Frank’s eyes fell back into place and his gun hand twitched. Caleb jammed his leading leg into the ground sending him into a deliberate tumble into the air as the gun went off, twisting his body, hopefully, around the bullet; he contorted his body in the air to raise a kick from his leading leg as the other landed, he aimed for Frank’s jaw, his back would be to him as the kick landed so he had to get it just right.

As his right leg landed Caleb felt his left heel connect with Frank, the connection point gave as the blow hit so he knew that it had landed true. Caleb spun round to face him, machete ready to strike. Frank was bent to the side from the strike but he still held the pistol, Caleb let the machete fall on Franks arm severing all but a few sinews of muscle, leaving it hanging there still gripping the weapon.

Frank let out a gurgling scream from his limply hanging jaw as he dropped to his knees.

“What happens when they find out you’re not one of them, Frank?” Caleb said, again, recalling his own words.

“Gh-h-a-a-w!” Frank rasped in a pitful attempt to repeat the noise that seemed to control the Infected. “Gh-h-a-a-a-w!”

“What happens when you bleed?” Caleb said. Franks face was a mess, his previously blistered face was a smear of blood and bone and his jaw looked to be hanging on by a thread.

“Gah-hu-hu-hu-hu-hu!” Frank laughed: at least Caleb thought it was a laugh, “Ghoor gleeding choo, Chalug!”

Caleb looked down to see the large red patch soaking into his clothing from his right hand side; he quickly put pressure on the wound with his left hand. He looked up again to see Frank turning a deathly shade of white, still trying to call out to the Infected around them. The infected paid him no heed, where they just stood around them before they now swarmed: a constant moving mass that didn’t seem to know what to do with its self.

A single Infected darted past Caleb and knocked Frank to the floor. “Gh-a-a-w!” he cried, “Gh-h-a-a-w!” Another darted through and knocked him down again as he tried to rise, but this one stood before him.

The Infected looked down at Frank and let out a terrifying
‘Scraw!’
, all the other Infected darted in to feast upon the poor bastard in an instant, swirling round the now dominant Infected’s feet, completely ignoring Caleb altogether.

Caleb started to slowly edge backwards away from the gorging hoard, but the leader craned its neck and body round to catch him in its milky white eye. He didn’t have to wait for the deathly cry of the Infected to know that it was time to run, he gripped his side tightly and ran for all he was worth, knowing there was only one place he could go, only one place they couldn’t follow. Caleb ran.

All he could do is run, he had tried to fight them off before and failed, and that was without a wound and with two blades, to fight now would be useless.

‘Had Frank actually thought that he could control these creatures?
To a certain extent he had, but it could never have lasted, the poor deluded bastard. God these things can run.’
Caleb thought as he fled for his life. His fight with the Infected and Frank had pushed him well back beyond the reaches of the north gate where Michaels had found them.
‘It can’t be far now.’
He was running down the road between a great beige building and the refinery on his left, the main reactor was just round the corner.

The Infected were snapping at his heels as he rounded the bend and he could now see through the concrete dust that still hung in the air and filled his nostrils that it was still a good stretch from where he was to the pit, the great expanse that used to be the main reactor covered all the ground he could see before him, a massive pit of broken metal and rubble sticking jaggedly out of a massive pool of water; water was natures shield against radiation and all the nasty stuff that went along with it, so naturally the egg heads had planned for the pit below the main reactor to fill with water, sea water, the damn thing was tidal, the plan would then be to cap the reactor off with concrete to seal it in but that would never happen, all they would be left with is a great expanse of water, hopefully it would save Caleb’s life.

His lungs were burning and he felt his feet starting to give beneath him; he really should have got more rest when he had had the chance, it may have given him the extra energy he needed to reach the pool: the Infected were so close now that he could hear their slavering behind him, he felt a tug on his coat tails, one of them making a grab for him, and it gave him the adrenaline rush to cover the last stretch of ground to the pit.

As he approached the edge he could see that the pool of seawater didn’t quite reach the edges at the bottom, but it was too late, he was travelling too fast to stop now. His feet skidded on the loose gravel that topped the road surface and he slipped over the edge launching himself vainly for the water, he heard the bodies of the Infected that had followed him over the edge as they thudded against the steep cliff as he fell, there was no way that he was going to reach the water. As the ground rushed up to meet him, Caleb closed his eyes and tried to relax to let his body absorb the impact, but his body refused, he landed with a crunch and started to tumble like a ragdoll down the steep slope towards the water, his body was racked with agony as he flipped end over end till with a sickening crunch and a clang, his head hit a steel pipe protruding from the earth, sending him into a deep blissful blackness.

_________________________

“Come to me, my dear,” Michaels said to Cassie from the very edge of the railing at the precipice of the globe; he still held the pistol and feebly lifted it in her direction.

“Why, so you can feed me to those things? I don’t think so!” Cassie said. The mild breeze blew up and gusted, forcing Michaels to grab for the railing; the globe was still damp from the hail and rain earlier but Cassie’s footing still felt sure, she stood her ground.

“Come here or I will shoot you!” he shouted angrily, the wind catching his voice.

“You would be doing me a favour: if it’s a choice of being shot, eaten or spending another second with you, I don’t know which one is worst!”

“You push me too far, woman!” he shouted, his face turning a deep shade of red, “You are responsible for
all
of this, this calamity rests on
your
shoulders.”

“
I’m
responsible?” Cassie shouted incredulously, “It was
you
who brought us here! It was
your
delusions of grandeur and sheer
idiocy
that forced our hand. It was
you
who brought your men here to die,
not us!
The blame lays with you,
Major
, no one else! It can only be divine justice that you now get to reap what you have sown. I only wish that could be alive to see it. Shoot me if you must, but know that I die happy in the knowledge that you will soon follow.”

Michaels held the pistol like it weighed a ton in his hand, he lifted it towards her. Rage boiled under his skin and polished white teeth bared in a snarl appeared below his unruly moustache. “Damn you, you cursed woman!” he screamed, “To hell with you, you over-educated ignorant peasant!”

Michaels screamed as he violently shook the pistol in Cassie’s direction, she couldn’t be sure that the bullet would even actually end up aiming at her in his rage, but she stood her ground. It seemed like forever before he eventually pulled the trigger, he let out an agonising screech as he did, the scream made Cassie flinch so badly that she lost her footing, her foot slipped on the glossy golden surface of the globe and she feel tumbling backwards down the ever descending slope, her fingers squealed as her hand slid along its surface slowing her fall, she slapped her other hand down hard to try to gain traction and slowly she slid to a stop.

Cassie tried to pull herself upwards but her boots and hands slipped under the strain sending her sliding downwards again. She came to another tentative stop, fearful of movement she remained as still as possible, her trouser leg had caught slightly on something and rolled half way up her leg getting caught in a tight rumple at her knee. Cassie looked up to see what had made Michaels squeal so, an infected was latched on to his back sinking its teeth deep into his fat neck, he spun violently to try to shake the creature off but it twisted around him like a snake, unwilling to let go. He beat at it with the pistol and eventually resorted to firing the gun back over his shoulder and into the Infected’s head.

Michaels clutched at his ear in pain, blood started to seep from between his fingers as well as from his neck as he dropped to his knees. He shuffled backwards from the railing on his knees as more infected slowly appeared in front of him. Michaels looked back towards Cassie with deep terror spread across his face, as his eyes met hers the look turned to loathing: he really did seem to blame her for all that had happened. He kept looking into Cassie’s eyes as he put the pistol to the side of his head.

Michaels pulled the trigger to the sound of a sharp ‘click’, the slide on the pistol was locked back; he was out of bullets. He looked down mournfully at the pistol as the infected ran at him, colliding with him and tumbling down the roof. He screamed as he fell, and it took what felt like a couple of seconds till he and the Infected landed on the midway railing round the globe, the great boom of the impact resonated enough to sake Cassie’s tender grip on the slick surface and she heard her trouser leg tear beneath her. She slipped only a few inches but it was enough to put the fear of god into her and tears sprung forth in her eyes, it was sheer luck that the tear in her trousers held.

Cassie’s luck had long since run out though, as more Infected appeared over the golden arch of the globe above her, they stirred and prowled and called to each other in their evil shrieking upon seeing their prey below, almost fearful of slipping down the side themselves. The bravest of them ventured ever closer, two of them slipped to Cassie’s right with a thud and tumbled down to clang off of the railing below snatching at her as they passed. One of them hunkered down onto hands and knees and started crawling slowly towards her, more started to crawl from both sides, approaching at an angle, forgetting their safety for the chance of a meal.

More started appearing at the top, pushing their way forward and forcing the rest down off of the roof: more and more started falling, their fingernails screeching against the metal as they slipped down thudding against the railings and sending tremors through the globe. Cassie could hear the fabric of her trousers giving way as she slowly slipped downwards, almost thankful of it as the Infected above her crawled ever closer: saliva poured from its lips as it crawled almost catlike towards her, its face close enough to the metal that the disgusting pink liquid trickled in a trail towards her hands. The vile smell of the creature infiltrated her nostrils to the point where she was almost heaving. Cold desire filled the cavernous white eyes as they darted around trying to choose which part of her to eat first. It was almost upon her, Cassie wanted to let go, to let herself fall to save herself from being eaten, but she found that she couldn’t; where she sought to save her father from a fate worse than death, she found she couldn’t do the same for herself.

The beast opened its mouth over Cassie’s hand and clamped its teeth down in a sharp snap.

Somehow it had missed. Cassie panicked as she felt the sensation of her slipping down the roof, but she wasn’t slipping. Somehow the Infected was being dragged back upwards. Cassie blessed her heart as the hatchet sunk into the creatures head and Brandon’s face appeared above it, he cast the body aside and stretched out with a rifle towards her. She quickly grabbed the barrel of the rifle, which was still warm to the touch, and pulled her body up kicking her leg free from the snag which had saved her life.