Dead Ahead (8 page)

Caleb spent half the night trying to decide the best plan to escape from their new best friend, Frank, and the other half trying to decide if heading to Kendal was a good idea. If it
was
a good idea: then how best to get there. He wasn’t sure why, but he had an overwhelming desire to go home. Though he had spent most of his youth in various Scottish towns; during his twenties he had lived with his parents in their house in the outskirts of Kendal. That was where he thought of as home, if he could just get back to his parents then everything would be alright.

He woke the boy early, he was unsure of exactly how early, but checking through a gap in the boards covering the window it wasn’t yet light outside, so it was early enough. Shining a torch round the room he signalled for them to silently start packing their things to leave. They had been allowed the back room to sleep in while Frank was happy to sleep in the main hall. Caleb was quite sure that he trusted them just as much as they trusted him. He was just the wrong type of person to be around during the whole world going mad, but more than likely the only type of person left that wasn’t trying to eat them. Caleb took a few moments to question his own sanity while quietly packing his things but, as always, he pushed it to the back of his mind.

Once packed, Caleb quietly led Brandon through to the main hall, he set the torch to its minimum setting, lighting only a few of the L.E.D. bulbs in the centre, and scanned the room, sweeping the dim beam across the hall till it met a figure sat in a brown plastic moulded chair in front of them.

“Early bird catches the worm, that’s what I always say!” Frank lifted the rifle off of his lap and rose from the chair, he slung the rifle over his shoulder and dug his hands into a box on the table to his right, and he quickly threw a breakfast bar at each of them. “If we’re gonna make it to Kendal we had better use all the light we have, I figure it will take us a couple of days at least at a quick march, I don’t know about you two but I don’t fancy trying to make it in a set of wheels and attracting more of them biters again.

“If we head off across the fields behind here and keep clear of the roads we may be able to get as far as Keswick today.” He slung his pack over his other shoulder and headed for the exit, sitting the rifle beside the door he put his pack on properly, he slid the bolts to the side and creaked the door open.

It was still dark out but you could see signs or dawn approaching. Frank picked up his rifle and a few other things from the table putting them in various pockets of his coat and stepped outside, he scanned his surroundings, then spent a few seconds just staring up into the sky before heading off round the corner to the left.

Caleb was still dumbfounded as Frank exited; he caught himself still staring with his torch pointed at the door, slowly he turned to Brandon, who had a puzzled look on his face, and said, “Shall we?”

“Yeah,” the boy replied, “but not before I stuff my pockets with more of these!” he waved the open, half eaten breakfast bar in front of him and headed for the box on the table, Caleb looked down at the chocolate chip oat bar in his hand, raised an eyebrow and headed on over to the table himself.

Once round the back of the building the three of them hid behind the back walls and peered over the fields before them, to their right they could still see the backs of the houses of Blencogo but Frank assured them that they were mostly empty and any of the ‘biters’ in the surrounding area would have headed in the direction of the exploding truck he had set forth yesterday.

So they themselves set forth. What started as a crouched scuttle across dew covered open fields quickly became a leisurely stroll through the sunlit countryside, each hedge bordering the next field would be hidden behind as the coast was made clear and only a few random husks were encountered, most of which were tangled in the barb wire of the fences and so left to rot. Caleb even found himself growing accustomed to Frank’s strangeness and his referring to himself as ‘us’ and ‘we’, he could almost think that he could grow to like the man, though he was not sure he could ever trust him, but for now they were stuck with him, and so pressed on through the brightening day.

_________________________

The very same morning, across the other side of the country, a mass of the undead were shambling and bumping off of each other desperately trying to reach the location of the horrific noise that was rattling around what was left of their ears, the great hoard of husks was slowly gaining ground on the thousands of much faster moving infected who were swarming around the old farm on the outskirts of Darlington.

Unfortunately the computer analyst, Greg Woodward, had greatly underestimated the carrying distance of the external alert siren. Due to the silence of this quiet earth, devoid of all the bustle of modern life and all the noise and chaos contained within it, the wailing siren, similar to those used throughout the second world war, could be heard far beyond Darlington its self, thousands of undead were bearing down upon the underground facility, little to the knowledge of its inhabitants.

Cassie peeked her head round the corner to check that the coast was clear down the next hallway and waved for her group to advance. First came Dr Brian Phillips and Dr Carol Blake, then round the corner came the wild flowing red hair of Dr Sarah Carson who stopped at the other side of the hall to assist the ageing Drs Richard Cooper and Nathan Stewart and swiftly she moved on with them, Dr Dominic Brady, a short middle aged man with blonde hair pushed past Greg Woodward as he rounded the corner, Dominic had been less than impressed by the idea of leaving the compound than anyone else but given the choice of staying with the soldiers he reluctantly agreed to join them. Cassie swiftly checked down the corridor they had come from and disappeared round the corner herself, she quickly caught up with some of the older scientists as she jogged towards the door to the loading bay. She signalled to Brian to go on through the door as he looked back to check on her and they all filed through.

Once in the loading bay Cassie was relieved to see Ethan there with three other soldiers busy loading the two vehicles lined up in front of the large loading bay doors with supplies, her relief was short lived as she noticed neither that James MacMillan nor her father were anywhere to be seen. She checked her watch; it was already eight fifty seven.

“Where are my father and Mr MacMillan?” Cassie demanded as she approached Ethan, “He said that he was going to meet us here!”

“He was here earlier, he said he had some things to take care of and but would be back soon.” Ethan replied with a stern look on his face, he put his hand on her shoulder and led her over to the rear of the leading ‘Husky’ truck, “We need to talk.” he said in a near whisper.

“About what?” Cassie asked, concerned at the serious look.

“About space, Cassie,” Ethan paused and looked over to the other members of the party, looking back to her he added, “we only have space for three passengers in each of the two Huskies without packing people into the back cabs and they are full of ammo and supplies, yourself and everyone else you have brought comes to eight already, your father and Mr MacMillan brings it to ten. Four people are going to have to stay!”

Cassie was shocked to her core. How could, Ethan be asking her to choose who could come and who would have to stay?  Staying would mean staying with Major Michaels and his army of idiots. She wouldn’t wish that upon her worst enemy never mind people she had worked closely with for so long.

“We can’t just leave people
behind
, Ethan!”

“I’m afraid we are going to have to, we need me and Clarke over there to drive and we need Ford and Bale to man the cannons on the roof, if what your dad says is true then we are in for quite the welcome when we open those doors.”

“And exactly who are we going to leave behind, because I can’t choose.”

“If it’s down to me I would only pick the youngest and fittest. I’m sorry Cassie but it’s the only sensible choice.”

Cassie looked at the people around her; Sarah, Greg, Richard, Carol and Nathan were over by the back of the rear Husky looking pretty nervous. One of the soldiers, she figured to be Clarke, was checking under the bonnet of the rear Husky, the other two soldiers were half in their respective vehicles half out of the roof hatch, checking the large guns attached to the vehicles in front of them.

“So who do you suggest?” she said in a sarcastic tone, “Nathan? Carol? Richard? My Father....”

“I’m sorry Cassie, I don’t like this any more than you do....”

“....how about Dominic? He’s getting on a bit....” As Cassie looked over, and gestured to Dominic and Brian, who were standing by the large roller doors of the loading bay, Brian pointed at his watch and said.

“That’s nine o’clock”

“
NINE O’CLOCK!
” Dominic shouted “We should go! We should go
now
!” As he turned towards the fire alarm Cassie could feel the word bursting from her lips, she heard the same word from Ethan and many of the others around her...

“
No
...!”

They all cried out in a chaotic choir of dread, but it was too late, Dominic’s fist broke the small glass window of the little red box and the alarm started to sound throughout the complex.

Everything seemed to happen at once, Cassie could hear the doors automatically opening one by one in the hallways of the complex, gradually getting louder, the others stood in a frozen panic as Clarke slammed the bonnet of the Husky shut and dived into the driver’s seat, Ethan grabbed Cassie’s arm and shouted at her to get in the other vehicle, just at that moment the roller doors started to clatter upwards.

Startled, Dominic and Brian stared into the deep dark space beyond the opening while Sarah and Greg helped Richard, Carol and Nathan into the rear Husky. They just stood in front of the black void, staring into it, seemingly unable to move while Cassie screamed at them to run.

Then a thin horizontal line of bright white light appeared before them as barn floor above them split to create a ramp to the complex below. As the line grew thicker the light grew brighter and everyone found themselves covering their eyes from the natural light that they had so dearly missed over the past weeks.

Within the light something moved.

Chapter

7

We All Die

James MacMillan or Mac as his best friend Jon liked to call him, met Dr Jonathan Fosters at the intersection arranged an hour previous, when leaving from the loading bay after their all too brief conversation with Sergeant Rigby.

Mac handed Jon one of the two full petrol cans he was carrying and they carried on down the hallway.

Jon seemed confident in Rigby’s ability to protect his daughter in his absence, though he wasn’t too pleased that he wouldn’t be able to join her.

The trouble was, as discussed at length the night before over a bottle of scotch, they were too damn old to be tearing across the country trying to save the world; well, not the world, but the little slice of what was left of it they had to call their own. During the discussion with Rigby they had expressed their distinct lack of desire to join the party and hoped that Rigby himself would be able to persuade two of the other older members to give up their seats, by force if need be.

“Am I doing the right thing, Mac?” Jon posed to him.

“I’m not sure right and wrong come in to it at this stage, Jon. Right now we have to do what we have to do, just play our part and hope to get out alive. Here we are.”

They stopped at a store cupboard, Mac unlocked it and they went inside. They each put the small petrol containers on the table by the door and Mac set to rummaging through the boxes under the bottom shelf.

“I know they’re here somewhere.” Jon didn’t respond. “She will be fine, Jon. Did you see the weapons they were loading into those trucks of theirs? Enough to take out all of them zombies near enough, if you ask me.”

“I just can’t shake the feeling that I’m abandoning her, Mac.”

“She is a grown woman; you know she can take care of herself.”

“Ha! She can’ that. I would love to know what she really did to that creep, Harper!”

“Haha! I bet he is still trying to fish his balls out of the new asshole she tore for him! Ah! Here we are, one flare gun and three flares, should do the job nicely.”

“Let’s get to it then.”

At that
very
moment the fire alarm started to sound; it was perfect timing, all soldiers, including Major Michaels, would be heading towards the conference room, leaving the control room unguarded.

It wasn’t far to the control room so it didn’t take long for them to get there and they knew they had precious little time, it was possibly the fastest Mac had moved in the past twenty years and it left him a little out of breath. They wasted no time, taking one of the cans of petrol they soaked the room, they took care not to get any fuel on any electrical appliance as they didn’t want to risk lighting it too early with an electrical spark, but everything combustible in the room was drenched. They stepped back out of the door and just as Jon fired in a flare they heard a great ‘THUD’ as the complex was shaken by a distant explosion, simultaneously the room went up in flames; they took a few more steps back and heard another ‘THUD’, turned and ran down the hallway, ‘THUD’, they grabbed the second can as they ran off.

As they approached the open door leading to the conference room Mac stopped and placed the petrol can on its edge with the spout at the bottom, he then unscrewed the cap just enough so as the petrol would slowly pour out and on to the floor, all while Jon was reloading the flare gun. They got to the door, took a deep breath and walked in.

Michaels was in full swing as they entered, shouting and cursing the other soldiers

“What the hell is going on? I am the only one who has the authority to call meetings! I alone have the power! Whoever is responsible will have hell to pay!” At that moment he spotted Mac and Jon.

“Fosters! What is the meaning of this? Under who’s authority did.........”

“I’m afraid I am going to have to ask you to step outside.” Jon said as he aimed the flare gun at Michaels, whose face dropped for a moment before a frown reappeared.

“What in the hell do you think you are doing, Fosters?”

Jon turned the gun to the hallway and fired. Flames erupted through the door and then.....

BOOM!

Everyone in the room dropped to the floor, even more flames were licking round the doorframe and thick black smoke was starting to seep into the room.

“What the hell was that?” Jon asked.

“Oh I decided to leave the third flare next to the petrol can, y’know, for a little extra effect!”

Jon had started a faint smile when a pair of large hands gripped his shoulders and yanked him to his feet. Another pair of hands, not quite as large but equally as rough, grabbed Mac and jerked him swiftly upwards.

Knox had a firm grip on Jon with his thick arm around his neck; forcing his legs to buckle slightly under him due to his height mixed with Knox’s shortness. Unfortunately Mac found he himself was held by the testicle devoid and twin arseholed Harper, his arm was twisted up and behind his back very uncomfortably and he couldn’t help but notice that Harper seemed to be enjoying himself.

“Don’t you go trying nothing now you dirty old bastard!” came a loud whisper in his ear.

“Conway! Get an extinguisher on that fire! Knox! Bring that prick over here! Michaels got right into Jon’s face, practically spitting on him as he shouted over the chaos around the door “Now! What exactly do you mean by ask
me
to leave? This place is mine! In this place I am God himself! Who are you to tell me to leave?

Jon had only one answer for him

“If we don’t all leave
right
now, we all die!”

_______________________

When her eyes finally grew accustomed to the light, Cassie could see movement at the top of the ramp, but not just movement, a flood of bodies came pouring down, a cascade of rotting flesh, clawing their way over each other to get to them, as each member of the dead at the front fell another would take its place and fall its self only to be replaced by another.

Brian and Dominic tried to run but the torrent was just too fast, quickly they were engulfed and disappeared in a mass of biting teeth and clawing hands.

Cassie heard the rear doors of the Husky close and turned round to see Sarah and Greg looking very panicked in the back, as she was about to offer them words of comfort the gun on the roof began to fire a merciless barrage of bullets into the oncoming monsters and Cassie found herself shielding her ears and turning to look out of the windscreen, she soon wished she hadn’t.

What she witnessed was a decimation of walking corpses; bodies already torn and ragged were ripped apart in a hail of bullets, heads burst open like over ripe fruit, and foul blood sprayed from their carcasses, limbs were torn from their bodies, but still they kept coming.

Ethan hesitantly edged the ‘Husky’ forwards, slowly at first, but he soon realised that they were getting engulfed in a swarm of the dead. They felt the vehicle jerk forwards as the rear ‘Husky’ bumped against them, closing the gap so as to make a train and to stop them getting separated.

“Right.... let’s get this show on the road.” Ethan barked and started to move faster up to the ramp. Cassie felt the front, and then the rear tyres, bump over the lip at the bottom of the ramp angling them up towards the mass of undead constantly advancing towards them. Ethan picked up an army helmet and passed it to Cassie as he pushed on through the melee; as she placed the helmet upon her head a whole new world of chaos was opened to her. The sound of gunfire was greatly diminished and she could hear the soldiers talking to each other, combining their efforts to push their way out into the daylight.

“Just keep fire focused on your twelve, Jim; the dog is starting to struggle up the hill.”

“Roger that Big E. If Con Man can keep them things off my wings we should be good.”

“Wings are getting a bit tight back here too Jim.”

“Switch to the M 32, Con Man, clear ahead of us and your wings will loosen up.”

“Got you there, Big E.”

“Keep fire well up hill on this one and watch the low roof, we don’t want any friendly fire with the M 32.”

“Big ten four on that one, Rubber Ducky.”

“Gaz, you keep your lips tight to my ring when Con lights up the wings, I’m gonna start pushing and it’s gonna get hairy.”

“Sure thing, big man, I’m puckering up.”

“Okay folks; get your sun specks on, fire in the hole”

‘BABOOM’

The whole tunnel before them erupted in flames from the explosions on either side of them, chunks of human flesh started to rain down on the truck as it pressed further forward up the slope.

‘BABOOM’

Another two explosions ripped through the horde, they were making good progress as the crowd started to thin out.

“Last two rounds, Big E”

‘BABOOM’

The final explosions ripped through the top of the incline and they pressed out into the open. Cassie’s relief of being out of the tunnel and into the open was short lived as the scene unfolded before her; a writhing mass of creatures were all around them, wretched, contorted faces slid past the windows as they slowly made their way through, teeth snapping at Cassie as she passed.

“What the fuck is that?”

“I don’t know, Jim, but it’s headed our way.”

“We got somethin’ big headed our way on our twelve, Ethan, and it don’t look good. Swing round to the left and head for the fields, Big man.”

“Righto’! Can you see what it is?”

Cassie lifted herself up in her seat to try and see clearer what it was that was headed their way, and then it struck her.

“It’s the first gens!” she blurted out in a panic.

“The what?”

“The first generation of creatures, those who were infected and came back from the dead, they are much faster and much, much more dangerous, you can’t let them reach us, they will be all over us if they do.”

“Ok, thanks Cass. Jim, you keep clearing the road ahead, Con Man you concentrate fire on the first gens, Gaz, keep it tight, I’m stepping it up!”

The Husky lurched as Ethan pushed forward faster, creatures started to disappear under the front wheels as they made their way round the left side of the barn in which the loading bay entrance was situated, which let the roof gunner clear further ahead of them.

“They are gaining on us, I’m not sure I can take them all before they reach us Sarge”

“Jim, you help Con out with your M 32, I think we have made enough headway to take a run at this, let’s see if the dogs can climb.”

Ethan dropped a gear and put his foot to the floor, the wheels spun on remnants of bodies, then gripped, shooting them forward and into the mass, corpses piled up beneath them and the tyres sprayed blood and body parts high up into the air, bones crunched as they made their way through and over the blockade of the dead.

Cassie could hear the explosions behind them, but could only imagine what was really going on; she kept focussed in front of them, hoping to see a gap through the crowd.

“I think we’re losing them.”

“Nice one! Send a couple of rounds to our twelve and we can make some more headway, Jim.”

Cassie looked into the back of the cab to see Sarah and Greg holding their ears, eyes closed with their heads almost in their laps, she tapped Greg on the knee and pointed to the helmet close by him. He looked up with terror in his eyes and shook his head, another more vigorous tap and more forceful point to the helmet and he did as he was told, instant relief was shown on his face and Cassie pointed towards Sarah. Once they were both adorned with helmets Cassie gave them a thumbs up and received two in return, coupled with grimaced smiles.

‘BABOOOOM’

Another couple of explosions ripped through the crowd in front of the lead Husky, a lot closer than they had in the tunnel this time.

“Jesus, fuck, Jim that was a little too close for comfort.”

“Sorry, Big E, but we are close to the edge now, smash through the next few lines and we are on to a winner.”

“Glad to hear it; pushing on through, hang on tight, everyone.”

True enough, they ploughed through a dense clump of creatures, a wooden fence and bounced through a ditch, it took them into the next field over which was far easier to navigate through due to far less concentration of bodies in their path.

The constant crunching beneath them slowly reduced to random pattern of thumps against the protective bars at the front of the Husky as they mowed down the thinning crowd.

“It looks like they are following us, Boss! Every one of these suckers we pass just turns around and starts to tail us. I have caught some First gens making it through too, them suckers is fast when they don’t have the slow ones blocking them.”

“Gaz, you pull yourself up on my right, we will try to mow down as many as we can, conserve ammo you two, we are clear of them now, only take out any first gens you see. Keep it tidy boys, we’re out of the thick of it but we still have a long way to go....”