Demise of the Living (25 page)

Colin wiped the tears from his
face and steadied his breathing as best he could.

“Okay,” Colin said, mustering
as much calm as possible, “get back inside, out of sight. I’ll be
back.”

He dashed over to John’s car
and hoped that Billy had left the keys in the ignition. Pulling the
door open, he let out a breath of relief when he saw that he
had.

Colin slipped inside and
started the engine. Reversing the car round in as tight a circle as
he could, he did an about-face with the car. There was an angry
thump from the back tyre as it scuffed up against the kerb that
marked the beginning of the playing field. Colin ignored it and
looked down the parking lot.

All of the zombies who had
squeezed through the gap were now alert to him and walking in his
direction.

Colin revved the engine
and then dropped it into gear. The car shot off from its standing
start much quicker than he had anticipated. He steered it straight
towards the closest zombie. Striking the first creature square on
with the front of the car, it snapped down hard against the hood of
the car and slithered up the windscreen over the roof. The car’s
momentum was slightly reduced by the impact, but Colin was far too
disorientated by the collision to keep proper control. The car
skidded as he tussled with the steering wheel, trying to put the
car back on course for the second zombie. It wasn’t enough and he
careened past the second creature. Ahead, closely grouped, were the
next three targets. Colin held the wheel steady and kept his foot
on the accelerator. In quick succession the car battered into the
trio.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The strikes came too quickly
for Colin to register them as anything other than a blur and a
tumultuous crashing.

In a surprising act of
autonomy, the car’s wiper blades slid across the blood-smeared
screen, attempting to clear the view, but it was a hopeless task.
Gore and grime was being wiped to and fro across the windshield,
obliterating any chance of seeing through it.

Peering through the murk, Colin
abandoned his plan to try hitting the last zombie and aimed as best
as he could for the gates. Little chinks of the road ahead revealed
themselves as the wipers busily swiped backward and forwards,
smudging the gory splatter into homogenous pink goo.

The dark outline of the gate
leaped up in front of him. For a split second Colin felt himself
becoming weightless, then everything went black.

***

“
Come on, big guy. Let’s
get out.”

Colin's hearing was
muffled by ringing. He felt strong, muscular arms around his
chest.

“Help me out here, buddy,” the
voice said, heaving at him.

His neck and shoulders buzzed
with pain like he’d been repeatedly slapped, but he pushed out with
his legs, letting himself be pulled from the car.

“Billy?” Colin asked.

“Sure is, buddy,” Billy
replied.

Colin’s senses started to come
back into focus. He pushed the deflated airbag out of his path and
stumbled out of the car. The ringing in his ears changed and he
looked out over the school gates. There was a throng of undead
pressed up against the fence, clawing at the air, trying to get
in.

“Watch your step here,” Billy
warned.

Colin looked down to see
a lifeless corpse sprawled on the tarmac. It was right up against
the side of the car and must have been trying to smash its way in
to get him before Billy dispatched it.

“Thanks,” Colin said
weakly.

“You blocked the gate pretty
good, but it won’t take them long to take the fence down,” Billy
pointed out.

Colin found his eyes sweeping
along the front of the car. It ended quicker than he expected. The
gate’s long, sturdy bars bit deep into the car and bent slightly
towards it where they erupted from the paintwork.

“You okay to go?” Billy
asked.

Colin went to nod his head, but
pain shot up the length of his spinal column.

“Sure,” Colin hissed out
against the agony.

“I can’t wait to see John’s
face when you tell him about his car,” Billy said.

The large man ducked his head
under Colin’s arm and supported him on their trip back up the car
park.

As they got closer to the mini
bus he could see Thomas and Karen loading it up.

Colin immediately moved to
help, but Billy held him back.

“Go sit in one of the front
seats and keep an eye on those fences,” Billy said. “We’re going to
load up the bus with as much stuff as we can before we leave.”

“Jenny and Shanquel?” Colin
said.

“
I’m sorry, mate. We
found your friend. She’s been dead a couple of days
now.”

Colin took a deep breath.
“And Shanquel?”

“Who?” Billy asked.

“Shan,” Karen said from
somewhere behind Billy.

“Shan…right, your friend. We
haven't seen her,” Billy said.

“We need to find her,” Colin
said without conviction.

“If there’s time, buddy. Now
you take a seat and watch those fences.”

Billy ushered Colin into the
bus.

Colin sat in the chair opposite
the driver’s seat. He felt woozy, his eyes heavy. He turned to
Thomas, who was loading up the back seats with cans.

“Thomas, we need to find Jenny
and Shanquel,” Colin said.

“Um, we’ll get on that.” Thomas
said.

Colin turned back round,
feeling sleepy. He looked along the road to the gate. There was a
car against it. It looked like John’s. On the other side of the
gates there was a solid wall of bodies. Their arms were
outstretched, begging to be let in.

Colin stood up and immediately
had to hold onto the seat across the aisle. His legs felt weak and
his head was swimming.

“Where you going, big man?”
Billy said from behind him.

Colin looked round to see Billy
stacking tins of pineapple rings in the back of the mini bus.

“They want in,” Colin said,
pointing at the crowd.

“They sure do, buddy. Let’s say
you sit back down and keep an eye on them, eh?” Billy said,
placating him.

“That looks like John’s car,”
Colin said.

“
Sorry?” came the voice
from behind.

Colin turned round to see
Thomas loading a pallet of cans into the back of the mini bus.

“I need to find Jenny,” Colin
said.

Billy came up to join Thomas.
The two men spoke quietly for a moment, then moved back to the
school building.

“Mr. Lee?” A girl’s voice.

Colin jolted his head up.

“
I must have been
sleeping,” Colin said. “Have you got your homework,
Karen?”

“
I don’t have any
homework, Mr. Lee,” Karen replied. “School’s stopped.”

“
Yes, of course,” Colin
said, remembering the events of the past few days.

Karen looked intensely into
Colin’s eyes.

“
Are you feeling okay,
Mr. Lee?” she asked. “Your friends told me to come sit with you and
make sure you were okay.”

“That looks like John’s car
crashed into the gates,” Colin said.

“
It was you drove it into
them, Mr. Lee. Don’t you remember?”

“
It was you
who
,”
Colin said, exaggerating the last word. “It was you
who
drove
into them. Not it was you drove.”

“
Um… sorry,
sir.”

“How long have you been at the
school?” Colin asked.

“Since Tuesday,” Karen
replied.

“Have you seen Miss
Alvarez?”

Karen sat still, not wanting to
answer.

“
Well,
answer the
question
,” Colin demanded in a harsh
tone.

“Um…” Karen hesitated.

“Where’s your homework, girl?”
Colin said.

“Oh my god!” Karen
screamed.

She ran from the bus.

“They’re in!” she shouted at
the school building.

Billy and Thomas came running
out, Thomas empty-handed, Billy cradling a massive bag of dried
pasta.

They looked out towards the
gates. Although Colin had effectively blocked the entrance, the
wire fences around the playing fields were nowhere near as sturdy.
A large section of the fencing had buckled and become trampled flat
by the mass of reanimated bodies pushing in on it.

Thomas ran past Karen and
into the driver’s seat.

“
Don’t just stand there!”
Thomas shouted. “Get in, girl!”

Karen stood, unable to
move. The sound of the bus’ engine joined the wailing of the
dead.

She heard the back doors of the
mini bus slam shut. Billy ran up to her. He was a hulk of a man,
his greying red beard whipping in the wind.

“One last thing, Thomas,” Billy
said, slapping the side of the bus. “Then we’re good to go.”

He trotted back into the
school.

Karen followed him halfway.

She called out as loud as she
could, “Shan!”

Then she waited silently,
hoping for a reply. The only sounds that came back were the moans
of the approaching dead.

The door bounced open and Billy
came scuttling through, struggling with a huge cooking pot. As he
waddled past her, Karen could see the massive gun metal-grey pot
had all manner of utensils crammed inside: spoons, labels, knifes,
even other smaller pots.

“
Come on, girl. We need
to leave,” Billy said softly.

Karen cupped her hands to her
mouth.

She screamed, “Shan!”

She scanned the windows for a
sign of her friend.

From the bus she heard Billy
dumping down the pot and the rattling of the various odds and ends
within.

“Shan!” she called again.

“
Get her on!” Thomas
called from the bus. “We have to go!”

“Okay, girl, we need to leave,”
Billy said, placing a strong hand on her shoulder.

Karen looked up at Billy with
sad eyes, and nodded. She let the stranger lead her to a seat
beside Colin.

Colin was asleep, his head
tilted back. Karen sat looking out of the window.

“How do we get out of here?”
Thomas asked no one in particular.

“
I don’t know. Is there
another road into the school?” Billy replied.

“Girl,” Thomas said.

When Karen didn’t reply, he
spoke louder until she broke from her trance.

“What?” she cut back.

“Is there another road out of
here?” Thomas asked.

Karen looked up at the car
park. It was now thick with the walking dead.

“No,” she said.

“There’s got to be,” Thomas
said nervously.

Karen’s mind pictured the
hemmed-in strip of wasteland she and Shan had used to enter the
school. The bike parked at the entrance would only carry two of
them and there was no way the others could make it far on foot, let
alone carry all the supplies.

“Over the playing field,” Karen
said suddenly.

“The playing field?” Billy
asked.

“They started doing some work
on the corner that keeps flooding—drainage, I think,” Karen
explained. “They had to knock down a length of the fence to get the
diggers in. It’s just that temporary mesh stuff they have in place
and there’s a ramp onto the main road.”

“Go for it,” Billy
encouraged.

“Which way?” Thomas asked.

Karen pointed.

Thomas put the bus in gear and
they drove off, bouncing across the field.

***

“Wake up, sleepy head.”

Colin felt a hand tapping his
cheek. He pulled open his heavy eyes. Billy was uncomfortably close
to his face and he could smell his bad breath in his nostrils.

There was a screeching
noise, metal on metal, and the mini bus juddered and lurched. There
were cars all around, mainly burnt out or smashed up. A banner
fluttered in the wind. He read the words, but they made no sense in
his clouded mind.

“Come on, wake up,” Billy
urged.

“Can he drive?” Thomas
asked.

Billy shook his head.

“What’s wrong with him?” Karen
asked.

“
Either a brain
haemorrhage or concussion. Hopefully the latter,” Billy
replied.

The mini bus ground to a halt
and Thomas hopped out of the driver’s seat.

“
What can we do for him?”
he asked.

“
Fuck all,” Billy
replied. “If it’s concussion he should just be able to sleep it
off. If it’s something more serious, he’ll die and there’s nothing
we can do to help him.” He patted the extremely drowsy-looking
Colin on the shoulder. “Sit tight, buddy. We’re moving out in a
minute.”

He nodded at Karen and they
followed Thomas out.

Thomas was on the ground, half
under the mini bus.

Billy pointed at the shutter
door. “Give me a hand with this.”

Karen stepped in behind
him.

Billy bent down and tugged at
the shutter’s handle. There was a click and the metal slats rose up
a few inches.

“
We’re in luck—it’s
open,” Billy said. “Now I’m going to pull this all the way up and
you keep watch for anything…
unpleasant
. You got
me?”

Karen nodded. “Sure.”

Billy flexed upright, bringing
the shutter with him, and the daylight exposed the interior of a
workshop, like tomb robbers breaking into a burial chamber.

“Hey there!” Billy called, but
there was no reply, living or dead.

He scurried inside and made a
quick scout about.

“Looks clean,” he said.

There was the clang of metal on
the concrete and Karen whipped round.

“Here’s the bastard!” Thomas
called out.