Last Days With the Dead (37 page)

‘Grimes?’ he said, confused by what he was seeing.

‘Come on,’ said Grimes, pulling on Sinclair’s arm, ‘we’ve got to go, there’s more coming.’

‘But…’ Sinclair started to say, tearing his eyes from the body at his feet.

The sight of the approaching throng of decaying corpses that had caught up with them, soon banished any other thoughts from his mind.

‘Fucking hell!’ he whispered, his eyes darting from one hideous abomination to the next.

‘Sinclair!’ Grimes shouted, breaking the man from his terrified trance.

Shaking himself, Sinclair left the riddle of the motionless corpse unanswered and ran with Grimes, under the bridge
, and along the cobbled path on the other side. They had hardly gone twenty metres when the corpse of a woman dressed only in a torn and dirt streaked dressing gown, suddenly stepped into their path as they rounded a corner.

‘Got it!’ Sinclair said, barely breaking his stride, as he removed her head with one mighty swing of his machete.

As her decapitated body crumpled to the ground, Sinclair flicked his machete, sending the filth that was smeared almost up to the handle, flying off in an arc of rancid fluid.   

‘Here, take this,’ Sinclair said, quickly pulling his rifle off from his shoulder and handing it to Grimes as
they continued to run. ‘You’re out of ammo and I can use my machete just as easily.’

‘Thanks,’ said Grimes, tossing into a large flowering bush his rifle that had now become little more than a dead weight.

It took the men a few minutes of running, but by pure luck, the path they had chosen actually ran very close to the outer wall of the dome. With only the width of an overgrown flowerbed between them and the outer wall, they knew at last that they had a chance of finding a way out.

‘Through here,’ said Grimes, urgently pushing th
rough a patch of gnarled grape vines, ‘there’s a small gap between the plants and the wall. It’s our best bet for finding a way out and the plants may just give us some cover.’

‘And if we do find a way out
,’ Sinclair asked, nervously looking through the grimy hexagonal panelled wall, ‘what then?’

‘Then we stick to original plan and try to make our way to the bay
, it can’t be that far. We’ll make it, I promise.’ Grimes unconvincingly replied, glancing back as he started to edge along the inside of the wall.

As the two men walked as stealthily as they could along the narrow channel, the loud moaning of the hungry cadavers within the dome was a constant reminder they were far from safe
, and far from alone. With every snap of a twig or rustle of leaves, Grimes would raise his rifle expectantly, nervously awaiting the abomination he knew was surely about to pounce. But so far, the corpses had been thankfully unaware of their presence, and despite the groaning echoing back and forth about the dome, Grimes was sure that with each step, they were moving further away from the bulk of the horde. With Sinclair close behind him, Grimes also kept a close eye for any movement from the other side of the wall. After all, there would be no point escaping the dome, only to be met with another crowd of corpses that had simply followed their progress along the clear panels to an exit.

When an exit finally presented itself to them, it was so well hidden
that they almost walked right past it.

‘Hey,’ said Sinclair, grabbing hold of Grimes’ shoulder, ‘
look at this.’

Turning back, Grimes saw what Sinclair had noticed. There, along one of the panels at the base of the wall, was a large fracture running through the thick internal sheet of Perspex. More importantly though, the outer layer had not only mirrored this crack
, but part of it had fallen out completely, providing them with a possible, but quite small, way out of the dome.

‘You think you can get these screws out?’ asked Grimes, running his hands along the metal frame of the panel, as he looked up at Sinclair.

‘Erm,’ replied Sinclair, rummaging through his pockets until he found a small penknife, ‘yes.’

Placing his machete at his feet, Sinclair knelt down
, and after selecting a certain blade from his penknife, began to get to work on the screws locking the smaller section of the broken panel in place.

‘I hope I can fit through that gap in the outer layer
,’ he mumbled, dropping the first of the removed screws to the ground. ‘It looks like it’s smaller than the one on this side.’

‘You’ll be fine
,’ replied Grimes, nervously looking from Sinclair’s wide shoulders to the hole he would need to fit through, ‘it’ll be a tight squeeze, but you should make it.’

‘And if I can’t?’ Sinclair asked, pausing to turn and look at Grimes.

‘Sinclair, Christ, you’ve saved my life more than once today. I’m not going to leave you behind, okay?’ Grimes replied, reaching out to lay his hand on the obviously concerned man’s shoulder. ‘We’ll just find another way out.’

‘Yeah, alright, Grimes,’ said Sinclair, laughing with relief as he brushed away Grimes’ hand from his shoulder, ‘don’t go all queer on me now.’

Grimes simply rolled his eyes and was about to say something, when the sound of a short burst of gunfire erupted from somewhere within the dome. The two men looked at each other, their emotions conflicted. On the one hand, they wished they still had the safety that the group offered, but on the other, they were glad to have separated, as the others were obviously still battling for their lives with the horde.

‘At least we know they’re still alive
,’ said Sinclair, removing another screw from the framework.

‘Hmm
, for now,’ Grimes muttered under his breath, his eyes searching the nearby foliage for any signs that the cadavers had also found them.

Ten anxious minutes later
, and Sinclair had finally worked free the last screw holding the broken panel in place.

‘Hmm...’ he pondered leaning forward as he wondered why the free section of the hexagonal panel hadn’t simply fallen out, ‘
perhaps…’

Using another of the blades on his penknife, he then tried forced the tip into the thin gap surrounding the Perspex panel and its frame.

‘Shit,’ he said, the small blade suddenly snapping in two, ‘I think there’s some type of resin holding the panel in place. Grimes, I need more leverage.’

‘Here, use this,’ suggested Grimes, picking up Sinclair’s machete.

Turning to take the sharp weapon, Sinclair’s gaze flicked over Grimes’ shoulders to see something emerging from the shrubbery.

‘Down!’ he shouted, snatching the machete from Grimes’ hand.

Panicked, Grimes threw himself forward, instantly bringing the rifle up as he twisted and fired blindly. Unfortunately, before his mind could even register the startled mangy looking cat as it darted back into the undergrowth, he fired again.

‘Shit!’ said Grimes, his heart hammering in his chest
. ‘It was just a cat, just a fucking cat.’

‘Sorry,’ said Sinclair, helping Grimes off of his lap, ‘I thought it was one of them
, you know.’

‘Yeah, I know
, it’s alright,’ replied Grimes, taking deep breaths to calm his beating heart, ‘let’s just get the hell out of here, shall we?’

‘No argument here
,’ Sinclair muttered, forcing the tip of the machete into the gap.

With a grunt of effort, the broken section of the panel suddenly popped free
, and a wave of cooler spring air blew in to greet the two grinning men looking at a hole that could now save their lives.

‘You go first, Grimes,’ said Sinclair, chucking aside the broken panel, ‘if you don’t fit, I certainly won’t.’  

‘Okay,’ he replied, getting down on his stomach to crawl through.

‘Oh
, here, take this,’ Grimes said as an afterthought, passing Sinclair the rifle, ‘you can hand it to me when I’m through.’

Sinclair nodded as he took the weapon and watched Grimes begin to wriggle through the hole. Once he had pushed aside the tall grass that had grown along the base of the dome, Grimes found that despite the outer hole being noticeably smaller, he could indeed fit through
, and just hoped Sinclair would too.

‘Right, hand me the rifle,’ Grimes whispered, crouching down in case hungry eyes were on the lookout for some warm bloody flesh.

Silently, as to keep Grimes’ presence out in the open unknown, Sinclair got down on his belly and passed the rifle through to the anxiously unarmed man.

‘Here goes nothing,’ Sinclair said under his breath, as he began to move his muscular bulk along the ground.

He barely had his head through when he realised that, like some sort of contortionist, he would need to manoeuvre his shoulders and arms through one at a time. Pulling his head back out of the hole, he started again, this time putting his left arm and shoulder through first. Once these were through, his head went next. Then it started to get a bit tricky. By stretching out his left arm and snaking his right up along his chest, he finally managed to get his second arm out. With the metal frame digging into the flesh under his armpits, and the sharp edge of what remained of the Perspex panel digging into his back, Sinclair knew he would have to take it slowly if he wanted to reach the outside with all the skin on his body.

‘Almost there
,’ whispered Grimes encouragingly.

It was then that Grimes caught the flicker of a shadow on the inside of the dome a few metres down from Sinclair. Leaning back on his ankles to get a better look, Grimes was horrified to see the shape of a man shambling along the inside of the dome wall towards Sinclair.

‘You’ve got to hurry,’ Grimes said quietly, knowing it would not go well if Sinclair panicked.

‘What?’ Sinclair replied, craning his head to look at Grimes, his brow creasing in concern.

‘Just hurry, okay.’ Grimes continued, unable to prevent his eyes flicking to the approaching shadow.

‘Oh, shit, there’s one of those pus-bags isn’t there,’ Sinclair cried, trying to look past his own bulk to see behind him
. ‘Get me out of here, Grimes! Get me the fuck out!’

Then Sinclair did just what Grimes had feared, he started to panic.

‘Get me the fuck out!’ he shouted, starting to claw at the grass, earth, anything to pull himself through.

Nervously looking around in case any cadavers had been attracted by his cries, Grimes put one foot either side of the hole, took hold of Sinclair’s hands
, and started to pull.

‘Pull!’ cried Sinclair, fear of what was behind him transforming his face into a mask of hysterical horror
. ‘Pull, fucking Pull!’

‘I’m trying
,’ huffed Grimes, quickly moving his hold to the shoulders of Sinclair’s jacket.

Already
, he could see blood seeping through the fabric where the sharp Perspex panel had gouged deep into his skin, such was Sinclair’s need to be through the hole.

‘Please!’ Sinclair began to weep
. ‘Please, I don’t want to fucking die, Grimes, please! Please help me!’

‘I’ll get you through
,’ Grimes replied, straining to get more of the man through the hole, ‘I won’t let you go!’

Unable to help himself, Grimes glanced up at the horrific figure already bending down with its arms outstretched
, reaching for Sinclair’s kicking legs.

‘I won’t let you go
,’ he repeated, ‘I won’t let…’

Then as a cold hand suddenly clamped onto his calf, Sinclair was swallowed in a wave of pure terror, screaming his way to a welcome
d oblivion.

***

‘Jesus!’ said Phil, automatically swinging his club toward a Dead man with one hand, while holding a screaming Charlie against his chest with the other.

The club connected violently with the side of the Dead man’s skull, shattering an already lo
ose jaw bone, and tearing free what little flesh was left on his putrid face. Stumbling from the force of the blow, the Dead man that had suddenly appeared in front of Phil fell back into a second cadaverous comrade, knocking it to the ground. Seeing her chance, Liz darted forward to deal with the creature scrabbling on the ground to right itself.

‘Got it
,’ she said, her blade flashing through the air to separate the gaunt head from its withered shoulders with a single blow.

In the time it
took for the head to roll to a stop under a large flowering bush, Phil had despite cradling his precious cargo out of harm’s way, reduced the Dead man’s skull to little more than a pulpy mass.

‘Head’s up
,’ called Imran, already pulling back the string of his bow.

Spinning to see what Imran was warning her about, Liz saw a third and
fourth member of the Dead horde pulling themselves through the bushes a few metres along the path.

‘Oh
, for Fuck’s sake,’ she grumbled, disappointed that the Dead were also ahead of them.

She had hope
d that with the bulk of the horde behind them, spilling through the door poor Lucy had opened, that their path forward through the Mediterranean dome to its Tropical sister would be relatively clear of their Dead adversary. This was not proving to be the case though, and already, they had been forced to deal with six dead men, four women, and five children, all eager to rip them apart and feast on their bloody organs.