Plague Of The Revenants (22 page)

The revenants were around three metres deep and tightly packed in around the truck. I took a deep breath and held the sheet of metal out before me like it was a surfboard. Then I ran, pitching off the truck and landing on top of the sheet of metal which in turn landed on the weight of revenants, gliding through them with the momentum of my run. I landed with a forward roll, falling off the metal sheet and dropping the axe. I quickly leapt to my feet and retrieved my weapon then charged away, rushing through the stragglers with the axe, swinging at their heads as I went. I charged away from the main body, turned and waved and hollered, determined to attract their attention and thus free the truck from their mass. The cacophony of groans was deafening. From behind me I heard the collective groan and shuffling of a thousand revenants
and  I looked up and saw to my horror a whole knot of revenants coming out of the trees and straight towards me. I turned around but the original mass still came at me. I was surrounded. I ran tentatively forward, swishing the axe through the air, carving in half the skulls of the undead but there was no path to be cleared. One of the revenants avoided the axe and was simply deflected by the wooden handle. I dived out of the way of his ravenous jaws and collided with another bearing down on top of me. I broke free and swung the axe, watched its head explode in a fountain of blood. I was merely killing time. The end was surely upon me. Just then I saw a clear space and I ran towards it but still more shuffled in to block my path. I swung the axe again with such force that I almost dislocated my shoulder decapitating one of the beasts as he moved towards me.
Suddenly there came a great roar of engines and the truck surfed through the bodies like they were a puddle before swinging to a stop before me. The vehicle drove at speed, heedless of the damage done to the bodywork, casting the undead into the air in its path. I charged forward, leapt through the air and jumped in through the back from where I had earlier carved out the roof with the axe.
“Careful!” I exclaimed, as we drove into a knot of revenants which shattered against the headlights. “You’re going to destroy the truck.”
“The truck is gone anyway,” replied Kit dismissively. “We’ll need to find another one.”
Kit turned and weaved the truck around like a pro, drawing the revenants in a long line behind her before bumping the truck out on to the road and driving at full speed through the gates of the military base before screeching to a stop. Myself and Paul were out in a moment and rushed back to slam the gates closed. Afterwards Kit reversed the truck back to create a further block before leaping out herself.
“I swear you have nine lives,” laughed Paul and I poked my head through the front to the cab.
“Either that or the luck of the devil,” retorted Kit with a wry smile.
Kit pulled up the handbrake and swung the van around so that it perfectly blocked the entrance. We leapt of the side door. The parade ground was littered with bodies. Many of the soldiers had shot themselves rather than fall victim to the revenants. Guns are other small ammunition were scattered all over the place. Many of the gates had been torn off their hinges, probably knocked off by a fleeing truck and the parade ground within was awash with revenants although there were not nearly so many as outside. Kit was right. There were indeed many more trucks scattered around the area. We then began a sort of grab and run movement, the truck first attracting the revenants then pulling fast away from them before screeching to a stop at which point myself and Paul would leap out, grab a handful of guns then leap back into the truck before the revenants had a chance to catch up. There were still many revenants left inside the perimeter but compared to the outside it was a positive paradise. Still, we could not afford to become complacent. With the truck almost wrecked anyway there was no need to go sparingly. Kit smashed into as many as she positively could before the engine finally laboured and it gave up the ghost and after that myself and Paul were out with the axe and iron bar to finish off as many as we could. But at that moment more emerged from inside the mess halls and it was clear there were too many of them to take on ourselves.

Just then I saw a knot of bodies surrounding a heavy looking square building and ran forwards, attacking the revenants head on,
my blood up. I smashed my weapon through their skulls in a frenzy, barely conscious or coherent as the bloodlust overtook my senses. I only came to when I heard the chugging of an engine. I turned to see Kit had managed to start one of the trucks and now drove it forward. There were not too many revenants around now and those that were still there were easily avoided. We followed the bodies until we found the armoury. There was a mass of weapons scattered outside and it was clear something of a final stand had been made here. Inside was dark and it was a good job I had taken the torch with me. I flashed it inside at a veritable mother-load of guns, grenades and ammunition. We began piling the guns on to the back of the truck and we were smiling as we did so for we were now surely invincible against the massed ranks of the Elite. Every now and again I would leave the armoury to check for revenants and finish off those who had strayed too close. From inside the armoury I heard a crash and rushing outside I saw the revenants, through sheer weight of numbers, had toppled over the fencing on the far side and were now piling in as fast as they could. I cursed our complacency that had seen us failing to learn the lessons of the wood depot all those weeks ago. From outside there came ominous noises. The truck was getting full now and what was more the revenants around the perimeter were starting to converge once more upon the fencing.
“Back in the truck!” I cried. “We’ve got all we need for now!”
We turned to run, flinging the rucksacks on our shoulders. We were home free. All we needed to do was get back into the truck and go home. We weren’t paying attention and this was our undoing. I saw the hand reach out towards Paul’s leg as he rushed past and instinctively raised the axe but not soon enough. Paul let out a howl and fell to the side as a gush of his blood splattered against the wall. I cried out and smashed the revenant’s head clean off then dragged Paul outside and into the waiting truck. “Please,” stammered Kit when she saw the damage. “Don’t tell me...”
“It is finished,” said Paul darkly, and he did not seem at all afraid. “This is how it will end for most of us some day. I’m not exactly surprised.” He turned and looked towards the revenants who had now breached the walls and were coming towards us then turned and took up a grenade from the glove compartment.
“Don’t do this, Paul,” said Kit urgently, and at that point she seemed as close to crying as I had ever seen her before.
“I’m not going to turn,” said Paul through gritted teeth. “And if I’m going to go out I’m going to make damned sure to make myself useful. No stories and no long goodbyes either.” And with that Paul pulled the pin from the grenade and rushed out into the multitude of revenants without another word. The bodies were so packed in he was able to wade over them, at a run. They turned to follow him. Suddenly he vanished. A moment later an explosion ripped through the air, sending revenants flying and rocking against the truck which t least was somewhat protected by undead bodies. Myself and Kit charged forwards and leapt back into the truck. I revved hard and this time was able to break out and through the massed ranks. I felt the wheels slipping and turning over the blood and rotten sinew as we went.

Kit drove fast around the grounds, hitting as many of the revenants as she could and I could see now that she was the one in the frenzy. “Settle down,” I instructed her sharply. “We can’t afford to total this truck as well. The revenants will be through and over the original one in a moment.”

Just then my eyes alighted upon a small truck with a large machine gun, a Gatling gun of some sort I supposed, mounted on the back of it. we both saw it at the same time.  “We can’t pass it up,” I exclaimed breathlessly. “You saw the slave camp, they never had anything like that. Mount it in the right place and we can keep the bastards away until the bullets run out. With these guns we are an armed encampment, with that thing we’ll be a fort.”
“Just make sure you get back as soon as you can,” instructed Kit.
I leapt out of the truck whilst it was still moving, rolled and hurried over to the jeep. The keys, to my great relief, were still in the ignition and when I leapt inside it started straight away. I noted a good few boxes of ammunition in the back as well. I reversed the vehicle and drove slowly towards the gate, taking care not to damage the bodywork as I went for I imagined we would need this truck to last a long time. Kit waited just long enough to see that the van started okay. I watched as Kit nudged our original truck out of the way. The revenants came forward to meet her of course but this time she drove at a careful pace; not too fast to damage the vehicle but fast enough so as not to get caught in the crush. I waited a few moments until she was through then drove out to follow.
I was thinking about the gun, wondering if I could work out how it worked, if there was a key or something like that, whether it was in working order. After all, it would have been out in the elements a long time without any maintenance. All these worries distracted me and meant I did not see the danger until it was too late. I was not thinking about the declining fuel. There was no question I would not get home on this. I needed to find diesel, and fast. I vaguely remembered this part of the world from looting. There was a village nearby and I recalled seeing a country petrol station just on the outskirts. I drove straight there and leapt out. I put my shoulder against the door and it opened in a moment then hurried inside searching for the keys to the pumps. I found them in a set of drawers which I was required to smash open. I found a can to the side and decided to take it with me, went outside and started filling up the jeep.

The revenant leaped on to my back and it I hadn’t have been so tense after the confrontation at the army base I may not have reacted fast enough and it would have sunk its teeth into my neck. The thing made to clamp down its hungry jaws upon my flesh. I seized hold of the petrol nozzle and forced it into the thing’s open mouth and squeezed the handle. The revenant let forth with an obscene choking sound and the fuel trickled out of its mouth but otherwise it appeared to suffer no ill effects. I reached for the lighter in my pocket, lit it up and tossed it in the revenant’s direction, stepping back as I did so. The results were instantaneous and singed my eyebrows as the inferno erupted.
I was feeling buoyed and confident although at the same time this was tempered by the loss of Paul. Still, there was no more meaningful cause he could have died for. I was around a mile from the church when I saw it. Kit’s truck lay in a ditch. I slowed the involuntarily and stared at the truck with wide eyes. My heart sank. I tried to look for signs as to where she had gone, anything at all. But there was nothing. There were no weapons. It was all gone, everything. I did not need to guess what had happened. I went to examine the ditch and saw the grass had been stamped down, spied empty gun cartridges. The metalwork was strafed with bullet holes. Of Kit there was no sign, although knowing her as I did I doubted she would have gone down without a fight. It was clear the Elite had waited for her along this road then ambushed her as she came past. The trail stopped there. I went back to the truck and put my head in my hands. Paul dead, Kit gone with all the weapons. I realised now we had played right into the hands of the Elite. We had done their work for them and now there would be no stopping them.

I drove on towards the church and farmhouse. I already knew what I was going to find when I got there. There were revenants on the road leading up to the church, more than I had ever seen in this area before. They had not put up much of a fight and I understood why. Reverend Thorpe would have seen there was no chance against many trained men and would have surrendered straight away. The lock had been broken off the bar of the barn and all the revenants had been let out. At least there were no bodies that I recognised as belonging to our own, but then again neither were there the uniforms of the Elite amongst the undead who now wandered freely around the farmhouse and church. They had done it to destroy us, had purposely infested our hideout so that nobody could use it again, thus they eliminated all the safe havens and potential threats leaving survivors no choice except to come to them and volunteer themselves up as slaves. Everything we had worked for was gone, our people carried off into slavery. Survival of the fittest, Blake had called it. I expected he was laughing now. I was not prepared to live a nomadic existence and I was not prepared to desert my friends. I did not at that point believe I would succeed but at the very least I would try. I had nothing except the gun turret truck, a knife and the machine gun I had taken for myself at the army barracks. Would it be enough? It would have to be. Blake had thought of everything. There was just one flaw in his otherwise perfect plan: he still didn’t have me.
Night had fallen when I approached the racetrack. This time I was determined not to make the same mistake as before. I killed the headlights and drove slowly along the road. If anybody saw me this time there were in for a big surprise.
Even in so short a space of time events had been progressing. The cottage in which myself, Kit and Paul had sheltered in the other day had been completely dismantled. This time I did not see so many lights from moving vehicles. The search, after all, was over. As I drove I realised my judgement was being clouded with anger once more. My axe and shotgun were by my side along with a small number of grenades, and then of course there was the Gatling Gun in the back. I considered myself a veritable one man army.
Close to the base I slowed down and flashed my lights. Revenants approached quickly but this time I did not try to run them down but instead encouraged them to follow me until a medium sized swarm had built up. Revenants came out of the trees. I slowed more and allowed them to follow behind the truck. There were not many at first but there were enough. I took care to drive around the revenants. I did not want to hit them head on but this was not only because I was afraid of damaging the truck. I stopped the truck in the middle of the road and killed the engine. In a moment the swarm had surrounded me. In time a lorry pulled up. I watched as the lorry backed up, but its engine had already attracted the attention of the revenants, who now turned towards it with interest. The lorry stopped a hundred yards back down the road and seven men got out, guns at the ready. They did not notice as I slipped out of the truck, being too preoccupied with the revenants. Shots rang out, there came a shout. There were more of them than they had been expecting. It was not quite a storm but would do well enough for my purpose. I slipped out of the truck and sneaked to the back, getting in and behind the machine gun which I had made ready before setting out. As far as they were concerned it was just another routine knot of revenants needing to be taken out. Parked just around the corner as I was the men of the Elite had no idea that I was there. As soon as the guards emerged I opened fire on them with the Gatling, cutting them down where they stood. Afterwards I leapt high through the air, landing gracefully on the road beyond and made a run for the back of the lorry. The back doors were already open. I hurried inside, making as much noise as I could, encouraging the revenants inside. I ran into the truck and banged on the metal walls, encouraging the revenants to follow me in, as if they needed any encouraging. Just as the first revenant made a lunge I moved. I timed it perfectly. Just as they were about to pounce I stretched out my arms and leapt up to grab on to the cross bars of the roof of the truck then swung my legs up and latched on to the other bars so I was in a crawling position. The revenants reached their hands upwards but it was all they could do to brush against me. This done I proceeded to climb backwards from an upside down position. The revenants were packed in tightly and could not turn to follow me. I made it to the other side then jumped out and quickly slammed the doors to the truck closed. A few stragglers came to follow me. I seized up the hammer and made short work of their skulls.