Remains of the Dead (31 page)

Ryan looked back at the school for a sign of his companion.

“Cahz!” he screamed as loud as he could.

There was no reply. Ryan turned to see the undead shuffling closer.

The signal fire made their faces look even more monstrous as the flickering orange light twisted and warped their slack-jawed expressions.

Ryan turned and ran for the school.

* * *

Cahz battered open the double doors from the gym and stumbled into the main corridor. He held two long, unwieldy wooden benches sandwiched under his arm to fuel the signal fire. The corridor was lit by the dim reflected light from the fire in the schoolroom where Rebecca slept.

Ryan stood motionless by the open doorway, silhouetted by the golden flicker of fire light, his shoulders hunched over, looking thoroughly drenched, a pool of water forming at his feet.

“I’ve checked in on her already,” Cahz said, struggling with the gym equipment.

Ryan didn’t react; he simply stood there staring into the schoolroom.

“Give me a hand here,” Cahz said as the two benches started to slip.

The benches scissored in opposite directions. Cahz tried to calm the swinging with his free hand, but the stress was too much and they clattered to the floor.

“Don’t just stand there,” he said as he bent down to stack them.

As he gathered them up he caught sight of Ryan moving into the room.

Cahz started lifting the load. “I know you’ve got a sore foot, Ryan, but for fuck’s sake hurry it up.”

With the bench back in place, Cahz stumbled forward again. As he drew up to the door he shouted inside.

“Grab an end for fuck’s sake—”

Cahz froze.

By the light of the fire in the classroom, he could see it wasn’t Ryan he’d been speaking to. A thick-set zombie, its skin crisp and burnt, stared from lidless eyes at the slumbering baby. The child twitched in her sleep and the creature let out a baneful moan.

“Ah shit!” Cahz shouted.

The benches hit the floor with a clatter and Cahz pulled his carbine up to fire. The zombie seemed oblivious to the noise and threw itself at the child. It was on the child before Cahz could fire. The two merged and he lost his clear target. With no time before the creature bit down, Cahz pulled the trigger.

The zombie toppled over onto the floor. The child screamed.

Cahz vaulted over the toppled benches and kicked the neutralized zombie away from the child. He bent down and scooped up the crying baby. Her cheeks were puffed out red as she screamed in discomfort. Cahz gently placed his hand on the child’s forehead, his breath forced to a fearful stop. The baby was tiny, his cupped hand covering her whole head. The skin was burning hot, flushed with blood from screaming. He drew his hand over the child’s hair, ruffling her short silky curls as he felt for any wet patches.

With a puff of relief, Cahz let out his stifled breath. There was no bite, no spray of contagion. Again the baby had escaped infection.

“There, there,” Cahz said, bouncing the baby. “There, there.”

“Cahz!” Ryan cried out as he ran into the room.

“Ryan?” Cahz squeaked back in a surprised, high-pitched tone.

Ryan stopped just short of the incapacitated zombie. “The choppers back!” he gasped before he had time to take in the scene. He saw the inert zombie sprawled across the floor and caught the look of panic in Cahz’s eyes. “What the fuck happened?” he asked as he practically pulled Rebecca to his chest.

“It’s all okay,” Cahz said in a calming tone. “I took the W.D. out before he got to her. She’s fine—just a little freaked.”

Ryan held the child out at arm’s length and examined her. In a childish voice he comforted the girl.

“You said the choppers here?” Cahz asked.

Ryan nodded. “Yeah, but they’ve broken through the fence. The field is full of pus-bags.”

“Christ!” Cahz sprang over the body and out towards the main door.

* * *

Cahz sprinted out of the front door with such speed that he ran straight past the first zombie. The retarded cadaver swung round to grab at him, but Cahz was too swift. In the exigency to grab its prey, the zombie lost its balance and fell over.

Ryan was right; the playing field was swamped with undead, and maybe a mile away in the rain-laden sky there shone the lights of an aircraft.

“This is India Tango One, are you receiving?” Cahz shouted into his mic. “Are you receiving?”

The cross of burning desks was still alight, but the flames were lacklustre, dampened by the rain.

But there was still enough light to plainly see the dozens of zombies shambling towards him. Cahz fired his weapon, dispatching the approaching vanguard of undead.

“India Tango One calling. We need immediate extraction. Do you copy?”

The zombie Cahz had run past picked itself up. It stretched out its bone thin arms and lumbered after its kill.

Cahz looked up at the black night sky. He could see the flashes of light from the chopper illuminating the undersides of the clouds. Taking in a deep breath he hit the toggle to send, “Idris, you son of bitch, look down!”

The zombie edged up behind Cahz. It let its jaw drop and tried to let out an excited moan, but no sound emerged from its infection encrusted mouth. Maybe the fall or the rain or some other factor prevented it from moaning. It didn’t matter to the undead creature; it would still sink its teeth into the living flesh and gorge on its warm meat.

Snarling, its teeth at the ready, the zombie stepped in for the attack.

A shot rang out from behind him and Cahz whipped round just in time to see a zombie collapse at his feet. Ryan had emerged from the school building, the papoose strapped to his chest, pistol in hand.

Cahz looked at Ryan, the muzzle still pointed at his face, and then down at the crumpled zombie.

“Your aim is improving,” Cahz said, then turned round and looked back up at the sky. “Idris, this is Cahz. Come on, buddy, we really need a lift.”

As Ryan drew up Cahz could hear the baby zipped up inside the bag, her howls of displeasure marginally stifled by the fabric.

“What do we do?!” Ryan shouted above the child’s screams and the lashing rain.

A swathe of zombies where shambling towards them, converging on their position.

“Get closer to the breach,” Cahz said. “We’ve got to seal that back up before we run out of ammo.”

“What about the chopper?”

Cahz gave Ryan a solemn look. “If you can think of a way of signaling him, I’m all ears.”

“The school!” Ryan yelped. “Torch the school!”

Cahz slapped him on the shoulder. “It’s worth a try. Get to it. I’ll try to secure the area.”

Cahz edged forward, shooting as he did. Within seconds his carbine gave a dreaded click. He flicked the catch and let the empty fall to the ground. He pulled a fresh magazine from its pouch and slapped it home. There was no time to retrieve the empty and since there was no more ammunition, there was no point.

“This is India Tango One, situation is critical.” Cahz held firm as a fresh wave of zombies shuffled towards him, “I repeat, situation is critical. Request immediate evac. Please respond, over.”

The zombies were just seconds from grabbing him, but Cahz waited, desperately wanting to hear his radio crackle into life.

A dead hand pawed in front of his face. He batted the dead flesh away with his carbine and shot the zombie, muzzle pressed against its nose. The headless cadaver slumped to the ground, clearing Cahz’s aim for the next targets.

The first dozen rounds cleared the immediate ground around him, then he pushed on, closing on his enemy. Out here in the drizzle with the rising moans of a thousand undead, it was easy to get overwhelmed. The faint fire light behind was illuminating just enough to see by.

Squeezing the trigger, the hammer fall ended in silence. Another magazine depleted. Cahz let the empty slip free and grabbed the last of his rounds. Unceremoniously he loaded the weapon and aimed it at the horde.

“This is never going to work,” he said as he lowered the M4.

Between him and the breach there were still a good couple of dozen undead. Even if he took one with each round, by the time he’d done that another hundred would be through the gap.

Cahz lowered his gun and charged into the mob of decaying flesh.

He screamed a guttural, primordial cry that rivaled the moans of the amassed dead. He thumped into countless zombies, knocking the soggy lumps of dead flesh flying with his momentum. He was almost at the gap when his footing slipped on the muddy grass and he skidded head first towards the opening.

The thick wet mud sprayed his face and flooded into his mouth. He coughed out the choking slurry as he scrambled to catch his footing. Before he could get up, a lump weight fell across his shoulder. Cahz tried to push himself up, but more eager zombies were piling on top. His fingers dug into the earth, his teeth gritted. He forced his muscles to push. Summoning every ounce of strength in his flesh, he burst out of the scrum, throwing cadavers off in all directions.

Clambering on all fours, digging for traction in the chewed-up earth, Cahz threw himself at the upturned desk. Reaching what had now become a breakwater in the path of the undead, he slammed his back up hard against it. It was only a few feet from its original position blocking the hole, but Cahz knew this would be a Herculean task to get it back in place.

Stamping his heels into the quagmire, he pushed his weight into the desk. The abused piece of school furniture slid a few inches then came to a jarring halt.

Before Cahz could change his purchase a dead hand grabbed at him. At the end of the gnarled and decaying arm a petite little zombie hauled itself. Cahz stared into the vacant eyes of a dead child. No more than seven or eight when she’d turned, the little girl wore a shredded school uniform. Her black lips curled back, revealing missing teeth from her demonic grin.

Cahz whipped out his pistol and shoved it straight into the child’s open mouth.

“Chew on this,” Cahz heard himself quip as he pulled the trigger.

The zombie’s head exploded, throwing shrapnel-like chunks of skull into the darkness.

Pistol still in hand, Cahz braced his shoulders to the wooden surface and dug in. As he pushed again and again, the desk started to slide. It slithered a few inches in the mud before stopping firm. Another zombie came round the side and made a grab for him. Cahz kicked out at the undead’s kneecap. The bone snapped like rotten wood and the zombie fell to the ground. As it hit the mud Cahz dispatched it with a round to the head.

Cahz’s eye was drawn back to the school as a lick of flame shot up inside one of the classrooms. The yellow beam of light shone like a beacon from the window.

“Come on, Idris! You’ve got to see that!” Cahz barked, face upturned to the rain.

Round the edge of the desk a pair of cadavers came at him. The first one he floored in an instant, the second he had to grapple with before his shot found its brain.

“Come on, you dead fuck motherfuckers!” Cahz shouted as he threw his strength behind the desk again.

A wave of half a dozen cadavers lumbered into arm’s length of him. He repeatedly fired his pistol, trying to keep the zombies at bay. Through the mob of undead he could see a second then a third classroom in quick succession burst into flames.

A necrotic hand wrapped around his gun arm, pulling his aim off true. He wrestled the gun free and fired wildly at point-blank range.

“India Tango One, we are setting signal fires at our location,” Cahz radioed as the pack of cadavers fell upon him. He strained to get out the last of his message, “West of your position.”

The drone of the helicopter engine sounded closer now, even above the rain and moans.

With the hope of rescue masking his fear, Cahz ignored the dead hands grasping for him. He changed his angle of attack on the desk and pushed hard.

Over and over, he thrust his whole body at the desk, each time taking it a little further into the gap.

A fresh zombie grabbed his arm and pounced. Cahz pulled the trigger, but the gun was spent. He tossed the empty pistol aside and pulled himself back away from the zombie’s jaws. A second zombie seized him from behind, throwing him off kilter.

Cahz stumbled back, vigorously trying to shake off the ravenous dead. In only a few short steps he had a congregation of zombies all snatching at him.

Feeling for the M4 on its sling, Cahz twisted and turned, desperately to escape the attackers. His fingers found the handle of the weapon. He tried to level it, but the dead were pressed too tightly around him now. He could feel teeth gnawing into his armour and he knew it wouldn’t be long before they found his flesh.

Gasping against the choking stench of rot, Cahz tried unsuccessfully to break loose. Unable to get a clear shot, he started firing wildly, popping off shot after shot in a frantic attempt to loosen their hold. As the shots rang out, he bucked and twisted trying to break free, but for every zombie he dislodged another took its place.

Cahz tripped in the melee and fell to the mud, a dozen voracious cadavers falling with him. As he hit the ground and took a face full of putrid slurry there was an electrical hiss through his earpiece.

* * *

The school was ablaze, fingers of flame stretching long into the night sky.

And in the glow of the fires Ryan saw the knot of zombies on the ground a short distance from the defunct barricade. Although the gap in the fence was only wide enough to let one zombie in at a time, the mass of undead clambering to get in was terrifying. Every second, like some macabre spawning, a zombie would spew through the gap and stumble onto the playing field.

Ryan ran up to the seething heap of bodies. Under the pile Cahz was screaming.

“I’m coming!” Ryan hollered as he grabbed a cadaver.

The force of Ryan’s pull ripped the rotten shirt off the zombie’s back, exposing the putrid flesh underneath. Unperturbed, Ryan leveled his pistol and shot the assailant through the head. He snatched a zombie out, rammed his gun into its head, and pulled the trigger.