The Purple Haze (21 page)

Martin tried his best to think of a way out of the situation, but this time he was beat. Nothing he could think of at that moment would get them out alive. He looked around himself the best he could, hoping that his eyes would somehow adjust to the dark, but there wasn't enough light for him to make anything out. Yvonne crouched next to him, huddled up against the metal side of the dumpster, quietly whimpering with uncontrollable breaths. It was obvious to Martin she was terrified, but there was nothing he could say that was going to make her feel any better. It was check mate. All the two of them could them could do was to sit and wait. To the two of them it seemed death was inevitable, but the question they asked was how would it come?

“
Martin?” Yvonne whispered.

“
What?” Martin answered as quietly as he could.

“
What are we going to do?” she asked him, hopeful he would have an answer.

“
I don't know Yvonne,” he said, “We can only hope that Gaz and Mike made it and they'll come and look for us.” Martin hadn't thought of this before, but when he said it he was trying to calm Yvonne down, but as he said it aloud he found himself filled with a new hope. “Please have made it,” he thought to himself, and he reached out in the dark to Yvonne and found her hand. He squeezed it and she squeezed back.

* * *

Mike sat on the roof of the building looking down. In the moonlight he could make out the creatures below still feeding on what was left of Gaz, fighting amongst themselves like scavengers fighting over the scraps of some other predator's kill. He felt alone and he felt afraid. At the moment he heard Gaz's gunfire, he was at the top of the ladder and had to pull himself up to the roof. With the rifle strapped to his leg he couldn't manoeuvre himself on the ladder to see what was going on properly. Once he turned to look, it was too late. Gaz was surrounded and the first of the creatures had already bitten a chunk out of his leg. He couldn't even watch the kill after that. He could only listen to the screams coming from among the elevated moaning of the things below.

He looked around himself and from where he was sat he couldn't see any other way off the roof other than the ladder he had used to get up there. He took the clip out of his MP5 and checked his bullet count. He had half a magazine left, enough for fifteen more shots on semi-automatic. Not enough to fight his way off if he had to, he told himself. He looked around again and could see the water reflecting the moonlight, and beyond that the silhouetted masts of the boats at the harbour.

“
So close,” he said aloud to himself, then slumped back and led looking up at the sky. As he lay there, he felt something prodding him in his lower back, something hard. He moved aside and felt for the object. As soon as he had picked it up, without even looking at it, he knew what it was. It was his radio. Hope and excitement filled him up, replacing the acceptance of defeat. If Martin still had the other radio he could tell him where he was and they could come back for him. He flicked the switch to on and began scrolling through the channels. At every channel he called Martin's name, but got no replies. His renewed sense of hope kept him trying.

* * *

In the dumpster, Martin and Yvonne were sat curled up. Yvonne was no longer whimpering, but neither of them dared do anything. The occasional moan from the creatures outside was audible through the dumpster, but they didn't want to look to see how many there were in case it drew attention to themselves. Suddenly they heard a hissing noise that made the two of them jump. The hissing stopped, and then it came again, followed closely by a familiar voice.

“
Martin?” the voice said.

“
It’s the radio!” Martin said in a muted elation, and reached around himself and pulled it from his pocket. He fumbled for the volume dial and turned it down slightly. He pushed the button to talk. “Mike?” he whispered into the radio.

“
Yeah it’s me!” Mike's voice replied, sounding happy and almost chuckling as it spoke. “I’m so glad to hear your voice.”

“
Me too,” Martin said, “just please tell me you and Gaz made it.”

There was a pause before Mike's voice came back. “I'm stuck on a roof.”

“
On a roof?” Martin said, obviously puzzled. “Why are you on a roof?”

“
We got cornered by those things,” Mike replied, “we had to get up here to get away.”

“
Is Gaz with you?” Martin asked.

There was another pause, and then Mike answered. “He didn't make it.”

Martin's heart sank. He couldn't believe it. The four of them had come so close. Their goal was visible from where they were standing not even twenty minutes ago. To not make it now, he felt, was just cruel. He pulled himself around quickly. Gaz was dead and they couldn't help that. They had to find a means to escape their current situation and get to those boats. “Can you get off the roof?” he said through the radio.

“
No,” Mike said, “those things are everywhere down there. Can you get to me?”

“
No,” Martin answered, “we're stuck ourselves.”

“
Stuck where?” Mike asked.

“
In a bin,” Martin said, “and those things are everywhere out there.”

“
Bollocks,” Mike said, and then there was a moment where nobody spoke.

Martin sat there feeling defeated again. He cursed everything in his mind. “How could this happen?” he thought to himself, “We were so close.” Without thinking, he slumped back against the side of the dumpster with a loud metallic 'clunk'. His heart skipped a beat. “What the hell made that noise?” he thought, but he waited silently. His worst fears were realised when the moans rose up from outside.

“
Oh shit,” Yvonne said quietly, the fear obvious in her voice, “they know we're here!”

Martin hushed her. He felt angry at himself for causing this renewed threat. How could he be so careless? The first patter of hands on the dumpster from outside came, and then it was obvious more were coming as the noise grew to a deafening rapture on the metal shell. Martin raised the radio again. “Mike?” he said, no longer whispering.

“
Yeah?” answered Mike's voice.

“
They've found us.”

Chapter 14

Martin and Yvonne clung to each other. They were terrified. The mass of creatures outside the dumpster knew they were in there, but as of yet they couldn't find a way in. Martin knew it was only a matter of time before they found one, and Yvonne knew it too. “Martin?” she asked.

“
What?”

“
How many bullets do we have?” Yvonne asked him.

“
Not enough,” he replied.

Yvonne began crying. “I don't want to die like this!” she said through the cries.

Martin held her tighter. “You're not going to,” he said, and he gripped his pistol in his hand. He considered how easy it would be. He would shoot her in the head in the dark where she wouldn't see it coming, and then turn the gun on himself. It was far more desirable than being torn apart and eaten alive by those things out there. He held her for a second more, then slumped back away from her. As he did, there was another loud metallic 'clunk' against the side of the dumpster. Martin reached around to feel what was making that noise. He found something that he had forgotten about in all the panic. It was a round object, rock hard, metal and about a kilogram in weight. He pulled from his pocket one of the two grenades he kept from the van wreckage. He held it in his hand. It felt cold, but oddly it gave him warmth in his heart. Murder suicide completely disappeared from his mind. This was their exit.

“
Yvonne, cover your ears!” he said. Yvonne did as she was told, and Martin pulled the pin. He gripped the grenade holding the lever in place and, taking a few quick deep breaths, he pushed his hand up as fast as he could, opening the lid to the dumpster enough to get his hand and the grenade through, and dropped it. He pulled his hand back in and grabbed Yvonne again, this time forcing her into a led down position. With his body he covered her and with his hands he covered his own ears. The shock was immense. Despite the fact they both had their ears covered, the bang still echoed around inside the dumpster nearly deafening them. The whole metal structure shook and jolted, and they had a short sense of weightlessness followed by a jolt, of which they were protected from by the black bin bags. Without doing it themselves, the inertia of the movement caused them to roll, and before they knew it they were outside in the alley, finding the sudden brightness of the moonlight quite blinding.

Slightly dizzy, the pair of them sat up quickly and got their bearings. They were facing the dead end of the alley, but it was plastered with blood and what could only be described as ‘pulp’. They turned to see the dumpster had been blown onto its side, and the whole of the alley surrounding it was plastered with a red paste and the floor covered in blood and entrails, the mashed and mangled corpses of dozens of creatures led among it. Some were still moving despite missing the lower two thirds of their bodies, the heads waving slowly, the mouths still opening as though to moan, but without the lungs there was no sound coming out. The only ones able to make a sound were further up the alley, but not a single one was left standing, nor did they have the ability to stand.

Martin knew this was their chance. He made sure he had his gun, checked Yvonne was okay and grabbed her hand. Leading the way, he led the two of them running down the alley. He dodged a few creatures crawling legless along the floor, and a couple that were around the corner still standing he dispatched of with his pistol. As they moved he got back on his radio. “Mike?!” he shouted into it.

Mike's voice came back. He sounded amazed to hear them alive. “Martin? Thank Christ! What the hell was that noise?”

“
Never mind that, get yourself ready, we're coming for you. Where are you?”

“
The building we got separated at, there's a service ladder up to the roof behind it,” said Mike, “But those things are everywhere!”

“
Just get ready,” Martin said. He and Yvonne ran as fast as they could. They found the building Mike had described and headed around the back. Once they had made it to other side they saw the ladder Mike had talked about, and just like he had said, the creatures gathered at the base of it. There must have been about fifty of them, the inner mass of which were still crouched picking at bloody bits of bone on the ground. Martin knew this must have been all that remained of Gaz. He pulled the grenade from his pocket and pulled the pin. He released the lever and as soon as it had sprung away from the device, he rolled the grenade along the floor towards the creatures. It rolled smoothly along the flagged walkway, arcing in the same way a ball would on a bowling green, and settled right in the middle of the crowd of creatures. “Perfect!” Martin thought, and he grabbed Yvonne and pulled her back behind the wall of the building.

The explosion was loud, and as they watched, bloody pieces of bodies came flying past them at the corner of the building, and a horrid thud sound, mixed with a squelching noise, was heard as the pieces of mashed up flesh rained onto the ground. Martin looked to check the way was clear, and pulled Yvonne round the corner with him. The scene was similar to that they had seen in the alley way, with pieces of body everywhere and the odd creature still alive despite being dismembered. The two of them carefully stepped through the mass of blood and flesh and reached the ladder. “Mike?” Martin shouted up.

Mike's head appeared over the ledge of the building. “What the hell was that?” he shouted.

“
Your guardian angel,” Martin answered. “Can you get down?”

“
Yeah, but it'll take a while.”

“
Well get moving, we'll cover you,” Martin said, and he and Yvonne watched. There were no creatures that could threaten them in the immediate vicinity, but others had to have heard the blasts from the grenades and would be on their way to the source of the noise. Mike grabbed the top rung of the ladder and carefully swung his bad leg over the edge, then using the same method he used to climb the ladder he slowly made his way down. He reached the bottom.

“
Thanks for coming back for me,” he said to his two friends.

“
Don't thank us,” Martin said, “We're all leaving together.”

Martin put his arm round Mike's waist and Mike put his arm around Martin's shoulders, and the three of them set off towards the harbour. They could see the masts of the boats moored there silhouetted in the moonlight, a beacon of hope and solace, and the sight gave them all new leases of energy. They moved as quickly as they could with the water on their left. As they followed the road, they noticed creatures shambling towards them from a supermarket car park across the road to their right. They kept moving without hesitation. They were moving faster than the creatures, but all it would take was one slip up and they would be dead. The horde was growing behind them now. The creatures gathered on the car park noticed them and came in a kind of wedge shape, meeting and merging like road traffic to form one mass of bodies moving behind the survivors. The group didn't look back. They just kept their eyes forward and focussed on outrunning the growing number of moans behind them.

It seemed to take an age, but the survivors finally arrived at the entrance gate of the harbour. It was a mesh gate that rose ten feet high, with barbed wire attached the tops of the poles holding it up. When they reached it they threw themselves upon it, but it was locked. They shook it, but it wouldn't budge.