The Undead. The First Seven Days (42 page)

  They look completely exhausted and ready to drop. I start to feel guilty, as I know I’m pushing them for my own need. There is no way they are going to take this in, after what they have been through.
  ‘You lot look worn out. Do you want to rest for a couple of hours and then go through it?’
  ‘I’m okay, Sir - I want to do it now,’ Blowers says to me.
  ‘Me too,’ Cooke affirms and then a few more of the hardcore group nod and join in.

  The quiet ones at the back just stay silent. The two who were glancing at the door are whispering quietly to each other.
  ‘Okay, if you want to do it now then go over to Dave, I’ll be with you in a minute.’    

  Apart from the two whisperers, they all go over to Dave. I approach the two and they look at me, sheepishly.
  ‘Lads, what’s up? You keep looking back at door.’ They gaze at each other and then one of them plucks up enough courage to speak.
  ‘Sir, we just want to go home. We don’t live that far away.’
  ‘You two know each other, then?’
  ‘Not before meeting here - we live in the same area and we want to go home and see our families.’
  ‘That’s fine, you can leave whenever you want. I know you had a nasty time on the plains but I’ve seen what it’s like out there and, trust me, it isn’t pretty.’ They both stare back at me. They look like children but then, they are really. Just boys.
  ‘This is going to sound brutal, but your families might not have survived or they could be gone from there, thinking you are safe with the army. Make your own decisions, but do so knowing what you are walking into and what to expect. If you want to go, carry on and I wish you luck, but I really have to get moving.’
  I go back to the group, it’s obvious what the two lads are thinking and the group remain quiet for a minute, chatting to each other in low voices.
  ‘Sir?’ I turn round and the two lads have taken a couple of steps towards us. I know they have decided to go, otherwise they would have walked over to us.
  ‘Okay, lads, that’s fine. Stay safe and keep moving. Do everything you can to avoid them and make sure you find somewhere safe, at least an hour before nightfall.’

  They both nod and then stand still, unsure of how to say goodbye.
  ‘If all else fails, head to the Forts on the coast. Good luck.’
  ‘Yeah, good luck,’ Cooke walks over and offers his hand to them; they shake and the rest of the recruits go over and also shake hands. Eventually, the two lads break away and leave, closing the door behind them.

  An uneasy silence follows.

  Nine left, and a couple of those don’t look too confident either.
  ‘Right, you lot ready?’ I call over and they walk back, gathering round Dave.

For the next few hours, Dave drills them relentlessly.

First he handed them a rifle each and made them sit round him. He showed them the basics of how the weapons fire then how to load and reload the magazine, pull the bolt and make the weapon ready. He showed them the safety switch and how to make the rifle single shot only or fully automatic. Before moving on he repeated the actions and made them do it together, then individually. He then stripped the weapon down and re-assembled it very quickly and then made them do it with him as he stripped his down.  

  Well, I say he
made
them do it, I was doing it too, but, for some reason, Dave didn’t make me do it in front of the others, either an assumption that I would understand or out of the strange respect he seems to hold for me. I kept up though and understood the basics within a short time.
  Dave then ran through weapon cleaning drills.

  His way of only saying the bare minimum was highly effective; no confusing jargon or rambling on, like most teachers do. Dave was succinct and to the point. His expressionless face also served well as, at no point, did he appear to be frustrated or disappointed when they got it wrong and he had to go back to the beginning and start again.
  Blowers was very proficient and, from the way he handled the weapon, I suspect he must have had previous experience; he assisted with showing the others when they struggled.

  Dave watched him, at first, but didn’t say a word, and, after a time, he must have concluded that Blowers knew what he was doing and left him to it.
  Finally, he made them put the weapon back together, load a magazine and unload it, take the safety off, select single shot then fully automatic - then remove the magazine and put the safety back on.

  Dave made each of them do it one by one; most of them got something wrong with the re-assembling, but Blowers went to each of them and talked them through how to do it properly.
  After watching Blowers for several minutes, curiosity got the better of me and I asked him why he was so proficient.
  ‘I joined the Royal Marines a couple of years ago but got kicked out through injury, I was only in a few weeks but we did loads of weapon drills and some basic manoeuvres.’

  The others seemed to know this already and didn’t pay any attention as he explained all to me.
  After doing the rifle drills, Dave had them all gather at the end of the room and explained that he would show them a very basic fire and manoeuvre method. He got Blowers out front with him and spoke quietly to him for a minute. Blowers nodded and stood just behind Dave. Dave then took a few steps forward and dropped to one knee, aimed and dry fired. He then shouted ‘MAGAZINE’ and started to change his rifle magazine, at which point Blowers ran in front of Dave, but off to the side, and also dropped to one knee and started dry firing.

  He too shouted ‘MAGAZINE’ and Dave went in front as he swapped his magazine over.

  Dave dropped down and they repeated the actions, until they reached the far wall, at which point they both turned and started walking back.

  The recruits cheered and applauded, Blowers looked down and blushed and Dave just walked back without expression.

  I must admit, they made it look easy.
  Dave explained about the danger of having someone in front of you when you have a live weapon and emphasised the point of moving to the side, so you are not directly in front of the man who is changing his magazine behind you.

  Dave then made them do it with him, one by one, and they took turns to move a few steps, drop down and fire then shout ‘MAGAZINE’ as the next one moved forward.

  Then Dave and Blowers each took a recruit and went through the drill, four of them moving up and down the room. Then they had two recruits each, with two firing and one changing magazine’s.
  Finally, Dave told them all to pair off and practise with their chosen partner. Within minutes, the room was a confusing jumble of noise with loud teenage voices bellowing MAGAZINE and then cursing when another pair strayed in front of them.
  ‘How many are coming with us, Mr Howie?’ Dave asked, after walking over to me.
  ‘I don’t know, are any of them coming?’ I reply.
  ‘Well, it would be good to know, so I can split us into teams, ready for when we move.’
  ‘Okay mate, I’ll get their attention and ask ‘em.’
  I shout out for them to come over; Blowers and Cooke are working together and don’t hear at first until Dave bellows at them.

  They gather round with red faces; breathing hard from the exertion.
  ‘FINGERS OFF TRIGGERS!’ Dave shouts in his drill sergeant voice. ‘When at rest, the safety is on and your finger is on the guard like this.’
  They respond, switching the safety and making a show of holding their fingers over the guards. I watch Blowers and can see that he had already done it and was resting in the correct manner.
  ‘Right lads,’ I begin. ‘In a short time, Dave and I are going down onto the plains to find something big and nasty that will get us through London. We need to know if any of you want to join us. This is a personal thing, it has nothing to do with any of you, but you are more than welcome and we want to know now if you are coming?’
  They nod back at me, then start whispering to each other.

  One of the recruit’s shouts out: ‘Sir, if I come with you, will you drop me off after?’
  ‘Yes, of course.’
  ‘Sir, me and Blowers are in,’ Cooke says, after a short discussion with Blowers.
  ‘What about your families?’ I ask them.
  ‘We don’t really have any Sir, to be honest, we ain’t really got anything to go back to.’
  ‘Okay, if you’re sure - it would be great to have you with us,’ I look to Dave for confirmation and he gives a discreet nod.
  ‘So… you’re going to London and then to the Forts?’ McKinney asks.
  ‘Yes, mate,’ I answer.
  ‘Okay, I reckon it’s safer with you two, you’ve travelled this far and stayed alive. I’m in until the Forts - if that’s okay.’
  ‘Of course, it is.’ I look to the rest and see McKinney’s words have obviously struck a chord, as they go silent and absorb what he just said.

  ‘Well, they’ve got this far, haven’t they? They must be doing something right. I’ve got family at home too, but if everyone is going to the Forts, then the best chance of seeing them again is going there.’ McKinney shrugs his shoulders and looks down at his weapon. Five seconds later, and they have all agreed to go.
  Dave then splits them into two “firing teams”. The first is Dave, Roland McKinney, Darren Smith, Roy Tucker and Nicholas Hewitt.
  ‘We are team Alpha, the rest of you are team Bravo and Blowers is the team leader for Bravo.’
  ‘Oh you wanker,’ Cooke turns to Blowers. ‘I haven’t got to take orders from you, have I?’
  ‘Oh yes, my pretty boy, you will do as you are told,’ Blowers says, in a very camp voice which sets them all off laughing.

  Dave speaks to me quietly and I nod and go to back out to the counter at the front of the building. I find a pen and some paper and go back into the room.
  ‘Lads, I need to take your names down… just in case something happens and we find your families later.’

  I write down the names that I know. The last three I never learnt were: Alan Booker, Jamie Reese and Curtis Graves.

  The lads then offer me the names of the ones that died on the plains, the one that we lost fighting our way out and the two that left before we started drilling.

  Finally, I check my watch; it’s almost 5 p.m. If we leave at 6 p.m. we will still have three hours of daylight, but I don’t know how far it is or where the vehicles will be.
  ‘Have any of you got any idea where we will find an APS…?’
  ‘APC!’ Dave and Blowers chorus at me.

  Bollocks! Now there are two of them doing it
.
  ‘Yeah, okay… well, did you see any of them?’
  ‘There was a Saxon near the urban area, Mr Howie. I don’t know if it’s still there though,’ Blowers offers.
  ‘A Saxon? Now I’m sure I saw a programme on TV about them, big things with massive wheels, big machine gun on the top?’
  ‘Yes.’ Dave answers.
  ‘Right, we go for that then. How far is it to the urban village?’
  ‘I don’t know. We were taken by truck and it was quite a long drive, must be a few miles at least.’
  ‘I was going to give you an hours rest, but now I’m thinking we should get going. We don’t want to be out in the dark with those things running about, especially after what you said you went through on those plains. Do you think you can manage it?’ I direct my question to the group.

 
They do look exhausted and I feel like a right bastard for making them move again, but this has to be done now.

  Blowers, Cooke and McKinney nod back and call out that they are ready, I get the impression they are making the others go along with it and they all start nodding, within a few seconds.

  Dave then comes over to me and speaks quietly:  ‘Mr Howie, we need to find the stores building. They need belts to hold the magazines and some water bottles would be good too.’
  ‘Okay, if you say so, mate. It’ll give ‘em a chance to rest too.’
  ‘Right, the plan is that Dave, Blowers and I are going to find the stores building… so you get the chance to practise shooting some zombie mother fuckers while we make a run for it.’

  A few of them look up, excited at the prospect.
  ‘You each have spare magazines, do not go forward, just line up outside and practise single shot only, aim for the head,’ Dave instructs them.
  We lead back out to the front and over the counter, I don’t know why we didn’t use the side door but I guess this makes it more dramatic.

  Dave and Blowers each have their assault rifles ready. Mine is strapped to my back and I have my axe. Dave did stare at me when I picked it up.
  ‘Never leave home without it,’ I said to him and he just looked at it again.
  ‘So, you’re not taking knives then?’ I said.

  He looked sheepish and gave a small smile.
  ‘Ah, I bloody thought so.’
  We go to the main door and realise that the horde are now all gathered directly at the front, blocking our exit.

  We end up using the side door and lead the recruits back to the front, coming out just to the side of the horde. Dave tells them to fire from an angle, so they do not shoot the buildings. They make ready but hesitate, clearly none of them want to be the first to shoot. Dave raises his assault rifle and fires several shots into the crowd, getting head shots with each one.
  ‘Fuck me, good shot!’ Cooke says.