The Undead. The First Seven Days (80 page)

Howie remains still, and, despite the growing rage inside of him, he keeps his face neutral. The rest pick up on Howie’s lack of reaction and remain quiet.
  ‘Oh… hi Jamie,’ Darren waves at the quiet lad. ‘Have you fucked Dave up the arse yet? You know you want to… oh and there’s Tucker the fat fucker. Hey Tucker, how many pies have you eaten yet, you fat roly poly cunt. Ha! That’s fucking funny - Tucker the fat fucker,’ Darren throws his head back and laughs.

Then he suddenly turns back to the undead and shouts: ‘LAUGH,’ and thousands of undead voices start laughing hard.

Darren spins back to face Howie and the group, smiling as the forced laughter erupts from behind him. He slowly raises his hand and clicks his fingers; the laughing stops instantly.
  ‘Oh and there’s Nick - thick cunt who can’t read or write… can you, Nick? You never got past “Spot Goes To The Beach” did you mate? Still playing with the J
oin The dots
Books, eh, Nick?’
  ‘Yes, Darren,’ Nick replies, quietly.
  ‘Yes, Darren,’ Darren mimics Nick, in a high-pitched voice.
  ‘And then there’s Blowers and Cookey, what a pair of utter cunts, fucking playing at soldiers… yes, Mr Howie and no, Mr Howie and can I suck your cock, Mr Howie? ’ Darren shouts as he walks back and forth, spittle flying from his mouth. Then he stops and stares directly at Dave.
  ‘Hello, Dave,’ Darren says with a mock, friendly tone. ‘How are you Dave?’

Dave remains void of expression, his cold, hard eyes staring directly at Darren.
  ‘Oh… are we playing the staring game, Dave? Okay mate, let’s do that,’ Darren takes a step forward and stares hard into Dave’s eyes.

Dave doesn’t flinch, he doesn’t move a muscle, and no hint of emotion escapes his cold eyes.
  ‘You are a fucking, little, runt,’ Darren explodes in fury as Dave stares back, without moving.
  ‘You just want to fuck Howie up the arse - you fucking fag. You want to do a reach around with Howie while his dirty cunt sister licks your arse,’ Darren turns and starts thrusting his pelvis back and forth, while stretching one arm out.
  ‘That’s fucking, brilliant,’ Howie bursts out laughing, as Darren spins round to face him. Howie starts applauding him, while laughing.
  ‘Very good mate, have you finished?’ Howie asks.
  ‘Don’t fucking laugh at me, you cunt. I’ve got an army and I will not be laughed at,’ Darren screams and clicks his fingers.

The massive horde all take a step forward, perfectly in time, and stamp their feet down, which booms out in the quiet air.
  ‘Very impressive, mate!’ Howie smiles. ‘Can you make them dance too?’
  ‘I don’t think you should be mocking me, Mr Howie,’ Darren says, through gritted teeth.
  ‘What do you think Dave, should we be taking Darren seriously?’ Howie asks.
  ‘No, Mr Howie, I don’t think we should,’ Dave replies.
  ‘But he has got such a big army behind him though, what do you think, lads? Should we be taking Darren and his army seriously?’ Howie calls out, behind him.
  ‘I think they look a bit gay,’ Cookey replies.
  ‘You’d know,’ Blowers replies, quick as a flash. ‘Have they set off your gaydar?’
  ‘Blowers, it’s time you stopped hiding behind the gay jokes and came out mate,’ Cookey retorts.
  ‘You want to hide behind
me,
that’s for sure,’ Blowers replies, to a few sniggers, and Howie smiles inside.
  ‘Oi… Tucker, have you got any
mince
pies, I think Blowers wants one,’ Cookey says, laughing.
  ‘Hey Darren, do you get to choose the ones you want to bum?’ Nick shouts out, to more sniggers and Howie watches Darren’s face grow darker.
  ‘Chris, did you ever see such an impressive army mate?’ Howie asks, drawing the big man into the conversation.
  ‘Oh no, they’re the biggest and bestest I ever did see,’ Chris replies, scathingly.

‘And the uniform is the best we’ve seen yet,’ Malcolm adds.
  Darren takes a sudden step forward, with his fists clenched; the group drop the laughing and take a step towards him, which, in turn, makes the massive horde take another step forward.

Howie and Darren lock eyes, both breathing hard and staring, with fixed intent.
  ‘You come for me, Darren. I’ve killed many of them and I won’t stop. I’ll fucking slaughter every single one of them that I can find, so you come for me and see what happens, mate,’ Howie says, quietly.
  ‘Oh, I will, Mr Howie, and I’ll turn every person I can find and… along the way, I will leave this land ravaged and destroyed,’ Darren snarls back at him.
  They stand with eyes locked and Howie visualises ripping his throat out there and then.

Night hits and, as one, the undead look to the sky and howl into the air; thousands of voices filling the night sky, sending shivers down the spines of all the men that watch them. They start to back away but Howie stands his ground for a few more seconds, watching a slow smile form across Darren’s face. Then Howie leans forward and stares hard at his former friend.
  ‘Roar,’ Howie says simply and walks away, showing his back to the horde and praying they don’t cut him down.

‘Am I the only one that wants to fucking leg it,’ Cookey says, as they all walk steadily back to the Saxon.
  ‘No, I certainly do,’ Big Chris adds.
  ‘So why are we walking then?’ Tucker asks.
  ‘Don’t give them the satisfaction,’ Clarence rumbles.
  ‘FUCKING RUN!’ Howie shouts as he sprints past them, causing them all to break out and start running. Howie dives into the back of the Saxon and clambers through to the driver’s seat as the rest climb into the rear.
  ‘They’re fucking running at us,’ Blowers shouts as he pulls the rear doors closed with a slam.

Howie starts the engine and pulls away with a jerk, sending them all lurching backwards and Sarah falls into the laps of the men. Soon, she gets her balance and stands back up, suddenly becoming aware of the big men in the confined space and the very wet tee-shirt that she is wearing.
  ‘Err, does anyone have a spare top?’ Sarah asks sweetly, a dozen tough men start scrabbling about quickly in the tight confines.
  ‘Here you go, Miss,’ Clarence speaks first, holding out a dry top to Sarah, as the others all stare daggers at him.
  ‘Is that my top?’ Nick asks, recognising the clothing.
  ‘I don’t know, is it?’ the massive man stares innocently back at Nick.
  ‘Er... maybe not,’ Nick adds quickly, looking up at Clarence.
  ‘Chris, does that truck driver still have one of the radios?’ Howie shouts back.
  ‘Yes, but they’re only short range things, do you think they’ll go for the commune?’ Chris shouts.
  ‘I’m sure of it - is that GPMG working now?’ Howie yells.
  ‘I’ll get on it,’ Dave replies and climbs up to start working, as the Saxon speeds up through the dark city streets.

No street lights come on, none of the shops are illuminated, and there is no warm light spilling from houses or apartment blocks any more. The rain clouds cover the night sky and cast the streets into absolute darkness.

The powerful headlights shine out like beacons in the darkness, and the zombies surge towards them like moths. The solid plated front of the Saxon hardly rocks, as they plough through body after body. The zombie’s bare their teeth as they lunge to the front of the vehicle.
  ‘Should we be shooting them down from the back doors?’ Tucker asks.
  ‘No, we’re going too fast and it’s not worth it, for dropping just a few of them, we need to get back as soon as possible,’ Chris says, with worry clearly in his voice.
  ‘How secure is it Chris? Will it withstand a mass attack?’ Howie shouts back.
  ‘No, we can hold against a few of them at a time but we’ve only been going a few days, a big push would get them through easily.’
  ‘Can we make it more secure?’ Howie asks.
  ‘If they’re coming for us with large numbers, we’ll have to bug out, we can’t repel ‘em and we don’t have time to secure it more,’ Chris shouts back.
  ‘How soon can they made ready to leave then?’ Howie asks.
  ‘It’ll take hours, we don’t have enough vehicles, and we’ve got kids and sick people too.’
  ‘I don’t think we’ll have hours Chris, they move fast at night and
he
knows where it is now, he can send them in to attack it.’
Chris looks to Malcolm and his men; they have families and friends. Fighting huge hordes of the undead in hand-to-hand combat is one thing, but now there is a direct threat against the people he offered safety and security to.
  ‘Are those Forts big enough for all of us?’ Malcolm calls out.
  ‘I don’t know, it depends how many have already gone there; how full they are. They are big though, especially the main one,’ Howie replies.
  ‘Is there anywhere else we can go, easy to defend and hold many people?’ Clarence asks.
  ‘Probably loads of places, but I don’t know of them,’ Howie shouts back.
  ‘We need to make a decision, Chris - we’ll have to move out as soon as we get back,’ Malcolm says.
  ‘Okay, we’ll go for the Forts. Women and children into whatever vehicles we can find, there’s still space in the truck we can use.’ Chris says.
  ‘They’ve probably started to unload it already,’ Clarence joins in.
  ‘We’ll have to take essential equipment only and use the rest of the space for people, we’ve also got the trucks that we used as barriers across the access roads,’ Chris says, thinking as he goes along. ‘Right, Malcolm, I want you to arrange the vehicles, get those trucks ready and lined up on the exit road. Clarence I want you to sort the hospital out, don’t take any shit from Doc Roberts and make sure he only takes essential items,’ Chris barks out.
  ‘Got it,’ Clarence nods.
  ‘Howie, can we use the Saxon at the rear access road to cover, if we get the GPMG working again,’ Chris asks.
  ‘I’ll get it working,’ Dave calls down.
  ‘Okay, Saxon at the rear with Nick on the GPMG, Jamie as sniper. Blowers, Cookey and Sarah I want you with the vehicles to help load the people up, they will be scared and confused, so be nice, but get them moving,’ Howie calls out, to nods and yells of affirmation.

‘Chris, do you have a stores area?’ Howie asks.
  ‘Yes,’ he replies.
  ‘One of our blokes excels in that area, can you make use of him to help organise?’
  ‘Yes, definitely,’ Chris shouts back.
  ‘Tucker, that’s you.’
  ‘On it,’ Tucker shouts back.
  ‘Dave, me and you will stick with Chris to work from a central point, we stay put, so everyone knows where we are so they can come to us, that okay with everyone?’
  Sarah watches as the men and lads all shout out in acknowledgment, then she looks at Chris; a naturally big man with a dark beard and very white teeth – he has an air of natural leadership about him. He and the older men are clearly ex-soldiers, when they took their tops off in the rain she saw the scars on their bodies; bullet holes and knife slashes. Long healed but still very visible. Clarence is a huge man-mountain with muscles on top of muscles, but with a kind face. Then she looks to her brother. Less than a week ago he was working nights in a supermarket. Always a kind man, fun loving and very caring but now there is a hardness to him and these men respond to him and listen to what he’s saying. Her brother is giving orders in a manner that just makes them want to follow him.

She had watched as he stayed at the front fighting towards her, and then went back again, swinging that axe with a look of pure fury and hatred on his face and these battle hardened men and young lads are following him.

She can see the difference in him, the way he uses humour and kind words, but then gives an order that leaves no doubt it will be followed, and the thing is, it all makes sense. He shows respect to Big Chris, knowing that the big man is the leader of his group - but Sarah suspects that even if he hadn’t shown that respect, they would have still accepted what he said.
  Life has changed, the whole world has changed, and her brother has changed the most.

He walked alone towards a huge horde of undead back on the Bridge, maybe he did feel fear, but he faced it and walked towards it. She knows he came for her and now that he has saved her, he could turn tail and run far away, but even now he’s accepted the responsibility of trying to save those other people. They are nothing to him, and these young lads don’t hold any loyalty to them or Howie. But they accept what he says without question.

She feels an immense sense of pride in her brother; she felt pride in him before, just for being a good person. But now... now he shines with a glowing light. He is amazing.

‘He’s a good man.’ A rich voice intones, and she snaps out of her reverie to see Clarence smiling at her.
  ‘What?’
  ‘Your brother, he’s a good man, a natural leader,’ he repeats.
  ‘Yeah, I guess he is,’ she smiles back at him.
  ‘HOLD ON TIGHT,’ Howie yells, as the Saxon slams into a horde gathered in the road, the impact at such high speed sends the Saxon rocking on its suspension causing them all to slide and fall in the back.

A huge hand shoots out and grabs Sarah round the waist to prevent her falling back.
  ‘Thanks… again,’ Sarah says to Clarence.
  ‘THERE’S MORE,’ Howie bellows and the Saxon rocks and jolts as it slams into body after body, pulverising them instantly from the raw power of the impact.
  The Saxon careers through the streets, as Howie negotiates the bends and turns. Zombies launch themselves into the oncoming vehicle screaming, as they run and lunge forward; only to be splatted against the front, like flies.
  ‘BIG GROUP,’ Howie yells, as the lights pick up an oncoming horde, running full tilt at the Saxon. Howie pushes his foot down hard and the big engines roar out into the night, as the vehicle surges forward. Howie grips the wheel and growls deep in his throat.
  ‘BRACE,’ he screams as they impact.