The Undead. The First Seven Days (90 page)

An awkward silence follows with the armed men and women looking down at their feet, avoiding Howie’s intense stare.
  ‘But… Mr Howie, we’re exhausted, we’ve been fighting and going for a long time, we can’t keep going like this,’ the man whines, rubbing his forehead.
  ‘Okay mate, I’ll tell you what, why don’t you fuck off and get some sleep then, go and sleep and feel sorry for yourself and whine that no one is giving you a suitable rest period. Even better, we’ll send someone to the massive zombie army and ask them nicely to please wait, so we can all have a nice sleep,’ Howie’s voice rises as he speaks and the darkness spreads across his face quickly. ‘
I’m sorry zombie army, but we’re tired and you’re pushing us too hard
. Get this mate, we are all going to die and become brain eating zombies if we don’t do whatever it takes.’
  ‘Yeah, I get that, but listen, there’s only so much we can take, before we just drop…’ the man carries on, oblivious to the whining tone of his own voice.
  ‘MAN UP AND DEAL WITH IT, OR DIE,’ Dave’s voice booms out, suddenly causing everyone to jolt backwards, the man goes to speak again, but Dave steps forward with lightning speed and stands nose to nose with him. ‘WHAT? DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING ELSE TO SAY?’ Dave roars at him.
  ‘…no, nothing,’ the man replies, avoiding Dave glaring at him and starts staring down at his own feet.
  ‘DO YOU WANT TO DIE?’ Dave bellows.
  ‘No.’
  ‘DO YOU WANT TO LIVE?’
  ‘Yes,’ the man replies, quietly.
  ‘MOANING AND WHINING IS MORE INFECTIOUS THAN THOSE THINGS OUT THERE, IF I HEAR YOU MOANING AGAIN, ME AND YOU WILL HAVE AN ISSUE. IS THAT CLEAR?’
  ‘Yes,’ he mutters. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to whine, I lost some good mates back there and I’m in shock, but you’re right and I apologise to you and everyone else in here,’ the man says, turning back to face the room with a look of shame.

Another one of Chris’s men steps forward and rests his hand on the man’s shoulder, nodding gently at him.
  ‘Debbie, can you get on to those lists and have the runners ready… Tucker, would you mind arranging for some food and cleaning supplies to be brought over?’ Howie asks, breaking the silence.
  ‘Yes, of course… err… is there anything else?’ Debbie asks.
  ‘No, that’s it - get some rest while you can, but stay close,’ Howie says.

The door opens and Debbie files out first, followed by Ted.

Howie turns to see Terri coming back into the door, the sunlight catches her golden hair, framing her soft skin and casing an angelic halo about her. Howie finds his breath catching in his throat, as she smiles at him.
She is beautiful
, he thinks, staring at her with an open mouth.
  ‘You’ll catch flies,’ she says, quietly.
  ‘What? Eh?’ Howie says quickly, snapping back to reality.
  ‘Sarge said for me to stay close and act as your liaison officer,’ Terri says. ‘Are you okay, Howie?’
  ‘Yep,’ he replies, too quickly.
  ‘Now, I wouldn’t do this for anyone else, as I’m not a bloody secretary, but I’m going to get you some strong coffee and stay here while you drink it, got it?’ she says, seriously.
  ‘That sounds lovely, Terri… we need to speak to Doc Roberts for a few minutes, anyway,’ Howie replies.
  ‘Did someone say something about coffee,’ Chris calls out, looking up from the maps on the table.
  ‘I’ll come with you,’ Sarah interrupts, knowing what the men need to do.

They leave the room and Howie calls out for Blowers, asking him to prevent anyone coming in from the back rooms for a few minutes.

Blowers nods once and turns to face the other way, standing with his arms folded and blocking the door.
  ‘Doc, shall we?’ Chris asks.
  ‘Shall we what, Chris? You asked me to come here, but I don’t know why?’ Doctor Roberts snaps back in his usual, clipped tones.
  ‘Doctor, we need to make sure, as best we can, that none of us three are infected. Darren, one of my lads was infected for a while before he turned, and we can’t risk any of us three turning, while we are planning…’ Howie explains, as the doctor holds a hand up to stop him talking.
  ‘Right, got it, I understand gentlemen. You are going to be planning the defence from here and if one of you is infected, then you could potentially let the other side know about the plans, is that it?’
  ‘Yes,’ Howie and Chris say in unison.
  ‘There is no sure way of checking without blood tests, but we don’t have time for that. There are some telltale signs we have learnt, an increase in body temperature and increased heart rate. I’ll do the best I can and check you visually. Strip off,’ the doctor commands.

Howie and Chris shrug at each other and start to slowly peel their clothes off. Dave doesn’t hesitate and is stripped naked within a minute.
  Doctor Roberts starts with Dave, checking his temperature first, and then listening to his heart rate. He examines his eyes closely, shining a bright light into the pupils then into his ears. After that, the doctor conducts a very close visual check, examining each inch of skin to check for scratches or open wounds.
  ‘Turn round,’ the doctor orders and starts checking Dave from behind, first his back, then down to his buttocks and then his legs.
  ‘Bend over,’ the doctor commands, shining a torch into Dave’s backside.
  ‘I can see that light shining out your mouth, Dave,’ Chris jokes.
  ‘Clean and healthy, as far as I can tell… Chris you are next…’
  The doctor drops down onto his knees to examine Chris’s legs and, after a few minutes, the doctor pauses and stares up at Dave - Howie and Chris realise the same thing and both stare over at him.
  ‘You can get dressed now, Dave,’ the doctor says quietly, as the door opens and Terri steps in, holding a large, metal flask.
  ‘Oh, my God!’ Terri fumbles with the heavy flask staring at the three naked men standing behind the table.

Howie and Chris both quickly cover their privates as Dave spins round to face the other way.
  ‘Err, I’ll leave this here,’ Terri says flustered, as she walks further into the room and places the flask on the table, glancing at Howie as she does so.
  ‘We’re just being examined by the doctor,’ Howie says, feebly.
  ‘All at the same time?’ Terri says quickly, then sees the doctor crouching down, examining one of Chris’s kneecaps.
  ‘Oh, hi, Doc’ she says and smiles at Howie trying to cover his bits with both hands, ‘I’ll leave you to it!’ she smiles and walks out, as Chris bursts out laughing.
  ‘That wasn’t funny,’ Howie groans, to the sound of Blowers stifling laughter from the doorway.
  ‘I think she enjoyed it,’ Chris laughs.
  ‘Stop laughing and stand still please, now turn round and bend over,’ the doctor orders, oblivious to the interruption.

‘They have to approach from the front, the Fort is built onto this spit,’ Chris says running his finger round the outline of the land on the map. ‘They cannot attack from the sides or rear in any great numbers, so at least we know to expect a frontal attack.’

The three of them pour over maps, drinking strong coffee, after being left with explicit instructions from Doctor Roberts to report any changes in body temperature, and to watch each other closely.
  ‘Okay, so we know which way they are coming, we’ve got a large, open, flat land in front of us with two big banks, one of which drops down into a type of dry moat. Before that, we’ve got the housing estate,’ Howie continues, describing the area.
  ‘If I can use that black powder I should be able to rig up some traps within the housing estate,’ Dave cuts in.
  ‘What sort of thing?’ Howie asks. ‘I don’t think we’ve got any cows to blow up.’
  ‘I’ll have to have a look round and see what’s there first, but the amount of numbers they’re bringing means they will have to funnel through the estate,’ Dave replies.
  ‘Cows?’ Chris asks puzzled.
  ‘Dave once blew up a cow to take out an enemy target,’ Howie explains.
  ‘Oh, was that you? We heard about that,’ Chris says.
  ‘And a refinery too,’ Howie adds.
  ‘You did the refinery? We were on standby for that, Christ that went up, didn’t it - you should definitely rig the estate then,’ Chris says.
  ‘How many will you need?’ Howie asks.
  ‘Just one other, Jamie?’ Dave replies.
  ‘Yeah, good idea, how about you take a few more and place them for spotters, put them out as far as you can,’ Howie says.
  ‘Okay, Mr Howie, we’ll take a couple of vehicles and use one of them as the furthest obs point - do they have any spare radio’s here?’
  ‘Check with Debbie, those radios that we used yesterday… will they reach into the estate from here,’ Howie asks.
  ‘Not likely,’ Chris replies, shaking his head.
  ‘Dave, see if you can source some more, we will need constant radio contact with you and make sure you can get back quickly, if it goes bent,’ Howie says.
  ‘Okay, Mr Howie,’ Dave replies, gathering his backpack and assault rifle, before heading out the door to find Jamie who is sitting patiently in the sun.

  ‘You’re with me,’ Dave says to him.
  ‘Okay,’ Jamie replies, instantly on his feet and ready.

  Howie walks into the back room to find several of the recruits and Chris’s guards dozing quietly.
  ‘Blowers, can you get Cookey, Nick and Curtis to come in, please mate,’ Howie asks, keeping his voice low.
  ‘On it, Mr Howie,’ Blowers replies, instantly awake and alert.

Within minutes, he rounds the others up and leads them back into the room with Howie and Chris.
  ‘Lads, between the four of you I want to make sure the top of the walls stay clear from anyone else. Curtis, I want you to get the Saxon up onto the inner north wall, the slope is wide enough to drive up, position it so that the GPMG can fire down onto the flat lands. Nick and Curtis, you take the Saxon and swap round between manning the GPMG and making sure no one else goes up on the wall. Blowers and Cookey, I want you both on the front gate, making sure no one goes outside. Blowers, find a couple of Chris’s guards and get them positioned at some of the access points up onto the walls, to politely discourage anyone from going up. Got it?’ Howie asks.
  ‘Yes, Sir,’ Howie gets a chorus of replies as they ready themselves and move out of the room.
  ‘So that’s Dave and Jamie taking care of the estate and putting spotters out, and then the walls and look-outs taken care off. What’s next?’ Howie turns to Chris.
  ‘Weapons,’ Chris replies and steps out of the door to call Malcolm inside.
  ‘Malcolm, find Roger and get a suitable place to work from. Get an inventory of all the weapons we have and ammunition. Do it as quickly as you can, also try and find out if there are any gunsmiths anywhere near here that we can raid or make use off,’ Chris says to him.

Malcolm nods back and is gone within seconds.
  Chris disappears into the back room and drags two chairs over to the table, placing one on each side.

Howie pours more coffee and they sit down, examining the maps closely, while drinking the strong java.
  ‘I remember reading historical novels about cannon firing grapeshot…’ Howie says. ‘If Dave can get those cannon working, we can use them from the tops of the wall.’
  ‘Good idea: chains, nuts and bolts, anything will do for them,’ Chris replies, leaning forward to look closely at Howie. ‘Listen, we can go for a siege situation and pick them off bit by bit, maybe we don’t have to go out and meet them face to face, Howie.’
  ‘It won’t work, Chris, if we bed in and one of these thousands of survivors in here turns, all it would take is for them to infect a couple, those couple get a few each and, within minutes, we’re attacked from inside and outside with nowhere to go. I honestly think we should do what we can to reduce their numbers and pick them off, but then we end it, once and for all,’ Howie replies, staring back at him.
  ‘I do agree with you and I think it’s the right thing to do, but I want to be sure we know what we’re getting into.’
  ‘I know, mate; I think we need to choose our ground. We can use the estate and flat lands to lay traps and pick them off, the banks and the deep ditch we can use too. That open land between the ditch and the outer wall, that should be our ground,’ Howie says, indicating the area on the map.

Chris nods, looking down at the area Howie traces with his fingers.
  ‘It gives us some cover from the cannon firing overhead, plus we get to use the banks and ditches to slow them. It’s a big enough area.’
  ‘There it is then, our ground,’ Howie says quietly, they both stare down at the map. Just marks on paper showing the outline of the Fort walls and the positions of the embankments and ditch.
  ‘Who’d have thought it, one hundred and fifty years ago this was built to protect us from the French, and now it’s being used again to stop a zombie army,’ Howie chuckles.
  ‘I hate that word,’ Chris mutters, with distaste.
  ‘We could dig some ditches along the edge of the flatlands, by the estate, then put the spikes down in the longer grass and then something after the first bank…’ Howie says.
  ‘If we put vehicles on this side of the first bank they wouldn’t be seen, until they’re coming down the sides,’ Chris cuts in.
  ‘Okay, so a load of vehicles set to explode, then they go up the second bank and they’ve got the deep ditch, fuck it, let’s fill it with petrol and blow the shit out of ‘em,’ Howie laughs.
  ‘Why not? As long as we’re far back enough, it’s a good idea,’ Chris replies, seriously.