The Z Infection (45 page)

I had also planned routes back to our
safe house.  There were four in total and the idea was to regroup there if all
else failed. 

We retreated back to the neck of the
alleyway, as the dead bore down on us.  We were like a cork in the neck of a
bottle.  I took the centre, with Peter and the married guy on either side. 
They had shown the most competence.

Behind us were two youths – a boy and
a girl, both of about fourteen or fifteen.  Their job was to protect us as much
as possible and to take down any of the dead if we missed them.  They would
also take the place of anyone who fell.  Behind them were the last three.  It
was their job to watch our backs and to provide us with spare weapons if ours
were dropped or broken.  We had prepared as well as we could and we were as
ready as I could make us.

We stood in the neck of the alley and
allowed them to force their way in.  The first two went down quickly, with near
perfect head shots.  The others stumbled over them, slowing down due to the
obstruction of the bodies, some of them falling.  We took each one in turn,
until we had killed them all and they were piled up in front of us.

Once we were finished we removed all
the bodies from the alley and piled them on either side of it, creating a
funnel.  Then I sent Peter out onto the field again, banging the drum.

It didn’t take long.  Before I know
it there was another group bearing down on us.  This time there were about
twenty of them.  We used the same tactic as before, drawing them in and using
the narrowness of the alley to negate their numbers.  In minutes it was over
again.

For the next two hours we carried on,
each time using live bait to attract a small group of the dead and then
dispatching them without mercy.  By the time we had finished off the fifth
group I estimated that we had killed around a hundred and twenty.

It was a nasty business.  The girl
behind us puked and had to be replaced.  We became worn out through the
constant fighting and I decided we had to rest.  I planned to take us back to
the safe house and get some sleep.  We could always come back the next day. 
There were plenty of infected left to kill, after all.

But as we were piling the corpses of
the last group at the end of the alley, Peter suddenly gripped my arm.

‘Look,’ he said.

Out in the park, walking towards us,
was a huge group of infected.  I decided we had to get out of there but no
sooner had we stepped out of the alley than we saw another group to the left,
then one to the right.  There were hundreds of them.

‘What are we going to do?’ asked one
of the group.

‘Run?’ suggested another.

I knew that would be pointless. 
There were too many.  Going out of the alley would be suicide.

‘There’s nowhere to run to,’ said
Peter.  ‘We’re cut off.’

A ripple of panic spread through the
group.  I knew I had to say something.

‘We stand and fight,’ I said.  ‘This
is no different from the last few attacks we’ve beaten off.’

‘It’s very different,’ said the
married guy.  ‘There’s too many of them.’

‘But when they’re in the alley it’s
just the same as before,’ I said.  ‘We lead them in and their numbers become
useless.  Remember the Spartans?  So long as we keep our concentration levels
up, we can beat them.’

There were more murmurs.  They
weren’t sure.  Why should they be?  There were hundreds of the dead, bearing
down on us, ready to consume us or recruit us to their ranks. 

‘We have no choice,’ I said.  ‘We
know we can do this.  We just need to believe in ourselves.  Stand together and
fight together.  Look after one another’s backs and send them all to hell.’

Those words had more effect and I
pressed them home.

‘We might die here,’ said the married
guy.

I looked him in the eye.  He was
scared, but I could see that he had already resigned himself to the fight.

‘Then if we die, let’s make sure we
take a few hundred of them with us,’ I said.  ‘Who’s with me?’

‘I am,’ said Peter.

‘And me,’ said a voice from behind.

‘Then let’s kill them,’ I shouted.

There were several shouts from the
others now, followed by warlike roars and cries of encouragement all round.  We
were outnumbered a hundred to one. The dead were pouring towards us and getting
blocked at the neck of the alley again.  And we stood our ground, roaring in
defiance as we challenged their reign over us.

To any outsiders we might have looked
like the last people on Earth, preparing to stand up and die for our way of
life.  Perhaps we were.  We had no idea.

Then, as the first of the swarm
fought their way into the alley and fell on us, I reminded out little group of
one thing.

‘Aim for head.  Nothing else will
stop them.’

The End