Capital Falling Trilogy Box Set [Books 1-3]

by Winkless, Lance

  “Let’s have one last look at the front before we go.”

  “Copy that,” Dan says and takes us around.

  “Alice, how're things back there?” I ask as we go.

  “Tim is pretty stable I think.” Her head pops through into the cockpit. “I think the bleeding is stemmed but Josh looks pretty beat; he’s taking five,” she says as only a Yank would.

  “Okay, and how about you?” I ask her.

  “I’m beat, to be honest.”

  “I think we all are,” Dan says.

  “Where are we,” Alice asks, “it’s hard to tell with all the lights out, it’s weird.”

  “We’re over the City. Some friends work in one of the buildings so we are just checking it out,” I tell her.

  “Okay, yes I see now, that’s the Cheesegrater,” Alice says as we come around to the front of it.

  The beams from the Lynx again hit the building as we straighten up and light up a portion of glass façade; much of the light bounces off the glass wall that encases the steel frame of the tower. Some of the light does penetrate into the building, however, giving us a view of the floors within.

  The offices within look devoid of life. Nothing is moving inside, so where have the staff all gone? I know for certain Karen and Jim were inside, and there must have been many other office workers when the curfew was imposed early this morning. Surely, they can't have taken the risk of leaving the building and going onto the streets; are they all still hiding somewhere inside?

  As we hover about halfway up the building, I look above at the length of the property through the windscreen of the Lynx, the dark upper reaches of the building slope away from our position and up into the night sky.

  "Take us up slowly," I tell Dan, "let's see if we can see anything in there."

  The Lynx rises, the spotlights penetrating into each floor as we go, but each seems deserted, a ghost building sitting in this ghost city. Are Karen and Jim still hiding somewhere in its innards, and if so, then where?

  Rising farther, we reach around three-quarters of the way up the tall tower in no time, but still, nothing reveals itself and I am just beginning to think that there is no sign of life within.

  “There!”

  Alice’s voice suddenly pipes through my earphones just before her arm appears beside me, pointing through the cockpit towards the right side of the building.

  “Where, what,” I ask urgently, “I can’t see anything.”

  “There on the floor, in the middle, far right, in the shadows,” Alice says in exasperation, thrusting her arm and finger.

  “I see the fucker!” says Dan almost viciously.

  I search again and then I see it, someone crouched on the floor with their head down, over something. It’s crouched over a body and then it sinks in what I’m looking at. Dan turns the Lynx slightly to the right, catching the scene in the full glare of the spotlights.

  The crouching Rabid lifts its head up from the body it is feeding on below, blood circling the floor around its feast. The Rabid's pale skin shines in the piercing light that hits it, apart from its lower face which is glistening dark red with the blood of its victim. The creature raises itself onto its arms, one hand planted on the floor behind the head of the victim and one in front of the victim’s chest as if protecting its prize. It stares at us through the glass of the building, eyes wide, filled with hate and rage. And then the Rabid's mouth opens.

  Even above the sound of the helicopter, through the windscreen and glass of the building, the screech that comes from the Rabid's mouth screams into my head if not through my ears. The head of the Rabid turns slightly to its left as it calls to others that must be in there with it, hidden in the dark!

  The three of us in the cockpit area are silent, looking on as another Rabid appears to the left of the first, almost directly in front of us and emerging from the shadows. This one is on its feet, arms straight out in front of its body, a small female Rabid, her long dark hair hanging down each side of her head. Her face is tilted forward and down slightly. Her eyes are piercing through the glass at us. There is no sign of blood on her, maybe she hasn't fed yet, too small to compete for food.

  Without warning, the small female Rabid breaks into a run, straight at us.

  “What the hell!” Dan exclaims.

  Before she is halfway across the room, in reflex, both Dan and I have rapidly pulled our side arms from our holsters and they are pointing out of the cockpit towards the oncoming Rabid. Dan is still in full control of the Lynx as his left hand grips the stick. His head, however, is slightly sideways as he looks down the barrel of his gun, as is mine. The thought that we are being totally ridiculous, pointing our guns at a Rabid in a building across from our helicopter, crosses my mind. But quite frankly, I wouldn’t put anything past these unholy creatures.

  The female Rabid hits the window hard, head first; she then bounces straight back onto the office floor behind her, and doesn’t move. I would like to say that it was expected she wouldn't break through the hard glass, but there is now a large crack in the window where she hit with what must have been a terrific force.

  “I thought she was coming through for a second then!” Alice exclaims.

  “You’re not the only one,” Dan agrees.

  “We need to wrap this up and get going, get back to the others,” I tell the two of them.

  “Where are we going and what others?” Alice asks.

  “I’ll tell you on the way, Alice. Right now, let’s finish checking the rest of this building, as best we can from out here. We need to carry on upwards.”

  “Fuck me!” Dan shouts and jolts back on the Lynx’s stick.

  The helicopter tilts sharply back, its rotors lifting and pushing us off and away from the building. The sudden tipping catches Alice unawares and she is sent staggering quickly back, just too late in her attempt to grab onto the cockpit wall. Her speed backwards increases as the Lynx continues to tilt, she is out of control and in danger of slamming into the back of the hold.

  Then I see what forced Dan into his emergency action; above us, about six or seven floors up, one of the windows of the building has been smashed through, glass raining down towards us. The beams from the Lynx’s spotlights hit the glass as we tilt and as the glass falls, causing it to twinkle and shine like rain falling past a street lamp.

  In the middle of this raining glass, a Rabid also plunges down at us, looking straight at us with its piercing eyes, face twisted in rage and its arms outstretched in its freefall. Its fingers, like claws, are ready to grab hold, to grab onto the Lynx.

  As we tilt farther back, the Lynx’s rotors labour hard and send a massive downdraft against the building, making the windows rattle in their frames but it pushes us off farther away from the building.

  The Rabid and glass just miss hitting the rotors, but they are on course to hit the front of the cockpit. That is until the force of the downdraft from the rotors catapults them sideways, sending them crashing into the side of the building. The Rabid disappears from view behind the Lynx’s floor as it continues to fall, and we continue to tilt.

  Dan gains distance away from the building before levelling the Lynx off. We have gained height and are now about level with the smashed window where Rabids are gathered around the new open hole in the glass wall of the building.

  “Alice, are you injured?” I shout as I spin around in my seat to look down into the hold.

  “No.” Alice sounds slightly winded, half bent over as if catching her breath. “Josh grabbed me as I fell and managed to slow me down.”

  Josh is half kneeling and half standing with one knee on his seat and one foot on the floor, one of his hands is latched onto the back of the seat and his body is side on to me. He obviously had to lean right over using the seat to stabilise himself in order to grab Alice. Tim, who is seated next to Josh and must have been in Josh’s way, is still out of it, head back, oblivious to all the commotion.

  Josh is shaking his other arm in the air,
indicating that he has injured it in helping Alice. He isn’t wearing his headphones as I told him to, so I have to shout to him.

  “Josh, are you injured?”

  He looks toward me and mouths no, but I can see he is.

  “Put your headphones on!” I shout at him again.

  Josh sits back down on his seat still shaking his arm off, he does, however, reach with his other arm for some headphones.

  “I’m alright, Dad, just pulled a muscle or two in my arm. Luckily, it’s only my left one.”

  “Okay, good, as long as it’s only your left,” I joke.

  “What happened?”

  “Oh, you know, just a flying Rabid nearly hitting us,” I joke again, but nobody laughs.

  “A Rabid?” Josh questions.

  “I’ll explain,” Alice says as she gingerly goes to take a seat.

  “You sure you’re alright, Alice?”

  “Yes, just a bit winded. I’ll be okay in a minute. I think it’s best if I stay in my seat though.”

  “Agreed,” I tell her.

  I straighten back up in my seat, looking back over at the building and towards the open hole where a window used to be. Rabids fill the open space, arms outstretched towards us in the air, mouths opening wide and then closing as they call out. More still are gathered either side of the broken window. They claw at the glass with their fingers as if they want to somehow get to us.

  Dan’s voice comes through my headphones. “These things have no fear. Did you see the look on that one’s face as it fell? It only had one thing on its mind and that was attacking us, even when it was falling from a skyscraper?”

  “I know,” is all I can answer to him now.

  Karen and Jim could well be amongst this horde of creatures baying for our blood, across from us now. Maybe I can see them now, but simply don’t recognise them and if they are not here, if they are still hiding in some small dark corner of that building, there is no way we can get to them. They are trapped in there. Either way, I can’t see a way out for them and there is nothing we can do to help them.

  My thoughts then turn to Stacey; how do I tell her? She will be inconsolable. Do I tell her the whole truth of what we have seen here, that both of her parents are trapped in this hulk of a tomb full of Zombies?

  My gaze is still fixed on the opening; whether I am looking for any sign of Karen or Jim, I don’t really know. Why am I fixated on it?

  A Rabid at the hole either overstretches or is pushed from behind. It doesn’t seem to even try to stop itself and falls out from the building. The thing free-falls for just a second before it hits the sloped glass wall and then tumbles head over heels, crashing into the windows as it continues down. Before it disappears from view, it tumbles twice over before its head smashes into the glass wall—and then it’s gone.

  “Boss?” I hear Dan say but it seems distant.

  “Boss?” his hand grabs my shoulder and my senses return.

  Another Rabid tumbles out from the building and goes the same way as the first. I look over to Dan.

  “Get us out of here.”

  Dan nods at me. He manoeuvres his stick and controls, turning the Lynx to the right, then starts to accelerate. My gaze is again on the opening and our movement seems to cause panic in the Rabids there, more starting to fall out from the opening. In ones and twos, they fall down the side of the building. I don’t count how many, I just watch them in silence as they tumble down before my view is cut off.

  The Lynx leans over as Dan makes a large arch around the city, giving a wide birth to the rest of the skyscrapers that are hiding in the darkness. As we come around leaving the city behind, Dan starts to straighten the Lynx up and climbs as we join back up with the Thames and follow it westwards toward Heathrow, to Emily, Catherine and Stacey, I hope.

  Chapter 20

  We are flying high above the Thames as we cut through the middle of London. Dan follows the river, on the whole, swooping around its bends, only occasionally cutting across the land. He uses the river to guide us towards Heathrow which is some way off and we cannot yet see it.

  The contrast between the North and South of the city is stark, even more so in the dark of night than it was when we were flying in the opposite direction only an hour or two ago, in the evening light.

  South London still has power in the main, house and street lights still burning brightly on our left. There are some patches of darkness on the ground where the power has failed, mostly in areas closer to the river and I can only hope that it is because they are on the same grid as the north side, and not because of anything more sinister.

  On the right of the Lynx, North London is in near total darkness. In the far distance, I can see lights but they look like they’re in the very outer suburbs of the city. Our home in Hampstead would be well within the darkened area I’m looking at, and I can only imagine how dire it would have been if we had stayed. Fires are the only things illuminating the central part of North London, and there are too many of those to count. I don’t envy anyone caught in that part of London tonight.

  A sombre mood has fallen across us all inside the Lynx. There is no chatter coming through my headphones and barely any movement. I guess we all just need a bit of time to process and gather ourselves before we get to where we are going.

  After a very quick deliberation, I decided Sir Malcolm’s safe is going to have to wait again. We are in no fit state to make any attempt to retrieve it now, and Dan must have come to the same conclusion because he hasn’t even mentioned it. We have ammo on board but nowhere near enough for that type of operation.

  Tim needs medical attention and I’m not sure how bad Josh’s arm really is; he may be putting on a brave face with it and it’s now pitch-black outside. The risk is too great in our current condition but if the safe is still needed, I will make good on my deal with the Colonel and come back to get it. But it will be with a full team and more firepower. Much more firepower!

  Looking behind me, I see Josh seated with his head slightly back, his eyes closed and resting, his left arm cradled in his lap. He almost looks like he used to when he was sleeping in the back of the car as a child on a long journey. Next, to him, Tim has now completely succumbed to the morphine and is spark out, he looks like he is snoring, but I can’t hear for sure.

  Alice is in the seat nearest to the window on the right side of the Lynx, leaning over to the side. Her head is on the back of the seat, her eyes looking out of the window, watching the fires burning in the darkness.

  “Everything okay back there?” Dan breaks the silence.

  “Yes, they are all just resting.”

  “I can’t blame them, it’s been one hell of a day, to say the least. It seems later than only eight-thirty, now the nights are drawing in again,” Dan says.

  “Yes, it does, it’s been a very long day,” I reply. “This morning seems like an age ago and I don't think it is over yet.”

  Dan looks over to me. "None of this is anywhere near over."

  "I'd better get hold of Colonel Reed and tell him we are inbound," I say. We are closing in on Heathrow now and I reach for the radio control.

  "Good luck speaking to him. He is not going to be happy," Dan says.

  I am beyond caring whether the Colonel is happy or not today, I've done what I had to do to get my children to safety and if he doesn’t like it, that’s his problem.

  Just as I touch the radio control before I have a chance to do anything, my ears are filled with a voice coming through.

  "Unidentified aircraft, this is RAF Heathrow, identify yourself, over"

  Dan and I look at each other as if to say to each other, Here We Go!

  "Receiving, Heathrow. This is," I quickly look for the Lynx's serial number, "XC345, we have five passengers, one injured and request an immediate landing slot, over."

  "Received XC345, standby."

  The radio goes silent and Dan and I look at each other again, both of us suddenly realising that we may have a problem; we are
, after all, flying a hijacked helicopter.

  "XC345, you are not cleared to land. You are showing as Rogue, change course or you will be fired upon, over."

  Dan now looks at me with concern.

  "Heathrow, this is Captain Andrew Richards, Military Intelligence, under the orders of Colonel Reed. We have military personnel on board, one injured, needing immediate medical attention and we have vital information for Colonel Reed. We are going to land, please confirm, over." I give them the full treatment.

  "Standby," is all we get back from the flight controller.

  “That should do it,” Dan jokes to me, sarcastically.

  “We will be cleared to land once they have spoken to Reed,” I say confidently.

  As we wait for a response from Heathrow, we leave the Thames River behind us, the M4 motorway visible away to our right. It has its lights still working and guides us towards Heathrow, which we can now see shining in the distance directly in front of us.

  Josh and Alice are now fully alert behind Dan and me, having heard the communications with Heathrow through their headphones. I give them a thumbs-up in reassurance and ask Josh how his arm is feeling. He says it is feeling better, just aching a bit.

  Time passes and our anxiety increases as we get closer to Heathrow; if they don’t clear us to land it could have dire consequences. We continue to wait in silence, then eventually we hear it.

  "XC345, Heathrow, receiving, over?"

  "XC345, receiving," I reply.

  "XC345, Colonel Reed is not on site and we have been unable to contact him. I have, however, been given permission to land you. Proceed to the following landing coordinates. Do not exit your aircraft until you are cleared to do so by the ground staff....."

  The relief inside the Lynx is obvious, the ground controller proceeding to give us our landing coordinates, which is just as well because we are now closing in on the perimeter of the sprawling airport and Dan has started to descend.

  Dan is now under the direction of the Air Traffic Control and he follows their instructions as we approach RAF Heathrow.