This time, though, we won’t complicate matters by trying to gather from more than one place. We go somewhere, grab what we can, get back and reorganise for the next trip. I think it’ll be safer for all of us that way.”
He held up a list he had pulled from his pocket as he was speaking.
“Tomorrow, I propose we start nice and easy and hop over the perimeter walls to raid and secure the houses that back on to it. We should be able to find a large enough television in one of those houses and as we’ve already discussed, if we can find some of those zombie films on DVD, then we can start some proper research.
All we’ve been doing so far is just making it up, we need some tips from the experts.” He looked at the list again as he smiled at his own joke. “For the following day, I suggest we find fuel. Hopefully, it’ll be a case of scouring the nearest motorway for a tanker to bring back. If we find a full one, it should keep us going for a long time. And then we can start to look at the rest of the list,” he glanced at it again, “which is long, by the way. Does anyone have any comments or thoughts on that?”
He looked around the room. I knew from our conversation earlier what he was going to propose, so I’d been giving it some thought.
“You mentioned the wider world. Where do you suggest we start?”
“Good question, Tom,” he replied. “As you know, there are forces trapped in bunkers in locations around the country.” He looked at his watch. “I have our regular radio call scheduled with the fleet in ten minutes. I’ll ask for the locations of them and see if any are within reach. Hopefully, they’ll have an update on the operation on the Scilly Isles as well. As soon as they can get themselves and the civilians established there, the sooner they, too, will start to look outwards.”
Since we’d had the conversation about flying and how Chris had been learning, as had I many years before, it had been rumbling away in the back of my mind. Can I still do it? Will it be safe? I kept asking myself. I’d gone through the memories of the flights I had done. Especially the solo flights you had to do before qualifying, and I’d come to the conclusion that as long as the plane was in good mechanical order and the weather made the visibility good enough, it was probably not a bad idea and I could do it. Before I opened my mouth, I silently went through any more pros and cons of the idea; not coming up with anything I hadn’t already thought of, I made my decision and stood to get everyone’s attention.
“Steve, remember the discussion about flying we had a few days ago? I’ve been mulling it over and I think that, despite my initial reservations, it might be possible.” I looked at Chris, who had leant forward in his chair at the mention of flying. “If you agree, Chris, that is.”
Chris nodded, “I’m up for it if you are.”
Grinning at him, surprising myself as I felt my excitement building at the chance of being able to fly again, I replied, “As long as we get one thing straight first of all. I’m Maverick, though. You can be Ice Man!”
“There they go again,” muttered Becky in mock disgust.
Steve stood up. “Thanks, guys,” he said. “I’ll report your decision to the fleet, I’m sure it will get their full support. Now if you would excuse me, I’ll check in with them. Corporal Side, could you come with me and check the radio is good to go, please?”
We all sat in silence as Steve updated us on the failed attempt to land on and clear the largest of the islands.
“They’re not considering it a failure, just a learning process. The tides and currents have now swept most of the beach clear. The jetty, unfortunately, because it’s protected from the worst of those, is still not viable, so in the morning, they will attempt landing their forces directly onto the beach. They’re confident they can do it; they’ll just have to get a little wet, that’s all.”
Chapter Eighteen
The Scilly Isles
Captain Digby sat on the inflated side of the large RIB as it sped towards the rapidly approaching shore. Raising his voice over the noise of the boat’s engine and the helicopter as it flew low overhead, its downwash buffeting them causing the calm seas around them to erupt in spray, he shouted to the men and women around him.
“Everyone, remember the drill. Stay calm and watch your backs.” He turned his neck and looked towards the frigate, which looked huge in the confines of the bay. Following the lead boat he was in was a small armada of private craft, all carrying a complement of marines or sailors. More were lining up by the frigate, each one loading more to ferry ashore.
His boat was the lead element of the invasion force he was commanding. The initial task was to form a beachhead and protect it until they had a large enough force ashore to begin the operation. As predicted, the tide had swept most of the zombies away from the shore, but the bay was still thick with floating bodies, forcing the RIB to alter its course around them to avoid one fouling the propeller.
Throughout the remainder of yesterday and into the evening until the need for people to sleep forced it to be silenced, the Frigate had kept its horn blaring, drawing what they hoped was the rest of the island’s undead population to the beach and harbour. The hope was that they would follow each other into the surf or off the edge of its walls, hopefully to die a second time in the waters of the bay. The plan seemed to have worked. As dawn had broken, Digby, along with what looked like most of the ship’s complement, had eagerly lined the ship’s rails to see the results. A few could be seen wandering through the town and along the beaches and quay, but they were fewer than they’d witnessed yesterday.
The mission was given the go ahead.
With a final rev of the engine, the RIB steered to a section of the beach where no zombies remained trapped in the rolling waves. It crashed through the low surf and hit the shelving sands of the beach, and as soon as the boat ground to a halt, Digby leapt from it and waded the final few yards through the knee-deep water to reach dry land.
“On me!” he screamed to those he could sense leaping into the surf behind him. Quickly they formed a semi-circle on the beach, all with their weapons trained outwards. The few zombies still on the beach already attracted by the sound of the boat’s engine were shambling towards them.
Digby stared through the sights of his rifle at the nearest one before raising his head to assess the area around them. “Hold fire,” he ordered. “Let them get closer. There’s not many of them, so save ammo until you can be sure of a head shot.”
The Marine beside him, his sergeant, fired his rifle and the head of a zombie fifty yards away burst apart and it crumpled to the sand.
“I’m sure,” the man said grimly and shifted his aim, felling all the ones within a hundred yards one by one with a single shot to the head.
More than impressed by the display of marksmanship, Digby turned to him and chuckled, “Bloody hell, Sergeant. Can you leave some for the rest of us?”
The man deftly ejected his magazine and slapped home a new one and charged his rifle. “Sorry, Sir,” he replied with a sad smile. “Those bastards, or… well, at least others like them, have probably killed my family and I needed to get that out my system.” He paused and looked at those he’d just shot. “I’ll follow your orders from now, Sir.”
Digby looked at the bodies lying on the sand and then out to sea and slapped the man on the back. “Sergeant, you did follow my orders. Now, can we begin to increase our cordon? The other boats are just about to land.” Then, as he thought of his own family, he added quietly, so that only his sergeant could hear, “Don’t worry, Sergeant Austin, we’ve all lost loved ones whom we need to avenge. Just keep it together and don’t go off doing something stupid on your own; I need you by my side.” Grinning, he added, “Especially now I’ve seen you shoot like that.”
His Sergeant looked at him. “Yes, Sir!” he replied and added, “I may angry, but I ain’t stupid. No way I’m going Rambo on them. You can rely on me.”
The more that landed, the bigger the beachhead they created, until all the marines and sailors were ashore.
The loud crack of rifles firing continually rolled across the sand as more zombies kept appearing from the town, either individually or in small groups.
“Okay, received and understood,” Digby said into his radio after listening to an update from the helicopter that was sweeping low over the town. He signalled to the lieutenants and sergeants to gather on his position.
“Okay, chaps,” he began with as much cheer as he could muster, knowing they were about to face something they’d never trained for or even imagined they’d have to until a few days ago. “The chopper is reporting not many more sighted in the town, so we go as planned.” He added more to reinforce it for himself as much as for those facing him. “Remember the briefing. Keep everyone together, the last thing we want is for us to get separated. When we enter a building, it will be just as important to watch our backs as well as whatever the hell might be going on inside.
You’ve all played the games, now let’s go and do this for real.”
Speech ended, he led the men and women to start the first operation to clear a town in the British Isles of the undead.
Chapter Nineteen
“Who the heck needs a TV that size!” I asked as I stood in the lounge of one of the houses that backed onto the castle.
“We do!” came the reply from all around me.
I was on the team that had volunteered to search and secure the houses that bordered our new home. Using ladders to climb the walls or fences, we’d first studied each property carefully so we could see if they held any of their former owners, before entering the rear gardens. A few did, but working together as we were, they posed no threat to us as we smashed our weapons into their heads.
Once all the houses we were going to search had been declared safe and their frontages that opened onto the town of Warwick had been secured to make them resistant to any zombie attack, we began scavenging.
We were on the lookout for TVs and we knew every home would contain at least one, so we decided to leave the decision of which one to take until we’d checked them all.
We also knew every house would also contain some food, drinks and other useful items. After the initial search, during which we’d counted how many beds were in all the houses, we decided it would be worth dismantling them and taking them back with us. Most of us were still sleeping on air beds or camp beds and a soft mattress was something those of us not lucky enough to have one anymore longed for.
One property, a large one with a nice car on the drive at the front even had a gun safe. After a quick search, much to the amusement of the women, I found the keys to it hidden in the usual place; in the sock drawer of the former man of the house. The one thing we had plenty of was firearms, but as we all knew, enough would never be enough, so I emptied the gun safe of the lovely matching pair of shotguns it contained, along with a few hundred cartridges. Shane, on the mission with us, admired them and when he told me what they probably cost, we both decided so keep them separate from the others out of respect for their age and heritage.
Louise had overheard us excitedly admiring and discussing them and she brought us back on mission by saying in an exasperated tone, “So, with all the guns we already have, now you want to start a museum to display the pretty ones?” She laughed when she saw our faces as we tried to deny it. “Don’t worry, boys, I’ll keep your secret safe if it makes you happy.”
As Shane put them into the gun slips hanging by the gun safe, I whispered to him, “Put ’em in your room. I’ll have a look later.” He winked at me and we got on with the job.
Although we’d all planned this to be a quick mission, it took most of the day to empty the houses of anything useful and then to dismantle and move all the beds and mattresses. They had to be carried one by one to the end of the gardens, lifted over the wall and loaded into the trailer.
When we got back, Shawn backed right up to the doors of the Great Hall and we unloaded everything. Later that evening, the castle more represented a furniture-building world championship when we started to reassemble all the beds.
Once they’d helped with bed building, Jon and Shawn set about installing the huge seventy-inch television we’d removed from the wall of one of the houses. Using the brackets for it which we’d unbolted from the wall it was fixed to, after much discussion with Maud about where she would allow them to put it, they bolted it to the wall next to the fireplace in the Great Hall.
It looked incredibly out of place. A modern invention from the twentieth century fixed to the weapon- and tapestry-draped ancient walls of a historic building. But we needed it for a purpose. We’d found a DVD player and in a cupboard of one of the houses, we discovered to our delight a large collection of film and box sets, including a few zombie series and movies. The house we found them in had contained the former family, including their teenage children, which probably accounted for the wide variety of viewing material we had found.
My emotions were mixed about the television. I knew the opportunity to view some of the many zombie movies or series that had been released over the years might bizarrely help educate us and maybe aid us in improving our tactics. But weirdly, I hadn’t missed the flickering screen that most families resorted to for their entertainment. The children who had seemed so reliant on their electronic devices for entertainment hadn’t moaned about the lack of them since it had all begun. They still had their iPads with them, but hadn’t once asked if they could be charged, something we could easily have done using the generators we had or the power outlets in all the vehicles. It was as if they’d forgotten about them, but now with an impressively large television bolted to the wall, they seemed to be drawn to it like moths around a flame.
Sidling up to Becky after I’d stretched my back, which was aching from spending hours on my knees fighting with stubborn pieces of bed frame, I put my arm around her, as I could see her watching the children too.
“Shall we be cowards,” I whispered conspiratorially “and let Maud regulate their TV time? They’ll listen to her.”
She chuckled as she rested her head against my shoulder, “I think as responsible parents, that would be the safest way to do it.”
The ringing of the gong that Maud had found and begun using as the dinner bell drew us all to the dining room.
“They’ve cleared the main island!” Steve jubilantly announced when he returned from his nightly radio call to the fleet. Even though we were not part of the operation, we had still played a part in planning it and so his news brought us all to our feet and we celebrated with cheers, hugs and handshakes.
He waited for us to quieten down before he continued.
“Unfortunately, they lost a few in the fight, but that was in the initial stages before their experience and tactics improved and they adapted to the situation. The fleet in the Solent will remain in position until the smaller Isles are cleared, which they predict will take another few days. Then they plan to relocate there.”
Pulling a list from his pocket, he studied it for a few moments before continuing.
“I now have the locations of all the places where personnel are still trapped, and they’ve tasked me with investigating the ones within our reach.” He held up his hands for quiet as he could see a few of us about to ask questions. “If you could let me finish,” he said gently, “what I propose is that tomorrow we try the motorway to see if we can secure a fuel truck and possibly some more food ones too. It will at least confirm to us what a resource we think the motorways with all their abandoned lorries on could be. If that’s successful,” he then looked at Chris and me, “then the day after tomorrow, I suggest we try and see if we can get our air force airborne. I’ve checked with the meteorologists at the fleet and they predict the weather will be calm, with good visibility for the next few days at least. After that, it’s looking more unsettled for quite some time, so it could be a case of now or, if not never, then maybe later.”
Pausing to judge our reaction, he smiled when he saw both of us nodding in eager agreement. Since I’d ma
de my decision, my excitement about going flying again had been building and I couldn’t wait to see if I could still do it.
“Now let’s decide who amongst us will drive any lorries we find.”
Chapter Twenty
Once we’d all done Simon’s group exercise class, which he now held every morning before breakfast, we all changed into our ‘fighting clothes’ and prepared to leave.
After performing a final check on the vehicles we were taking with us, those of us going on today’s mission either climbed aboard Shawn’s trailer or into the back of the armoured vehicle and we drove slowly out through the barbican entrance.
Much to their disgust, we’d chosen not to take any armoured knights with us since we didn’t plan to be fighting hordes of zombies on foot today, just hopefully jumping into the cab of a lorry and driving it back. To their credit through, they wanted to go, armoured up or not, so to mollify them, some of them were chosen to go armed only with their close-quarter weapons and firearms. The rest were left on guard duty.
Steve promised them, though, that he envisaged them all being needed to go on the mission to the airfield the following day and he wanted them to be rested for that.
No zombies had been seen in the grounds since we’d fixed the holes in the perimeter fence and reinforced other areas we deemed a potential weak point. Nevertheless, as we drove slowly through the grounds to the gate, we all stood ready; just in case. Unfortunately, the main gate to the town was a different matter. The ones that had probably been attracted by our last mad dash through the town as we’d gathered the medical supplies were still gathered in stupid obstinance around the gate. Tripping over the piled-up bodies that had been swept aside by the ploughs, they shuffled around.
Zombie Castle Series (Book 4): ZC Four Page 13
