Z-Series | Book 6 | Z-Endgame

by Hatchett

  He watched as the helicopters flew in formation some way to the South of his position, and when they disappeared behind the large barn at the South side of the quad, Mamba hurried back to Basir and Ahmed to catch another glimpse of the aircraft.

  Eventually the helicopters disappeared from view with the noise from their engines steadily decreasing, but Mamba continued watching the sky and listening carefully in case they changed direction. There was a sudden sustained burst of noise before it went quieter once again and was then followed by silence.

  “They’ve landed,” Mamba said as he ran towards his Range Rover, pulled open the door and leant in to retrieve his map. His phone rang and he answered it. He listened to the caller then said ‘We seen ‘em’ before disconnecting.

  Mamba was still studying the map as Ahmed and Basir caught up to him.

  “What’s goin’ on?” Ahmed asked.

  “Heathrow are here,” Mamba grunted, thinking furiously.

  “Shit!” Ahmed replied.

  “Yeah, shit,” Mamba echoed. “From the direction they were goin’ ‘n the noise of the engines, I reckon they were followin’ the train tracks ‘n landed at that M.O.D place.”

  “What we gonna do?” Basir asked.

  “Fuckin’ run, that’s what,” Mamba replied. “Get the men.”

  Basir started shouting for the men to get in the cars as Mamba and Ahmed watched, Mamba keeping an eye out for the helicopters in case they came back their way.

  “Basir! Get someone in the JCB. They need ta go first,” Mamba ordered.

  Basir selected Dev and told him he was driving the JCB as the men ran out of the barns and back to their vehicles.

  Dev ran over to the tractor and climbed up into the cabin. A few seconds later the engine rumbled into life with a cloud of black smoke erupting from the vertical exhaust sitting on the side of the engine hood. After a few seconds getting his bearings, Dev put it in gear and turned it around in the quad before heading past the row of cars towards the exit. He then stopped and idled while the cars behind him drove in the quad and did U-turns and lined up behind him with Mamba’s Range Rover first in the queue.

  There was a tap on the tractor’s door and Dev looked down to see Ahmed holding out a walkie talkie. Dev opened the door and reached down to accept the device and watched as Ahmed ran back to the Range Rover.

  “Dev, ya there?” came Ahmed’s voice, crackling through the walkie talkie’s speaker.

  Dev clicked the button.

  “Yeah,” he confirmed. “Why don’t we use the earpieces?”

  There was a pause and Dev could see Ahmed talking to Mamba.

  “’Cos Heathrow might be able ta listen in,” Ahmed explained. “Turn left ‘n let’s go.”

  Dev frowned. He thought they would be going back to the main road, but it looked like Mamba wanted him to take the smaller track. He was about to question the order then remembered who he was dealing with. He turned left onto the track and put his foot down.

  4

  Day 25 – 10:00

  Corsham

  The five helicopters landed on an overgrown sports field at the M.O.D. site, two hundred metres from the main offices. Once they had touched down, the engines were turned off and the rotors began to slow.

  There was a few minutes pause before the ramp of the first Chinook began to lower to the ground, revealing dirtied soldiers in combat gear ready to disembark.

  “You all know what to do, so let’s do it,” Issy ordered through her comms, as the ramp finally hit the ground.

  The soldiers ran down the ramp and spread out quickly. Almost immediately there were ‘pfft’ sounds ringing out all around as the soldiers took out the zombie welcoming committee, which had been attracted by the aircraft noise, with their suppressed MP5’s.

  It was like a training exercise; the zombies were well dispersed and moving slowly and it only took a few minutes before there were bodies all around and the shooting ceased. There were still some zombies in the distance heading their way, but they were of no concern.

  “Clear,” Issy stated, and the ramps of the other two Chinooks started lowering.

  Bear led a second group of soldiers down the ramp of the second Chinook and Irish appeared with a third group from the final machine. The soldiers spread out, the odd ‘pfft’ being heard every now and again.

  Jack Robinson came down the ramp of the third Chinook last and together with Bear and Irish headed towards Issy, who was now standing behind her men and scanning the area. She looked around as they approached.

  “Easier than I thought,” she commented.

  “Yeah, looks like someone was here before us,” Bear agreed, pointing towards small piles of dead zombies in the car park in front of the main offices.

  “I guess we need to find Martin or the PM,” Jack opined, “but we should try and secure the area first.”

  Issy nodded in agreement.

  “Bear, Irish, can you guys secure the perimeter? I’ll take my team and try and find someone living.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Jack said.

  “You should’ve stayed back at Heathrow,” Issy chided him.

  “What? And miss all the fun? It’s about time I did something useful for a change.”

  Issy shook her head. She had wanted Jack to stay at Heathrow, but he had been adamant that he was coming. Even Sarah hadn’t managed to persuade him to stay, so it was clearly important to him.

  Issy could tell that Jack was desperate for a change of scenery and was beginning to feel like he was stuck in a rut having never left the airport since the outbreak began, but he was too important to them all, and leaving the relative safety of Heathrow was always a risk. Still, she understood why he had insisted this time.

  The unexpected arrival at Whitehall of nearly one thousand eight hundred politicians, the rich and famous and all their families the previous evening had caused all sorts of logistical issues, never mind the aggravation of dealing with people who were used to getting their own way. The fact that the trains wouldn’t return to Burlington indicated that something was wrong at this end.

  Shortly after word had come through about the new arrivals, Jack had tried to contact Burlington, but it had taken hours before he finally managed to get hold of a soldier called Pete Durham who’d explained what had happened and was still happening. At that stage, Pete didn’t know where his boss, Martin Lane, was, or anyone else in authority for that matter, but he’d eventually tracked down the Prime Minister and Jack had managed to have a quick chat with him late the previous evening. Hence the hastily convened Leader’s meeting at Heathrow and the decision to come to Corsham to see what was going on for themselves, but mainly to see if there was an opportunity to hunt Mamba down when he was least expecting it.

  So, Jack had left Gina, Andy, Travis, Sarah, Joel, and Sean to sort out all the newcomers and escaped here to Corsham. Dealing with Sir James Curtis-Smyth had been bad enough, so having to deal with even more politicians simply wasn’t worth contemplating.

  Jack smiled ruefully as he recalled the Leaders trying to find accommodation and food for all those people the previous evening. The newcomers were loath to share rooms and were positively furious at having to live in temporary tents in the secure buildings before something better could be found. Although the people at Heathrow had managed to clear a number of hotels around the perimeter of the airport in anticipation of finding more survivors, the number of vacant rooms fell well short of those needed, and there were soldiers trying to clear other hotels and accommodation as Jack stood there. Bringing ninety-odd people here to Corsham hadn’t helped that initiative.

  “What’s funny?” Issy asked, seeing Jack’s smile.

  “Just thinking about all our new friends back home and wondering how Sarah and the others are coping,” Jack replied. “Rather them than me. Maybe Mamba has a sense of humour after all.”

  “How’d you figure that out?”

  “Well, sending all those people to us. He must
have been laughing his head off. Not just the numbers but the fact they’re politicians and not the sort of people who are prepared to slum it. Plus, it would take our focus anyway from the real work that needs doing, like shoring up our defences.”

  “Yes, but it’s backfired. He wouldn’t have expected us to come here and try and find him, so he’ll be on the back foot now.”

  “Maybe,” Jack conceded, “but who knows where he is or what he’s up to. At least he hasn’t had time to set any traps.”

  “We’ll see. Let’s find this Pete bloke first and go from there.”

  Issy saw that Bear and Irish had taken their teams to the nearest perimeter fence and had then taken different directions intending to do a circuit and make sure the area was secure.

  “Let’s go,” Issy ordered, and her group headed for the main offices.

  Jack walked alongside her, taking in the site.

  “We’re looking for a small, narrow building with a heavy metal door near to the main offices,” he reminded her.

  “Yes, and I think I can see just the place,” Issy replied, pointing ahead of her.

  5

  Day 25 – 10:15

  Corsham

  Dev drove the tractor along the winding track for four hundred metres, passing another couple of large houses with outbuildings before having to turn ninety degrees to the East and travelling another fifty metres before he came to a junction. There was hardly anything either side of him except fields stretching away into the distance, broken by the odd building sitting on its own. They were well and truly out in the middle of the countryside and everything was still and bleak.

  Dev idled the tractor at the junction but before he had the chance to pick up the walkie talkie and speak, it crackled into life.

  “Why the fuck ya stopped?” came Ahmed’s voice through the speaker.

  “There’s two tracks,” Dev explained. “Which way are we going?”

  There was a pause before Ahmed replied.

  “Go left, then left again until we get ta the main road.”

  “OK,” Dev confirmed and started moving again.

  It was five hundred metres to the next junction then another five hundred metres to the main A4 road, but there was a roadblock stopping him from continuing.

  “Why the fuck ya stopped now?” came Ahmed’s exasperated voice from the walkie talkie.

  “Roadblock,” Dev replied.

  “Well, fuckin’ shift it. That’s why ya got a fuckin’ tractor ‘n why yer out front.”

  “OK, hold on.”

  It took Dev ten minutes to figure out how to use the bucket at the front of the tractor and push the vehicles blocking the track far enough out of the way that the convoy could get through, all the time being berated by Mamba who had taken hold of the walkie talkie.

  There were a handful of zombies loitering on the far side of the roadblock, attracted by the roar of the tractor’s diesel engine, and more were heading towards him from further down the main road.

  The bucket made quick and messy work of the nearest zombies and just as he was about to drive off, Ahmed appeared and beckoned him to open the door.

  “I’m drivin’,” Ahmed told Dev and waited until Dev got down from the cab before climbing up.

  Dev traipsed back to the Range Rover and got in the passenger seat where he found Mamba scowling because of the delay.

  “Took yer fuckin’ time,” Mamba scolded.

  “I was trying to work out how the bloody thing worked.”

  “Now why we waitin’?” Mamba asked, still scowling at the rear of the tractor.

  The walkie talkie crackled into life.

  “Which way we goin’?” Ahmed asked.

  “Fer fuck’s sake!” Mamba snatched up the walkie talkie sitting on the centre console. “Which way do ya fuckin’ think?” he shouted.

  “I dunno. That’s why I’m askin’,” Ahmed replied sarcastically.

  “Yer’ve bin staring at the fuckin’ map fer the last twenty minutes,” Mamba shouted, exasperated. “Turn right! That’s R,I,G,H,T. Got it?”

  There was no response, but the tractor started moving and turned right onto the A4 towards Chippenham.

  There were far more abandoned cars on this stretch of road and Ahmed used the tractor to nudge obstructions out of the way.

  “It’ll be fuckin’ Christmas afore we get there at this rate,” Mamba complained under his breath, hoping that the bloody helicopters didn’t come back this way because they were sitting ducks.

  6

  Day 25 – 10:15

  Corsham

  Issy and Jack stood outside the heavy metal door, waving at the unseen camera, with the rest of their team spread out checking for any stray zombies.

  There was a clanking sound as bolts were withdrawn, the door was opened a crack and a soldier cautiously poked his head around the corner.

  “Jack? Issy?” he asked.

  “That’s us,” Issy confirmed, stepping forward.

  The door was opened further, and the soldier stepped out with two others staying in the doorway with their guns ready.

  “Pete,” he said, sticking out his hand.

  “I’m Issy, this is Jack,” Issy said, as they all shook hands.

  Pete looked around at the other thirty soldiers, seeing the black combat gear they were wearing and the weaponry they were holding and was impressed.

  “Good to meet you,” he said. “This is Charlie and Darren, but we call them Chas and Dave,” he added with a chuckle.

  Issy and Jack nodded in their direction and got nods back in return.

  “Gertcha,” Issy said.

  “What?” Pete asked, looking confused.

  “Chas and Dave song,” Issy explained. “Cockney for ‘get out of it’ or ‘get gone’.”

  “You learn something new every day,” Pete replied, clearly not that interested. “Anyway, welcome to Burlington. Are you all coming down?”

  “Yes, but there’s two more teams currently securing the perimeter,” Issy confirmed.

  “There’s even more of you?” Pete asked, surprised. “When you said you were flying up from Heathrow, I was only expecting half a dozen of you. Where did you land?”

  “Over on some playing fields. We’ve left the pilots and a few logistics guys with the birds, but you may want to go and fetch them when the grounds are secure.”

  “What did you fly in?” Pete asked, wondering how so many people had arrived at once.”

  “We brought three Chinooks and a couple of Apache’s.”

  “Bloody Hell!” Pete said, shocked. “How did you manage…never mind. Best we get you sorted and up to speed.”

  “If you don’t mind,” Issy agreed. “The sooner that happens, the sooner we can get after Mamba.”

  “He’s mad, you know that?” Pete asked.

  “Yes, we know,” Issy confirmed.

  As she replied, some of Bear’s team crossed into the main car parking area, a couple ‘pffts’ carrying on the breeze as they took out some stray zombies. Once the coast was clear, some of the men climbed into cars and drove off towards the main gates.

  “Where are they going?” Pete asked.

  “Nowhere. Just blocking gaps in the perimeter,” Issy explained. “Now, you can leave Chas and Dave here to wait for the rest of our men while you take us down.”

  “Right,” Pete agreed.

  Pete led the way into the bunker with Issy and Jack following. They took some concrete steps down until they reached the next level where there was a row of lifts.

  Pete hit the call button and one of the doors immediately opened and they all climbed in. No one said a word as they descended, and all Pete said was ‘this way’ when they left the lift.

  There was what looked like a golf cart waiting for them. Pete got into the front seat and gestured them to climb aboard. Issy got into the front seat next to Pete while Jack climbed into the back. Pete hit one of the buttons on the dashboard and the vehicle moved off with a soft hummi
ng sound.

  “We call these ‘buggies’,” Pete explained. “There’s hundreds of them. You just hit one of the call buttons,” Pete indicated one of the buttons on the tunnel wall as they passed by, “then press the Sector you want to go to, and it takes you there.”

  “Where are we going now?” Issy asked.

  “To meet the PM in the Command Room.”

  A hundred or so metres later, the buggy came to a stop and they all got out. Pete led them to a set of doors which automatically opened then down a corridor to Room 1 which was opened from within.

  Issy and Jack saw all the monitors on the far wall showing different feeds from around the complex as they were led to an office to one side. Pete knocked on the door and entered before introducing them to the PM.

  They were offered seats and drinks and Pete left them to it.

  “We meet at last,” the PM said brightly, “your reputation precedes you.”

  The PM told Issy and Jack what had happened the previous few days including Mamba’s attack and the fact that he’d had the option to kill most of the people down there but hadn’t. He explained how the soldiers were sent North on the trains and the politicians South. Those that were left would have the choice of staying underground or being relocated in Corsham, but either way they would be building a new community and the future looked brighter – well as bright as it could be under the circumstances.

  “So, where is Mamba?” Jack asked what he and Issy had been dying to find out since they got there.

  “I understand that the friends he made in the town were seeing him off this morning, but as we can’t seem to find Martin Lane, things are a little bit up in the air. There is one person in town who got to know Mamba quite well, so I suggest you speak to him. His name is Ernie. Pete can show you where to go.”

  7

  Day 25 – 10:45

  Chippenham

  It took the convoy half an hour to drive the two kilometres to the five-way Chequers roundabout where the A4 joined the A350.