by J N Wood
A loud clanging noise made me look to my left. The Sweepers of Green Team were positioned in front of another section of the fence, doing the same as us I suppose. I tried to spot our friends, but couldn’t see anyone I recognised. I thought I might have seen Gee’s head and shoulders popping up above everyone else.
Hopefully that means they’re in the second group, protecting their Fencers.
The woman on the ladder raised a third finger and nodded her head at Caleb. His assistant stepped forward and unbolted the double gates. There were six bolts in total, three on each gate.
Caleb opened the two gates, turned back to us, and said, ‘On the other side of the school, we’ll find the football field. Once we’re there, spread out in a line, not too far apart, but not within swinging distance. Now follow me.’ He faced forwards and ran into the car park.
My heartbeat now racing, and adrenaline threatening to overpower my senses, I followed my fellow Sweepers as we funnelled through the open double gates. Caleb had taken a right and ran diagonally across the car park. He then cut through a gap between the school buildings. Presumably to avoid having to travel around the fenced off tennis courts, and also, so we didn’t get in Green Team’s way.
Luckily the school didn’t have any tall buildings. Otherwise running down the alleyway would have been even more nerve-wracking. Buildings looming over us would have made it feel claustrophobic. We were all still tightly grouped together, nobody wanting to be in the lead, or left behind. Only Caleb was apart from the group slightly, as he ran ahead of us.
When we reached the end of the alley, Caleb was waiting for us. As we filed past him, he said, ‘The football field is just there. Form a line and remember to spread out, but make sure you’re only a few paces from the person next you. If you’re on the end, try to hook up with the other teams. Green on our left, and Red on our right.’
We had a clear view to the outer fence. Caleb hadn’t been lying. Huge sections of it had collapsed. The gunfire and screaming must have sent the zombies into a frenzy for them to cause that much damage. Behind the layers of metal and wood that were now lying on the ground, parts of the scaffolding that held up the structure were loose and swaying in the wind. At the bottom of the fence, at least the parts that were still standing, thousands of zombies scraped and banged their hands on the metal. They were desperately trying to get through and get to the noises being created by the fireworks.
Fucking idiots, just go through the fucking gaps and make all of our lives easier.
So, there’s about forty to fifty in each team, and I remembered only seeing ten, maybe twelve colours on that notice board in the drug den, or the Zombie Patrol base. So that’s somewhere between four and six hundred of us, against thousands of pissed off mindless cannibals.
Yep, we’re well and truly fucked.
I looked to the sky. The wind looked like it was bringing in some dark and rainy looking clouds.
Don’t fucking rain. I really don’t want to be cold and wet on top of all this.
‘Chris,’ Jack said, pointing over to our left. ‘Look.’
I followed his gaze to see Shannon, Michael and Ali in the distance, walking along with the rest of the Green Sweepers.
‘Fuck,’ I said. ‘Fuck’s sake.’
I wouldn’t have been half as scared for them if Gee had been alongside them. He must have kicked up a fuss when they told him he couldn’t be with them.
I bet Ali told him to stay behind and look after Pete. They’ll be fine. You can’t afford to be worrying about them at the moment.
On the other side of Green Team, I could see another group, all strung out in a line. On the other side of them, much further away, another team were heading towards the east outer fence.
We reached the far side of the football field and crossed the running track that surrounded it. Caleb suddenly started shouting, ‘Hold the line here. Let them come to us. They’re too packed in by the fence.’
I could hear a woman’s voice shouting something similar to the Green Team.
‘Can’t we just sneak up on them and bash their brains in from behind?’ I asked Jack.
He just stared ahead, looking as scared as I felt.
‘We tried that before,’ the man on my left said. ‘There weren’t anywhere near as many as there are now, and we were quickly overrun.’
‘Fucking zombie cunts!’ Caleb shouted. ‘Here we are, come and get us.’
I turned to Jack. ‘Well, I don’t think that language is necessary.’
Jack stared at the zombies, many of them peeling away from the frenzied horde and running towards us. ‘Shut up Chris,’ he said.
I joined him in staring at the masses heading our way. ‘It’s a Ricky Gervais joke,’ I muttered.
The leader of the Green Team also started shouting.
‘Do we shout as well?’ I asked Jack.
‘No. I think there are enough of them coming for us as it is.’
Only a car park was between us and hundreds of hissing creatures. It would only take seconds for them to reach us. Hundreds will soon become thousands.
This is gonna be fucking horrible.
‘There are too many, far too many,’ the man next to me said, sounding as scared as I felt.
‘Wait until they’re closer,’ Caleb shouted, his voice still keeping its authority. ‘Then we’re going to run at them. Otherwise they’ll take us all down. We are stronger than them. Wait for my signal.’
The few cars parked up in front of us weren’t slowing them down. The car park was quickly filling with hissing creatures. I couldn’t look away to see if they were everywhere, and not just in front of us. I guessed they were coming for all the teams. We stood and waited. I was desperate to hear Caleb’s signal, and also dreading it. Jack was bouncing on the balls of his feet. I raised my bat over my shoulder.
What the fuck am I doing here? This could be the stupidest thing anybody has ever done.
The man next to me cried out, ‘Too fucking many.’
‘Jack?’ I shouted over the hissing.
‘I don’t know mate,’ he shakily answered.
This is fucking crazy. I honestly cannot believe this is happening.
According to the white lines on the tarmac, they were about two parking spaces away from us when Caleb shouted, ‘Now!’ He left the line, running towards the horde.
Jack and I both set off at the same time, only half a second behind Caleb. I still wanted to look to my left to check on my friends, but I couldn’t afford the distraction.
Decaying faces stared back at me as I ran towards what looked like certain death. All of my senses were telling me to do the complete opposite. The repulsive things’ mouths were wide open, and their dead flesh literally hung from their bones, swaying from side to side.
And that fucking hissing.
I swung my bat at the last second, connecting with two or three of them. My body twisted with the swing, my shoulder connecting into multiple bodies. Grunts and cries of pain mixed in with the zombies’ hissing. Zombies seemed to fly in all directions as we made contact with the first row of them. I wasn’t stopping anytime soon, I continued barging into them, their weak bodies not slowing me. I felt teeth and hands scraping against me as I passed through the horde.
All of a sudden, I found myself on my knees, painfully skidding to a stop along the tarmac. I must have tripped over something. It was utterly terrifying to look up and see I was surrounded by rotting zombie faces, all staring down at me. I swung my bat at them, trying to hit everything and anything. I didn’t care what part of them I hit.
I stood up and screamed in agony when a sharp pain shot up my left leg. I kicked my leg out, feeling the mouth of a zombie let go of my calf.
Mother fucker.
I stamped down on the biter’s head and carried on swinging. There was more pain as another tried to bite my back, up by my shoulder blade. I felt the thing’s teeth scrape against bone. I spun around, still swinging my bat. The biter’s hands
still had hold of my jacket, so it swung around behind me as I spun, its legs knocking other zombies to the ground. I stopped spinning and reached back, grabbing the back of its head. I pulled and a large clump of skin and hair came away in my hand. I reached back further and dug my hand into its skull, until I got a firm hold of something. I pulled it up and over my shoulder, and threw it away. The long dead body weighed next to nothing. I spun around again, swinging my bat at whatever was closest to me, also trying to see where Jack was. More of the dead were coming towards us from the damaged fence.
I spotted him. He was still up and fighting, although not in amongst the horde like me. He must have backed away somehow to gain a bit of space, or not been stupid enough to carry on running into them.
I needed to get out of there, and try and get over to Jack, so there was nothing attacking me from behind. I wasn’t gonna last long if they were coming at me from everywhere.
‘Mother fucking fuckers!’ I roared in pain as one of them sunk its teeth into the back of my left arm, just below my armpit.
I had to keep on swinging my bat one handed at more attackers, just to keep them a bay. I tried to reach its head with my left hand but couldn’t quite get the right angle. The thing’s hands were clawing at my chest and back. I lifted my left arm up, feeling the weight of it as it left the ground, and smashed my bat into its skull. The loud shattering sound filled my ears. The now unmoving hands fell away as it dropped to the ground.
I’d lost sight of Jack again, so I spun around, looking over the zombies’ heads. I was indiscriminately swinging my bat, hitting heads, shoulders, just anything. I stopped spinning when I saw Jack’s axe arching through the air.
Fuck it.
I moved towards him, punching with my left fist, and the handle of the baseball bat in my right.
Being dead for a few weeks can’t be good for muscle tone and strength. The zombies were putting up a fight, but I could easily move them out of the way, their skulls collapsing, sometimes when I hit them with my fist. It felt like hundreds of disgusting skeletal hands were scratching and grabbing at me as I barged through them.
There was space in front of me, I’d made it through. A bony hand clawed at my face from behind. I reached up and wrenched it away from me, the hand and lower part of its arm tearing away. The rest of it was still attached to my back somehow. I ran at a car, spinning around at the last second and slamming my back into the driver’s door. The zombie on my back was crushed in the impact.
Winded slightly, I stood up and raised my bat, only having to wait a second before some of them were on top of me again. I swung mercilessly at them, overhead, side swing, uppercuts. It was never ending.
Over the sound of hissing and fireworks, I could now hear a song playing. It sounded like Head Over Heels, by Tears for Fears.
Has there been music playing all this time?
‘Chris!’ Jack called out.
I looked for him in a panic, thinking he must be calling for help. He was stood on the bonnet of one of the parked cars. It was a big black SUV.
‘Over here. Get on this car you fucking prick,’ he screamed.
Fuck’s sake Jack, that’s a bit harsh. I’ll put that one down to the adrenaline.
I pushed away a zombie that was only inches away from chewing on my elbow, and then brought the bat down on its head. I kicked another in the groin, almost flipping the thing over. Its face slammed into the ground. I ran towards Jack, barging three more zombies out of my way before I reached the SUV. Jack swung his axe down into the shoulder of a zombie blocking my path to him. It literally flew through the air, hitting tarmac at the back of the SUV. He swiftly moved his axe to his left hand and reached out to me with his right. I grabbed his outstretched hand, placed my right foot on top of one of the front tyres. He pulled me up onto the bonnet.
‘This really isn’t working,’ I shouted. ‘There’s too many of them, and there’s more still to come from the fence. How are we supposed to clear this for the Fencers?’
‘Don’t know,’ Jack said, breathing heavily. ‘Keep going.’
I put my back to Jack, and started clubbing the zombies on the top of their heads. They were making it easy for us, just queuing up to get their heads caved in.
I swung and swung, and swung some more, not caring about the hands grabbing for my legs. They were too weak to pull my feet out from under me.
‘Although it’s a lot easier up here,’ I said. ‘Fucking brilliant idea. Have you noticed the zombies are getting weaker and slower?’
‘Yep, I’ve noticed,’ Jack said between deep breaths. ‘Can you hear that music?’
‘Yeah. It’s Tears for Fears.’
‘Good, didn’t know if I was going crazy. It sounds like it’s coming from the school.’ Jack took a second to point over to far side of the school, where we’d spent the night in quarantine.
The majority of the zombies seemed to be bypassing us, and heading to wherever that music was being played.
I took the opportunity to try and find the Green Team. They were just in an open field, so didn’t have anything like we had to gain an advantage. I couldn’t tell who was who in the chaos. All I could see were various types of weapons swinging and connecting with the dead. Dark coloured liquid flew in every direction.
I slammed my bat into more heads and looked down at myself. I was also covered in dark splatters.
The vehicle beneath us shifted. I quickly moved my feet further apart to regain my balance. Squeaks from the back of the SUV made me twist around. Caleb was on his hands and knees on the roof.
‘Hey dudes. What’s up?’ Caleb said. He withdrew his knife from a zombie’s eye socket, before bending forwards to stab another.
‘This isn’t going well,’ Jack said, swinging his axe down again and again. ‘What’s the plan Caleb?’
Caleb continued stabbing. He was either blatantly ignoring Jack’s question, or he’d sustained some kind of injury to his ears.
I looked past Caleb to see some of the rest of Blue Team had also climbed on top of cars. Two were on the roof of a car, and six or seven people were in the back of a truck, so they had a bit more protection than us. The rest of the team members that were still alive were on the flat roof of a single story building, over in the corner of the car park. They weren’t doing anything to help the situation from up there. They couldn’t reach down to kill anything.
‘We need everyone out here Caleb,’ I shouted. ‘The Fencers can fucking wait.’
Caleb just continued stabbing.
The fucking twat is ignoring us.
A sudden shock of pain rushed through me again. I instinctively kicked my leg out, connecting with a zombie’s face. I felt bones and teeth disintegrate when I made contact. The face that was biting me was still attached to my leg though. Teeth were trying to gnaw their way through my shin bone. Its arms were wrapped around my thigh, trying to drag itself up to a meatier part of my leg. I repeatedly brought the handle of the Smasher down onto the top of its head, eventually turning it into a mushy mess. It released its grip on me and I kicked my boot into what was left of its face.
‘Mother fucking fuckers,’ I shouted, lifting my freshly bitten leg up off the bonnet. I could feel blood running down both my legs.
Maybe I should be worrying about them grabbing my legs.
Why didn’t Gee steal me some jeans? Instead of these paper fucking thin combats.
All of a sudden, the rain came, and not just a light smattering. It was heavy, torrential rain, like standing under a waterfall. The hissing, combined with the fireworks, and the rain bouncing off the SUV, was incredibly loud.
‘Fuck off rain!’ I shouted, quickly smashing in four more heads that had come too close to me.
‘Caleb!’ Jack shouted.’ If we stay out here we’re all going to die.’
‘Keep fighting,’ Caleb ordered him.
‘Look at the fence,’ Jack said. ‘There’s still a lot more to come. We need to retreat back to the camp.’
‘Caleb,’ I shouted. ‘Jack’s right. This is fucking stupid.’
‘I need to go and find Isaac,’ Caleb called out. ‘Keep going.’
He jumped off the back, barrelling into three zombies when he landed. He faltered slightly, but quickly regained his balance and ran across the car park.
Jack paused for a moment, watching Caleb run away. ‘Who’s he going to find?’
‘Isaac, whoever the fuck he is.’
Jack slammed the top part of his axe down into a head, destroying it easily. ‘I think he’s probably still stoned,’ he shouted.
The piles of bodies lying around the SUV were getting higher and higher with every zombie we killed. This meant the zombies’ faces were getting a lot closer to us now, once they’d climbed on top of the fallen ones.
‘Jack,’ I said. ‘Roof?’
He looked at me, and then down at the piles of dead surrounding us. ‘Roof,’ he agreed.
We both stepped up, being careful not to slip on, or break, the soaking wet windscreen. This gave us a slight reprieve, as the zombies were struggling to get a grip on the wet vehicle, and we were also a lot higher than them.
I dropped to one knee. ‘I’m gonna try and catch my breath.’
Jack lowered himself down to join me. ‘Yep, good idea.’
We were both desperately out of breath.
I pointed to the area Green Team had been fighting, asking, ‘Have you seen any of the others recently?’
‘Nope.’
Two things then happened, almost exactly at the same time. The fireworks stopped, and I spotted Ali.
‘Shit, that can’t be good,’ Jack said. ‘Bet it’s the fucking rain.’
Chapter 17: Wrecking Balls
I tried to shield my eyes from the pouring rain. ‘I can see Ali.’
