Then I silently chuckled to myself. It wasn’t surprising really, seeing as her first act had been to hack her bullying, cowardly worm of a husband to death with a hand axe when he had tried to push her in the way of an approaching zombie horde to save himself, telling her she must die to save him.
Soon everyone had a bowl of food and a hot drink in their hands and we all began retelling our stories, with others chipping in if they thought something had been missed. The laughter and tears that we all shed at various parts of each other’s stories bound the groups together more as the experiences of each group were now the shared experiences of the whole group.
Chris and Nicky’s story was one none of us had heard yet, so once they had listened, laughed and cried at all our exploits, everyone quietened down to hear their tale.
The main news was that Nicky was pregnant and that was what most likely saved their lives. They both worked in Bristol. Chris was a manager at a local Builders’ merchant and Nicky was a corporate lawyer based at the Bristol office of a national firm, and they had taken the day off work to go to the hospital for the first scan of their unborn child.
The appointment wasn’t until midday, so they had an easy morning pottering around the house and spending time together, excitedly biding the time until they could see an image of their first child. They hadn’t listened to the news or radio, so they had no idea what was going on until they tried to leave their road. The lack of traffic and the abandoned cars littering the road immediately made them realise that something was seriously amiss, but nothing was going to stop them getting to the hospital, so they continued with their journey.
It wasn’t until Nicky turned the radio on in the car that they both heard the government issued message. They stopped and tried to work out if it was some elaborate hoax and they’d suddenly see TV cameras and a presenter shouting, “Gotcha!” as he shoved a microphone in their faces, or if it was true.
Even when a blood and gore covered thing approached the car and started clawing at its windows, they discussed calmly whether it was real or a very good make-up job. It was only when another approached, whose both arms were bloody stumps, and it began banging its head against a window, breaking all of its teeth in the effort, that they came to the panicked realisation that it must all impossibly be true.
Chris slammed the car into reverse, smashing into a few cars in his terrified efforts to escape, and they tried to make it back to the safest place they could think of.
Their home.
Driving as fast as he could, they swerved through the streets, dodging cars and zombies apparently in greater numbers now that the secret was out. They almost made it until they were stopped by a horde blocking the way ahead.
With more coming from behind them, they had no choice but to abandon their car and run for it, dodging through gardens and alleyways until they reached their house, just closing the front door before the ones that had appeared in their road reached them.
As the crowd gathered outside, they realised that escape was impossible, so all they could do was barricade themselves in and wait. Hoping that they might get the chance to escape at some point, they filled rucksacks with as many useful supplies as they could, worked out what items they had round the house would be the best weapon, and tried to eke out their food supplies for as long as they could.
Day after day, though, the zombies gathered at the front of their house did not disperse but worse still, more arrived. Chris and Nicky had almost resigned themselves to never escaping, and facing the agony of starving to death in their own house, made worse by the knowledge that they would never see their unborn child and it would die with them, when the convoy had spotted and rescued them.
As soon as they had finished their tale, the women rushed to Nicky to congratulate her on being pregnant, and noisily began discussing the best care plan, so they could keep her and her unborn child as safe and well as possible.
Escaping from the women, Chris walked over to me.
“Congratulations, mate,” I said, shaking his hand. “I think your wife will be the best cared for lady in this world we’re living in.” Laughing as I thought of it, I added.
“I’ve just realised, you lucky bastard. Whatever happens, you’re going to be guaranteed the comfiest bed available every night. No one’s going to let a pregnant woman sleep on the floor if there’s a bed available.”
Ian whispered theatrically to Shawn and nodded over in Louise’s direction
“Mate, if you get your new girlfriend preggers, don’t worry I’ll let her share my bed. You can sleep on the floor while I look after her. Anyway, you haven’t told us what’s going on yet. You bugger off, leaving us to get on with it on our own and then eventually turn up with a really hot woman, who is way out of your league, by the way. Then you don’t come and sit with us, your mates, who’ve looked after you for years but sit cuddling up next to her.”
Ian stood back, folded his arms and waited for an answer.
Shawn went bright red with embarrassment and stammered his reply.
“She’s not my girlfriend. It’s not like that. We’re just friends, that’s all. She’d just lost her sister and I just wanted to be there to help her.”
His friends stood around him, waiting for him to continue. But he didn’t, he just stood there looking for a way to escape.
Ian grabbed him in a bear hug, lifted him up and shouted.
“Bugger me, boys, he’s actually fallen in love.”
Then he spun him around while Shawn tried to get him in a headlock and cover his mouth as he chanted like a child, “Shawn’s in love!” over and over.
All the men found this infantile display very funny and laughed at the embarrassment it was obviously causing.
Glancing over at Louise, I could see she’d also gone bright red and was trying to hide her embarrassment too ‒ and the big smile that had spread across her face.
Maybe Ian was right. It took a sharp shout from Maud to stop the merriment.
“Ian! Do I have to keep telling you to behave? You may have got away with this behaviour before and think you can get away with again it, because you are a big cuddly bear of a man with a permanent stupid grin on his face. Sarah is sleeping and if you have woken her with your stupid goings on, there will be hell to pay.”
Instantly contrite, it was his turn to go red with embarrassment as he gently put Shawn down and muttered
“Sorry, Maud.”
“And so you should be. Now go over and wash those dishes. They won’t do themselves, will they?”
Once again Maud had got it spot on. The men, trying to stifle the laughter that wanted to erupt from our throats, watched as Ian dejectedly shuffled off and began washing the dishes like a severely scolded five-year-old.
He’d finally met his match in a sixty-year-old diminutive woman who looked as if she wouldn’t say boo to a goose.
We knew differently.
We were still forty-three and a dog.
Chapter Five
We needed to get down to business and plan what our next move would be. Dave, Jim and I got everyone to gather at the seating area so we could begin.
I spoke first.
“You all know of our plan to head to Warwick Castle and I still think we should stick to that goal. Unless anyone else has a better idea?”
No one indicated they did, so I continued.
“Of course,” I said, looking at our newest arrivals, “you’re all welcome to come with us, unless you prefer to stay here or have somewhere else you want to try to reach. But from what we’ve seen out there and with what goodies we’ve gathered so far, my firm belief is that your best and safest option will be to join us, so we can work together to survive all this shit that’s going on around us.”
No one spoke up, but I could tell from the looks on their faces that they knew joining us was the best option to ensure their survival.
“What we need to do now is plan the next few days. The main priority is, I imagine, workin
g our magic on the bus and the van. We know what we’ve done to the other vehicles works, so if a few of you can get thinking about those, that would be great. You locals can help with that, because you might know the best place where we can get the stuff we need.
Remember, we’re still going to try and see if Louise’s family in Cheltenham made it. From here, it’s not far to them at all, and also, let’s not forget Steve’s family in Worcester. Time is of the essence for both those tasks, so whatever we do, we need to get on with it.
“If anyone else has people they want to check on, tell us now so we can try and plan the route to them. No promises of course, but if we can, we will try.”
I stopped and looked around.
“Does anyone else have anything they want to add?”
Simon Wood stood up.
“Yes, mate. While you’re tinkering with the vehicles, I want to work on tactics for fighting them. I’ve seen the way the knights fight, and its frikkin’ awesome. But I think that because we hope to try to rescue others on our way, we’ll most likely be doing close quarter work and house clearing. Warwick castle, when we get there, might also be overrun.
We’re heavily trained in urban warfare, so it’s something the four Marines here are good at. But we need more than the four of us doing it. I think a couple of hours knocking our heads together will be a great help. Also, looking at the weapons you knights have, the rest of us are going to need something better than knives for close quarter work.”
I nodded and looked around.
“Great idea. If you can get on with that, we can rotate round jobs, so we can all have a go. The training you’ve given us so far has, as we know, enabled us to work well together, even though we are FNGs.”
He nodded, smiling, and sat down. I could see from the few quizzical expressions I would have to explain what FNGs meant. Once the children were out of earshot, of course.
The vicar was the next to stand.
“Even though it will break my heart to leave my parish, I don’t think our future lies here. You have, as far as I am concerned, been sent here by God to be our guardian angels and my place is with you. I can’t speak for the rest of the villagers, but I imagine they feel the same. This church has provided us with safety and sanctuary, but for how long? I’ve visited Warwick Castle, so I know it could provide all we need.”
Bob stood up and interrupted him.
“I’m sorry for interrupting, Vicar, but I can speak for us all here and we all agree that we can’t stay here long term. We’d eventually run out of food, and with so few of us, we just haven’t got the strength to fight them off if we get surrounded again. Our best option is to leave with our new friends and survive this together.”
“Thank you, Bob,” replied the vicar, who turned to face us again.
“Well there’s your answer. I am not sure, apart from the two police officers, what skills we can offer, apart from a willingness to help, but thank you for allowing us to join you. Now, if you can tell us how we can help, we will do our utmost not to let you down.”
Chris stood up next.
“I have no doubt either that joining you is the best thing to do. We already owe you our lives. I’m not sure what I can add to the skillset apart from my years working in a builders’ merchants, helping builders plan and design jobs and getting over the many problems that entails, and it goes without saying, a willingness to do anything to protect my wife and unborn child.”
As he sat down, I continued, “Well, thank you, all of you.”
The church was darkening as the sun sank lower in the sky, indicating another day survived.
“It’s getting too late to go on a supply run to get more materials for the vehicles, but it won’t stop us planning and getting ready for the morning. If we can get started on a few jobs now, we can make the most of tomorrow.”
The noise level increased as everyone stood and started talking.
Simon and Dave came over and said the first thing they would do was start firearms training with all the new arrivals. With the help of Shane, they unloaded more weapons from the trailer and began splitting up the new trainees into groups to begin the basics.
The knights and the villagers were soon listening intently as they were shown safe handling discipline.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight of the vicar wearing his cassock holding an assault rifle, practising inserting and ejecting a magazine. How the world had changed!
Becky had gathered a few people and they were clearing an area to extend the sleeping space, enabling it to accommodate us all.
No one was idle, everyone had found a job to do and was getting on with it.
Shawn and I went outside to start planning the alterations to the vehicles and to draw up a list of materials we would need. We had plenty of tools and the generator to power them. The van, as I had thought earlier, was easy to plan. We just needed to add the ubiquitous and proven wedge to the front and protect the driver and passenger in the cab with mesh, if we could get it, or sheeting with holes cut in it to provide vision.
The bus, on the other hand, gave us more options to consider. We could simply add a wedge and protect all the windows, but that didn’t give the occupants the ability to fight any zombies from the safety of being on board.
The bus would provide a more comfortable place for the large group we now had to travel in, but if for some reason it became separated from the main convoy, the occupants would need to be able to defend themselves.
After playing around with a few ideas, the best solution we came up with was to cover all the windows with bars or mesh but to remove the glass from every other window and the seats by them to create an area where they could fight from, either with guns or spears.
If it didn’t work, we could always change it. The one thing we both agreed was essential, was to cut an escape hatch in the roof on both vehicles. In the fading light we unloaded the tools we would need and started to cut holes in various places on the bodywork of both vehicles, so when we got the materials we could begin immediately.
The children were already asleep when darkness and exhaustion finally drove us inside.
Keeping the noise down as much as we could, we barricaded the church door for the night and settled down in the pews. The flickering of candles provided enough light for everyone to see each other and to get around without tripping over anything, but most importantly, not waking the sleeping children.
Bottles of wine and beer were opened, and the group sat around enjoying each other’s company, before tiredness and the need for an early start reminded us of the need for sleep.
Forty-three people, with regular lookout changes, and a snoring dog, slept soundly.
Chapter Six
The early dawn light streaming through the church windows woke me and a few others up and we gathered in the kitchen area, quietly grumbling about the early hour and drinking the first coffee of the day, as one by one we were joined by more bleary-eyed adults who, too, seemed unwilling to communicate much until they had a mug of steaming tea or coffee in their hands.
Eventually, everyone had had a drink and some breakfast, and we felt ready to start the day.
Bob told us told us there was a farmer’s supply warehouse in a nearby village that should provide us with all we would need to work on the vehicles, so Simon and Dave quickly planned the mission.
Dave and Jim would remain behind to continue weapons training, while Simon took Dave’s place next to me in the Volvo. Shawn would, as usual, be driving the tractor, with Louise to accompany him. Both looked pleased at the news.
Simon then explained that he wanted to take some of the knights with us, but the problem would be mobility. Wearing a heavy suit of armour would make it difficult and slow to climb up and down the ladder to get in and out of the trailer. Not only would they enhance our fighting capabilities greatly, but also, they were the youngest and probably the fittest amongst us, and if we had to load a quantity of heavy material onto the tra
iler, then it made sense for them to be there.
Shawn spoke up.
“I was thinking about this last night, Simon. Watching Ian failing to get into the trailer when we left Bristol got me thinking. The rear of the trailer hinges from the side but the locking bar is on the outside. If I make one for the inside, it would be easy enough to make a ramp that we could drop in place. Then it would be a lot easier for everyone to get in and out and make loading stuff on a lot better too. If I can get it right, we could get a lot of fighting men on the ground quickly.”
Simon thought about it for a moment.
“How long will it take you?”
“Half an hour to rig something up, and I can improve it later.”
“Good, you have twenty minutes! Right, then. While Shawn’s doing that, can we all muck in and clear the trailer to make space for what we hope to get? When we get back, we’ll need to distribute all the ammunition and other goodies we got from the soldiers the other day.
Shawn, can we also give some thought to how we mount the light machine guns we’ve got to the trailer, and possibly the Volvo too. If we get those right, the amount of fire we can accurately put down could be a game changer if we get into deep shit.”
The large quantity of rifles and shotguns, military and sporting that we’d collected from both Bickley Barracks and the gun shop, along with the huge amount of ammunition we’d amassed from both places, and from the soldiers we’d met on the M5 motorway, made a truly impressive sight when it was stacked in the cool interior of the church. But would it be enough to keep us safe?
Shawn, true to his word, had drilled some holes in the trailer and made a crude but effective locking bar that would enable the rear of the trailer to be opened from within. With the Vicar’s permission he’d also used the wood from a couple of pews to make a ramp. He’d designed a simple but clever system of ropes to get it on and off the deck of the trailer. If you pulled the ropes one way it extended out and dropped to the ground and if pulled in the opposite direction with a little more effort, it lifted it back onto the deck.
Zombie Castle Box Set [Books 1-3] Page 38
