“I can’t either,” Nick admitted. “We’re going to have to make a run for it. After three, you ready?”
“No.”
“Okay,” said Nick. “One, two…
“…three.”
They made a dash across the car park, stone chips flying up behind them as their trainers crunched down on the uneven gravel. They cut a wide arc around the man ambling in front of them and headed for the road. There was a chance that Lara might have got free and was now waiting somewhere up ahead. That would also mean that it was safe to get back inside his car and drive away. But, as Nick leapt the embankment, he saw that Lara was still tangled up in the seatbelts and was going nowhere. His car was off limits.
“Shit!” he said. “Where do we go?”
“Anywhere, but here,” Eve said.
They both tumbled down the embankment and into the road. Eve pointed to one of the intersections that led to a sharp bend in the road. “Maybe we can lose them around there!”
Nick glanced behind him. The two women from the garden centre were stumbling around the car park with the glass-covered man, but so far they seemed unaware of Nick and Eve’s location. They were glancing around, moving in circles and sniffing the air; like any other predator hunting prey.
“Okay,” said Nick. “Let’s just get out of here.”
They pounded the road towards the bend, their breaths ragged and painful. Just as Nick thought they might be home free, a piercing screech from the parking lot made it clear they had been spotted.
Eve’s eyes went wide. “They’re coming.”
“I know,” said Nick. “Just keep runni-”
Something caught Nick’s attention. He spun around urgently and managed to fling himself to the ground just in time to avoid getting hit by a skidding bus. Eve hit the dirt right beside him. There was a never-ending moment where he closed his eyes and waited for death, expecting to feel the crush of wheels over his body, but the moment eventually passed, leaving behind nothing but a tense silence.
The bus had come to a sliding stop, a protesting squeal echoing from its brakes. Its bulky rear tyres rested less than a metre from Nick’s outstretched legs. He rolled onto his back and looked up in confusion as the vehicle’s pneumatic doors hissed open.
“Get in!” screamed the driver.
chapter five
Nick yanked Eve off the ground and bundled her up the steps onto the bus. Then he flung himself in after her, twisting around to make sure that the doors were closing behind him. He sighed with relief when they hissed shut.
The bus started moving and Nick stumbled sideways into the aisle. He had to grab hold of one of the support rails overhead to keep from falling down. Eve dragged herself over to the nearest vacant seat and sat down, clutching her chest as she tried to catch her breath.
It was then that he noticed the other people on the bus. He nodded at them all politely, but decided to turn to face his saviour, the bus driver.
If he hadn’t come along when he did…
The driver was a rotund man with thinning hair, grey at the sides. Both his of narrow, unblinking eyes were glued to the road. The steering wheel was gripped tightly between his pudgy hands.
“There’s a car wreck up ahead,” Nick warned him. “You’ll have to drive carefully to get around it.
The driver nodded and kept the bus at a low speed. Up ahead, Mrs Curtis and the other two infected people from the garden centre were coming up the middle of the road. They looked like a pack of roving hyenas.
“Friends of yours?” asked the driver.
“More like acquaintances,” said Nick.
The driver steered around them carefully and then decided to introduce himself. “I’m Dave, by the way.”
Mrs Curtis leapt at the side of the moving bus but rebounded futilely to the road in a crumpled heap. The people onboard whimpered with fright but seemed to realise that they were safe.
“Really good to meet you, Dave. I’m Nick, and the girl with me is named Eve. What made you pick us up?”
The bus reached the crossroad intersection and started to manoeuvre around the three wrecked cars, which included Nick’s Alfa Romeo. It felt wrong to abandon it.
I bloody loved that motor.
Dave cleared his throat. “You looked like you needed a lift, way you was running down the road like a bat out of hell. Seems quite a few people are in need at the moment. But I can only pick up so many.”
Nick glanced back at the other passengers. All of them wore their own individual expressions of fear and pain. Some were stony-faced and silent, while others wept quietly.
“You rescued all these people?”
Dave shrugged one shoulder. “Some of them, I did. I’d already picked up a few on my normal run. Things didn’t get crazy till about thirty minutes later. After all hell broke loose I managed to collect a few people, here and there – dropped ‘em off near their homes whenever I could – but most people were beyond saving. People have gone bad in the head; like wild animals.”
Nick nodded. “I know what you mean. Something is making people insane. I think it’s some kind of…sickness.”
“I was pretty much thinking the same. Seen a lot of sick people these last few days on my morning runs. Flu, colds, fevers; people sneezing and coughing from the moment I picked ‘em up till the moment I dropped ‘em off. Something bad has got itself inside people.”
“Well,” Nick said. “I’m pretty sure I owe you my life. Thank you.”
Dave huffed and put his foot down on the accelerator. “We’re not out of the woods yet, I’m afraid. I got no clear destination and only half a tank of petrol.”
“We should go the hospital. Find help.”
Dave took his eyes off the road for the moment and looked Nick in the eyes. There was something approaching regret in his expression, as if he didn’t want to say what he was about to. “Hospital was the first place I checked.”
Nick raised both eyebrows. “And?”
“No good. There were sick people everywhere; bleeding and half-naked, making those terrible screeching sounds they make. It was a blood bath. I turned around and left no more than five seconds after getting there – was a complete death trap. In fact, there’s a gal named Pauline I picked up from near the hospital just in time. She had a group of maybe a dozen crazies right on her heels. Lucky I got to her when I did. She’s still with us, couple rows from the front. She’ll tell you herself that the hospital is a no go.”
Nick felt defeated. People were sick and even the hospital couldn’t help, apparently. How was the situation ever going to get better when there was nowhere to go, no one to take control or offer assistance?
“How about a police station?” Nick asked.
Dave shook his head. “The cop shop is in the town centre and the main roads to town are all blocked up with traffic.”
“Then where?”
“Well,” Dave began. “One of the folks I picked up earlier had the idea of finding an Army base or something. They tend to be out in the countryside where things might not be so bad.”
Nick nodded. “If anyone can deal with a shit storm like this it’s the military. Where is the nearest base?”
“That’s the problem. No one has any idea and the guy who originally suggested it took off on his own to find his family. So keep an eye out for any road signs that might help us. I’m going to head towards Nottingham. See if we can find the Sherwood Foresters or, at the very least, a petrol station that isn’t overrun. The Foresters are a pretty big regiment, right?”
Nick shrugged. He had no idea. He looked out at the road ahead and was glad to see that it was clear for the time being. There might finally be time to take a breather. Although the chance to sit and think things through in detail, to reflect on the day’s terrible events, was not something he was looking forward to.
James…
Deana…
“You mind if I take a seat, Dave? I’m dead on my feet.”
“Take a loa
d off, my friend. If I need something, I’ll let you know.”
He went over and took a seat beside Eve. The girl was currently leant up against the window, examining the scenery as it rushed by.
“I’m filthy,” she said without turning away from the window.
Nick stared at her. “What?”
She stretched out her legs to show the mud that covered her jeans from the ankles to the knees. “Look at me. I need a shower. Need to wash my hair. It’s disgusting.”
“Big picture, Eve. People are dead, or at least in much worse shape than you. You can clean yourself up later.”
“Don’t talk to me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re my fucking dad, or something.”
Nick felt himself snarl. “I’m not your fucking dad. My only child died this morning on my goddamn kitchen floor, and all you can do is moan about some dirt under your nails.”
Eve folded her arms grumpily and grunted. It was obvious she had no interest in speaking to him unless he was ready to indulge her complaints.
Fair enough. Guess there’s no reason for us to be bosom buddies now that our life-and-death experience is over. She can go back to being a stroppy teenager and I can go back to being an adult.
Nick rose up from his seat and switched over to the other side of the bus, taking a seat just in front of a middle-aged woman in the tattered remnants of a grey blouse. A colourful scarf lay on the seat beside her. It was covered in blood that seemed to merge with the floral pattern. He smiled at the woman as he settled into the threadbare cushion in front of her.
“Hey,” she said to him wearily. “Welcome to the hell bus.”
Nick chuckled, but it contained no mirth; it was a mere social instinct. “Well, I for one am glad to be a passenger. Beats being where I was before Dave picked me up.”
The woman nodded. “It’s not the bus that’s hell. It’s everything outside the windows.”
Nick looked out of those windows and saw nothing but trees and fields. It was a pleasant view, but he could imagine the things the woman had witnessed on the main roads and in the towns. He understood what she was saying.
“Seen some nasty stuff, huh?” he said. “Me too.”
“I was at the hospital,” she said, staring out of the window blankly, “to pick up my sister. We live together and her car isn’t running. She was working the night shift – she’s a nurse…was a nurse. I was supposed to pick her up this morning.”
Nick could see from her faraway gaze that she was remembering something ghastly. It was a fair guess that it involved the fate of her sibling.
“I’m sorry,” he said, remembering the sight of James dead on the kitchen floor. “I’ve lost people, too. I think a lot of people have. It’s all…very wrong.”
“She was always a bit of a mess, you know, my sister. Never could seem to get her life in order; always sponging off me and wasting her life. I always figured she would find her way eventually, once she had grown up a little more. Now she won’t ever get the chance.”
Nick nodded. “Dave told me he picked someone up from near the hospital. Is your name Pauline?”
“Yes. Pauline Ross. Wish I could say it’s a pleasure, but…well, you know?”
Nick nodded and tried to smile. He knew how the she was feeling. While he had been running on adrenaline for the past couple hours, too panicked to properly grieve his losses, this woman had been sitting on this bus, alone with her grief. The reality of the situation was crushing her and Nick knew that once he took the time to slow down and think, his grief would crush him also.
Just the thought of thinking about it is making me afraid.
He looked around the bus at some of the other passengers, trying not to dwell on things that could wait for later. There was a grimy-looking man in navy-blue work overalls at the rear of the bus. He had thick dreadlocks and was staring at the floor while picking at callouses on his hands. In front of him, a couple rows ahead, was a teenaged boy in a bulbous, yellow jacket. Like Eve, he was gazing out of the window and watching the world whiz by.
Lastly, there were two older ladies, sitting together in the middle rows and nattering to one another as if they were on an ordinary journey on an ordinary day. Acting that way was probably their way of staying calm; the stiff upper lip of the older generation. Nick did not blame them at all.
Better to fake sanity than to accept insanity.
The vibrations of the bus’s diesel engine started to lull Nick into a restful daze. Now that he was finally safe his entire body began to throb. His blood felt like crude oil in his veins, pooling at his feet and making them swell. Through the window, he watched the countryside break apart as they passed by a small industrial estate. The various factories and workshops were all dormant, their workers not managing to make it in today.
“Looks like things are going to get a tad rough up ahead,” Dave shouted back from the front of the bus. “Everybody hold on to their arses.”
Nick got up from his seat and stumbled his way to the front. When he got there, Dave’s expression was impassive, staring dead ahead. Nick peered through the windscreen to see what was up ahead.
More car wrecks littered the road and there were pedestrians everywhere. There was a motorway service station, just off the upcoming island, that was currently ablaze. Nick could only assume what had happened there. An outbreak – of whatever was making people crazy – must have occurred at the rest stop, and the weary travellers trying to grab a quick burger or make use of the restrooms would have been taken by surprise. Those who had managed to flee had found their way back onto the roads, which only caused cars to swerve and crash around them, or mow them down completely. The whole scene was a disaster-zone as the healthy fought desperately against the sick and burning husks of automobiles continued to pile up like twisted sculptures.
“Think we can make it through?” Nick asked Dave.
“I don’t know. The motorway entrance is totally blocked, but I might be able to stay on the island and get round onto the A road.”
“Do your best. If we get stalled then we won’t be able to get moving again. Those crazies will be all over us.”
Dave took a deep breath and held it. He stamped down on the accelerator, choosing speed over caution. If any of the people out there on the road managed to get caught up in the bus’s wheels they would grind to a halt and have no escape. Speed was their best option.
Dave steered to the right as a body flew out in front of them, arms flailing in the air. Nick could not tell if it was one of the crazies or someone normal pleading to be picked up. They couldn’t afford to slow down and find out.
A woman clutched her bloody arm against her chest, up ahead; it was missing a hand. She screamed at the bus to help her as it sped by, but there was no way to do anything for her. Nick looked back helplessly as a mob of crazy people engulfed her.
“Holy shit!” said Eve, who had silently joined them at the front of the bus. “They’re like packs of piranha.”
Dave steered the bus through a gap between an overturned people carrier and a gold and black Mini Cooper. They scraped against the Mini and exchanged paintwork. Nick figured it was the least of anybody’s concerns right now.
The bus jolted as the tyres crunched over something and swerved slightly. Fortunately, Dave kept a tight grip on the steering wheel and held them straight.
“What was that?” Nick asked. “What did we run over?”
“You don’t want to know.”
They got halfway around the roundabout and the roads seemed to clear a little. Mangled bodies littered the verges, but there was no one walking around there. The car wrecks were also at a minimum.
“I think we’re through the worst of it,” said Nick.
“Yeah,” Eve agreed beside him. She sounded relieved.
Dave put his foot down in reply and the bus lurched on its axels. While Nick couldn’t be sure, he had a feeling that the guy’s unflappable manner was actually m
asking a great deal of fear; fear that was currently manifesting as a heavy right foot.
“Hey, buddy. Slow down a little.”
“It’s fine, we’re clear.”
“I know,” Nick said, “but we don’t know what’s around the next bend.”
“Hey, this is my bus. I picked you up, remember?”
“I just don’t want us to have an accident.”
“We won’t. I know how to drive.”
Something collided with the front of the bus. Dave slammed on the brakes. The bus fishtailed, its tyres slipping. The left side of the vehicle rose up off the road, making Nick feel weightless and tossing him to the other side of the aisle. Eve screamed and then landed right on top of him. For a few terrifying seconds, the swaying interior of the bus was silent as the passengers held their breath and waited. Nick was sure that the vehicle was about to tip over onto its side and end up in the ditch.
But it didn’t happen.
Thank God.
The bus came to a stop with a pained screech of its tyres. Nick climbed to his feet and headed back to the front of the aisle. Dave was staring ahead in a trance. He had gone deathly pale.
“Are you okay?” Nick asked.
Dave continued to stare forwards. “I-I’m fine. W-what did we hit?”
“I don’t think it matters,” said Nick, pointing. “Look!”
In front of them was a group of maybe ten or twelve infected people. They glared at the bus and let out a single, collective screech.
As a single entity, they rushed forward.
The first body to collide with the bus was that of a child. The small girl had blood-soaked pigtails tied with two bright-orange bows. She leapt onto the windscreen and clawed at the glass. The rest of the mob hit the bus a heartbeat-of-a-second later from every direction. From inside, it sounded like a hailstorm was underway, but the view from the windows betrayed the true horror of the situation. Blood-shot eyes peered in at them from all sides. Swollen and smashed faces smeared themselves against the glass. Nick felt like a zoo exhibit, except in this case it was the spectators who were dangerous and not the animals in the cage.
Ravage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel Page 6
