by Ryan Casey
Ted tilted his head at Elizabeth’s body. He looked at Claudia then the rest of the group. “Her… Elizabeth’s body. It—”
“No,” Claudia snapped. She turned and faced Ted directly, drowning out the oncoming creatures. “No.”
“Ted might have a point,” Riley interrupted. He thought of the times he’d made the tough decisions. The things he’d had to do. The humanity he’d had to sacrifice. ‘Alive. That’s what it makes you. Alive.’ “If we want to live… we have to make the tough calls.”
Claudia shook her head. Her head shakes were becoming slower and less convincing with every turn. Her chin started to wobble. The creatures in front of them were only ten metres or so from them now. “We… It might not work. It might not…”
“But we have to try,” Anna said. “I’m sorry, Claudia. I’m—”
An explosion rattled through their conversation. At first, Riley thought it was from the train, but it couldn’t be because the noise was up ahead, in the group of creatures that were crossing the field.
And then he saw a flicker of light. The loud cracking continued to split through the groans. The creatures fell to their knees, blood and flesh splattering from their bodies.
“Is that…” Anna started.
“Yes,” Riley said. He focused up ahead. Took a few steps forward. “I… I think it is.”
Beneath the loud mini-explosions and the chorus of creature voices, which were diminishing, the rumbling noise of an engine approached. The creatures in front of them started to scatter. Some of them turned around but were soon after sent flying to the ground as bullets cracked into their heads.
The group looked on with wide-eyes and open mouths as the vehicle came into view. It was a green armoured vehicle with a large grill on its front. Camouflage green was painted across its sides. On top of it, there was a machine gun attached, a silhouetted figure with a helmet firing rounds at the rapidly decreasing creatures. In the passenger seat of the vehicle there was another figure holding a handheld automatic rifle and firing out of his side window. The driver was similarly unidentifiable, enveloped by the low winter sun over their shoulders.
The vehicle came to a stop in the middle of the remaining few creatures.
“Shall I do the thing?” the man on the top shouted.
“Do it,” one of the men in the seats said.
The person manning the machine gun edged forward and pointed the gun at two creatures that were totally focused on the camouflaged vehicle now. The creatures stumbled over detached limbs and sloshed through the blood of their compatriots, surrounding the vehicle.
“Might want to get down,” the guy manning the gun shouted, tilting his head in the direction of the group. “I’m a good aim but you wouldn’t want to get in the way of this.” One of the creatures grabbed the end of his gun and scraped their teeth against the tough metal.
Riley looked over his shoulder. A number of creatures had reached the top of the verge. They couldn’t crouch down. The creatures would get to them.
“Quick!” the man behind the gun shouted as creatures overwhelmed his gun.
Riley and Anna exchanged a nervous glance. Then, Riley sighed and nodded. “Everyone — down!”
Riley and the others crouched down and lay on their stomachs. The groans behind them were getting closer. Soon, they’d be snapping at their heels. Ripping their Achilles from the back of their legs.
But then, he heard the firing of the gun again. The sound was spraying in all directions. Chunks of grass and dismembered limbs flew up in the air and rained down on them.
“Is he doing what I think he’s doing?” Ted shouted. His hands were over his eyes.
Riley peeked through the grass. The man atop the vehicle was spinning the machine gun in a circle. Bullets were spraying in all directions. The creatures that had surrounded the men were on their knees now, heads severed from their necks. The stench of dead, dead bodies engulfed the area.
The man on top of the gun raised it even higher as he continued to spin around. “Might wanna keep down now.”
Riley lowered his neck. He heard shots fly over the back of his head and plummet into the creatures behind them.
“Too many that way — you got them, Ivan?”
The side door of the vehicle opened and the man with the machine gun hopped out. He was dressed in full army gear, a helmet and glasses covering his eyes and head. He crouched as he approached the group.
“Thank you,” Claudia said. “Thank yo—”
“Get to the vehicle if you want to live,” Ivan barked. “And I mean live, not relive.”
Ivan disappeared behind them and fired the machine gun at the line of creatures. He held his ground and sent a wave of bullets flying into their heads, knocking them all down the verge as they clambered up it.
Riley rose to his feet. “Come on. This is our way out. Come on.”
Anna stepped to her feet slowly and chewed her lip. “I… We can run, Riley. The abandoned MOD bunker. We can go there now. Our path is clear.”
“We’re safer with them,” Ted said. His eyes were wide and his face awash with awe. “I mean… did you see what they just did? They’re here for us. The army. To help us.”
Claudia pushed past Chloë and reached down for Elizabeth. She held her daughter in her arms and started staggering over the mounds of mangled corpses, towards the army vehicle.
“We’ll do better on our own,” Anna said. She shook her head. “We—we don’t know these people.”
Riley took a deep breath. Examined his surroundings. The cloudy sky. The deathly grey grass speckled with splashes of blood. “It’s time we started trusting,” he said. “These people helped us. It’s time we gave a little back.”
He exhaled and ran towards the armoured vehicle.
The engine started up. The large circular headlights flickered to life. “Get on board,” the man atop the vehicle shouted. His face was also covered by large tinted glasses.
Riley turned around. Ted was close behind him, wincing as he stepped on his injured foot. He climbed up the side of the open-top vehicle and joined Claudia, who stroked Elizabeth’s hair as her limp body rested on her knee.
Anna and Chloë soon followed. Anna had a look of uncertainty on her face. A look of reluctance. Chloë kicked the innards as she clambered through them. She focused on them. Squinted and watched the body parts split and spew blood with fascination in her wide eyes. They reached the side of the vehicle and climbed up onto it.
“This is right,” Riley said as Anna pulled herself onto the vehicle. “It’s right for—”
“Okay,” Anna said. She didn’t make eye contact with Riley as she pulled Chloë up. “Okay.”
Ivan stopped firing the machine gun and kicked a creature down the side of the verge. He spat at it as it descended, wiping stray saliva from his chin. Then, he turned around and gave a thumbs up as he ran back to the armoured vehicle.
“Hold on tight,” the man on the gun said. He removed his helmet. A shiny, sweaty bald head hid underneath. “Pedro’s the name. Make yourself comfortable.”
Ivan climbed onto the vehicle and pulled off his helmet. He rubbed his fingers through his slick, dark hair, huffing and puffing.
“All this running still knackering you?” Pedro said. He had a grin on his face.
Ivan raised a finger and removed his glasses. He took a close look at the group. Narrowed his eyes and nodded at Riley. Scanned Anna’s body from head to toe. “Ready to go,” Ivan shouted. “As for you guys — consider this your lucky day.”
The engine rumbled into full force and the tyres of the vehicle crunched against the detached bones of the creatures. The group drove off the field and onto the road, away into the distance.
Ivan pulled a blanket from the front of the vehicle and handed it to Claudia. He offered a gentle smile of reassurance and nodded his head at Elizabeth’s body. “For… for your little girl.”
Claudia snapped out of her trance as she continued to stroke Eli
zabeth’s hair. She took the blanket from Ivan and wrapped it around her daughter as the vehicle drove on. They had been driving for the best part of ten minutes and they’d still yet to be met with a distraction. They’d also barely spoken.
“So,” Ivan said. He removed his glasses and slipped them onto the collar of his army uniform. “You people been out here long?”
Anna and Riley shot a glance at one another. Riley could tell from the way Anna arched her body away from the others that she hadn’t warmed to the idea of joining the new group. Maybe she was right. But they’d helped them out. There was no denying that if they hadn’t shown up when they did, they’d have been torn to pieces. All of them.
“A day. Or so.” Ted peered up at the gun on top of the vehicle. “Say, how often do you use this thing? I never knew they had like, proper armed vehicles in Preston.”
Pedro, who remained in the elevated seat, patted the side of the gun and grinned. “Didn’t get much chance to try this thing out before things went to shit. Think the end days are a good enough reason though, huh?”
A glimmer of a smile crept across Ted’s face. It was everything he’d ever dreamed of seeing. Real-life Call of Duty. Shame about the timing and the circumstances.
“So you’ve been out here for a day or so.” Ivan polished the end of his machine gun with a small, dirty cloth. He had thick black bags underneath his eyes. A badly styled moustache on his top lip. “How were you surviving out here?”
“We had somewhere,” Riley cut in. “Somewhere safe. And…”
“It turned out not so safe, huh?” Ivan lowered the gun and wiped his hands on the cloth. “Seen that way too many times these last couple of days.”
“So what are you? Army?”
Ivan and Pedro looked at one another and then Ivan nodded. “Yeah. Squadron down at Fulwood Barracks. Funny, really. I chose not to go on tour to Afghan. Conscientious objector, or whatever the hell they call us. Wanted to stick around for my family. Turns out the bigger war is on the home front.”
Riley nodded. “Sounds familiar.”
“Where have you guys been?” Ted turned from Pedro to Ivan and back again. “Like, we’ve been out and about for days and—and there’s barely been any military presence. Maybe a helicopter, or something. But nothing else. Shouldn’t you be the ones fighting these creatures?”
Ivan snickered. “Hear that, Pedro? ‘Where’s the army fighting these things?’”
Pedro fiddled with the rear of the mounted gun and shook his head. “You’d think we were warmongers or something.”
Ivan leaned in to Ted and Riley. “Truth is, the armed forces — we’re just ordinary people too. Now the public, the civvies, they don’t want to believe that. But it’s true. Y’know, I was at the barracks when the news came out. News that these—these walking corpses were taking over. There were another sixty of us. Maybe seventy. And y’know what the first thing the bulk of those people did when they were sent on immediate call to get into the city and deal with this threat?”
Riley nodded. “I can probably guess.”
“Yeah. They went home. Went home to their families. Same with the police. Truth is, nobody’s got any power when there’s no power system in place. When something so… so unfamiliar attacks, nobody wants to fight it because nobody wants to risk making it worse. Making it angrier. So they go home and they go to their families and they die anyway.”
Ted shook his head. “And you’re the ones who didn’t go home?”
Ivan smiled again. He tumbled to his side slightly as the vehicle swerved around an abandoned car on the main road. “Would’ve loved to have a family to go back to. But we were too late. Creatures were already at the barracks before we had a real chance to leave. Me, Pedro, Stocky—” He pointed at the driver, who had yet to introduce himself, with his thumb. “—We were trapped in that barracks with a few others and we had no idea what to do. Used to taking orders, y’know? But all of a sudden, we’re the highest rank.”
Riley’s throat tensed. Everything he’d feared — everything he’d ever believed in — was all crumbling to pieces. “The… the army. It’s gone? Completely?”
Ivan nodded. “The only organised army right now are these beasts. And they’re winning.”
Riley stared out over the side of the vehicle. As they got further into the suburbs, they drove past houses, front windows smashed and laced with blood. Dead bodies feasting on dead bodies. Television static crackling in the uninhabited houses. Life put on hold for now and forever.
“How did you find us?” Anna hadn’t spoken up to now, but her tone was stern. She leered at Ivan. In the few days of knowing Anna, Riley knew one thing about her — she’d get an answer if she wanted it.
“Well,” Ivan said. He stretched out his arms and looked up at Pedro again. Pedro cleared his throat and perched on the gun seat, swinging around and aiming ahead. “We were out and about and we heard the train accident. Figured we’d see if there were any survivors.”
“And were there any?”
Ivan opened his mouth then closed it again. He pushed his greasy jet black hair back and shrugged. “We found you. We made you our priority.”
Anna glared at Ivan with a cold, hard face. Then, she nodded her head and broke the stare. “Okay.” Her inquisition looked like it was over. For now.
“Is… My daughter.” Claudia’s voice caught Ivan’s attention. Elizabeth was covered up now. “These barracks. Is there anywhere I can… I can bury her?”
Ivan sighed. “Of course there is. We can even… We can cremate her, if you’d like that? And then at least you can have her ashes. Right?”
Claudia shook her head. “No. We should bury her. We should—”
“Elizabeth always said she wanted to be burned.” Chloë broke her own self-imposed silence as she sat alone at the very back of the vehicle. “Just saying.”
Claudia stroked Elizabeth underneath the blanket. She inhaled a shaky breath. “Then we’ll cremate her.” Her voice sounded stronger. More affirmative. A sign of strength in the hardest and cruelest of times. She glanced at Chloë and smiled. Chloë smiled back at her. The first positive contact they’d had in quite some time.
“Aw, shucks,” Pedro said. He stumbled to his feet and twisted the gun back to the front. “Got some company. Hold on tight.”
Ivan gripped the back of the vehicle and examined the rest of the group. “We’re going to get you somewhere safe, dear. Somewhere with food. Water. A nice cosy shower and bed. I promise you that.” He smiled at Chloë. “But for now, you might want to cover your ears.”
“Why?” Ted asked.
The gun on top of the vehicle rumbled to life. It fired deafening shots up ahead, where a group of creatures rose from a corpse they were fighting over in the middle of a mini-roundabout.
Ted stuck his fingers into his ears and stuffed his head between his knees.
Ivan chuckled. “That’s why.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
They didn’t have to deal with many more distractions before reaching the barracks.
The vehicle slowed down as it crept up the pathway. The outside of the barracks were grey-bricked and tall. A Great Britain flag flew at full-mast above the gates, which were closed. Two patches of grass lined the pathway into the barracks. On the right-hand side, a stack of charred bodies were piled up on top of one another. At the opposite side of the road, a banner was spread across the roof of a row of terraced houses. ‘Save Us Please’ was scribed across it in a conspicuous shade of thick red paint.
“Got to deal with the walking corpses somehow,” Pedro said, pointing at the stack of burned bodies. “All of ‘um are those things. The ones we dealt with outside the gates. Figure we’ll start doing daily runs eventually and get ‘um out of our face soon enough.”
Riley stared at the gates as the vehicle got closer. It looked like there were two sets of gates — a larger, more traditional set surrounding the exterior of the main building, then a smaller set just inside. Two men
were standing by the second set of gates, starting to open them as the vehicle approached.
“Now we’ve got some good people here,” Ivan said. He smiled at Chloë. “Some good people who will look out for you. Keep you safe.”
“We’ll earn our place,” Riley said. “We—we owe you that much. For helping us out back there.”
“That’s good of you. But we take things step by step.” He pointed at Elizabeth’s body. Blood was starting to seep out of her head and onto the blanket that Claudia had covered her with. “We put the girl to rest first. And then you get some rest. You look like you could do with some.”
Ted yawned as the vehicle stopped at the first set of gates. “You’ve no idea.”
Pedro hopped down from the vehicle and walked towards the gates. He laughed and shook hands with the armed guard who opened the first set, then pointed at the group in the back of the vehicle. The armed guard looked over Pedro’s shoulder and smiled at the group, and the vehicle came back to life.
“Of course, I have to ask you before we proceed. I have to ask you whether you’re willing to be a guest here. And by that, we mean you stay here. At least, until things get a little less hectic outside these walls.”
“That sounds more like we’re opting to be kept prisoner,” Anna said.
Ivan puffed out his lips. “Tough nut to crack, dear, aren’t you? But that’s a good thing. It’s good to be suspicious in this world. But no — the reason you have to comply to this little house rule is simply because we don’t want anybody else putting themselves in jeopardy. And that includes us. If one of you decides to go on a little run outside, who knows what you might bring to our doorstep? Make sense?”
Ted shrugged. “Sounds reasonable enough.”
Anna and Riley watched one another. Waited to make the call.
“You don’t have to come with us. But we’re just trying to help. If you think you’d be better on your own, you can—”
