Bob tossed the handkerchief into a nearby paper bin. He sighed out loud.
“I want my phone,” Ollie said.
Bob took off his glasses and rubbed his face as if he’d been up for three nights in a row without sleep. “Ollie, for the last time…”
“Wait a bloody minute! What the hell’s all this about?”
The voice came from the back of the gym.
Ollie shifted in his seat and saw a curly-haired man in a hi-viz jacket pacing down the aisle. He was frowning at a red clipboard in his hands, a pen tapping off the side of his head. “Who counted this?” he said, bellowing in a thick Yorkshire accent. “Who counted these bloody numbers by the way?”
Bob stood up and intercepted the man.
“What’s the matter Chris?”
Chris nodded at Bob and walked over to the table of three. He glanced briefly at Ollie and Anna and then his attention returned to the clipboard.
“You seen this Bob? Somebody’s screwed the county numbers up. If the initial reports are correct there’s been a minor miscalculation of the body count. And by minor I mean major. Initial reports from our eyes in the sky bring back a total of nineteen thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine souls. Can you believe that? East Sussex is supposed to have twenty thousand in the bag, right?”
“That’s right,” Bob said. “How reliable are the eyes in the sky? These are just early reports. It’s like an exit poll isn’t it?”
“Reliable enough for my liking,” Chris said. “We’ve got a lot of people doing body counts. Now we need the survivor and sniper accounts to confirm the numbers of course, but so far it’s not looking good.”
Bob scratched his chin. “So what does that mean Chris?”
“You can count can’t you Bob?” Chris said. “If they’re right, East Sussex is one body short. One lousy bloody body. That’s no good – that’s embarrassing that is. We can’t hand faulty numbers over to the PM. We’ll be the laughing stock of the entire country. East Sussex, they’ll say. Can’t bloody count for toffee.”
Ollie and Anna’s eyes were locked across the table. Upon hearing Chris’s revelation, both had begun to edge off their seats.
“So let me get this right,” Anna said, a fresh trickle of blood spilling from her battered mouth. She looked like a vampire seconds after feeding time. “You need one more stiff to make the numbers right?”
“At this moment in time,” Chris said, glancing at Anna, “that would appear to be correct young lady. Unless we own up to the mistake and look like idiots.”
“No need for that,” Anna said, reaching for the pistol at her waist. But there was only an empty holster waiting for her. Anna’s gun belt, which she’d worn under her ninja suit to hide from the Londoners at East Catchford, had been removed upon entry.
“Oh bugger,” she said.
Ollie laughed hysterically as he climbed over the table, crawling towards her with a savage, bloodthirsty look in his eye.
Anna gasped. She tried to stand up but her broken body rebelled. She wobbled on unsteady legs in a half squat position, clamping a hand over her right shoulder. Then she fell back into her seat with a howl of frustration.
“Somebody do something!” she said, looking around the gym. “Somebody help me!”
Ollie scurried across the table like a giant spider. He stopped just a few inches from the edge.
“This is personal Anna.”
He leapt at the assassin, shoving her backwards over the chair. Before they’d even landed on the hard floor Ollie’s hands were locked tight around Anna’s throat. He squeezed hard, the strength of ten men flowing through his arms.
The rest of the world began to blur at the edges.
Anna’s arms windmilled through the air as if reaching for something behind Ollie’s head. Her eyes ballooned to twice the size as she gasped for air.
“Ghhaaaaaaahhghgh!”
Her face turned purple. The long pink tongue flopped around like it was desperately trying to escape the sinking ship.
Her body twitched and jerked on the floor.
Ollie leaned in closer. As Anna’s resistance weakened, external voices began to creep back into his awareness.
“Shouldn’t we stop him?” Bob said, raising an eyebrow. “It’s illegal to do that after the sirens. Technically speaking Chris, that’s murder that is.”
Ollie glanced to his left, his hands still wrapped around Anna’s neck. Chris, the man in the hi-viz jacket, was staring at the red clipboard as if it was the Ten Commandments freshly delivered by hand from God.
Slowly, he began to walk away but before he did, Chris winked at Ollie. It was a subtle gesture but one that Ollie didn’t fail to catch.
Ollie winked back.
“It’s alright Bob,” Chris said, strolling back down the aisle with a spring in his step. He spoke loud enough for everyone in the gym to hear. “We’ll let it go this time. We need the numbers after all.”
The End
Other Books by Mark Gillespie
After the End Trilogy (Complete Box Set)
The Exterminators Trilogy - ‘You’ll Never Take Sunlight for Granted Again.’
‘Civic terror, apocalypse, gangs, horror, complete decline of civilization…read it and weep!’ - Mallory A. Haws
The Future of London (Books 1-5)
The Butch Nolan Series
Nolan’s Ark (Butch Nolan #1)
ManHunter (Butch Nolan #2)
Mad Max meets John Wick meets Clint Eastwood’s spaghetti westerns in this rollercoaster ride of a post-apocalyptic action thriller…
After the End Trilogy
The Curse (After the End #1)
The Sinners (After the End #2)
The End War (After the End #3)
Complete Box Set
“A post-apocalyptic New York run by women…what could go wrong?
Margaret Atwood would be proud.”
The Future of London
L-2011 (Future of London #1)
Mr Apocalypse (Future of London #2)
Ghosts of London (Future of London #3)
Sleeping Giants (Future of London #4)
Kojiro vs. The Vampire People (Future of London #5)
The Future of London Box Set (Books 1-3)
The Future of London Box Set (Books 1-5)
“Modern dystopian at its very best.” - Kirsten McKenzie, author of Painted.
The Exterminators Trilogy
Black Storm
(The Exterminators #1)
Black Fever
(The Exterminators #2)
Black Earth
(The Exterminators #3)
“Part-horror, part post-apocalypse…all brilliant.”
Apocalypse No. 1
‘Stories you won’t want to put down!’
Five first in series post-apocalyptic and dystopian books…
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GrimLog (Tales of Terror)
Apex Predators
Air Nosferatu
“What’s not to like about zombies and sharks, or zombie sharks?” - CJ (5 stars)
“Brilliantly fast-paced horror that was unputdownable.” - Chantelle Atkins (5 stars)
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Mark Gillespie, The Dystopiaville Omnibus: A Dystopian Sci-Fi Horror Collection
The Dystopiaville Omnibus: A Dystopian Sci-Fi Horror Collection Page 34
