Zed Days (Book 3): Zed Days III

by Harland, Nick

  I heard Eve before I saw her. She was revving the nuts off a trucks engine and trying to move it over seized brakes. I arrived as she started to grind forwards and I was glad she’d had the time to separate the cab from the trailer. HVG lessons had become mandatory at home and any child that could reach a clutch was being given driving lessons; it was a very different world.

  I opened the door and yelled at Eve who hung out of the cabs open window, ‘Big horde, between one and two hundred, and about eight Sprinters that will be here any minute. Then we’ll have a few minutes while the rest get over the fence. Just use the guns, it’s too risky any other way. I’ll try and get us some help.’

  Eve looked a bit confused but I didn’t have time to explain. I turned around in the seat and removed the fuel and blanket from on top of Ted. I looked at him and said, ‘Ted, we could use a hand, just for a second or two. You can feel them coming. Can you calm them for just a few seconds?’

  The Zed replied, ‘You will…. die.’ His expressions mixed on his face and I knew Ted was fighting, but I didn’t have time to do any more as I heard Eve’s first shot.

  I almost crapped myself as I turned back around in my seat at exactly the moment a Sprinter slammed into the windscreen, or rather the mesh, like a hammer. I heard more shots and knew Eve was at far more risk than I was. I dropped the clutch and sped forwards a few feet before spinning the wheel and braking to try and shake my Sprinter off. Two others hit me as I moved, but they didn’t have time to grip the double mesh with its smaller holes than before. They tumbled off to the sides but weren’t badly hurt.

  I looked around at Eve as I put it into reverse and my heart dropped to see the cab covered with the Sprinters. Eve was leaning away from the open drivers’ window she was shooting through, emptying her clip into a Sprinter sticking its head through the window and grabbing at her. It fell quickly, but another took its place while the others were smashing against the glass. I knew the windscreen would hold up ok, but the other passenger window wouldn’t last long.

  By the time I had taken in what was happening, Lulu was covered in the other three sprinters again. Just as soon as they started to pull on the mesh I felt Ted send out a message and they froze in place. I heard Ted gargle, ‘Only seconds.’

  It took every ounce of will power I had to overcome my instincts to stay in the car, and I knew it was a huge risk, but I had to help Eve and let her know what was happening. My Zed sense continued to surge the whole time but I felt the surge lessen even as I pushed Lulu’s door open against the Zed that had latched onto it. I took out my M9 and carefully aimed and shot the Sprinter only inches away from me as I got out of Lulu. Knowing rushing would only make me panic and miss, I walked around Lulu shooting the other two at point blank range in the head.

  I heard other controlled shots from Eve as she leant half way out of her window picking off the Sprinters smothering the cab. Then, without warning, I felt the surge disappear and the remaining two Sprinters came immediately alive. One of the Sprinters from the roof of Eve’s cab looked at me like a wild animal and vaulted from the roof towards me, fully covering the ten or more feet between us. The other one jumped from the ground onto Eve before she could get her head back into the cab.

  Time slowed as the descending Sprinter filled my vision, but the martial arts fighting practice we drilled every day kicked in. The hockey guy’s had shown us various moves, and catching a flying Sprinter without dying was the one we practiced the most. They were potentially even more deadly than Beefcakes who would steam roller you first, but then took a few seconds to turn around and jump on you.

  The Sprinter hit me and it wasn’t a lean one, it was some kind of Amazonian military wife in Lycra. She was as tall as me and at least as heavy. I turned as she hit me, as we had been taught, but the impact took me off my feet and I landed on my side holding her rather than on top of her. We were both winded, but only I felt it. She immediately went to bite my neck and I amazed myself by staying calm enough to think about the principles Esme had taught us, one being that they can’t hit you if you’re too close to them.

  I was practically hugging the Sprinter as I’d caught her and as her wild mouth lunged towards my neck I pulled myself towards her to hug her as tightly as I could. Bringing my head next to hers meant she couldn’t bite my neck, but I screamed as she took a chunk out of my ear. I had no idea what to do next, and I knew the chances of extricating myself from her and killing her without being badly wounded were not good.

  I thought of Eve, knowing her position was probably worse than mine, and wondered if we would both be dead soon; I fucking hate Sprinters. I wanted to shout her name but the world crashed back into focus as I heard a shot and goo splattered my face.

  It took a moment to orient myself and realise my Zed had gone limp. Then Eve’s familiar voice penetrate the haze and I turned my head to see her crouching over me and smirking, ‘If you’re quite finished sleeping with the enemy there are another couple of hundred Zeds we need to think about.’

  Looking briefly at the Sprinter for a moment she added, ‘If you’re going that way though, nice choice. I’d fancy that myself if she weren’t, you know, a Zombie and all that.’

  The pain from my ear intensified as I wriggled free of the Sprinter and came to my feet. Putting my hand up to my ear I could feel it was pissing blood and Eve handed me a hanky. I looked at her and said, ‘How did you….I thought you were…’

  Eve smiled and held her side, ‘I went with it as the Sprinter dragged me out of the cab and managed to stay on top as well fell. I managed to hold on to one gun but I had an empty clip. From there it wasn’t too hard to pistol whip the fucker into submission, but I think my wound’s opened from being dragged out of the window.’

  I leant in to hug and kiss her and she returned it, but without her usual enthusiasm, ‘I know, I know. I was scared too, but we have other business to attend to. I’ll thank Ted later, it would have been different without him. What’s the plan for the horde?’

  Chapter Sixteen – Don’t leave me

  Dealing with such a large horde with just two of us wasn’t something we’d done before, and the temptation to run away was significant. I told myself we had much more experience than in the early days and quickly assessed the pros and cons.

  Head buzzing I asked, ‘How’s the rig, is it drivable? I know it doesn’t have mesh, but the cab is high up and it’s got serious momentum. Even unprotected, as long as we don’t want to keep it, it could pile through a shit load of Zeds with minimal risk of getting bogged down. Normal Zeds would be hard pressed to get up to the cab if I’m running interference in Lulu.’

  Eve replied, ‘The brakes are fucked. It won’t take long before the fluid boils and I lose the brakes completely, which is less of a problem than the small chance they could lock completely when something gives and leave me stranded. For a few runs up and down the lane I think the risk is minimal, as the Zeds will be my brake. As long as you stick around and rescue me if I need it, it’ll be fine.’

  The thought of Eve stranded in the rig with only Lulu and I to take out a horde of Zeds before they got to her scared the crap out of me, but we did have Ted and he’d already been useful. I also knew that dealing with the Zeds on an open road would be far easier than having to deal with them elsewhere, in smaller groups, hand to hand.

  I said, ‘Ok. The bases fence forms a nice barrier and there is a dense hedge on the other side of the lane, but still room for Lulu beside you on the verge. You stay on the road and stick to backwards and forwards and I’ll try and catch escapees. Reload all your guns and have extra ammo ready. I’ll ask Ted to keep them frenzied if he can. They’re dumber when they’re frenzied and don’t run away, even if they are harder to handle. I reckon with them bottlenecked in the road, if you go in full steam ahead, the first run in the rig could make a huge dent in them.’

  I could see Eve looking over my shoulder and knew our time was up. She said, ‘Ok good plan, don’t you leave me.’
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  I was a little offended she said it, but I knew she was more scared than she was letting on, and I was scared for her too. She drove HGV much better than me so there was no point in arguing who took the extra risk, but she knew if things went tits up she could die without me being able to do anything about it, without dying needlessly myself anyway. If she died, she knew I had Esme to think about and that Lulu could probably get me out of there.

  We were both in for the all for one thing, but there were limits where common sense took over. Neither of us would want the other dying when there was nothing they could do. I smiled and replied, ‘I’m not going anywhere and the plans a good one.’, but she was already running for the cab.

  I turned to get into Lulu and saw the horde in the distance like a thick fog rolling down the road. Eve ground past me, going up the gears, and I followed her. I shouted to Ted to keep them frenzied if he could, but I got no reply. Eve stayed in third to maximise her pushing power and was going almost forty when she hit the body of the horde. We hadn’t been quick enough, and some had got passed the bottle neck into an open area before the garage before we hit, but it was probably just as well. I couldn’t hit them as fast as Eve could without damaging Lulu, even with the plough on, and had to back off and veer onto the rough grass verge.

  Eve didn’t back off at all and despite the weight and momentum of the rig, I could see it rock on its suspension and immediately lose speed; Eve must have taken a good knock in the cab. I hit the Zeds that had avoided her on the verge a moment later and took a hit myself, but the plough was about as good as we could get it and it worked well. It was then I realised we might have overestimated the advantages of a bottle neck when the horde was as big as it was. I also hadn’t taken the weather, the softness of the verge, and the weight of at least ten extra passengers into account.

  Eve ploughed forwards and certainly put a huge dent in the horde, but she didn’t manage to come out of the other side, so when she stopped she was surrounded. I came to halt sooner than Eve, and I was immediately surrounded too. The new double mesh was harder to get fingers into, but I was soon blind with every surface of the car covered in Zed. I rammed Lulu into reverse but the wheels just span. The soil on the verge was loose and damp, and although the four wheel drive was second to none, it wasn’t really designed to do its best work when it was significantly overloaded.

  As I realised I was the one stranded, not Eve, she started to roll backwards past me. She was slow but made steady progress despite the hangers on. The cab was high enough, and she had managed to get moving again quickly enough, that the Zeds trying to get to her windows fell off when she started moving. Although they covered the back of her, where the container attached, they couldn’t threaten her from there.

  I was totally covered and although I tried to stay calm and played with the settings on the four-wheel drive, I couldn’t get moving. Sitting there and waiting for whatever Eve could do in a rig with brakes that could stop working completely, or leave her stranded too, was one of the hardest things I’d had to do. Not being able to see anything except snarling bodies ripping at Lulu and baring their teeth didn’t help. I should have known what would happen next, but I was so scared I wasn’t quick enough to work it out in time. I saw the rapid decrease in the light managing to find its way through the holes between the bodies covering the rear glass, but I didn’t react quickly enough.

  Eve hit me on Lulu’s rear onside corner and my head whipped back onto the headrest, then forwards, and I yelped. I only just managed to get Lulu into gear and steer towards the road in time to stop Eve pushing me into the hedge. By the time she stopped, I had two wheels on the road and had several less Zeds on top of me. That was all I needed and the Range Rovers four-wheel drive system did the rest. I managed to get fully onto the road before the wall of Zeds stopped me. Then I rammed it into reverse and followed in Eve’s wake before they swarmed on top of me again.

  Eve could only reverse painfully slowly but she kept going and now I was going too, a few extra Zeds jumping on board wasn’t a problem. I followed Eve all the way back to the garage and I steered off to one side the moment we hit the wide forecourt area so she could start another run forwards. I was a little surprised that she steered violently off as well and then steered the rig forwards towards the road out. I swung Lulu around and followed her.

  When she eventually stopped outside the main entrance to the airbase we both still had some unwanted passengers, but I rolled closely past her scraping a couple off. Eve got out as I came to a halt and I could tell she was pissed off. She walked very deliberately and slowly around the rig firing controlled shots into the skulls of every Zed that lunged at her as she went. She holstered her gun as I got out of Lulu and I wasn’t sure what to say. I didn’t know if she was angry at me, or just pissed off generally, but I could see blood starting to spot through her top where she had opened her wound.

  She saw my hesitation and came forwards to hug me, groaning under her breath as I returned her hug making her wound hurt, ‘Sorry.’

  Stepping back she smiled, ‘It’s ok, it’s pretty sore, but it’s not too bad and we have a decent first aid kit.’ Before I could reply she said, ‘I just had to get out of there. Seeing you engulfed in Zeds freaked me out and I had a flashback to when… to the pickup truck… to Marion. I still think about her, she was tough and didn’t deserve to die that way.’

  I stepped forwards to hug her, more gently this time, and I whispered in her ear, ‘I know, I still think about that day too. You weren’t the only one freaked out by me being covered in Zeds. Now I’m here I’m glad we took a break. It will be a bit harder to clean up now, but I think, all things considered, we did pretty well. There can’t be more than fifty or sixty left, which can walk at least.’

  Not letting me go Eve replied, ‘We’re not taking the rig back. We’ve been lucky it got this far and I think we’re better off together. Lulu has never let us down, and although she’s showing a few bruises, she’s just as bad ass as ever. How’s Ted?’

  I was about to reply when a muffled voice drifted out of the open door, ‘I’m fine.’

  Eve started to giggle at the ridiculousness of it all, but soon bent over and started to swear instead. I opened the back door, lifted the blanked off Ted, and removed the blindfold, ‘Sorry Ted, you did say to keep you and your brother safe, and your Zed cell mate seemed to be in charge for a while.’

  I felt Eve behind me and she gently squeezed my shoulder. Ted replied and seemed more in control than we had seen him so far, even his voice was less harsh, ‘I know, it’s ok. I feel strong. I think the Zed…. We both feel the deaths and it doesn’t like it. It’s like the Zed’s hiding. I can’t guarantee anything, but if you take us back, I think I can help bring them to us and then calm them temporarily. It has access to my memories, my knowledge, but I have access to its powers. I can help you more if I can see.’

  I was about to check in with Eve but in an uncharacteristic act of compassion she replied for me, ‘Ok Ted, we really appreciate the help and we know it’s not easy, really we do. If you could possibly warn us when you think you’re losing control that would be useful though.’

  We drove back to the garage and all the questions I had to ask Ted vied for position. Unable to control myself I blurted, ‘We need information Ted, what’s their plan, what do they want, can they reproduce, how long do they live?’

  Ted replied but we could hear the Zed was trying to stop him. We wanted his help at the garage but the information was also invaluable. I pressed him, ‘Try and tell us something Ted, even if you lose it for a while afterwards, tell us something.’

  Ted swallowed hard and his words were stilting again, ‘They want the earth and you all dead. But their plan has only partially worked. They thought they could take over more quickly and that more of us would allow more of them to be like me, or even more than me, more like I was. They thought our bodies were different than they are. They can’t reproduce now they’re in us, and they
don’t know how long they can make us live, but they think a very long time. They thought it would be easy this time, they didn’t know we could fight them. They didn’t count on the human spirit, it’s a totally foreign concept to them.’

  We listened intently and Eve held my knee and squeezed it in excitement about what we were learning. I thought of Esme and how happy she would be, then the garage came into view.

  Ted said, ‘I need to rest now, do you want me to call them?’

  Eve undid her seatbelt, turned around and tied the material back over Ted’s eyes, ‘Yes please Ted, and get into the foot-well if you wouldn’t mind.’

  I felt the surge stand my hairs up on end then heard the Talker groan and thrash, as if it were angry. What was left of the horde ran towards us as we drove up the road, but on hard concrete Lulu had the upper hand. We had learnt to trust the plough and although my neck felt stiff, and I tried to go through one side of the horde rather than straight down the middle, I hit them hard. Lulu made it through and the bowling ball effect knocked more over than we had hit. I turned around in the garage forecourt, tyres squealing for traction, and hit what was left of them head on. Quite a few had already been injured from our first encounter, so it was easier than usual.

  Within five minutes were done. We had to finish off using a bit of ammo as Eve wasn’t fighting fit, but it was worth it. The Talker went quiet and still when we were done and although Ted was quiet too, we knew he’d be back. It was still only mid-afternoon but we were both exhausted with the stress and excitement.

  There were several large buildings that looked like barns crossed with warehouses on the road the smouldering pub and garage were on. We broke into one to park up and rest, and got lucky. Apart from finding a highly polished white V6 Range Rover Sport, there was a makeshift office with a large couch against one wall. The Range Rovers keys hung on a nail in the office, which was the cherry on the cake.