by Luke Duffy
More shots rang out as other team members identified targets and engaged them. The moans of the dead had become a constant hum throughout the woods, an indication of just how many there were surrounding them.
"I can see light," Stu called back over his shoulder as a thin silvery sliver appeared in the distance between the tightly packed trees.
He raised his weapon and fired again at two more lumbering bodies that crossed his path. The stock of the weapon bucked hard against his shoulder, but it did not slow him; he was used to having to fire accurately on the move.
"About three hundred metres," he called back again.
The area around them began to clear. The trees were less dense and more sunlight managed to penetrate the foliage. The dead closed in on all sides. They were everywhere. The rate of fire intensified as every member of the team began to pick off the closest reanimated corpses, but it did not seem to affect their numbers. It seemed that from behind every tree, a walking corpse waited for them.
They were close now, just a hundred metres from the open ground and they would be clear of the dark and claustrophobic wood. Marcus spurred the team on from the rear, growling at them to keep up the pace, regardless of their exhaustion. He could see Sandra ahead of him, being dragged by Sini as she stumbled and cried, tripping over roots and being whipped by the low branches that swiped at her body.
Marcus felt for her. She must have been in agony, having had an operation with minimum care and pain relief since, and having to run for her life while the dead closed in all around. She must have felt completely vulnerable and reliant on the team to pull her through. He made a note to himself that if they got through and could find somewhere safe, they would go firm for the night, allowing her some rest and attention from Stu's medical skills.
Stu burst out through the last remaining trees and into brilliant sunlight. His eyes had become so accustomed to the dark gloom of the woods that he squinted from the sudden assault on his retinas. More of the dead were headed in their direction from the open ground to the east. Though they were spread out, they seemed to be everywhere and as far as his eyes could see. The downed aircraft and their gunfire must have attracted every creature within ten miles.
Off to the left, and at the top of a small rise, Stu could see what looked like a sprawling farm complex. The sunlight glinted from the bare metal of the corrugated iron rooftops of the large, rectangular sheds. He turned and headed towards them. The remainder of the team, without slowing, following him as they cleared the tree line.
"We need a vehicle, Stu!" Marcus yelled from the rear. "Any will do at this fucking moment," he added as he sucked the air deep into his lungs.
The sweat ran in rivers along the length of his spine. Between the exertions as he ran for his life, warmth of the summer's day and weight of the equipment and ammunition he carried on his body, Marcus could feel it all beginning to take its toll. His heart, lungs and legs screamed at him for a halt and his head pounded, threatening to fracture his skull from inside, but he knew they could not stop. They had to push on, regardless of their extreme fatigue.
The trundling figures in the fields all around them turned and began to follow. They were spread out and scattered over a vast area, but Marcus knew that it would not take long for them to converge and become a seething tightly packed mass of dead faces and clutching hands surrounding them.
Stu reached the gate and wall that spanned the width of the cattle grid leading to the farm. A quick cursory check informed him that there were no dead in sight within the complex. He scaled the aluminium gate and landed heavily on the other side, his feet sinking up to his ankles in a thick quagmire of mud and cow droppings.
Jim crashed down beside him, sending streaks of filth through the air that then splashed back over his lower legs.
"Nice," he exclaimed as he looked down.
Stu and Jim pushed forward to the corner of the first of the long rectangular sheds and covered the area as the others scaled the gate and wall.
"No sign of any vehicles," Stu whispered over his shoulder as Marcus crouched down beside him, scanning the area for himself.
"We'll just have to push on through to the far end; hopefully there might be a car around the front of the farmhouse." He nodded to the old brick building to their front and on the left of the farm complex.
Stu stood and stepped out from the corner.
A noise to his front made him freeze on the spot. Fifty metres away, at the far end of the shed, the body of a man stumbled out from around the corner of the farmhouse. It tripped over a piece of machinery that lay half buried in the mud, falling forward and sprawling in the filth as more staggering corpses appeared from around the house.
"Shit," Stu hissed. "Back, back."
He began to edge his way towards the corner, retracing his steps.
"We've got dead in front of us," he whispered as he joined the rest of the team squatting in the mud.
"Coming up behind us too," Jim informed them in a low voice as he peered over the wall and gate leading back out in the fields.
Marcus, in a crouch, began to make his way along the wall and towards a door at the gable end of the long shed. He reached up, twisting the handle and aiming his rifle into the gloomy interior of the building.
"Looks clear, everyone inside, quick."
In the shed, they paused for a moment, letting their eyes adjust to the low light. The floors were covered with the remains of the farm animals. The carcasses of pigs and cows lay strewn all over the place, mixed in together and stripped to the bone. The building reeked of rotting meat and the clouds of black and swollen flies that swarmed all around them harassed the six new arrivals continuously.
Stu began to walk along the length of the building, carefully placing each step and keeping to the central walkway as he picked his way around the dismembered remains that littered the floor. The heat inside the building was stifling, making him nauseous as the warm sickly scent of the putrid dead animals assaulted his senses.
The door behind them suddenly rattled and shuddered under the impact of something on the outside. The noise echoed through the building all around them, magnified by the cavernous space and dislodging small chunks of masonry and dust that drifted down on to them from the high rafters above.
"Shit," Jim cursed. "They know we're here."
More thumps and thuds jolted and rocked the door as dozens of the dead crashed against it. Marcus could see that the hinges were already starting to give under the pressure as they shifted in their positions.
"Move, Stu, get to the far end. That door won't hold them."
The six of them began to run. A final crunch and the door behind them caved inwards and a wave of the sickening creatures began to pour into the building. Marcus turned and began to fire. Bodies tumbled as their brains were blown from their heads, but more came and replaced them as they scrambled through the doorway.
Sandra suddenly let out a scream and Sini turned just in time to strike the attacking creature that jumped at them from the darkness inside one of the animal pens. Its bony fingers reached out for her and its blood-encrusted mouth opened wide as it lunged forward.
The butt of Sini's rifle caught it in the side of the neck, but it did not slow the momentum of the thing. It continued forward, grasping Sandra by the arm and pulling itself in close to her. Sini fired, his rounds smashing into its face and sending it reeling backwards and down to the ground as he pulled Sandra back towards him and turned to run.
She screamed again. The body that had attacked them was not dead; its hand clutched around her ankle, pulling her away from Sini and down towards it. It thrust itself upwards, its mouth agape, and sunk its teeth into the soft flesh of Sandra's calf muscle.
She howled with the pain as the flesh was ripped away from her. She stumbled and fell to the ground, smashing her head on the hard surface with a resounding crack. Sini stepped across her and fired a burst in the head of their attacker. Its skull exploded in a cloud of blood an
d bone as the rounds thumped through it.
Grabbing Sandra by the arm, he began to pull with all of his strength. He glanced back and saw the cold and grotesque dead faces converging on them from the smashed doorway. He turned the other way and looked up at Marcus as he approached to help him.
Another loud crash indicated that the door at the far end of the shed had given way to the assault of the dead. The light from the outside streamed in through the open doorway, silhouetting the bodies that stumbled inside and towards them. They moaned ravenously when they saw the six people before them. Their hands reached out and they began to stagger forward, their pace quickening in anticipation.
"There's another door. To the right, to the right," Hussein cried out as he stepped up beside Stu and began pumping rounds into the advancing crowd.
Marcus began to lean forward, to help Sini carry Sandra.
"No, Marcus," Sini said calmly. "She won't make it."
Marcus looked down in Sini's eyes as he knelt beside the unconscious Sandra. He looked at the wound in her leg. Bright red blood oozed from the gaping hole and onto the floor. More blood poured from her ears, indicating to Marcus that she had probably fractured her skull when she fell.
"We can try to…" Marcus began.
"No, Marcus. She will not make it. You know that." Sini's face held the expression of a man that had already accepted that the woman he loved was gone. There was no way he would leave her for the dead to devour, or allow her to go through the pain of the infection only to turn into one of the things he despised so much.
"Come on, Sini, we have to go," Marcus pleaded.
"I'm going nowhere, Marcus," Sini replied with a gasp, almost laughing. "Get out of here." He reached in his vest and pulled out the claymore mine that Stu had given him.
"Go, I'll take care of these fuckers," he snarled, indicating the swarm of dead that were just metres away now.
Marcus saw in his eyes that Sini's mind was made up. He would stay with Sandra. Raising his weapon, Marcus aimed and fired into the crowd one last time as Sini prepared the claymore.
"Here," Sini said, holding out the rifle in his hand. "Take it, I don’t need it anymore."
Marcus did not know what to say to his friend but he knew that there was no way he could change his mind. He reached down and took the weapon from Sini and, with a final moment of eye contact, Marcus nodded to him and turned to follow the others.
"Good luck, Marcus!" Sini shouted calmly and matter-of-factly without taking his eyes away from the detonator and claymore mine in his hands.
Cold hands reached out for Marcus as he ploughed his way towards the open door through which the remaining members of his team had escaped. He ducked his head, shoulder-barging his way clear of the staggering and lunging bodies that attempted to block his path. He burst through the doorway and back out in the light. Stu, Hussein and Jim were to his left, moving along the outside wall of the building.
"Where's Sini?" Stu asked as Marcus came parallel to him at a sprint.
"He's not coming," Marcus screamed as the rest followed suit and increased their pace. "Run."
A moment later and the air around them seemed to evaporate. The pressure threatened to suck their lungs out of their chests and their ears to explode. A deafening boom followed by the shockwave threw them forward and down to the ground. Marcus felt his internal organs jolt within his ribcage as the force of the blast rippled through his body.
Entire sections of the shed walls blew outwards, carrying with it dozens of dismembered bodies of the dead that had filled the inside of the building.
The hundreds of tiny steel balls that were packed into the explosives of the claymore shot out in all directions, smashing through the rotting flesh of the creatures and punching holes through the remaining metal walls of the shed. The frames of the building smashed and, weakened by the shockwave and shrapnel, began to cave inwards as Marcus and the others managed to pick themselves up and sprinted away from the building.
Marcus' head spun and a deafening ringing sound reverberated around inside his head. It felt like he was running through water and his legs disobeyed his commands to speed up. Everything seemed to slow down and become distant as the effects of the shockwave continued to disorientate him.
Bits of debris and flesh that had been caught in the blast and sent high in the air rained down over a wide area, littering the ground with a grotesque mixture of mangled body parts and twisted metal. They thumped to the ground with large clunks and wet slaps.
In the confusion, and while the reverberations of the blast continued to echo around the complex and beyond, Marcus and the remains of his team were able to cross the courtyard of the farm, headed towards the main house and out on to the road on the far side.
"Car," Stu exclaimed, pointing at the parked saloon on the driveway.
Quickly grabbing the handle, he realised it was open and piled himself inside. Marcus, Jim and Hussein followed him.
Panicked and in shock, Marcus turned to Stu. "Can you start it?"
"No worries, I'm already on it," Stu replied as he began fiddling with the steering column and the wiring inside.
A moment later and the engine began trying to turn over. The starter motor whined and clicked as Stu tried repeatedly to get the car started.
"Fuck it, take the hand brake off," Marcus ordered as he threw the door open and climbed out.
"Turn right off the driveway, it's downhill, we'll bump start it," he shouted from outside as he began to push at the doorframe, forcing the car forward and towards the road. He groaned and grunted as he threw his weight into the push.
The first of the dead appeared behind them from around the corner. It saw Marcus and began to stagger towards him, moaning and grunting loudly as more joined it from the side of the farmhouse.
Marcus heard it but did not turn to look. He pushed hard against the frame, feeling the heavy vehicle building speed as it rolled down the driveway.
"Okay, Marcus, get in. Get in," Stu yelled from the driver's seat.
In one swift movement, Marcus gripped the roof of the car and threw his legs in the footwell of the passenger seat.
"Go, Stu, go," he screamed as he slammed the door shut and saw the bodies that converged on them.
Stu threw the wheel across to the right and felt the gentle jolt as the wheels dropped from the curb and onto the tarmac. He kept his foot pressed down on the clutch and his eyes glued to the dashboard read outs, watching the speedometer. As the needle hit fifteen miles per hour, he pulled his left foot from the clutch pedal and stepped down on the accelerator.
With a jerk and a growl, the engine caught and grumbled as it began to turn over. He quickly changed up a gear and raced away, leaving the dead at the farm complex behind as they staggered after them and into the road.
"Shit, shit," Marcus growled to himself repeatedly as he smashed his fist down hard on the dashboard in front of him.
"Sini wouldn’t leave her," he said, turning to Stu. "He wouldn’t leave her."
Stu kept his eyes on the road ahead of them. He swallowed the hard lump that began to form in his throat and nodded solemnly.
"I know, mate. I know," he said quietly.
27
Steve hugged the wall of the building, his back pressed up against it as he slowly made his way along towards the corner. He looked back at Helen; her eyes bulged with terror, like that of a rabbit caught in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle. With each step, his heart skipped a beat. He dreaded standing on something that would make a noise and give them away.
They had managed to outrun the hordes of dead that pursued them into the city, but they were not far behind. The sounds of their moans could be heard in the street where they had just come from. The haunting, poignant wails of the hundreds of walking dead glided through the narrow streets, channelled by the high walls and buildings, assaulting the already threadbare nerves of Helen and Steve.
It was getting dark. The sun had dipped behind the buildings
of the city and the streets were cast in an eerie orange glow as the dying rays reflected from the hundreds of windows set in the tall apartment and office blocks around them. Long shadows reached out in the road, throwing the street into near darkness at ground level. The city was a graveyard of a dead civilisation. Everywhere reminders of what once was stood as testaments to the drastic and catastrophic changes that had happened to the world around them.
Cars, dozens of them, lay abandoned in the streets. Some parked by the roadside and others, left in the middle of the roads as their occupants had fled. In some places, the static vehicles were nothing more than a tangled and twisted jumble of steel, burned and scorched out of recognition. Shops, their doors caved inwards and their windows broken, stood in silence, their dark interiors cavernous and foreboding as they looked out onto the street.
Steve clutched at Helen's hand and froze to the spot. Slowly, he slid down the wall and into a crouch. Twenty metres away two figures appeared. They sauntered through the shadows, moving slowly and studying the vehicles that they passed. They moved from one to the next, stopping each time and pressing their faces up close to the glass, then moving on to the next one.
In the low light and dark shadow, only their silhouettes were visible. Steve could not distinguish their features or even the clothing they wore, but what they were was unmistakable. They shuffled as they walked, their bodies leaning forward at their waist and their hands hanging by their sides, swinging slightly, like a pendulum as they walked.
Steve and Helen remained silent and still as the two ghostly figures slowly passed them, just metres away from where they were hiding. They were close enough for Steve to be able to hear the scrape of their shoes on the tarmac and the low grunts they made as they shuffled along the street.
The closest one suddenly stopped. It let out a long moan, as though frustrated that their search had wielded nothing of interest. It turned and scanned the street once more then continued around the corner and to the next avenue.
