by Phil Maxey
Shadows were now long, merging into one another while the burning orange disc of the sun slowly dissolved to the west.
On the cool breeze that found the gap in the tower’s windows was a stench. It reminded Evan of a number of things. Of when he would pass by the old man that slept rough in the height of summer in the main street of Bellweather. Of the Coyote he found rotting due to being caught in their wire fence that bound their old house. And of himself; someone who had become infected.
He knew the others in the small room smelt it too, but they kept it to themselves. The sight of certain death was bad enough.
His radio came alive with Joel’s voice.
“Hey, Evan, look east. To Tower A. Over.”
Evan and Johnny both looked to their left. In the distance, just visible beyond the reflection of the setting sun, was a shadowy figure of a man waving. Evan waved back.
“I’ve got a blanket. I’m going to be up here with Kyle and Rhianna until daybreak. Remember what I said, as soon as they start moving forward barricade that door at the bottom of your stairs. Over.”
Evan nodded then realized that, even with Joel’s vision, he wasn’t going to see his head motion. He clicked on the radio. “Will do, Joel… Joel?”
“Yeah?”
Evan looked back to the south. The vamps were now one continuous dark mass enveloped in shadow. “Nothing. Over.”
He looked to the west. Everyone was looking west. The orange disc had deepened to a watery red giving the landscape that was still available to the sun’s rays a rosy hue.
They all watched as it sunk ever lower with purples and pinks being impressed on the clouds surrounding it.
Evan wasn’t the only one who wondered if it would be his last sunset.
His radio crackled again. The snap and fizz coming from the speaker slowly snapped him out of his trance.
“I got movement on the north side. Over,” said a male voice.
Evan heard Joel responding.
“Who is this? What tower are you? Over.”
“This is Holt, I’m in D. Over.”
“This is Sarah in C, I’m seeing movement too. Over.”
Those in Tower E, followed suit.
“Look! They’re coming!” said Johnny. He cracked his neck from side to side then settled back down looking through his scope.
“Yup, same here,” said Chet.
Evan clicked on his radio. “This is Evan, Tower B. They’re all moving. From the south and west. Over.”
Two hundred yards to the north, Carla sat in the driver’s seat of the armored personnel carrier. Emblazoned across both sides of the dark blue exterior was the word ‘SWAT.’ To her right sat Keller. Behind her, a few of her people while the others were in the other APC, all fully armed and dressed in body armor.
They had all been listening to the radio exchange, so despite their view of the outside world being blocked by the walls they knew they wouldn’t have to wait long.
She clicked on her own radio. “Everything ready, Holland? Over.”
There was a pause before the voice of the former prisoner spoke. “If any get inside, we’ll crush ’em. Over.”
She hoped he was right. The population of Westlands had been divided up into the six cellblocks. Each one with its own fighting force and the arteries which connected them all also had guards.
She looked up into the darkening sky. Any other time, in any other place, it was a sky to gaze on and contemplate the good things in life. A few stars were already twinkling, only obscured by a whisper of cloud.
A roar bellowed out, making her jump. For a moment, she thought the creatures had already made it over the wall, but then she realized this was a noise that was being carried on the evening breeze. The monsters wanted their prey to know they were coming.
The ground beneath the vehicle started to shake.
“What’s happening, Joel? How far out are they? Over.”
In Tower A, Joel watched as a wall of scrambling, scurrying things swept forward, devouring everything in their path. Trees cracked and were ripped apart and pylons fell taking their power lines with them. The wires were dead but still cut down a swathe of vamps before they hit the ground.
He clicked on his radio. “Thirty seconds. Over.”
The sun that was now beyond the horizon still offered some forgotten light to the sky, and everyone watched for the wave to crash against the prison.
“They’re about to reach the first fence,” said Joel, forgetting to say ‘Over’.
The fifteen-foot-high, chain-linked obstacle fell without a fight. The claws of thousands of fanged creatures tore through it and charged onwards, doing the same to the second fence.
“They’re at the last fence!” he shouted into the radio. A tornado of noise was descending on him.
In Tower B, they watched the wall of hungry things envelop the last fence like it wasn’t there.
Evan spoke under his breath.
“Fifty feet…twenty… ten…”
The tower rocked as if it had been hit by an earthquake.
Evan threw his arms out to steady himself while Johnny and Chet grabbed their desks.
For a moment, Evan wondered if the structure he was standing in would withstand the combined weight of the creatures pummeling it. But he was still standing, so he guessed it had.
He looked along the wall to Tower A. There were no vamps visible at the top yet.
Joel’s voice came from his radio. “Everyone in the towers, report in. Are there any breaches? Over.”
“Tower D here, not seeing any yet. Over.”
The other towers reported the same.
Evan looked at the undulating waves of vamps pushing up against those in front. The scourge had become a living sea of hunger, and the prison was the last piece of land on earth.
An ear-piercing bang came from a few feet away. Johnny had fired his first shot. A vamp teetered on the top of the wall then fell away.
Another boom, this time from Evan’s right.
“They’re getting to the top!” shouted Chet.
The repeated sounds of rifle fire could now be heard in the distance.
“They’re coming over the wall!” shouted Sarah from Tower C.
Evan watched as vamps started falling from the top of the wall, landing with a clump on the ground inside the prison. They remained still for a few seconds then slowly started to get to their feet as their broken ankles fused back together.
He suddenly remembered he hadn’t barricaded the downstairs door.
“Shit, I gotta barricade the door!” he shouted to the others, but their focus was on trying to stop the tide that was seeping over the walls.
He tore down the steps, leaping five at a time and was soon in the basement room. He stood motionless, looking at the mended door four yards from him. He knew he should be moving the filing cabinets to it but, instead, he walked forward and pulled it open.
*****
Carla hit the gas pedal. The hunk of metal which was the SWAT APC lurched forward along the path which skirted the west wall.
She pulled on the large steering wheel swerving into the path of the creatures that were raining down from the top of the wall.
Crunching noises were hardly audible over the vehicles heavy engine, but then large clangs came from directly above them.
“I think there’s some on the roof!” shouted Bishop behind her.
Carla slammed on the brakes, sending two vamps flying through the air. She then surged forward again as they tried to get to their feet, crumpling them below the wheels.
“There’s too many!” shouted Keller, looking along the wall down to Tower B. The vamps were now flowing over the wall. The wire at the top was useless due to being clogged with torn bodies. Others merely clambered over them and fell or jumped to the ground.
Keller noticed the door to the tower was open. He pointed forward. “What the fuck. Look!”
The APC was now moving at a pace, driving through and
over the torrent that was falling from above.
"Evan! Why's your door open? Over," she shouted into her radio.
Vamps were now a constant flow, hitting the ground, and slowly getting back to their feet.
She slammed on the brakes near the tower's door. A vamp was moving towards it. A shot from an M4 sticking out from one of the vehicles slit-like side windows behind her dropped the vamp to the ground.
She held the radio to her mouth once again. "Evan!"
Keller pushed over his side door. “I’ll check out those in the tower and get that door closed!”
Carla nodded to him as he jumped out, closing the APC’s door, and ran towards the tower. Two vamps headed towards him. He shot one with a burst of fire, but the other ducked and swathed. Its claws lunged at his face, but then a blur swept across them both.
Keller stood, his eyes wide, waving his rifle around not knowing what just happened. He then looked to the tower and ran inside, closing the door behind him.
Evan was at the side of the APC finishing off the vampire. He looked back at Carla in the driver’s seat, his eyes black as the coming night. Fresh blood on his mouth glistened in the APC’s headlights. He turned back towards the hordes that were now inside the walls running towards the cellblocks, and in a blink of an eye charged into them.
Carla hit the gas pedal again, this time swinging the truck around so it was partially shielding the base of the tower. Vamps slammed into it trying to gain access to the food inside. The soldiers began firing. Volley after volley flew into the hundreds of creatures that were running across them.
“We’re pretty swamped over here! Over,” came from the driver of the other APC near the east wall.
“Just hang in there, try and kill as many as you can with the APC. Conserve your ammo! Over,” responded Carla.
A vamp landed on the vehicle’s hood. She quickly opened her door, shot it with her rifle, then closed it again just as more vamps rushed towards her.
They slammed into her door.
“Joel? Over.”
The sound of rifle fire came from the radio’s speaker. “I’m here, Carla, I can see your vehicle near the other tower. What’s the situation? Over.”
She went to reply when, just audible over the grunts and roars of the things outside, were gunshots from within the buildings.
“Hold on. Over.”
She leaned back to the others in the cabin behind her. “Anyone got a good view of the doors to the prison? Have they got in?”
“Yeah, they’re in one of the side doors. But it’s a bottleneck. I can see flashes in the corridor, but that’s all,” said a young man.
She held the radio back to her mouth again as more vamps clambered on the hood, their claws slicing against the metal shutters across the windscreen.
“Joel, they’re through the door on this west side. Over.”
“I see them. Over.”
Joel looked down at the compressed mass of distorted bodies that were swarming around the human-sized entrance to the corridor which led to cellblock B.
“Holland? You out there? They’re coming in on the west entrance, near—”
The older man’s voice came back at him. “They ain’t making it much further! We got them.”
Joel looked down upon the grounds inside the walls. There were so many vamps that the ones coming over the wall were falling on the others. In the melee, he noticed a vamp that was going against the tide, its claws and fangs fighting multiple creatures. It was Evan.
“What are you doing?” he said under his breath.
He went to turn to the stairs when he noticed out of the corner of his eye another beast, another being that was slaying the Copeland’s beasts, and it seemed to be making its way to Evan.
Down below, Evan was lost to his rage and fury. When he arrived at the bottom of the Tower B’s stairs, it hit him, what he needed to do. He couldn’t shoot a rifle, and the monsters were already here. Now he needed to be one too. It was the only way he could truly help.
He didn’t know how many he had killed, he didn’t care. He just needed to keep going, keep tearing, keep putting them down, those things that wanted the people he cared about dead.
But he was getting tired. This was the first time he had giving in to his primal urges, and after the initial surge of strength he began to feel the lacerations that were oozing blood across his body.
He ducked as a vamp scythed its clawed hand across him then repaid the effort with his own slice across the thing’s stomach, sending its guts to the ground. But he had been distracted long enough for another two vamps to flail away at his back, and the burning told him they had been successful with their attacks.
He staggered forward, finding himself against the wall. He looked up. From the heavens came more death. A never-ending flow of vamps.
Growls drew his attention back down to a few yards in front of him. Twenty or so vamps were rushing towards him. They knew he wasn’t like them. They knew he had to die.
He looked to his left at the APC near the tower and wondered if he could get their attention, but the vehicle was covered in vamps. Like ants attacking a larger prey.
No help from there.
He thought about his parents and Bill, the old man that he loved. His eyes reverted to their human state, bringing forth a tear that rolled over the drying blood on his cheek.
He breathed in deep and stood up as much as he could, resisting the pain.
It would be an honorable death.
Some of the vamps that were heading towards him slowed, trying to turn around, but were instantly felled. A creature that Evan had heard about, but until now hadn’t seen, was tearing into them.
A werewolf.
The creature moved quicker than the vamps around it, being even more ferocious, its claws sharper, and its teeth in its short snout doing more damage.
The other vamps now knew they needed to take notice of this beast amongst them and turned away from Evan and swarmed towards the wolf-man. As they were almost upon it, it leapt into the air, and landed a few feet in front of Evan who stepped back against the wall.
The wolf-man looked at him, pointing to itself. It was unable to pronounce human words, but amongst its growl Evan caught the sound of “D”.
“Donnie?”
The creature growled at the vamps that fell around him, tearing into some, but Copeland’s legions were too many. The werewolf stepped backwards until, it too, was pressed up against the wall with Evan.
Evan pointed to the tower. “We need to get to the tower!” he shouted to the creature by his side. It growled in response.
Evan’s eyes turned black once more, and they both charged forward, slicing vamps where they could.
Joel had watched everything from Tower A. He got back on his radio. “Carla? Evan and Donnie are trying to get to the tower near you. Can you give them cover? Over.”
Carla tried to see out of the small slits in the metal shielding that covered the APC, but the vamps clinging to it were blocking her view.
“I can’t see through all the damn vamps! How far away are they? Over.”
“Not far, but there’s a whole lot of vamps between them and you. Over.”
“Okay, I got this. Over.”
Tower’s on my right. Wall too. I think.
She threw the APC into reverse and surged backwards, crunching through a swathe of vamps. Then she put it back in gear and did the same forwards. As vamps flew from the hood, a small gap opened up in the window slit in front of her. She leaned closer looking into the maelstrom outside.
There was a small dimple of destruction moving towards the tower.
Got to be them.
Pushing the gas pedal down the APC bumped over bodies, knocking vamps from its substantial grill, driving alongside the south wall. She hit the brakes when she saw something that wasn’t a vamp and Evan.
Donnie sprung into the air, landing on the hood while Evan staggered forward, jumping onto the side of the vehicle.
Carla put the vehicle into reverse and pushed through the hordes that were clawing at it, stopping near the base of the tower.
Donnie jumped to the ground, immediately transforming into his human self and going to Evan’s aid.
The tower door opened with Keller standing in the doorway. He beckoned the two young men to him. When they were inside, he waved Carla away, and closed the door.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Anna peered out of the window to a large forecourt which backed onto the north-east corner and Tower E. It was packed with vamps, all illuminated by the prisons exterior lights.
We’re too high up, they can’t scale the outside wall.
A pale-looking boy, one of five seriously ill people under her care, tried lifting his head. “Are they getting in, Doctor?”
She went to reply when Lee walked over to him. Within his large smile all problems were solvable. The boy leaned back on his pillow.
Lee put his hand on the boy’s forehead. “Don’t you fret, none of those monsters can get in here, and if they did, well—” Taking his hand away, he leaned in closer to whisper. “We have monsters of our own to fight them!”
The boy smiled.
“Try and sleep, Donald, and when you awake, the sun will be shining and today will just be yesterday.”
Donald nodded then closed his eyes.
Lee walked to Anna. “You need to stop looking outside. There’s nothing we can do out there. Our focus needs to be in here.”
She nodded. “I know.”
A noise came from the door to the corridor which led to the small operating theatre.
They both looked at each other.
Anna walked towards the door.
“What are you doing?” said Lee.
“I need to check!”
“Just make sure this door is locked and leave it.”
“And what if there’s a hole or something and they are getting in? We could be swamped!”
Lee frowned. “Fine, I’ll go.”
Anna’s eyes briefly turned black. Lee stopped in his tracks.
“One of us has the strength of like five men or something, maybe that should be the one to check?”
Lee sighed. “Just be quick.”
