“Turn left here,” Tanya told Sam. “The crossroads is just ahead.”
He turned the car and I saw the four-way intersection in the distance. This was it. This was where it was all going to go down.
4
Sam brought the X-trail to a halt before we reached the crossroads and got out, surveying the area with his hands on his hips.
I opened my door and slid out. The day was really warming up now and I felt the sun burning my skin even after only a couple of minutes exposure. I reminded myself to get plenty of sunscreen the next time we went on a supply run.
If there was a next time.
“Any ideas?” Sam asked Tanya.
She nodded and pointed at a field on the other side of the crossroads. “If we get someone set up in that field over there and someone in this field here, we can create a crossfire with the enemy Land Rovers in the middle.”
“How do we make sure they don’t just drive away?” Sam asked.
“We use the X-Trail to block the road.”
“I’m not so sure that will work,” I said. “As soon as they see the X-Trail blocking their way, they’ll probably suspect something’s up and turn around.”
“Do you have a better idea?” she asked me.
I nodded. “Yeah, but it’s risky. Someone needs to wait on this road in the X-Trail. As the Land Rovers are about to reach the crossroads, that person needs to drive the X-Trail into their path. By the time the drivers react, the two people stationed in the fields will have the vehicles in their crosshairs.”
“Sounds good, man,” Sam said. “So who volunteers to be the driver?”
“I’ll do it,” I said. “You two are the best shots anyway. I’ll make sure they stop and then you and Tanya open fire.”
“You’re going to have to act quickly,” Tanya said. “And once you’ve blocked the road, you need to take out the driver of the lead vehicle, as well as anyone else sitting in the front seat. You’ll be putting yourself directly into their line of fire so they offer the most danger to you.”
Suddenly, driving the car didn’t seem like the best job after all.
Tanya looked at the road along which the Land Rovers would be approaching. “We need to get into position. It may take them some time to deal with the zombies and load the items from Echo Six’s Land Rover into their own but we can’t afford to be caught out. We need to be ready for them.”
“I’ll take the far field,” Sam said. “I should be able to get into position behind the wall.”
“And I’ll set up in this field,” Tanya said. “If I position myself a little farther back along the road, I should be able to make sure the rear Rover can’t escape by reversing and I won’t be directly across the road from you, which could be dangerous.”
“Yeah, we don’t want to shoot each other, man.” Sam turned to me. “You know what you’re doing, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah, don’t worry about my end. I’ve got it covered.”
“Good man.” He grabbed his weapons and set off towards the field across the road. Tanya did the same and climbed over the stone wall by the side of the road. She waded through the long grass as she looked for an ideal hiding spot.
Shielding my eyes from the sun, I watched them as they found their positions and ducked down below the stone wall that lined the road the Land Rovers would be coming along.
I climbed into the X-Trail and dialled the air conditioning up to max. The vents blasted frigid air over me and I tried to imagine that the icy blast was freezing my emotions and making me into a cold-hearted killer. After all, that was what I was about to become, wasn’t it?
I sat there in the cold air for at least five minutes before I saw the sun flash off something on the road to my right. Squinting my eyes, I could make out two Land Rovers in the distance, heading this way.
I took the handbrake off and put the X-Trail into first gear, keeping my foot on the clutch so the vehicle didn’t move just yet. I couldn’t see Sam or Tanya now—they were too well-hidden in the long grass behind the walls—but I was sure they’d be able to hear the deep growl of the army Land Rovers’ engines as they got closer.
The distance between me and the crossroads wasn’t far and it would take no more than a few seconds to cover but I had to wait until the right moment and arrive there an instant before the other vehicles. Then I had to start firing. The M16 and Walther PPK lay on the passenger seat next to me, within easy reach.
I pressed the button that lowered my window. When the glass had buzzed all the way down, I could hear the Land Rovers approaching.
I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. My hands were shaking. So much could go wrong in the next few minutes. We could all end up dead. I tried to push that thought out of my head but it clung to my brain and kept repeating itself over and over.
Forcing out a breath, I forced myself to raise the clutch slowly and steadily. If I let it up too fast and stalled the car, all was lost.
The X-Trail inched forward.
I released the clutch fully and crawled toward the crossroads in first gear, ready to press the accelerator when the Land Rovers got closer and pick up speed.
The military vehicles were moving quite quickly for such a narrow road. I guessed their speed to be around fifty miles-per-hour.
I waited as long as I dared before putting my foot down and racing for the crossroads.
Somehow, I timed the maneuver perfectly and arrived at the four-way intersection moments before the Land Rovers. I hit the brakes and skidded to a stop, blocking their path.
The driver in the lead vehicle saw me and his eyes went wide. He slammed on the brakes but the Land Rover had been going so fast that he couldn’t stop it in time. A high-pitched squealing filled the air as the Rover’s tyres skidded on the road. Through my open window, I saw the vehicle grow larger and larger as it got closer.
Then it hit the X-Trail and my door caved in with a sickening metallic crunch. I reached for the M16, intending to spray bullets through my open window, but the soldier sitting next to the driver had figured out that this collision had been no mere accident and had raised his weapon and aimed it at me.
Throwing myself across the passenger seat, I heard bullets hiss through the air over my head. They penetrated the passenger side window and a couple embedded themselves in the pillar that held the windscreen in place.
I scrambled across the seat and opened the passenger door, sliding out headfirst onto the road. The air was filled with the sound of gunfire now. Sam and Tanya must have opened fire on the vehicles and the soldiers were firing back.
I raised my head to peek over the X-Trail’s bonnet at the lead Land Rover. All of its doors were open and there were no soldiers inside. The guy who had been shooting at me and the driver had either been caught in the crossfire or were coming this way.
Crouching low, I made my way to the rear of the X-Trail and peered around the tailgate. The soldier who’d shot at me was standing there, gun in hand. He’d obviously planned to surprise me but my sudden appearance had taken him off guard.
His eyes went wide and he brought his weapon up.
I squeezed the M16’s trigger and sprayed the soldier’s chest with bullets. They thwacked through his combat jacket and red mist filled the air in front of him. He dropped straight away, his SA80 clattering onto the road.
I didn’t have time to retrieve it; or even to make sure the soldier was dead; the driver was still around somewhere. I crept back behind the X-Trail, keeping the M16 pointed ahead of me in case anyone else should suddenly appear in my sights.
Despite the sound of gunfire and shouts coming from the area around the Land Rovers, I could hear light footfalls on the other side of the X-Trail. The soldier—the one who’d been driving the lead Rover—was trying to sneak up on me.
Freezing so I wouldn’t make any footsteps of my own, I raised the muzzle of the M16 and waited for my stalker to come into view around the front of the car. The footsteps stopped. I tried to slow my breathing in case it
was giving away my position.
When he came around the car, he didn’t appear where I expected him to be. Instead of coming on foot, he rolled from behind the front tyre, aiming a handgun at me. He managed to fire before I did but because he was rolling, his aim was off and the bullet thwacked into the side of the X-Trail.
I took aim and squeezed the M16’s trigger. When the momentum of his roll was spent and his body came to a stop, he lay face down on the road, forehead on the asphalt and eyes closed.
As a precautionary measure, I kicked the handgun away and nudged him with the sole of my boot. He didn’t move. He’d never move again.
The gunshots had died down now and the air was thick with the smell of spent ammo and hot metal. I had no idea what had happened at the Land Rovers. For all I knew, Sam and Tanya were dead and the remaining soldiers were closing in on my position.
I raised my head above the bonnet of the X-Trail and checked out the situation. The Land Rovers were riddled with bullet holes. Glass and dead bodies lay scattered around the vehicles. I counted six dead soldiers. Along with the two I’d killed, that made eight. Unless anyone was hiding within the Rovers, we’d taken out the military unit with our ambush.
But at what cost?
I shouted out to my companions, my voice breaking the silence that had descended upon the area like a shroud. “Sam? Tanya?”
I saw Tanya vaulting over the wall at the side of the road. She approached the Land Rovers slowly and carefully, her M16 raised, and peered into the rear of the vehicles. Then she lowered her weapon and shouted, “Clear!”
Sam’s head appeared above the wall on the other side of the road. His lips were drawn back in a wide grin and his eyes looked a little wild. He climbed over the wall and strode up to the Land Rovers. “Man, that was a blast!”
I didn’t share his enthusiasm. We’d just killed eight people. I only hoped it was worth it.
Sam clapped a hand across my back when I joined him and Tanya at the rear Land Rover. “Good job, Alex! You timed that crash perfectly.”
“Not so perfectly,” I told him. “They crashed into me. The X-Trail is pretty beaten up.”
He shrugged. “Hey, don’t worry about it, man. There are plenty more cars where that came from.”
“True,” I said. “But we still need to get back to the boats somehow.”
He looked over at the X-Trail and for a moment his face fell. “You mean it’s wrecked?”
It was my turn to shrug. “I don’t know. They hit it pretty hard and the engine died.”
“We’ll find away back to the boats,” Tanya said. “Even if we have to take one of the Land Rovers.”
“The problem with that,” I said, “is that they might have trackers fitted to them. The bad guys might know where we are.”
“We’ll worry about that later.” Sam climbed into the back of the Land Rover. “Let’s see what the hell is so valuable that everyone is willing to die for it.” He looked around the dark interior of the vehicle and sounded disappointed when he said, “Nothing. There’s nothing in here.”
“There were four soldiers in the back of this Rover,” Tanya said. “It was only used for transporting personnel. I think the good stuff is in the lead vehicle.”
We went to the other vehicle and peered into the back. The first thing I noticed was a steel crate that must have been at least six feet long. It was locked with a padlock and had no external markings that might reveal its contents.
Next to the crate sat a drab green military footlocker. It was also padlocked.
“The keys have to be around here somewhere,” Tanya said. She went to the front of the Land Rover and leaned inside. She came back and opened her hand. Two small keys lay in her palm. “They were sitting on the dashboard,” she said.
“Should we open them up here or wait until we get back to the boats?” I said, aware that the eight soldiers lying dead on the road might have been part of a larger unit.
“I’m not waiting, man,” Sam said, taking the keys from Tanya’s hand and climbing into the back of the Land Rover. He went to the crate first and unlocked the padlock before pushing the lid open.
Looking inside, he frowned. “There’s a lot of packing material.” He pulled out blankets and bubble wrap, piling them behind him on the Land Rover’s floor.
Echo Six must have packed these items into the crate to protect whatever was inside during the journey to Bunker 53.
Sam stopped pulling out the packing materials suddenly and his face became worried. “Shit. Guys, you’ve got to see this.”
Tanya and I climbed into the Land Rover and looked into the crate.
Lying at the bottom of the crate was a man’s body that had been vacuum-packed inside a bag made of thick, clear plastic. When I saw the dead man’s face, my breath caught in my throat.
A month ago, we’d buried this body in a deep grave up on the cliffs, hoping no one would ever find it.
It was the body of Dr Marcus Vess.
Patient Zero.
5
“We buried this fucker a month ago,” Sam said. “How did he get here?”
“Someone must have dug him up,” I offered. It was the only explanation for Vess’s body being in the back of this Land Rover. The military had found the grave and exhumed Vess.
“Patient Zero,” Tanya said. “What do the military want with Patient Zero?”
Years of reading about conspiracy theories gave me the answer to that question. “They’re obviously trying to weaponise the virus.”
“But he doesn’t have the virus inside him anymore, man,” Sam said. “You shot him full of vaccine, remember? It killed him.”
“I remember. But look closely. When I injected the vaccine into him, the dark veins in his skin disappeared and the yellowness in his eyes faded. The veins in his neck and arms look darker now. Not as dark as they had been when he was alive but definitely darker than normal. And look at his eyes.” Vess’s eyes were open, staring at us through the thick plastic. “Some of the yellowness has returned around the edges.”
Sam pushed himself away from the crate. “You mean he’s coming back to life?”
“No, I’m not saying that. But it’s obvious that the virus is still alive in his body. He has the purest form of the virus in his body because he injected himself with it and that’s what started all this craziness. Anyone else who has the virus inside them—the zombies and the hybrids—has a diluted form that’s been passed on by a bite or a scratch. If the military want to weaponise the virus in some way, Vess’s body is a good place to get samples of blood and tissue.”
“You think that’s what’s been happening?” Sam asked. “They’ve been dissecting him?”
“Probably not dissecting him. He looks pretty much intact. But they’ve probably been taking his blood and experimenting with it.”
Sam shook his head as if in disbelief. “That shit is fucked up, man.”
“Wait a minute,” Tanya said. “Are you sure he isn’t going to come back to life? If the vaccine killed him but the virus is fighting the vaccine, who’s to say he won’t just wake up once the virus becomes strong enough?”
“The vaccine didn’t kill him,” I reminded her. “Those four bullets did.” I pointed to the four holes in Vess’s chest. Our friend Johnny Drake had shot Vess but the virus had protected Vess from the bullets. “When the vaccine suppressed the virus, its protective properties disappeared and the damage Vess’s body had received from those bullets finally killed him.”
“Yeah, I get that,” she said. “But if the virus is getting stronger inside him, it might repair the damaged tissue or something. I don’t know, I’m no scientist. But I do know that we shouldn’t take any chances.”
“Yeah,” Sam said, closing the lid of the metal crate and locking the padlock. “I agree with Tanya.”
“Fine,” I said. “Let’s get the body to Bunker 53 as fast as we can.”
Sam threw his arms in the air helplessly. “That’d be great, man.
If we knew where Bunker 53 is.”
I pointed at the footlocker. “Why not take a look in there? There might be a map or something.”
He looked at the footlocker as if suddenly remembering it was there. “Oh, yeah.” Using the other key, he unlocked it and lifted the lid. “There’s lot of stuff in here. Papers and notebooks mostly.”
“We need to take it all with us,” I said.
I heard a sound in the distance and tried to discern exactly what it was.
Tanya beat me to it. “Vehicles. Coming this way.”
“Shit!” Sam closed the footlocker. “We need to get this stuff loaded into the X-Trail.”
“There’s no time for that.” I slid out of the back of the Land Rover and onto the road. “We need to get out of here now.” It sounded like there were at least half a dozen vehicles heading this way. If we were still here when they arrived, we’d end up dead.
“I’ll drive.” Tanya vaulted out of the Land Rover and went around to the driver’s door. She opened it and slid inside.
“I’ll get the X-Trail out of the way,” I said, running to the Nissan and leaning in through the passenger door to take the handbrake off. I braced myself against the door pillar and pushed the car towards the side of the road. Sam joined me and pushed from the back. We managed to get the car out of the Land Rover’s way.
I ran to the passenger side and got in next to Tanya. Sam, standing in the road, looked disappointed. “Where am I supposed to sit?”
“In the back,” Tanya suggested.
“With Patient Zero?” A fearful expression crossed his face. “Fuck that. I’ll follow in the other Land Rover.”
“Fine.” Tanya put our Rover into gear and started along the road.
In the side mirror, I watched Sam dash to the Rover behind us and climb behind the wheel. The vehicle roared as he revved the engine, then fell into place directly behind us as we drove across the crossroads and headed north.
“How far away do you think those other vehicles are?” I asked Tanya.
She shrugged. “I can’t see them in the rearview but they can’t be that far behind us.”
Survival- Revenge of the Living Dead Page 3
