by Nick Harland
The voice said, ‘Ok.’
Eve looked back at us, ‘Ok, this is gruesome but just remember that any of us would be happy to do the same. He’s saving us, and that’s what matters.’
It was gruesome. We pulled Mike into a sitting position between us then crouched with two of us under each of his armpits. We couldn’t stop his head lolling but anyone running for it would probably duck their head down anyway. Then we prepared ourselves to run and lifted Mike’s body up so his back and shoulders would be visible. The shot came instantly and we dropped Mike and sprinted to the open doors throwing ourselves through them as the people waiting closed them behind us. I’ll never forget the feeling of holding Mike’s body and feeling the shot hit him before we dropped him. It will have to compete with a few other feelings I’d like to forget, but its right up there at the top.
There was a shot through the centre of one of the doors but we had all skittered to the sides and it ricocheted off the polished concrete floor and hit a van.
Ben was the first to talk to us, ‘Are you all OK, is anyone hurt, how’s the tower?’
I looked at him and replied, ‘We’re all ok, traumatised, livid, but ok. The watch tower is fine, he’s stuck but he’ll be ok until dark.’
There was another shot, then one more a couple of seconds later. Jim ran to us and said, ‘They’re shooting at the vehicles and being careful about it. I guess they don’t want us going anywhere.’
Eve looked back at Jim but spoke loudly and looked around the crowd, ‘We’re assuming this is my Ex and that the three drunks we had to deal with when some of you arrived have joined up with him. If there have been shots from the front and both sides of the buildings it can’t just be my Ex and his mate. The chances of another random survivor being able to find and use a sniper rifle that well, find other survivors, and find and want to harm us, is way too slim for it to be anything else.’
‘You should know that we’re not going to stop until all five of them are dead and the moment it gets dark we’ll be going out with that sole purpose in mind. You should also know that before he died Mike told us that there are a group of survivors that need us. He said they can make it to the meeting point by late afternoon tomorrow. We have no intention of letting them down. I don’t know how we’re going to achieve those two goals but I’m open to suggestions.’
Ben spoke up, ‘They haven’t shot the dump truck and it’s build like a tank. It’s parked just around the back because we didn’t plan to use it when we had the Semi. Bill even put plating over the radiator grill and the tyres might shake off a smaller calibre bullet at least. We can’t get it past the other vehicles out front without ramming them or taking big risks but we could take it through the fence. I don’t think Zed’s are our problem at this stage.’
Jim pipped up, ‘It’s fine to go through the fence but we should cut one section out if we can rather than just ramming through it and bending up several sections.’
Idea’s and problems were vying for position in my head so I blurted out the first one that came to mind, ‘We have to assume the sniper has a night sight, he may not, but we have to assume he does or he wouldn’t start a siege. I think we can also assume that only the sniper can shoot and although the other four might have hand guns, our three friends probably couldn’t hit the side of an eighteen wheeler going thirty at night. If we’re going to cut a section of fence out it’s going to take time with saws as the welding gear would just act like a target. We could use a distraction to keep who ever does the sawing safe. I don’t think anyone could make it over the fence, we did too good a job with it.’
Esme carried on for me, ‘If we can make a side exit, Eve, Brad and I can escape after the truck and go on a hunt. We have a night scope and one night vision set of binoculars and we can shoot, better than them anyway. We have to assume the sniper is on a roof over the road and is secure where he is. His accomplice’s will be in pairs as it’s still a Zombie apocalypse out there and if one is looking at us one has to be guarding his back.’
I wouldn’t like to be out there all night and although Dave will probably have some balls, on one side of us at least are two drunken louts who’ve never held a gun before. I imagine Eve’s Ex is treating them as expendable. Everyone should remember that. By the time it gets dark they’re either going to leave or they’ll be ready to shit in their pants if they hear something move. I plan to be that something.’
Eve said, ‘Nicely put’ then she raised her voice again, ‘Yes this is bad, yes we’ve lost people and that’s unacceptable, but we’ve come through worse and we’re going to come through this too. We’re going to kill all five of them. We’ll get one of them to tell us where their base is and we’re going to take their gear and the gear at their base. None of it even begins to make up for our losses, but it’ll help make sure we don’t lose anyone else. Then by the end of tomorrow we’ll have more people joining us and we’ll be even stronger. Now….let’s not get angry or scared, let’s get even.’
There were lots of supportive ‘Yesses’ from the crowd and Jim took over as only Jim could. He stepped forwards, ‘Right, I need eight volunteers to be on hacksaw duty. Two pairs of two so one saws as hard and fast as they can until they’re tired and then hands over to their partner, and back and forth until the fence falls. We can only saw where we’re sure the sniper can’t see and where the truck can make it through the fence and down the bank between us and the next building to the road. That doesn’t leave many options and we’ll have to drag two vans out of the way. The truck will still have to drive down the grass bank and onto the road to get free. It also has to be able to get out of range of the sniper as quickly as possible so it doesn’t get disabled. What are we doing about a distraction?’
I said, ‘Some petrol bombs would be our best bet, thrown over the fence where we’re cutting and also over the front if we can get close enough.’
I was about to go on when there was a tentative hand held up by a woman in the crowd I recognised as Angela, one of the gardeners. She said, ‘I know I shouldn’t, but I know a way out. Me and a couple of others made one in case but we didn’t want to tell anyone because it wasn’t part of the security plan.’
Eve shot a look at Jim then smiled and said, ‘Angela, just tell us. You may have just made things much better for all of us and no plan is perfect, so don’t be shy.’
Angela nodded, ‘We were digging beds for planting near the fence at the back of the compound and noticed there was quite a big dip in the ground just the other side of the fence, almost undermining it. We figured a tree must have been pulled up a while ago or something. The soil on our side of the fence wasn’t too hard to dig and to begin with we just dug for a while to see what would happen. Soon we had a pretty big hole and we got underneath the concrete the fences meatal posts are sunk into. We covered it with some rotting wooden panels that were nearby and carried on digging a little bit more every day until we got underneath. We reinforced it with cut offs from the metal tubing from the metal fence panels that have been used on the cars. A few days ago we reached the other side.’ Then Angela looked worried and began to speak faster, ‘We covered it up to make it secure and everything, we…’
Eve interrupted her, ‘Angela, right now I don’t care if you left a sign saying Zombies this way on the other side. If it means Brad, Esme and I can get out of here and go hunting you’re a hero. It was also a pretty good idea as an emergency back-up plan and you should have told us so we could have helped you.’
Eve looked over at Jim who nodded, ‘Emergency tunnel, good plan, thank you.’
Chapter Thirty – I Fucking Hate Snipers
We kitted up to leave the base. On one side of the base was some rough ground and a small grass bank down to a road. Over that road was a building surrounded by a chain link fence where we figured two of hostiles would be. There was about fifty feet between the buildings and there were some loose unkempt woods that ran behind several of the buildings, including the caravan cent
re. On the other side there was a short steep four foot bank to a road. On the other side of that road was another small warehouse building. We figured Eve’s ex was on a roof over the wide road that ran in front of the caravan centre.
We assumed the men on either side of us must be hiding in a building ready to shoot at anything they saw. We opted to sneak through the woods behind and approach the nearest building from behind rather than try and cross an open road we thought Eve’s ex might have a good view of. There was the chain link fence between the wooded area and the nearest building, which was a problem, but we had sturdy wire cutters. We wore greens and brows and Eve insisted on dirtying up our faces. With cycle helmets not coming in camouflage colours we temporarily abandoned the helmet policy. Eve and I both had two pistols and Esme had a Henry. We had a radio to contact the base when we needed to. They were going to fire a couple of shots at the building when the their radio crackled into life.
We crawled along the space between the back door and the tunnel and squeezed through it. Eve led us on our stomachs through the woods towards the other building. The trees were spread out rather than dense and there were bushes and wild areas of uncut weeds and grass. I admit it felt a little silly crawling around like some kind of commando but it did the job. The bushes and trees thinned out about ten feet from the fence behind the building we assumed our first targets were in. There were a couple of windows in the rear wall, one of which was open, and one closed door.
We got as close to the fence as we safely could and listened for a few minutes. We were about to move again when we heard a muffled, ‘What the fuck are we supposed to do when it gets dark.’ The accent was northern and definitely one of the drunken guys from the plane. The response came, ‘We wait like we’ve been told to. This guy knows what he’s doing and we’re alive because of him. There aren’t any Zombies around and we have guns and ammo now. We have food and water and all we have to do is shoot anything that moves and take a few pot shots when we hear him shoot. So bloody relax.’ The other voice seemed to be Mitch the leader of the three men we had kicked out.
Eve whispered, ‘We’ve lucked out, these guys don’t know their arses from their elbows and they’re already uncertain. Let’s crawl to the fence and get under it.’
Eve and I crawled forwards with Esme aiming the rifle at the nearest window. We reached the fence and I cut the bottom couple of wires that joined the chain-link to the closest upright. Cutting the fence itself would make some noise and I nodded to Esme to signal the base with the radio. A couple of seconds later we heard a couple of shots followed by exclamations of ‘Fuck, what are they doing, can they see us?’ from the building.
While they were distracted I cut the fence a meter from the upright up to about eighteen inches. Two more shots came and I pulled the fence up and Eve managed to crawl under. I nodded to Esme who crawled through and then held the fence so I could followed. Esme let the fence go and it slipped and made a noise. We heard, ‘What the fuck was that, I heard something from outside.’
Eve Jumped up and ran to the side of the open window and Esme and I were about to follow when a figure holding a gun appeared at the window. The figure pointed the gun and got a shot off before Eve stuck her hand into the open window space and blindly fired several shots. The man’s bullet hit the ground just to the left of me and a cold sweat flowed over me making it hard to control my bladder. One of Eve’s shots hit the man before he could squeeze off another round and he fell backwards yelling and gurgling while the other man shouted, ‘Fuck, Fuck.’
Eve yelled through the window, ‘There are three of us and one of you and we can all shoot better than you. Esme, you remember Esme who beat the shit out of you, has a rifle and she’s very good with it. If you run we’ll shoot you in the back. Make a choice, die now or throw your gun out of the window.’
The gun came flying out of the window before Eve had even finished the sentence. Then she added, ‘Now stand very still with your hands on your head where I can see you from the window and we won’t kill you.’
Esme and I came to the wall the other side of the window and Eve popped her head around the window for a moment, then more slowly until she was stood outside the window pointing her gun inside, ‘Don’t move a fucking muscle.’
Esme tried the back door which was open and we walked inside, guns levelled at the man who we immediately recognised as one of the drunks, he was shaking and had wet himself. Mitch was on the floor a few feet away one hand lying limply over his chest, blood surrounding it and soaking his top. We walked slowly over and Eve came through the door and joined us.
Esme walked over to the man and before either Eve or I could react she punched him in the kidney and when he doubled over and yelled she brutally brought her knee up into his face making him stagger backwards and fall. She was on him in a second, ‘We said we wouldn’t kill you but we didn’t say anything else. Tell us exactly what the plan is and where your base is right now or I’m going to make you wish we did kill you.’
The man was bleeding profusely from his nose and had is hands up next to his face shaking in terror, he managed to say, ‘Ok, I’ll tell you everything, I promise. Just stop’
Esme got up and walked a few steps away without looking at us, ‘He’s all yours.’
Eve and I exchanged glances and Eve walked over to the man, ‘Get up and stop snivelling. If your account isn’t full and accurate and if I even think there’s the possibility you’re lying I’ll invite Esme back into the conversation, understood?’
The man nodded and struggled to his feet holding his nose. He looked uncertainly between Eve and I and Eve barked, ‘Now!’
The man startled and began, ‘The plan was to surround you and cause enough chaos and damage that you would agree to our demands. Dylan has a radio and was going to contact you when it started to get dark. He was going to ask for a vehicle full of supplies and ammo and he also wants you.’
Eve flinched and said, ‘I can’t believe he’s fucking mad enough to think he can have me back. He just can’t cope with his toys being taken away can he. What was he going to do if we said no and does he have a night scope on his rifle?’
The man answered, ‘We found a lot of ammo at the range. He was going to carry on shooting up the place, disabling cars, tyres, shooting windows and the caravans outside until you agreed. He was going to make it a siege until you agreed. He has a night scope and we have supplies for four days at least.’
I stepped in and asked, ‘So where is he and where is his base?’
The man answered, ‘He’s on a roof over the road, the building next to the big warehouse has a good view and we found a ladder and put it against the back wall. He has a little tent and supplies and could probably last a week up there. We’re still using his old house and panic rooms as a base, we’ve cleared out some of the nearby houses and a shop near the rifle range and we have plenty of supplies. There is still some water above the panic room. What are you going to do with me?’
Eve and Esme looked at me. I looked the man in the eye’s and he was genuinely scared, I almost felt sorry for him, ‘I don’t know, we said we wouldn’t kill you and we don’t break our promises. Keep being useful and…’
As I was speaking the radio on Mitch crackled into life, ‘What’s going on there. I heard a load of shots?’
I looked at the man then at the radio, he hurriedly picked it up and said, ‘Sorry, stray Zombie and we’re not so good with the guns yet.’
Dylan answered, ‘You sound funny what happened?’
The man answered, ‘It caught us a bit by surprise and I tripped and fell on my face, think I broke my nose. Mitch is just outside having a quick look in case there are any more while I stop bleeding.’
Dylan answered, ‘You two are fuckin imbeciles do you know that. I should have just shot you when I found you. Do your fucking job right or I still might.’ The radio went dead.
I raised my eyebrows and said, ‘Well he’s a ray of sunshine isn’t he. That was
very helpful. Keep up the good work and if we survive the night we can talk about your future.’
The man looked at me mournfully then his face changed and he blurted, ‘I can help you take care of the other two. As long as I don’t drink I’m really not a bad person. I could join you and promise never to drink again. I’ve fought Zombies, I can hold my own. I could be useful.’
Eve held her hand up and stopped him, ‘No one’s promising anything and right now Esme’s probably still angry at us that you’re even alive. If you can help us take down the other two we can definitely talk some more. What’s your plan?’
The man said, ‘I could wait until you sneak over to the other place. Then I could run over shouting saying that a Zombie killed Mitch and act all panicked and stuff. I could distract them for long enough for you three to get closer then hold them up and tell them to drop their guns. Then you could step in and take over.’
Eve looked at me and said, ‘I’ve heard worse plans. It’s not risk free but he’d be taking more risk than us. It would go a good way towards him proving himself.’
Esme had been fulfilling the silent and menacing role very well and stepped over so she was in front of the man and said, ‘I’m not sure we even want more prisoners but these two are soft like that. If you pull this off I’ll consider not wanting to kill you when no one is looking and saying you went for my gun or something.’ Then she stepped away and went back to glaring.
The man shivered then held his head up and said, ‘I can do this. I knew Dylan was a bad egg within hours of meeting him but I didn’t have many choices. How long do you need before I run over?’
I replied, ‘Give us twenty minutes to be sure. Make sure you have your gun ready and don’t be afraid to use it if you need to. We’ll leave your gun just outside the door and you can come and find it after we’ve gone. If you don’t do exactly as you’ve said when we take the other building, which we will, we won’t be holding Esme back we’ll be helping her. They might not be keen to surrender so be prepared to use your gun if you have to.’
