Rogue Evacuation

by Simon Neilson

  “They’re fucking dead. But they walk. They will eat your soul and then you will die a grisly death and walk as they do!”

  “Zombies?” I could not help but smile at the ridiculous thought.

  This seemed to upset Brendan. He picked me up with his huge hands and slammed me against the wall. Duncan casually intervened as the rest of the group looked on. Huffing in disapproval that he couldn’t pummel my head, Brendan stopped and walked away.

  “Don’t laugh at me. I will kill you,” snorted Brendan.

  “You will have to be more subtle. These people have seen death at its worst.” Duncan pulled my clothing down straight. “Death at the hands of the infected. Look.” Duncan paused. “It may seem fantastical, even laughable that we have people who are….”

  “Zombies,” I interrupted.

  “Yes, zombies. Sounds like something from a Hollywood movie, but I can assure you they are here and they walk outside. They are very, very real. You’ve seen them yourself.”

  Duncan walked away briefly stopping for a moment.

  “You said you would help me,” I whispered.

  “And I will. I will help you get home, but I am not sure what you will find there.”

  My thoughts returned to my wife and daughter. Night fell quickly and I found a spot at the back of the warehouse.

  DIARY ENTRY 12

  There had been some loud explosions. I walked over to the window and gazed out. It was still night.

  “If the infected don’t get us, then the military will.” Jackson was on guard at a window a few feet away. He didn’t look at me.

  “What are they bombing?” I asked.

  “What do you bloody think?” Jackson replied sharply.

  “There are only two ways to kill the infected. Blow them to pieces or shoot them in the head.” The voice was behind me, it was Lana.

  Two more explosions shook the building. I crouched down as dust and plaster fell from the ceiling, that was close, I thought.

  “They must have hit the petrol station just up the road,” said Jackson, Lana nodded in agreement. “Duncan!”

  Duncan wandered casually over, brushing brick dust from his combats. I could hear Jesse whimpering at the back, Maria trying to calm her fears.

  “Yes I know, we’ll move first thing in the morning.” Duncan glanced at me. “We’ll put your movement pass to good use.”

  Griff found me a spare blanket and I curled up on the cold, concrete floor listening to the sound of gunfire and explosions.

  I must have drifted off to sleep pretty quickly because the next thing I remember was Duncan, Brendan and Griff unloading boxes from the truck. I did offer to help but Duncan said he wanted me to keep an eye on Maria, Jesse and Bruno. The dog had sort of taken a liking to me.

  I couldn’t get relax so I sat up against the wall. Gazing over at Maria I smiled as she cuddled Jesse and rocked her to sleep.

  The bottle of water landing in my crutch startled me. I looked up as Lana strutted by laughing.

  “New rations,” smirked Lana.

  She walked over to the window where Jackson was, placed the water on the ledge and walked away. He nodded his thanks. Strange pair, they appeared to have this mutual professional respect, but I haven’t seen them speak since I arrived. Arrived, that’s right. In hell.

  The next thing I remembered was being kicked. I looked up to see the intimidating figure of Brendan looking down at me.

  “Come on, Kay-Lab!” He shouted sarcastically. “We’re moving out.”

  I stood to my feet, feeling groggy. The warehouse was empty. Still looking around I felt a poke in my side.

  “Come on short-stop, unless you wanna be zombie dinner!” It was Brendan again and he moved off to the stairwell laughing.

  Picking up the blanket, I quickly walked after Brendan, my footsteps echoed down the stairwell and I moved out into the daylight.

  “Good morning.” Duncan’s voice was upbeat and friendly. “I think it’s time we left.”

  Duncan pointed behind me, turning I saw them. They were quite far down the street, but they were close enough to send shivers down my spine.

  “Get the hell in the truck!” Lana shouted.

  The sound of gunfire burst through my ears, from a blind corner to my left there were more of the infected. These were only yards away. Fortunately Jackson had seen them and was picking them off one by one.

  Running to the front I jumped in the truck. Duncan cranked it into action. As we moved off I could hear both Jackson and Lana firing off rounds. The partition dividing the back from the front had been ripped out. Jesse was in the gap cuddling Bruno, who was shaking, as the gunfire continued.

  Looking in the wing mirror, I could see the infected having their heads blown apart. The street was full of them on the floor now permanently dead. My heart pumping I looked over to Duncan.

  “That was close,” I said.

  The gunfire had stopped as Duncan swung the truck into another street. As we travelled down the road I couldn’t believe how deserted South London had become.

  We had been travelling for a while and finally we reached the old IMAX Cinema at Waterloo. It was eerie. Normally this place would have traffic backed up and people bustling along the pavement. The only thing that moved was the litter in the wind.

  I could see down the subways leading under the road, shadows moved and I knew the infected were down there somewhere. It filled me with terror.

  “Do your wife and daughter have names?” Duncan asked.

  “Rebecca and Amelia is my daughter,” I replied.

  “How old?” Duncan asked.

  “What my wife?” I joked, Duncan laughed. “Amelia is seven years old,” I said smiling.

  I looked back down the subway. Duncan had slowed the truck to a crawl. He was looking around for signs of the infected. The shadows in the subway were getting darker. I wasn’t the only one to notice the shadows in the subway.

  “We got visitors down below,” shouted Jackson from the back.

  “Get us outta here,” said Brendan in his cockney accent.

  Duncan pushed the accelerator down and we moved pass the subway entrance. They were moving slowly up the ramp, some had gone via the stairs and were tripping up the steps, some lumbered along, but all of them groaned. The railings on the pavement separated us. Good job as they noticed us straight away, banging onto the bars trying to reach out with their hands.

  “I’m sure they can smell us,” said Griff in a shaky voice.

  Maria told Jesse to sit down and to not look out the window. I gazed back at Jesse and gave her a smile. She waved back as Maria smiled at me. I believed Maria knew I understood her fears for her child.

  The burst of machine gunfire ripped through the infected, spurting blood and flesh everywhere, luckily I had the window up so none of the blood hit me. I looked back to voice my displeasure to Jackson and Lana, but they just sat there, weapons idle by their sides.

  “That wasn’t me,” shouted Jackson.

  “Nor me,” Lana said.

  “We’ve got company,” said Duncan looking forward.

  In front where the bridge used to be was a make-shift military one. Perched on the edge was a jeep, the mounted machine gun was spurting out round after round.

  “It’s the army. We’ll need your pass now,” said Duncan.

  He drove carefully forward, the machine gun on the back of the jeep pointed straight at us. I noticed Lana hiding her machine gun.

  “Jackson and I are the only ones in uniform, females aren’t enlisted in the army so it would raise alarm bells if they saw her carrying a gun,” said Duncan passing me the paperwork.

  “Are we going back to North London?” I asked. Duncan ignored me.

  Duncan drove the truck and slowly approached the jeep, the two masked soldiers watched us carefully. Stopping the truck Duncan ushered for me to get out. Walking up to the jeep I was aware that Duncan and Jackson were following, both dressed in military combat uniforms. />
  “Hold it there,” said the soldier manning the machine gun.

  “We’ve got a convoy of supplies heading south,” replied Duncan.

  “South?” The soldiers shouted back. “But you’re heading north.”

  “Yes,” replied Duncan.

  The driver and the gunner looked at each other and then back at Duncan.

  “Where have you guys been?” The gunner asked Duncan who glanced at Jackson and me.

  “We have passes,” replied Duncan pointing at me.

  “Doesn’t matter what passes you have,” replied the soldier.

  I felt my stomach turn, maybe the word was out and this was the end of the line.

  “If you’re heading south, how comes you’ve ended up here?” The driver asked.

  “Infected down that way, we were looking to go over the Thames and loop round,” said Jackson quickly.

  “I’m puzzled that you are heading south,” said the gunner.

  “Why?” Duncan asked.

  The gunner jumped down from the jeep and cradled his machine gun. This is it, I thought, we’re going to be taken into custody now.

  “Jesus! You guys have been cut off, haven’t you?” The gunner eyed us all one at a time. “Mass evacuation,” he continued.

  “What evacuation?” Jackson asked.

  The gunner looked over our shoulders into the distance; we turned and saw the horde gathering about half a mile down the road.

  “Infection outbreak on the south coast a few days ago, it’s spread up to the borders of South London. Nothing is going south of the river now,” said the gunner.

  “What!” Duncan gasped.

  “True as I’m standing here. We’re blowing the military bridges, moving out.” The gunner turned towards the jeep. “You’ve got five minutes for you and your supplies to get over this bridge. It’s the last one standing and we’ve got orders to blow it. You won’t be looping round to another bridge anytime soon.”

  The gunner walked back to the jeep, for a moment we all stood looking at each other in disbelief, the groans of the infected getting closer.

  “Spreading,” whispered Jackson.

  We jumped back in the truck and the rest of the group hid under blankets in the back. We crossed the arch in the bridge and I saw the soldiers scampering about.

  The barrier on the checkpoint was up. No guards. Nobody bothered to ask for the papers I had in my hand, the sight of soldiers rushing about was worrying.

  I was back in North London.

  DIARY ENTRY 13

  Apart from the sight of the soldiers rushing around mixed with the sounds of explosions in the background it was the loud siren which was most disturbing. It echoed out around the area, a disturbing and chilling sound.

  I shot Duncan a glance. I could see he was just as anxious. Turning I looked in the back of the truck. Jesse was still cuddling Bruno who was shaking under the blanket. She in turn was being comforted by Maria.

  Jackson was positioned at the back of the truck with his rifle at the ready, next to him was his trusted side-kick Lana peering out from underneath the blanket. Brendan was smiling, I found this rather strange but then he was a rather strange kind of person. Griff was the only one I could not see, though I could hear his terrified mumbling underneath one of the blankets as he lay on the floor of the truck.

  Duncan weaved the truck in and out of abandoned military vehicles and tried to dodge soldiers who were darting around the streets. As we came parallel with the river I was able to glance across at the sight of thousands of the infected pushing on to the bridge, some were being cut down in a hail of bullets, but I knew it would not take long for the soldiers to either run out of ammunition or become overrun by the horde. It was a chilling sight.

  Turning into a side street the chaos disappeared behind us as Duncan sped away. This street was completely deserted, no soldiers darting around here.

  “This is madness,” shouted Griff from underneath the blanket, I had to agree with him.

  “I take it this isn’t the plan you had in mind?” I asked Duncan. “And why tell them we were heading south?”

  Duncan quickly looked across at me and then concentrated on the street ahead. Slowly he shook his head in answer to my question. “We wouldn’t be taking supplies north of the river, they have…had enough. I had to give them some story. Looks like things just got a bit worse.”

  “Where are we going?” Jackson shouted from the back of the truck.

  “Anywhere but here,” replied Duncan.

  “Seems pretty cool to me,” said Brendan with a disturbing laugh.

  I could hear Jesse whimpering and as I turned to look at her, Maria held her close and gave me a nervous smile. I tried to smile back but my smile was full of anxiety and fear and I think Maria realised this.

  We came to a junction and Duncan brought the truck to a stop. He looked in both directions, nobody about. This area of the City had been pretty busy prior to my visit south of the river, it was well before curfew and at this time of the day there should have been lots of people trying to obtain what food they could. Now, however, it was deserted. Where was everybody?

  “What are you thinking?” I asked Duncan.

  “I’m not sure,”

  Suddenly, there was a huge explosion from the area of the bridge, some of the buildings around us shook and you could feel the vibrations inside the truck.

  “What the fuck!” Jackson shouted.

  I looked out the passenger window and turned my head to gaze back at where we had just come from. I saw the black plume of smoke rise up into the sky and I could hear the sound of machine gun fire mixed with screams. As I gazed back I saw the group appear at the bottom of the street, about twenty or so soldiers running towards us.

  That was when infected appeared behind the soldiers. Thousands of infected. Some stumbled, others walking normally but all heading in our direction.

  “Go!” I screamed in unison with Jackson who could also see the horde.

  “Duncan, get us the fuck out of here. Now!” Lana screamed.

  Duncan peered in the wing mirror of the truck, his eyes grew wide as he saw what Jackson and I were on about. Quickly he turned the wheel right and cranked the truck into gear, from behind us we could hear the soldiers shouting for us to stop, but Duncan just kept on going.

  Part of me felt pretty guilty about this, but then it was a case of survival and we had no room on board for more passengers. The soldiers behind us weren’t to know this though.

  The truck sped down the deserted street. As we approached a junction another group of the infected appeared from behind a building. Instinctively Duncan moved off the street into a narrow road lined with small shops, now derelict due to the economic mess the country was now in. Just as we reached a bend in the road, Duncan braked very hard causing my body to be thrust forward.

  “Shit!” He shouted.

  I looked up and saw exactly what he meant. During the clampdown in London lots of checkpoints and barricades were put up by the IGS and unfortunately for us we had just stumbled across a barricade. Concrete bollards topped with barbed wire. It was formed in a zigzag formation, which was alright for pedestrians to get through but no good for the truck which was too wide to fit through the narrow gaps.

  “Duncan they’re heading this way. Come on!” Jackson shouted.

  The horde had now turned into the narrow road and was heading in our direction, we had only one option.

  “Everybody out!” Duncan shouted.

  “What!” replied Griff, bringing his head above the blanket.

  “Barricade, we can’t get through,” I shouted leaping from the truck.

  One by one, everybody jumped out the truck and I could see the horde heading in our direction. They were far enough away for us to grab a few supplies from the back of the truck but near enough for me to hear their moans.

  We each grabbed some supplies, placed them into backpacks and made our way through the maze of concrete blocks of the
barricade. Duncan led the way followed by Maria, Jesse and Bruno. Griff and Brendan followed then it was me with Jackson and Lana covering us as we weaved our way through.

  It did not take long for us to come out the other side of the barricade, the narrow road continued up to a junction and we jogged along with the moans of the infected echoing behind us.

  Eventually we made it to the junction. Duncan positioned his back against the brick wall of a derelict building and peered round. He waved his arms at us to signal it was all clear. We all reached Duncan and waited. The burst of gunfire from behind us caused me to look back. After a few seconds I saw Jackson and Lana appear from out of the barricades, they were running fast up the road towards us.

  “They’ve reached the barricade,” said Jackson, out of breath.

  “Are they getting through?” Duncan asked.

  “I think they are having problems working out how to get through, but it won’t take long for them to bump around and find the openings,” said Lana, also catching her breath.

  “Right then, we need to lay low for a while let this situation pass us,” said Duncan.

  Griff pointed to a building opposite, it was empty but still in pretty good condition. Duncan nodded and signalled for all us to head across the road, which we did in the same order we ran up the street.

  Eventually we were all inside the building. Jackson secured the door and we huddled down at the back. There was a flight of stairs leading up to a single room on the first floor, Lana positioned herself there and we waited.

  It was about an hour or so before the horde of infected passed us by. Curious to see them, I crept upstairs as they stumbled by, Lana placed her finger to her lips to tell me to be quiet and I crouched down gazing out the window at the sight of them. They were exactly like the ones I had seen previously, their clothes hung from their bodies, skin peeling off their faces. They just stumbled along. The moaning was loud and hummed, it was a very disturbing sound. It took about twenty minutes for the horde to pass us by and off into the distance. I could still hear gunfire, but I wasn’t sure where it was coming from.