The Undead | Day 25 [The Heat]

by Haywood, RR

‘I never said anyone shat in my coffee cup!’ Clarence said. ‘I meant it’s one method squaddies use to let an officer know they’re not welcome.’

  ‘By pooping in their mug,’ Paula says.

  ‘Yes!’ Clarence said. ‘Nick?’

  ‘Fuck that! I am not the pooping guy.’

  ‘No, you daft idiot. You must have heard of it. Cookey? Blowers! You were in the marines.’

  ‘Yeah, marines don’t do that,’ Blowers said. ‘Must be a special para thing.’

  ‘The para pooping initiation,’ Cookey said. ‘Where they all have to squat and aim into cups.’

  ‘Jesus. That’s way too complicated for a para,’ Blowers said, earning a few laughs. ‘Unless they were colour coded cups,’ Blowers added. ‘Now boys, these are the cups you don’t try and eat. And these are the ones you go potty in. I’m joking!’ he said, leaning back from Clarence trying to swipe at him.

  ‘Almost there, boss!’ Tappy called from the front. I twisted around to see we were already in the town. Passing smashed in windows and looted stores. Bodies here and there and lots of infected all heading in the same direction with Tappy trying to clip as many as she could.

  I got up close to the seats and grabbed my radio. ‘Okay. You guys hold back,’ I transmitted to the other vehicles. ‘We’ll punch through and see how it looks. Roy, be ready to jump in with us if we can’t get the van through.’

  ‘Standing by,’ Roy said. ‘There won’t be overwatch on this one guys. Watch your backs. I won’t have you covered.’

  ‘Got it, Roy,’ I said as the energy started charging. The jokes gone. This was business now. This was work.

  ‘There it is!’ Tappy said, spotting the mini roundabout ahead. The last stretch of road. The last few metres and the last few seconds before it started, and the carnage began.

  Infected thick in number aiming off to the left. Charging across the road from alleys and junctions.

  We saw the Anchor Inn on the right side then looked left to the target location and a small bank presenting flush to the road – then some signs giving direction to the supermarket and the coffee shop beyond. ‘There! That road,’ I said, feeling the Saxon surge as Tappy gave it some power.

  We reached a roundabout ahead and a low wall bordering a car park to one side. The building line behind it. ‘It’s a ring road,’ I said. ‘Roy! The road loops around the building. There’s lots of infected here. More than we expected. We’ll come back and get you into the car park, but we’ll have to reduce the numbers before we get you inside the building.’

  Tappy gave it some welly and smashed through the low wall into the car park while Nick got on the GPMG and got a few kills as we went through and got clear on the other side. Aiming back on the ring road towards the other two vehicles still on the main carriageway.

  What we could also see was that the buildings in the middle – the ones we needed to get into – were surrounded by thick lines of infected going for the doors and boarded up windows.

  The windows on the upper level were barred and sealed. But we could see people behind the gaps waving at the sight of the Saxon.

  Maddox

  I was in the driver’s seat by then as Roy was getting his medical bag ready to help the woman in labour inside the buildings.

  Then the Saxon drove at us and I held off, waiting for the very last second until it started turning back into the ring road.

  Now! Tappy said over the radio. I got the van going. Driving it hard to tuck up close behind the Saxon like I’d seen Roy do before - riding the wake.

  Carmen

  So then Mads shot off hot on the tail of the Saxon, and Frank got our SUV right on the end of the van and the horsebox. It was the only way we’d get through.

  ‘Where are you debussing?’ Frank asked over the radio.

  ‘Car park,’ Howie said as Bashir and Joan stirred in their seats next to me. Their hearts no doubt thumping as much as everyone else’s.

  It was nuts too. I’ve seen combat, but it still gets you going. And it was a sight to see. Becoming instantly surrounded by infected wild beasts howling with hunger that were once human beings.

  ‘Frank, give Jess room to get out when we get in car park,’ I said as Frank nodded. Calm as ever. I doubt his heart was anything above normal.

  We saw the roundabout ahead then the car park beyond it. The Saxon was carving a path. Aiming for the building line, and it was like time slowed. That last second before it goes off. Before the action begins.

  It’s hard to describe. But every colour becomes more vibrant. Every sound becomes clearer. Your senses prime and you become aware of everything.

  ‘NOW!’ Howie shouted through the radio. The Saxon stopped. The van stopped. The SUV stopped.

  The sliding door in the van opened and Roy was out with his assault rifle up and braced. The medical bag on his back as he slammed the door closed and started moving towards the rear.

  ‘I’ve got it,’ Frank called. Already out of the SUV in the aim position and striding smoothly to the back of the horse box. He kicked the bolt and turned clear with his rifle up.

  ‘JESS!’ Charlie shouted, running to vault and grip the saddle with the axe already spinning in her hand. A war cry given. A war cry from old and Jess burst out to run into the ranks.

  ‘Charlie! Go around. Find a way in,’ Howie said into the radio. ‘EVERYONE ELSE CUT THEM DOWN!’

  Nick was up top, firing the gimpy as the others fired their assault rifles away from the direction of the building line. Then Howie was banging on the Saxon and giving Tappy the signal to set off and use the vehicle as a weapon to start reducing the numbers.

  Maddox

  We literally just arrived and got into the car park when Reginald told me to launch the drone and then go join Mr Howie. I did as he wanted and got the drone up - but I could see Nick on the gimpy going all wide-eyed at me touching his drone – then it was up and flying and I’m just about to ask Blowers where he wants me when I hear Booker shouting magazine, and I’m remembering what Frank told me about being nice and playing the long game. So then I was like, covering! And running over to get into Booker’s side and making a show of covering him while he changed mag.

  Cheers, he shouted as Reggie slammed the door open on his van and started yelling, HOWIE! THEY’RE ON THE BLASTED ROOF.

  I figured he tried to use the radio, but it’s hard to hear sometimes when we’re all bunched up with all of us firing. Especially with the infected all howling and going nuts.

  So then Howie was like, WHAT!?

  They’re on the blasted roof trying to get into the skylights. They’ll be inside in a jiffy! Reginald’s yelled.

  BOSS! WINDOW. ONE O’CLOCK! Blowers then shouted as we all looked to where Blowers was pointing to a guy inside the building tearing boards away from the window. But he was panicking and frantic. Then someone else joined him trying to get the boards down as the first guy grabbed a fire extinguisher to smash the last board down before using it to break the glass. Then he’s leaning out and shouting in panic. MR HOWIE MR HOWIE MR HOWIE!

  But Howie’s cursing cos the idiot just gave the infected a way in. But the boss’s voice isn’t that loud so then Dave is shouting at them to go back inside. WE WILL GET TO YOU. GO BACK INSIDE!

  But she’s bleeding, the guy yelled with his hands cupped around his mouth. What do we do? She’s bleeding and the baby’s stuck. We can’t get it out! What do we do?

  Reginald

  The blasted radios we use are cheap and awful and with all the guns firing and the damned infected all howling away there was no way Howie could hear me. So then I’ve shouted they’re on the roof when that chap has smashed the window open and was yelling that the baby was stuck.

  Let me tell you one thing for a fact. Children in peril will always be the number one motivator for warrior types, but a birthing mother in distress? Gosh. That’s a close second and by jove! The pulse it sent through everyone – because there we were you see, already in the thick of i
t and surrounded by a sizable horde with two sudden dilemmas, both of which demanded instant reaction.

  The first being that the infected were already on the flat roof going for the skylights, and once they breached, we’d lose the entire building within minutes.

  The second was that the birthing mother was, by all accounts, bleeding out with the tiny tot stuck inside of her.

  Good lord. That got the blood pumping, but Howie didn’t blink. He didn’t even hesitate.

  ‘TAPPY! GET BACK HERE,’ Howie ordered into the radio. ‘Blowers, take over ground command. Clarence and Dave with me. We’re taking that fucking roof to get Roy inside. MAKE READY!’

  ‘Boss! It’s Charlie. I’ve got a lower flat roof on my side. It’s where they’re going up. Ride the top of the Saxon to me. I’ll start clearing.’

  ‘Tappy here. Coming in hot, boss, get ready.’

  It was all happening so incredibly fast, but that’s the speed a battle moves at, while also feeling like it lasts forever. It’s a bizarre thing.

  The Saxon then came in fast with Howie getting up first to detach the machine gun to pass down to Clarence who shoved it at Maddox and Booker. ‘You two! Get this set up,’ he ordered.

  If that wasn’t enough. I then heard Henry yelling at Joan who was already striding towards the Saxon with her pistol out, firing into the infected to clear a path. She’s an excellent markswoman, and even while moving she was dropping them like flies.

  ‘Fuck me. She is!’ Cookey said as she walked calmly by. ‘She’s Dave’s mum!’

  I could see Bashir was firing next to their SUV. As were Carmen and Frank, and I gather Henry was displaying irritation at Joan rushing off.

  Not that Joan paid him any attention. ‘Wait!’ she called as Clarence paused then stepped back as she arrived and simply wrapped an arm around her legs to lift her up for Howie and Dave to grab her wrists.

  There was no chat or discussion about why she was going with them. There simply wasn’t time. And just as Clarence gripped the back to climb up the Saxon was pulling away.

  I took to my desk – my battle desk as I called it– and flew the drone higher to watch the Saxon beating a path towards Charlie already at work.

  ‘Charlie. It’s Reginald. The Saxon is coming in fast. Fall back. I repeat, fall back, Charlie.’

  She didn’t reply but I could see on the drone that she heard me as Jess immediately twisted and kicked out to get free. Trampling the infected down as the Saxon came in hard and slammed into the body pile.

  By that time, I had altered my view and could see the higher flat roof had a couple of dozen infected attacking the skylights. They were made from thick plastic, but even I could see they were starting to crack.

  ‘With all urgency please, Howie,’ I said, and I could visibly see the reaction as Howie and the others launched themselves from the Saxon to the flat roof and set about beating the infected away. Then it was another quick trip across the lower roof to climb the ledges up to the higher roof.

  However, right at the point, my focus was on the battle on the other side, which only intensified when I observed that while the rotters were not only going at the skylight, they were also forming a very fast body pile beneath the window the chap inside had shouted from. They’d spotted the opening, you see, and they were bloody well going for it.

  The problem, however, was that due to the positioning of several low walls at obtuse angles the Saxon would be unable to get in flush against the building line at the back and clear that body pile.

  Sergeant Blowers was already under a great deal of pressure, nor could they direct fire at the building for fear of rounds going through to those hiding inside. And to make it worse, Howie and his small unit were only then just getting onto the higher flat roof. And don’t forget of course, that our two snipers – Roy and Joan, who would be able to kill the buggers as they reached the window, were also with Howie.

  It was a pickle for sure with now three very pressing situations.

  1 – the skylights.

  2 – the birthing mother that was bleeding out.

  3 – the first floor was very shortly going to be breached – which, as I said, would mean the building being lost within a matter of moments.

  ‘Howie. Sorry to do this to you, but there is a body pile forming beneath the open window.’

  ‘Tappy! Clear it!’ Howie shouted, or rather he grunted it while going up the ladder.

  ‘Negative, Howie. The Saxon will not fit into that section,’ I said.

  ‘Okay. Get Roy to cover it. FUCK! He’s with us. Er, okay, Charlie, do what you can.’

  ‘On it! COME ON JESS!’

  I rather feared there were too many even for Charlie and Jess – and the situation then got worse because I could see another layer then formed on the body pile. One or two more and those people inside would be lost – and Charlie was still some way off.

  Good grief, it was all very tense.

  Then I looked back to see one of the skylights was fracturing and Howie and his unit were only just spilling over the ledge onto the roof, and trust me, that was no easy climb for them.

  I then observed a fellow appear in the open window who began firing a single barrel shotgun into the infected mere feet below, but in all truth, it was too little too late. He might as well have been flicking marbles for all the good it did because by then they were within height of the window with the next lot clambering up the sides of their own kind.

  ‘They’re about to breach!’ I said into the radio as Howie and his unit started running across the flat roof towards the infected attacking the skylights.

  Joan was firing her sniper rifle as she walked, and the power of that thing was taking the infected of their feet. The others were all firing their pistols as they ran. Trying to draw their attention from the skylights.

  But I could see that unless we did something about that window there would be no point protecting the skylights.

  ‘MR HOWIE!’ I said, and yes, I admit, there was most likely a touch of urgency about my tone, but it seemed to do the trick as I, and no doubt all of us, felt the pulse from Howie as the tension really bit. It’s like a rush of raw energy going through you. That’s the best way to describe it.

  ‘FUCK!’ he yelled out, running faster as a great score of infected diverted from the skylight to run at him.

  ‘MARK THE WINDOW!’ Clarence then shouted into the radio. ‘MARK IT, REGGIE!’

  For a second I had no idea what he meant. Mark it? What did that mean. Then I saw Clarence’s face, and I saw the position he was adopting as he ran at the infected on that flat roof. His body was lowering. His arms were stretching out.

  ‘Oh, good god,’ I said to myself as I quickly moved the drone to hover above the flat roof and over the position of the open window. ‘IT’S MARKED! IT’S MARKED!’

  On my life I haven’t never seen anything like it. It’s seared into my memory. The sight of it.

  The sight of Clarence running ahead of Howie. His arms outstretched. His face snarling with a grimace as he roared out with such noise I swear everyone else stopped and twisted to look up. Of course Howie yelled at him. Roy and Joan did the same. But Clarence, see. Clarence knew what he had to do – and so he did it.

  He slammed into the infected charging at him, and he scooped the bastards up in his arms and ran on like a goliath rugby player, gathering them all up and driving them back. You’ve never seen such strength. You’ve never seen a thing like it.

  Howie then detonated his hive mind and we’re all fizzing with rage. I’m up and slamming my battle swatter on my battle desk as Blowers and every member of our team started to turn and run for that body pile.

  But Clarence. Well. He had his way - and that great man swept the infected off their feet all the way to the edge of the roof right under the drone… And then he went down with them.

  Get that sight into your mind. The man ran across the flat roof into the infected, gathering them up to propel backwards and used
his own body weight to ensure they fell.

  I can see it right now in my mind. The sight of the infected all falling backwards with Clarence on top smashing his giant fists into their faces as they dropped.

  And drop they did. Right down from the roof into the body pile that started collapsing from the dozens of infected all raining down. Clarence amongst them. Lost from view within the seething mass.

  A second to see it. A second for the notion of what Clarence just did to settle in the mind and that rage inside made Blowers and Cookey and all of the others turn and sprint for the building.

  That was the body pile taken out, and we had no way of knowing if Clarence was hurt, or even alive, or capable of defending himself – and, of course, the skylights were still being attacked by those infected left on the roof.

  ‘THEY’RE INSIDE!’ Roy shouted, seeing several drop through one of the broken skylights, and Howie who was still running after Clarence veered off and dove headfirst through that same skylight.

  It was all so quick. So incredibly fast.

  My own instincts were pulsing too, and so I took that drone in through the open window and across the room into a corridor filled with people crying out in fear from the infected dropping down from the roof.

  But Howie was amongst them. His face a picture of utter rage as he stabbed into the bodies and grabbed ankles to rip them off their feet to stop them running off.

  Then Dave dropped down as another skylight smashed through with more infected falling down inside.

  ‘NEXT SKYLIGHT, HOWIE!’ I said into the radio and saw as he jerked his head up and screamed out with fury as he got to his feet and ran hard into the ones falling down.

  Gunshots rang out and I turned the drone back to see Dave firing his pistol with lightning speed. Dropping them as quickly as he could as Roy’s med bag dropped down behind him, followed by Roy himself.

  ‘WHERE?’ Roy shouted, shouting at the people running off in fear before he saw the drone hovering in the air. ‘REGGIE! WHERE?’

  He meant the birthing mother of course, so I quickly set off towards one end of the corridor, but it was no good. I flew back the other way but again it was all offices and rooms given over as sleeping quarters.