The Undead | Day 25 [The Heat]

by Haywood, RR

  Then we were out and running behind the Saxon as it carved a path through the horde to the building line. Steering off at the last second to give us access to a street level door. Frank snapped the lock while Henry wrapped some C4 around the padlocked chains. We took cover, blew it open then swept inside to a communal concrete staircase then up and out into a long access corridor running the length of the block at the back of the flats.

  ‘Bash, hold the stairs,’ Henry ordered. Giving him the hand signal ‘Frank. Get them into the end flat. Carmen, with me.’

  We rushed on as Frank started booting at doors and telling people to get out. The corridor filling fast with survivors screaming in panic. Getting grabbed and moved while Henry and I work to the far end. To the far flat. Booting the door open and sweeping inside to a family huddled together in absolute terror.

  ‘Get to the end flat now!’ Henry ordered.

  ‘Go!’ I urged them, motioning for them to move as Henry and I found the stairs up to the third floor and the balcony overlooking the plaza. Patio doors leading out. Feeble flimsy things that we wrenched open and stepped out into the noise and carnage of a battle underway.

  Joan’s rifle firing deep shots. The Saxon roaring past underneath. The howls of the infected and the shouts coming from Howie and his team right in the middle. And fuck me, they were surrounded. Jesus.

  ‘Damn it!’ Henry shouted as I looked over to the other building line jutting out at a right angle. Stores on the ground floor. Flats over the top with balconies on the top level. An exact replica of this block, but the infected had breached and were already inside. We could see them flowing in through the ground floor at the far end, then we could see them through the windows on the first floor and we both tensed as they came out onto the balcony on the third floor.

  I hunkered down onto a knee and took aim to get fire into them. But the distance was too great for an assault rifle, especially as I didn’t have a scope. I was scoring hits, but they were body shots and not kill shots.

  ‘Roy. Balcony,’ I transmitted quickly and took another shot as one of the infected on the balcony flew back from an arrow hitting his head.

  Henry then joined in and for a few seconds we kept it clear and hoped that would do until another option presented. Unfortunately, though, the infected were too fast and driving too hard and that balcony started flooding with them pouring out of the patio doors. Then a second after that they were going over the thin wall separating the balconies and smashing through the patio doors into the next flat, and once they’d found the way they started flowing even faster.

  We searched for a way into that block, but there were too many infected on the ground between us, and the gap between the blocks, although leapable by an infected, was way too much for a person.

  The only real option we had was to stem the flow before the infected reached the end flat and made the leap over to this row of balconies otherwise we’d lose both blocks.

  ‘Enemy!’ Bashir transmitted as we heard firing coming from the other end of our block.

  ‘Joan! Get fire into that doorway,’ Henry ordered as we saw Joan switch her aim to try and slow the infected pouring in through the door at street level.

  ‘UPDATE?’ Howie then shouted with a backdrop of pure carnage coming through the radios.

  ‘Two fronts again, Howie,’ Reginald said. ‘They’re already in one block. We’re defending the block closest to you, but they are breaching the door in.’

  ‘Okay. Charlie, clear a path from us to the door. We’ll get Paula and Marcy over there. WATCH HIM, DANNY!’

  He clicked off as we saw another frantic push from the infected and Howie back to battering them down with his axe as Charlie and Jess fought through then angled out to start fighting towards the street door. ‘Can anyone get into that end block?’ Howie asked between cutting them down.

  ‘It’s lost, Howie,’ Henry said

  ‘GET INTO IT AND HELP THEM!’

  ‘I said it’s bloody lost! All we can do is protect this one.’

  Reginald

  ‘FUCK!’ Howie then shouted, and I could completely understand his frustration, but the battle was intense and right then, there was nothing anyone could do for that other block. Plus, there were more infected running into the plaza from the road. Not vast swathes, I grant you, but there was enough backfill going on to hamper our efforts to make progress.

  Then of course, came the thing we all dreaded seeing.

  There were eight flats in that other block. The infected already had four of them and were about to go over the balcony wall onto the fifth when the patio doors opened from inside and a family ran out screaming and crying. A man and a woman with a child held in the woman’s arms. The man had a bat that he was using to swipe at the infected pushing him out through the doors – which is when we realised the infected were not just going balcony to balcony, but they were also using the rear access corridor to force their way into the flats.

  ‘JOAN!’ Carmen shouted into the radio, and from my position above the field I saw Roy and Joan both divert their fire onto that balcony. I have never seen Roy fire so fast as right then. He had four or five arrows in flight at the same time and they were landing too. That family were pressed up against the far wall while Roy took them out coming over the other wall and Joan shot them back through the patio doors.

  My god I had never seen anything like it. The precision of those two made the hairs on the back of my neck prickle and once again, the ebb and flow of battle made me think we’d save them, but a second later and the infected were just too many, and even the combined firing rate of Joan and Roy wasn’t enough.

  The man went down first. Bravely too. He did what he could to protect his family, but against such a foe there was no hope. That also meant the woman holding the child had to see him get taken down as two more shots rang out.

  Two fast clear shots.

  One through the woman’s head.

  One through the child’s.

  ‘May god have mercy,’ Joan said into the radio as Carmen screamed out. I could see her on the balcony of the other block leaning over the railings with the veins pushing through her head and neck. Then a second later she ditched her rifle and was up onto the safety railings then up onto the roof and running back the other way while Henry was shouting at her to get down.

  She stopped, paused for a second then ran full pelt along that roof top then launched herself over that gap to the other block. It was a distance too. Let me tell you that, and she barely made it. She just about gripped the guttering with her hands then started scrabbling up to grip the actual roof as the guttering broke away and dropped into the hordes below.

  Then she was up on the roof and running before sliding down the slope to grip the edge and swing onto the third from end balcony. Landing on her feet then she was up and throwing a potted plant through the patio door and going inside. I flew the drone in with her. Doing what I could as she raced down the stairs to a living room already full of infected biting down into a woman on the floor. Carmen screamed and went at them. Clearly intending to kill the lot.

  ‘No, Carmen!’ I shouted into the radio. ‘The next flat. Get to the next flat!’

  She must have heard me as she stabbed one through the neck then leapt over the others and ran out into the access corridor into more infected pouring along. She was fast though, and whipped her pistol out to get close quarters aimed shots into heads. Blowing brains out all over the show.

  ‘Behind you!’ I transmitted and watched as she turned and moved back to avoid the ones at her rear and shot them both dead. ‘That’s it. You’re clear. Next flat, Carmen. Hurry, they’re coming through.’

  She turned and ran, pausing only to boot the door open into the next flat. ‘Reggie, check upstairs!’ she shouted out as she started clearing the first floor while I went up to the second.

  ‘Up here, Carmen. End bedroom. Mother and child.’

  She raced up and grabbed them and shouted at them to mo
ve but I had flown down into the first floor and could see the rear door into the access corridor was breached.

  ‘Balcony, Carmen. The door is gone,’ I said into the radio as Carmen dragged the woman and carried the child out onto the balcony while I flew out and up to see them coming over the next balcony. ‘At speed please, Miss Eze.’

  She pretty much manhandled the woman over the wall then clambered over with the child and dragged them through the patio doors into the last flat. I flew in ahead and down to see one other woman with a young boy hiding underneath a wooden table. I directed Carmen to them then quickly flew out and over to look for an exfil option.

  But Howie was still seriously pinned. Frank and Bash were protecting the last flat in the other block and the dozens of survivors they’d secured, and Marcy and Paula were busy holding the stairs.

  I thought to get Charlie in. At least she could carry the children away, but she was on the far side of the plaza. That only left Tappy in the Saxon.

  I rather gather that Henry was also running the tactical options through his mind because he then called out through the radio. ‘Tappy. Get inside and get them out.’

  And I’m wondering what the bloody hell he meant. Tappy is an excellent driver, and she’s good in a scrap, but she wasn’t Dave. There was no way Tappy could single handed fight through a horde that size to save Carmen and the survivors.

  But of course, Henry didn’t mean Tappy. He meant the Saxon.

  ‘The walls, Tappy. Thin walls! Get in there!’ Henry shouted.

  ‘What?’ Tappy asked, frowning up at him on the balcony with her hands held up and watching as he swooshed a flat bladed hand out towards the last block and curved it off to the side.

  ‘Thin walls, Tappy,’ he said.

  ‘Oh, you bloody genius!’ she said with a sudden grin

  ‘Why is he a genius?’ I asked. ‘Tappy? Why is Henry a genius?’

  ‘Thin walls,’ Tappy said with a yell as she started driving at speed towards the last unit in that block. Aiming directly at the plate glass window of the hairdressers within.

  ‘TAPPY!’ I yelled while scrunching back into my seat and grabbing the dog for dear life, who, it seemed, appeared to be having a grand old time.

  ‘BRACE!’ Tappy then yelled and darn it if she didn’t drive the bloody Saxon straight into the bloody hairdressers window. Not just into it, but through it and deep inside where we pinged metal swivel chairs off their stalks and sent them flying off into wall mirrors while plaster and bricks rained down. ‘You’re right, Henry. It’s got thin walls,’ Tappy transmitted.

  ‘Well done, Tappy! Now draw back. Carmen! Get out the window. The Saxon is below you.’

  ‘I bloody felt it,’ Carmen said as I looked down at the screen to see her dragging and shouting at the survivors to get them across the living room to the window and the Saxon jutting out below. ‘Tappy! I bloody love you,’ she transmitted before climbing out and dropping the few feet to land on the Saxon roof. ‘KIDS! QUICKLY!’ she yelled as Henry, Roy and Joan got fire into the infected aiming for the Saxon now jutting out of the shop.

  The first child was dropped and caught by Carmen then dropped down through the hole into the Saxon with Tappy in the back, grabbing it to put to one side. Then the other one came down followed by the two mothers, who, despite being shocked, were admirable in their presence of mind. Then a moment later Carmen dropped in and Tappy got back into the driver’s seat.

  ‘We’re in!’ Carmen relayed.

  ‘Take the walls out,’ Henry ordered.

  ‘Roger that, Mr Henry!’ Tappy said. ‘Come on baby. Give me some power!’ she shouted at the Saxon as we backed out of the building with Carmen getting the survivors to hunker down low in the middle before she came up front to lean over the seat and my shoulder to look at the screen on my controller. She was rather close too. I mean, I could feel the heat from her head, and she was breathing very hard.

  ‘Well done,’ I said to her. ‘That was very brave of you.’

  ‘Thanks for your help,’ she said with that nice smile she gave me earlier. Then she stayed looking at me for a long second with a funny expression, but I went back to my screen and clutched the seat in blind terror as Tappy sped up and once again drove the bloody Saxon straight into a bloody building. Only this time she went into the shop next door with enough power to demolish the insides and knock interior walls down.

  The next few minutes were a blur if I am honest. We just seemed to go out and in, and by in I mean into the buildings where Tappy had wonderful fun driving through the walls inside the block. Battering her way from one end to the other.

  I could see, however, that the infected were now pouring over the balcony towards the last flat where they would make the leap to the block holding the survivors.

  ‘Anyone for wine?’ Tappy then asked, making Carmen laugh as I looked up to see us battering into a wine shop with bottles of Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc exploding in a chorus of colours. Then we went straight through the far wall with another huge bang and more bricks and god only knows what else coming down on top of us.

  ‘That’s it. Now get out, Tappy!’ Henry ordered as Tappy got the Saxon into reverse and pulled us out into the plaza.

  By then I could both hear and feel the building around us groaning and shaking. The supporting walls all along the front side were now gone and cracks were forming in back walls and spreading out like spider webs.

  I could see Henry watching from his block. His fist clenched as though urging it to happen, but I gather one of the internal walls was still too intact. The one between a café and the wine shop.

  Henry then suddenly ran off and was gone for a moment then came up clutching a grenade, by that time the infected had got onto the last balcony and started flowing over to make the leap. Henry though. He was calm as anything and popped the pin out then lobbed it inside the unit he wanted.

  One thousand.

  Two thousand.

  Three thousand.

  I heard the dull whump and saw fragments and bricks blowing out and Henry cursing that it wasn’t enough. The building was still upright and the infected were now on the roof and running to make the leap as the ground beneath them simply dropped away.

  Good grief. It was a thing to see. The whole block just simply collapsed in on itself with scores of infected disappearing into the dust and rubble.

  ‘Yes!’ Henry said, punching the air as Tappy and Carmen whooped inside the Saxon – at which point Carmen planted a big kiss on my cheek. Why do women keep kissing my cheeks? I am beginning to think I have highly desirable cheeks or something.

  ‘Well done,’ Joan said into the radio before firing once more into the door leading to the stairs of the first row. Carmen and I then focussed on the screen and watched the battle as Tappy drove about killing things.

  We could see Howie below the drone still cleaving them down. Jess thundering past. Charlie breaking skulls. Henry, Bashir and Frank firing over the balcony while Marcy and Paula were now at the street door, shooting out into the horde.

  The gaps were showing. The horde was thinning out. A few moments later and once more the ground lay thick with bodies. The hand weapons dropped as assault rifles were used to kill the last ones.

  Then it was done.

  Another battle. Another victory.

  The Battle of Billinghurst, and Howie once more stood in the middle. Covered in blood and gore and surrounded by death on all sides. His team with him. The sweat pouring down. Chests heaving. Hands and arms sticky and wet with blood. Clothes sodden. Hair stuck to scalps. The rage still showing. The flush of battle.

  The Saxon came to a stop. The door to the stairs opened with Henry leading the others out as Howie seemed to notice the buildings at the far end had come down. ‘Who did that?’ he asked.

  ‘Tappy,’ Henry said.

  ‘Wasn’t my idea though,’ Tappy shouted, jumping out from the Saxon with a big grin as she rushed over to Henry for a hug. ‘You bloody genius! H
onestly, Mr Henry. That was so cool.’

  A glimpse of mild surprise in Henry’s face at the contact, but he took it in good grace. Smiling at the energy in Tappy and the sense of victory.

  ‘Seriously,’ Tappy said, turning back to run over to the lads. ‘Mr Henry was like, Tappy! Drive into those thin walls. And I was like, are you fucking joking! But did you see it come down?’

  ‘That was very good, Henry,’ Roy said, picking his way over with Joan. ‘Brilliant fight. Best one in days.’

  ‘Jesus, boss,’ Tappy said, turning back to see the sea of death surrounding Howie and his team. ‘Holy fuck. We are on a roll today.’

  Then Carmen and I got out of the Saxon with Carmen rushing ahead. ‘Joan,’ she said. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘I’m fine,’ Joan said curtly. ‘It had to be done.’

  ‘What had to be done?’ Howie asked as everyone else fell silent.

  ‘I can tell them,’ Carmen said while looking at Joan.

  ‘No. I said I am fine. I killed a mother and child,’ she said with her head held high, but the strain was there in her eyes. ‘They were about to be taken.’

  ‘Jesus, Joan,’ Paula said, moving towards her.

  ‘No fuss please. We do what we must,’ Joan said, making Paula stop as everyone else just looked at the older woman standing in quiet dignity.

  ‘If it ever comes to it, you do me like that,’ Carmen said. ‘You have my permission, Joan.’

  ‘You couldn’t get to them?’ Howie asked as everyone looked from Joan to Howie staring at Henry. ‘Why couldn’t you get to them?’

  ‘We tried, Howie,’ Carmen said. ‘And I did. I went over the top and-.’

  ‘You do not need to explain yourself, Carmen,’ Henry said with a furious look. ‘Do not question my team, Howie. Do not ever question my team.’

  ‘Henry, it’s fine,’ Carmen said. ‘Howie can ask. He didn’t see it.’

  ‘Roy,’ Howie said without taking his eyes from Henry.

  ‘There was nothing we could do,’ Roy said. ‘You were hemmed in. Charlie was at a distance and even if Tappy got in close she couldn’t get through that building.’