by Haywood, RR
Carmen
‘Now!’ Henry shouted the second it kicked off in the High Street.
We all gripped on as the van pulled away as Marcy built the speed up and took the van straight over the already busted central reservation. She hit a few infected too. But there were so many she couldn’t help it.
I tried to glimpse through the hatch but could only see a great press of infected pushing in to where I knew Howie was.
‘That one,’ Henry said as Marcy got into the High Street and steered over to get flush alongside the doors to a big office block on the corner. ‘Go go go,’ Henry said, giving the order and tapping my shoulder as I tapped Frank’s who slid the door back and swept out with his rifle up and braced.
Frank went left. I went right with both of us firing the second we got out. Cutting the closest infected down as we secured the gaps at the sides while Henry strode between us with the glass breaker in his hand. A second later I heard the shattering of glass as Henry stepped back to let Frank take point to breach the offices.
I went in on Frank’s six as Bashir led Joan and Roy from the van into the foyer behind us.
‘Good luck,’ Paula shouted before slamming the sliding door as Marcy pulled the van away. Then Frank and I dropped to a knee to change mag as Joan aimed her sniper rifle over our heads towards the stairs ahead of us.
‘Rear,’ Bash said in heavy English before hosing an infected down trying to come in through the street door. He had an M4 with a suppressor too. It was still loud, but not enough to stand out massively with the noise in the street and luckily it didn’t draw more attention.
A second or two later and Frank started up the stairs on point. We reached the top floor and checked the open plan offices. Henry put thick cable ties around the inner handles of the doors while we pushed some desks over to make a barrier.
‘We’re in,’ Henry said into his radio. ‘We’ll get eyes on the street. Stand by.’
‘Standing by,’ Paula replied as we got to work and used rifle buts to smash through the windows to the astonishing sight of Howie’s team in a wide circle fighting out against the infected.
‘Overwatch on,’ Roy said into his radio then a split second later I saw Maddox snap his head up with a grin as an arrow flew past his ear. Then Joan fired and Howie gave a quick thumbs up at seeing us all staring down from the top floor. Then we all started firing. Bash, Frank, Henry and me. Four more rifles adding to the battle as the bodies dropped thick and fast.
‘DRAW BACK!’ Howie shouted. ‘FORM A LINE!’
We watched Charlie work with them to get the team into a line before she too dropped from the saddle to bring her rifle forward. All of them taking a knee with bags at feet, already opened so they can grab magazines. Then Tappy skidded wide past the end, braking hard before she got up into the hole to change the belt feed on the gimpy as the others let rip with their rifles.
A few seconds later Tappy joined in and the firing line worked in earnest with us putting rounds in from a height.
Paula
It was a thrill to see – and the whole thing was a glimpse of how much better we could be if Howie and Henry found a way to cooperate.
‘Find the CP,’ Henry then said through the radio as Reginald guided the drone over the horde. Marcy parked up and the three of us stayed glued to the monitor with sweat beading over our faces. I felt bad too, because everyone else was fighting and we were just staring at a screen. But finding the CP was the most important task.
The only problem was that we couldn’t find it, or, if it was there, we couldn’t see it. Not in the first zone anyway. That being the first section we were ordered to focus on by Henry. Which was also the effective firing range for Roy and Joan. Well, no, that’s not true. They can both shoot very big distances, but the High Street curved which reduced their line of sight.
‘Anything?’ Henry asked a moment later.
‘Nope. It’s not there,’ I replied. ‘Howie. Can you hear me? You need to move up to section two. Repeat. Go for zone two!’ Which is when I said the really stupid thing. I only meant it as a comment, but yeah. Oops. ‘Okay guys. First one to the next junction wins the prize.’
You should have seen their faces. But it got them shifting with the pair of them bursting away at the same time.
‘What the fuck are they doing?’ Marcy asked as we saw Howie yell at his team. Then a second later Howie’s tiny line were slinging their rifles and charging back into the infected while Howie risked a glance up to see Henry already gone from the window.
We took the drone down and watched as Henry ran to the end of the offices, past the windows the others were using and trying to get sight of Howie down below.
Then he reached the end wall and dropped his bag from his back to take a shaped charge out while shooting glances to the end broken window as though trying to see where Howie was.
Henry and the others got behind desks just before the C4 detonated. Sending bricks and plaster through the windows.
Then Howie was shouting for his lot to fight harder, but by that time, Henry was already through the hole in the wall into a living room above an estate agent’s office with his team rushing in behind him. Smashing the windows out to get fire into the street as Henry got to a window and cursed at seeing Howie was ahead of him. Little shit he mouthed then he turned and ran for the next wall to start setting the next charge.
‘Fucking idiots,’ Marcy said, shaking her head. ‘Honestly. I just want to blend them together and create the perfect man. Actually, that’s really hot. God. I’ve made myself all fruity.’
‘Marcy!’ Reginald said.
‘Oh, shut up. You’ve already had a handjob today.’
‘You never,’ I said to him.
‘Of course I bloody didn’t!’
He did Marcy mouthed while masturbating the air next to her head.
‘Oops, there’s the next one,’ Reginald said as we looked back to see the next interior wall blowing out with another loud whump with more bricks and debris sailing down into the street. Which is right at the point Howie chopped a head off and got a face full of blood and stepped back as Henry peered down with a face full of brick dust.
Fuck you! Howie mouthed.
Fuck you! Henry mouthed at the same time, and once again they both turned to keep going with Henry dropping through a partially ruined ceiling into a small bathroom. The toilet blown from its fittings with water spraying out.
Reginald, being as caught up as Marcy and I, then flew the drone into the building to follow Henry splashing out of the bathroom into another set of offices and then to the end wall. Solid brick. No way through. Another building on the other side.
‘Why are you in here?’ Roy asked into the radio as Reggie turned the drone to see Henry’s team rushing into the room to smash windows and get fire support into the street below. ‘The CP’s not in here, is it.’ Roy added while kicking a window out before firing his bow at an infected trying to get on top of the Saxon.
‘What does this button do?’ Marcy then asked, peering at the controller in Reggie’s hand.
‘Just leave it alone,’ Reginald said, pulling away from her trying to press buttons. ‘Marcy! I said leave it,’ he shouted as she jabbed at the button and Reggie flew the drone into the back of Henry’s head.
‘What the bloody hell are you doing?’ Henry yelled, turning to glare.
‘Sorry!’ Reggie said through the radio.
‘Get out and find the CP!’
‘Oh wow,’ Marcy said. ‘We can hear him.’
‘Eh?’ I asked.
‘Marcy?’ Roy said as Reggie turned the drone to look at Roy staring at the camera.
‘Can you hear me?’ Marcy asked.
‘I can hear you!’ Roy said.
‘We can hear you too!’ Marcy said.
‘Great. Now get back to shooting the bleeding zombies,’ Frank said.
‘Er, not zombies, Frank. They’re not technically dead,’ Reginald said, earning a look from
Frank as Henry shouted MAKE READY and everyone in the room, and I’ll admit, us three in the van all ducked as the next charge went off.
The force of which sent the drone flying out the window to drop down just in time to see Howie staring up at the new explosion. ‘WANKER! HE’S GETTING AHEAD.’
‘COME ON!’ Clarence roared out while whipping his chain into the next load of infected. Good god he was going for it. They all were. The whole lot of them on the ground were fighting like utter bastards to beat Henry and his team working through the building.
‘GO ON, HOWIE! BLOW JOB IF YOU WIN!’ Marcy then shouted as Reggie ducked from her voice shouting right next to his ear. ‘Get back up, I wanna see what Henry’s doing.’
‘You not going to offer him a blowjob as well then?’ I asked.
‘You know. Howie’s not a jealous man but…’ Marcy said with a what can you do expression.
‘Hang on. This is the double wall isn’t it? Reggie. Is this the double wall?’ Henry asked with a glance to the drone.
‘I’m impartial to this competition, Henry,’ Reginald replied.
‘Answer the bloody question you idiot!’
‘Yes! It’s a double wall,’ Reginald blurted. ‘Oh crikey. Don’t tell Howie I helped Henry.’
‘Damn it,’ Henry said as he sped up to place the charge then darted away for cover as it went off.
We flew outside for fear of the backdraft to see Howie looking up at the explosion before shouting to Clarence. ‘Double wall! It’ll take him longer.’
‘Ha!’ Clarence said. ‘COME ON LADS!’
By which time we were back into the office watching Henry stretch across the gap to place charges on the next wall. It blew out a moment later as Henry grabbed and heaved a desk to make a bridge then got through into the next building.
By that time. Howie was further ahead and making use of the Saxon to make big advances. But Henry only had two buildings left to go. That meant two more walls to blow out and he’d secure the last building and reach the next junction first.
Honestly. It sounds so stupid now. But fuck the CP. We were hooked on the competition and we went back into the building to watch Henry working away on the last wall. Placing the charge as the others fired down into the street. We half expected Henry to tell them to stop helping Howie, but thankfully even he didn’t do that.
Instead, he blew the charge and got through the cloud of dust into a bedroom on the other side with a curse at seeing the bodies of an old couple lying entwined on the bed. ‘My apologies,’ Henry told them softly, earning an aww from Marcy.
He then turned away and opened the bedroom door to a corridor full of infected before slamming it closed with a second’s worth of pause. ‘Frank!’
‘What?’ Frank shouted from the last building.
‘Hold there for a moment please.’
‘Will do, Henry. Need a hand?’
‘No. I’ll be fine,’ Henry said as we watched on at him slinging his rifle and drawing his knife.
‘He’s not,’ Marcy said.
‘I rather think he is,’ Reginald said with us three leaning closer to the monitor as Henry opened the door and stepped out to jam the end of his knife into the throat of an infected male. He yanked it free then grabbed the hair of a female and ripped her off her feet while stabbing into the neck as she dropped. Then he was up and turning to draw his blade across another neck before going low to slice an artery open in a groin at the same time as drawing his pistol and firing rounds into the head.
By then he’d reached the living room door and an infected coming out, charging into him. But Henry just took the momentum and flipped the guy over his hip before he shot him in the head. A step into the living room and more infected all coming at him. He feinted one way and went the other over a sofa to make them trip while grabbing a shaped charge from his pocket to slap onto the wall before firing his pistol at the ones getting over the sofa.
They dropped, but more came into the room as Henry jabbed the det cord into the C4 then holstered his pistol and stepped into the attack with his knife stabbing at chest and eyes and necks in an absolute frenzy.
‘Jesus. He’s a bloody animal,’ Marcy said at the savagery of the man. It was like watching Howie. That level of rage. Then he grabbed a heavy female and took her down with her on top and him underneath as he triggered the C4. Which promptly blew the shit out of all the other infected while Henry casually shot the heavy female on top of him and rolled her off.
‘Fuck!’ Marcy said as he got up, went to the bedroom and called the others through. ‘Okay. If me and Howie ever split up, I’ve got dibs on Henry.’
‘Charmed. I’m sure,’ Henry said while arching an eyebrow at the drone. ‘Do I get a say in this?’
‘Oh shit. He heard me,’ Marcy said. ‘Reggie, you twat!’
‘You turned the audio on you blasted idiot!’
‘Been busy then,’ Frank said mildly as they got into the flat to see Henry kicking the bricks away to get into the last building. We went with him as he rushed to find the door out then the stairs down and another door that he booted open in frustration before sweeping into stock room of the boutique fashion store on the ground level. Then into the retail area and over to the plate glass window. Firing a single shot into the corner to make the glass crumble as he stepped out to see a grinning Howie and his team in a line at the junction letting rip with their rifles.
‘What kept you?’ Howie asked as Henry grunted and tried to hide the look of disappointment.
‘Update on the CP,’ he ordered instead. ‘Reggie!’ he snapped, looking up at the drone.
‘Oh god, he means us,’ Reginald said. ‘Righto, Henry. Er. Well done, chaps. The next section goes up to a small junction on the right. Get to that, and we’ll try and find it.’
I thought maybe Henry and Howie would tell Reggie to get stuffed, but nope, the toxic masculinity between them was way too far gone for things like common sense to take over. Henry clearly wanted to get a point back, and Howie clearly wanted to go two nil up, so it was wash, rinse, repeat and boom. The pair of them went straight back at it.
‘Right. We need this CP. Lift the view up so we can see more of them,’ I said as I leant in closer to the monitor right at the same second that Reginald cleared his throat.
I never had a chance to address it at the time because of what happened after, but it stuck in my mind. Thinking back now, I’m convinced Reginald knew what we were about to find. I think he knew, and I think that throat clearing was a tell.
Jesus. I think back now to how I felt at that point of the day, and how tired and hot I was but I had no idea just how bad it was going to get. Maybe Reginald planned for that too. I wouldn’t be surprised. His intelligence is on a level most of us cannot even comprehend, and yeah, if Reginald had told us what we were about to face then we’d never have done it.
Anyway. Let me paint this picture for you. Let me try and describe what I saw, and I say try because there are not words to give that will come close to describing what we saw.
The infected were all in Crawley town centre. We never questioned that. We just knew that’s where they were.
And specifically, they were in the High Street, which was the main road running south to north through the middle of Crawley. And it was on that road that Howie was attacking them while Henry was using the buildings in the High Street to get height to try and find the CP.
And remember – we were doing that so Henry could witness and observe the CP before he went into London to find and release the Panacea. Howie, however, was in a difficult spot. He wanted to help Henry, but Howie couldn’t turn away from helping survivors in need. Which is where most of the issues had come from.
So we went into Crawley to find the CP, and Howie and Henry were working along the High Street section by section to do just that.
But what we hadn’t done. What none of us had done, Henry included, and because of the way Reginald kept the pressure on and kept us distracted, was
look ahead.
We hadn’t done that.
Which is what I did then.
I looked ahead.
I told Reginald to fly the drone higher with a sudden impulse to get a grasp of the size and numbers we had to work through to get at the CP.
Except there was no sign of the CP, and there was no end to the infected wedged onto that main road running north out of Crawley – and the higher we went, the more we saw of them.
We went up to 120 metres and still increasing as we started seeing rooftops and alleys and the curve of the High Street. By 200 metres up the next junction was clear in view. But all we could see were infected rammed into that road.
‘That’s a lot,’ Marcy said quietly, and that stuck in my mind too because there was no sarcasm or sassiness to her right then. Just a raw understatement at what was unfolding on that monitor and the growing unease we were both feeling, and the higher we went, the more we saw. Stretching away like a thick snake running through Crawley and out into the countryside.
I’ve never seen anything like it. Well, no, that’s not true. I have seen things like it on the news when you’d see those countries in crisis with miles of refugees trying to escape whatever was going on. It was like that; except they weren’t refugees. They were all infected, and the gasp came when we finally reached the head of the snake and the view from the drone changed significantly.
We’d been following the main road that once, many years ago, would have run directly north into London. It was even called The London Road. However, it no longer ran directly north due to a massive airport someone had built – that being Gatwick international airport. The busiest single runway airport in the world.
Yeah.
That airport.
Which we then flew into and watched as the view below changed from fields to a vast open area so very different in size and shape to anything else. And of course the perfectly straight lines of the two-mile-long runway slap bang in the middle of it.
That, however, wasn’t the thing that made us gasp.
The gasp came from the sight of the narrow road disgorging the infected into the airport.
