The Undead | Day 25 [The Heat]

by Haywood, RR

  ‘HOLD YOUR FIRE!’ Frank yelled as we started running towards them, thinking the swarm to have started already. But it was just a terrified young cop letting a few rounds off in panic. I stopped to suck air and stared down the escalators connecting the bridge to the lower boarding gates.

  ‘Why aren’t these blown?’ I asked Frank. ‘Have you prepped them?’

  ‘Do you want me to shit in your tea cup?’ he asked me with a look. ‘Now bugger off and leave me alone. It’s bad enough with those bloody fire alarms. What idiot set them off?’

  I went to reply then shrugged and went back onto the bridge.

  ‘Carmen! The charges aren’t set,’ Henry said, also giving me a look.

  ‘I’m doing it!’ I muttered while wishing I was in the van playing nerds and nurses with Reginald.

  Reginald

  I was starting to wish I was anywhere else by that point, because for the life of me I couldn’t see the new CP’s. Not with the whole thing in motion the way it was.

  Which then gave me a rather splendid idea. ‘Tappy. Get everyone inside and drive along the runway.’

  I glanced back via the drone to see the Saxon moving off.

  ‘You bloody genius!’ Roy then said with a laugh as I smiled at the effect the Saxon was having by making one of the hordes veer direction to try and go after it. Which in turn meant greater confusion as the infected ran into each other and got in each other’s way.

  It didn’t do a lot. But it slowed the whole thing down.

  ‘Keep doing that, Tappy,’ I requested and sat back with a sigh then felt a lurch when I saw a small group of infected standing still next to a white building halfway between the runway and the bridge.

  I guided the drone over, hardly believing my luck and there it was. An entirely average male infected with short greying hair and a bite wound on his abdomen standing in the middle of a circle of other infected, and I realised he must be the CP going for Howie.

  ‘Joan. Are you in position?’ I asked.

  ‘Ready and waiting,’ she replied immediately.

  ‘Approximately four hundred metres west of the tower. White building on the northern side. Group of six. The male in the middle. Naked torso. Grey hair.’

  ‘Got him. Do I have a greenlight?’

  ‘You have the greenlight,’ I said and like magic his head blew out in a cloud of pink mist as he slumped backwards.

  ‘CP down,’ Joan said calmly and a second later the horde going for Howie slowed once again.

  ‘Go on, Joanie!’ Cookey said into the radio.

  My word what a sight it was and again I felt the trill of a cohesive working together to a plan, but it still left the horde going for the north terminal, and with the other horde now static they were able to move faster.

  ‘Tower to control. I’ve got sight on a static group just inside the eastern edge of the south terminal boarding gate. I can only see two of the outer ring. Not the CP. North side should have a clear line of sight.’

  ‘I’ll get the drone in,’ I transmitted as I started flying towards the wreckage of the south terminal’s boarding gate. Most of it now crumpled and broken to the ground amidst the nose of the jet airliner that ploughed into it.

  Carmen

  ‘We need a DMR,’ Henry called out. ‘Mr Dawson?’

  ‘A what?’ the Chief Inspector asked, blinking rapidly with a show of stress.

  ‘Designated Marksman Rifle. Where’s your sniper?’ Henry asked him.

  ‘We’ve got an LMT back at the barricade,’ the guard who’d shown us in said while already running off.

  I jogged back to Frank with a set of binoculars and dropped into the prone to get a stable viewing platform by resting the lenses on my kit bag. Frank nestled in at my side while I slowed my breathing and gained sight of the wreckage of the boarding gate on the south terminal then started working in over the heads of the shuffling infected, while yet more angry infected ran through them.

  ‘I have them,’ Reginald said in the radio as I heard Colin the guard running up behind me.

  ‘Give it here, lad,’ Frank said.

  ‘Control. This is north side. We’re setting up for a view. Where are we looking, please?’ I asked.

  ‘Er, so, from your point of view you need to find the nose of the crashed jet then work right. Can you see the remains of the HSBC logo on that downed section of wall? The static group are behind that logo. The CP is looking through a window to the north terminal.’

  ‘FUCK THEY’RE GETTING IN!’ someone screamed out.

  ‘Calm it down, nipper. They’re not inside yet,’ Frank said as I felt and heard him setting the rifle up. ‘Right. What we got?’

  The binos gave me a more powerful, cleaner view of the target than the scope so I acted as spotter and guided Frank to the target.

  ‘Which side of the window?’ I asked.

  ‘Your left,’ Reginald replied. ‘An inch right of the frame. Twenty inches up from the base.’

  ‘Twenty inches up. One inch in,’ Frank said as he sighted down the scope. ‘Go?’

  ‘Go,’ I said.

  He took the shot. Sending the 7.62 high velocity round through the plate glass window and across four hundred metres through another window and into the skull of an adult female.

  ‘CP down. Good shot,’ Reginald said as the entire horde outside suddenly stopped screeching and running to slow to a shuffle.

  ‘Shot, Frankie,’ Joan said.

  ‘Yeah, not bad for an old man,’ I said giving Frank a smile. ‘Frankie.’

  ‘Piss off and make me a cuppa,’ he said as the screeching came back outside from the other horde coming back to life. The ones that had been going for Howie. Except they didn’t go for Howie.

  They started coming for us.

  Reginald

  The best laid schemes of mice and men is a line adapted from a piece by Robert Burns. I couldn’t rightly speak on behalf of the rodent species, but I think I was confident in saying it was certainly true of the hominoid species, and specifically the sub-group known as the Great Apes, that being the one which the human species belong to.

  Either way, our plan was now beginning to unfold, and once that tiny corner of the plan started to fray it wasn’t long before the whole bloody thing went to shit.

  And, as per the law of sod, it was only a matter of time before the other horde also re-animated and they too decided to join their brethren in attacking the north terminal.

  ‘You’re losing your touch, nipper,’ Frank said into the radio with a jokey comment aimed at Howie and his troupe currently sat in the Saxon wondering why the buggering hell none of the infected were going for them.

  ‘Honestly. I’m actually feeling rejected right now,’ Howie replied.

  ‘Then I suggest, Mr Howie, that you come and join our party as it appears we are about to be swarmed,’ Henry transmitted.

  ‘Quickly lads! They’re coming in fast,’ Paula also said, which did the trick and no sooner than anything the lads had once more piled into the Saxon with Tappy setting a course for the north terminal.

  ‘They’re body piling the pier,’ Joan then transmitted.

  ‘What pier? I thought we were in an airport,’ Howie said.

  ‘The long stems holding the boarding gates are called piers,’ Joan explained as I think a great many people all thought, oh, I didn’t know that. I, of course, did know that, and indeed, Joanie was quite right because the darned infected were, indeed, body piling the bloody pier.

  ‘Howie! Focus on the body pile. Joanie, can you search west of the tower. Roy, you look along the southern fringes. I’ll do the western side,’ I said into the radio as I continued my search, and in so doing I caught sight of the survivors starting to pour out of the train station from the north terminal on that raised monorail.

  And it was at that point that line by Robert Burns came to mind, because I then saw a rather large horde coming out of the south terminal train station on the same raised monorail that our surv
ivors were trying to flee on.

  Which, as Howie would say, was a bit shit.

  ‘Howie, it’s Reginald. We have an issue. There’s infected on the monorail coming from the south terminal.’

  ‘Oh. That’s a bit shit then. Right. Er. No worries. Leave it with me.’

  ‘Oh, and Howie?’

  ‘Yes, Reginald.’

  ‘They’re running rather fast, old chap.’

  ‘Righto!’

  Maddox

  Righto, Howie said into the radio. Well. It was all going a bit too well really, he added as Clarence and Blowers both nodded.

  Every half hour, Clarence said.

  Every half hour, Blowers and Howie said as Howie bit his bottom lip before shifting to look out the front window to the thousands of infected running in the same direction we were driving.

  Henry. We need some C4, Howie transmitted. Henry replied and said understood and told Howie to drive under the bridge.

  Okay, Mads, I need you with me and Dave. You can hotwire cars. Clarence, you keep them here clearing the north terminal.

  I can hotwire, Books said. I’ll jump in, boss, and give you cover.

  Fair one, Howie said as me and Books shared a quick fist bump at getting a mission on our own. Tappy, get us under that bridge. We’ll grab the C4 then bug out. Lads, get ready. Dave, you good?

  Good at what, Mr Howie?

  I mean are you good to go? Fuck’s sake. I meant are you ready, Dave?

  Yes, Mr Howie.

  Great.

  I think Dave does it on purpose sometimes to wind Howie up. Which is quite funny when we’re not driving into a shitstorm of hell.

  Then a minute later we were in that shitstorm of hell.

  We’re coming under the bridge! Tappy shouted.

  Carmen

  So then the guards are using a metal bench to batter through one of the extra toughened panes of glass on the bridge while Henry was on a knee getting det-cord, detonators and C4 into a bag while Frank was shouting at the guards not to fire.

  ‘We need to fucking kill them!’ one them yelled.

  ‘Yeah? and what happens if we start shooting?’ Frank asked him. ‘We break the glass they’re smashing their heads into, and we end up letting them in. Everyone hold. Do not fire.’

  I knew the guards were panicking. Jesus. Who wouldn’t be in that situation, and it was counter-intuitive not to start firing down the escalators and through the windows. But even if we fired every bullet we had and got a kill with each shot, there would still be thousands of infected left, and the fact was that we weren’t there to get kills.

  We were there to buy time.

  Which, from all accounts, was about to go bent after Reggie said the infected were on the monorail. Which is also why Howie was asking for C4, which by then Henry was about to throw out of the window to the Saxon below.

  ‘Midway between the pylons,’ Henry shouted down.

  ‘Are you seriously telling me how to blow things up?’ Howie shouted from the roof of the Saxon. ‘We’ve got Dave.’

  Henry went to reply but thought better of it. I mean. What can you say to that? Dave blew a cow up. And he was the guy that blew the refinery up that was seen by astronauts on the space station.

  Either way. Howie had the right person with him to blow the monorail out.

  Dave

  My name is Dave. I am writing a diary because Paula said it is important to tell people what we did.

  We were in Gatwick airport. It was very hot. We were meant to be making the infected attack us so Mr Henry could get survivors out of the north terminal. But the infected were not attacking us. Frank said Mr Howie had lost his touch. Things like that confuse me as I don’t know if it meant Mr Howie had lost the sensation of touch from his fingers, or if it was said as a saying which meant he could not do what he could do before. I did watch Mr Howie touch his radio and his face, and it appeared his sense of touch was okay.

  Then Reginald said the infected were on the monorail and Mr Howie said that was a bit sh*t. I thought it would be a lot sh*t.

  Then Mr Howie told Maddox and Alan to come with us because they knew how to steal cars. I thought we were meant to be stopping the infected from body piling and not stealing cars. Then Mr Howie asked Mr Henry for some C4. I don’t know why because I had some C4 in my cubby hole in the Saxon, but I thought maybe Mr Howie wanted to use Mr Henry’s C4.

  Mr Henry then gave Mr Howie some C4 by throwing it out of a window and he told Mr Howie ‘midway between the pylons.’

  Mr Howie then said he had Dave. Which meant me. Mr Henry didn’t say anything else, and we carried on driving.

  ‘Right, Dave. You got this?’ Mr Howie then asked me.

  ‘Have I got what, Mr Howie?’

  ‘This! We’re blowing the monorail up.’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘Okay what?’

  ‘Okay, Mr Howie.’

  ‘Eh?! What the f*ck. No, right, listen. We’re going to go and blow the monorail up. Okay?’

  ‘Yes, Mr Howie.’

  I don’t know why he told me twice. I heard him the first time.

  ‘Right. So you ready?’

  I wasn’t sure what he meant because he’d already asked me and I’d said yes. ‘Ready for what, Mr Howie?’

  ‘OH MY FUCKING GOD! Where’s Marcy when you need her.’

  ‘She’s with Reginald,’ I said to Mr Howie.

  ‘No! I know. I meant. Okay. No. Sorry. We’ll start over. We need to go and blow the monorail up, got it?’

  ‘Got what?’

  ‘The boss means do you understand?’ Clarence asked me.

  ‘Understand what?’

  ‘He’s doing it on purpose,’ Clarence said. ‘You’re doing it on purpose.’

  I waited for a second and looked from Mr Howie to Clarence. Then I didn’t speak because I didn’t know what to say.

  ‘Er, may I?’ Charlotte then asked as Mr Howie wiped some froth from his mouth. ‘Dave? Mr Howie is asking if you are ready to assist them in destroying the monorail.’

  I said I was ready. Which I had already said when Mr Howie asked me.

  ‘And you have the C4?’ Charlotte asked while holding a hand up to stop Mr Howie from speaking.

  ‘I have my own C4,’ I said.

  ‘Then why the f*ckity f*ck did we stop for Henry’s C4?’ Mr Howie asked.

  ‘You didn’t ask for my C4,’ I said.

  ‘And Mr Howie understands that now,’ Charlotte said.

  ‘I’m driving round in f*cking circles. Where are we going?’ Tappy then asked while driving the Saxon. But we were not driving in circles. We were driving in a straight line.

  ‘We just need a car or something,’ Mr Howie said. ‘Look for something big we can use. Like a van or a lorry.’

  ‘North side to the Saxon. Will you be assisting with removing our body pile anytime today?’ Mr Henry then asked.

  ‘Monorail, Howie! They’re running,’ Reginald then said.

  ‘Sh*tting f*cking *rsing C*UNT!’ Mr Howie then said, which I think made him feel a bit better as he sighed after. ‘Tappy. We need something big so we can reach the monorail from underneath.’

  ‘Stairs!’ she then shouted as I looked out the window to see a set of set on wheels that airports use to attach to the side of aircraft. ‘Perfect.’

  ‘We’re not driving some mobile stairs across an entire airport!’ Mr Howie said. ‘They go at like two miles an hour. That! Over there. That police van. See it.’

  I said no.

  ‘Eh?’ Mr Howie said as he and everyone else looked at me.

  ‘No,’ I said.

  ‘No what?’ Mr Howie asked.

  ‘No, Mr Howie.’

  ‘F*ck! I meant what are you saying no to?’

  ‘There’s a catering truck!’ Tappy then shouted. ‘That’s bigger.’

  I said no.

  ‘What the f*ck! What do you keep saying no?’ Mr Howie asked me.

  ‘Dave, what are you saying?’
Charlotte asked.

  I said I was saying no.

  ‘No to what?’ Mr Howie asked with that weird look he gets in his eyes sometimes. ‘No to the van? No to the catering truck?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Oh my f*cking god. What’s wrong with the van and the truck? What do you want?’

  ‘That,’ I said and pointed out the window as Mr Howie looked back at me. ‘I f*cking love you, Dave,’ he said with a nod. ‘Mads, Can you steal that?’

  ‘It’ll have an autostart,’ Tappy said. ‘It’s not a road going vehicle, so it doesn’t need keys. Hang on. You ready? I’ll swing my fat ass around for you.’

  I wondered why Tappy was going to swing her bottom at us, but instead the Saxon span around and everyone inside swayed before Maddox and Alan Booker jumped out and ran over to the vehicle.

  Mr Howie and I went after them as they got into the cabin while Mr Howie and I kept them covered with our rifles, but the infected were not attacking us. They were running past towards the north terminal.

  ‘We’ll get into that body pile,’ Clarence shouted from the back doors of the Saxon as it pulled away.

  ‘Look at that sky,’ Mr Howie said as I looked up. ‘Bloody colour of it. That’s a storm. Can you feel it? Oh god, no forget I asked. We’ll be here for half an hour trying to explain what I meant.

  I looked at him. He looked at me.

  ‘I can feel the storm is coming,’ I said.

  He narrowed his eyes and pulled a face. ‘I bloody knew you did it on purpose.’

  ‘Do what, Mr Howie?’

  ‘Don’t you bloody do what, Mr Howie, me, Dave.’

  ‘Boom!’ Alan then shouted when the engine started.

  ‘To be continued,’ Mr Howie told me.

  ‘What is, Mr Howie?’ I asked but he winked and said he wasn’t falling for it. ‘Right. Let’s go,’ he said as we climbed up the ladder on the back to get on the top. ‘Mads, go for it!’

  The vehicle got moving with Maddox driving it back under the bridge.

  ‘Do not drive that sodding thing under here!’ Frank said in his radio as we went underneath it with Paula and Carmen waving through the window.