“Look,” he continued. “I don’t know what lies ahead. I’m guessing it’s not going to be a day at Disneyland, but I’m not about to give up without a fight. Whatever has happened is bad – really bad – but it’s only the end of the world as we know it. People have died, yes, but as long as there are some of us left, we owe it to the human race to survive. The world has changed, but at this moment we are still very much a part of it.”
Anna chuckled. “You’re not going to shout FREEDOM at me, are you?”
Mike spun around on his swivel chair and leapt out as he came full circle. “I haven’t gone all Braveheart just yet, but that’s the mentality we need. That film just proves my point that when people are up against it, they fight, whatever the odds. Maybe this thing isn’t as big as we fear, but we need to prepare ourselves in case it is. We have to earn our place in this new world.”
“Maybe you’re right,” she said. “Can we just get out of here for now, though? I kind of want to go hide someplace and forget the world for a while.”
“Fair enough. Come on, everyone’s in the staffroom. We’re going to start planning.”
Indeed everyone was in the staffroom, gathered around the pool table and trying to thrash things out. From the way Shawcross was gesticulating, the man thought he was Winston Churchill.
“The phones still aren’t working,” he told Anna as she walked into the room. “All of the computers in this office are security protected and nobody knows the passwords. Ripley Hall is off limits and we have no idea what it’s like in nearby towns. To say our current situation is perilous is an understatement. Our only hope at this point is to secure rescue.”
“How?” Greg asked, twiddling at his greying moustache, as he was wont to do. Michelle stood beside him, staring into space blankly.
“We start a signal fire,” Shawcross said, echoing his previous statements.
“Bad idea,” Anna said. “I already told you. What if the fire attracts the infected, or people who want to take what we have?”
“You may be correct,” he admitted, “but what other choice do we have, really? We have no food beyond what lies on this table and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before we lose power and perhaps even water. If you don’t agree with a signal fire, we could head for the staff car park behind the manor house, or even head down the hill via the cable cars. We can cut through the woods into the nearest town.”
“The towns won’t be safe,” she said.
“Neither is here. We have to leave.”
“Wait a minute,” Alan said. “Isn’t this a theme park?”
“What?”
“This place is a theme park and zoo, right?”
Shawcross shrugged. “What’s your point?”
“My point is that there must be a burger bar or restaurant with supplies to last us a little while longer.”
Anna nodded. “There’s a burger place in the zoo and a pub and eatery in the theme park. We should explore what we have now before we start looking elsewhere.”
Shawcross raised his hand. “Regardless of how many supplies we have, we will at some point run out. We need rescue. Sooner rather than later.”
“What if we don’t run out of supplies?” Anna asked.
Everyone looked at her curiously. Shawcross most of all. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“I mean that the zoo is partly self-sustaining. Bradley was telling me about how they produce much of the animal’s feed in a big greenhouse in the woods, and that there’s also a small plot of vegetable gardens. If we can find those, we might be able to grow our own food.”
“And we can eat the animals,” Greg said.
Anna didn’t like the thought of that, but she knew it made sense. “If things get that desperate, then yes, I suppose so. Even better, the petting zoo has chickens and a pair of cows. We can get eggs and milk.”
“This is absurd,” Shawcross said. “We need rescue, not a bloody community project.”
Anna stomped her foot in frustration. “Yes, we do need rescue. But we won’t get it by throwing our lives away. We can keep a look out for help – we’re five hundred feet in the air – but if help is a far way off then we need to make preparations. We need to prepare for the worst not wish for a miracle.”
Shawcross shook his head. “You’re wrong. I think—”
Anna cut him off. “Maybe I am wrong, but maybe so are you. You’re not in charge here, Shawcross. These people can make their own decisions.”
Shawcross grew red in the face and his upper lip curled into a snarl, but then he smoothed out his shirt and gave her a bright smile. “Of course they can make their own decisions. We’re just talking here, Anna. No need to get upset. I’m sure we’ll all come up with whatever is the best solution.”
Anna rolled her eyes. The patronising son of a bitch. “I’m not upset,” she said. “So don’t worry yourself about that. As for coming up with a plan, I think the best option would be to vote.”
“Well, I’m not sure that—”
“I’m happy to vote,” Mike quickly said.
Alan shrugged. “Me too.”
Greg and Michelle also agreed to a vote.
“There we have it.” Anna smirked at Shawcross. “Our first vote is to vote. The second is whether we light a signal fire, or whether we find ways to try and survive here.”
“I vote we stay and prepare,” Mike said.
Anna glanced around the room. “All those in favour?”
Everyone’s hands went up except for Shawcross’s.
This’ll teach him. “Motion carried.”
Shawcross stomped across the room. “You all just made a very bad decision, but it was yours to make. Just remember that I was against it.” He slammed the staffroom door and was gone.
“He going to be alright, you think?” Mike asked.
Anna shrugged. “ He just needs to get used to the fact that he’s not the manager of anything anymore. Like you said, we all need to adapt.”
Mike put his fist in the air. “FREEDOM!”
She laughed and punched him on the arm.
Then they all heard something that made their blood freeze: the frenzied screeching of the infected. It sounded like a hundred of them.
And they were close.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Anna and the others spread out into the courtyard. The screeching of the infected wasn’t coming from the park, but from somewhere else nearby.
“Come on,” she said, rushing towards the cable car station that led to the Rainforest Café at the bottom of the hill. “I think it’s coming from to lower car park.”
“Then we should probably keep a low profile,” Greg said.
“We need to know if we’re in danger. We need to check it out.”
Nobody seemed to like the idea, but nobody argued either. If they had to make a run for it, their chances would be better knowing what they were running from.
“It’s coming from down the hill,” Shawcross said, stating the obvious.
Reaching the cable car station, Anna looked down the hill and gasped. Five hundred feet below were hundreds of screeching infected. They were everywhere, like ants around an ice cream cone. They seemed to be focused on something.
“There’re uninfected people down there,” she cried. “Look, there’s a man standing on top of the café…and there, look, another, sneaking around the back.”
The man in a long black coat crept around the back of the café with an old lady in tow. The large man on the roof seemed to be running some kind of distraction for them, screaming, shouting, and waving his arms like a maniac.
“They’re screwed,” Greg said. “There’s no way they’ll be able to escape all of those infected.”
She waved a hand dismissively. “Just wait,” she said. “They’re running some kind of plan. The man on the roof has them all corralled at the front of the building, while the other two are running into the woods.”
“Well, how are they going to get the
man down off the roof?” Greg said. “There’s no way.”
Anna had no idea either, but Greg’s pessimism was beginning to get on her nerves. The only thing clear was that the strangers down below were working together to survive.
“Maybe we can run a distraction of our own,” Mike suggested. “Try to draw the infected away from them.”
“We’ll do no such thing.” Shawcross objected. “You want to get us all killed.”
Mike looked to Anna for her opinion, but unfortunately, she had to agree with Shawcross this time. “We can’t risk it,” she said. “We’ll just bring the infected up here to us.”
Mike didn’t argue, just sighed. “Man…that sucks.”
Anna watched the stranger in the long black coat enter the woods with the old woman and then reappear a moment later without her. He seemed to exchange a few words with the man on the roof, then climbed through a window at the side of the building. The man on the roof continued keeping the infected corralled at the front.
Time went by and nothing happened. Anna stood silently, her skin tightening, her heart beating fast.
“The infected people are heading into the café,” she said suddenly. “Look!”
The infected were shuffling into the café, clambering through the windows at the front. After a while, the man on the roof was able to head to the back of the building without any of the infected noticing him. Anna watched in amazement as the other man, the one in the black coat, exited the building from a side window and then raced to join his colleague round back as he leapt down from the roof. Within seconds, both men had disappeared into the treeline safely.
“They did it,” Mike said with a big grin.
“But where are they heading next?” Shawcross mumbled.
“Hopefully, they’ll make it up here,” Alan said. “They’ll be safe with us.”
“If they don’t end up leading all of those infected up the hill with them,” Anna said. “We discussed this and I’m not sure having people join us is a good idea. I’m glad they’re safe, but we can do without them.”
There was silence in the group as they digested the possibilities. The truth was that none of them knew what the other group of survivors were like, whether they were good or bad. They could be dangerous; insane or infected. One thing was certain, though: if the other survivors tried to make it up the hill, no one could stop them.
“You know what this means?” Greg said.
“What?”
“It means that we’re surrounded. There’re infected people down there in the hundreds. There’s another few dozen trapped inside Ripley Hall. It’s pretty clear that there’s no rescue to be had. If there was, why are those people down there running for their lives? We have infected all around us.”
It was a grim realisation, made even grimmer when Anna spotted another group of survivors running out of the woods and onto the car park. This new group contained the two men and the old lady from the café, but this time they were all being chased by a pair of infected who had come from the direction of the woods. The horde from inside the café spotted the group running across the car park and let out a screech. The group of survivors had nowhere to run. They had no hope.
Then the group below altered their direction and headed for the base of the hill. Anna panicked for a moment, assuming they were going to try and run up the hill. But the desperate group were headed for the cable cars. They managed to make it, but had to leave the old woman behind. As they filtered inside the two cable cars, the old woman fell beneath the tide of infected people and disappeared.
“Jesus!” Mike said. “Poor dear.”
Anna shook her head in horror as she watched the horde of infected surround the two cable cars and begin rocking them violently.
“They’re going to get ripped apart,” Greg said. “Those cable cars won’t hold them out for long.”
Anna wanted to see the plucky group prove Greg wrong, but she could see no way how. She glanced around, not sure what she was looking for until she found it. The control booth was a small shed sporting a long glass window. Without telling the others what she was doing, Anna ran over to it. Mike was the only one who followed. Everyone else continued staring down the hill intently.
“What are you doing?” Mike asked her as he entered the cable car station behind her. A small console sat atop a steel podium at the far side of the platform and that was where she headed.
“The park still has power,” she said. “If we switch on the cable cars, those people will rise to the top of the hill.”
“To safety,” Mike said enthusiastically.
“Exactly.” Anna eyed a small silver key that was already inserted into the console. Next to it was a green, circular button that said START.
Mike raised an eyebrow as he watched her. “You said it would be a bad idea to let people up here.”
Anna nodded. “I did say that, didn’t I?”
She turned the key and the motors came to life, rattling the cable cars on their moorings.
“You sure about this?” Mike asked her. “These people could be dangerous. They could bring the monsters up here with them.”
Anna looked Mike in the eyes. “If we leave them down there to die, we become the monsters.”
She punched the START button.
PART THREE: DEATH
Chapter Twenty-Six
Nick craned his neck, trying to get a good look at the top of the hill. Ominously, the silhouetted stranger stood rooted to the spot, staring down at them as if in judgement. Their saviour or executioner.
“What do you see, brother?” Jan asked him.
“Not sure. There’s someone waiting at the top for us, but I can’t make them out.”
“I hope they’re friendly,” Cassie said, staring at her feet.
“Me too, but given what we’ve been through, they can’t be any less friendly than we’re used to. They saved us by turning on the cable cars.”
The car continued to climb. The one with Dave and the others inside was following right behind. If the people on the hill meant them harm, there was nothing they could do to escape now. They were being reeled in a hundred feet above the treetops.
“We’re almost there.” Jan was wrenching his large hands nervously. “I don’t like this.”
Nick didn’t say anything. In the world that existed only days ago, meeting a stranger was no big deal, but now it was monumental.
The cable car levelled out at the top of the hill and entered the upper station. There was a man and woman standing on the platform, anticipating their approach. They seemed cautious.
When both cars were in the station, the motors stopped abruptly. “Stay where you are,” said the woman on the platform. She was rugged, yet attractive, probably in her thirties. She wore a thick shirt and wellington boots and was appraising them from behind some sort of control column.
He put his hands in the air and stood in the open doorway of the cable car. “We’re not dangerous.”
“Nor are we,” said the man with the woman. “Unless we have to be.”
The door to the other cable car opened further back on the platform and Dave stepped out to join the reception.
“Hey,” the woman on the platform shouted. “Stay where you are.”
Dave ignored her and kept advancing. He waved a hand and laughed heartily. “Don’t be afraid, my dear. We’re grateful for the rescue. My name is Dave and—”
“I said stay where you are!”
Dave suddenly halted. “Alright, luv, keep your hair on.”
The woman placed her hands on her hips and sneered. “I’m nobody’s luv. And you haven’t been rescued, yet. That’ll be decided in the next thirty seconds.”
Dave is going to ruin this for us all, Nick thought as he watched the woman bristle and take offence.
Several other strangers appeared and Nick counted that their hosts numbered at least six. All of the strangers carried makeshift weapons and looked like they were in no mood to be nice.
/>
A ginger-haired man approached the woman in wellington boots and seemed to be furious with her. “What the hell have you done, Anna?” he whispered in a voice that was somehow also a shout. “We have no idea who these people are.”
“We’re not dangerous,” Nick assured them.
“Be quiet!” the man snapped.
“There’s no need to be rude,” Dave said.
The man stepped forward, getting up close to Dave where a brief stare-off ensued. “I don’t think you’re in any position to discuss etiquette with me, sir. You’ve arrived on my property and I will decide how things proceed from here.”
“You own this place?” Dave asked.
“I am Mr Shawcross, the manager of Ripley Hall.”
Dave huffed. “You’re just an employee. You don’t own this place any more than I do.”
Jan leaned close to Nick. “What is he doing? He’s going to get us all kicked right back down the hill. These people look ready to snap.”
Nick approached the strangers cautiously. “Look,” he said, “my companion is being a little rude, but I promise you that we will respect whatever you say. We just want to find somewhere safe. Things have gotten really bad down below. Everywhere is chaos.”
The woman in wellingtons stared at him. “You’ve seen the towns? Is there any order left at all?”
“None. People are infected with some disease and there’s nothing but death everywhere. That’s not the worst of it, though. The dead—”
“Are walking,” the woman finished. “We know. We’ve had our share of encounters.”
Nick deflated. “So it’s not safe here, either?”
The woman shrugged. “It’s…secure, for now.”
“Great,” Dave said, rubbing his hands together. “Then we’re lucky to have found you.”
Anna glowered at Dave and took a few measured breaths. “You seem to have a problem controlling your mouth. I want you to take a good hard look at what you’re facing. My people have weapons; yours have none. My people are in charge of this place; you are guests. I’m going to give you one last chance to make a good impression, before we decide whether or not to beat you bloody and send you back down the hill.”
The BIG Horror Pack 2 Page 19
