Blog of the Dead - Life

by Lisa Richardson

  We bundled into the car park after Kay and Charlotte, while Shane shut and locked the gate. ‘That won’t be any defence,’ I said, nodding towards it, just as I heard a shriek and the sound of approaching feet. ‘We need to get inside. NOW!’ Shane didn’t waste time with questions – I guessed he had a fair idea of what was coming now – and he pulled a bundle of keys from his pocket, pushed through the rest of us and hurriedly opened the door.

  We all fell inside the building just as the first HZs started climbing over the fence into the car park. Shane locked the door and we all retreated down the corridor as fists began slamming against the sturdy wood. We had backed away enough that we stood in the main lobby of the apartment building, with the double front doors ahead of us and the main stairway behind us. Chris came tearing down the stairs, just as the filthy hands of HZs began slamming and clawing at the glass in the front doors. ‘What’s going on?’ he said. Spotting the HZs, he darted to the back of the building where a large porch that leads out onto the gardens had been set up as a communal dining and seating area so the residents could gather outside of their apartments.

  Chris returned with Soph, each carrying a chainsaw. And soon, every able bodied St Andrews resident had gathered in the lobby, tooled up and looking grim. ‘Kelly,’ began Soph, get your youngest and the elderly up to the highest point you can and stay hidden, OK?’

  With a nod to Soph, Kelly turned to Char, her eldest daughter. ‘Char, take them up,’ she said, using her right arm to guide Chloe, Cameron and Jay towards their sister. ‘I’ll be right behind you.’ With a hollering Ella under her left arm, Kelly darted around to the back of the building, leaving Jay crying out for her as his big sister, aided by eleven-year-old Chloe, shoved the struggling boy up the stairs.

  The window in the right side of the double doors was taking a battering. With one determined slam, I watched a crack appear and snake up through the glass. I heard Jay and Cameron scream as the glass burst inwards. I glanced behind me but the children had already disappeared around the bend in the stairwell. Kelly, Ella clinging to her chest, arrived back, bundling a couple of the oldies, Dolly and Elsie, ahead of her towards the stairs. ‘And you’re sure they’re in their rooms?’ she said to Dolly as they began to climb.

  ‘Yes dear, Derek went for a nap and Patrick wanted to read in peace.’

  I didn’t listen to any more of the exchange and turned back to the door. An HZ stuck its head through the broken window and grinned at us as it began hauling its shoulders through, ignoring the jagged glass that tore its skin. The sound of a chainsaw springing to life was like the most beautiful piece of music I’d ever heard. Soph charged towards the door and rammed the chainsaw into the HZ’s head and down through as much of its upper body as it had managed to squeeze through the smashed pane of glass.

  As Soph sliced the HZ open, vibrant red blood and various body parts exploded and I heard Dolly say, ‘Oh deary me! Oh. Oh!’ I shot a look up the stairs behind me to see her holding onto the rail halfway up the staircase, looking back down towards the door and the eviscerated HZ. With Ella on her left hip, Kelly used her free arm to grasp Dolly’s elbow and tug her up the steps. Ella had her head buried in Kelly’s shoulder and I prayed the little girl wouldn’t open her eyes until after they had rounded the bend.

  ‘Max, Cleo, head around to the back in case they climb over the fence and try to get in around there,’ barked Chris, before springing towards the double doors now Soph had withdrawn her chainsaw. He unlocked the doors and started his own chainsaw. Opening up the left side, he darted outside, Soph followed him and the pair charged at the HZs that had gathered out there, driving them back. With Shane and Jordan guarding the side entrance, Cleo and Max at the back, the rest of us remained at the front, the most vulnerable point now the doors had been opened.

  Kay, Sean, Misfit, Clay and a couple of the St Andrews lot followed Soph and Chris out onto the snow dusted forecourt, spreading outwards to push the HZs away from the building. The HZs stayed away from the chainsaws, shying back like vampires from a crucifix. One went for Misfit, grasping him around the throat with a clawed hand. Misfit drove his knife between its eyes.

  Clay ran at the HZs with his fists raised but they shrank back from his spiked gloves just as they had the chainsaws. I couldn’t help thinking, knowing the HZs as I did, they were holding back somewhat. They out numbered us by at least double but their attack appeared half-hearted.

  A couple of HZs tried to dodge between Kay and Sean to get to the building. Sean tripped one up with his boot and Kay slammed her axe through the back of its head as it lay sprawled on the concrete forecourt. The other one got through. Charlotte dived outside and performed a high kick, catching the HZ in the chest. It fell onto its back and Charlotte pounced on it, slicing its throat with her meat clever. The HZ twitched as it lay on the tarmac, a gargling sound escaping its lips while blood poured from the wound on its neck and trickled out of its mouth. It went still. Charlotte stood and launched herself at another HZ that had managed to break through the main defence team.

  Another of the St Andrews lot darted outside, leaving only me in the lobby. I heard the sound of glass smashing from somewhere inside the building but an oncoming HZ prevented me from going to check it out. I stood my ground just inside the main entrance, my knife held firm in my hand. As the HZ launched itself through the door, I swung my knife arm up, my blade sliding into its chest. The filthy creature collapsed onto its knees before rolling onto its side. Not quite dead, the HZ grasped my ankle with its filthy fingers and tried to pull my foot from beneath me. But, rapidly losing blood, it no longer had the strength.

  Holding onto the door frame with my right hand, I kicked it in the side with my free foot. It released me and I loomed over it. The HZ raised its palms in front of its face as I slammed the knife down towards it. My blade slid through the palm of its left hand before carrying on through its head, right between the eyes, pinning the back of its hand to its forehead. I pulled the knife out with a grunt and straightened myself up just in time to extend my arm and slash the blade across the throat of another HZ before it had chance to get across the threshold. As it slumped against the door frame, it made a gargling sound and clutched its throat before falling backwards onto the forecourt. I stepped outside onto the tarmac and, holding the knife in both hands, I brought the blade down through the top of its head.

  St Andrews was a peculiar shaped building, with its main body being a large stately home style building with a church-like, steepled building jutting out the front to the right of the forecourt. The apartments inside this section joined onto the main corridor with their front doors. The church-like building stretched the length of the forecourt, to meet the pavement, so I couldn’t see its front from where I stood.

  I heard the sound of glass smashing from the direction of the church-like section. With everyone else busy, I darted back inside, through the lobby and edged down the corridor, straining my ears. I could see Jordan and Shane at the end of the corridor, guarding the side door; three HZs had their bodies pressed against the door, blocking out the daylight while they slammed their hands on the glass. At the sound of a thud from my left, I stopped outside the door to one of the apartments in the church-like section. I listened, my ear pressed up against the wood. Another thud. I tried the door handle but it was locked.

  ‘I need help here!’ I called down the corridor, worried the HZs had broken into the building. Shane glanced around. ‘Something’s in there,’ I said.

  Shane sprinted down the corridor, skidded to a stop and kicked the door. Nothing happened. He kicked again and the lock gave way with a splintering sound and a bang as the back of the door hit the wall. Inside the apartment, I saw a short gloomy hallway with beige painted walls, white painted wooden doors leading off it on both sides and one door at the very end of the hallway. I crept inside, my feet making no sound on the thick pub-style patterned carpet, my eyes flicking left to right, ready for something to spring through one of the
doors. Shane followed. I headed straight down to the front of the apartment, towards a half-opened door at the end of the hall. I couldn’t hear anything further, but if something had got in, I guessed it would be in that front room because its window faced the street.

  I paused outside the door. Here goes nothing, I thought before nudging it fully open with the elbow of the hand that held my knife and I dived inside. I found myself in a living room. The first thing I saw was an HZ standing on the other side of the window that overlooked the street. It grinned coldly at me, its sharpened teeth exposed. I heard a shrieking from somewhere outside, almost a musical sound, and the HZ turned and darted away.

  I looked down to the floor. Below the window, on an orange and brown shaggy rug, lay two bodies – Max and Cleo, mutilated. Max’s face had been skinned to the bone and his throat cut so deeply his head held on only by a thread. Cleo’s abdomen had been sliced open and her insides spewed out of the opening like a freshly sliced haggis.

  ‘Shit! Fuck!’ I said and turned to Shane who stood looking at the bodies, the back of his right hand at his mouth, his eyes wide, his skin pale. ‘Fuck!’ I said again and pushed past Shane out into the hallway.

  I ran out of the apartment, down the main corridor and through the lobby, bumping into Kay and Sean. ‘Sophie, where’re you going?’ said Kay, grabbing my right elbow and pulling me to a stop. ‘The HZs have buggered off. The whole lot of them turned and scarpered … realised we were too –’

  ‘They got in,’ I said, pulling myself away from Kay and darting to the back of the building. I stopped when I reached the porch, tables and chairs ready for the next meal, and I stared at the back door. It had been kicked in, the lock splintered and broken glass lay scattered in the place Max and Cleo should have been standing guard. Two bloody trails led around to the left, to the rear of the building.

  I turned around to see Kay, Sean, Shane, Misfit, Clay and more of the St Andrews lot gathering behind me. ‘This wasn’t a full attack. This was a warning of what they are capable of,’ I said. ‘They killed Max and Cleo, dragged their bodies around the back of the building and through the car park with none of us noticing and dumped them in one of the apartments at the front. They were just toying with us.’

  ‘My mum!’ said Shane and he raced off, back around to the lobby. The rest of us followed and we all took to the stairs. ‘MUM!’

  ‘Kelly!’ Up the stairs we went, none of us knowing where she had taken the others to hide.

  ‘Mum! Mum?’

  ‘Kelly!’

  A couple of floors up I heard the distant crying of a child and I followed the sound to the top of the apartment building. We turned into a corridor to find Kelly stood outside one of the apartments, a crowbar in hand and two HZs at her feet. She looked up at us as we approached. ‘That’s what they get for messing with me and my kids,’ she said.

  Entry Twenty-Two

  By the time we got back down to the lobby, zombies had gathered outside. The doors had been shut and locked but one of the zombies had its upper body through the smashed window in the right hand door but lacked the physical agility to climb through it. The zombies behind it all jostled for the chance to stick their arms through every available gap. They swiped their decaying arms in the direction of Jordan and another of the St Andrews lot, Amy – a somewhat matronly figure before her time – both of whom had remained downstairs while the rest of us went in search of Kelly and the others. Those zombies that couldn’t fit, lined up outside the left hand door. They slammed their dried, crusty hands against the window.

  At the sight of even more fresh meat, the zombies went into a frenzy. They pounded their dead fists against the doors with a morbid urgency, shaking them in their frames.

  ‘Lucy, Josh and now Max and Cleo,’ began Amy, standing with her back a safe distance to the doors, her stocky figure providing a barrier between us and the zombies. Her strong voice cut a silence through the sounds of crying children, wailing elderly folk and the general panic from the remaining survivors. Though the zombies carried on groaning. ‘How many more people are going to die because of him?’ she said pointing at Sean. All eyes turned to Sean who shifted on his feet and ran a hand through his greasy hair, pushing it out of his face.

  Kay shoved her way through everyone gathered in the lobby so she stood directly in front of Amy, looking up at her. ‘He didn’t kill them you fucktard. The HZs did!’

  ‘Indeed. And wasn’t one of those HZs his sister?’ continued Amy, her hands on her sturdy hips. ‘We didn’t have any trouble with them until him and his sister showed up!’ This was followed by murmurs of agreement from within the St Andrews lot.

  ‘Now that’s not helping anyone is it?’ I said, weaving my way through the others to stand next to Kay. ‘The HZs were out there already and they’ve been busy hunting down survivors for a long time going by the mess at the hotel. They almost got Kelly and her kids in the cinema. Marco paid a visit to our camp, so he and the HZs knew where we were. They would’ve found their way in here sooner or later. What we need to do now isn’t point the blame at anyone but to find a way to stop them, all of them, for good.’ I turned to the others. ‘First things first, we need to get out of here. We can keep the zombies out but this place won’t hold up against another attack from the HZs.’

  ‘I think we should, like, get clear out of Folkestone,’ said Tracey, fluttering forwards from the others.

  ‘We can’t just run,’ said Kay.

  ‘Why not?’ said Amy. ‘I agree with Tracey. Let’s just get as far away from here as possible.’

  ‘I’m not running,’ said Sean. ‘I want that bastard to suffer for what he did to Anna. I’m going to stay and finish this, even if I have to do it alone. But I agree, the rest of you – all of you,’ he said looking at Kay, ‘should get out of town. There’re kids and old people to think about and they’re better off clean out of here.’

  ‘We’re staying here with you, fucktard,’ said Kay. ‘We end this together.’ About sixteen adults all started bickering at the same time, drowning out the sound of the desperate and impatient zombies at the door.

  ‘Listen,’ said Chris, stepping forwards from his people. ‘LISTEN! I think Amy and Tracey have a point,’ he said in the ensuing hush. ‘I’m sorry, Sophie, but I have to think of what’s best for everyone and I vote we get away from here … far away from here. I can’t force any of you to come,’ he said, turning to the rest of the St Andrews lot, ‘but I think the best thing we can do is leave town. Today.’ Chris made eye contact with Soph and after a hesitation, she nodded.

  I watched as all the St Andrews lot nodded their agreement, some more readily than others. Shane stood with his head hung. He cast a sideways glance at his mum, then nodded his agreement. ‘That’s settled then,’ said Chris.

  ‘Wait,’ I said. ‘You’re just going to wipe your hands of this and fuck off? Leave Marco to become someone else’s problem?’ I tried my best to rein my anger in but I knew my burning cheeks gave me away. A dull ache in my brain, as my hangover from the previous night crept up on me, made me feel extra irritable. ‘That’s just bloody great!’

  ‘Sophie, we need to do what’s best for our people,’ said Soph, stepping forwards and placing her hand on my arm.

  I yanked my arm away. ‘And what about the people left behind?’

  ‘Sweetie, they have little ones and elderly to think about,’ said Charlotte. ‘Let them go.’

  ‘What do you people think Marco will do once he’s either ripped the remaining survivors in this town to shreds or recruited them into his insane fucked up army? He’ll move out, go in search of new blood. You can’t keep running!’ I snapped, ignoring Charlotte. My anger was leaking out faster than I could contain it.

  ‘Fuck ‘em. We don’t need them,’ said Kay, raising her axe in front of her body. Clay slid his gloves on his hands and stood as though ready to give some poor unfortunate bugger a deadly right hook. He winked at me, and I managed a small smile. I looked at Misfi
t and he nodded at me.

  ‘We can do this, Sophie,’ said Charlotte. ‘Let them go. Let them take their young and old somewhere safe.’

  ‘OK … OK, you’re right,’ I said, turning to Charlotte. Though the heat in my cheeks didn’t abate and my body remained tense. I turned to Chris. ‘I’m sorry. Get your people to safety.’ I nodded at him, my jaw clenched.

  ‘I will.’

  ‘How are you doing for supplies?’ My voice cracked as I spoke and I cleared my throat.

  ‘Low,’ said Soph. ‘We were due for a supply run but the shops around here are as good as empty so we’ve been relying on what fish we could catch. We’ve had to kill the chickens too.’

  ‘You can’t head off without supplies,’ I said. ‘There’s a Sainsbury’s just before the motorway that’s still well stocked. I suggest we all head there, get loaded up and then go our separate ways.’

  ‘OK, good idea,’ said Chris.

  ‘The motorway’s gridlocked,’ I added, my cheeks cooling. ‘You’ll never get out that way but if you head back down to the harbour, there’s a way out along the seawall.’

  Me and my team discovered the way out of town by following the seawall to the other side of the coastal park and then up and along a track that leads out to Sandgate – all other roads out having been gridlocked by survivors trying to escape the initial outbreak – when we left town to go in search of the safe community in Wales. It turned out to be neither safe nor a community.

  Out in the car park, I saw zombies lining the gate, their ravaged arms outstretched. Kelly’s eldest boys climbed into the front of the van, while Kelly and her eldest girls helped the little ones and the elderly into the back. Tracey, Jordan and Amy took one of the cars, while Soph passed her chainsaw to Charlotte and climbed onto one of the bikes. Chris kept hold of his chainsaw and jumped on the back with Soph.