‘Oh no Eric.’ Monty said following my stare. ‘You’re not taking my truck. The two of you shall be exiting from the main door.’
‘That’s a big risk,’ I said. ‘You’re just going to give the dead a chance to get inside here.’
Monty chuckled and stroked the barrel of the gun. ‘That’s the chance I’m willing to take if it means you getting ripped to shreds out there Eric.’ He looked at Janet and winked. ‘It’s not too late for you though. All you have to do is drop to your knees and open wide.’
‘I’d rather have the rats crawl all over me than have you touch me you sick fuck!’
‘Then so be it,’ Monty shrugged. He pointed the gun at me. ‘You start the generator!’
Chapter 46
The main door rattled in its frame against the wind. The noise combined with the pelting rain made it impossible for me to hear if any of the dead were lurking close by outside. The hallway was bitter cold. Janet stood huddled beside me as we both faced Monty shivering. I had tried to draw her attention to my gun as we had come up the stairs but she didn’t notice.
Monty threw the master key at my feet. ‘Open the door nice and slow Eric, and then toss the key back to me. Put your weight behind it just in case there are a few nasty surprises on the other side. If the coast is clear, then the two of you step out post haste.’
I bent down and picked up the key. I turned my back on Monty and then scanned the door. I saw the two steel bars that were used to reinforce the door hadn’t been put back in place since Bruce’s last trip outside. I opened the lock and unwound the chain from the handles. I dropped the both of them on the floor wishing I could bash Monty’s head in with them. A bullet was just too quick for the scumbag.
‘You might get lucky Eric. There may not be anything on the other side of that door. Hell, you could even make it quite a way before you run into any of the dead. Just stay away from that crazy fog that you told me about. I guess I’ll always wonder what became of you two.’
I gritted my teeth and hunched over pretending to lean against the door as I reached for my gun.
‘The key Eric. Toss me the key before you go any further.’
For a second I thought Monty had seen what I was trying to do. I turned around and then lobbed it high into the air. His eyes followed the key while I pulled my gun. I flicked the safety off and then squeezed the trigger but nothing happened. I swore and pulled the trigger again but I got the same result.
Monty’s face twisted with rage. He took aim at me but Janet was quicker. She tackled me to the floor just in time before a bullet hit the door where my head would have been. The force from the gunshot unbalanced Monty. He tried to steady himself and take aim again but Janet rushed him. She ducked low and took him out below the knees. The two of them rolled around the floor. I got up and picked up the gun that Monty had dropped, leaving my own one behind. I went to the wrestling pair and when I stood over Monty’s head he went limp.
‘I give up,’ he panted. ‘I give up.’
Janet stood up over him and kicked him in the stomach. Behind us the main door blew open. I spun on my heels and held my breath. The wind whistled through the corridor that sounded like a cat being tortured, and the rain began to spill inside. But thankfully the elements were the only things to join us. There were no signs of the dead outside.
‘Get the key and lock the door!’ Janet ordered me.
I went to get the key and then Janet screamed. We didn’t see Monty pulling the flick knife from his pocket. He dug the blade into the side of her calf and twisted it, dropping Janet at once. I ran towards Monty and kicked him as hard as I could in the cheek. His mouth erupted with blood and teeth as he rolled across the floor. I stalked him all the way and kicked him again, and then stamped on his face feeling his bones breaking beneath my foot. I didn’t stop until there was nothing more to batter.
I went to Janet. She was on her ass propped up by her elbows, and bleeding heavily.
‘Pull it out Eric. Pull the fucking thing out.’
I dropped to my knees and put my hand on the handle. Monty had gotten most of the blade inside her leaving a big gash. Janet bit down on her hand and gripped my shoulder. I grabbed her ankle and then pulled the blade out as hard as I could. She wailed and gagged through her fist. I tossed the blade aside and held her up in my arms.
‘We need to put pressure on the wound I’ll use…’
I was halted by the sound of groaning. I looked at Janet thinking it was her, but it wasn’t. She was staring at the open door with her hand clamped over her mouth. When I looked I saw hordes of the dead advancing on the door. It took all the strength I had inside of me to pick Janet up from the floor. She draped her arm around my shoulder and we hobbled towards the stairs leading to the basement. We made it down the first flight just as the dead poured into the building. Their stench hit us right away and made me gag. They were coming after us fast. The sounds of their hissing and spitting crawled up my back and made me shiver. We moved as fast as we could to try and keep ahead, but I knew Janet’s weeping leg was leaving a perfect trail behind us for the zombies, and rats to follow.
When we made it inside the workshop Janet crumpled against the wall while I wheeled the welding plant up against the door.
‘That should give us enough time,’ I said panting.
Janet nodded. ‘I need to dress my leg Eric.’
I remembered opening the first aid kit earlier in the night to sterilise Alan’s keys. But I couldn’t remember if I had left it on the bench, and open to contamination from Elaine’s corpse. Instead I took off my belt, dropped to my knees and then tied it around Janet’s leg. She bucked and gagged until I was finished.
‘I’m sure there’s a first aid kit in the car. That should hold you until we get there.’
I stood back up and put my hands on her shoulders. ‘I think we should head back to my garage. It’s the safest place we can be.’
She nodded back at me gulping for air.
I supported her once again as we made our way carefully around the dead bodies on route to the first emergency door. When we reached it, Janet propped herself up against the pallets as I worked through the bundles of keys. I matched three similar looking keys from each bunch and opened the door .
I spun around to the pallets and saw Janet on her back. Zombie Sarah was on top of her eating a hole into her throat. I charged at Sarah and planted my foot into the back of her head. She tumbled off Janet and rolled across the floor. She looked at me with grey lifeless eyes, and then she came at me. I pulled my gun and shot her right in the eye. The back of her head burst open, and I shot her twice more in the head before she hit the floor.
I crouched down beside Janet ignoring the fresh pain in my head that the gunshots had induced and examined her. She was writhing in a pool of her own blood that was spreading beneath her head. She was holding the wound on her throat with her hand that was missing two fingers. She opened her mouth to speak but only spat blood onto her face.
She was fucked. And she knew it. I could tell by her eyes what she wanted me to do. I stood up and took aim – but I couldn’t do it. I began to cry. Janet’s body bucked one last time, and then she was gone. I looked at her form and waited for her to rise again and bite me. I wished for it.
Ahead of me I could hear and smell the dead. They were inside the workshop and coming for me. I felt as if I had all the time in the world to get behind the door and lock it. But what was the point? I put the barrel against my head and gritted my teeth. I was already dead. I was a goner the day I had left my house to find Lauren.
I just hadn’t accepted it yet
Everybody was dead. I was the luckiest fucker in the history of man to be still alive. The zombies came into view. There were so many of them. Some moved fast, others trailed. But they all had the same lust to feast upon me.
I took one last look at Janet and then jumped into the tunnel. When I locked the door behind me I dropped to my knees and dug my nails into the damp
earthen floor. I vomited bile and blood. I screamed, and cursed all the swear words I knew. I was angry and beaten. But when the dead started to pound on the door I hit back. I kicked and screamed at them. I goaded them to try and get through and to take me alive.
They were all fucking jealous of me. I was the last uninfected man on earth and they hated me for it. I was the king of the rodents. They couldn’t fucking touch me!
I swore at them as the veins bulged in my neck, and the corners of my mouth foamed up with spit. I kicked the door over and over until my legs gave way and I collapsed. Eventually, the dead gave up, and as I lay on my back staring at the dangling lights above me, I realised that I wasn’t ready to. I picked myself up and shambled down the tunnel.
When I made to the jeep, it was exactly as I knew it would be. Immaculate and stacked with supplies in the trunk. When I got inside it didn’t take me long to find the key for the ignition, and the fob for the roller door. When I started the engine the clock showed double digits, and the fuel gauge rested at full. I pressed the fob at the shutter and it began to rise.
I held the wheel and waited for the rats and the dead to come teaming in, but neither did. When I turned the headlights on they probed the wet night a couple of meters in front of me. I looked at the last door that I had come through, and as far up the tunnel as I could see. I wondered if Janet had turned yet on the other side and I wondered what became of Ellen too. If she was hiding out inside the building, I wished her all the best. It was all I could do now.
I was pretty fucking shitty at protecting women close to me. I had let one half of my team down in the worst way possible. I swallowed hard, wiped my eyes, and then drove out into the black night.
I was going to head back to the only place that felt familiar to me – my garage. If I was lucky enough to make it there, and find the place to be still intact, I was going to do the only thing that felt familiar to me anymore.
Survive.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
The Dust: The Zombie Apocalypse in Ireland Page 18
