‘Why are your eyes black?’ James asked, looking caringly to Harry. His stomach rumbled; he could use a sarnie sandwich. Then he noticed his bag and the other belongings from the fire station were gone. He did recall the phone call. The memory was brought back by hissing of the radio on the officers table. The officers were trying to contact someone, there monotone voices repeating the same message. They took turns. The female sounded more enthusiastic then the others. John was looking at a clipboard whilst taking notes and checking his briefcase. He appeared as if he had lost something.
The question James asked had shocked Harry. But he was withdrawn, and it didn’t disturb him, nothing did anymore. Not after seeing a child torn to shred and a bunch of dead people shambling through a once thriving hospital. The stains from the attack were still present near the staircase, someone had done a bad job of wiping the blood up. The body had been laid beside the entrance. It was coincidental when an officer walked through the front doors, the sun and blue skies shone in the distance. The officer grabbed the bodies legs and dragged it out the door held open by his assisting officer. The body of the youngster left a trail of oily blood, it was dreamlike. Everything Harry had known was overturned. Then with a huge huff and a big inhale, Harry whispered fragilely.
‘We’ll be okay, James, we’ll be okay.’
CHAPTER 31
Crowded
The station was at stalemate. The occupants stuck in a limbo, waiting for the so-called rescue to make contact. Evacuation could be months, if it even happens.
Doctor John had scrawled a message to be relayed over the radio and one younger officer took to reading it sharply. ‘We may have an immune survivor,’ the officer read the message aloud. Harry perked up to a sea of officers admiring him with a slight look of resentment.
The increasing number of zombies shambling through main street was evident by the wails echoing through the walls. Their predicament was escalating to dangerous levels. No matter how sunny it was, it felt miserable.
The officers outside the station front door were now firing their pistols, pop after pop of unsilenced takedowns.
Harry listened closely; the shouting was muffled as if muted by foam. The other officers stood around gazing at the front doors. The gunshots continued until the front doors slammed open and one officer stumbled into the station heaving and short of breath. The other officer was crouching at the entrance, popping round after round into the beasts.
‘Assistance,’ he cried. ‘There has to be more than a dozen and they’re not stopping!’
The remaining four officers scrambled to equip their pistols and darted towards the front doors.
Harry saw the variety of ripped clothes and gnawing faces the endless clawing to devour the officers before being shot point blank in the chest and skull. The moaning crescendo like waves of the sea. A thick salty breeze wafted into the hall. It smelt half sea, half dead. The dead were being slowed, but the relentless need to feed was not being subdued.
‘God dammit keep them out!’ another officer yelled. The officers managed to push them back and slowly but surely shut the front doors. Doctor John remained stagnant and fraught. James became overly anxious and fidgeted which irritated Sam who began to scratch at him.
The police would again be overwhelmed, and the station overrun, Harry had seen that before. The dead were unstoppable. Rescue had to come, there was no way any of them could survive otherwise.
‘We have to call for rescue now,’ Harry coughed. John shot him a look of scouring anger and empathy. As if Harry had questioned their authority. ‘We have to leave now.’ Harry pushed himself to his knees and wobbled. Dizzy and his vision sparkled. John rushes over to his aid and assists Harry by supporting his underarm.
‘Take it easy,’ John said. ‘We have our orders. I think the police can handle it.’
A screaming officer shook them all. The officer’s outside were firing again. Harry grabbed the doctor and pulled him close.
‘You hear that?’ Harry said. ‘That’s not salvation and we won’t last here, we must try.’ Harry’s demanding felt futile. His balance was skewed as he shuffled the doctor by the scruff of his neck and gritted his teeth. Adrenaline pumped through him, a sensation of spiders crawling over his chest and then calm. John was startled as he tried to wipe his face, but Harry stopped him.
‘We can try…’ John replied but was cut off before he could finish, visible shook, his hands shaking. Harry released him. Another door slammed shut, both John and Harry stumbled to the side of the staircase. James and Sam patiently on the blanket.
Harry could hear footsteps pacing across the stone floors. The killer from earlier? ‘What’s that?’ John whispered to Harry, who had regained his strength in his arms. His back ached and his half-knifed calf pulsated with each heartbeat.
‘I see a shadow behind the reception desk,’ Harry replied. The station windows weren’t great at illuminating the station entrance hall. Harry watched the shadows eagerly, fearing the dead had breached the building. He wondered what it may be like to kill one of the zombies again. John crawled on his belly to the other side of the staircase and Harry could see his head popping up from behind the stone. John dropped out of sight and then jumped up with a squelch.
‘It’s okay come on in,’ John said. ‘We’re here for your benefit.’ John vanished from Harry’s sight. Harry could hear a woman and then a baby coughing. Harry’s thoughts were not friendly at first. Risking his child’s life by sneaking in the back door. Everyone mattered now though, even if Harry was annoyed and they endangered the entire building. He put two and two together. Obviously they had attracted the zombies. James left Sam and went to greet the strangers.
Harry saw a man and a woman carrying a thickly wrapped baby. Harry pushed himself to his feet again, ignoring the pain and missing the painkillers, even though they made his head feel soft. As the survivors approached the staircase, Harry imagined the woman was Sheila. Sheila may have changed her mind and tried to find him. But it wasn’t her.
He officers left outside were shouting. The officer stood around the radio table looking concerned but helpless to act. The shouting officers mixed with the bangs of metal sent shudders down Harry’s spine. The mother and baby had somehow got into a death-trap.
‘Douglas, Delila and Samuel meet our survivors,’ John introduced them. Douglas exchanged a handshake with Harry, and he instantly regretted it, it was pointless. They could be dead soon, getting acquainted was useless.
‘My name is James,’ James shook Douglas’s hand with a smile that made Harry become glass eyed with emotion. Soon the smiles turned shyness and James wrapped his arms around Harry.
‘There’s no more time, John,’ Harry implored before demanding, ‘we call now, do it.’ Harry pointed at the radio. Douglas and Delila watched in confusion. John shook his head and walked over to the radio.
All the remaining officers gathered around the table; the radio hissed. Gunshots continued to ring out. Harry prepared himself.
‘Calling Alpha evacuation, Alpha evac. This is Beach Town police station to evacuation, over,’ John said. Harry’s pulse quickened.
‘Give it here,’ Harry said as he tried to snatch the radio from John who quickly pulled it away. The plastic scraped Harry’s hand. Harry wanted to punch the doctor but being in the presence of a baby and James changed his mind. John was not as big as Charlie; John was the annoyance that Harry could deal with. Harry pondered being able to control Charlie if he turned up causing trouble. Whatever mysterious disease was coursing through his veins, it made him feel ten time stronger than usual.
‘I have my orders too,’ John said. ‘Evacuation, Beach Town police department to evacuation, I… we are requesting emergency evacuation from the Police station, the situation has changed,’ John turned to look at Harry before continuing. ‘I have the package.’
It was obvious Harry was the package, but why he was he wasn’t sure. The bite wound on his calf had been cut out in a brutal mann
er, but there was more to this disease. Maybe he was immune. But he doubted the odds and grunted it off.
The radio crackled, then two officers bolted through the front doors loud enough to startle the baby awake, he instantly began crying.
‘Barricade the door’, the officers gasped in unison. Harry spotted another bench next to the door.
‘John give me a hand,’ Harry shouted as he limped to the wooden bench. The officers managed to lock the bolts above the door. Outside dark figures emerged, their bodies covering the station window, the smell of brains and guts seeped through the glass. Harry pushed the bench and John pulled the bench to cover the door. After pushing the bench against the door Harry felt embarrassed, it was a pathetic attempt at barricading. Harry was sick of nobody taking charge, the same happened at the hospital.
‘You two, stay guard,’ Harry commanded the officers. ‘Make sure they can’t get in.’ After hesitating they began scouring the hall for some other benches. ‘John get back on the radio.’ Doctor John did as he was told. There was no reply yet. ‘James stay with Sam and make sure he doesn’t go wandering off.’ James had made a den from the blankets and appeared content to hide there with Sam.
The empowering feeling of taking charge gave him butterflies. Harry’s palms sweaty with blissful hope. Being in charge made rescue seem possible. The smell of the dead was overpowering. Seeing so few faces in the hall made it feel strangely crowded. Harry imagined it was the dead outside that gave that effect. It was affecting his concentration.
‘Alpha evacuation, I have the package, we have a survivor without symptoms, over!’ John shouted. Delila sat on the staircase trying to shush Samuel, his crying quietened but continued. Douglas remained very wide eyed and vacant leaning against the reception desk. If Harry had the time he might have enquired, but he assumed it was shock. The radio cackled in John’s hand. Harry placed his hands on the table and gasped. John held the radio against his ear.
‘Alpha evacuations to survivors,’ a male voice spoke, Harry let out a sigh of relief. ‘We have new orders following your information, we can evacuate the package and three other survivors who haven’t been exposed, if there are any, over’. John went pale. Harry felt humiliated and guilty. Harry and three other lucky people were going to make it out of town alive. But they still had the lunatic upstairs to worry about.
‘I’ll stay,’ John said with a sad gauntness gaze. ‘You need to get your son out.’ Harry began tearing up but wiped it away and looked at James hiding under the blanket.
‘What about you?’ Harry asked. ‘I thought you had orders?’ The front doors were being frantically scratched at.
‘Screw orders,’ John continued. ‘I’ve lived and I think it’s fair that your son has a chance to live a life, don’t you? That baby and its mother need to go as well.’ Tears trickled down John’s face. Harry could see John’s wrinkles clearly now, it was the right decision, John was used up. Even if John hadn’t given James that chance, James would be leaving with evacuation no matter what. Harry had come too far and through too much destruction to let James die now. He realised he might have to contend with Douglas and the officers.
‘Good,’ Harry said and patted John on the shoulder. ‘It means a lot that you would do that.’ John cleared his tears with his sleeve and placed the radio against his mouth again.
‘Alpha evacuation send rescue to the police station. To the rooftop, we’ve been trapped in the main hall,’ John said. The officers removed another bench from a side room and placed it against the front doors. The doors were close to breaking. Baby Samuel had stopped crying. Douglas had his arm around Delila as they sat on the steps. Harry kept a watch on James.
The radio clicked in a Morse code fashion.
‘Survivors, evacuation has checked the map and rescue from there is not possible,’ the man explained. ‘There is no landing pad, the nearest is on the roof of Beach Town Hospital, can you make it?’ Harry rolled his eyes in disbelief; the rescue team really had no idea of the situation. John even laughed at the comment.
‘Are you serious evac? We can’t even get there, that’s the fucking source of the outbreak as well!’ John yelled, his screech as chalk on blackboard.
‘What are they playing at?’ Harry commented to John.
Then, the front doors smashed open and the officers rapidly equipped their guns and opened fire. The officers that had stood on guard shambled in before being popped in the skull and dropping to the floor. Corpses were obliterated backwards as bullets penetrated their bodies. Blood spurted onto the officers clothing.
‘Hold tight,’ evac said. ‘Head to the roof, we’ll try to get there as quickly, eta ten minutes, Alpha evacuation out.’
CHAPTER 32
Evacuation
The events of the last few days had been gut wrenching, the last few hours, even more so. Once the hungry choppers of the zombies gnawed their way into the police station, vacant expressions and gargling and oozing blood, the fear cranked up a notch.
‘Go,’ John cried as the zombies swarmed in, the officers firing the remaining bullets to no avail. ‘Get to the roof, we’ll hold them off.’ John equipped a concealed pistol hidden in his back-pant pocket. Harry was shocked at the number of zombies stumbling into the hall and he rushed to grab James and Sam from the blankets. John opened fire, the shots hollowing through the coppery fuelled air.
‘Come on let’s go’, Harry called to Delila a she cradled Samuel on the staircase. Harry shook, emerging from behind the staircase, the dead. Stragglers must have gotten through the back door. Harry recognised one of them was a doctor from the medical tent’s outback, his undead torso ripped. Arms outstretched and limping, the corpses came in wonky pursuit.
Douglas jolted towards Harry. Delila began to climb the staircase. The dead closing in fast. Baby Samuel was screaming and gunshots beckoning made Harry woozy.
‘Back door,’ Harry shouted. One of the officers turned to fire, a bullet pierced the skull of a beast about to devour Harry’s face and the zombie dropped motionless to the stone floor. Delila was ahead, expressing confusion. The other officers diverted their attention to the back door, and the three remaining walkers became shredded brains among the stained floor. The officers had no choice but to now boot the dead back. The police had slowed the zombies advance. But Harry could see the officers struggling to breathe and he could hear their guns clicking empty. John was sweating profusely, dousing the dead with lead.
‘Move,’ Harry called out, Douglas was assisting Delila onto the first floor now, but he left her at the top of the staircase and darted back down into the main hall. James’s weight was bearing down, and Harry’s scratched arms stung.
‘Go Delila,’ Douglas cried. ‘I’ll hold them off.’ The hall was riddled with corpses that Harry could not stop watching. It was captivating and surreal. Then Harry grabbed Delila’s arm and with an almighty fathom of strength began to forcefully assist her through the first-floor corridor. Douglas, John and the other officers faded from sight. All that remained of those heroic people, Harry thought, was being eaten or suicide. Their legacy, their honour would live on through Harry and James, their stories would not go untold.
The struggling police cried out, their gunshots ringing out through the stone buildings, a nerve wrenching cry channelled the station. The dead had taken down another victim.
The first floor was empty, and the vacant offices were ghostly, an eerie sense of a supernatural presence lingered, the sensation of death.
They continued to climb. ‘Keep going,’ Harry said. His legs pulsing, his heart was racing, and he felt like he was going to pass out. The second-floor corridor also empty, this time papers were scattered across the floor and paintings and pictures had fallen off the walls. Harry spotted the sign for the staircase. Each floor they had to travel the length of the hallway until reaching another staircase at the end. Four more floors to go, but how long until rescue arrived. Ten minutes was nothing and Harry suspected there may be two to thre
e minutes at the most. Evacuation had better wait for them, he thought. James sobbed as they reached the rooftop staircase, metallic, Delila had handled the climb sportingly and was well ahead. Harry was seized by a gripping stitch of exhaustion pinching his lungs. His torso burned. As Delila pushed through the door to the rooftop Harry was met with a refreshing breeze of salty air. It invigorated him, and he pushed through to the roof. He could hear the zombie’s ferocious growling. They were well past the first floor at this point. Rest in peace, John. The groans were monstrous chants. The door to the roof had been left ajar, but Harry thought nothing of it.
On the rooftop, the salty wind snaked around Harry’s cold nose, it was a huge relief. A sense of purpose and rejuvenation was beginning to overpower him. They had made it. Seagulls swooned overhead. It wasn’t salvation, but it felt as if it were redemption.
The air conditioning vents were silent, and the stone roof cracked and sprouted weeds. The sky was clearer than Harry could ever remember. Delila took a seat on a vent, comforting Samuel. Harry put James down – James held Sam tightly, his meowing continued – he looked exhausted.
Harry walked back to the rooftop door and closed it, the creaking hinges enough to scare the crows away, there was a rusty bolt at the top and he locked it.
His limp was causing him to wobble and he couldn’t imagine climbing into a helicopter. Harry walked to the edge of the roof, he stared thoughtfully at the dead who had amassed to greater numbers than he thought possible. The zombies shambled around every shop, building corner, crevice and car, lamppost, post box and window. There must have been hundreds, the Beach Town residents shambled aimlessly. Each biting into the salty air, their arms swayed, as they attempted to grab at nothing. Harry gulped; this was the end. Thank god rescue was – hopefully coming – if it wasn’t, he might have contemplated jumping. But he had James and Sam to look after. Then he remembered Sheila, he missed her greatly, even more than Molly. Harry looked to the distant hills, to the hospital in the distance. An epiphany struck him, he realised that Sheila was much better company and he preferred her companionship, he revelled in it. Tears trickled down his face and he smiled. He wanted to be with Sheila, it took the end of the world to realise it.
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