by Glynn James
"No, but I need a battery. They are in my rucksack."
"Then we need to get it back, somehow."
"Yes we do, otherwise all I have to fight with is this blade. And I don't much fancy my chances with that alone. Not against both of them anyway."
"How will we do that? Get the rucksack?"
"I don't know yet. Come on. Let's go and see what we are up against. Maybe they have moved further away."
We headed along the wall for about twenty minutes before finding a part that was collapsed enough for me to climb over. There were spots earlier on, but there was no way I was trying to climb up to them. The wound in my chest was still healing, and I could already tell from the constant ache that my jaunt across the broken bridge hadn't helped.
"I can smell them from here."
"The Zombies?"
"Yes. They are close, but I can't sense them properly down here. This place is stifling."
"It is indeed, my friend. And much more."
"More?"
I stopped.
"Don't you think that there is something down here, I mean in this area of The Corridor, that we have missed? Something we don't know about?"
"Yes. Maybe."
"I think so. I certainly felt it when I first stepped over the wall. Do you remember that? That head-swinging monster? That one that screamed at me? Well. Adler had said in his notes never to cross over the wall, and I always thought that he meant the Zombies. Now...Well I don't think that was all of it. I think it's something else."
"You think that something darker is in there?"
"Pretty much it," I said, nodding. "Call it gut feeling, or empathy, or whatever nonsense."
"Well, I don't want to find out."
"No. Me neither."
I dropped down into the open space the other side of the wall, and DogThing leapt down to land next to me. Even though my eyes had adjusted to the dark, there was very little light on this side. Even the unnatural glow that seems to hang in the air across most of this place was absent here.
A darker darkness, I thought.
I drew my blade.
"I'm going to need you to be my eyes here," I said. "I can barely see a few paces."
"Even my vision is not at its best here."
"Better than mine."
"True."
Travelling along the wall towards the bridge I became nervously aware of the emptiness that stretched out before us. It was even darker down by the wall, but at least there was no rubble, or junk, or other obstructions for me to trip over. DogThing stayed close enough to me that I could hear his quiet panting. It was enough to keep me calm.
Soon the faint glow of the unnatural rocks above the bridge came into view; small specks of dim light against the void.
Then we reached the first of the upright poles, and the scaffolding that held up the bridge; at least what was left of it.
It was time to step away from the wall and out into the open cobbled space.
I wondered if the people of London in the Gallowshill area missed their cobbles. It was probably tarmac by now.
We moved slowly forwards; the dark, skeletal form of the ruined bridge, lit up slightly by the odd, glowing rocks far away, high up in the rock wall, was the only means to judge where I was.
After fifty yards or so DogThing stopped.
"Stay here. I can see them now."
"Close?"
"Close enough."
He edged forward, slowly, very slowly, and without a sound, until I could no longer see him. The moment that he disappeared completely from sight, I felt a terrible wave of fear creep into my stomach, I glanced around. I couldn't see the wall, but still had the bridge to go by. I had to keep the direction of that bridge visible.
"I think I can get your bag if I'm quick enough."
I couldn't answer out loud, so just thought to myself. We never tried speaking this way normally, but I remembered how he was able to speak to me when he was trapped in the train tunnel, back in the ruined city where we found the sisters of Rahl.
"How far is the bag from them?"
"The same as my length from eyes to tail."
"That's too close. They'll notice you. It's not worth the risk."
"They didn't."
"You got it?"
"Yes."
I couldn't help but grin at the sheer audacity of my furry friend.
"Then get out of there."
A shadow moved a few feet away, and not from the direction that DogThing had gone. My nerves lurched and I drew back my blade.
"It's me."
I gave a sigh of relief, and shook my head as he approached me, still creeping, with my bag in his mouth.
I knelt down and took the rucksack from him, closed up all the straps and slung it over my shoulder.
"Let's get the hell out of here."
"Agreed."
A moan shattered the silence.
Then another.
"Oops."
"Run."
DogThing shot off in the direction of the wall, and I followed close behind, the two of us sprinting through the darkness. I was nearly blind, but could just make out his shape a few feet ahead of me. Twice I nearly collided with the scaffolding, and by the time I reached the foot of the wall and began climbing, he was already sitting there, waiting. Two glowing bright eyes in the darkness.
"Come on. You run like a snail."
"Thanks buddy!"
I hit the wall hard and turned left, still running. The moans were nearer now, and I risked taking my hand away from the wall to sprint as fast as I could. I can't even begin to explain how unnerving it was running along in complete darkness, only able to see a few feet ahead of me, and only able to judge where the wall was because it was even darker to my left. To make it worse, no matter how fast I ran, and how many hundreds of yards we covered in those few minutes, the moaning seemed to be getting nearer and nearer each moment.
Always, though. I could hear and vaguely see that furry black shape ahead of me, guiding me through the pitch black.
Then, finally I saw some light. It was faint, and in the distance, an eerie light shining across the broken stretch of wall that I had dropped down from. I pushed harder, willing myself to run faster and faster as the gap came closer. It wasn't until I was twenty feet away from it, and getting ready to jump for it, that I noticed the Zombies. They weren't just in the area near the bridge. They were all over the place in the dark, even just a few feet away from the wall near here.
We'd just walked for twenty minutes, in the dark, barely a few feet from thousands and thousands of them.
As I ran forward, I sheathed my blade, ready to climb. DogThing reached the wall first, and leapt up, scrambling on the edge of the wall for a moment before managing to climb over the top. It was a ten-foot drop, and as I approached it, I cursed myself for not putting something down for me to climb back up. I could have found a rope or something similar in all that junk.
Too late.
With the mass of Zombies lumbering out of the darkness behind me and closing the gap rapidly, I leapt forward and up, barely grasping on to the edge of the lowest section of the wall. I heaved hard, feeling something pop in my chest; pain and wetness erupted from there, but I didn't let go.
Something grabbed my foot.
That was enough to frighten me into pulling myself up with every bit of strength that I could muster, and some more that I didn't know I had. I reached out, my leg heavy with the Zombie that was holding on to it, and grabbed another rock, pulling myself and the Zombie over the edge and onto the top of the wall.
I glanced back, kicking out with my other foot as the mouth of the Zombie clamped around my ankle. It bit down hard, but that one swift kick to the face cracked its skull open and sent it tumbling back into the darkness the other side of the wall.
I sat up, quickly undoing my leg armour and checking underneath. I hadn't felt any pain, but with the state my body was in at the moment, I may not have felt my skin being pierced on
top of all the other pain.
To my relief the bite hadn't broken the skin. It hadn't even gone through the leg guard. I sighed with relief and then strapped the guard back on, pulled the pack off my back and opened it up. There were three torches stuffed in there still, so I took one out and lit it.
What I saw below me made my heart nearly leap out of my chest. I knew I wasn't looking at every Zombie that I suspected were in the darkness beyond the wall, but there were enough of them. Hundreds of the nasty things had followed us and were now pushing forward, crushing each other against the wall. None of them were able to climb up, they weren't smart enough for that, but a few were even now crawling over the top of others. Soon the mass of bodies would create a pile big enough for some of them to make their way over the top.
"We can't have them following us. And they will if we don't stop them."
"How do you stop so many?"
FLASH
I am hunched down behind a wall, firing every few moments through the window of the burned-out building. Others are around me, Resistance soldiers, also firing frantically through the windows.
"We're pinned down. There are too many."
It's Joshua, my brother, crouched next to me.
I pause for a moment.
"Where are they coming from? Can anyone get an eye on the entrance point?"
"Down the street," shouts a voice above me. One of the Vigilant Troopers with us is perched on the ledge of a window above me. "There is an alleyway."
I take a deep breath and pull out one of my spare handgun batteries. The bottom comes off with a twist and I see the four wires. I pull out the green and the yellow ones and twist them together. The battery begins to feel warm in my hands.
"Cover fire," I shout, and everyone opens up, blasting the nearest of the Zombies away.
A moment later and I hop over the window ledge and onto the pavement outside. Above me, the Vigilant Trooper blasts away with his automatic rifle at the Zombies that approach me.
I swing back my arm and launch the ammo battery across the street and into the alleyway.
"Oh crap," says a voice behind. "Everybody get down!"
The Vigilant soldier kills two more Zombies before dropping back down to ground level, just as I leap back through the window.
A high-pitched noise can be heard for a moment and then the ground shakes. Dust and rock fly through the open windows, along with other objects. Bits of Zombie.
When the dust settles, the Vigilant climbs back up onto the perch above and scans the area outside.
"All clear. Damn, you took out half of the street."
FLASH
I shook my head and waited for the dizziness to pass. Strange, I thought. The flashbacks seem to be linked to my thoughts, somehow triggered by need or by a similar situation.
I glanced down at the Zombies, then at my gun. I knew that I had other batteries in my rucksack, and the one in the gun at the moment was useless. It might not even work, but it was worth a try.
I unclipped the battery and put the gun into the holster at my waist. Yellow and green, I told myself as I unscrewed the bottom, pulled the two wires and twisted them together.
I held the battery in my hand for a few moments, waiting for the sound, waiting for the heat.
It was there, very slight at the beginning, just a little warmth, but then the piercing sound began and the battery heated up rapidly. By the time I threw it down into the crowd of Zombies, the surface of the battery was nearly burning my skin.
"Run," I shouted, scrambling down the rocks as fast as I could, away from the Zombies and into the junkyard. I ran, and I kept running, DogThing right behind me, until I saw a pile of rubble big enough to hide behind. I dived.
THUD.
The sound was muffled somehow, but then I remembered how everything was dampened in this place. I looked up, over the pile of rubble, to see a dust cloud wafting through the piles of scrap.
I walked back with DogThing, approaching the breach in the wall slowly. Even as I climbed the pile of collapsed blocks, I could see that the battery had done its job.
Looking down into the darkness, all I could see were body parts. The blast area was about thirty feet away from the wall, and every Zombie within visible distance had been torn apart by the explosion. The wall, on the other hand, seemed to have remained mostly intact.
"They won't be following us now," I said.
I knelt down, pulled my rucksack off my back and searched for my spare batteries. Two of them were stuffed into their own protective boxes at the bottom of the pack. I took one out and put it into my gun, and then fired it into the ground. It hissed as it discharged the energy bolt, and sent shards of stone scattering across the floor.
The recharge counter on the top flickered from blue to white.
Perfect.
Armed once more.
Now I have a means to protect myself from the things in here, even if it's still not a way to end CutterJack.
"Let's get moving. I want to make it to the bus before we rest."
So I'm now sitting locked away in the bus, finding it quite funny that DogThing is actually on the inside with me this time. He hesitated, but then I pointed out that I was going to barricade myself in. I think that the idea of being out on his own this time soon changed his mind.
The journey to the bus was quiet. No Zombies, no Kre'esh and no sign of either CutterJack or Dha'mir. I remembered on the way to gather up some of the plastic sheeting that was still lying in a massive pile not far from the pram and bicycle dump, just in case it rained.
Another thing I found along the way...the professor's bicycle. It was propped up against a broken wardrobe, not far from the scaffolding site. I'd completely forgotten that I'd left it here, and it certainly made the journey to the bus much quicker.
Day 55
I awoke to the sound of movement outside.
It was a shuffling noise, something going around the outside of the bus, again and again.
DogThing was sitting near the door, and sniffing.
I climbed the stairs to the top floor, stepping as quietly as I could, and peered out of one of the windows. It was too dark out there to make out clearly what was wandering around, but it certainly wasn't as clumsy as a Zombie.
DogThing made a low whining noise that was immediately answered by a quieter, higher-pitched whine from outside. The creature was now sniffing and scratching at the door to the bus.
"It's a Maw, like me. And young."
I went back down the stairs, less quiet this time.
"Seriously? There was one left behind?"
"She's frightened."
I moved quickly to the door of the bus and unblocked it. The metal screeched in protest as I forced it open.
Sitting on the floor looking up at me was the tiniest Maw I'd seen this close up. No taller than my knee. Its big eyes stared up at me so brightly that I could almost feel the terror hiding in there.
"Come on in then," I said, giving her room to get by.
She looked at me warily for a moment, and then at DogThing, and then jumped up onto the bus and scuffled past me quickly, to hide in the corner, behind DogThing. I stared at her, bewildered for a moment.
"I thought that all of them got out?"
"Yes, I also thought that they did. But, I heard one of the matriarchs pining. This may be a lost pup."
I looked down at the small bundle hiding quietly behind DogThing. She was almost entirely black, like the larger hunter Maw, except she had light, grey coloured patches around her feet.
"So she has probably been on her own down here for the last few weeks. No wonder she is frightened. I'm surprised she is still around."
"Even the Maw young are tough, and we can phase at birth. She could have been hurt many times, but would still live."
"Well. I guess we will have to figure out what to do about her. We obviously have to take her out of here, but it's too dangerous to take her with us right now."
"Yes."
>
I stood there thinking about it for a while.
"Are you Maw any good at hiding at her age?"
"Almost invisible if we choose. Even more than the older Maw, because of size, and especially in The Corridor where it is always dark. She could go almost anywhere and not be seen. She chose to come to us. She says that she picked up my scent over near the bridge, where she had fallen and had been hiding ever since."
"OK. So she can come with us then, but you will have to make sure she is well out of the way if something happens."
An hour later and I had decided that it was time for us to move on. I cautiously stepped out of the bus, gun drawn, scanning the furthest distance of my vision, which thankfully was increasing slowly.
No sign of movement.
We set off. I was on the bicycle, with DogThing and GreyFoot trotting alongside. I had wondered if GreyFoot would be able to keep up with us, but she moves at quite a speed considering her small size.
Oh and yes...GreyFoot. I just had to name her.
We were soon moving through the mushrooms and gradually heading uphill towards the plateau. My plan was to push hard, so that we could try to reach the ravine that was half-way across before making camp again. I didn't want to be out in the open, and the bicycle certainly sped things up a bit.
By the time the ravine came into view, I was just about exhausted. But we had travelled much faster across the expanse of marble than we had the first time.
Day 56
"Wake up."
I awoke, and immediately heard the noise above us. GreyFoot was crouched down into the darkness not far from me, and DogThing was pulling on my jacket, trying to rouse me from sleep.
I slowly edged underneath the overhang of rock, quietly dragging my rucksack with me, lying flat and staying as still as I could, gun drawn.
There was something moving around above us, up on the plateau. I had the chill feeling in my stomach that it was looking for us. Hunting us. I lay as quietly as I could, and hoped that it would move on.
Movement above. A dark shadow leapt across the ravine. A feat that I could never have achieved. It landed right on the edge, four feet hard on the marble surface. Another followed, then another.
