She did not see the result clearly, but she felt it as the spear penetrated the attacker’s left eye socket. There was a moment of anxiety as the beast remained upright; then it collapsed to the ground with a satisfying thump. Talikha remained there a few seconds more, her breathing was erratic, and despite the chill of the evening air, her palms were sweaty. She turned towards the other jostling figures, and one by one their would-be assailants began to fall.
When the final skirmish ended, a feeling of jubilation swept over the stick and stone-wielding warriors. They had done the impossible. They had gone up against these things in the dark, with nothing but what nature provided to defend themselves, and they had won.
Talikha crouched and placed her spear on the road, opening her arms. Sammy ran into them, and the two embraced. “You are the bravest girl I have ever met. I think maybe Kartikeya has chosen you to do his work,” she said, pulling back.
“Who’s Kartikeya?”
“He is the Hindu god of war.”
“I don’t think so. I was so scared.”
“Bravery is not the absence of fear, Sammy. Bravery is doing something even though you are scared. What you did was incredibly brave.”
“It didn’t feel brave.”
The pair hugged again before Talikha scooped up her spear once more and rose to her feet. The pair of them walked over to Jake who Sammy had told to hide behind a bush next to the road. He was crying. “I peed myself,” he said as if it was the worst thing in the world.
“Don’t worry, Jake, I’m pretty certain a lot of people peed themselves tonight,” Talikha said, looking around as figures who had run off at the sight of the attackers slowly started to emerge back out of the trees.
“I want to go back home,” he said, wiping his eyes.
“We have to find a new home now, Jake,” Talikha said, placing a hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“I want Mike and Emma.”
Talikha hated lying, but to get through this night she knew she would have to. “They’ll be here soon, Jake. They’ll be here soon.”
✽ ✽ ✽
As the first echoes of gunfire began to die down and the occupants of the pub and surrounding grounds realised their celebrations were premature, the car park became alive with movement. The invaders/raiders/marauders, whatever they were, whatever the lowlife thieving, murdering scum wanted to call themselves suddenly put their game faces on. Placing bottles and glasses on the ground and replacing them with their sidearms, a surge towards the car park exit began.
“Now, for fuck’s sake, now, Mike,” Barnes screamed.
Mike jammed the small torch into the sock, took a split second to measure the weight of it in his hand, ran forward a couple of metres and threw the jar as high as he could. It arced in the air, rising high above the crowd. The few who spotted it had no idea what it was, other than a strange, orange, glowing object rising up into the night sky.
Barnes held his breath and aimed. This was the most important shot of his life, and he knew for the maximum effect he needed to take it before the thing started falling again. Boom!
“Oh shit!” Mike screamed as the jar kept on rising, unblemished by the shot.
Barnes pumped the fore-end of the shotgun as the first bullets started whistling towards him. Emma and Lucy began to lay down cover fire from their positions further back. Boom! He fired again. “Got you,” he said as the jar exploded into a hundred deadly pieces. Infected bloody glass showered the crowd, slicing through cheeks, scalps, arms, shoulders, and, for the unfortunate few who had looked up, eyes and lips.
For a moment the firing stopped as the marauder force realised there was something else going on, a bigger game at play. “Come on!” Mike said, grabbing Barnes’s arm.
There was part of Barnes that wanted to stop and fight, just wade into the crowd, firing. But he knew the best revenge he could get had already been served. He handed the shotgun to Mike who pumped it and fired into the crowd while Barnes retrieved his cumbersome but frequently life-saving sniper rifle from the tree where he had left it leaning.
Emma and Lucy started to fire once more as further shots whistled in their general direction. As Mike and Barnes fell back, the two women released one final volley, only managing to hit a single marauder in the leg, but their job was done. As they sprinted through the dark woods, they each switched magazines, certain they had not yet finished using their guns.
“What the hell was that gunfire earlier?” Emma said as shouts of go after them could be heard rising from the car park.
“I don’t know, but let’s hope Shaw achieved his mission, otherwise this is going to be the shortest escape ever,” Barnes replied.
They carried on running for a few more seconds, and then they heard it. The grim and yet on this occasion beautiful sound of a high-pitched scream. Not just any high-pitched scream, however. They had become experts after all this time, and when someone had the flesh ripped from their neck by a blood-craving monster, there was a certain timbre to the voice. This was the first. It was the first of many as a chorus quickly began to accompany it.
Shots began to sound behind them once more, but they were landing wide. Mike, Lucy, Emma and Barnes were on home turf, and they could weave and wane through these woods better than most. They emerged out onto the road by the village hall and checked both ways, but their shortcut ensured they had beaten everyone else there. They proceeded across to the hall’s car park, around the back of the building and through the other small wooded area separating it and the street where the librarians lived.
Shots were echoing all around now as the battle with the undead had begun well and truly. Automatic rifle as well as pistol fire boomed and cracked, shaking the once quiet village to its foundations. The four of them came to a stop before the wall and crouched down. Mike carefully raised his head. “There are bodies on the pavement and five people standing at the bottom of the street, looking towards the village.”
“Ours or theirs?” Barnes asked.
“Can’t tell, but the campervan’s gone.”
“That’s got to be good … hasn’t it?” Lucy asked.
“Well, we can’t stay behind this wall forever,” Mike replied, reloading the shotgun. “How do you want to play this, Barney?”
“Quickly.”
“Fair enough.” Mike stood, pulled the fore-end of the shotgun and jumped over the wall.
“Mike! Mike!” Lucy called after him.
Mike started walking down the middle of the street towards the figures. Even in the darkness, he could see one and then the others turn towards him. “Identify yourself,” one of them called as they all raised their weapons.
“It’s me,” Mike called back, veering across the street and onto the pavement past the bodies that Wren had brought down.
“That’s fucking useful, isn’t it? Me who? And don’t take another step.”
“It’s me, Mike.” He could see the heads turn to each other in the darkness, he could almost hear the question clattering around their brains, Who the fuck is Mike? Then it happened … what he was hoping would happen, Barnes took his cue. There was the familiar pfft sound, and a millisecond later the one shadow that had been asking the questions fell to the ground. Mike dived over the nearest garden wall as pistol and rifle fire filled the street. A bullet pinged off the wrought iron a few feet from his head; then another turned brick to powder. He kept his head down for a few more seconds until there was a short pause and then he sprinted, bounding over the fence of the neighbouring property then over the next before diving onto the lawn. Had they seen him? He’d find out soon enough. He waited a few more seconds and when no more shots came in his direction jumped to his feet.
There were three bodies lying in the middle of the road, but he didn’t have sight of the other two. He turned the other way. Lucy, Emma and Barnes had not broken cover, and if the other two soldiers were in hiding, there was no way Barnes was going to get a clear shot. The screams continued to multiply and amplify a
s the infection spread. It would not be long before the whole village was a death zone, and they’d be just as screwed as everyone else. Fuck it.
Mike vaulted another fence, hoping he was shielded from sight by the overgrown hedges. He paused, one, two, three, then leapt over the gate back onto the street. He nearly landed on the female guard. Both of them were as taken aback as the other. She swung the rifle around, but Mike kicked out hard, knocking her from the crouching position she was in and into the door of the Land Rover they had procured from the village.
“Steve!” she cried as her head banged against the body of the vehicle. Another black figure appeared from around the back of the car and started to raise his weapon, but Mike was already waiting. He squeezed the trigger of the shotgun, and the giant Steve flew back a metre, crashing onto the concrete pavement. “No!” she screamed, gathering herself and bringing her own rifle up once more. Mike turned sharply, pumping the fore-end again, and before the woman could take aim, he fired. At that moment, he was more grateful for the darkness than he had ever been in his life.
“Clear!” he shouted. “Barney! Luce! Em! It’s clear!” He ran around to the driver’s side of the Land Rover. The light went on as he opened the door, and his face lit up as he saw the keys in the ignition. He jumped in and started the engine, pulling away from the kerb and heading down the street to meet the others as they climbed over the wall.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Lucy screamed as the sound of panicked shouts and running feet got nearer.
Mike did a three-point turn and put his foot down. He pulled to the end of the road and turned right. They only travelled a few metres before he applied the handbrake.
“Mike! What are you doing? Move for fuck’s sake,” Emma cried.
Barnes was about to echo the statement then he saw it too. This wasn’t over.
chapter 27
Vicky, Prisha and Saanvi stayed up front with Talikha, Ryan and April as the people of Safe Haven resumed their march. Humphrey and Meg walked on either side of Talikha, the clear alpha leader of this giant pack. They had done their duty; they had warned their family then attacked and pinned down two of the wild things that came out of the dark until their humans finished them off with their sharp sticks.
“How much farther?” Vicky asked.
The half-moon had made an appearance in the sky and cast a generous light over the tree-lined road.
“Maybe another mile and a half,” Talikha replied.
“I would kill for a hot bath and a glass of red wine.”
“It may be some time before we are able to enjoy any luxuries,” Talikha replied.
She felt Sammy’s hand slip into her own once more, and she held it tight. “Things will get better,” Sammy said. “Things always get better.”
Vicky, Saanvi and Prisha all slowed down. “What is it?” Talikha and Ryan asked at precisely the same time.
“I saw something,” Vicky replied.
Talikha clenched her fist around the spear. “What? What did you see?”
“It looked like a light … up ahead. A torch or something.”
They all peered through the darkness. “Oh, shit!” cried April as a pair of car headlights flicked on about three hundred metres ahead. They all froze in stunned silence then became perplexed as they watched the vehicle do a clumsy three-point turn and disappear in the other direction.
“Who the hell was that?” Vicky asked.
“I don’t know,” Ryan replied, “but something tells me that, before tonight’s over, we’re going to find out.”
✽ ✽ ✽
Mercer and Jacobs figured out what was happening long before anyone else. Somehow the prisoners had got the drop on Troy and the others. Somehow, they’d escaped and beaten them at their own game by unleashing the zombie virus. Troy’s army had entered Safe Haven as one well-equipped unit, but now it was every man and woman for themselves.
The car they had dived into would not win any drag races, but it was infinitely preferable than trying to escape on foot. Others had the same idea, and as the entire village descended into hellish chaos, the convoy of four vehicles sped out of the campground and onto the main road. They had tried to turn onto the quickest exit route, up and over the steep hill to the east, but a horde of beasts attacked the vehicles. They managed to change direction before being completely surrounded, and now they were heading the other way.
“We should have got onto one of the fishing boats,” Mercer said.
“We wouldn’t have stood a chance. Most of our crews are chowing down on each other right this minute, and did you see the dock as we went by? These fucking things are everywhere.”
“So where will we go?”
“One thing at a time. Let’s just get the hell out of here first.”
Jacobs put his foot down on the accelerator then eased off for a second as a Land Rover tore out of a side street a hundred metres ahead of them. “Who the hell’s that?” Mercer asked.
“I don’t know, but I wish we had their wheels.”
The Land Rover came to a sudden stop, and Jacobs’s heart began to pound faster. He jammed on the brakes, and the small car skidded to a diagonal standstill, causing a mini-pileup as the three vehicles following all smashed into it, albeit lightly, causing Jacobs’s car to shunt horizontally, blocking the way completely. Had the creatures already managed to get this far? Were they blocking the route ahead?
The doors of the Land Rover swung open. Two men climbed out, one with a shotgun, one with a handgun. They opened fire at the same time. Before Jacobs or Mercer could even duck, bullets and shot had entered their bodies.
Barnes took aim at the petrol tank of the lead vehicle. Round after round punctured it until a pool formed. “Mike, shotgun,” he shouted, holding out his hand.
Mike threw Barnes the weapon. The headlights of the piled-up vehicles provided enough illumination for him to see what he was doing. He aimed at the rear wheel. The hubcaps had disappeared long ago, and the metal had rusted in places thanks to the harsh salty winds, but he achieved the desired effect. More than a dozen tiny sparks spat to the ground, igniting the fuel with a whoosh.
Mike looked on with admiration, and Barnes handed the shotgun back to him. “Nice work, Barney.”
“Come on. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
They climbed back into the car and accelerated up the hill, watching the flames rise higher in the wing mirrors. They had not travelled more than a few seconds when they slowed down and turned into the designated meeting place. Before they brought the car to a halt, they could tell something was wrong. The light was on in the back of the campervan and Wren, Jenny, and George were standing outside with worried looks on their faces.
“What’s wrong?” Lucy asked, climbing out of the Land Rover before it had come to a complete stop.
“Thank God you’re here,” Jenny cried.
“It’s Jules, she’s been shot,” Ruth said.
Lucy immediately climbed into the VW. Raj and Shaw were doing the best they could to stop the bleeding. “We don’t have any equipment. No bandages, no alcohol,” Shaw said.
Lucy looked at Jules, who was still conscious but very pale. “Okay, let’s get to our house, pronto. I’ve got materials there.”
Shaw climbed out of the camper and explained to the others what was happening. In less than thirty seconds, the two vehicles were underway again.
“Find my brothers and tell them I love them.” Jules’s voice was frightened, like that of a small child.
“You’re going to tell them yourself in no time at all. We’ll all be together soon,” Lucy replied, holding a torn piece of shirt against her wound. The others, on the opposite seat, looked on sadly. They had lost so much tonight, and now they were about to lose one of the bravest, most caring people in the community. Nobody ever had a bad word to say about Jules. She brought calm to even the most tumultuous days with her down-to-earth wit and humanity.
“No. They were at the East Ridge.
It will take them forever to get to the North Ridge on foot, and that’s if the daft bastards even figure out that’s the way they should head.” Lucy smiled and squeezed Jules’s hand tighter. Even with a bullet wound, she was still funny.
“Sweetie, can you lift yourself up a tiny bit?” Jules winced as she angled her body. Lucy peeled back her bloody T-shirt. “Okay, this is good. You’ve got an exit wound. When we’re back home, I’ll make sure there are no bullet fragments in it, but that’s a good sign.” She turned to Jenny. “Tear me another piece of shirt.”
“I appreciate the effort, but we both know that I’m not going to make it,” Jules said weakly, and her eyes began to flutter.
“Hey! Don’t talk like that. You’re going to be just fine. I’m not going to let you go anywhere. I need you around to help me keep Mike in line. You’re the only one around here he’s scared of.”
Jules smiled, but it was fast becoming too much effort. “He’s a good man. Look after him.”
“Hey, stay with me, Jules. Hey! Hey!”
Jules’s eyes flickered open again. “Sorry … tired.”
“What blood type are you?”
“Huh?”
“Blood type. What blood type are you, Jules?”
“O.”
“O? O what? Positive or negative?” Jules closed her eyes. “Jules! Jules!”
A few seconds passed. “Is she dead?” Wren asked.
“No. But I need to get her seen to fast. She’s going to need a blood transfusion. She’s lost too much.”
“But … you don’t know what type she is.”
“No, but I know two people who can help.”
“Who?” Wren asked.
“Mike and Emma.”
Safe Haven (Book 6): Is This The End of Everything? Page 23
