by RR Haywood
‘Hurts like a bastard,’ he grunts.
‘What’s this?’ I turn his hand over to see the opened wounds on his knuckles, ‘you’re cut to bits.’
‘Punching,’ he says apologetically.
‘When?’
‘Back there,’ he nods at the way we just came from. I don’t say anything for a second but wait for his own brain to catch up.
‘Oh…oh shit.’ his eyes go wide, ‘fuck….’
‘What?’ Cookey looks terrified, pale and drawn.
‘Huh,’ Blowers snorts with laughter as he gets to his feet, ‘didn’t realise.’
‘You too then,’ I nod at him.
‘Looks that way, Mr Howie.’
‘What?’ Cookey repeats, ‘fucking what?’
‘You’re such a twat,’ Blowers shakes his head but can’t keep the grin from his face.
‘Eh? What!?’ Cookey looks down at Blowers knuckles dripping with blood and the visibly open cuts. He stares hard for a second then up at the bite mark.
‘Oh…’ he says softly, ‘oh right.’ The grin that spreads across his face changes his whole appearance, ‘you’re immune.’
‘Yeah,’ Blowers replies just as softly, ‘think I am.’
‘Mate,’ Cookey stares in shock.
‘Later.’ I pat Blowers on the shoulder and start running again. They fall in beside me and I don’t need to look to know the relief they feel or see the grins on their faces. They fade though as they remember the dire situation we are running towards and the unknown of what we might find.
I remember yesterday and forcing these lads to run because of my own obstinate issues. They’re exhausted, drained, wounded and I can see they hardly have anything left to give.
‘Lads, drop back and let me do….’
‘No chance,’ Blowers gives a burst of speed with Cookey right at his side. Through the double doors, into the factory section and sprinting flat out down to the next set of doors and already the sounds of fighting are reaching my ears.
Lani is torn. She knows the team need her but she longs to be by your side. She is at the far end at the most dangerous point and she covers a gap in the wall and she knows if she turns away they will break through. The words given to me by Marcy fill my mind and as that image, that emotion and feeling settle inside my mind, so I find greater speed and opening my stride I outstrip the lads as I aim for the last set of doors.
She is at the far end at the most dangerous point. There’s something in her voice. A warning. A tone of inflection and suddenly the fear is upon me. Lani is torn. Torn? The word has more than one meaning. No. Please no.
The doors burst open as I charge into them and head straight through without slowing.
‘STAND YOUR GROUND AND FIGHT…’ The words spill from my mind and I can see Nick with a wry smile on his face as he fends off several undead. Clarence swings his axe to cleave two in half as he turns with a slow grin spreading across that broad face glistening with sweat and filth. Paula sags with relief as Roy turns, sees me running and goes back to the fight. Jagger and Mo Mo suddenly get faster and fight harder. Nick is possessed and Clarence roars with glory as the energy of the team becomes one again.
Behind me, the lads burst into the room as a cheer erupts. Now we are whole and together we fight. Except two are missing. Lani is torn. At the far end. Lani is torn. The most dangerous point.
I hammer through and pass the group, swerving round cases and stacks of boxes and there it is. The light pours through the smashed in emergency exit door at the far end.
A horde, thick and fast are spilling through and I watch as though time slows down as she fights with a speed and dexterity I have never seen from her. The light glimmers and catches on her raven black hair and that golden skin seems to glow, but on her face there are tears that stream and her heart is broken. The tide against her is too great, far too great but she tries to dominate that central ground. The ground about her feet is littered with the dead and dying.
They converge on her and as one engulf her. I watch helpless as she’s torn from her feet. Teeth and nails gouge into her arms, legs and torso. She screams and bucks but the bodies swarm and she’s taken out of sight.
Meredith attacks with blood spraying from her mouth and I scream, oh I screa,m and demand my legs go faster. I cross that ground with every ounce of strength willing Lani to just hold on.
‘LANI….’ If she hears me she will know I am coming, she will know to fight and keep fighting and to never give up. She held this door on her own, at the most dangerous point to protect those she holds most dear.
I cannot speak nor form words, but the passion spews forth as a howl of utter frustration and then I am amongst them and upon them. I grab bodies and heave them aside with a strength that flows and burns. One after the other after the other is wrenched from that writhing bundle. I see dark hair, raven black and silky straight and down I go after her, stamping and kicking while my hands grab at body parts to cast them aside. I get bitten and scratched, thumped, kicked and battered but the pain does not reveal itself until I see her slender arm and grab a firm grasp of her wrist. I heave and run backwards to free her from the massed pressing bodies but they cling and bite into her. I kick down to free the rotten corpses from her blessed skin but hands that are broken and ruined cling on until I can stamp and wrench. Meredith is within them, biting and ragging furiously but never quickly enough, and then she’s free and I’m dragging her body across the floor.
They’re up and surging towards us, intent on finishing what they started but Lani is no longer alone and like fuck will I let one of these bastards get by me. Meredith is at my side and we bring a frenzied death down on them. My axe was dropped somewhere but my hands do the work. Their skin is soft and yielding and I tear throats out with my bare fingers, snap necks and arms. A leg is torn free by the dog and I take it up to use as a weapon. A human leg complete with shoe that I grip and swing out to take more of them down.
Dave appears behind them with a roar that has every head in that building turning and it’s enough for me to drop the leg, grab Lani and drag her further into the room as Dave shows them what dangerous really looks like.
‘Lani…Lani…’ I’m dragging her by the arm but she doesn't answer. Her face is covered in blood, her clothing torn and ripped. Her body torn. Torn. Lani is torn.
Free from the melee, I drop down and force myself to stay calm. I start checking for injuries but she’s bleeding from so many places. The infection can’t hurt her but the wounds are so many. Bite marks, grips marks, bruises and cuts to her neck and cheeks.
‘Lani…’ I try to identify the worst injuries but the blood covers nearly every inch of her exposed skin and I can’t see anything other through the blurred tears that I blink furiously away.
Time ceases and I have no idea what goes on around me until suddenly hands are touching me and the team are dropping down to my side.
‘Move, Mr Howie, move…’ Roy’s tone is urgent and I let him take over. He drops down to inspect the wounds. ‘Water.’ His tone is calm and bottles are handed over. He pours them over bite marks and identifies the ones bleeding the most. ‘Bandages.’
‘Where from?’ Nick asks.
‘First aid kit. Find one,’ Roy calls back and several of the team burst away as Roy goes back to gently pouring water over the wounds. He lifts her head and starts pouring the liquid down her forehead. She murmurs and twitches as the water hits her mouth, an instinctive reaction to take fluids in and one that has me gasping in hope.
Roy holds the mouth of the bottle to her lips and lets the tiniest trickle in. Just a drop which she takes without sound. Then a bit more and he waits, watching for any reaction before doing it again.
‘Give her more,’ Jagger urges.
‘She could drown,’ Roy replies softly, ‘little bit at a time.’ He eases some more into her parched lips as I take hold of her hand and rub it gently.
‘Here,’ Nick drops down breathing hard and holding a
large green box with a white cross on the front.
‘Bandages. Get the wounds covered,’ Roy instructs. Paula and Nick work fast, opening the box to take the clean sterile bandages from within. The plastic covers are ripped open with teeth and the dressings applied by Roy as he starts on the ones bleeding the worst.
A deep cut to her right thigh is bound first and we all help to raise the leg so Roy can loop the bandage underneath. Her left calf is next. Her right arm. Her left arm and her stomach.
‘Dave, get outside with Nick and get our fucking saxon back.’
‘On it,’ the pair race off.
‘Everyone else get ammunition stacked and ready to go. Re-load the weapons and make ready in case they come back. Hang on, Dave? Did you kill ‘em all?’
‘Yes,’ he shouts back.
‘Cookey and Blowers you cover the outside of the shutters, Jagger and Mo Mo face down to those rear doors, Paula you watch the top section. Roy, once Lani is finished check the dog next then everyone else in turn.’
‘On it,’ he nods with the same prompt reply the others give.
‘How is she?’ I ask in a quieter voice.
‘She’s lost a lot of blood,’ he turns to glance up at me, ‘There’s a lot of wounds. Her heart and pulse are shakey. We have to watch for shock now.’
‘Shock?’
‘Her body is shutting down to protect the vital organs,’ he explains slowly, ‘which is why she’s passed out. Her mind doesn't need to be working for her to stay alive. The danger now is her core temperature will plummet and that makes it harder for her whole body to work. Worst case is she goes into cardiac arrest.’
‘Okay,’ I nod quickly, ‘you mean her heart could stop.’
‘Yes, if it does we can do CPR or find a defib machine. She needs emergency medical care.’
‘Everyone,’ I shout, ‘fuck covering the doors, we get loaded and we go as soon as possible…’
The saxon is found and put to use, battering the vehicles away from the where the shutters were and then backed into the building. The rear doors are opened and Clarence carries Lani to lie in the back while the ammunition crates are stacked and shoved into every possible place.
‘Car park round the corner,’ Nick runs back in, ‘want me to grab something?’
‘Get what you can, the bigger the better…Dave go with him. Roy, please stay with Lani.’
‘I can but you said the dog needs checking.’
‘I’ll do it,’ grabbing bottles of water I head over to the animal still standing and still alert as she flicks her head to look from the shutter entrance to the rear. ‘Good girl,’ I drop down at her side to stroke her huge head. Her tail wags and she whines softly. I pour water into my hand which she laps and keeps lapping until two bottles are drained. Her wounds are checked. She bleeds but not badly and she takes the pain without complaint when I pour clean water over the worst injuries. We need to go. Go now. But the fort needs ammunition and that value is greater than one life, which is something I will be discussing with the team when the time is right.
Once cleaned and checked, Meredith deftly jumps up into the Saxon and lies down next to Lani with her head resting on Lani’s chest.
The only words spoken are those from necessity. Nick comes back with a small van that gets jammed full of ammunition crates, boxes of grenades and everything else we can fit in. There’s plenty left here but with two vehicles loaded with as much as we can carry, we finally load up.
Nick and Dave stay together in the van as I clamber into the driver’s seat and cast a quick look back at Lani. She’s being watched so carefully by everyone perching on and wedged between crates and boxes. Clarence takes the front with me with another two crates on his lap and a curt nod.
The engine fires up and the machine that was turned against us pulls away to start the journey back to the fort.
The Undead Day Sixteen
To be continued…
Table of Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
