Everyone in the group was now awake. They had begun to cook breakfast between them, Jackson had made his way up the staircase, to fetch the other three. Now as he reached the top of the stairs, he could tell something was wrong. Jin-Lee was sat next to the concertina gate, and her body language told the young soldier that something had happened. He rushed over to his lover, scooping her up into his arms. “Babe what’s wrong?” He frantically asked and her eyes began to well up with tears. His embrace had released a combination of emotions, and she openly began to cry, unable to answer his question. “Where are the others?” Jackson asked again. She was still too upset to answer him, and tell him what happened. She wasn’t sure how he would react, over the last few days she had noticed how he had been looking at that skinny bitch Penny, she wasn’t blind. “Jin-Lee snap out of it for god’s sake.” “Tell me where they are?” Finally she stopped crying, “They’re not here Jackson.” “What do you mean they’re not here? Where are they?” Jin-Lee looked deflated as she shook her head, “All I know is Shanice claimed to know where Penny’s father was, but she wouldn’t tell me where.” Jackson didn’t want to believe what she had told him, they couldn’t have left unannounced, surely? “Have they got a radio with them?” He asked and again Jin-Lee just shook her head. “Jesus Christ, how the hell are we going to tell Gerard?” Jin-Lee looked up, some of the resignation had left her face, “You sure that’s what’s bothering you? Why tell him just yet?” Anger now flowed from Jackson’s face, “Of course we fucking do. He is wondering why Shanice hasn’t been down for her breakfast yet.” Jin-Lee decided not to pursue her accusation any further, and her tone instantly softened, “I’m sorry, she made me promise to help. I know I shouldn’t have let her go.” “You best save your apology for her dad. Come on let’s get going.” He said to her and started striding back towards the stairs. “Jackson, wait?” Jin-Lee called as she ran to close the gap to him, “Jackson please? I know what we have done is wrong, but Shanice would have found a way to go on her own anyway, at least she has someone with her this way.” He stood at the top of the stairs looking into her tear stained eyes, “Okay, but it has to be you that tells Gerard babe.” He insisted. Jin-Lee nodded in agreement to his request, as they strode down the stairs together.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs they could hear the other members of the group talking loudly; one voice stood out above the rest, it was Gerard’s and he wasn’t happy. As the pair reached the rest of them, they both came to an instant halt when they saw Shanice begging her irate father for forgiveness. After getting over the initial shock of the little girl miraculously appearing out of nowhere, Jackson and Jin-Lee stepped forward. “What would have happened if the two of you had run into trouble?” Gerard quizzed his daughter. “I know I’m sorry Daddy, I really am, but I made a promise.” “Shanice it was dangerous.” “Yes I know it was, but a promise is a promise.” The little girl insisted. Realising that he had an audience, Gerard decided to back down, “Don’t ever do that again Princess.” Shanice wasn’t finished, “Daddy I am so lucky that I have had you with me the whole time, and now I’m even luckier that I have Letitia too. But those poor boys have lost their mum, and they need their dad. I did what I had to do for them.”
Gerard hugged his little girl, he couldn’t stay mad at her, as he loved her too much. “I don’t know what I would have done if I’d have lost you, Shanice.” He told her whilst still holding her in his embrace. “You know I’m smarter than those bad people Daddy. Nothing is going to happen to me.” Gerard finally let out a little laugh, and with the situation now calming Kathy chose to interrupt the proceedings, “Do you two mind telling us how you magically appeared from a tunnel that we haven’t even been down yet?” “Let me tell them?” Shanice begged Penny, as she began to jump up and down with excitement. “Go on then.” Penny said feeling that she didn’t have much say in the matter. “We’ve just come from the secret bunker where Penny’s dad was hiding.” Shanice informed the group.
Victoria Station, London, 25thJuly, 12:30 GMT
Once the group had finished discussing what Penny and Shanice had found at the old bunker, they had quickly made their way through the connecting tunnel, and into the immense station of London Victoria. In the past the station would have been one of the busiest in the country, but now thankfully it was totally deserted. With the station being home to all District Line, Circle Line, and Victoria Line trains, its concourses were always busy, and it was a relief that this was one of the stations where the staff where able to secure, before bedlam broke out.
With the rest of the group waiting at the barriers, Kathy and Morgan crept forward to the front of the concourse. Two sets of staircases ran from the locked gates in front of them; one straight up into the main over-ground train station and the second onto the street above. The pair decided to check the street stairwell first, in order to gauge what zombie activity there was in the area. Both soldiers instinctively froze, just four steps up on their ascension. Neither had been spotted by the mass of cadavers, gathered at the top of the staircase, on the other side of the locked gate. As the pair listened, they were able to pick out the sound of shuffling and moaning from all around them. “Guess we won’t be going out this way?” Morgan whispered, as he backed his way slowly back down the stairs. Kathy didn’t dare to answer him, until she reached the concourse again, “That way would be suicide Jay.” She had to agree. They moved straight to the second stairwell, and were able to climb it all the way to the top. From their vantage point, they were only able to see a small portion of the vast station, but from what they could see; it certainly looked abandoned.
Across the vinyl floor a multitude of belongings were scattered across it surface, where they had been abandoned in a hurry. Amongst the debris were dozens of suitcases that had just been left sprawled across the floor. It left the soldiers wondering if the suitcase owners had been forced to leave them behind, and leave the station, or if they had been chased? “What do you think Jay?” Kathy asked her partner. “From here it looks clear, but did they get all the gates closed in time? There could be some trapped deeper in the station.” Morgan answered back. “Only one way to find out then, isn’t there?” Morgan just nodded in reply to her, before giving a proper answer, “A few of us should go ahead and check it out, whilst the rest stay here in safety.” “You’re volunteering then I take it?” It only took a smile from him, to confirm her answer,” Of course, but first we need to get this gate open.” He informed her, as he made his way back down the staircase.
The two soldiers made their way back to the others and explained that outside of the station was teaming with the undead. News of the station itself apparently being empty, lifted the moral of the group; none of them needed another deadly confrontation with the zombies, just yet. “What are we waiting for then?” Shanice excitedly asker her innocent question, making several of her friends laugh. With a smile still spread across his face, Morgan bent down to reply to her, “First I need your dads help to open the gate, and then a few of us need to check the station is safe for the rest of you.” Morgan then turned to Gerard and asked him, “Do you think you can get it open Gerard?” “Yeah should be able to.” Gerard replied, and then begun to rifle through his backpack. It didn’t take long for the engineer to locate what he had been looking for, and he held the multi-driver aloft in Morgan’s direction. “All we need now is tools to lever the gate, and some brawn.” Gerard said to the group.
Armed with two crow bars, an iron bar and Gerard’s multi-driver it took four of them nearly an hour to dislodge the stubborn gate from its fixings. Six of the group now headed into the main station: Morgan led Gerard and Penny off to the right, whilst Kathy led Sam and Heather off to the left. The remainder of the group sat down at the ticket barriers in the underground concourse, under the watchful eye of Jackson.
With the station operating from nineteen platforms the sheer size of it meant that it would take some time to search properly. Kathy and Morgan had alr
eady decided that they would have to make camp at Victoria for the night; as they wanted a full day to make the trek out of the station, and along the tracks, until they reached the Government bunker at Battersea. There wasn’t any point formulating a plan to gain access to the bunker, until they knew exactly what they were dealing with.
The station was eerily quiet, despite the gathered horde of undead outside of its walls. Two large metal doors had been securely locked in place across the two front entrances, which barred most of the noise that the cadavers made. Morgan surveyed the ticket kiosks for any signs of life coming from the other side of the glass serving screen; there was none. Only once the other trio that was led by Kathy had disappeared around the corner, did he begin to continue his search.
As the soldier walked among the discarded belongings of Victoria’s last ever passengers he wondered if any had stayed behind when the station staff had locked up its entrances. Apart from luggage and umbrellas strewn across the floor, Morgan sighed at the various puddles of dried blood that had adhered to the station surface. Dotted amongst the dried blood and personal belongings were several discarded high heeled shoes; a tell-tale sign that their wearers had needed to remove them for extra speed told Morgan that the station had been busy enough, when orders to close it must have filtered through to the staff, and despite the warning it had been too late as the virus had already found its way onto the concourse.
Despite all the discarded belongings and blood there was still no sign of any living survivors, or the undead? Each shop they came across was checked that its door or shutter was locked firmly in place. So far every lockable door had been secured; something that eased the threat of a surprise that each open doorway ultimately offered.
Happy that all of the shops on the main concourse were secure Morgan moved towards the last four platforms. There was a train parked on each of the platforms and Morgan turned to tell Penny and Gerard that they needed to check every carriage. Gerard looked puzzled by Morgan’s request, “Why go to the time and trouble, when the ticket barriers are all closed?” He asked Morgan, and despite the fact that he was still annoyed with Penny and ignoring her, he noticed that she nodded in agreement to his question. “Tomorrow morning we will be walking out past these trains. I want to know that they are empty now. We don’t have the time to waste in the morning checking each one as we walk past.” Morgan called over his shoulder as he vaulted the barriers.
Meanwhile Kathy and her group were now back in the stations main concourse, after checking the various stores to the left of the underground exit. Each of the stores had been securely locked up and the eight platforms surrounding them were totally empty. Kathy stood in front of the notice boards that hadn’t worked since the capitals power was turned off. She was torn between searching the middle set of platforms and the food court above them. “Why don’t we split up?” Sam interrupted Kathy’s thoughts. “We should stick together.” She replied without looking back. “So far everything has been locked up tight. The staff seem to have done their job properly, and evacuated the station.” The young man insisted, he was growing impatient at the time they were spending. “No we stick together. At least in the same area.” Kathy was not going to concede defeat on their safety in numbers. “Where to then?” Heather decided to join in the debate at an attempt of speeding things up. “The barriers will hold off any threat from the last platforms, for now. We can take out the food court next.”
The three of them slowly climbed the stationary escalator; each were cautious of the echoing sounds their footsteps made whilst climbing the metal stairs. With no light being afforded to them by skylights like the rest of the station, they were now entering total darkness. As they reached the top of the escalator Kathy pulled her torch free and reluctantly flicked it on, knowing that should anything be up there waiting for them that it would be alerted to the beam of light. If there had been any level of visibility the soldier would have preferred negotiating her way around without the light on. She turned back to her companions and whispered them an order, “You both stay behind me, and stay as quiet as fuck.” Neither Sam nor Heather chose to protest as they moved forward behind her.
Totally dependent upon the light that came from her torch the trio of survivors slowly made their way through the food court corridor. On either side of them was an array of shops and eateries that all looked locked down and secured, nevertheless Kathy stopped briefly at each set of doors or shutters to check each was indeed locked. It was the same for every retail unit that they checked; Sam had so far been right in his praise for the station’s staff and their efficiency at locking the station down. They finally reached the centre of the food court and were greeted by a further set dormant escalators that led up to the open-plan dining area for several food outlets. “Okay it seems pretty clear. If I head up and check the dining area, can you two handle the rest of these retail units?” Kathy asked Sam and Heather. Sam flicked on his own torch and illuminated the area in front of them, “Yeah, leave it to us.” He eagerly confirmed.
Kathy begun to climb the escalators and found herself watching the light from Sam’s torch bounce around as he and Heather moved deeper into the darkness. She hated having to give orders to the others all the time, now that she considered each and every one of them as a friend, it felt like she was encroaching on the boundaries of friendship at the time and she didn’t like it; it had been so much easier for her to bark out orders in the past, when she had distanced herself from the distractions that friendships often caused, she found it more difficult to issue orders when a friends conscience was involved, a foreign feeling that was never afforded to a lower ranking soldier, when she had given them orders in the past. Without realising it she had sought Morgan’s counsel on every decision she had made over the past week, even though he was theoretically a lower rank than her. She pulled away from her thoughts as she neared the top and took one last look below her as Sam’s light completely disappeared. A quick sweep of her surroundings revealed flour open-plan eateries in the middle of the large room and a further three off to the side. Kathy moved towards the first establishment that she came across, and she then immediately started scouring the Burrito restaurants forecourt.
Sam and Heather briskly searched the entrances of the other units, until only one remained. When they reached the shuttered convenience store they were surprised to see that the shutter had been levered up from the floor with some sort of car-jack. The shutter was raised by no more than two foot, and around the jack Sam noticed a pool of dried blood. Had the intruder injured themselves when forcing the shutter up? Sam wondered. Fearing someone was inside, in the need of medical attention Sam didn’t hesitate and pulled himself underneath the raised shutter. At first Heather paused, she wasn’t sure whether to follow her new lover under the gap or not. The oppressive darkness of the corridor helped make up her mind; not wanting to be left alone in the dark, she reluctantly followed Sam. She felt around clumsily for the shutters edge and pulled herself under it, when she went to stand back up on the other side, her ankle caught on the trigger of the jack, and she inadvertently started its release.
Now as she stood at the front of the store she was hit by the overpowering smell of rotting food. The smell engulfed the entire store, and she doubted that anyone could be living here amongst the spoiled goods. Sam was walking down the first aisle as she started after him. She watched as he highlighted the empty food containers spread across the floor with the beam of his torch. “You okay?” The young man asked as he turned towards her. Before she could answer him they were greeted by an all too familiar sound; they weren’t alone.
Sam backed off as his probing flashlight illuminated three cadavers that had long been dead. Not taking care to check his path as he retreated, he carelessly stood on a discarded tin of food that lay on the floor, and his feet slipped out from underneath him. All he could do was stare upon the first of the zombies, dressed in a rail-workers uniform as it shuffled towards him. Before he was able to regain his
footing and stand up the cadaver fell on top of him, and as its nose-less face bent down and tore a chunk of flesh from his cheek with its rotting black teeth, Heather began frantically screaming.
As Sam lay dying on the stores floor his dropped torch highlighted the macabre scene as the rail-worker continued to feed. Unable to move through paralysed fear, Heather continued to scream. The sound of Kathy trying to raise the shutter with the buckled jack, passed straight over the distraught woman. Her screams drew the attention of the other two undead and they closed the gap between them and her, as she was still frozen in place by fear, she wasn’t capable of running from them. From the other side of the shutter Kathy helplessly listened to Heather being eaten alive.
Day Zed - Box Set: Volumes I and II Page 31
