World Down: A Zombie Novel

by Walker, Callum Bennington Goldworth

  “Wildcats,” said Mason. “Bringing in supplies from up north. God, I wonder what they're seeing up there.”

  I answered hell, and looked to the red skyline.

  Escaping the Horde - Day 7 - Rich

  It was mayhem in the streets. Cars piled up the roads, babies screamed in the arms of their mothers, while children wept at the panic of their elders. The days grew shorter. Me, Jessica, Sarah, Lily and her gran, Linda, had been hiding in our home for over 24 hours. Every moment fearing what might come knocking, or rather, groaning at our door.

  We were running out of food, but thankfully the water still ran and the electricity still worked. The hospital wouldn't take our calls, nor the helpline set up by the government, the number which had been splayed out across our tv at the bottom of every news channel since last Thursday. My shoulder pulsated blue and purple and red, all sorts of weird colours, it was freaky. I felt myself getting weaker, but no help would come...

  “We go to the shopping centre. Get as much food as we can!” Sarah shouted, breaking my thoughts. She was packing her clothes into a rucksack, along with Jess’s and Lily’s clothes. At this point it was evident the situation was getting worse, far worse than the government could handle. People in London were being pulled out of their homes, police were rounding up discontents like animals, shootings were commonplace and the lockdown had only been in place for less than a week.

  “We're walking into a bloodbath there!” Jess replied to her.

  “Oh, shut up Jess,” said her mother panting from her rugged packing of all manner of items, from toothbrushes to the kettle.

  “No, she's right, besides, I don't have enough petrol in the car,” I told her.

  “What do you suggest then?” Asked Linda as she held my youngest daughter's hand.

  “Anything but that,” I answered.

  “What about Blake, Rich? What about our son?” Sarah asked emotionally, as if it was my fault he’d left.

  “Christ,” I whispered under my breath, wandering over to the window of our living room. Seeing outside nothing but a barren spell of weather in the sky.

  “We've got to find him,” she followed up. “He should never have gone, you let him go!”

  “Buses and trains are down. The roads are clogged. There's no way we're getting out and into the country once the roadblocks are up,” I told them, thinking aloud to myself.

  “He's on the other side of the city mom,” said Jess. “There's no way we're going to him. Even if we do get there. He could be anywhere. They deploy everywhere around here. There isn’t no way you'd find him. It's a needle in a haystack.”

  “Shut up for a second darling. I'm trying to think,” I told Jess.

  “What's there to think? He's in Wolverhampton. That's the other side of the city!” She cried. “For all we know he could already be long gone.”

  “Shut up,” Linda slapped the girl across the face. Jess held her fresh red mark and recoiled in embarrassment. There was a moment of awkwardness that followed, as Sarah frowned at Linda.

  “Daddy I'm scared,” Lily broke the awkward silence with her sweet voice.

  “I know,” I took her hand gently. “Sarah please,” I gestured for her to hold her hand.

  “We have to find him. I don't care. He's our son,” Sarah said, taking her from me.

  “He's at the head of an army. They got weapons, food and supplies. He'll be fine. Us? We are fucked if we stay here. They're all over the place,” I spoke.

  “We can make it,” said Sarah. I didn't want to go all way to Wolverhampton, it was so far across town, the traffic builds, there was no possible way of getting there by car. But if it meant finding help, I'd take it. There was no way we could stay here in this festering place.

  “Ok. We go towards Wolverhampton,” I said to them, but as I did, Jess’s voice rose.

  “Oh my god,” she said as she looked out the living room window. All our attention was brought to her and where she looked. What found my eyes caused me to shrivel up in fear. It was our young neighbour across the street, Joyce, slamming her severed hand on the front door of her house. But she was not normal.

  “There's the boy!” Shouted Sarah. I looked a bit to the right and found Joyce’s kid, Mike, watching his mother batter the door down from his bedroom. Blood flew from her wrists to the door she slammed against.

  “Rich, you've got to do something,” Sarah screamed.

  “Alright!” I puffed out my chest and grabbed my coat. "Sarah, stay with the girls."

  She didn't want me to go, I saw it in her eyes. “Well, what are you waiting for? Go!” She then lambasted. I thought we were having a moment, oh well. “Be careful,” she said as I shut the door.

  The cool October breeze blew past me as I left my house for the first time in two days. The sun shone in the sky bright, past beleaguered clouds filled with rain.

  “Joyce!” I screamed, stepping up her garden path, one pebble at a time. She turned and revealed her blue eyes covered in purple mist, then she lunged for me. Instinctively I grabbed a nearby broom and smacked her hard with it, sending her flying down the garden and over numerous sharp gnomes. I slammed on the door of the house, avoiding the gore stained on the white paint.

  “Mike! It's Mr Lively, please let me in!” I shouted. Behind me, turning her head around was undead Joyce, screaming with pain in her lungs, reaching for me with malice in her dreaded eyes.

  “Mike!” I called again in desperation. I didn't want to smash the girls head in, not again that is, not while the entire street watched on through their windows.

  As soon as I finished speaking, the door unlocked. I launched in like a bloody rocket and shut it behind me, the scarpering of the boy back inside was very fast, as if he knew and was able to lock it in times of need. I breathed for the first time a wide sigh of relief, and gathered my thoughts.

  “Mike, where's your dad?” I asked the ginger headed boy sitting on the stairs.

  “He went,” he silently said, wiping his snotty nose. “He went for milk.”

  Then outside there was a commotion. A scream that pierced the air like a screeching tyre. It was a little girl, being torn apart by a group of infected, her parents running away in their shame. They must have tried to run after I did. The neighbours were dead, or dying, a frantic run at escaping a group of dead ones, not just humans, but a dog as well. The girls head was bitten, a chunk of her brain was being chewed in the mouth of a decaying Pitbull. All that ran through my head was the thought that that could be my family being eaten.

  “We have to go!” I told the boy.

  “My dad is at the shops, at the market,” said Mike.

  “Fine. I'll get you there. But if we can't find him...”

  The boy understood me.

  “Ok,” I said under my breath, pulling out my phone, I called Sarah. She didn't pick up and I could see shadows running in our house.

  “Rich?” She then answered on the second call.

  “Sarah. We're leaving, get in the car, when the time hits ten past twelve, we run, as fast as we can,” I told her.

  “But wait, is the boy safe?” She asked.

  “Yes! Now, remember, ten past!” I whispered harshly and hastily, before putting the phone down. The boy scampered off into his kitchen.

  “Where are you going?” I asked him. “We have two minutes.”

  “This is a joke. I'm staying here. With my family,” he adamantly stated. Kid, your family's dead, I wanted to say it but couldn't, not to a child.

  “Michael c’mon!” I nearly shouted.

  “I'm waiting for my dad,” he said.

  “Mike I'm gonna be straight with you. Your dad, he might not come back.”

  “Don't say that.”

  “It's been what? Two days now. I'm sorry but sometimes we have to…” I was broken off by the crashing of a body onto the kitchen garden door. Mike jumped and ran into my arms in fear. He screamed and I had to put my hand over his mouth.

  “Just stop talk
ing.”

  I then kneeled to get to eye level with him, the shadow of the monster bearing over us.

  “Mike. You will die if you stay here.”

  “Shut up. Shut up, shut up, shut up. Just leave me alone!” He foolishly cried. I looked up to the clock on the wall, it would soon strike ten past. If I couldn't get him out, he was as good as dead.

  “Mike please. It's now or never. You. You need to stay alive. We might find him on the road.”

  He just cried, over and over again. Until he stopped, and in his eyes, I saw resolve.

  “I’ll come,” he whispered. And the clock struck ten past.

  I took his hand and ran, launched out the front door and kicked Joyce away as she crawled along the front garden of her house.

  “Mom!” Mike screamed, before I shoved him ahead, there was no time for complacency. There were three of them in the street, two feasted on the little girl, while another stumbled across the road to us. I saw the front door of my house swing open, and Sarah, Jess, Linda and Lily ran out, in that order.

  “Get in the car!” I called to them. Sarah opened the car and shielded them from the sight of the terror. Another victim on the pavement cried. It was the girl’s mother.

  Over the savage frenzy of the dead, ripping her apart, I kicked the Pitbull away. Blood pooled and flowed down the street drain, aside the whimpering girls blood-stained teddy. That could be Lily, I thought, then she made no more sounds, only the tearing of flesh and the animalistic noises of the dead remained.

  Everything around me felt fucked. The birds in the sky fell silent, all I heard was my heart thumping louder and louder in my chest, in sync almost with the slamming of the car doors. I watched my wife drive down the infected in the middle of the street and I jumped into the front passenger seat. We drove away, not minding the tearful screaming children in the back.

  “Jess, is everything ok back there honey?” I asked after a moment of pause, regaining my bearings.

  “Yes,” she spoke.

  “Calm the kid!” Linda said coldly.

  “Mike darling, everything is going to be fine I promise,” said Sarah.

  “But she's dead!” I heard the boy respond. I turned to Sarah, driving frantically beside me.

  “Let me drive, find somewhere to stop,” I said to her, but she wasn't having any of it.

  “In your dreams.”

  We came up to the town square, to the village market, and then the broken train station. There was a red mess on the line, it was cordoned off weakly by two police cars. Bits and parts dripped slowly down from the bridge walkways, while birds watched on from derelict signposts of incoming trains that may never reach their destination. They circled and came to eat the flesh strung along the railine. A limb of sorts, twisted and grotesque lay on the passenger benches. Some fool had thrown their life away and into an onrushing 15-ton train. Or they had been attacked and pushed. It was too gruesome to witness, so I covered the children's eyes, and looked away myself in terror.

  The police station was mayhem. Broken families and broken people called for help, but there was no one to answer, only a young officer, and his fat leader barking nonsense and nothing to no one.

  Only a few days ago life was so normal, it was bliss and I didn’t even know it. Now I wish I could go back to simpler times, to days of stress and angst, back to the fear of being found by the police. The authority that was collapsing before my eyes. At least my family would have been safe in that world.

  “Stop the car!” Shouted Jess, before she opened the door to the cold afternoon air.

  “Jess, come back!” I shouted unbuckling my seatbelt.

  “Get back here you fucking idiot!” Linda swore.

  I could smell the panic and death in the air as I stepped out. Even in the midst of all these people in the town square. There must have been some seventy, eighty people, some protesting, some calling for help, others looking for help. They were told to stay indoors, but they would not listen.

  I waded through the crowd, following Jess’s brown hair flowing down her blue hoodie. There were so many people in the way, I stumbled through and fell over a baby pram, knocking the child flying from its rest. I stepped up and pushed the pram upright and looked for the child on the pavement, but found it in its mother's arms. The women screamed in anger.

  “I’m terribly sorry,” I spoke, as more people clambered all around me. I had to push them away, any of them could be infected, we were supposed to be meters apart, but they were like animals. I couldn't hear myself think.

  Where was Jess? I looked for her blue hoodie. But it avoided my eyes, for a few moments anyway. When I found her, I did a double take, she was locking lips with some greasy punk, kissing right in front of me. I marched up to them, and immediately separated the pair of them.

  “Who the fuck are you?!” I shouted into his puzzled little face.

  “Dad, it's fine!” Jess said.

  “Gareth,” the boy said in shock. He then held his hand out to shake mine. I took one look at it and frowned.

  “Jess,” I looked to her. She looked embarrassed, good I thought. Especially with this goof in front of me.

  “Get to the bloody car, now!” I commanded.

  “Not without him,” she answered back.

  I shook my head in disbelief. “Get to the car, now,” I reiterated. As screams echoed in the background near to the road. Something was happening around us.

  “If he doesn't go, I don't go,” she said calmly. I looked away and back in anger.

  “There’s no more fucking space in the car!” I lambasted her, before gunshots peppered our ears. I got down and shielded her, but she reached out for her boyfriend's hand instead.

  “Get down! Get down! Down!!” Called a voice. It was rough and angry, a soldiers voice.

  After the gunfire ceased, I looked above the bobbing heads and found a small convoy of military vehicles. Numerous bodies lay in the road. People I had even walked by to get to Jess.

  “Please stay calm, keep low,” they ordered. I searched for the car, our red four-seater. I found it with bullet holes in it, but there was no movement inside. My heart sank.

  “All will be fine,” the soldiers said. Then one with a microphone another spoke from the back of one of their jeeps.

  “Everyone in the vehicles, please step out, this road is now closed. If you need access, please come forth. Everyone else disperse, go back to your homes, if you need medical assistance, come forth.”

  I then saw Sarah and the others, they had left the car and walked to us.

  “You idiot!” Sarah scolded Jess as they arrived.

  “Don't ever do anything like that again.”

  I looked to the armed men on their trucks. They were mainly outside the town market delivering relief to the employees.

  “Stay here,” I told my family. I walked to them and the crowd that had congregated in the wake of their thunderous arrival.

  “Excuse me soldier!” I called, as one leaned over the truck, laden with food and supplies. He didn't hear me.

  “Excuse me!” I shouted again to the boy.

  “Sir?” He said, finishing his logistical task. “My son, he's in the army, he's stationed close to here. Private Blake Lively of the Mercian Regiment. B company. Is he ok?” I asked. I knew I was clutching at straws; it was a hope in hell that this random soldier would know Blake.

  “Sir, I cannot help you!” Said the young man after a moment of hesitation. His superior then raised his voice to speak.

  “Can I have all your attention, please!” He called from atop the truck. “Anyone with prior experience in the any medical fields, please come forth to me, retired doctors, dropouts from school even, engineers, anyone who could be useful to us please come to us, it's very important that you come forward and do you and your friends and family a duty that they will never forget, thank you, please come forward now.”

  The microphone cut out abruptly. I turned my head back to Sarah and then shook it. She
had a glint in her eye, as if she was to do something stupid. She was a medical school dropout. I ran over to her and the rest of my family. I could see her fall on her knees to comfort Lily. She looked like she was saying goodbye. Not if I could help it. She wouldn't really leave us, would she?

  “Sarah,” I said with anger in my voice. She was giving Jess a kiss on her cheek, while also giving Gareth, that boy, a sad glance. She looked me in the eyes finally.

  “I’m going,” she said. “Mom, you can't be serious, you’d abandon us! Really?” Asked Jess. Sarah gave her own mother, Linda, a hug.

  “You have your father, I must go, I can do this,” she said to Jess, while looking to the soldiers in the background, like it was her purpose now. She took my hand.

  “Go and take them somewhere safe, after this is over, I’ll meet you at Featherby, the pub you know it, the Knights Inn.”

  “What if it's never over?” I said to her.

  “Just, I’ll text you. Look after them and never let them go,” she whispered, to my ear, and then she went.

  “You can't leave! Sarah!” I grabbed her arm, she couldn't leave. “Sarah this is insane.”

  “You let Blake go!” She swivelled and shouted with rage. “Without batting an eyelid, Rich,” she spoke softer this time, as if resigned to this act of foolishness.

  “Think of the children?” I said, in desperation more than anything. She glanced back to the others, to Jess, to Lily, to her mother, but not even the tears of her baby girl could bring her back to some sort of sanity. She was lost, and as she looked to the stone floor, she tightened her fist.

  “As, I said, you let our son go. I love you all.”

  And with that she was gone, into the crowd, into the midst of the convoy of panic.

  “Mom!” Lily called, but she had already disappeared into the masses.

  “Sarah, you come back now,” Linda demanded to her shadow.

  “No,” I whispered in defeat, I’d let my wife abandon our family, how could I have done that. How could it have come to this?