by Hatchett
Despite having advance warnings, there have been incidents and outbreaks in all major European countries and in some countries beyond.
That’s all for now.”
“Thanks Tom,” Jack said as Tom got up from his seat and left the room.
Looking around the table Jack suggested, “Rather than going around the table today, I think we should focus on the Tower and the next steps.” There were nods around the table.
“Do you have any views, Daniel?” Jack asked.
Daniel sat forwards. “Thanks Jack, but it’s not really my decision.”
“We think it is,” Jack responded. “You are the Chief Warder, so that makes it your responsibility. What you and the people within the Tower decide is up to you but, for our part, we would like you to join our team as a Leader, become part of our alliance and represent the interests of the Tower. In exchange, we’ll help you as much as we can and, of course, provide ongoing protection.”
Daniel was surprised and quiet for a few minutes while everyone around the table waited for his answer. He hadn’t really thought about what might happen going forwards; until now it had just been a case of taking each day at a time and keeping people alive. He supposed that he always expected this group of people to take charge. He now considered the offer and the chance to join this group on an equal footing.
“What would you want in exchange?” Daniel asked.
“Nothing,” Jack replied. “If you become part of this team, then we all look out for each other no matter what. We help each other any way we can. We have to trust each other and do right by all the survivors.”
“Then it would be a pleasure to join your team,” Daniel advised, to claps and cheers around the room. “Just one question; what about the civilians in the Tower?”
“What about them?” Jack asked.
“Well, do they transfer here or stay there?”
“I would suggest that that is up to them. As far as we’re concerned, people can come here or some of our people can go there, providing there’s enough room, of course. For example, you might have gardeners who would prefer to come here, and we might have people who would prefer to forage in the city.”
“Ok, what about the people in the hotel next to the Tower?”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Issy interrupted. “I was thinking we could use vehicles to create a safe path between the Tower and the hotel, so everyone could sleep in the hotel if they wanted. We can use the heliport and the river to transport stuff, there’s plenty of spare boats around. We can set up another satellite like Battersea so that we’re never too far from each other should the need arise.”
“You have been thinking about it!” Daniel said with a smile. “What about the flats in Stepney?”
“It could be another satellite or a prison, whatever the residents want to do,” Issy replied.
“Don’t worry, Issy’s got an answer for everything,” the Major pointed out to laughs around the table.
“I suggest we start getting things done,” Jack advised.
“I need a rest,” Issy replied, and Bear and Irish agreed.
“So do I,” added Andy a little bit too quickly.
“Not that type of rest, Cowboy,” Issy replied with a smile, “Down boy!”
“I’d like to help get the Tower organised,” Joel advised. Travis and Sean also volunteered to help.
“I’m going back to Battersea,” Dave advised. “There’s still a lot more work to be done there.”
“I’ll help,” Gina offered.
“Ok, I think we know what we’re doing, so let’s go do it,” Jack said, rising from his chair. “Issy, could the Major and I have a quick word in my office?”
Jack came around the table and shook Daniel’s hand before heading towards his office. Issy patted Daniel on the arm and followed Jack, with the Major following her.
The rest of the Leaders welcomed Daniel to the team before he left with Joel, Sean and Travis to find a heli pilot to transfer them back to the Tower.
67
Day 8 – 9:15
Heathrow Airport, Security Command, Jack’s Office
Jack took a seat behind his desk while the Major sat in one of the visitor’s chairs opposite.
“Grab a seat Issy,” Jack offered. “Drink?”
“No, I’m fine, thanks Jack,” Issy replied, dropping into the second visitors chair. “Let me guess what you want to discuss; the Judge and Jury.”
“As it happens, no,” said the Major, “although happy to talk about it if you want to.”
“I guess I was a little extreme,” Issy admitted, “but because of it, I don’t think we’ll have any more problems with the remaining gang members,” Issy added with a smile.
“I think they’ll run in the opposite direction if they see you coming,” Jack added with a chuckle. “No, we just wanted to check on how you are. You mentioned you need a rest, which isn’t surprising because you haven’t stopped for over a week and you’ve been in some very stressful situations.”
“Yeah, I just need a bit of rest to help recharge my batteries, otherwise I’m as right as rain,” Issy replied.
“You would tell us if you had any issues?” Jack asked.
“Of course I would, but thanks for asking, Dad!” Issy replied.
“I guess I asked for that,” Jack said with a smile. “Just take care of yourself. You’re very important to us and we wouldn’t want anything to happen to you because you’re tired.”
“Can I go now?” Issy asked.
“Dismissed!” the Major said with a grin across his face.
Issy hauled herself up from the Chair and left the office, only to find Andy waiting for her in the corridor.
“Get your ass kicked?” he asked.
“It’s arse, and no, it’s all good.”
“I agree, it is good. More than good, actually.”
“You’re so corny, Cowboy. How’d you ever lose your virginity with those sorts of lines?”
“It worked well in the good ol’ US of A.”
“Well, we’re in the UK now, and us Brits are not quite so gullible as you Septic’s. Help an old lady get back to the hotel?”
“With pleasure, but what’s a Septic?”
Andy took Issy by the arm and they strolled down the corridor towards the exit.
“It’s Cockney rhyming slang from London’s East End, used so that people like you don’t know what people like me are talking about,” Issy explained as they walked along.
“So, I repeat, what’s a Septic?”
“It’s short for ‘Septic Tank’ and means ‘Yank’. You, in other words.”
“Thanks for that. When you said ‘tank’ I was expecting something a lot worse.”
“If I was going to call you a wanker, then I’d have just said so, but at least you’re getting the gist of it”
“True. You could’ve just said ‘Yank’ though.”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
“Well, do you know any more?”
“A lot more. A whole dictionary full.”
“Go on then, give me another.”
“I want to be on my Jack.”
After a few seconds thought, Andy suggested, “back?”
“You wish!” Issy replied, punching him lightly on the arm. “No, the first word is always only half the clue. It’s usually the second or last word which gives it away. In this case, ‘Jack is short for ‘Jack Jones’ so you got any other bright ideas now?”
“Bones. You want me to jump your bones!”
“You have got a one-track mind!” Issy said laughing. “Good guess though. No, it means ‘alone’ but I don’t mean it.”
“Thank God for that, you’ve been out of my sight for too long.”
68
Day 8 – 10:00
Tower of London, Inner Ward
Daniel arrived back at the Tower with Joel, Travis, and Sean in one of the Lynx heli’s.
Once he arrived, he sent word for a gro
up meeting on the lawn before going to his cottage where he updated Rhys, Zak, Isaac, Grace, Nelson, and Shauna on what had transpired during his trip to Heathrow.
“Congratulations,” they all wished him well and agreed that it was the right call.
Daniel had then contacted Samata to update her on what was happening and asked her to speak to everyone in the Green Park Estate to see what they wanted to do.
Meanwhile Travis and Sean gathered the rest of the soldiers and ‘got dirty’, ready to leave the Tower and start moving vehicles to form a safe cordon outside the entrance and a safe path to the Tower Bridge Hotel.
Daniel updated his Warders and the civilians on the lawn and laid out their options. As expected, some wanted to stay at the Tower; they had made new friends and wanted to help build a new life. Others decided that they would be better helping the other survivors at Heathrow and a few fancied the idea of moving to Battersea.
Overall, the next couple of days would be spent organising and relocating people. Then the real work would begin.
Daniel decided that he would give the remaining gang members the chance to amend their ways and become part of the new community. There would be a lot of suspicion and no trust to start with, but there were some big strong men in the group and they could prove very useful, especially foraging for supplies. He would just make sure they didn’t have any access to guns or knives unless they were either out of the Tower on a job or until they had proved themselves trustworthy. After seeing Issy’s punishment of the Judge and Jury, he didn’t think they would cause him too many problems.
Once he had finished with all the announcements, Daniel walked up onto the ramparts of the Southern outer wall and gazed all around. The sun was shining in his face and it was now pleasantly warm for this time of year. He watched as his new community was starting to pull together; people were moving about with purpose; carrying out one task or another. Outside, he could see vehicles moving as the soldiers started their work on the cordon. He saw a boat heading in their direction from upstream; this would be the first transport of goods from Battersea.
Daniel stared at the thousands of zombies, most just strolling around aimlessly, some walking straight off the wharf into the river, others attracted by the sounds of the vehicles. Perhaps it was his imagination, but they seemed to be more lethargic compared to a few days earlier. He realised with a jolt that this might well become his fate someday, but hopefully it would be a long time in the future. He looked towards the broken city; there were a lot of smashed windows from where he was looking, lots of mangled vehicles and still a number of fires shedding dark smoke off in the distance. The city might be broken but he was sure it could be fixed.
*****
Later, that day, Samata came back to Daniel and advised that after much discussion and argument, some of the remaining residents at the Green Park Estate wanted to stay where they were, and some wanted to move to the Tower. That meant there would be one more satellite and more people to take care of. Daniel sighed, thinking of his new responsibilities, far more than he ever imagined as a Warder in the Tower of London.
69
Day 8 – 10:15
Butcher Row, East London
He was tied up and in a dark place and he had no idea where he was or what he was doing. He could’ve been floating in space for all he knew. His head was banging like it was about to explode, and he could hear the gnashing of teeth close by. ‘I’ve gotta get away’ was his first instinct, so he struggled to move and found that something was holding him back.
There was some give in whatever was holding him, but not nearly enough to allow him to escape, and all the time, the gnashing sounds seemed to be getting louder and coming closer and closer. He could feel his heartbeat begin to speed up and he was close to panic when he suddenly came awake and opened his eyes.
He quickly closed them again, sure that he must be in Hell, and realised that he wanted to be anywhere but here. Where was here anyway? He waited with his eyes closed, willing his heartbeat to slow down, and hoping that the noises would just go away. Perhaps he should just have another little sleep and when he woke up everything would be fine?
Eventually, he opened his eyes again and struggled to work out what he was seeing. It slowly dawned on him that he was upside down and was looking through what felt like blurred red-tinted glasses at a crazed windscreen, and that the gnashing of teeth in the background was real. He quickly looked about him and saw nothing but blood and debris, so he closed his eyes and just hung there for a few more minutes while he summoned up the energy and strength to move.
When he opened his eyes again, it was less blurry but still very red. Mamba looked to his right and focused. Next to him Ahmed was also upside down, with blood slowly dripping up his face and dropping upwards. Upwards! Wow, this was like some real weird trip! He remembered that he was upside down so that meant Ahmed was upside down, which meant that …. fuckin’ Hell, what the fuck had hit them?
Mamba came fully awake. He suddenly knew where he was and what had happened. He looked again at Ahmed and thought he could see him still breathing. He lent forward a little to see Dodge on the other side of Ahmed. Ah, this was where the noise was coming from! Dodge was upside down like him and Ahmed, all of them trapped by their safety belts. The only difference was that Dodge had turned and was now trying in vain to bite Ahmed. There were other noises coming from somewhere behind him, but Mamba couldn’t see anything from where he was hanging.
Mamba carefully squeezed various parts of his body, looking for any injuries. Whilst there were a shit-load of bruises and a lot of pain, he didn’t think anything was broken. He checked for his knife and gun but couldn’t find them. Looking above his head to the roof of the truck – now the floor – he saw what he was looking for. He placed his left hand on the floor to brace himself as his right hand groped for the seat belt release. Eventually he found it and popped the button. Despite his left arm providing support, he slumped to the floor, screaming in pain as he did so. He gave himself a few minutes until the pain had subsided, before he picked up his knife and a pistol and turned to look at Ahmed and Dodge. Ahmed looked like he was asleep whereas Dodge looked very hungry, straining against the seatbelt in a bid to reach Ahmed.
“Sorry mate,” Mamba uttered as he raised the pistol and shot Dodge in the head. The sound was like a bomb going off in the confined space and Mamba couldn’t hear a thing for a few minutes. He realised that his hearing was coming back, albeit very muffled, when he could still hear noises coming from the second cabin. He switched the knife for the gun and carefully crawled towards the gap, where he pulled himself up into a crouch and looked over the partition.
At first it was difficult to tell what he was looking at and he couldn’t for the life of him begin to figure out what may or may not have happened to Skelly, Bird and Smiley. One thing he was sure about; none of them had been sitting down wearing seatbelts. They had obviously smashed into each other and the vehicle during the crash. Wait a minute, it wasn’t a crash! Mamba looked around a bit more and saw that the right-hand side of the truck was completely mangled, with various holes giving him a view of the ground outside. It must have been a rocket of some kind. Anyway, he needed to get moving. Who knew if he was still in danger.
Looking back down at the three bodies on the floor, he could see three sets of eyes staring up at him while the teeth snapped together rapidly. The three of them were intertwined and they must have broken a lot of bones between them because it was clear that they couldn’t get back up. Skelly had part of his skull missing, his brain glistening like it was covered in mucus in the weak light. Bird and Smiley had bite marks on their injured faces, so Skelly must have fed on one or both. He just hoped they were already dead before that happened. They were all a right mess.
“Sorry fellas,” Mamba muttered as he lent over the partition and stabbed each of them in the head before he moved back to the driver’s area and sat with his back against the cracked windscreen, staring at
Ahmed.
Mamba lent forward and gave Ahmed a couple of gently slaps across the face, but there was no response. He looked around the stuff littered on the floor and used a hand to move it around. He heard the crinkle of plastic and on further inspection, found a 500ml bottle of water. His throat was parched so he took a quick swig and searched the floor some more before he found a second and a third bottle. He then slowly poured the rest of the original bottle over Ahmed’s chin and watched it drip down his upside-down face. Some of the water entered Ahmed’s nose and a few seconds later there was some spluttering and snorting as he finally came awake.
Mamba got his knife ready and waited until Ahmed had finished choking before asking, “You a zombie?”
“Where the fuck am I?” came the response.
“You’re no zombie, at least not yet.”
“Get me down,” Ahmed pleaded. “I’m hurtin’ all over.”
“I need to make sure you ain’t been bitten,” Mamba replied as he moved across and started checking Ahmed for bite marks. “Can’t see nothin’,” he confirmed after a short pause, before helping Ahmed to get out of his safety belt.
Ahmed sat next to Mamba, sipping from the bottle of water Mamba had given him. He listened as Mamba filled him in on the past few minutes.
“So, we got hit by a fuckin’ rocket?” Ahmed asked in amazement. “Who are these fuckin’ people?”
“Bloody military or somethin’ and they must think we’re all dead.” Mamba started laughing, “They’re gonna get the fuckin’ surprise of their shitty little lives when I get myself sorted.”
“Oh yeah, and how the fuck do you think you’re gonna do that eh?” Ahmed said scornfully.
“You watch Ahmed, me ol’ son. You just watch!”
“But Mamba, if they’ve taken us out, they’ve probably taken out the others.”
“Yeah, I bet it was that fuckin’ Daniel. Never did trust him, and I’m gonna get him, you mark my words.”
“But how?”
“We need to lie low and get our strength back. Then we watch and plan. Then we fuckin’ kill them all.”
