The Road Trip At The End (Book 2): Border

by Wood, J N

  Chapter 15: I Am Batman

  I was hanging up my wet clothes on the fence at the back of the garden when the noise started.

  I froze with my hand in mid-air, just as I was placing a sock on the fence.

  It began as a quick burst of what sounded like automatic gunfire, soon followed by screaming. Not too close to us, but close enough. Then there was another quick burst, and another. Within seconds the gunfire had become almost non-stop. The terrified screams and shouting were getting closer and closer.

  The back door of the house burst open. I spun around in a panic, dropping the clothes in my hands. Jack led, as everyone spilled into the back garden.

  Jack looked terrified. ‘What the fuck?’ he shouted. The rules about volume control now seemingly pointless.

  ‘Fuck knows?’ I said. ‘Have the zombies got in?’

  The shouts and screams from outside our garden got even louder, as people ran past our house.

  ‘Sandra,’ Ali shouted over the noise. ‘Get the kids in the house, barricade yourselves in the bedroom. Pete, Theo. You guard the room. Don’t let anything in.’

  I ran into the house after them. After grabbing my baseball bat from my bed, I exited the house through the front door. People were sprinting down the street, all in the direction of the fences. Jack, Ali, Michael, Shannon and Gee were outside on the front lawn, trying to stop people that were running by.

  Jack ran back to me. ‘It’s not zombies,’ he quickly said. ‘There are people shooting people. It’s not fucking zombies.’

  ‘It’s not zombies,’ Shannon said, as the rest of our group made their way back to Jack and me.

  ‘Yes we know,’ I said.

  Jack looked around at the people running towards the outer edges of the camp. ‘I’m going to get Beth.’

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ I said. ‘Everyone else, lock yourselves in the house.’

  ‘Do you know where her house is?’ Michael asked.

  ‘No…’ Jack said, hesitating. ‘But I have to go. I know it’s over by the harbour. She might have been walking back. It’s been over an hour since they left.’

  ‘Everyone in house,’ Gee said. ‘Lock doors. Me, Chris and Jack will get Beth.’

  Jack didn’t wait for a response, immediately turning and running down towards the south inner fence. Gee and I sprinted to catch him up, slowing only to weave through the mass of panicked people. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, and it was nothing to do with running.

  ‘If they were on their way back,’ Jack said, still staring ahead. ‘They would have been walking around the outside. Nobody would walk through the middle.’

  Hundreds of people were running past us, trying to get away from the shooting, which continued to rage on. It sounded like it was coming from two or three different places, all in the middle of the camp, where the majority of the residents congregated.

  As we ran alongside the fence, I looked up 8th Street on my right, where the Senior Centre was situated. I slowed and tried looking over the heads of the people desperately trying to escape the gunfire. Bodies were lying in the street, too many to count. A bit further up, a small group of people were attacking someone, or something. They were swinging sticks over their heads, bringing them down on something on the floor. I didn’t want to slow down any more to get a proper look, and continued to follow Jack down H Street. We stuck as close to the fence as possible, trying to keep our heads down.

  As we neared Pea’s Place, the gunfire didn’t seem to be as continuous. It was much slower now, and sounded like there was only one shooter. The other shooters must have either ran out of ammunition, or been clubbed to death.

  Hopefully the latter.

  I almost tripped over a group of people, all on their knees in the middle of the street. They were bent over, all mumbling something and making life even harder for everyone trying to escape. Jack and Gee moved around them. I was already pretty much in the middle of them, so I decided to try and carefully step through the group. One of them reached out a hand as I passed, grabbing my leg. He looked a little bit like the two religious guys from the other day. I looked down at the rest of them. They all seemed to share that same gaunt look.

  ‘God has spoken,’ the leg grabber said to me. ‘Why should we have the right to take just one of God’s angels? Tell me why?’

  I yanked my leg out of his grasp, and aimed for Gee’s obvious frame running away from me.

  ‘Why?’ the leg grabber screamed after me.

  We were now moving in the same direction as the escaping crowds, making progress a bit quicker. Although peoples’ faces still looked panicked, the screaming had at least quietened down.

  We stopped at the end of the road, terrified looking people rushing around, but mostly barging into us. They must have been heading towards the boats.

  The sporadic gunfire in the distance abruptly stopped.

  ‘What now?’ I asked. ‘It’s mostly shops and stuff around here. I don’t know if there are any homes.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Jack said. He spun around on the spot, desperately searching the crowds.

  ‘She will have gone inside when shooting begin,’ Gee said. ‘We are better off going back to our house. That is where she will go.’

  Jack stopped spinning around and looked at Gee. ‘Why did you come with me if you think that?’

  Gee shrugged his shoulders. ‘Because you want to look for her.’

  And Gee came to look after Jack.

  ‘Gee’s right. Let’s make our way back to the house Jack,’ I suggested. ‘We’ll pick her up on the way, or find her back at the house.’

  ‘They might start shooting again,’ Jack said.

  ‘Well either way,’ I said. ‘We don’t know where her house is.’

  ‘This was a really fucking stupid idea,’ Jack said, as people still filed past us, but at least no longer running. ‘We can’t find her like this. Fucking hell. I only just found her.’

  We started walking back, having to push through the crowds.

  ‘They’re dead. They killed them,’ a man whispered as I passed him.

  ‘They got them all. I bet it was them,’ I heard another man say.

  ‘I hope they killed them all,’ a woman said.

  Naomi, the woman who’d shown us to the Senior Centre, was walking along the fence, talking to people as she passed them. As we neared her, I heard her repeating the words, ‘The shooters have been taken out. Everyone just needs to calm down and go to your homes. It’s over. Please go back to your homes.’

  A bit further along the road, Sheriff McCallany was making his way through the crowds gathering by the inner fence. He was repeating what Naomi had been saying.

  ‘Hey Sheriff,’ I said when we got close to him. ‘I thought there were no guns in the camp.’

  He raised his palms to the air. ‘This may not be America anymore, but it’s still full of Americans.’ He shot me an insane looking grin, before continuing to instruct the crowds.

  He’s definitely crazy.

  Naomi’s and Sheriff McCallany’s assurances didn’t seem to be making any difference. The normally quiet H Street that ran alongside the south fence was still packed full of people, all heading in the direction of the water.

  There was a sudden cry of, ‘Oh Jesus, why have you forsaken me?’

  The sheriff said, ‘Somebody shut that man up,’ before wading through the crowd towards the crying man.

  Jack constantly swept his eyes from left to right as we walked against the tide of people. When we got to the end of our street, he broke into a run, so Gee and I jogged to catch him up. We found him banging on the front door of our house.

  ‘It’s us, we’re back,’ he was saying.

  The door swung open, Michael stood inside. ‘Are you all okay? Did you find them? What is happening?’

  Jack’s head rocked back and he looked to the sky. ‘Fuck,’ he said. ‘I’m going back out.’

  ‘Just give it twenty minutes,’ I sa
id. ‘Give her time to get through all the people.’

  Michael had been joined by Shannon, Ali and the Rodriguez brothers. They all looked at us with questioning eyes.

  ‘Sheriff McCallany said all the shooters have been killed, or stopped,’ I told them. ‘He said it’s all over.’

  Relief seemed to wash over their faces. Ali turned and headed back down the corridor, towards their bedroom.

  ‘What happened?’ Shannon asked.

  ‘Don’t know,’ I replied. ‘Some people with guns.’

  ‘But why?’ Pete asked.

  I shrugged. ‘No idea mate.’

  ‘Jack,’ Gee said. ‘Turn around.’

  We all turned to Gee. His back was to us. I peered around him and saw Beth and Roy walking side by side towards us, both carrying bags over their shoulders.

  Jack dropped his axe and was off, running down the street towards them.

  ‘Thank fuck for that,’ I said.

  Panicked yells from behind us made me spin around. In front of the house next door, three people were sprawled across the road. One of them was apologising and attempting to separate himself from the other two, trying to get back to his feet. Once he was up, he ran in our direction.

  ‘What is it now?’ Ali fearfully asked as she walked out of the house. Sandra and the kids followed closely behind her.

  He slowed down as he neared us. I took a step back, worried he was going to run straight into us as well.

  ‘Any Zombie Patrol and Fencers,’ he spluttered, breathing heavily. ‘Go to your base now.’

  Before anyone could ask him anything, he sped up and continued on towards Jack, Beth and Roy.

  Bollocks. My heart rate had picked up its pace again.

  I picked up Jack’s axe. ‘Fuck. Must have been all the noise.’

  ‘We better get down there,’ Shannon said.

  ‘I’m coming too,’ Theo called out.

  Sandra gripped tightly onto Theo’s arm. ‘No you’re not. That’s not your job. You’ll be needed elsewhere, and if you’re not, I need you here.’

  Theo looked disappointed, but stayed alongside his cousin.

  I’d happily exchange jobs with him. I didn’t know Theo had been given a different job.

  Pete and Ali said goodbye to their family, as the rest of us walked down the street. I waited for Jack to finish hugging Beth, and then handed him his axe.

  ‘Any idea what’s happening?’ Beth asked.

  ‘Nope, just what that running guy said,’ I replied.

  ‘They have been warning us about making too much noise,’ Michael said. ‘I guess they were right.’

  ‘Are you two okay?’ Shannon asked, looking at Beth and Roy. ‘You didn’t get caught up in any of the shooting did you?’

  Roy shifted his bag to his other shoulder. ‘No, we were coming back when it started, but went back inside when we heard the shots.’

  Ali and Pete walked up behind us. ‘I think we better go guys,’ Ali said.

  ‘Good luck,’ Beth said to us all.

  ‘Thanks. See you in a bit,’ I replied, trying to sound calmer than I actually felt.

  People were rushing around us as we made our way down to where the east inner fence met the south inner fence. Some carried steel joists on their shoulders. Others pulled wheeled carts behind them, full of scaffolding boards and poles. It was chaotic.

  A woman ran up to us, saying, ‘Zombie Patrol and Fencers go to work,’ and then ran past us, repeating the words to everyone she came across.

  A man stepped in front of us, lifting his hand up to stop us. ‘Only Zee Pee and Fencers please.’

  ‘We’re Blue and Green,’ Michael said.

  The man stepped aside. ‘Okay, be careful out there guys.’

  The first group we saw had yellow bits of material wrapped around each of their arms. Next to them was a neatly stacked pile of chain link fence panels.

  ‘Look for blue on their arms Chris,’ Jack said.

  ‘Coming through, watch your backs,’ a voice called out from behind us.

  We parted to let another cart through. Two people were pulling it, while a third person was pushing from the back. They each had a white strip around their upper arm. The cart was full of wooden planks.

  I spotted another group. There were maybe one hundred people, slightly bigger than the yellow group. They were tightly packed in together, all trying to listen to a woman stood on a chair in front of them. They all had something green wrapped around an arm.

  ‘You’re over there guys,’ I said, nodding to the group.

  Shannon walked over to us and hugged Jack, and then me. ‘Be careful and look after each other. We’ll see you both soon.’

  ‘Yeah of course we will,’ I said. I first shook Michael’s hand, then Gee’s, and finally Pete’s, wishing them good luck.

  Ali stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me. ‘Take care of yourself,’ she whispered into my ear. She let go of me, and then hugged Jack.

  We watched them walk towards their group.

  ‘Right,’ I said. ‘Where the fuck is Blue?’

  A man slowed as he walked past in front of us. He was carrying a large wire mesh panel. ‘Blue is at H and 11th. Next street along,’ he said, before continuing.

  ‘Thanks,’ Jack said.

  I turned around and was almost taken out by a man pushing a wheelbarrow. It was full to brim with electric power drills. He rushed by us, heading towards the fence. Large sections of the inner fence were being covered with sheets of corrugated metal. Massive wooden and metal joists were being placed up against the fence at an angle.

  We walked along to the next street, having to weave our way around the Red Team and White Team, before spotting arms wrapped in blue. Caleb, the incredibly stoned guy we’d kind of met, was stood on something, so his upper half was above the group of people between him and us. He was looking down to his left, talking to somebody. We joined the back of the group.

  I could hear hissing, it was only faint, but it was definitely there in the distance.

  They’re getting closer.

  ‘Can you hear that?’ I asked Jack.

  Jack looked at me and nodded, before tapping the person in front of him on the shoulder. The English woman from the bed below me turned to look at him. ‘What’s happening?’ he asked her.

  ‘Nothing yet,’ she replied. ‘Caleb is waiting for more people to get here.’

  ‘Okay, thanks,’ Jack said.

  She smiled and turned back around.

  I nudged Jack, and whispered, ‘Fanny Fart Girl.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Fanny Fart Girl,’ I repeated, although slightly louder, and nodded towards her.

  ‘You what?’

  ‘Fucking Fanny Fart Girl.’

  Her head turned towards me ever so slightly.

  Fuck, I think she heard me.

  ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’ Jack asked.

  Shit, I haven’t told him about that yet.

  ‘Doesn’t matter. I’ll tell you later.’

  He shot me a very confused look, then turned back to face the front.

  A man in front of me passed back two strips of blue material. They looked like they’d been torn from a t-shirt. I handed one to Jack, before trying to tie mine around my arm. We soon realised it was a lot easier to do each other’s, so I tied Jack’s, before he returned the favour.

  ‘Our fencing team today are the Mariners,’ Caleb said, his voice just about travelling to us at the back. ‘They’ll be wearing the blue as well. We protect them at all cost.’

  ‘Baseball teams, not football,’ Jack said to me.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Michael said the Fencers were named after football teams. The Mariners are a baseball team, from Seattle.’

  Caleb spoke up again. ‘If you get a bad injury, and you're capable of getting back here on your own two feet, then do so. If you see someone who’s injured and not able to get themselves back, help them. The med tents are b
eing set up all along H Street. You won’t be able to miss them. If you do bring someone back, immediately turn back around and get back out there. Now, all of you that went out on the last firework mission, this one isn’t going to be the same. Large sections of the outer fence have been destroyed. A lot of those things are inside the perimeter, a lot more than last time. It’s going to take the Mariners a lot longer to do their job, so we need to be patient with them. This isn’t going to be another half hour job.’

  I looked to Jack and raised my eyebrows, whispering, ‘We’re fucked.’

  ‘Make two groups,’ Caleb called out, pointing to someone at the front. ‘I need you all to split the group in half. Make a gap behind this woman here.’

  I raised myself up onto the tips of my toes to see where the woman was, but then a space opened up in front of me. I could now see Caleb standing on step ladders. Jack and I were pretty much in the middle, so we shifted to our right slightly.

  The hissing was getting louder.

  Caleb looked over to the fence behind us, seeming to hesitate slightly, before returning his attention to us. ‘Everyone on my right,’ he said, pointing to the other half of the group. ‘You will be sweeping. You go in first and clear a path to the fence. All of you on my left.’ He pointed at our group. ‘You surround the Mariners and guard them as they follow the sweepers.’ He paused to look over the two groups for a few seconds, before seeming to settle his eyes on me. ‘You five there,’ he said, pointing in mine and Jack’s general direction. ‘Little Axe Woman, Machete Woman, Bat Man, Big Axe Man and Man with No Weapon. Sorry, but move to the other group, it’s more even that way. And Man with No Weapon, quickly find a weapon please.’

  As we stepped to our left, Man with No Weapon ran off into the crowds of people behind us.

  ‘Hey Jack,’ I said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I am Batman.’

  Jack couldn’t hide his smirk. ‘Twat.’

  Laughing, I said, ‘Big Axeman, who the fuck is that? Never heard of him.’

  ‘Remember I gave you that bat? I could take it back.’