by Wood, J N
‘You’ll have to prise it from my cold, dead hands,’ I replied, immediately regretting using that quote, considering the predicament we found ourselves in.
I leaned in closer to him and whispered, ‘Sweeping sounds like the shittest of the two options.’
‘Yep,’ he simply said.
‘Talking of weapons,’ Caleb said. ‘If possible, make sure you have a secondary one. If it’s not possible, don’t lose your primary weapon.’
I reached behind me and my finger tips brushed the little axe I always kept tucked into my belt. I turned to look at Jack. He was holding a huge knife.
‘Have you stolen that from Rambo?’ I asked him. ‘Where did that come from?’
He returned it to the sheaf attached to his belt. ‘This is Gee’s back up knife. If you think this is big, you should see his main one.’
I remembered Gee using his main knife to kill that guy in Costco.
‘Shame on you!’ a woman cried out from behind us. ‘Shame on you!’
I spun around to see a young woman staring at us. She looked young enough to have been a teenager. She slowly scanned her hate filled eyes across our group.
‘Get her out of here,’ Caleb ordered.
‘Shame on you,’ she spat. ‘How dare you take the lives of God’s children? We are all God’s children on this Earth.’
A hand was wrapped around her mouth as two men grabbed her, lifting her off the ground. They carried her away until they were out of sight, becoming a part of the crowds.
‘What the fuck?’ I whispered.
The hissing sounded like it was all around us now.
‘We wait until the fireworks,’ Caleb continued, almost having to shout over the hissing. ‘Until then, stay together. Do not wander off. Once the fireworks are set off, sweepers, you wait for my signal to go in.’
‘What is the signal?’ someone at the front asked.
‘I’ll tell you it’s time to go,’ Caleb replied, shrugging. He pointed to a section of the fence behind us. ‘We’ll be using that gate if possible. I’ll let you know if we have to change gates.’
I couldn’t see a gate, just a load of people organising piles of scaffolding boards. The fence had been entirely covered now, at least the part of it I could see. Supporting joists were spread out along it, about every five feet. Two ladders were leaning against the fence. A woman was atop one of them, she seemed to passing on information to people on the ground.
Loud rattling noises erupted from the other side of the fence. It must have been the zombies slamming into the chain link fence. The sound seemed to move along it from left to right, like a wave crashing onto a beach. Everyone stopped what they were doing, hundreds of people all turning to stare at the fence.
The hissing was now all encompassing.
I noticed the woman on top of the ladder was completely still, so not being jostled around at all by the zombie horde hitting the fence.
Hopefully that means the fence is strong enough to hold them back.
My heart was now trying to beat itself out of my chest, and my legs had an uncontrollable jiggle.
Looking at Jack, I very quietly said, ‘Shitting myself.’
Another runner rushed past, speaking softly as he ran. ‘Zombies are at the fence. Zombies are at the inner fence. Keep the volume down.’
‘Yeah thanks. No shit,’ I muttered.
Jack was staring at the runner. ‘Chris, you watch my back, and I’ll watch yours. Okay?’
‘Yeah, obviously,’ I agreed.
A woman from Blue Team started to make her way through the people going back and forth, she was coming from the direction of the fence. She ran up to Caleb and spoke something close to his ear.
Caleb listened intently and nodded. ‘Okay everyone!’ he shouted over the hissing, ignoring the runner’s instructions to keep the volume down. ‘The fireworks will be going off any minute now. Sweepers take your position in front of the gate. The gate has not changed.’
Chapter 16: Holiday
Our half of the group started walking towards the fence. When we were most of the way across the road I spotted the gate. A large sheet of corrugated metal sat in front of the pieces that had been permanently attached to the fence behind. Two huge wooden beams held the temporary sheet in place. Behind that must have been the original chain link gate. We all grouped together by the fence.
Caleb stepped in front of us. ‘I’ll be coming with you,’ he told us. ‘I’ll guide us to the collapsed section we’ve been assigned to fix. Once we’re there, we clear the area, making it safe for the Mariners to join us. Everyone understand?’
He received a few murmured responses, but mostly nods.
Caleb looked like a different person from the stoned guy on the sofa. I could tell he was nervous, his eyes didn’t quite have the same conviction his words did, but he looked much more capable than I would have imagined.
‘The fireworks will draw some of them away,’ he told us. ‘But it’s like a wasp trap out there. Most of them won’t be able to find their way back outside, so they’ll be stuck between the two fences.’
There was a sudden loud whistling noise in the distance, followed by an almighty boom. It echoed around us. Even the zombies stopped hissing momentarily. More fireworks whooshed and whistled into the air, before exploding and crackling.
I looked to Caleb. He was staring up at the woman on top of the ladder, his chest heaving up and down. I looked down at my own chest, only then noticing I was also breathing heavily.
The hissing wasn’t as loud now. The fireworks must be doing their job in drawing the zombies away.
The woman atop the ladder glanced down to Caleb and held up one finger. Caleb nodded to a man standing on the other side of the wooden beams. They got into position and heaved one of the heavy looking beams out of its supports, laying it on the ground out of the way. They walked back and repeated it with the second higher beam. A third person stepped between them and helped them lift it up and out of the way.
In absolute silence, the forty or so Sweepers waited. The woman on the ladder still had one finger raised.
A sudden clarity washed over me. I looked around at the nervous faces around me, and then at the many people rushing up and down the street behind us. A former town, now turned into a refugee camp, was on the other side of the busy street. An unknown number of those refugees were recently murdered, needlessly mowed down in the streets by fucking crazy people with guns. As if we didn’t have enough problems. And now we’re just standing here, waiting for a guy in his mid-twenties, who very recently was as high as a kite, to tell us to run into a load of flesh eating zombies. What the actual fuck is going on?
‘What the fuck are we doing here Jack?’ I whispered.
Jack hesitated, before saying, ‘What? We’re going to go and clear out the zombies.’
‘No, I mean, how the fuck have we found ourselves here? We were supposed to be on holiday.’
Jack opened his mouth to speak, but Caleb and his assistant stepped towards the temporary corrugated sheet. They picked it up and moved it out of the way. I looked up to see the woman was now holding up two fingers. Once the metal sheet was out of the way, the double chain link gates were visible. On the other side was an empty car park, with Blaine High School on the other side of that.
A loud clanging noise made me look to my left. The Sweepers of Green Team were positioned in front of another section of the fence, doing the same as us I suppose. I tried to spot our friends, but couldn’t see anyone I recognised. I thought I might have seen Gee’s head and shoulders popping up above everyone else.
Hopefully that means they’re in the second group, protecting their Fencers.
The woman on the ladder raised a third finger and nodded her head at Caleb. His assistant stepped forward and unbolted the double gates. There were six bolts in total, three on each gate.
Caleb opened the two gates, turned back to us, and said, ‘On the other side of the school, we’ll find the football field. Once
we’re there, spread out in a line, not too far apart, but not within swinging distance. Now follow me.’ He faced forwards and ran into the car park.
My heartbeat now racing, and adrenaline threatening to overpower my senses, I followed my fellow Sweepers as we funnelled through the open double gates. Caleb had taken a right and ran diagonally across the car park. He then cut through a gap between the school buildings. Presumably to avoid having to travel around the fenced off tennis courts, and also, so we didn’t get in Green Team’s way.
Luckily the school didn’t have any tall buildings. Otherwise running down the alleyway would have been even more nerve-wracking. Buildings looming over us would have made it feel claustrophobic. We were all still tightly grouped together, nobody wanting to be in the lead, or left behind. Only Caleb was apart from the group slightly, as he ran ahead of us.
When we reached the end of the alley, Caleb was waiting for us. As we filed past him, he said, ‘The football field is just there. Form a line and remember to spread out, but make sure you’re only a few paces from the person next you. If you’re on the end, try to hook up with the other teams. Green on our left, and Red on our right.’
We had a clear view to the outer fence. Caleb hadn’t been lying. Huge sections of it had collapsed. The gunfire and screaming must have sent the zombies into a frenzy for them to cause that much damage. Behind the layers of metal and wood that were now lying on the ground, parts of the scaffolding that held up the structure were loose and swaying in the wind. At the bottom of the fence, at least the parts that were still standing, thousands of zombies scraped and banged their hands on the metal. They were desperately trying to get through and get to the noises being created by the fireworks.
Fucking idiots, just go through the fucking gaps and make all of our lives easier.
So, there’s about forty to fifty in each team, and I remembered only seeing ten, maybe twelve colours on that notice board in the drug den, or the Zombie Patrol base. So that’s somewhere between four and six hundred of us, against thousands of pissed off mindless cannibals.
Yep, we’re well and truly fucked.
I looked to the sky. The wind looked like it was bringing in some dark and rainy looking clouds.
Don’t fucking rain. I really don’t want to be cold and wet on top of all this.
‘Chris,’ Jack said, pointing over to our left. ‘Look.’
I followed his gaze to see Shannon, Michael and Ali in the distance, walking along with the rest of the Green Sweepers.
‘Fuck,’ I said. ‘Fuck’s sake.’
I wouldn’t have been half as scared for them if Gee had been alongside them. He must have kicked up a fuss when they told him he couldn’t be with them.
I bet Ali told him to stay behind and look after Pete. They’ll be fine. You can’t afford to be worrying about them at the moment.
On the other side of Green Team, I could see another group, all strung out in a line. On the other side of them, much further away, another team were heading towards the east outer fence.
We reached the far side of the football field and crossed the running track that surrounded it. Caleb suddenly started shouting, ‘Hold the line here. Let them come to us. They’re too packed in by the fence.’
I could hear a woman’s voice shouting something similar to the Green Team.
‘Can’t we just sneak up on them and bash their brains in from behind?’ I asked Jack.
He just stared ahead, looking as scared as I felt.
‘We tried that before,’ the man on my left said. ‘There weren’t anywhere near as many as there are now, and we were quickly overrun.’
‘Fucking zombie cunts!’ Caleb shouted. ‘Here we are, come and get us.’
I turned to Jack. ‘Well, I don’t think that language is necessary.’
Jack stared at the zombies, many of them peeling away from the frenzied horde and running towards us. ‘Shut up Chris,’ he said.
I joined him in staring at the masses heading our way. ‘It’s a Ricky Gervais joke,’ I muttered.
The leader of the Green Team also started shouting.
‘Do we shout as well?’ I asked Jack.
‘No. I think there are enough of them coming for us as it is.’
Only a car park was between us and hundreds of hissing creatures. It would only take seconds for them to reach us. Hundreds will soon become thousands.
This is gonna be fucking horrible.
‘There are too many, far too many,’ the man next to me said, sounding as scared as I felt.
‘Wait until they’re closer,’ Caleb shouted, his voice still keeping its authority. ‘Then we’re going to run at them. Otherwise they’ll take us all down. We are stronger than them. Wait for my signal.’
The few cars parked up in front of us weren’t slowing them down. The car park was quickly filling with hissing creatures. I couldn’t look away to see if they were everywhere, and not just in front of us. I guessed they were coming for all the teams. We stood and waited. I was desperate to hear Caleb’s signal, and also dreading it. Jack was bouncing on the balls of his feet. I raised my bat over my shoulder.
What the fuck am I doing here? This could be the stupidest thing anybody has ever done.
The man next to me cried out, ‘Too fucking many.’
‘Jack?’ I shouted over the hissing.
‘I don’t know mate,’ he shakily answered.
This is fucking crazy. I honestly cannot believe this is happening.
According to the white lines on the tarmac, they were about two parking spaces away from us when Caleb shouted, ‘Now!’ He left the line, running towards the horde.
Jack and I both set off at the same time, only half a second behind Caleb. I still wanted to look to my left to check on my friends, but I couldn’t afford the distraction.
Decaying faces stared back at me as I ran towards what looked like certain death. All of my senses were telling me to do the complete opposite. The repulsive things’ mouths were wide open, and their dead flesh literally hung from their bones, swaying from side to side.
And that fucking hissing.
I swung my bat at the last second, connecting with two or three of them. My body twisted with the swing, my shoulder connecting into multiple bodies. Grunts and cries of pain mixed in with the zombies’ hissing. Zombies seemed to fly in all directions as we made contact with the first row of them. I wasn’t stopping anytime soon, I continued barging into them, their weak bodies not slowing me. I felt teeth and hands scraping against me as I passed through the horde.
All of a sudden, I found myself on my knees, painfully skidding to a stop along the tarmac. I must have tripped over something. It was utterly terrifying to look up and see I was surrounded by rotting zombie faces, all staring down at me. I swung my bat at them, trying to hit everything and anything. I didn’t care what part of them I hit.
I stood up and screamed in agony when a sharp pain shot up my left leg. I kicked my leg out, feeling the mouth of a zombie let go of my calf.
Mother fucker.
I stamped down on the biter’s head and carried on swinging. There was more pain as another tried to bite my back, up by my shoulder blade. I felt the thing’s teeth scrape against bone. I spun around, still swinging my bat. The biter’s hands still had hold of my jacket, so it swung around behind me as I spun, its legs knocking other zombies to the ground. I stopped spinning and reached back, grabbing the back of its head. I pulled and a large clump of skin and hair came away in my hand. I reached back further and dug my hand into its skull, until I got a firm hold of something. I pulled it up and over my shoulder, and threw it away. The long dead body weighed next to nothing. I spun around again, swinging my bat at whatever was closest to me, also trying to see where Jack was. More of the dead were coming towards us from the damaged fence.
I spotted him. He was still up and fighting, although not in amongst the horde like me. He must have backed away somehow to gain a bit of space, or not been stupid
enough to carry on running into them.
I needed to get out of there, and try and get over to Jack, so there was nothing attacking me from behind. I wasn’t gonna last long if they were coming at me from everywhere.
‘Mother fucking fuckers!’ I roared in pain as one of them sunk its teeth into the back of my left arm, just below my armpit.
I had to keep on swinging my bat one handed at more attackers, just to keep them a bay. I tried to reach its head with my left hand but couldn’t quite get the right angle. The thing’s hands were clawing at my chest and back. I lifted my left arm up, feeling the weight of it as it left the ground, and smashed my bat into its skull. The loud shattering sound filled my ears. The now unmoving hands fell away as it dropped to the ground.
I’d lost sight of Jack again, so I spun around, looking over the zombies’ heads. I was indiscriminately swinging my bat, hitting heads, shoulders, just anything. I stopped spinning when I saw Jack’s axe arching through the air.
Fuck it.
I moved towards him, punching with my left fist, and the handle of the baseball bat in my right.
Being dead for a few weeks can’t be good for muscle tone and strength. The zombies were putting up a fight, but I could easily move them out of the way, their skulls collapsing, sometimes when I hit them with my fist. It felt like hundreds of disgusting skeletal hands were scratching and grabbing at me as I barged through them.
There was space in front of me, I’d made it through. A bony hand clawed at my face from behind. I reached up and wrenched it away from me, the hand and lower part of its arm tearing away. The rest of it was still attached to my back somehow. I ran at a car, spinning around at the last second and slamming my back into the driver’s door. The zombie on my back was crushed in the impact.
Winded slightly, I stood up and raised my bat, only having to wait a second before some of them were on top of me again. I swung mercilessly at them, overhead, side swing, uppercuts. It was never ending.
Over the sound of hissing and fireworks, I could now hear a song playing. It sounded like Head Over Heels, by Tears for Fears.
