I looked at Camouflage, he looked at me smirking, then looked back at Pun and said. ‘Whoa, we may be banged up fella, but there are other ways to pass the time eh?’ To which we all burst out laughing. ‘Right, my turn.’ He said, making it sound like we were all kids opening our Christmas presents on the floor of one of our houses. He reached down and undid his belt, stopped and looked at us both again. ‘Honestly, I mean it, don’t get any ideas!’ To which we all laughed again, then laid it out in front of him and turned it over. There was a full-length zip on the back side! He undid it and pulled out a wire saw about two feet long with rings on each end and several brass wire snares. Staying with the belt, he picked it up and started biting near the buckle and pulled a pin out with his teeth. He pulled the buckle and out slid a four-inch-long double-edged knife with a buckle handle. Pun just sat there nodding his approval. More matches and small packet of fuel followed, then the compass, then he took his boots off, cut two inches off his laces and said. ‘Para cord with a chemical tinder strip in the middle. Lights like a fuse!’ Pun liked this even more, but the billy big bollocks surprise was… Two home-made pen pistols hidden in cut outs made under his insoles in each boot. ‘Only one shot each though, so make them count if you have to use it.’
‘Fuck me!’ Exclaimed Pun. ‘We are on to a bloody winner here!’ Camouflage reached forward from his sitting position and handed him one.
‘Take it a crap hat like you can work it out eh?’ Pun ignored the inter rivalry dig and nodded and inspected Camouflages handy work for a bit then looked at me.
‘What have you got then Brian?’ Said camouflage, not expecting me to have anything secreted upon my person.
‘Well.’ I adjusted myself so my ribs and kidney areas didn’t hurt me so much. ‘Apart from a bloody good kicking that you both enjoyed me getting I have…’ I Pulled out a Leatherman multi tool. A bit like the Gerber one I had back at camp. ‘This Leatherman I managed to nick from the bastard who tasered me just after he cuffed me and…’ I stuck my hands down the front of my boxer shorts and pulled out another of the home-made pen pistols. ‘This, which is another reason I kept my bollocks protected when they kept kicking me, didn’t want to blow one of my DNA satchels off did I?!’
They looked at each other and both laughed, Camouflage commented. ‘I keep telling you he can hold his own don’t I?’
We quietened down and had a bit of a Chinese Parliament of our own and came up with a plan of sorts. Our room had no windows or furniture, just a bare concrete floor and locked door with small window. We were in a corner room which meant two of our walls were Breeze blocks and the other two were plasterboard. Although flimsy, smashing holes through plasterboard walls was noisy and unnecessary. One of us had to keep watch, which happened to be me. The other two reached up to the fluorescent strip light and broke a corner off the old and discoloured plastic light diffuser. They put one of Puns arm badges soaked in fuel with the unwrapped condom, oil filled compass and length of flammable shoe lace on top. They looked at me for a commentary of what was going on outside.
‘Just two of them Delta guys sat outside. One with rifle across his lap, the other with rifle leaning against the table and his pistol on it.’
‘The one with no weapons is the one they will send in here if they need to. Won’t want to risk giving us any access to weapons.’ Said Camouflage.
I made my way back to my corner and sat down slowly. Camouflage sat down too with his hands behind his back pretending to be cuffed. Pun lit the length of shoe lace and sat down quickly against the other wall, his hands behind his back but I could see he had his pen pistol ready. The fire spread up the lace to the fuel-soaked patch and flared up. The condom smoked terribly as it burned and in the heat the oil filled compass made a bang as It exploded taking the fluorescent light out. We were now in darkness with smoke from the burning plastic starting to fill the room.
We started shouting for help, but someone had already heard the bang and was at the window looking in. I could see the shock on his face as the fire lit his features up. He straightaway started to open the door. I started taking several deep breaths to oxygenate my knackered muscles ready for what was to come next.
The first soldier came rushing in, unarmed with just a fire extinguisher aimed at the light ready. We sat there shouting that the smoke was choking us but staying put for now. At the door we could see soldier two covering the door, so we stayed put. As soon as the first soldier started extinguishing the fire the room became shrouded in a C02 cloud and as soon as we couldn’t see the door we moved. I grabbed the fire extinguisher off him and kept spraying the C02 but now in the direction of the door as Camouflage got behind soldier one and wrapped the serrated wire saw around his neck as a garrotte. He pulled it tight and twisted, the wire saw cut through his throat, wind pipe and arteries like cheese wire through a nice soft cheddar on a Deli counter. He barely made a noise or even a gurgle as Camouflage lowered him to the now blood slick ground, his head barely still attached to his body. Pun, using the C02 cloud as cover sneaked towards soldier two, quickly grabbing the fore stock and pushing up to the ceiling as he rammed the pen pistol into his opponents’ stomach, pushed up into the solar plexus and slipped the pin on the pen pistol. The shot was incredibly mute, and the soldier slipped to the floor, blood bubbling from his mouth without firing a shot. The bullet must have caused massive damage to the heart and lungs, tumbling as it went through the organs. With no barrel length or rifling, the bullet wouldn’t be spun to make it go straight or indeed very far once it had left the Pen Pistol just bounce around the body cavity like it had to this guy.
Pun turned to Camouflage and waved the pen. ‘Mind if I keep one? This is bloody awesome!’
Camouflage was covered in blood and had that thousand-yard stare again. ‘Sure, happy to show you Paras how it’s done.’ He quipped. ‘Chuck me his pistol yeah?.’
Camouflage caught it, pulled the slide back just enough to see a glint of brass to show a round was chambered, pulled out the magazine and pressed with his thumb until it stopped moving, the magazine was full. Pun had done the same with the M4, it was instinct for them both and took a blink of an eye to carry out. I had the belt buckle knife and a pen pistol.
Camouflage took the door handle, looked left and right through the window and turned to us with a wry grin on his face. ‘You ready then you wankers?’ He was in his element again.
We knew Sue was only two rooms away, but we moved slowly and purposefully. At the door to her room Pun looked in quickly then stepped back to the side wall. He pointed at the room and raised three fingers, then made an x with his fingers, then held up a single finger and mouthed ‘Sue’ then made a flat motion. I was shit at dinner party charades and the old Lionel Blair TV show ‘Give us a Clue’ but even I worked out without knowing if it was a film or a book and whether it had two syllables or three that it meant three x-rays (persons hostile to us) and Sue led on a bed. That was good to know, at least we would only have to deal with the standing people.
Pun stepped up and took the handle, we all mentally counted to three and then we burst in. With a flurry of rifle butt, kicks and punches the x-rays were on the floor cowering. Turns out they were doctors, well now they were bruised and battered doctors about to be bound and gagged. We didn’t have cable ties, but we did have three pairs of cuffs which Camouflage put on them in such a way that they were almost tied up by their own bodies. A few handfuls of bandages sorted out their noise makers too.
Sue was cuffed to the bed, but she was alright. Camouflage did his thing with the cuffs and pocketed them.
‘How are you doing?’ I asked her.
She had tears in her eyes. She looked at me and Pun. ‘I saw you both go down in the explosion!’ She reached out to my face with its split lip, bleeding nose and developing black eyes. ‘Are you alright?’ She sat up in bed.
‘I’m okay, worst is my ribs, but we can’t hang around.’ Pun and Camouflage were at the door ready to move again. ‘Are y
ou ready to go?’ I asked her.
‘They just took a pint or so of blood, and I’m a bit giddy.’ She looked at the stainless side table. ‘There! It’s just there.’ She pointed.
‘You want it?’
‘Hell yeah, every little helps as they say and why leave this bunch of assholes anything.’ She said while looking at the bound and silenced Doctors on the floor.
I walked over to the table and grabbed it, there were a couple of small vials with her name on with 25ml of her blood in too. I grabbed them with two syringes that were also on the table and shoved it all inside my smock. She was just slipping her boots back on and then we were moving again. Out in the corridor we were less than fifteen feet away from the fire door, but Pun and Camouflage were stopped and whispering. I crept forward towards them and joined in. ‘Fucks going on?’ I asked Pun.
‘That room has voices.’ He whispered. ‘Four voices we can make out. We suspect it’s the last four Delta guys.’
‘And?’
‘We were discussing if we should take them out as we leave to avoid them chasing us.’ He said.
‘Surely we will be chased whoever we take down.’ I pointed out.
Camouflage joined in now. ‘Yeah but would you rather be chased by Usain Bolt or Homer Simpson?’
Well that was a no-brainer obviously. ‘Homer!’ I agreed.
‘As soon as we kick that door, you two go out that fire door and head for the break in the fence, yeah? No matter what you hear or whatever is shouted, you keep moving.’ I nodded. He then added. ‘And bloody duck and zig zag as you run! I’m sure you saw Game of Thrones and what happened when Rickon Stark didn’t.’ I hadn’t but saw all the uproar about it on Facebook. The two of them stood up, stretched and rolled their shoulders preparing for their next move and lunged for the door. Sue and I hit the fire door release bar at speed, and it flew open. I pulled her to the left towards the fence as we exited and heard full auto and pistol fire behind us. We both did as we were told, zig zagging and ducking and didn’t look back until we got to the fence line. I kicked the disguised slit in the wire, it popped open like it was a Velcro secured flap of fabric and I guided Sue through. As I turned back I could see two figures running in a zig zag fashion like hell, no weapons in hand, they didn’t want to be slowed down.
The Pathfinders had obviously been watching this and fired a 40mm grenade at the gates. They blew open and took out some zombies but thirty or so remaining ones took the invite to come on in. That would keep the four fence guards busy. Another two grenades landed on the Humvees and staff cars parked out the back here and the GPMG guys started putting rounds into the two rear doorways to dissuade followers.
We were meters away from the 110 when shots hit the ground around us. Several soldiers were firing at us from the roof. Sue fell in the mud and took me with her as several rounds took out the rear door window of the 110 above us. I picked her up and got her in the middle of the rear seats. Camouflage got in the other side and Pun in the front passenger seat. We drove off first in line down the tight green lane with the open WMIK right behind us. The thump-crack of the .50cal unleashing spark plug sized projectiles at those on the roof hiding behind a flimsy metal façade and the grinding rattle of the GPMG’s putting down a curtain of lead to prevent followers sounded out behind us.
Chapter 11
The morning sunlight was just starting to bathe us as we bumped, bucked and rattled along the un paved green lane, the Land Rovers pathetic standard headlights doing little to help the driver’s vision as it was without being shone on the lane one minute and into the daybreak sky the next. Moments later the radio burst into life. There was a following Humvee that was too big to get down the lane to follow us but was racing across the field next to us towards the main road to cut us off. The guys couldn’t take it out as it was in the dead ground on the other side of the field and they only caught fleeting glances as it dipped in and out of cover. A few 40mm grenades forced it to stay in the dead ground for now and make it harder for him to try and cut us off at the end of the field.
‘Who was it in the room?’ I asked.
Pun turned around but Camouflage spoke. ‘Three of the Delta guys and a normal grunt soldier.’ He wasn’t proud of it, and said it matter of fact. ‘They were armed but didn’t get the chance to raise them.’
‘Don’t recon that’s the last one of them Delta Force lads in that Humvee, pissed off and trying to cut us off do you?’ I Asked.
‘Don’t know and as long as we get to the facility before him I really don’t care.’ Announced Camouflage.
Sue’s head was on my shoulder, I turned to her. ‘How can you sleep at a time like this?’ I joked until I saw her face, she was ashen-pale, and her breathing was almost non-existent. The breaths she did take were laboured and rasping. I put my had around her back and it came out drenched in blood. ‘Sue’s been shot!’ I exclaimed.
Pun straight away turned around. ‘Trauma pack is behind you in the load bay Marc!’ Camouflage reached over the back of his seat for it and passed it straight to Pun to open. Camouflage rolled up his sleeves and bent Sue forward.
‘This bucking around isn’t going to help.’ Said Pun as he twisted in his front seat and into the rear passenger area to assist with the trauma pack.
The driver was on the radio straight away. ‘Whittington, this is The Answer.’ Their call sign was obviously about Sue being the answer to the infection. ‘We are 10 minutes out and coming in hot. We have The Primary, but she has been injured with a gun shot and we are being aggressively pursued. Over.’ A reply came back but was scratchy and garbled and I was trying to help with Sue. The driver obviously understood it as he replied. ‘Wait one Whittington.’ He shouted at Pun over the roar of the engine and the banging and clattering of the 110 as it raced along the dirt track. This may have been a green lane but the time for ‘As slow as possible and as fast as needed’ as the 4x4 magazines state went right out of the door, it was balls out, chassis and suspension smashing speed that was now the order of the day. ‘They want to know her condition sir.’
Camouflage had been examining her. He shouted as he continued. ‘One shot. It’s through and through. Lower back and out lower left flank. Blood is black, possible liver damage.’ The driver was relaying all the information word for word. He was stuffing both holes with whatever Pun was handing him. My head was swimming. ‘Brian, hold her shoulders and head steady.’ I did as he said but felt like I was distant from it all happening. He was putting pressure on the wounds as the driver was relaying what he had been told about her condition.
The driver shouted back after his radio exchange. ‘We will be going in hot, won’t be stopping for the gates, a squad will be out clearing any zombies and ready to repel any followers so we can go straight in. They have medics and Crash cart ready, but they need to know her blood type for a transfusion.’
Sue shot bolt upright at hearing that. ‘No transfusion. They can’t dilute my blood. It holds the cure, can’t be diluted.’ She looked at me and put her head on my shoulder. ‘No dilute.’
I looked at camouflage, he was covered in her blood. We were both sat in a pool of warm and sticky, iron smelling blood but he had it all up his arms and chest where he was trying to save her. He looked at me. ‘Sue has lost a shit load of blood Brian. She will die very soon without a blood transfusion.’
I was torn. Sue had come back to find me because she thought I could help her get the cure to where it needed to be. I was in love with her but knew that she wanted to cure people more than anything. Should I save her life by making them give her a transfusion but ruining her blood so that there was no cure? She wouldn’t forgive me, and then I’d lose her anyway. As much as it pained me I had to ensure they didn’t give her a transfusion. I had a litre of her blood that the Americans had taken not thirty minutes ago but that would likely be a piss in the wind with all the blood she was losing.
We were now in clear view of the re-enforced gates three hundred yards away and
could see them rolling back as soldiers came sprinting out in full tactical gear and bristling with weapons. Single and double tap rifle and pistol rounds were cracking off as they took out the zombies at the gates and fence line. We never remotely slowed as we thundered in through the still retracting gate and past the massively fortified guard posts and now redundant upright yellow gate poles taking at least four zombies out just before the gates at over forty-five miles per hour. You know that they say that if you are going to hit a deer then speed up as it is more likely to send the deer over the top and not through the windscreen? Doesn’t work when you are driving the vehicular, aerodynamic equivalent of a small garage, luckily though, they never got past the bonnet mounted tyre and through the wind shield. Perhaps I should mount one on my bonnet when and if I get back, an extra tyre would always be handy at least.
I tried to see as much as I could through the missing rear door window, but it wasn’t much. The WMIK followed us through the gates at speed twenty or so yards behind us but soon stopped, just after the huge tank traps/lorry stoppers rose from the ground to deny any other vehicles full entry. The WMIK’s occupants were pointing from the way they had come as they debussed the vehicle, possibly towards the pursuing Humvee and joined the soldiers defending the gates and zombie clearing. Soldiers with shoulder mounted rockets appeared but I never heard one let off, the Humvee must have realised it would be onto a losing battle to continue its pursuit and we continued at speed to the main buildings.
The Reanimated Dead (Book 2): The Answer Page 10