by Hatchett
With the lighters in their left hands, they each took an aisle and moved along it. There was nothing in Issy’s aisle, but she heard a grunt and thump as something hit the floor in Gina’s aisle.
Issy waited until Gina reappeared then they both headed back towards the front of the shop along the third and final aisle. They could see one more figure who had been attracted by the noise and light and was heading in their direction and it didn’t take Issy more than a heartbeat to take it out. Then they both stood still and listened to make absolutely sure there was nothing else in there with them, Issy tapping her knife against a shelf to see if it attracted any attention.
Once they were sure they were alone, they headed back to the front of the shop.
Gina held the lighter over her head as she scanned the counter area. She spotted some miniature torches on the wall, more like keyring torches, but it would be better than burning and bruising her thumb on the lighter.
Gina reached up and grabbed all the miniature torches and placed them on the counter. She then started unwrapping them and turning them on so that Issy could cut her flame.
Issy and Gina put the lighters and spare torches in their pockets and started their search of the store. Towards the back of the central aisle they found a magazine rack and sitting on one of the shelves was a London A to Z book.
Issy grabbed it and sat on the floor to find the right pages.
“Want something to eat or drink?” Gina asked.
“Yeah, grab some stuff while I have a quick look, then we’ll make a move. Thanks.”
Gina was back five minutes later with two carrier bags filled with food, drink and assorted other items.
“How’s it going?” she asked.
“Well, we’re about six kilometres from Volkan and there’s just under six kilometres from Volkan to Dalston, so nearly twelve kilometres in total.”
“Shit, a fair bit more than I thought!” Gina remarked.”
“And guess what? Issy said, “we’re about eleven kilometres from Hendon.”
“Great choice then. Long walk or long walk,” Gina observed sarcastically. “Wait a minute! What if we got far enough away from the hotel so they couldn’t hear us then use a car? That would be quicker.”
“Have you seen the roads?” Issy asked. “It could take longer than walking. We only need to come across one blockage, and we’re stuffed.”
“Surely it’s better to try? If we come across a blockage, we dump the car, walk around the blockage and find another.” Gina asked.
“It comes back to whether we want to get home and put everyone’s mind at rest, or we hang around and try to find out what Mamba is up to,” Issy said.
“Burner phone,” Gina suggested. “We passed a Curry’s electrical store on the A10. If we could contact Heathrow, they could come before Mamba wakes up and it’ll be ‘game over’.”
“Even if we fired one up, do you know anyone’s number?”
Gina thought about it. “No,” she conceded.
“Nor me. All mine were pre-programmed so all I had to do was press a button. Never really noticed the numbers.”
Gina sat down on the floor next to Issy. It was clear that they weren’t going anywhere yet. She pulled a couple of plastic Coke bottles from one of the bags and handed one to Issy. Both women unscrewed the tops and took a drink as they thought about it some more.
“We’re missing something,” Gina said. “We must be. What did we do before smartphone technology?”
“Ring the operator?” Issy suggested, and both women laughed.
“Actually,” Gina said after a minute, “you’re not far wrong. What about ‘Yellow Pages’ or a phone book?”
“I don’t think they do books anymore. It’s all online,” Issy replied.
“Shit!”
They sat in silence for a few more minutes.
“I think we’ve got to get to Hendon,” Gina suggested. “It shouldn’t take too long and it’s our one and only chance to take out Mamba when we know where he is and what he’s doing.”
Issy thought about it. Humans walked at around five kilometres per hour, but in current conditions, you could probably halve that. That would mean about four and a half hours walking. She looked at her watch and saw that it was quarter past seven. That meant they’d get to Hendon about thirty minutes after midnight if all went well. Then they would have to avoid being shot by mistake. Issy wondered whether they could do it, especially as they’d already walked seven kilometres that day with their hands tied in front of them. If she were being honest, she was absolutely knackered. It was also pitch-black outside with no moon and just some stars to light the way. But, nagging away at her was the chance to get Mamba once and for all.
“Let’s try,” she said, getting to her feet.
Both women took a plastic bag each and walked towards the front door of the shop. Issy put the handles of the bag on her left arm so that she could still hold the miniature torch and her knife in her right hand. Within seconds her left arm was aching from the weight, and whilst this wouldn’t be an issue for a short journey, there was no way she’d be able to walk eleven kilometres like that. She put the torch and the knife on the counter to check what was in the bag. She decided that there was nothing that she needed desperately, other than perhaps the water and the A to Z book. They were bound to pass other shops and could get anything they needed on the way. Issy put the book in one pocket and the water bottle in another and left the rest of the food and drinks on the counter.
Gina had been watching and followed suit. “Ready?” she asked.
“Let’s do it.”
38
Day 17 – 19:15
Main Avenue, Enfield
Issy made sure the torch was off then slowly and carefully opened the front door of the shop and eased out onto the pavement, Gina following close behind her.
They turned left as they exited and headed West along Main Avenue, Issy briefly flicking the torch on and off every few paces to check where they were going. It wasn’t ideal because even the small amount of light affected their night vision so as soon as the torch was turned off, it was even harder to see where they were going.
They turned left onto St Mark’s Road and made their way towards Bush Hill Park mainline train station just four hundred or so metres away.
As they approached the station, Issy heard a gasp followed by a thump behind her as Gina tripped and fell heavily. She stopped and turned all around, checking the area for any immediate threat.
“You OK?” she whispered into the darkness. She could just about make out the silhouette of Gina sitting on the ground.
There was some heavy breathing before Gina finally croaked, “Shit, I think I’ve done something to my ankle.”
Issy checked the area around them again and couldn’t see anything to concern her, so she quickly turned on the torch and shone it all around her until settling the light on Gina. It was clear that Gina had slipped or tripped on the kerb as she was now sitting next to it in the road.
Gina blinked as the light shone in her direction and Issy could see tears of pain trailing down her cheeks, a nasty gash in her left knee and some blood dripping down her leg.
Issy reached down to help Gina up, and saw her grimace as she tried to put weight on her right leg.
“Ankle,” Gina whispered through gritted teeth.
“We need to find somewhere safe where we can bandage your knee and check out your ankle,” Issy said, looking around for a suitable place to go.
The train station was out of the question plus she didn’t think there would be anything useful to find there. Issy looked at the row of terraced houses next to the road and decided that one of them would be their best bet; there should be towels, linen and hopefully a medicine cabinet.
Issy supported Gina and directed her around a parked car to a small gate. She flicked on the torch to make sure there were no surprises in the small garden in front of the house, and once she was satisfied, she unlatched th
e gate and the two women struggled through the gap.
Issy kicked the gate shut, the sound attracting the attention of a couple of zombies a few metres away. She ignored them and gently helped Gina back onto the ground.
“Stay here while I check the house out,” Issy ordered, then walked up to the white front door.
39
Day 17 – 19:30
St Mark’s Road, Enfield
Issy tried the door handle and was happy to see that it turned, and the door opened. She held the torch in her left hand and her knife in her right as she eased the door further open, the small creaking sounding very loud in the quiet and enclosed space.
Issy flicked on the torch and saw that she was in a hallway with a closed door immediately on her left, another at the end of the hallway and a staircase on her right. She was about to move forward when there was a loud crash followed by repeated thudding as a zombie fell down the stairs and landed near her feet. Issy reacted instantly and brought her knife down and stabbed the zombie in the head. It had once been a young girl in her teens. That meant a family.
As Issy thought about her next steps, there was a thud on the door to her left. Issy ignored it. She’d been in these sorts of houses before and the doors were solid. Indeed, she had grown up in something similar, and had her head bashed against them, so she had first-hand experience of their build quality. But she really didn’t want to consider that aspect of her childhood any further, especially now. The door to her left was probably the lounge area with the door straight ahead leading to the kitchen. She would sweep them later because she could hear creaking floorboards above her.
Issy decided that she didn’t want to be climbing the stairs if another zombie fell down; she could be wiped out, injured, bitten. No, the best course of action was to bring the zombie to her if possible. She started tapping her knife against the bannister, increasing the volume as the creaking moved across the floor upstairs. There was a bang from the kitchen door, and again Issy ignored it, subconsciously logging that there were at least two zombies downstairs, but focusing on the main threat coming from upstairs.
Issy continued banging the bannister and was eventually rewarded with another loud crash followed by a series of thuds as another zombie came tumbling down. Again, Issy stabbed it in the head as it came to a rest and before it could attempt to get back up. This one had been another girl, a few years younger than the first, but equally dangerous.
Issy stood back up and stayed still, listening and watching for any sound or movement. She could hear something but wasn’t sure if it was coming from behind the doors to the lounge or kitchen. She couldn’t hear any floorboards creaking, so she assumed the upstairs was now clear. ‘Never assume’, she thought to herself, ‘it just makes an ass out of you and me’.
Issy climbed the first couple of steps to the point where the stairs turned to follow the outer wall in the direction of the back of the house. She was conscious of the time being wasted, but she wasn’t going to rush anything. Their lives depended on it.
Issy hugged the wall and took one careful step after another. She wanted to make sure that if anything else came tumbling down, she wouldn’t be caught off balance.
Issy reached the top of the stairs without incident and shone the torch all around. The beam of light was poor, but it was good enough to see four open doorways leading off the landing.
Taking the first door on her right, which was at the back of the property, she found an empty bathroom.
The room next door, also at the back of the house was a bedroom, used by the two dead girls if the posters and personal belongings scattered around were anything to go by.
She moved along the landing towards the front of the house, the floorboards creaking underneath and a sound coming from the furthest room.
Issy quickly scanned the next room on the right, a bedroom at the front of the house, and obviously an adult’s room. It was empty.
That left the final room at the front of the house. Issy approached the door and could hear grunting. She backed off a couple of paces and started banging the wall, hoping that whatever was in the room would come to her. All that happened was the banging from below grew more frantic.
Issy approached the doorway and shone her torch around. She immediately recognised the room as a nursery with its brightly painted walls and stickers of animals dotted all around. There were also toys on the floor and some sort of decoration hanging from the light in the middle of the room. Issy took all this in in an instant and her eyes were drawn to a large wooden cot in the corner of the room.
As she pointed her torch in that direction, two milky eyes stared back at her, small chubby arms and hands reaching through the slats in an attempt to reach her. The kid – a boy – could only have been eighteen months old yet it still seemed to have the zombie instinct to follow sounds and eat.
Issy debated whether to leave the kid and just shut the bedroom door, but in the back of her mind she realised that if the human race was ever to survive long term, all zombies needed to be eradicated.
Issy steeled herself and without thinking any more, strode forward and plunged her knife into the baby’s head. It sank in easily, the skull not yet fully formed, and the knife stuck when Issy tried to remove it. Issy placed her left hand on the child’s head and pulled her knife free, the child falling back to bang its head on the far side of the cot, then lying on its back, staring at the ceiling.
Issy rushed from the room and lent against the wall, taking deep breaths, trying in vain to forget the images she had just seen and trying not to retch. After a short pause, she willed herself to get going and finish the job. Gina was waiting and every minute was just additional risk for her.
Issy focused and thought to herself that there were just two more to go. At least, she hoped there were just two more to go and the fuckers who lived in this house weren’t having a party when it all went down.
Issy retraced her steps back down to the ground floor. No, she was sure there were just two more, one behind each door. If there were more, there would’ve been more noise and more banging. So, the question was, which one first? The second question was whether the layout behind the doors was open-plan. She had to assume it was.
She approached the kitchen door. She knew she was being stereotypical, and she could be wrong, but if this was a family of five with two parents and three kids, then the odds were that the mother was in the kitchen and the father was in the lounge, probably sitting on his fat arse watching the TV as the mother did all the work when it all went off.
Issy wondered whether she should ease her way in or just slam the door open. She could even slam it open and then stand back and wait for the zombie to approach her, rather than her trying to find it. Yes, that was a good idea because she didn’t know how big the kitchen was and she didn’t know for certain if there were just two left. They could have had friends around. The hallway meant that only one could come at her at a time. They might smell her and stop, but after what happened on the walk to the pyramid, she wasn’t taking any chances. They had to be killed in any case.
Issy turned the handle on the kitchen door and pushed lightly. It moved a couple of inches then stopped and she heard some more grunting. She took a deep breath then pushed hard before stepping back. She heard the zombie crash to the floor and scrabble around trying to get back to its feet. Then a large zombie wandered into the hallway, attracted by the light. Issy had been right, it was a female, presumably the mother. She stepped towards the figure and stabbed it in the head. The body dropped to the floor like a stone.
Issy stood there, waiting to see if any more came through the doorway. She could hear at least one more moving around and bumping into furniture.
She waited a couple more minutes, continuing to shine the weak light towards the kitchen door. “Come on fat boy,” she muttered to herself, imagining the man she had seen in her mind’s eye a few minutes earlier.
She was rewarded by the shape of a man approaching the
kitchen door, except he wasn’t fat. He had actually been short, bald and skinny. Issy decided there was no point in this zombie tripping over the one on the floor, so she stepped across the body and stabbed it in the head.
Issy stepped over this body and cautiously entered the kitchen and swung the torch all around. It was clear. She moved into the dining area then into the lounge and found them both clear.
Issy quickly made her way back to the front door and cautiously opened it, praying that Gina was still OK.
“What took you so long?” came from the darkness.
40
Day 17 – 19:30
Hilton Hotel, Heathrow
Jack nursed the glass of scotch in his hand, rattling the ice around and thinking about the day’s events. Sarah sat next to him with a Vodka, watching his expressions change as he thought about different things and seeing the concern etched all over his face. They had been sitting in silence for a few minutes and Sarah felt the urge to give him a big hug, but she wasn’t sure how he would react. So, she placed her hand on his arm and squeezed it in a gesture of support as she took another sip of her drink.
All afternoon they had been waiting for some news, preferably good news, but being kept in suspense wasn’t doing any of them any good.
Andy and Travis were particularly anxious, wanting to do something, but not really sure what they could do except continue. By late afternoon and still no news, they were besides themselves with worry and were no use to man nor beast, so Jack had forbidden them to go back out into the field and told them to get some rest. He wanted them fresh for when they did get some news, but he suspected they had ignored him and gone to the gym to take their frustration out on the punchbag.