by Hatchett
The Major, Bear and Irish were still out there, searching around Dalston and Tottenham areas and slowly spreading outwards before coming back to the centres and starting again.
Joel had been working with Tom on the best way to implement their chosen trap. They had decided to leave a gap in the perimeter security, but nothing obvious. It had to look like an oversight on their part, something which Mamba would spot and want to take advantage of. They were out there now with a team of people, making the necessary preparations.
“You look tired,” Sarah observed, with a sympathetic expression on her face.
“I am,” Jack agreed. “I’m out of ideas and I hate having to sit back and rely on luck.”
“I know how you feel,” Sarah agreed, and Jack turned to look at her, his piercing blue eyes boring into hers.
Sarah couldn’t help herself. She leant forward quickly and kissed him on the lips before easing back and seeing a surprised, but not unhappy expression on his face.
“I’m sorry,” she blurted.
“Don’t be,” he replied.
She leant forward again, more slowly this time, and when she kissed him again, he reciprocated. Sarah blindly put her drink down on the table then put her free hand on the back of his head and pulled him closer. As their mouths opened for the first time and tongues tentatively probed forwards, a glass smashed on the floor and liquid was splashed against their legs.
Sarah pulled back to see what had happened and saw Jack’s glass smashed on the floor. She looked back towards Jack, with a grin beginning to spread across her face.
“Missed the table,” he said sheepishly.
Sarah laughed. “Let’s hope your more careful with me.”
Sarah got up to go and find something to clear up the mess. Jack was about to get up and follow but Sarah told him to stay put.
“I like a bossy woman,” he remarked.
“Well, you’ve found one.”
Jack watched Sarah walk away and return a few minutes later to clear the mess. She was a beautiful woman, five feet six inches tall with long dark hair, brown eyes and a slim yet toned build. He’d been attracted to her since the first day they had met, despite what was happening all around them, but he had no intention of doing anything about it and, in any case, he didn’t think she would have any interest in him. There was nothing wrong in admiring other women, but he’d been happily married to his beloved Susan, his childhood sweetheart, for more years than he cared to remember. It hadn’t been until day four or five that the search and rescue teams had come back and told him the heart-breaking news that she hadn’t made it, but he’d refused to show any weakness, despite it breaking his heart.
He thought about his two sons and Susan, and what they would think of the situation. He still loved his Susan, nothing would change that, but she was gone, and he was still here with a huge hole in his heart. Was it too early to get involved with someone else? Was it disrespectful to Susan’s memory? He thought it probably was. It had only been a couple of weeks since her death, but if he was being honest, it seemed like a lifetime ago. There had been no let up since it all started, and he’d hardly paused for breath.
“Are you OK?”
He looked up to see Sarah looking at him with concern in her eyes. He saw that the mess had been cleared and he hadn’t even noticed.
“Yes, I’m good,” he replied, forcing a smile onto his face.
“No regrets?” Sarah asked cautiously.
“Definitely not!” Jack replied forcefully. “Sorry,” he said in a hushed tone, “I’m just trying to get my head around everything.”
“Understandable,” Sarah said. “I’m sorry if I’ve added to your problems.”
“You are anything but a problem,” he said with a genuine smile. He stood up and put his arms around her and hugged her tight.
“Why don’t we go somewhere more private?” Sarah suggested, pulling back from the embrace to look Jack in the face.
“Lead the way,” he ordered with a smile.
A dozen or so people in the bar watched as Sarah and Jack left the room with smiles on their faces.
41
Day 17 – 20:00
St Mark’s Road, Enfield
Issy had helped Gina into the house and guided her onto the sofa in the lounge, then they’d emptied their pockets and turned on several torches to give themselves more light.
Issy had made sure the curtains across the windows were closed then searched the bathroom and found the bathroom cabinet stocked with medicine and bandages. She guessed that having three kids required the parents to have these things to hand. She’d never used a plaster in her life. When she got a cut or scrape as a child, the wound had been left to bleed until…well, until it didn’t any more.
She’d grabbed everything she could find and taken it downstairs and dumped it on the sofa next to Gina.
“Toothpaste?” Gina asked with a laugh.
Issy just shrugged and took a drink from her bottle of water.
“You sure you’re not trying to tell me something?” Gina continued.
Issy nearly choked and looked horrified, “’Course not!”
Gina laughed some more as she applied some iodine to the freshly cleansed wound on her knee, grimaced at the pain, then wrapped it in a bandage, tore off a strip of tape and secured it in place.
“Just kidding,” Gina admitted. “What do we do now?”
“Test your ankle,” Issy replied, coming across to her and waiting for Gina to raise her leg.
Issy held Gina’s heel in one hand and toes in the other. “Ready?”
Gina nodded.
Issy pushed against the heel and Gina drew in a sharp breath before letting it slowly back out. Issy then tested her toes, tried to rotate the ankle and generally had a feel around the growing swelling.
“Well doctor?” Gina asked.
“I don’t think you’ve broken anything. Just a bad sprain,” Issy said.
“Shit!” Gina muttered, although she’d known there wasn’t going to be any good news.
“Let’s put it this way,” Issy said. “We’re not walking to Hendon, or anywhere else for that matter.”
“Shit!” Gina repeated. “So, what are we going to do. We can’t sit here until my foot is better. We’ll have to take a car.
“We can try,” Issy agreed. “We’ve got nothing to lose.
“Do you think we’re far enough away from the hotel to make noise?” Gina wondered.
“Yeah, I don’t see that being a problem,” Issy said. “I think you could set off a bomb in the car park and Mamba would still be out for the count. I wonder what Ayla gave him? Or more importantly, when he’ll wake up. He’s not going to be a happy bunny, that’s for sure.”
“We better get a move on,” Gina suggested, looking at her watch. “It’s eight thirty now, and we’ve hardly gone anywhere. So, best case as it stands is that we won’t get to Hendon before one in the morning.”
“OK, if your sure. You stay here and I’ll go out and see what we can use.”
“Be careful,” Gina stressed as Issy left the room.
A few minutes later, Gina heard the sound of an engine starting before being quickly shut off. Then Issy reappeared with a smile across her face. “Found one first attempt,” she said.
“We need all the luck we can get,” Gina remarked.
“Wasn’t luck,” Issy said. “I ignored those parked along the road because they were bound to be owned by people in the homes and finding the keys could’ve taken hours. So, I looked for those in the middle of the road, preferably with the driver in situ.”
“Clever girl!” Gina congratulated her.
42
Day 17 – 20:30
St Mark’s Road, Enfield
Issy walked over to help Gina pick up all their torches and other gear then helped her to her feet. “Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” Gina replied.
Issy guided Gina to the front door and out into the front gard
en. The coast was clear but Issy could see a zombie hanging around the passenger door of her new car which was sitting fifteen metres away near the front of the train station.
As they got closer, Issy supported Gina while she stabbed the zombie in the head. Issy opened the passenger door and helped Gina into the seat before going around to the driver’s side and stepping over the recently dead driver to get in.
“Nice wheels,” Gina said sarcastically. “What is it?”
“Dunno,” Issy replied, “Some pile of French shite with no satnav, but it works.”
“We could always look for another car with satnav,” Gina suggested.
“Nah,” Issy replied as she started the car, “where’s the fun in that?” She put it into gear and pulled forward. Suddenly she stopped and leant to one side to pull the A to Z out of her pocket and hand it to Gina. “Let’s hope you’re a good map reader!”
Issy pulled away again then stopped again as one of the lights on the dashboard started flashing and making pinging noises.
“Ah shit, what now?” Gina said, “can our luck get any worse?”
“Don’t worry,” Issy replied, “it’s just the seatbelt warning.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to find a better car?”
“Nah, we’ll be fine.”
“Main roads or back roads?” Gina asked, as she popped a couple of paracetamol tablets into her mouth and washed them down with some water.
“Good question,” Issy replied. “I have no idea, it’s just luck of the draw. I’ll let you decide.”
“OK, we’re on First Avenue so follow it around this corner to the right,” Gina directed, pointing through the windscreen. “If you keep following it, it becomes Park Avenue then it’ll take us to the A105.
Issy pulled away for the third time, accelerating into a couple of zombies that had wandered into their path, attracted by the car’s noise and lights. She followed the curve as instructed, weaving in and out of parked and abandoned cars.
It was around five hundred metres until they reached the A105 and it only took a few minutes.
“Keep your fingers crossed,” Issy muttered.
“Take a left at the end,” Gina directed, “heading towards Winchmore Hill.”
Issy did as she was told and within a hundred metres, they came to their first blockage. From their position in the car it looked like the whole road was blocked off.
“I’ll go take a look,” Issy said, as she turned off the engine, but left the headlights on. She opened the car door and quickly moved away as some zombies came shuffling towards the lights at the front. Issy came to the first vehicle in the blockage, an Audi, and she swiftly climbed onto its bonnet and then onto its roof. The light from their car was slowly being blocked off as more and more zombies gathered at the front of it, but Issy could see enough to realise that they wouldn’t be able to skirt the blockage.
That left two choices; find another route in the car they were in or abandon the car and walk around the blockage and find another car the other side. Issy looked to see if they could continue on foot and whether there were any drivable cars further down the road, but it was impossible to see clearly.
Issy turned back to her own car and was surprised to see at least fifteen zombies near the front of it and effectively blocking most of the light. More beginning to head in that direction. If she didn’t move quickly, the car would be surrounded, and she would struggle to get back in…or get Gina out.
Issy jumped down off the Audi and jogged back to their car. As she reached her side, there were two zombies shuffling along the side of it heading towards her and more behind. She pushed the zombie to her left in the chest as she stabbed the one to her right in the head. It gave her just enough time and space to open the door and jump in.
As Issy tried to slam the door shut, an arm beat her to it and prevented the door from closing. She switched her knife to her left hand and stabbed the arm, but there was no reaction. The hand grabbed her shoulder and suddenly there was a head trying to push through the gap. Issy held on to the door to make sure it didn’t swing back open again.
“Hit the starter,” Issy ordered as she slapped her feet on the clutch and brake. She felt the door being pulled open and quickly dropped her knife between her legs and used both hands to prevent the door from opening.
Gina did as she was told, and the car started.
“Put it into reverse,” Issy ordered, straining to hold her door as another zombie joined the action.
Gina tried to put the car in reverse, but she couldn’t do it. It was weird trying to change gear with her right hand as if she were in a left-hand drive car. She tried again, but it didn’t work.
“Hurry!” Issy gasped, tears of sweat beginning to drip down her face.
Gina tried to force the gearstick into the right slot, but it wouldn’t go. She was beginning to panic then realised that with some cars you needed to lift the gearstick to reverse, on others you needed to push down and on others there was a section on the gearstick that needed to be lifted up. She tried all three as quickly as she good and breathed a sigh of relief when the gear stick clicked into reverse.
“It’s in!” she shouted and Issy immediately took her right foot off the brake and hit the accelerator. The car revved loudly as she let out the clutch and the car took off backwards, tearing off the arm of the zombie holding onto her shoulder, but causing the door to swing open.
Some of the zombies at the front of the car fell forwards, some on the passenger side had their feet run over and were knocked over, and on Issy’s side, a number of zombies were taken out by the open door which was nearly torn from its hinges and had the side window smashed to bits. There were a number of thuds as the car hit zombies approaching from the rear and a couple of times, they felt the car bouncing over bodies.
After a few metres, Issy wrenched the steering wheel to the right and braked hard, praying she didn’t reverse into another vehicle. Thankfully, there wasn’t any crash before she came to a stop and her open side door slammed itself shut. She quickly put the car back into first and swung around to head back in the direction they had come from.
“Is there another route?” Issy asked.
Gina fumbled for the A to Z which she had dropped when trying to work the gear stick. She found it and flicked through it to find the right page as Issy turned back into Park Avenue, pulled to the side of the road and turned the car and lights off.
“This is a fucking nightmare,” she muttered, as Gina switched on her torch and continued to study the map.
“We can take the next right, go to the end and turn right and be back on the A105 the other side of the blockage,” Gina said. She looked up at Gina and pointed her torch towards her. “Oh, and by the way, you have an arm attached to your shoulder.
Issy turned her head to her right and saw what Gina meant. Using her left hand, she wrenched the arm off her and threw it through the broken window. “No ‘arm done,” she said.
“That’s a terrible pun,” Gina replied, but both women couldn’t help but laugh.
Issy started the car, turned on the lights and pulled away from the curb. She had automatically turned on the right indicator then shook her head in disbelief at what she had done. She heard Gina laughing again and couldn’t help but smile. “We’re like ‘Thelma and Louise’ she suggested.
“Yeah, two badass gals on a road trip and getting into trouble,” Gina agreed, as Issy turned into Queen Anne’s Grove, which ran parallel to the A105. “We could do with an automatic, just in case the same sort of shit happens.”
“Yeah, with climate control, heated seats and satnav,” Issy muttered.
“I’ll keep an eye out then,” Gina confirmed.
There were a few cars parked on the side of the road, although most seemed to be on their own driveways. Issy took it slow, weaving in and out of the cars and ploughing into the odd zombie and a cool breeze flooded the car from the smashed driver’s window.
The houses alon
g the road were mostly semi-detached and set back from the road, so it was difficult for Gina to see and identify the cars, especially if there was a front wall or hedge.
“I wish it would say automatic in big letters,” Gina said, still looking from side to side.
“I think we need a SUV. They’re always automatic, aren’t they? And they would be better if we needed to use it as a battering ram.”
“Yeah, but I’ve just thought,” Gina said, “the ones parked properly won’t have keys in them. We need one which was being driven and abandoned.”
“Good point,” Issy agreed, and sped up slightly. “I’m not going key hunting in any of the houses.”
At the end of the road, they turned right into Bury Street West then right again into Church Street. Straight in front of them was a new looking white Range Rover Sport with a couple of doors open on the far side. Issy brought her car to a stop next to it and turned off the engine.
“Now we’re talking,” she said, climbing out of the car and walking around it to the Range Rover. With her torch on, she took a quick look inside and was pleased to see nothing in the front. She checked the back and saw a figure writhing against its seatbelt.
Issy opened the driver’s door and checked that she couldn’t be reached from the back before checking that the car was an automatic. She spotted keys in the centre console, so she quickly stuck her right leg in and placed it on the brake and leant forward to press the started button. Nothing happened so she checked she had her foot on the right pedal and tried again. Again, nothing happened. Then it suddenly dawned on her that the battery was probably dead, especially as the two doors on the far side had been left open, thereby causing the inside light to stay on.
Issy retraced her steps to her car, stabbing a zombie in the head on the way, and fell into her seat with a sigh and shut the door.
“No good?” Gina asked.
“Battery’s dead. Fuck! It would have been perfect,” Issy replied.
“Never mind, I’m sure we’ll find one soon. It is London after all. It’s just a shame we’re not in Chelsea.”
Issy started the car and pulled away, turning left and back onto the A105. Within fifty metres they came across an abandoned silver four-door Mitsubishi Shogun in the middle of the road which had obviously hit another car coming from the other direction. The good news was that the doors were closed, but they couldn’t see how badly damaged it might be.