I went back to my book but only managed three more pages before I heard another person approaching, I was bloody popular today it seemed. It was Jerry the Motorcyclist. I invited him in and pointed to the chair. I didn’t apologise it was on the floor, I’m sure he knew I was living with a teenager in my camp.
‘How are you doing mate?’ he asked. Whether about the attack or in general I didn’t know.
‘Good ta? You?’ He nodded. ‘Tea, coffee? Something with bite?’ I asked, trying to be a good host.
‘I’m good thanks. Kev is on late shift on the gates and asked me to give you this.’ He handed over a big manila envelope.
I smiled as I bent forward and took it. ‘No bloody shortage of these in the apocalypse then?’
Jerry laughed. ‘Bloody boxes of the damn things here I tell you!’ I opened it and inside was a map and some instructions. ‘Another shopping trip for tomorrow if you are still up for it? It’ll be three teams this time. Shopping team, Protection team and if you are up for it, Distraction team with me.’
I Smiled. ‘Anything to do with fireworks?’
Jerrys face dropped. ‘Where did you hear that?’
‘Loose talk in the toilets earlier.’ I lied.
‘Suppose it won’t be a secret tomorrow anyway.’
‘Am I to take my motor?’ I nodded to the 90, Slightly nervous he wanted me on the back of that huge motor bike.
‘You don’t mind, do you? Not the kind of job I’d like to be doing on the bike.’
I smiled with relief. ‘No problem.’
‘Cool.’ He started to get up from the chair. ‘It’s all in the envelope. We leave twenty mins before the main group at 940.’ As he ducked under the tarp he turned around. ‘Good call with those two scrotes by the way. Can’t be seen as heading back to the law of the middle ages.’ And he left.
Chapter 20
I hadn’t seen Sarah before I tucked myself up nice and early in my hammock so wrote her a note and left it in her tent, that I’d be up early and have to take the 90 around 9am so could she please be up ready.
I got up and had a shit, shave, shower and brekkie for one. Sarah had gone off with friends nice and early, still not happy but told me to be careful and she’d see me later. I semi broke the camp as before and used the same trick again with the sticks for wheel placement on return. Playing in the back of the 90 I got two packs of gas cylinders, couple of packs of water and wind proof matches and some duct tape. After a bit of messing about I had four duct tape packets. I filled four two litre pop bottles with water and put them in the back too.
I drove up to the gate and met Bryan and Kev.
‘You read the plan?’ Bryan asked.
‘I did. Heading into a bit of a warren by the look of it.’
He nodded. ‘Yep. You’ll see why we normally call it a no-go area.’ He handed me a pump action shot gun. I Recognised it from the chap Kev shot on the last outing. ‘Jerry has got one too, both fully loaded. Hopefully you won’t have to use them as you’re in a vehicle, but just in case eh?’ I Nodded, I had spare cartridges anyway as Kev knew, but I was keeping that quiet. ‘Basically, get in, if you can, draw some in as you go, cause a huge distraction and get back out safe okay?’
‘Got ya, and don’t worry, we don’t plan on stopping for a picnic down there.’
Kev then pointed to the two blue cases on the floor. ‘I’d help you load them but best let Jerry explain first.’ I nodded and shook Kev and Brian’s hands. Brian pointed over my right shoulder. ‘Cool, Jerry is just coming. Good luck.’ And they both walked off.
Jerry was walking towards me, pump action over his shoulder and a smile on his face. ‘Ready dude?’ He asked bright and breezily.
‘Just got to load your boxes and we are good to go.’
‘Cool, you had a look?’ I shook my head. He smiled. ‘All we have to do is place these on the phone box roof halfway down the estate, set the timers and we should then have five full minutes of sky shattering sound and light.’ The smile on his face was wider than Christopher at lunch time.
‘Timers?’
‘Hell yeah, no matches and hang around to light each one.’ He opened the tubs and showed me five huge multi shot fireworks packs. He pointed to a small black plastic key fob type of thing. ‘This is a parking timer key fob. The IRA were wet for these things in the late 80’s and 90’s, so much so that they were withdrawn from sale in Ireland. The perfect mechanical timer, just twist and set, nothing else to it. We just have to set it, leg it and when the time comes, it lights the fuse and bang!’ He made an exploding motion with his hands.
I had an idea. ‘Got anymore?’
‘Got a bloody box of the things, don’t ask me why, just do.’
I showed him what I had made with the gas cannisters as we loaded the boxes. ‘Thought we could time these up to go a few minutes after the fireworks. Maybe take a few of the fuckers out and create more noise to lure others? What do you think?’
‘It’s not in the plan but only ‘cause we didn’t think about it. Good shout.’ He handed me his pump action. ‘Give me two minutes and I’ll nip and get some.’
I got in and put both shot guns in his footwell. It’ll be a bit cramped for him, but where else could I put them? He turned up slightly out of breath and patted his pockets as he got in.
We rolled up to the gate just as the others were assembling for the shopping run, one of Bryan’s guys opened the gate for us and out we rolled. No sign of Christopher today which was odd. Hey ho. We turned right; the Lidl was only four hundred yards away but as we reached it, we could see it was busy. About twenty or so zombies on the shop side of the road and another twenty-five plus across the road. I was only doing about 15mph and blipped the horn a good few times. Jerry knew what I was doing so didn’t question it. I stopped at the roundabout where I was turning right and put the hazard lights on, gave a good long blast three times on the horn. They were following and we had also grabbed the attention of some coming our way from the police station. It was a good start and the fireworks should lure many more. The plan was to kick off the fireworks and the shopping crew would give it around five minutes before loading up and heading to the shops.
Turning right I could count just over twenty with many more behind crossing the road and following me from this side. I kept the speed to just under 10mph now. Slow enough that we wouldn’t get caught but fast enough that I could still react to anything happening.
We were just about to pass a road on my right just off a mini roundabout when Jerry started with his tour guide act. ‘On the right is a long cul-de-sac. No way out for a vehicle but a footpath that leads to the road we are after and two other cul-de-sacs, each of which converge on the telephone box. Ahead, you can see an estate behind this one which backs on to the police station. Again, no roads but footpaths that lead to another road behind the telephone box.’
‘So, we will be dead centre of the estate then?’
‘Everything, trouble included leads there kind of naturally so yeah. I went to school with a lad in the 90’s who lived down here. He said that one Christmas day he was sat in the lounge and out of nowhere a Toyota Hilux turned up, someone threw a rope over the phone box then it pulled it over then drove off!! As the map says, this has been a no-go area for years!’
We just started to head downhill with a sharp right turn at the bottom when we saw a group of eight zombies ripping a golden Labrador to shreds on a driveway to some communal garages. I flashed my headlights and beeped to ensure the crowd behind was still interested in us. Ahead of us were cars abandoned everywhere. I made for the left-hand pavement as it offered the best space to navigate around a seventy’s era bus made into a home on wheels. Thump! Thump! I hit two zombies crouched between the hedge and the car I was avoiding. I looked at Jerry, his smile grew bigger as the big mud tyres just happily rolled over them like they weren’t there.
‘Can’t do that on a sports bike eh jerry?’ He just kept smiling though he did have his hands o
n the grab handle on the passenger dash. We bumped back off the kerb and onto the road again. Jerry turned in his seat and then realising he couldn’t see anything out the back used his wing mirror.
‘Got a bloody good crowd following us already.’ He announced. I just nodded as I was lining two bags of bone up. There was a double thud, crunch and smash as the two heads broke in unison on the bonnet and their brain matter splashed across the bonnet and up the windscreen.
‘You, um, you not going to wash and wipe that?’ Asked a pale faced Jerry.
I Shook my head. ‘No point until I have to. Can make it worse at times.’
‘Done this before then?’
‘A couple of times judging by the dents on the bonnet.’ I smiled.
It was a slow weave around cars, beep the horn, flash the lights, on the kerb, off the kerb, hit a few, roll over a few to keep them following until we came upon a car park to our left. I sped up a bit before the telephone box and took out four at once, then swung around in the road entrance to my right to take out another before parking on the kerb with the 90’s bonnet up against the phone box to allow us to reach its roof.
We both looked at each other and nodded. Jerry handed me my gun, we checked outside, the closest TRAD was 40 yards away. We won’t get a better time than this.
We bomb burst out of the 90, shotguns in the aim and opened the rear. Jerry took one box, used the front left tyre as a step and stood on the bonnet. He hefted the first box onto the phone box roof and stared messing around inside as I dumped the other at his feet on the bonnet.
The closest shamble of shit was now just 20 yards away, I aimed and fired. She can’t have been more than thirteen years old, but I dropped her like a bad habit. Two more a little behind dropped with my next shots but not sure if they were kill shots. I grabbed two of the water bottles I had filled earlier, poked a hole in each lid with my Gerber and headed for the front of the 90 as Jerry was getting down.
‘What are you doing?’ He shouted.
I threw him one bottle. ‘Squeeze it at the windscreen!’
He did as he was told and said. ‘We have four minutes to the first 180 shots, then there should be a maximum of thirty seconds before the next one.’
I was spraying the radiator behind my homemade metal grill; it had held up well! There was shuffling behind me. I spun around as did Jerry. Four raggedly clothed bags of skin were making their way up the steps from the direction of the housing estate behind the police station. Behind me were at least ten more making their way from the estate behind the phone box.
We fired twice in unison, sending a hail of hot deadly lead shot into the wall of rotting meat. They went down, coating the brick and flagstone steps with their foul gore. I was now empty; Jerry jumped in the passenger side and was already reloading from his pockets.
I grabbed two of my IEDs as I slammed the back door and made for the driver’s side. I threw the bombs and my shotgun at Jerry. Poor sod couldn’t move as I got in and shut my door. I took the gun back and reloaded.
‘Now what’s the plan Jerry?’
‘Well we’ve got about three minutes before it goes really noisy. Plan was get here, start hell and get the feck out! I think we have achieved that.’
‘What do you think of dropping these two off on our way out of here? Lure some more in and take some more out? Eh?’
‘Cool, I’m on it.’ With that Jerry started tinkering with the IEDS.
I started the 90, killed the hazards and reversed away from the phone box. Just us flashing and beeping was drawing zombies from everywhere! The flats, the streets, houses etc this was working like a charm. ‘How long do you need?’ I asked as I straightened up and started heading out the way we came.
‘I’m already done dude.’ He beamed.
As I looked at Jerry, I couldn’t help looking past him. There was a house on the corner of the roads dead opposite the phone box with large front windows and a small box hedge up the path to the front door. Its old male occupant banging on the big pane of glass smearing it in blood and slobber as it tried to get at us, with what looked like a half-eaten gerbil or guinea pig in one hand.
I selected first and started driving against the flow of bodies, some started turning around to follow us but that would be short lived in a moment when the fireworks went off. Bumping, thumping and banging as we entered a crowd. Some bounced harmlessly off to the sides, others went under to feed the hungry tyres.
At the first place where we had to originally mount the kerb Jerry opened his door enough to roll the first IED under an abandoned Rover 75. He shut the door. ‘That should go up a minute after the fireworks finish. Set the other for another minute after that?’ He asked.
I nodded. ‘I’ve got another two in the back too. Best get on the radio and let Kev know what to expect. We can hang back at the top of the road and place them around the back of Lidl to do the same as here if he likes?’
Jerry liked that idea. Bit of a fucking pyromaniac that lad. He got on the radio and gave Kev a run down on what was happening. I took out the odd straggler here and there with the front of the 90 but didn’t want to risk too much more damage to it as we may not be done yet. I could hear Jerry on the radio, but I wasn’t listening as such. He tapped me on the arm, he had finished on the radio and indicated for me to stop at the little hill out of the estate. This time he rolled it under an old white Ford Sierra parked on the kerb of a house with a red American Recovery vehicle on the drive. As he closed his door again the thumping and whooshing sound of the fireworks ripping the sky above the estate apart started and the attention of the nearest zombie quickly moved from us to the direction of the noise.
We both looked at each other, job done. We slowly moved up the hill and pulled over. We could see Lidl from here and the lifeless crowd that kept passing us ignored us as their eyes were fixed on the fireworks which stood out surprisingly well against the day light sky.
‘What did Kev say?’ I eventually asked.
‘There is an estate behind Lidl, not as bad as this one and bear in mind we have already drawn some away, but if we could drop some distractions further up the estate then he wouldn’t complain.’
I smiled and drove on. ‘Then let’s make it so!’
Kev was due to leave camp after the second explosion now, so we needed to get the last two in position to blow, just before he arrived.
A few brief moments later and Jerry was working on the remaining two IEDs and we were nearing the top of the estate. Activity was lower but the street was narrower. A transit was the choice for the first one, Jerry placed it just as the fireworks finished, we both looked at each other slightly worried.
‘I hope they stay where they are now and don’t suddenly remember where they came from.’ Jerry commented.
‘The fire will hold them and draw more I’m certain of it.’ I reassured him.
This estate was like a large square on a slope. We had dropped one IED at the top left corner of the square and we were going to drop the next one halfway down the right-hand side before heading for the Lidl car park. We were beeping and flashing as we went like the other estate but as we neared the second point, number one IED went up taking the Rover 75 and what sounded like a few others with it!
We could see a mushroom of red flame and then a pillar of black smoke coming from the estate. The plume was rising straight up due to the lack of wind today, this was going to be seen for miles!
We drove down the right-hand side of the estate until Jerry saw a Mitsubishi L200 he liked the look of. We stopped, he did his thing with the timer and placed it. As he got in, I said. ‘Right, let’s get to the car park and do some pre-clearance before the guys get there.’
Ba-Boooooom! The second IED went off, huge fireball into the sky again. We both smiled and moved on, but not for long. ‘Oh fuck!’ I exclaimed. Jerry looked forward and agreed with me. At the return corner of the square was a little Catholic church. Cars from its worshipers were rammed into its tiny car park and out
on to the road blocking it completely.
Boooom! The third IED went off and shook the 90 even though we were well away from it. I looked at Jerry. I was more than worried. We were only 200, maybe 250-yard maximum line of sight from the IED we had just set.
‘How long before number four goes up?’ I asked.
‘Just over a minute.’
‘Can you stop the timer?’
Jerry shook his head. They were excellent timers with the added benefit of going off like a hair trigger if messed with.’
‘Bollocks!’ I thought for a moment. ‘Hang the fuck on!’ I got the 90 into a very hasty three-point turn and then reversed back into the parked cars as far as possible. I wanted to get the engine bulk out in front of us. The heavy chassis and engine would absorb and shock and especially any debris better than the soft aluminium side panels. As the 90 hit the side of a parked Mondeo I shouted. ‘Get as low as possible behind the dash!’
We both ducked but it was a number of seconds before it went up, just as I realised that my drivers glass window was open by about three inches. Fuck it was loud! It felt like the front of the 90 had been picked up several feet and dropped back down heavily. The driver’s side window shattered where it hadn’t been closed and flexed more than it was designed for covering me in granulated glass and the windscreen cracked from the passenger bottom corner to the top middle. The windows in the cars around us popped out as the shockwave ripped through them. My ears were ringing as was the bodywork as bits of L200 rained down on us.
‘You okay Jerry?’
‘Shit! That wasn’t much fun being on the receiving end!’ I had to agree. ‘I’m okay though. You’re bleeding dude!’
I felt my right ear and temple. I was soaked, I had obviously taken some glass. It was capillary bleeding, so it wouldn’t matter what I did, I’d just have to wait for it to stop on its own. We needed to get back into the game. We were alive and the TD5 was still throbbing away, I didn’t know what the outside looked like, that would have to wait.
The Reanimated Dead (Book 1): Into the Cotswolds Page 17