Realising his point, Alice spun on the spot, staring off through the heavy rain in search of the woman and then pointed, head shaking as she saw her running off down the street that they had entered by earlier, “There she is!”
“Nice of her to fucking wait” the growl from Bella was ominous as she stepped past Alice and the man, motioning with a nod, “Come on, let’s go!”
As Bella began to slowly jog off down the street in the direction of their vehicle, Alice began to run behind her, a hand grasping at the arm of the man in the now wet blue shirt, “Come on, we have a car up there, my name is Alice, this is Dog and Bella!”
“Freddy” the man stated, blinking repeatedly, a hand rubbing at his eyes as he ran, “I can’t really see…I’m quite dependent on my glasses”
“Just keep running Freddy” the voice of Dog sounded behind them, and glancing back, Alice winced as she saw him half-running at the rear, his freshly loaded shotgun held in his hands, but there was raw pain showing in his grey eyes.
“Dog, your ribs” she began, starting to slow.
“Just keep going” he grunted, forcing a smile.
Feeling suddenly nauseous, the fatigue, pains and cold that she had endured the night before suddenly seeming to erupt within her, Alice nodded back at him, and ran on, her eyes focused on the back of the woman ahead, a sudden sense of anger washing through her in a violent wave.
They had risked themselves to save her and her friend, Freddy, and she had abandoned them the first chance that she got without saying a word.
Where the Hell was she going in such a hurry?
She blinked suddenly, one hand adjusting the straps of the heavy backpack that she was carrying, her other wiping rain from her face again, as she called out to Bella, “Where are the keys to our vehicle?”
The woman glanced back, her silver hair plastered to her face from the rain, “I left them in the ignition ready for us to make a getaway”
“Oh fuck!” Alice grimaced, head shaking, “You don’t think she is going for our car, do you?”
“Bitch!” Bella’s roar was loud amid the rain and the sounds of their feet slapping down on the wet road, “I swear to God if she is…”
Alice cringed in dread as there was a sudden smashing sound of glass breaking from behind them, the curse of Dog following it, and glancing back, she saw a white figure lying on the street in front of the house beside the shop they had been inside, the front window of the house broken. Shaking her head, she watched for a moment as the figure rose to its feet, turned its head in their direction and then gave chase, snarling excitedly.
“Fuck!” she turned forwards once more, arms pumping at her sides as she charged onwards, the thin man running beside her, his breathing haggard as if he was about to have an asthma attack at any moment, then she cursed aloud as another window smashed loudly behind them.
“They are coming from everywhere!” Dog shouted, fear in his voice, “Fucking run, run!”
Wincing as she pictured what must be happening behind them, Alice kept running, hands grasping the straps of the backpack that was swaying ungainly upon her back, her leg muscles starting to burn, and then they were running past the first of the side roads, the embalmer turning her head to stare down it at the abandoned vehicles they had seen earlier before facing forward again.
“What the fuck is she doing?” the confused voice of Bella grunted, her run slowing and Alice blinked in shock as she realised that the woman with the black hair in the dungarees was running back towards them through the rain, screaming.
“Bitch!” Bella snarled as the woman reached them and she stepped away, hands raising defensively before her as she shook her head.
“There’s more…up there…near a jeep!”
“Oh shit!” Alice winced, feeling sick, “That’s ours”
“You were going to fucking leave us?” the voice of Bella was thick with anger as she snarled at the woman, the young man, Freddy, moving to stand between them, his hands raised defensively.
“Please, don’t hurt her!”
“What are we doing people?” the voice of Dog was grim, and fighting the urge to vomit, Alice turned her gaze to stare back down towards the school, her heart skipping a beat as she saw a crowd of ghouls rounding the distant corner, no doubt drawn by the breaking glass and the gunshot, then fixed her attention to the two that were just over twenty feet away from them.
“Come on!” Bella turned to run towards the entrance to the side street, “Come on, we’ll take the white van!”
Without hesitating, Alice followed her, Dog and the others joining them, the snarls of the ghouls as they pursued them loud over the heavy rain.
Ahead of them, Alice was just feet from the van when a ghoul staggered out from behind the open door, its stocky body dressed in paint stained work overalls, its white head turning in their direction. With a roar of anger, the former soldier raised her shotgun, the barrels pushing against the chest of the ghoul over its heart as she ran into it and fired, throwing it back to slide across the wet road as if yanked upon a rope.
“Get in!” she turned, shouting at the others, and Alice charged towards the van as Bella leaned into the vehicle, grunting in excitement, “The keys are in it…come on go, go!”
Gritting her teeth, Alice reached the side door of the vehicle and dragged it open, a curse of horror escaping her as she found the body of a man inside, one hand clasped to the bloody ruin of his throat, bite marks upon his arms, and beside her the man, Freddy gave an almost childlike scream.
“Just get in!” Alice shouted at him, then grimaced as she saw the black-haired woman beside the door, clearly assuming that she was coming with them despite leaving them behind moments ago.
For a moment they held each other’s gaze in silence, Alice’s anger growing as she saw no sign of humility of regret on the face of the woman,
Gritting her teeth, Alice studied her a moment longer, fighting the urge to close the door on her, but then Dog was beside the passenger side door of the cab, shouting angrily, “Everyone get in!”
Without hesitating, the woman clambered inside the vehicle, nudging against the embalmer as she did so and cursing beneath her breath, Alice slid the door shut, and turned to stare over the back of the front seats at her friends in concern.
Bella was behind the wheel, throwing her backpack into the rear and then turning the key as she shouted in anger, the battery sounding like it was dead, and then Alice cringed as Dog fired his shotgun at the closest of the two ghouls that had thrown themselves out of windows, the force of the blast throwing it back to the ground.
“Dog!” Alice screamed as she saw the second of the ghoul’s charge at her friend, nausea coursing through her as she saw the wave of ghoul’s surge around the corner and rush into the side street.
“Shit!” Dog was halfway into the open door of the van when the ghoul reached him, hands grasping his head, snarling at it tried to bite him, and roaring in anger and fear, the bearded man brought his shotgun up between them, trying to use it as a bar to push the snapping teeth away.
Beyond the front of the van the ghouls were less than twenty feet away now, and with a curse, Bella turned in her seat, snapping her shotgun shut, and thrusting it at Alice, “Kill it now!”
Running purely on adrenaline, she leaned over the seat, thrusting the barrels of the weapon past Dog, and into the open mouth of the ghoul, her stomach turning over as she heard its teeth bite down on the metal, its hands releasing Dog to grasp at it. As the bearded man pushed himself back, cursing as he tried to scramble into the van, Alice fired the weapon, the sound deafening.
The back of the ghoul’s head blew out, blood spraying everywhere as it was thrown back to the road, and casting the shotgun to the floor of the cab, she reached forwards, grasping at Dog’s clothes, pulling him inside as Bella gave a cry of triumph, the engine suddenly roaring into life.
The wave of ghouls struck the front of the van, rocking it as Dog finally made it inside, th
e rushing crowd inadvertently slammed his door.
“Hold on!” Bella shouted, turning her head back to glance over the seats into the rear of the van and out of the two door windows, the besieged vehicle lurching as she slammed the gearstick hard into reverse and floored the accelerator.
With a roar, they flew backwards, Freddy and the woman falling over in the back of the vehicle, the body of the dead man sliding upon the floor, and cursing, Alice clung to the seats for her life while in front of the van, the foremost of the crowd of ghouls toppled forwards in a heap, the others fighting to get past them, in pursuit of them.
They turned in a small arc to face sideways in the road, the brakes skidding as they stopped, Alice staring out of the window beside Dog in dread as the ghouls began to give chase again. Then Bella was turning the wheel again, straightening the vehicle up before flooring the accelerator again. Grimacing, Alice turned her gaze upon Dog as he pushed the lock down on his door and leaned heavily against it, his right hand rising to rest against his ribs as he closed his eyes, and then she turned to face to watch out of the windscreen through the furiously moving wipers, as Bella steered the van around the side street and back out into the centre of the village, and past the small school. Only slightly slowing, the former soldier spun the wheel, sending them sliding around the corner beside the shop and onto the road out of the village, completing their circle. The engine roared once more, as Bella worked her way through the gears, speeding past the entrance to the side street that they had just been in, watching as the wave of ghouls charged off in the distance, not realising that they had escaped and were now behind them. Then they were speeding towards the edge of the village, past the small group of ghouls that were standing around their former vehicle, and back out onto the moorland, vanishing into the mist and rain.
Chapter Forty Four
They drove for several minutes in silence, leaving the village behind them as they drove out through the moorland, Bella slowing the vehicle as the mist grew thicker and the rain got heavier.
“Thank you” the voice of the young man they had saved back in the village had Alice turning her head to face him, a weary smile on her features.
“You’re welcome…Freddy wasn’t it?”
He nodded up at her from where he was sitting back against a wooden tool rack that had been built into the van, a hand gesturing to the glum faced woman that was seated beside him, “This is Bethany…I don’t think you had a chance to meet”
Alice nodded, “No, it was a bit difficult what with her running off and leaving us all like that”
The black-haired woman bristled at her words but forced a weak smile, “Hey, look, I’m sorry”
“No need to apologise, this is a situation all of us are getting used to” the pained voice of Dog sounded from the front and turning her face towards him, Alice winced as she met his gaze.
“Are you OK?”
“Yeah” he forced a smile, though it didn’t reach his grey eyes, “I’m fine, stop worrying”
“He’s not fine” the angry voice of Bella stated, her head shaking as she glanced back at Alice, “He pushed himself too much when I told him to rest”
“Stop please” he raised a hand, head shaking, “I am in too much pain to argue with you”
The silver-haired woman nodded, “Yeah, because you don’t listen to me…I told you to take it easy!”
From behind Dog’s seat, Alice watched as he sighed then sent Bella a weak smile, “I’m sorry”
“You should be” she snapped in reply but there was less anger now, her head shaking as she cast the bearded Dog a faint smile, “Stubborn bastard”
He gave a grim chuckle, nodding, and then turned to look back over the seats, grimacing as he saw the man lying upon the floor and Alice followed his gaze, realising for the first time that the man was wearing overalls covered in spots of paint, just like the ghoul that Bella had shot beside it.
Was he the van’s owner? Had they been friends?
She winced as she studied what she now realised was a bit mark in his throat, his dead eyes staring at the roof of the van above them as they drove.
Had the two men been on their way to work only for one of them to change and bite the other, forcing the unfortunate victim to hide in the back of the van? She cringed as she considered how scared the dead man must have been as he had lain there bleeding out. He must have known he was dying, yet not realised what was going on.
Or had the ghoul managed to get into the van with him? The driver’s door had been open.
Realising that she was asking herself questions she would never know the answer to, she glanced up as Bella spoke, “We need to drop him off at the side of the road”
Dog gave a grunt, “It seems a bit shit”
Sighing heavily, Bella slowed the van and then stopped, her head turning to meet first his gaze and then that of Alice, clearly uninterested in the opinion of the two people they had rescued, “We don’t want to be taking a dead body back to the farmhouse…I know its grim but he’s dead…we cant help him, can we?”
“We should bury him” Dog grimaced, meeting her gaze, “We owe him that as a person”
Bella raised an eyebrow at his words, “Who is going to do that? You…no, not happening, you have already done way too much…you are in pain…I wont let you do it”
“I’ll do it” Alice spoke up, shrugging as Bella glanced her way, “There are a ton of tools in the back of this van, there must be something I can dig with…the peat will be soft with this rain”
“No” Bella shook her head, smiling sadly, “After the night you have had followed by this you need to rest too…what good are we to the children and the others if we all get ill?”
Alice nodded, sighing, then glanced to the rear of the van as Freddy spoke, rising slowly to his feet to face them, squinting as he tried to focus upon them, “I’d like to help…please…I…we, owe you our lives for what you did back there”
“You can barely see” Alice pointed out and he nodded in reply, looking suddenly embarrassed.
“I know…I just want to help”
“Thank you but it’s fine” Bella held his gaze for a moment, looking like she wanted to smile at his words, but then her gaze drifted to the side to settle upon the woman, Bethany, and Alice felt her stomach tighten as the former soldier grimaced, “What the fuck were you doing back there, eh?”
“I was getting away…you did tell us to run” the woman in the dungarees held her gaze unafraid, an eyebrow rising in a challenge, “Why?”
“Why?” Bella’s voice was low, her eyes narrowing as if she couldn’t believe the audacity of the woman, “Are you taking the fucking piss?”
The woman suddenly seemed to realise the situation that she was in, and she winced, her hands rising beside her defensively, “I am sorry OK, I panicked, like your bearded friend there said, we are all getting to terms with this!”
Bella released a shaky breath, her eyes still locked to those of the woman, and Alice shook her head, “What were you guys doing back there in the school…how long had you been there?”
Freddy swallowed at her words, his eyes drifting to settle upon the woman he had been with, perhaps hoping she might explain but then when it became clear she wouldn’t, he turned back to meet the gaze of Alice, a haunted look upon his features, “We work there…Bethany teaches Class 1A and my lot are…were…2B”
“Village kids?” Dog asked, and Alice cast him a glance, seeing his bearded face twisted in dread.
“Mostly” Freddy confirmed with a sad smile, “But we have about thirty per cent of our intake from other villages in the area…we are like a melting pot of education”
He chuckled for a moment at his own joke and then shook his head, “It was Monday…two days ago…we were in the middle of the whole school assembly when several of the children took ill”
“Go on” Bella grimaced, though it was obvious what had happened, both, she Dog and Alice studying the thin man in horror as he
tried to compose himself, a shaking hand rising as if to push his glasses back up his nose before realising that he was no longer wearing them, “We…we tried to get them to the school nurse but then there were more…they changed into…those things…white skin…those beige eyes…”
“Ghouls” Dog muttered, wincing as the young man met his gaze, “Its what we are calling them”
For a moment, Freddy stared back at Dog in silence, as if comprehending what he had said, and then he shook his head once more, his eyes wet as if he were on the verge of tears, “The children that had changed…they…they began to attack the others…they were so strong…our headmaster Mr Chamberlain…he tried to stop them but a group attacked him…they…they…”
“They pulled him to pieces” the voice of Bethany finished, her cold deadpan description making Alice throw her a look of disgust, but the woman was either oblivious or didn’t care, “I got Freddy to hide with me in his classroom”
“The screams” Freddy shook his head, his voice breaking, “We should have tried to help…”
“There was nothing we could do” Bethany stated, not even bothering to meet his gaze, “Stop it”
“But…”
“I told you to shut up about those kids” she snapped her face to stare at him, “Two days of listening to you going on about them is enough”
As the man cringed, his head nodding, Alice grimaced, her dislike of the woman growing, then she turned to watch as Dog spoke, “You were there for two days? What have you been eating?”
Freddy turned to squint at him, shrugging, “The kids packed lunches…yoghurts, sandwiches and crisps mainly…and juice…we drank juice”
Dog let out a soft curse, head shaking and as Freddy opened his mouth to speak, Bethany interrupted, a finger pointing at the dead man on the floor, “What are doing about him…he stinks”
“Charming” Alice grimaced, turning to glance at Bella, “We need to bury him…I’ll do it”
“We haven’t got time for this, I think we should leave him beside the road” the silver-haired woman winced, then turned to look at Dog, “You can say some words for him if you want, like you did for my grandparents”
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