After The Turn: Redemption

by Daniels, Melvin

  The distraction seemed to be working, the dead where slowly congregating at the gate where Marcus and the others were wilfully, stabbing them through the mesh with knives.

  “Ladies first” Skutterz said motioning to Shy to start climbing the fence.

  Once they were all over they hurried behind the buildings, each which had a fire exit, hopefully one of them would be open, they would not want to open one themselves, as it could make the door unusable, as they would need to try and prize the door off of its hinges. They trampled quietly as possible on the gravel that ran along the backside of the units, unfortunately they were out of luck, all the doors were locked from the inside, and being a fire exit, it was likely it could be opened only by a push bar or some other mechanism.

  “Now what?” Drew asked.

  Shy pulled a crowbar from her pack and immediately set to work on the fire exit, wedging the bar into the gap between the door and the jamb. Trying to get enough leverage to pry it open.

  Marcus scraped his billhook along the chain link metal fence, whilst Omar and Paul shook it, Hannah sat on the curb. It was working the undead were alerted to the new sounds and followed them towards the fence line, drawing them away like rats following the pied piper. One of them, a body of a fat man wearing old biker leathers, with a matted dirty beard bashed into the fence right by Marcus. He swung the billhook, in an uppercut motion the blade landing between the hole in the mesh of the metal fence, imbedding into the biker’s torso. He pulled him closer with the curve of the blade. He was face to face with the biker, he could smell its breath, the stench of rot engulfing his nasal passage. Marcus brought his hunting knife from its holster on his belt. He looked into the biker’s eyes as he inserted it through his skull, before letting it fall to the floor and move onto the next one.

  The door finally burst open, and the four of them hurried inside, it was a timber store. Alex quickly braced the door as best as he could by sliding a piece of hardwood through the push bar and between the jambs, so from the outside it could not open.

  Drew looked around at racking full of timber, two aisles, full both sides with sawn material ready for produce, at the far end of the building sat two forklifts, a huge orange Irion side loader and a little green Mitsubishi counterbalance. A thought crossed his mind.

  Marcus, Omar and Paul were trying their best to clear what they could from the outside, but the bodies were just piling up and they could no longer reach them. Marcus ran over to Hannah who was still sitting on the curb.

  “We got to get over there, we are not going to be able to do much more from out here” he explained the situation “Can you continue distracting them whilst we climb the gate?”

  Hannah agreed unenthusiastically she was trying to stay away from the danger whilst at the same time she wanted Marcus to stay safe, Marcus gave her a quick peck on the cheek and informed the other two of change to the game plan, he started climbing, he got to the top and swung his leg over, suddenly he could see the yellow shutter door fly open.

  Skutterz pulled the chain on the mechanism, opening the door. Exposing them to the outside, Shy started up the counterbalance, Drew was sat in the side loader, Alex stood on the load bed, the SA80 in his hands. Drew sat waiting for the door to be at the right height, before he fired up the diesel engine put it into drive, and sped out into the yard, Skutterz hopped on the forks of the counterbalance, with his bow and followed in behind.

  Drew could feel the crunch as the truck crashed into the bodies, pulling them under the wheels. The collective seemed to walk into them as they drove around the yard, attracted to the roar of the engines. Alex held his rifle by the barrel and swung it like a club, at the ones that did not get hit head on. Skutterz fired his bow rapidly from the mast of the counterbalance. The bodies were piling up, blood and intestines strewn across the tarmac.

  Shy hit a body at pace, it got jammed under the wheel, the shift of weight and the velocity the truck was going was too great and the counterbalance tipped over, Skutterz jumped off the truck, Shy attempted to do the same, but it was too late. She had only managed to get party out and the truck landed on her arm. She screamed in agony.

  Marcus vaulted down to the other side, followed by Omar and Paul, Alex had already disembarked the side loader and they all ran to assist best they could. Skutterz was trying in vain to lift the truck off her arm but it was far too heavy. It was halfway down her forearm; the bone was crushed. She was going pale, her screams had died down, the initial pain and shock was finished, she was breathing heavily through her nose trying to keep calm, as the dead surround them. Drew tried honking the horn, to draw their attention once more, but it was no use. The four of them tried to lift, Shy screamed once more. The movements were causing her more distress. Alex fired some rounds into the oncome pack.

  “Can we get the other truck to lift it?” Skutterz asked Marcus

  “Bit risky, metal on metal could easily slip and cause further injury” Marcus answered

  “What do you suggest?” Skutterz asked worried about her safety.

  “Amputation”

  Skutterz shook his head “No way!”

  “It’s the quickest way, we can’t leave her, rocking it is hurting her”

  Shy was drifting in and out of consciousness

  “Hannah has some medical equipment; I doubt she has a bone saw but she can clean it up after” Marcus said

  Skutterz did not answer, Marcus decided there was no time to lose. He ran to Drew in the side loader. He ran and jumped onto the step, up to the driver’s door.

  “Park in front of the downed forklift, we can use the load bed as a platform to protect Shy, Fletch and Skutterz will provide cover”

  He did not wait for a reply, he jumped back down and ran back to the gate.

  “Hannah, get your gear and get over here”

  Hannah shook her head, she was scared.

  “It’s ok, I am here I will look after you, we just need you right now, Shy is hurt. Please trust me”

  Reluctantly she got off the curb and ascended the gate. Marcus encouraged her down the other side, she reached out and grabbed his hand and together they ran back to the crash site.

  Drew parked the truck up as close as possible. And Alex jumped up and started shooting, he was low on ammo. Drew jumped down to assess the situation just as Marcus arrived with Hannah. Behind them more of the dead had appeared, they were running out of time to get Shy out. Omar and Paul moved to take them head on, as Marcus looked through the medical kit, indeed there was no bone saw. Hannah tied a tourniquet to her bicep.

  Marcus picked up his billhook and began hacking at her arm, near the elbow joint where the arm was bent, there was enough clearance for the curved blade to get to its task. Shy had panic in her eyes, and screamed as the blade come down, after the third or fourth blow she had passed out.

  The bone was tough, as the old blade bit in, he tried to hit the same point exactly to keep the cut as clean as possible. This was not going to be reversable. He told himself that it was just an animal a deer maybe that he was cutting up for food, not a living breathing human being, droplets of her blood transferred from the blade onto his face and body. He kept going, hacking through the bone and cartilage and finally, she was free. Skutterz scooped her up and he and Hannah ran towards the open unit into relative safety so Shy could be treated further. The others continued to take out the dead, to fulfil their task.

  This was going to be their home.

  32

  Chloe sat on the floor of a long since abandoned cottage staring down the hallway at the door that she had blockaded with an old desk which once housed a telephone and address books, wondering if it would be strong enough to hold, also if it would be easy enough to move for her exit.

  She was tired from the previous evening’s exploits. Daylight was upon her now. She had successfully navigated to the nearby village of Little London. She still needed to enter the woodland up a track past some more cottages, she had decided not to do that in t
he dark, from what she could tell, the woodland was vast stretching many miles, and the last thing she wanted to do was get turned around and lose her way. But on the other hand, she knew there was an outpost out there somewhere, and she was convinced that someone would be looking for her.

  She nervously fingered the safety on and off, of her gun, the one Becky had given her. She was worried about the welfare of her and the others who had helped her, Keith and Dominic. She did not have a plan of what came next, what would she do? where would she go? suddenly she heard voices. Right outside.

  Frantically she looked around the room for somewhere to hide, it was too late to move room, the voices came close, nearly parallel to the window. she scurried as quickly as she could, on her hands and knees across the filthy floor, to the corner of the room beneath the window.

  With her back firmly pressed against the wall, she pulled her knees as close into her chest as she could, to make herself smaller, to hide from view from anyone peering inside.

  Her heart pounded through her chest, she felt so vulnerable, she was fighting the trembling feeling that was consuming her, as the voices came nearer still, she started crying, she put her face into her arms to stifle the sobbing. She thought about her childhood, playing hide and seek and how she and her friends would be out for hours at a time, it was fun back then to be cowering in a bush or scaling a tree trying not to be caught, but back then she was not being sought by people with automatic weapons.

  There was a slap at the window. Chloe looked up, pushed against the glass was a face of a man, a mist appeared from his breath as he pressed his nose hard up against the window trying to look in.

  Then she saw it, lying alone in the middle of the floor, completely out of context to the rest of the room. The gun, she must have dropped it as she raced to the wall. Her heart sank, she prayed that it had not been noticed. There was a little muttering from outside, Chloe could not make out the words. It was only a faint muffle. There was another bang as another face appeared at the window, they must have seen the gun? the second guy must be the proverbial second opinion? to confirm what the first had seen?

  There was another noise, a loud bang above her head, as if something had fallen over upstairs. She sat still, willing for them to go away, she thought about getting the gun, but they would see her then, for sure. The decision was taken out of her hands. The window exploded as the butt of an SA80 smashed through the glass, shattering instantly, spraying fragments of the single pane across the floor. Chloe let out an involuntary scream, she was caught off guard.

  She ran towards the door to the hallway, a trail of automatic rifle fire behind her, peppering the varnished oak decor with bullet holes, narrowly missing her. She started moving the desk from the door, to escape, then the door started bulging back towards her as the second man was trying to get in. Now she needed to revert to keeping them out, she stopped moving the desk, keeping low she pushed all her weight against it, but it was no use, he was pushing harder than she could, forcing with his shoulder. It would only be a matter of time until he had broken through.

  The first man was cleaning of the remnants of the glass with his gun, to make a hole big enough for him to climb inside. Chloe was screwed, she tried with all her might to keep the one at the door back, but then the one at the window would get her. Or if she darted back to the room retrieved the gun and shot the one at the window then the man at the door would likely be through. Catch 22. Then she looked back up the stairs at and saw yet another problem.

  Stood on the landing was the decayed form of an old lady wearing a tattered floral nightgown. Growling and snarling, she shuffled along to the top of the stairs. To the edge of the top nosing. She tumbled down the stairs, bones breaking on the way. She crawled along the floor towards Chloe. The femur bone protruding the skin, black gooey blood pouring from the wound. Suddenly she had an idea.

  Chloe sprang up from the floor, she did not have much time. There was a large cupboard under the staircase she had seen earlier, this could be her only chance. She pulled the old lady off the floor, by her collar, she did not weigh much, she was just skin and bone. Keeping the old lady in front of her, Chloe marched down the hallway, the dead one’s arms flailing all over the place, its neck trying to snap back and sink its teeth into Chloe. Carefully she pulled open the door under the stairs, and slowly backed herself in so that she was behind the old lady. Luckily, the only things housed under there were shoes and coats, and an old vacuum cleaner.

  There was a crash as the man landed in the room with a thump, through the broken window. Chloe held the decayed old lady as still as she could, whilst allowing it to growl and make enough noise to draw attention. The door was slightly ajar, enough so she could see what was going on out in the hall. She could hear footsteps; the soft padded carpet of the living room had made way for the hard laminate flooring in the hallway.

  "Come out young lady" The voice spoke "We won't bite"

  The man stopped to move the desk away from the door to let his friend in, Chloe heard the scarping on the floor as he shoved the unit. She did not want to be outnumbered. The old lady was getting more and more frantic. Chloe banged on the wall inside the cupboard. It had the desired effect. The man inside the house stopped short of moving the desk fully and turned towards the noise.

  Chloe waited until the tiny gap in between the door and frame went dark and got ready.

  The man opened the door in one quick motion, Chloe wasted no time, the old lady snapped forward into the man behind the door, like a viper springing a trap against its prey. Its teeth sinking straight into his jugular vein. The man was screaming, the terror in his face was plain to see, as the old lady began devouring him.

  Chloe did not hesitate, or dwell on this gruesome image. The man at the door, was squeezing through the final few inches of the front door. Chloe hurdled over the feeding frenzy on the floor, and into the room with the broken window. Scraping the gun up from the carpet, the safety was already off.

  She fired three quick shots the kick forcing her aim from left to right as well as upwards, at the man who was all the way in now. The first hit into the door, at knee level, the second knicked the man's right thigh, the third embedded itself into his gut. He fell to his knees clutching his stomach, writhing in pain, screaming.

  "You bitch" he shouted at Chloe his blood oozing between his fingers. "You stupid fucking bitch"

  Chloe walked forwards toward him, pressed the gun to his forehead and fired once more, this time was different, this was not self-defense, this was murder. His lifeless body teetered and then fell in a heap on the floor. Chloe felt good, she felt powerful and what she did seemed right and just. She pulled the dead man along the hall and dumped him at the feet of his accomplice.

  "Here's some dessert for you" Chloe said to the decrepit old lady who was still gorging on the first victim. The dead woman had ironically saved her life.

  Chloe collected her bag, swung it over her shoulder, confidently fingered the safety back off her gun, and headed for the wide-open door. She looked back into the cottage as she pulled the door closed and headed for the woods.

  "Thank you" She said to the old lady gratefully "I'll leave you be"

  33

  They pulled up a little dirt track, just off a road called Smannell Road. They were met by a metal gate, padlocked and blocked. A barbed wire fence circled the perimeter, with signs that read no entry restricted access every few meters. Marcus stopped the truck. The map said this was the place. The woodland was dense. Tall trees stood before them; the woods looked uninviting.

  Marcus stopped the truck, and turned off the sound of Iron Maiden, he nudged Hannah awake who had fallen asleep her head resting against his shoulder for the majority of the drive, her arm linked around his left arm snuggling in close. It had been a late night and long day after finding their new home. Especially for Hannah.

  Tommy and Matty were rightfully upset about the death of their grandmother, they held Hannah responsible for her loss
. They had made their views quite clear to her during the move into the business park. Both Marcus and Seamus had stuck up for her, pointing out that either of those two could very well have sat in and watched Eileen. It was very distressing for her and she was relieved to be joining the team on this trip.

  Drew had been studying the map for the duration of the drive trying to find other routes that they could use to sneak up on the camp unnoticed. But he was convinced that this way through the woods, where they would have natural cover from the trees. Was the best and safest way to get close whilst remaining undetected. According to the map the woods reach most, if not, all the way to the south eastern perimeter of the camp.

  The three of them piled out of the truck whilst Connor, Frances and Seamus hopped over the side of the load bay. Landing on the hard floor below and crowded around the bonnet of the truck which Drew had laid the map out on.

  "When we get into the woods, we need to keep going forwards, we should eventually come to a road that runs into this village" He followed his finger along a line on the map that showed a small track, that ran from an old farm, down into the village of Smannell. "When we find the road, we need to keep it on our right-hand side as we follow along, keeping far enough away to remain hidden from view"

  "Can't we just walk on the road?" Connor asked, whilst pulling his Charlton Athletic cap on.

  "No, if there are any patrols we will be found" Drew stated "We don't know how serious a presence these people have outside the walls. we must remain diligent"

  "I would say they are pretty serious" Marcus added speaking to Drew specifically "They captured our girls, killed our friend" he thought for a second and added more "They attacked Omar and had stolen Sam's guns. So yeah I’d say they were pretty serious"

  Things had been a little tense, between Drew and Marcus, since they found Mercia, Drew was sure Marcus was only tagging along because he felt duty bound, or the fact that Hannah was enjoying her new sense of freedom. For the first time in a long time he was feeling alone he was grateful that Frances wanted to come along, Connor was obliged to, to show them the way. And Seamus probably just wanted to keep an eye on Hannah. But Marcus was the only person in his life who knew him before the world changed, and that was a big deal for him. Keeping on looking for Sarah is all he could do.