Saying that reminded me we still had a job to do, so I went to join the others.
Working together, it took over an hour to carefully recheck everywhere we’d been the day before, this time, though, marking every door as clear with the chalk we had with us. Finding a few more rooms and passages we’d missed the day before proved that the precaution of rechecking had been a worthwhile venture. Thankfully, and to our relief, they contained no surprises, but it reminded us once again how vast Warwick Castle actually was.
Chapter Six
Returning to the others who were waiting in the Great Hall of the castle for the final all-clear to be given, we found they hadn’t been idle in our absence. More furniture had been moved, creating a seating area surrounding the huge fireplace large enough to accommodate us all. Another room was planned to be the cooking area and the few camping stoves we’d unloaded along with food had already been positioned and the furniture the room contained had been moved elsewhere.
As we shrugged out of our tactical vests and the knights removed some of their armour to make themselves more comfortable, Maud, still bustling around, getting others to move items around to exactly where she wanted them, had to be ordered to sit down, rest, and let others do something. Once Becky had removed her own tactical vest, she joined in, leaning her gun up against the wall, next to everyone else’s. Becky told Maud she didn’t need to keep proving her worth as she was already ‘the boss’ and if she worked herself to the point of exhaustion, then who else would keep the ‘stupid’ men in line.
Maud, bless her, got emotional as we guided her to the comfiest armchair and placed a mug of tea in her hands. Thanking us for our kindness, saying in all her long and tortuous years of marriage to her husband, she’d had more respect and love in the last few days than she’d received in her life before.
Ian, who once again couldn’t stop himself, hugged her and jokingly asked if he could call her granny or aunty. All he got for his failed effort at humour was a stern command from Maud, trying to hide her amusement. She promised that he was now on dishwashing duty until she decided otherwise and told him to take the tray of mugs of tea up to the ones on the walls who were still sniping at the zombies coming through the hole in the fence. Beaten once more, he shambled off, muttering comically to himself.
We didn’t spend our tea break idly. Now we were sure the castle was clear, we had to plan the mission to secure the grounds. Watching from the walls, we could see the rough location the zombies were getting in from, as they stubbornly kept appearing from the same direction. The trailer Simon towed behind his Land Rover still contained a large quantity of materials we’d collected from the farmers’ supply shop near Bristol, so we were confident that with what we had, we should be able to secure whatever breach we found.
Adopting our proven ʿstrength in numbersʾ ideology, we decided to take both the tractor and Woody’s Land Rover with his trailer carrying the supplies. The machine guns mounted on both the car and trailer behind the tractor would provide all the heavy fire support we would need, along with the shooters, to keep us all safe. Once we’d found and repaired the hole they were using for access, we’d carry on to conduct a thorough search of the rest of the perimeter and secure, strengthen or repair any other weak points we found.
It was another huge task, as the perimeter fence had to be very long, due to the size of the grounds. Eddy and Woody, eager to complete the task, encouraged us all to finish the bowls of food that had been handed around and finish our mugs of tea so we could get on with it.
We’d found more radios in the camping shop, so we inserted batteries into them, then tested them and set them to the same channel. The people who’d been chosen to stay and guard the castle were allocated positions and then given a radio so they could easily contact us all. Some were told to stay with Maud and the children while others were positioned around the walls, where they could spot danger approaching from all directions.
The rest of us would be either in the Land Rover with Woody or in the trailer towed by Shawn. Once the van was moved from where it blocked the open archway, we’d all drive into the grounds and get to work.
The sharpshooters on the walls had continued sniping at the steady flow of zombies as they appeared and the ground below their position was becoming littered with their handiwork. They were all pleased with how their accuracy had improved. As they descended the stairs from the ramparts and handed the .22 rifles to those chosen to replace them on the walls, they happily went to their next assigned position, eager to help with the next task.
Stopping the small convoy just outside the gate, we waited for the van to pull back into position before driving across the well-tended lawns, following the trail of zombies; all lying still with a small red hole in their foreheads.
A zombie pushing through what was now a reasonably well-worn trail through some undergrowth pinpointed the location for us. Stopping, Noah leaned over the side of the trailer and drove his spear through the top of the zombie’s head. More could be heard pushing through the bushes when the engines were turned off. Woody stood up on his seat.
“Right then, knights, time to earn your pay again. If the rest of us cover you, can you go and see what’s up with the fence, please?”
I was in the trailer, so I helped open the rear door and lower the ramp, allowing the knights to exit. With shields raised, they walked one-by-one down the ramp and formed a shield wall facing the dense bushes, studying them intently.
“Right then,” called Jamie, assuming command. “For once, my compact muscular build is an advantage over the rest of you blundering oafs. I’ll lead the way but Alex, can you keep tight up behind me, please? I might not be able to swing my axe in there, so I might need your sword as backup.”
Alex stood behind him with his shield held forwards protecting his side and his sword held out over Jamie’s shoulder, ready to thrust it into the head of anything that appeared.
With a shout of, “Ready boys!” he pushed his way into the bushes and disappeared from view. The other knights followed close behind. Seconds later, there was a yell of, “Get it!” and the bushes shook violently. I heard more shouts and swearing from all around me and the bushes moved like they’d been caught in a strong wind, until eventually all went still.
We stood ready for anything, counting the seconds until the bushes moved, making us raise our weapons slightly, ready to fire. A shout of, “Ian’s coming out” went up. It made us breathe a sigh of relief as he pushed his large body through the last branches and came out into the open.
“It’s all clear,” he said. “A few were stuck on the branches and a couple more were just getting through the gap. It was hard to get enough swing to get ’em but we managed. We’ve found the hole. It looks as if local kids have undone a bit of the fencing and peeled it back as a way of avoiding paying the entrance ticket. The rest are covering the gap, because there are a lot more wandering about out there.”
He turned as more shouts sounded from behind him, followed by the unmistakable sound of an axe hitting soft flesh.
“It shouldn’t be too hard to fix, but with the number of ’em out there, we need to do it quickly and preferably quietly. I’m sure the noise we made will be pulling them in from all around.”
Woody turned to Jon.
“Jon, you’re our handyman. Can you go and check it out, please?”
With a, “Right you are then, cocker,” he pulled an axe from his belt, walked down the ramp and holding it ready, followed Ian back into the bushes.
Jon had donned armour and fought alongside the knights ever since they’d found him, but on this occasion, Woody had asked him not to join them. Because of Jon’s expertise in building and construction, he’d said his skills would probably be needed in other areas.
He emerged a minute later and walked to Woody’s trailer, calling up to us as he rummaged around. “Not a problem. I’ll fix the fence and reinforce it with some plywood sheets.”
“How long?” calle
d back Eddy.
As he picked up a few lengths of timber, he thought for a moment. “About half an hour if I do it by hand. If we fire up the genny, I can get it done quicker but we want to be quiet, don’t we?”
He paused as an idea came to him. “If we can get to a builders’ merchant, it might be a good idea to get some cordless drills. It would make some jobs a bit quieter and a lot quicker. Anyway, can someone give me a hand to get the gear moved and I’ll get started?”
Noah, without asking, walked down the ramp and after Jon had shown him what to get, he followed him into the bushes, struggling under the weight of a sheet of plywood. We watched as the bushes near what we imagined to be the fence swayed and rustled as Jon worked to get the fence secured; an occasional grunt and the sound of a blade hitting soft flesh an indication that danger still lurked at the fence.
Eventually, a little more dishevelled and sweating than when they entered the bushes, the knights, Jon and Noah pushed their way back out into the sunshine.
“All done?” I asked.
Jon nodded, “Aye, spadge. That should hold ʾem back, but the whole section of fencing is just chain link back there. It’s not in bad nick, but if a lot of them push up against it, it could give way.”
I pondered what he’d said for a few moments before replying with a sigh.
“Well, it is what it is. I think once we’ve checked the whole perimeter for any more breached or weak points, can you come up with a plan to improve it where necessary and a list of materials you’ll need?”
“Yes, good plan,” replied Woody. “But let’s check the rest of the perimeter first. If everyone gets back on board, I suggest we go and find where it starts and then systematically work our way back.”
The fence began in some woodland that ran alongside the River Avon. We didn’t come across any more zombies and we checked the immediate area was clear, just in case the dense woodland was hiding some surprises. Woody asked for the knights to disembark and along with five more, me included, we followed the fence line, inspecting it as we went, while the two vehicles followed us slowly to provide cover and a place to retreat to if necessary.
The fence was mainly in good repair as the owners of the attraction, for good reason, needed to protect their property and also to stop those who thought they could avoid paying the entrance fee from sneaking in. A few areas were spotted where improvements could be made in the future and Jon noted them down in a small notepad he pulled from a pocket, but generally, we found no major issues. We realised to our chagrin, when we reached the gate, that we had failed to re-secure it when we’d used it the day before. The locking bar had been slid back into place after the padlock had been bolt cropped. But anyone could open it.
Woody summed it up, “No harm done, guys and no one’s to blame. To be fair, we had a lot going on yesterday, so let’s chalk it up to experience and forget about it.”
The few other gates that allowed vehicles access were all secured with either padlocks or chains. Inspecting each one, the group had a discussion on the pros and cons of reinforcing them. The gates as moveable objects, even though they were locked, could be weak points. But if we reinforced them it could advertise our presence in the castle. It was a decision we decided to defer until later, because we still had a lot of perimeter to check.
Being in constant radio communication with the others gave us the confidence to continue our investigation. Waving at the ones on the ramparts as we passed, we carried on. The castle was in the middle of the large town of Warwick, so a lot of houses backed on to the perimeter, which in a lot of cases was a brick wall. Where we could, one person gave another a boost so they could look over the walls and inspect the area beyond. A few zombies, probably the previous owners, shambled around back gardens or could be seen in the houses. They presented no danger now, but we agreed that in the future it would be sensible to clear any houses that backed onto us and secure them. Not to extend the perimeter but keeping any of the undead further away would do no harm.
The fences eventually ended back at the River Avon, by the weir that had been constructed to power the mill. Remembering from our discussions earlier that the mill had been converted in the nineteenth century to provide electricity to the castle, once we’d checked the area, I asked Shawn if he wanted to do a quick inspection and see if he thought it could be used again.
Jumping down from the tractor, he followed me into the mill excitedly. The building contained a collection of machinery, all with signs on telling tourists what it had been used for. Shawn soon came to the conclusion that while it was all very interesting and he would love to ‘play’ with them, the mill contained no waterwheel, so there was no possibility of it being used to generate electricity. And the old fuel-powered generators that had been used as a backup would be noisy and inefficient and therefore were not worth attempting to get working.
He stated that, given time, he could use the flow of water through the mill race to construct a basic hydroelectric plant that would produce enough power to probably light the areas of the castle we needed. But why bother when we could use the large generator we’d loaded onto the trailer at Bickley barracks. By using the fuel we knew was in plentiful supply either in tankers or in all the vehicles that lay abandoned everywhere, we could generate enough power for all our needs. If the generator we had didn’t have enough capacity, a larger one could probably be found locally. The fuel would eventually go bad but as that would take a year or two, it was something we didn’t need to worry about for now.
Leaning on the rail that surrounded the mill race, both of us paused for a moment, mesmerised by the water rushing through the channel, when the radios in our pockets crackled into life.
“I can hear vehicles; they don’t sound too far away,” said a voice, the panic and urgency evident in the rapid and excited flow of words.
Rushing back outside, we found that the others had obviously heard the call, too, as everyone was obeying Woody and Eddy’s urgent demands to get back into the vehicles.
“Back to the castle now. Let’s lock it up tight.”
Seconds later and with everyone in the trailer hanging on tightly, both vehicles sped up the pathway that led to the entrance blocked with the van.
Chapter Seven
As soon as the van was pulled back across the entrance, everyone disembarked and with both Eddy and Woody shouting commands and directing us, we all ran up the staircases and positioned ourselves around the castle walls.
Both sergeants were last on the walls. They’d removed the machine guns from the mounts on both vehicles and, struggling under the weight of the guns and an ammunition box containing the belted rounds for them, as well as their own personal weapons, they ran up the steps.
A bellow of, “QUIET!” from Eddy shut us all up.
The sound of multiple vehicle engines could easily be heard now. Noises echoed off the walls around us. They weren’t far away at all, but it was hard to discern exactly which direction the noises were coming from.
I stood tense, holding my weapon ready, my mind whirling at all the possibilities. Were they friendly? If not, would we soon be defending our sanctuary from others who wanted to take it away from us?
The engine noise died down. Had they stopped? Had they moved on?
Five minutes later, my radio broadcast again. “I can see what looks like an armoured car coming through the grounds,” Becky’s voice shouted through the radio. She, along with two others, had run to the walls on top of the mound and from the high vantage point, they could see further than us.
Woody’s voice immediately responded, “Keep reporting. We need to know what you can see.”
“I can see a lorry now. It’s green and looks the same as the ones the soldiers had on the motorway.”
Craning over the ramparts from my position on the highest tower, I tried to see anything at all. But I was at the far end of the castle, so even from my high position I couldn’t see past the mound where Becky was.
�
��They’ve stopped! Someone’s looking at us through binoculars. I can see him standing on top of the armoured car,” she reported, her voice rapid and high pitched with nerves.
“Wait… He’s waving. I can’t make out who it is, though.”
“Hold on, Becky,” Woody responded, “I’m on my way.”
From my position, I saw him run down the steps from the ramparts and sprint across the courtyard and climb the path that led to the mound.
Before he could get there, Becky gave us another update. “I think I can see another lorry and a tractor coming up behind them as well.”
Willing the radio to give me more information, I watched from a distance as Simon reached the walls above the mound.
Seconds later, distant cheers and shouts of joy reached me. The radio in my hand broadcast. Woody’s voice, this time sounding joyous and laughing, and still breathless from his run across the castle grounds, came though the speaker.
“It’s Captain Hammond and his men… and… and… Fuck me! It’s bloody Willie Beedie, if I’m not mistaken as well, driving a tractor.”
I let out a whoop of delight. All along the walls everyone else was doing the same.
I couldn’t believe it. All those days ago when we met them and traded information, guns and food on a deserted M5 motorway, we’d told the captain about our plan and about how Willie’s farm would be a good place to seek shelter, if need be. Never thinking when we parted in all the chaos and death that was rampaging across the entire globe that from our chance meeting, our paths would ever cross again.
Barely audible over the noise of celebrations, I heard Woody ask for someone to move the van as they were heading in, and for everyone to leave their posts and meet on the courtyard.
I had to slow my headlong rush down the stairs as I almost tripped and fell in my eagerness to reach the courtyard. Smiling faces met and hugs were exchanged as we waited for them to appear. As Marc climbed into the van and pulled it away from the arch, Becky joined me, all smiles. I put my arm around her as we all crowded around the entrance.
Zombie Castle Series (Book 4): ZC Four Page 4