“Chris, how many of us do you need?” I asked.
“You and I should be able to do this,” he shouted as he unlocked the lorry, jumped in and started its engine.
The knights didn’t need telling twice and ran towards the smashed gates of the entrance and the continuous firing. Once I’d pushed the wheelbarrow up the ramp and helped Dave with the cement mixer, he ran to join them.
Chris had his foot fully on the accelerator of the lorry as he built up the air pressure as quickly as possible to get the pressure up in the brakes. As soon as he was satisfied, he jumped from the cab to the bed of the lorry, carrying a box. At first, I was mystified as to what it was, but it soon became apparent it was the remote control for the crane, as he placed the strap hanging from it around his neck and pressing a lever, raised its boom.
“I’ll just get rid of what we don’t need and then we’ll find what we want,” he shouted. Manipulating the crane, he picked up a pallet, and with a swing of the boom, he unceremoniously dropped it from a height and smashed its contents onto the yard. It looked like roof tiles. Two more smashed pallets later, he leapt from the lorry and joined me.
It sounded as if all the guns were firing, including the heavy machine gun on the armoured car. Looking towards the entrance, I could see the knights standing in line firing their guns, although not yet engaging any zombies hand to hand. I had to assume all was, if not contained, then at least under control. Shawn and Louise stood on the wheel arches of the tractor, with their guns held ready, keeping a good all-round lookout for any surprises.,
Now Chris was brandishing another set of keys. “Right, let’s find the forklift. A couple of packs of blocks, timber, some plywood and a pallet of cement should do it. Can you drop the sides of the lorry, Tom?” Struggling briefly with the clips that secured the hinged lorry sides in place, I waited as he ran off in the direction of an open-sided shed.
I was impressed with his competence, because it took him no time at all to find the forklift and operate it. Pushing it to its maximum speed, he rushed around the yard, filling the space he’d made on the lorry with various packs and pallets, double stacking a few of them, until with a yell of satisfaction, he jumped from the forklift and together, we lifted the sides of the lorry back into position.
“You got everything else on the list, mate?” he asked as we took the straps he’d grabbed from the lorry’s cab and threw them over the load to secure it.
I nodded, “Yes, and more. I grabbed any extra stuff I saw, since we were here anyway.” I pointed to the lorry. “You get in and I’ll go and tell them we’re ready.” I winced at the sound of firing. “I don’t think they’ll hear us over the radio.” He slapped me on the back in acknowledgment and ran towards the open door of the lorry.
Grabbing my rifle from where it rested on its sling over my shoulder, I sprinted towards the gate and the firing. Zombies were approaching from all directions in large numbers. The gunfire was keeping them at bay, but I could tell from the trail of bodies that they were getting closer. The knights looked out of place in full armour as they fired their modern weapons. It looked as if someone had made a dreadful historical error when writing a movie script. Hundreds of empty bullet casings littered the floor, indicating how heavy the firing had been.
Captain Hammond and his sergeant were walking the perimeter he’d set up and encouraging them all. Occasionally raising his rifle and firing when needed, it took the captain a few seconds to notice me standing there waving at him. I gave him the thumbs-up and waited for him to acknowledge before running back to the yard.
Shawn and Louise had seen me give the captain the signal and were already back in the tractor. I indicated for them to pull forward and get as close to the knights as possible. I had a feeling that when they disengaged and the fire reduced, the approaching tide of the undead would be unstoppable. The sound of whistles blowing split the air and immediately the volume of fire decreased as the knights responded to the signal to withdraw to the safety of the vehicles. Running as fast as the weight they were carrying would allow, they ran towards the open rear of the trailer. Steadying them, I helped them up the ramp and as soon as the last one was in, I pushed on the ramp while they pulled the ropes inside to get it onboard, and we slammed the rear door shut. Dashing to the lorry, I climbed into the passenger seat and holding my weapon out of the open window, I waited for the convoy to start moving.
Sitting in the raised cab, I watched the last soldiers get into the rear of the armoured car and close the door. Then Captain Hammond’s voice came over the radio.
“Shawn, when we move, can you take the lead and do the same as before? I’ll bring up the rear and if Chris follows Woody, we can both cover you.” It made sense, because although the lorry had high ground-clearance and heavy-duty fenders, it wasn’t armoured like all the other vehicles were, making it the most vulnerable. Knowing those at the castle would be receiving as well, he continued. “Can you get ready with the van, please? We should be back in five minutes. Please acknowledge.”
Multiple voices from the castle replied, telling us the van was already running and waiting. Our firing would be clearly audible to them and they must have known something was happening when the level reduced, the response was so quick. With the engine revving, Chris followed Shawn as he left the yard and waited for Woody to turn his Land Rover around, before following him closely.
I knew that Warwick was a large town that was growing bigger by the year, with hundreds of new homes being built annually to house those who wanted to leave the city to live a more ‘rural’ and genteel life offered by the pretty towns that surrounded the urban sprawl of Birmingham.
Looking ahead, I could see that thousands more zombies were still appearing from all directions. The obvious reason was that once again, with all the gunfire and engine noise, we were now, and always would be, the noisiest and most irresistible target around. I looked again at the masses being destroyed by Shawn’s plough and the hundreds we had just re-killed with bullets, and wondered what would happen if they managed to breach the perimeter walls and fences and surround us in the castle. We would, of course, be safe behind its walls, but we could also find ourselves trapped, with not enough bullets to deal with the population of just one small town in England, and with no hope of restocking our supplies of food or other necessities. A worrying thought.
Ten minutes and many destroyed zombies later, we secured both gates, using our recently acquired chains locked with padlocks to add more strength to them, and drove into the courtyard.
After a brief separation, we were again fifty-four and two dogs.
Chapter Ten
The children were still guarding the walls, with the adult who was keeping an eye on them reporting that they were all continuing to take the task seriously. The amount of gunfire that had echoed around the castle walls was probably a better reminder than anything else for them not to slack in their duties.
Everyone’s relief at us all being back safe after hearing so much gunfire was evident as we gratefully accepted mugs of tea and shrugged out of our equipment in the Great Hall and discussed what we would do next.
The main priority was to secure our weak points. Chris and Jon were tasked with leading the project, because they were the ones with building experience and we told them they could have as much manpower, or woman power, as they needed.
Chris wanted to seal off any entrances we didn’t want to use with brickwork, and Jon was confident that with what we already had and our newest supplies from the builders’ merchant, he could construct heavy-duty gates on the others. This led to a debate on how many entrances we needed. Currently, the barbican entrance was guarded by the sturdy portcullis and blocked by my Volvo, parked at an angle in it, its front and rear pressed up tightly against the stone sides. We’d been using the archway that had been opened in the walls of the castle in more recent times. Chris proposed an idea; if he blocked up the archway and put a doorway in it for pedestrian access if we decided
it was necessary, then the barbican entrance would be the best to use as the main entrance. After all, it already had the formidable portcullis, which we could raise easily. If Jon could make a new gate to replace the one that had once stood behind the portcullis in times past, the castle would revert to its original design when entrances were always the weakest points, and apart from a few sally ports, were normally limited to just one that was heavily guarded and fortified.
It was, after all, what the barbican entrance was, originally having a drawbridge over the moat as the first line of defence and then the portcullis with probably more than one gate behind that. Archers and soldiers could rain death, using arrows, rocks, boiling, tar, sand or water upon any attackers. If the initial defences were breached, they had to fight through the heavily fortified barbican with its murder holes in the ceiling and multiple arrow slits for the defenders to use.
As a group, we pondered and discussed the proposal. Shawn raised a valid point when he asked if the entrance would be wide or high enough for our vehicles to use. Three of us volunteered to investigate and, armed with a tape measure and after some careful calculations, we decided that they would; just. The proposal was agreed when we decided that if we had to get out in an emergency, our vehicles would have the power to smash through the newly blocked-up archway, opening another escape route.
Decision made and with both jobs being priority, we wasted no more time. Chris drove our newly acquired lorry around the courtyard, using the crane to deposit its contents where they were needed. Jon set up an area as a workshop and, using some timber and plywood sheets, he made a workbench. The most labour-intensive job was laying the blocks, because people needed to work together, both mixing cement and carrying and laying the heavy concrete blocks. Jon said he only needed a few to help him construct and fix the gates.
Generators were set up and we allocated people roles and set to the task with a purpose, while trying to keep noise to a minimum. We hoped the noise of the cordless drills we’d got for Jon would be contained within the castle walls, but as they were essential to complete the task as quickly as possible, we had little choice in the matter.
Fortunately, water was still flowing from the taps in the castle, so we formed chains and passed buckets from hand to hand to make the mortar. We’d decided not to use it for drinking ,as the treatment plants would obviously not be working, but for as long as it lasted, it could still be used to flush the toilets in the place and be used for washing, etc. If, or more likely, when it stopped flowing, we would just have to come up with an alternative, but for now it was, and that was good enough for us.
Sweating in the sun, everyone who wasn’t on guard or babysitting duty mucked in and helped. Throughout the rest of the day, the wall in the archway slowly gained height as blocks were passed from hand to hand and laid on beds of mortar. Jon made a frame out of lengths of timber and a doorway was created in the structure.
The wooden gates were quicker to construct. Using heavy duty strap hinges from the merchants, he soon had the framework of the gates in place and attached to the walls of the barbican. Once he was satisfied they were hanging correctly, he planned to add layers of timber to reinforce them. When he’d finished, he also wanted to add another angled gate to the front of the bridge that crossed the moat. He explained that it didn’t need to be as sturdy or as high as the one he was making now, but it would keep any zombies away from the portcullis itself. It was a good idea, so we all told him to get on with it as soon as he’d finished what he was doing.
I found myself forgetting the world outside our walls as we laboured away. The hard, physical work occupied all my thoughts until I took a break to grab a bottle of water and looked around the ancient castle that had become our home. It was a truly stunning place which, once we’d finished, would be as impregnable as when it was first built almost a thousand years before. Sentries walked the walls as they had in ancient times; this time, though, instead of crossbows and spears, they carried modern assault weapons and could fire at any attacker from one of the many machine gun positions we’d created.
In place of the cannons and trebuchets that would once have lined the walls for defence, the soldiers had created a sandbagged emplacement in the middle of the courtyard, which housed the mortar they’d brought with them. This could lay down a far heavier and more accurate barrage than could any weapon designed before it. It was a clash of technology that somehow worked and did not look wholly out of place in such an old and historic complex.
Smiling at my thoughts, I finished my bottle of water and got back to work.
Hours later, we gathered back in the Great Hall. The work was almost complete. We were satisfied as we called it a day that what we’d already achieved was as good, if not better, than we’d originally expected. The van was still pulled in front of the archway, because it seemed prudent to leave it there until the mortar had set. The gates constructed by Jon and his team had been finished and passed our collective inspection. With the locking bars and bolts in place, they seemed strong enough to withstand a ramraid, let alone a horde of zombies.
Bellies full of the food produced by Maud and her helpers, we opened and passed around bottles of wine and beer and everyone drank, happy in the knowledge that fifty-two people were all a little safer now than we had been the day before.
The two dogs, both filthy from many incidents with the wet mortar, were banished to the floor.
Chapter Eleven
It was chillier and more overcast the next morning. There were no more weather forecasts, but we all agreed that it looked as if we were due for some rain.
Pulling on sweaters we soon knew would be discarded when the physical worked warmed us up, we organised ourselves into teams to complete the jobs for the day. Fewer people were needed for the work to complete the bricking up of the archway, so we turned our attention to the task of reinforcing the perimeter fence.
Jon busied himself preparing the tools and materials he wanted to take and then, after a final check of the notepad in which he’d written what needed doing, he asked for help to get it all on Woody’s trailer, which also provided us with a safe vehicle to carry all the volunteers. Willie was driving his tractor this time as Shawn was still helping Chris with the brickwork. We drove through the barbican entrance and began the day’s work.
Exhausted and hungry, we returned many hours later. Woody’s trailer was empty of everything we’d loaded that morning. We’d had enough material to strengthen extra sections of the perimeter, although it probably didn’t need it; but since we had the materials, while we were at it we thought it prudent. After all, we knew we could always scavenge more if necessary.
Following another collective meal and a few relaxing drinks, it didn’t take any of us long to fall asleep that night.
Up early in the morning, we inspected the to do list that was continually being added to and altered and we planned the day. Now that we were confident that the security improvements we’d made to the castle, both inside and out, were almost completed, food and weapons were top of the list. We had ideas to improve security even further, but for now things were good enough.
The soldiers claimed that weapons and ammunition should be the priority, because even though they had many thousands of rounds and we could make many thousands more from the home loading supplies we’d got from the gun shop, we’d expended a lot over the last few days and getting as much as possible should be top of the list. We’d already identified and located the nearest gun shops from the directory we’d found and one or two were reasonably close. Others said that food should be the priority, because if we were besieged by countless zombies, it wouldn’t be bullets that kept us alive behind the walls, but food.
Although we knew both proposals were of great importance, we didn’t want to split our forces by pursuing different objectives. Our strength lay in numbers. After much deliberation, we decided to try and achieve both tasks in one trip. We’d located a local trade-only food warehouse that supplied
local shops and businesses. We thought because the food would be on pallets, that would speed up the loading process, and it would be easier and quicker than raiding one of the many supermarkets in the town. After studying the map, we also realised that it wouldn’t be a big diversion to get to the nearest gun shop. If it turned out to be similar to the gun shop in Newton Abbot, the stuff we could get wouldn’t take up as much room as pallets of food, so hopefully, we’d be able to be squeeze it onto the lorries and trailers, along with the food. With everyone satisfied and in agreement, the planning was handed over to our military contingent.
Fifteen minutes later, Captain Hammond called us all together for a meeting. He proposed the largest expedition we’d undertaken to date, using the most vehicles and taking more people than any we’d ever done before. We’d be using both army lorries, the armoured car and Woody’s Land Rover; in addition, he also wanted to include not only Shawn’s tractor and trailer but our newly acquired crane lorry too. The theory being that if the warehouse was suitable, we could load up enough food in one go to last us for months, possibly even longer, saving the need and risk of venturing out again for food for quite some time.
On the way back, if it looked safe to stop, we’d find the gun shop and take everything we could.
It was a bold plan and even though we’d successfully completed similar missions, we hadn’t undertaken one on this scale before. He said himself that we needed to be fully prepared and ready, because the bigger the mission, the bigger the potential cock-ups.
A little daunted by the idea, nevertheless we did all agree that is was worth trying and we got on with it.
Captain Hammond asked Maud to come up with a wish list for the food warehouse, so they could identify and prioritise loading the large quantity of foodstuffs and other items we hoped we’d be able to get. Shawn, Willie and I were tasked with adding protection to the lorry. We didn’t have time to do a full job on it, but we thought that if we added some of the mesh panels we still had around the cab, and reinforced the front so it could smash through the undead without causing terminal damage, it would be better than nothing. Given more time, we could make it as impregnable as the rest of our vehicles, but if it travelled in the middle of our convoy it would be protected by the other vehicles.
Zombie Castle Series (Book 4): ZC Four Page 7