Instantly contrite at being told off by his beloved Maud and the thought of his not-so-secret stash being impounded, to our amusement he went red with embarrassment and his eyes went wide with fear.
“Och, I’ll tell,” he blurted out quickly and put his glass down. “They’re going to spend the next few days getting settled, but there’s an aeroplane at the island’s runway. It’s a small passenger plane. “That has the range to reach us and as soon as they are able to, they’re planning to visit us so we can have a council of war on what the next stage of the plan should be.”
That was exciting news and we all started talking over each other at once and the general noise in the room grew, until Maud emitted her customary whistle, short this time and not as loud as usual,, which quietened us all down immediately.
“One at a time, you’ll wake poor Sarah up if you carry on like this.”
Four days later, we waited expectantly at Wellesbourne Airfield. The armoured car and Shawn’s tractor were patrolling the perimeter on the lookout for any unwanted visitors, while Steve and I and a few others stood by the apron, staring in the direction we knew the plane should be approaching from.
“There it is,” shouted Steve excitedly, his younger eyes picking out the small speck in the blue sky a few seconds before the rest of us did. Steve spoke via his radio to those patrolling the perimeter, before telling the soldier who was manning the radio in the tower to confirm to the arriving plane that all was clear.
I let out an inner sigh of relief when the propeller-powered passenger plane touched down smoothly and I waited impatiently for it to clear the runway and make its way along the taxi way to where we were standing by the tower. As the engine noise quietened down and the propellers slowly stopped turning, the door on the side of the plane opened. When the inbuilt steps had unfolded, a man wearing a splendid looking uniform walked down them and headed straight for us. Extending my hand to shake his, my smile broadened, and a great feeling of accomplishment and achievement came over me.
We were alone no longer; from a desperate beginning we had survived. From sleeping rough in the wilds of Bodmin Moor after barely escaping from St Agnes, our numbers had increased and our experience and skills in surviving the terrors of a zombie apocalypse had grown with each passing day. Never wavering as we set out to achieve the goal we’d set for ourselves that very first night sitting around a fire in the darkness, we’d reached the perfect sanctuary that was Warwick Castle. We hadn’t rested then, but had still worked tirelessly, our numbers increasing as Willie and the soldiers joined us. With our growing confidence, we began searching for other survivors, locating them initially by using a plane from the airfield I was at now.
We now had another community in a secure location we had helped to establish, who were just as willing as we were to answer the call from the remnants of the armed forces who had survived the devastation to help their country.
We were now going to discuss the best way forward to begin to make the British Isles not a union of countries populated by the undead, but one where the living held sway.
To be continued in ZC5
Zombie Castle Series (Book 4): ZC Four Page 22