The Road Trip At The End Box Set

by J N Wood

  He’s definitely crazy.

  Naomi’s and Sheriff McCallany’s assurances didn’t seem to be making any difference. The normally quiet H Street that ran alongside the south fence was still packed full of people, all heading in the direction of the water.

  There was a sudden cry of, ‘Oh Jesus, why have you forsaken me?’

  The sheriff said, ‘Somebody shut that man up,’ before wading through the crowd towards the crying man.

  Jack constantly swept his eyes from left to right as we walked against the tide of people. When we got to the end of our street, he broke into a run, so Gee and I jogged to catch him up. We found him banging on the front door of our house.

  ‘It’s us, we’re back,’ he was saying.

  The door swung open, Michael stood inside. ‘Are you all okay? Did you find them? What is happening?’

  Jack’s head rocked back and he looked to the sky. ‘Fuck,’ he said. ‘I’m going back out.’

  ‘Just give it twenty minutes,’ I said. ‘Give her time to get through all the people.’

  Michael had been joined by Shannon, Ali and the Rodriguez brothers. They all looked at us with questioning eyes.

  ‘Sheriff McCallany said all the shooters have been killed, or stopped,’ I told them. ‘He said it’s all over.’

  Relief seemed to wash over their faces. Ali turned and headed back down the corridor, towards their bedroom.

  ‘What happened?’ Shannon asked.

  ‘Don’t know,’ I replied. ‘Some people with guns.’

  ‘But why?’ Pete asked.

  I shrugged. ‘No idea mate.’

  ‘Jack,’ Gee said. ‘Turn around.’

  We all turned to Gee. His back was to us. I peered around him and saw Beth and Roy walking side by side towards us, both carrying bags over their shoulders.

  Jack dropped his axe and was off, running down the street towards them.

  ‘Thank fuck for that,’ I said.

  Panicked yells from behind us made me spin around. In front of the house next door, three people were sprawled across the road. One of them was apologising and attempting to separate himself from the other two, trying to get back to his feet. Once he was up, he ran in our direction.

  ‘What is it now?’ Ali fearfully asked as she walked out of the house. Sandra and the kids followed closely behind her.

  He slowed down as he neared us. I took a step back, worried he was going to run straight into us as well.

  ‘Any Zombie Patrol and Fencers,’ he spluttered, breathing heavily. ‘Go to your base now.’

  Before anyone could ask him anything, he sped up and continued on towards Jack, Beth and Roy.

  Bollocks. My heart rate had picked up its pace again.

  I picked up Jack’s axe. ‘Fuck. Must have been all the noise.’

  ‘We better get down there,’ Shannon said.

  ‘I’m coming too,’ Theo called out.

  Sandra gripped tightly onto Theo’s arm. ‘No you’re not. That’s not your job. You’ll be needed elsewhere, and if you’re not, I need you here.’

  Theo looked disappointed, but stayed alongside his cousin.

  I’d happily exchange jobs with him. I didn’t know Theo had been given a different job.

  Pete and Ali said goodbye to their family, as the rest of us walked down the street. I waited for Jack to finish hugging Beth, and then handed him his axe.

  ‘Any idea what’s happening?’ Beth asked.

  ‘Nope, just what that running guy said,’ I replied.

  ‘They have been warning us about making too much noise,’ Michael said. ‘I guess they were right.’

  ‘Are you two okay?’ Shannon asked, looking at Beth and Roy. ‘You didn’t get caught up in any of the shooting did you?’

  Roy shifted his bag to his other shoulder. ‘No, we were coming back when it started, but went back inside when we heard the shots.’

  Ali and Pete walked up behind us. ‘I think we better go guys,’ Ali said.

  ‘Good luck,’ Beth said to us all.

  ‘Thanks. See you in a bit,’ I replied, trying to sound calmer than I actually felt.

  People were rushing around us as we made our way down to where the east inner fence met the south inner fence. Some carried steel joists on their shoulders. Others pulled wheeled carts behind them, full of scaffolding boards and poles. It was chaotic.

  A woman ran up to us, saying, ‘Zombie Patrol and Fencers go to work,’ and then ran past us, repeating the words to everyone she came across.

  A man stepped in front of us, lifting his hand up to stop us. ‘Only Zee Pee and Fencers please.’

  ‘We’re Blue and Green,’ Michael said.

  The man stepped aside. ‘Okay, be careful out there guys.’

  The first group we saw had yellow bits of material wrapped around each of their arms. Next to them was a neatly stacked pile of chain link fence panels.

  ‘Look for blue on their arms Chris,’ Jack said.

  ‘Coming through, watch your backs,’ a voice called out from behind us.

  We parted to let another cart through. Two people were pulling it, while a third person was pushing from the back. They each had a white strip around their upper arm. The cart was full of wooden planks.

  I spotted another group. There were maybe one hundred people, slightly bigger than the yellow group. They were tightly packed in together, all trying to listen to a woman stood on a chair in front of them. They all had something green wrapped around an arm.

  ‘You’re over there guys,’ I said, nodding to the group.

  Shannon walked over to us and hugged Jack, and then me. ‘Be careful and look after each other. We’ll see you both soon.’

  ‘Yeah of course we will,’ I said. I first shook Michael’s hand, then Gee’s, and finally Pete’s, wishing them good luck.

  Ali stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me. ‘Take care of yourself,’ she whispered into my ear. She let go of me, and then hugged Jack.

  We watched them walk towards their group.

  ‘Right,’ I said. ‘Where the fuck is Blue?’

  A man slowed as he walked past in front of us. He was carrying a large wire mesh panel. ‘Blue is at H and 11th. Next street along,’ he said, before continuing.

  ‘Thanks,’ Jack said.

  I turned around and was almost taken out by a man pushing a wheelbarrow. It was full to brim with electric power drills. He rushed by us, heading towards the fence. Large sections of the inner fence were being covered with sheets of corrugated metal. Massive wooden and metal joists were being placed up against the fence at an angle.

  We walked along to the next street, having to weave our way around the Red Team and White Team, before spotting arms wrapped in blue. Caleb, the incredibly stoned guy we’d kind of met, was stood on something, so his upper half was above the group of people between him and us. He was looking down to his left, talking to somebody. We joined the back of the group.

  I could hear hissing, it was only faint, but it was definitely there in the distance.

  They’re getting closer.

  ‘Can you hear that?’ I asked Jack.

  Jack looked at me and nodded, before tapping the person in front of him on the shoulder. The English woman from the bed below me turned to look at him. ‘What’s happening?’ he asked her.

  ‘Nothing yet,’ she replied. ‘Caleb is waiting for more people to get here.’

  ‘Okay, thanks,’ Jack said.

  She smiled and turned back around.

  I nudged Jack, and whispered, ‘Fanny Fart Girl.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Fanny Fart Girl,’ I repeated, although slightly louder, and nodded towards her.

  ‘You what?’

  ‘Fucking Fanny Fart Girl.’

  Her head turned towards me ever so slightly.

  Fuck, I think she heard me.

  ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’ Jack asked.

  Shit, I haven’t told him about that yet.

/>   ‘Doesn’t matter. I’ll tell you later.’

  He shot me a very confused look, then turned back to face the front.

  A man in front of me passed back two strips of blue material. They looked like they’d been torn from a t-shirt. I handed one to Jack, before trying to tie mine around my arm. We soon realised it was a lot easier to do each other’s, so I tied Jack’s, before he returned the favour.

  ‘Our fencing team today are the Mariners,’ Caleb said, his voice just about travelling to us at the back. ‘They’ll be wearing the blue as well. We protect them at all cost.’

  ‘Baseball teams, not football,’ Jack said to me.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Michael said the Fencers were named after football teams. The Mariners are a baseball team, from Seattle.’

  Caleb spoke up again. ‘If you get a bad injury, and you're capable of getting back here on your own two feet, then do so. If you see someone who’s injured and not able to get themselves back, help them. The med tents are being set up all along H Street. You won’t be able to miss them. If you do bring someone back, immediately turn back around and get back out there. Now, all of you that went out on the last firework mission, this one isn’t going to be the same. Large sections of the outer fence have been destroyed. A lot of those things are inside the perimeter, a lot more than last time. It’s going to take the Mariners a lot longer to do their job, so we need to be patient with them. This isn’t going to be another half hour job.’

  I looked to Jack and raised my eyebrows, whispering, ‘We’re fucked.’

  ‘Make two groups,’ Caleb called out, pointing to someone at the front. ‘I need you all to split the group in half. Make a gap behind this woman here.’

  I raised myself up onto the tips of my toes to see where the woman was, but then a space opened up in front of me. I could now see Caleb standing on step ladders. Jack and I were pretty much in the middle, so we shifted to our right slightly.

  The hissing was getting louder.

  Caleb looked over to the fence behind us, seeming to hesitate slightly, before returning his attention to us. ‘Everyone on my right,’ he said, pointing to the other half of the group. ‘You will be sweeping. You go in first and clear a path to the fence. All of you on my left.’ He pointed at our group. ‘You surround the Mariners and guard them as they follow the sweepers.’ He paused to look over the two groups for a few seconds, before seeming to settle his eyes on me. ‘You five there,’ he said, pointing in mine and Jack’s general direction. ‘Little Axe Woman, Machete Woman, Bat Man, Big Axe Man and Man with No Weapon. Sorry, but move to the other group, it’s more even that way. And Man with No Weapon, quickly find a weapon please.’

  As we stepped to our left, Man with No Weapon ran off into the crowds of people behind us.

  ‘Hey Jack,’ I said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I am Batman.’

  Jack couldn’t hide his smirk. ‘Twat.’

  Laughing, I said, ‘Big Axeman, who the fuck is that? Never heard of him.’

  ‘Remember I gave you that bat? I could take it back.’

  ‘You’ll have to prise it from my cold, dead hands,’ I replied, immediately regretting using that quote, considering the predicament we found ourselves in.

  I leaned in closer to him and whispered, ‘Sweeping sounds like the shittest of the two options.’

  ‘Yep,’ he simply said.

  ‘Talking of weapons,’ Caleb said. ‘If possible, make sure you have a secondary one. If it’s not possible, don’t lose your primary weapon.’

  I reached behind me and my fingertips brushed the little axe I always kept tucked into my belt. I turned to look at Jack. He was holding a huge knife.

  ‘Have you stolen that from Rambo?’ I asked him. ‘Where did that come from?’

  He returned it to the sheaf attached to his belt. ‘This is Gee’s back up knife. If you think this is big, you should see his main one.’

  I remembered Gee using his main knife to kill that guy in Costco.

  ‘Shame on you!’ a woman cried out from behind us. ‘Shame on you!’

  I spun around to see a young woman staring at us. She looked young enough to have been a teenager. She slowly scanned her hate filled eyes across our group.

  ‘Get her out of here,’ Caleb ordered.

  ‘Shame on you,’ she spat. ‘How dare you take the lives of God’s children? We are all God’s children on this Earth.’

  A hand was wrapped around her mouth as two men grabbed her, lifting her off the ground. They carried her away until they were out of sight, becoming a part of the crowds.

  ‘What the fuck?’ I whispered.

  The hissing sounded like it was all around us now.

  ‘We wait until the fireworks,’ Caleb continued, almost having to shout over the hissing. ‘Until then, stay together. Do not wander off. Once the fireworks are set off, sweepers, you wait for my signal to go in.’

  ‘What is the signal?’ someone at the front asked.

  ‘I’ll tell you it’s time to go,’ Caleb replied, shrugging. He pointed to a section of the fence behind us. ‘We’ll be using that gate if possible. I’ll let you know if we have to change gates.’

  I couldn’t see a gate, just a load of people organising piles of scaffolding boards. The fence had been entirely covered now, at least the part of it I could see. Supporting joists were spread out along it, about every five feet. Two ladders were leaning against the fence. A woman was atop one of them, she seemed to passing on information to people on the ground.

  Loud rattling noises erupted from the other side of the fence. It must have been the zombies slamming into the chain link fence. The sound seemed to move along it from left to right, like a wave crashing onto a beach. Everyone stopped what they were doing, hundreds of people all turning to stare at the fence.

  The hissing was now all encompassing.

  I noticed the woman on top of the ladder was completely still, so not being jostled around at all by the zombie horde hitting the fence.

  Hopefully that means the fence is strong enough to hold them back.

  My heart was now trying to beat itself out of my chest, and my legs had an uncontrollable jiggle.

  Looking at Jack, I very quietly said, ‘Shitting myself.’

  Another runner rushed past, speaking softly as he ran. ‘Zombies are at the fence. Zombies are at the inner fence. Keep the volume down.’

  ‘Yeah thanks. No shit,’ I muttered.

  Jack was staring at the runner. ‘Chris, you watch my back, and I’ll watch yours. Okay?’

  ‘Yeah, obviously,’ I agreed.

  A woman from Blue Team started to make her way through the people going back and forth, she was coming from the direction of the fence. She ran up to Caleb and spoke something close to his ear.

  Caleb listened intently and nodded. ‘Okay everyone!’ he shouted over the hissing, ignoring the runner’s instructions to keep the volume down. ‘The fireworks will be going off any minute now. Sweepers take your position in front of the gate. The gate has not changed.’

  Chapter 16: Holiday

  Our half of the group started walking towards the fence. When we were most of the way across the road I spotted the gate. A large sheet of corrugated metal sat in front of the pieces that had been permanently attached to the fence behind. Two huge wooden beams held the temporary sheet in place. Behind that must have been the original chain link gate. We all grouped together by the fence.

  Caleb stepped in front of us. ‘I’ll be coming with you,’ he told us. ‘I’ll guide us to the collapsed section we’ve been assigned to fix. Once we’re there, we clear the area, making it safe for the Mariners to join us. Everyone understand?’

  He received a few murmured responses, but mostly nods.

  Caleb looked like a different person from the stoned guy on the sofa. I could tell he was nervous, his eyes didn’t quite have the same conviction his words did, but he looked much more capable than I would have imagine
d.

  ‘The fireworks will draw some of them away,’ he told us. ‘But it’s like a wasp trap out there. Most of them won’t be able to find their way back outside, so they’ll be stuck between the two fences.’

  There was a sudden loud whistling noise in the distance, followed by an almighty boom. It echoed around us. Even the zombies stopped hissing momentarily. More fireworks whooshed and whistled into the air, before exploding and crackling.

  I looked to Caleb. He was staring up at the woman on top of the ladder, his chest heaving up and down. I looked down at my own chest, only then noticing I was also breathing heavily.

  The hissing wasn’t as loud now. The fireworks must be doing their job in drawing the zombies away.

  The woman atop the ladder glanced down to Caleb and held up one finger. Caleb nodded to a man standing on the other side of the wooden beams. They got into position and heaved one of the heavy looking beams out of its supports, laying it on the ground out of the way. They walked back and repeated it with the second higher beam. A third person stepped between them and helped them lift it up and out of the way.

  In absolute silence, the forty or so Sweepers waited. The woman on the ladder still had one finger raised.

  A sudden clarity washed over me. I looked around at the nervous faces around me, and then at the many people rushing up and down the street behind us. A former town, now turned into a refugee camp, was on the other side of the busy street. An unknown number of those refugees were recently murdered, needlessly mowed down in the streets by fucking crazy people with guns. As if we didn’t have enough problems. And now we’re just standing here, waiting for a guy in his mid-twenties, who very recently was as high as a kite, to tell us to run into a load of flesh eating zombies. What the actual fuck is going on?

  ‘What the fuck are we doing here Jack?’ I whispered.

  Jack hesitated, before saying, ‘What? We’re going to go and clear out the zombies.’

  ‘No, I mean, how the fuck have we found ourselves here? We were supposed to be on holiday.’

  Jack opened his mouth to speak, but Caleb and his assistant stepped towards the temporary corrugated sheet. They picked it up and moved it out of the way. I looked up to see the woman was now holding up two fingers. Once the metal sheet was out of the way, the double chain link gates were visible. On the other side was an empty car park, with Blaine High School on the other side of that.