Capital Falling | Book 4 | Sever

by Winkless, Lance

  The explosion in the confined space is extraordinary. The boom thunders out at me and I duck in reflex, my hand going to my ears. Beneath my feet the ground shakes and a cloud of dust and debris busts out from the opening next to me, to billow into the air. The moment the explosion dissipates, my head comes up, I take hold of my M4 and pull another grenade from my chest rig.

  Just before I turn and run to Karen and Tanya, I pull the grenade's pin and throw it down into the smoke engulfing the underpass.

  Chapter 19

  I find the two women barely halfway across the courtyard at the same moment the second grenade explodes. Karen is slumped, distraught on the paving stones below her and Tanya is stood over her, trying to get her back onto her feet.

  “Karen, we have to go,” I tell her leaning now to drag her to her feet.

  “Jim,” she replies in tears.

  “I know, but we can’t stay here. We’ve got to get to the boat and back to Stacey.” I pull at her again and finally, her legs begin to cooperate.

  I look back at the underpass, but nothing is coming out, apart from billowing dust and smoke. We need to evacuate the whole area, quickly, the threat won’t just come from the horde that followed us into the underpass, not after those explosions. Every Rabid in this part of the city will be converging on this area and they will have a smoke plume to pinpoint their destination.

  “Dad, receiving, over,” Josh’s voice sounds from my chest, the explosions, unsurprisingly having carried right out to the river.

  Tanya supports Karen while I reply.

  “Receiving. We had Rabids in pursuit, but they have been dealt with. ETA, ten to fifteen minutes,” I reply.

  “Copy that, we’ll be waiting,” Josh tells me.

  “Received, out.”

  In the distance, a Rabid cry rings out, an ominous warning of their impending arrival, if one was needed.

  “Move, now. This way,” I order.

  I change my mind about which direction to go, the narrow passageway is in the wrong direction from the river, and I really don’t fancy getting caught up in a maze of constricted alleyways with Rabids inbound.

  Instead, I direct us left out of the courtyard which will take us south towards the river and we join a single laned road just off the courtyard that will take us down onto a main road. I am not exactly sure where we are, but we aren’t far off my planned route and as long as we keep heading south, we will hit the river sooner rather than later.

  A figure flashes left to right at the end of the single-lane road in front of us, I immediately pull my fist down at the two women and I drop to my knee, my M4 aiming in the direction that the figure disappeared. Karen, either not having seen my signal or not registering it in her current state, runs past me before she comes to a sudden halt. She turns around in surprise at my sudden stopping and quickly comes back to me.

  The Rabid figure reappears behind her, but she is in my line of fire. I keep calm and lean forward to improve my angle, aim and fire. The bullet whaps into the Rabids face, the force of the bullet knocking it off its feet backwards to hit the ground.

  I quickly push myself up and order Tanya to take control of Karen. We aren’t going to make it to the river with Karen in this uncontrollable state and I come to an instant decision; we need to find shelter where I can speak to her to calm her down and get her under control. Just shy of the main road ahead, there is a building on the right with a wooden door.

  “Follow me,” I bark, crossing over to the door where I smash my foot into it, but the door holds firm. Stepping back, I aim the muzzle of the M4 at the lock and fire once into the lock mechanism. Again, I smash my foot into the door and this time it bursts open. After taking a quick look, I step inside and the women follow me in.

  We find ourselves inside a medium-sized room that has three desks in it. With Karen and Tanya inside, I step back and push the door back closed, pushing the lock back into place as best I can. The door isn’t secure, but I don’t plan on being in here more than two or three minutes. I then turn, raising my rifle to check that the office is clear. I see that the door on the other side of the room is closed, and a quick check under the desks tells me that we are alone.

  “Please sit down Karen,” I say turning to her and pulling out a chair from beneath one of the desks.

  Karen looks at me teary-eyed and does as she is asked, Tanya stands close by with her hands folded in front of her.

  “I’m sorry,” Karen says, snivelling, her sleeve going to her nose.

  “There is no need to be sorry,” I begin, after taking a breath, calming myself down and lowering to my haunches in front of her.

  “My minds all over the place. I can’t believe Jim is gone,” Karen starts to get more upset, which is the exact opposite of what I’m trying to achieve.

  “Yes, Jim is gone and I’m sorry about that Karen, truly I am. What he did was so brave, and he did it because he had to. He had to do it to save you, so that you can get back to Stacey. To see your daughter again.”

  “I know.” Karen snivels again.

  “Don’t let his sacrifice be for nothing. If you don’t get your head together straight away, we have no chance of reaching the river and getting back to Stacey. There will be a time to get upset and grieve for Jim, but that time is not now. Do you understand?” I say assertively.

  “Yes, Andy, I understand, but it’s difficult.”

  “Of course, it is. Don’t dwell on it now, think of Stacey, think of seeing her again. She needs you, now more than ever. Are you up for it?” I say with all sincerity.

  Karen’s head rises and she takes a deep breath through her mouth, a breath that is quickly expelled through pursed lips and bulging cheeks.

  “Yes Andy, I am up for it. I won’t let you down again. I will put it out of my mind,” Karen says confidently. “The important thing now is to see my daughter again.”

  “Yes, Karen. Yes, it is. That is all that matters.”

  “I’m ready,” she tells me.

  “And what are you going to do?” I ask.

  “Watch you and do everything you tell me,” she insists, looking me straight in the eye.

  “That’s all I ask. We are so close now Karen. Just a bit longer.”

  I push myself back up and Karen follows me up straightaway, her sleeve in use again, this time to dry her eyes.

  “How are you doing Tanya?” I ask, looking at her.

  “It’s just so frightening,” she tells me.

  “I know, you’re not the only one that thinks that,” I reply.

  “We will be okay, won’t we?” Karen interjects, putting her arm around Tanya’s shoulder. “We will follow your lead so that we can get the hell out of here, won’t we Tanya?”

  “Yes, let’s get out of here,” Tanya agrees.

  “Good, that’s what I like to hear,” I tell the two women. “Let’s see if there is another way out of here, I don’t want to go back in the direction of that courtyard. Stay close.”

  I move towards the door on the opposite side of the room and quickly crack it open. Outside is another room, a small reception area and a set of stairs leading up on the far side of the room with another door at the bottom. The reception is clear, so I move out into it and see the main door on the left that must open onto the street.

  Moving over to the stairs, I point the M4 up the stairs and listen, but there is only silence. I debate whether to check behind the other door, but it is closed and so I decide to leave well enough alone.

  “Watch the stairs and that door while I check the front door,” I tell the two women, who nod, their eyes darting immediately in that direction.

  The front door is wooden, big, and solid, it won’t be kicked open easily. In fact, I see that it opens inward and so it won’t be kicked open at all. Positioned halfway up is a standard lever that can be opened from inside, but below the leaver is a deadbolt that can only be opened with a key. Shit, I think, the only way I am going to get this door open is to shoot the frame
away around the deadbolt, that is going to cause noise and it will take more than a couple of rounds to break it.

  The only other options are to look behind the door by the stairs or go out the way we came in, neither of which are good options. I decide to have a look to see what is in the next room and go over to the door by the stairs.

  My reluctance to open the door turns out to be unfounded. There is only another empty office behind the door, there is no exit though, unless we start climbing out of windows, which is not going to happen.

  That leaves me with either going back into the courtyard, where the two grenades have just exploded or dealing with the front door, which I decide is the best option.

  The frame next to the deadbolt splinters with a thud as the first bullet hits the wood, the shot is aimed high. The next three shots are aimed in a line down from the first shot and the frame next to the deadbolt is in tatters by the time I lower the M4.

  I approach the door in hope and reach up to the lever above the deadbolt. With the lever turned, I pull at the door, the sound of cracking wood accompanies the door opening slightly, but without enough leverage from just the lever the door holds. There is no door handle to pull on and so the only other place to grab hold of is through the letterbox.

  With my hand stuck through the letterbox, I turn the lever and yank at the door with all my weight. More wood splinters and suddenly, the frame gives way and the door jerks open. I catch myself and the door before it shoots open too wide, exposing us completely.

  “Well done,” Karen says from behind me.

  “Are you ready ladies?” I reply faking a smile.

  They are and I gradually increase the gap of the door so that I can get sight of the street outside.

  I don’t know why but the view I get surprises me, I was expecting to see a wide road with cars and shops. The view I get is a dim narrow road, completely overhung by tall office blocks only meters away on the opposite side of the road.

  Everything is quiet, even though the road leading up to the courtyard is just on the left, past the end of this building. I signal for Karen and Tanya to follow me out of the door, they do without question and we cross straight over the road taking cover in a doorway of the office block. A Rabid shriek echoes to us, bouncing off the buildings that reach straight up above us. I have trouble determining which direction the chilling noise sounded from, the echo seems to swirl around hitting us from every direction.

  Stood behind me in the doorway, Karen and Tanya wait patiently for me to decide when it is safe to move. The M4 searches the road for the source of the dreaded noise and then it finds it. From the left, a Rabid jogs towards us, heading in the direction of the courtyard we have just evacuated. The beast, attracted by the thunderous explosions, resembles a local resident out for a leisurely run through the streets of London, its jog is that casual. Only the inhuman way it moves gives its real motive away, and I get the Rabid in the M4’s sights.

  As soon as the creature is within my range, I squeeze the rifle’s trigger. The bullet explodes through the Rabid’s head, its exit trajectory speeding the bullet through a window in a building behind the creature. Crashing into the road, the Rabid is dead, but now, echoes of smashed glass fills the area and I know instantly that the noise, which continues to reverberate, is bound to call other creatures into our vicinity, we need to leave, and fast.

  “Move,” I order, just loud enough for the two women to hear.

  I don’t want to go anywhere near the courtyard and so I break left out of the doorway, in the opposite direction. Only a few meters down, a road intersects onto this one from the left, leading south. I come to a stop at the end of the office block, using it as cover to check the new road before I decide to use it.

  The road looks clear, and I turn onto it urgently in a hurry to get off this road and its echoes of smashing glass. Keeping low, we move down the road as rapidly as we can, the M4 out front, pointing our way.

  My nerves begin to shred, the road is long and even narrower than the one we have just left behind. On each side of the road, tall buildings hang over us like daemons, threatening to envelop us completely. The farther we travel down it, the narrower it becomes, and the light diminishes. My rifle swings from one threatening shadow to another, I expect each one to suddenly come alive and burst forward to attack.

  Yet another screech rings out from our near vicinity, but I have no idea from where. I steel a look behind, expecting to see a horde of zombies chasing down the road ready to pounce and to feed, but there is nothing there apart from the shadows we have already passed.

  To toy with us further, the road narrows again, into a single lane, the buildings on each side towering and almost within touching distance. An abandoned car blocks the throughway, cutting it down to a slim pavement on each side of the vehicle. Obviously, the driver chose to ignore the large painted words on the roadside stating, KEEP CLEAR. Fucking idiot, I think in my frustration as I choose the left side to squeeze past.

  With the car behind us, we finally approach the end of the eerie and claustrophobic road. Ahead, looks like a brighter and more open piece of London for us to tackle, with a wide road and lower buildings.

  Just as we are about to emerge, a creature careers around the corner only feet away and on a collision course to hit straight into me. Adrenaline and shock flood my bloodstream, the beast’s eyes wide in mirrored surprise.

  Gasps of terror and fear sound from behind me from both Karen and Tanya, a fear that also shoots through my body. Moments before the Rabid rams into us, its face changing from surprise to a terrifying joy unable to believe its luck, my finger manages to yank at the M4’s trigger.

  A single bullet spits out of the M4’s muzzle and by more luck than judgement it slams into the Rabid’s chest bone with a sickening thud, it’s face changes again as the force of the bullet knocks it skidding backwards, but not over and not dead. The couple of seconds of grace is enough for my wits to return and with the M4 pulled back firmly into my shoulder, I fire again.

  This bullet strikes dead centre in the Rabid’s forehead, killing the beast instantly. Only the fast-travelling contents of its head hit the ground before it does.

  I must force myself to not break into a run and not to stop until we reach the river. Instead, I move past the twisted body in front of us and take cover at the corner of the closest building to check our route forward.

  Directly in front of me is a smoggy main road, it is wide with two vehicle lanes and two cycle lanes, dismembered corpses litter the roadside, like leaves in Autumn and bullet holes pit mark the surroundings. I check left and right with my rifle and thankfully, there are no Rabids to be seen in either direction. Ahead of us, however, is another bloody building site, its perimeter a boarded wall cutting off a way forward. Only a zombie outbreak could have stopped the incessant rebuilding of London, I cannot think of anything else that could possibly stop the city’s unstoppable march of progress.

  To the left, the boards reach down to the next building along and join onto it. There is no way through in that direction, not without us having to go past the neighbouring building too, taking us away from our destination. I look right and I am relieved to see that the perimeter boards stop short of the next building, and there is at least a walkway and hopefully a road leading south. That is the direction we must go, but it is a good distance away.

  “Let’s go, stay close,” I tell Karen and Tanya as I step out.

  I stay right, not crossing the road, staying where there is some cover, even if it is only the side of an office block and the doorways cut into its stone façade. The other side of the road, with its boarding, devoid of any cover whatsoever.

  In the event, I don’t use any of the doorways, the way ahead is clear, so I keep going straight past them, skirting around fallen bodies, but eyeing them closely. Only when I reach the end of the office block which is directly opposite the route on the other side of the road, do I stop.

  A stone corner pillar marks
the end of the office block and I use it for cover while I scan the area before we cross the road. The area is quiet, too quiet but we cannot hang around waiting for something to happen, and with a quick signal to the women, we move.

  The wide main road feels incredibly exposed as we rush across, avoiding numerous corpses as we go. I feel sure that we will be seen by the undead and a screech will cry out at any moment. Nothing happens though and we quickly reach the other side. I only stop briefly to check the new road off to the left before we step on to it.

  We find ourselves on another narrow side street, but it is well lit due to the open building site adjacent to it. I proceed cautiously, slowing our pace right down as there are blind spots on either side of us, entrances into the building site on the left and into the multiple buildings on the right. The body count drops considerably on this side street, but they are still there to hamper our progress.

  “How much farther?” a voice whispers from behind me.

  I ignore the question as I see a flicker of movement ahead, down low, hidden in the shadow of one of the entrances into the building site. My rifles sights fix onto the threat, my body tensing. Slumped on the ground, its back resting on the board behind with its head flopped down, sits a figure.

  I am instantly reminded of the bullet I shot into the head of the man under the desk back in Cole & Co’s office. I almost wish I had gone back after the office was cleared to check to see if it was a Rabid I killed, or a man.

  That thought stops me from pulling the trigger of the M4 so readily this time, and I edge down the street closer to the forlorn figure, trying to figure out what I am dealing with. Each step brings a better view, but with its head facing down it is difficult to determine if the figure has turned.