by Smith, I. J.
She approached Jack, “We’re ready!” Clare told him.
“You’re in charge!” Jack told her, as he pulled a knife from his vest and gave it to her.
“For protection!” Jack smiled.
Clare threw her arms around him, “Thank you!” she whispered in his ear, as she pulled away, she kissed him on the cheek.
He then helped the kids out the window and down to the ground. Elle was talking to Frank. “I know what you have to do, I can’t keep up!” she told him.
Frank took her hand and pulled her up to her feet. “It never crossed my mind to leave you behind!” Frank replied.
“Jack will be helping you!” he told her. “NO! He will get himself killed trying to help me!” she replied.
Frank smiled and looked her straight in the eyes, “We both know, Jack would fight the devil himself to save you, and my money is always going to be on Jack!” he reassured her. She smiled and with his help walked towards the window.
Jack now had everyone else out. “Frank, your turn!” Jack told him. The heavy doors started cracking even more; they only had moments until the zombies made it into the room.
Frank started to climb out of the window; he turned back to Jack, “Good luck!” Frank told him, knowing he had the toughest task again, he continued to talk, “Look, I may not get a chance later, but thanks! You’re the reason we’re still alive!”
Jack touched Frank’s chest, “Give me a kiss later,” Jack smiled as he replied.
Frank jumped down, “Bray, take your group and move!” he told him.
Bray looked up at Jack; he gave a thumb up to him, a sign of respect for his friend who he did not think he would see again. Bray took his group and moved away.
“Elle, your turn!” Jack told her.
He took Elle’s hand and helped her out the window, “You should leave me!” she told him.
“Never!” he replied.
He then helped her down, as he let go of her; the door started to crack open.
“Shit!” Jack whispered he knew the zombies would follow them.
“WAIT THERE!” he shouted down to Elle and Frank.
Jack looked around the room, a fire extinguisher hung on the wall, “My old friend,” he said to himself. He ran to the extinguisher and placed it in front of the door. Jack being close to it; made the zombies go crazy. The zombies banged harder against the door and groaned louder and louder.
He ran back to the window, took out his side arm, as he aimed his gun; one of the doors smashed open. Jack fired at the extinguisher and it exploded; the force of it pushed Jack out of the window, he hit the ground hard. “That really hurt!” he muttered.
Frank helped him up, “You’re crazy!” Frank told him.
“You need to go, now!” Jack replied.
Frank looked at Elle and then back to Jack, “I want to see you both at MI6!” Frank ordered them. He gathered his group and moved away in an opposite direction than Bray.
Jack and Elle stood alone, “Just you and me!” Elle told him. He walked over and helped Elle by taking her arm and placing it around his shoulder. They started to move. As they walked away, zombies started to appear; falling out the window. Their bodies splattered over the concrete, but nothing could stop them getting up to follow the living.
CHAPTER SEVEN
SEPARATE JOURNEYS
An explosion echoed throughout the streets, Bray turned to look towards the sound; it was obvious to him it came from the museum they had just escaped from. Bray wanted to go back and check on his friends, but he had the responsibility of a group of survivors and the kids to think about first.
Bray was leading the group down a long street, cars were abandoned, shops had been looted and bloodstains decorated the ground.
Walking along the street, Bray with his rifle held high, noticed that Clare had caught up to him. “Where are we going?” she asked.
Bray replied, “Somewhere safe, we will be meeting the others there.”
Clare looked back at the group following behind them; there were seven kids and four adult survivors. As they walked further along the street, Bray saw a body lying in the street, it had been torn apart, the flesh eaten away, as he watched the body raised its head, he could see no flesh on its face, and the skull bones could be clearly seen. Bray stopped, looking at the body as it was attempting to drag itself towards him and his group.
Clare started to back up in fear, “We need to go, please I want to go!” she told Bray.
He looked at Clare and could see how scared she was. “Let’s get moving!” he replied.
Before they could move on quickly, a survivor ran over to the zombie that was dragging itself on the ground. The woman started hitting the zombie with a crowbar; she screamed and cried as its blood flowed. Bray ran over to her, he grabbed her round the waist and carried her away.
She struggled the entire way. “Calm down, please!” Bray asked her.
She started to cry uncontrollably, Bray let her go.
“What’s your name?” he asked. “Zo... Zo...Zoe!” she stuttered.
Bray looked at her, noticing her red hair, pale complexion and that she was in need of a good meal. Bray knew the survivors had been abused by their captors, but had no idea what had happened to her. He then noticed a scar on her hand.
“Zoe, I cannot imagine what they did to you, but they cannot hurt you now, but we need to keep moving!” Bray told her, as he gently touched her arm.
Zoe pushed his hand away in anger, “I don’t trust you!” she told him abruptly.
Bray stepped back, “Fair enough, but we do need to move!” he replied.
“Hey, they saved us! We would still be in that place if not for them!” Clare told her angrily.
Zoe turned to Clare, “They work for the government that left us here!” Zoe told her, while growing angrier.
Clare was getting more and angry also, “You bitch!” she shouted at Zoe.
Before Zoe could respond, the kids in the group started screaming. A group of zombies had appeared from an alleyway and were walking towards them.
Bray shouted, “This way!”
As the group ran past him, Bray moved towards the zombies raising his rifle, he was about to shoot them, when a car rushed past him and drove into the zombies.
One zombie was pulled under the car and dragged under the wheels.
The zombie was crushed under the weight of the car. The zombies that were just hit and pushed aside by the car, started to get back to their feet. Bray opened fire, and he finished off the still moving zombies. The car door opened, getting out the car was a familiar face.
Zoe walked towards Bray, as she walked past him she said to him, “I am never a victim that needs to be saved!”
Bray sighed and turned to rejoin the others. Zoe walked on ahead by herself; Clare was back taking care of the kids. The survivors looked more scared than ever.
“This is going to be a long trip!” Bray whispered under his breath as he walked on.
Frank was leading his half of the group towards the Thames, he planned to follow the waterfront and travel straight to the MI6 building.
Ryan was very quiet; he had not spoken since Jack hit him. Frank was surprised by how quiet it was around them, he was expecting much more zombie activity than what he had seen.
Frank decided to try to make peace with Ryan; he moved towards him, “Ryan, how are you holding up?” Frank asked him.
Ryan looked at Frank in surprise, “What rank is Jack?” He demanded to know; instead of answering the question.
With a look of surprise on his face, Frank asked, “Why?”
“When we get to safety, I will be reporting him for striking a fellow soldier!” Ryan told a shocked Frank.
“Are you fucking kidding me? He saved your ass and you want to report him?” Frank snapped at him.
“He had no right to hit me!” Ryan replied angrily.
Frank grabbed Ryan’s arm, forcing him to stop walking, “He hit you because you w
ere leading the zombies directly toward the other survivors!” Frank told him abruptly.
“That is no excuse, I was unarmed and could not fight them off!” he simply replied.
Frank looked at Ryan angrily, “No, you are just a fucking coward, and you’re lucky he stopped with just punching you. I would have killed you, you chicken shit!” Frank told him and walked away.
Frank took the lead again, they were approaching a bridge, and he could see that there was a roadblock in place at the bridge entrance. Army vehicles were scattered around the area.
Frank looked around and knew that at some point, the military had tried to make a stand here and was obviously overrun. There were huge metal storage containers on the grass by the entrance to the bridge. Frank was guessing, but assumed that they had used them in an attempt to stop the dead crossing the bridge. Frank turned back to the group. “Everyone, look around and see if there is anything we can use as weapons and any ammunition that is still here, they may have left something useful to us behind!” He told them.
Frank was now standing in front of the bridge, he stepped on something metal, he looked down to see rounds of spent ammunition, there were hundreds scattered all over the ground.
Frank looked down at them, sadly thinking of the soldiers who were trying to fight to save people. He could almost hear the screams of the soldiers that died here trying to save lives.
Frank looked at his group, they had collected a fair amount of ammunition already; he then noticed Ryan walking towards the storage containers.
Ryan went to open the door of one container, Frank could see blood on the ground near the containers, and as Ryan took hold of the bar and started to pull open the metal door.
“STOP!” Frank shouted at Ryan.
As he turned to look Frank, the door was suddenly pushed open, dozens of zombies starting tumbling out of the container. Ryan ran away as fast as he could. Frank raised his rifle and started shooting, but there were too many. He had taken a few down, but they were getting closer.
“MOVE!” he shouted to the group.
Frank ran to join the group; Ryan was already back with them. The survivors had found a few weapons; Frank took a weapon from a young woman and handed it to Ryan, “FIGHT, THAT’S AN ORDER!” Frank shouted at him.
Frank moved towards the zombies and continued shooting, he ran out of ammo and needed to reload, he shouted back to Ryan, “COVER ME!”
Ryan raised the rifle; he started to move towards the zombies, he was shaking. Then Ryan freaked out and dropped the gun and started running away leaving Frank alone in the fight.
Frank rushed to reload his gun, “I wish Jack was here!” he whispered.
Finishing loading his gun, Frank went to shoot towards the zombies, but one of them had caught up to him. It lunged to bite him and Frank was knocked over, on the ground Frank was trying to fight off the zombie.
Going through Frank’s mind, were thoughts that he was screwed. That in a matter of seconds the rest of the zombies would be on him. As he tried to push a zombie off of him, suddenly someone hit it in the head with a metal bar, blood sprayed all over Frank, but the zombie was finally, really dead.
Frank looked up to see the survivors standing there, with the weapons they found and the tools they took from the museum. Two men ran into the rest of the zombies, one with a hammer in hand the other with a crowbar; they went in swinging, cracking skulls and smashing the brains of all they, they could.
The survivors still with Frank raised the rifles; they had found and started shooting. They were not expert marksmen, but they did the job and saved the day. With all the zombies down, Frank looked at the group, “Thank you!” he told them with gratitude in his voice.
A young man with a hammer in his hand replied to Frank, “You saved us, so we fight with you!”
Ryan walked slowly back to the group, everyone looked at him in disgust. Frank picked up the rifle Ryan had dropped. He walked over to Ryan. Frank looked at him angrily, and he put the gun back into Ryan’s hands.
Then, without warning, Frank threw a punch straight into Ryan’s jaw. Ryan hit the ground hard. He was about to raise the rifle, still in his hands, when the survivors joined Frank and stood over Ryan, all of them staring down at him.
He lowered the gun. “Report me for that!” Frank told him angrily.
Turning away from Ryan, Frank spoke to the group, “OK, we’re not far from our destination, God willing, we will meet up with the others there, let’s go!”
They all started to walk with Frank; Ryan was left on the ground as everyone walked past him, looking down at him in disgust.
The rotting zombies’ corpses gave chase to the living, Jack was helping Elle walk to keep ahead of the zombies. Her arm still round his shoulders, Jack held her with one hand and held a sidearm in the other hand. Elle glanced behind her, “There’s more of them!” she told Jack.
“Don’t look, just keep moving!” he told her.
Elle was starting to struggle more, “We need to find somewhere safe to fix you up!” Jack told her.
“We can’t stop, I’ll be fine!” she tried to reassure him.
“You don’t get a vote!” he replied.
“First, I need to deal with our stalkers,” he told her.
They moved around a corner, there was a row of shops on one side, looking at the shops, he could see that one was a pharmacy. “There, that is what we need!” he said, pointing at the shop.
They came to a stop, he let go of Elle and handed her his gun, “No, you need it!” she tried telling him, but he was not taking any notice.
“Stay here!” he told her, she leaned against the wall.
She watched as Jack turned towards the zombies heading towards them. As he walked towards them, he picked up a metal pipe that was lying on the ground. He moved toward them faster, swinging the pipe at the first zombie that came into his reach. He swung the pipe directly into its head. As the pipe bashed against the skull of the zombie a loud cracking, noise echoed out.
The side of the zombie’s head caved in, blood and puss flowed out and the zombie hit the ground. Jack stomped on its head just to make sure it was dead for good. Three more zombies approached him, he swung the pipe again, it hit one of them in the head, but the zombie kept coming, the other two were fast approaching.
Jack kicked the zombie in the stomach, forcing it backwards; he hit the zombie on the top of the head this time. The pipe embedded itself in its skull, the zombie hit the ground dead. The other two zombies were now right on top of Jack, he pulled his knife from his vest, and he forced the blade directly into one of the zombie’s head. The last zombie grabbed Jack’s arm, as it was about to bite Jack’s arm a gunshot sounded out, the zombie’s head burst open when the bullet hit it.
Jack turned to see Elle holding the gun he gave her, “Nice shot!” Jack laughed.
Elle lowered the gun, “I am full of hidden talents!” She said and smiled. Jack walked over to Elle and once again helped her walk.
They headed for the pharmacy; they arrived at the door, and Jack noticed the glass was reinforced.
“Shit!” he whispered.
“We should just carry on to the rendezvous,” Elle said to him.
Jack looked at the front of the building, looking up above the sign he could see a window open, right next to the window, there was a drainpipe running up the wall. “Right, I’m going up. If anything, that looks like a zombie approaches you, don’t hesitate, just start shooting!” he told her.
Elle looked at him concerned, “Jack, I...” Jack interrupted her.
“I will see you in one minute!” he told her with a smile.
Jack grabbed onto the drainpipe and climbed up the wall, Elle watched as he reached out to the window ledge, taking a firm grip and pulled himself over to the window, as he stepped onto the ledge part of the brickwork broke away and he almost fell.
Elle gasped in fear, “Jack!” she whispered.
Jack caught himself and made his way
inside the building. Jack found he was in a stock room, and there was nothing there but boxes. He walked out the room and straight down the stairs, entering the back of the shop, he could hear a familiar groaning. A sound Jack was now getting used to, he looked round the shop, in the back was a big table. From a dark corner there it was, a zombie walking towards him, it was wearing a long white coat, and had name badge.
Jack looked at the badge reading the name, “Harry, sorry about this!” He told him as he stabbed his knife into the zombie’s head.
Elle looked through the window; at Jack as he killed the zombie. She knocked on the glass, Jack rushed to the door and unlocked it, and letting her in, relocking it once she was safely inside.
He helped her to the table at the back of the shop. He lifted her up onto the table; she blushed as he put her down. “OK, we need to look at that ankle!” he told her.
“Well, let me apologize for any smell,” she laughed. Jack laughed back, as he untied her black boot; he pulled it off her foot gently and then removed her sock.
He held her foot in his hands, he moved it around and she winced in pain, he touched the top of her foot and then rubbed her ankle, Elle started feeling warm, in a way she was starting to be turned on by Jack’s touch. She felt awkward, so she just kept smiling.
“Good news, it’s not broken, looks like the muscle is badly bruised,” he told her.
Jack let go of her foot and looked at the shelves around them, he was looking for painkillers, and he found a bottle of them, also found bandages and tape.
He opened the bottle of painkillers, “Here, take these, they are Zapain, so they will help with the pain,” He told her. He started to bandage her ankle, “I need to make this tight, but I promise it will help!” he reassured her.
“How do you know about first aid?” she asked him.
He smiled, “I’ve had a little training,” he replied.
“From your mysterious past,” she joked. Jack did not answer; instead he just smiled and carried on with bandaging her ankle. Elle knew he was always uncomfortable when people mentioned his past.