Annaliese shook her head and began crying. Nick could see that the threat would not work on her, would not make her give up, but it was upsetting her a great deal. It upset him, too.
“You’ll kill them anyway,” she shouted back. “So don’t take me for a fool.”
“That’s the last thing I take you for,” said Shawcross. “You’re a smart, rational person, so if you come out peacefully, I will rethink things and let you live.”
“Whether I live or die is not your choice, Shawcross. You are not God.”
There was laughter from outside. “No, you’re right. I am not God. God is impotent. God is idle. God is inaction. I am better than Him. I am ambition. I am leadership. I am survival. I am-”
“You are batshit crazy,” Nick shouted. “That’s what you are. Nothing but a run-of-the-mill nutcase with delusions of grandeur and a messiah complex. You’re a fucking cliché, mate.”
“Ah, Nick. Is that you? I take it that our darling, sweet Anna has released you from your penance? Just another transgression that she will later come to regret.”
He’s talking like a raving lunatic. I must have damaged his brain when I punched him.
“Just give this up, Shawcross,” Nick shouted over the bar. “You’re not hurting anybody else tonight.”
“I beg to differ.”
There was silence for a while. Nick again made eye contact with Annaliese as the two of them tried to figure out what was happening outside.
I don’t like this. We need to see what’s going on.
Eve moved away from her position by the soda fountain and came and joined him at the bar. “Do you smell that?” she said.
Nick could indeed smell it. Petrol had begun pouring through the open window, pooling on the wooden floor of the restaurant.
Pauline and Cassie realised what was happening and looked at Nick with fear in their eyes.
“Come out,” Shawcross demanded. “Or I’ll burn you out.”
“No,” said Nick. “You won’t.”
“Do not test my resolve.”
“You won’t do it,” said Nick. “Because if you do, you’ll be as screwed as we are.”
“And why is that?” Shawcross shouted from outside.
“Because you’ve seen as well as I have that fire attracts them. You set fire to this restaurant and you bring a shitload of death up that hill. The dead and infected would be up here within the hour. Not to mention the fact you could end up incinerating the whole park.”
There was silence outside. Nick knew that, of all things, Shawcross was a careful man. He was a planner above all else. He was not about to set fire to one of his biggest assets.
“I think you need to find a plan b,” said Nick. “And if it involves you coming anywhere near us, I’m going to kill you. Understood?”
“You’ll regret this, Nick.”
“Not before you do.”
There were sounds of discussion coming from outside, heated and irritable. It was obvious that they had been forced to rethink.
“What do you think they’re doing?” Eve asked him.
He shrugged. “I don’t know, but we’re sitting ducks in here. Sooner or later they’ll come up with a plan to get us out, or kill us where we stand.”
“What do you suggest?”
Nick thought about it for a moment. “I think we should leave here. But on our terms, not theirs.”
Annaliese headed over and Cassie and Pauline took suit and followed after her. They all huddled behind the bar.
“What do you mean we should leave?” Annaliese said. “Aren’t we safe in here?”
“Yeah, for now. But eventually they’ll come up with something smarter. All we’re doing at the moment is giving them time to think. I say we hit back now when they least expect it.”
“Oh, bloody hell,” said Pauline. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Me either,” said Cassie.
“And you’re right not to like the sound of it. It’s dangerous and could get us killed. But what choice do we have? They put us in this position. Are we going to let them win? After surviving for this long, after all that we’ve been through, are we really going to let an arrogant pig like Shawcross determine out fate?”
“Hell fucking no,” said Eve.
“Maybe we should just surrender,” said Cassie. “They haven’t tried to hurt me or Pauline. Eve might be safe as well.”
Nick shook his head. “You can do whatever you want Cassie. No one is forcing you to do anything. But Dash might do if you join up with them. Remember when Dash tried to force you to do things that you didn’t want to do?”
Cassie’s eyes brimmed with tears in the candlelight. “That’s not fair.”
“No it’s not, and neither is you refusing to pick a side. It’s time for you to shit or get off the pot, Cassie. You have to pick a side, right now: go out and join them or stay here with us. Once you pick, though, that’s it. No more playing it safe. This is about survival – not just about tonight, but for whatever comes next. It’s time to evolve, people.”
Cassie wavered for a moment, turning towards the window and then back towards Nick. Eventually she sighed, her shoulders dropping. “Okay, I’m with you guys.”
“Glad to have you,” said Nick.
“So how do we get out there without them seeing us?” Annaliese asked. “If we try to funnel out the window they’ll pick us off easy.”
Nick rubbed his forehead and formulated a plan quickly. “We deal with Shawcross the same way we dealt with those brain dead zombies at the bottom of the hill,” he said. “We distract him.”
Chapter Forty
Twenty minutes later, Nick watched Annaliese stroll over to the middle of the room and crouch down beside the severed orang-utan head. It was a tragic thing that even the park’s animals had been dragged into Shawcross’s megalomania.
“We’ll make him pay for Lily,” Nick said as he knelt down beside Annaliese. He rubbed her shoulders.
“No need,” Annaliese told him. “This isn’t Lily.”
“What? It’s an orang-utan, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but it’s not her. This is Brick.”
Nick frowned. “Brick?”
“Lily’s mate. He died when all this started. “They obviously cut off his head to mess with me; make me think it was Lily.”
Nick straightened up and sighed. “Shawcross has lost his mind. What is he even fighting for?”
“The self-esteem he’s always lacked,” Annaliese said, straightening up beside him. “He was a worthless little wretch before all this. This is his chance to finally be somebody. He’s starting as he means to go on. Power is not given, it is taken. That’s truer now than it’s ever been.”
“Then I guess it’s time to go to war,” said Nick. “We’re all clear on the plan? Does anybody need to go over it again?”
Everybody said, “No.” Renee just shook his head.
Nick got a good grip on the replica rifle with the nail in the end and took a deep breath. “Let’s do this, then.”
Renee handed Nick the bundle of keys he had found days ago beneath the bar. Nick was counting on one of the keys unlocking the hatch in the cellar. The rear of the building led out into a fenced-off yard that had not been barricaded or even paid much mind. It had been secure when the group arrived so there had been no need to alter it; which was why Nick was sure that it would offer a clear route out of the building without Shawcross seeing.
He bid the others goodbye and headed back down into the cellar. Draped over a two-wheeled keg trolley was his black woollen jacket. He tugged it on and pulled it over his shoulders. It would help him blend in with the night. Heart beating fast, he climbed up the rear stairs and came up against the horizontal hatch. He examined the steel lock that fixed the door to the frame and then looked at the keys in his hand. There was a medium-length key that seemed to be made of a similar tarnished-grey metal as the hatch. He singled it out and inserted it into the lock. It was a relief w
hen it turned easily.
Let’s hope the rest of the plan goes as easily.
Nick moved his hands about the hatch, trying to figure out it’s workings without making too much noise. He discovered that it slid upwards on railings and he gently eased it back on its moorings.
The hatch was open. He climbed through.
The night seemed to flood over Nick like a living creature, a cold black mollusc clinging to his skin.
Glad I remembered my jacket, he thought as he climbed out into the fenced-off yard of the restaurant. He searched around and located a large, industrial wheelie bin. It was the perfect height for helping him over the fence. He quickly climbed on top of it, then eased himself up and over the top of the nearest fence. He dropped down on the other side and winced as his feet struck the unforgiving pavement.
I’m going to need a new pair of ankles after all this.
He was at the side of the restaurant towards the rear. He could hear Shawcross and his cronies conspiring nearby, but they were out of sight, which hopefully meant that so was he.
Got to keep it down.
He crept away from the voices and headed around the back of the building. If his plan was going to work then he needed to put some distance between him and Shawcross before things played out.
Coming up on his left was the park’s rollercoaster, the Hood. Its walled-off surroundings would provide good cover for what he was about to do. There was a heavy bin nearby and Nick ran towards it. He hefted his foot in the air and knocked it clean over. The lid came loose and spun across the pavement. It made an almighty clatter.
“Shit!” Nick shouted. “Come on, they’ll hear us. Run!”
He quickly hopped over the waist high fence that surrounded the queuing area for the Hood and then crouched down beneath the elevated steel tracks.
“They’ve escaped,” Shawcross shouted in the distance. “Come on, I hear them over there.”
Nick hid behind a support pillar and listened to the footfalls of his pursuers get nearer.
“You’re a dead man,” Dash shouted. It really was him. Somehow he had survived being pushed out of a cable car hundreds of feet above the ground.
“You’re supposed to be the dead man,” Nick shouted back. “I watched you die, blud.”
“Can’t kill me, gangster. I took that fall like it was nothing. Hit a dozen branches on the way down, but I walked that shit off. I lost my eye, though, and somebody needs to pay for that. You tell Jan he’s got it coming, too.”
Jan isn’t with them? Then where the hell is he?
“He’s inside the rollercoaster enclosure,” Shawcross said. “The others must be with him somewhere.”
Nick grinned. That’s right, you arrogant fool. That’s what I want you to think. Keep looking forward while a speeding truck comes up behind you.
He had to keep them distracted.
“Hey, Dash. When I’m through with you this time, you’ll stay dead.”
Dash sucked his teeth, the sound cutting through the air. “Come on down, then, hard man. Let’s see what you got?”
Nick laughed. “While I’m outnumbered? Don’t think so. When I take you down, it’s going to be just you and me.”
“What do you mean…outnumbered?” Shawcross asked.
Nick bit on his fist. Shit! I think I just blew it.
There was a moment of silence and then Shawcross started shouting. “He’s not with the others. He’s just distracting us. Come on, back to the restaurant.”
Nick had to do something; had to make up for his mistake. He shot out from behind the support pillar and scrambled back towards the queue barricade. He hopped over it mid-run and made a beeline for Shawcross. Dash was standing right beside him and so was Alan. The mystery of whether or not Michelle was with them was also solved. She most certainly was.
Stupid cow.
Michelle saw Nick running at them and shouted out a warning to her cohorts. Alan leapt out to block him, but Nick was having none of it. He swung his rifle like a bat and clubbed Alan around the top of his head. The older man staggered backwards and hit the ground in a daze.
One down!
Before Nick had time to prepare his next swing, Dash smacked him around the head with a shovel. Everything went black for a moment and then he found himself on the floor, staring up at the stars.
Dash loomed into view, looking down on him. “I’m not impressed, blud. I thought you was gonna take me out?”
Nick turned his head to the side and spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground. He felt a tooth come loose. “If not in this life then the next, I promise you that, blud”
Dash laughed and raised the shovel up above Nick’s neck, ready to take his head off. Nick closed his eyes and waited.
“Get it over with,” Shawcross said. “Kill him.”
Dash nodded and then looked down at Nick with a smirk on his face. “Say night, night, Honky.”
Thump!
Dash staggered sideways and tripped over Nick’s prone body. Just when he had expected to feel the bite of the sharp edge of the shovel, something had happened. Something had stopped Dash from delivering his killing blow.
Somebody saved me?
Nick sat up in a daze to find Jan holding out a hand to him. “Get up, brother. Looks like you’re having a party, but no one invited me to dance.”
Nick took Jan’s hand and leapt to his feet. He was dizzy from the blow to the head, but he was ready for a fight.
Bring it the fuck on.
Dash scrambled to his feet. There was a screwdriver sticking out of his left arm and he had dropped his shovel to the ground.
“Are my eyes deceiving me?” Jan asked. “Or is that ugly, one-eyed motherfucker Dash?”
“It’s him,” said Nick. “He survived the fall.”
“Survived so I could take you gangsters out,” Dash said making a grab for the shovel.
Nick tried to stop him, but was too late. Dash picked up the weapon and raised it over his head. He didn’t come at them, though. Instead he made a run for it, heading straight past Shawcross and into the shadows.
Alan had gotten up of the floor, too, and was backed up against Shawcross and Michelle. The three of them stood together in a triangle, clutching weapons – shovels, spades, and pitchforks – as they waited for Nick and Jan to attack them.
Nick picked up his replica rifle from the floor, but didn’t point it at them. Instead he held up his hand. “Just give it up, guys. It’s over.”
“Nothing is over,” said Shawcross. “There are three of us and only two of you.”
“Maybe,” said Nick, his words slightly slurred as his mouth started to swell. “But I think Jan counts as two, so we’re evenly matched. No one else needs to get hurt here.”
“I beg to differ. Give up now while you still have the chance. We outnumber you.”
“Actually you don’t,” said Annaliese, coming up from the direction of the restaurant. Pauline, Cassie, and Eve were with her. And so was Renee. They all carried weapons and were clearly ready to use them. “I think you’ll find that you’re the ones who are outnumbered and, after the day I’ve had, I’m quite happy to kill you all on the spot.”
“That’s right,” said Nick. “I don’t think the Geneva Convention exists anymore, so if you want to be treated like human beings, I suggest that you put down your weapons and start behaving like one.”
There was a standoff for a moment, the air tense and vibrating. Then Michelle and Alan threw down their weapons and put their hands above their head. Shawcross, however, kept a firm grip on his pitchfork.
“Give it up, Shawcross,” Annaliese said. “Michelle, Alan, grab a hold of him, will you?”
Michelle and Alan turned around anxiously and looked at their former leader. “Come on, mate,” said Alan, reaching for the pitchfork. “Just give up.”
“Get off me,” Shawcross growled. He shoved the pitchfork at Alan and buried it in his belly.
Nick’s mouth opened but no words c
ame out.
Alan rocked backwards, clutching his torso as it begun to bleed. Michelle screamed as her friend’s bodily fluids spurted out onto the pavement. She reached for the pitchfork and yanked it free, but that only seemed to make the bleeding worse. Alan fell down onto his side and let out a gurgling moan.
Shawcross took off like a lightning bolt, taking advantage of the chaos he had caused. Nick gave chase, along with Jan and Renee. Annaliese and the others stayed put, tended to Alan.
We can’t let that weasel get away.
Shawcross headed off towards the front of the park. Nick did his best to keep up. The wishy-washy feeling inside his skull prevented him from running full speed and Jan, being the size he was, wasn’t the greatest sprinter. If they were not careful they were going to lose Shawcross into the night.
Then they’ll be no hope of catching him.
“Bleeder’s fast,” said Jan, sweating despite the cold.
“You’re telling me. Probably because he’s been eating better than all the rest of us.”
He’s probably been controlling the supplies and rations secretly for months.
They chased Shawcross around the front of the park’s office block and past the open doors of the warehouse. Beyond was Ripley Hall.
“He’s heading for the house,” said Nick.
“Isn’t it full of infected?”
Nick slowed down. “Yeah, it is. Who knows what he’s up to.”
Jan slowed down to a jog and then a lolloping walk. “He’s got no place else to go then. Let’s not corner him into doing anything stupid.”
Nick didn’t like increasing Shawcross’s chances of running away, but he was too out of breath to keep running so fast anyway. Against his better judgement, he allowed himself to slow down. “Where were you, anyway, man?” Nick asked Jan. “You saved my ass back there in the nick of time.”
“A man spends long enough in a prison, he starts to appreciate solitude. I was just walking in the woods, enjoying the quiet.”
“I understand what you mean,” said Renee.
Jan looked at his fellow prisoner, dumbfounded. “You…you talk?”
Ravage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel Page 33