The one in the cab pulled on the rim of a battered trilby hat. 'So you'd be the feller wot stole our van,' he said.
Chapter 7: Bad Boys
'We didn't steal it, we were kidnapped,' Steve said.
The youth in the cab got down and peered into Steve and Alex's faces, then he turned to his mates and laughed. Then he rounded on Steve, saying, 'You don't look very kidnapped to me, Sonny Jim.'
'We've only just managed to get free. They were holding us in there.' Steve pointed at the building they'd left five minutes ago. 'After a while they left us and cleared off.'
'Very convenient.'
'Sid, p'raps that was the copter we 'eard goin' off.'
Steve looked at Alex. 'So that's where they went.'
'Where who went, Sonny Jim?'
'Guys in black masks and one in military uniform.'
'Oh give it rest!' The one called Sid said, leaning against the cab, laughing. 'There's no-one around her like that.'
'It's true!' Alex said, 'Look, they had us tied up.' She held out her wrists to show where the cable tie had left marks on them.
'Listen, missy, I don't care what kinky goings-on you and your boyfriend have been up to in there.' He paused for his mates to enjoy the joke. 'But our van was took and just now and you,' Sid poked Steve in the chest, 'was going to get right back in it, weren't you?'
'We have to get to our hotel,' Alex said.
'Yes, my mum will be going spare.'
'Oh, the hotel! His mummy will be going spare!' Sid mimicked their voices to the great amusement of himself and his friends.
'You don't understand,' Alex said vehemently. 'We've been brought here from Kilkorne, in Cornwall.'
'Kilkorne?' Sid said, backing into the cab. 'Wot, that place in the news?'
'Yes, where the zombies attacked a couple of days ago.'
'That's it, we…'
Steve was interrupted when one of the accomplices found his voice, 'Sid, Bert, they're freakin' zombies.' Even in the semi-darkness, his face showed white through the dirt.
'We got to get out of here,' the third one said, running around to the other side of the van.
'Get in,' Sid said to his mates, starting the engine and reversing it out of the street. The other two jumped aboard as it backed round the corner and roared off into the night.
'Looks like we've got a long walk, then.' Steve said, taking Alex's hand.
'You think it's safe walking about out here?' Alex said, casting nervous glances up and down the main road.
There was no sign of the van, other than a pair of skid marks, where Sid had floored the accelerator, and the fading smell of exhaust. Silence alone appeared to lurk in the shadows of shop doorways and the road seemed deserted.
'I don't know but it appears we only have to say either 'Kilkorne' or 'zombies' and we'll be OK.'
Alex smiled. 'Alright, Mr Clever, which way do we go?'
'When they brought us here, the van lurched right just before it stopped in the side street, so this way,' Steve pointed to the left.
Setting off in reasonable spirits, they took the road back towards the hotel, relieved that the van had gone in the opposite direction. At first they walked along the pavement, close to the shops, feeling that if necessary, they could dodge into one of the darkened recesses to keep out of sight. Some of the street lights were still operating, while others were smashed and their eyes soon became accustomed to the dim light. Even so, there were frequent obstacles, where shops had been looted and debris left where they fell.
There were also black wells of shadow and it wasn't long before the pair became aware of rustlings and movement around them. Steve picked up a stone and threw it through the smashed window of a shoe shop. They heard it smack into the back wall and roll across the floor, to the accompaniment of a squeak and frantic scratching.
'Steve!'
'Perhaps it's best to ignore them.'
'Rats?' Alex shuddered and gripped Steve's arm.
'I'm hoping that's all it is.'
'Can't be zombies, they'd have been on us straight away.'
'At least there's that. Come on, let's walk in the middle of the road, there's less rubbish there and we're not exactly about to be mown down in the rush of traffic.'
A hundred yards further on, Steve picked up a length of piping. 'I'm not much for weapons but somehow I feel better holding this.'
'We could perhaps pick up the pace a bit, too.' Alex shivered. 'This place gives me the creeps, the noises, everything wrecked up and half the street lights out.'
Steve wasn't about to argue with that and they set off at a fast walk.
After another few hundred yards, a voice spoke quietly but distinctly from a deep shadow on the right, 'That's not going to help you, matey.'
Steve raised his length of pipe and looked behind to see three kids of a similar age, all dressed in black, all looking underfed and not unlike the three with the van.
'Run,' Steve said, pulling Alex forward but then having to stop when two more kids stepped out a half dozen yards ahead.
'Well, well, well. What's a nicely turned out pair like you doing out at this time of night?' said the one who had spoken from the shadows.
'Look, we don't want any trouble,' Alex said. 'We just want to get home.'
'Where's home, then darlin'?'
'Mile or two down that way,' Steve said, avoiding mentioning the hotel this time and nodding in the direction they'd been travelling.
'Oh, up the posh end.' The lad chuckled. 'You don't want to be caught hanging about here, there's bad boys around here.'
'Let's have yer money.' One of the other lads said. 'Posh folk like you always have money.'
'Yeah, give us your dosh and we promise not to 'urt you,' said one of the boys in a sneery tone.
'Just cough up yer dough and we won't give you no grief.'
'Look,' Alex said, 'we've had enough of this! We've escaped from a load of zombies, been kidnapped and some guys took our van, so if you wouldn't mind...'
'We don't have any money, either,' Steve said.
'Phones, watches, we don't care, whatever you've got.'
'And there'll be soldiers out looking for us,' Alex said.
'Hold up, hold up,' the first lad said, raising a fist at the side of his head. 'What's that about zombies? You seen 'em? Round here?'
'Orrible things,' one of the others said. 'Don't want none of them on our patch.'
'We've seen real zombies alright,' Alex said, 'Close up, too.'
Steve noticed that the two lads in front of them had retreated several steps towards the shadows, leaving what he hoped was a big enough gap.
'You've got TV?' Alex said.
'Course we got TV, who do think we are?' The boys edged closer to each other and further away from Alex and Steve.
In Alex's mind, somewhere behind the fear, she smiled to herself at the thought that in a Britain ravaged by zombies, even the rough kids on the block still watched TV.
'Well, we've come from Kilkorne. That village in the news, where the latest rampage was.'
'You mean the breakout… where they all legged-it from that Breathdeep place?'
'Yeah! We saw loads of zombies, right in our school,' Alex said in a menacing tone Steve had never heard her use before. 'We squished 'em, too.' Alex took a step towards the boys. 'Squished 'em dead! Real zombie blood and goo and everything.'
Steve saw a look of horror spread across the boys' faces and they backed away even further.
'Go!' Steve said, grabbing Alex's arm and setting off at a run. He threw his pipe at the nearer of the two lads and then ran as fast as he could, Alex alongside him. For a few seconds they heard the boys running after them, then a pebble hit Alex in the back and she glimpsed round to see the boys had stopped and were picking up stones to throw at them. 'Steve, quick!' she shrieked, dodging from side to side.
Chapter 8: Weirdos
They kept running, until they were out of range of the stones and the boys had vani
shed a long way behind. Finally, Steve called a halt at a crossroads. A cracked sign above a newsagent's shop did the job of the defunct street light.
'Alex, stop!' he gasped. 'I want some puff left… in case we meet any more of them.'
'We can't be anywhere near the hotel yet. It's no good stopping.'
'What those last guys said.' Steve patted all his pockets while Alex gave him a curious look. 'Phones, Alex. I guess I've lost mine or left it in the hotel…'
'Oh, I must have a screw loose! Mine's in my pocket.'
'Well, no-one's given us much chance to stop and think.'
Alex dialled a number which was answered within one ring.
'Mrs Reynolds?'
'Yes. Yes, Steve's here with me… No, they drove about ten minutes down the road, held us for a while, then just left. Oh, of course. We're at…' she beckoned at Steve to call out the street names.
'That's it. We'll be coming back down the main road. Please, tell them to hurry up.'
'OK. Yes, Mrs Reynolds, he's right here.'
Alex passed the phone to Steve. 'Yes, mum, of course we're OK. No, we won't go anywhere else.'
Alex couldn't hear what Steve's mum said but she guessed it was some "I'm your mother and I'm worried" kind of deal.
'Just send the army guys, there's weirdos all over the place. They've tried to rob us once already. Alright, I've got to go now.' He hit the 'end call' button and gave the phone back to Alex.
'Oh, that'll have reassured her!' Alex said.
'What do you mean?' He seemed genuinely puzzled.
'You're nearly as big a numbskull as I am.'
'Really? Steve smiled. 'At least I didn't forget I had a phone.'
'I can't believe you told your mum there are weirdos out here and that they tried to rob us.'
'Well there are, and they did!'
'Yes, but you can't tell your mum that and just switch the phone off. She'll be worried half to death!'
'Didn't she say the soldiers were coming to meet us?'
'Yes but…'
'So, they'll be here in a minute.'
'Shh, I can hear something.'
'Probably rats again.'
'No, listen.'
The sound of a vehicle being driven at speed grew in volume.
'The soldiers,' Alex grinned. 'That was quick!'
'No, wrong direction. That's coming from behind us. Get in the shop, now.'
Steve ran in through the open door of the shop and tripped over something wet and soggy, banging his head on the counter. Alex grabbed the half dazed Steve by his jacket, dragging him into the back of the shop, doing her best to ignore the sound of scurrying rats.
The van they'd been kidnapped in drove up and stopped at the crossroads. Alex heard a number of adult voices, arguing over which way to go. It was obvious from the London accents it wasn't the men who'd kidnapped them, neither was it the youths who took the van. She shuddered in fear as someone stepped into the front of the shop.
'What if they heard us coming?'
'What if they did?'
'They might have ducked in a shop, that's what.'
Alex was kneeling on the floor behind the counter, Steve's head in her lap. She glanced down at his face as a man shone a light around the shop. Steve's eyes were half-closed and Alex held her breath, terrified he would move or make a noise.
'Come on out kids.' The voice by the door said in a patronising tone. 'We're only trying to help you.'
'Like hell!' Alex thought, her whole body stiff with fear.
'They in there?' a different voice said from outside.
'Nah, doubt they'd come in here,' the first man said, knocking papers and empty cans around with his foot. 'Looks a right rat's nest.'
'Try the next one, then.'
Alex listened intently while the men looked in several more shops on either side of the road. She heard them crashing around, the sound of breaking glass and splintering wood.
'What are you doing, bustin' in there?'
'They might of got in an' then locked the door.'
'Don't be daft. We'd have seen a light.'
'Light?'
'Would you go in there without a torch?'
Something small ran across Alex's hand. She had to bury her face in her sleeve to stop herself from screaming.
'It's got to be worth our while if we can grab 'em.'
'Didn't your lad say they looked a right pair of toffs?'
'Yeah, there's got to be someone who'd pay to get 'em back.'
'But we can't grab 'em if we can't find 'em.'
'Any sign over there?'
'Nah, they must have kept on running.'
'Come on then, back in the van. If we carry on, we'll catch 'em.'
Alex heard the men slamming the van doors. A couple of seconds later, it passed the shop and kept on going.
'Steve? Are you alright?'
'Think so. I was pretty much out of it for a minute or two. Then I heard the voices and thought I'd better keep quiet.'
'Good move, they were after a reward for finding us.'
Steve caught hold of the counter and pulled himself up. 'I can't imagine what I tripped on.'
'I can but I'd rather not.'
Alex crept to the door of the shop and looked out, almost tripping herself over what turned out to be a rain-sodden, rucked up section of carpet. Brushing herself down, she shivered at the thought of the horrors lurking where they'd been hiding. She peered round the corner, still able to hear the van. Steve joined her in time for them both to hear a squealing of brakes, then more screeching of tires and the sound of an engine being pushed to the limit. Seconds later, a pair of headlights reappeared, bobbing and lurching as the van swerved to avoid potholes and rubbish in the road. Another set of lights rounded a corner behind it, bigger and brighter.
Alex strained to see as the vehicles got closer, tugging at Steve's jacket. 'It's…'
'Yes, it's an armoured car chasing the van back this way.'
The van whistled past but the armoured car stopped at the cross-roads, the sound of its engine reverberating off the walls of the deserted street. Alex and Steve hung back, waiting to see what would happen. Two soldiers jumped out of the cab and one of them fired a volley of shots over the roof of the van. 'Don't reckon they'll be back in a hurry,' he said.
The other soldier shone a torch at the street names and then spoke to someone else inside the cab, 'Sarge, we're here.'
Alex stepped out of the shop doorway, causing the soldier to swing his gun in her direction. Steve moved in front of her, raising his hands and saying, 'Don't shoot, it's us.'
Chapter 9: Decisions
When Alex and Steve arrived at the hotel, they found all except the main doors had been boarded up and there were twice as many soldiers milling around. Once they'd had a minute or two to get cleaned up and changed out of their ratty clothes, they were taken straight into the bar to meet the others and tell their side of the story.
Later the same evening, a report came through that the Minister for Home Affairs had been taken into custody that morning and a number of his associates were rounded up by late afternoon. The announcement led to general rejoicing. It wasn't until much later, when Alex was tucked up in bed trying to go to sleep, that she remembered about the virus having been stolen.
A quite different group, however, had no such lapse of memory: Professor Albert Mason, Commander Douglas Hodgeson, the Home Secretary and the Foreign Secretary met with the Prime Minister to discuss the implications of the day's events.
'So far, no foreign power has admitted stealing the virus,' the PM said.
'And we haven't broached the subject either?' Commander Hodgeson said.
The foreign secretary looked taken aback. 'Certainly not.'
'We can't just ignore the fact,' Professor Mason countered. 'Sooner or later someone is going to use that virus on someone else.'
'I have to admit, this is the last thing I expected, after our borders were shut from the outside.'
'Making it absolutely clear that no-one would be getting either into or out of the UK.'
The PM wrinkled his nose. 'This all has the smell of an inside job.'
'No-one would be mad enough to do that, surely!'
'The guys who took the virus were mad enough and I very strongly suspect they had help,' Douglas Hodgeson said.
'I reckon we only need one guess who'd plan an operation like this. And he probably made a fat profit out of it, too.'
'The Minister for Home Affairs won't be making a profit out of anything now he's behind bars.'
'Bail is out of the question,' the PM said. 'With any luck we can make a charge of treason stick on this one.'
'Hear, hear!'
The PM rapped on the table. 'Getting down to serious business, can the virus be weaponised?' he said.
'Of course. That's exactly what that fool Smith designed it for. Multiply it up and then disperse as a fine spray or powder.'
'In military terms, I'd say if it's easily weaponised, we're into worst case scenario territory.'
'And that is?' the PM said.
'Zombification of whole cities world-wide.'
'Mason, how long will it take to make sufficient quantity for any sort of weapon?'
'To make enough to infect a city the size of Manchester, say, several weeks. That is if you wanted to infect the whole city at the same time.'
'What would they need to do that?'
'If they don't mind being turned into zombies themselves, an airing cupboard and some wine-making equipment. If they want to do the job properly, a secure lab with all the equipment we have at Breathdeep.'
'So,' Commander Hodgeson said, 'a reckless terror operation on one hand or a ruthless foreign power on the other.'
'You say 'foreign', I take it you're counting the Americans out of this?'
'American government wouldn't have done this, as for American right wing extremists, there's always a few of those around.'
'The kids who were kidnapped; what do we have from them.'
'They didn't recognise the language but thought it wasn't European,' Professor Mason said. 'The ones who came to Breathdeep were in the same category.'
British Zombie Breakout (Book 3) Page 3