Ben hit the sprinter full throttle and it flew off into a bush. Then he hit the pack and his speed pushed him through them before he reached the forecourt, hitting a parked car before he could stop. By the time he was stationary I had hit the brakes and was accelerating up towards him again. I still had two Zeds hanging onto the windscreen mesh but experience had given me confidence it would hold. Apart from having to try and look through and around them, I ignored them. Ben had the sense to stay put rather than reverse again, so I had room to hit the rest of the pack before coming to a halt twenty feet behind him, my two hitch hikers having been thrown off when one of the Zed’s I hit made it over the bonnet and hit them.
There were still about six standing Zeds and lots making varied attempts at getting up, but Esme, Chris, Izzy and Ben got out of the Q5, and I was close behind them. When the standing ones charged, Chris didn’t hesitate shooting them. He missed two, but we were ready for the rest. There were some who made it to their feet during the fight, but Chris made it easier by shooting most of them. Within a few breathless minutes we were done, and I was hugging Esme. She hugged me back, ‘It’s ok, it was always a risk and there will always be those risks, but we handled it. I’d say don’t tell Eve, but now isn’t the time to have secrets.’
Ben, Izzy and Chris watched while we hugged and whispered, and although they were used to us, they could tell something had changed. They couldn’t hide their concerned expressions. In a moment of unplanned pride I grabbed Esme’s hand and pulling her towards them I announced, ‘Esme’s pregnant and we’re still getting used to it, that’s why I was hesitant earlier, and that’s why I was more emotional than usual just now. I’d like her to live long enough to have the baby.’
Izzy had run to embrace Esme before I even finished the sentence. Ben smiled and offered me his hand and Chris just nodded, I returned both gestures. When Izzy retreated Esme threw me a look full of raised eyebrows and said, ‘I wasn’t planning on telling anyone else before telling Eve, so please let us do that before saying anything or acting weird. Right now we still have an appointment to keep and a garage to clean out, so let’s get on with it.’
The service station was an unexpectedly good haul, and not just for food, drink, and oil and stuff. Chris found a switch in a back office that turned on a back-up generator. He said, ‘It had never occurred to me until just now because we had never been in a gas station before. In several states in America where power outages are common due to hurricanes, backup generators are required by law. It looks like some gas stations here have them too.’
Esme kissed him on the cheek and I ignored the pang of jealousy. We filled every container we could find and brimmed the cars. It was an odd feeling being stood next to Lulu pumping the gas, and watching the meter turn to reach a price I had never even contemplated could exist with my old Corsa. Looking around at the dead bodies and having the sweet smell of rotting corpses in my nostrils brought me back to reality though. Just as I was finishing off I mumbled, more to myself than to anyone else, ‘We need to find a petrol tanker.’
Esme’s voice behind me startled me from my daze, ‘Now that would be sweet, and not out of the question. Fuel is important, so we should talk to everyone about it.’
Chapter Two – Ice Hockey
We made it to the bottom of the A19 without any further life threatening events. There were some blockages to clear and a few Zeds, but no trouble. We were starting to get nervous about who we were meeting. Although Mike had said they were ‘good people’, Esme set up with the sniper rifle on the flyover anyway, and Izzy stayed with her for support. Ben, Chris and I met the new arrivals and we all had side arms, though for Ben it was just for show as he’d never shot one.
The site that met us as the vehicles drove up the road towards us was immediately encouraging, but turned out to be a little deceptive. Initially, before I could stop myself, I cursed Mike for not saying more. What we saw were two large Unimog military troop transports. I think all of our hearts raced with the possibilities. The only thing that surprised me was that the back of the vehicles were only covered with tarpaulin or something.
The vehicles stopped thirty feet in front of us and the driver of the lead vehicle stepped out. I noticed he kept the engine running and the person in the passenger seat shuffled over and took the wheel. The person that got out was a little taller than me and wore military fatigues and a light brown military helmet. He appeared middle aged. He walked over, his eye’s scanning the horizon, and stopped ten feet in front of me.
I was the first to speak, ‘It’s ok, were friendly as long as you are. Mike said you were good people and I trusted him, but this is difficult for both of us. Sometimes I wish The Walking Dead had never been made, it doesn’t help.’
The man smiled at the reference and replied, ‘I know right, it wasn’t really my thing, but I watched a few because everyone railed about it. I don’t know about ‘good people’, but we’re friendly and smart enough to know that as things get harder numbers make us stronger. Isn’t Mike here?’
I caught my breath at the memory of Mike’s death and then the memory of what it felt like to hold him up for Dylan to shoot, ‘I’m afraid Mike’s dead. Not everyone out there is good and we had some trouble yesterday when they landed. We lost the captain too, both shot by a sniper. We dealt with it with only one other injury, but I’m not used to losing people. It was hard.’
The man sighed and replied, ‘I’m so sorry. Mike seemed nice and to lose your captain as well. We haven’t come across any other survivors, only Zed’s, and we haven’t lost anyone since the first two weeks. We’ve been lucky. Before you ask, I’m not military, none of us are, but we came across these vehicles two weeks ago and the gear fitted me. The black bags with all the standard gear were inside the troop carriers and luckily there must have been some fighting when it happened, so we managed to clear the remaining Zeds without too much trouble. We have four really good fighters with protective gear and weapons and I don’t think any of us would alive without them. I’m Donald by the way, and I suppose if you were going to shoot us you would have done so by now, so I suppose we should meet properly.’
Donald came over and shook my hand. As he did so the others got out of the trucks and turned the engines off. What got out of the back of the first truck was a bit of a revelation. There were four guys in full Ice hockey gear, helmets and pads, and they even had their sticks. It took a moment to process and unfortunately my mouth beat me to it. I said, ‘Now that’s fucking brilliant’, then I put my hand over my mouth and said, ‘Sorry.’
Donald smiled, ‘Mike said you were a little strange. It’s not brilliant because it’s not deliberate. They were on the flight we were on and had the gear with them. They’re not the smartest lot but the four of them have taken down a horde of fifteen Zeds almost single handed and their gear is awesome.’
Then I saw him look over my shoulder and he said, ‘You were being careful weren’t you. You have your own sniper?’
I blushed, ‘Sorry, life is so uncertain now. That’s Esme, she’s with me, and yes, she’s very good with a rifle. She’s also a third Dan in Taekwondo and could probably take down fifteen Zeds by herself if she got angry enough. Like you guys, I think we’d be dead without her. She’s taught us some basics and now the Zeds are smarter and faster it’s helped keep us alive.’
Over the next five minutes people introduced themselves. The hockey guys; Bob, Tom, Max and one who had taken the name Track, were all early twenties and build like brick outhouses. Their gear had tears and was covered in goo stains, as were their sticks. I genuinely couldn’t think of better protective gear to be fighting in if you were their size and relying on brute force rather than technique. There were only ten others apart from the hockey guys and they were a mixed bunch, but included a third year medical student called Mandy who was small and timid. It was a relief to meet her and even if she wasn’t fully trained, she had more potential than any of the rest of us. Apart from her, there were f
our other women and five other men.
To speed up the getting to know you process we did some swapping around of people in the vehicles on the way back. Donald came with us and Chris went in one of their trucks. The trucks were very basic and uncomfortable looking, but they were four wheel drive and the wheels and tyres were massive, even bigger than Lulu’s. The open backs were still a worry, but even though it would take some effort and we’d need to find some metal, I though Bill could probably make one secure. With several of our good vehicles shot up, they were certainly a boon.
When we were on the road I asked Donald how they had survived. He said, ‘We were all on a small city hopper flight and the radio tower went down mid-journey. The captain was young, for a captain, and really sensible. He did a low flyover the runways so we could see. It was horrid to see the carnage of planes that had landed and deployed their emergency slides, only for the people to get eaten by the massive horde at the airport. We had some fuel and the captain took charge, we all owe him our life. He landed on an open runway and of course we got swarmed with Zeds, but they couldn’t get to us and we confirmed what was going on. We picked up the repeating radio frequency and stayed where we were while the captain talked to us. There was only us and ten others on the flight and everyone was scared shitless, but the hockey guys just seemed to cope. We managed to get to the baggage without exiting the plane so they kitted up and we all found what we could for weapons, which wasn’t much.
Because the plane was a small jet the captain was able to drive it out of the airport through the fence, but the swarm followed us. The captain said he knew of a golf club nearby that shouldn’t be too busy. He drove the plane there destroying houses and the plane’s wings on the way. It’s a miracle the plane held up, but the captain kept it on the road and we managed to get to the golf club, losing the horde on a stretch of road before we did.
Eventually we had to get out and there were about thirty Zeds in the club house to deal with when we did. The hockey guys ploughed through them and saved most of us, but they couldn’t take them all and it’s a miracle one of them is still alive as he fell over and a load jumped on him. Their gear is life saving and he’d put on extra base layers so he never got bitten. We managed to kill them but that’s when we lost the others and the captain, and a couple to bites a few days later. The golf club had a good amount of supplies and one of the hockey guys said he played Zombie games. He said that the electricity and water would go off so we should fill everything we could with water. The club had a maintenance shed with tools and we made the club house secure. We found lots of golf clubs for initial weapons and keys to some nice cars on the bodies of the ones we killed; it wasn’t a cheap place.’
We were doing ok and we rationed ourselves. With the guys and a couple of big SUV’s we did enough scavenging to keep us going. We found the transport vehicles one day when we went a little further. It got harder as they got smarter and faster and we were starting to run low on food. We had been drinking from a lake for a while when we heard your plane, and we lit a fire we’d build in case something like that happened. Mike and the captain managed to land on a long fairway and you know the rest.
Esme returned the favour of telling our story. The aliens bit and the vaccination went down with the usual gawping, but Donald had more or less recovered by the time we got home.
We did one more petrol station on the way back and although it had a small horde, with all of us and the hockey guys, and no freaks, there was no drama. Watching the guys work was a thing of beauty. They were obviously very practiced at body slamming the Zeds, as they would on the rink, and they were all build for it. Esme’s technique couldn’t be argued with, but when you had the force and the padding, and knew how to use them, there was no doubt it was just as good. They lined up like a wall, with sticks in hand, and charged the pack. They each knocked at least two or three down as they hit. This caused general confusion and by the time the Zeds had worked out what had happened, they had killed one or two each and the rest of us did our thing too. Other than the hockey guys, only two men and one woman from their group chose to fight, most using tools or gardening tool shafts with nails in. To take on enough Zed’s to call a horde hand to hand and win without drama felt great and Esme was smiling as much as I was by the end.
I had more hope by the time we got back to base than I’d had in a long time. Even the thought of bringing a child into the fucked up world wasn’t quite as scary. The base greeted us with cheers and even Eve was stood outside holding onto Bill when we came through the gates, although I’m sure she had been told to stay in bed. There was no point in hiding it from the newcomers so Esme and I went to her immediately and there was hugging as kissing. I wasn’t aware either of us were acting strange, but after we’d greeted each other Eve said, ‘This is great but there’s something else, I can tell. Now take me back to the van, as this really hurts, and tell me what it is.’
We made our excuses and went back to the van, but not before Donald found us and said, ‘This place is fantastic, we were doing ok but we all knew it was only a matter of time, thanks so much for looking for us.’
Esme replied, ‘It’s ok, really, we were lacking good fighters and we can’t use ammo all the time. It’s getting harder and harder so you guys have rescued us as much as we have you. In truth, you guys will more than earn your keep and we didn’t have a doctor, or at least it won’t be long, so you guys are actually the best thing that’s happened to us since Brad brought us all here.’
Donald just nodded and smiled and walked off to talk to someone else. We got Eve back to the van and she was sweating by the time we got her lying down. She wasn’t in the mood for games and just said, ‘Just tell me, whatever it is we’ll deal with it, is one of you sick or something.’
I looked at Esme who smiled and shuffled close to sit by Eve making her wince a little. She said, ‘Not sick, but I may need a doctor soon, I’m pregnant.’
Eve was silent for a moment, then said ‘Fuck, that complicates things doesn’t it.’ Looking between us she added, ‘I won’t lie, I’m not happy, or sad, or angry, and I feel an idiot for being surprised, but I know you’re happy and that’s what counts. I know you love kids and you know I’m not so keen. I ensured it would never be a problem for me a while ago. Well, speak one of you, I’m starting to struggle here.’
Esme leaned over and kissed her, ‘It’s ok. I’m happy, Brad’s getting used to the idea, and we have a doctor now, which will help. I know it’s complicated, and there are risks, but I want this and in the future we might need it. He or she’s going to be the best damn Zombie killer the world has ever seen.’ Then she paused and added, ‘Or, if Gary’s vision of them all becoming Talkers and getting themselves back comes true, he or she will be the Zombie human ambassador and will bring peace and prosperity to all. Either way he or she’s going to be fucking brilliant like Brad, smart like me, and you’re going keep him or her grounded and sane and secretly love them with all your heart.’
To my amazement, and perhaps it was the painkillers, Eve teared up for a moment and choking on her words she replied, ‘Ok, I can live with that, now come her both of you but don’t squeeze too hard.’
So that was that, Eve knew the truth, and we had new survivors, and new hope.
Chapter Three – Doctor, Doctor.
We joined everyone for supper and there were a few fresh salad leaves from the garden, which was nice. We heard that while we were gone a group went out and found some solar panels, and that the two electricians thought they could hook them up. When Bill told us I raised my eye brows and he said, ‘You can’t do it all, or even keep an eye on it all anymore. They were careful and we had a plan. Me and Mutt went with them and it was fine. We drove around and found a few more, and we’ll be going out again tomorrow to get them, it’s important.’
I smiled and nodded and I was genuinely pleased people had started to scavenge without us, we were going to need it. After supper and lots of getting to know each ot
her, the general hubbub died down and Ben stood up. It was nice someone else was doing some talking, but I felt a pang of jealously none the less. He said, ‘Yesterday we had a plan to split up and occupy the factory, but things didn’t go that way. It was a good plan, and although we lost people, it’s still a good plan. We’ll have to re-arrange the convoy and move the damaged vehicles outside, but I think we should move tomorrow.’
Then Ben looked at me and it was my turn. I stood up, ‘Ben’s right. We have to keep moving forwards for the safety of us all. We lost people and we’ll lose others, and hopefully find others, but unless we have a plan, it will all be for nothing. We’re down some vehicles and the rig, so I suggest the move goes ahead as planned but some of us go along too. While you guys are moving we can scout the area for vehicles and check for nearby hordes.’
‘If we’re going to be moving furniture as we’ll have to find a van of some sort, preferably with a tail lift. I also think that taking mattresses from the vans to sleep on sounds uncomfortable, and a waste of time to cart there and back. The rest of our job tomorrow, while the others secure and move into the factory, will be to find a van and hit one of the bed shops on the estate. It might be an apocalypse, and we’re all probably going to die at some point, but personally I’d like to do it with a good night’s sleep.’
The joke produced the right amount of giggles and, unexpectedly, Donald stood up. He said, ‘I just wanted to say on behalf of all of us newcomers that this place is great and that you guys are amazing. What you’ve learnt and achieved is amazing. We were starting to lose hope and we’d already lost purpose, but now we have it again. Just tell us what we can do and we’ll get it done.’
Zed Days (Book 3): Zed Days III Page 2