The Left Series (Book 4): Left In The Cold

by Christian Fletcher

  “I’ve no shotgun cartridges left,” Alex screamed, before he head butted the closest zombie to him. “I need some more ammo.”

  “I have nae,” Davie barked and fired off a couple more rounds.

  Alex roared and hurled one of the flaming Scotch bottles into the center of the zombie crowd. The bottle smashed and flames exploded into the Great Hall. The whole room lit up with a flare of orange and stunk of burning alcohol. A few zombies screeched as they went up in flames and one burning creature fell backwards into the fireplace beside me. The ghoul’s alcohol soaked body ignited the fire’s flames and the blaze licked at the rugs on the wooden floorboards. Alex continued to bellow in defiance and launched his remaining bottle between the undead in front of him. The flames roared upwards in a sudden whoosh and the whole room was quickly ablaze. The old wooden floorboards and wood paneling around the walls seemed to absorb and suck in the growing fire.

  I swapped the M-16 for the M-9 handgun, slinging the rifle to my back. I fired two rounds at a couple of burning zombies staggering towards me. Alex pulled the shotgun from the case on his back and began swatting the flaming undead with the butt, like a club. The fire spread throughout the Great Hall, the heat became unbearable and the flames licked the furniture and the staircase carpet. I was going to have to spring from my hiding place if I wanted to survive. I guessed the flames and confusion would help mask my exit route from Davie’s view up on the balcony.

  The passageway leading to the back entrance stood around twenty yards from my position. Twenty yards didn’t seem like much of a distance but I was surrounded by hungry zombies, a raging fire and had a blood thirsty gunman to contend with.

  My eyes stung and tears rolled down my cheeks. I coughed and retched, the smoke was becoming unbearable. Alex obviously also decided he had to get out of the room. He swung the shotgun around his head and backed up towards the passageway. The zombies surrounding him grasped at his clothing. I could see he was surrounded and fired off a couple of shots, trying to clear a path for him. Two more burning ghouls came at me and I had to switch my aim. I fired twice and the attacking zombies went down.

  A male ghoul, who smoldered in the heat, grabbed Alex from behind and bit into the nape of his neck. Alex screamed in pain and rocked his head backwards. The zombies closed in and pulled him down to the floor. The flames burnt around the huddle of undead but the scorching heat didn’t deter them. Rotten hands pulled and tore at Alex’s flesh, ripping into his guts and biting into his face. The flames engulfed the tangled mass of feeding bodies and I lost sight of Alex but could still hear his agonized screams.

  “Alex…Alex? Are you all right?” Davie yelled from the balcony. His view was obviously obscured by the smoke and flames and he hadn’t seen Alex go down.

  I had to make a run for it immediately; I couldn’t delay my exit any longer. I crouched down, focusing on the passageway on the opposite side of the room. Sweat ran down my back and chest and ran from my face in streams. I broke from my cover, sprinting across the floor space and dodging between the burning zombies like a wide receiver in a game of American Football.

  Davie saw me bolt from my hiding place and fired off a burst at me. I heard the rounds thud into the burning floorboards behind me and I twisted and fired off a few shots with my handgun, trying to give myself some cover and enough time to reach the passageway. My shots went way too high, dislodging the plaster above Davie’s head. I saw him instinctively duck down, the M-16 jerked awkwardly in his hands and the barrel pointed towards the ceiling. I was going to make it to the passageway. It would only take me a few more seconds before I’d bundle through that narrow corridor.

  I was too busy focusing on Davie on the balcony and the corridor entrance to notice a burning hand, trailing across the floor as I moved by the zombies feeding on Alex’s corpse. The hand clasped around my right ankle, the bony fingers digging into my flesh. My momentum caused my body to keep going forward and my legs to stay still. I tumbled onto the floorboards, with flames roaring all around me. The jarring motion of the fall caused me to drop the M-9 and the gun slid away from me. I cried out in pain as the rucksack strap dug into my wounded shoulder.

  I lay on the floor for a second, realizing I had to get myself together. I felt the heat of the flames wrap around me as I kicked out at the grasping hand around my ankle. The ghoul pulled himself across the floor, using my leg as leverage. The smoldering hairless head, moved closer to my leg. The zombie’s skin on his face blistered and pulsed under the heat. I twisted around and kicked out, catching the ghoul underneath the chin with the toe of my left boot. The creature’s head rocked back and I jammed the heel of my left foot down on its wrist of the hand that gripped my right ankle. I heard a snapping sound as the bones broke in the zombie’s arm. Shuffling backwards in a sitting position, I kicked the creeping zombie away from me.

  I frantically searched around the floor for my handgun but saw it was right in the center of a cluster of flames, a few feet to my right. I tried to retrieve it but the flames were too damn hot, stinging my fingers as I dabbed my hand into the fire.

  “Time to die, motherfucker,” Davie roared from the balcony.

  I glanced upward and saw him aiming the M-16 directly at my head.

  Chapter Fifty

  I should have tried to get to my feet or roll over to get out of the line of fire. But I didn’t. I sat frozen in the same spot, amongst the flames gazing up at Davie, waiting to be shot in the head. My life didn’t flash before me nor did I see jerky images of my past life. I simply felt nothing, almost a calmness.

  Davie was so consumed with his burning desire to shoot me dead, he didn’t notice the three zombies closing in on him on the balcony. Two of the undead approached him from his left side and one from the right. I think it was the first time since the apocalypse that I’d been glad to see some zombies. His smug grin immediately slipped from his face when the ghouls grabbed hold of him from each side. Davie fired the M-16 but the rounds went high above my head and off to my right. He struggled against the zombie’s clutches but couldn’t prevent the third one from tearing the band aid off his cheek and biting into the bloody wound. Davie screamed as he wrestled with the three zombies but they took more bites out of his face and neck.

  A burning sensation shook me from watching the bizarre scene on the balcony and I looked down to see my combat fatigues smoldering with a few small flames flapping around my shins. I flapped at the flames with my arm but the sleeve of my parker jacket only also caught fire.

  “Shit,” I roared, trying to scrabble to my feet.

  A flaming ghoul hissed at me as I stood up. The undead woman was only a few inches away from me and more closed in. I shoved the burning woman away from me, aware my clothing was smoking and smoldering and burning in places. The floorboards gave way beneath my left foot and I nearly fell again. I regained my footing and stumbled towards the passageway. More ghouls tried to grab me as I headed for the corridor. An arch of flames burned around the entranceway and the heat was becoming overbearing.

  I ducked down and rushed for the corridor, smacking away burning, grasping hands as I moved. The air in the corridor was cooler but was heavily fogged by choking smoke. I coughed violently and walked into a wall as the corridor dog legged. I couldn’t see where I was supposed to be heading in the darkness and I held my hand over my mouth and nose, in an attempt to filter away some of the smoke. Three zombies followed me into the corridor, reaching out with their arms ablaze. Their burning bodies lit up the passageway slightly and I saw the path right-angled to my right.

  I quickly fished around in my jacket pocket and pulled out my flashlight. The zombies staggered closer but they were the least of my worries. I turned and rushed along the corridor, not recognizing the route at all. A blast of cold air rushed against my face and I hoped I was heading in the right direction. I was disorientated and I could only see about two feet in front of me with the light from the flashlight. The hazy smog drifted through the whole corrid
or, sucked towards the fresh air from outside. Cordoba and the others must have left the back door open when they exited the building, which was acting like a huge extraction fan. At least they’d made it outside.

  I leaned into the wall, sliding along it as I stumbled forward. The zombies still moaned behind me, burning but still in pursuit. My clothing still smoldered but the flames seemed to have gone out when I flapped at them.

  I glanced into empty, dark rooms either side of the corridor, checking to see if any zombies were poised to spring out on me, not to mention Maddie. I was still unsure of her whereabouts and wouldn’t put it past her to attempt a last ditch attack. The corridor dog legged to the left and I finally saw the rear entrance, leading out to the courtyard. The door stood wide open and smoke billowed out into the night. I felt the rush of cold air from outside and it cooled the sweat running down my face.

  I hurried outside and immediately slowly lay down and rolled in the snow, cooling my body and my smoldering clothing. I heard moans and groans from across the courtyard and shone the flashlight around. A bunch of undead lurched out of the darkness into the light beam and I saw the rear gate had also been left open. Maybe Cordoba and the others had thought leaving all the access doors open would help me escape but in reality, it had turned out to be a hindrance. More zombies from outside the castle grounds bundled through the open gate and lurched across the courtyard towards the castle.

  A few zombies had spotted me and stumbled in my direction. I hauled myself up, put the flashlight back in my jacket pocket and pulled the rifle off my shoulder. I changed the magazine as I knew I didn’t have many rounds left in the old one. My goal now was to get by the zombies in the courtyard and make it to the golf clubhouse, to meet up with the others.

  The M-16 was still in ‘single shot’ mode and I knew I was going to have to pick my shots carefully. Every round had to count as a kill shot if I was going to get out of that gateway. Reloading magazines was going to be time consuming and awkward in the darkness. The full moon provided just enough light to see what I was doing I couldn’t allow the undead to get too close.

  Walking towards the gate at a brisk pace, I held the rifle to my shoulder and aimed at the approaching zombie’s heads. I fired at each one when they were around six feet away from me, checking behind me every couple of seconds to make sure I wasn’t being surrounded. I only took out the zombies directly in front of me, clearing a path to the gateway.

  I must have fired at least twenty shots by the time I stepped through the entranceway in the castle’s outer wall. How different the circumstances were when Batfish and I had been saved by Alex and entered the castle grounds through the same gateway a couple of days earlier. As usual, the situation had rapidly deteriorated into total chaos. Maybe we were simply cursed by bad fortune. Was it the ultimate penalty we paid for remaining alive, when so many had already perished? Perhaps we were destined to suffer because we weren’t supposed to survive. Maybe Mother Nature purged the planet of the human race for a purpose and she was doing her best to ensure the remaining few didn’t start repopulating again.

  The rear castle perimeter wall cast me in dark shadow as I moved out of the grounds. I turned right and kept moving at a speedy pace, not wanting the zombies in the courtyard behind me to catch me up. I had to pull out my flashlight again to see where the hell I was going. It wasn’t ideal as the light would act like a beacon to the zombies still milling around behind the castle. My M-16 didn’t have a flashlight attachment so holding both the flashlight and the rifle in each hand would affect my aim.

  Luckily for me, most of the undead had thinned in number around the back of the castle grounds and I guessed most of them had found their way into the perimeter by now. A couple of stragglers loomed into my path but I quickly dispatched them with carefully aimed headshots. I had to stop and fire, resting the M-16 barrel on my left forearm whilst shining the flashlight at the target.

  I turned the corner around the castle wall and the landscape fanned out in a large expanse of white snow across the ground. I moved away from the confining shadows of the wall and turned out the flashlight. The golf clubhouse was visible in the distance and I started a slow jog towards it. The odd zombie stumbled around in the snow, making their way to the front of the castle but I easily evaded their clutches. I sincerely hoped the others had made it to the clubhouse and hadn’t seen any evidence to prove otherwise. I hadn’t seen any huddles of zombies feeding over human remains or any blood stains in the snow.

  I bounded through the drifts, desperate to rest and drink some water to quench my thirst and relieve my parched, smoke-dried throat.

  The clubhouse was only around fifty yards away when I heard a shout behind me. I turned around but couldn’t see anybody at first. The fire inside the castle continued to rage through the interior and the orange glow lit up the night sky as the flames spread throughout the building. I saw smoke billowing from the tower windows and from under the roof tiles.

  A female figure emerged from a small clump of trees between the castle and where I stood. It wasn’t Cordoba, Batfish or Wingate. It was Maddie. The last surviving member of our enemy. I raised my M-16 and aimed straight at her chest. I wasn’t taking any chances. She raised her hands to show she was unarmed and started walking through the snow towards me.

  “Thank God you made it out of there alive, Brett,” she called out.

  I scanned the landscape and a few straggling zombies lumbered in our direction but they were far enough away not to cause a problem. Most of the undead were either inside the castle or shuffled towards the open entrance, seemingly captivated by the light of the flames spreading rapidly through the building.

  “That fire is going to burn the castle to the ground and all those zombies in there…shit, it’s a miracle we survived,” she said, shaking her head as she approached me.

  I warily watched her come closer. She had a beaming smile on her face as though we were old friends meeting up after a long absence. The girl was very strange and the previous altercation seemed to have slipped her mind. I debated whether to simply shoot her or let her approach.

  “Ah, Brett, I’m so glad we both survived,” she sighed. “I’m so looking forward to our future together.”

  The woman was delusional. All her recent activities seemed to be lost and forgotten about in her warped mind.

  “It’s not going to happen, Maddie,” I shouted. “We’re never going to be a couple and we’re not going to live happily ever after, so forget it.”

  “Oh, don’t be like that, Brett,” she sighed. “I was waiting here for you. Let’s put the past behind us and carry on as if nothing happened, eh?”

  I laughed incredulously, spitting out a smoke ridden taste in my mouth. “You got to be shitting me.” She seemed to think I was just going to forget about her murderous ways and we were going to skip off together into the snowy hills.

  “Ever since you came to the castle, I can’t stop thinking about you,” she gushed.

  I couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger of my rifle, even though a voice in my head and every instinct in my body told me to do so. Maddie came closer and slowed when she was around ten feet away from me. She smiled at me and I lowered my rifle.

  “What do you want from me, Maddie?” I asked, sighing in frustration after I spoke. “I can’t be the person you want me to be and I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you.”

  “I’ll change, Brett,” she whispered. “I know you’re the one for me. You’re the man I’ve been searching for all my life.”

  She was talking complete bullshit and I should’ve shot her there and then. Morality stopped me from doing the deed. I knew Smith wouldn’t have so many hesitations. However much I tried to be like him, we just weren’t cut from the same cloth.

  Maddie moved closer, within a few inches from me and pushed the top of my M-16 so the barrel was pointing at the ground. She leaned forward and kissed me on the lips and she tasted of wine and sweetness. In another time a
nd a different situation, I would have definitely fallen head over heels for her. She was somehow captivating and magnetic. I didn’t know how she had this particular hold on me. Maybe I was so mentally lost and lonely, I’d have the hots for any good looking woman.

  She drew back and looked me straight in the eyes. I returned her gaze, staring into her pale blue eyes, brilliantly illuminated by the full moon. My breathing increased rapidly and I felt like a high school kid on his first date. What the hell was I doing? I knew I was playing with fire but I couldn’t help myself.

  “I want us to start a new life together, Brett,” Maddie whispered. “We can go anywhere or do anything. I don’t care as long as we’re together.”

  She’d probably used that line countless times with other poor suckers who fell for her bullshit. I was another one of those jerks who stood there and sucked it all up. The scenario seemed kind of romantic. The burning castle behind us, the snow, the full moon – I felt like I was in some sort of cheap, trashy daytime TV movie. I knew it was wrong but I felt powerless to resist her.

  “We can spend the rest of our lives together,” she murmured. “Till death do us part.”

  Her last words sent a chill down my spine and I remembered what a manipulative, psychotic freak she was. She’d chopped my friend Gera to pieces for no good reason other than he’d swapped rooms with my casual girlfriend. She’d murdered her tour manager in America, slaughtered her own band, blown Mrs McMahon’s head off and would have killed me without a second thought when the tables were turned against her. I came to my senses and pushed her away from me.

  “It just ‘aint going to happen, Maddie. Forget it,” I spat. “It ends here and now.”

  Her face crumpled almost immediately and I recognized the demonic expression of rage and betrayal that engulfed her features. She’d pulled a similar face when we were back in the dining room during our gun totting stand-off. The look still sent a shiver down my spine, even though she was unarmed.