Clifton Falls

by L A Taylor

  Karen got back up off the grass. “Are you bloody mental? You could’ve crushed my feet with that rock.”

  “And here’s me thinking you were going to say ‘thank you’,” Todd replied.

  Karen broke down in tears so he gave her a much needed hug. “Why didn’t you use the phone when I left you?”

  “I was too scared. I thought it was another one of those things from the graveyard and I didn’t want it to see the light,” a sobbing Karen replied.

  She would’ve searched for her shoes if she hadn’t been shaking too much from the recent encounter with the latest version of a dead thing come back to life. Todd offered to find them, but Karen just wanted to keep moving.

  THIRTY-ONE

  Toby had lost a considerable amount of blood by the time Mike and his crew arrived. There was no supply of fresh fluid to put back into the young man’s shivering, aching, and dying body. Mike witnessed for himself the tragic incident as the recent information George gave about Toby’s attacker rang alarm bells inside his ears.

  “Jesus, George. I wasn’t expecting Toby to be as bad as this,” he said, as his torch shone over the body of the gruesome corpse lying on the ground. “How many zombies did this to him again?”

  There was no need for George to reply. Mike had already made up his mind on the subject. He was furious to see the outcome of events leading up to the freakish attack. He had never lost it with George before, he’d no need to, but now couldn’t help himself from giving George grief. Kevin was way too busy to lend a hand of support, but even if he did, George wouldn’t accept it. He knew he’d fucked up big time. Mike was right. George knew he should’ve kept an eye on both lads and not been so quick to play the hero.

  Toby’s eyes opened and closed at an increasing rate, as all signs of life slowly drifted out of him. His frozen pupils were now glued onto a figure as he floated in and out of consciousness. Kevin turned away so as not to see his friend breath in the last few ounces of breathe from the atmosphere, but could still hear gasping sounds struggling to snatch some air.

  Mike looked at the blood drenched, sobbing, living recruit. He knew this could easily break the young man so decided to tread carefully when speaking to him during this period. “Best if you left him now. You’ve done all you can for him.”

  Kevin detached himself from the dead body, removed his uniform jacket and placed it over the deeply scarred, bloodstained face of his academy friend. Chris and Simon remained speechless during all of this. It was all too much for Simon and he collapsed in a heap, crying the same heartbreaking and sole destroying tears as Kevin was doing. Chris stood in the background, writing the events up in his notepad. If he didn’t survive this night then somebody out there would find the truth in his writing and hopefully inform the right authorities of what these brave people had accomplished.

  Mike needed to select his men for destination caravan watch, but one of them would have to remain there. He turned and spoke to George. “What’s done is done. We can’t change that, but I need you to stay here with Toby.” George watched his chief’s movements, but somehow knew there was more to come. “When he wakes again, shoot him in the head.”

  George wasn’t expecting those comforting words. His first thought, considering why he was the chosen one, was aimed at a punishment level, but after more serious attention realized that it had to be him because of his age.

  Mike led the way down the hill, closely followed by the other men. He could easily have left Chris with George but wanted to keep a close eye on him. He wasn’t going to trust the reporter for quite some time after the hospital incident, even though he said he did.

  Kevin spotted a recent victim’s body move along the ground upon nearing the scared residents, and without hesitating made sure the chief knew about it. The four humans watched the movements of the fifth figure as it walked the lonely walk of a newborn zombie.

  “Do you want me to kill it?” Kevin begged the chief.

  Mike thought the same as George did on this subject. In his eyes he thought Kevin had lost the plot.

  “Be my guest, hotshot,” Mike replied, smirking.

  Kevin went through the same routine as earlier, but the only

  difference needed was the final outcome. George watched with admiration of the guts the young man showed, and hoped the shooter had learnt something from the previous attempt. Everyone focused on the zombie as it frantically searched for other, un-dead hunters.

  Kevin’s gun fired again. The bullet may’ve been too fast for the eye to see, but the sudden collapse of the creature had everyone applauding with delight. Kevin had regained his form of being the hottest shooter at the academy. It was a shame that it’d dipped earlier, but he didn’t need reminding of that. He turned, looking at George as he stood at the top of the nearby hill. A tiny smile passed between them; this was their private moment and none of the others had a right to interrupt it. Mike was impressed and said: “Jesus, kid, that was some shot.”

  No matter how exciting this moment was, it couldn’t erase the past. Another gaze passed from Kevin to George, but this look wasn’t for the old man to keep, this split second, emotional viewing needed sending to the dead friend. George acknowledged the request of a final goodbye and did it.

  The lighting from the mobile homes sent massive beams across the area as the men entered the village. A caravan door opened and the residents made their way out. Diane rushed over, spilling the beans on the terrifying and sickening experience. “My husband and some of his friends have been attacked by…” She couldn’t think of a word to describe what she saw. “I don’t know what they were, but they attacked us. What’s going on? What are those things?”

  “I would tell you if I knew the answer, but I can tell you this,” Mike said, as the group gathered around to listen to his account of how, for some reason, dead people had risen from the ground to spread their infection to the living.

  Listening to his words, Diane realized that the attack on one of their group was a bad sign. “My husband’s in another caravan with an injured man,” she said, pointing at the large, mobile home.

  Mike looked over at Simon and the youngster nodded. He knew what needed to be done, and moved toward the stationary object. He was closely observed by prying bystanders as Tom opened the door to greet him.

  “Thank God your lot’s arrived. My friend needs help.”

  Simon entered the caravan to gather as much evidence as he could, but nearing the dying man caused his stomach to twist up, forcing him to retreat. “He seems to be very badly injured. I’ll let the chief know.” He moved back to the doorway. “You’ll need more bandages to stem the blood or he’ll die.”

  A few seconds after Simon left the caravan an astonished reply was on its way.

  “But we don’t have any more bandages,” Tom said.

  Simon called for the chief to go to him. Mike told the group to stay put while he investigated, but upon entering the mobile home noticed a shirt wrapped around the injured man’s waist. It was the only item Tom could find to help stem the bleed after all the bandages were soaked through. Mike didn’t need a second opinion on the state of the injured man’s health, but wasn’t going to be disrespectful and tell the others while the dying man was still able to hear him. He took them to one side to break the terrible news. “How long’s he been like this?”

  “About two hours,” Curtis replied.

  Mike shook his head, sucking his top lip. “Poor man...You do know he hasn’t got long to live, don’t you?”

  They nodded. They’d hoped for a better opinion, but deep down guessed the same outcome.

  “We know. We’ve tried making him as comfortable as we can.” Something else bugged at Curtis’ brain now. “How did you know we needed help?”

  Mike had recently received information from the police station that calls were flying in about the incident at the holiday village, but once he was given more information from George, decided to stick to the plan and search the forest regi
on first. “I was told that you had a problem here. There have been a few frantic calls from this site, so here we are.”

  The men in the caravan that now smelled of death weren’t equipped with a phone. There was no landline inside this caravan. None of them had taken a mobile phone with them when they were fighting the beasts, so never knew anything about a rescue party arriving. However, they were extremely glad there was one.

  Tom and Curtis were next to be informed about the virus. Mike had given up on keeping it a huge secret now. There was too much at stake and so the more they knew, the safer they would be. Mike needed the support of these men, but would he receive an effective response?

  “I don’t want to end up being bitten by one of those freaks and I sure as hell don’t want my family being attacked either, so you’ll get all the help you need,” Curtis said.

  Mike looked over at Tom but he didn’t speak, however, the nodding of his head proved a good enough answer. The next advice was for the men to leave the infected one behind. “You do know that we’ll have to leave him here.”

  Tom and Curtis were too weak in the mind to argue with that suggestion. “We know,” Tom answered.

  The chief didn’t have the heart to tell the survivors that Scott was going to return as one of the enemy. It was best just to evacuate the caravan and shut the door. Tom was re-united with his wife, but the hugs and kisses would have to wait until they found their little boy. He helped Curtis round up the locals, making sure they reentered their caravans. Meanwhile, Mike chatted with the young recruits over what to do next.

  Diane wasn’t budging, and wouldn’t go back inside.

  “I need to speak to you; it’s urgent,” she said, rushing over to Mike again.

  “What’s up?” he asked.

  “My son’s missing.” Just the mention of the ‘son’ word and Diane was on the verge of a crying frenzy. “He was out playing when those things turned up.”

  Tom arrived to comfort his wife during her tormented attempt at seeking help, and told Mike exactly the same thing.

  “Hold on a minute, are you telling me your son’s disappeared?” Tom took over. “He’s somewhere, but we don’t know where.”

  Mike swiftly remembered a conversation from earlier. It could well be the kind of information to give Diane and Tom some fresh hope on their son. “One of my cadets reckoned he saw a figure in the bushes over on the hill. I think your son was hiding.”

  Diane interrupted the chief. “Do you know where he is now? Where’s the cadet who saw him? I want to speak to him?”

  Mike felt this moment strangling him into a fainting suffocation. He needed to put her mind at rest before she ran off into the danger area. If she did, then it was possible that she could end up being one of the walking, flesh eating corpses before anyone saw her again. Diane turned a thwarting red in colour after finding out that the cadet involved was the one injured, but the sudden urge to find her son was too strong to let go and she raced off to the edge of the caravan site. “Kenny, Kenny, where are you son?” she shouted.

  Mike quickly followed suit, escorting her back. He knew the screaming would eventually attract attention from unwanted guests. He managed to convince Diane that her son was safe by saying that he’d out-foxed the zombies so far and so would be back in the safety of her arms as soon as the coast was clear. Deep down Diane knew there was nothing she could do about Kenny right now and so sobbed into the chest of her caring husband. Mike watched as the two people re-entered their caravan.

  The only people left outside the mobile homes were the four newcomers to the village. Chris kept out of the way, but still wrote information down. He might’ve looked like he wasn’t pulling his weight, but this man was doing a great job.

  For some unknown reason Mike chose him to do an unthinkable task. What Mike had in mind was a hundred times worse than any bush-tucker challenge that Ant and Dec could even think of mustering up. “I’ve got a job for you, so put down your pen and paper.”

  “Why do I get a sneaky feeling that I’m not going to like this?”

  This job that the chief ordered the other man to do might’ve nothing to do with the past, but then again, Mike could still hold a grudge big time. “You won’t like it, but I still want you to do it anyway.” Chris waited a bit longer before the rest of the words eventually spilled out. “I’m taking the boys hunting but I want you to stay with the dying man…”

  Chris was stunned for a second as he absorbed this information. He then gave a sly laugh, as though Mike was joking. They stood looking at each other in silence until it gradually dawned on Chris that Mike was serious.

  “I thought of you especially for this job because you like to piss about with death,” Mike said. His eyes now filled with pleasure.

  Those words were enough evidence that he was way off from forgiving Chris over the hospital crisis, but Chris had lost his appetite to bite back. They walked over to the highlighted van. Mike made it clear what the other man needed to do, but everything he said sounded more like a punishment than a job. It was safer for the reporter to be there than risk leaving it empty for the residents to step inside. Chris had seen a zombie and lived, so knew the danger signs, and so for that reason agreed to go through with it. Mike made it clear that once the bitten man died Chris was to get out of there, making sure no one else entered. The little man wasn’t going to stay in there even if the chief told him to. He wasn’t that much of a fucked up reporter.

  The door opened and Chris made his way inside. “Oh, and one more thing, you need to find six stars,” said Mike. “You’ve got three minutes. The more stars you find, the more food you’ve got for camp.”

  Chris had only two words to say back over this stupid and piss taking remark. “Fuck you,” he said, while pointing up a middle finger toward Mike.

  He shut the door, leaving the officers to find the scattered beings.

  THIRTY-TWO

  The hunt for Blake produced no clues as Todd and Karen proceeded in their search. A howling wind raced through the branches of the trees, causing creaky sounds to alert Karen’s nerves. The time was 7.00pm. The blackness was now playing a game on the frightened, worried pair. It wrapped around trees, making them appear like horrifying shapes of evil. Todd shone the torch on the ground around their feet. He knew how simple it would be spotting a single glow of energy trying to break free from this dark-coloured box called a forest so the longer the torch remained on, the easier it was to be noticed by more weird animals, but what could he do? They needed some form of light to guide them.

  “I can’t stay out here all night; it’s getting cold,” Karen said, sticking to Todd like glue.

  “It was your idea to go searching for Blake.”

  “The next time I suggest a good idea, just tell me to shut up.” Todd smiled, but wasn’t happy. Deep down knew their journey

  would be over soon. There was no way they could stay out in this. Another faint cracking sound could be heard in the distance.

  Todd turned off the torch, but even so, knew it might be too late.

  Someone or something might’ve seen the light.

  A hundred feet away and closing was Craig’s crew. Shane

  waved a torch from side to side. He seemed rushed as he led the

  other men off their designated course. “I tell you, I saw a light and it

  came from over there,” he said.

  “Are you sure? Maybe your eyes are playing tricks on you? If

  there was a light, then where’s it now?” Craig asked.

  “I know what I saw. It’s around here somewhere.” Shane

  became agitated, and wasn’t positive anymore.

  The trembling pair could hear the sounds of people speaking.

  They watched warily, spotting the beams of light zipping about

  between the trees.

  “Hello, who’s out there?” shouted Karen, now not thinking

  about the dangers anymore, and instead, determined to escape from

/>   the forest.

  Blake recognised her voice tone straightaway. “Karen, is that

  you?” he shouted back.

  As far as he was aware, his beloved should’ve been in the safety

  of her home, but this woman’s voice sounded so much like hers.

  Deep down though hoped it was someone else. “Yes, I’m over here

  with Todd.” The torch was switched back on so the others could

  spot them more clearly. “We came out here to find you. I was

  worried because you hadn’t phoned me.”

  Craig and Shane began to giggle childishly.

  How sweet was this situation? Blake’s other half had come to rescue

  him, the scientist now thought.

  Karen rushed around like a young, love-struck teenager as she

  desperately searched for her loved one. “Blake, Blake, I’m here.” One beam of light strayed from the path and Blake moved

  toward her. He shone his torch upwards until the brightness

  captured the image of the person in front of him. Once recognised

  he grinned, but Karen’s response wasn’t quite what he’d expected.

  “Hey, you can put the torch down now. It’s making my eyesight

  blurry,” she said, covering her face with a hand.

  “Sorry love.”

  The torch lowered and they threw their arms around each other.

  Both were so caught up in the moment that they forgot about who

  was around them. They kissed passionately, as if they were lovers

  having a long distance relationship and hadn’t seen each other for

  about a month.

  The other torches locked onto the sexed up pair, but the married

  couple didn’t notice the hotness of the light rays smothering their

  bodies from head to toe. They were oblivious to the laughter from the three men watching them, as they were also oblivious to the creatures coming toward the light of the torches, ready to pounce on

  some fresh prey.

  Two dribbling, stinking, insect riddled monsters barged into

  Todd, knocking him off his feet and causing him to fall into a