by RR Haywood
Generators get carried into the street, then lighting units plugged in and glowing bright as soon as the generators are started. The street floods with light and I see Lenski and other girls carrying bottles of water and dumping them down onto the road, boxes filled with sealed bandages get brought up along with boxes of disposable gloves.
‘Howie,’ Maddox walks back out the gates straight towards me, ‘my crews will sort this out from here, we’ll get the injured cared for.’
‘Er…that’s good mate, what’s in your compound?’
‘How do I answer that?’ Maddox replies bluntly.
‘What? I mean what is in there that these people wanted so badly? They launched an attack at a base full of children? Why Maddox?’
‘We didn’t ask for your help Howie,’ he replies with a defiant stare.
‘Maddox mate, we’re not here to take anything from you. We got a place down the coast from here; we got food, medicines and safety. Now why were these people attacking you?’
‘Who are you bruv?’ Maddox flares up with an angry tone his voice making the other seven members of my group take a step towards him, the response was a hundred or so children, tooled up and looking mean, gathering quickly and quietly all around us. Looking round I saw my group sliding their axes away and slowly pulling assault rifles round.
‘Stand easy,’ I wave them down, ‘we are not shooting children, Dave listen to me we are not shooting children got it?’
‘Yes Mr Howie,’ he answers quickly as I know he won’t hesitate if he thinks the group is threatened. He’d drown kittens if he felt any of us were at risk.
‘Maddox, I asked you a simple and open question. We are not a threat to you, and we do not need anything from you but after what we just did I feel we are owed an explanation as to why these adults were attacking a compound full of children.’
‘We didn’t ask your help, go home, this is our place,’ he stands full on and stares hard.
‘Don’t tell me to go home mate,’ I can feel the first bite of anger rising up, ‘I’m not after your place or anything that’s inside it. I want to know why they were attacking you? What do you have that they need?’
‘You get me bruv? This is our place, who are you to come here and demand answers, you ain’t nuffin’. Yeah thanks for the help but we got this now.’
‘Do not fucking dismiss me like I’m some idiot,’ my voice to rises in volume and I start walking towards him, ‘what did you do to make them come at you like this?’
‘Who the fuck are you to question us? You passing through? So pass through, go home and leave us,’ he walks towards me a few steps, showing me his open hands.
‘Why are they attacking you Maddox? What did you do to them?’
‘Don’t question me bruv, go home.’
‘You will answer my fucking question or I will tear this place apart with my bare hands, what did you do to them? Did you rob them? Did you take their food and supplies? Answer me!’
‘I answer to no one,’ he bellows back, ‘this is my place and I make the rules here, you ain’t no one.’
‘I want to know why we just fired on people, not just those things but people. You got kids here so why are these people attacking you?’
‘We didn’t ask for your help,’ he roars back at me, spittle flying from his mouth.
‘But we gave it thinking you have scared kids in here, you took these peoples things didn’t you? You took their food and supplies didn’t you?’
‘Get fucked,’ he sneers, ‘this conversation is over, go about your business.’ He turns to walk away and the fury erupts from me as I stride towards him. He spins round pulling a pistol from his belt. Instinctively I grab mine and lift it up as I side step out. Two men holding pistols at each other from a few feet away. Assault rifles get cocked behind me, voices call out. The distinctive sound of rifle bolts being racked back. A cacophony of sound as everyone gears up for a fight.
‘Stand down Maddox,’ I growl at him.
‘You stand down,’ he growls back.
‘No, stop this,’ Lenski screams from behind Maddox.
‘Boss, this isn’t our fight,’ Clarence shouts, ‘these are just kids boss.’ I get the pleading tone in his voice and I glance round to see him holding the heavy machine gun pointing at masses of children. Rifles and shotguns are pointed at my group, kids with knives and bats all converging and creeping in.
‘Howie, we need to go,’ Lani shouts with alarm in her voice. Maddox and I face off with our pistols pointing at each other. If I drop my aim he’ll shoot me and then everyone will open up and then everyone will be dead.
‘Maddox listen to me…’
‘No you listen, this is our place and you don’t come here in our back yard making demands. You ain’t the feds bruv, we got this place now.’
‘We don’t want your fucking place Maddox…’
‘Then go!’
‘Okay, take it easy…we’ll go…everyone listen up, we are going so nobody shoot,’ I shout to make everyone hear me, backing away but keeping the pistol raised, honestly believing that if I lower it he’ll go for a shot. The prize of our weapons for his compound would be too tempting.
‘Yeah you go,’ Maddox stalks after me, ‘keep going and don’t come back here.’
‘This doesn’t have to be this way Maddox, we got a community too, few miles down the coast at Fort Spitbank, we got food, doctors, medicines, safety and order, you don’t have to live like this.’
‘Like what?’ he smiles, ‘you see us struggling bruv? We got food, medicines and safety right here.’
‘You can’t kill other survivors for food Maddox, there’s no way back from that mate. Look at what you did here, these people attacked a secure compound full of children for fucks sake, the only reason they did that was because of what you did to them.’
‘You don’t know this,’ he shouts, ‘these people are vermin, they want to take the food from children, they is greedy.’
Backing away I reach my group and we start walking back down the road we came from, all of us pointing our weapons at the children as they stalk after us. Some of them smiling and laughing like it’s a game, goading each other and shouting insults.
‘Maddox, we are leaving, call your people off.’
‘Just keep going bruv; don’t tell me what to do.’
‘Maddox, listen to Howie, back off and stand down son, your kids are itching to start and we’ve got bloody big guns here son, don’t risk it,’ Clarence shouts, his deep voice carrying clearly down the road.
‘Maddox let them go now,’ Lenski pushes through the crowd of kids and reaches out to pull Maddox back, his arm still extended with the pistol pointing at me. Surprisingly he stops and allows the girl to pull him back. She looks angry and scared.
‘Lenski, we’re going,’ I shout over to her, ‘we’re at Fort Spitbank, remember that…Fort Spitbank, we’ve got doctors and safety. We can take people in.’
‘I remember this,’ she shouts back, ‘you go and I remember this.’
‘Lenski, we need a vehicle,’ Clarence shouts.
‘A what?’
‘Car, we need a car or a van, anything.’
‘I not know this,’ she implores then turns to whisper fiercely at Maddox. A heated exchange of words takes place but watching Maddox I can see he is clearly listening to her.
‘Maddox, do the right thing mate, we’ll be gone quicker with a vehicle.’
‘Behind the shops two roads over, there’s a dog shit bin there, the keys are in the bin, you got twenty minutes to go. You still here after that we comin’ for you, you get me?’
‘Take it easy Maddox, we’re going mate, no one needs to get hurt now,’ I shout back.
‘You’s the ones getting’ fucked up innit, swear down we’ll fuck you up,’ another youth shouts over, more join in, catcalls, whistles and goading. These kids are fearless and it makes us back away quickly. Taking care not to trip over the bodies of the undead we felled just a short
time earlier.
A few minutes later and we’re walking steadily along in our group, weapons still at the ready but the youths now long gone.
‘What the fuck was that?’ Clarence says quietly.
‘Different rules I guess, fucking hell, did you see them kids? Tooled up and just itching for a scrap?’ I reply with a shake of my head.
We move in silence after that. All of shocked at the turn of events. We saw a horde of undead attacking something and charged in, but the boundaries have been blurred. Feral kids killing people and taking their stuff. Now those people are dead and those kids are secure within a gated commune. We all know we just played a part in helping the bad guys win. But then they’re still just kids.
‘Shit this is confusing,’ I sigh, ‘I don’t know if we did a bad thing or a good thing.’
‘We killed lots of those things, that’s a good thing,’ Dave says flatly.
‘But did we just give more power to little gangsta shits that are already fucking everyone over?’ Cookey asks seriously.
Dave stares ahead then seem to realise that Cookey was asking him the question. ‘I don’t know Alex,’ Dave says, ‘we saw the zombies and we killed them. That’s it. The rest is just people being people. We can’t be everywhere and make everyone have the same values as us.’
‘Good words Dave,’ I add with respect, ‘now let’s get the fuck out of here and quickly before those shits change their mind and decide they want our guns.’
Twenty-Seven
‘What in your head?’ Lenski says with worry lines etched onto her face. Maddox stares into the dark road. Every member of the compound gathered behind him as he searches the shadows for any sign of them. A contrary feeling rises in his soul; that everything was going right, he was on the right track. They saved the compound so why didn’t he show gratitude, why didn’t he back down and welcome them. Show them what they were planning and what ideas he had. They said they had another commune with doctors and food and that meant stability. They had proper weapons and moved like a unit too. He could have joined forces with them, traded supplies for weapons.
But that attitude. That instant assumption that they were feral little gangsta chav shits running riot and killing everyone. That had been true but it wasn’t now. Maddox felt conflicted and a sense of shame. But more than anything he knew this had ended badly. If they were good people then they would come back under the misguided banner of trying to save the kids, or trying to save the people on the estate.
If they weren’t good people they would see that the compound held food and supplies. Either way. They’ll come back.
That righteous attitude, demanding answers, white men with guns trying to throw their weight around and be the new law and order. Those days were gone. Maddox was going to change the way they did things, and it wasn’t his fault the survivors decided to attack tonight. This was new times, new rules.
‘Maddox, I ask what in your head?’ Lenski asked again. He turned to look at her, seeing the fear and confusion in her face. He knew what needed to be done. Whatever it cost to survive. New times. New rules.
‘Darius, take three crews and go left, go after them…Jagger you take three more and go right, Mohammed you go straight and keep behind them. Liam, you stay and hold the base secure. We go after them. I want them weapons. Take them at the shops where all the roads meet,’ Maddox barked the orders out, hardly believing he was doing this. But the way that man shouted at him, the sneer on his face and the anger in his eyes. He wouldn’t forget and he would come back with more men. This had to end here.
‘No Maddox, this wrong, you not do this…’ Lenski grabbed his arm begging him to stop the youths as they instantly split and went off different directions. Melting into the shadows and racing after the armed group.
‘Go back to the compound and wait there,’ Maddox pulled his arm free.
‘No, they help you, they save us Maddox, why you do this? They have safe place with doctors and medicine. We should work with them not fight.’
‘They’ll come back and try to take this Lenski; they’ll see these kids as a threat and try to end what we have. They’ll tell people we’re here and others will come. The compound with a hundred children. Every survivor with a gun will try and get in. We got to stop that.
‘This wrong, these men they try to help you, they help us Maddox…’
‘Go back Lenski,’ Maddox pulled free and jogged after Mohammed and his crew moving quickly down the road. Lenski fell to her knees, hands clutching her face. Tears rolling down her cheeks as the sobs wracked her body. They were so close, so close to doing it properly. Good people came to help them. She knew the way Maddox and the others viewed outsiders and any form of authority. But these were good people, she could tell by the way they worked together; they were clean and healthy with good clothes and good weapons. They had a safe place with doctors. These children needed that kind of help. What happens when one of them breaks a leg, gets the measles, cuts themselves on a rusty nail? Those things meant death without medicine and trained people.
Everything they worked for, everything they planned was going…unless she did something, persuaded Maddox to listen, made him listen. Got that man Howie to listen…she had to try. Rubbing the tears from her face she gets to her feet and starts moving off.
‘Lenski, Maddox said you had to go back,’ Liam quickly called out, watching her from a few feet away and feeling confused and worried at seeing her cry.
‘Liam, go to the compound now!’ Lenski turned and shouted. Her harsh tone stopped him in his tracks as she fled into the dark shadows.
Twenty-Eight
‘Shops,’ Dave pointed ahead to a collection of commercial buildings set into the side of the road next to a large junction.
‘Bout bloody time,’ Cookey muttered. We ran forward using the moonlight to pick our route. Reaching the shops we hunted round and found a small service road running behind them. Taking the road we jogged to the back of the shops and a long line of cars and vans parked up tight behind the shops.
‘Look at that,’ Blowers said shining his torch on the wall at the spray painted letters. BOSSMAN VEHICLES TOUCH AND DIE.
‘Nice,’ Nick shook his head.
‘I thought you couldn’t read,’ Cookey asked innocently.
‘I can’t read very well but I can read that,’ Nick replied without any offence.
‘Dog shit bin is here,’ Blowers said from across the road, shining his light on the distinctive red plastic refuse bin. He lifted the lid gingerly, clearing expecting to find the thing full of shit. Someone had taped the keys to the underside of the lid, all of them hanging down.
‘Bloody hell, these kids have got some influence leaving them here with the keys right there,’ Blowers said.
‘We need a van,’ I called out scanning the vehicles, ‘there’s a few here press the clickers and see which one lights up.’
‘On it,’ Blowers reached his hand in and started pushing the raised nodules. Indicators flashed with clunking noises as cars were unlocked.
‘That one,’ Lani shouts as a white van clunks open with the orange lights flashing.
‘Get in, I’ll drive,’ I call out as Lani and Tom start pulling the side and rear doors open. Running over I clamber into the driver’s seat as Blowers passes me the keys.
‘CONTACT,’ Dave roars. A shot rings out. A rifle shot from somewhere at the front of the shops, immediately followed by shotgun blasts and more rifles. The windows of the vehicles start exploding as I ram the ignition key in and twist it round. The van lurches forward, slamming into the vehicle in front.
‘Fuck it was in gear, sorry,’ I say through gritted teeth and turn the key back round then press the clutch down as I start it again. The van ticks over for a few seconds then fires up with the noisy diesel engine sputtering into the night.
‘Dave get in,’ I shout through the open door watching as he runs down the service road and dives into the open rear doors. ‘Are we all in?’
>
‘Yes go!’ Blowers and Clarence both shot. I select reverse and slam the van backwards, impacting into the vehicle behind. Twisting the wheel over hard I start to ease forward as more shots rings out and the windscreen implodes, showering me in glass fragments. Leaning over to the side I press the pedal down and scrape the van out from its position.
Shots impact into the side of the van as I drive down the service road and I feel a wheel blowing out causing the van to tilt down and veer off to the side. Fighting to control the vehicle I navigate the corner and glance up to look out the hole where the windscreen was. My heart sinks at the sight of youths spread all over the place. Missiles start thudding against the vehicle as rocks, stones and bricks get launched at us.
‘They’re fucking everywhere,’ I scream out.
‘Keep going,’ Dave shouts back, then his head appears between the seats, assault rifle in hand. He glances up and quickly scans the route ahead.
‘Go faster Mr Howie,’ he urges.
‘I can’t mate, wheels blown out, this is top speed,’ my foot is pressed down and the van is roaring with power but the rubber must have been shredded from the wheel, causing the drum to spin and gouge into the tarmac. We’re going no faster than walking pace.
‘Get ready, we’ll have to fight our way out,’ Dave shouts at the figures lying in the back of the van.
‘I’m not shooting kids,’ Clarence shouts.
‘Clarence, they are going to kill us,’ Dave shouts.
‘I can’t shoot kids,’ he replies.
‘I can,’ Dave says bluntly, I look down and lock eyes with the small quiet men. An absolute killer stares back at me. A monster. But he’s our monster.
‘They’re not negotiating Clarence, they’re fucking shooting at us,’ Blowers shouts.
‘I can’t do it,’ he roars, ‘I won’t do it; I’ll fucking die before I shoot a child. I’m a fucking soldier not a murderer and so are you, this isn’t our way.’