The Undead the Second Week Compilation Edition Days 8-14

by RR Haywood

  Marcy fills my mind. Not Lani. Not anyone else. I don’t fight it but let it come. I push on, the axe swinging gently in front of me. Every step I take finds me closer to the front. There is no opposition now. These things cannot hurt me.

  ‘ON HOWIE,’ I hear Clarence roar. I pause, holding ground and wondering calmly what he means. I glance back at the swathe of broken bodies behind me. Something lunges from the side. The speed of the thing is so slow. I can see the freckles on his nose, the way his hair swishes to one side as he comes in. A dirty brown stain on one front tooth. I remove his head and watch it tumble slowly to the ground.

  The others fight towards me. I turn back to face forward and see several undead coming at me. I wait for them to come. Then I kill them.

  ‘GO,’ Dave bellows. I turn back and see we’ve formed our circle with me at the head, the dog bounds over and loops round us as I start off. Dave is at my side and we fight forward. Nick lunges out and grabs the dog by her collar, dragging her into the middle. She goes with him but darts back out as soon as he lets go. Not one of them gets near her. She is too fast, too strong, too aggressive. She rips throats out, takes hands off, she leaps and drives them back with the power of her body.

  Another roar and they come in. Driven at us. The sudden press of bodies becomes stifling. My axe whips out and back, out and back. Dave darts forward, spins and comes back. I lose the feeling and realise where I am and what we’re doing. The aggression in them is awful, charging at us with the fresh energy they have.

  We start to stagnate, getting bogged down and unable to make ground. Dave takes the lead and charges out, his arms spin as he takes throat after throat out. Bright sprays of blood arcing into the air. Bodies drop and fall as he generates space. We take advantage and fight into it. Axes knives and meat cleaver lashing out. The dog senses the direction we move and goes to the front, holding place beside Dave she becomes a furious wolf of the wild. Something from folklore as she destroys and destroys. Dave holds to one side, letting her keep hers. The two of them become one.

  Animals that fight without fear. Animals that kill simply because they can. Between them they take the undead apart. Knives and teeth killing time and again. Nothing can stand before them. Nothing can survive that deadly scourge.

  The undead press into the sides, charging at us. We fight out, holding our formation and slowly working to the front of the vehicle. We cross the front wing and start moving across. Clarence simply reaches out and grabs the body pressing against the windscreen and throws it away.

  Lillian and Joe stares out with mouths hanging open. I grin at them quickly and turn back to the job at hand.

  ‘DAVE…TAKE THE REAR,’ I shout as undead start launching themselves off the top of the vehicle into our circle. It gets messy for a few minutes until we gain control of our ground.

  Blowers and Cookey holding the back and fighting up until Dave makes his way to them. He shouts for them to move and steps in as they slink away. The things die mid-air as Dave takes them down.

  Meredith leaps high onto the front of the vehicle and spins round, her deadly teeth now at head height. She jumps up onto the roof and removes the ones already up there. Taking hold of them in her teeth, shaking and twisting, ragging them with ease. They fall off, squashing more of their own kind.

  She comes back to the front and holds ground there, darting left and right at faces and hands. The sight of her is simply beautiful. Her silky black coat shining in the sun. Her ability to be where she needs to be. Spinning, dropping, lunging and backing up.

  If Dave ever comes back as an animal. It’ll be Meredith.

  A yell snatches my head round. I turn to see Cookey screaming as Doctor James charges at him. The well-spoken and cultured young doctor now a fetid undead with blood stains round his mouth and lips pulled back. Cookey wilts, hesitating. Blowers doesn't. He steps in and drives the blade of his axe deep into Doctor’s neck, almost severing the head. Cookey rallies and charges back in. The vehicle starts to roll forward, slowly but it’s enough for the undead to see it.

  The roar that goes up is deafening. They come in harder than I’ve ever known and pour to the front, clogging the road and preventing the vehicle from being able to pull away.

  ‘FUCK…LOOK,’ Nick points down the side. I glance down to see a huge black man with massive arms scooping an undead up and driving the body into the arch of the wheels. He grabs another and does it again. Sacrificing his own to prevent the wheels from turning. He keeps going with amazing speed. Slamming body after body down in front of the big rear wheels. The Saxon grinds to a halt. Unable to keep going as he clogs the wheels with bodies.

  We’re fucked. We can feel it. We can kill and kill but they outnumber us so heavily that even Dave and Meredith will finally tire before they run out of cannon fodder.

  It becomes a battle of survival. Buying time to breathe a few more gulps of air before the inevitable happens. Our circle retracts. We fight shoulder to shoulder as they press in. I need that feeling back. I need that thing that comes over me.

  I try to clear my mind but it won’t come. Images of Sarah flood though my head. My parents. Stephen, Tom…Jamie…all of them. Twisted remains of their gruesome bodies lying rotting in the sun. I see Blowers, Cookey and Nick the same, lying in a heap of ruined bodies. Clarence falling like a mighty oak. Lani being ripped limb from limb. I see Dave finally going down under a press of undead.

  I had it just a couple of minutes ago. I had that feeling of calm. I need it now. How did I do it?

  Marcy.

  She dances in front of me, smiling and laughing. The long black hair swaying in the sun. That feeling as her tongue touched my thumb. Her skin was so soft beneath my hand. Her neck so slender and warm. I could feel her breath on my face.

  I hold that image close for it drives me. It fills me with calm. I don’t know why and right now I don’t care. I seize that feeling and let it wash over me.

  I’m grinning at them. Smiling as they come. The axe has no weight in my hands. I slip out of the circle and head down the side. Nothing can stop me.

  Marcy.

  They wilt and drop. They fear me. They all fear me. I swing out faster and faster. Each kill is delivered swiftly for I have no wish to torture or cause them pain. Just to end them.

  You were meant to be good.

  We are the good Marcy. We are the righteous. I reach the big rear wheel and hear Clarence behind me. Yelling at me to keep going as he starts pulling them out.

  There’s no point. They’ll just do the other side. But then we only need one rear wheel to be free. I fight out and keep them back from Clarence. The others follow down and form a circle round him as he tugs the bodies free and throws them down.

  No sooner than we clear the wheel but they once again press at the front, preventing the vehicle from moving by the sheer press of body weight. Lillian copies what I did and tries reverse but with only one rear wheel free it isn’t enough.

  ‘TAKE THE FRONT,’ Clarence shouts. I nod back at him as he stands at the rear wheel and fends the undead off.

  We split forces as Dave and I fight back to the front. The feeling of calm is still there. It threatens to slip away but then she comes back into my mind and keeps me focussed. Like nothing can hurt me.

  I don’t even see the undead now. Just a path in front of me that needs to be taken. My body and the axe become separate to my mind. This must be how Dave feels. Detached and safe. With a confidence that just terrifies them.

  But despite how good we might be. Despite how confident we are. The several thousand survivors that we kept safe in the fort will prove to be our undoing. There’s simply too many of them.

  Dave and I slaughter them in droves, but for every one we fell, more press forward. A never ending sea of undead faces lunging in with mouths wide open.

  They get faster. We fight harder. Separating was another mistake and we’ve no hope of clearing the front. The press of them is just too much. They come in harder still and
we do what we can just to stay alive. Back to back we fight. Spinning round to keep all sides clear. As much as they fear me they keep charging. Something driving them to untold levels of violence.

  This is it. The day we got the fuel and saw a light at the end of the tunnel. But it’s also the day we blew up a refinery killing many people, lost the fort and then made a monumental mistake as they used a basic pincer movement against us. We didn’t even tie the fucking dog up.

  It’s lost. It’s just now a matter of taking as many of them with us as we can. I cry out in horror as we spin round, at the sight of Lillian and Joe staring at me through the windscreen. Behind them stand two undead. The huge black man I saw pushing the bodies under the wheels and another man. He didn’t lock the back doors. Joe didn’t lock them. The undead simply opened the doors and climbed in.

  I roar out a warning but it’s too late. Joe and Lillian scream in terror as strong hands reach round to grab them. Open mouths descend and bite down onto their heads. Blood pumps up, covering the undead and spraying onto the inside of the windscreen.

  ‘DAVE…SEE THOSE MEN,’ I roar as loud as I can, my voice cracking from the heat, the dust, the exertion and from a raging thirst.

  ‘YES.’

  ‘KILL THEM…NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS YOU KILL THEM…GO.’

  ‘I WON’T LEAVE YOU,’ he bellows as his arms spin out.

  ‘KILL THEM,’ I scream….’CLARENCE…’

  ‘I HEAR YOU,’ His deep voice booms out, he and the others out of sight somewhere down the side.

  ‘TWO MEN IN THE SAXON…THEY TOOK JOE AND LILLIAN…’

  ‘WE’RE BOGGED IN…CAN’T MOVE…’

  I roar in frustration and lash out, left, right, left, right…it doesn't matter. We’re done.

  ‘BOSS…’

  ‘WHAT?’

  ‘I THINK THIS MIGHT BE IT…’

  ‘NO SHIT…’

  ‘IT’S BEEN AN HONOUR.’

  ‘THE HONOUR IS MINE, FOR ALL OF YOU…I’M SORRY.’

  ‘DON’T BE…’

  ‘MR HOWIE,’ Cookey screams.

  ‘WHAT?’

  ‘BLOWERS JUST TOUCHED ME.’

  ‘BLOWERS…DON’T TOUCH COOKEY…’

  ‘SORRY…BYE BOSS.’

  ‘BYE MATE…’ My voice cracks as I hear Clarence give a huge roar, the lads roar with him. I wish I was with them. By their side so we could fall together.

  ‘Dave.’

  ‘Yes Mr Howie.’

  ‘There ain’t much to say mate.’

  ‘No Mr Howie.’

  ‘If you survive this…make sure I don’t come back.’

  ‘I won’t survive Mr Howie…not without you.’

  ‘Fight your way out…’

  Meredith appears, pushing through the legs. Hearing me shout she must have fought her way to us. She’s bleeding from several spots but joins us quickly. Still leaping and taking them down.

  ‘Take the dog Dave…take her and get out.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Dave…take the fucking dog and get out…you can make it you know you can.’

  ‘No and don’t ask me again.’

  ‘You’re a stubborn bloody man Dave.’

  ‘I won’t leave you…not ever Mr Howie…’

  ‘Fine.’

  ‘Fine.’

  ‘Glad that’s sorted then.’

  ‘Me too.’

  ‘FIGHT YOU MOTHERFUCKERS,’ a voice almost as loud as Dave but with a deep American accent booms from somewhere. The undead surge with a palpable change in energy.

  ‘Dave…with me,’ I gasp. He joins at my side as we fight our way back to the Saxon. We clear the ground and climb onto the bonnet and then onto the roof. A couple of quick steps and I look down the side to see Clarence and the others still fighting out.

  Dave runs to the side, ‘INCOMING,’ he yells and leaps from the roof, landing deep within the ranks of undead.

  Fuck that. I’d break and ankle if I tried it. ‘Move over,’ I shout down. They glance up and budge so I can slide down the side.

  I land heavily amongst them, almost tripping on a dead body.

  ‘You’re still alive then?’ Clarence yells, his voice as hoarse as mine.

  ‘Only just.’

  ‘FIGHT YOU DUMB-ASS MOTHERFUCKERS…KILL THEM SONS OF BITCHES.’

  ‘Who is that?’ Blowers yells.

  ‘Dunno…but I can guess,’ I yell back. The American shouting again spurs them on. They attack and press in but we stand out ground and fight. Swinging axes and cleaving them apart one by one.

  ‘FIGHT YOU FUCKERS,’ The American screams, closer now. They press in even harder. Driving us back against the side of the vehicle.

  ‘FIGHT,’ he bellows again, ‘GET YOUR FUCKING BACKS INTO IT.’

  ‘Dear god,’ Cookey yelps as we struggle to fend them off, ‘I wish he’d stop that.’

  ‘Lillian and Joe?’ Lani asks between ragged breaths.

  ‘Gone,’ I spit the words out with hardly enough breath to speak.

  ‘HOWIE...WHICH ONE OF YOU MOTHERFUCKERS IS HOWIE?’ The American voice booms out.

  I don’t have the energy, the breath or the time to say anything.

  ‘COS I’M GONNA FUCK YOU UP…’ The voice is close now, very close.

  ‘QUIT,’ he roars. The undead suddenly back away. An instant reaction that causes me to almost topple with the weight of the axe after I sent an almighty swing at an undead who stepped back. They stagger back, the hatred and hunger still evident in their eyes. He emerges from the dense horde as they slowly stagger back. Well over six foot in height, broad and extremely muscular with the biggest arms I’ve ever seen, bulging with thick veins protruding from the skin.

  More of his kind are standing near him, gathered round like a pack of hyena’s circling the alpha male. All of them look tough and hard. Big men with scars, bruises, cuts, bloodied knuckles and dark intense looks. Tattoo’s show underneath the blood and grime. A whole variance of racial backgrounds, black, white, Asian, Indian…and all of them looking extremely capable. They must be the ones that took the fort. I would have seen them in there as they stand out by a mile.

  Instant silence settles over the horde. We stand with our backs to the Saxon, chests heaving, gripping weapons that are slick with blood, hands and arms coated in gore and dripping onto the already blood sodden ground.

  For the first time since this fight began I take a proper look at the undead and start to see faces I recognise. Men and women from the fort. People I had spoken to and passed the time of day with.

  The big American looks over us, his evil red eyes taking each of us in. He finally rests on me and slowly his mouth splits into a broad grin. He doesn't say a word but turns and nods. The undead behind him step away as some figures make their way forward. Stepping out of the line to stand behind the American and stare at him.

  Sergeant Hopewell, Terri and Sarah all stand there looking at him. Staring with devotion. My stomach drops from the sight and I hear low groans coming from the lads.

  ‘I’ll do it,’ Dave says flatly, he takes a step forward and stands ready.

  ‘Who the fuck are you little man?’ The American sneers.

  ‘Dave.’

  ‘So you’re Dave,’ he grins, ‘you a little fucker…like a fucking midget…which one of you is Clarence…I guess that’d be you,’ he stares at Clarence who just stares back.

  ‘How you like my bitches?’ He motions his head to the three women stood behind him, ‘I already fucked ‘em…fucked ‘em good too…so did all my boys.’

  ‘You fucking cunt,’ I take a step forward.

  ‘NO,’ Dave cuts me off.

  ‘You gonna kill your sister tough guy?’ He looks at me, taunting, goading, ‘you gonna take your axe and cut your own sister down? That’s fucked up…motherfucker that’s some cold shit right there…’ He nods to his men, grinning all the time, ‘this…I gotta see.’

  The three women snap their heads round to look at me, staring with
baleful expressions. Then they charge. My own sister, the only family I have left in the world charges at me, ready and willing to bite into my flesh and turn me. Terri and Debbie both burst with her. My heart misses a beat. I hear the lads scream out. Clarence bellowing from the side.

  Dave moves in front of them. His left arm already spinning as he gently swipes the blade across Terri’s throat, cutting her jugular open. By the time the skin peels back and the blood starts to cascade out he has turned and thrust the knife in his right hand deep into Debbie’s neck, twisting it first left and the right before yanking it free. He steps back as both bodies, still moving forward from their own momentum, tumble to the floor. Sarah powers on, relentless in her quest to get me.

  Dave spins to stand behind her; he raises both knives out to the side and drives the points towards her neck. I clench my eyes shut and scream, others scream near me. I hear someone gasp in shock and then feel an impact at my feet.

  As I open my eyes I look down to see Sarah lying at my feet, her neck savaged by the two knife blades, blood pumping out from both arteries . Dave has already turned to face back at the crowd. One foot forward, the other one back. One arm forward holding the knife across his chest, the other behind his back. Poised. Ready. Unflinching. Ruthless.

  The whole thing was done within a second or two. Clarence stands looking in shock down at the woman at my feet. My sister. His love.

  Seven pairs of eyes settle on the big American stood there with a look of puzzlement on his face.

  ‘HAVE IT,’ I roar with everything I have, with every ounce of my being. We burst out. The seven of us taking the fight to them and every one of us aiming for that big fucker.

  Frenetic action explodes as they react with lightning speed. Undead surging forward to meet our charge. Dave slips and spins through them but the undead charge at him with unrestrained savagery. Clarence hacks and slices in desperation to get at him. All of us find opponent after opponent blocking our path. The American laughs, a deep sound that is eerily similar to the way Clarence laughs but that just sends out big man berserk. He becomes wild with fury. Pure rage etched onto his red flushed face. He screams and roars as he swings the axe out.