The Undead the Second Week Compilation Edition Days 8-14

by RR Haywood

  The police station was near the centre of town, just enough distance away to be slightly safer than the actual dead centre.

  How would she do this? There must be an armoury or something inside the station, but it would be locked with keys, or even a numbered keypad that stored the access times for audit trails. This wouldn’t be easy, and that was even considering the fact that the station would be empty. There was every chance they were still inside, fortifying the building. What would she do if they asked her to join them? The answer was instant. No, no way. The thought of being near others, having to rely on other people sent a surge of anger through her.

  From the outer roads she worked back towards the centre, trying to use quieter side streets wherever possible and contravening one way restrictions to make the route quicker.

  Two streets to go, she turned a corner and immediately cursed audibly at the large group of figures shuffling around in the middle of the road. The route was blocked and the road narrow, cars parked on both sides meant she couldn’t mount the pavement.

  But she was in a big vehicle now, maybe she could just plough through them. Paula inched closer to the group, examining the numbers and depth of the horde. Too many, she’d get through but at a risk of getting bogged down or causing damage to the vehicle. The risk was calculated, the threat assessed and a decision made that it wouldn’t be the right thing to do.

  Bringing the vehicle to a stop, she tutted and moved the gear stick into reverse, annoyed at the delay. Something in the crowd caught her eye. The things were all in a state of undress, clearly roused from their houses and beds when it all happened, rushing out in night clothes to see what was going on. One of them was fully dressed and that was what caught her eye. A figure dressed all in black, he was tall and well-built too. She paused and stared at the crowd, leaning left and right to try and get a view but too many of the things were between her and the figure.

  Opening the door she stood on the step, using the roof and door frame to hold herself steady. The horde had already turned and were shuffling towards her, a collection of injuries, wounds, gaping holes, blood stained clothes and bare skin. But there, yes there…deep in the middle it was a policeman dressed in black uniform and he was still wearing the stab vest and belt round his waist.

  Paula stretched higher, leaning as she tried to get a better view of him. His face had been bitten away from a savage attack, his nose pretty much removed to leave a ragged wound.

  She still couldn’t see his waist clearly. Was he a firearms officer? She jumped down and used the front driver’s wheel to clamber onto the sun heated black bonnet, then up onto the roof of the vehicle. Shielding her eyes she moved left and right, waiting for him to shuffle into view. A fat old woman was shuffling in front of him, her wide hips and broad back wobbling in the way.

  They were getting close, too close for comfort. She would have to go, giving herself one more chance she went to the far right of the roof, straining on her tiptoes to see the copper. The fat woman wobbled to the left, then back to the right. The stiff legged walk making her swollen upper body sway like a pendulum. As she went to the right Paula glimpsed the belt and butt of a handgun poking from a holster on his hip.

  She jumped down onto the bonnet and slid to the ground, climbing back into the vehicle and quickly reversing down the street, buying herself time to think. Brilliant fortune at finding an armed police officer, but then they were only a street or two away from the station, but now faced with the difficulty of actually getting to him.

  There was no choice, she would have to use the vehicle to shunt them over a few at a time. Selecting first gear she started forward, crawling along until just a few metres away from the front of the horde. At the last second she pushed her foot down, giving the vehicle a burst of speed and stamping on the brake as she hit the small cluster at the front.

  The power of the vehicle, the bull bars and the act of braking hard sent them flying backwards, in turn knocking more over. She reversed a few metres then did it again, aiming slightly to the left this time.

  Back and forth she went, changing path each time and running them over with loud thunks as they impacted on the front of the vehicle. Some got back up, others tried and some were trampled underfoot by the undead walking over them.

  Bit by bit she got the first lot down, using the big wheels to drive over individual bodies and crushing them into the road. The fat lady was next, the copper behind her and then a load behind him.

  Paula over-compensated for the size of the woman, going too fast into her. She smacked into the front of the vehicle with a loud bang, the jarring action causing her head to smash down on the bottom, busting her nose open. Braking hard again the fat lady flew backwards, acting like a giant bowling ball and taking out several more behind her. The copper being one of them.

  Paula saw the gap created and was out of the vehicle before she had time to think. Pulling the knife free from the sheath she jumped over the fallen writhing bodies and went straight for the policeman. He was flat out, facing down but still moving. Getting to him she started trying to pull the gun free from the holster, tugging at the handle. The safety clip had some kind of sliding action to prevent something like this happening, making it very difficult for anyone to grasp the gun and pull it free.

  The policeman groaned louder at the feel of the woman touching him, rolling onto his back and sitting up in one fast movement causing Paula to jump back.

  One behind her coming in with lips pulled back showing dirty blood stained teeth. Instinct kicked in and she thrust the knife out, driving the sharp point deep into the stomach. The thing didn’t flinch but kept coming. She stabbed again and again but no reaction, blood pumping out but he kept coming. She went for the throat, driving the long blade into the soft tissue before ripping the knife out. Blood sprayed out, just missing her as she stepped to the side. It did the trick and within a couple of steps he was stumbling and falling to the floor.

  Groans all around her, they were closing in and despite their slow movements it would only take seconds to surround her.

  Already, some of the ones she had run down were back in their feet, blocking her way back to the vehicle. Spinning round she saw the policeman was getting to his feet unsteadily, she stabbed out, hacking into his neck, the sharp blade cutting deep and easy. Blood sprayed out as he fell back, arcing the crimson liquid high into the air. She went for the gun again, fumbling with one hand to try and release the clip. It wouldn’t budge and she could feel panic rising in her.

  Close movement, a loud groan she jumped over the body of the policeman, landing on the other side of him as a woman lunged, tripping over the copper’s legs and sprawling out.

  Paula cursed angrily that she allowed herself to get caught like this. She tried for the gun again, working the safety clip back and forth while trying to prise it open. It wouldn’t budge, the bloody thing refused to yield.

  The belt. She looked at the middle of the utility belt, a thick leather belt with a double fastener in the middle. Far easier. Stamping her foot down on the coppers groin for leverage she yanked the end of the belt out and pulled it over, releasing the two metal prongs holding it in place before trying to tug the belt free.

  ‘FUCK OFF,’ she yelled at the naked man shuffling up close behind her. With a violent movement she turned and stuck the knife deep into his throat, using her office shoe clad foot to push him away.

  Grasping the belt she tried pulling it away, belt clips held it in place. She pulled harder, stamping her foot down on the coppers stab jacket. The clips released and she pulled the belt free, tugging furiously as the hand cuffs and other bits got stuck underneath him.

  Another stab out into another throat, another violent tug and finally the belt was in her hands, free from the policeman. Now the path back to the vehicle was blocked the ones behind were closing in.

  She ran to the side, clambering over a car bonnet onto the narrow pavement, running down the street and away from her vehicle. As one,
the horde shuffled round and started heading towards her. She kept them coming while checking all around for any others that might be lurking about.

  It took a few minutes but finally there was enough of a gap for her, taking advantage of it she sprinted up the pavement, the skirt hampering her movements and preventing her stride from opening fully. She tried tugging it up but holding the knife and belt and trying to tug a skirt up while running down a pavement and being chased by flesh eating zombies was all too much for even her advanced multi-tasking skills.

  Through the gap between the cars and into her vehicle. Engine on and reversing back and away from the horde. Breathing hard she reached the junction and backed into it, getting ready to turn away.

  Lifting the belt from the passenger seat she realised now how heavy it was from all the equipment they had to carry, no wonder they couldn’t chase anyone anymore.

  A set of keys jangled from a clip to the front of the belt, a big Volvo motif on the front. He must have been an armed response officer, if he has the keys with him then the police car must be nearby. But the station is only down the road so maybe he ran here when he heard the commotion and left the car behind. She scanned the area, searching for a marked police car.

  Must be at the station. She drove off, taking a longer route to bypass the blocked street. In the police station road she slowed down, inching along as she again viewed the houses, windows and doors. It was the same here as most other places. Bodies lying about, doors open, some windows smashed and blood everywhere. So close to the station too.

  She pulled alongside the entrance to the police station yard, peering through the open metal gates to the interior. Several marked police cars were parked up but no sign of movement. She leant out the window and pressed the clicker on the set of Volvo keys, hearing a clear thunk from inside the yard.

  Again, with a snap decision she was out of the vehicle and running inside, pressing the clicker again and again and following the noise and flashes of indicators to the big high performance police car.

  There it was, in the middle section of the back seat was a large metal box with an opening flap at the front. The gun box that was used to keep the bigger guns inside. That’s what she wanted. Ammunition and bigger guns.

  Inside the vehicle she worked the separate keys on the set until finding the right one that opened the gun box. Pulling the metal door up she was faced with the stock of a black coloured police sub machine gun. She’d seen them on television many times, and held by police officers outside courts and at airports too.

  She pulled it out and grabbed the magazines of ammunition, holding them in her arms before sprinting back to her own vehicle, dumping them all on the passenger seat and quickly driving off.

  Ten minutes later she was back out into the country lanes, hardly believing that she’d done it. She’d got everything she set out for, equipment, food, water, a vehicle and now guns. She had no idea how to use them but she would learn and figure it out, like everyone else she had seen enough action movies and cop drama’s to have a basic idea.

  She felt satisfied and a rare feeling of pride, that she had formed a daring plan and executed it to almost perfection. And already she had killed several of the things, and she’d done it without hesitation, and learnt that stabbing them repeatedly in the stomach didn’t work but stabbing them in the neck did work.

  Shit. Forgot the bloody hairbands again.

  Damn it.

  Now, eleven days on and picking her way tentatively through the charred remains she thinks back over those long days and nights. And how now, the plan was almost complete. The town was almost completely rid.

  Starting slowly she had picked them off one at a time. Driving round to find single undead shuffling in the hot summer day. The first few had simply been run over. Killed by the big four wheel drive.

  At night she drove back out of town, deep into the countryside and slept in the driver’s seat, ready to turn the engine on and drive away. The next day she went back into the town. Continuing the hunt. Mowing them down in couples and groups. That progressed to using weapons, finding equipment stores. Bows and arrows were tried and tested, but the skill required was too high. She used crossbows for a day, getting better and better at achieving head shots but she soon tired of the constant strain of drawing the string back.

  Firebombs made from bottles and petrol soaked rags were used. They were effective but the numbers were too small.

  As the days went on, so she developed, honing skills and getting experienced. She saw the change that came over them at night and made it a priority to be away into the country-side, finding a different place each night to park up and rest.

  She also sensed the change as the days went on. How they seemed to be targeting her. Whole groups of them following her every move. When they started chasing her in the daylight she knew she was getting to them. That feeling of being taken seriously was addictive. Staying one step ahead while cutting them down in huge numbers.

  They got worse, increasing their level of aggression and violence towards her. She matched them in every way. Using cunning and intelligence to lure them into traps.

  And this one. This was the best by far. The razor wire had worked brilliantly, the broken glass was okay but not effective enough, but the fire…the fire was awesome.

  He wasn’t here though. She hadn’t seen him at the front and although they were badly burnt she was sure he wasn’t here. A creeping sense comes over here as she makes her way through the bodies, taking care to avoid the lethal wire stretched between them.

  He wouldn’t stay in the middle. He hadn’t before so why now? No, he wasn’t here. She’d know it if he was.

  She stops and stares down the road. Knowing he’s there. Knowing he’s watching. Movement in the shadows. Definite movement. A figure walking forwards. More figures behind it.

  Him. It was him. He was coming down the road with another horde. He knew there would be a trap and sacrificed the first lot to clear the path.

  He couldn’t have many left now. The numbers she’d cut down were too vast for him to have many left.

  The last four days had seen the greatest game of cat and mouse ever played. An intelligent infected that sent wave after wave of undead after her. Always there, always watching. She’d almost come to respect him. Seeing his familiar form every day gave her a sense of re-assurance.

  She’d even worried one of the days when she hadn’t seen him until the afternoon. Not worried for him but concerned that something else had taken away her right of victory. He was hers. Hers for defeating.

  Trap and counter trap had been left. Fires, explosions, trip wires, shotguns, crossbows, gas canisters. They’d all been deployed with great effect. Nearly every street showed signs of the battles as she took them down again and again.

  Hand to hand combat had been avoided where-ever possible.

  She knew tonight would be it. One of them was going to lose and she’d planned long and hard for it not to be her.

  He was a normal looking guy, apart from the obvious signs of decay and deathly pallor, average height, average build, short brown hair. But he was her nemesis. She dreamt about him. Every minute of every day was taken up with thinking how to end him.

  She backs away, lifting her feet high as she goes. He comes in, moving at a steady pace. Getting closer she can make out the horde with him. She was right, not too many of them. But it looked like he had saved the best for last, big strong looking males.

  That was alright. The bigger they come and all that. She wasn’t going to be cowed by the males of the species anymore. This was a new time with new rules.

  ‘Good work,’ he shouts down the road, his voice clear. He seldom spoke and when he did it was only ever to praise her for taking down large numbers.

  ‘Thanks,’ she yells back, still stepping high.

  ‘You planned it well.’

  ‘I did,’ she agrees with him. At least he gives recognition of a job well done, which is more than a
ny of her other bosses ever did.

  He stops walking, holding a respectable distance between them. She stops too, staring over the bodies as he stands there with his arms held casually at his sides.

  ‘You must be proud,’ he calls out, ‘one woman against so many, you’ve done well.’ His voice isn’t goading but respectful and calm.

  ‘Thank you, I would say the same back but…’

  ‘Ha!’ He laughs, ‘no, I really haven’t done so well.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘It’s almost a shame this has to end, but…’

  ‘It does have to end,’ she finishes his sentence for him.

  ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘Paula, and yours?’

  ‘Thomas.’

  ‘What did you do before this?’

  ‘Accountant, what about you?’

  ‘I ran a legal advisory service, for what’s it worth…I could have done with someone like you in my company, you would have gone far.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Listen Paula, we will take you tonight…but…’

  ‘Confident then?’ She interrupts him.

  He laughs, a nice sound that drifts across the empty air, ‘very…we will win Paula, but when we do, know that it’s with respect and you’ll be alongside me.’

  ‘I would look forward to it…but…you won’t be winning.’

  ‘No?’

  ‘No Thomas, not a hope in hell.’

  ‘I love it! I love your confidence…I wish I had known you before all this.’

  ‘Maybe,’ she shrugs.

  ‘Were you married?’

  ‘No, single, I worked too much.’

  ‘Ah, let me guess…an all-male office, passed over for promotion…my firm dealt with companies like yours all the time.’

  ‘Something like that.’

  ‘It figures, I wasn’t married, never settled down either…what could have been.’

  ‘What could have been,’ she repeats.

  ‘Another world.’

  ‘Another time.’

  ‘New rules.’