The Undead the Second Week Compilation Edition Days 8-14

by RR Haywood

  ‘Yeah great idea,’ Shaun mocks, ‘we increase their numbers even more making it easier for them to fight their way in.’

  ‘Shaun this place is huge, we don’t got enough blokes to keep watch everywhere…we got the women in some places and they’s fuckin’ fumin’ at us.’

  ‘Hey man,’ Ginge strolls in with a roll up hanging from his mouth, ‘hey Derek man.’

  ‘Ginge, you alright?’

  ‘Yeah but like, you know this is fucked up D-man, like some fucked up shit.’

  ‘For fucks sake Ginge, his name is fucking Derek. Stop fucking calling him D-man,’ Shaun explodes. Ginge rolls his eyes quickly at Derek and lapses into silence.

  ‘Shaun?’ Derek asks lightly.

  ‘I fucking heard you Derek,’ Shaun snaps.

  ‘So, like? What we gonna do then?’ Derek stammers, turning to Ginge he says, ‘I said we should go talk to them.’

  ‘Man, that’s like a great idea,’ Ginge nods with a big grin, ‘yeah like we go and chat man, shoot some shit and see what they say.’

  ‘I need time to think,’ Shaun says quietly, his manner distracted as he paces up and down the room swinging the sawn-off in one hand. This is all fucked up. Even the thought of going out there to quell the rising issues is too much to deal with.

  ‘Yeah man,’ Ginge nods in agreement, ‘but like Shaun man? You’ve had like ages to think and like, it’s almost daylight you know?’

  ‘FINE!’ Shaun screams in temper. Speaking to them is about the only option left. What started out as a take-over has quickly become a feeling of being held prisoner. Using the constant nagging as a way of agreeing without being seen to be weak he agrees to the negotiations.

  ‘Like really man?’ Ginge nods stupidly.

  ‘Yeah man,’ Shaun mimics him cruelly, ‘yeah man we’ll go and fucking speak to them man.’

  ‘Cool,’ Ginge nods either missing the mocking or choosing to ignore it.

  ‘Twat,’ Shaun spits. Striding past the two men, he wrenches the door open before stomping down towards the front. Even with a face like thunder and keeping his eyes to the front, he spots the angry glances being sent his way. Murmured voices and whispered comments all add to the pressure he already feels.

  ‘We’re going to negotiate,’ Derek announces making Shaun wince, ‘just bear with us folks and we’ll get this all sorted.’

  Folks? Get this sorted? Shaun bites down the urge to scream obscenities at the idiot, instead keeping his head fixed forward while marching towards the gate.

  ‘Shaun, you alright mate?’ One of the armed men stationed there nods at seeing the three men approach.

  ‘Fine,’ Shaun snaps, ‘anything?’

  ‘Nothing,’ the man replies, ‘quiet as fuck.

  The three men stop, Shaun in the lead with Ginge and Derek close behind him.

  ‘Shaun’s gonna talk to ‘em,’ Derek nods eagerly, ‘like get some negotiations going.’

  ‘That’s great Shaun, good luck,’ the gate guard says earnestly.

  ‘Yeah great,’ Shaun mutters. Time to switch on, time to get the old estate agents juices going, selling all that real estate and making good money from commission. Yep, Shaun could sell an igloo to an Eskimo. Everyone is watching Shaunie, they’re all looking to you, better make it good. Not too soft, don’t show fear but not too hard either and make them think there is no hope. Give them a glimmer of hope, show them an escape route out of this mess.

  Thinking hard he nods to himself, rubbing his hands down his trousers to wipe the sweat off, the sawn-off clamped under his armpit. Glancing up he spots the first tendrils of light spreading across the sky. Hot, too hot. It’s close in here with no breeze or air.

  Clearing his throat noisily, Shaun steps closer to the gate. No, if he speaks from here they could try and shoot through it. Stepping aside he turns to see everyone staring at him, not just his own group but everybody from the camp by the looks of it. Thank fuck those two woman are locked up.

  Come on Shaunie, time to shine.

  ‘Right,’ he calls out in a firm voice, ‘you listening out there? It’s about time we had a little chat.’ Happy with that, nice strong opening making him sound like the decision to talk is his own and not through force or being worried.

  ‘We got loads of armed people in here, guns and…more guns,’ wincing he moves on swiftly, long years of intense wrangling with buyers, sellers and all the people in between had given him good skills to know when to rush on and smooth over the verbal cracks, ‘we got your people here too, they’re all safe and nobody has been hurt…yet,’ he adds menacingly. Yeah, good start. Shows them there’s some intent if he’s not happy.

  Hmmm, they really should have said something back by now, just silence. No sounds at all.

  ‘You hear me out there?’ He shouts, ‘I said nobody has been hurt yet, that can soon change.’

  Silence, long seconds of silence. Someone in the camp coughs, others shift position. A rifle butt knocks against someone’s shotgun followed by a muted “excuse me”.

  ‘Go ahead,’ a voice calls out casually from the other side, ‘you’s fucked anyway.’

  ‘What?’ Shaun stares in shock at the inert gate as though that was the thing that spoke to him.

  ‘You deaf or something?’ The voice calls back, ‘I said do what you want cos you’s fucked anyway.’

  ‘Oi…’ Shaun shouts trying to make his voice sound less shocked and more aggressive.

  ‘You ain’t got no way out bro,’ Maddox shouts using a hard street edge to his voice, ‘there are no other exits, no other way out but through this door,’ Maddox blends his voice skilfully, easing gradually from the street voice to the educated voice as the Bossman used to call it. He knows the effect will be disconcerting to them, ‘so go ahead, kill everyone, kill everything…’

  ‘Now hang on a minute,’ Shaun blusters.

  ‘But,’ the single word silences Shaun instantly, clear and calm yet full of authority. No panic in that voice, just complete confidence.

  ‘But what?’ Shaun asks realising that by asking he just lost the power dynamic of the attempted negotiations.

  ‘No buts,’ a female voice calls out now, ‘you’re all going to die for what you’ve done, slowly, painfully and every single one of you will suffer horribly…’ Paula is also used to negotiations and also very used to dealing with men.

  ‘And we’re going to feed you to the zombies,’ Maddox adds, ‘all of you, your wives and children will go first while you watch.’

  Shaun spins round at the muted ripples of consternation spreading through the crowd behind him. The voices are so clear, carrying easily to the far ends of the small gathered crowd.

  ‘And anyone that stands with you will suffer the same fate,’ Paula shouts, ‘and their families and their children too.’

  ‘Shit man, what the fuck?’ Ginge stares in horror at Shaun.

  ‘We’ll burn your fucking fort to the ground, we’ll kill everyone and leave nothing behind…everything you just said we can do too,’ Shaun bellows.

  Silence again. He stares at the gate expectantly, waiting for the retort.

  ‘Sorry, did you say something?’ Paula shouts casually, ‘we were talking.’

  ‘I said we’ll burn your house to the ground…’

  ‘Fort,’ Derek interrupts.

  ‘What?’ Shaun snaps.

  ‘Fort, you said house…we’re in a fort.’

  ‘Derek, fuck off you twat,’ Shaun seethes, ‘I said we’ll burn your fort to…’

  ‘You did say house,’ the female voice cuts him off mid-flow.

  ‘Yes I bloody know but doesn't matter, house, fort, fucking caravan… we’ll burn it and everyone inside.’

  ‘That includes you,’ Maddox says.

  ‘Yeah,’ Shaun roars, ‘yeah us too.’

  ‘Go ahead, saves us a job,’ Maddox says with an almost verbal shrug for effect.

  ‘What’s your name?’ Shaun asks quickly. Personalise the convers
ation, take away the faceless entity and start working on the person.

  ‘My name?’ Maddox asks.

  ‘Yes, what is it?’

  ‘My name is fuck you.’

  ‘Right, is that how you want this to go? I can get some of your people here right now and fucking shoot them, then for every minute you hang about out there I’ll shoot another one.’

  ‘Like I said,’ Maddox replies in a flat almost bored voice, ‘you do what you gotta do, but just one thing…for every bruise on our people I will cut a finger off, for every mark you leave I will cut a toe off, for every open wound that bleeds I will feed you those fingers and toes one at a time and I will keep going until all of your people have neither fingers nor toes…after that I will start on tongues …and that’s just your children.’

  ‘Man,’ Ginge shakes his head, ‘we shouldn’t of come here you know like, like this is bad shit, really bad shit.’

  ‘They’re fucking psycho’s, really…really real psycho’s…we’re fucked.’

  ‘Psycho’s?’ Paula calls out, ‘no, not us…that’s the other ones. Mr Howie and Dave and their team…we’re very nice compared to them.’

  Fresh murmurs course through the crowd at hearing the names now so familiar to them. Those murmurs easily reach the ears of Paula, Maddox and the others grouped near the outside of the gate.

  ‘They’ve held this place against everything,’ Paula continues aware of how many people must be listening, ‘you saw the bodies at the top? The big stacks of bodies piled high? They killed every one of them, they’ve killed tens of thousands and most likely more than that. The zombies got inside that fort you are inside now…they turned all of their friends and families and you know what they did?’ She pauses for effect, ‘they killed them, they cut them down without hesitation. Do you understand? They killed their own families to keep this fort…do you think for one second they will let anyone else take it from them?’

  ‘Shaun,’ Derek mutters, ‘mate, this is going bent…seriously really…’

  ‘Listen to him Shaun man,’ Ginge cuts in.

  ‘Shut up,’ Shaun hisses.

  ‘This fort is a free place,’ Maddox takes the flow up, ‘every man, woman and child in there is there from their own free will, you get me bro?’ He slips easily into his urban twang with a hard edge, ‘they could come and go as they please,’ straight back out to normal voice, ‘what you have done is create a tyranny, a tyrannical rule whereby you are forcing people to be held against their will. We invited them in, we gave them shelter and promised them safety and food. What are you doing?’ Maddox ends with the loaded question, ‘can they leave if they want?’

  ‘What my colleague is saying,’ Paula takes her turn, ‘is that you tried to take something by force that would have been given to you freely. We would have taken you all in with open arms, we could feed you, give you clean clothes and running water, we have order and control. We have stability and people who want to work towards making a safe place for everyone.’

  ‘But you gone and fucked all that up bruv,’ Maddox jumps in, ‘fucked it up good and proper.’

  The sense of panic in Shaun rises to the point of threatening to burst from the top of his head. Sweat pours down his face. His control is gone, slipping away through his fingers.

  ‘Tell you what we’ll do,’ Paula says, ‘take an hour or two to discuss it with your people, let them know the women and children are free to stay here without duress or punishment. We understand the dangers out there and that many people will want to stay in big groups for safety. So you all have a chat and then let us know what you want to do.’

  ‘Wait,’ Derek blurts out fearing like the people outside are about to walk off, ‘you said the women and children can stay, what about the men?’

  Silence. Maddox giving Paula a shake of the head telling her not to answer. She nods back understanding his methods.

  ‘Hey? You there?’ Derek shouts again, ‘I said what about the men?’

  Still no reply. Just an empty silence.

  ‘Man,’ Ginge sweeps his long greasy hair from his forehead, ‘this is so bad like, you know? Like so bad, it’s a real downer for sure.’

  ‘Ginge, ’Shaun seizes on the thing he can be angry about, ‘you are a total prick you know that? A complete total fucking surfer prick.’

  ‘Hey man,’ Ginge shakes his head, the locks of hair falling back over the top of his head, ‘like you know Shaun,’ he adds without saying anything at all.

  ‘Shaun, we gotta talk about this,’ Derek shuffles nervously from foot to foot, ‘really Shaun, we really gotta talk about this yeah?’

  ‘Not here,’ Shaun hisses, ‘in the office.’

  ‘Wait a minute,’ one of the women in the crowd says, a solid built lady that was instrumental in causing the distraction outside. ‘This concerns all of us now so you ain’t running off to discuss things behind our backs.’

  ‘Yeah, bloody right,’ someone adds firmly as murmurs of agreement grow.

  ‘Fine, can we just go away from here at least,’ Shaun concedes.

  The group move off. The people that were present before the new armed group arrived stay close to listen. Sensing this man is rapidly losing control, and having heard word for word what Maddox and Paula said they stay quiet, waiting to see how it plays out.

  Shaun pauses for a moment, gathering his thoughts. He stares back at the gate, wishing it was wide open so he could run through it and get as far away from here as possible.

  Thinking frantically he moves slowly behind the crowd regretting ever coming here.

  ***

  ‘Did we push it too far?’ Paula whispers. Having moved away from the inside of the gate they stand outside the fort speaking in low voices. Maddox looks to Paula, then to Roy standing quietly as he follows the conversation, and finally to Darius nearby, keeping a close eye on the inner section.

  ‘No, I don’t think so,’ Maddox replies, ‘they sound scared and you heard all the other people in there talking.’

  ‘I did,’ Paula nods, ‘you don’t think he’ll carry out the threat then?’

  ‘Kill people? No,’ Maddox says firmly, ‘definitely no way, even if he wants to, I think the others will stop him. The men he’s got with him have families in there and we’ve given them a way out by saying the women and children can stay. Nah, he’s shitting himself right now…’

  ‘I agree,’ Roy interjects, ‘he’s going to be feeling more like a prisoner than a siege lord.’

  ‘Siege lord?’ Paula gives him a quick quizzical look.

  ‘And I know what Sierra will be saying,’ Darius cuts in, ‘Lenski too…’

  ‘Plus the crew we left here,’ Maddox nods at his friend, ‘they ain’t stupid, they’ll be saying things to plant seeds and get them worried.’

  ‘What now then?’ Paula yawns with a big stretch. Fighting all night then having to deal with this, the exhaustion is starting to show.

  ‘We wait,’ Maddox says with that calm air of authority. He knows the outcome will be one of two actions; either they’ll give up and come out of their own accord, or they won’t, and if they don’t then as soon as Howie gets back they’ll go in. Simple. ‘Get some sleep yeah,’ Maddox says, ‘Darius you keep watch for now bruv, get me if anything happens.’

  ‘You sleeping too?’ Paula asks with surprise, ‘aren’t you worried for Lenski and the others.’

  Maddox thinks before answering, the natural inclination to never admit a weakness and never display emotion. ‘Worrying won’t fix this, being smart and thinking straight is what we need and being too tired to do either won’t help anyone, get some rest. Darius, you on it yeah?’

  ‘I’m on it Mads.’

  He walks off ending the conversation, his face doesn't betray a flicker of expression but those intelligent eyes never stop. Searching, thinking, planning and factoring every nuance that might happen. Lenski is the first woman he has ever got close to. Being a well-built handsome man, Maddox has enjoyed more than his
fair share of attention from the opposite sex but Lenski is different, all of this is different. New world, new rules.

  For the first time in his life he feels a nagging sensation deep inside, that the person he loves is in danger and there is nothing he can do to help. The cold, ruthless core of Maddox works swiftly to override that sensation. Lenski is exceptionally capable and intelligent, and she can look after herself.

  It’s all a game of chess Maddox, life is a game of chess. Know your opponent and know yourself, then you can predict what he’ll do next, once you know that you are in control.

  The Bossman ended his reign badly, fucking up from smoking too much of his own produce but the lessons he instilled in Maddox run deep. In order to plan he needs a mind that is sharp. Sleep deprivation does not make a sharp mind.

  Settling down in the shaded lee of the wall he closes his eyes. Breathing deeply to help calm his mind, he slowly allows sleep to start pulling him under.

  ‘He’s an exceptional kid,’ Paula whispers to Roy. Both of them resting against the wall some distance away watch as calmly rests.

  ‘Yep,’ Roy agrees, ‘how old is he? Can’t be more than twenty.’

  ‘Must be about that. How are you doing?’ She looks at the man next to her. She has known him for less than 24 hours, but it feels so much longer. The way he fought last night was incredible, first with his bow and arrow cutting them down as they burst forward to attack the lines. In the dark, with so much noise and heat, he didn’t miss once, an amazing feat of skill.

  Even after that, when the time for projectile weapons was done and it came down to getting close, he didn’t falter but pulled his sword out and stayed close to Paula throughout. Fit, strong and athletic and he stayed steady; not letting anger, or fear, control him.

  ‘Me?’ Roy asks, ‘yeah I got this funny feeling in my back,’ he shifts position with a worried look on his face, ‘like a dull pain.’

  ‘Where?’ She asks softly.

  ‘Behind my right lung, like when I breathe in really deep it hurts.’

  ‘Okay, show me,’ Paula slips into the calm doctor type tones she knows will calm his worried countenance. Placing a hand on his back, she moves it around slowly as he shifts and wriggles.