With another flourish, he opened the gate and waved us through.
Slowly driving through the grounds, I tried hard to contain my excitement. The place looked deserted. Being a major tourist attraction and a site of significant historical importance, it would have a good perimeter fence to dissuade anyone trying to dodge paying the entry fee and to protect it when it was closed. The timing of the virus hitting had, for once, it seemed, worked to our advantage. It was closed when the world changed forever, and it never reopened.
We still needed to be careful, though, I reminded myself. It would surely have security staff on site twenty-four hours a day, and the perimeter fences, though difficult to climb, wouldn’t stop someone desperately trying to escape by getting over them.
We rounded the corner, and the castle came fully into view as we continued up the road. Carrying on, and with Simon following closely behind, we passed what I knew was called the Mound. It was the original site of the castle, built not long after the Norman invasion of England in 1066.
The road led straight through a gateway in the main curtain wall. I pulled into the main courtyard, stopped the car and turned the engine off. Standing on the seat as quickly as I could, I looked eagerly around.
Not a soul, living or dead, was in sight.
Simon pulled up beside me and turned off his engine and stood up on his seat as well.
All of us stared in awed silence at what we had discovered.
Simon broke the long silence by turning to me with a huge smile on his face.
“You, Sir, are a fucking genius! Look at this place. It’s incredible.”
He pointed to the gate we’d just driven through and to another entrance, which I knew in its dark depths was the original fortified barbican protected entrance.
“‘If we can get those closed, this place will be impenetrable.”
Dave joined in, slapping me hard on the back.
“And if we can’t close them, we can just brick them up.”
I was far too happy to even try to deny the congratulations being thrown in my direction. We had done it against insurmountable odds. From an idea born from desperation, the reality we had made it was hard for me to comprehend fully. Tears ran down my face as my emotions boiled over and I unashamedly shed tears of joy and happiness, until eventually pulling myself together.
‘Let’s go and get the others,’ I said.
Fifteen minutes later, forty-two people and two dogs hugged, kissed, cried, laughed and barked in celebration. Number forty three and forty four of our group were still to weak to celebrate and lay asleep in the trailer.
We had arrived at our Zombie Castle.
To Be Continued in Zombie Castle 4
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Zombie Castle Series (Book 3): ZC Three Page 18