by Luke Duffy
They pounded at the hood and doors, their faces pressed up against the glass, smearing it with all manner of filth as Steve pushed the car forward and trampled one below the wheels. The soft crunch of the bone as the heavy treads churned up the body below them could be heard from inside and Kevin winced in the back seat.
They surged forward and away from the pursuing infected and soon lost them in the twists and turns of the streets on the estate.
Close to where Claire lived, they saw the body of a person who had been burnt to a crisp and beyond recognition, still sitting on a scooter that had its kick stand down. The sight was completely bizarre and even with all that was going on, it seemed out of place.
“Jesus,” Gary commented, “I wonder what happened to him?”
They slowly passed the gruesome sight and Steve could see the charred and blackened features. He could even see the teeth as the lips had been shrivelled away leaving the body sitting upright and with a permanent grinning expression on its face.
They turned onto the road where Claire lived. There were two infected in view and they decided that they would go ahead with the plan and deal with them if they approached. He forced the car to a stop outside the house and considered using the horn for a moment to get Claire’s attention, but then decided against it.
“If there are only two of them in sight, then we’ll just have to knock. I don’t fancy attracting the whole estate down upon us.”
Gary gripped the handle to the door. “You get the ex with the saggy arse and me and ginger balls back there will keep the area clear.”
“Fuck off silver fox,” Kevin retorted.
“Hey, my grey hair shows maturity and wisdom, your bright red locks show that you're just cursed.” He glanced back and smiled at him then opened the door and stepped into the road. “C’mon lad, let’s do our bit.”
Kevin and Gary stood in the road wielding iron bars, ready to swing them down onto the heads of anyone who approached.
Steve climbed out and headed toward the door. The van that Roy used for work was backed up close to the front door with a gap of less than a foot for them to squeeze through. The door was already open and he saw Claire’s face in the gloom as she spoke.
“You'll have to move the van, it’s open and it should move forward once the handbrake is off, we’ll push from here.”
Steve nodded and did as instructed. Soon Claire and Roy were trotting down the driveway, carrying the three bags they had packed, and heading straight for the Range Rover. Claire stopped as she came level with Steve. She looked at him with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. “Thank God you made it. I was worried.” She kissed him on the cheek and threw her arms around his neck, sobbing. “You kept our little girl safe, and I could never repay you for that.”
“You can start just by getting into the car.” He looked down at her and smiled.
As Steve approached the driver’s side, he saw two bodies in the street close to where Kevin and Gary stood. Both had virtually no heads left and pools of congealed blood seeped out from the broken skulls. Gary looked over at him and shrugged. Steve nodded and began to climb behind the wheel.
“C’mon, Kev, that's us.”
Both of them piled into the car and quickly nodded to their new passengers by way of introduction, “I'm Gary, this is Kevin.”
“Pleased to meet you, I'm Claire, and this is Roy,” she replied and Roy nodded with wide frightened eyes. Steve glanced at him through the mirror as he put the vehicle into gear. He looked scared out of his wits.
The Range Rover turned in the street to face back the way they had come. Steve struggled with the heavy vehicle, and soon they headed back for the junction toward the bypass road.
Steve could see that Gary had something on his mind. “What is it?” he asked, finally acknowledging the glances that Gary was giving him to gain his attention.
Gary looked over his shoulder sheepishly to check if anyone would be able to hear what he was about to say. Claire was speaking to Kevin about where they were headed.
In a hushed tone, almost a whisper, Gary asked, “Why do you call her ‘Saggy Arse’? It looks pretty decent to me.” He nodded to the side as he said it, indicating toward Claire.
Steve checked his mirror again to make sure she hadn't heard. “Dunno really,” he muttered back trying to keep the same low tone. “It’s an ex thing I suppose.”
“It’s okay, Gary,” Claire’s voice spoke over their shoulders. “I have him listed as ‘Dick Head’ in my phone.”
Gary threw his head back and let out a snort. Steve shrugged his shoulders in resignation. “Told you, it’s an ex thing.”
The rescue had gone well. Too well.
They were on the bypass and making good progress. Steve knew not to let his guard down but he was almost feeling relieved, then he saw it. Up ahead was a dark throng of people, infected people. They were stretched across the width of the road and Steve couldn’t see a way through. They were shoulder to shoulder and heading straight at them.
“Shit!” he slammed on the brakes. “Where the fuck did they come from?”
“Dunno, and I don’t think they'll tell us if we ask them. Get us out of here, Steve.” Gary’s voice trembled. He had never seen so many of them. He was always the one that dealt with them at the gate to the park and around the walls, but he had never seen them in such numbers. Now, his eyes were fixed on them as the crowd staggered toward the car. Their numbers were terrifying and he imagined that there must be thousands of them.
It was hard to distinguish individuals within the mass. They were still over a hundred metres away, but steadily gaining ground as Steve considered his options. Their bodies were just a dark wall of browns and blacks. The grime and filth clung to their clothes, their flesh rotting and becoming discoloured as they festered and remained exposed to the elements.
The sound of their moans and wails became louder as they closed the gap that separated them from the warm living flesh that they sought. It was a haunting chorus of pain and anguish and the drone of the millions of insects that surrounded them provided the rhythm and, now and then, a higher pitched shriek as a dead voice broke into a solo over the rising din of the horde.
Steve turned as quickly as the vehicle would allow him and headed in the opposite direction, deeper into the urban area.
“Where do you think that lot came from?” he asked.
Gary looked shaken. “Dunno, maybe we attracted them as we passed through earlier and they just headed toward the road and followed it?” He wiped the sweat from his brow. “Where we going?”
“I dunno. I just want to put some distance between us and them,” Steve replied, watching the infected behind them in his rear view mirror.
Claire placed a hand on his shoulder. “If we keep going this way, we’ll end up in the city centre. There's probably millions in that area.”
“I know, Claire. I don’t intend on going into the city. But we can’t go back the way we came, so I'm gonna try and find another way.”
Steve was getting annoyed. He cursed under his breath because he knew what the town would be like. The road system was badly designed and to get from one side of the town to the other, you had to travel through the centre. There was no ring road that would allow them to circumnavigate the crowded centre.
“There is a way around, but it'll take a lot longer and we could hit more trouble,” he said.
Gary glanced across at him. “We will deal with that if and when we have to, Steve. Anything is better than driving across a city of a million dead people that want nothing better than to eat you.”
“I'm inclined to agree with the old dude on that one, Steve,” Kevin said from the back.
They picked their way through streets and avenues full of the infected that charged at them whenever they passed, and headed through the suburbs. The car was starting to look beat-up and the numerous dents, scratches, and stains would be hard to explain to his brother.
They had left the
majority of the built-up area behind them and began to approach the retail parks and industrial areas before they would hit the country roads again. Steve turned a bend that was overhung by trees and bushes that poked out from the fences of the factories and warehouses they surrounded. A loud crunch and bang from underneath the front wheels sent them tumbling in their seats as the vehicle dropped at the front. It settled on a forty five degree angle and everyone found themselves pressed up against the windows of the right hand side.
“What was that?” Gary was pushing himself back up in his seat and checking out of his window before he tried to open the door.
Steve was trying to get the car into reverse. “I don’t know, Gary. If I knew what it was, then I would’ve seen it before I hit it wouldn't I, and we wouldn't be in this position.” He growled as he fought with the clutch and accelerator.
Outside, Gary saw the problem. It was a pipe or conduit of some sort that had burst and caused the road above it to collapse and create a trench in the tarmac close to the curb. Just one look at it told Gary that there was no way of getting their vehicle free and even if they did, the steering arms were probably damaged.
“I think it’s the end of the road for the Range Rover, Steve.”
Steve eased off on the pedals and climbed out to see for himself. Kevin, Claire and Roy followed suit, glancing all around them, checking for any approaching infected in the area.
Kevin looked at the front axle that seemed to be buried in the asphalt. “Fuck, looks like we’re walking then. Which way we heading? We can’t stay here.”
“We will have to keep going in the direction we were going and hope that we can find another vehicle. There's a drive through McDonalds up there so maybe there's still parked and undamaged cars outside.” Steve rose to his feet from surveying the damage and looked at Claire and Roy. “Grab your bags and let’s get going then.”
They began walking in the direction they had been travelling, leaving the Range Rover that was the pride and joy of his brother, Marcus, far behind.
“I think your brother is gonna kill you, Steve,” Claire was trying to make light of the situation.
“No doubt, but I’ll happily take a kicking from him rather than getting eaten.” He was in no mood for chatting and he walked on ahead, his hammer in one hand and the small axe in the other. Gary walked beside him and Kevin brought up the rear while Claire and Roy carried their bags in the middle.
“We should’ve stayed at the house, Claire,” Roy commented when he saw that no one would hear him.
She rolled her eyes and huffed as she adjusted the strap of the bag over her shoulder. “Don't start, Roy. You know we couldn’t have stayed there forever, and there was no way I was gonna stay separated from Sarah even if there was a slight chance of me getting to her.”
“I know,” Roy’s voice quivered and he was back to being on the edge of a breakdown, “but this has all gone wrong. We have no car and we’re walking about in the open with those things running around. We should turn back and wait in the car.”
Claire stopped and turned on him. “You fucking serious?” she hissed. “And then what, we sit and wait while Steve and the others find a car and come back for us?”
He looked down and mumbled something as he continued to walk.
“You need to grow a pair, Roy,” she said to him as she stomped on ahead.
A while later they approached a large junction that had a number of exits leading into and away from different parts of the city. The one directly across from where they stood would bring them onto the country lanes that would eventually filter them back toward the Safari Park.
They stopped in the shadows of the trees that grew by the fence line of the road as it approached the junction, and watched the large open area to their front. The sun was still high and there were virtually no clouds in the sky. Birds twittered and trees swayed in the soft, cool breeze of the perfect summer’s day. It was almost enjoyable to be out, but there were things missing. The beep of horns, the rumble of engines and the voices of people and music from car stereos as they passed through the junction were completely absent and left the atmosphere feeling surreal.
It unsettled Steve and seemed to affect Roy even more; he was close to panic. They had been in the open for almost an hour and even though they had seen no sign of the infected, Roy felt all the more apprehensive. With every minute that passed by without any appearance from them, the anxiety built up in his mind. He expected them at any minute, and the longer it went without them showing, the more the fear rose up inside him.
He fidgeted and glanced all around him continuously as though he expected to see groups of reanimated corpses sneaking up on them. “Why are we standing here? We should keep going.”
“We can’t,” Kevin replied in a hushed voice as he eyed the far side of the junction staring at a car showroom, “there's a fucking million of them over there.”
He slowly raised his arm and pointed toward the tops of the numerous heads that he could see above the grass verge, wandering just fifty metres away in the open area in front of the showroom.
Gary was caressing his beard as he eyed the scene. “We can’t go back the way we came in case they followed us out of the suburbs, and the second we walk into the open, the infected over there will see us.” He turned to Steve who also stood watching from the shadows of the trees that overhung the railings. “What do you think?”
Steve glanced along the length of the fence and back toward the junction. “The drive through is just on the other side and to the right. If we made a break for it and keep low, maybe they won't notice us, and we could maybe find a car there that still runs.”
Gary wasn’t convinced, “There's too many ‘maybe’s’ in that, Steve.”
“I'm open to suggestions if you have any better ideas.” He looked at each of the group in turn and no one replied. They knew he was right and they had to go forward whether they liked it or not now.
They sprinted along the fence line and headed straight for the low single-storey building of the drive through. Their feet pounded against the tarmac and Steve cringed at the thought of their heavy steps attracting the attention of the infected.
A figure darted out from the edge of the fence line and collided with Roy as they bolted out into the open to cross the road. Cold fingers clutched at his face and they tumbled to the ground in a heap. Roy let out a loud shriek as the creature’s teeth clamped down on his shoulder; the sharp incisors puncturing the soft skin and tearing away at the cloth of his shirt and muscle underneath.
The two of them writhed and struggled as Roy tried to push the body away from him. Steve turned when he heard the scream and Kevin ran at the pair, aiming a kick at the face of the attacker with all his strength. It connected under the jawline. Its head snapped back with a loud crack and its jaw dislocated, causing the piece of bloody flesh to fly from its mouth. Blood splattered across its face. Kevin swung his iron bar from the right and it smashed against the back of its skull with a wet thwack, forcing it to fall forward again onto the still screaming Roy beneath.
The body lay motionless and Kevin and Gary grabbed Roy and hauled him to his feet and dragged him toward the road.
Steve had continued to run toward the drive through, grabbing Claire by the forearm as the others took care of the problem. He glanced over his shoulder to see Gary, Kevin and Roy making their way across the road. Beyond them, he saw the mass of corpses from the showroom climbing the grass verge and crossing the open road. The sprinters were out in front and approaching fast.
“Fucking run you three, run!” he hollered.
Roy was a dead weight, and Kevin and Gary had to use all their strength to keep him on his feet and moving. “I've been bit,” he sobbed, gripping his shoulder as he was forced along. “Shit, I'm gonna die aren’t I?”
“Keep moving, Roy, we’re nearly there.” Kevin pushed hard at his back, forcing Roy’s legs to run as Gary pulled.
They reached the other side and saw
Steve and Claire rounding the corner. Kevin looked back and saw five infected charging toward them at full pace. He turned back to the front and pushed harder.
“If you don’t run for yourself, I’ll fucking leave you here, Roy.”
Steve stopped for a moment to glance around, hoping to find a place to head for. On the far side of the restaurant was a garage forecourt and a red family style saloon still sat idle at one of the pumps.
“There,” he panted and pointed with his axe as he dragged Claire towards it.
He hoped that the keys were still inside. As he got closer, a man walked out from the shop attached to the fuel station, carrying a bundle of food and other goods in his arms. He saw Steve and the others heading for his car and dropped his load.
“No you fucking don’t. It took me ages to find a car that works,” he shouted as he sprinted for his car and stopped in front of the driver’s door holding a rifle in his hands menacingly, showing the invaders that he was willing to fight for what was his.
Steve didn't slow in his stride. “Help us, there's a load of them things chasing us, we need a ride outta here,” he shouted to the man as he approached.
The man looked past Steve and saw the other three as they turned the corner and followed. He reached across to his right and pulled the rear door open and waved them toward the opening, “Get in then, they're right behind you.”
“No, they're with us, they're okay, but the infected aren’t far behind them,” Claire said, indicating Gary Kevin and Roy, as she climbed in to the car.
“Run, Gary, get in here,” Steve called as he piled into the back seat, pushing Claire to the far side to make room for the others.
Gary and Kevin were exhausted. They had had to push and drag Roy the whole way and they were slowing. They saw the car and the open door and Steve and Claire disappear inside and they pushed their legs and drained their final reserves of strength to gain the last few feet of ground. They could hear the feet of the approaching infected behind them as they pounded across the concrete and the moans as they reached out in anticipation of the living feast ahead of them.