The Captain was the last up the stairs, just as the first couple of naked bodies managed to squeeze past all the others and jump in through the window. Soon a steady stream was climbing in.
“Is everything ready Echo?” the Captain asked, as he raced up next to her.
“Ready for your word,” she stated.
They were all up in the top tower, on the third floor, in the room with the doctor.
They all put on their backpacks.
Bull helped Melanie put a gasmask on, and then he picked her up.
Rogers and Spice carried one large bubble container between them. The Captain and Jimmy carried the other.
The creatures could be heard running up the stairs, filling the rooms, looking for warm meat. They were only momentarily stopped by the chairs and desks crammed down the second-floor stairwell, tossed down by Bull and Rogers just moments ago.
“Now!” the Captain said.
Echo nodded, and then shouted, “In three, two, one.” She turned the switch on a device she held in her hands.
The blast shook the foundations of the whole building.
30
Noah
Newton Abbot
Between King Street and Fair Field Terrace
11:51 AM GMT
Noah stood on a garden bench, and then jumped onto a small shed, which he used to climb the ten-foot wall at the bottom of the short garden, which was awkward while holding onto a golf club.
On the other side were two large apartment buildings, each with grass around them and a winding road, with lots of parking spaces.
The drop on the other side of the wall was further than the side he just climbed. Scanning the wall, he noticed a lamppost twenty feet away. Noah ran along the top of the wide wall, dropped the golf club down first, and then shimmied down the lamppost.
The place seemed deserted. A few abandoned cars littered the road and a couple on the grass. Suitcases were left were they fell. Some were open, with clothes and belongings spread around them.
Windows were broken on the apartment buildings, with the curtains hanging out of some of them. It was hard to believe that all this could happen in a mere three weeks. It looked like the area had been abandoned for years. The scene reminded him of old war movies, where people had deserted areas quickly, due to an advancing army.
Noah knew someone who he used to work with who had a grandmother that lived here. The two buildings were small old people’s apartments. Somewhere they could still have their own independence, but someone could keep an eye on them.
Noah raced across the road, onto the grass, and along the side of the closest building. He glanced into a couple of windows as he ran past. The first few were empty. The third had someone lying on the carpet, next to a tipped over TV; they were bloated beyond recognition.
Noah did not stop; he kept running at a steady pace.
The road led around to the complexes entrance out onto Fair Field Terrace. Noah crouched down next to the wall, while checking the road was clear.
Behind him, a loud explosion destroyed the window – and part of the wall – of where he had just glanced into. He could see the cloud of black spores pouring out of the hole.
His breath was deafening inside the mask. Sweat poured down in the inside of the faceplate.
With another quick check each way, Noah sprinted across the road, down a small alleyway, next to an electrical hardware shop. He came out in a small back alley, behind a row of houses.
A screaming sound made him stop. He crouched down behind a wheelie-bin, with the golf club held across his chest. Noah peered around the large green bin and saw a naked middle-aged man running up the alleyway, chasing a dog.
Noah ran across the short alley. He kicked at a gate, making it fly open. He sprung inside and swung it shut. He rested his back against the wooden gate. He was now inside a small concrete patio area, at the back of another house. Staring through the windows, he did not see anyone. The back door was open and swinging back and forth in the wind.
Inside there was blood everywhere. It looked like a few people had bled out. However, there were no bodies.
Noah did not stop to check any rooms; he ran straight through and out the front door and onto Prospect Terrace.
He crouched down behind a new shaped yellow beetle. A commotion drew his attention up the road. A group of eight or so naked creatures was gathered around something in the middle of the road, feasting.
Noah searched across the street. A couple of houses had their front doors open. One house, halfway up the road, was on fire, belching thick smoke high into the air.
Noah sprinted straight across and into the closest, jumping over the skeletal remains of a man while doing so. He did not stop, but charged straight through, jumping over a chair and around a table. He rammed the backdoor with his shoulder; it flew open, taking one hinge off the door. Once again, he was in a small courtyard at the back of a house.
Movement caught his attention. A naked, dirt covered teenage girl was crouched in the corner, with her back to him. She was ripping apart a small animal of some kind that she had pulled from a wooden hutch.
In a few leaps, he ran along a raised flowerbed, up onto a large water container, which had a pipe from the gutters running into it, and then he jumped onto the wall, and without knowing how far a drop it was, he soared over, before the creature realized he was a bigger, warmer meal.
Noah landed hard, knocking the wind from his lungs. It was only about eight feet, and he rolled as he hit the ground. He did not stop to catch his breath; he simply scooped up the golf club he dropped and carried on running.
Noah could hear gunfire start up in the distance again.
It started to rain, hard and fast. It cut visibility down due to saturating his mask. He had to keep wiping the faceplate with the sleeve of his coat.
Noah realized he was in some kind of large yard, with an old wooden building to one side. A road led out onto Devon Square. Without a backwards glance, he raced along it.
Across the road was a large church, with a towering steeple that could be seen right across the valley. Around the church were grass, trees, concrete, and parking spaces.
Noah darted across the road and into the bushes.
The gunfire was continuous now, and louder, which was almost drowned out by the pouring rain.
Noah was soaking wet and cold. He looked around. There were larger open spaces here, so he would be more vulnerable, but he had to risk it to get to the park. The rain was in his favour, because it was so heavy.
A roaring sound drew his attention. It was a large, white lorry, driving along at the end of the road, heading towards the park. He was too far away to catch their attention, or to see who was driving it. It did not look military; it looked like the sort you would rent for the day to move house.
The sound of the lorry was drawing the attention of some naked creatures that were running behind it. They could not catch it, but continued to follow in the same direction.
Noah ran around the circumference of the church grounds, keeping to the tree line, giving him plenty of cover to duck down behind if he needed to.
Suddenly, a naked figure appeared directly in front of him; he did not see him approach. The eyes caught his attention first, how big they were, and bloodshot, with veins mapping out from them across the checks. Then he noticed the wide stretched mouth, with twisted broken teeth jutting out in all directions. Time seemed to slow down as he soaked in every detail.
Noah did not have time to think; his reflects took over, as he swung with the golf club with all his strength. He hit the old man directly in the head. One minute the naked creature was lunging with outstretch arms, the next he was flying sideways as if being hit by a speeding car. Blood splattered his faceplate, which was washed clean by the pouring rain within seconds.
Without a backwards glance, Noah ran full pelt across the grass, onto the road, and down a junction. The road opened up onto Courtney Park.
The park
was large and on a slight incline. There was a children’s play area inside a fence, a large pond with a bandstand next to it, and many benches, trees, and plenty of open space. Around three sides were housing, and one side had a main road, with a public toilet and a large train station.
One thing was there that was out of place – the crashed helicopter. It had churned up a large trench, leading to the bandstand, which the twisted hull leaned against. All around it was naked, dead bodies. Blood and gore was everywhere.
Noah crouched behind a small silver Fiat Punto.
He could see where the military was, mainly because it was surrounded by a frenzy of naked creatures. Noah was just deciding how he would approach, or even get to them to let him know he was there, when two things happened simultaneously; the white lorry turned a corner, and an almighty explosion blew fire and dense smoke out of the windows on the bottom two floors of the building.
31
Red, Betty, and Lennie
Newton Abbot, In a House on King Street
11:59 AM GMT
Red ran into the room, not knowing what to expect.
Lennie sat on the couch, protecting the small terrier by hugging it, while rocking back and forth. The dog was whimpering with its head buried under Lennie’s arm.
The cause for the smashed window was arms thrashing around, trying to get at the warm bodies inside. It looked like a twenty-something woman, with short black hair. She screamed and grunted while trying to force her way in through the splintered wood and fragmented glass of the window.
Without thinking, Red ran forward swinging the golf club with all her might, similar to using a baseball bat. The end connected with the middle of the woman’s forehead; the sound it made was like dropping a watermelon onto a slab of concrete. The naked female shot backwards into the street, landing on her back. Blood pooled around her deformed head. She did not move again.
Screams echoed up and down the street, as more naked creatures headed towards the commotion.
Red pulled the curtains shut, hoping to bide them some time.
There are so many of them all at once, Red thought. For the last week or so, I thought it was quiet because everyone was hiding, waiting for rescue. But in fact, they were already infected, and slowly changing in their own homes.
Red swung around. “Lennie, stand up. Go to the kitchen,” she shouted.
The giant of a man did not move he just rocked back and forth with his eyes shut tight. The little dog’s tail wagged with the sound of a human voice.
“Lennie, move right now.”
The man opened his eyes and looked up, as if registering Red for the first time.
“Lennie take the dog into the kitchen. It needs your help.”
This seemed to wake the man up. He stood, turned, and headed down the hallway, while muttering, “Protect little doggy.”
It sounded like a few creatures were fighting outside, but Red dared not open the curtains.
She quietly closed the front room door and looked around for something to wedge it shut. She noticed a dog lead on a coat hook. She wrapped the lead around a banister rail, then through the hoop and then pulled as hard as she could, and managed to wrap the lead around the front room door handle, and click the link closed over the rigid lead. She then ducked under the line and moved down the hall to the kitchen.
Betty stood over Lennie, checking he was all right. The little dog stared around, wide-eyed at the strangers in its home.
“One smashed the front room window. There is a few outside, fighting among themselves. Or possibly eating the one I just knocked out,” Red said as she moved around the table. She checked outside. The yard was empty. There was no way Lennie or Betty would be able to climb the ten-foot wall.
“Don’t worry dear,” Betty said. “Noah will be back soon with those men with the guns. They will save us.” She gave a toothless smile, to reassure Red, as she used a big wooden spoon to stir whatever was in the pot.
A ringing timer went off.
“Turn that off,” Red said while trying to dash to the timer to stop its ringing.
“Oh, just another ten minutes and dinner will be ready,” Betty said as she moved over and switched off the timer.
I don’t think Betty is playing with a full deck of cards; Red thought. How can she be so calm? She looked at Lennie as he rocked back and forth, while stroking the small dog.
Just then, a guttural scream echoed throughout the house as the creatures started to pour into the front room. The door rocked as bodies slammed against it. The dog lead held. Then the front door started to shift, knocking the furniture over that Red had piled against it, as arms reached in, smearing blood over the wallpaper and door.
Red pulled the curtain on the back door aside and swung the door open. She looked up at the roof of the kitchen, which was an extension from the main part of the house. It was flat with a railing around it.
“Upstairs,” Red said as she ran back in.
“What was that?” Betty questioned.
“Both of you, upstairs now. I have a plan,” Red said.
Neither of them moved.
“Lennie, go upstairs, and take the bags with you,” Red repeated.
Lennie looked over to Betty, while he stayed seated, stroking the dog.
“It’s okay Lennie, do as Red tells you,” Betty said while wrapping the blankets back over her shoulders.
“Shame,” she muttered, as she left the food on the stove.
Lennie held Charlie under one arm, while swinging Noah’s bag onto his back, he then picked up his and Reds in the other large hand.
Betty led the way along the hall. It was a struggle for Lennie to crawl under the stretched dog lead, but he managed it.
The creature’s blood covered arms flailed around faster through the gap in the front door, when they heard movement. Their screams intensified.
The door leading to the front room shook from the multiple impacts. The sound of furniture smashing resounded from the closed room.
Red watched Betty and Lennie make their way up the stairs, and then she moved over to the stove. She turned the gas off, so the flame went out, and then turned on all four-gas hobs and the oven. Gas hissed into the kitchen.
Red started rummaging through the draws. She found what she was looking for. She pulled a chair over and wedged it against the table, and put the electric gas lighter on the floor, and with some duct-tape, she found in the same draw, she taped it to the floor, rammed up against the chair so it would not slide backwards.
Perfect, Red thought, as she grabbed a carrier bag off the side and tossed what was on the table into it. She then squeezed through the gap in the door, and pulled the kitchen door shut. She then ducked under the dog lead, swung around the banister post, and sprinted up the stairs two at a time, while avoiding the gap next to the front door. One creature was halfway through, crawling down over the piled up chairs and telephone table.
Lennie and Betty were in the master bedroom. Lennie crinkled his nose up against the rancid, pungent smell.
“Over here,” Red said as she barged between them and ripped the curtains to one side. Dust motes filled the room. There was a double door leading out onto a small patio built on top of the kitchen extension. With a kick, the doors swung open.
It started raining hard.
Red opened the bag she was carrying. Inside was her filtration mask and goggles, along with spare goggles for Lennie and Betty. She put hers on.
“Here,” she said, while passing the largest goggles to Lennie, then another to Betty.
“Pull your jumpers up, to cover over your mouth and nose,” she instructed.
They both slipped on the goggles and pulled their clothing up to cover the lower half of their face.
“Good, now quickly, outside,” she said.
“Poor devils,” Betty muttered as she looked down at the three corpses under the blanket.
“There isn’t much time,” Red shouted.
The front door g
ave way under the onslaught, and as the creatures rushed in, the first couple slammed into the dog lead, pulling it from the handle.
“Out!” Red screamed, and she pushed Betty outside. Lennie stumbled after them.
The patio had wobbly concrete slabs, made slippery by the rain, with a small metal bistro table and two chairs that the rain pinged off. A few plant pots filled the corners.
“Over the rail, onto the roof next door,” Red shouted, as her red hair plastered to her face.
The roof joined to the house extension next door. However, the other roof had no patio, just a tiled apex. There was a dip of about four feet down.
Lennie tossed the bags over, then, while still holding onto the dog, swung a leg over. Once he was on the sloping roof, he had no choice but to put the terrier down, while he reached over and lifted his grandmother over.
Red swung her legs over and ducked down below the roofline, and rested her back against the wall.
“You might wanna duck down too,” she stated.
Lennie held onto Charlie as he crouched next to Betty.
Red could hear an explosion in the distance. It sounded louder, and different from when the bodies popped. She gave it scant attention; she would have an explosion of her own within seconds, to contend with.
They could hear some creatures running straight up the stairs. Others ran along the hallway, slamming into the kitchen door. The door flew open and hit the electric lighter, which was tapped to the tiled floor. A small flame sparked to life, igniting the gas that filled the kitchen.
The blast incinerated the naked bodies and blew their dusty remains back along the hallway. The fireball filled the corridor, running into the front room and up the stairs; consuming everything in its path.
32
Doctor Lazaro and the Squad
Dentist Clinic
Courtney Park, Newton Abbot
12:07 PM GMT
The whole dentist building shook. The sound was deafening. Thick smoke and dust poured up the stairs, filling the top floor. The building settled, with large cracks running along the upper-level walls. The two floors below collapsed onto themselves, due to the charges placed by Echo. Small, isolated fires burned in the remains of the lower levels.
The Sixth Extinction & The First Three Weeks & The Squads First Three Weeks Omnibus [Books 1-10] Page 11