Rogue Evacuation

by Simon Neilson

Lifting his head the priest looked directly at us, his mouth frothing with blood, eyes bulging and in one movement he leapt towards us.

  Jackson just managed to let off a few rounds to the head as the priest got within inches of grabbing me. Mike screamed as the figure slumped to the floor, half his head shattering into tiny pieces.

  “What the fuck! He’s a fucking priest!” Mike screamed.

  “We need to get inside and quick,” Lance said looking around.

  Mike continued to curse, tears streaming down his cheek as he jumped around in front of the truck like a sulking child who had just been told he could not have a toy.

  “What’s his malfunction?” Jackson asked.

  Mike was in a fragile place, the fact that both his parents were religious and we, sorry Jackson, had just shot a man of the cloth did not help his situation. I explained this to Jackson who just nodded and then eyed Mike suspiciously.

  “He’ll be ok,” I said.

  “You keep saying that. I hope you’re right,” Jackson whispered.

  Lance pointed out a sign to our left, a white “H” on a blue background. This large, daunting building to our left was in fact Whittington Hospital and so our shelter for the night had been found.

  Jackson hid the truck under a shelter where ambulances used to park. We opted for camping out on the ground floor reception area. There were three doors leading off into the hospital, due to the fact there was no lighting anyway in the building. We had discovered this by trying the light switches. I took the decision to not search the location but instead barricade the three doors and just leave the entrance clear, in case we needed to make a quick getaway.

  As we positioned the sleeping bags around the floor, I saw Joyce smile as she reached into her large bag, the only thing she brought with her from the police station. She asked Rebecca for the roll of bandage and disappeared off to the back of the reception area. I watched curiously as she crouched down in a corner and wrapped up the two items. I could not see what they were. She then took strips of white tape and using the medical scissors she curled the tape and turned it into bows which she attached to the top.

  She wandered back over to the where we all sat. By now everybody was curious as to what she had been doing. Joyce crouched down next to Amelia and Jesse. We all gathered round and watched on.

  “What’s this?” Amelia asked.

  “Are they presents?” Jesse asked smiling.

  “They might be,” Joyce replied.

  “From Santa?” Amelia asked excitedly.

  “Well you see, Santa and I are very good friends and seeing as he was unable to find out where you two little girls were I asked him if he could make a special visit.”

  “You know Santa?” Jesse asked.

  “Best of friends,” Joyce replied.

  Jesse was the first to unwrap the bandage. I heard her intake of breath and then a big “Wow” as she pulled out the sparkling, silver dolphin brooch. She held it up and even though there was no lighting inside the building, it sparkled against the moonlight peering in through the window.

  Amelia giggled as she saw the dolphin sparkle, but she was intent on opening her own bandage. It took a little longer but eventually she pulled out a small white box and just stared at it.

  “Open it,” Joyce said still smiling.

  Amelia opened the box, a tiny little ballerina appeared on the opposite side and the twinkling soft music began. The ballerina slowly began to turn round as the soft music played, little shards of light shone up from the bottom of the box and twinkled around the ballerina like a glitter ball as she spun round. Amelia could not take her eyes off this wonderful sight.

  “Merry Christmas to both of you,” Joyce said.

  Rebecca placed her arm around my waist and rested her head on my shoulder. I could feel the happy tears welling up in my eyes as I looked at the two little girls staring in awe at the beautiful sights before them.

  “Thank you,” Amelia and Jesse said together, eyes still transfixed on the spinning ballerina.

  Joyce stood up, she smiled at me and I just nodded as the tears trickled down my cheeks. Rebecca mouthed the words “thank you” and squeezed me tighter.

  I glanced over to tough-guy Jackson who wiped his eye and then caught me looking at him so he turned to face the other direction.

  “Dust,” he said, I just nodded.

  The footsteps caused the whole atmosphere to change, we all span round and stared towards the back of the reception area, guns drawn.

  “Oh shit,” Jackson whispered.

  As I turned I noticed that Mike was the only one still sitting down, back against the wall staring at the floor, he was rocking back and forth.

  “I’ll check it out,” Lance said.

  “I’ll come with you,” Jackson replied.

  I made sure the women and the children were backed up to the wall. I stood a few feet away from one of the doors which Lance and Jackson had gone through. A few minutes later they both returned, not in a hurry so I gathered nothing too much had happened.

  “You need to come and see this,” Lance said.

  “What?” I replied.

  “This ain’t no ordinary wing of the hospital,” Jackson said.

  As I walked through the door and followed the two of them down a long corridor, I saw the sign indicating this was a psychiatric unit. We turned right and that’s when I saw the locked door. Through the glass I could see about ten to fifteen people in gowns, a few of which were just wandering around aimlessly. Some skipped and others sat in a trance, rocking back and forth, similar to…I hated to admit it but similar to Mike!

  “Are they infected?” I asked.

  “Doesn’t look like it.” Lance shrugged his shoulders.

  “We are not rescuing them,” Jackson said shaking his head.

  One of the figures came wandering over to the door, staring at us. He picked his nose and stared at us for what seemed like a long time. He pulled a face and went skipping off back towards the centre of the room.

  “Leave them where they are, we’ll be out of here in the morning,” I said.

  It was obvious they had not been fed in a long time, skin and bones all of them. I could see empty packets and boxes littered all around the floor, mixed with human faeces and puddles of water which I could only imagine was urine. How could the medical staff just leave them like this? As if reading my thoughts, Mike appeared behind me.

  “We can’t just leave them like this,” he said.

  “So what do you suggest, we let them out? Yeah great idea big man,” Jackson replied.

  I ushered everybody away from the room and made them promise not to tell the girls and the children, the last thing I wanted was for them to have a spooky night. We would put the footsteps down to a loose sign banging against the wall.

  As we entered the reception area and barricaded the doors I watched as Mike resumed his position on the floor.

  “You sure about him?” Jackson asked me quietly.

  I nodded, but I was beginning to worry about Mike. He was not handling all of this at all well and I wondered whether he would be as much of a danger to the group as the infected outside.

  I settled the children down, took some persuading for them to leave their Christmas presents alone, but eventually they listened and were tucked in to sleep. Sliding in next to Rebecca she gave me a soft kiss and we snuggled up together.

  Lance took first guard. Tomorrow morning, Boxing Day, we would depart and head to Leeds.

  DIARY ENTRY 62

  26th December – morning

  I went over the plan again whilst we ate breakfast. Jackson wanted to know why it was that we were not going to Brighton first, the nearest location to London. I reiterated that by going north we could work our way down and be greater in numbers if we hit any problems. We had to take into account supplies. The more people we had the greater supplies were needed.

  As I spoke I glanced over at Mike who just sat in the corner staring at the floor,
Lance and Jackson had told me that on their respective guarding duties he stayed in the same position.

  All of us started to pack up our kit into the rucksacks. Lance decided to go outside to complete a recce of the area just in case we run into some more of the infected. I tightened my rucksack and noticed Lizzie placing Mike’s kit away. She had a sorrowful and sympathetic look in her eyes.

  Rebecca touched my cheek. Turning I smiled at her. She could tell that I wanted to help Mike and I wanted to get him through this nightmare. I should know as I had been to hell and back again during this journey.

  My mind cast back to the dark days sitting alone in the bedsit watching the patrols at night. The shootings outside as I tried to sleep. It was the darkest and most troublesome time of my life, just lying there thinking of my family. Those were my dark days and I assumed Mike was just going through the same sort of thing.

  Rebecca must have seen the same sort of despair in my eyes for a moment. She whispered to me and asked if everything was alright. After a short pause I looked into her beautiful eyes and smiled widely. Everything was better now.

  That thought was pretty short lived as Lance came bursting into the reception area, causing everyone to jump and spin round to look at him.

  “IGS! Out on the main road.”

  I told Jackson to stay with everybody in the reception area and followed Lance outside. Climbing up the external fire escape I could see onto the main road. I recognised the machine gun mounted jeep and then I saw them. There were four IGS guards and one other figure, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The Commander!

  “What’s he doing here?” I whispered.

  Lance shrugged his shoulders. They were initially inspecting the priest on the floor we had disposed of last night, but from two sides they started to get surrounded by the infected. Gunfire erupted all around, the bullets tore through the heads of the advancing infected. I could not count them all but I was sure that at some point the guards would run out of ammunition soon. The Commander jumped on to the jeep and took hold of the heavy machine gun. This had the desired effect as the huge rounds ripped the infected bodies apart.

  Suddenly, gunfire erupted behind us, muffled but still loud enough for the IGS to gaze around to find out where it was coming from. The Commander paused on the machine gun and looked around also.

  “It’s coming from inside the hospital,” I whispered urgently before hurrying down the fire escape.

  Rushing into the hospital I could see Rebecca, Joyce, Bruno and the children huddled in one corner. Rebecca was shaking and pointed towards a door that was open, the one that led down to the room with the psychiatric patients in. There was another burst of gunfire and I ran as fast as I could down the corridor.

  The sight that met me was horrifying. Jackson was stood with his weapon ready, Lizzie was crying and pleading with Mike to stop.

  I stopped running and stared aghast into the room where the patients had been wandering around earlier. The bodies of the patients were strewn across the floor, the white tiles now covered in thick red blood. Mike stood just inside the doorway, his weapon smoking from the firing.

  “Mike! Mike!” Jackson shouted.

  “Please Mike, please!” Lizzie cried.

  I stepped forward as Mike slowly turned to face me, his eyes were distant, the knuckles on his hands white from gripping the gun so hard.

  “What have you done?” I said in shock.

  “You think your god? You think you can choose who stays and who goes?” Mike’s voice was low and menacing.

  I gazed down at all the bodies again, riddled with bullets and lifeless. Looking back up I noticed Jackson stare back at me.

  “You said you would fucking handle this!” He screamed.

  Mike pulled slowly pulled the muzzle of his gun up into the air and then placed it underneath his chin.

  “Mike! No!” Lizzie screamed.

  The single shot echoed through the hospital, a mixture of blood, bone and flesh flew up into the air as Mike’s body slumped back and bounced off the bloodied tiles.

  I stood motionless as Lizzie screamed. Jackson flinched as some of the blood spurted in his direction. My best friend just took a gun and shot his brains out right in front of me. Everything seemed to go into slow motion. I could hear Lance talking to me, but his voice seemed eerie and echoed. Jackson was facing me and shouting. I could not hear his voice but could see his lips moving. Lizzie was doubled over, her face contorted like she was screaming, but I could hear nothing. My entire focus was on Mike, his dead body amongst the others and what seemed like litres of blood just flooding from his head.

  Like somebody cranking up the volume on a stereo the sound around me exploded in my ears.

  “THE IGS ARE SEARCHING!” Lance screamed.

  “SEE! SEE! I FUCKING TOLD YOU!” Jackson shouted.

  “OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! NO!” Lizzie cried.

  I couldn’t bring myself to speak. I felt the hands turn me and I was staring into Rebecca’s eyes. The slap to my face stung, it hurt like hell.

  “Get a grip! Get a fucking grip, right now!” Rebecca screamed.

  “We need to leave and we need to leave now!” Lance shouted.

  I can’t describe the emotions that filtered through my body. Rebecca grabbed me and shouted to Jackson to drag Lizzie away from the area. We moved into the reception area and unknown to me Joyce and Rebecca had already started to load the truck as the horrific scenes unfolded in front of me back down the corridor.

  Within minutes I was sitting in the back of the truck, but I could not explain how I got there. Lance and Jackson took the positions up front. Amelia, in her innocent and child-like way, was asking Rebecca if “Daddy was ok?” I just sat staring at the floor.

  I bizarrely thought back to when we lost Brendan and Griff. I remembered Duncan, even though he turned out to be a fraud, trying to cope with the loss of people within the group he was leading. I was now dealing with that same scenario. The difference between me and Duncan was that he did not have any connection with Brendan and Griff. I just saw my best friend kill himself right in front of me.

  My only thought was who would be next? What had I got us into?

  DIARY ENTRY 63

  26th December – afternoon

  The decision was made to leave this area of North London and head along the A1 road heading to Leeds. This would be the second time I would leave the capital and as with the first, death was a major factor.

  Joyce, Rebecca and Lizzie had managed to grab some medical supplies from the hospital. I had been staring down at the floor of the truck and looked up to see Lizzie hunched over near the front. Her face was red and she appeared in some sort of trance. Joyce was doing her best to comfort Lizzie, but it seemed as though at this particular time it was having no effect.

  I could feel my stomach turning over as the truck bumped along. I shouted to the front for Lance to stop. Everybody looked at me as I jumped down and ran over to the pavement, vomiting all over the grass verge. When I had stopped throwing up I turned to see Jackson standing behind me, weapon at the ready and scanning the area.

  In my urgency to get out of the truck I had failed to take the necessary precautions, but Jackson knew the drill and was making sure I was safe.

  “You ok?” He asked.

  I nodded and then he signalled to the large pack of infected who had gathered behind us on the dual carriageway. They were some way off but Jackson said it would be best if we left the area pretty quickly. I couldn’t have agreed more.

  As I moved towards the truck, wiping the sick from my lips, I looked around at the desolate area, the rusting vehicles, demolished buildings and most importantly, the emptiness. This was not the future I had hoped and dreamed of.

  Back in the truck we restarted our journey. In any normal scenario it would take around three and a half hours to get to Leeds. Due to the barricades, obstructions and the brief encounter with a group of infected it took around double that time.

  T
he brief encounter with the infected occurred when we had stopped briefly just outside Nottingham. We needed a break. I stood guard with Lance and Jackson after we had tied Bruno to the inside of the truck. It was Bruno’s barking that first alerted us something was wrong. The girls were using a small siding where truck drivers used to stop. The children, Lizzie and Rebecca were making their way back to the truck and Bruno was barking even louder, straining at the leash.

  Set behind the truck stop was a dense wood. We raised our weapons and I called out Joyce’s name. There was no answer. I glanced across at Jackson in panic. He started to walk forward and as he reached the small hill where the girls had been Joyce came rushing over the top startling Jackson. That was when we saw what she was running from. They numbered in the hundreds and were coming out of the wood like the lumbering dead from an old retro zombie film.

  We fired off a few rounds at the nearest infected who dropped immediately and backed up as we began to reload our weapons. Lance made a dash to the driver’s door to start the engine. I just kept firing, as was Jackson, trying to keep the horde at bay. It was like a conveyor belt of infected, they just kept on coming.

  Lance shouted to us as the engine spluttered into life and we sprinted back to the truck. As the truck sped off, I looked back and could see them just piling out onto the road. There was no way we could have held them back, there were too many of them. They must have come from nearby Nottingham. Rebecca held my arm and I turned to see her warm smile.

  “I know it’s difficult,” she said.

  I nodded knowing she was talking about Mike. I also knew that I had to shake these feelings from my mind because looking around the truck there were other people who I had to look after, as well as my family. How did I become ‘leader’ of this group? That wasn’t supposed to happen.

  It took just over six hours to reach the outskirts of Leeds. Lance stopped the truck before we reached the perimeter. I could see smoke rising up above the city. Lance turned and handed me a piece of paper from his pocket. It was the address of the young girl we had come to ‘rescue’. We had made it to Leeds and we had a job to do.