Rogue Evacuation

by Simon Neilson

  They reached the truck and began to pour the petrol into the tank. I could still see the infected approaching and I was beginning to get anxious. It did not take long to empty the canisters into the petrol tank, be it that a lot of the petrol was on the floor. Jackson gazed inside the truck at Joyce and noticed her bite mark. I shook my head as if to say this was not the time to talk about it. Lance and Jackson jumped in.

  “That’s gross,” Beth said staring at Joyce’s arm before clambering in the back.

  We moved off, the truck lurched a bit as Lizzie was not used to driving it. As we reached the bend in the road I could see a group of infected in front of us staggering up from the petrol station where Lance and Jackson had just been.

  “That’s why we were running!” Jackson shouted to the front.

  “Drive through them,” I said to Lizzie.

  She put her foot down and the truck jolted and shuddered as the infected bodies hit the front grills and the wheels ran over the top of their disgusting bodies.

  It was dark, there was hardly any street lighting and on reaching the main road the entire area was filled with moaning and sharp growls.

  We needed somewhere to stay tonight and quick.

  DIARY ENTRY 69

  28th December – Early Hours

  Fortunately we had managed to find an old abandoned warehouse to stay the night. It brought back memories of when I had first met the group in South London and of the journey so far.

  Sad thoughts filled my head as I thought of those who had not made it this far. Mike, Ben, Duncan, Maria, Lana, Brendan and Griff, the list was getting too long. How many more of us would be added to this list?

  Lizzie had driven recklessly to the warehouse, not only did we destroy numerous amounts of infected on the way but Lizzie’s driving was magnetic to curbs and barriers as we fled the area. The resulting damage could be seen when we exited the truck. Lance gave it the once over and calmly stated that it was “pretty bashed up”. I suppose time would tell if it would get us to where we needed to go.

  The warehouse was pretty cold. We had managed to find a place to stay the night on the upper floors where the offices used to be. This warehouse used to be a furniture store, which was evident by a lot of the products strewn about the place. We had managed to get a sofa up the metal stairs to one of the large offices where the women and children could sit in comfort.

  There was one window which looked out onto the main road below, the reason we decided to camp out in this particular office. The infected were wandering around down below completely oblivious to us.

  Morbidly I was fascinated by the way they moved. No structure or organisation of where they stumbled, they just moved along. I guess they were just waiting for a meal to come towards them. Not so much hunters, rather accidental predators.

  Amelia’s cough was still there, I enquired with Rebecca how long she had been like this and I was informed that she had been developing a cough since Liverpool. I was ashamed to have not noticed. Jesse was doing her best to cheer Amelia up. Lance and Jackson were securing the warehouse and the truck had been moved to the rear delivery entrance to keep it out of sight. Beth played around with the radio, with Rebecca and Lizzie tending to Joyce. She was sleeping and as I looked down I could see the open, bloodied wound. Beads of sweat had formed on Joyce’s forehead. Matilda sat on the sofa and now and again I would notice her head drop forwards as she sporadically nodded off to sleep. Beth was playing around with the radio in the corner of the room.

  My attention switched to Selina, nobody had spoken to her properly since leaving the Knowle area. I walked over to her as she sat on a leather chair near to a desk.

  “Hi. How are you?” asked softly.

  “I’m ok, thank you. How is that lady?” Selina pointed towards Joyce.

  “She’ll be ok,” I said.

  “But she was bitten by one of those things?” Selina looked me straight in the eye.

  I looked at Joyce and down at the floor, this was the right time and the right place to explain the situation. I was just about to speak when I heard Jackson curse.

  I got up and wandered over to the window, looking out I could see what Jackson meant. From every direction infected staggered, the entire main road was full of them. I had not witnessed this kind of gathering before, mainly because we had moved swiftly in the opposite direction when such a build-up began.

  Now, however, I was staring down at these creatures packed in the street as they ambled around, some bumping into others, a few stumbling down curbs and falling flat on their faces.

  “How do they know not to attack each other?” Jackson asked.

  I shrugged my shoulders, I had no idea either. The whole road was an infected mass, it was a sad and depressing sight.

  “Do you ever think about the ones in the group who haven’t made it this far?” I asked.

  “I try not to, to be honest,” Jackson replied.

  “It’s best not to,” Lance said walking up behind us.

  “How is this all going to end?” I asked quietly so as not to alert the women and children.

  “Nuke ‘em,” Jackson said abruptly.

  “Maybe that’s what they’ve started doing, judging by what happened in Liverpool.” I shot Jackson and Lance a stare.

  “I think you need to tell our new guest what is going on?” Lance said moving his head in Selina’s direction.

  I looked over and could see her looking at Rebecca and Lizzie tending to Joyce. I nodded and slowly made my way back over to Selina. I grabbed a chair and sat down. Selina looked at me and gave me a nervous smile.

  “Are you IGS?” She asked.

  “No,” I replied half laughing.

  “But he is,” Selina replied nodding at Lance. “And he’s a soldier,” she continued looking at Jackson.

  “Yes they are.” I stopped myself. “Were,” I continued.

  “So are you some kind of rescue party?” Selina asked.

  “Sort of.”

  I took a deep breath whilst staring down at the floor and was about to explain the whole immune list situation to Selina when she spoke.

  “I’m immune.”

  Her words stopped me dead in my tracks. I gazed into her eyes, there was no emotion there. How did she know about people being immune?

  “Sorry?” I said quietly.

  Her words were loud enough to alert the entire room, all except Matilda who had by now drifted off to sleep, chin on chest.

  “I am immune” She said again.

  “How do you…. I mean what do you know?” I asked curiously.

  Selina looked around the room as all eyes were looking at her, even Rebecca and Lizzie had paused.

  “My husband is….” Selina stopped for a moment. “Was an IGS officer. I had blood tests taken. My husband was able to obtain my results. I also know there are others. Like that lady there, most probably?” Selina looked at Joyce.

  “Where is your husband now?” I asked.

  “I assume he is either dead or one of those things?”

  This information had completely taken the wind out of my sails. Selina knew she was immune and that is why her suitcase was packed and ready to go.

  “So you were expecting us?” I asked.

  “Well, not you, I suppose. I was expecting someone, maybe IGS or government officials.”

  “Yes, Joyce is immune,” I said. “Beth, Matilda, Rebecca, Jesse and Amelia,” I continued. “All the same.”

  “What about you?” Selina asked looking at Lizzie.

  Lizzie shook her head and smiled.

  “And you?” Selina asked me.

  “Females only, it appears,” I replied with a smile.

  “My husband got us out of where we used to live. Swindon, not far from here. That house you picked me up from belonged to a friend of the family. My husband said it would be safer for me there. But I suppose the government can find you anywhere.” Selina rubbed her hands nervously together.

  “We’re not from
the government.” I placed my hand reassuringly on her arm.

  “You don’t trust the IGS do you?”

  “Apart from these people here, I’m not sure who to trust in these times.”

  “He was a good man, my husband.” Selina smiled.

  I could see the glint of tears in her eyes. Getting up she declared how tired she felt and moved over to one of the sleeping bags which had been placed on the floor. I had nothing else to say to her. Her husband may have been IGS, not the sort of person I would trust, but he was her husband and she obviously felt the hurt.

  “Well that went well,” Jackson said.

  I shot him a glance and got up to check the food supplies, which were running pretty low. We needed to replenish the stocks.

  “Now that’s not good,” Lance said from the window.

  “Not more of them?” I asked.

  “No,” he replied.

  “What’s the matter?” Jackson asked.

  “It’s snowing.”

  Lance was right, as I looked out the window I could see the white flakes of snow drifting down settling on the ground and infected below. It was like a blizzard and Lance was right, this was the last thing we needed.

  DIARY ENTRY 70

  28th December – Morning

  I woke with the light peering in through the closed window. I’m not sure how long I had been asleep, maybe a couple of hours since I changed guard duty with Jackson.

  During my watch I had seen the snow settling thick on the ground below. Lance had been right this was not what we needed at all.

  I wearily got out of the sleeping bag and rubbed the stubble on my face, mental note to get some new razors on our next shopping trip.

  Jackson noticed me walking over and pointed out the window, it was still snowing.

  “It’s thick on the ground,” he said.

  “I hope it stops soon,” I replied.

  Without the usual traffic moving around and people walking along the pavements, the snow lay untouched and yet another obstacle for us to overcome. The infected we had witnessed the previous night were gone.

  Rebecca walked over and gently took hold of my arm, resting her head softly on my shoulder.

  “How’s Amelia?” I asked looking over at my sleeping princess.

  “Her cough seems to be getting better.”

  “Joyce?” I enquired.

  Rebecca looked over at Lizzie who was changing yet another blood soaked dressing on Joyce’s arm. She still appeared to be dazed and feverish.

  “Hopefully she won’t be like this for too much longer. We need more supplies,” Rebecca said quietly.

  I knew we needed more food, medical and toiletry supplies, but the weather outside meant we were going nowhere soon.

  Matilda had been asking “where David was” a few times. Since Joyce had been struck down by the bite, nobody had really taken the time to sit with Matilda. Selina had sort of taken care of her at times and kept an eye on her, she had commented that Matilda reminded her of her own mother who had passed away long ago.

  It had been a quiet morning and nobody really spoke, except when we changed the guard duty. The children played a little, Rebecca was right, Amelia’s cough was getting better. I looked at Matilda and smiled. Bruno had taken to just lying down in the corner of the office. Lizzie and Rebecca took it in turns to tend to Joyce and Beth continued to play around with the radio. Selina, well she just sat quietly as though her thoughts were miles away.

  Outside the snow had stopped by mid-morning, the roads looked tricky. The horde of infected that had gathered outside during the night had gone, just a few stragglers roaming around, the footsteps were evident in the snow to show their presence.

  Lizzie bent down in front of me as I searched through the rucksacks checking supplies.

  “I need some more bandages,” she said.

  “We need more everything,” I replied.

  “Lance said there are some supplies in the truck, tinned food and medical,” Lizzie continued.

  Lance confirmed this to me. He said that at the back of the warehouse was a fire exit door that led out into the delivery bay. The truck was parked with the rear backed up to the concrete ledge so it should be easy access. He did warn me to be careful as the delivery bay was not secure. I said I would go with Lizzie. I could grab some food items whilst Lizzie would be able to stock up on the few medical supplies we had.

  The warehouse was eerily quiet. I gazed up to the office to see Jackson looking down. I smiled and he saluted back. We walked to the fire exit and I gently pressed the bar down. There was a metallic clank and I had to push quite hard as the bottom of the door scrapped across the floor.

  I felt the cold wind bite as we stepped out onto the concrete ledge. The truck was directly in front of us, backed up to the concrete ledge just as Lance had said.

  I checked around and could see no infected. Lizzie stepped across the small gap between the ledge and the truck, I followed. She started to grab the packets of bandages and cream dotted around in the boxes. It did not take me long to place the food inside the rucksack, just a few tins here and there, probably just enough for a couple more meals between us all.

  The shuffling sound made me stop. I looked at Lizzie as she continued to scrabble around inside the boxes. I stood up and heard the sound again, it unnerved me.

  “I think we had better go,” I said.

  I stepped out onto the ledge. That was when I saw where the sound was coming from. Just to the side of the truck there was a ramp, four of them were slowly making their way up.

  “Lizzie, now!” I shouted.

  I saw Lizzie step out of the truck and she slipped down to the floor as she stepped across the gap.

  “Come on!” I shouted again.

  “I can’t!” She screamed.

  Gazing down I saw the deformed hand around her leg, the gap was too thin for the infected figure to get its snarling face through.

  The fire exit door banged open causing me to jump. Lizzie was screaming in panic. Jackson jumped out onto the ledge and let rip with his machine gun towards the ramp. I pushed the muzzle of my weapon through the gap and a single shot was enough to take care Lizzie’s assailant. She pulled herself up. I quickly checked her leg underneath the jeans she wore. Fortunately for her, due to the thick material the infected figure was unable to pierce her skin with its hand.

  “Move, we’ve got company!” Jackson shouted.

  I looked up and saw a large group of infected wandering through the delivery bay. I helped Lizzie to her feet, she was shaking and very pale.

  “You ok?” I asked.

  Lizzie nodded and I took her hand, leading her into the warehouse through the fire exit door whilst Jackson covered us.

  Once Jackson had secured the door we made our way back up to the offices. I could hear the banging on the door as we tracked back. Everybody wanted to know what happened, I just made sure Lizzie sat down and handed her some water. The bottle shook in her hand as she sipped.

  Jackson tapped me on the shoulder and ushered me away to a corner so we could speak in private.

  “Now, how do we get out of here?” He asked quietly.

  “What happened?” Lance asked joining us.

  I explained the previous events in the delivery bay and how we had nearly lost Lizzie. I also broke the bad news about the delivery bay packed with infected, cutting off our route to the truck.

  “And to make matters worse, we’re low on food,” I said.

  Trapped in the warehouse with next-to-no food, extreme weather conditions outside and no way of escaping safely. Could things get any worse?

  Apparently they could. Beth had been monitoring the radio and picked up some messages. Bristol was next to be wiped off the map and we only had a few hours to get out.

  Talk about having a bad day.

  DIARY ENTRY 71

  28th December – Afternoon

  “No! No! There must be another way!” Rebecca was crying

  �
��Whether we do this or another way, we need to make a decision and we need to make it now,” Beth said.

  “I must admit, it’s madness,” Jackson said.

  “Do we have another option?” Lance asked.

  The room fell quiet as soon as Lance finished. Everybody looked at each other in turn but nobody had an answer.

  “Well in that case, time is of the essence.” I said smiling.

  I walked away from the rest of the group and grabbed a rucksack. I took hold of one tin of food, a bandage and a spare magazine for my weapon. I stared down at the floor and thought through what I had just said, the reason the group were all agitated.

  After Beth had dropped the bombshell of the radio message reporting that Bristol was going to be wiped off the map, the whole group went into a terrified frenzy. We knew we had to get out but there was no possible way of getting to the truck. Unless?

  I let the thought bounce around in my mind for a moment, then after taking a deep breath I announced that I would cause a distraction at the front of the warehouse in the hope it would attract the infected in the delivery bay away.

  Obviously, Rebecca was not a big fan of the idea, but as the group had shown after Lance had posed his question, there were no other options.

  Just as I tightened up the rucksack I felt the touch on my arm. I turned and saw Rebecca standing there with tears welling up in her eyes.

  “You went through so much to find us and now you’re just going to go on some kind of gung-ho mission. To prove what? Let someone else do it.”

  I stroked her wet cheek and smiled, she tried to smile back but I could tell it was false.

  “I’ll be fine. As long as the truck can make it out of the delivery bay then I will make it.”

  We kissed, soft and long before our embrace was interrupted by a cough. I looked up and saw Beth standing there with her eyebrows raised.

  “I hate to break up a good snog, but we need to get a move on.”

  After I descended the metal staircase from the offices I walked across the cold warehouse. I could hear faint shuffling and groaning from the other side of the fire exit door. I made a point of not looking back up to the office. I had purposely not said goodbye to anybody, I liked to think that once I had caused a distraction they would be able to move the truck from out of the delivery bay and I would be able to get back on and we could get the hell out of here. That was the plan, anyway.