by Jessica Ward
Chapter 18 – Hostile Takeover
We were awoken the next morning by the Corporal frantically banging on the doors.
“Everyone get up quickly, there’s been a breach”
I rolled over and checked the clock on our makeshift bedside table, 5:34am. I groaned. I pulled the covers back and shook Nick to wake up.
“What’s matter baby?” he grumbled still half asleep.
“Think the Corporal wants to start training early” I mumbled pulling my clothes on, making no attempt to get out of bed.
“EVERYONE TO THE BASE NOW! THE INFECTED ARE EVERYWHERE!” The Corporal screamed.
I could hear gunshots coming from the main base. “Shit, let’s go” I pulled at Nick who was already, practically dressed. We were wide awake now.
We ran towards the base. The Corporal was right. The infected were everywhere. What the hell was going on, there were hundreds of them. They had made their way to the fence and were violently shaking the barrier, trying to get to us. We picked up our pace, we were full on sprinting down the narrow passageway, whilst the Corporal was holding open the door motioning us through.
George was positioned on the roof; he was taking out as many as he could. We were being completely overrun. For every infected George took out, ten more appeared in its place.
I couldn’t believe this was happening, how did they even get in? Apart from Greg, we hadn’t seen any of the infected anywhere in the base for weeks now.
We rushed through the door as the Corporal swiftly slammed it shut behind us. Bangs echoed all around us as the infected launched themselves at the shutters and swarmed around our building. They knew we were inside, and they wouldn’t stop until they got in. They were relentless.
The Sergeant did a quick headcount, making sure we were all accounted for.
“What’s going on? How did they get in?” I asked the group. I was so scared. I had never seen this many of them in one place. There was no escape. I trembled as I heard them screech. They had an immense desperation to get to us. They were fast and their strength was building. I could tell by the heavy thuds echoing throughout the room.
I looked around each individual in the group, there was someone missing. I knew George was on the roof, I saw him on my way towards the base. But where was Duckface?
Lacey saw me looking around the room, she answered for me. “She’s gone” she answered simply.
“What do you mean she’s gone?” I demanded.
“Well there’s no sign of her anywhere and your cars gone too” Lacey told me.
I couldn’t believe it. She just left. And the stupid bitch had the audacity to take my car.
George made his way down from the roof. “There’s too many of them. We can fight them off for a while, but more of them keep coming. The main gate’s been left open. Sergeant, the lock down on the main base has been compromised. That’s where they’re coming from.”
The Sergeant looked confused. “That can’t be, only I have the code. It’s kept in my office desk. Besides, why would anyone want to do that?”
I had my suspicions. But we had more important issues at hand. We had our base on lock down. But we weren’t prepared for an attack of this magnitude.
“Everyone to the roof. Take as much ammunition as you can carry. We’ll fight as many as we can off” The Sergeant ordered.
We all ran through to the ammunition store, the Sergeant quickly typed in the code. We pulled out as many guns as possible.
The thuds echoing around the room got louder and louder as more of the infected descended on us.
We threw the ammunition onto the roof. I pulled myself up on the rood, ready for battle. The sight before me made me shudder. Thousands of them surged towards us. There was no way we could kill them all, we didn’t have enough ammo. Even if we took each one out with a head shot, we would still be running extremely low.
The stench of that many corpses huddled together was over powering. Death filled the air. I was frozen on the spot. The fear took over. My mind was shutting down. I know what I needed to do, but getting my body to do it was a completely different matter. Everyone around me was busy setting up, readying themselves for action.
I couldn’t move. I wasn’t helping matters; I was just staring into the foul smelling, rotting, infection wielding crowd beneath us. They were like animals, they only had basic primal instincts. They wanted to feed. They felt no pain, no emotion and no fear. They were hunters, and we were the hunted.
I was blocking everything out around me, I didn’t mean to, I had just shut myself down. Nick quickly snapped me out of it. He saw me staring into the distance and he knew something wasn’t right. He shook me until I came back to reality.
“Babe, come on, we need you, snap out of it” he said as he pulled me close.
After a few minutes I came around. My eyes came into focus as I stared into his eyes. I was back.
From behind Nick I saw the Corporal and Leon launching grenades into the crowd. Explosions were going off all around us. Body parts flew through the air dispersing through the crowd.
The infected were still overpowering us. Although the explosion cut through the crowd, as soon as the smoke cleared, more had taken their place.
The infected didn’t seem at all bothered about the danger from the gunfire or explosives. They didn’t even turn their heads or acknowledge their fallen comrades. The only goal they had was to feed on us, and succumb us to the same virus that had infected them.
Damned if I was going to end up like that. I grabbed hold of my rifle and aimed it directly below. I was targeting the infected closest to the building. They were much easier to take out, given that they were packed in so tightly together, like a tin of sardines.
The infected closest to us started to fall. I was aiming for the head, the force from the bullets sent the heads of my targets flying. It was like watching a watermelon explode. Viscous bodily fluids splattered more of the viral hosts. They simply cast the dead bodies to one side and stepped over them in a desperate attempt to gain entry.
This carried on for hours. The bodies of men, women and even children were starting to pile up around the base. The children were by far the most disturbing. They ran with such speed and agility, their screams were far higher pitched than those of the adults. They had the same drive as the rest, propelling them forward. They climbed over the adults to get closer to the front. They were small and nimble; they used their strengths to their advantage. Although they resembled the height and features of a child, their whole demeanour was far more terrifying. They were predators like the rest.
I watched one small girl, no older than 6 or 7 clamber her way through the crowd. I was fixated on her for a few minutes, watching her through my scope. Her mouth was covered in fresh blood, her mouth was open, as more blood pooled down to her blue teddy bear print t shirt. Her arms were flailing wildly, she was desperate to get to the front of the crowd. She crawled her way to the front and looked straight up at me. Her skin was deathly pale. Her hollow eyes bore into me as she snarled up, her face creased into a look of pure evil, as she gnashed out at the air.
She jumped, a lot further than I thought possible and attempted to climb up the building. I put a bullet through her head before she had the chance to get any further.
I turned my attention to the rest of the crowd. The sound of the gun shots and explosives going off all around me was deafening, I could barely hear myself think.
The Sergeant was screaming something at us, but I couldn’t hear him over the noise. My ears were starting to ring from the blasts whilst my head was throbbing.
The Corporal was pointing down. We called a ceasefire, as we ran over to see what it was the Corporal was pointing at.
The shutters were starting to cave in. They weren’t built to handle the weight which was now pushing against them. I could hear the metal straining as the crowd pushed its way forward.
We had to do something. I thought back to the incident with the fence. We
had already killed countless infected on the roof, but it wasn’t enough. Innards were strewn all over the base, staining the walls and the floor. The over powering stench was getting a lot worse and we were running out of ammo.
It was only a matter of time before the infected forced their way in. We were safe enough on the roof for the time being, but it wasn’t a long term solution. We had no food or water and our ammunition was low.
“It’s no use, save your ammo. Stop shooting.” The Sergeant ordered, I could tell he was deflated.
We were fighting a losing battle. We had nowhere to run. There was no way out, we could all fit in the trucks, but without a clear path, it was useless. We would be lucky if we lasted a few minutes out there.
We could stay on the roof. But without food or water, we wouldn’t last very long.
I held onto Nick. At that moment, I was waiting to die. All hope was lost.
“What do we do now Serg?” Leon asked solemnly.
“I am honoured to have fought next to each and every one of you. You have all shown such willingness. For that I am grateful, but I’m afraid our battle has been lost. We can carry on fighting, but I fear that would be a fool’s errand. We’ve been greatly overpowered. Our only viable option would be to retreat.” The Sergeant addressed us all.
We all agreed. “How exactly are we going to retreat?” I asked “We have nowhere to go?” The group around me nodded. George answered me.
“We get into the tunnel system, it’s our only chance of escape.” He replied matter of factly.
I looked towards hangar 3. I could barely see the building, the infected had torn down the gate and were already climbing onto the roof. There was no chance we could make it to the building alive, without being bitten or scratched. The small gleam of hope I held onto was vastly deteriorating.
“And how exactly are we going to get past them?” Paul asked.
George chuckled “That isn’t the only entrance you know”
We all looked round at him, what was he trying to say?
We didn’t have time to stand around and chat, at that moment we heard an almighty clunk. The shutters had started to give way. If we were going to escape, it was now or never.
We scrambled down from the roof as George led the way to the other tunnel entrance, which just happened to be within the base.
He guided us to the plane and headed towards the wheels. He lifted the trap door and to our surprise, there was another entrance. I couldn’t believe it, in all my time at the base I had never noticed it.
He hurried us all down. The Professor went down first, as soon as he got to the bottom he called up to let us know he was ok.
Lacey made her way down next, followed by George. He had armed us all with flash lights beforehand. I was about to make my way down next when the shutter gave way once more. It had created a small opening, a space big enough for the infected to get through.
The Sergeant started to lay down some cover fire. “Everyone in the tunnel NOW” he shouted as three of the infected made their way through. They were all dressed in military uniforms, as they sprinted their way towards us. The Sergeant, Leon and the Corporal quickly dispatched of them.
Josh grabbed my arm and pulled me back “You need to get down there now!” he urged. I had my gun ready, I wasn’t going anywhere without Nick.
Him and Paul had run off to help the Sergeant, I shouted for them to come back. The opening in the shutters was starting to open further. The Sergeant ran to the truck.
I knew what he was doing, whilst the boys fired at the infected the Sergeant was going to block our path with the truck. I was half way down the ladders at this point.
I stopped, pleading for the boys to hurry. They couldn’t hear me over the gun fire. The infected were getting closer, the boys were within arm’s length of them now. They carried on shooting taking steps back each time.
By this point the Sergeant was in the truck, running over the infected as he made his way to the shutters. There were at least ten of them on the inside with us, and they kept pouring out.
The Corporal grimaced as he shot a small boy. I pulled my handgun up, ready to provide them with cover fire.
I was too late. As Nick and Paul were backing up, as one of the infected grasped onto Josh. Leon rushed over to help, but he was a few seconds too late.
The infected former soldier bit down on Josh’s neck as others, sensing the fresh blood that had been spilled, changed direction heading straight towards their new victim.
Josh screamed in pain as they ripped through his flesh, tearing him limb from limb. Blood covered the once white concrete floor as finally, he stopped fighting.
Leon dispatched of the whole group in one fail swoop. I could see the pain in his eyes as he lost his brother in arms.
The Sergeant had managed to block the entrance with the truck. With the area secure for the moment, I made my way down.
The boys headed towards the trapdoor. Paul successfully made his way down along with the Nick. The Corporal was running towards the trapdoor as the Sergeant was getting out of the truck.
I heard the sound of the glass smash in the truck as the infected pushed their way through. The Corporal screamed for the Sergeant as the newly reanimated Josh ran towards him. The Sergeant was trapped; the horde on the outside had almost made their way in. He tried to fight off Josh, but he had lost his gun in the scuffle.
The Corporal was about to make his way out as the Sergeant shouted back. “STOP! Don’t you dare, get into that tunnel and close the door.”
He was still struggling with Josh. He was trapped between the passenger seat and the door. “GO NOW” he screamed as the horde behind him found their grasp on the Sergeant.
With that the Corporal slammed the trap door shut, and turned to face us all.
We were all stood in the pitch black, with only our torches to light the way. I was clinging on to Nick. I thought I was going to lose him. I couldn’t bear seeing him so close to the infected. He could have easily been in Josh’s shoes right now. Poor Josh, seeing him getting ripped apart, hearing him scream and writhe in pain. That would haunt me for a long time.
Chapter 19 – Isles Woods
“What do we do now?” Paul asked, looking to the Corporal.
He shook his head, not quite knowing what to say, he was still in shock. He had just lost his mentor. I knew how he felt. We all looked to the Sergeant for guidance. He acted like a father figure to me, without him I felt lost.
He was a great man. He lived for others. His main goal in life was to save as many survivors as he could. He wanted to build a better future. His final gift to us saved us all. He forfeited his life, to save ours. I vowed to myself I would never forget that. His final act of selflessness.
We heard the crash from above. The shutter must have completely caved through, as we heard masses of footsteps directly above us. We needed to get away, fast.
We all stayed silent as George led us down the small dark passageway, much narrower than the last.
“We need to get to get to hangar 3” he whispered. “There are emergency supplies in the supply room”
“How do we know it’s safe” Nick whispered back.
“We don’t, but it’s a risk we need to take” The Corporal answered, his voice barely audible.
We could still hear the infected trampling above us, but the further away from the base we got, the quieter it became. That was a good sign.
It didn’t take us long to reach the end of the narrow corridor. Our surroundings were starting to look a lot more familiar as we came upon the main passageway. I thought back to the rats that had caused our swift getaway last time, I squeezed Nicks hand even tighter. I was more aware of the floor around me, I knew how big those things were, and I certainly wasn’t going to let any of them near me.
George took us to the wooden ladders, which led out into the supply room. The Corporal was the first to climb the ladders. He stopped half way up trying to listen out for any movemen
t coming from above.
The coast was clear. The Corporal slowly and carefully opened the trapdoor. We had to stay as quiet as possible. He peered out before looking back to us and nodding. Leon followed shortly behind.
They started throwing down the emergency backpacks. Nick and Paul started to hand them out at the bottom.
After the third bag came down we heard a thump on the supply room door. The Corporal and Leon both turned around.
There in the small window, they saw one of the infected throwing himself at the door. It was another former military man. He was riddled with signs of infection. He screeched a sound I never thought humanly possible, as he used his whole body as a battering ram.
We heard similar screeching in the distance. He had alerted the others. Our cover was blown. Within seconds more and more piled in front of the door, trying desperately to find a way in.
Leon quickly threw some boxes of ammunition down along with a few extra handguns.
“We need to get out here before we attract any more attention, let’s just take the rest of these bags and go.” The Corporal ordered.
“But what about the…” Leon tried to ask. He got cut short.
“No, we haven’t got any time. I’m not losing anyone else” He threw the remaining backpacks inside, along with Nicks fishing gear as Leon made his way down.
With one swift move the Corporal pulled the handle clean off the trapdoor. As soon as he was inside he slammed the door shut.
Seconds later the all too familiar sound of a door being broken through could be heard from above.
“Quick, pass me that rope” The Corporal whispered to Leon. He was pointing to one of the backpacks. Leon swiftly passed it up to the Corporal.
The infected were getting smarter. They had seen where we had escaped from and were scratching at the trapdoor and the floor around us. The Corporal flicked the latch into place and wrapped the rope around the ladder.
“That should hold them back for a while” He said as he tied the final knot.