by Brett, Cal
“Crawl down in a dark hole filled wif the undead,” a voice mumbled. “Bugger that.”
A few others echoed the sentiment.
“Ahl goo.” McGregor said in flat brogue. He seemed to still be in a daze.
“You’re too big to move around in there, Corporal,” the Color Sergeant spoke up to put the group back in order. “O’Reilly! You’re our tunnel rat. Shuck your gear and make sure you have a full clip in your rifle.”
“Who’s got a working flashlight?”
The soldiers all shrugged or shook their heads, no.
“Robert?” The Major turned and said. “What is the visibility like down there? Is there a skylight or anything?”
“Oh, sorry, yea,” Robbie replied. “The lights are on.”
Everyone had been scurrying around getting O’Reilly ready but they all stopped suddenly and stared at him with disbelief. The Major seemed taken aback by the information and cleared his throat. “The lights… how do you mean they are on?”
“The lights are on, in the garage anyway,” Robbie answered, “I didn’t have time to check anywhere else. I was coming back up when those things came after me.”
“And, how is it that the lights are on?” The Major pressed incredulously.
“Solar,” Robbie told them proudly, “on the roof. That’s why I was in the basement. To see if I could turn on the power.”
”I see,” the Major said. “How did you get it to work?”
“There’s was a big ON - OFF lever in the electrical room.” Robbie smiled. “I just threw the switch and bam, the power came on.”
“Fair enough,” the Major conceded nodding. “O’Reilly are you ready?”
“Yes Sir,” the soldier named O’Reilly stepped up still tightening the laces on his boots. He was a short man with wiry muscles and jet black hair, bushy black eyebrows and a beard. He had removed all of his bulky gear, armor and uniform shirt leaving him in a dark brown t-shirt, camouflage pants and boots. His arms were covered in tattoos and he carried a small rifle on a sling. The rifle had a thick protruding barrel that Robbie thought might be a silencer.
“Listen, Corporal,” the Major briefed him, “Mr. Bruce here says the lights are on down there so there should be good visibility. No heroics. Just climb down, take a quick look around, come back up and give us a report, yes?”
The Corporal nodded his understanding and grunted, “Aye Sir,” as he began to climb in the hole. His small frame allowed him to easily enter the narrow space easily and get his feet on the ladder. Once he was situated he gave a thumbs up and they watched him descend down into the darkness. They sat silently and listened to the muted scrape of his boots as he stepped down onto each of the metal rungs. The sound grew quieter as O’Reilly descended.
Robbie stood there in the middle of the small group as they waited. Looking around he noticed, for the first time, the body of the soldier who was bitten, leaning against the far wall. His legs and boots kicked out in front of him as if he were resting. Someone had thrown a camouflage jacket over his head to cover his face but the spray of blood and brains up the wall behind him told the story. Robbie tried not to stare at the body. He had seen many dead in the last few years but it never seemed to get easy.
Chapter 22
The Color Sergeant broke Robbie’s gaze when he leaned forward and looked down into the dark shaft. There was a click from down below and the bottom of the shaft was filled with light. He could see O’Reilly’s small shape squatting at the bottom. He had opened a similar hatch to the one he had gone through at the top, but on the other side. He expected O’Reilly to quickly close the hatch but the soldier sat there holding it open as he looked around whatever room it opened into. The Sergeant watched, expecting the undead to lurch into the hole at any second. He wanted to call out and tell the man to close the door, but he dared not make a sound in case he should somehow attract whatever creatures might be down there to O’Reilly’s presence.
O’Reilly finally pulled the door shut and the bottom of the shaft was plunged back into darkness. A few seconds later, they heard the echo of the soldier ascending the rungs again until he emerged again, into the light at the top. In his lilting accent O’Reilly began describing his findings. It seemed to Robbie that this was a well-practiced routine for this group, as they all sat quietly listening while he spoke.
“Lights are on.” O’Reilly began. “Long, rectangular utility room, maybe, 6 meters wide by 18 meters long. Walls are lined with electrical boxes like these up here, but larger. Main wall to the car park has been breached in several places. Three targets in the room but they aren’t moving much, look to have suffered some major injuries, perhaps in getting through the wall. I couldn’t see much out into the car park from the hatch but I didn’t see any just outside.”
The Major seemed to consider this for a moment before turning to Robbie. “You said there were several hundred undead pursuing you in the car park, are you sure it was that many?”
“Yes,” Robbie answered confidently, “at least that many.”
O’Reilly lifted an eyebrow. “Well I only saw three, but, there could be more outside the room.”
“Indeed,” the Major concurred as he considered it.
“They might have been distracted and drawn away by something else down there,” the red bearded Leftenant offered. “Any loud noise or warm body will catch their attention.”
The Major grunted his agreement and stood, then called over his shoulder, “Lance Corporal Bevins are they still queued up out front for tickets?”
“Oh yes, Major,” Bevins replied with a laugh, “looks like they are quite prepared to camp out for the good seats. In fact they are starting to pile up at the door. I should think they will be at window level soon.”
The Major turned to the big enlisted man beside him, “well, Color Sergeant, it doesn’t look like our fans are going to let us out the stage door. Let’s get the band moving on a subterranean escape route.”
“Roger that, Major,” the Sergeant acknowledged, then to everyone, “Alright! You heard the man! Strip out of your bulky gear and get ready to start dropping it down the shaft. O’Reilly, slide back down there and take out those 3 creepers as quietly as you can. Stewart, and MacGregor, you get down there with him and cover our insertion.”
The room came alive with movement as the men, who all previously seemed lethargic, quickly scrambled to their feet and began shrugging out of their heavy gear. The big Sergeant continued to give orders and began to grab individual soldiers to help them out of their straps and harnesses. It seemed like organized chaos to Robbie, who suddenly realized he hadn’t been consulted about whether he wanted to go back down there. He didn’t suppose staying was a good option, and he couldn’t think of a better way to face off with a few hundred zombies than with a group of well-armed soldiers.
The Major and the Leftenant stepped over and guided Robbie out of the way as the group began dropping their gear down the shaft. “Well Robert, I suppose it’s lucky we ran into you.” The Leftenant said when they were clear.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Robbie answered. “There really were a few hundred undead down there. I hope they all went home, but if they are still in the garage…”
“Let us worry about that, eh?” The Leftenant smiled. “These are some of the best zombie killing bastards you have ever met.”
“I hope so,” Robbie said and there was a lull in their conversation as they watched the men working to get all their supplies down the shaft. After a moment, “Oh, I’m glad to have run into you too but, who are you? And why is the English Army here in the US?”
The two officers looked at each other and laughed at this question before the Major turned and explained, “Sorry to disappoint, Robert, but we aren’t the English Army.”
“No?” Robbie said confused.
“Major John Garrett,” he said holding out his hand, “His Majesty’s Royal Marines four-three Commando out of Argyle, United Kingdom. I’m the acting Comman
ding Officer of our little band at the moment. Until I die, or they find someone better.”
Robbie returned the firm handshake still not completely sure of what that all meant, “Oh, ok?”
“This is Leftenant Arthur Windsor,” the Major continued as the red bearded man offered his hand. “He’s my… executive officer. The big man over there pushing people down the shaft is Color Sergeant Bradley, our senior enlisted man.”
“I apologize for our delayed introductions, but we were a bit preoccupied before. And I’m sorry about the way you were treated when we came in. As you said there are some bad people out there these days and you can’t be too careful.”
“I understand,” Robbie said. “But, how…? Why?”
“Rather a long story I’m afraid,” the Major said nodding to his fellow officer. “I’ll be happy to tell you the whole thing once we get out of here and somewhere safe. Yes?” Then he added with a smile. “But, I assure you that we are not here to take back the colonies.”
Robbie laughed and though his school history classes had been cut short, he knew enough to quip, “Well I don’t suppose there are any Minute Men left to stop you if you were.”
The Major slapped him on the shoulder encouragingly. “Don’t you worry lad. There are still people out there fighting this thing. And we will prevail.”
Before he could go on with his pep talk, the Color Sergeant called over, “Gentlemen, whenever you are ready.”
“Ah!” The Major said. “That’s our train.”
Robbie looked over to notice that most of the soldiers and their gear had already disappeared down the hatch. Only he, the officers, the Sergeant and Bevins remained. The big enlisted man shouted for Lance Corporal Bevins to get a move on, prompting to him leap off of his perch and make a bee line to the shaft.
“Just in time,” Bevins said as he started to descend into the dark, “bastards are almost piled up to the windows.”
“Time’s running out gentlemen,” Bradley announced, urging them to prepare to enter the shaft. “Mind the gap.”
“I suppose we should go,” the Major announced as he began walking to the narrow exit, then turned to Robbie, “Oh, I do hope you’ll be joining us? We could use a guide once we get down there.”
Soon they were all making their way down the ladder. The Color Sergeant was the last to go. He paused to take a last look around making sure they hadn’t left any important gear. His eyes landed on Patel’s body lying still on the floor and he said a last goodbye to his squad mate. Sorrow filled him that he had to leave him there and he recalled the many others whom they had been forced to leave in worse conditions. As he began to pull the hatch shut, there was a slap on one of the high narrow windows and he saw that it was from a pasty colored hand. He quickly closed the hatch, until the lock clicked into place, then began crawling down the ladder.
Kelly stopped briefly at the intersection to make sure the mob from the garage was still pursuing her. Seeing that the way ahead was clear, except for a few stumbling corpses that hadn’t noticed her yet. She took a right turn and ran on. The six lane street was mostly empty of old cars for a few blocks and the only obstacles were clumps of grass that had grown up through the asphalt. The row of trees planted in the center island had prospered without City maintenance crews to keep them cut back. Their long limbs stretched out blocking what would have been the inner lanes of a busy downtown road. Kelly enjoyed their beauty but kept far enough away, so as to not risk any bony hands that might be hidden behind the thick leaves.
She ran for another block and paused again, to look back. Her pursuers were starting to lurch around the corner in their steady pursuit. Behind them, the wide parkway dipped down to the waterfront. In the distance, she could see the river running by without regard for any troubles taking place along its banks.
Across the street, she spotted six of the creatures begin moving briskly towards her. They still wore the tattered business suits of their former lives and came stumbling out of a tall, glass fronted bank building. Overhead, she heard a crash followed a few seconds later by the thump of a body striking the ground. Several others, who had evidently been trapped on the upper floor, came crashing down after.
She took that as her cue to move on and sprinted further up the street. Coming to another wide boulevard running through the once prosperous business district, she turned right again and jogged ahead. She felt lucky that she wasn’t seeing many of the things grouped together. They mostly seemed to be the slow, loner types. Individually they were generally easy to avoid or kill, but in a group they were tireless and deadly. What was once a big woman, stepped out from behind a panel truck. Kelly thumped it hard on the skull with a crack and moved on as it fell to the ground. Behind it, she could see the leading edge of the main group turning the corner to continue their pursuit.
The street was long and ran straight through the cavern of buildings downtown. The once busy thoroughfare was gradually returning to nature, with clumps of bushes and grasses sprouting up through its once well maintained structure. Kelly knew if she continued far enough, she would arrive at the exchange of overpasses and tunnels leading out of town. The last time she had been there it was a trash covered marsh, as storms and river flooding over the years had washed the decay from the city down into the low lying area. She did not intend to go that far.
In a few more blocks, Kelly decided she would turn, loop around and quickly dodge through the back streets to shake off the parade of hungry revelers following behind her. She knew this area fairly well from her and Robbie’s scavenging, and the days before the end times. While she didn’t like running through the city alone, she felt confident she could do it so long as she didn’t let herself get cornered by a pack of those things. There were several hours of daylight left so she didn’t feel rushed.
If Robbie were still alive, and she told herself he was, he would be hidden away from the things in the garage. He might already be emerging if enough of the undead had followed her outside. Her mind ran over the possibilities as her feet did over the broken asphalt. She would loop around, make sure he was ok and then beat him to death for scaring her and making her run through the city dodging the dead.
She saw her chance ahead as she approached the next wide intersection. A large delivery truck was stopped at the corner. She quickly ducked behind it and headed up the big road a few blocks before cutting across what had been a wide public parking lot. This took her back the way she had come, but several streets up.
‘With any luck,’ she told herself, ‘I’ll give them the slip and the front of the group will march on until they end up in the marshy interchange. From there, they can sink into the muck and rot away into the earth for all I care.’
Once she headed back, she slowed to a more careful pace. She hoped not to stir up anything that might be lurking in the hollowed out buildings. Any noise or commotion might attract the big group to move over a few blocks, and she really wanted to get back before too much longer. She had been out in the open, on her own, in the big quiet city long enough to start getting the creeps. Even on this otherwise sunny and beautiful day she knew things could go very bad, very fast.
The street she was on was narrower than the broad avenue she had been on before. It was slightly cooler, being shaded by the silhouettes of the large buildings looming like giants along its length. There were a few more cars here too, but they were wide enough apart that she didn’t think she would have a problem getting through. Water and decay had caused the street to collapse in places, leaving holes and inclines that she dodged around. Big clumps of tall grasses and weeds grew through cracks and indentations where the dirt had built up. Kelly took advantage of this as cover and she slipped quietly through the maze of wet smelling weeds and shrubs.
The few undead she passed were trapped in the street level stores. They did not notice as she slipped by. If she had any sympathy, it was for the ones trapped in the little shops. She imagined some part time barista, or florist, now clocked-in
forever at their job. Standing there, behind their counters, in their aprons, until the roof crumbled and failed. Crushing them into place for eternity.
As she came to each intersection, she peered around the corners to see the street she had come in on several blocks below. A steady parade of undead shuffled by in the distance but seemed completely focused on staying in their ranks. A few times she came upon, and barely avoided, some hapless corpse as it staggered drunkenly towards the commotion just a few blocks away. She was surprised that she had captured the attention of so many, and at their ability to gather into large herds rampaging through town.
She wondered if “herds” was the right word and went through the list of terms for groups of animals in her head as she walked, ‘school, pack, swarm…murder?’ She had come to no conclusions by the time she returned to the last road before she would reach the wide thoroughfare running down to the river. Peeking around the corner she could see that the intersections further down, and the road in between, was clear of the undead. It would seem that the “swarm,” or whatever it was, had gathered up all the neighborhood ghouls and pulled them along with it.
She decided it was more like an avalanche, destroying everything in front of it while dragging everything it encounters into its growing mass as it crashes down the mountain.
Up the street she noted a few lone figures who had missed the parade slowly bumbling towards the trailing end of the noisy group. They were several blocks back however, and no immediate threat. Further down the street towards the river, she could see the façade of the Riverside Condominiums building. She couldn’t tell exactly what part of it, but she was reasonably certain if she moved directly west along this road she would come out within a block of the garage.
Looking again, she confirmed that her route was clear and darted out into the center of the road. Keeping a low profile, she moved briskly down the hill towards the condo. Glancing back, she realized that the creatures behind her had taken note of the live flesh just down the street and had become more animated in their progress.