by Haywood, RR
‘Righto,’ Roy said, speeding back up.
‘Right,’ Henry said. ‘So you’re saying you won’t launch the drone. Is that right?’
‘Fuck me. Did you zone out or something?’ Howie asked him. ‘He just said it needs to charge.’
‘I heard that, Howie. I was confirming it,’ Henry said. ‘Never mind. In the absence of aerial reconnaissance, I suggest we head north-east and try and find it on the ground.’
‘Why do you do that?’ Howie asked.
‘What?’
‘That! making it sound like you just came up with a brilliant plan on your own.’
‘Good god man. Stop biting so easily, and Reginald is right. You do go too deep.’
‘Fuck you! At least I don’t hide at the edge, but you’re good at hiding, aren’t you.’
‘How dare you!’
‘Ah well,’ I said with a sigh as Clarence turned away to face front and Marcy pulled a nail file out to work on her chipped fingernail.
Reginald
It was a shame to get Howie and Henry going at each other again, but it needed to be done. The silly idiots started cooperating to form a plan. But I already had a plan, and my plan was working, whereas whatever plan they came up with would be stupid.
That sounds mean, but I was hot and irritated that they were all in my van being hot and noisy and thinking they had any say in what we do.
The other reason was that I couldn’t bloody well show them the CP because while I had no clue where it was, I knew where it would be, but I still didn’t want them looking too far ahead.
And so, to keep them busy for a moment I made some goading comments and fired them up while I told Tappy to come off the A24 and take the smaller road straight through Horsham.
‘What. Wait. Horsham?’ Marcy asked because she has the hearing of a bat.
‘Horsham is big,’ Paula then said. ‘Howie. HOWIE!’
‘What!’ Howie said, breaking off from arguing with Henry.
‘Reggie’s taking us to Horsham,’ Paula said.
‘And?’
‘Horsham is north east of Southwater,’ Henry said.
It wasn’t. Horsham was north of Southwater. Well, maybe a chunk of Horsham was slightly north east, but it was where we needed to go next.
‘Horsham is big,’ Paula said.
‘It’s not that big,’ Howie said.
‘Howie, Horsham is a big town,’ Paula said while I really wished she’d sod off back to the Saxon and stop interfering.
‘What do you want me to do?’ Howie asked her. ‘If that’s where the CP is then it’s where we’re going.’
‘I’ve got some on the road,’ Tappy transmitted as we looked ahead to the Saxon swerving over to mow an infected down. Then another a few seconds after that as we started passing more of them heading in the same direction.
‘Okay. We really need to put the drone up,’ Paula said.
‘There’s more than I can run down,’ Tappy then said.
‘Reggie!’ Paula snapped. ‘I will pull rank and throw that fucking drone out the door if I have to. Get it up. Now!’
Damn it. You try and argue with Paula when she’s like that. I had no choice and so I unplugged the damned thing and told Howie to open the door.
‘Don’t we need to pull over?’ Howie asked.
‘Just open the damned door,’ I said as he yanked it back and I flew the drone out.
‘When did you learn how to do that?’ Howie asked.
‘While you and Major Dillington were comparing willy sizes,’ I retorted as Marcy said Ha! And carried on filing her nail.
Darn it. I needed the drone completely charged for what was to come later, but at that stage I still couldn’t tell them that. There was still a risk they’d call it off.
And the other reason was because I knew there was no point in putting the drone up over Horsham, even though Paula was right, and Horsham was a big town. In fact, I’d suggest it was over four times the size of Southwater.
But the point was that I knew that Horsham was already gone.
39
Diary of Carmen Eze
Horsham was gone.
We went in on the Worthing Road where the London bound trainline acted as a natural border between the countryside and the urban town, and the second we crossed the bridge over those lines we knew the horde had been through it.
It was the same thing as before. An idyllic home counties market town filled with idyllic homes where people existed while trapped in cycles of life that never changed. Waiting to live and waiting to die and then regretting it all when the end came.
And the end did come.
It came on that Friday night when the outbreak started, and then again when the horde swept through during the last few hours.
Smashing windows. Battering doors in. Using their body weight to force through barricades. Using their heads to break boards. Sniffing the survivors out. Hearing them. Chasing them. Hunting them down street by street and house by house.
There was one difference between Southwater and Horsham, and that’s the fact that Southwater had an organised defence force that fought a disciplined tactical retreat where they made use of fire and whatever they had to slow their attackers.
Horsham didn’t have that, and so the houses were not burnt out, which perhaps made it look less destroyed, but to our eyes it was really just the same.
It was just death and carnage and suffering on an epic scale. We saw crawlers and killed them.
We saw slow movers and killed them too. Stragglers and late comers. Anything with red eyes we killed to the best of our abilities. Either by Tappy running them over, or by the SUV slowing so we could lean out and put rounds into them. (Because only a complete twat fires a gun inside a car.) We even saw a few of the lads riding the top of the Saxon and putting rounds in.
Charlotte
I wanted to go up top after we’d been driving for a few moments. The thing with Cookey was still bugging me, but as I stood to go up Nick did the same.
‘You going up?’ he asked. ‘I was gonna have a quick smoke.’
‘You go,’ I said.
‘I know. We’ll both go,’ he said with a wink and wriggled up and out as I frowned and peered up to see him climbing fully onto the roof. ‘There you go,’ he called down.
‘Is it cooler up there?’ Blowers asked.
‘Nah. But the breeze is drying the sweat a bit.’
Cue a mass exodus of people wriggling up to ride the roof. One of whom was me. It was quite funny actually watching the lads’ bottoms wriggle up. Cookey went just before me and called down to give him a push.
I forgot that we had an issue and promptly started shoving at his backside.
‘My bum not my balls!’ he yelled in pain as I burst out laughing and climbed up after him to see his blue eyes all twinkling and the others chuckling while finding places to sit.
‘You okay?’ he asked me.
‘I would be if you’d talk to me,’ I said, but again the Gods appeared to not want that conversation to ever take place as Tappy duly reported seeing infected on the road and began running them over.
That meant we had to focus and get our rifles ready as we crossed a bridge and started pushing into Horsham.
We soon started seeing more infected, more than Tappy could take down, and so we started firing as we went by. Shooting them dead with our rifles. All of us on the roof, apart from Mads and Booker. They were still below, and from glancing down, I could see them taking advantage of the space and sprawling out on the bench seats with their heads hanging out of the open back doors.
Maddox
This is fucked up, Booker said as I burst out laughing again. I couldn’t help it. We were lying flat out on the bench seats with everyone else up on the roof, but we had our heads hanging off the edge of the seats out the back door watching the world going by upside down. Something about it. I don’t know. The heat, or the tension, whatever. It was funny. Then Booker started chuckling w
hich got me going and for no reason we were laughing as we bounced along and watched infected getting shot down.
It wasn’t the loss of life or any shit like that. It was the angle of it. And cos we’d been cramped up all day and now we could lie down and be stupid for a minute.
I thought you were a right cunt when we first met, Booker said as he glanced over.
I am, I said which made him laugh again.
Fact, bro.
You get me, I said in street slang.
You get me, he tried to mimic it, all deep and street but it was strangled and fucked up, especially with us hanging upside down.
Then he grabbed a bottle of Lucozade and started taking the cap off.
No way, I said as he got the opening to his mouth and tried tilting the bottle while his head was upside down. It went up his nose and he coughed then gagged and had to roll over and fell off the bench seat.
Man. I know I was meant to be faking it and getting in to be a spy and shit, but it was funny AF. I was gone. I was just gone. I’ve not laughed like that since Darius and me were in a police cell and he took a shit that blocked the toilet up. It was disgusting, but funny. You know when you just get going with a mate. It was like that and Booker was on the Saxon floor still coughing with Lucozade pouring out of his nose while everyone else was shooting zombies.
Horsham though.
Yeah. That was rough. Big town too. Bigger than Southwater.
But for once my mind wasn’t on the end goal of whatever we were doing. I was actually having fun and just going along with whatever happened.
But then I didn’t know what was to come later.
Paula
It was so weird. We were going through a town probably five times bigger than Southwater and seeing awful signs of devastation and suffering, but the lads were all on the Saxon roof smiling and joking as they took shots at the infected we were passing. Cheering at headshots and jeering at misses.
And what was even weirder was the sight of Maddox and Booker on either side of the bench seats in the back of the Saxon with their heads hanging out. The pair of them laughing before Booker tried to take a drink and nearly puked before falling off, which made me realise I’d never actually seen Maddox laugh before. I’d seen him smile and chuckle, but not a full on belly laugh.
‘It’s a good sign,’ Clarence said as I stood in the hatch and stared out the front of the van. I looked at him as he smiled at me. ‘Squaddies doing that is a good sign. Means they’re comfortable.’
‘Even with all this shit going on?’ I asked, nodding behind me to H & H.
Clarence just shrugged as I patted his shoulder and left my hand there. We didn’t say anything. He didn’t even look at me, or at my hand, but I did see him smile.
Reginald
‘Fuck me,’ Howie said, shaking his head at the monitor as we watched Horsham below the drone and our small fleet driving along. ‘They must have ploughed through here.’
‘No fires though,’ Henry said. ‘And no horde either.’
‘They’re still moving north-east though,’ Howie said. ‘We’ll go through the town centre and see what that’s like.’
‘Do we need to?’ Henry asked. ‘The horde isn’t here. We can see that.’
‘I know Horsham a bit,’ Howie said. ‘The main road runs through the centre. It’s on the way out.’
‘Ah yes. You are right. Okay, we’ll do that and head through the town centre, and before you erupt that I just stole your plan I am merely confirming it back to avoid confusion. It’s what we do in leadership, Howie. Tell you what, when we get ten minutes, I’ll tell you what happened in the Crimean War at the Battle of Balaclava.’
‘The charge of the light brigade?’ Howie asked as both Henry and I shot him a look, and I’ll say it again but it’s easy to forget Howie has a very sharp mind. ‘Didn’t some orders go wrong?’
‘Which is why we take great pains to be clear about plans,’ Henry said.
‘Aw, you two,’ Marcy said, stepping between them with a look only Marcy can give. ‘You boys, carry on playing nicely, and I’ll give you both something to suck.’
Henry then spat the water he’d been drinking over his feet while Howie’s mouth just dropped open as Marcy beamed a smile at them both and produced a small lollipop in each hand. ‘Filthy sods. What did you think I meant? Anyway. Let Reggie bring his drone back cos we do not want to be stuck in some shitty scrap without our specky little angel watching over us. God. You know what? I really need a cool title like Paula has when she does that XO thing. Maybe I could be the SO. Like the Sassy Officer. Yeah? We all voting for that? Motion passed. I’m the new SO. Reggie! Bring that bird home.’
‘Don’t look at me,’ Howie said when Henry shot him a look. ‘You bloody argue with her.’
‘Howie doesn’t like arguing with me,’ Marcy said to Henry. ‘Cos I’ve got these,’ she added while using the lollipops to point at her boobs as Henry muttered something and turned away.
I however, gave Marcy a nod of thanks while I duly flew the drone back and in through the sliding door.
‘You are sneaky little shit though,’ she said when it landed on the charging station. ‘How much have you flown that drone to get so good at it?’
I didn’t tell her how much. They didn’t need to know.
And besides. We were almost at the town centre, which is when we stopped to talk to the Train Guy.
Charlotte
Mo was winning the shooting competition until he got disqualified for having the unfair advantage of being Dave Trained. Blowers then told everyone to shut up cos he was going to win. But, as it turns out, only having one eye does impact on the ability to aim at a moving target while on another moving object.
‘Fuck!’ he said when he missed again.
‘Blind fuck,’ Cookey said. ‘Meredith could have hit that one. Danny, your side. Red top.’
‘I got it,’ Danny said, aiming his rifle.
‘No pressure, Danny,’ Cookey said before he started chanting his name. ‘Danny! Danny! Danny!’
We all joined in as Danny finally burst out laughing and took his shot.
‘You wanker!’ Nick shouted as the head blew apart. ‘Shot mate.’
‘Skills!’ Mo said, leaning over to fist bump his mate.
‘Charles! Your side,’ Cookey then said. ‘Naked man. Shoot his willy.’
I snorted a laugh and brought my rifle up to aim while remembering that Blinky always used to call me Charles. The pain hit again. The loss and grief and that need to replace it with something else, then the hurt of rejection.
‘Shoot it then!’ Nick said as I took my shot and shot the infected in the back.
‘Miss!’ they shouted and opened up to shoot it dead as Cookey gave me a worried look.
You okay? He mouthed.
I nodded and looked away, which is when I saw Horsham train station and the office block next to it. And specifically, the thing poking out of the side.
‘Holy shit,’ Nick then said as he saw it and the others all turned to exclaim. ‘Tappy! You seeing that?’
‘I’m seeing it,’ she shouted, easing the speed off as the Saxon coasted into the train station car park then came to a stop. The van on one side. The SUV on the other, and all of us just staring in silence.
I heard the sliding door and glanced back to see Henry and Howie dropping out and blinked at the surreal sight of them both sucking on lollipops, but they too just stared up.
So did Reginald and Clarence and the others.
It was hard not to, because I don’t think any of us had ever seen a train carriage poking out the side of a building before.
Carmen
Honestly. I’ve been to a lot of places and seen a lot of things, but I have never seen a train carriage stuck out the side of an office block before.
It was surreal. Like a CGI thing in a movie. But it was real.
An office block maybe fifteen or twenty levels high with a stonking great full length blue and
white train carriage poking out of the middle. Just one carriage embedded into the side. Big enough for a huge chunk to be poking out, but wedged enough so it didn’t topple back out. It was still right side up too with the wheels facing down. And of course, it had clearly made a very big hole in the block when it hit and somehow got wedged because we could see into the building and the desks and chairs.
But that wasn’t the oddest thing.
The oddest thing was a couple of levels below the train at the edge of the broken building. A man in a big comfy swing back office chair with his trouser legs rolled up and his feet on a desk.
He was just there. On his chair. A big fat guy with hair on the sides but not on his head. Like Friar Tuck in the Robin Hood stories. But he had potted plants all around him and was holding a mug in his hand and just staring down at us while we’re staring up at him.
‘Hot day,’ he said after a moment.
‘Very hot,’ Howie said. ‘Er. Did you know you had a train stuck in your building?’ he asked as the guy looked up at it for a second.
‘I did. I was on it.’
‘What the what now?’ Howie asked as the man nodded towards the train station and we all looked over to see another carriage end poking up into the sky, and another row of carriages crashed through the terminal. But it was so silent and serene and the colours were all so muted that none of us had clocked it.
‘There’s two sets,’ Nick said. ‘See the red carriages?’
‘Oh yeah,’ Tappy said. ‘Oh shit. They proper collided then.’