Dalby stared into the dark for what seemed an age. Chris started to get nervous. Anxiety rising from somewhere in his stomach. He felt it around him, the other men getting itchy too. Still, Dalby stared at the darkness.
“Chris, come with me.” Dalby jumped off the rock and walked towards the woods.
Chris jumped up as fast as he could, nearly dropped his gun, did drop his helmet, fumbled to pick it up, then followed Dalby across the field to the woods. He ran in a crouch, aware that he was ready for picking off from a sniper in the woods. His heart hammered against his chest.
Thought you were the big man, not scared of anything?
Not now, Nan. Pack it in.
Still my little boy…
Chris swallowed and shook his head, trying to shake his Nan out of his ears.
They reached the woods, thankfully without being shot. Chris breathed out deeply and stood up straight, tension draining from his body.
“What’s the matter with you?” said Dalby. “Look,” he grabbed Chris around the shoulder and pulled him tight. With the other arm, he pointed deep into the woods.
Chris looked hard. Dark shadows, trees swung gently. Moonlight. To their right, further down the hill was the glow of the fire, crackling wildly, getting closer with its slow, relentless climb up the hill.
“Well?” said Dalby.
“Sorry sir, I don’t see anything.”
“Exactly,” said Dalby. “The bastards have absconded.”
“Sir?”
“They’ve escaped,” said Dalby. “Come on, quick now!” Dalby ran into the woods, a sudden burst of speed that caught Chris by surprise. He followed the best he could, tripping on hidden branches and slippy patches of ground.
“There!” said Dalby, crouching. It took a few seconds before what Dalby was looking at came into focus. A thick rope, tied around a tree, trailing over the edge of the cliff. Dalby and Chris ran to the cliff edge and looked over.
A hundred feet below, a small group of dark shapes ran the distance from the cliffs to the Fence, the boundary of Unity. Behind them was a large group of figures. The horde of zeds they had led up the woods - having careered off the cliff like a bunch of lemmings - following them. Their moans rose easily through the still night.
Dalby was going to be pissed.
If he was though, he didn’t show it.
A moan from nearby made Chris jump. A few deadheads in the woods.
“Come on,” said Dalby.
The Major set off again, another burst of speed, back towards the men. Chris followed, glancing back at the zeds.
If they followed the Fence to the left, towards the beach, there was a section that was easier to climb. It was built of a few trucks stacked in line next to each other in a row. It was easy to get up onto the bonnets, then over the aluminum siding and thick logs that been placed along the load beds. Jack remembered putting this section together, it must have been about a year ago. A sunny day and the work had been long and tiring. The sun had baked down fast and hard, the team he had worked with had been sweating all day; they got sunburnt and, as the early evening set in, bitten by midges. But they had laughed and joked and talked about old times and worked together. They had a few beers as the evening settled. They had enjoyed themselves.
Jack hadn’t though. He had kept quiet, except when barking orders. He joined none of the jokes; the Fence was too serious a business to joke about. There was no time to shoot the shit, and why talk about the old days anyway? It was only memories of misery and sorrow for what could have been. Why didn’t they see this?
Jack now knew what those people had known then, and that he had been blind too. As he looked around the group he was with; the group fighting for their lives, but consequently relying on each other, trusting each other, he understood.
“Ok,” he said bringing the group to stop. “Over these trucks. This will bring us in by the bottom end of chalets. There’s a small field on the other side, about a thirty-foot run, then the chalets and the road. What do you think, Allen?” said Jack, picking up Annie.
Allen looked at his watch, then at the trucks.
“Ok, it’s three in the morning. Most people should be asleep. The plan is to get in, find Adam, and get out. Will there be guards? Other soldiers?”
Harriet stood forward, “Likely. Remember, most of them aren’t proper soldiers though.”
“Neither are we…” said Allen quietly. “Ok, let’s stay close, keep it tight. I’ll take point, Crowe, you take the rear. Grace, Jack, Dean, you have weapons. You want to keep hold of yours, Jack?”
Allen had cast a glance at Annie. Jack knew what he was asking. He hugged Annie tight, but there was no question, he was going to fight. He had so much to make up for. “Hey, Annie, you want to hang out with Harriet?”
Annie looked cautiously at Harriet, who was holding out her arms and smiling. She nodded slowly.
“Good girl. Daddy’s going to be right beside you, ok. But you listen carefully to what Harriet tells you to do, and you keep close to her. It’s very important.”
He passed Annie to Harriet and mouthed a silent thank you to Harriet.
“Ok,” said Allen. “We get in, we get to the first chalet. We take that, whether it’s empty or not. If you don’t have a gun, you stay in there, until we can come back with weapons for you. It’s not zeds we’re dealing with, it’s an armed and dangerous enemy. No-one going anywhere without weapons. So that leaves me, Crowe, Grace, Jack, and Dean. We all agreed?”
A few nods and mumbled agreement.
“How you going to find Adam?” said Jack. “The holiday camp’s a big place.”
“We’ll figure that out as we go along. First, we just need to get in there,” said Allen.
The group moved silently to the trucks and scaled over them. Allen and Jack led, Grace and Crowe covering the others still outside.
Their feet thumped heavily on the bonnets of the trucks. Loud bangs as the metal creased and folded under their feet. Jack grimaced as the loud sound invaded the previous silence of the night.
Perched on top of the trucks, Jack saw no one. The nearest chalet, as he remembered, only thirty feet away. “There,” he pointed to Allen.
Allen nodded. “Wait here.” He jumped off the fence, landing on the grass with a dull thump. He ran across the space to the nearest chalet. Now, just a figure in the darkness, Allen circled the chalet, disappearing around the back for a few moments. Jack glanced at the group of expectant faces on the other side of the Fence. He spied out Annie and smiled at her, gave her a big thumbs up. She responded with a weak wave.
Allen was on his way back. He motioned for the others to follow.
Grace came first, crossbow ready to fire, and she and Allen ran to the chalet. Then Harriet and Annie, Andy and Abdul. Finally Crowe and Dean.
“You did a good job on this Fence,” said Crowe as he climbed over. “Damn good.” Crowe hit Jack on the shoulder.
Jack jumped down and ran to the chalet, wary of the shadows and the dark around them. Only a few hours until daylight.
The group settled in the chalet. Cold, it hadn’t been inhabited for a while by the looks of it. Strange, thought Jack, the place had been overflowing with people when he had left.
“What’s the plan?” said Dean, fiddling in the kitchen, walking around with a kettle. “We got time for a cuppa?”
Allen nodded. He stood still in the darkness, staring into space, thinking.
“I’m taking Annie to bed, first. She needs some rest,” said Jack.
Allen nodded. “That’s a good idea.”
Jack took Annie into one of the bedrooms, he took off her shoes, and she climbed into bed, pulling the duvet up around her neck. “What’s happening now, Daddy?”
Jack sat on the bed next to her. “Well, we’re going to find the Sergeant’s son, and then we’re going to make this place better.”
“I’m scared.”
“Hey,” he leaned in closer, resting his hand on her shoulder.
“What you scared about?”
She shook her head. “You’re going to go away and not come back. The monsters will get you, like Mummy.”
A cold had gripped Jack’s heart. It was the same every time she mentioned his wife, her mother. Jack still remembered that night as clear as if it was yesterday. He imagined Annie did too, the little girl watching out of the window as the zombies pulled her Mummy into the dark and the screams that followed. What could Jack do to make it right for her? Was there anything?
He hugged her tight and spoke softly into her ear. “There are things Daddy has to do now. Things I have to do to make it safe for you. In the past, I haven’t always done what I should’ve done. But I’m changing that now. You’re the most important thing to me, and I have to do everything to make the world right. I’m trying to do that every single day, Annie. I love you more than anything, and I’m not going to leave you.”
He held her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “I promise you, promise, right, that I’m not going to leave you, you got that?” he smiled.
Annie nodded and smiled, uncertainty still in her eyes.
Jack prayed he could keep that promise.
Even though Chris was fit, he was out of breath. No booze, no cigarettes, no drugs, best shape in his life, but still out of breath. The rest of the men were trailing even further behind. Dalby was another level up, wasn’t he? He set a killer pace. The man didn’t ever get tired. They said he only slept for three hours a night or some bollocks like that.
Thankfully, about 5 minutes away from the Fence, where they had seen Allen and his men make their way over the Fence, Dalby stopped. He was crouched on the ground, looking at something. When he stood up, he had something in his hand. It looked like a blanket of some sort, blue and soft. A baby’s blanket or some shit. Dalby was staring at it. Just staring, his eyes unblinking.
Allen and his men would probably be in Unity by now. Creating all sorts of fucking havoc, killing dogs and shooting women and all that shit rebels did.
“Sir?” said Chris.
Dalby’s head snapped up, and he stared at the fields and hills surrounding Unity. He had a vacant look like he was on DMT, his brain in fucking space.
“Gone,” he said quietly.
Dalby looked back at the blue blanket in his hand. “Lieutenant, take the men and burn Unity to the ground.”
It took a few seconds for Chris to comprehend what Dalby had said.
He’s lost his fucking mind.
There was his Nan using the F-word again.
“Sir?”
Dalby grabbed Chris by the lapels. “You heard me didn’t you, Lieutenant? You take these men, and you burn Unity to the fucking ground. Burn it all. Everyone in it. Burn it.”
Sometimes you could hear the silence of people not talking. It wasn’t just people not talking, but it was an emptiness of sound, an existence of nothing. Chris heard it now in the men.
Dalby let go of Chris’s lapels, but still stood inches away, his face right up against Chris’s. “I have a good lieutenant, don’t I?”
Chris nodded.
“You understand what I have asked you to do?”
Chris nodded.
“You understand what will happen if you don’t follow my instructions?”
Chris nodded again. He felt like one of them fucking stupid nodding dogs you used to get in cars.
Dalby turned on his heel and walked away. “I have something to do. I expect to see the smoke rising within the next hour, Lieutenant.”
Where the fuck was he going? Chris stared as Dalby marched towards the hills, getting smaller. But his presence stayed. His being was still there, watching them like a revenant.
Soon, he was gone.
Chris still hadn’t moved. A voice from behind him.
“What do we do, sir?”
You can’t burn it down, don’t be a bloody idiot lad. For once. Think of all the people you’ll kill-
“Fucking shut up! Shut it, shut it, shut it, just fucking shut it you crazy old bat!”
Silence.
Chris turned to look at the men. Twenty or so. Army fatigues, but no more an army than the toy soldiers he used to play with before some older kid stole them.
“You heard the Major. We burn it to the fucking ground.”
Chapter 26
Allen thought they should start the search while it was still dark, so that’s what they did. Allen and Crowe to be one search party, Jack, and Grace the other.
“I know my boy,” said Allen quietly, the four of them sitting around the dining table in the Chalet. Dean, Abdul, and Annie were sleeping, Andy kept watch. “Adam will be hiding out somewhere. He knows how to survive, how to look after himself. So the question is, Jack, where can he hide?”
“Two main places,” said Jack. “To the north of the holiday park. There’s a run of sand dunes in between the beach and the chalets. Runs the length of the park, about a mile. The other place he could hide out, the woods. They’re to the west, just a bit down from where we are now. You saw them on the way in.”
“What do you think then, Jack? You want the woods or the sand dunes?”
“Me and Grace will take the woods.”
“Sand dunes for us then. Let’s get to it.” Allen stood up, the others followed. “Andy, I don’t know what to say. We’ll just have to wing this. You guys just sit tight. We’ll try and get back as soon as we can.”
“Don’t worry about us, Sarge,” said Andy. “Just hope you find your son.”
Allen gave Andy a discreet nod, and the search party headed out of the chalet.
“Head through that path, then just follow your nose,” said Jack.
“Good luck,” said Allen, then him and Crowe turned and headed towards the beach.
Jack and Grace set off towards the woods. He broke into a jog without deciding too. Nerves, he figured. He glanced back at the bedroom window of the chalet where Annie was sleeping. Everything dark, quiet, peaceful.
They moved silently with no words until they got to the edge of the woods. Jack felt relief as they passed into the dark canopy of the trees; the bark and leaves hiding them from any wary eyes. His feet sank into the soft ground.
“You think we’ll find him?” said Grace.
“Don’t you?”
“You’re a parent. I guess you know what it’s like. I imagine you lot, parents, never lose hope.”
“You think this a hopeless cause?”
Grace shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Then why you here?”
“There’s nowhere else to be,” she said.
“You seemed fine by yourself when you found us.”
“I was. Until I wasn’t alone anymore. I…”
She trailed off. Jack waited for her to speak, sensing she had more to say.
She did. “I’ve shut so much of myself off. Since the Fall. I had to do things that I didn’t want to do. I thought I had lost so much. Finding you and Annie, though, it’s made me realize I’ve lost less than others. The things I’ve had to do aren’t as bad as I thought they were. A new paradigm.”
“Fuck the paradigm,” said Jack. “We just do what we have to do.”
He felt Grace’s eyes on him. She was smiling.
“What?”
Before she could answer, he stopped still and held up his hand.
“What is it?” said Grace. She raised her crossbow, as Jack raised his gun, an accompanying click as he turned the safety off.
“Can you hear that?” said Jack.
Grace’s brow furrowed in concentration. She shook it. “Nothing.”
“Listen, that way,” he nodded to the west, towards the Fence.
They stood still for a minute. Then Grace nodded. “I hear it.”
Crackling. Then underneath, once that sound got out of the way, a dull rumble. Like earth moving, or like fire.
“You can smell it?” said Grace.
“Fire, again,” said Jack.
“The fire from the clif
f?”
“Could be. Cinders floating down, or…”
“Dalby. He wouldn’t burn down the holiday park, would he?”
Jack didn’t know what Dalby would do. He knew little about the man; there was no reason to discount anything he may do.
“Come on, let’s check it out,” said Jack, heading towards the Fence. His Fence.
You know you can’t do this Chris. You’re being a bloody idiot.
They had to be quick. The horde from the top of the cliff was making its way around the camp. They had all walked off the cliff top like a bunch of stupid fucking lemmings. Dragging broken legs, walking at funny angles with their spines sticking half out of the stomachs. You had to give it to them. They may be stupid as fuck, but they kept on trucking.
The moaning though. That pissed him off. Why couldn’t they just shut the fuck up? Seemed like their stupid way of talking; he noticed other zeds arriving from different directions; from the woods, from the beach, from the hills. Trouble, from all directions
“Come on, at the base of the Fence. That’s right, get it in there.” The men were spreading the remainder of the petrol on the Fence. Once lit, he was hoping the many cars and truck in this part of the fence would go up. Still had fuel in them, didn’t they? Then the pine trees would go up. By then, he would be around the front of Unity, setting to fire the petrol reserves. Then the Runner’s trucks. There was a wind growing with the early morning. That should stoke the fire nicely.
Think of all them people Chris! Please, listen to your Nan.
“That’s it, sir, no more left.”
“Ok, stand back!”
The other soldiers retreated to where Chris was standing, nervous glances cast towards the growing horde of zombies further towards the beach. Heading their way now. Fuck em, slow enough to outrun.
He raised his gun and aimed at a truck bonnet poking from the Fence, its wheels doused in petrol.
Don’t do it, Chris! This is different, they’re all innocent.
“I’ve got me fucking orders, you stupid bat.” He ignored the glances the other men were giving him. He fired at the truck. Thump, thump, whoosh. The truck went up in flames. The one next to it caught quickly. A dull thud, followed by a heavy whump as the truck’s petrol tank caught. Bits of tree flew from the Fence; the men ducked for cover.
The Fall Series (Book 3): The Fence Walker Page 37