by Smith, I. J
“It’s my job,” Jack replied in a low voice.
Frank felt guilty for questioning Jack; he knew Jack had to ask him if he knew anything. Frank had no idea what to say and was about to walk away, but realized he had not thanked Jack for not only saving all their lives, but also for taking the burden on his shoulders and dealing with his fellow teammates when they turned. Jack stood at the edge looking out over London; Frank came and stood beside him.
“What you did for Michael and Andrew was….” Jack stopped Frank before he could finish.
“Don’t you dare, don’t you dare thank me for that,” Jack told him.
Frank stayed quiet for a moment, “Jenkins, she asked you to take command didn’t she?” Frank asked.
Jack looked over to Frank, “Doesn’t matter now, does it? What matters is trying to stay alive, saving as many as we can and killing a lot of those Zombie fucks,” Jack replied with emotion.
Jack walked away from the edge; he started to walk back to the others. “Jack, what happened to you?” Frank asked in a concerned voice.
Jack turned his head, “If we survive, maybe I will tell you,” Jack laughed back. Frank smiled and followed him back to the others.
Bray and Elle were comforting the kids while Josh still stood against the hut looking lost. Clare and Joe were now sitting down, and started to show trust. “Can you tell us where the others are?” Elle asked Clare.
Josh interrupted, “Does that really matter,” Josh said aloud.
Bray looked at Josh, “Of course it matters, if there are survivors, then there is hope,” Bray replied harshly.
“Come on, are we really going to take the word of a couple of kids,” Josh replied directly in a stern voice.
Bray started to lose his temper; he jumped to his feet, but before he could react to the comments made by Josh, both Jack and Frank returned.
“Is there a problem here?” Jack asked sternly.
“Damn right there is, these two are asking about survivors and where they are,” Josh abruptly replied. Bray went to move against Josh, Jack stepped in and stopped Bray.
“Calm down, now,” Jack, told him.
Frank grabbed hold of Josh and pulled him out of the way. “What is your problem Josh?” Elle spoke out.
“Not my problem, it’s our problem,” Josh replied.
“Survivors are not a problem,” Elle replied.
“Come on, think about it, we are here on a Top Secret mission, how is the world going to react when survivors suddenly start appearing,” Josh told everyone coldly.
Jack let go of Bray and turned his attention to Josh, “Are you kidding me, I don’t give a shit about Top Secret. If there are survivors, we are going to save as many as we can, is that understood PRIVATE!” Jack shouted.
Josh took a step back, knowing he had overstepped. Elle still sat comforting the kids. Jack moved over to Frank, “What now?” Frank asked him.
Jack turned to Bray, “Find out where they are.” Jack told him. Bray gave a tilt of the head in acknowledgment and walked back to the kids.
Frank walked over to speak to Josh, “I understand your concerns, but we all need to work together. We will deal with each problem as it happens,” Frank told him.
Josh simply replied, “Yes, Sir!”
Jack joined Bray and Elle to speak to the kids.
“Bray, where are the others?” he asked.
“The kids don’t want to tell us,” Bray replied.
Jack sat down next to Elle, “Clare, Joe, we can help, you just need to trust us,” Jack told them softly.
Clare looked straight at Jack, “They already have people helping them,” she told him.
Looking confused Jack asked, “Who helps them?”
“More soldiers,” Clare spoke out suddenly.
Elle frowned and looked at Jack, “Solders?” she asked.
“They must have been left here after the evacuation,” Jack replied.
“Clare, we can get everyone to safety?” Bray asked her.
Joe finally spoke, “No monsters?” he asked. Thinking about the zombies below.
Elle smiled knowing what he meant. “No monsters, I promise,” she told him.
“They are at the museum,” Clare told them.
“Sweetheart which one” Jack asked.
“Near the bridge, it is straight down there,” Clare said while pointing in the direction of the river Thames.
“Thank you, Clare do you think you could take us there?” Jack replied.
Clare replied, “Yes, but the monsters will come for us.”
“Do not worry about the monsters, Ok, we will keep them away,” Jack told her.
Clare simply smiled; she was starting to trust Jack.
Jack stood up and asked Elle to join him and for Bray to stay with the kids. Jack and Elle walked over to Frank and Josh. “You OK now?” Jack asked Josh.
“Yeah, sorry I didn’t mean to make it sound like I didn’t care,” he replied.
“Well, this is a screwed up night,” Jack laughed it off.
“Sorry Elle,” Josh continued.
Elle simply touched his arm, “No problem,” she told him.
“Frank, the kids said the survivors are protected by soldiers at a museum,” Jack told him.
“We should think about moving, time is ticking away. Can the kids show us?” Frank asked.
“Yes,” Jack replied.
“What about the zombies?” Elle asked.
Josh replied before anyone else could, “We kill the bastards,” Jack and Frank smiled.
Elle looked and laughed, “Sounds like a plan,” she laughed out, causing the others to laugh too.
The team moved to the far end of the roof and looked down to the ground level, “OK, there is nothing down this end. We are going to move very quietly. When you reach the bottom stay close to the wall until everyone has made it down,” Jack told everyone.
Frank and Bray were the first to start the climb down, Josh helped them and then joined them, climbing down behind.
Jack spoke to the kids, “listen, I will go first and you both will join me. We climb together. If you need to stop just tell me,” the kids both agreed and looked scared.
Jack noticed the fear in their face, “Hey, I will not let anything happen to you both.” he reassured them.
Elle walked along the roof edge a few feet and Jack noticed her limping, “Elle, you Ok?” he asked.
She smiled at him, “Yeah, it’s just a little sore. I am fine, will meet you at the bottom,” she replied.
As she watched Jack go over the edge, she kept smiling thinking how strong Jack was tonight, keeping everyone going and dealing with the hell around him at the same time. The kids started to climb down, Elle quickly made sure they were OK, “I will be right behind you,” she told them. Jack looked down seeing Frank, Bray, and Josh reach the bottom.
The kids were moving slow and this had slowed them all down. Joe was struggling; his small legs had trouble reaching the next bar. As he struggled down his foot slipped and he dropped, quickly taking hold of another bar.
The others climbing all looked, but feared shouting out in case they attracted the zombies. Joe had his eyes shut as he tried to regain his breath, opening his eyes he let out a loud scream. Jack looked up to see Joe face to face with a Zombie. “JOE” Clare screamed.
“KEEP MOVING!” Jack shouted at her.
Jack raced back up the scaffolding. Joe was pushing himself away from the Zombie. As Jack got closer, he could see the decomposing living body, it had an arm missing, and half its face had been torn away, revealing the skull.
Getting closer Jack could see the Zombie was snagged on some cable and could not reach Joe, it attempted to reach out for Joe with its last remaining arm.
Jack came up behind Joe, “It’s OK kid, I’m here,” he told the boy. Elle was looking over to Jack and Joe.
She looked as Jack pulled a knife from his vest, the Zombie was getting closer. It was pulling so hard on the cab
le to get to Joe it started tearing off its own skin from the bone. The Zombie pulled so hard its legs eventually broke off, Joe screamed as the Zombie came for him, but Jack was faster and shoved his knife into the monster’s head. It slumped straight down.
Putting his knife away Jack took hold of Joe,” It’s gone,” he told him. Joe was crying and shaking. “Come on,” Jack told him while putting Joe’s arms round his neck and carrying him the rest of the way down
. Gunshots started sounding out, “HURRY UP!” Frank shouted. Elle looked down to see zombies moving towards them. All the shouting had alerted the dead to their presence.
Jack reached the bottom with Joe on his back, putting him down Clare arrived to hug her brother. Elle struggled with her foot being sore, but made it down. “Everyone, let’s get moving,” Frank shouted and started to lead the team away.
Jack checked his gun and told both kids to stay close, Clare grabbed Jack’s hand, “Thank you,” she said with a tear in her eye.
Jack smiled and touched the side of her head, “Anytime,” he told her. “But now we have to move,” he continued.
Bray told the kids to follow him. As they moved away two zombies came up behind Elle, Jack noticed and raised his gun, shooting them both in the head.
Elle started to move, but Jack could see she was struggling. He ran up beside her, took her arm, and put it over his shoulder. “Lean on me,” he told her. They both followed the others while shooting back at the dead stalking them.
As the team ran, more and more zombies began to chase them. Frank and Bray made sure the kids were close to them, Josh was running a few feet ahead of them. Jack and Elle were struggling to keep up. They were running down this long road, shops and houses on both sides. Josh suddenly came to a stop
. “Oh shit,” he sounded out.
Frank and Bray along with the kids caught up to him, they also stopped. “Not a chance,” Bray said aloud.
Directly in front of them was an army of zombies approaching, “There must be hundreds,” Josh told the others.
Jack and Elle finally caught up with the others. “Why have you stopped?” Elle asked.
No one answered her, she looked ahead to see the dead marching on them. Jack let go of Elle, “Bray, help Elle,” Jack told him.
Bray took her arm; Jack started to look around him. Jack noticed a truck abandoned, it had crashed into a shop window and now sat half in the shop and half out. “Clare, is there another way to the museum?” Jack asked.
Clare hesitated for a moment, “CLARE!” Jack shouted.
“Err. Yes, down the ally, we can take the back way,” she replied to him.
Frank interrupted, “What good is that Jack, they are just going to follow us anywhere we go,” “Let me worry about that, the rest of you get to the museum,” Jack told them.
“Jack, there’s too many, you won’t stand a chance...” Elle started saying with fear in her eyes.
“GO, NOW!” Jack shouted.
Frank started to speak, “Jack…”
“God damn it just get moving, I will meet you at the museum, “Jack interrupted.
Frank looked at Jack and new he could not talk him out of it. They started to move towards the alley, Jack stood loading his gun and checking his side arm.
Elle spoke to Frank, “Wait” she struggled over to Jack. “Don’t die,” she told him, placing her hand on his arm. Jack smiled.
“Too stubborn to die,” he whispered to her. She smiled back and struggled back to Bray. They started to move away, Bray looked back to his friend, Jack tilted his head in respect, and Bray responded the same way.
In a second, Jack was alone; his team had disappeared down the dark ally.
Jack whispered to himself, “Well, this is a really stupid idea, “as he ran to the side of the truck, he started to climb up the door, he felt something grab his leg. Looking down, there it was a Zombie. This fat rotting corpse was trying to take a bite out of his leg.
Jack kicked out; the Zombie still had hold, so he kicked harder this time hitting it in the head. He kicked so hard his foot smashed through its skull squashing its brain like a grape. The corpse dropped to the ground as more zombies started to appear. He climbed to the roof of the truck. Once at the top he started shouting, “COME YOU SHITS! THE BUFFET IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS!”
He raised his main gun and started shooting randomly in the air. Clare was right, the zombies are attracted to the noise, they surrounded the truck; there were so many that the force of them walking against the truck made it start to rock side to side. On the truck roof, Jack pulled out a small brown block of C4 from his vest, he pushed a small black box with glowing red numbers displayed on it he changed the numbers to 15 seconds.
“Eat this,” he said while dropping it over the side of the truck. Immediately he ran to the edge of the truck nearest the wall, he leaned out grabbing a drainpipe. He jumped off the truck, holding onto the pipe and began to climb. He was fast; he was at the top and onto the roof within seconds. He ran to the other side of the roof, looking down, he could see a car parked below.
“This is going to fucking hurt,” he said, and then he jumped aiming to land on the car roof. He had barely jumped when an explosion sounded out. Debris was flying everywhere, Jack landed hard on the roof of the car on his back. Laying there for a moment in pain he laughed, looking up he could see an arm flying above him. He rolled off the car and stumbled for a moment, but eventually managed to run.
Elle looked behind her, a huge explosion echoed across the night sky. “Jack,” she whispered under her breath.
Bray heard Elle, “He is as tough as they come, he’ll be OK” Bray reassured her.
“We need to keep moving,” Frank told them.
They carried on, “Over there,” Clare told them.
“That’s where they are?” Frank asked. Clare nodded yes; they all carried on moving towards the museum. They were close to the museum when they stopped for a moment by an abandoned car.
“Let’s get inside,” Frank told them.
“Wait, what about Jack?” Elle asked.
“We need to get off the street,” Josh replied.
“I’m waiting for Jack,” she told him.
“So am I,” Bray added.
Frank turned to them, “We have to move, Jack will find us,” he told everyone.
As Frank began to move towards the museum someone shouted to him, “DON’T MOVE!”
A large figure appeared from the shadows, holding a gun pointed straight at Frank.
“It’s OK, we’re here to help,” Frank tried to tell him.
“Bullshit,” the figure replied.
Josh went to raise his weapon when two more figures appeared either side of the team. “We are armed, and more than happy to kill,” the figure in front of Frank said.
The figures got closer and came into sight; two scruffy, bearded men had their weapons pointed at them. “Put your weapons down, now” a voice said.
Frank concerned for his team told them, “Do what he said.”
The team laid down their weapons, the two other figures picked them up. “Well, look at this, two little mice returning home,” the man in front of Frank said.
“I thought you would have been Zombie burgers by now,” he continued.
Clare looked to the man in fear, “Sorry Clint we couldn’t get back, we were trapped” she told him. “Where is the food you went out for?” Clint asked.
“We... We... We... Lost it,” she stuttered while trying not to cry
. Clint walked to Clare, “Look at me,” he demanded, Clare continued to look at the floor, “LOOK AT ME!” he shouted. Clare raised her head slowly, she was crying. Clint looked at her and slapped her hard across the face Clare and she hit the ground.
Bray started to run at Clint, “You bastard,” he sounded out.
Before Bray could get to him, another figure hit him in the face with the butt of his gun.
“Stupid... stupid... stupid, never interfere in a family di
spute boy,” Clint laughed.
The man who hit Bray stood over him. “I don’t know where you come from and really I do not care, but this is our city,” Clint told the team, “and these two little mice are my property,” he continued.
The man standing over Bray spoke, “Boss, there is a fresh one here,” pointing at Elle.
“HAHA, Peter, Julian you guys have first go,” Clint laughed.
“You two on your knees,” Clint told Frank and Josh.
They both knelt down. “Tell you what, you can watch before we kill you,” Clint told them. Joe was helping his sister, who was still on the floor.
Peter and Julian grabbed Elle, “Hello, my beauty, you’re going to be nice to us right,” they asked, while laughing.
Elle knew what they were planning; she also knew she was not going without a fight. Elle smiled and stepped towards them. Elle placed her hands on Peter’s chest, “Are you first?” she asked him.
“Damn, right I am,” he smiled back.
Elle smiled and threw her head into his face, blood exploded.
“Fucking bitch,” Peter shouted and punched Elle in the jaw, she fell back landing on the ground.
Clint laughed aloud. “I’m going to teach this bitch a lesson,” Peter shouted.
He started to lean down, he was about to grab her when he heard a pop, he looked up to Julian, who turned his head to reveal a hole in his face. A bullet had hit him straight in the eye. Peter started to turn Clint when another pop sounded out, this time hitting Clint on the side of the head. Clint dropped to the ground.
Peter started to raise his gun; he turned just in time to see a large figure appear from the shadows. He tried to raise his gun, but the figure was on him fast. Punching him in the throat, Peter stumbled back, dropping his gun.
“JACK!” Elle shouted out excited.
Jack continued to move forward on Peter. Peter dropped to his knee and raised his arms in surrender. Jack had no interest in surrender and kicked Peter in the face. As Peter lay there, holding his bleeding face Jack stopped. Frank and Josh were back to their feet. Bray had gone over to the kids to make sure Clare was OK.
Elle was still on the ground. Jack reached out to Elle, “Come on,” he said while helping her to her feet, she got up and hugged him.