by Smith, I. J
“When we get to safety, I will be reporting him for striking a fellow soldier,” He told a shocked Frank.
“Are you fucking kidding me, he saved your ass and you want to report him,” Frank snapped at him.
“He had no right to hit me,” Ryan replied.
Frank grabbed Ryan’s arm, forcing him to stop walking, “He hit you because you were leading the zombies direct to the others,” Frank told him abruptly.
“That is no excuse, I was unarmed and could not fight them off” he replied.
Frank looked in anger, “No, you are just a fucking coward, and you’re lucky he stopped with just punching you, I would have killed you, chicken shit,” Frank told him and walked away. Frank took the lead again, they were approaching a bridge, in sight there was a roadblock in place at the bridge entrance. Army vehicles were scattered around the area.
Frank looked around and knew that at some point, the military tried to make a stand here and were obviously overrun. There were huge metal storage containers on the grass by the entrance to the bridge, Frank was guessing, but he assumed that they had tried to block the bridge with them, but run out of time. Frank turned to the group, “Everyone, look around and see if there are any we can use as weapons and any ammunition still here, they may have left something behind,” He told them.
Frank was now standing in front of the bridge, he stepped on something metal, he looked down to see rounds of spent ammunition, there were hundreds scattered all over the ground. Frank looked down in emotion, thinking of the soldiers trying to fight to save people. He could almost hear the screams of the soldiers that died here trying to save lives. He looked to the group they had collected a fair amount of ammunition already; he noticed Ryan walked towards the storage containers. Ryan went to open the container, Frank noticed blood on the ground near the containers, and Ryan took hold of the bar and started to pull open the metal doors. “STOP!” Frank shouted to Ryan. As he turned to look at Frank, the door was suddenly pushed open, dozens of zombies starting walking out of the container. Ryan ran away as fast as he could. Frank raised his gun and started shooting, but there were too many. He had taken a few down, but they were getting closer. “MOVE!” he shouted to the group.
He ran to join the group; Ryan was back with them. The survivors had found a few weapons, Frank took a weapon of a young woman and handed it to Ryan, “FIGHT, THAT’S AN ORDER!” Frank ordered him. Frank moved towards the zombies and carried on shooting, he ran out of ammo and needed to reload, he shouted back to Ryan, “COVER ME!” he told him. Ryan raised the gun, he started to move towards the zombies, he was shaking, Ryan freaked out and dropped the gun and started running away leaving Frank alone in the fight.
He rushed to reload his gun, “I wish Jack was here,” he whispered. He loaded his gun, he went to shoot towards the Zombie, but one of them had caught up to him. It lunged to bite him and was pushed over, on the ground Frank was trying to fight off the Zombie. Going though Franks mind, he knew he was screwed, in a matter of seconds the rest of the Zombie group would be on him. As he tried to push off the Zombie, suddenly someone hit the Zombie in the head with a metal bar, blood sprayed over Frank, but the Zombie was stopped.
Frank looked up to see the survivors standing there, with the weapons they found and the tools they took from the museum. Two men ran into the Zombie, one with a hammer in hand the other with a crowbar; they went in swinging, cracking skulls and smashing the brains of the living dead. The survivors with Frank raised their guns they had and started shooting, they were not expert marksmen, but they did the job and saved the day. With all the zombies down, Frank looked to the group, “Thank you,” he told them with gratitude in his voice.
A young man with a hammer in his hand replied to Frank, “You saved us, so we fight with you,” he told Frank.
Ryan walked slowly back to the group, everyone looked at him in disgust. Frank picked up the gun Ryan dropped. He walked over to Ryan, Frank looked in anger, and he put the gun back in Ryan’s hands. Then, without warning, Frank threw a punch straight into Ryan’s jaw. Ryan hit the ground again. He was about to raise the gun when the survivors joined Frank and stood over Ryan.
He lowered the gun. “Report me for that,” Frank told him angrily. “OK, we’re not far from our destination, God willing, we will meet up with the others there, let’s go,” Frank told them all. They all started to walk with Frank; Ryan was left on the floor as everyone walked past him, looking at him in disgust.
The rotting corpses of the zombies gave chase to the living, Jack was helping Elle walk to keep ahead of the dead. Her arm still round his shoulders, Jack held her with one hand and held a sidearm in the other hand. Elle glanced behind her, “there’s more of them,” she told Jack.
“Don’t look, just keep moving,” he told her.
Elle was starting to struggle, “We need to find somewhere safe to fix you up,” Jack told her.
“We can’t stop, I will be fine,” she tried to reassure him.
“You don’t get a vote,” he replied.
“First, I need to deal with our stalkers,” he told her.
They moved round a corner, there was a row of shops on one side, looking at the shop, he could see a pharmacy. “There, that is what we need,” he spoke.
They came to a stop, he let go of Elle and handed her his gun, “No, you need it,” she tried telling him, but he was not taking any notice.
“Stay here,” he told her, she leaned against the wall.
She watched as Jack turned towards the zombies heading towards them. As he walked towards them, he picked up a metal pipe that was lying on the ground. He moved faster, he swung the pipe at the first Zombie that came to reach. He swung the pipe directly into its head. As the pipe cracked against the skull of the corpse a loud cracking, noise echoed.
The side of the Zombie’s head caved in, blood and puss flowed out and the Zombie hit the floor, Jack stamped on its head just to make sure it was dead for good. Three more zombies approached him, he swung the pipe again, it hit one of the dead in the head, but the Zombie kept coming, the other two were fast approaching.
Jack kicked the Zombie in the stomach, forcing it backwards, he hit the Zombie from the top of the head this time, the pipe embedded in its skull, the Zombie hit the ground dead. The other two zombies were now right on top of Jack, he pulled his knife from his vest, and he forced the blade directly into the Zombie’s head. The fourth Zombie grabbed Jack’s arm, as it was about to bite Jacks arm a gunshot sounded out, the Zombie’s head burst open when the bullet hit it. Jack turned to see Elle aim the gun, “Nice shot” Jack laughed.
Elle lowered the gun, “I am full of hidden talents.” She smiled. Jack walked to Elle and once again helped her walk.
They headed for the pharmacy, they arrived at the door, and Jack noticed the glass was reinforced.
“Shit,” he whispered.
“We should just carry on to the rendezvous,” Elle said to him.
Jack looked at the front of the building, looking up above the sign he could see a window open, right next to the window there was a drainpipe running up the wall. “Right, I’m going up. If anything dead approaches you, don’t hesitate, just start shooting,” he told her.
Elle looked at him concerned, “Jack, I...” he stopped her by interrupting.
“I will see you in one minute,” he told her with a smile.
Jack grabbed hold of the drainpipe and climbed up the wall, Elle watched as he reached out to the window ledge, he took a firm grip and pulled himself over to the window, as he climbed on the ledge the brickwork broke away and he almost fell. Elle gasped in fear, “Jack,” she spoke out. Jack pulled himself inside, he immediately pulled out his knife, he was standing in a stock room, and there was nothing but boxes. He walked out the room and straight down the stairs, entering the back of the shop, he could hear a familiar groaning. A sound Jack was now getting used to, he looked round the shop, in the back of the shop was a big table. From a dark corner there
it was, a Zombie walked towards him, it was wearing a long white coat, and had name badge.
Jack took notice by reading the name, “Harry, sorry about this,” he told it as he stabbed his knife into the Zombie’s head. Elle looked through the window at Jack as he killed the Zombie. She knocked on the glass, Jack rushed to the door and unlocked it, letting her in, locking it once she was safely inside.
He helped her to the table at the back of the shop. He lifted her up onto the table; she blushed as he put her down. “OK, we need to look at that foot,” he told her.
“Well, let me apologize for any smell,” she laughed. Jack laughed back, as he untied her black boot; he pulled it off her foot gently and then removed her sock. He held her foot in his hands, he moved it around and she winced in pain, he touched the top of her foot and then rubbed her ankle, Elle started feeling special, in a way she was starting to be turned on by Jack’s touch. She felt awkward, so kept smiling.
“Good news, it’s not broken, looks like the muscle is badly bruised,” he told her. Jack let go of her foot and looked at the shelves around them, he was looking for painkillers, and he also found a bandage and tape. He opened the painkillers, “Here, take these, they are Zapain, so will help with the pain,” He told her. He started to bandage her foot, “I need to make this tight, I promise it will help,” he reassured her.
“How do you know about medical?” she asked him.
He smiled, “I’ve had a little training,” he replied.
“From your mysterious past,” she joked. Jack did not answer; instead he just smiled and carried on with her foot. Elle knew he was always uncomfortable when people mentioned his past.
“You know, there is a chance we may not survive this, you can tell me anything, it’s just us here,” she told him.
Jack stopped what he was doing, “What makes you think I have an interesting story to tell?” he asked her.
“The skills you have and tonight you are the only one not to panic,” she told him trying to make him trust her. She continued to talk, “There are so many rumors about you, but I don’t care about rumors, I just want to know you,” she smiled.
Jack stood silent for a moment, “Just between us?” he asked her.
“I would never betray your trust.” She told him.
He continued work, strapping her foot up Elle believed he was not going to say anything when all of a sudden he started to speak. “I was Special Forces, SAS. I was active for over four years, I loved it, and it was my life. I grew up in foster and social care, so I never knew what a family was like, that was until I joined the army. The team I was part of in the SAS was special, we were like brothers. Anyway, 18 months ago, we were sent on a mission in Afghanistan. Military intelligence sent us in to take out a bomb factory, we were told there were ten people on the ground guarding the facility and the factory was locked down.” He stopped talking; Elle could see the emotion on his face. “Jack, you don’t have to tell me,” she told him while taking his hand and holding it tight. Jack carried on speaking, “Anyway, everything was going well, we located the factory, and then it went to shit. The intelligence was wrong, it was not a bomb factory it was a training camp, a place where they trained the terrorists. We were in a running gun battle; we took cover in an old crumbling building. We tried to make a stand, but it was useless. We decided to wait for sunset;we planned to make a move under the cover of darkness. However, it was a long couple of hours. By the time the sun went down three men were dead and two badly injured. I was the only one standing. We had a chance to move, but the two men injured could not walk. I had to choose who had the best chance of surviving and leave the other man behind.” He stopped again; Elle could see he was getting angry.“I left a brother in arms behind, and carried another for three hours. It was a running gunfight, but we made it to the Evac site. Six men went in and only two returned. The man I carried back never walked again. When I arrived back to base I was immediately called in for a mission debrief. There was this intelligence twat there, the first thing he asked, what did your team do wrong. I ended up breaking his jaw and spent seven months in a military prison. The week I was due to be released I was expecting to be discharged, when I got told I was a valuable asset and they wanted to find a way to keep me. I refused to return to Special Forces and opted to join a Section. The rest you know,” he finished telling Elle. They both remained silent, he put her sock and boot back on and tied her laces. She looked at him, knowing how hard it was for him to tell her. He lifted his head, “Finished, try that,” he told her. Jack helped her off the table, as she got down, they came face to face. Elle still looked at Jack’s face; she moved into him and kissed him. He pulled away saying nothing, he paused for a moment and kissed her again. The kiss was passionate and seemed to last forever. They stopped kissing and looked in each other’s eyes, Jack looked confused, “We should go,” he told her. Elle simply smiled in agreement and they moved out.
CHAPTER EIGHT
RE-UNITE IN BLOOD
Frank was fast approaching the MI6 building; Frank was leading the group when a survivor joined him. A man’s voice spoke, “I just wanted to say thank you, for everything you have done for us.”
Frank looked to the man speaking to him was the man who saved him when he was attacked by a Zombie. “I should be the one thanking you,” Frank told him while offering his hand in friendship.
The man shook Frank by the hand, “The least I could do,” he replied.
“So what’s your name, or should I just call you thingy,” Frank asked.
The man smiled, “Henry,” he replied. Frank looked at Henry; he was a middle-aged man, who looked more like a gardener than a Zombie killer.
“Nice to meet you Henry, wish it was under better circumstances,” Frank replied. “Yes, not sure better circumstances exist anymore,” he told Frank sadly.
“We are going to get you out of here,” Frank reassured him. Henrys smiled disappeared, “It’s doesn’t matter anymore. There is no one left waiting for me,” he replied.
Frank felt terrible; “I’m sorry,” Frank tried telling him. “I just want to make sure the kids get away from this hell, it’s not important what happens to me,” Henry told him.
Frank came to a sudden stop, he pulled Henry back, “Shhhh, don’t make a sound,” Frank said. He gestured to the group behind them to stop. Frank looked round the corner of the building, opposite was the MI6 building, but they had a problem, standing between them and the chance of rescue was a small army of zombies, they were all facing the MI6 building just banging against the entrance.
“We’re screwed,” Frank whispered under his breath.
Zoe was moving further and further ahead of the group. Bray walked behind with Clare the Kids and the survivors. Bray looked ahead to Zoe walking alone, “Clare, make sure everyone keeps up,” He told her.
Bray ran ahead to join Zoe, “Hey, we should stay close together,” he told her.
Zoe stopped and looked at Bray, she looked angry, “Then you should all move faster,” she told him bluntly.
Bray sighed, “I know you had a hard time back there, but how about working with us,” Bray told her.
Zoe gave a sarcastic smile, “You think you know what I have been through, you have no idea,” she told him angrily.
Bray looked down to the ground, “You’re right, I have no idea, but I’m not a monster and if you give me and my team a chance we will prove it,” Bray told her calmly. Zoe took a step back and looked like she was tearing up. Before either of them could talk, a voice echoed across the street.
Bray turned to see a familiar face, “Jack!” he said excited.
Bray also noticed Elle walking much better; she still had a limp, but moved much easier. They both approached Bray and Zoe; Bray went to shake Jack’s hand, but was surprised when Jack gave him a hug instead. “You made it,” Bray told him.
Jack smiled as he let go of Bray, Elle was next to hug Bray. “How did you guys make it?” Bray asked them.
“Jack” Elle replied.
“Don’t listen, it was a team effort,” Jack added, as he walked over to Clare and the others.
Clare’s face lit up, “Jack,” she said with a huge smile throwing her arms around him. “You OK?” he asked her.
“I’m OK, happier now you’re back with us,” she replied.
“I see you did a great job looking after everyone for me,” he smiled. “We need to keep moving,” Brays voice shouted over. They all started to walk, Clare pulled on Jack’s jacket to get his attention, “here this is yours,” she handed him the knife he gave her.
“Keep it, I want you to have it,” he replied. Clare simply smiled in return.
Elle walked with Bray and Zoe ahead of the others, “Zoe this is Elle,” Bray introduced them.
Elle offered her hand, “Hi,” she told her with a smile. Zoe carried on walking, ignoring Elle. Bray rolled his eyes.
“What’s up her ass?” Elle asked.
“The world,” he replied. Elle looked confused, “I’ll explain later” Bray added.
Zoe came to a complete stop, the color on her face drained away and fear struck her face. Bray and Elle caught up with her, “Oh shit,” Bray said while looking out towards the MI6 building. Jack and the others joined them. They stood out of sight of the zombies and looked to the army of dead between them and rescue.
“What the hell are we going to do?” Bray asked. Jack did not reply, Bray looked to Jack and noticed a look of concern on his face.
“Frank,” Jack whispered.
“What?” Elle asked. “Frank and the others, where are they,” he told them.
“They should be here by now,” Jack continued. “They have to be close,” Elle tried to reassure him.
“Closer than you think” a voice said behind them. Jack and the others turned to see Frank and his group coming towards them.
“We have a problem,” Frank told everyone.
“I bet we can guess what it is,” Jack replied.