At first I thought it was part of the dream but I soon realized that it was coming from outside my window. I jumped up, Nia was close behind me. The scared look on her face probably mirrored my own. I jumped into action. I had fallen asleep fully dressed so at least that was taken care of. I wore my own black jeans and white t-shirt. I grabbed my jacket and the gun Will had given me the day before that I had accidentally on purpose forgotten to hand back. “Nia, here's my backpack, it's full of supplies and my hunting knife is in this pocket,” I said handing her my bag. She stood in exactly the same place as she was when she jumped up. “Nia? Nia!” I said a bit more forcefully. I touched her arm and she snapped out of whatever trance she was in.
“What? Oh yes your bag,” she said taking it off me.
“Get dressed but stay here. Keep my bag handy and be ready to leave quickly ok?” I asked her making sure she understood.
“I need to go and find out what's going on,” I said. There were more shouts and screams from below. Gun shots could now also be heard. Once again I had that feeling of complete fear but also one of excitement.
“Lock the door behind me Nia, do not open it unless it's me, Will or Billy. Ok?” I was opening the door as I was talking.
“Yes I promise,” she said. “Stay safe George.” She closed and locked the door behind me.
Not really knowing what was going on, I decided the best place to start was in the dinner hall. The upstairs corridor was chaos, people were running back and fore. Some were crying, others were just fear-driven. I tried to ask a few of them what was going on but either they didn't know or were just ignoring me in their haste to get away from whatever the threat was.
As I walked down the stairs the sounds of fighting got louder, I opened the door to the lower floor corridor to find utter bedlam. Men and a few women were running around madly. I saw Billy in the chaos. “Billy, over here,” I called waving him over.”
“George I'm so glad you’re here. Zombies have gotten in through the gates. Outside is madness. Deacon sent me in to continue loading the backpacks while he is outside fighting the zombies and trying to secure the area.”
“I'll help you,” I said to him. He nodded, turned around and started to push his way through the crowd towards the storage area.
When we got there a man I knew as ‘big Lou’ was on guard. “What's going on?” he asked worriedly.
“Zombies in the yard. Deacon told us to come pack everything we can into backpacks,” Billy replied.
Lou eyed me up suspiciously.
“Deacon said I needed help and George is the first person I came across who’s pretty calm,” Billy explained.
“Ok then. Here you go,” Joe said unlocking the door, still not totally convinced but hearing the screams from outside seemed to go in our favor.
“What shall I do?” Lou asked.
“Just keep guard here. Let us know if zombies get into the building,” I said and he nodded, trying not to look nervous.
Once inside the room I started to put some medicines and toiletries into Nia's backpack. Then I put in some breakfast bars and water. I tried to fill it with all of the lighter stuff so she would not have to carry a lot if we needed to walk.
Meanwhile Billy had unlocked the weapons area and had started filling backpacks full of ammo and weapons.
“Billy, pass out your backpack so I can fill it please. Also do you have a knife or some sort of small weapon for Nia's backpack?” I called over to him.
Just as he brought me the small knife, similar it my own, the door opened and we both held our breath. Will came charging in, his clothes were grimy and soaked in sweat and blood where he had been running around fighting the zombies. When he saw us, relief flooded his features.
“Hey both, we need to go now! Where’s Nia?” he said slightly out of breath.
Still up in our room” I told him.
“Billy I'll finish up here with George, can you go up and get Nia and meet us at the loading bay? Lewis has the trucks ready and waiting for us.”
“I'm on it. I will get her there safely Will,” Billy said already half way out the door, he paused long enough to pick up one of the full backpacks and was gone.
“Thanks Billy, and be careful yourself,” Will shouted but Billy was already gone.
“I have filled Billy's, Nia's and a few other spare backpacks along with Billy who was doing the weapons. How bad is it out there?” I asked now starting to get worried, would I ever escape this place or was I destined to die here.
“Bad. The yard is overrun. The good news is that they are not inside yet but it’s only a matter of time before they get in here.” Will went into the weapon area and grabbed a few boxes of ammo and three other handguns which he put into his back pack. He also grabbed an empty backpack and put a few boxes of porridge, some chocolate bars and some more powdered milk in. “What?” he asked when he saw me looking. “I like porridge.” He smiled a tight smile, worry creased the rest of his features.
“Ok then are we ready? I got a few bottles of water in each of our backpacks. Should keep us going until we get to the fire station,” I informed him.
“Great. Let's go!” he said picking up two backpacks and walking ahead of me. I picked up a backpack I had been filling and Nia's backpack and followed him.
Before Lou could say anything, Will said, “Lou, Deacon needs a few men to get all of the filled backpacks to the loading bay and into the waiting trucks. I'm on my way to the loading dock now to load this lot and get some people into the trucks ready.”
Lou nodded and called over three of Deacon’s guys. I called them Deacon’s guys as they were loyal to him and could in no way know our plan, well the real one anyway.
We quickly made our way back down the corridor towards the loading bay. As we neared the end of the corridor we heard a series of loud bangs, the screaming increased and got louder and the gunshots were now indoors rather than out.
We paused at the end of the hall. The zombies had broken in, the screams and cries of alarm confirmed it.
“What's the plan?” I asked Will.
“Same as before we get to the trucks and get as many people out as possible.” Just then the kids ran around the corner led by Jack, one of the older ones.
They were terrified. I counted five of them, and each looked more terrified than the one before. Jack look more determined than anything else but I could see the relief in his face when he spotted Will.
“Will what's going on? What's the plan? Where's Deacon?” Jack fired off his questions quickly.
“Deacon said to get as many supplies as we can into our backpacks and to get to the trucks,” Will told him. “Come on kids, into the garage,” he said.
Will led the way with the kids in the middle and me at the rear.
Lewis and John sat in one of the big Land-Rover jeeps but when they saw us all John got out and into the one next to him. Each Land Rover could seat seven people.
The first jeep had Lewis driving, Nia, Jim and Kandace, then in with them we put Jack, Kate, and Sophia. Will gave Lewis a walkie-talkie so we could keep in touch with them when on the road. Cell phones had long since died.
Then in the second jeep we put the other two kids with John and Billy.
“Get in and tell John where to go, just remember we can't really trust the kids, so say nothing of the fire station.” Will turned to go back into the corridor and then Lewis called him. He ran back to Lewis as another group of people came rushing to the door, some of them had backpacks, but not all. With his group were Kerys and her partner Gareth from the kitchen. They all looked to Will. “Get everyone into the truck,” he said to a man I recognized as Xander and indicating the big army truck I had been transported here in. He nodded and ran straight there, got into the cab and started it up. “Kerys, Nia is in the first truck but we have room for you and Gareth in the second one,” he said pointing to the truck he meant. She nodded, grabbed Gareth’s hand and ran towards the Land Rover.
The
others followed Xander and jumped into his truck.
Will was explaining quietly to Lewis where to find the fire station when Xander shouted, “This is all of the survivors we could see, the zombies are not behind us at the moment, where do we go from here?”
“There is supposed to be a camp about 20 miles south from here,” I called back, he nodded.
Just then I noticed that the garage door into the corridor had been left open and as if by magic in stumbled a foul smelling zombie. I took careful aim, took a deep breath and missed. Trying to calm myself I took aim again and this time missed again. I think by this point Will felt sorry for me and feared for all of our safeties and he shot the zombie in the head for me.
I grinned sheepishly at him and called thanks as I jogged over to the door to close and lock it. I jumped over the zombie body trying not to look at it and I was just about to close the door when I heard someone calling out from in the corridor. Deacon was about halfway down the corridor towards me, dragging his one leg along and holding his right arm to his left shoulder. He was stumbling along like a zombie too.
“Friendly fire, shot me in my leg and shoulder the idiots. Come help me now,” he called to me, the pain was evident on his face and I was enjoying it. Before I could answer three zombies came shuffling around the corner slowly until they caught sight of Deacon but they soon quickened their pace after that. They had trouble navigating the bodies on the floor but were making steady progress.
“George hurry!” he called, he was now starting to panic, I had never seen this look on Deacon before but I quite liked it. Anger surged through me and I knew exactly what to do.
“You know what, you bastard?” I called back taking a few steps towards him, “I hope they eat every last bit of you so that when you die you stay dead. I hope you feel every set of teeth that enters your skin to rip it to shreds, for every finger that you laid on Nia and all of the other women, you prick,” I said and just for good measure I held up my gun and steadied myself and took aim at his good kneecap.
“Come on George we can work this out. I rescued you, we played darts together….” he started. I fired the gun, missing his kneecap but hitting his shin bone, this was just as effective. He screamed out in pain but pure anger shone in his eyes. “I will get payback George, I will hunt you down for this,” he screamed at me. The zombies were now about twelve foot away from him. “Bye Deac,” I called, I closed and locked the door to the garage, so that nobody could get into us.
Xander had turned his truck around ready to go, he stuck his head through his window and called out to me, “Deacon?”
I shook my head no trying to look disappointed. He hung his head.
“You guys keep driving and don't stop for anything, we will take up the rear. Just get those that are left to safety,” Will called out to Xander.
“Will do. Good luck Will, George. See you guys soon,” he called back, pulling his truck to the front of our convoy.
The doors were run by a remote control that Will held in his hand, he pressed the button to open the door, “Get ready George we may have a huge fight on our hands. “He and John were in the front of our truck both had guns at the ready. He took my gun and reloaded it.
The Swiss army truck went first; Lewis had told me that it could seat up to twenty people in the back. The bottom of the box was solid but the top was like a tarpaulin. However, they should be safe enough as long as they kept moving. The truck was out the door first, there were a few zombies outside which it easily drove through and over, instead of around them. Our truck was next through the doors, I looked around, the place was almost unrecognizable. Bodies were everywhere. Most of them were zombies and some of them were people from the warehouse, people I saw every day and even though I didn't really speak with any of them I was still sad that they had died in this awful manner.
We drove forward towards the back gate, I turned to see if the other Land Rover was behind us. I could not believe my eyes. From around the corner of the building came a horde of zombies. “Uh Will? We have some company coming from behind,” I told him, my voice was getting louder and louder.
“What is it?” Will asked turning to look at me and then seeing what I saw. He picked up the walkie-talkie that was connected to the frequency that Xander's was. “Xander we have a lot of trouble coming in from the rear you need to step on it. You clear in front?” Will asked.
“Yeah, Will, we see them, we are all clear in front so far and are speeding up,” came Jason's reply, he must have been sat up front with Xander.
“Copy that. Keep going south we will check in, in half an hour in case we get separated,” Will said.
“Ok. We will go scout ahead. Bye,” Jason said.
The truck in front pulled away and we started to accelerate. I was glad that we were pulling away from the horde. They must have heard the car engines and started towards the sound. Car number two started to slow down and stop. “Will we have more survivors; we’re stopping to get them.” Nia's voice came over the radio.
“No Nia, Lewis if you can hear me, keep driving, the horde is too close to you,” Will shouted into the walkie.
I could see the survivors, there was a group of them now running to the car. Shots were fired from the back of their car dropping the zombies closest to them. The back driver’s side door was open ready for the people on foot to jump in. They dove in although where they all would fit I would never know. “Start driving, they need to get out of here fast,” Will told John.
Lewis come up close behind us, a few more shots rang out for the car behind us but I could not see if they had hit their targets.
We were clear of the gates and there was no sign of the truck that was in front of us. Hopefully our plan had worked and we were on our way to the fire station to get Adam and Amelia and then home to my babies.
We saw a few more zombies on the way to Aldham, they would see or hear the car and turn to follow us for a while before something else would gain their interest and then they would follow after that. I wondered how many people were left in the world and where they were. I closed my eyes and listened to the purr of the engine. There was small chatter between Will and John as Will gave him directions to the fire station and I took comfort in their voices. Before I knew it the car had stopped and jerked me awake.
“Hi sleepy head, ready to make a dash for it?” Will said to me from the front seat. “Adam has seen us and is on the way down to open the door. But there are a few more zombies around than when we left so we need to be careful.” He looked around. “We seem to be ok, come on everyone, grab a bag and let's go.” He waved to Adam who quickly opened the door, Will got out of the car and gestured to the car behind to come to him. I got out and joined Will, John waited for Lewis to meet him and they went inside together.
The kids and the other survivors all filed in through the door but before I could go in myself I was grabbed and pulled into a huge hug by Nia. “Thank you George, you promised to help get me out safely and you did and for that I will always be grateful.”
Nia smiled at me and before I could respond she had grabbed Billy by the hand and pulled him indoors. I just stood there for a moment touched by her gesture. I was glad that so many of us had made it here safely.
Will patted me on the back. “Come on let's get inside to explain everything, have a short rest and get back on the road.” He started to walk in through the door.
“Hurry up guys,” he said keeping watch. He closed and locked the doors behind us and stayed a few moments longer, watching through the window to see if there was any movement.
Once we got upstairs we introduced everyone to Amelia.
There were a few curious glances and murmurs as we had not told anybody the truth about our supply run.
“Right guys, we will stay here for a while to get rested then we plan to head to George's town to collect his family. After that we will try to find the army camp that everyone has been talking about,” Will told them all, and then settled in to ex
plain what had happened during our supply run. Leaving out that I had shot Tony in the head and the attempted rape of Amelia.
CHAPTER 9
I lay at the back of the room on a green, single, sleeping bag, just watching the people that I had become to think of as family. Will, Nia, Billy and Kandace sat at the breakfast bar eating porridge and laughing. Happy to be out from under Deacons control.
The kids sat on their own sleeping bags in a circle on the other side of the room from me, comforting each other and sharing breakfast bars.
Everyone else was scattered throughout the room mostly sleeping, it had been a very long and tiring night. I closed my eyes and fell asleep quickly, dreaming of Kelly and the kids. We were happy and laughing, running across a sun soaked beach, with clear blue waters, the kids threw balls and Frisbees as they went on in front. Kelly and I strolled hand in hand, feeling the sand beneath our toes.
I awoke suddenly to the sound of something knocking and banging, I peeped out the window and was terrified by what I saw, dozens of zombies, milling about outside the fire station. They were not trying to gain access, yet so I knew that they didn’t know that we were in here-yet.
I tried to make out Will in the dark but I couldn’t, so I resorted to whispering his name, knowing he was always on high alert.
“Will?” I waited but nothing, so a little louder. “Will!”
“What? Huh?” came from a few sleeping bags to the front and right of me, he was sleeping next to Nia.
“Will, its George. We have a problem here, man. Quick!”
I could hear the ruffle of his sleeping bag and the zip going before seeing his dark figure get up quietly, and make his way towards me.
“Look.” I pointed out the window.
Keeping his head down, he looked out to where I pointed. “Holy Shit!” he whispered.
George (Book 1): The Long Road Home Page 7