At the far side of town as they were approaching the intersection with the B1383 their route was again blocked. A double-decker bus had toppled onto its side partially obstructing their passage and an ambulance had crashed into it, barricading the rest of the street. Behind the ambulance there were several other cars that had smashed into each other making an impassable mess. It was a fairly large road junction but there was no way around the jam.
Lewis was on the radio immediately to the other two vehicles. “Stay put guys, not quite sure what the best option is yet but don’t do anything hasty. Keep your eyes peeled for any septics and remain in your vehicles. Any bright ideas, I’m all ears.” Then he turned to the others in his car. “Well?”
“I’d say that ambulance is too heavy for the Bedford,” Darby said. “Even if it did manage to ram it out of the way it may well damage the lorry.”
“Agreed. We can always try to find another route, but this is the start of the B1383. We may have to drive quite a way to find an alternative and even then there are no guarantees that other roads won’t be blocked as well.”
“This is a reasonably open area,” Wood said from the back. “There doesn’t seem to be anywhere for the infected to jump out from and surprise us, so we’d likely get a fair bit of notice if any approach. That should give us enough time to get back into vehicles or shoot them. Why not get out and check it out more thoroughly?”
Lewis nodded. “Yes, that’s my feeling too.”
Williams was looking very unsure about the plan so Lewis tried to put her at rest. “Corporal Williams, I need someone to stay by the Landy with Darby here, to keep a good lookout and warn him of anyone approaching. Are you up to it?”
She nodded enthusiastically, clearly delighted at the prospect of remaining near to the relative security of the vehicle.
Lewis then got on the radio again. “Right I think we’re going to take a closer look at this mess.” He issued a few brisk orders, looked carefully around the area once more, rechecked his weapon and then turned to Wood. Wood had done the same and returned the tense expression.
Standing away from the base and outside the Land Rover for the first time since Headley Court had been sealed left Wood feeling very vulnerable. It reminded him of walking the streets of Kabul, Baghdad or countless other hostile cities when you knew that an enemy sniper was in your area, possibly even drawing a bead on you at that very moment, and you still had to continue on patrol, hoping and praying that today would not be your day to die. He did not stop to contemplate it for any length of time though; he had a job to do and quite frankly, que sera, sera. They had discussed situations like this the night before and he knew where he was most valuable. His back had recovered a lot since his injury but he was still not at full strength. However he had certain talents that could be of use to them all. He did not go to help investigate the crash site. Instead he climbed as quickly as he could onto the flat metal roof of the Bedford and took up a guard position. He would be the early warning for the others which would hopefully mean that they could continue with their duties in vague safety.
Lewis was joined by Straddling, Millington, Hutchison, Vallage, Neale and Scovell, all, to some extent or other, looking uneasy. Newman, Williams and Collins remained by their respective vehicles patrolling within a few paces and covering all angles of approach.
Lewis took his troops cautiously around the wreckage of the bus, which they were clearly not going to be able to move, and towards the ambulance. There was a possibility that they may be able to shift the other vehicles, or at least that was what he desperately hoped. Otherwise they were running out of options. As they approached the bus there was a terrible stench that made them all gag. Inside were a few bodies in various states of decomposition; some were still intact but rotting, others had clearly been largely devoured. The funk was overpowering and none of them looked too closely at the carnage.
The front of the ambulance had embedded into the off-side corner of the bus, denting the ambulance’s bonnet. Its front tyres were flat which would make pushing it much harder. It looked as though it was a total right-off but was the only choice they had. In the driver’s seat a body was slumped over the wheel. Again the stench was nauseating and made them all instinctively back away. Someone had to get closer though and it seemed unfair to order another person to do it, so Lewis stepped forwards whilst talking to his troops.
“Don’t be distracted by this mess. Keep your eyes and ears open for aggressors. Just ‘cos we’ve got some lookouts we can’t rely on them to keep us alive. Stay focused and take up defensive positions.”
With the chassis bent the door had jammed and it required help from Millington to force it open. In doing so there was a loud screech of metal scraping on metal that made them stop what they were doing and look around nervously.
From on top of the truck Wood peered anxiously at the group and scanned around for any signs that the noises were drawing attention. His vantage point meant he could see a fair distance along all the adjoining roads leading to the junction. He did not want to raise the alarm unnecessarily but he had already spotted one infected person staggering past at the next road junction to their left. The man had not noticed them and seemed to have tottered away now, so rather than halt the proceedings he had said nothing. Instead he kept an eye on that general area and tried to work out if there was any other road by which the man might yet approach them. He glanced around to see if anyone else had noticed. Collins saw him looking in her direction and smiled nervously at him. Clearly not, he thought.
Meanwhile Lewis had dragged the driver’s decaying corpse from the ambulance amidst a barrage of feasting flies, and climbed into the seat. It absolutely reeked of decomposing flesh and made him feel dirty and defiled just sitting there so he tried not to breathe in through his nose. He ensured that his soldiers were suitably fanned out in a defensive formation then placed the ambulance out of gear and attempted to start the engine. The first time he tried it there was just a clicking sound and nothing further. Then when he tried again the engine seemed to turn over but it obviously was not going to start. He attempted it a couple more times and then stopped.
He turned to Hutchison. “Can you do anything for it?”
Hutchison rubbed his chin thoughtfully with a frown. “Hmmm, if I had my tools, the theme tune to ‘The A-Team’ and a day or two, I could possibly salvage something from this wreck, but unfortunately I didn’t know I was going to be repairing right-offs. I can try and get the starter-motor turning over a bit more, which we could use to crank it forwards little by little and out of the way, but that’s probably about it boss.”
“Okay, that’ll have to be enough then. See what you can do. The rest of you, I want you to clear that car from behind.”
He pointed to a silver Daewoo Lanos that had smashed into the back of the ambulance. It had caught fire and there was very little left of its innards. In both front seats there was nothing more than the charred remains of two bodies, which was good from the perspective of reduced odour and flies. It too had flat tyres and the front axle had been pushed under the body of the car making it impossible to just knock it out of gear and roll it. As the five soldiers gathered around it and began to try to move it by a mixture of bouncing and lifting, Hutchison wrenched the bonnet of the ambulance open with another grinding screech of metal. Lewis walked a few paces beyond it and stood guard, raising his rifle as he scanned about for movement. The noises from the ambulance and now from manhandling the car were making him nervous. If the diseased were indeed attracted by sound then they were enticing unwanted attention to themselves but what choice did they have?
Another few noisy moments passed and he was becoming impatient. He turned to the soldiers anxiously. “Keep it down boys.” The soldiers exchanged exasperated glances and continued to move the car whilst trying, somehow, to be a little quieter.
As Lewis turned back he noticed that Wood was no longer standing on top of the Bedford but had adopted a marksman’s
kneeling position. He was aiming his rifle towards the adjacent road junction. Lewis followed his line of vision and saw what he was watching so keenly; a lone man with a ragged blue coat hanging from his shoulders and a vicious wound running right across his face was about forty metres away. At that moment the man turned and saw the activity, let out a screech and started running towards them with surprising speed, considering the fact that only a moment before he had been limping.
“Infected!” Lewis barked, feeling a rush of adrenaline and the soldiers immediately stopped what they were doing and stared at him blankly.
Millington was the first to react; he shoved Neale, starting him off towards the military convoy and shouted. “Run!”
The safety of the Land Rovers was only about fifteen metres from them and they covered the distance quickly despite the vehicular obstacles. Hutchison had been in the ambulance at the time and it took him a moment longer to clamber out and over the side of the bus where the two vehicles had collided. Lewis waited agonising moments for him but still insisted on bringing up the rear.
As the man roared and rushed ever closer Wood trained his sights and followed the man’s path, waiting for him to approach. He slowed his breathing and relaxed his shoulders, timing his shot with his breaths. He became aware, out of the corner of his eye, of other movements further up the road, but ignored them and focussed on the one target. Williams, Collins and Newman all behaved admirably; as briefed they anxiously stood their ground with their backs to their respective vehicles. They waited for their companions to get in, watching out for any approaching infected, until they too took refuge, but that wait for their colleagues, although only a few scrambled seconds, dragged on and on for all three of them.
Hutchison and Lewis had only just arrived at the Bedford when the first shot rang out, a single bullet, precise and effective. The man’s head shattered and his body pitched backwards onto the road with a thud. Everyone apart from Wood shuddered at the sound. Wood was already aiming at the next attacker.
At the same road junction there had appeared five more diseased. It was unclear what had attracted them, but what was fairly sure however was that they too were now coming towards the group at pace. The three drivers had kept the engines ticking over throughout and so were ready to go if need be. All the soldiers apart from Wood had got back into their respective vehicles and weapons were readied and aimed. Darby and Walkden were both waiting for the command from Lewis to start driving but the command never came. Firstly Lewis wanted to check how many infected there were. If they were able to repel them all then perhaps they could continue and clear the path. Secondly he was aware that Wood was still on top of the Bedford and any sudden movements or acceleration could send him falling to his death. It was just too risky at the moment and so they would have to remain where they were.
Because there were more targets this time, Wood decided he could not permit himself the luxury of allowing them to get as near as the first infected had. He fired at the closest when they were still roughly thirty-five metres distant. The bullet’s impact twirled the man around and knocked him to the ground but as it only clipped his shoulder it did not kill him outright and in a few seconds he was back on his feet after the others. Wood’s next shot came when they were twenty-five metres away. This time it found its mark perfectly; elderly man in torn white shirt - head-shot. Wood again slowed his breathing and timed his shots with the brief pause between exhalation and inhalation. Breathe out, pause, bang, breathe in. Breathe out, pause, bang, breathe in. It was rhythmic, controlled and well-practiced. Fifteen metres, middle-aged man in check jumper, shot through the throat, his blood splattering the woman behind. At this stage the sound of more guns rang out. The initial Land Rover was closest to the oncoming attack and both Lewis and Williams fired. It was the first time that Williams had ever fired a gun in anger and she closed her eyes as she squeezed the trigger. It was impossible to say whose bullet found its mark but the woman collapsed to the ground twitching and no longer alive.
In the second Land Rover the soldiers within now aimed their guns as well. At ten metres, a fifty-something woman in black, velvet trousers wearing one shoe and a large, grey bra but no shirt was shot through the head, her scalp erupting like a divot of grass being hacked away by a bad golfer. Then the discipline evaporated and a random volley rang out from all three vehicles as the last of the attackers was sprayed with bullets. A young girl in her late teens who would have had a full head of blond hair in a former life, died just short of the vehicles. For a long moment no one spoke. Their ears were all ringing and pulses racing. Then Lewis leaned out of the window and looked up at Wood.
“Any more?”
Wood was already on his feet scouring not only up to the road junction but all around them. After a few seconds he looked down and shook his head. “I’d say that’s it for now. Good job everybody. That went pretty well.”
“Pretty well?” Williams was virtually hysterical. “I just shot a woman at point blank range and you think that went pretty well?”
Lewis turned around and put a gentle hand on her knee. “Corporal. Corporal! Relax. You did the right thing, you know you did. That woman was not the person she once was and you really have just helped to put her at peace. Lord only knows what it must be like to have this disease but you can bet your bottom dollar that she is happier now than she has been for weeks.”
Williams still sobbed and nodded with a heart-broken expression on her face.
“Besides,” Lewis added, “you missed her. I shot her.” Williams stifled a laugh which, between the sobs turned into a mix of a squeal and a snort causing the three of them in that vehicle to collapse in a release of nervous laughter, drawing strange glances from the rest of the soldiers.
Finally Lewis composed himself and got out of the Land Rover. He looked carefully around and then addressed all the soldiers. “Okay that did go pretty well. Well done to you all, I don’t think we could have done anything better. With a few elementary precautions we can make this as safe as can be. And thanks to you Sergeant Wood. Nice shooting.”
Wood nodded from on top of the lorry, still scanning all around them for further diseased.
Lewis continued. “We still need to get through this barricade so, as you were. Check your weapons, keep the lookouts alert and get this ambulance out of the way.”
Tentatively at first they disembarked from the safety of their vehicles and took up their previous positions, each anxiously fingering the triggers on their weapons. The Daewoo was swiftly moved clear and Hutchison declared with a grim face that he could do no more for the ambulance. He himself got into the driver’s seat and prepared to turn the engine over as all available hands gathered around. He kicked it into gear, nodded solemnly through the cracked windscreen and the troops all began to push it as he cranked the starter motor. At first it was silent and the ambulance remained fixed resolutely in position. Then after a second of agonizing resistance it turned over once and then twice. Because the vehicle was in gear, each revolution of the starter motor forced it forwards a foot or two and with the troops shoving, they slowly started to make headway. They were creating an awful lot of noise though and Wood impatiently shuffled around on top of the truck.
“Hurry up, dammit,” he spat. The gap had widened to a meter, then two, enough to squeeze the Land Rovers through but still insufficient for the Bedford. It was taking too long and making too much of a racket, and he could not contain his feelings of foreboding.
The next infected came from a different area and almost caught Wood by surprise. He had been focussing more on the adjacent road junction from where the others had emerged. Had it not been for the screech that the woman let out he may not have seen her until too late. She ran from the far side of the pile-up directly at the soldiers who were pushing the ambulance. She must have been at least thirty metres from where Wood kept guard. Immediately he assumed a marksman’s kneeling position and sighted. The troops pushing the ambulance hardly had time to react
themselves before the shot rang out and the woman fell. Lewis looked around at Wood with a raised eyebrow and Wood just shrugged.
Lewis turned back to the troops with urgency in his voice. “Okay, faster. Come on, get this done.”
Wood turned to Newman, Williams and Collins. “Go help, I’ll cover you all. Now. Move.” The three ran, somewhat hesitantly on the part of Williams, to the ambulance and aided the pushing.
Two and a half meters now and each slight movement of the two-ton vehicle came at the cost of a lot of noise and effort. Lewis stepped back a moment from pushing to examine the gap. “Nearly there, final effort, come on.”
Three meters and Wood was screaming. “Everybody back in the vehicles. Back in the vehicles, now!”
Several more diseased were running at them, from both previous locations. They were coming fast. There were about a dozen of them, screeching their inane babble as they ran. Wood started firing from his position aloft. He made no attempt to get into a vehicle himself. He hit the first at forty metres. Then another, but they were coming too fast for him.
“Run,” Lewis shouted at his troops. The infected tearing at them from the far side of the pile-up were nearer to him than to Wood, so Lewis took up a firing position. He started to shoot at them while his troops ran for cover. Straddling joined him. Both leaned over the bonnet of the ambulance for support and defence as the rest of the soldiers fled. The sound of more shots came to them from the direction of the Land Rovers and Lewis glanced over his shoulder.
Grabbing Straddling by the arm he propelled him in the direction of the vehicles. “Go!”
Straddling started off for the Land Rovers and Lewis fired twice more, dropping another man, a black youth probably in his late teens, before following his sergeant. Collins, Neale, Vallage and Scovell had all climbed into the back of the Bedford and were firing from there.
From his vantage point Wood was shouting out orders. “Conserve your ammo, control your fire. Go for the headshot.”
The Blood of the Infected (Book 1): Once Bitten, Twice Die Page 26