I was overwhelmed with rage and guilt; if I weren’t so bloody lazy then maybe just maybe I’d know for sure if they made it out alive! Maybe I could have been there to protect them.
David now pale in complexion points out towards the burning chopper, “Fuck! They’ve raised already, Fuck! Hurry, pass me my weapon!”
Martin freezes on glance of the engulfed half severed dead, now heading directly for us in a number far greater than our own.
I poured, “Snap out of it, pick up a god damn weapon and shoot those things down!”
David forcefully throws Martin to one side, knocking him out of his dazed state before reaching for his trusty sidekick whilst I rapidly dug into the backpack in search of a suitable sidekick of my own.
“Here!” I shouted, as I threw a pistol of some type to Martin after equipping something almost identical to my person.
David, now in focus, looking back onto us occasionally, “All of those guns should be loaded and set to kill, just aim for the head and gently squeeze the trigger, if you find yourself out of ammo, just press that little button beside the trigger, that will release the current clip, then you reload it with a full one, by sliding it in till you hear a click!”
That we did, “BANG, BANG, BANG!” blasted the surrounding air.
“Fuck, there’s too many of them! Help me to my feet!”
I screamed, “I’ll provide cover fire; you just get him out of here! Now go!” Martin did just that. It went so fast, I fired round after round.
“Damn, I’m out!”
David yells from afar, fall back behind us and I’ll take care of the rest!”
Zombies now feet away, roaring and screaming as they come. My hairs now stood on end, blood pumping and stomach turning. Their lust for flesh shining through their dead blackened eyes!
I sprinted back, twenty feet or so behind a pitched-up David. There I reached into the backpack to swiftly reload my companion, which I did just as instructed.
“Keep me upright, the coil on this thing hits like a bitch!”
Martin replied, “I…”
Before he could get a word out David lets fire a river of five bursts onto and into the Flesh Eaters, ending their short sorry afterlife of an existence.
“That was close!” Martin sniffed.
I muttered, “Too close!”
“Stop you’re moaning we’ve got to move, if there’s any more of those flesh eaters around be sure they’ll be on faster than a speeding bullet.
Martin you take point. Peter, get over here and give me a hand.”
Chapter: 5
“How could they come at us like that? They were torn to bits and engulfed in flames, yet they kept coming!” Martin groaned.
David hits, “Which part of they are dead? Did you not understand? They feel no pain, they run on one instinct and that’s the need to feed! They eat the flesh of the living to sustain their bodily vessels, hence the name Flesh Eaters. I thought you heard the emergency broadcast?”
“Hey, this is new to me okay! I came up here for an escape from work and home life, to spend some alone time under the stars! I’m a bin man by profession not a scientist! Give me a break!”
“Come on guys, this isn’t the time to argue!”
Martin, “He started it with the sarkie comments! He forgets I patched his arse up, I want an apology!”
David, “Fuck that!”
“David, come on he helped us against those Flesh Eaters back there and now he’s leading us to a possible safe refuge. It’s the least you can do!”
David glared at me with resentment, clearly not used to being told what to do especially by a civilian, “I’m sorry; so let that be the end of it!”
“Fine” Martin replied.
“Martin you mentioned you had a wife and child? How did that happen?” I said jokingly, in bid to lower the ever growing tension.
“You heard right, you cheeky git! My wife is called Jessica but I call her Jessie for short. She’s the love of my life, I met her five years ago outside of the o2 arena in Newcastle. We were queued up for over an hour to see this rock band that goes by the name Black Pinpin two, anyways she was behind me in the que and we just got talking and that was it. Five years on, I’m living in a village called Ford which is where we’re heading now, with a two-year-old daughter named Rose! Life is good in that sense.”
“Well done my friend, I can’t wait to meet the pair! Where are you from then originally? Is that a sand dancer accent I can hear?”
“Sand dancer? Where the hell do you get these names from exactly?” David blared.
I replied, “It’s a northern phrase to those who live in shields, technically I’m a sand dancer. If you’re from Newcastle you’re a Geordie and if you’re from Sunderland you’re a Mackem! Sorry David but you aren’t in London anymore, that cockney accent of yours stands out like a sore thumb up here mate!”
“Bloody northerners!”
Martin, now laughing replies, “I’m originally from Sunny Sunderland! You weren’t far off!”
“How old are you Martin?”
“I’ve just turned 30!”
“No way man you look my age, 26!”
“Thanks, I’ll take that, what about you David?”
“I’m 39, born and bred in London, lived there most of my life. Single. I joined M.I.5 years ago but I’m restricted to go into detail for security reasons, before that I was a Captain in the British army with a few tours under my belt in Iraq and Afghanistan against the Taliban.”
“You get yourself around, but Jokes aside you have my respect!” I spoke.
“You better believe it!”
Martin, “Right okay, so what’s happening?”
“What do you mean?” I questioned.
“I mean, what protocols are in place? Is the army and M.I.5 going to take out the infected one area at a time whilst everyone just holds up in the meantime, waiting for them to come along?”
David responded, “It’s not that simple, the plan was to evacuate all non-infected personal and civilians to the designated areas set up in response to this unrivalled crisis until further notice, whilst our top scientists worked out a plan to beat this thing. In their underground bunkers with government officials! Issue was; we lost contact with the occupied bunkers, reason unknown. Then most of these emergency pop up bases came over run, the mass of hordes were too great. My own also came under threat, we were forced to evacuate. The last remaining camp in the north was Fort Hill, and that’s where we were heading before the crash.”
“Fuck so those slimy rich bastards retreat into their bunkers whilst the rest of us get left to fend for ourselves, sounds about right!” I roared.
“Something like that!” David sarcastically replied.
Martin said, “Then what are we waiting for? Why don’t we head to Fort Hill once I’ve got my family of course?”
David yelled, “It’ll be suicide that’s why, it’s too far to reach via land, anything could happen. Also….We lost contact with them on the way here. My bet, something went wrong! Hence the dead coms”
I cried, “Then why didn’t we turn around?”
“Turn around to where exactly? All nearby camps had been overrun; we didn’t have the fuel to try our luck down south, we had nowhere else to go but forward!”
“Great!” Martin shrieked.
David wailed, “How secure is this abandoned school you mentioned?”
Martin bellows in excitement, “It’s secure alright! It has solid spiked fences all the way around, with only one entrance which is a boarded-up gate with spikes. Not only that, it’s big enough to hold a small army due to its scope of weeded land, with a little elbow grease it can be cleared. Now, it looks like a jungle so it will need some work. The school itself has a high roof which must look over the whole of Ford and beyond I suspect.”
David, “How many houses surround it? What’s the surrounding area like?”
Martin boasts, “No more than fifty at a push, with nothin
g for miles around! It’s the ideal place to hold out!”
I said, “Sounds perfect!”
David, “It could work, but we’d need to secure it. If a hoard came rolling through we’d need more than a spiky fence to keep us from harm. My next issue would be supplies; with it being so remote?”
“I didn’t think of that!” I blazed out loud.
Martin howled, “That’s the best part, when the place went under it got left as it was, meaning all the equipment and food sources just got left behind. No one came to clear it, I know because there was a meeting about it in the local social club over concerns of pest infestations due to the left behind food stuff. Meaning we’d probably find enough in there to tie us over until we can grow enough to sustain ourselves! Everyone knows that majority of school dinners come from a tin! Not only that, Berwick upon Tweed is only thirty minutes down the road away, same with Wooler’s town centre! So, if we ever got desperate we could always venture out.”
After a gasp, “What do you think?”
“I think we may just stand a chance, but we’ll have to work flat out till it’s secure, maybe fortify the fences!” David called.
I answered, “Thank goodness we ran into you!”
“I just hope Jessie and Rose are okay!”
“They will be!” I responded.
David, struggling more so now due to his injuries, speaks out, “How far now?”
“We’re less than twenty minutes away, but I want to head home first before we cross over to the school!”
I remembered looking at a determined David before saying, “We’ve got your back!”
Chapter: 6
Ears ringing, “Jessie I’m coming! Hold on!”
“Martin, hold up! We don’t know what’s in there!” I called.
“Fuck! So he runs in anyways, are you okay guarding the entrance if I lay you here? I can’t leave him!”
“Just get in there!” David pines.
My heart pounded against my chest, adrenaline fuelled my footing. I pointed my fully loaded sidekick straight ahead, arms in full stretch as I entered the dotting shell of a home, blood spatter everywhere. The smell of death/rot filled my airways. ‘This isn’t good, not one bit’ I thought.
Screams pour down, combined with the cries of Martin, “NO!!”
I rushed up the stairs at full capacity; squish goes the smelly clotted blood beneath my clowns.
“Bang, Bang, Bang” Blows from behind, “Hurry up!”
My head now piercing over the top banister, eyes locked on the sight of a struggling Martin wrestling with a Flesh Eater on the floor, holding out against its snappy jaw.
A distraught woman, pale in complexion, dressed in a black matching vest top with leggings, looks over in distress holding what appears to be a still figure wrapped within her arms!
“Fuck!” I screamed.
I rushed to Martins aid, on reach I yanked at the Flesh Eaters jacket. Dragging it from Martins reach, before firing one directly into the back of its scull ending it outright! No messing around!
Martin now back up onto his feet turns to Jessie, where he freezes, heart sank; he falls to his knees, gasping for breath, eyes flowing with sorrow and grief.
“I.. I should have been here…How.. How did this happen?”
Jessie grumbles, barely catching her stricken breath, “Rose’s cries must have drew Kim to the door, I thought she was fine… I thought she was just banging to be let in… I opened the door and she, she wasn’t Kim anymore… She… She dived for Rose outright! That bitch got her and I couldn’t do a thing about it….”
Martin, head in hands screams vigorously before yanking his daughter close to his body. Holding her tightly he screams some more.
I stood their gob smacked, wordless, a lump the size of a frog fills my throat, eyes swollen, struggling to find the words, any word! Reality set in, this was not a game. This was life or death, no middle ground, no mercy not even for the innocent…
My broken swollen eyes zone in on an open bite wound on Jessie’s arm, Blood flowing. My heart sank some more.
I knew… This wasn’t the outcome anyone could have expected, never mind Martin. His daughter is gone and his wife had been bitten… I wouldn’t have wished this on my own worst enemy… I couldn’t imagine what was going through his head!
Jessie knows her days are numbered! I could see it in her eyes, now kneeled to the floor she shares a lasting embrace with a broken soul of a man.
“If only I was a few minutes earlier!” Martin brawls.
David’s yells break my stunned statue, “We’ve got to go, more are coming!” followed by another round of gun fire.
Without thinking, I ran to Martin and Jessie then lifted the pair to their feet, Martin still holding onto his beloved Rose.
“I’m sorry but we need to go! David won’t be able to hold them off forever. They’re attracted by sound, you know that. It’s only a matter of time! I’m sorry!”
Jessie grabs a hold of Martin by the arm also and darts towards the stairs, myself in tow.
“It’s about time; these bastards are crawling out of the wood work! We need to move!”
Martin at point with Jessie rushed ahead.
“Is that what I think it is?” David muttered, as he spots the lost child and flowing wound on passing.
“Those fuckers!”
Before launching a round at the nearest Flesh Eater in range.
“Die!” He screamed.
“Come on, we’ve not got time for this!” I yelled.
I hurriedly planted the distraught, anger driven David onto my shoulder and headed off in pursuit of Martin and Jessie.
“Bang!” Martin shot off the old school entrance padlock, Jessie quickly unlocked the gate.
Martin darts inside; we weren’t far behind, with a tail in pursuit!
“Now!” Martin quakes.
Slam! Goes the rusty blackened gate as it’s forcefully closed behind us blocking the pursuing flesh eaters!
Chapter: 7
“I’m so sorry for your loss…” David cries, eyes blistering red with pouring emotion.
Martin and Jessie now in tatters, unable to adhere.
I rushed the exhausted and emotionally beaten David to one side, the gate now clashing like mad in the back ground as the dead try to break through.
“Peter, I don’t want to sound heartless, in a matter of fact seeing that little girl has broken me. But that kid is still going to come back and Jessie will turn. We’ve got to deal with this when the time comes, Martin’s been through enough!”
Martin’s screams, “NO! PLEASE NO!”
“OH, MY GOD!” Jessie shrilled.
We used our remaining strength to bolt towards them, “What is it?” I wept.
Martin full of commotion and terror bubbles, “She’s… She’s turning! Please no…Please not my little girl!”
Jessie, now flat out on the ground overcome with grief.
David speaks out softly, “I’m so sorry. I know this is hard but please, please bring her to me you’ve been through enough. The both of you have. It’s time to say goodbye, let your Angle rest…”
I collapsed to the ground emotions flowing ….
A distraught Martin gently places his pride and joy, Rose, into David’s open arms, “Goodbye sweetheart….”
Jessie, “I…I love you Rose….!”
The pair fall to the ground, holding one another, absolutely broken in half.
No one deserved this…. No one deserves to see their child die….
David uses his remaining strength to hobble off behind the school. Now out of sight, with the soon to be resting angel.
Moments go by, “Boom!”
On sound of that one shot I knew, I knew nothing was ever going to be the same again.
Chapter: 8
Shortly after the incident with Rose, Martin retreated into the school alongside Jessie, grief stricken from the loss of their jewel.
I…I remember laying there
in a gaze, zoomed out from reality.
Thirty minutes or so passed which felt like an eternity, before a then a torn limping David appeared.
“She’s at rest now, I’ve…I’ve buried her round back. I’ve placed a wild lily above. I’m… I’m hurting Peter, I’m angry. If it weren’t for my busted-up leg we would have been here to prevent this! She could have been saved!”
I jumped to life, “It’s not your fault! Its nobodies! You can’t blame yourself”
“I joined this organisation to protect and serve, not once have I ever had to do what I just did… I need to speak with them, Martin could be at risk, where are they?”
I stuttered, “They went inside, I think its best we leave them. Let them grief, they’ll be out when ready!”
David replied, “I know they’re grieving but she’s bitten, we need to isolate her!”
I snared, “David today has been such a fucking explosive day. I’m finding it hard to process it all. For fuck sake, they just lost their child; let’s just let them spend whatever time they have left together. We’ll just deal with it when the time comes okay! Give him this at least, you owe him!”
David answered, “Fine, but if anything happens to Martin it’s on you!”
“Fine” I boomed.
David full of frustration turns towards the clashing gate and says, “We need to think about securing this place ASAP! Those Flesh Eaters at the gate are creating a lot of noise; we need to deal with them but quietly to avoid further detection!”
“With what?” I rumbled.
David grunts, “There’s some shovels round back, with what looks to be outdoor sports equipment. I’m sure there were a couple of baseball bats amongst the pile.”
“Whey, once they’re dealt with we should check the perimeter fence for defects as well as use whatever we can find to reinforce it for the time being before we can fortify it properly in the future!”
“I’m sorry but I haven’t got the strength to deal with those at the gate. It’s got to be you but ill check the fence okay!”
“Great!” I coughed.
The Northern Slayer Page 2