Checking around for anything watching, I quickly shuffled myself through the door and was immediately plunged into blackness. Without windows and seemingly without a light switch, I was left to fumble blindly up the wood stair case. It was petrifying, and probably the least subtle approach to a potential enemy position in the history of inter-city warfare. I placed each hand on each step carefully, crawling up in a reverse action of the creepy kid in the Grudge. The first time my hand landed in something warm and sticky I retched, making certain that anyone near to the stairs should have heard me coming. My next hand up was just as bad. I sniffed at the tang of bloody iron it seemed we were all becoming accustomed to. I couldn’t tell if there was any more as I reached hand over hand; I was covered in the stuff. The top of the stairs was no better visually. There were windows and I could see small slivers of light peeking through boards but this showed me a narrow corridor with another door at the end. I could hear noises beyond it though, and with the alarm still screeching down in the store below I prayed that just maybe, my approach had been missed. I could see more blood in the thin streaks of light from the window. I didn’t want to be the person that had lost so much blood; if they were still alive now, they wouldn’t likely be for much longer. I stared at the door dumbly though. One way in and one way out. All I had was my hammer. Andy had had an axe and if he’d been overpowered then Jez most likely possessed the majority of the weaponry our group had gathered together. I found it hard to believe that he’d overpowered either Rick or Andy, but if he’d managed to sneak up on either of them then it wouldn’t be a hard task to knock someone out from behind.
I sighed. I didn’t have any other solution, so I carried on the way I had started. With as much subtlety as a brick. With a last moment blast of inspiration I stood to one side of the doorway and tapped at it with my hammer. As the lower half of the door was blasted through with buckshot my weak knees thanked my newly acquired instincts on behalf of the kneecaps in particular. Now we knew where at least one of our guns had got to. How had Jez managed to smuggle that out of the fucking pier? With the door now hanging limply off one hinge and my ears ringing with alarm bells and gunfire I kicked the remainder of the wood off the frame and ran yelling in to the room beyond. My war cry died before it got past my throat as I tried to make sense of the scene before me.
Jez was in the corner, covered in blood. He was cowering with his arms over his head. He was still alive – at least he looked it, with all the shaking he was doing. Then I looked closer and saw that it was Rick doing the shaking. Rick was just as drenched in red as Jez. I couldn’t catch sight of Matt straight away, but it was Andy that was fumbling at the shotgun. I was about to ask him what the hell was going on when something hit me in the back of the head, hard.
I don’t remember hitting the floor. I’m guessing I was unconscious well before then.
+++
Chapter Eleven
“We have to distrust each other. It is our only defence against betrayal.” – Tennessee Williams
“Why isn’t he dead yet?”
This easily constituted the worst sentence I have ever woken up to in my life, easily beating the ‘was that really it?’ from a one-night-stand in university and ‘what the hell did you eat last night, your bed stinks – also, don’t roll over’ also from my campus days.
My head throbbed and my ears were still ringing sickeningly, though I was now completely disorientated on the root cause of any of my injuries. I wasn’t sure if the alarm was still going, but on opening my eyes a tiny fraction I could see the shotgun facing down towards the floor. It was being held, suggesting someone still intended to use it. I couldn’t see anything else in this limited field of vision but didn’t want to bring attention to myself.
“He’ll be dead soon enough, it’s just so coldblooded I can’t do it. I don’t want to kill him. He’s a good man.”
“He nearly ruined everything for us. You heard what Oz said – what he wanted. Dead. Guaranteed dead. Not left for dead so he could come back, not left dead so he could come back as undead – completely and utterly dead.”
“So you want me to shoot him in the head?”
“Too right I do. Those clowns, too. We can’t have all these loose ends lying around.”
My brain reeled as I took this in. Two of the group had betrayed us. The main antagonist – the one throwing his weight around – was inexplicably Matt. But what was worse…
“Look Andy, I know you two got a little pally but Oz warned you about that from the start. This guy’s a viper. He used to be a journalist. They know how to get under your skin. If he gets back to the pier then our plan goes to shit. The same goes for his brother, or whatever they are to each other. And as for this skinny runt,” I heard a muffled squeal as something, I imagined a foot, repeatedly thudded against something hard. I imagined a rib cage. “He’s good for nothing. The only reason we’re stuck up here now is because he set off that alarm too soon. And why, hey? Come on Jez you can tell us. We’re all friends here.”
The muffling turned in to angry words. “I didn’t agree to any of this. What the fuck? What are we doing? They were only trying to help. Look at what they brought us. And you’re shooting him with his own gun?”
“Huh. So it was sabotage then. Didn’t think you had it in you, you slimy little git. Lucky for me that Oz gave me no specific instructions as to keeping you alive. You served your part though. Mr Hero here was so worried about you causing him trouble that he forgot to pay any attention to us. It’s always the quiet ones. And the fake friend, of course. So Andy, are you going to shoot him in the head or what?”
“Why don’t you shoot him if you’ve got such big balls? Stop doing all the talking and start acting, hey?”
“We all know what role I have in this and my hands aren’t getting dirty. You know what you’re being paid to do, so do it.”
“I can’t Matt. It’s too damn difficult. Can’t we leave them tied up here? I mean if the zombies don’t get them then something else will right? Jez is going to bleed out. We’ll just make sure the other two are shackled.”
“To what? A desk? Each other? Oz isn’t going to buy that is he?”
“But if they don’t come back then he’s never going to know. It’s not as if he’s asked us to bring back a body part as proof. I know you’re heartless Matt but you’re not a cold killer. None of us are. We just want to get through this easily. And if Oz says we need to get rid of Warren and his friend then so be it. But I can’t pull the trigger.”
I tried to keep my breathing slow as I listened to the men argue over mine and Rick’s fate. I tried not to think of the blood that already covered him, and Jez, who I had apparently completely misunderstood. I tried not to move, as I didn’t trust their reactions. Sure they didn’t want to kill me in cold blood, but if they thought their lives were threatened? The silence stretched on. There seemed to be some battle of wills going on between Andy and Matt and I had no idea who was going to win out. They had to make a decision soon. There must be dozens upon dozens of infected heading to our part of town.
“You have to do something Andy. You know what he’s threatened to do to Gaynor if we don’t come back with the extra supplies and minus two problematic foreigners.”
“Look we’ve got the radio. Can’t we just call it in? Ask him what we can do? I mean, we’re going to have more than a few of those biters on our doorstep. Can’t we throw them to the crowd and use them as bait?”
“And you thought shooting him in the head was brutal? Jesus Andy, that would be a mercy compared to what you’re suggesting. You know what? Oz might actually like it. Hang on, how do you turn this bloody thing on?”
There was a small round of collective swearing as the two of them appeared to fumble around with a hand radio. There was static for a short time as they tried tuning it in and clicked in to various channels to see if they would get a response. As they appeared to be distracted I risked opening my eyes a fraction to try and get some bearings
of the room. The gun holder had moved. The gun itself was now lying against a table or desk. There were two pairs of legs with their backs both to me. That was a big mistake. I opened my eyes a little wider and turned my head. On the opposite side of the room Rick and Jez were both huddled together. They each looked a little worse for wear, but nothing that could be considered life-threatening, at least for now.
If what I had heard so far made any sense, we were holed up in here because Jez had prematurely set off an alarm. Apparently that alarm was part of the plan, but Rick and I were meant to be left for dead, for fodder; anything so long as we were not left alive. For whatever unknown reason Jez had set it off early in protest at the fact we were going to be put to death. If I hadn’t been in so much confusion and pain, I would have been suitably embarrassed at how badly I had appeared to misjudge the man’s character. My dysfunctional moral radar however was the least of our problems. I had two injured friends and whilst we outnumbered our assailants and captors, they had the benefit of a shotgun. They may not have many or any cartridges left, but that wasn’t a guessing game I was willing to take part in at this point. I tried to make eye contact with Rick and Jez. Both looked abjectly defeated, and didn’t look anywhere but at their own feet. My attention snapped back to Andy and Matt as a crackled voice came over the radio in response to their calls.
“What are you two jockeys doing on the radio, over?”
“Uh, we’re a bit stuck here boss and we need a little leeway on the plan.”
There was a little pause before Austin’s irate tones drifted back over the static. “Stuck how? And say ‘over’ when you’re done otherwise I don’t know when to talk. Over.”
“Jez has turned on us. He’s set an alarm off early and we’re stuck on the first floor of a shop.” I tried not to scrunch my eyes unnaturally closed as feet passed by my head. One of them must have been scoping the situation out of the window. “We’ve got heavy company. Lots of the slow ones gathering outside. Quick ones haven’t figured out doors yet, lucky they’re not clever. The alarm is downstairs. We have a fire exit out here and we can get down the side of the building, but we need a distraction. Oh, over.”
“And what are you suggesting for this distraction? Over.”
“Well over to Andy for this one boss. It’s his idea.”
I heard the sound of a radio being caught. “Uh boss, I know you wanted us to kill them outright but with the situation we’re in I think it would just be a little easier if we used them as bait. That way we can escape with the supplies still. Over.”
There was a brief pause on the radio before Austin returned. “Can you repeat that Andy? Are you saying you want to crowdsurf them to zombies as a distraction? Over.”
“Yes sir, that’s one hundred percent correct. But you said you wanted them completely dead. This way there might be some way they’re coming back. So wanted to make sure this wouldn’t, you know, contravene orders. Over.”
“That’s one of the grimmest things I’ve heard yet, and I’ve watched Matt do some pretty fucking disgusting things to zombies I tell you.” My brain lanced back to the disfigured corpse we had stumbled across on the way to the pier. “But if there’s as many undead as you say, I doubt me there will be enough left of them to come back from the dead. Do it your way. Is Matt there? Over.”
“Sure.”
I heard the radio being thrown again, then Matt’s neutral voice took over. “Yes boss?”
“Clean run out of Dodge. Over and out.”
This was an odd parting comment. Andy must have thought so too, and asked Matt as much. “It’s nothing. We weren’t sure whether or not you were going to get the job done, what with Mr Warren being your new best friend and all. If you looked like you were going to be a turncoat, Oz said to get rid of you too. Clean run means we’re both okay. Jez though, well obviously Oz doesn’t give a shit about him otherwise he’d have mentioned him.”
“Course he didn’t mention me. I know too much. You think he’s going to let you two live? Think a fucking-gain. Look at who he’s letting die here. We’re all good men. We can all help. And yet he’s just going to kill us. And why? So he can get more pussy, that’s why.”
“Shut the fuck up Jez. I swear you’ll say anything to keep your hide alive.”
Matt must have aimed another kick at the man as there was a squeal. I opened my eyes again and all focus was on the other two men. Rick was looking at me accidentally, averting his eyes from what they were doing to Jez. He tried not to look shocked, by the difference must have registered on his face. Andy looked around and pointed at me in surprise. I tried springing to my feet to meet him, but injuries that had been dormant as I was still cried in protest as I moved. I stumbled, and more fell in to his chest than tackled him. It deflected his direct attack though as we both fell to the floor. Matt swore, finding his attentions now split between three different prisoners. It wasn’t a winning recipe, and as he faced me, both Jez and Rick tackled him. He went down to the floor hard, yelling and kicking out with steel-toed boots. One caught Jez in the face and sternum, and he was still. Rick held on to a leg for dear life as I grappled with Andy. Grunting, I managed to turn the slightly older man, leaning my weight in to him to keep him on the ground. He grimaced as he saw he was losing the upper hand and tried resorting to pleading.
“Warren it’s not what it looks like. I was going to just play along with Matt until I knew you were all better. You heard what Oz said, he was just going to kill me.”
I leaned in. “Yeah, so you say. But who the fuck am I meant to trust now. The only person who’s actually done anything of virtue here is the one you were all convincing me was a goon.”
Andy spat at me and that sealed the deal. I grabbed his shirt and yanked him to his feet, using his momentum to propel him to the window. I cursed as I saw it was only partially open. I definitely didn’t have the strength to hold him fast whilst I opened it all the way, and I wasn’t sure I would be able to just shove him through the thing. The movement itself was enough to panic him though and he started waving his hands for mercy. “Wait Warren wait! I’ll tell you what Oz is planning! Don’t kill me! You need to know this!”
“You fucking coward Andy, you shut your mouth.”
I turned to see Rick with a hard grip on the man’s hair, slamming Matt’s head against the floor. “No you shut yours you traitorous bastard!”
Matt shouted in pain. This only appeared to infuriate Rick, who slammed his head down repeatedly. I didn’t see too late what was going to happen; with what Matt had already done to us all and what he had almost cost us, I let Rick release his anger. I knew how he felt. I had been exactly the same back in Carla’s house when the zombies broke through the door. The shop floor was just Rick’s hammer. There was a dull crack and Matt’s thrashing and protests stopped. Rick looked horrified at what he had done, but there was nothing that could be changed about it now. I looked at Andy, who was pale with fright. “Look at me.” his dilated pupils swung to look directly at me. I didn’t drop my gaze. “Throw him out of the window.” Andy’s eyes darkened in understanding at what I was going to do. He started to thrash against my grip but I leaned in and held him fast.
“What?”
“Throw his body out of the window. We’re going with Andy’s plan. We’re going to use some fresh blood as a distraction.”
“But he’s already dead Warren.”
“I don’t think they’re clever enough to tell the difference, if someone isn’t infected. Just throw it.”
“I can’t I’m not strong enough.”
“Help him Andy.”
“I will not you sick fucker.”
“I’m sick?” I slapped him. “This was your bright idea Andy. You’ve made your bed, time to lie in it. You were going to do this to us when we were still alive.”
“I told you Warren I wasn’t going to. I was just playing along! Oz has my wife, he’s keeping Gaynor hostage. He’s arranged a helicopter pickup and he’s going to take the
m away!”
“He’s what!” Rick scrambled to his feet and pushed alongside me, pressing himself in Andy’s face. “Who’s he taking? Where the hell has he found a helicopter?”
“He’s been talking to some survivors over at Shoreham Airport. They’ve got two choppers with space for some survivors. There’s a community – some cluster of survivors, I don’t know what to call it. They’re going to chopper there.”
“And why are these helicopters going to lovingly swing by to pick us up? It’s not as if Austin is a ‘make friends and influence people’ kind of guy.”
“There’s a price for entry.”
“What price?” Rick asked through gritted teeth.
Andy couldn’t meet our eyes. He looked away, he was clearly so ashamed. “The price is women. And he said if I didn’t help Matt get rid of you two, Gaynor would be one of the women he took.”
I saw where this was going and I did not like one single bit of it. “And who has he decided he’s going to take instead?”
Andy looked at Rick then. He couldn’t bring himself to look at me. “Carla. He’s going to take your woman.”
Rick took a few steps away, shaking his head in disbelief. “What the holy fuck? What is this, 28 Days Later? They going to collect up the women so they can rebuild society?”
Great Bitten: Outbreak Page 19