Escape From Dead City

by John McCuaig

  “You may well be right,” Mary shrugged her shoulders at this thought. “But I know only too well what we must do, what we have to do to have any chance of surviving this nightmare. And I’m prepared to wait just a while longer until Harry and his soldiers come back on my side.”

  “Yeh,” Pauline said as she looked over at the steadily approaching lights. “And I take it we’ll just have to hope that we’re still alive by the time they finally work it all out.” Mary did not answer.

  “And what the hell are they going to do now?” Gordon was watching a handful of soldiers checking their weapons and putting on their body armor and helmets. “Shit, they’re not thinking about going ashore, are they?”

  Before they could answer, the Colonel was walking back towards them, and he looked like he meant business. “I need one of you two to come with us,” he came right up to face Pauline and Gordon. “I might need a medic on this trip and it’s going to have to be one of you.”

  “Piss off,” Pauline laughed at his request. “No frigging way. If you want to go out there and get yourself killed then that’s down to you. Just leave us the hell out of it, we’re not going anywhere.”

  “You seem to be mistaken Doctor, that was not a request,” he said coldly. “We must all take our share of the danger. I’ve lost over half my men while you civilians have lost less than a dozen. My only medic was one of the guys killed on that last survey mission. So listen and listen carefully, if you won’t help then you can get off my frigging boat now.”

  He waved to one of his men who was standing over by the doorway before facing Pauline again. “And when you leave you can take that little brat of a sister with you as well.” They saw Margot being dragged by the scruff of her neck up onto the deck.

  “You bastard,” Pauline murmured as he strode at the Colonel. “Harm her and I’ll bloody kill you.” Only the strong outstretched arm of Gordon stopped her from getting any closer.

  “She’ll be just fine, if you do as you’re told. The other scientists are either too scared or too fat to be of any help. You two have been through a lot more shit than they have. You know what to expect.”

  It went all too silent for a few seconds before Pauline eventually spoke up and angrily pushed Gordon’s arm away. “Okay Colonel, you win this time.” Her eyes were still firmly locked onto her little sister. “Let’s get this done, and you’d better keep your promise.”

  “No,” Gordon stood right in front of her. “I’ll go with them, you stay here.”

  “No chance old man,” she shook her head wildly and prodded her finger deep into his rather ample belly. “You aren’t fit enough for this either. It’ll be better if I go.”

  “And you’ve got to look after her,” he pointed over to Margot who was still under the firm grip of the heavily armed soldier. “If it goes bad out there then surely it’ll be better if you’re the one that’s left with her.”

  After a long look over to the struggling Margot, Pauline nodded just once. “Okay,” was all that she said.

  “Ah,” Page now had a huge smile on his face. “That’s so very touching, but you don’t have to worry too much Doc. I’ll bring him back to you in one piece for you.” Walking away, he could not help but laugh out loud.

  Pauline could only watch as most of the remaining soldiers lined up at the side as their boat slowly came to rest at the pier. A couple of makeshift rope ladders were thrown over-board and they skillfully made their way down to firm ground. Gordon however was not so good, he almost slipped off a couple of times on his slow, clumsy descent before he eventually joined them at the bottom.

  After they quickly disappeared into the pitch-black night, Pauline turned around to face Mary again.

  “Well thank you for nothing,” she said. “You could have at least tried to talk some sense into them. I swear if he doesn’t come back I’ll never forgive you.”

  Mary did not even attempt a reply, her eyes were still stuck somewhere far away into the distance. After a grunt of disgust, Pauline left her to her silence and ran over to hold the now released Margot.

  ***

  00:05 A.M

  Down walking along the pier

  Gordon stayed right in the middle of the soldiers as they walked along the grey concrete and into the darkness, it was where he at least felt the safest. Not safe as such, it just seemed a little less dangerous.

  The soldiers never spoke once; they just obediently followed the myriad of hand signals that the Colonel gave. With pointing fingers and quick flicks of his wrist, he sent the men scurrying around as they checked the route ahead.

  After ten long minutes of searching, Gordon stopped on the spot when he saw the movement in the building ahead. A stand-alone double story monstrosity showed them the first signs of life they had seen. The lights on the bottom floor had just gone out and at least a couple of shapes could be seen moving around inside.

  “Shit,” he mumbled as he tugged on Page’s shoulder. “It’s full of zombies. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  “Keep your damn voice down, Doctor,” Page held his index finger up to his mouth. “We’ve all seen it for ourselves.” With a few more waves of his hand, his men spread out and took up their positions around the building.

  “And since when do you think the zombies learned to operate light switches?” Page said to Gordon as he watched one by one, his men signal that they were ready. “Don’t you think that proves we’ve got some live ones in there?” Gordon looked over at the building again and nodded.

  “Would you care to join me? My men can keep an eye on our backs from out here.” The Colonel said as he held his hand out in the buildings direction and moved off. Going by the tone of his voice, Gordon knew he did not have the option to say no, he could only hope that it would be safer in there than standing all alone outside.

  Silently, and slowly the Colonel and Gordon made their way through the near total darkness right up to the wall of the building and started to search for a way in. On finding the main doors, they found them still securely shut, however the mighty barrier had some telltale marks spread all over it. Smeared, bloody handprints covered almost the entirety of the shiny steel surface. Gordon glanced over at Page; it appeared that more than just the living were still hanging around somewhere in Calais. Before they moved off, the Colonel quickly got onto his radio and quietly informed his men of just what they had found and to be prepared. The beasts were close.

  “Come on, let’s go,” the old soldier was never going to let this stop him. “We’ll find another way in.” Foot by foot they searched the entire perimeter until on the directly opposite side they came across a high roller shutter door. It was about twenty feet wide by much the same height, and like the other it was firmly closed. However on this one, to the side of it was an electronically control pad, one of the ones where you punched a code in but none of the little lights were on. It seemed to Gordon that it was isolated somehow.

  “This’ll do us just fine,” the Colonel said as he pulled a little black pouch from his jacket and rolled it out on the floor. Pulling out a selection of tools, he quickly got to work on the seemingly dead electrical panel. Prizing it off he used his wire cutters to free the connections, then with some little crocodile clips he started to connect a bunch of them together. In only a few seconds, the doors motor started to whine and the barrier started to rise up, slowly and very, very noisily.

  “Just you remember to keep close to me,” Page muttered as soon as it was wide enough to enter. “And do exactly what I say, when I say it.” With his gun held out in front, he moved further into the vast darkness.

  Bang!

  A single shot ricocheted off the metal girder to their side and a male voice started to shout out:

  “Rapprochez chacun et je vous tuerai!”

  (Move any closer and I’ll kill you)

  “What the fuck is he saying,” the Colonel whispered as he tried in vain to locate his new foe. As he scanned around him, all he could see was the sa
me darkness.

  Gordon shook his head; he could just about order a couple of beers in French but not much more than that. The same voice then called out again:

  “Qui sont vous et qu'est-ce que tuez-vous ici?”

  (Who are you and what the hell are you doing in here?)

  “Bugger this shit,” Gordon had heard enough, he had to do something. They needed to get away from hiding in the dark and waiting to be either shot from the front or eaten from behind. Walking out into the open, he held his arms up high to show them he was unarmed.

  “Parlez-vous l'anglais?” Gordon suddenly remembered that one; it had come in more than useful on his previous day trips due to his total ignorance of their language. “Do you speak any English?”

  “Yes, a little,” the voice came back, sounding slightly confused at this intruder. “Now, who the fuck are you?”

  “We’ve come across from England trying to escape the virus. We were trying to find somewhere safe but it looks like it’s made it over here as well.” Gordon slowly dropped his hands to his side and was quickly joined by Page who still had his gun firmly held in his hand.

  This made the local man shout out again, “I’d be grateful if you would put your gun away, mister soldier. Remember I can see you quite clearly.”

  Page did not move a muscle, his finger stayed firmly wrapped around the trigger. “And I’d also be grateful if you would stop aiming your gun at me and come out and show yourself.”

  After a few moments, two men appeared from the shadows and slowly moved towards Gordon and the Colonel. Dressed in grimy green colored overalls, they each held tightly onto old looking hunting rifles.

  “My name is Michel Fournier and this is my older brother Claude,” the closest one said as they both eyed up their new visitors. Gordon saw that they both appeared to be in their early to mid-thirties. “So there you go, you know who we are so now please tell me, who are you and what the fuck are you doing in my garage?”

  Gordon rattled on like he normally did; he told them his story right from when the first victim came back from the dead in the hospital and up until they had arrived at this port. Page never said a word until his pocket radio crackled into life.

  “Colonel, colonel come in please, sir?”

  Carefully, and slowly, Page removed the radio from his pocket. He didn’t want to startle the two men with the rifles. “Yes Private, what is it?”

  “They’re coming sir, frigging hundreds of them. The noise from the door opening and the shot must have attracted them. They came out of nowhere and sir, it looks like we’ve been cut off from the ship.”

  Before Page could say another thing, the one called Michel butted in. “Get your men inside here quickly, soldier man. They’ll be safe once we get the door back down and then move upstairs.” He pointed over to a large steel door not far from where they stood.

  Page heard a couple of short gun blasts coming from his men outside, it seemed that the beasts were now getting close enough to have to engage. Flicking on his radio again, he gave them the call:

  “Attention, attention, everyone get inside the building now. South wall, the door is open.”

  Going by the sounds of the now rapid gunfire outside, Gordon suspected they were already desperate to hear that last instruction. In under than a minute, the rest of the soldiers were all inside and they stood there staring at the two locals. Claude was already at the shutter door and when the Colonel nodded that they were all inside he pressed the little button to close the door. And it was just in time, fists angrily rained down on the flexible metal as the hordes of beasts arrived, hooked firmly onto the scent of some new, fresh food. Their howls of disappointment as they reached that barrier quickly filled the ears of all inside.

  “If you would follow me, please,” Michel said as he led them over to the heavyset door that stood near the centre of the building. It was in the middle of a thirty-foot square concrete block, there seemed to be nowhere to go. On pressing a single button, the doors slowly slid open, and it soon became clear that this was in fact an elevator.

  “It’s the only way to get up to the next floor; it’s where we keep most of our spare parts and my office. It was designed like this for security reasons, thankfully, to stop any uninvited guests from getting inside. It’s perfect, even if the undead somehow get into the garage they would never be able get up there.” He hit the barely lit button inside once he had been joined by everyone else, and the creaky old elevator made its small journey up one floor.

  As the long doors slid open, the soldiers immediately heard the crying, it was the terrified tears of a small child. Michel pushed by his visitors and made his way over to a worn out old couch. Sitting there were two little girls; one aged about seven, the other about three or four. Standing beside them was a tall, thin woman, and she was holding tightly to a long single barreled shotgun. It was pointed straight at Page and the others.

  “Adrianne...it’s fine, they mean us no harm,” Michel shouted out as he stood directly between the woman and the newly arrived soldiers. “They are friends, please; we’ve offered them sanctuary from the beasts.” He slowly walked towards her and after pushing the gun away, he held her and the two girls tightly.

  “That’s his wife,” Claude whispered as the others quietly inched their way out of the elevator, still unsure about their surroundings and their new friends. “And that’s his two children, Elayna is the older sister and the little one is called Rachelle. He called them over to join us here when the news broke of the dead starting to rise.”

  “Are your family in here too?” Gordon asked as he looked around for anyone else.

  “No,” he replied as he continued to watch his brother and his family hold on to each other. “My wife and son are over in London on a sight-seeing weekend. I can only but pray that they would have found somewhere safe to hide as well. She’s a clever woman; she’d have done the right thing.” Gordon did his best not to look at him as they walked, he did not want his eyes to give away what he was thinking.

  Looking around, Page saw there was just the one very small window on this floor. Getting closer he found that it was barely a foot wide but even so, that was still more than enough to get a good look outside. One by one, they all peered out and saw that the zombie hordes had already surrounded them, and they sure did not look in the mood to be leaving them anytime soon.

  “Why did they leave here before, and where did they go to?” Page asked Claude. “Tell me everything you know so we can work out how to get them away again.”

  “Well, that’s going to be a little bit difficult,” Claude almost laughed at the soldier’s request. “You see, the last time there was plenty of other food running around here, they soon forgot about us when there were screams echoing all around the bay. And, my friend, I would guess that they may well have found the last survivors in Calais, the last of the food.”

  Dropping his head slightly, he stopped looking out of the window. “I don’t think they’ll be moving anywhere while they can sense we’re in here. And forgive me for saying this but it’s all your fault soldier man.” He turned and got himself tight up to the Colonel. “If you had only just stayed the fuck away we might have gotten to our fishing boat when the daylight came, we had a chance to get away from here.”

  “Don’t worry we’ll think of something. I just need a little bit of time,” Page said as he moved away and took his own turn to look at their plight.

  “Do you also know we’ve got nothing to eat, nothing at all,” Claude jabbed his finger into the shoulder of the man who was now ignoring him. “Not even a single mouthful for the children. So tell me, what the hell are you going to do about that?”

  “Easy brother...please just calm down,” Michel said as he came over to join the commotion that was crowding around the window. With his hand now clamped tight on his brother’s arm, he went on. “That is all in the past now Claude, we need to think of the future, of all of our futures.” His eyes glanced back to his still hud
dled family; he could not help himself but watch them in their pain. “We just need to come up with another plan to get away.”

  Claude just shook his head and went back over to sit by Adrianne and the girls.

  “I hope that you have something in mind, soldier man,” Michel continued in a low voice, making sure that his wife did not hear him. “As my brother said, you may have just destroyed the only chance I had of keeping my family alive.”

  “And as I said to your brother, there’s no need to worry, I’ll think of something else soon enough,” Page said as he had one last look at the mayhem below, and then turned back to face the Frenchman. “But first, I’ll need some help from you; give me a hand to make a sketch of our surroundings. You must know them far better than what I’ve seen in the dark.” Together they went across to a nearby workbench and after grabbing some pens and paper off a shelf, they started to get to work on their drawings.

  In the meantime, Gordon found himself drawn over to where Claude and his brother’s family were sitting. Making his way over there slowly, he came to a stop just a couple of feet away.

  “I’m sorry to disturb you,” he spoke softly. “But would you mind if I sit down here for a while?” He gave them all a little smile in turn, “You see I’m just a plain old civilian like you guys.”

  Adrianne alone managed to return that smile and spoke, “Of course you can monsieur, please sit down and join us.” Her two young children buried themselves closer into their mother’s body as the strange looking man approached.

  “I’m also a Doctor,” Gordon continued. “Is there anything that I can do for you or your children?” He wanted so badly to be of some use to somebody, just for a change.

  “No thank you, sir,” she said as she held them tighter. “We are all just fine.”

  Looking down to her lap, Gordon saw the children were far from being fine, but he also knew it was probably well beyond his meager skills to make them feel better anyhow. So instead, he just sat down, leaned back into the chair, and thought about long and hard about his girlfriend Pauline who was waiting for him back at the ship. He was now worrying for his own family.