by RR Haywood
Something going on outside. Raised voices, a girl shouting. Lilly? It must be something to do with Howie.
She wants to look but fights the urge and remains still, knowing she’ll only have one chance if she makes a move.
‘What’s going on?’ A male voice demands, deep and refined, the voice of Heathcliff Stone.
‘Lilly’s got a grenade,’ a young voice pants from the exertion of running, ‘she’s pulled the pin and saying she wants Howie to be let out but he’s gone and now she’s saying she wants Lani and…’
‘Slow down,’ Heathcliff snaps impatiently, ‘Howie has gone? Gone where?’
‘Dunno, Darius was checking his rooms and he’s gone, you get me?’
‘Just him or everyone?’
‘Like everyone, all of ‘em…gone innit…Maddox is telling Lilly to drop the grenade.’
‘Can’t they just put the pin back in?’
‘No, like…he’s telling her to drop it and let it explode, calling her out, you get me?’
‘Stop saying that. Good God, he’ll blow us all to smithereens.’
‘She’s got the whole box of grenades.’
‘Jesus fucking Christ!’ Heathcliff roars, ‘what a complete shower of shit. I knew we should never have listened to that…’
Lani dares a peek, a fluttering of eyelids and enough of a glance to see Heathcliff and Lisa Franklin stood talking to a young boy.
‘Maddox told her Lani is dosed up and…like she can’t come out.’
Lani knows they’ll be turning to look and she breathes easily, normally, not twitching, not moving. The air comes in and the air goes out.
‘She’ll be out for hours on that bloody dose,’ Heathcliff groans, ‘and I’m not going out there if some little shit is running about with grenades.’
She darts another look and spots them once again focussed on the boy and in that split second the decision is made.
She groans and fidgets then lies still but makes her breathing louder than it was. She groans again and twitches her legs, then her arms.
‘What the…’
‘Is she fitting?’ Lisa crosses the floor quickly, her voice getting closer, ‘Lani? Lani can you hear me?’
Fingers press into Lani’s wrist with well-practised movements and Lani senses from the pressure applied that its Lisa Franklin checking her pulse.
A fluid motion and an explosion of energy. Eyes snap open as she twists her arm and snaps a rigid grip on Lisa’s wrist, yanking her forward as she drives the heel of her palm hard into the centre of her face. The nose breaks, blood spurts thick and fast as the doctor goes to yell but Lani is already moving up and out of the bed. A hard fist smashes into the back of the doctor’s skull and she twists round to see Heathcliff standing shocked to the core with his mouth hanging open.
The undead kill if you don’t keep motion. They lunge and snap, they rake and bite. They press ever forwards with a desire to tear you apart and so Lani doesn't stay still. As Lisa bends double on the still warm bed, so Lani spins and closes the gap between her and the big bearded doctor. Judged to perfected and her knee lifts to drive deep into the older man’s groin. An explosion of air from his lungs as the pain hits and she batters his face with a barrage of blows as he drops down. As he goes down she grabs the thick hair on his scalp and pulls him at the same time as ramming the hard point of her knee into his temple.
Two seconds, maybe three and both doctors are down. She spins and spots the youth turning to run and grabs the metal bed pan from the side table next to her. It gets launched hard, spinning glinting through the air and into the back of his head with a dull thunk.
He goes down sprawled on the ground and squeals like the child he is, high pitched and frightened. She charges down the aisle, slamming the heel of her foot into the side of his head. He goes quiet and she moves fast towards the entrance. No remorse, no time to stop and worry.
Out the door and she meets the two guards ploughing towards her in response to the clatter of the bed pan and the scream of the boy. Two youths, bigger than the one she just knocked out, hard faced and grim with determination, both of them carrying assault rifles but they move awkwardly and unused to the weight and bulk of the weapons.
She seizes the advantage and lunges into the gap between them. They yell and turn but slam into each other. She grabs one barrel and slams a fist into the nose of the other boy. He reels back with a nose as cleanly broken as Lisa Franklins. Her arm jerks back and the elbow drives hard into the eye socket of the one she holds in place by the barrel of the weapon. She hits him once, twice and feels the bone of his eye socket fracture from her hard elbow.
She goes low and grabs his right ankle, wrenching him up as she grabs a handful of his privates to give them a vicious twist. He crumples on the spot and she catches the assault rifles before it hits the ground.
She spins it right way up, pausing only to check the magazine, slam it back home and rack the bolt back as the first youth writhes on the ground with his hands clutching at his face.
The single shot rings clear through the fort and the boy writhes no more as his brain is scattered over the hard ground of the fort. On autopilot and she brings the assault rifle up and into her shoulder, aimed, locked, loaded and ready.
She strides towards the middle and the silhouetted figure of Lilly standing with her arm held out and Maddox stood but feet from her.
Motion to the right, she twitches, aim and locks and fires. A body goes down. She senses movement ahead and spots someone bending over. Not knowing if the person is ducking or going for a weapon she fires the single shot and watches as the body is blown back.
‘STAND DOWN,’ Lani bellows, ‘STAND DOWN NOW…’
‘Lani!’
‘Lilly, where is Howie?’
‘Gone…Darius said the rooms are empty.’
‘Maddox, you fucking move and I will put a bullet through you.’
‘I’m not moving.’
‘You tazered me you fucking piece of shit. You tazered me!’
‘Lani…’
She twitches, fires and another body goes down, movement on the top of the wall and she fires again. The body slumps and falls down with a blood curdling scream before landing with a sickening splat that silences the cry.
‘DO NOT MOVE,’ She watches Maddox twitch, ‘you fucking tazered me!’
‘You are killing children,’ Maddox says quickly.
‘I WILL KILL EVERYONE IN HERE,’ Lani screams, ‘AND DRINK THEIR FUCKING BLOOD,’ she adopts the methods learnt from Dave with an overwhelming assault of the senses and a display of utter intent to kill, ‘…where is it?’
‘What?’
‘The tazer…where is it?’
‘On me.’
‘Take it out with your left hand and put it on the ground, then your pistol and if ANYONE MOVES I WILL SHOOT MADDOX…Lilly, are you holding a grenade?’
‘Yes.’
‘If I shoot Maddox drop the grenade in the box and blow them all to hell.’
‘I will.’
‘Tazer…pistol…NOW!’
Using his left hand Maddox reaches round and draws first the yellow tazer from his belt and drops it quietly to the ground. The pistol follows.
‘Step back…’
‘Lani just…’
She fires into the crowd behind him, blowing someone off their feet and the screams rip through the fort.
‘JESUS! Stop,’ Maddox cries out.
‘Stop? You want me to fucking stop? We risked our lives again and again for you and you…you tazered me…Lilly, get that tazer. Move back…further…’ she motions with the assault rifle, forcing Maddox to take back steps as Lilly quickly scoops the tazer up.
‘Give it to me,’ she holds the rifle steady in her right hand and reaches for the tazer with her left, ‘this is going to hurt you prick,’ she aims and fires the barbs dead centre into his chest. One second he stands watching, the next he’s on the ground convulsing as thousands of volts pulse through
his body.
‘Did it hurt?’ She waits for him to come round and groan before pressing the trigger again and the tickticktick of the tazer clicks audibly as it powers the juice through the wires and into the barbs embedded in his chest, ‘how about now? Does it hurt you prick?’
She presses it again and again, waiting for seconds each time before once again squeezing her finger.
The smell of shit hits her as the muscle contractions void Maddox’s bowels. Unconscious he lies on the ground in his own shit and piss.
‘Bitch,’ she spits and discards the tazer to the side, ‘Lilly, drag that box of grenades into the armoury…you…’ she motions to an older youth stood shaking nearby, ‘get those weapons off the ground and into the armoury now…’
She backs through the group, sweeping the assault rifle left to right as everyone stays rock still. A child cries at the rear of the fort but not another sound other than the boy running back and forth as he carries the weapons into the armoury.
‘Kneel down, hands on your heads…do it slowly,’ Lani barks the orders and watches the crews drop one by one.
‘I want every single one of the crews in here doing the same…if they are not here in ten seconds I will start executing people…’
‘But…’ someone speaks and is shot through the chest without hesitation, regardless of gender or age.
‘ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX…’ she counts fast and clear and listens as people run towards the centre.
‘WEAPONS DOWN. ON YOUR KNEES. HANDS ON YOUR HEADS.’
They come. Scared. Terrified and having witnessed Maddox tazered again and again. Brave boys and girls who rely on a feral pack instinct surge to drop in front of Lani and the power play shifts once more to a young Thai woman holding an assault rifle after showing what true battle experience is.
They come running. They come whimpering in fear and the illuminated ground in front of her fills with the young black clad bodies who only moments before felt invincible in the glory of their weapons.
Dressed in bra and knickers she holds the assault rifle rock steady and with deadly purpose in her mind. She just killed people. Not undead. Not those that were turned but people, young people, children. But the warning was given clear and the choices they made were their own. These days are not the days of before.
‘Darius?’ She looks round, ‘where is Darius?’
Young heads turn to look, low mutterings break out between the youths.
‘DARIUS,’ Lani shouts, ‘I want you hear now…Lenski too…’
Still no response.
‘Lilly, throw that grenade into the middle…’
‘WAIT!’ Darius’s voice sounds out in the night, ‘don’t do that…don’t…’
‘Get on your fucking knees now,’ Lani snarls the words, ‘who the fuck do you think you are? You think you’re above this lot? You think you’re in charge here? Get down now…’
‘I’m down…’ Darius drops with his hands clamped to the top of his head.
‘Lenski…’
‘Here, I here.’
‘You let this happen,’ Lani shouts across the distance to the Polish woman standing still in the shadows.
‘Yes, you are not trusted. You kill children. You shoot them…’
‘Get over here and get down.’
‘You shoot me?’
‘Without hesitation.’
The Polish woman walks towards the centre and slowly drops down onto her knees as she lifts her hands onto her head. Begrudging and disdainful but the act is done.
‘Lilly, are any of the people back there police or military?’
‘I don’t know…er…we’ve got lists but…’
‘I NEED EX-SERVICES DOWN HERE,’ Lani shouts, ‘POLICE OR SERVICES…’
‘You think they…’
‘You speak to me again Darius and I’ll put a bullet through your head…MY NAME IS LANI, I’M WITH MR HOWIE…I NEED ASSISTANCE FROM ANYONE WITH SERVICE EXPERIENCE…’
‘They ain’t gonna help you, Lani…’
Screams erupt from the single retort booming into the quiet of the fort as Darius is killed instantly from the single shot fired into his head from short range. The back of skull explodes out to shower those behind in grey matter.
The screams ease into soft whimpers at the terrible sight of the woman holding the assault rifle bathed in the flickering orange light of torches.
‘This was a mistake bringing you lot in here,’ she speaks slowly through gritted teeth, ‘a mistake to think we could trust you…children who steal and hurt others….drug dealers and feral little shits…I NEED ANYONE WITH SERVICE EXPERIENCE DOWN HERE!’ She roars into the stillness of the night and waits for a response that doesn't come.
Thirteen
‘That was interesting,’ Clarence sags against the wall after putting Meredith down onto her feet. The sight of the big man holding the big dog while trying to lower himself down a ladder was a unique experience and one I shall never forget. She took it calmly at first, then decided she didn’t like being held and started squirming. The squirms turned into a scrabble as she bucked and writhed until displacing his hand on the rung and letting them both fall to a heap at the bottom where she bounded free and happy with a new place to sniff, ‘she isn’t going back up, that’s for sure.’
‘Roy, you take point with the torch, Clarence at the back?’
‘Do I have a choice?’
‘Of course you have a choice, do you not want to take the back?’
‘It’s not that I don’t want to take the back…but…’
‘But what?’
‘Nothing, the back is fine.’
‘Eh? What’s wrong with the back? Dave can you take the back?’
‘I’m better at the front, Mr Howie.’
‘I’ll take the back,’ Clarence says in a strange tone of voice.
‘Dave, you take the back and let Clarence up front.’
‘I always go up front,’ Dave says.
‘I don’t want the front,’ Clarence mutters.
‘What? Why not?’
‘Nothing, just…’ he peers round into the gloom and shudders.
‘Holy shit,’ Cookey mutters, ‘Clarence doesn't like the dark.’
‘Not the dark you little shit,’ Clarence growls, ‘big people and confined spaces do not mix well.’
‘Middle then, Blowers you’re at the back and…’
‘Why me?’
‘Fuck’s sake…don’t you like confined spaces either?’
‘Er…’
‘Right, who is not bothered by the dark or confined spaces?’
‘I don’t mind either, Mr Howie.’
‘Thanks, Dave. You take the back then.’
‘I always take the front.’
‘Fuck me! Paula?’
‘Not a chance.’
‘Cookey?’
‘I’m not bothered,’ he laughs with delight, ‘I’ll be the hero at the back who gets eaten by the monsters.’
‘Shut up,’ Paula says in a strained voice.
‘Oh my good God,’ I sigh, ‘you are shitting me…how many have we killed now?’
‘Yeah but it’s dark and scary as fuck down here,’ Blowers says.
‘We are the scariest thing down here,’ I say, ‘we are…we have a big dog and guns…and a Dave.’
‘I always take the front.’
‘Yes, Dave. You are at the front. I’m just saying we have a Dave.’
‘Okay.’
‘And a Clarence,’ Clarence mutters.
‘And we have a Clarence,’ I add with a groan, ‘and a Nick and a Blowers and fucking hell! Can we go now?’
‘So,’ Roy asks slowly, ‘I’m at the front still?’
‘Oh for the love of Pete…yes…yes you take the front and Cookey will take the rear…’
‘I always go…’
‘Dave! Roy is taking point as he has the torch.’
‘I can take the torch.’
‘I made the torch,�
�� Roy says dully, ‘it’s my torch.’
‘Our torch,’ Nick says, ‘I made it too.’
‘I broke the lighter.’
‘Paula…do something before I shoot everyone.’
‘Right,’ she says firmly, ‘Roy takes the front with Dave behind him…everyone else behind them with Clarence at the…sorry…Cookey at the rear…let’s go…NO! No arguing we are moving off right now.’
‘Cheers,’ I nod into the gloom.
‘Welcome,’ she smiles, ‘how the hell have you managed this lot so far?’
‘No idea…you wouldn’t believe how hard it is.’
‘I can imagine.’
‘We’re right here,’ Clarence points out.
‘Paula is now the resource manager for our team,’ I announce.
‘Ah thanks,’ she says sarcastically, ‘do I get a pay rise?’
‘Yep and a company car.’
‘I want to be a manager,’ Cookey says from the back, ‘I’d be a good manager.’
We head slowly off, following the flickering light of the flaming torch that spews foul smelling fumes in our faces. It lights the way for Roy but’s that it. We go through the cavernous room with no idea of size or dimensions and then into the tunnel.
Cooler down here and Roy was right, the air is relatively fresh which indicates there must be an air flow from somewhere.
‘I hope they don’t block that hatch,’ Cookey says after a few moments of silence.
‘Why did you say that?’ Clarence asks, ‘why would they?’
‘So we don’t get back up and kill everyone,’ he replies, ‘I’d block it.’
‘Cookey, maybe not the right time to talk about getting trapped, mate.’
‘Sorry, Mr Howie. I was just saying that I would block it.’
‘Shut the fuck up, Cookey.’
‘Get bent, Blowers.’
‘They probably won’t find it,’ I say to stop the bad thoughts encroaching into our minds.
‘I found it,’ Roy says from the front, ‘and they’ll know there’s a way out so they’ll look for it.’
‘Can we talk about something else?’ Paula asks.
A few more minutes of unhealthy silence. The dark doesn't bother me and confined spaces have never really worried me either but they’ve planted a seed and even my nerves start to fray. Like everyone else, I keep my eyes fixed on the bobbing orange glow ahead.