Wild Strawberry: Book 3 Ascent

by Trevor Donnelly

Once they were ready to move on they paused to discuss their plan.

  “Are you serious about going shopping?” Will asked Siobhan.

  “Oh yes, it’s one thing to survive, but if we want to live we need entertainment. Books and music and films are essential.”

  “And you know where to go?”

  “Well I’m tempted to suggest the huge mall they have over the river.”

  “Sounds good, why not?”

  “I can’t be sure, but I suspect it will either be tightly secured by survivors who’ve raided the food hall, or infested with zombies feeding off them.”

  Will nodded thoughtfully.

  “If there are survivors and we manage to break their defences to get inside, at best they’ll be pissed off, and at worst dead.”

  “Maybe it’ll be safe, and we can join them for a bit.”

  “Maybe,” said Siobhan, “but I really don’t want to get into such a confined space with the potential for hordes of the dead.”

  “OK, so if not the mall, where do you recommend?”

  “There is a book warehouse: big shop; ideal.”

  “Couldn’t we just pick up a few novels from a garage?”

  Siobhan looked despairing. “I want something more than the latest Jilly Cooper and Stephen King. There’s enough horror in the world already.”

  Will smiled. “I know better than to argue with a lady about shopping.”

  Siobhan rolled her eyes, then fixed Will with a serious look. “Listen Will, we’re not shopping for essentials here, we could go back right now. We’ve put Danniella and Tina on the road to their lab; we’ve solar panels and wiring and daylight lamps in the car. We could go back now and everyone would be happy.

  “We’re risking our lives for entertainment. We don’t need a boxed set of The Wire on DVD, but it’s on my shopping list.

  “If you think this is stupid, we can go back right now. It’s the sensible thing to do; in the world today unnecessary risks may be the very definition of madness.”

  Will buried his head in his hands, rubbing his temples with his finger tips. “I dunno, it feels wrong to risk what we’ve managed to save already.”

  Siobhan nodded, trying not to look too disappointed.

  “But, then again, “ Will continued, “I’m not sure I’m quite ready to go back yet...”

  * * *

  At length, the decision had been made that the newcomers would stay on the service station roof. They could come down if Neil’s leg healed and there was no sign of infection.

  The bad news was that there clearly was an infection. The wound wept pale green pus, and the surrounding skin was red and swollen.

  “I feel terrible, and it hurts like hell,” Neil told Misha, as they sat by their tent on the roof of the building, “but I’ve been thinking: if it was the infection it would feel worse, like slowly going mad or something.”

  “I have no idea; all I do know is that you were scratched by the dirty nails of a decaying corpse; if you didn’t get some kind of infection in the wound it’d be nothing short of miraculous. We just have to wait and see.”

  Neil nodded grimly. “Wait and see.”

  “I am no hero,” Misha told Neil, “if your infection gets worse I will go and sleep downstairs until I’m sure you’re OK.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m just grateful for everything you’ve done for me already.”

  Misha smiled. “You’d do the same for me. There’s not many of us left; we’ve got to look out for each other.”

  They had found a large metal tray and built a fire on top of it.

  Neil lay back and watched the tall, thin column of smoke snake into the sky.

  “Listen!” Misha shouted, “Do you hear it?”

  As Neil’s brain began to focus he made out the unmistakable sound of a car engine.

  “More survivors!” Misha beamed, “And maybe our ticket to somewhere more hospitable.”

  * * *

  Will and Siobhan were back in their car; Siobhan was laughing as she rummaged through her pile of newly-looted books.

  “I hate to rain on your parade, but we are overheating!”

  Siobhan looked at Will, “You what?”

  “The car,” Will tapped the dashboard, “the water must have frozen and cracked the tank. We’re going to need new wheels.”

  Staring out into the apparently empty landscape Siobhan slowly exhaled. The thought of leaving the relative security of the car was not pleasant. She peered out of the windows in every direction looking for signs of life, and for signs of unlife.

  * * *

  With the temperature gauge pointing to red, and white smoke starting to seep from under the bonnet, they saw a sign marked, ‘Service Station.’

  As Will turned the car towards the station Siobhan pressed her hand against his shoulder.

  “Is this a good idea?” She spoke softly, as if worried something would hear. “I mean, a service station will have attracted people, and people will have attracted them.”

  “Sorry, but with the engine running this hot we have no choice – I don’t think we could make another mile.”

  Siobhan nodded grimly. “OK then, here we go.”

  The car pulled into the car park, belching smoke and making an increasingly loud screeching noise.

  “Look!” Siobhan pointed at four figures on the roof.

  “The car’s about to pack up; we’re going to have to get in there.”

  “But we’ll be trapped, how will we get the supplies back to the Bunker?”

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now we just need to get out of this car before it catches fire.”

  * * *

  Rob and Helena had joined Misha and Neil on the roof to watch the arrival of the car.

  “Clever people,” Rob muttered under his breath, as he watched them make a preliminary circuit of the car park, drawing the zombies out to chase them, clearing the area for a second approach.

  “Rope ladder!” Rob shouted, and clambered down to where he could lower it to receive the newcomers.

  Helena bit her lip, her brow furrowed; she wondered what new dangers these fresh arrivals would bring.

  * * *

  In Greenwich Park the flying leaves and rising noise, now almost deafening, made it hard for the survivors to think clearly.

  Tina slipped her hand into Danniella’s. “Game over!” But her words were lost in the roaring that was filling their ears.

  Danniella gripped Tina’s hand tightly and dragged her onwards.

  There was no hope, but Danniella could not give up. She had caused this mess, and she would fight to fix it till her dying breath.

  With a prayer that they would finish her off so completely that she wouldn’t come back as one of them, Danniella ran towards the exit to the Park.

  Some of the creatures started to shamble towards them. They had been out in the Park, and were partially frozen; not as agile as the crowd behind them. They were also fairly spread out. Some seemed distracted by the wind, looking upwards at the circling leaves; but most of the zombies started to shamble towards Danniella and Tina.

  As they ran they cursed to see the far side gate opened onto a street full of creatures that were now running towards them.

  There was no escape.

  Danniella looked around frantically for any way out, she even considered climbing a tree, but as she looked back at the forest she saw the vast tide of the dead that had followed them from the Heath emerge from the shadows.

  The wall of the Park looked like the least impossible escape route, although it looked too sheer to climb, and it was unlikely they would reach it in time.

  Danniella, changed direction, still gripping Tina’s hand. However, Tina had stopped, and Danniella’s shoulder was wrenched back as she tried to keep moving. One of the zombies that had been in the Park was almost on them.

  Leaves were spinning in a crazy whirlwind.

  Danniella’s head was filled with white noise.

&n
bsp; Why had Tina stopped?

  The zombie was twelve foot away…

  Six foot…

  Its hands were almost on them, and would be followed by its teeth…

  Suddenly the creature’s head exploded, showering the survivors with an icy cold mixture of brains, blood and bone.

  Before Danniella had time to work out what was happening she felt hands grip her.

  She closed her eyes and waited for the end.

  Chapter Nine

  Ascent

  The hands that gripped Danniella tightened.

  As she instinctively covered her face with her hands and drew herself into a ball to protect herself her hand slipped out of Tina’s.

  “Jesus Christ forgive me,” she whispered as she waited for the end.

  As she curled up, she felt herself being lifted in the air.

  She heard bangs like fireworks exploding in her head then found she was looking down at the Park, falling away beneath her. Zombies were reaching up towards her.

  She was flying.

  At last she took in her surroundings: she was suspended beneath a helicopter; the strong hands that were holding her belonged to a soldier who was hanging from a rope and who was looping another cord around her to keep her safe.

  Next to her Tina was also being pulled into the sky, but her face was twisted with pain; horror struck, Danniella looked down to see an elderly dead man clutching onto Tina’s leg, his teeth sunk into the flesh of her shin.

  “No,” she breathed.

  Tina was writhing, and kicking, trying to free herself from the monster’s grip. At last the heel of her free foot connected with the forehead of the old man. She kicked it down, scraping the zombie free, breaking its nose on the way.

  Danniella watched the zombie fall, its red mouth snapping and hands scrabbling and reaching upwards, all the way till it smashed into the crowd below.

  Blood from Tina’s wound splashed liberally, cascading downwards towards the open mouths of the dead.

  The helicopter rose higher, and Danniella and Tina were pulled up into the passenger space.

  There were two young soldiers in the passenger-bay already. They were now joined by Danniella, Tina and the two men who had been lowered on ropes to rescue them.

  The two soldiers already seated had their guns leveled at the two women. One of them was wearing a large collection of dog tags and greatcoat, over his camouflage gear. He shouted over the roar of the helicopter, “Are you okay?”

  All eyes fell on Tina’s leg. The wound was not clearly visible through the ripped hole in her jeans, but the bottom of her jeans and her training shoe were stained red, as if she had stepped in blood.

  The soldier with the greatcoat stood up, unclipped the rope around Tina’s middle and before either of the women knew what he was doing, grabbed Tina by the scruff of the neck and threw her out of the helicopter.

  * * *

  From the moment Tina had been bitten she had known the fight was over. Now all she wanted was not to come back as one of them. When she was pushed out of the helicopter she was almost relieved that this would be a quick death.

  She remembered hearing that if you fell from a tall building you would be dead before you hit the ground.

  She hoped it was true as she tumbled through the air towards the Heath, the area still swarming with zombies.

  She hit the ground.

  No! She thought. I don’t think I’m dead yet.

  There was no pain.

  She could see the feet of the creatures running towards her. Some in shoes, some in trainers, some in broken high heels, and some bare, with bloated purple toes.

  She wondered why she watched this with no emotion.

  Then everything went dark. It wasn’t death yet: the light was blocked by the zombies swarming over her. Teeth started to tear at her flesh and she was gone.

  * * *

  Back in the helicopter the soldier in the coat spoke to Danniella, “I’m truly sorry, but if she had an arterial bleed she could become a hostile in three minutes: believe me, I’ve seen it happen.”

  Danniella clutched her knees. “She deserved better.”

  “Ma’am, we all deserved better, we just do what we have got to do to stay alive.”

  The soldier reached a hand to Danniella, “Acting-Sergeant Gary Bush.”

  Danniella looked at the proffered hand, but did not shake it.

  ‘Acting-Sergeant Gary Bush’ continued unabated, “We’re based in the Cadet Training Centre, on the Heath, but we can’t land yet; the area is full of them. Let’s see if we can draw some away.”

  The two soldiers hung out of the helicopter’s door again, waving and joking and spitting on the zombies beneath them.

  They hovered close over the crowd, drawing them through the broken gate in Greenwich Park. Once they were satisfied that all the creatures in the immediate area had been led out, they raced back at full speed to the Cadet Training Ground, landing with a harsh jolt as the machine hit the ground.

  * * *

  The service station was now the home of six survivors: Helena and Rob who had first found sanctuary there; Misha and Neil from Camp Hope; and now Will and Siobhan from the Bunker.

  They ate a supper of stale paninis and chocolate bars and discussed the situation.

  “The Bunker is as secure as it’s possible to get in the world today.” Will explained. “It’s got its own water, and when we bring our solar panels and UV lamps it’ll have a permanent power supply; we’ll be able to grow stuff, so we will.”

  “Where is it exactly?” Helena looked unconvinced.

  “Just outside Rochester,” replied Siobhan, “not so far.”

  Misha and Neil were easily convinced, and agreed to the journey at once.

  “I’m in,” said Rob in a serious voice, glancing over to see Helena’s face.

  Helena frowned, “Well, I’m not going to stay here on my own.”

  The next stage was to find a suitable vehicle from those in the car park.

  “Let’s take a truck,” suggested Neil, “it’s big enough to smash through most obstacles, the doors are so high the dead fucks will struggle to get inside, and best of all there’s a bed in the back, we can take turns to sleep.”

  “And,” added Will, “we’ve got plenty of room in the back for our shopping, and there could even be something useful already in there too.”

  * * *

  Unknown to the survivors, a zombie had been pinned under the truck when it had skidded to a halt several weeks earlier, in the first night of the Apocalypse. The driver had heard the news and wanted to fill his half empty tank before panic buying had made refuelling impossible.

  He never got as far as opening the petrol cap; the creatures were on top of him the moment he opened the door of his cab.

  The driver was long gone, but the zombie, once a teenager in a red hooded top, had lain pinned under the front wheels of the truck ever since. One side of the face was missing as it had been scraped along the tarmac, and several teeth were broken as it had tried to pull itself along by biting into the ground.

  It had tried to move for weeks, and slowly the flesh of its stomach had started to tear, until it was pinned by a mess of intestines and skin, the spine having snapped in the impact.

  The excitement of being so close to warm flesh made the creature redouble its efforts to get free, and as it struggled, the last of the skin that joined its two halves tore, and it was able to pull away, unravelling its intestines as it went.

  The first thing Helena noticed was the smell, but no sooner had she wrinkled her nose in disgust than she felt icy cold hands grip her ankles.

  The zombie was heedless of the missing lower half of its body as it pulled itself forward and sunk its teeth into Helena’s shin.

  “Help me!” Helena screamed, as the half-zombie clawing and biting at her legs was joined by another scrambling out from under the truck, “Please!”

  Rob felt only anger at Helena, he wanted to push her aw
ay and say, ‘We know all we have here is a last gasp, but it’s all we’ve got, and we’ve had to fight for it.’ But since he knew Helena was as good as dead, he couldn’t bring himself to make her last human contact an act of cruelty.

  He tried to pull her into the cab, but her two attackers were joined by a third, and there were more on their way, running towards the truck with disturbing speed.

  “I’m sorry, Helena, it’s been good!”

  “No!” she screamed, her eyes wide with fear and pain. She felt teeth tearing at her thighs.

  This is all the fault of those newcomers, if I’d been left alone with Rob in our hideout we’d have been fine. She tried to shut off her mind to what was happening.

  As she felt her body roughly torn, the thought shot into her head that human teeth weren’t really designed for this kind of work. She wondered if being eaten by a lion, with sharper, carnivorous teeth, would be less painful. At least if a lion killed me, she mused, there would be no danger of coming back as one after I was dead.

  The thought made her laugh. She realised that she was going to die laughing deliriously; she had seen it in films, but till now had never thought it would actually be possible.

  The truck lurched forward, and Rob lost hold of Helena’s hand. In moments she was lost beneath the clawing, scratching, biting throng of the undead.

  Tears were running down Rob’s face into his beard, as he looked back at the service station that had been his home since the world had ended. He looked at the frenzied crowd of the dead feasting on his sole companion for the whole of that time.

  The others drove without speaking, the silence only punctuated by the truck occasionally scraping against parked vehicles, or smashing into the body of a zombie.

  * * *

  “Oh my good God!” Will’s voice was awed as he looked under the tarpaulin. They had driven ten miles out from the service station before they had felt able to stop and examine the contents of the truck they had taken from the parking lot. “Bingo! We’ve hit the bloody jackpot!”