by Russ Watts
“Um, Kelly, Roach, how much farther?” Mark looked at the knife in his hand and knew it would not do much good if they were attacked. He needed something bigger and stronger. He also suspected the figures following them might be Will and Tricia, but he didn’t want to think about it. That would be too much.
Roach was looking back at the figures too. “Too far. They’re probably going to struggle to reach us, but the closer we get, the more of them we’ll find. In fact...”
Suzy screamed as a man came out of the bushes only feet away. His face was horribly mutilated, his lower jaw missing, and he was naked. His body was covered in sores and pus-filled spots, his skin a sickly shade of green.
“Get the fuck away from me,” shouted Suzy as she waved a knife in front of the man’s face.
Ignoring her, the Deathless man staggered over the road and reached for Suzy. Two loud cracks splintered the air and the man collapsed, two bullet holes having exploded his skull. Suzy was sprayed with blood and gore.
“Jesus!” Suzy whirled around, shaking. She wiped the dead man’s blood from her face, wiping her hands on her thighs.
Roach lowered the gun. “Now, we really need to get a move on. That noise will have alerted more of...”
“Way ahead of you,” said Kelly as she fired her gun at a corpse that had appeared behind Roach.
Mark jumped as Kelly fired, putting a hole into an old woman’s chest. The Deathless woman stopped and looked down at the gaping hole where her heart had once been. Then she looked up and resumed her advance on Roach.
Kelly fired again and put a bullet in the dead woman’s forehead. The walking corpse fell down onto the road, finally dead.
“Roach, we’re not going to make it. Is there a quicker way?” said Kelly scanning the surrounding vegetation for more unwelcome surprises, her gun trained on the roadside.
“This is the only road in or out. We have no choice but to keep walking...”
“Fuck that,” said Mark running over to a nearby school bus. Its yellow paint had faded and the windows were caked in dirt and grime, but the wheels were intact and it was in better condition than most vehicles. “This road goes down into the city, right?”
Roach nodded. ”Yeah, it’s downhill for quite a way now. It levels out once we get nearer, but...”
“Then give me a goddamn hand.” Mark grunted, trying to push the bus doors open. They were already showing signs of movement and Roach and Kelly rushed over to help him.
“What are you thinking, Mark?” asked Suzy. She was trembling, still shocked from nearly being taken out only a moment ago. “It’s not going to work. The battery’s going to be dead. The engine probably hasn’t been turned over in a decade.”
“Doesn’t have to,” said Mark as they finally wrenched the doors open. He stepped up onto the footplate and inside the bus. “The gradient is steep enough that gravity will do us a favour. As long as the axle isn’t broken, we should be able to get enough impetus to get down this damn hill. It sure beats walking.” Mark turned and slid slowly into the driver’s seat behind the wheel. He peered out the front window, which was smeared with dirt and cracked in one corner. In the road ahead were a few of the Deathless wandering aimlessly, scuffing along the tarmac and bumping into other stationary vehicles. Clearly, the gunfire had drawn them out and they were looking for the source of the noise.
Mark looked in the rear-view mirror and scanned the bus – it was empty. The seats were covered by a fine coat of dust and the interior of the bus was gloomy. He could see a few discarded bags and plenty of bird droppings on the seats. The air actually didn’t smell too bad, considering. He looked back out through the open door and told Suzy to join him. He got out of the driver’s seat and put Suzy behind the wheel.
“Right, Suzy, you’re the driver. We’re going to give it a push and you’re going to stay here and drive. It looks like it’s been left in gear, so with any luck we’ll be off in a minute.” Mark jumped down the step and back onto the road where Roach and Kelly were waiting.
“Okay,” Mark said, “let’s go around the back and give it a push. As soon as it starts moving, we run like hell for the doors.”
“You think this will really work? What if the suspension is gone or the tyres puncture or...” Kelly tucked the gun back into her pocket, aware she was going to need to get both hands dirty if they were going to move the bus.
“Don’t worry,” said Mark quietly. “It’ll work. All she has to do is let gravity take over. It’ll save us a lot of time and a lot of hard work trying to avoid them.”
They rounded the back end of the bus and an arm stretched out in front of Mark’s face. The fingers on the end of it brushed his face and he leapt back. One of the dead had come out of the undergrowth and heard the voices. The dead person was not recognisable as either male or female. It looked as if they had been shredded. Skin and sinew hung off the frail frame of the corpse and it barely had the strength to reach for them.
Mark heard Roach cock his gun. “No, save your bullets.” Mark took his knife and plunged it into the skull of the dead thing, plunging it right through the brittle skull and penetrating its diseased brain. It slowly sank to the floor as Mark kept the knife pressed in, forcing it down. Once it was down and not moving, Mark twisted the knife to make sure it would not get up again. He spat on the dead person and left the knife where it was. The handle stuck up out the corpse’s head like some sort of bizarre ceremonial crown.
Kelly looked on, impressed. She was reminded of how Tug had once saved Mark by doing something similar. It seemed Mark had learnt a few things in the last few days. She handed him the hatchet she had been carrying.
Mark took it and pushed the weapon inside his belt buckle so it hung within his reach. “Push!” Mark shouted. He stepped over the dead body and placed his hands against the warm metal of the bus.
Together, with Roach and Kelly, they all put their full weight on the rear of the school bus. Instantly it began to move, its body creaking and groaning, and its wheels turning slowly as they found purchase on the road.
“Quickly,” said Kelly, leading the chase around to the doors as the bus began to pick up speed.
One by one, they jumped onto the bus and sat down in the nearest seats behind Suzy. It seemed sluggish at first, but soon picked up speed.
“How is it?” said Kelly crouching next to Suzy. Navigating their way through the dead would’ve taken a long time and she had to admit Mark had come up with a good plan. She realised she had some admiration for him too. When he came out from behind the camera, he was a decent man.
“It feels heavy and it wants to pull to the left all the time,” said Suzy yanking the wheel to the right as she manoeuvred around another car. “I think we’ve probably got a flat at the back.” She kept her eyes glued to the road, skilfully weaving between the abandoned cars and forsaken bodies of the dead, worried that if she looked away for one second, they would plough into the back of another vehicle. The bus was picking up speed now as it sped down the highway and there were no brakes. She hoped that Roach was right and that the road did level out soon, otherwise they were going to have a very painful, abrupt stop.
Kelly stayed beside Suzy, more for moral support than anything. She could do nothing now but wait and she looked through the streaky glass as they swept past derelict houses and burnt out shells of trucks and vans. The road took them through a gorge and the road was flanked by tall, green hills. A road sign flashed above them, indicating the city was near. Fleeting glimpses of the dead whirled by in a blurry haze, their forms mingling with the bushes, signposts and buildings. They appeared like ghosts, pale human shadows flitting in and out of vision, just vague echoes of what they were. Kelly couldn’t help but wonder what awaited them deeper into the city. How many more of these ghouls would there be?
The road curved to the right and Suzy gripped the steering wheel as the bus tried to take them left. As they rounded a bend, the road dipped upward slightly and all of a sudden, they were
in the open. The blue sky appeared as if from nowhere and the vast sea opened up before them, the clear blue water shimmering in the afternoon sunlight. The capital city stretched out before them, the tall skyscrapers and buildings that hugged the harbour glistening and sparkling.
“Wow,” said Kelly. “It’s so beautiful.” She could hardly tell where the deep blue of the ocean met the sky. The water was crystal clear and the sky a deep hazy blue. She was reminded of brilliant summer days in New York and she felt a pang of homesickness for her own country.
The bus scraped alongside a row of cars as Suzy swerved into the emergency lane and the shrieking metal jarred in Kelly’s ears. She brought her attention back to the highway and noticed how much busier it was. There was no sign of the Deathless, but there were a lot more vehicles now. The bus was slowing down, but still coasting along. Just as Roach had said, the road was levelling out.
“I’m not sure how much further I can get us,” said Suzy quickly wiping the sweat away from her eyes. “The road looks pretty blocked up ahead and we’re running out of steam here.”
“That’s okay,” said Roach wiping his glasses on his shirttails. “We’re almost there.” He carefully stepped up behind Kelly and pointed out of the window. “See the tall cream coloured building? That’s a block of flats and there’s an off-ramp just beside it. The embassy is right opposite.”
Suzy let the wheel go as the bus finally rolled to a stop and it nudged into a metal barrier. Her arms ached and her palms were thick with sweat. She followed Kelly out of the bus, and waited for Roach and Mark to follow, breathing out a sigh of relief that she had been able to get them there in one piece. They had come to a stop just half a mile away from where they needed to be.
“Good job we didn’t take the ferry,” said Mark jumping out of the bus. He looked over at the harbour where an enormous passenger ferry was capsized. It was on its side and huge mounds of dead bodies lined the dock around it. There were police cars and ambulances with their doors open, and it looked like a scene from a war movie. The dock was a good hundred feet away and the highway was elevated so they could look down on the scene from safety.
Kelly peered over the edge of the barrier, down onto the dock below. She saw dozens of the Deathless walking between the piles of bodies. “They know we’re here, but they can’t get up to us.”
“Well, let’s not hang about until they figure it out. I don’t like being out in the open like this.” Suzy tapped her knife on the side of the bus and began walking toward the flats. The embassy was within reach now.
SEVENTEEN
Fizzy, frothy warm liquid spilled down his chin as Mark drank. He held the heated can to his lips and drank it down.
The liquid tasted foul, but right now, it was all they had and it quenched their thirst. Dodging between the abandoned, rusting cars of the highway, they had stumbled across an overturned truck. Hundreds of cans of cola had spilled over the road.
Mark finished a can and let out a long belch. He saw Suzy looking at him. “No time for pleasantries now.” Mark smiled as Suzy followed suit and let out a bellowing belch too.
“True,” she said, tossing the can aside.
“Alright guys, keep it down.” Roach had led them to the off ramp and they were now approaching the block of flats he had pointed out. The city was strangely quiet and Roach was worried.
“It’s so peaceful,” said Kelly next to him. Worried about their lack of supplies, she had also drank a can of cola and picked up a tyre iron in the process from an adjacent vehicle. She didn’t want to rely solely on her gun.
“I know. That’s what worries me.” Roach pushed his glasses up his nose.
With the heat of the sun still beating down, his skin was oily and greasy. They all were. Their clothes were soaked in sweat and it was almost impossible to remember how much it had been raining in just the last couple of days.
“So what now?” asked Mark. “That it?”
He pointed up to a looming grey structure that poked above the treetops. Beyond the off ramp to the highway, they could clearly see the tower block. Over the road from it, almost hidden by a bank of trees, was the embassy. From where they stood, they could only see the uppermost floors and grey blocks of concrete.
“Yep.” Roach scanned the sky, but there was nothing to be seen. Just a vast expanse of blue.
“You think they’re coming?” asked Suzy. “You think the chopper might be here soon?”
Roach looked at her. Suzy’s face was a mixture of fear and anxiousness. “If they’re coming today, they’ll be here anytime. They always come at the same time of day. I heard them flying over the mall nearly every afternoon. We need to get inside and up to the roof as quickly as possible. If they don’t turn up today, we’ll wait it out in there, as long as it takes. I didn’t come all this way to turn back now. I miss Stella. I miss her and my Bobby real bad. I’d tried to forget about them, knowing I’d never see them again, but now that I’m here...” Roach trailed off, his memories of home resurfacing. Being back here, so close to where it all began was also bringing back a lot of unwanted memories: Min, Sergeant Warwick and everything that had happened to him.
Mark put a gentle hand on Roach’s shoulder. “Roach, show us. Take us.”
Roach looked at Mark, Suzy and Kelly. They were all relying on him now and he knew it. These people were scientists and office workers; just ordinary people in an extraordinary place. He was going to have to go back in there. He pulled the gun from his pocket and cocked it ready. He had four bullets left. He saw Kelly gripping the tyre-iron, Mark the hatchet and Suzy a knife. He scanned the road quickly and saw a road sign that had been knocked over and ripped from the ground by an SUV. He picked it up and held it out for Suzy.
“Take this. You’re going to need more than that thing,” he said looking at her knife.
Suzy took the signpost and threw the knife away. The paintwork had been scraped off and scuffed, and the sign at the top was rusted away. She held the metal pole with both hands, weighing it up. It was almost six feet in length and heavy. It felt perfect for bashing a few heads in.
Roach raised his index finger to his lips and then began the walk up the road to the embassy. Off the main highway, fewer cars were around, but still plenty of places where the Deathless might be hidden from sight. As he neared the top of the off ramp, he heard a scuffling noise behind him and turned around.
One of the dead had risen from behind a thorn bush, but he had no need to call out to warn the others. Mark had seen it already and without uttering a word had stabbed the creature in the head with his hatchet. Mark withdrew the blade and watched the dead slump to the ground. He nodded briefly to Roach and they carried on walking.
There was an empty coffee shop at the base of the flats and Roach remembered how he had hidden inside with Min once they’d escaped the embassy. In the last four years, nothing had changed. It was surreal. The chairs and tables were still in the same place, the open till still sat askew on the workbench and there were coffee beans all over the tiled floor. Roach remembered the smell as he and Min had ran over them, crunching them underfoot as they ran from the dead.
“Roach,” hissed Kelly. “Roach.”
Startled, he stopped and realised he had almost gone past the entrance. He saw Kelly crouched down behind a station wagon, Suzy and Mark stooped low behind her.
“Is this it?” whispered Kelly, pointing at the tall fence the other side of the car.
Roach looked at the embassy and felt his heart surge. There it was. Like the coffee shop, very little had changed. The outer edge of the building had changed little; the ferns had turned brown and wilted. The grass and bushes had grown longer and bigger. Beyond them, he recognised the low building and flat roof where he had been dropped by the helicopter so long ago. He recognised the gates surrounding the perimeter of the building, and he recognised the fallen tree that he had escaped over. Unfortunately, he also saw how the tree had rotted and crashed through the perimeter, leaving
a gaping hole in the fence. He even saw the ladder on the ground where it had been left. He wondered what the military did with their prisoners now. Did they push them off the roof or let them fend for themselves? It seemed more likely they were just shot and dumped over the side to be eaten.
With the fence no longer there to contain them, the Deathless had spread out. There were still a lot in the yard, roaming the grounds, but just as many had left, probably to scavenge the city for fresh meat.
Kelly peeked through the car windows and saw dismembered limbs lying in crimson pools. She didn’t want to think how many people must have been killed in this place. Roach had been lucky to get away. At the corner of the building was a small hut, no doubt the entrance to the embassy. On it were some faded, gold letters:
EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Kelly felt ashamed that her country’s name had been tarnished by Agnew. He had used one of the most unfortunate events in the history of the world, an event that had killed billions, and warped it, bending it to serve his own perverted needs. She was disgusted.
Roach scurried back to Kelly and hid beside the station wagon. “Yeah, that’s it. But the fence is down. We can’t get straight up to the roof like I’d hoped now. We’re going to have to find another way in or...shit, do you hear that?”
Kelly saw Roach’s eyes widen and he cocked his head to one side, intently listening to something. She couldn’t hear anything but the faint moans of the dead the other side of their hiding place.
“I hear it,” said Mark. “They’re coming.”
Kelly blocked out all other sounds and listened. She heard it; the unmistakeable throb of an engine and the repetitive whumping sound of helicopter blades approaching fast from the east.
“There’s no time. We have to get up there, now,” said Suzy standing up. She didn’t care if the Deathless saw her.
“Suzy, wait...” Roach stood too, exposing himself to the dead, but it was too late. The Deathless has seen Suzy and were now heading toward the car.