by Park, Grant
‘I can’t tell you where we are, but I can tell you where we will be!’
“Ok then! Tell me where you will be!”
‘We are gonna be coming for you.... Ethan, and when we find you, you are gonna be fucked!’
There was loud laughing form the other end of the radio and Ethan recognised all too late that it was Deane that he had been speaking to; only he would be idiot enough to throw away the tactical advantage of surprise on the enemy. Where Deane was you were bound to find his bosom buddy Harper, and Harper was never far behind Knox. Ethan considered saying more but stopped himself and turned off the radio; he looked up to see Cassie and Caleb looking at him shocked, everyone else was spread out away from earshot.
“I think it would be best if we didn’t let the others know about this, at least not just yet” Ethan said.
“Who was that?” Caleb asked.
“That was Deane,” Cassie said, “He is one of the soldiers from the bunker; not a very pleasant one either!”
“He doesn’t sound it!”
“He’s a bloody arsehole is what he is!” Ethan said shaking his head, “And he can’t be far away; these small radios only reach up to around twenty miles, not even that when it’s as hilly as it is here!”
“Do you think he is still with Michaels?” Cassie asked worriedly.
“I don’t think there is any doubt; Deane wouldn’t go anywhere without Knox, and Knox will be with Michaels. All we can do is hope that they are twenty miles behind us and not in front, but even if they are, I don’t think our lead will last very long, not at the speed the Argo’s move at!” the more Ethan thought about it the worse it got, there was no way that they could beat Michaels to the power plant now.
“But at least we now know that they are coming!” Caleb said.
“And that’s a good thing?” Cassie asked.
“Well, yeah! It’s better than them sneaking up on us. Now we can be vigilant, we know they are out there and we know they are looking for us. How long do you think it will take us to get to the plant, Ethan?”
“We should be there by tomorrow evening.”
“What if we travel through the night?”
“Probably by tomorrow morning, but we can’t....”
“Does Jim have a night scope for his rifle?”
“Nope...!”
“Bugger.... I guess we had better hope for a clear night then, ‘cause we’re not stopping!”
Ethan couldn’t believe what Caleb was suggesting, but he had to hand it to him, the guy had bollocks. Ethan nodded, “I guess we had better hope for a clear night!”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Cassie asked still with the worried tone in her voice.
“No! It’s a bloody awful idea, but it’s the only chance we’ve got” Ethan said looking to Caleb who was nodding in agreement. “Right folks, back in the wagons,” Ethan said loud enough for everyone to hear “we’re heading out!”
“Ethan,” Cassie said grabbing his shoulder, “we have to tell the others!”
“I know Cassie, I will just tell them now. We’re going to need all eyes peeled!”
“Hang on a minute,” Caleb said anxiously, “What the fuck is that?”
Chapter
21
Good to Go
Deane laughed so hard that his sided began to hurt; he had always hated that jumped up mechanic Rigby, and getting one over on him made his day, right up to the point where the huge tracked vehicle in front of them stopped that is.
“Oh fuck! You don’t think they heard that do you?”
“Course they did you dumb bastard, that thing has everything in there, they can probably hear what we are saying right now!” said Harper who was driving the Land Rover still chuckling to himself.
“Shut the fuck up, Harper you twat!”
The back door of the TC dropped down like a drawbridge and Knox marched out of it and headed round to Deane’s door, he could see the whites of the eyes of the other soldiers sitting in the TC behind Knox, it didn’t look good.
Knox wrenched the door open and grabbed him by the collar, dragging him out of the Land Rover and throwing him to the ground, his knee connected badly with the kerb and he could feel the skin come away from his left palm as he landed.
“What the fuck was that, soldier?” Knox screamed at him spraying his face with spit.
“What was what, Sir?” he said cupping his damaged hand.
“Don’t play the fucking fool with me, Deane. What the fuck were you doing talking to Rigby?”
“Rigby...? I.... Just heard his voice on the radio and.... and I wanted to confirm it was him, Sir!”
“And you did confirm it was him! Then what did you do?”
“I”
“You fucking told him that we are coming for him you fucking idiot! You removed the element of surprise from our attack which will make our job ten times more difficult! You may as well have given away our position! I have a good mind to leave you here for the Lurkers!”
“Maybe we should!” the unmistakable posh voice of Michaels came from behind him. “We have no place for stupid troopers here!”
“He may be stupid but he is a good soldier, Sir!” said Knox, suddenly taking Deane’s side.
“Be that as it may, I don’t think insubordination can go unpunished!”
Deane knew where this was going. Michaels was an unforgiving man and Knox very rarely stood up to him. He had to move, and he had to move fast if he wanted to get out of this in one piece.
“Sir, I....” Knox said
“Put him in the back with Fosters, Staff sergeant!” Michaels said firmly.
Deane made a break for it, he knew the conversation was over so it was his last chance, he ran round the back of the Land Rover and grabbed the first thing that came to hand; luckily it was a small rocket launcher, pretty much the only thing that could take Knox out, it wasn’t any type that he had used before but they were all the fucking same. He slipped his hand through the grip and held it at hip height pointed at Knox’s chest; he was only a few feet away and had his hand at his sidearm.
“I’m not going in the back with that fucking thing!”
“Don’t be stupid soldier!”
“Don’t take one more fucking step or I will spread you out all over the place!”
Knox looked down at the weapon, Deane would prefer to have had it on his shoulder to brace the kick it would have but he had a pretty good grip where it was, besides it was too late to move it now. Knox looked back up and into his eyes and his face hardened to steel, he took the step. ‘Oh well,’ Deane thought, ‘It’s not like I didn’t warn you!’ he squeezed the trigger and the rocket launcher lurched in his hands.
It could have only been a fraction of a second between him pulling the trigger and the rocket exploding, but it gave Deane a surprisingly long amount of time to think; he thought about the trajectory of the rocket and the angle he was holding the launcher at, he thought about the distance between Knox and himself and whether he would get caught up in the explosion, he also thought about the monumental fuck up that he had just made.
It suddenly dawned on him that if his hand was fitted snugly within the launchers grip around the barrel, then his hand was in the right position to be holding the launcher in the right position, which was on his shoulder, and if the launcher should be on his shoulder, then at this precise moment the launcher was pointed to the ground and the rocket was about to explode around four feet behind him!
He felt the explosion tear through his legs and back in excruciating slow motion; the flames and shrapnel tore the clothes from his back, the short hairs on his head quickly frazzled away and he felt his ears burning with the intense heat, the force of the blast buckled his knees and slowly he felt the tendons and sinews of flesh tear away from each other in his kneecaps as his lower legs were ripped from his body, he started tumbling backwards through the air towards Knox who was folded in half on the ground cowering like a frightened dog as he passed ov
er.
When he landed, he landed heavily; time sped up again as his limp body crashed to the ground with a violent thud and skidded across the rough tarmac, he came to rest with his head at an awkward angle pointed at Knox, who was still doubled over on the ground. Michaels appeared in his vision and started talking, though Deane couldn’t hear a word he said for the loud ringing in his ears, he caught the last two words just before he was shot through the head though, “....stupid bastard!”
He couldn’t have agreed more!
_________________________
Harry struggled to pull himself from the ground; he hadn’t actually thought that Deane was stupid enough to have pulled the trigger, but the world was full of surprises lately; their miraculous escape from the bunker (that was quite the surprise), the fool Michaels actually coming good with his tank and then chopping off Fosters’ hand (shocking and surprising), and Rigby running off with the lovely Miss Fosters.... well, not everything was a complete surprise, but the manner in which they had ran off was pretty spectacular, taking all the geeks and a few of his better soldiers with them. But then, all this couldn’t be dwelled on too much when it felt like you had been kicked in the bollocks by a horse! Deane’s boot was still there, lodged firmly between his legs, He was scared to move it lest the pain grow even worse; so he just sat there quietly whimpering to himself. Deane had done a good job of shielding him from the blast, mostly, but he was now completely soaked in the daft bastard’s blood. He hoped that the pool forming under him was pouring out of the stump of leg protruding from his groin, and not from the groin it’s self. A lurker could easily creep up and happily snack away on him right now and he wouldn’t even care; it might actually take the pain away a little!
“Well.... that was unexpected!” there came the irritating toffy voice from behind him.
All He could do was to release a low grumble from his throat.
“Are you able to carry on, Staff Sergeant, or do I have to put a bullet in you too?” he chuckled, “We really must be getting on!”
Harry dragged himself to his feet and with a strained voice said, “Good to go, Sir!” He marched with all the decorum he could muster back to the tank, throwing Deane’s leg to the left as he did, and barked orders to the men, “Sullivan, You’re in the Land Rover with Harper; White, you take Sullivan’s place on the left cannon,” he then walked up to Urk, private Urquhart was a big lad, almost as big as Harry himself; but he was soft and green, “Stand up Urk!”
“Sir!” he stood up with vigour, eager to please.
“Give me your clothes, Urk!”
“Sir?”
Harry took off his blood soaked jacket, there was no need to say any more; Urk did the same.
_________________________
A thin cloud of black smoke streamed up beyond a lush green rise in the land to their right, it wasn’t close, but it wasn’t exactly far either. They were high up in the hills themselves so they had a good view down the valley; the cloud couldn’t be more than five miles away.
“Do you think that’s them?” Cassie asked.
“I don’t think we should wait around to find out!” Ethan said before rushing away to wrangle the troops, who were slowly making their way back to the Argo Cats, “Alright folks! Let’s get back to it! There’s a smoke cloud over there and there is a good chance that it may be Michaels....” Caleb didn’t hear the rest of what Ethan had to say as Cassie started to speak right next to him.
“I really hope it’s not Michaels!” she had a flutter in her voice that showed just how scared she really was. Caleb looked to her as she watched the smoke slowly drift into the sky, a soft breeze caught her blonde hair and she brushed it behind her ear with a finger. Caleb really needed to get a grip; this girl was sending him loopy!
“I really hope it is!” she looked at him in disbelief, “Whoever that is, they are in trouble! No one in their right mind would start a fire in the day when the Infected can see the smoke, so it must have been started by accident. Hopefully they have crashed their motor wile laughing at us; which will slow them down. We need all the time we can get!”
“I suppose you’re right,” she didn’t sound convinced.
“That; and your Father might be with them!” Caleb said trying to comfort her, but she looked back at him horrified.
“I hope to god that he’s not! You don’t know what kind of man Michaels is! If my Father is with them then he is in big trouble! God! I hadn’t even thought of that!”
Talk about a backfire!
“I’m sorry, Cassie! I didn’t mean to....”
“It’s ok, it’s ok; it’s not your fault! I just.... we should really be getting back to the Argo’s!”
Caleb felt a proper plum as they trundled along over the hills away at an angle from the trail of smoke leading to the sky. He wasn’t sure how Cassie hadn’t thought that her Father could be with Michaels? It seemed the logical conclusion if he had stayed to make sure that they escaped the facility without harm; but then, Caleb had equally deluded himself about his own parents just a day ago.
The journey sunk under a sombre spell in the knowledge that Michaels and his small army could be over each and every hill they climbed. Little conversation was to be made as each of them could only keep their eyes sharp in case they were discovered. They kept away from the horizon and skirted tree lines as often as they could, avoiding roads to the best of their ability; they ate on the move, no more than a snack really, no one felt like eating much anyway.
The sun eventually sank into the hills before them with a spectacular golden red blaze. Thankfully it was a clear night with very few clouds, they waited beside the Argo’s by the dim starlight until the moon showed its pale face above the inky black hills, the full moon was already waning, with a thick sliver cut from the right hand side, but it washed the land in a cold glow that was just suitable enough to keep moving in moderate safety.
Caleb took over driving from Jim who was starting to look decidedly tired, but once he had his silenced rifle back in his hands he soon brightened up.
They rolled on through the night with surprisingly little contact with Infected or even Husks; Caleb didn’t trust it, there was something very wrong, yes they were avoiding towns, villages and even roads, but they should have had more contact than they did; something was up!
The noise was distant; it was barely audible to begin with over the whining engines of the Argo’s, but when they stopped to talk, not daring to use the radios again, it became all too apparent. Everyone started to look around, wandering where the sound was emanating from. Caleb knew, and he feared it more than anything else; even during the drills it sent shivers to his very core: it was only ever sounded briefly during the drills to let the employees know what to listen out for in case of an emergency, but this was incessant, like the horn of a large ship only more shrill it would be twinned with an old air raid sounding alert, but they wouldn’t be able to hear that until they were much closer.
“It’s the warning klaxon at Sellafield,” Caleb said, “we’re close!”
“Not close enough!” said Ethan, “Let’s keep moving!”
The noise grew louder the further they got and was joined by the air raid siren. Caleb had to calm the nerves of certain members of the group upon hearing it and they kept pushing on without too much fuss. It was another two hours before they were ascending the hill that led down to the power plant; they knew they had arrived from the bright orange glow topping the ridge. The moon had set and it was only just showing signs of sunrise on the opposite horizon.
The power plant came into view, the bright orange lights were dazzling in the darkness and it took time for Caleb’s eyes to adjust. They were still a good four miles away from the plant, but he started to pick out all the areas he knew and locate the areas that they had to access.
“Oh shit!” Jim said quietly beside him.
“What’s up?” Caleb whispered.
“We’re not the only ones who heard the alarm!”
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“Who....” Caleb asked but it suddenly dawned on him, “How many of them are there?”
“All of them, I think...?”
Jim handed the rifle over for Caleb to take a look, it took a while to get his eye down the scope properly but the image jumped into wobbly view, he had to step out of the Argo and use the bonnet as a rest to hold the image steady enough to actually see the scale of the problem.
And there they were; thousands of them, Caleb scanned along the fence to see if the crowd thinned out somewhere along the line but it only got worse, there was a writhing mass of undead around the outer fence of the power plant, great swathes of brain dead bastards all rubbing against each other in an attempt to get to the front line, it was like a Beyonce concert down there, and more of them were coming!
Caleb felt a tap on his shoulder, he looked up to see Ethan with a worried look on his face, “Do you mind if I take a look?” he asked.
“Be my guest.” Caleb answered and handed him the rifle.
“How does it look?” Greg asked. Everyone was looking decidedly peaky as Caleb glanced around.
“It’s uh.... busy.”
“How busy...?”
“Black Friday at the Apple store busy...!”
“I’m not sure I understand that reference!” Sarah said quietly from the back.
“Half price sale at John Lewis busy?”
“Got you!” she said with a smile, which quickly faded as she realised the levity of the situation
“It means we are fucked!” Greg said visibly deflating.
“It doesn’t mean we are ‘fucked’, Greg!” Cassie said, “It just means it’s not going to be quite as easy as just strolling in there!”
“Exactly!” said Ethan lifting his eye from the scope, “And luckily for us we have someone who knows their way around the place! Caleb?”
All eyes turned back to Caleb as he looked around; all but Brandon’s that were transfixed on to Zoe, it was good to see that he wasn’t the only one going loopy over a girl.