by T. J. Blake
‘I’ll be there in a minute.’ Danni said as she hung up.
Danni sprinted, there were occasional explosions around her and bullets flew by, nearly hitting her, making her flinch and dodge as she ran.
She hid whenever she saw people running. It didn’t matter whether they were being chased or not, she didn’t want to chance being spotted by infected humans.
As she ran, Danni watched scared civilians around her. Her ears rang, her mind shut down into a trance. She lost the feeling in her feet and legs as she ran, her ragged breathing was no longer noticed. She saw the infected humans beating people. They seemed a little different.
How did this all happen? Danni thought to herself.
As Danni concentrated on her surroundings, she was barged to the ground; jolted back to normal consciousness. Her head hit the ground, dazing her. As she looked up, she saw a pair of bloodshot eyes staring at her. Her sight regained normality and as it did, she lifted her leg up and kicked her attacker in the face. She pushed herself off the ground and the infected man launched himself at her again. She punched him in the face, to no effect. He swung his arms wildly at her, she ducked and turned like a professional boxer, avoiding each punch until his swings slowed and weakened, making it possible for Danni to grapple his arm. She held his wrists and pushed up on his elbow, a sharp crack announced it had been broken. She stamped on his ankle till that snapped and then she broke his neck with a more satisfying third crack.
She reached her house at a dead run. Danni’s Sister Sadie, Sadie’s son, Jerome and their mum, Lynne stood outside waiting.
‘Why would you wait out here? You could have been killed!’ Danni shouted.
‘We didn’t know what to do.’ Lynne said with a shaky voice.
‘I know, sorry mum.’ Danni said. ‘I would hug you but I’m covered in blood.’
‘What’s going on?’ Sadie asked Danni.
‘It’s happening. You know? What me and Dad went through. It isn’t a trial run this time, this is real. We need to move out of the centre of London.’
‘Why not just away from London?’ Lynne said.
‘We wouldn’t make it, we would be killed; we’re all vulnerable on the move so we can’t go too far and…’ Danni paused and stared into the sky in front of her, prompting Lynne and Sadie to turn too. ‘Shit where’s Carl, Sadie?’
‘He’s inside, why?’
‘Cause we can’t go anywhere yet, we need to get into the basement, now.’
Danni turned and picked up the two rucksacks that Lynne packed.
‘Get to the basement, I’ll get Carl!’ Danni shouted.
Lynne ran back to the house and Sadie picked up Jerome and followed Lynne.
Danni ran into the house shouting for Carl. ‘Yes?’ Danni heard him answer upstairs.
‘Get down here; we need to go to the basement right now!’
She heard his heavy footsteps from above, across the landing and then coming down the stairs. Carl’s blonde hair was a mess, as was his beard.
‘We need to get down there right now!’ Danni said.
‘Where’s Sadie and Jerome?’
‘They’re already down there, let’s go.’
They ran to the door under the stairs which led to the basement. Carl ran down first and as he did, Danni watched as bullets pierced through the walls and shattered windows. Pieces of the sofa exploded up and fluff floated in the air like snow. The wooden front door was shattered, splinters flying everywhere. One bullet skimmed Danni’s shoulder. She screamed out in pain and clutched the wound. She followed Carl and ran down into the basement.
Danni reached the basement where Sadie, Carl and Jerome were hugging; Lynne was shaking.
Still holding her shoulder, Danni walked over to her mum and kissed her on the head. Lynne looked up and gawped at the blood on Danni and her shoulder.
‘Oh my God, darling.’ Lynne said.
‘It’s fine mum, just help me treat and dress it.’
Dust fell from the ceiling and the basement shook.
Lynne ran over to a wooden cabinet and pulled out a medical kit, she tipped the cabinet over, smashing it on the floor. She knelt down and picked out a bottle of vodka.
Danni, Sadie, Carl and Jerome looked over to Lynne confused as to why there was vodka behind the cabinet.
‘I know Graham too well.’ Lynne laughed, the others laughed too until they were knocked off their feet by another explosion.
‘Stay down.’ Carl shouted; his voice was drowned out by blasts.
They listened to the explosions above; they began in the distance but suddenly moved to a position right above them. Jerome clamped his hands over his ears and dust fell through the floorboards, covering them all.
The explosions moved away again and Danni sat up.
‘It’s okay, we’re okay now.’
Everybody sat up except Lynne who went towards Danni in a crouched position.
‘This will help darling,’ Lynne said, gently stroking around the wound.
Lynne opened the medical kit and picked out bandaging, bacterial wipes and tape.
‘Lay down for a minute and hold still.’ Lynne said as she undid the vodka bottle.
Lynne placed the cap next to her knee and slowly poured vodka on Danni’s wound. Her arm flinched and Danni groaned.
‘Fuck!’ she said, then, ‘Sorry Jerome.’
Jerome laughed and said, ‘Don’t worry auntie Danni.’
‘Don’t use that naughty language, ever Jerome.’ Lynne said.
Lynne poured more vodka onto the wound; Danni clenched her fist and pressed her clenched fist to her forehead, making a knuckle imprint.
‘That should do.’ Lynne said, squeezing Danni’s good shoulder gently. She then took an anti-bacterial wipe and swabbed Danni’s shoulder around the wound.
‘Luckily it’s only a scrape, you were lucky.’
‘I’ve been lucky too many times; one day…’
‘Don’t talk like that.’ Lynne interrupted.
As Lynne continued to clean Danni’s shoulder, arm and wound, Carl asked, ‘So what now?’
‘We wait I guess?’ Sadie said.
‘We move.’ Danni said. ‘As soon as I’m bandaged up, we get out of here. We have to keep moving so we aren’t an easy target.’
‘Surely moving will make us an easy target?’ Carl retorted.
‘No, if we stay here, they’ll know where we are, they’ll know we’re down here and they’ll come and get us.’ Danni said.
‘How do you know?’ Carl asked.
‘Carl, really?’ Sadie rolled her eyes. ‘Danni knows how to survive this better than any of us.’
‘Yeah but this is real life now, this is actually happening in a real place to real people.’
Danni stood up and her bandage peeled away from her arm. She walked up to Carl who quickly stood up. Danni grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.
‘What the fuck did you just say? Was Tom not a real person then? Did he deserve to die, did I deserve to die? Is that what you’re saying?’
‘He didn’t mean that at all darling.’ Lynne said.
‘Can’t you talk?’ Danni spat at Carl’s face.
‘I didn’t mean that, I just meant it’s actually happening now, maybe it was set up for you to survive and for…’
‘Shut the fuck up! Me and Tom had to fight for survival. If you were in the replica you would have been killed within the first few seconds you stupid, scrawny prick!’ Danni shouted and she threw him aside.
Carl despondently looked to Danni and back to Sadie. Sadie shook her head and Jerome stared at Danni.
‘You all have a choice. You can stay here and hide, or you can come with me.’ Silence filled the room as everybody stared at the ground.
‘If you come with me, you will be expected to fight. You will be in danger. I will do my best to protect you. I will teach you to fight and how to fire a gun.’
Silence again. Danni stared at the four of them they looked tired a
lready.
‘Come on!’ Danni shouted. ‘We aren’t dead yet.’
‘Of course we’re with you.’ Lynne said and everybody nodded.
‘Good.’ Danni said with a grim smile. ‘I need to teach you all a few things. We’ll do it quickly here and then we’ll move.’
‘Where are we going Auntie Dan?’ Jerome asked.
Danni knelt down to Jerome and patted his head. ‘We’re going to a friend’s house. He’ll be able to help us.’
‘Who’s that then?’ Carl asked.
‘Flynn, he’s an ex-army veteran.’
‘How old is he Danni?’ Lyne asked.
‘He’s about my age mum.’ Danni answered, confused.
‘I was wondering if he was old.’ Lynne said, reacting to Danni’s facial expression and tone of voice.
‘Right, well when I’m bandaged up, I’ll find dad’s old pistols for mum and Sadie to practice shooting. Can you shoot, Carl?’
‘Not well.’ Carl said.
‘Okay I’ll teach you too.’
‘Can you teach me?’ Jerome asked.
‘Not yet Jerome, maybe when you’re a little older.’
They sat in silence whilst Lynne bandaged Danni up again.
Danni patted her arm and winced. ‘Right, mum can you get dad’s guns out please?’
Lynne went over to an old battered box. She pulled out her house keys and unlocked the padlock and threw back the lid of the box.
‘Why did Graham have guns?’ Carl said.
‘For protection,’ Danni snapped at Carl.
‘But surely it’s illegal for him to have guns? We aren’t in America.’ Carl said.
‘Well if he didn’t have them, we wouldn’t have any now when we need them most.’
Carl paused and sighed.
‘Just keep your stupid thoughts to yourself next time yeah?’ Danni said to Carl.
Carl glared at Danni and said nothing.
Danni walked over to the box and pulled out three handguns and handed them out to Lynne, Sadie and Carl. Danni turned to Jerome. ‘No touching these guns Jerome, okay?’
‘Yeah.’ Jerome said.
‘Good boy. Right, obviously before doing anything, the gun needs to be loaded and before you plan to shoot anything, the safety must be off.’ Danni showed them how to load a gun and where the safety button was. ‘Okay, now you have to be able to aim and shoot. Point the gun to the floor and I’ll mark a point on the wall where I want you to aim for. You need to aim to hit the circle I’ll scratch into the wall with my knife. You get three shots. This way it will give you an idea of the weight of the gun and the feeling of the gun’s recoil when you shoot.’
Danni went to the wall and marked out three circles using her knife. ‘Right so this is how you do it.’
Danni pulled out her gun from its pouch on her trousers. She raised the gun up to her eye line with both hands and she pulled the trigger. She hit the circle and brick dust floated from the wall, instantly fading into the air.
‘It’s that easy, it’s like riding a bike, the more you practice the better you’ll get.’
‘Yeah but we don’t have bullets to waste.’ Carl said.
‘I would slap you in the face and tell you to shut up, but you’re right.’ Danni said.
‘I know.’ Carl said bitterly as he pulled the trigger.
‘Well, that was some way off and a waste of a bullet.’ Danni said. ‘Practise makes perfect.’
Carl sighed and aimed again.
The three of them used all their practice bullets up. Their first bullet completely missed the target, their second the same and their third was slightly closer.
‘For your first shots they aren’t bad and they will have to do. We’ll leave in a minute so get your stuff together and we’ll try and get out of here and go to Flynn’s. Hopefully he’ll have some ammo.’ Danni said.
As everyone packed up and checked they had what they needed, Danni pulled out a green weaponry bag and packed Graham’s handguns and machine guns. As she packed them, she found her shotgun. She clipped a brown leather strap to it. She loaded it and pulled the fore-end back making a chunk-chunk sound.
Danni put it over her shoulder and carried on packing the bag. She stopped to listen when the floor vibrated. She used her fingertips to touch the concrete dusted floor.
‘Shush.’ Danni said, raising her hand.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and held their breath.
The droning sound came closer and closer, the vibrations got stronger and stronger and the sweat on Danni’s forehead shone in the limited light.
‘We need to move after this hovercraft has gone.’ Danni whispered.
Jerome cried as the drone of the hovercraft could be heard above the house wreckage, making dust fall through the cracked floorboards above them. The dust made the atmosphere smoky. Everyone wanted to cough; Jerome wanted to burst into tears but they couldn’t. As Jerome’s eyes filled up with water, Danni watched the tears begin to slither down his cheeks. She looked at him and put her finger to her lip, Jerome nodded.
Carl’s eyes began to fill up with water and his nose twitched as a puff of dust was inhaled. Carl held his nostrils; the tip of his nose became a dark red.
Danni mouthed hold it for one second.
Carl nodded and continued to hold his nose.
The hovercraft drone disappeared.
‘I think it’s gone.’ Danni whispered.
To the relief of Carl, he let out a sneeze.
‘Thank god for…’ Carl was interrupted by a loud bang from above.
‘Shit,’ Danni said as she looked up through the floorboards.
‘What’s that?’ Lynne asked.
‘Shush,’ Danni said as she pulled out her knife.
Danni motioned to the others to move back against the wall and keep calm and quiet.
The footsteps from above stepped around, scraping away pieces of debris on the floor. As Danni looked up through the gaps in the floorboards, she saw a male figure wearing an all-black kind of suit with a gas mask over his face.
‘The Taint’s house is destroyed.’ The figure said; his voice was rough and deep. ‘There are no bodies. I’ll keep searching.’
He continued to walk amongst the debris, pulling at the collapsed entrance to the basement.
Danni grabbed her bag, pulled out her machete and ran back to the wall by the stairs leading up to the house.
The figure pulled away the debris covering the stairs leading down into the basement. Eventually he revealed the stairs fully by throwing the wreckage aside. The dim summer sunlight shone down the steps and into part of the basement. Pieces of rubble rolled down the stairs and tapped onto the basement floor. The light soon became partially blocked and the shadow of the figure appeared on the basement floor.
He stomped down the stairs, his heels dragging on the steps. As he reached the bottom few steps, he stared at Lynne, Carl, Sadie and Jerome and asked, ‘Where’s Danni Taint?’
He stepped down the last steps and onto the concrete. He walked past Danni without realising and up to the others.
‘Ms Taint is wanted by Doctor Michael Miller. If you prevent me from finding her, I will have to take you all to Waterloo station, where you will face a court hearing and could be looking at a sentence of death.’
Danni took silent steps towards the figure and held the machete with both hands.
‘I will give you five seconds to answer me. If you wish to ignore my question, you will be under arrest on Miller’s law and instruction and I will escort you all to Waterloo station.’
Danni tensed her arm and swung the machete up to the figure’s head.
As the machete blade almost reached the figure’s neck, he turned and ducked to avoid the blade. He grabbed hold of Danni’s forearm and twisted it, forcing her to drop the blade. He kicked the blade away and kneed Danni in the side, pushing her against the wall.
‘Look after Jerome, Mum.’ Sadie said and she ran at the man and ju
mped on him. She slapped his head until he grabbed her and threw her onto the floor. Carl charged up to him and kicked the figure in the chest. Both the figure and Carl fell to the floor. The figure elbowed the floor and was straight back onto his feet. He saw Carl getting back onto his feet but kicked Carl’s chest to force him back onto the floor. The figure stood over Carl and as he lifted his leg in preparation to stamp on Carl’s head, Danni kicked the figure and punched him.
The figure didn’t seem to feel her attack and instead attempted to punch Danni. His arms swung and his fist thumped into Danni’s guard. Each time he hit her, the more off-balanced she became. He swung his right arm as hard as he could, catching Danni off-balance. As she stumbled, he swung his legs across her feet, knocking her to the floor.
Carl eventually pushed himself off the floor and ran up to the figure. He charged into him and pushed the figure against the wall. Carl swung his fists at the figure’s face. The figure deflected Carl’s hand and forced him to hit the wall. Carl screamed and the figure punched Carl in the stomach.
Danni got back up and barged the figure into the wall. The figure stumbled. Still grasping Carl’s fist, he uses it to punch Danni in the face. He threw Carl into Danni knocking them both to the ground. As the figure pushed himself off the wall, Sadie ran up to him screaming and swinging the machete. The figure put his arm out to grab her, but Sadie sliced through his arm, taking it clean off.
The figure screamed. He looked at his stub and elbow. It was spouting blood like a tap on full blast as the blood spurted from his arm and splattered onto the floor soaking his detached arm.
Danni pulled the shotgun from behind her back around to her front. She held it steady under her arm and shot him. The figure’s legs buckled; he stumbled backwards and fell against the bloody wall. Danni made the shotgun clunk. She stood up and aimed it at his head but stopped herself.
She slung the shotgun over her shoulder again and watched the figure slide down the wall leaving a trail of blood.
She knelt down to him and removed his mask. His breathing slowed. His face looked lumpy; as if he had been burnt. She looked at his hair, there were bald patches.
‘Stay with me.’ Danni said to him.