The Undead Day Eighteen

by RR Haywood

  ‘Keep that one,’ Clarence reaches over to fold it back up.

  ‘Right,’ I open the next map and stare down for a few minutes amidst a table of silence.

  ‘It’s upside down,’ Marcy says quietly.

  ‘I knew that,’ I say quickly, ‘I was showing Clarence.’

  ‘He was showing me,’ Clarence says from opposite me and leaning over to see it.

  ‘He wasn’t showing you,’ she says then looks at me, ‘you weren’t showing him.’

  ‘Was,’ I say with a nod, ‘so was…er…where are we?’

  ‘In a golf hotel,’ Clarence says looking at me blankly.

  ‘On the map, where are we on the map?’

  ‘I don’t know, where are we?’

  ‘That’s what I said.’

  ‘That’s what I’m asking. Where are we?’

  ‘I don’t know. Look at the map.’

  ‘I can look at the map all day long but until I know where we are there isn’t much point.’

  ‘Find it on the map then.’

  ‘Find what? Where? What’s the name of the place we are at? As in the name of the place?’

  ‘Oh…er…’ I look round at the dining room, ‘some golf hotel…’

  ‘Got it,’ he says and starts tracing a finger across the spread out map, ‘some…golf…hotel….hmmm, doesn't seem to be here…’

  ‘Jesus this is painful,’ Paula reaches over to pull the map over, ‘someone find out the name of the hotel.’

  ‘It’s some hotel,’ Cookey says helpfully, ‘Mr Howie just said it.’

  ‘How the hell do we work out where to go if nobody knows where we are?’ Paula snaps.

  ‘Do you know where we are?’ Clarence asks.

  ‘That. That is not the point,’ Paula says while avoiding looking at him.

  ‘We’re here,’ Roy leans over and places a finger on a wide green section of the map, ‘I saw the sign on the way in.’

  ‘Thank God someone has some sense round here,’ Paula says, ‘thank you, Roy…now…so…what’s the plan?’

  ‘Er, we go places and kill things,’ I say with an air of confidence.

  ‘That it?’ Marcy asks.

  ‘Sounds cunning to me,’ Clarence says.

  ‘So why the map?’ She asks me.

  ‘For the plan,’ I reply.

  ‘The plan of going places and killing things?’

  ‘That plan, yeah.’

  ‘Great plan.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘I was being sarcastic. Paula? Can you devise another plan?’

  ‘What’s wrong with our plan?’ I ask.

  ‘It’s shit,’ Marcy says, ‘it’s the worst plan ever.’

  ‘No,’ I draw the map back over and look down, ‘bollocks…where are we again?’

  ‘Here,’ Roy leans over and places his finger back on the green splodge.

  ‘Right so we’re here…’ I tap my finger, ‘so we go from here…to these other places,’ I sweep my hand round the map, ‘and kill stuff.’

  ‘Great plan.’

  ‘Cheers, Clarence.’

  ‘Shit plan.’

  ‘Er, I’ll stop you there,’ I hold my hand up to Marcy, ‘Clarence was in the army and he says it’s a great plan.’

  ‘Awesome plan.’

  ‘And Cookey was in the army too and he said it was an awesome plan.’

  ‘Love the plan, boss.’

  ‘And Blowers was in the army and he loves the plan.’

  ‘Best plan ever.’

  ‘And Nick thinks it’s the best plan ever.’

  ‘Dave,’ Marcy stands up to look round for Dave at the table with the girls.

  ‘Yes, Marcy.’

  ‘See,’ she nods in victory.

  ‘Oh no…that was Dave responding to you calling his name and not saying yes as in yes I agree with you Marcy.’

  ‘Dave,’ Marcy says again.

  ‘Yes, Marcy.’

  ‘Is Howie’s plan a good plan?’

  ‘Any plan is better than no plan.’

  ‘Yes!’ I claim the victory back.

  ‘Good answer, Dave,’ Clarence says manfully.

  ‘Not an answer,’ Paula says taking over from Marcy, ‘Dave…could the plan be better?’

  ‘Any plan could be better with greater intelligence and understanding of the objectives to be achieved and the opposition faced by those seeking to…’

  ‘No,’ Paula sighs, ‘could this plan…I mean the plan that Howie suggested…the way he suggested it…’

  ‘Having fun?’ I look over at Paula.

  ‘Keep going,’ Clarence smiles.

  ‘Give me strength…Roy,’ she turns on him with a glare, ‘what do you think of the plan?’

  He shrugs and looks round the table, ‘to be fair it’s not far off what we’ve been doing anyway.’

  ‘Roy!’ Clarence booms, ‘brilliant answer…’ He leans back to look round Paula, ‘we should get some real ale.’

  Roy leans back to answer, ‘loads of old pubs round here I should imagine.’

  ‘Excuse me,’ Paula says with a huff, ‘that is not a plan…and we’re not doing it.’

  ‘Not going places and killing stuff?’ Cookey asks.

  ‘No we’re going places and killing stuff but there’ll be a bit more direction than that.’

  The table falls to an expectant silence as we all look to Paula who deigns to ignore us and stares at the map, ‘sod off the lot of you,’ she mutters to a round of grins and chuckles that die off at the serious look spreading across her face, ‘problem,’ she says.

  ‘Go on,’ I lean forward to listen.

  ‘The infection is evolving right? It split us up yesterday so it’s learning new tactics and gaining greater intelligence, is that a fair assumption?’

  ‘I’d say so,’ I reply with a glance round at everyone.

  ‘We’re here,’ she places a finger on the green splodge, ‘and I guess we’re going to be attacking these places,’ she motions to the urban grey splodges on the map, ‘but the problem is that if we hit this one first,’ she says with a finger held in the closest grey section, ‘then the infection will know we are here…and can pull in resources to the other towns nearby…’

  ‘But it won’t know which one we’ll hit,’ I say.

  ‘It will see the direction we leave,’ Paula says.

  ‘How will it? We’ll kill them all,’ I say but realise the flaw as soon as the words leave my mouth, ‘how did they know where we were yesterday?’

  ‘Crawler in our garden,’ Clarence says, ‘Dave cut its throat.’

  ‘It has a hive mind,’ Marcy says, ‘so it only needs one pair of eyes to see where we go and it will know the direction…’

  ‘We could leave a false trail,’ Clarence says, ‘leave one way but then veer off toward somewhere else.’

  ‘The risk,’ Paula says, ‘is that we’ll form a pattern…and once we do that we’re at risk of being caught out again.’

  ‘Go random them,’ Clarence says, ‘we’ll just pick a town and go for it…then bug out and choose another one.’

  ‘Sounds good to me,’ I say after a moment’s thought, ‘stay random and don’t let the infection know where we’re going.’

  ‘Okay,’ Paula says staring down at the map, ‘we hit the first town, do what we can then leave via whatever route is available then…then we stop and choose another location at random.’

  ‘Perfect, everyone happy?’ I look round at the faces nodding in agreement, apart from Reginald who has gone from being morose to looking like he wants to say something with a pensive expression and leaning slightly forward, ‘what’s up?’ I ask him.

  ‘Nothing,’ he says quickly.

  ‘Sure?’

  ‘I am sure, thank you,’ he replies with a tone that makes Marcy look over with concern.

  ‘Right, we’ll head outside and do some live firing with Charlie and Blinky…Marcy can have some practise and…’

  ‘Reggie,’ Marcy
says sharply, ‘I know that face.’

  ‘My name is Reginald,’ he says stiffly, ‘and…’

  ‘And nothing,’ she cuts him off, ‘you’ve been sitting there with a stick up your backside for the last five minutes. Spit it out.’

  ‘I beg your pardon!’

  ‘Reggie,’ she says firmly, ‘I know you and I know how intelligent you are. Say it, everyone will listen…’

  ‘Say what?’ I ask.

  ‘Whatever he needs to say,’ she replies, ‘he’s got something on his mind.’

  ‘Mate,’ I glance over at the look of thunder on his face as he glares at Marcy, ‘what’s on your mind?’

  ‘There are many things on my mind,’ he stammers with a glare at Marcy, ‘but having a stick up my backside is not one of them. Really, Marcy.’ He looks away with distaste.

  ‘Ten minutes and we’ll move out,’ I say into the awkward silence that follows, ‘Dave, do you want to take Blinky and Charlie outside now to live fire?’

  ‘Yes, Mr Howie.’

  ‘Lads,’ I say as they all start to rise with drool hanging from their mouths at the prospect of standing close to Charlie and no doubt show her how to hold the rifle nice and snug, ‘get ready to go…take your kit bags with you now,’ I add to the girls.

  I follow the three of them out into reception and stare through the doors to the heaving rain still pelting down outside.

  ‘Everything okay?’ I ask them both once they’ve put their bags down and with Dave standing to one side.

  Blinky nods and blinks.

  ‘Fine, thank you,’ Charlie says politely.

  ‘You’ve had a night to think things over, any change of mind? You can say at any time you know.’

  Blinky blinks and stares at Dave.

  ‘I’m okay, I think Blinky is er…settling in very well,’ Charlie says.

  ‘Fuck yeah,’ Blinky snorts.

  ‘Right, well…you did practise yesterday so now is about getting used to the rifle being fired…Dave…’

  He unbolts the doors and pushes them open, ‘Patricia come here, insert the magazine and make the weapon ready for firing…’ he watches mutely as she quickly pulls a magazine out from her pocket, slams it into the hole, racks the bolt back and checks the safety.

  ‘Loaded, ready and the safety is on,’ she snaps the words out.

  ‘Select single shot,’ he says.

  ‘Single shot selected.’

  ‘Shoulder the weapon in the approved manner. Good. Finger on the trigger and do not snatch but squeeze…breathe as you do it and fire once…’

  The rifle booms with a single shot as she aims far into the golf course.

  ‘Good,’ Dave says, ‘relax and do it again, single shots…go…’

  She fires one after the other and you can see the visible change as her body relaxes the tension held in her stance and posture. The flinching from the initial recoil is soon gone and the last ten shots are delivered smoothly.

  ‘MAGAZINE!’ She booms with a habit from yesterday’s drill already ingrained.

  ‘Good,’ Dave says, ‘Charlotte, replace Patricia please.’

  ‘Can you call me Blinky, please,’ Blinky asks.

  ‘No,’ Dave says shutting down any further conversation on the topic. ‘Charlotte, make the weapon ready for firing please,’ he orders in that dull monotone of his.

  She goes through the same actions and shoulders the weapon ready for firing, ‘ready.’

  ‘Have you selected single shot?’

  ‘I have,’ she says in a confident tone and without a tremor showing in her hands or voice.

  ‘Proceed,’ Dave says.

  She fires and even with my lack of knowledge I can see the girl is a natural. The shots are squeezed, the recoil absorbed, the first shot induces a natural flinch but after that they quickly reduce until she is firing at a steady pace and adjusting her own stance to increase her comfort.

  ‘MAGAZINE,’ she shouts not quite as loudly as Blinky.

  ‘Good,’ Dave says, ‘Patricia come forward and both step outside doors…burst fire…this is achieved by a controlled depressing of the trigger to release several rounds into the target without having to fight for control of a weapon on automatic fire. Do you understand? I will show you,’ he steps smartly between them and brings his own rifle up to his shoulder and aims into the rain, ‘burst,’ he says and holds the trigger down for a second or two, ‘burst,’ he does it again, ‘burst,’ he repeats the action with a burst fire rate that is so perfectly done he could be doing videos on youtube.

  ‘Patricia first,’ he says and moves to her side.

  ‘Burst,’ she says and fires a single shot, ‘fuck it!’ She curses and turns the weapon to change the fire mode, ‘sorry, Dave.’

  ‘Mistakes are part of learning,’ Dave says parrot fashion.

  ‘Burst,’ she says it again and fires a short burst into the golf course, ‘it lifts,’ she says.

  ‘It does,’ Dave says, ‘you have to compensate but not over compensate. Burst fire is used to prevent a loss of control of aiming, do it again.’

  ‘Burst,’ she fires again and works to keep the weapon steady, ‘burst,’ she says.

  ‘You do not need to say burst each time,’ Dave says.

  ‘Sorry, Dave,’ Blinky says and fires through the remainder of the magazine.

  ‘Charlotte,’ Dave says, ‘burst fire please.’

  She selects the fire mode, shoulders the weapon, adjusts her stance and fires a controlled burst, pauses then repeats as she works through the rounds.

  ‘You’re so fucking good,’ Blinky says when she lowers the weapon.

  Charlie shrugs self-consciously and looks to Dave.

  ‘Change magazine and burst fire please,’ Dave says to both of them.

  They do it again and although the difference between them is slight it is also noticeable. Blinky is competent and fearless in her approach but lets her natural aggression show whereas Charlie is composed and almost cold in her delivery.

  ‘Cease fire,’ Dave says and heads back into reception to take up a plastic display stand that he carries out into the rain and away to a decent distance so it’s only just visible through the rainfall, ‘single shot,’ he moves to the side away from danger and we both watch as they select single shots, shoulder their weapons and aim for the plastic stand. They both miss the first few shots but once the adjustments are made the stand starts getting blown to bits until the fourth or fifth shot has it smashing to the ground, ‘can you still see it?’ Dave asks.

  ‘Yes, Dave!’ Blinky snaps the words back.

  ‘Burst fire on the target.’

  They adjust and do as bid with controlled bursts that steadily pulverises the poor stand to bits.

  ‘Both of you will change to fully automatic and fire into target…on my command….FIRE’

  I drop back from the sudden booming noise of two assault rifles letting rip. Blinky goes all out with determination but Charlie stops after a second or two and goes back to burst firing.

  ‘CEASEFIRE,’ Dave shouts from the rain, ‘good, Patricia your aim is slightly off but time will rectify that. Charlotte, you stopped fully automatic because the weapon was becoming unwieldy and you reverted to burst fire.’

  ‘Was that wrong?’ Charlie asks with a worried frown.

  ‘Not wrong,’ Dave says, ‘control must be maintained at all times…Mr Howie I would like to try Charlotte with a sniper rifle.’

  ‘Eh? What now? Have we got one?’

  ‘We do not have one.’

  ‘How the hell we gonna try her then?’

  ‘We should find a sniper rifle.’

  ‘Yeah add it to the list, Dave. We’ll get a van from the van store, some radios from the radio store and a sniper rifle from the bloody sniping store…’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘Okay,’ I say back at him.

  ‘Charlotte is capable of being a marksmen.’

  ‘Markswoman,’ Charlotte says politely.
<
br />   ‘Markswoman,’ Dave says.

  ‘How can you tell?’ Charlie asks.

  ‘Control and the manner in which you are firing,’ Dave says, ‘Mr Howie, we also need to give consideration for hand weapons for Patricia, Charlotte, Paula and Marcy.’

  ‘Want an axe,’ Blinky says.

  ‘Axes are heavy,’ Dave says then stares for a minute at Blinky’s muscled frame, ‘axe will be fine for you.’

  ‘Add it to the list,’ I say, ‘I’ll get the others ready…five more minutes?’

  ‘Yes, Mr Howie…CHANGE MAGAZINE AND COMMENCE SINGLE FIRE ON MY COMMAND,’ he surges towards them with that drill sergeant voice booming into the air.

  ‘Armoured van,’ Roy greets me as I walk back into the main room.

  ‘A what?’

  ‘Mo Mo’s suggestion,’ he says with a nod at Mo, ‘he suggested we try for a cash in transit van.’

  ‘Well done, Mo,’ I say to the young lad, ‘where do we find one? There’s one in Boroughfare…I saw it on the night it happened, some bloke drove past my house beeping the horn and making them all chase him.’

  ‘Who was he?’ Marcy asks turning round to look at me.

  ‘No idea, saw him a bit later when he got surrounded but when I went back he was gone…’

  ‘What sort was it?’ Mo asks.

  ‘Sort?’

  ‘Yeah, boss. Like…transit or…’

  ‘Dunno, er…I can’t actually remember…I think it was rounded edges so yeah, must have been transit based chassis I guess.’

  ‘Square Mercedes ones are best,’ he says, ‘stronger…much harder to break into.’

  ‘Good to know,’ I say, ‘so where we going to find one from?’

  ‘There’s a storage depot outside Portsmouth,’ he says, ‘or we’s find a bank with a secure yard.’

  ‘We’ll find a bank,’ I say, ‘I hate Portsmouth…’

  ‘MAGAZINE!’

  ‘Is that Blinky?’ Paula asks with a look of surprise.

  ‘Yep, Dave said Charlie is a natural and we have to find a sniper rifle for her…and he also said we have to get you ladies some hand weapons as axes are too heavy.’

  ‘Sexist,’ Paula says automatically, ‘but alas very true.’

  ‘Right, load up…we’re moving out…’

  Day Eighteen

  I awoke this morning to a landscape changed by precipipitatio by prepicipiatio damn that blasted word. It has rained and the rain has changed the landscape. Water is everywhere shimmering with newly formed lakes that ripple with motion caused by the incessant rain. Yesterday was a day of days. That group I observed in the town of Finkton and the sheer numbers of infected marching against them and the way those infected moved too. To see a thing of that nature is truly terrifying but worse for the actions taken by that bloody horse.