“Help me! Help me!!!” He pleaded and shouted, reaching his arm out for me. I turned like a coward and scrambled away to the others, I couldn’t be left behind. I could hear his screeches and curses as they were thrown towards me. I sprinted. I could never save everyone; all I had done was delay the inevitable. I turned a corner as more infected scaled the fence to the south, they were trapping us, encircling us, soon the entire place would be nothing but a graveyard of lost souls. A young girl was snatched and pulled apart right in front of my eyes. I couldn't do anything to help her, there were too many coming. Susie and her friend were crying by the tents. I shouted with all my might.
“Get to the truck!”
I hurled my voice to her, then she ran to the cars, where I pointed and frantically raced away.
“What about Charlie Squad?” Jake asked alongside one of the soldiers that had come and helped us escape.
“They're gone, we need to go! Go!” I ordered him, as Maddison held my hand.
“Go! Go! Go! Go!” Jake screamed as I arrived at the vehicles. There was a van and The Princess. Mason jumped off the The Princess to grab something from his tent. Now of all times!
“Get us out of here!” Thomas ordered.
“Mason! Mason!” I shouted to him. “We're leaving!”
I jumped on finally and peaked over to the tents being ripped apart, savagely looted for people to ravage.
“Hurry up please!” Susie insisted.
“Drive! Drive!” I told Mason after I helped a soldier onto the jeep. Mason finally jumped in and started the jeep with a loud bang. He had taken Hussain’s crescent heirloom. We began driving through the camp as it fell under utter chaos. It was a massacre.
“Help us!” Someone called out from the ruined portion west side of the safe zone. I told Susie and her friend to close their eyes. Then as we drove away, north, to the motorway, I saw a little girl holding a teddy bear in her hands.
“Mommy?!” I heard her cry, right before one of them jumped on her and ripped her throat out.
“Oh god,” Maddison whispered.
“Don't look back. Don't look back. Don't look back,” I whispered as we crossed the abandoned gate to the north. The camp was on fire near the south, as I realised our world was over. There was no help coming, there never was any help coming. We’d lost everything. Something inside me switched off.
“There's no one left. There's no one left,” Jake spoke, like a riddle, as the cries of hundreds of people in the camp, creepily died down into nothingness.
World Down - Day 20 - Blake
I relived it every time I closed my eyes, the sounds of the terror, of the carnage. The camp was gone. Mom was gone, James was gone, Jacob was gone, Hussain was gone, the prime minister was gone, everyone was gone. Who the hell remained? There were ten of us. Me, Mason, Jake, Thomas, Maddison, Susie, her friend and three other soldiers whose names were Ronny, Rave and Calum. Not a single sentence was uttered by any of us sordid survivors, as night fell and we rested in a field of all places. Maddison slept next to me. It took me an age to sleep. When I woke the next morning, she was gone, and the dirt where the campfire had burned lay black and scorched below a pale and murky blue sky.
“Blake, morning,” her voice sounded from behind me. It seemed she had just arrived back from a walk. I found Jake and the girls still sleeping opposite me.
“Thomas is with the others scouting out the surroundings. They found a petrol station that's been ransacked of basically everything,” she said, before throwing a candy bar to me. I picked it up.
“But not everything. How are you?” I asked her as I lay idle.
“I’m fine,” she answered. I leaned back and looked at the sky with a stretch and a yawn. I couldn't help but think what was the point in going on? Everything I had ever had was taken from me.
“What the hell are we going to do now? What's the point? I’m tired, I’m dirty, I just want to go fucking home,” I moaned aloud. She fell silent, as I stretched again. I took a moment to collect my thoughts, then looked at her and saw her begin crying.
“I don't know,” she replied as I got up. I gazed to the dirt around me while slumbering and stammering up to hug her. I would cry myself if I had not exhausted all my tears already. I held her but knew nothing I could say would comfort her. It felt good to hug someone, the last person I had embraced was my Mom before I left for the military. As time passed and things calmed down, I made my way to the station. It was about a mile away from where we had parked the jeeps and rested. It was overcast, I could see rain clouds forming in the sky far away. The world as I knew it might have ended, but the world still turned as normal.
“Thomo! What's going on? What you found?” I asked him as I arrived.
“Nothing,” he said, before smoking a cigar.
“Chocolate bars innit,” Rave said, throwing one to me. He was of Asian ethnicity and had a thick Pakistani accent. I caught it with my arm as it slid down my shirt.
“Where's Mason?” I asked them.
“Inside,” said Thomo, looking dejected. He was done with it all now. His efforts to be in control had led us here, in the middle of nowhere, our minds teetering on the edge of insanity. I gave them a weary look before heading inside. The shop was looted, there was hardly anything left. At the back I heard a kerfuffle.
“Blake?” Said Mason in surprise as he saw me, a bar of white chocolate in his mouth as he reached the back of a shelf for more.
“Hussain always said I was white chocolate, I guess you are what you eat,” he joked. I ignored the racist jibe he said came from Hussain, he probably said it as Mason called him much worse.
“Anything left?” I asked approaching him.
“Not much, but I got my eye on something down here,” he said squeezing his arm through a gap in the shelf.
“Ah!” He then groaned, pulling out a few more bars of chocolate. He gave me a smile and picked up his bag full of items.
“I don't trust them a lot, and neither do you I don’t think,” he then said gesturing outside. “Thomas is dead weird, I feel like you're the only one of us, who ain't been badly affected by all this.”
I looked to the cashier as he spoke. He was slumped down with gashes in his head and an open belly. Probably a gnasher or a fellow human you really couldn't tell. I hoped it was quick for him. I emerged from the shop with Mason who had in his hands several plundered items.
“Of course, a couple white bars would be left,” bemoaned Calum, who was white, short with a shaved head. Clearly, he wasn't a fan of the chocolate.
“What? White bars are nice man,” Mason said glancing at his stock.
“Fuck white bars man,” Rave quipped as he leaned on the wall.
“This is a blessing from god yeah, these bars are beautiful!” My old rival exclaimed.
“Your god isn't real, kuffar bastard,” Rave casually stated, enraging Mason. Thomas looked down to the pavement. There was a silence in the air. I knew it was about to kick off again.
“You did not just fucking say that to me? I’m trying to hold all my shit in right now,” Mason spoke to him.
“Lads, you're really going to have a fight over a flipping chocolate bar yeah?” Jake tried to reason with them. Mason backed away, unwrapping a bar and taking a big bite out of it.
“Well maybe it's worth it, cus they are bloody delicious,” he said loudly.
“I don't know you, now get out my face,” Rave said to me. I instantly took a dislike to him. He was hostile for no reason. I looked to the other side of the street, where Thomas brooded and stared at the empty abandoned cars. Walking over, I knew something was wrong with him, as if he was weighing up a thought or a decision.
“There's a couple of bodies in the field,” he spoke scarcely as I stopped behind him.
“I don't know how they died or what the hell happened here, I guess we’ll never know,” he almost whispered he was so quiet. I put my hand to his shoulder and patted him.
“Come on, let's get ba
ck,” I said. He took a moment to accept my request, then followed me back. We walked to the jeeps and the campfire where we had slept. Where Jake, Susie and her friend were still half asleep. Maddison had taken off her boots and rung out the small rocks and water that had accumulated from traversing the muddy fields.
“You stink man,” Mason grumbled.
“What do you want to do?” I asked Thomas discreetly away from the others.
“What do you want to do?” He threw it back to me.
“Honestly?” I asked him unsure. I glanced back to the campfire we had, a few metres away from where we were standing. Thomas meanwhile nodded his head, prompting me to speak.
“I want to find my family, what's left of them,” I stated my wishes, to find Jess, Lily and Dad.
“You think they’re alive?” He asked me while stepping closer.
“Yeah, they gotta be!” I said heart wrenchingly.
“Well, you realise that would mean heading back south west, to the city,” he said.
“Yeah,” I said, confirming my desire to head back. He shook his head for a second, then looked me in the eyes.
“Then give the order to them,” he said, handing me leadership, or rather, hanging me out to dry with that suggestion. I laughed at it.
“Wouldn't look right, me being a private. You're the corporal, you should give the order,” I said, putting the onus on him.
“It doesn't matter anymore. None of it does, fuck it all,” he despaired, turning from me and prancing about the field.
“What? Grow a pair and man up for fucks sake,” I told him with a bump on his arm.
“Look around you Blake. It's all gone. It's all gone,” he said facing me, pointing out the obvious. I stormed off, not wanting to argue with him anymore. The day passed slowly, I didn't know what to do with myself. I took the maps from the jeeps and scouted the route we would be taking. I decided, with or without the others, I would go. If I had only Maddison or Thomas, or Jake, or even Mason with me, I would be more than happy to go with them. They were like brothers to me, no matter what happened now, we were bonded for life, for good or bad. By the time evening came I was prepared, everything was ready.
“Alright people. Listen up,” I said, catching everyone's attention.
“We're looking to be going south, to find some people, my family, I left them, and then when we find them we're gonna go head back up north,” I told them haphazardly. I did not care if they were not coming, I was and those few that were truly loyal to me would come as well.
“What. No, no. I'm afraid that's not happening,” Calum said rising up from his seated position upon a log.
“We hunker down, we wait this thing out,” Susie suggested.
“We've been waiting this thing out?” Jake responded to her. This was not a debate though, it was me announcing my intentions. If they did not want to follow it was up to them.
“What are we waiting for, commands gone, headquarters overrun, field hospital, overrun, camp overrun. The airport is gone! We are going North!” Exclaimed Calum, as Rave nodded. I heard a gun click to my left, and I turned to find Thomas holding a glock pistol to my head.
“They’re right,” he said, nonchalantly considering the situation. What on god's green earth was he thinking!? Rave pulled out his gun and pointed it at me as well.
“Oh my god, what are you doing!?” Maddison screamed seeing the guns pointed to us.
“We need to keep level heads. No one gets hurt,” I said angrily to Thomas. Why is he doing this? He was my friend, my brother in arms.
“Jesus,” muttered Jake.
“I'm taking the food, I'm taking the supplies, I'm taking the jeeps and I'm taking the guns,” he stated coldly.
“You can't!” Shouted Susie's friend. It was the first time I’d heard her speak, but sadly it would be the last time. Rave immediately turned his gun from me and shot her dead.
“No!” Screamed Susie, as her friend fell down with a little cry.
He turned the gun back to me. He’d shot her with no hesitation or remorse. I thought about who else is he going to shoot? Me? Maddison?
“Just so everyone knows how serious I am,” he said.
“How could you?!” I growled. He simply made firmer his grip on the gun.
“Woah hold on, hold on Thomas,” I said to calm him. This wasn't Thomas, he was good, he’s the reason I joined the army in the first place.
“What's there to hold onto Blake. What have we got? Nothing,” he uttered painstakingly.
“You fucking traitor,” Jake scolded him.
“We’ve got our lives, a duty! Are you really going to do this?” I asked him, but he had gone too far, we both knew that now. There was no way back to the way it was. It had been like that for Thomas for some time now, only now I realised it.
“Yeah, I need to. It pains me, it really does, but, anyone wants in just say,” he couldn't finish his sentence before Rave stole all the food we had saved from the old camp, then took the keys to the vehicles, both of them. It was him, and the others from the camp.
“This is bullshit!” Calum grew enraged, encouraging him to shoot me.
“Shut up,” Thomas said to him. I heard a rattle and a metal cling from behind me, where the jeeps were parked, we all looked over to the sound. It was the sound of a very heavy gun being reloaded and readied to fire. Mason had mounted the GPMG, the general-purpose machine gun onto the front of the jeep, and pointed it right at Thomas.
“Put down the keys,” Mason announced threateningly. I gulped at the situation before me. This was going to end badly. Thomas shook his head in disbelief with a smile.
“Mason, you are so difficult,” he said to him. “You have to make it so difficult, don't you?”
“I will,” said Mason, holding the trigger closer and closer while flexing his fingers.
“Do it! Shoot him! Kill him!” Susie barked while crouched over her dead friend. She was crying tears over her corpse.
“You know where Murphy is?” Thomas asked us.
“Who the fucks Murphy?” Mason asked him. I grabbed my gun and held it to Thomas while he spoke his riddles.
“Ronny, Ronald Murphy,” said Calum. Then I remembered the other one, Ronald. He had a sniper rifle and a camo vest, and he wasn’t present…
“Where'd he go?” Mason shouted nervously.
“He's about half a mile…” Thomas turned and pointed around to a field with a large row of hedges, taunting us on where he was.
“In that direction. With a scope and a rifle. Any of you try anything and he'll pull the trigger. I don't know who he'll hit. But he’ll hit somewhere.”
“You don't have to do this!” I said, realising how screwed we were. He gave me a fake smile, which then soured into a serious scowl. He was truly gone.
“We’re going to leave now,” he said. I looked to the blood seeping into the dirt around the girl's body, then Maddison’s horrified face. There was nothing she could do, Susie's friend had been shot dead.
“Goodbye team,” stated Thomas, as he and his band of thieves jumped on The Princess, Mason’s pride and joy. Thomas threw his pistol to my feet.
“Thomas, you will regret this, you can't leave us, this is bad, you’re not a bad guy!” I spoke to him, my last words to him. He gave me another look, this time full of guilt.
“There is no grey area. Black and white. There's just bad guys and there's good guys,” he said, pointing the gun closer to me.
“You're a bad guy, I'm a bad guy. There are loads of bad guys. And there's very few good guys, and you know where they are, they’re dead,” he finished, and then they left. Going over to the sniper, they picked up Ronald in the far field, and then drove off into the distance, never to be seen again I hoped. I picked up the gun from the floor, as Susie wept, and found it had no bullets in. He was bluffing, he wasn't going to shoot me, he couldn't, I was his brother in arms. As for the girl who lay dead, she was collateral. Thomas had been planning this, maybe even from before th
e camp was overrun and lost. We were all shell shocked. Until I remembered the dead that came back to life and quickly reloaded the pistol, before marching over to the bloody corpse.
“Stop!” Susie screamed and pushed my legs away. I stepped back and held the gun away, then bent down and crouched beside her as Maddison gave me a concerned, warning gesture. I was ready, just in case she reanimated and attacked. She wore rags and clothes that didn't fit her.
“Her name was Angelica,” Susie said sombrely.
“I’m sorry,” I said to her, then I took her hand and led her slowly away.
“This is heart-breaking,” Maddison whispered as she held her tight. I hesitated but did what had to be done before immediately collecting my things. I was leaving, like I said I was. I only had a single magazine left, but it would have to do to find my family. The jeep was out of petrol, Thomas and his thugs had seen to that, so I would be on foot to the south west. I didn't have to speak a word to the others, they just followed me. Jake, Maddison, Susie and Mason. We were a five-man squad again. We travelled on foot for about five hours, crossing field upon field, for miles, passing roads and following dirt paths that ran parallel to the abandoned motorway. I looked up to the horizon to find some hope, maybe a plane or a helicopter searching for survivors, but nothing was there. It was true, the world was over, me and the others were all that remained. We came to an overpass that overlooked the airport runway and the radar dish tower that had ceased spinning. A car park full of cars, fresh cars with lots of petrol stored in them, from the airport flyers that had gone abroad and never came back. The sun was blinding on the overpass, the motorway below us was so far away. I saw a green van coming over the horizon of the highway. People, at long last.
“Is that the mystery machine?” Mason slurred his words as it came closer. The van stopped, as Susie dropped down like a log from dehydration, and Maddy quickly moved to help her. We were all so hungry and thirsty. The van driver opened his door and stepped out casually. I took my rifle and brought the strap above my head placing it to the ground to show we were friendly. The driver was very chiselled and strong, stronger than even Mason, who looked on with suspicion. The van sliding door opened up as the driver continued to stare at us. I was secretly nervous, until I saw a face I had not seen for what felt like a lifetime. It was a face that I could never forget, someone I loved unconditionally, who I thought I’d lost. She took a moment to realise it was me, the scowl she wore was so unlike her, in her ripped punk jeans and messy hair. She then realised someone she knew, and shielded her eyes from the sun to see me better. It was Jess.
World Down: A Zombie Novel Page 26