by Hatchett
“I know, bro.”
36
Day 11 – 11:20
Kingsland Road, Hoxton
Mamba and Ahmed each helped themselves to a bottle of warm Budweiser and unscrewed the tops before talking a long drink. They then sauntered back to the group of Turks who were standing around, muttering in their own language.
“What have I fuckin’ told ya ‘bout speakin’ fuckin’ English!” Mamba shouted.
All conversations ceased and they all looked to Mamba, then his bottle of beer, with longing in their eyes.
“Listen up, we don’t have much time,” Mamba ordered. “We need to get outta here right now, before they come back. They’re probably already on their way. We can’t jus’ pile outta here in a group ‘cos I think they’ve got eyes in the sky.”
“Eyes in the sky?” Mesut asked, looking confused.
Mamba was about to answer but Ayla beat him to it, “Satellite coverage.” She turned to Mamba. “What are we going to do?”
“We’re leavin’…now. You’ll all go out one by one, a couple of minutes apart, some through the front, some through the back. Move very slowly, shuffle like the fuckin’ zombies. Keep yer heads down and keep as close to the buildin’s as possible. Try and find alleys or bridges where ya can’t be seen from the sky. Use these to double back. Do not go in a straight line. Go into buildin’s and see if ya can get out again through the rear, change clothes, anythin’ to stop anyone tryin’ to track ya.”
“Where are we going?” Temel asked.
“Ya all know where Old Street Tube station is? It’s not far from here,” Mamba asked.
There were nods all around.
“Take different routes to get to the main roundabout, then head West along Old Street, or the side roads or parallel roads if ya can. You’ll come to Clerkenwell and there’s a pub called ‘The Fox’. We meet there whenever ya can make it. I don’t care if it takes hours. We’ll stay there and lie low until tomorrow. First ones in, make sure it’s safe and contained. Right, let’s go. Who’s first?”
“I’ll go,” Ayla volunteered and made her way towards the front of the shop. She paused and turned, “What about the gear in the Defenders?”
“Fuck the gear,” Mamba replied. “We can’t go near them fuckin’ vehicles. We’ll find some more gear once we’re safe.” Ayla nodded and turned to leave the shop, carefully merging with the horde of zombies gathered outside.
“I’ll take the back,” Osman offered, and they all started moving out every couple of minutes.
37
Day 11 – 11:45
Heathrow Terminal 3, Security Command Centre
Issy joined Jack and the Major as they walked from Jack’s office into the Security Command Centre, having been called by Tom Williams a few minutes earlier.
Jack, Issy and the Major took seats in the Command Ring as Tom came across to stand next to them.
“What’s going on then, Tom?” Jack asked.
Tom pointed to the main screen opposite. “Something I wanted you to see,” he replied.
A satellite image appeared on the main screen. It showed various streets and buildings from high above, everything looking quite small from the distance of the camera.
“What are we looking at here?” Issy asked.
Tom clicked a button and the view zoomed further out, making the roads and housing appear even smaller. Within a couple of seconds, they were all looking at the familiar layout of London, with the Thames snaking across the screen on the way to the sea. Tom then clicked another button and the view zoomed back in, heading for North London.
“Unfortunately this is not real time,” Tom began, “but a recording. We can still change the view and move around the screen in real time but what we’re looking at happened about twenty to thirty minutes ago. As you know, we’ve been monitoring activity around the capital, looking for any organised movement, groups of survivors et cetera. I mentioned at the last update that we’ve found various groups which appear to have secured their own areas and we have been watching them, but there simply aren’t enough of us to monitor everything. Anyway, looking at this footage, we start at 10:01…”
Tom pressed another button to role the footage and used a laser pen to indicate the part of the map the Leaders needed to look at.
Although small, they could see three vehicles leaving an estate in Dalston and drive to the A10 Kingsland Road and turn South, heading towards the city.
“One of the operatives happened to notice the movement,” Tom advised, “and alerted me. You will see that the vehicles suddenly stopped in the middle of the road and a figure got out.”
Tom zoomed in and the footage showed a figure stabbing another before covering himself in guts then looking back skywards towards the South.
“What’s he doing?” Issy asked.
“I think he saw or heard the Lynx heli which was airborne over the city at that moment,” Tom replied. “This is where I first came into it; I ordered the Lynx to fly up there to get a closer look at what was going on. But, the next images are very interesting…”
The footage continued and they saw the three vehicles turn into a side road and park up. The next thing they saw was a group of people exiting the vehicles, killing more zombies and covering themselves with guts and dumping the bodies on the vehicles. They all then ran across the street and disappeared.
The zombies in the immediate vicinity followed and soon there was a large congregation of them on the pavement and in the road outside the building.
Tom paused the screen. “I won’t waste your time. Nothing else happened as far as we can tell. A number of zombies drifted away from the building but that’s about it.
“OK,” Issy started, “I assume you’ve been studying the footage so what do you think we were looking at?”
“I think we’ve found Mamba,” Tom replied. He clicked another button and picture of what looked like a black man looking up to the sky. “I think that’s him, but I’ll need to confirm with Daniel.”
“Can I get a print of it,” Issy asked. “I want to study it and make sure I never forget that face.”
“Will do,” Tom confirmed.
“What is he wearing?” she queried.
“Looks like motorcycle clothing,” the Major suggested. “Probably quite good protection.”
“So, you think we’ve got him trapped in a building on that road?” Jack asked.
“I think so. We haven’t seen anyone leave the area,” Tom confirmed.
“How many people were in that group?” Issy asked.
“We counted twelve in total leaving the vehicles and running to the building,” Tom replied.
“I see they’ve all learnt to ‘get dirty’,” Issy commented, so that means they’ve had some experience of dealing with the zombies. They’ve also sussed that we can track them. What do we know about the place they began their journey?”
“Not much,” Tom replied. “It’s a Turkish area of town, possible gangs, but that’s speculation. We’ve looked a bit closer at them since and it seems they’ve managed to secure a whole housing estate, quite a large area, so that suggests very good organisation.”
“So, what do we think? Mamba made his way up there and borrowed a few Turks to help him with whatever he’s got planned?”
“That would be my guess, assuming it is Mamba,” Tom agreed.
“And he’s still in that building?”
“We think so.”
Issy suddenly stood up and clicked her comms in her ear, “Team Alpha, gear up, going in five.” She turned to Jack and the Major, “I’m going to take a look.” With that she quickly headed for the exit.
“Good luck, be careful,” Jack shouted but she’d already gone.
“Keep monitoring in real time,” Jack ordered. “I want to see what happens.”
38
Day 11 – 12:15
Kingsland Road, Hoxton
The pilot brought the Apache into a hover just above the vehicles opposite the Sainsbury’
s supermarket on Kingsland Road, the four rotors blasting air down onto the road and pavements and knocking zombies off their feet. The noise was horrendous.
“Apache in position,” he stated.
Issy was in the back of one of two Lynx heli’s just a few minutes behind the Apache. She had eleven soldiers with her, all armed to the teeth with MP5’s and assorted other weapons and body armour.
“Light them up,” Issy ordered.
The pilot of the Apache opened fire with the M230 chain gun, shooting 30mm rounds into the store. The M230 could shoot up to one thousand two hundred rounds at a rate of over six hundred rounds per minute. The large calibre rounds were highly effective at demolishing anything in their path; they were armour piercing and provided lethal fragmentation, killing anything in their way. The store was demolished in seconds and all that was left was the wreckage of glass and goods, much of which was still fluttering in the air before falling back down to earth. The pilot took the bird back up into the air and circled the area as the two Lynx heli’s arrived.
There wasn’t sufficient room for the Lynx heli’s to land so Issy instructed the pilots to move further along the road and hover above a Mitsubishi L200 pickup truck she had spotted with double cabin and open load area. She recognised that the team were not ‘dirty’ so this needed to be the first task before they surveyed the wreckage in the store.
Issy was the first to jump the last couple of feet onto the roof of the truck and climb down into the load area, where she was still protected from any zombies nearby. She had her MP5 over her shoulder and her bowie knife already in her hand.
The downwash from the rotors made it difficult for the zombies to get close, so Issy had to wait a couple of minutes for the other five in her heli to jump down and join her. Then the heli veered off and the zombies came towards them.
Issy had already told her team what they needed to do, so, as the first zombie reached the truck, one of the team grabbed its arm as Issy stabbed it in the head. Then they hauled the body into the load area and cut it up and covered themselves in gore. Then they cautiously climbed down from the truck, taking things nice and slow.
Once they were off the truck, Issy signalled for the second Lynx to come in and another six of her team jumped down. They followed the same procedure, then they were all ready to move out.
The second Lynx moved away and the team then waited a couple more minutes for the nearby zombies to lose interest before they made their way towards the store.
There was debris everywhere. If there were people in the store when the Apache opened fire, then it was clear that they would all be dead.
Issy indicated that two of the team should keep guard while the rest of them sifted through the debris, looking for bodies.
After ten minutes of searching Issy signalled to stop. It was clear that their targets were not in the debris, and the bodies they had found were just dead zombies. She clicked her comms and ordered, “sweep the immediate area.”
The soldiers knew what they were doing; they split into four teams of three and started searching the nearby buildings and side roads.
Issy and the two in her team headed straight for the vehicles left behind by Mamba and the Turks. Issy saw that they were all Land Rover Defenders and realised that they had been well chosen for moving around these streets. They searched the vehicles and pulled out various weapons and bags containing liquids, timers, detonators and some explosives. Issy replaced some of the materials in the bags, ready to take them back with her.
The four teams merged fifteen minutes later. None of them had found any trace of Mamba or his colleagues.
Issy clicked her comms and asked Tom if he’d managed to find any leads for them to follow, but he’d found nothing.
“How can they have just disappeared?” Issy asked, annoyed that she had missed Mamba once again, probably within an hour.
“I don’t know Issy,” Tom replied. “We’re still sifting through the footage, but there’s nothing yet. We thought we had a line on one of the group but lost him or her when they disappeared into a building. They’re obviously not stupid and are quick to adapt.”
This didn’t make Issy feel any better. Mamba had nearly made a big mistake moving around in those Defenders, but he’d very quickly turned adversity around and made his escape. This was very much like a hunt; the hunter and the hunted. At the moment, she was the hunter, but she had a nagging feeling that the roles could easily be reversed.
Issy called for the heli’s to come pick them up. Mamba was long gone and there was nothing more she could do in Kingsland Road. It was time to get back to Heathrow and think through their next steps.
39
Day 11 – 13:15
Heathrow Terminal 3, Jack’s Office
Issy sat in the chair opposite Jack, with the Major sitting next to her.
“So, no luck then?” Jack enquired.
“No, unfortunately not. The rats had deserted the ship,” Issy replied. “But, I managed to bring back the gear they had stashed in the backs of the three Defenders.”
“Bomb making stuff?”
“Yeah. But just because I’ve taken it, it doesn’t mean they can’t get their hands on the same ingredients. A short trip to a DIY shop would probably be enough.”
“So, what’s next?”
“Not a lot I can do for the time being. I’m going to take a shower and get some rest and hope Tom and the team find me another lead. The team will keep an eye on the Defenders in case they’re stupid enough to return, but I don’t hold out much hope. They’re also scouring the streets all around the area, but still nothing yet. The trouble is, they could be anywhere by now.”
“OK. Anything you need?”
“Not at the moment. I think we need to look to reinforce the perimeter as best we can and increase the number of guards, but it’s a big perimeter and we simply can’t cover it all. We’ve got time. If they are heading in this direction it’ll take them a long time to get here. We also need to warn the Tower in case that’s the target.”
“What about Battersea?” the Major suggested.
“Battersea should be fine,” Issy advised. “They don’t know it exists.”
“OK, go get some rest and we’ll talk later.”
Issy rose from her chair and left the room, heading back towards the Hilton hotel.
40
Day 11 – 15:00
The Waterside Pub, Hoxton Canal
Mamba and Ahmed were in the Waterside pub, drinking a beer and smoking cigarettes.
They had agreed this meeting place before leaving the Sainsbury’s store separately, Ahmed going out the front and Mamba going out the back.
Mamba had no idea which route Ahmed had taken to get here and didn’t care. He’d taken half an hour longer and Mamba had managed to down a couple of drinks before he arrived.
After leaving the Sainsbury’s store, Mamba had slowly integrated with the zombies on Narzul Street taking a right on Cremer Street then a left onto Geffrye Street and passing the Hoxton train station. There were numerous tunnels under the railway line and Mamba ducked under these, took out some zombies and stole their clothing each time. Anyone watching would not have seen the same Mamba come back out. He also varied which side of the tunnel he emerged. Sometimes it was back onto Geffrye Street and sometimes into other roads like Dunloe Street.
Once he felt he was a safe distance away from Sainsbury’s, he re-joined Kingsland Road and headed North past St Leonard’s Hospital. To Mamba’s way of thinking, those trying to find him would expect him to head for the city, so he decided to do the opposite. Yes, he would be going to the city eventually, but not the way they expected. As he walked along he found other stores selling clothes and after a bit of searching, manged to find a pair of leather trousers and a leather jacket. Not quite his motorcycle gear but it would have to do. The store’s zombie manager, Cybill – that’s what it said on her nametag – had very obligingly allowed him to cut her up, not that she’d had much
choice, of course. It was a shame to mess up his new clothes with blood and guts but needs must and all that.
Mamba continued on his journey up Kingsland Road, thinking about Ayla. She was obviously brave and clever, and the body on her wasn’t bad either. ‘Wouldn’t kick ‘er outta bed’ he thought to himself. Didn’t Sully say she’d do anything he wanted? Something like that. He smiled and thought back to the look she gave him back at the store; she’d been impressed by him, he was sure of that. She wanted him, he was sure of that too. His grin got wider. Well, it would be rude not to give the lady what she wanted.
Mamba reached the canal and, at Kingsland Bridge, went down the steps onto the Kingsland Towpath and followed the water Westwards. He was tempted to help himself to a boat but knew this was out of the question. However, there were thousands of places to hide if the need ever arose. He quite enjoyed his stroll along the water; it was very peaceful and he could have been the only person left alive; not a bad thought, except he’d want some female company. Perhaps just him and his harem left alive. Perfect. Oh, and Ahmed, of course.
He kept going, passing under bridges, swerving around stray zombies. Some sunlight poked through the clouds from time to time, but Mamba kept under the shade of trees wherever he could. Never knew who was looking.
After about a kilometre and a half along the canal towpath he arrived at their chosen destination. Surprise, surprise, a pub. He wasn’t that far from Islington now.
He’d entered the pub and made sure it was secure before helping himself to his first drink and a smoke.
When Ahmed eventually arrived, Mamba saw that he’d also changed clothes and was now wearing jeans and a denim shirt like some sort of American country singer.
“Fuck me, it’s Garth Brooks, Yee-Ha” Mamba had laughed when Ahmed walked in. “All ya need’s a cowboy hat. Can I have your autograph?”
“Fuck off Mamba,” Ahmed replied as he made his way to the bar. “At least I don’t look like the guy outta Village People. All ya need is a ‘tache.”