by Hatchett
“Who?”
“Dunno his name. Posh git.”
“Take your pick,” Toby said, laughing despite the pain in his arm.
Mamba saw him grimace.
“Basir, get him some tablets,” Mamba ordered, “then send one of the boys fer the town’s doc.”
Mamba looked at the other two soldiers.
“Ya ain’t sayin’ much,” he observed.
The two men looked up as if they’d just been found in a game of ‘hide and seek’.
“He’s answering your questions,” one of the two nodded in the injured soldier’s direction.
“But is he tellin’ the truth?” Mamba asked suspiciously.
“As far as I know,” the soldier responded, with the second one nodding his head.
All three soldiers looked like peas in a pod. All in army gear, all with crewcuts, all well-built, fit looking and with serious faces.
“Ya need ta remember what might happen if yer no use ta me,” Mamba threatened, as Faruk put his knife close to one of the men’s faces.
“We’ll tell you anything you want to know,” the man quickly responded.
“That’s good. So, who’s this bloke I’m lookin’ fer?”
“Do you know anything else about him?”
Mamba thought about it.
“He’s the boss of Jack Robinson.”
“I don’t know who he is.”
“He’s the boss at Heathrow.”
“What was his job?”
“Dunno. Police or summat.”
The soldiers thought about it.
“Maybe it’s that security bloke,” Toby suggested. “The one who’s boss of our boss. What’s his name?”
“He was top dog in the police wasn’t he,” the second soldier said. “I know who you mean, I just don’t know his name.”
“James Curtis or something,” the third soldier offered.
“That’s it!” Toby said as the name clicked in his head and he let out a rush of air. “His name is Sir James Curtis-Smyth. Is he the one?”
“Sounds ‘bout right,” Mamba confirmed, testing the name to see if rang any bells. It did sound about right. “So, how can I get him?”
“Will you let us go and leave us all alone if we give him to you?”
“Not quite. I want a coupla actresses and models as well.”
Toby was confused again by the request.
“What do you want…never mind. Which actresses and models are you looking for?”
“I dunno,” Mamba replied. “Pretty ones wiv big hooters.”
The three soldiers looked at him as if he’d gone mad.
“If you take us back, we’ll sort out a way for you to speak to our boss,” Toby continued.
Mamba laughed.
“If I let ya go, yer’ll jus’ tell ‘em what ya seen ‘n heard ‘n I’ll never see ya again. But ya will see me again if yer lyin’. I’d make it my life’s work ta find ya ‘n skin ya alive.”
“Ain’t ya got enough promises ta keep ya goin’ without makin’ more?” Ahmed said sarcastically.
“I’m a man of me word,” Mamba confirmed, smiling. “I’ll think ‘bout it,” he said to Toby. “How many of ‘em fans ya got?”
“What? I don’t understand.”
“Fans. Ya know, the ones that give ya air ta breathe.”
“Oh, you mean the turbines. There’s seven.”
“Shit,” Mamba said.
“What bro?” Ahmed asked.
“We only got four. We missed three. How many entrances are there?”
Toby thought about it.
“Eight, I think,” he replied.
“Eight? Where are they?”
“There’s one near each of the seven turbines, and another one about halfway along the railway tunnel.”
“So, we didn’t need to…” Umit began.
“Shut up Umit!” Mamba shouted.
The entrance in the tunnel was unexpected and he didn’t want Umit mentioning the additional concealed entrance they had found, which clearly none of the soldiers were aware of. He realised that they had four entrances covered but there were still another four out there. Shit, not good news. Soldiers could be on their way as they spoke.
Mamba pulled out his map.
“Where are these other fans and entrances?”
Toby looked carefully at the map and slowly pointed to where he thought Sectors 1, 21 and 23 were located. Mamba could work out where the centre of the railway tunnel was for himself.
“OK, it’s a deal,” Mamba confirmed.
Everyone looked at him, wondering what he was talking about.
“I’ll take ya back,” Mamba said, pointing at Toby, “then I’ll tell yer bosses what I want. If they don’t agree, these two get skinned alive, then I’ll come fer ya. Got it?”
Toby nodded.
“Bro, what ya doin’?” Ahmed asked.
“Tell ya later,” Mamba replied, winking at Ahmed without the soldiers seeing.
53
Day 24 – 04.15
Burlington
Martin sat watching the monitors as the entrance in Sector 1 was opened and the twelve members of Squad 5 slowly emerged with their weapons raised, looking for any signs of trouble.
Sector 1 was roughly six hundred metres to the West of the entrance in Sector 7 and three hundred metres due South from the entrance in Sector 15, both of which had already been destroyed. It was hidden as a standalone outbuilding at the rear of a large property which housed a massive computer centre. The turbine, roughly three quarters of the size of the ones taken out, was around twenty metres away to the North and turned slightly away from them so that they couldn’t see or hear the blades.
The area between the entrance, the turbine and computer centre was flat, with manicured lawns which had gone to seed and a tarmac driveway which appeared to circle the main building.
The leader of Squad 5 made sure the entrance door was closed behind them as his squad spread out and provided cover. Once he re-joined his men, he took a good look around using his NVGs, especially the buildings as these were likely to be the best shooting positions in the area. He was nervous and sweating profusely beneath his uniform because he knew that he was a sitting duck out in the open and that he would probably be dead before he heard any shot.
He waited and nothing happened. He then let out a long breath in relief before gulping down and savouring the fresh air. Although it was early morning, seeing some stars in the sky and feeling wind on his face was a luxury he had almost forgotten during his short time in the underground prison. He briefly wondered if his men were thinking and feeling the same thing before he snapped out of it and remembered that he had a job to do.
He surveyed the area again and thought he saw movement near the turbine but couldn’t be sure. He slowly lowered himself to the floor and continued to look towards the turbine, now partially hidden by the long grass and feeling more secure. He flicked his comms.
“Squad 5, out and about, no hostiles encountered,” he confirmed.
“We see you. Be careful,” came the response.
“Moving towards the turbine, out.”
The squad leader signalled that two men should stay where they were and that the rest should follow him.
He began crawling towards the turbine and almost immediately picked up the low thrumming noise it gave off. Only twenty metres to go.
When he got to within five metres, the turbine seemed extremely loud, especially when there didn’t seem to be any other sounds around. No traffic, no birdsong, no life. It felt surreal and he suddenly felt the pangs of loss for the society that was no longer, and his extended family who would have spent their last few hours in complete terror.
As he was thinking this, he failed to spot movement on his right-hand side. There was a warning shout from one of his men who opened fire, before everything went to Hell.
The leader felt a weight land on top of him and heard grunting and the gnashing of teeth close to his
ear before he felt a painful bite and heard the tearing of skin as his ear was torn off. A crushing panic enveloped him and all thought of using his weapon was forgotten as he screamed and tried to throw the weight off his back. In the background he could hear more shots being fired by his men.
The noise of the shots and the leader’s screams attracted a horde of zombies milling around the turbine. They turned as one and started shuffling in the direct of the new stimuli. Other zombies around the area also turned and began to close the gap.
The men on the ground were caught completely by surprise. As soon as the outbreak happened, they were preparing to move with senior Government figures to Burlington, and whilst they’d heard about the zombie outbreak and had been briefed about the dangers out in the open, they hadn’t experienced it first-hand and nothing could prepare them for the reality of the situation. They panicked and sprayed fire in all directions, even the shadows where their growing paranoia perceived phantom threats.
The slugs hit many zombies which went down, but the random shots were not fatal, and the zombies just got back up again and continued towards the targets. All thought about head shots were forgotten in their panic and it wasn’t long before the zombies reached their targets and started to tuck in. Dark blood sprayed into the air and splattered across the nearby grass as arteries were severed.
The two soldiers guarding the entrance were stunned and frozen to the spot, not knowing whether to start firing and draw attention to themselves or run. It was clear from the melee on the ground that their colleagues had no hope, so after a quick look at each other and a wordless communication, they quickly turned and went back inside the entrance and slammed and locked the door behind them.
Sir James and Martin watched the scenes on the monitors with growing horror and dread. In their haste to reach and secure the remaining turbines, they had completely overlooked the reason they were in Burlington in the first place. All focus had been on their attackers, and the ever-present zombie threat had been forgotten.
“Shit,” Martin muttered, reaching for his comms to order the squads back inside and give them some time to reconsider their actions.
As he was about to give the order, he looked towards the monitors showing Squads 6 and 7 outside Sectors 21 and 23 respectively. Squad 6 looked like they were fine, which was understandable as the site was a farm slightly off the beaten track. However, he could immediately see that he was too late to recall Squad 7 because they were already in trouble, similar to what had happened to Squad 5. However, he had to try.
“Squads 6 and 7 return immediately,” he ordered, and received an acknowledgement from Squad 6. “Wait inside the entrance for further orders,” he added.
There was no reply from Squad 7, but he could see on the monitors that they were discharging their weapons and beating a hasty retreat to the entrance.
Martin looked at the map and saw that the Sector 23 entrance was in an industrial park just a couple of hundred metres to the South of the destroyed Sector 27 entrance in a place called Hawthorn. As he returned to the monitor, he saw that half a dozen of Squad 7 seemed to have made it back to the entrance.
“How can our attackers move around so freely when our men have been attacked as soon as they get outside,” Sir James wondered aloud.
“They just kill anything that moves, as we saw for ourselves” Martin replied absent-mindedly, thinking about what they should do next. Send more soldiers out, but better prepared? Stay inside and batten down the hatches?
“Sir, we have a problem!” one of the operators shouted, jolting Martin from his thoughts.
“What now?”
“Some of the soldiers in Squad 7 who have come back in are injured.”
“What sort of injuries?” Martin asked.
“Bites, ripped flesh, blood everywhere.”
“They’ve got to be killed!” Sir James shouted. “They’re infected and we can’t take the risk of it spreading down here. It will be suicide.”
Martin knew that Sir James was right but was struggling to give the order that he knew would condemn his trusted men to death.
“Do it!” Sir James shouted.
Martin eventually nodded and prepared himself to give the hardest order he had ever had to give.
“I’m just popping out,” Sir James said, rising to his feet, “now that we’ve got things back under control.”
Martin looked at him in disgust. How the man thought everything was under control was beyond him, and to allude that he was partly responsible for sorting things out was simply beyond belief.
He slowly turned back to the task at hand. Another half dozen men to sentence to death, in addition to the sixty or so he had already lost. He couldn’t remember a worse day in his life.
54
Day 24 – 05:00
Corsham
Mamba and Ahmed led Toby across some long grass before re-joining a path as they made their way across the M.O.D. site towards the entrance door which Toby had said was Sector 25.
Toby and his mates had been very useful once Mamba had said he’d bring Toby back for a chance of speaking to his boss. Between the three soldiers and Mamba’s pen and map, they had managed to draw a rough outline of the underground city indicating the different Sectors, what they were used for and placing an ‘X’ to mark the spot where the entrances and turbines were located. The stories of the place, the monorail and other automated systems made the place sound like something out of a science fiction movie.
It was clearly a massive place, which was only to be expected if it could house up to ten thousand people, and Mamba nearly wet himself with excitement when he found out that there were numerous bars and a cinema. It was just a shame, he realised, that he’d probably never get to see them.
Mamba had sent teams led by Basir, Faruk / Ismet and Umit to the remaining three turbine sites with the instruction to plant bombs but not set them off unless he gave the order. He told them to be extremely careful, in case some of the soldiers from underground had already beaten them to it and were lying in wait. He sent Dev and two teams to plant bombs at both ends of the train tunnel and keep lookout.
As they walked along, Mamba spotted his men spreading out and hugging the shadows, almost invisible in the dark. It was just as well he and Ahmed had their NVGs on, unlike Toby who had stumbled and nearly fallen on numerous occasions. Despite taking some tablets, the man was sweating badly and clearly still in some pain.
“Now we’re here, how can I talk ta yer boss?” Mamba asked.
“Are you going to keep your promise to let me go?”
“Yeah, man, so how do I speak ta him?”
“I think the camera above the door has a microphone and speaker.”
“Do I look fuckin’ stupid?” Mamba asked. “I ain’t goin’ anywhere near that fuckin’ doorway. Yer goin’ on yer own, ‘n remember, there’s bombs all ‘round there which I can set off in a second.”
Toby considered how he might be able to make it work.
“Some of my squad had walkie-talkies. You could go and check the bodies.”
“OK,” Mamba said, turning to Ahmed. “Bro, go look fer a walkie-talkie.”
Ahmed nodded and strode off in the direction of the damaged turbine. All the fires had gone out which made it easier to see through the NVQs.
When he got to the spot where they had killed the soldiers, he was momentarily surprised to find that the pile of bodies had gone. Then he recalled Mamba ordering everyone to leave them, which meant they had turned, which meant that…they were wandering around the site. He clicked his earpiece.
“Ya ain’t gonna believe this,” he started.
“Wassup bro?” Mamba came back quickly.
“The fuckin’ soldiers have turned inta zombies ‘n fucked off somewhere with the gear.”
“Well go find ‘em,” Mamba almost shouted. “’N get some of the others ta help look.”
Mamba sat on the floor and gestured to Toby to do the same.
“I
knew I shoulda killed ‘em proper, but I thought it’d be funny if yer guys down there saw their zombie buddies on camera walkin’ ‘round up here.”
“Hilarious,” Toby replied as he sat down and gritted his teeth in pain. “First thing I’m doing when I get back down is going to the hospital to get this shoulder fixed.”
“Ya got a hospital as well? Anything ya ain’t got?”
“Freedom. Do you mind if I ask you a question?”
“Fire away.”
“Aren’t you scared of the zombies?”
Mamba laughed.
“Fuck no,” he said. “They’re thick ‘n slow, so what’s there ta be scared ‘bout? They only interested in noise ‘n movement…’n eatin’ of course.”
“But there’s so many of them. They’re everywhere.”
“Jus’ gotta avoid the crowds.”
“Why are you really doing this?”
“’Cos I can. It’s a challenge, ‘n these days ya gotta find summat ta do, otherwise it’s borin’.”
“Surely there’s better things to do than killing your own.”
“They ain’t my own. My own are with me.”
“I feel sorry for you.”
“Don’t bother, man. Ya gotta think ‘bout yerself instead of ‘em rich wankers down there.”
They sat in silence, lost in their own thoughts; Toby had thought he was doing his duty, staying alive and living as normal a life as possible in the circumstances, Mamba wondered why he kept putting himself and his men in danger and realised it was because he liked it. He liked the buzz.
They heard footsteps and a smiling Ahmed appeared. His teeth looked exceptionally white under the NVGs.
“Stop smilin’,” Mamba ordered, “yer blindin’ me.”
“What?” Ahmed asked with a frown.
“Don’t matter. Ya got ‘em?”
Ahmed handed over two walkie talkies.
“Had ta run all ‘round the fuckin’ place. Found one by the fence ‘n another by the buildin’ over there,” he said, pointing.
“Great,” Mamba said sarcastically, “we only needed one.”
He turned on one of the walkie talkies.