by A L Carter
It wasn't until a few days later that Sid and Reg risked another early hours meeting. They had both played their parts to the hilt, surely deserving of an Oscar. They actually fell for their bullshit, continuing to remain outwardly withdrawn and depressed by the loss of the three brave men. They sipped a fine single malt they had managed to find, a case of quality single malt whiskey which went down like silk.
"I really can't believe they fell for it Reg, even Mandy's talking to me now she always seemed to avoid me before," he revealed.
"See Sid it's amazing how the mind can be manipulated it just needs steering in the right direction," Reg informed grinning and taping his nose knowingly.
"Well you certainly know your stuff Reg," he flattered.
"So you'll be trying your hand at romancing the feisty Mandy," Reg said with interest.
"Romancing? No, I plan to shag the bitch," Sid chuckled but thought for a moment. "Sorry, Reg all this time and I never thought of your needs?"
"What do you mean Sid?" he replied innocently.
"You must feel the need for some female company and you've certainly earned it unless women aren't your thing not that it bothers me none, I had a good mate in the army who was gay I just told him to keep off my arse." He admitted with a grin.
"Oh no Sid not in the slightest I love the female form, but I had an accident in my twenties leaving the old John Thomas useless, I couldn't raise a semi if I tried," Reg revealed smiling wistfully.
"Oh shit I'm so sorry to hear that I can't imagine what it must be like," he said with concern in his voice.
"I don't miss it any more, to be honest and I remained a bachelor, I do love women but they nag so and drain one's bank account." Reg pointed out.
"Well I've gotta agree there that's why I never married either, and I'd have found it boring I mean one woman for life fuck that," Sid scowled.
Reg chuckled again, "Sid you really are a delight straight and to the point and bugger what people think."
Sid smiled sparking a fag, "Glad I amuse."
Reg topped up their glasses, "And what do you think we should do about Malcolm?"
"As much as I despise the man and would love to kill him I think it's too early to do anything," Sid said regrettably.
"I quite agree Sid it would look too suspicious and as long as we keep an eye on him I don't think he'll be much of a threat," he replied sipping his drink.
"Yeah I think the girls would rip him a new arsehole if he even suggested anything against us at the moment," Sid surmised.
"So it's agreed then we'll leave it for a while until the right time and Sid good luck with shagging Mandy," he said with a sly grin.
They both raised their glasses to that and enjoyed each other's company a while longer.
Chapter 25
Assault on Brecon barracks
Nothing had to be said, Marie had done what needed to be done. It seemed to Max that just being a survivor didn't automatically mean that they always deserved to be survivors. In fact, it seemed like some men quickly switched to their basic and selfish instincts, with no thoughts for others. He had suggested they stay the night here and leave tomorrow when they were ready. She had just nodded in reply and he thought it best to give her some space. Busying himself he set up beds for them all near the Defender figuring it was best to keep away from the storeroom. He moved the youth's body a slung it in the gents with the rest of the shit, and cleaned up the blood with paper towels and surface cleaner. He figured they could both use the ladies toilet. Then he started to look for supplies they even had a small camping section where he found a camp stove and plenty of gas canisters. Being a small aerosol can variety. There was a shelf with instant meal pouches, which was nearly empty only having six left. He found a kettle and some hot chocolate sachets, along with some snack bars. In the office, he even found half a bottle of single malt whiskey. He brought these things to their makeshift camp area. Marie seemed to have come round a bit and was getting into the spirit of things. She smiled at him and went off herself to look for supplies. Soon they had got a table and two chairs and a several camping lamps, which meant that they could turn off the generator soon. After taking timeout to read through the archery book he had obtained. He then went through the vast archery equipment and felt like a kid in a toy shop. First, he took two of the most powerful crossbows for Marie along with all the accessories required to go with them. Then he saw the longbow's one of which was rated at a 120 pounds without the assistance the compound bows offered, apparently, some went up to 180 pounds. At the other end of the long room, a large target was set up so he took an arrow and the longbow. After notching the arrow he drew back the string with ease and loosed the arrow. It hit the target with a solid thud and buried deep. He felt a little cheated though and felt that he could handle a far greater load. This was by no means arrogance but the simple fact his new body could do things impossible to him before. He felt that in the future he would make his own bow to his specifications, so for now selected two of the highest rated compound bows and all the accessories. On a self nearby was a short book on bow maintenance so he quickly read that. Continuing down the aisles he found the throwing knifes section so he grabbed loads of these. Eventually, he bumped into Marie who now sported a wide grin along with a wicked looking Warhammer which was now grasped in her hand.
"Cool find you got there," he complimented.
She started swinging it around getting a feel for it. He picked one up as well and enjoyed the feel of it. They both took several of these and returned to see what else was on offer. They soon found the machetes and they all were made from high tensile spring steel which meant that they could take a lot of punishment. There were several styles on offer and he particularly liked the kukri version. Like the ones used by the Gurkha's only bigger and weighted well at the front. He took two and practised dual wielding. Now, these felt far more sufficient in his hands. He could certainly do some serious damage with these. They were then carried to the vehicle which was now filling up. Pleased with their haul and feeling better equipped they decided to settle down for the evening. They ate the instant meals with the last of the steaks and then wound down with some hot chocolate laced with whiskey, before eventually going to bed.
They were up early again and shared a tin of hot dogs with Dinah before heading off. But just before they left Max had a last minute thought and said he just had to fetch something. Minutes later he returned with a strange looking mask.
"What's that?" she enquired.
"It's a paintball mask," he replied showing the skull-faced mask. "I was worried about blood splatter; I don't want you getting infected."
She took it reluctantly and tried it on, it actually looked pretty badass.
"I suppose you might be right, I'll give it a go," she agreed.
"Thanks," he said with relief.
With that, they opened the shutters and Marie drove out. Max shut up from the inside and exited through the roof and was soon back in the Defender. Now on the last leg of the journey to beacon barracks.
They were soon after back on the A50 and using the same tactic as before when things got too congested they would switch to back roads or off-road. Eventually, they reached the A18 which meant that they were only about ten miles away. They were making good time and only a few miles away when Marie hit the brakes hard as a black shape suddenly ran in front of them.
"Was that what I think it was?" she said in astonishment.
"Yes quite definitely and they're probably thriving in this new world," he replied feeling pretty thrilled himself, as a large powerful looking black panther had just crossed in front of them.
A few miles later they finally arrived at their destination and to their horror, they realized how easy it had been up until now. They both got out of the vehicle wondering what the hell they were getting themselves into.
The entrance to the base had a guard post, then large wire mesh gates that could slide back to admit large vehicles and a smaller side ga
te for personnel. Both were controlled by the guard post where the guards would reside. But Max suspected that there would be no power. Within the guard post, the two undead guards had now seen them and were pushing their grotesque faces against the glass but not having the mental capacity just to go and open the door. That wasn't the problem that now faced them, as they were quickly dispatched. They both looked through the large gates again. It was the fact that hundreds of zombies gathered in the base. They luckily were quite a distance back from the gate and with their poor eyesight hadn't seen them yet. Also, it was difficult to tell how many hundreds because some could be further in and out of sight.
He looked to Marie, "What do you think, we could leave it if you want the risk might be too great?"
"You know what I think. I think I'm going to have some practice with one of them badass looking crossbows," she informed and went to the boot of the car and started to kit up.
He was totally surprised how calm she was handling the situation, "Cool."
So he did the same, starting by selecting two kukris and fixing the sheaths to his webbing belt. They crossed over at his lower back and were drawn by reaching behind his back. He then loaded up on throwing knives putting them into the pockets of his utility vest. He grabbed one of the bows and a box full of arrows, around 200 in total. Then he checked up on Marie who had a Warhammer hanging off her back in a sling and a crossbow already loaded, and a box full of more bolts in front of her. He then looked at the mesh of the gates and fence and considered for a moment.
"I think it's better if we climb up on the guard house, that way we don't have to shoot through the mesh. As well as the added advantage of height. She nodded and climbed up first and took the gear off him when he passed it up to her. Quickly he joined her and immediately started firing arrows rapidly hitting head after head and watched them fall. He didn't worry about aiming for the eye as these well within effective range and penetration wasn't an issue. Soon he was in a rhythm getting faster and faster. The zombies started to head in their direction aware of them now but were hindered by the rising body count and falling over them.
Marie was impressed by the bow it was deadly powerful and with a decent scope and managed to get a headshot first go. The second shot went low to the chest, but after that, it was pretty much all headshots. She looked to her left Max was going at blazing speed having killed over 50 in the time it had taken her to kill barely ten and he seemed to be speeding up. The problem with the crossbow was the reload time. But she decided that it was best not to punish herself. The thing was that they appeared to be doing some serious damage to them and maybe they had a serious chance. Max managed to increase his speed as more and more bodies dropped thinning out the horde tremendously. But he began to feel a familiar stirring and thought to himself why now they had an effective kill rate, and it was going well. He tried to swallow it down, but this began to affect his shot rate. It boiled within him making him shake and miss shots. Marie looked across at Max something was wrong, he seemed to be visibly shaking and was missing shots. Up until now, he had killed over a hundred, but suddenly now he couldn't shoot straight any more.
"Max you okay?" she asked.
He put down the bow, "Sorry but I have to do this."
His voice sounded strange and bestial, frightening to her even.
"WAIT HERE!" He commanded with more of a growl than voice.
She felt the vibration of his voice stunning her for the moment, only able to watch as he jumped off the roof and quickly scaled the gate. He pulled out both of the wicked kukri blades and met the rest of the horde head on. Then there was a blur of movement as heads, skull caps and faces were severed. Bodies quickly dropped in succession and cutting through them like a meat grinder. It was like a grotesque ballet as he moved through them bringing their final death. Marie snapped out of it at that point intent on doing her bit and continued shooting but concentrated more on stragglers avoiding the main mass where Max fought. His ferocity continued until he stood in a sea of death.
He looked around the ground layered with gore and felt the feeling of peace fill him, and was back in full control. Then walked over to the gates and unlocked them, opening them manually. Rather than ask questions now she chose to wait until later. She passed down the boxes of arrows and both bows, the drove into the compound. Then he closed the gates, retrieved his bow and filled a quiver with arrows. Marie did the same as there could be more of them. Even wearing the mask as added protection in close quarters battle. Dinah decided to stretch her legs and followed behind. The base was full of lines of barracks where the soldiers would have lived and large hangers for storing equipment. They entered the first hanger and as expected there were more stray zombies.
Marie held up her hand, “You’ve had your fun I want to try out my Warhammer."
She stepped around the first and brought the hammer straight down on top of its head and there was a wet think. It went down and she quickly moved to the next and tried out the spike side in its temple. Which did the trick and it fell motionless. The third and she finished by using the flat end on the back of its skull causing it to die. She held up the new weapon to appraise it.
"Pretty good eh?" She beamed.
"Effective," he replied.
This hangar was filled with pallets of boxes and they both started going through them. There were ration packs, mess tins and accessories. Another contained clothing, full fatigues of various colours, plain green, camo and black.
"I thought black was more specialized," she asked.
"Yeah so did I, but it looks pretty cool eh," he said.
They even found ballistic armoured vests and helmets. As well as full webbing which comprised of a belt and harness with pouches attached to carry items such as ammo conveniently.
Eventually, they had checked several of the hangers one housed a well-stocked armoury and another housed military vehicles. There was even a tank, but they didn't think this would best serve their purpose. The Mastiffs were certainly an option. They were large six-wheeled personnel carriers, so they had plenty of storage. With the added bonus of a great bloody machine gun mounted on top. But it was possibly too big for the roads they had experienced so far. Then there was a line of Panthers. These were more medium sized four wheel drive armoured vehicles. Bigger than the Defender and complete with a full cage roof rack.
"What do you think we should buy dear?" He said with a smirk.
She knew that he was having a bit of fun like they were visiting a car dealership, "Well dear I do like the Mastiffs, but they are a little bulky and think of the fuel costs?"