Outbreak The Zombie Apocalypse (UK Edition) (21 page)

Pandemonium broke out as the woman fell to the floor, a cigarette lighter bouncing out of her pocket. I bent and picked it up immediately. One of the men shoved back at the soldier, who reacted by bringing his gun up to firing position, shouting for everyone to back off. The rest of the group did so but more people came running from the pitch towards the melee. 

As the standoff intensified I took my chance. While more soldiers appeared from the corridor, I stepped to the left, out of their way, with my hands raised to shoulder level to indicate that I didn’t want any trouble. Despite the raised weapon, more pushing and shoving began, and as the reinforcements intervened, I slipped away along the corridor. If I was spotted now all I would have to say was that I was getting out of the way, that I wanted no part of what was going on. If I wasn’t, I would duck into the next toilets and see if there was a possibility of getting out through the drains.

The ladies’ toilet had been turned into the morgue. In the corner, covered with a thin sheet, was the body of the solider that had been euthanized. There was no chance of him coming back to attack anyone; the puddle of blood that had formed around his head was testimony to that. 

I’d been right about the manhole though; it was there, covered in a stack of heavy, green plastic boxes. It took me nearly twenty minutes to re-stack them about a foot closer to the door, so they no longer blocked access to the metal plate. If anyone were to glance inside on a quick inspection, they would think that nothing had changed—or so I hoped. 

I lifted the cover of the manhole and placed it to one side. I peered down and saw that there was a ladder built into one side of the concrete wall. The narrow tunnel below had a walkway on either side of a stream of filthy water. I took the lighter I’d acquired from my trouser pocket and placed my left foot on the first rung of the ladder. In a few careful steps I was down on the narrow walkway. I flicked the lighter to life and looked about me. 

It was dark but I could make out enough that I’d be able to find my way around. I extinguished the flame and put the lighter back in my pocket beside my phone and placed one foot back onto the ladder, boosting myself up so I could quietly pull the cover into place above my head. I stepped back down and once again ignited the tiny flame. 

I followed the dank passageway back under the way I’d come and shortly came to another set of steps that I confidently assumed led to the first toilets. I bypassed these and continued on until I reached the junction that I believed would take me out under the walls of the stadium and towards my car. My footsteps echoed dully around the narrow tunnel. I fanned the light further on ahead and saw that there was a warren of passages running under and around the stadium. 

Stepping with more care to ensure I made next to no noise, I advanced towards what appeared to be a miniscule sliver of daylight permeating the darkness. I found the steps built into the wall and followed their path upwards. The rusted underside of the metal cover was directly above my head. I mounted the steps and, having boosted myself high enough to reach, pressed my left palm on the underside of the cover. 

The single gunshots had now become louder. No more regular, but definitely louder. 

I pushed up and the seal of the manhole popped as it freed itself from its moorings. I looked around in a complete circle, and I couldn’t believe it. I had come out no more than five metres from the Range Rover. There were no zombies in the immediate area, but I could see and hear them up at the entrance to the stadium. To get to me before I made it to the car, they would not only have to cover the distance but also navigate the turnstiles. Checking my pockets for my few meagre possessions, I went for it.

I drove my body upwards and the lid burst away from me. Using my arms and legs to wrench free of the hole, I powered out of the sewer, dropping to my knees immediately to replace the manhole cover.

Big mistake.

I straightened up and saw that two of the infected had heard the clunk of the cast iron, seen me and were now running headlong in my direction. I froze on the spot.

The two rapid gunshots brought the two zombies to the ground, their truly dead carcasses sliding to a halt just a yard from my toes.

‘MOVE!’

The shout had a dual effect. It got me on my toes towards the Range Rover but it also acted as an unwitting signal to the rest of the creatures to attack me. I tore the driver’s door open and threw myself in. My back screamed in pain but I had to ignore it as I grabbed for the keys and, finding them, turned them in the ignition. The engine burst to life and I jammed the gear stick into reverse as the hungry shrieks closed in on me. 

The gunfire continued, but too few of the zombies fell. Way too few.

Without closing the door I accelerated backwards and away from the macabre masses. When I had put some distance between myself and them, I swung the steering wheel to the left and jabbed my foot down on the brake. The Range Rover pivoted across the road, and in the first act of the fastest turn I had ever made, my door slammed shut.

I selected first gear, hauling the wheel in the opposite direction, and drove as hard as I could away from the stadium. I sped towards the castle, moving up through the gears and, more importantly, away from the chasing creatures. As I approached the junction I boxed the gears from fourth to second, preparing to turn right, I looked in the mirror. There was no way they were going to catch me, no matter how hard they continued to charge. I gave them the finger and accelerated away along the deserted streets.

I stopped in the middle of the road, straddling the white lines, about a hundred metres short of the Welcome to Usk sign. I had phoned Nick as soon as I’d cleared an eerily quiet Cardiff. The relief in his voice that I was coming back for them and that there was a safe place to take his family made the hairs on the back of my neck stand. He’d told me that there’d been no further footsteps on his roof and that he’d not heard any noise from outside in quite some time. 

I was unsure whether this was his mind playing tricks on him or Nick simply saying anything he could to guarantee that I would not back out. Either way, I did not care. I may have failed my brother but I was not going to fail those children and their father. I dug into my trouser pocket, pulled out my phone and brought up Nick’s number. As I called him up I hoped that the network was still up and running. I finally breathed out when my ear was filled with the ringing tone.

‘Matt?’ answered Nick in less than a whisper.

‘Yeah. I’m here. Anything?’ 

My eyes swept all around, double-checking every movement, every blade of grass that blew in the breeze.

‘Nothing. I swear. I wouldn’t risk bringing the kids out if they were still out there.’

‘Okay. I’ll drive down your street. I’ll beep twice as I pass, then I’ll turn around at the end and pull up outside your front door. I beep once and you come out. Any more than once and you get back upstairs.’

‘Got it.’

‘Get ready. I’m on my way.’

I hung up and slid the phone onto the passenger seat. My heart was trying to smash its way out of my chest. I waited for a few seconds and realised that the only thing that was going to stop the fireworks inside my ribs was to pull my car back onto the road towards Cardiff with Nick and his family inside. I slipped the Range Rover into first gear and pressed the accelerator.

Nick’s street was clear. It held twelve houses on each side of the road, each with a driveway and a wide front lawn. At the end was a turning area, which I was pleased to see was free of obstacles. Their house was the third on the right and as I drove past it I pumped the horn quickly, twice. I sped up, moving from second to third gear, swivelling my head from side to side until I braked, swinging the steering wheel to the right and coming to a stop, directly facing the final house on the street. 

As I reversed I thought I saw a brief movement in the front lounge window, and I paused for a split second before re-engaging the forward gear, squinting into the darkness behind the glass. 

A face smashed against the window, leaving a smear of blood. And then its eyes locked me in its dead, hungry stare and the thumping of my heart stopped for the two seconds it took me to get the heck out of there. 

I raced towards Nick’s front door; I thought I heard glass shattering behind me. I swung left off the road, across his neighbour’s garden, and I hit the horn, one short but powerful blare, before I applied the brakes. 

The front door burst open and Nick was right there, centred in the broken glass of the passenger window. I glanced up at my rearview mirror and slammed the car into reverse.

‘NO!’ screamed Nick.

I pushed my foot down on the gas pedal as far as it would go and released the clutch so the Range Rover shot backwards. The rear bumper smashed into the midsection of the zombie that had been running towards me. I heard a crunch, felt the Range Rover lurch with the impact and then I saw, in the mirror, the creature hit the deck and slide. 

I braked again but I was primed and ready to run it down and crush the life out of it. I watched as the monster tried to get up, but its shattered legs would not hold its weight. Instead it began to drag itself in my direction. It was moving too slow to catch us.

I took my chance and pulled up to Nick’s door. His mouth was still wide open so I cranked my arm, encouraging him to hurry up, to get the kids in the car. Robbie snapped his father out of his state by pulling open the back door of the car and ushering the girls in, slamming the door once he had clambered in after them.

‘Nick!’ I implored at the same time.

He blinked rapidly, tugging open the passenger door and getting in beside me. Without a word he pulled me into a hug.

‘Matt, I… I…’

‘It’s okay. Nick, it’s—’

‘It’s not okay,’ said Robbie, leaning forward between the front seats and pointing towards the end of the road. ‘Look!’

I raised my eyes and felt my shoulders slump. In the middle of the road, blocking our exit, was the zombie that had taken control on the bridge in Usk, the leader of the infected prisoners. Blood had dried across his pectorals and run down his face from a fresh gash on his bald head. The bite mark on his forearm was now simply a black, oozing hole. 

He bared his teeth and let out a prehistoric roar.

‘This guy’s getting on my nerves,’ I said. ‘Buckle up.’

The Range Rover bolted forward and I veered the car to the left of the monster ahead. He bent his knees, preparing to throw himself towards us and I could see that he was lining up me as his target; he was going to leap at my side window as we passed him. 

An instant before he could react, I swung the car to the right, directly into him, and I heard the headlight shatter as we ploughed through him. It was like I had driven into a brick wall and I almost lost control, the steering wheel spinning in my hands for a second until I pulled it back. Something bounced on the black bonnet and then the prisoner’s head, detached at the neck, slid across the windscreen and up and over the roof. 

I hit the wipers, and as the blood was washed away I watched in the mirror as the headless body twitched and finally died in the road.

I drove across the flyover, weaving slowly to avoid the cars and trucks that had either been abandoned or had smashed into each other. There were no people. There were no strewn bodies. The children remained quiet in the back seat. Robbie occasionally leant forward and pointed out something terrible, some evidence of carnage on the road side. The girls, Sally and Jayne, did not make a noise all of the way down to Cardiff but simply sat with their arms around each other. 

I’d hoped they would fall asleep, that they would not see the desolation all around them, but so far they had not. For the duration of the journey we had not seen another moving car, which was heartbreaking, but we hadn’t run into any zombies either, which gave me hope that we could reach the stadium safely, that it may in fact remain a sanctuary.

Nick had briefly filled me in on what had happened. After the first epidemic he had become worried that he had not done enough to protect his family. After Jenny left, he developed a deep-rooted paranoia. He had soundproofed the attic, providing it with its own electricity source and a store of food. As soon as he’d heard the undead start to attack his neighbours, he evacuated the family upstairs and, despite a clear awareness from the creatures that fresh meat was close by, they had remained undiscovered. 

He’d fallen silent after a while and it played on my mind that he was mulling over the last time we had been together and the fact that he’d punched me. If he mentioned it, I had every intention of telling him I deserved it and that we were never to speak of it again. 

Now, the road ahead was clearing and I was preparing to increase our speed when Nick, from his comatose state, suddenly yelled out.

‘Stop!’

I jammed on the brakes and was relieved that the children were properly belted in. Nick was out of the Range Rover in a second, crossing in front of the bonnet and running over to the railings on my side of the flyover. Both girls let out a little whine and Robbie immediately began fiddling with the release button on his belt so he could follow his father.

‘Robbie, no,’ I said softly, turning to face the children. ‘You stay here and look after the girls, okay?’

He nodded bravely but his eyes told me that he was more filled with fear than at any other time in his short life.

‘Nice one, buddy,’ I said as I opened my door and slid from the seat.

I left the engine running.

‘Nick,’ I called in nothing more than a whisper. ‘What are you playing at?’

‘Look,’ he replied, pointing off perpendicular to the direction my car was facing.

I walked over to where he stood, my eyes everywhere at once. I looked where he was pointing, along the road that ran beneath the flyover we had stopped on. It was a four lane dual carriageway that, about half a mile away, opened up into a shopping complex. The building at the front was a massive superstore, and in its car park hundreds of people were massed.