Outbreak The Zombie Apocalypse (UK Edition) (6 page)

‘You idiot, you could have killed me!’ I shouted. ‘And what if the body is still blocking the way when we try to ride out of here?’

Apparently, Nick having a go at Dan was one thing. Big brother putting him in his place was different. He looked like he was going to cry. He didn’t say anything, but stood in front of me, head bowed, clearly sorry.

‘It’s just…’ He glanced over his shoulder. ‘I hate them. I want this over.’

‘I know.’

I scooped the axe up and laid it against the house wall, then put my right arm around Danny and led him to the front door. ‘I know, buddy.’

*                            *                              * 

Everyone else was in bed, maybe not asleep, but behind closed doors anyway. Nick and I headed up the stairs after one last check on the front gate. The zombies were quieter at night, whether we were outside or not. A few clouds drifted over the bright half-moon and it seemed to have caught the attention of our unwelcome guests. Their heads were all slightly lolling back; a couple definitely had their tongues out.

‘Maybe they aren’t zombies after all,’ Nick said as we paused for a moment before going off to our rooms.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Just that thing with the moon, mate. Maybe they’re not zombies. I reckon they’re werewolves.’

I snorted a burst of laughter, but the amusement disappeared in an instant.

We stared at each other for a couple of seconds.

He forced a smile and went to his family. I closed the door to my room and went immediately into the en suite. After cleaning my teeth, I walked across my bedroom to the window, pulling the curtain aside. They hadn’t moved, still rocking back and forth. I willed something even more evil to come out of the trees opposite and tear them to pieces. I let the curtain fall back into place and sat on the edge of my bed. I needed to sleep, but once again, I doubted it was going to happen tonight.

I showered and dressed before anyone else was up. I checked out of my window again, and the numbers of zombies had not swelled overnight. The rain had held off, which meant we were able to go for it. The roads would be dry, so easier to ride the bikes on, and we would still be able to cross the river on foot. I wanted us to check that out for sure before we left, as well as leave some weapons down by the riverbank in case we had to battle our way back to the wall.

Now I was outside on the decking, organising which weapons we would leave for Jenny and Nick, and what would be placed at the water’s edge. I felt that the longer poles and sticks would be better use to us outside as we would be trying to keep our distance from any surprises, and that the shorter stuff would be more practical in any hand to hand combat that may have to take place between the gate and the front door.

Jenny came out to join me.

‘You’re still not convinced this is the right thing, are you?’ she asked.

‘Jenny, I know it is the right thing to do, I just think that the authorities are on the verge of fixing things. The news channels are more positive that the epidemic is now under control and that before long, the zombies will be, too. Our Forces are the best, after all.’

She shook her head. ‘But they haven’t eaten over there,’ She pointed in the approximate direction of the bridge. ‘Whatever they had has long gone, and they could end up doing something stupid when they haven’t the means to help themselves. Like the people in that car. How would we all feel then?’

‘I know I’ll feel a hell of a lot better when we’re back in here, safe and sound. Don’t get me wrong. We’re doing this. We’re doing it and we’re going do it right. I just wish we didn’t have to.’

‘I think we all wish that we didn’t have to face up to any of this, Matt, but we are and we’re doing okay. We’re doing more than okay here, but those people, they’re barely surviving.’

‘I know.’ I ran my hand over one of the sharpened broomsticks. ‘But we’re going to change that, aren’t we?’

*                            *                              *

Nick was the next one down the stairs. He looked like he had managed less sleep than me. His eyes were deep, dark hollows but, being an ever-determined dad, he did a good job of acting upbeat around the children. 

The time was just approaching eight, and after having a quick discussion about the weapons that we had, which resulted in us agreeing on how they should be split, I headed upstairs to wake Danny. I could hear noise from his room as I tapped on his door and he called for me to come in. A movie was playing on the television screen and Dan was at the computer. By reading over his shoulder I confirmed that he was making the final arrangements with the occupants of the hairdressers’.

‘Are they ready to go? They know what to do?’

‘Yeah. We’re bringing the girls first, Susan and Claire. They are the quickest and that’ll make everything easier for the first run. After we’ve got them here, we’ll go back online to the rest of them, work out any glitches, and then go get them. Simon says he’ll go last.’

‘We’ve got to give the zombies time to regroup in front of the shop, too. It’s pointless, us rolling up, if they’re still all over the road and we can’t get around them.’

‘Not a problem. Should we nip down to the river, then?’ 

‘Yeah, let’s go.’

We headed down the stairs in silence. When we reached the kitchen, Danny fussed the kids and then went outside to look at what we were going to use as weapons if we got caught on the return leg. He nodded his agreement while twirling one of the sharpened broomsticks, making light sabre noises as he did so.

Nick came out to join us. ‘So you guys want me up in Danny’s window, shouting directions?’

‘Yeah. If you see anything that looks like it’s moving, just shout the word ‘home’ as loud as you can. That’s the signal for me to get back over the wall.’

Danny drew himself up. ‘Matt. I’ll go and do this, there’s no need.’

‘I’m doing this, Danny. Just take that one as read, okay?’

‘You still think you’re quicker than me?’

‘No. I think I’m quieter, and there’s less chance of the zombies seeing me because I haven’t got a huge oversized moon head that reflects my ego.’

‘Oh.’

‘Yeah. Now let’s do this before I bottle out of the whole thing.’

*                            *                              *

Danny threw a couple of microwave defrosted pork steaks over the heads of the zombies at the gate. They followed the trend we had seen yesterday and turned in pursuit of the raw meat. I was in place on top of the wall at the back of the house, three sharpened poles and one grass rake already dropped over the other side. My eyes were drawn across the fields, towards the farmhouse. 

If I could still see dozens of those creatures patrolling around up there, it might make me feel more confident that they weren’t strolling around the streets of Usk, waiting for us to stumble into the middle of them, but the trees blocked my view. 

Dan sprinted down the garden and climbed the ladder, pulling it to the top of the wall and dropping it into place for me to descend to the other side. I looked up at Nick, who was thoroughly scanning as far as he could see beyond the barrier. He signalled that all was okay with a double thumbs-up. Cheesy, yes, but very clear as to its meaning. With him up there and Danny monitoring the corners of the wall, if anything came along, I would know about it.

‘Here we go, then,’ I said, and began to climb down. 

Upon reaching the bottom of the ladder, I scanned left and right. 

Nothing. 

I picked up the four weapons and worked my way down towards the river. I expected the ground to be more treacherous, but the grass, while uneven, was not littered with branches or anything that could trip me up. I reached the trees and turned around. I knew if there was a problem that both Nick and Dan would have started shouting, but I only realised I had been holding my breath after I saw them both showing me two upturned thumbs. 

The trees weren’t particularly dense and picking my way through was not a problem. As I came out the other side, I noticed what an amazing day it was. The sky was bright blue with a few cotton clouds floating by. I heard the babble of the river as it wound its way over the large stones that made crossing at this point easier. Even without the stones, the river looked no more than eight inches deep at most. 

I stared across the water to the bank on the other side that led to the tennis courts. I could just make out the tops of the floodlights but most importantly, even as I looked up and down the river as far as I could see, there was not a single member of the undead to be seen. 

The trees blocked out the noise the zombies made and it struck me for the first time that, apart from the river, the world around me was silent. No cars. No dogs barking. No children’s voices as they played. Looking up at the sky again, it hit me that there wasn’t a single vapour trail left behind by an aeroplane. The country was more isolated than we could have possibly imagined. 

I laid the weapons against a large tree trunk about one and a half metres from the water and started to head back. I slowly made my way through the trees until I once again had a proper view of Danny and Nick. Both still held out their thumbs up and, on reaching the open ground, I sprinted to the foot of the ladder.

Danny was holding the top of it steady as I climbed. 

‘Any problems? Did you see any of them out there?’

‘Not a one,’ I replied, reaching the top and helping my brother pull the ladder up after me. We both turned and waved to Nick, who drew himself back inside and pulled the window shut.

‘And you put the weapons against the big log?’

‘Yeah. All done.’

All was well. All was going as planned. But I couldn’t help but think we were making a massive judgmental error by not sitting still and seeing this through.

We stood in the kitchen while I took some water on board. I would need to change my t-shirt and I could already smell my own body odour. Jenny had taken the children up to Danny’s room, and my anxiety levels were starting to grow.

‘I want us to double-check everything’s okay out front,’ I said. ‘Feeding those things might have gotten them all riled up.’

Dan and Nick reluctantly agreed. I could tell they were just running through the motions to appease me, but they also knew that if I pulled out at this stage then the whole rescue mission was out the window. Danny reached the front door first, and as he pulled it open he turned his head towards us.

‘What if we..?’ ‘Danny! Look out!’

Nick shoved me aside and I fell to the carpet. He wrapped his right arm around Danny’s shoulders and bundled him out of the way, both of them bouncing off the banister at the bottom of the stairs as a decomposing hand, its nails long and sharp, swiped the air where Dan’s knees had been a second before.

‘What the..?’

Nick stepped forward and kicked out at the monstrosity that was lying outside our front door. It had no legs and only one arm. In its attempt to snare my brother it had unbalanced itself and now rocked on its back like an overturned turtle struggling in the sun. It was all but naked. Its shirt was ripped open right across its chest, exposing the bloody mess that had once been its shoulder joint. One leg had been torn off at the hip, the other at the knee, and it had left a snail’s trail of blood as it had dragged itself across the gravel driveway and towards our front door.

Apart from a smear of blood across one cheek, its face and head were unharmed and I realised that it was a woman. Her hair was blonde, short, and before all this happened probably stylish and fashionable. From my position on the floor I was looking right into her eyes as Nick brought his heel down on the side of her head over and over again until a black ooze ran from her nose. Her hand lifted once more; Nick lifted his knee up as high as he could, and when he drove it down into her head I heard a sickening crack as her skull split. The hand slumped to the ground.

‘Is it dead?’ I whispered.

Nick stamped again.

‘Now it is,’ he said and stepped over it onto the drive. 

He bent over, resting his hands on his knees as he sucked in air until his lungs were full. Danny followed him out and put an arm across his shoulders.

‘That was amazing, dude. Thank you.’

Nick waved a hand dismissively.

‘Guys?’ I called.

They both turned their eyes towards me.

‘Could you maybe drag this thing away from my face?’

Nick pulled himself together and helped Danny to throw the half-zombie over the wall. The undead briefly intensified their groans and made a few investigative shuffles towards the corpse, but then lost interest. We followed the gory mess our vicious visitor had left to the gate, and it became clear that its injuries had allowed it to slip through the narrow gap. Logic told us that when the other zombies had left the gate in search of the food, this damaged creature had finally found its way to the front, and into our safety zone. 

None of us voiced our concern, our fear, that another one might find its way in.

While Danny and I dressed into our motorbike leathers, Nick rolled our bikes out onto the driveway, placing the customised chain next to Danny’s bike and the now-shortened baseball bat next to mine. He started the Range Rover and made sure it was warmed up. He also placed the axe in the passenger seat, the handle closest to where Jenny would be sitting so she could quickly pick it up and use it if something went wrong. He set the ladder on the corner of the wall, just as Danny had done when we had tested the zombies’ reaction to the raw chickens.

The sword, shovel and the longer kitchen knives were left on the gravel, far enough back so that they wouldn’t get in the way of any of the vehicles, but close enough if Nick needed to grab one. By the time Dan and I came out of the front door, everything was in place, even the bag half full of uncooked chicken and steaks at the bottom of the ladder. 

We both collected our helmets, with our gloves stuffed up inside, from the garage and walked across to our bikes in that funny ‘I may have soiled myself’ way that Kevlar-plated leather forced you into. I took Danny’s lid while he hopped onto his red Yamaha R6, adjusted the old Adidas rucksack full of meat on his back, and started the electric ignition. Danny took both helmets and I mounted my bike, the same model as his but blue, and we jammed our makeshift weapons down the front of our leather jackets, zipping them up as far as we could. Jenny came over and tugged them up snugly.