The Purple Haze (7 page)

The next thing he knew was that, without warning, the room was suddenly filled with noise, a deafening series of loud bangs in quick succession, accompanied by flashing lights. The torsos of the dead man and woman ripped open with several gunshots, a mixture of blood and a pinkish puss spilling from the open holes and spraying the wall behind them as the bullets exited through their backs. They staggered back and fell over. The sound ceased for a second, then started again, this time it was Conner who buckled behind the bullets, one of them hitting him on the right hand side of his forehead, throwing his head back as a perfect line of blood squirted from the open wound. James turned to see Mike, the man who had previously been so against just holding a gun, let alone fire one, now standing there looking down the sights of it, the barrel smoking. Mike lowered the gun and looked at James. James nodded in appreciation.

The group stood there looking in disbelief at the three corpses and the mess of blood, puss and entrails plastered to the wall. Mike stepped closer to James and helped him up.

“
Are you okay?” he asked.

“
Yeah, thanks for that,” said James, “I don't know what happened, I just froze up,” he quietly added.

“
It's okay, don't worry about it.” Mike turned around and looked at the group. Colin stood watching from behind the counters. Martin and Gaz stood side by side, their hands still shackled behind their backs. Yvonne was standing with tears in her eyes, Craig comforting her with an arm around her shoulders. Mike stepped back to Dave and continued applying pressure to the wound on his leg.

James went to step forward but was stopped by another moan. He looked back to see the source of the noise and shone his torch into the faces of the man and woman, now sat up and staring at them again. “How is this possible?” James thought. He looked at them, all bloodied and disfigured. They should have been dead. They each had around five bullets in their centre masses. James wasn't hesitating any more. He pointed his gun and fired from the hip. He held the trigger and sprayed bullets at the corpses, a few hitting them in the chest. The bodies buckled as the bullets entered their bodies and exited out the back, but their faces weren't really reacting to what was happening to them. James stopped firing to see that their faces hadn't changed. They showed no signs of pain or anger. They just kept staring with those dead eyes, then moaned again and began struggling to get up. James looked at Conner who wasn't moving any more. He noticed the bullet hole in his head then felt a power take hold of him. Almost acting on instinct now, his fear either gone or momentarily forgotten, he stepped over to them and kicked the woman hard in the side of her head. As his steel toe capped boots met her temple, he felt her skull give way. His foot punched a huge dent in her head, and she landed in a heap on the floor, no longer moaning or moving. He stood in front of the man, pointed the gun barrel at his face and pulled the trigger. Three rounds fired in a burst that caused the man’s head to explode, spraying James' flak jacket with a putrid mix of blood, skull and mashed up brains. The body fell back and remained still. James stood on the spot breathing heavily. He watched for a moment, but neither one of them moved again. They weren't getting up after that.

James turned to the rest of the group who were looking at him as though looking at a raged beast. Yvonne was being held by Craig, sobbing into his chest, Gaz and Martin looked at him as though afraid of him. Mike was still holding his jacket against Dave's leg, who himself was looking like he was in agony, and all the gun fire and screaming wasn't going to take his mind off that fact. James didn't know what to say, so he just bowed his head and walked past the group. He stopped at the counter. Colin stepped over to him from behind it.

“
It's okay you know, you had to do it,” he said to James.

James looked at him with a stern look. “Don't talk to me,” he said, and walked away from him.

Martin was the next to speak. “Okay, what the hell are we going to do now?”

“
How the hell would I know!” shouted James.

Martin wasn't going to back down, he was the first to realise a horrible truth. “Look, whatever is going on, has it not occurred to you that we have a whole towns' worth of dead people out there?”

James looked at him hard and then he looked back at the corpses in the corner, an in an instant he came to the terrible realisation that Martin was right. There could be a whole town of walking corpses. “Oh my God,” he said aloud.

Martin continued. “Take the cuffs off us,” he said, “whatever happens, we need to work together now.”

James found he actually laughed out loud at this suggestion. “You think we can trust you? The thieves and the murderer over there?” he pointed at Colin, who sheepishly bowed his head.

“
Oh, and what are you two going to do? Take on the entire population of a town on your own like Super Cop and his side kick? You think you can do it with what you've got?” Martin nodded towards the MP5's and the weapons they had taken from the thieves.

James sighed heavily and shook his head. He had to be realistic. The amount of bullets he and Mike had used to take down just three of the corpses would be unsustainable against thousands of them. “What do you suppose we do?” he asked him.

“
Take the cuffs off us, and we get out there and take whatever we can from the armed response vehicles. We need to be able to make a stand against them.”

“
If
the same happens out there what happened to them?” James said, looking more for a response that would put his mind at ease as opposed to questioning Martin's intentions.

“
Yeah,
if
,” said Martin
.

James paused again. He looked at Mike who also seemed to be thinking. “What do you think Mike?” he asked.

Mike looked at him. “I think he's right,” he replied. “If the same happens out there, then we can't hold them off. The glass is security glass but get enough of them together I don't know if they could force it down.”

James shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. He looked at Martin sternly. “If you do anything I don't like, I'll kill you myself,” he said.

Martin actually smiled at him. “I believe you,” he said, “now get these cuffs off me.”

James stepped over and started with Gaz. He took his cuffs off and handed him a key. Gaz walked to the counter and climbed over to take Colin's cuffs off. While he did this, James removed the cuffs from Martin's wrists then crouched to take Dave's cuffs off. Once his hands were free, Mike grabbed them and moved them to the wound on Dave's leg.

“
Are you okay with this?” he asked him. “Keep pressure on it.”

Dave nodded. “Yeah, no problem,” he said with a grimace. Mike stood up and moved next to James. He looked over and saw Gaz and Colin climbing back over the counter. Colin caught the eye of Craig and looked away again. He still felt like he couldn't look him in the eye. Martin grabbed him by the arms like a father would his son in a moment of pride. It wasn't out of pride though. Martin could see how the killing of the bank clerk had affected Colin just by looking at him. He just wanted to try and let him know it didn't matter anymore. Colin crouched next to Dave on the floor. Martin turned back to James with Gaz standing by his side.

“
We need our guns back,” he told him.

“
Okay,” he said and nodded at Mike, “give them back.”

Mike and James removed the extra weapons and handed them back. Martin checked the barrels of his shot gun and saw both shells still remained, and then he pocketed the extra shells. Gaz removed the clip to his sub-machine machine gun, checked his ammo and then reloaded it into the gun, and Dave and Colin checked their pistols were in good order. Martin looked at Mike who still had Conner's assault rifle on his back.

“
I'm keeping this for now,” he said to Martin.

“
Okay, but I want it back eventually.”

“
What now, fearless leader?” said James to Martin, the sarcasm obvious in his tone of voice.

“
We need to get out there and try the cars. With any look the batteries won't be flat.”

James looked at him. “Well who's going out there?”

Martin smiled. “You and me,” he replied.

James paused a second. “Fine,” he replied. “Mike, keep an eye on this bunch will you.” He walked to the door ready to open it.

Martin looked back and smiled at Mike. “Gaz, Dave, Colin, keep an eye on this guy will you?” He then followed James to the door.

Chapter 5

Martin and James walked through the door of the bank to the street outside. James looked back and gave Mike a gesture to make sure that he locked the door behind him. Ahead of them, the two men could make out the flashing lights of the police vehicles, and pretty much nothing else. The streets were silent. Nothing could be heard, and apart from the blue flashing lights, they could only see about two arm lengths ahead of them. James shone the light from his gun ahead of them, but it made little difference. James had first-hand experience in the fog so knew what to expect, but Martin hadn't and therefore felt uneasy. The purple hue of the fog just screamed 'evil' at him, and he couldn't really control his breathing too well. It felt damp and clammy against his face, which wasn't helping matters.

“
You know, I may have been wrong,” he said to James, “this may be a bad idea.”

James looked at him. “Listen,” he said, “get a hold of yourself, okay? The cars are right there, keys in the ignition, and I've got the key for the security box on the ARU vehicle. Just watch your step.”

James set off slowly towards the lights with Martin following closely. It seemed to take an age, but Martin then noticed the shape of the first police car come into view. James motioned with his hand telling Martin to go around the car. They side stepped to get around the car, all the while looking around themselves, listening intently to hear any noises that suggested they weren't alone. As they made it round the car, James shone his torch down and they came across what looked like an open grave. A mix of armed police and civilians, who must have tried to outrun the fog, lay dead in the road. All of their faces had the same boils and seeping wounds on them, the hair on their heads mostly fallen out. To prevent himself from losing his nerve, Martin just focused on not stepping on any of them. James held his hand up and pointed at the second row of blue lights. Martin looked and could just about make out the shapes of the cars in the torch light. James began moving towards them, stepping over and in between bodies as he went. Martin followed his exact path, tentatively tracing his steps as though not wanting to disturb the corpses, like kicking one would wake them all up in one massive chain reaction.

As they approached the car, James shone the torch on the rear of the vehicle, illuminating the yellow badge indicating that this was an armed response vehicle. James moved to the back of the car and pulled some keys out of his pockets. He fumbled at first, but got the key in the lock and opened the boot of the car. Inside Martin saw three slots, each one the shape of an MP5 sub-machine gun. Alongside each were slots containing magazines, some containing emergency flares and a few other slots for boxes of 9mm bullets. James pulled a folded up bag form a side compartment within the boot and handed it to Martin.

“
Put everything in the bag,” he quietly said.

“
What about the other cars?” Martin said.

“
Nothing we can do, I've only keys for this one.”

Martin nodded and started to fill the bag. Once he had removed the contents of the boot, he zipped up the bag and threw it over his shoulder. He gave James the thumbs up and James slowly and quietly closed the boot.

“
Okay, let's see if we can start this thing,” James said as he moved to the driver side of the car. He opened the door and climbed in. He couldn't see the ignition and couldn't get the MP5 in a position that it would illuminate the area he needed to see. He looked at Martin. “I need you to find the ignition for me,” he said, “here.” He passed Martin the MP5.

“
Trusting, aren't you?” he said.

“
Yeah, just don't forget I'm still armed.” James patted the holster on his hip containing his pistol. “Just shine the damn light will you.”

Martin did as he was told and shone the light onto the steering block. He noticed the ignition and held the light steady. James tilted his head and saw the slot, inserted the key and turned it. The engine turned over, but would not start. James tried again. The engine made a noise, but nothing was happening.

“
Come on, you piece of shit!” James swore.

Turning the key again, the engine turned over but then sounded like it was slowly grinding to a halt. As this happened, the blue lights faded.

“
It's the battery,” Martin said, “leave it, it's knackered.”

“
I don't have keys to any other car, it's this or nothing,” said James, trying again. This time nothing happened and the lights died completely, leaving Martin standing in a pocket of space completely bereft of light, only illuminated every second or so by the blue lights of the other vehicles. James banged his fist on the steering wheel and swore. Martin shook his head and looked around him.

“
Come on, leave it,” Martin said to him, “we need to get back and come up with another idea.” James swung his legs around and got up out the car. He held his hand out for his gun. He was expecting Martin to refuse to hand it back, but he handed it to him without hesitating.