Ace of Spades Chronicles : Book One (8 page)

"Just like Garmisir," Yates groused.

“‘Cept we weren't fighting zombies...”

"There is that..."

"And the Hadjis had RPG's."

"Jesus! We just lost two good men and you’re cracking wise. You sound like you’re talking yourself into this Lance Corporal.”

“You’re pulling rank now? Really?”

“You want to go ahead? Be my guest. Start walking."

"Hey, Robson and Jerome? No one said anything about walking," the girl butted in. She tossed some keys into the air and Yates snatched them on their downward trajectory. "We can drive."

***

She led them across the supermarket access road and down another short embankment thick with prickly hawthorn and peeling silver birch until they came out onto a wide path; and there, parked on the grass verge stood a battered BMW 5. Yates eyeballed a small, white decal highlighted against the black of the driver’s door that said, “When in doubt - flat out”. The front grill resembled broken teeth and all four headlights were smashed. The fenders on both sides were ripped and grazed and the wing mirrors were gone; but, the girl told them, the engine and the air conditioning worked perfectly. Xander swiftly removed the weapons from his back and threw them onto a sleeping bag on the back seat, displacing tins of food and bottles of water into the floor well. Yates took off the Bergen and did the same, tossing his Benelli, SA80 and Zola's M4 carbine and shotgun in too, then climbed into the cockpit and inserted the keys into the ignition. The engine purred to life on the first turn as the girl slipped into the passenger side and held her sword between her legs. Yates noticed for the first time that she was wearing sections of rubber tyre gaffer taped over her knees and elbows for protection. Ingenious and resourceful, he thought, as Xander clambered up through the sunroof with Walker’s SA80.

"Not quite a Hummer, but it'll do." He said.

Yates slipped the gear stick into reverse and slowly backed the car down the path until they came out onto a wide area of grass that lay between the main road and a metal fence, beyond which was a large open field surrounded by Poplars, Oak and Sycamore. A legion of infected roamed the grassy expanse. Many were wearing white medical gowns, caked with vomit and blood. Yates turned the wheel until the BMW was facing towards the traffic lights at the end of the carriageway, dropped the car into neutral and waited.

The girl turned to Yates, and then nodded to the way ahead and back to Yates. "What are you waiting for?" She asked with obvious impatience through her facial protection. Yates sighed and gripped the steering wheel.

"Nothing," he said, trying to sound as conventional as he could; but in truth, he was wondering how the hell this little girl had managed to survive for this long with just a sword, and how had she driven through the mass of cars that lay before them.

"We're going to have some hitchhikers if you don't get a move on," Xander’s voice descended from the sunroof. Yates glanced into the rear view mirror and saw a score of infected approaching from the roundabout. He revved the engine before putting it into gear, feeling the power of the machine as it shook; then he shoved it into first and slammed his foot on the accelerator. The wheels dug into the sun baked ground covered with a light sprinkling of fresh morning dew, spitting soil and wet blades of grass into the air. It took a couple of seconds to find any traction and the back end slipped left and right before the vehicle pulled away and was doing 30mph before Yates tucked the car into second, then third. Immediately, the infected that were drifting between the stranded hulks of metal that used to be their pride and joy, reacted to the sound and turned towards them. It was conspicuous consumption gone mad. Society had traded its love of the material for warm, human flesh.

Yates could see that the grass tapered out and became pavement. It was wide enough for the car to squeeze through, but was blocked by a VW Golf that had been shunted onto the footpath, leaving a gap of about ten feet. An infected female suddenly stood up on his right and threw herself at the bonnet. Her head made contact with what was left of the headlight and the force of the impact shook his hands from the steering wheel as her tattered clothing got caught in the broken front bumper.

"Oooo.. Two points," He heard Xander yell.

"You're enjoying this shit way too much," Yates shouted back as he struggled to shake the woman from the wheel arch without veering off course. The high revolution of the driver’s side front wheel spat the woman out and her body flew across the grass like a bowling ball and hit the boundary fence of the open field. Xander caught a quick freeze frame of her shin bone making contact with the top cross bar, then snap and spin around to kick her self in the stomach. He winced and held onto the roof with both hands as the car belly flopped through a deep, dry hole and bounced up onto the pavement. They had inches to spare as the car raced between parked cars and chest high brick wall, missing a lamp-post by a whisker. Two infected slammed into the bonnet, forcing Xander to dodge back into the vehicle as they sailed over his head. Changing down into second gear, Yates executed a handbrake turn and used the blocking VW Golf as a buffer. The momentum ricocheted the BMW into the road, knocking a black and white mini cooper forward and into the side of a 4x4. The mini recoiled from the hit and slammed back into the passenger side, sending the girl sharply to her left. She managed to get her arms up just in time to save her head from making contact with the door, and she shot Yates a disgruntled sideways glance, even though he couldn‘t see her expression beneath her goggles and mouth guard. All three occupants were thrown forward as the BMW smashed into the side of a fire damaged bus and came to a painfully abrupt halt in the front grill of a burnt out police cruiser. Yates’s hands slipped from the steering wheel and his right foot got jammed between the brake and the accelerator. His sternum punched forward and he blacked out. The engine roared, screamed for ten seconds or so, and then died.

Xander looked up to see far too many infected encroaching on their position, and he was more than a little disturbed to see that one of them was dressed in military camouflage. He wasn't sure, but he thought it was a member of Fire Team Aegis. He fumbled for the SA80; somehow, the barrel had found its way up his sleeve during the crash and he was thankful that he hadn't inadvertently blown his arm off below the elbow. He pulled the stock up to shoulder level and started firing.

Yates shook off the impact when a 5.56 casing flicked off his brow. The first thing he saw through the cracked windscreen was an infected male dressed just like he was, coming at the front of the car with unsettling speed. He heard a crack from the SA80 over him and took in a sharp breath as Xander shot the infected soldier in the face. Yates turned and realised that they were surrounded. Xander was doing his best to keep them back, but even he couldn't shoot in opposite directions at the same time. He reached over into the back seat and plucked one of the Benelli semi-automatic shotguns from the pile of weapons, then shimmied his way up through the sunroof to join Xander.

The girl covered her ears as the car filled with the clamorous discourse of firepower above her head. Occasional spent shells or bullet casings fell into the cockpit and bounced off the bonnet as she ducked in her seat, watching infected after infected get blown away on both sides of the car. She threw her sword onto the dash board and reaching for the steering wheel, pulled her self over into the driver’s seat. She jumped when an infected man bashed against the side window, then jumped again when Yates shot him at point blank range in the top of the head. The power of the shotgun at such close range disintegrated the entire skull and the man fell as suddenly as he had appeared, leaving a huge splash of dark, frothy brain matter across the glass. She took in a deep breath, closed her eyes and turned the key. The engine cleared its throat and dry coughed as it tried to issue a spark. “Cunt!“ The girl cursed and tried again. This time the engine spluttered for a second and protested when she turned the key mid fire. She shook the steering wheel in a combination of frustration and panic, pumping the accelerator and clutch pedals with her feet when suddenly, the car lurched forward. Confusion muddled her thoughts as she quickly attempted to analyse what had just happened.

It's still in third gear...
a voice shouted at her. She looked up and caught a glimpse of Yates, snarling back at her through the sunroof. Her hands trembling, she pressed down with her left foot and grabbed the gear stick. The rewarding way it slipped into first was a relief and she turned the key again, keeping her foot down hard on the clutch. The engine rumbled to life and she stamped on the gas. The BMW's tyres screeched as the front of the car pushed against the police cruiser, but it would not budge as the belly of the car was welded to the road. She selected reverse and hammered the rear end into another vehicle that was behind them and in the opposite lane, crushing an infected female who got caught between the two cars around the pelvic region, then jammed the gear stick back into first. This time she kissed the left hand side of the cruiser and forced it over by a couple of feet; then back into reverse, turning the crippled female to pulp as she slipped down beneath the two vehicles. She repeated this, running over the hapless infected woman one final time until she was able to move beyond the burnt out police car and floored the BMW towards the traffic lights, then made a sharp right hand turn as she passed a blue Vauxhall Corsa and headed towards a small car park behind some residential buildings. Blocking her way stood two cars connected by a line of taut barbed wire. She gripped the steering wheel and pressed her right foot down as far as the accelerator pedal would allow, then crashed between the vehicles and dragged them and the barbed wire into the car park. The wire snapped under the strain and one of the cars span wildly into a wall, pounding an infected boy into the brick work; the other tipped and rolled onto its side as the wire recoiled on itself across the front and roof of the BMW like snapping sinew, marginally missing Xander and Yates as it cut through the air. One infected took the full force of the wire, and it sliced through his mid section, spilling sour intestines and portions of rotting internal organs to the ground. Four or five infected were flattened as the rolling

car bulldozed through them and came to rest on its roof at the foot of some steps, next to a large black, smouldering pyre of dismembered bodies. The girl slammed on the breaks, sending Xander and Yates violently forward.

Shaken and a little whip lashed, Xander turned and quickly took in the view. He saw a long, grey palisade fence adorned with severed heads; below this lay a mountain of infected in a not quite orderly line. Some were speared onto palisade rails that protruded from the upright fencing. Each of these had been decapitated and most were missing an arm or two. He watched as the girl kicked open the driver’s side door and shouted "Get to the gate." Immediately, he understood the goal; clear a path to the side gate at the end of the palisade fence and get into the compound beyond. He leaned past Yates and fired at the infected that obstructed a safe path for her. He bagged two, paused and leaned back, allowing Yates to drop back down into the cockpit. In a few short seconds, Yates had reloaded and exited the car from the open driver’s door, blasting heads with the Benelli, just as the girl reached the side gate and pulled out a set of keys. Xander climbed out of the sunroof and stood on the bonnet. He estimated that he had five, maybe six rounds left in his magazine, and used these to drop any infected that were closing back in on the vehicle, then he switched to the P226. He saw the girl open the side gate and run into the compound, turning with her sword raised in case any fiends managed to slip in behind her. Yates was next, and he took up position in the mouth of the gate. Xander jumped down, opened the back door and pulled all the weapons out, then passed them to the girl through the palisade rails. He noticed the skeletal remains of a dog lying amongst the scattered bodies as he heaved the Bergen onto his back and sprinted for the open gate. Yates knee capped one infected that blocked his route. Xander finished him off with a perfect 9mm shot to the top of his head, right through the crown, and dived into the compound, shaking the Bergen from his back. Yates kicked the gate shut and locked the padlock with the keys, then tossed them back to the girl.

"Nice moves," he said, and the girl smiled as Xander walked behind her; he holstered the SIG, slotted another mag into the SA80 and patted her twice on the shoulder.

"Thanks. That was quick thinking." Xander expressed with a sincere nod of the head and grinning raised eyebrows. The girl simply bowed her head and shook some blood from her sword. "Do you… live here?" Xander asked between long breaths.

"No," the girl said. "It’s my friend’s place."

Yates fleetingly glanced at the bodies on the other side of the fence. There had obviously been a violent siege here. “Looks like you had your hands full,” he said as he admired the security measures that were constructed onto the inner side of the gate; two police riot shields attached to the metal work with woven barbed wire. He noticed a blood stained spade leaning against the wall before looking up at the severed heads, skewered to the anti climb points atop the palisade fencing like trophies. He swallowed and stepped behind the girl, moved over to join Xander, and whispered in his ear, "I like what they've done with the place."

"Mmm," Xander replied disparagingly, looking at one particular head that looked remarkable like Father Ted mid '
feck
'. "Very."

The girl started to make her way up a flight of concrete steps which led to a white door, moving swiftly, taking three steps at a time. "You better wait here," she said over her shoulder. She paused and turned to look at the two soldiers. They looked up at her as she removed her mouth guard and protective goggles, revealing a pretty oriental teenage face with eyes as old and as deep as the universe. Xander and Yates exchanged a quick look of respect. Her countenance spoke volumes. God knows what she had been through to get to this point.