Dead Tropics (12 page)

A dash across the path brought us unseen to a space between the two nearest caravans. As we paused to catch our breaths, the sound of dragging feet hit us. They were near, really near.
But which direction?!
Pressing ourselves against the caravan wall, we froze as a zombie lurched by on our left. I watched him from the corner of my eye as he passed only a few feet away. The bloodstained skin showed that he had already dined on human flesh.

As the zombie disappeared, I let out a shaky breath. Jerking my head at the others, I inched around the caravan. It was clear on the other side so we raced to the rear of the next caravan. My hands were clammy and cold as I pressed myself against the caravan wall. The bat was threatening to slip out of my grip.

We made our way through a few more rows of caravans unseen, hearts pumping, hands sweating. At any moment, I expected to be spotted and hear the terrifyingly familiar sound of many moans mingling with hundreds of clumsy footsteps dogging me.

Then, the moment I had dreaded, panicked human voices, running towards us, undoubtedly bringing a lot of zombies in their wake.

9

I exchanged an alarmed look with Emma. Quickly, I moved to the front of the caravan and risked a look around. My stomach dropped as I saw three young children, a boy and two girls of about ten years old, running as fast as their young legs could take them. In their wake, a horde of about forty zombies. For all of their lack of coordination, the zombies as a group covered a lot of ground and seemed to be closing the gap.

I could see the children's terrified faces. They weren't aware of us but, nevertheless, they were bringing the zombies straight to us. I pulled back, pulse pounding and heart aching. They would be on us in seconds.
What to do, what to do?

"Quick! Under the caravan!" I whispered urgently as I fell to my knees and, pushing the bat in front, scurried under the van. Emma and Lucas speedily joined me. A few seconds later, the children's feet flew past the caravan. Crawling forward, I watched in horror as the scene continued to unfold before me.

As the children ran towards the exit, I had a moment of hope that they would escape. They were young and fast; if they kept their heads, they might just make it! Then, coming from the playground side of the park, another group of zombies moved towards the children. Their trajectory would soon block the children's escape route.
Dammit, dammit, dammit!

The taller of the girls spotted the second group closing in on them. For just a few seconds, she faltered. I watched helplessly as the most agile of the following zombies succeeded in wrapping his fingers around her arm. She screamed in terror and tugged in a desperate attempt to escape his clutch. But within seconds, she was sucked from sight into the horde. For several seconds, her terrified cries rang in my ears. Tears streamed down my face as I turned my eyes away.

The boy swung away and headed for the pool with the girl in tow.
Yes
, I silently screamed in excitement,
get inside the gated area
! The boy struggled to reach the magnetic lock on top of the gate as the zombies neared them.
Come on!
Suddenly, the gate swung open and the two children fled inside, slamming the gate shut behind them. They clutched each other as they waited to see if the zombies could get in.

The creatures gathered around the pool gate, arms pawing through the gate as they tried futilely to reach the children. The kids were safe for the moment.

Shaken, I whispered to the others. "I think we'd better keep under the vans. There are just too many zombies around."

They nodded nervously. Checking first, we kept low as we made a dash for the next caravan and threw ourselves under it. In this manner, we made our way to the edge of the caravan park. There, across the large paved courtyard, stood the front office.

Just as Lucas had indicated, in the car park across from it, were several jeeps with the resort's logo emblazoned across the sides.

Two zombies banged on the windows of the office. Someone still alive in there!

"What's the plan, Lori?" Lucas asked.

"We run for it." I replied.

Silence followed. "You know, Lori," Emma said in a conversational tone. "You really need to make new plans. This one is getting
really
old."

****

We scrambled out from under the van and raced across the paved area to the door. The zombies at the window immediately lurched towards us. I grabbed the door handle and turned. It was locked. "Hey, in there!" I called softly but urgently. We didn't need to attract attention, if we could help it. "Let us in!"

I shook the door handle to reinforce the fact that there were people out here. Nothing. Only silence greeted us. I guess I was mistaken about someone being in there.

Lucas readied his bat as the zombies stumbled up the wooden stairs. He looked nervous but determined. I moved across to a window and peered inside but I couldn't see any movement. Nothing for it but to break the window, I decided reluctantly. That was bound to attract unwanted attention.

A grunt behind me drew my eye and I saw Lucas and Emma slam their bats into the faces of the two zombies, sending them flying off the stairs. From their uniforms, they must have worked at the resort.

Using my bat as a battering ram, I broke the window glass and cleared it away from the frame. We only had a short window of time before other zombies came to investigate the noise. Gesturing to the others, I clambered through the window. There was a counter with brochures in the right corner and a door just beyond it which, I assumed, was an office.

Where would one keep car keys, I wondered. As Emma and Lucas climbed into the room, I raced behind the counter and started searching the drawers. Emma passed me, headed for the office, while Lucas nominated himself to keep a lookout.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?!" The enraged voice came from a large, red-faced man standing in the doorway of the office, waving an angry finger at us. "You think you can steal from me?! I'll kick your bloody arses, all of you, if you don't get the hell out of here now!"

Startled, Emma backed away to stand next to me. I straightened up slowly and talked soothingly to the belligerent man. Presumably, he was the owner or the manager of the resort. "I'm sorry, sir. We didn't know you were here. We'd really appreciate it if you would give us the keys to one of your vehicles."

It did not occur to me that he wouldn't be willing to help us in these extraordinary circumstances. I was wrong.

"Oh I bet you would, missy." He sneered. "Well, you can go back to your looter friends out there and tell them that I've called the police. They're on their way now."

He gestured at the two zombies who had picked themselves up and were banging at the door. Thankfully, they hadn't yet discovered the broken window.

I exchanged a surprised look with Emma. "Looters? That's what you think is going on?"

Lucas suddenly spoke up. "You might want to hurry this up, guys. We've got company."

Shit!
I looked at the large, blustery man in front of me and anger started to blossom within me. All the screaming and mayhem going on in his park, and it was clear this man had not so much as stepped foot outside this office to assist his customers.

I pulled out the parang and held it up, noting with satisfaction the sudden widening of his eyes. "Look, mister," I said, oh so calmly. "I've already killed a lot of people today, and, frankly, I am quite happy to add one more to the list. Give me the keys to a car
right now
or I'm going to start chopping pieces off you until you do."

He swallowed hard, which surprised me a bit. I must sound very convincing.

"Guys...!" Lucas sounded a lot more urgent. I stepped forward with the parang, holding the man's eyes.

He backed away and threw his hands up. "Okay! Take the bloody keys. They are on the pin board in the office."

I nodded at Emma and she skittered past him into the room. "There are about a dozen car keys here! Which one do we take?"

I cocked a questioning brow at the man, whose face was becoming more flushed by the minute. He scowled but answered. "The orange one belongs to the closest jeep."

Emma hurried out, clutching the keys. "Got it. Let's go."

I nodded and backed away, grabbing my bat as I passed the desk. As we joined Lucas at the window, I paused to look back at the man. "Those aren't looters out there, mister, and I'm pretty sure you had no luck reaching the police. I would suggest you get out while you can."

He glared at me contemptuously. Shrugging, I clambered out of the window. Not a minute too soon, either. The paved courtyard was full of zombies, all with only one thing on their simple minds. The three of us. The front ones had already reached the office stairs. In silent agreement, we jumped off the verandah and flew across the pavers to the car park where the jeeps were stationed.

Lucas and I jumped into the first jeep as Emma stilled her trembling fingers while she tried to place the keys in the ignition.

"It doesn't fit!" She squealed in dismay.

Anger coursed through me and I felt a moment of intense regret that I hadn't chopped a few pieces off the miserable bastard! He might have cost us our lives, I thought, as zombies flooded around and in between the vehicles in the car park.

"Try the last vehicle!" I yelled at Emma as I leapt out of the jeep and swung my bat at the nearest zombie. He bounced off a car and collapsed onto the ground. From the corner of my eye, I saw Lucas ram his bat into the stomach of a zombie and push it violently back into the creatures behind it. With the tiny bit of breathing space we had gained, the three of us backed away and ran down the line of parked vehicles until we reached the last jeep.

Lucas and I held our bats at the ready as Emma shakily stuck the keys in the ignition.
Please God, let this be the one.

Relief made me weak in the knees as I heard the wonderful sound of the car engine starting. The jerk turned out to be pretty predictable in his thinking, after all.

Emma scrambled over into the passenger seat as Lucas hopped into the back. Throwing the bat on the backseat, I jumped into the driver's seat and sent the jeep into a screeching reverse, cutting a swathe through the huddle of zombies immediately behind us.

As I threw the jeep into first gear, a zombie succeeded in grabbing Emma's arm. Emma screamed as the zombie brought its mouth towards her bare skin. Viciously, Lucas jammed his bat into the creature's mouth and held it at bay as, with a squeal of wheels, I sent the jeep charging forward.

Ahead of me, blocking our exit from the park, was the boom gate. I placed my foot down on the accelerator.

"Lori, you're not going to do what I think you're going to do, are you?" squeaked Emma, clutching her doorframe.

I smiled grimly. "You'd better duck."

I crossed my fingers mentally, closed my eyes and sent the car crashing through the barrier. The light wooden pole splintered into many pieces and I roared out of the park onto the highway.

On the highway, horns beeped and tires screeched as drivers desperately tried to get ahead of others. The calm on the road of only half an hour ago had rapidly deteriorated into anger and fear. I braked sharply to avoid hitting a car as it cut ahead of me and crawled past two cars that had collided minutes earlier as the owners harangued each other.

"This is mayhem." Emma muttered anxiously, her eyes darting from car to car. "We should get off this road as quickly as we can."

Unfortunately, the first turnoff was at least a mile away. If we could make it there, though, it would take us straight to my sister's. I prayed that this madness had not reached there yet. Fear surged through me as I wondered if Roy and the kids had reached the house safely. I shied away from the thought - there was nothing I could do about that at the moment.

I fought the chaos successfully for another half-mile or so before movement came to a standstill. The horns beeped futilely and drivers cursed and yelled in vain. None of us were going anywhere.

"What do you think is going on?" Lucas asked, standing on the back of the jeep to get a better view.

I shrugged, trying not to let my anxiety show. "An accident blocking the road, probably." Maybe, maybe not. My ears strained to hear anything that would give me a clue. With all the honking and yelling, it was hard to separate the different sounds. Still, that whine I could hear above the general noise seemed to be getting louder...

Too late, I realised the sound was not a whine but cries - the cries of hundreds of people fleeing. They poured towards us through the stalled vehicles like ants fleeing a fire.

10

I looked around me desperately for a way out of the traffic jam but we were hemmed in on all sides. "Let me guess!" Lucas yelled. "We run for it?"

"We run for it!" I scrambled out of the vehicle and made for the side of the highway. Around me, people were craning their heads, trying to see what was happening. For all I knew, it could be a fire or a chemical spill, but I sure as hell wasn't going to stick around to find out, if I could help it.