For Those In Peril (Book 2): The Outbreak (7 page)

‘You,’
Claire pointed at me, ‘get that body out of there and then help me get him,’ she
pointed at Tom, ‘into the back seat.’

I
opened the passenger door, stepped out and reached back to the car. I grabbed
Iliana and pulled, but she didn’t move. I changed my hold to get a better grip
and tried again. This time I managed to drag her lifeless body out of the car
and there was a sickening thump as it hit the ground. I glanced down and saw
that Iliana’s blood, mixed with flecks of her brains, was now smeared across my
jacket; I had to work hard to stop myself throwing up. Trying not to look at
Iliana again, I helped Tom out of the front seat, while Claire disappeared round
the back of the Range Rover. She reappeared a second later carrying a
rectangular black bag.

‘Get
him in here.’ She pointed to the back seat, and then she looked up at me. ‘D’you
know how to drive?’

‘No,
not really; not cars at any rate.’

Claire
turned to Daz, ‘What about you?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Good.
Get up front and let’s get going again.’

Daz
slid behind the wheel as I clambered in the passenger side. I heard Daz fiddle
with the seat, moving it back and forth until he was comfortable. All the time I
was watching Claire: she’d torn Tom’s shirt open and was pressing a thick white
pad she’d taken from her bag against a ragged wound in his right shoulder.

‘Why
aren’t we moving?’ Claire glared at Daz as she worked on Tom.

‘Where’re we headin’?’ Daz looked from Claire to me and back again.

I
thought for a second. ‘Try the tunnel. We might still be able to get out that
way.’

The
Range Rover leapt forward as Daz floored the accelerator. I turned my attention
back to Tom and Claire. She seemed to know what I was thinking. ‘Don’t worry. I
know what I’m doing.’ She smiled at me. ‘I’m a doctor.’

‘Fuck!
More polis.’ Daz was pointing ahead, where three police cars were parked —
lights flashing but empty — across the road leading to the tunnel that I hoped
would take us under the River Clyde and out to Glasgow’s Southside. At first, it
seemed like our path was blocked, but then I saw they’d been positioned too far
forward and there was a way for us to get past. ‘Daz, take that slip road to the
left and then turn sharp right. We can get round them.’

‘Gotcha!’ Daz barely slowed as he followed my instructions and soon we were on
the road that led down to the tunnel. With no other cars around, Daz was able to
push the Range Rover to the max and we were doing about eighty when we shot into
the darkness. As a kid I remembered playing a game where you had to try to hold
your breath from one end of the tunnel to the other. Going at the legal maximum
of thirty, I’d never managed it, but at the speed we were going now, it would
have been easy.

Ahead,
the tunnel descended and then turned slightly to the left. The sound of the
engine roared against the concrete walls and was thrown back through the broken
windscreen. Suddenly, I saw something ahead: blue lights from some unknown
source flashing in the gloom. A second later, first one police motorcycle, then
two more, shot round the bend and passed us in the opposite direction. I turned
and watched them disappear up towards the entrance, wondering what they were
doing coming through the wrong side.

‘What
the hell’s that all about?’ Daz slammed on the brakes and we skidded to a halt:
a sea of shadows danced on the tunnel wall, thrown there by some unseen light.
Then they came into view: a mass of people charging towards us, their yells and
screams echoing all around. There was no mistaking it: these were infected.

‘We
need to get out of here!’ I shouted.

Daz
looked across at me, scared and starting to panic, as he struggled to find
reverse. ‘I’m trying!’

By the
time he finally found it, the first of the infected were only a few feet from
the car. He stood on the accelerator and the engine screamed as we shot
backwards, doing a speed that the reverse gear was never designed to do. At
first, it seemed like the infected were able to keep up, but slowly the gap
between them and us widened. By the time we reached the entrance of the tunnel,
we were well clear of them, but I could still hear the noise they made as they
chased after us.

‘Where
now?’ There was an urgency in Daz’s voice as the car continued to shoot
backwards.

‘What
about your boat? You said it’s at the exhibition centre, that’s not far from
here, is it?’ Tom was leaning forward, his shoulder tightly bandaged.

‘Okay,
that sounds like a plan.’ I glanced round. ‘Daz, aim for that slip road there.’

Daz
stomped on the brakes and then put the Range Rover into first gear. He pulled
sharply on the steering wheel as he accelerated, spinning it round. We bumped
across the central divide and shot up a slip road which curved back on itself as
it rose above the entrance to the tunnel; below, I saw the infected emerge and
scatter. Soon, we were speeding along a broad dual carriageway, heading back
towards the city centre. Our side of the road was empty, but the other was
jammed with cars held up by yet another police roadblock. Some of the drivers
had got out of their cars and were arguing with the policemen. They were so
intent on shouting at each other that they didn’t notice the first of the
infected sprinting towards them. In seconds, they’d been pulled to the ground,
and as more infected streamed between the idling vehicles I turned back to face
the front, knowing what was about happen and not wanting to see it.

Daz
was squirming round, trying to figure out what was going on behind us. ‘How
far’re we goin’?’

I
leaned forward to get a better idea of where we were ‘There’s a pedestrian
bridge over the road. We can use that to get across to where the boat is.’

Daz
squinted through the windscreen. ‘Where?’

‘There! Right there!’ I pointed ahead to where a narrow metal bridge spanned
both carriageways of the road we were on. The other side was still filled with
cars, while ours remained clear.

Daz
hit the brakes, bringing the Range Rover screeching to a halt. I looked back at
Tom. ‘Are you okay to run?’

Tom
stretched his shoulder tentatively. ‘Yeah, I should be.’

I
turned my attention to Claire. ‘You good to go?’

She
nodded. ‘Where’re we heading?’

‘Just
over the bridge, and then it’s about fifty yards to the boat. You can’t miss it;
it’s the only one there.’

‘Let’s
go!’ Claire grabbed her black bag and leapt out of the car, quickly followed by
the rest of us. Daz helped Sophie over the metal railings which ran along the
side of the road, while Claire lifted Jake across. As we started to run up the
sloping ramp of the bridge, I heard a shout and turned to see Claire begging
Jake to run, trying to make him understand the urgency of the situation, but he
just stood there, staring vacantly at her. I stopped and waited for her as she
grabbed Jake’s hand, trying to pull him forward, but still he refused to move. I
heard a crash in the distance and then a scream, and I looked round to find
people running between the cars on the other side of the road. They didn’t
appear to be infected, but they were running from something, and I had little
doubt as to what it was. ‘Claire, infected! You’ll have to carry him.’

Claire
scooped Jake up and within seconds she was level with me; together we ran after
the others. At the top of the ramp, the bridge turned sharply to the right,
taking us out over the dual carriageway. To the left, was a railway line and a
stationary train. Within its carriages, I could see people wrestling with each
other: blood splashing onto the windows as people fought for their lives.

Turning away, I saw infected on the road below us, chasing people down and
attacking those they caught; screams and snarls mixing with the sounds of idling
engines. By the time we were halfway across the bridge, I could see Claire was
struggling to keep up. I held out my arms. ‘Here, I’ll take him.’

As she
passed Jake to me, I could feel his body was limp and his skin was warm and
clammy. As we ran on, his head bounced against my shoulder as he drifted in and
out of consciousness.

Claire
and I caught up with the others at the far end of the bridge where another ramp
led back to the ground. Some of the infected on the nearby road must have heard
Claire yelling at Sophie, urging her on, because their heads snapped round, and
within seconds, they were sprinting after us. As we raced across the car park to
where the boat was tied up, I glanced round; we were well ahead of the infected,
but they were closing fast, their screaming and howling audible even above the
sound of the blood pounding in my ears. I tried to judge the speed they were
moving at, and the distance we still had to cover, but the fear of what would
happen if they caught us clouded my mind. All I could do was hope and pray we’d
get there with enough time to not only get on board, but also get far enough
away from the shore to be safe.

Chapter Three

‘Tom,
get that rope; Daz, help Claire!’ When I felt we were close enough, I’d passed
Jake back to Claire and raced ahead, reaching the boat seconds before the
others. Once there, I ran along the dock and untied the front rope from its
cleat on the pontoon. Following my orders, Tom did the same with the one at the
back, while Daz leapt on board before turning to take Jake from Claire. Sophie
was still a few steps behind and Claire waited to help her on board before
climbing on herself.

As
soon as the ropes were free, I looked back: the infected were only twenty yards
away. As I pushed the front of the boat away from the dock, I shouted to Tom.
‘Get on!’

He
didn’t need to be asked twice, and the moment he landed on the deck, I jumped on
myself. I ran down the side of the boat and leapt into the cockpit. When I
reached the wheel, I pressed the starter button, and breathed a sigh of relief
when the engine immediately burst into life. I glanced over my shoulder: the
first of the infected had reached the pontoon and were pounding along it. I
slammed the throttle forward, causing the engine to scream in protest, and
turned the wheel, taking the boat away from the dock. One of the infected, a
man, perhaps in his late twenties, ran alongside and threw himself towards us,
but we were just out of his reach. I watched as he fell into the water and sank
from sight. Back on the dock, the rest paced back and forth, roaring with
frustration at our escape.

As I
manoeuvred the boat towards the middle of the river, I heard the sound of
another, more powerful engine approaching at speed. Looking upstream, I saw a
seaplane skimming over the water towards us. The pilot had the door open and was
trying to dislodge an infected which was clinging to the left-hand float. The
noise grew louder and louder as the plane grew nearer, heading straight for us.
At the last minute, the pilot spotted us and must have pulled back hard on the
stick because the plane rose sharply and unevenly. The weight of the infected
had unbalanced the plane and I could see the pilot fighting both to control it
and to avoid hitting us. I twisted the boat’s wheel hard to the right just as
the plane banked left and its wing-tip missed the top of the mast by less than a
foot.

A
hundred yards further down the river, the infected lost its grip and fell,
twisting and tumbling, as if in slow motion, before splashing into the river
ahead of us. Finally, free of its unwanted passenger, the plane evened out and
climbed higher into the cloudless sky. I watched until it was little more than a
white speck against the blue, wishing we could escape just as quickly. As it
was, it would take us a good few hours before we’d finally be out of the city.

I
looked at the others: Daz and Tom were staring after the aircraft, while Sophie
had pulled out her mobile phone and was tapping at it furiously. After a few
seconds, a confused look spread across her face. ‘Why can’t I send any
messages?’

Daz
turned to her. ‘Dunno.’ He pulled out his own phone and examined it. ‘There’s no
signal on mine.’

‘None
on mine either.’ Tom shoved his phone back into his pocket. ‘Maybe the network’s
down. Everyone’s probably trying to call everyone else at once to find out
what’s going on; must be jamming up the system.’

I was
just about to join the discussion when I noticed Claire: she was bent over Jake,
examining him closely. I watched him for a second, but he lay still, his eyes
unfocussed, his breathing shallow and rapid. I put the engine into neutral,
letting the current carry us downstream, and moved over to Claire. ‘Is he okay? 
What’s wrong with him?’

She
said nothing, but pulled back the sleeve of his sweatshirt revealing a ragged
wound which snaked across his pale skin.

‘What’s
that
?’ Daz had joined us.

‘It
was when the man attacked the car, Jake was sitting in the passenger seat; the
man grabbed him when he smashed through the glass. I thought I’d got him away in
time.’ Claire’s eyes filled with tears.

‘You
mean ...?’ Tom didn’t finish the sentence, but he didn’t need to.

Claire
nodded.