The Undead. The First Seven Days (45 page)

A few of the lads snigger and I can sense the nervous excitement.

I move out to the centre of the road and drop my bag down at my side, then the axe that I retrieved from Tucker. I open the top and make sure there are spare magazines at hand. The lads start spreading to both sides, until we are evenly spaced across the width of the road.
  ‘Lads, pick your shots and try to make each one count.’ Blowers calls out.
  I ready my rifle, raise it up to my shoulder and look down the sights on the barrel. The horde are still some distance away and headshots will be bloody impossible from here, but, from previous experience, I know we will slow them down, if we drop the ones at the front and create an obstacle to those behind.
  I call out my instructions and then lower my sights a little, until I aiming into the hundreds of pairs of legs shuffling towards us.
  I fire first and instantly see a zombie soldier get spun back into the few behind him, he goes down and the next one trips over him.
  ‘Just like that!’ I call out, to a few cheers.
  The shots start ringing out and I watch as zombies are dropped and fall to the ground; most of them carry on moving, but soon we have created a natural obstacle for the horde. However, the sheer press of bodies from behind just surges them forward, over their fallen zombie comrades.
  We press on, and I can hear a clear gap between shots as the lads try hard to pick their shots. We work in silence and many zombie soldiers are shot down. As they get closer, we can pick out individual details and see the horrific injuries they have already sustained. I raise my aim and start trying to shoot in the general head area. I know that if I miss the one I am aiming for I will most likely still get one or two behind it.
  ‘MAGAZINE’ I yell out, as I start changing the ammunition for my assault rifle, doing as Dave showed us all.

I take a quick glance about and look at the grim faces of the young recruits concentrating and firing their weapons. Cookey and Smith are up top and also firing away, down into the horde.
  ‘Cookey, Smith, keep checking the sides and the rear,’ I call out to them, trying to make myself heard over the gunshots.

I see them respond and both stop firing, to look off into the plains and check behind them.
   I reload, take aim and start firing again. The horde are incessant and, despite the large numbers we are dropping, they just keep coming at us. I am concerned at how close they are, remembering the super zombie and suddenly become very wary, in case they start charging at us.
  ‘MOVE BACK LADS. MOVE BACK,’ I shout out and hear Blowers repeating my words further down the line.

We all stop firing and start shuffling backwards, either carrying or dragging our kit bags with us. We have to stop as we reach the apex of the bend in the road, otherwise we wouldn’t get a good view of them. Within a few seconds, we are all back to firing and dropping more and more zombies. I can see the effects of the shots now and watch as heads burst apart and pink matter sprays up; torso shots hit home, fresh blood pumps out onto their clothing.

The heads of the zombies are rolling and their gait is still awkward and stiff legged. I watch them closely for any sign of normality, but they are too densely packed to see beyond the first couple of rows.
  Again, after a few minutes, we are forced to move back again.

But the bend in the road means we won’t get a clear view, if we move back any further.
  ‘UP ON THE BANKS,’ I shout out.

There is confusion as they all start moving towards the same bank.
  ‘TEAM ALPHA ON THE LEFT AND BRAVO ON THE RIGHT,’ I shout again and they run towards the appropriate side and clamber up.

I go right and climb up too.

The small height difference means we can shoot down into them and probably will get better head shots.
  The undead army are spilling out, away from the road on both sides. I look down the road and my heart sinks as I see they are still stacked right back, past the crossroads.

I bloody hope Dave hurries up.
  We keep firing and every so often we have to move back and it doesn’t take long before they are on the stretch of road between the banks and also out onto the sides.

We are forced to move back further and further up the road and, despite inflicting massive casualties, they don’t show any sign of stopping.
  The light is starting to fade and I can see that my ammunition is getting very low. There are several magazines left in the bag but, at this rate, they won’t last long and I start to feel very concerned that we will be trapped in the darkness with low or depleted ammunition.
  ‘LADS, WE ARE GOING TO RUN OUT INTO THE PLAINS TO THE RIGHT SIDE, FOLLOW ME.’

I hear Blowers, then Cookey, repeat the order and the lads gather their kit; shrugging on bags and moving towards me.

We start moving away from the road and out to the right side, onto the plains. We make distance for a few seconds and then stop, for a rest.
  ‘It’s going to be dark soon and we absolutely cannot be out here when that happens. Dave and Curtis should be back soon - but we have to make a plan to get somewhere safe. I reckon we should make for that church. We go far right and loop round, until we come at it from the far side. What do you think?’
  ‘Sounds good, Sir,’ Blowers responds, and several of them nod at me.
  ‘Okay, let’s get moving.’
  We move out, further into the plains, and our fast pace soon leaves the horde behind; but they have already turned in our direction en masse.

We keep going out, and, before long, we cross over the road and go back onto the plains on the other side. The sky darkens with each second we are running and I can feel the fear building up within us all.
  We then turn back towards the village and the general direction of the church; within minutes it comes into view.
  ‘Looks clear from here,’ I say, through ragged breath, more to try and lift their spirits.
  Then we get closer and see some of the horde are coming our way from the direction of the village crossroads; spilling out through the buildings which are well in view now. We slow down and stop for a few seconds, breathing hard.
  ‘If we go into the plains we will get separated from Dave and Curtis,’ I look to each man in turn. ‘We are going to have to fight our way through, there’s no other choice. The church is the biggest and strongest building, are you ready?’ They nod back, silent but determined.
  ‘That drill that Dave showed you, we can use that as we get closer. When I say, I want team Bravo to stop and team Alpha to move forward a short distance and fire. I’ll go with Alpha, Blowers with Bravo. When we finish firing and shout magazine, that’s when Bravo moves forward. Got it?’ They nod back and start shuffling, so that McKinney, Smith, Tucker and Hewitt are forward with me.

Blowers pulls the rest back a few steps.
  ‘Okay, let’s go.’

We start moving forward again and I see my team start to spread out a little, just as Dave showed them. Within a very short time, we are very close. I can see there are a few undead already between us and the church but more are shuffling out between the sides of the buildings.
  As we get to within fifty metres of the first load of undead I shout the order: ‘ALPHA STOP.’

We all stop and kneel down.
  ‘FIRE,’ I yell and start firing single shots at the zombie soldiers.

They drop down as several of us shoot the same ones, but that can’t be helped and we keep firing and dropping them.

  ‘MAGAZINE!’ Smith yells first and starts to change.

Within seconds, we have all shouted the magic word and I wave my arm forward for Blowers.
  ‘BRAVO ON ME,’ Blowers yells and they surge past us, until he shouts to stop and they kneel down and start firing again.

I take the opportunity to get some deep breaths, to try and slow my breathing down.
  ‘MAGAZINE,’ Bravo starts yelling and I watch until Blowers waves his arm forward.
  ‘ALPHA ON ME.’ We spring up and charge forward and go past the kneeling Bravo team. I take them about forty metres ahead and shout to stop. We assume the position and commence firing again. We focus on the undead zombies between us and the church and we still keep dropping many of them, but more are still coming through the gaps towards us.
  ‘MAGAZINE,’ I yell out and glance to the sky, it is very dark now and it can only be a matter of minutes before the night is on us properly.

I wait until they have all shouted and wave my arm forward.
  For the next few minutes, we advance slowly towards the church and the bodies are piling up around and in front of us. As my team change magazines, I yell out: ‘IN A MINUTE THEY WILL ALL STOP AND LOOK UP, WHEN THAT HAPPENS JUST FUCKING LEG IT TO THE CHURCH.’
  Team Bravo run through us and commence firing. As they start shouting MAGAZINE, the already massed horde coming through the building gaps all suddenly stop and stand still, raising their heads slowly to look up into the sky.
  ‘NOW! FUCKING RUN,’ I bellow and start running towards the church.

There is no order now and we are all sprinting towards the building which is still a couple of hundred metres away. The distance is short but the ground is uneven and we are all exhausted; our speed ebbs away.
   We hear the sudden roars and howling of the undead as they scream out to one another. The massive numbers means the sound is incredible and it serves to drive us on faster.
  ‘KEEP GOING. DON’T STOP.’ I urge them on, the fucking axe is banging against my legs again, having been wedged down between my back and the bag.
  I reach the church building and kick open the large, wooden side door. The next one behind me is Cooke.
  ‘Cookey, check that the other doors are closed.’ He runs inside and McKinney joins him. I look back and see most of them are almost at the door, apart from Tucker. He is running, but I can see he is exhausted and looks like he will collapse.
  ‘RUN, TUCKER,’ I yell out and the others join in, urging him to run faster.

The howling suddenly stops and I see the zombie heads drop down and turn to face us, switched on now, focused and mean.
  ‘COVERING FIRE,’ Blowers yells out and we drop down onto our knees and start firing into the zombies.

As the first shots hit home they react and are running towards us.

We keep firing as they gain on Tucker, picking our shots carefully and aiming for centre mass. Several of them are right behind him, as he takes the last few steps to the church.
  ‘INSIDE NOW,’ I shout and we all bundle inside, slamming the door, just as Tucker bursts in. We brace the door and several of them push their weight against it, as the undead bodies slam into it from the other side.
  ‘Grab that locking bar,’ I shout at Jamie Reese, indicating a thick piece of wood resting against the wall.

We slot the bar down into the metal hooks and slowly ease our weight off. The bar holds and we can hear the bodies slam into the door from the other side.
  ‘The other door is secure,’ says Cookey, as he comes back and flops down, breathing hard.

I move into the centre of the room. Just a few rows of wooden pews remain; everything else has been cleared away. Even the stained glass windows are gone, but the gaps are just over head height and the zombies shouldn’t be able to get through, unless they have suddenly learnt to start climbing.

I remember the super zombie again.
  ‘Right, I want two covering each door, in case they break through. The rest of you pull the pews over to the windows and start shooting down into them, but save some ammunition, in case they get through the doors.’
  I check each door. They are solid wood but old and they can’t take too much of a battering. If we get large numbers of undead bodies pressing against them, they could go through.
  The lads pull pews over and climb up; I can hear shots as they shoot down. I go to both sides and look out. The view from the front is very worrying and the groans and noises from the undead are a lot louder now.
  We all fire down, but they just keep coming and soon we are each down to our last magazine.
  ‘Everyone in the middle, pull the pews around us.’

We form a low and flimsy barricade with a pew just inside each door and a few round us. Then we all stand in the middle, half facing one door, half facing the other.

My axe is next to me, ready to be picked up and used when the bullets run out.

Where the fuck is, Dave
?
  We stand in silence, jumping and twitching at the bumps and bangs coming from the doors. The front door starts to make a creaking noise and we all turn to stare at it. A definite sound of wood creaking and then a splintering noise. Each of us raises our rifles to our shoulders and aims directly at the door.

‘This is it lads, get ready,’ I say, in a surprisingly strong voice.
  The wood splinters louder and the door starts to break inwards, as the horde of undead zombie soldiers pile more and more body weight into it.
  Just as the door seems that it will implode, a sudden fast and loud thudding sounds out and Blowers immediately cheers.
  ‘That’s the fucking GPMG,’ he screams out.

We push the pews away and drag them over to the window at the front. Once up, I look out and see a bright, flashing light coming from the corner of the crossroads - it’s too bright to see beyond the light but I know that Dave is standing there, probably smiling to himself as he slaughters thousands of zombies.
  The effect is amazing and we watch bodies being shredded and ripped apart from the large calibre rounds.
  We are all cheering and whooping and watch as the zombies come round from behind the church and start running towards the noise and are instantly mown down by hails of bullets. A second gun rings out, and I realise that Curtis must be with Dave, watching the flanks and rear.
  Lights suddenly come on from the
Land Rover
that is parked behind the sandbags; the vehicle is facing the crossroads and I can see Dave illuminated as he rests the front tripod on the edge of the sandbags and fires into the crossroads; shredding everything in his path.