Thrust & Parry: Z Day (17 page)

“Hold on.” Jim Shouted as he threw the bus around the following right bend without slowing down. The bus tilted worryingly before settling back down.

“I’m Jessica, I don’t know how long I’ve been here but it’s not as long as Rebecca and I haven’t been taken out of my cell.” She didn’t really have an emotion on her face, more a crescendo of emotions dancing over it. “I was trying to get back to the house with my boyfriend when they grabbed us.” A sudden realisation spread across her face. “You haven’t seen him have you?”

“Well, what does he look like?” Paddy asked although deep down he knew, as he watched the girls attempt to cover themselves and fail, that he hadn’t seen any survivors except the emperor and his guards since he was snatched.

“Kind of long dark hair.
Wore a lot of black, had like military style boots on, your height.” She pointed a Paddy and he shook his head.

“Sorry, doesn’t ring a bell. Straight on at the lights” Paddy explained.

“I saw him, he was a zed, and I had to kill him.” Shouted Jim from the front without any hint of emotion. Jessica’s face dropped. She sat their stunned while Jim puffed away from the driving seat.

“Take a left and it’s on the left.” Paddy called to Jim.

“Get ready with the door code. Same drill as before. Il take front and left, you take back and right. Ladies, stay on the bus until told otherwise.” Paddy checked behind the bus as they approached the turn. There was one lonely zed trying to keep up with them and failing from a while back.

“What’s the code boss?” Paddy called back.

“15724”Jim called back and Paddy made a note of it on the back of his hand. The bus shuddered to a halt in front of the gate as Paddy hit the door release. He leapt out and mashed the keypad before hauling the gate open. Before it was even fully open Jim had floored it and pulled the bus into the car park. He leapt out and secured his sides, nothing.

“Paddy, SITREP!” he called through the blown out windows of the bus. There was no reply. He pounded around the bus but Paddy wasn’t there. Jim looked around frantically before finally finding his 2ic by the gates. Jim noticed at this point that the truck was still where it had been parked, nothing seemed to have moved. Paddy was wrestling through the gate with a zed. It must have been the one chasing the bus as they pulled up. Jim tried to take aim but couldn’t get a clear shot and couldn’t risk hitting Paddy. He dropped the rifle to his side and sprinted over. He ran to the right of where Paddy stood to get a clear shot on the zed. The zed noticed him and stopped. His head was tilted to one side like a puppy trying to work out what was happening. Jim didn’t give him a chance to figure it out. He snapped up his rifle and blew him away. Paddy barely had time to breath a ‘thanks’ before there was a guttural screech from the direction of the doors leading to the drill hall. Jim sighed, as much as he had looked forward to the apocalypse happening, in a sort of sick way, he was starting to get bored of the constant adrenaline buzz. They both turned to find around three zeds charging at them.

“Here we go again.” Jim called as he took a knee and started to line up the closest zed. Paddy joined him and snatched his first shot, this caught the closest zed in the shoulder spinning it round and making it lose balance. It tumbled and took out the zed behind it. At the same time Jim squeezed his first shot but the zed he was aiming for span out of his sight and the round caught the zed behind it in the chin. Jim wasn’t sure if this was a kill shot but it went down all the same. The zed with a hole in its shoulder was just getting to its feet when Paddy caught it on the forehead while Jim lined up the zed that was now back on its feet and charging at them once more. It had some serious gravel burns down its face. Jim cured it of it as its head snapped back and a fountain of blood spurted out of its head.

“Right, we need to move, now.” Jim shouted as he began to jog back to the bus. The girls had been watching everything unfold and were ready and waiting at the bus doors, Gimpy in hand. Paddy took the Gimpy and ushered them to the TAC doors. Jim followed behind as he ensured there weren’t any more zeds in the car park. “Right, wait here, I want to have the edge on this fucker.” Jim explained as they all flattened themselves against the wall, out of sight. Jim took a run up before scaling the 8 foot wall to the roof of the TAC and hauling himself up onto it. He lay there for a moment as he re-accustomed himself to the layout. The metal hatch was still open and Jim slowly edged over to it. Ensuring every movement would make as little noise as possible. He reached it and slipped down onto the ladder. He only took around 4 of the steps before leaping off and landing on the balls of his feet. The ladder was metal and made far too much noise for his liking. Jim could hear the snobby voice of the officer from where he was crouched.

“For god sakes girls, what the hell is wrong now?” He sounded irate. Jim guessed they had woken him up because of the noise and the disappearance of zeds. Jim could hear a small murmur that must have been one of the girls explaining before he cut in again.

“Look, I’ve told you this one. Any disturbance or change in situation you get everyone stood to, and then you wake me up. I could still be asleep now.” Jim was sneaking down the corridor to the stag point while trying to make out what the girl was saying. “Well it doesn’t look like you’re all stood to. I mean
Monica, you should be over here not there. You’re a good 6 inch out.” Jim rolled his eyes as he reached the door. This Rupert was fucking nuts. He waited for his moment as the shuffling at the stag point continued. Jim readied himself and raised his rifle. He stepped out in one swift motion and pointed the barrel of his rifle at the Rupert.

“Army, stop or I will fire!” Jim decided he would play this one by the book. The Rupert span round looking shocked and went to draw his pistol. ”I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” He stopped before slowly holding his hands out to his side. “Now, slowly, take off your webbing.”

“This is an outrage. I am your commanding officer and this is mutiny.” The Rupert was obviously trying to reinstate his command over him but Jim could see the Rupert’s eyes firmly fixed on the barrel of Jim’s rifle.

“Final warning, take it off.” Jim shouted. The Rupert hesitated before finally unclipping the belt and sliding it off. He let it drop to the floor. “Where is your weapon?” Jim asked as beads of sweat began to appear on the Rupert’s forehead.

“In my office. Where else?” The Rupert replied with an edge of arrogance that was starting to piss Jim off.

“Right, open the doors and let the rest of them in. you are then to move against that wall and stand there with your hands above your head.” The Rupert obeyed and clicked open the locks. Moments later Paddy stepped in with the girls who were now shivering wildly. They dropped the Gimpy on the floor by the toilets and once again tried to cover themselves up. Paddy had caught the gist of what was happening and now had is barrel aimed at the Rupert’s chest.

“Sam, Monica will you...” Jim had turned to find all three ladies wearing only boots, pants and a belt. They were all topless and their breasts glistened with sweat. “… Why are you topless?” Jim asked more out of curiosity as Jim liked what he saw.

“Bosses orders.
He told us that we had to do whatever he told us to. His first order was females had to be topless.” Monica explained looking ashamed. As she looked back at him Jim could see a nasty looking bruise forming round her left eye.

“Fucking hell who gave you that?” Jim asked, her head went down again and she looked close to tears as she pointed at the Rupert. Jim turned to him and raised his weapon once more. “Care to explain?”

“They wouldn’t listen to me. I had to instil some discipline in them.” The Rupert’s voice began to break a little as he watched Jim getting more and more pissed off.

“So you punched them?” Jim was almost shouting now.

“No, no I just hit them with my pistol. What else was I meant to do?” The officer stuttered out. Realising he was deep in the shit now.

“You are a vile human being. I have half a mind to end you right here.” Jim flicked the safety off.

“Jim, don’t. Don’t you think there has been enough killing.” Jessica chirped up from the doorway. Jim lowered his weapon and turned to her.

“Jess you don’t understand. This man is responsible for the death of two of my blokes and has abused these ladies since we left.” He explained and she simply nodded.

“Right now fucking stop. You will drop your weapons and raise your hands. All of you.” The Rupert had grabbed Paddy’s pistol in the confusion and now had it against Rebecca’s head. Her eyes were wide open with fear and her breathing became erratic. Jim turned slowly. Ensuring he kept his rifle level to give him the shot if he had the opportunity. He found it a second later and snatched a shot that caught the Rupert in his exposed shoulder. He screamed and pulled the trigger. Rebecca’s naked body slapped in a heap to the carpet. Jim fired again, he still hadn’t brought his weapon up to aim. It hit the Rupert in the stomach this time and he began firing wildly. The first shot buried itself into the tile roof, the second grazed Sam’s arm and the third caught Jessica in the neck. Jim squeezed the trigger several more times over the squeals of pain from the Sam and the gurgle from Jessica. There was now blood spraying from several holes over the Rupert’s body. Jim pressed his barrel against his twitching head before pulling the trigger once more to make sure.

“Paddy, sort Jessica out. Sam, you ok?” Jim shouted as he crouched next to Rebecca and rolled her over.

“Yeah, I need something to stop the bleeding though.” Sam replied and Paddy handed her a first field dressing. He checked her for a pulse but found nothing. The whole left side of her face was destroyed. Jim rolled her back over and stood up. “How’s it looking mate?” Jim asked. Paddy simply stood up and shook his head.

“She
need surgery now. We can’t save her.” Paddy replied in a grave voice.

“We can’t just stand here and watch her die.” Jim seemed at a loss. He hadn’t felt so helpless in a long while. Jessica croaked something and as she lay gurgling she made a gun with her hand and held it to her head. Jim understood. He lifted his rifle and placed it delicately against her head. He sighed deeply before squeezing the trigger. She twitched violently before laying still. Everyone watched for a minute as her blood pooled round her on the laminate doorway.

“This is insanity.” Thought Jim. “Every time we find someone they get killed one way or another.” He had gone from one man and his dog to one man to two men and a woman back to one man then boosted his numbers up to a 4 man brick and then boosted further with another 3 women and now he was down to 2 men and 3 women. Jim turned to Sam and checked her wounds. The round had only grazed her but he could see blood running down her arm and smudged across her body.

“Right, we need to move these bodies before they smell. The drill hall ones too, we can then bring the truck in via the garage doors and unload in relative safety.” Jim explained as he wrapped Sam’s arm up in the dressing.

“Where can we put them boss?” Monica sparked up. Jim was slightly taken aback by the use of the word boss but he figured after god knows how long alone with the sack of shit now dead in the corner he was surprised she wasn’t calling him overlord.

“It’s highly undignified but they will attract zeds otherwise and there’s nowhere to bury them. We need to take them up to the roof and throw them on the road.” There was a shared thought among the group, Jim included, and Paddy was the first one to voice it.

“A bit undignified? There will be nothing left of them by the morning.” Paddy exclaimed.

“I know mate, I know but what else can we do. Here, they will spread disease. In the car park, they will attract zeds and I don’t fancy carrying them over to the roundabout to bury them in the grass do you?” Jim explained looking slightly ashamed.

“Jim’s right. It’s for the best.” Sam chirped up, still clutching her arm as if it was going to fall off. Paddy looked at her for a minute, occasionally glancing at her naked breasts, before nodding.

“So it’s settled then. Ladies if you would bring the bodies over to the ladder, me and Paddy will take them from there. When was the last time anyone went into the drill hall?” Jim didn’t know what had gone on since he had left.

“We have never been in.” Laura explained.

“Right, first things first then we need to clear it. Who has been shown how to use a weapon so far?” Laura’s hand shot up and she stood there beaming, the innocent smile still on her face. It suited her even less now as she stood there topless. “Good would you be comfortable using one?” Jim asked and she nodded. “Good, take the kit off of Rebecca for now. I will come and sort it out with you later.” She nodded again but didn’t move.

“Which one’s Rebecca?” Laura asked looking between the two naked bodies on the floor. Jim pointed at the body near the Rupert before continuing. Jim ordered the ladies to stay put while he and Paddy re-cleared the drill hall. Nothing had moved. They moved back to the stag point.

“Paddy and I will be at the bottom of the ladder waiting for you. It’s up to you where you start but I would advise doing it one at a time. Don’t try
take a body by yourself. You can get dressed properly now if you want.” Jim explained and started walking to the store room. The ladies seemed to have forgotten they were topless and Monica’s hands shot up to cover her breasts, she didn’t quite manage it. Sam joined her and covered hers easily with one arm.