Zombie Dawn Apocalypse (8 page)

“What’s going on?”

“The boys are missing, it’s likely to be nothing, but Roger wants to proceed with caution, you coming?” asked Dave.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Alright, we don’t want to cause any panic, go grab Tommy and Jones, and meet me a hundred yards behind the house.”

Twenty minutes later the three men met Dave, confused to see him sitting with the weapons beside him.

“What are those for?”

“We’re going looking for the boys who have gone missing, Tommy. We have no reason to believe there’s any risk to us, but that is not a reason to be careless. They’re probably just messing about and having fun, but I want us to stay safe and sensible,” said Dave.

“Where do you think they’ve gone?” asked Tommy.

“I would say the Northwest Lighthouse is most likely, it’s where I would go, the furthest point from home and a fun place to mess about,” said Dave.

He passed them their weapons, the bows to Steve and Jones, the spare shotgun to Tommy. They set out following the easterly coastline, not wanting to cross paths with the other islanders and cause them any undue panic. All of the islanders lived in the south of the island, among
Millcombe
House, the church and
Marisco
Tavern. The survivors used the fields in the south for farming, whilst the northern part of the island remained unused, apart from casual walks in their spare time.

With their weapons and ammunition slung over their backs the four men continued on across the island.
 
It was a forty-five minute walk to the lighthouse, though they were constantly on the lookout for the boys or evidence of them. It was a quiet walk, with light rain starting early on and then pouring constantly, along with a light breeze.

The group reached the lighthouse with no sign of any life, though Dave noticed the back door to the lighthouse was open, he shouldered his shotgun and stepped carefully towards the opening, Tommy following suit.

“You ready?” asked Dave.

“Yeah,” said Tommy.

“Go!” Dave shouted.

The two men stormed through the open door, raising their weapons as they got into the room. There was no movement at all, though Ryan’s baseball cap was lying on a desk towards the front of the room.

“They must have been here recently, Dave,” said Tommy.

“No shit.”

The two men lowered their weapons and strolled towards the front of the room where the large windows looked out to sea. Dave picked up the cap, thinking about where they would have gone next.

“Fuck, when did that appear?” asked Tommy.

“What?”

“Come and check it out.”

Dave walked to the window where Tommy was still looking out. To Dave’s surprise the object he was talking about was a large fishing trawler beached on the rocks. The vessel was in rough shape, the hull smashed and breached in a few places and it was lying almost on its side, completely stuck on dry land.

“Oh shit, that’s exactly where they will have gone,” said Dave.

“Why?”

“Wouldn’t you have when you were a boy?” said Dave.

“Fuck, yeah,” said Tommy.

“Exactly.”

“What do you reckon is onboard?” asked Tommy.

“Who knows, could be empty, bodies maybe, though I don’t like the look of it already,” Dave replied.

He threw down the boy’s cap and walked out to the two men stood outside.

“The lads were here, but now we have a trawler on the rocks below. It’s likely where they went, but let’s take this easy, we have no idea what to expect, it could contain useful supplies, it could be dangerous, we just don’t know,” said Dave.

“How long do you reckon it’s been there?” asked Jones.

“I would say the storm last night chucked it ashore, someone would have spotted it if it was there much longer. Let’s get on.”

The men made their way slowly towards the stricken vessel. The dirty, smashed wreck was a depressing sight, made worse by the increasing rate of rain that was pouring down on them. Tommy took point across the pebbles and rocks to the huge hulk. He crept closer towards wreck, clearly weary and a little frightened, it was an ominous looking thing. He stopped and looked down.

“
Uhhh
, Dave, what the fuck is that?”

Dave stepped forwards towards Tommy’s position and looked down to see what looked like a fairly fresh pool of blood. The two looked at each other with fear, both praying that this was not the same hell they had experienced years before.

“Look, there are drops of it heading towards the ship, let’s check it out, and be ready for anything,” said Dave.

They stepped quietly and carefully towards the rusty hulk, heading for the opposite side. There were a couple of large holes in the bulkhead, clearly breached by the vessel being lashed upon the rocks. As they took the bend around the large bow, Tommy could already see one of the boys stood fifty feet in front beside of the hull.

“Dave, Dave,” said Tommy.

Dave came into view of the boy, not knowing whether to be relieved or concerned. It was Ryan, and his back was turned to the men, just stood, looking out to sea. The men stepped warily closer towards the boy, praying that he was just in shock.

“Ryan, hey Ryan, it’s Dave. Are you okay, son?”

There was no response. They continued to step closer, not letting their guard down, following the shape of the tall hulk.

“Ryan, talk to me,” pleaded Tommy.

Finally, the boy started to turn around, and Dave began to feel a sense of relief already but his hopes were dashed within seconds. As the boy turned to look at the men, the crazy eyes of the zombie horde was quickly apparent, blood staining much of his clothing.

“Fuck me sideway,” said Dave.

“Jesus Christ, not again, not my Ryan!” sobbed Tommy.

All of the men raised their weapons, but as Jones strung an arrow onto his bow he was struck from the side. A zombie had burst out from a gaping wound in the ship’s hull and knocked him to the floor with its bodyweight. The other three men turned to react but the creature had already taken hold and driven its teeth into Jones’ throat, the man screamed out in agony. Dave shouldered his shotgun to fire, but Steve had noticed Ryan was almost onto them already, he swung the stock out and clubbed the boy in the face, smashed his nose and knocking him backwards.

Dave pulled the first trigger on his shotgun, the creature’s head above Jones exploded, sending blood all over the wounded man. Dave immediately turned and lined the shotgun up to Ryan’s head, not hesitating to fire. The skull exploded as the ball bearings tore through the boy’s small skull, his body toppling lifelessly to the stones.

“Jones?” asked Dave.

The man could not respond, he was gurgling in his own blood, his windpipe torn apart, his blood mixed with the body of the zombie in a horrible mess, he had only moments to live.

“I’m sorry, Jones, but take relief in the fact that we will not let you become one of those things,” said Dave.

Steve stepped forward, he aimed his shotgun carefully, and squeezed the trigger, Jones’ body went immediately lifeless as the area was coated in yet more blood.

“What the fuck is going on here?” cried Tommy.

“I would say that is quite clear, this boat contained zombies, or people that became infected somehow, the real question is, how many of them are there?” asked Dave.

“How many would you think?” asked Steve.

“Honestly I have no idea, a trawler like that would have a crew of two dozen maybe, I am guessing, maybe more, but in these times, they could have had any number of poor bastards onboard,” said Dave.

“What do we do now, Dave? What can I tell his mother?” Tommy cried, with tears streaming down his face.

“The only thing we can do is get back to town, and hope we get there first.”

He broke open the barrel of his side-by-side shotgun and pulled the smoking empty cartridges from it, throwing them to the ground. As he loaded two new shells in, he heard the resounding clang of the church bells at the opposite end of the island.

“Fuck!” shouted Dave.

“Now we are truly fucked, they must be there already!” said shouted Steve.

* * *

The town was quiet, tired from the repair work they had undertaken, with concern setting in deeply for their missing boys. No one feared the threat of zombies anymore, they were almost a forgotten enemy, but they did fear the misadventure that boys could find with the strong sea around their island.

Travis and Kelly were sitting on the stone wall which surrounded the church, looking out to sea. Most of the other islanders were in their homes getting cleaned up following the work. It was already getting dark and the heavy cloud cover and rain was darkening it further, but Travis and Kelly could not think of anything else but their boy. Roger walked past the couple as he was heading towards the church.

“Hey, Roger, any news?” asked Travis.

“No, nothing yet.”

“Why don’t we get more people out there looking for the boys?” shouted Sandra as she walked by.

“You know that’s just unwise and downright dangerous, we have no idea why they are missing. It’s probably nothing, but we cannot afford to take such large risks. The four men I have sent are capable and will find them,” said Roger.

“Where are you heading?” asked Travis.

“Up to the church, I have a few supplies to drop of there.”

It was indeed true that Roger was carrying supplies to the church, but not the everyday supplies that the couple were thinking, but weapons and ammunition. The large Bergen on Roger’s back contained several handguns and small shotguns from the raiders the week before. He was hoping that Dave would return with the boys, but also already concerned that they had not. The church was a strong defendable position, with good clear visibility all around and tall walls.

“Stop worrying, I’m sure they’ll be back in no time. Now why don’t you get out of this awful weather, go home, get changed, I’ll see you at my house later,” said Roger.

The couple nodded in agreement and got up to head to their home. A few minutes later they were at their front door. The couple were pale and distraught from thinking about their son, when Kelly shot a glimpse down their garden to see the outline of their son Dennis.

“Dennis? Dennis!” shouted Kelly.

The couple ran towards the boy who was stumbling towards the house. In her desperate need to hug her son she paid absolutely no attention to his condition, pale and soulless. The blood running down his body was not visible due to the wound being to the side and back of his neck. As Kelly held him tight she felt his jaw delve into her throat, she screamed out in agony as the realisation that this was no longer her son set in.

“No!” shouted Travis.

He tried to step backwards, but in the panic tripped and fell to the ground. He was in utter shock having lost both his son and wife. He looked up at his wife reeling in pain, soon to die, and his son who was already bearing down on him. Travis could have got up and run, but had lost the will to live and move, and was still in too much of a state to think any different. Dennis climbed onto his father and bit into his flesh, whilst the man still looked in desperation at his dying wife.

From inside the thick stone walls of the church Roger was completely oblivious to Kelly’s screams. These shrieks of agony had however not gone unnoticed to some of the other islanders. Derek and Katy quickly grabbed an axe and club hammer from their kitchen and ran out to find the source of the problem. Reaching their neighbours’ home they could see the bodies of their friends on the ground, Dennis still biting into his father who was now lifeless. Zombies began pouring towards them from behind the couple’s house.

“Jesus Christ, we’re finished!” cried Derek.

“Let’s go!” shouted Katy.

“Where?”

Before she could answer, further screams rang out from the people who lived in the next house.

“Do we help them?” asked Derek.

“No, either they can help themselves or they are goners, let’s get to the church!” shouted Katy.