Chapter 23
We turned and ran for
the van, only to find another group of the dead making their way through the
parked cars. Connor and a few other began firing at them, but they were getting
to close, and Jacobs pulled them away. We made it to the station before them,
and quickly closed the double front doors, barricading them with several nearby
desks and chairs. My heart was pounding in my chest, the recent events seemed
crazy, and almost unbelievable. Unfortunately I found I could believe it, and
that it was all too real. Meeting Jacobs, finding Anthony, Brooke’s death and
now a zombie encounter? I couldn’t but feel overwhelmed, and defeated.
“What are we supposed to do?” Lindsey cried, her voice
a mix of determination and fear
“We pick them off, one
by one, until we can make it to the car,” Monica suggested firmly
“There’s too many for
that,” I argued, I didn’t want to sound pessimistic, but right now fear and
grief overwhelmed my need to seem like a leader
“Then we only kill the
ones in our way, then lure the others inside before escaping,” Connor said. I
nodded, it seemed like it could work, but a part of me wondered how many would
have to die for it to work.
“There’s just one
problem with that,” Jacobs said, and I heard a strange sound in her voice that
I hadn’t heard before, I thought it was shame. Or maybe guilt. “Before we went
into negotiations I wanted to take precautions in case this was a trick,” she
continued, “stop you from leaving if you stole from us”
“What did you do?”
Malcolm yelled furiously, and I cringed, now was not the time to antagonise our
potential allies
“We removed a piece of
your engine,” Jacobs confessed
“You what?!” Connor
turned from reinforcing the barricade to stare at her in anger
“You would have done
the same!” she defended herself, but I could tell she regretted it, and not
just because her actions may have led to our demise. But then a thought occurred
to me as to why she might have felt so guilty “This was him wasn’t it? It was
Anthony’s idea,” I tried to sound apologetic, or at least understanding, she nodded
in response.
I felt the familiar
fear creep up again, but this time I fought back. Whether my resistance was
from anger towards Anthony or from fear of dying I don’t know but I knew I wasn’t
going to let it overwhelm me again. I had to get to work, I knew there had to
be a way out of this. I wasn’t going to let Jade down, I wasn’t going to die
here, so far away from her. “What did you remove?” I asked, trying to sound
authoritative
“Spark plugs, 8 of
them, but…” she paused, looking even more guilty, “Kyle took them with him”
“Kyle?” Malcolm sounded
confused
“Anthony, he stole the
name of the man he left to die,” I answered coldly, “where can we find new
ones?”
“Any car, as long as
they’re not damaged,” one of the resistance men answered, “but to find and
remove removed 8 of them would take too long.”
I thought for a while
about our situation, there were 5 of my group including me, and 6 from the
resistance including Lindsey and Jacobs. We all had guns, but my group had no
spare ammo, and most of resistance’s spare ammo was on the truck Anthony had
drove away with. Theoretically we had enough ammo to take out the 75 odd
zombies beating down the door, but there were too many unknowns. What if we missed
a few too many times? What if they broke in before we could finish them off?
What if the noise of our firing drew more dead towards us? We had chosen a station
far away from any town centres but this was still the outer suburbs, and there
would have been thousands of people living here before the virus was released.
So there was no telling how many were waiting outside for a reason to come and
tear this station to the ground.
I made a decision, we
would try to kill the ones attacking us, but we wouldn’t wait for them all to
be killed before trying to escape. I conferred with Jacobs, and eventually she
agreed. 2 resistance men along with Connor would be searching the cars for
spark plugs, with Monica and another of Jacobs’ men protecting them, while the
rest of us tried to take down the zombies. It was a risky plan, it put more
people at risk than if we simply tried to kill them all, but it also accounted
for the possibility that more might turn up. We might lose some people, but
there was a smaller chance that we would lose everyone.
Everyone heard the
plan, and soon everyone knew their part, we moved closer to the windows, and the
dead outside became more aggressive. I could see them clearly now, and as
horrifying as they looked I appreciated the fact that they looked so different
than the people they once were. Most of the skin and flesh covering their arms
and legs had been torn away, leaving muscles and tendons clear and exposed.
Most of them had deep, jagged cuts of their face and around their mouths. They
were nothing less than monsters now. Slowly we spread out along the wall,
trying to stop them from grouping up in one place, and then we waited for the
signal to begin.
“Now!” Jacobs screamed,
and I repeated it. Then I didn’t hear much else except the sounds of gunshots
and the horrible sounds bullets made as they broke through bone and flesh.
Glass flew everywhere, blood too, but we were careful to stand back, careful to
not be infected by blood transfer. Eventually the dead in front of began to
clear, as the bodies of those I had killed piled up, blocking others from
taking their place. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that the others
were getting to the same point. But some weren’t so lucky, and I heard a scream
that wasn’t like any sound the dead make. One of the zombies had built up
momentum in their hunger and broke through the window, grabbing one of the
resistance men. It was too late for him, but I saw Jacobs aim her gun in his
direction, and in horror I knew why as she fired straight through her own man’s
skull. At least he wasn’t suffering anymore, but I had to question whether or
not I could do the same for one of mine.
I heard a yell from the
other side, and turned just to see Connor jump through a clear window, closely
followed by one of Jacobs’ men. Through the blood-smeared glass I saw them make
a bee-line for the cars. I quickly turned my attention back to my section, the
zombies had crawled on top of the bodies of their fallen kin, and I had to
start firing in earnest again, I could let my attention slip. Eventually the
sheet of glass gave way entirely, and I had to step back as the body of my most
recent kill can crashing into the station, I could see others in the same
situation. “Come this way!” I yelled to the few who could hear me as I moved
slowly to where Connor had exited. If we could draw the dead inside, then trap
them there it would by the others more time. I took the time to make a quick
glance to see Connor’s progress, but wished I hadn’t, because what I saw was
the body of Jacobs’ man on the ground, covered by two or three of the dead,
with two more lurching towards Connor, who was furiously working on a car,
oblivious of the danger he was in.
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