Zombie Dawn Apocalypse (11 page)

Carter lifted himself, looking through the gaps in the armoured slats running down the windscreen. He could just make out the small group of fighters working their way inside the hotel, followed by a stream of the undead.
 
He turned back, seeing the reduced number of zombies on the road.

“They’ve done the job though, I think we can get through.”

What about them though, we can’t abandon them?” said Nick.

“Maybe! But there are more coming. If we don’t go now we’ll never get out,” he said.

Gunfire continued from the rooftops of the vehicles as they kept up the slow pace. The door on the driver’s side tore open to reveal another four zombies that quickly grabbed Carter. Nick leaned over but it was too late, one of them had already bitten down hard onto his leg and another had half dragged him out. Nick jumped over, striking the closest with the butt of the shotgun. Carter was now out of the Land Rover and on the ground with three zombies on top of him.

Nick made to jump out but with nobody controlling the Land Rover it stalled and stopped in the road.

“Fuck!” shouted Nick and he jumped into the seat and restarted the engine. He reached out to the door to see Carter trying to stand up only to be cut down from a shotgun blast. Either he’d been mistaken for a zombie or one of the shooters behind had put him out of his misery.

Pulling the door shut he gunned the engine and pushed forward and up the road, the hotel now just off to his right. More zombies were staggering inside and flashes could be seen from the broken hotel windows. Before Nick was able to decide what to do a massive blast tore the building apart. Half of the ground floor collapsed and the rest of the building caved in on top. The explosion filled the road with dust, smoke and debris.

“That’s it, time to leave!” swore Nick to himself.

With a final push of the accelerator he moved off down the road, leaving the hotel, river and the castle behind him. He checked his mirror to see the bus and the rest of the vehicles following. Zombies were still trying to get in their way, but as they built up speed they were more easily able to brush the zombies aside. As they moved past a burning supermarket Nick spotted the old town walls and the gate leading out to the west. A group of about thirty zombies were staggering around near the wall. They must have heard the convoy, as they started moving along the road.

A burst of fire from the roof mounted Bren knocked a couple to the ground but not enough to make a difference.
 

“Hold on!” shouted Nick as the zombies and the gate loomed ever closer.

The impact of the zombies was less than expected, but as they ploughed through them, they came up against the gate. With a sickening smash the Land Rover battered through the ancient wood and forced its way out onto the open road. The route ahead was littered with abandoned cars and small groups of zombies wandering around like drunks in the early hours of the morning. Nick had to turn the wheel hard to avoid a truck before recovering and continuing ahead.

“Everybody okay?” he asked.

Zack popped his head inside from the top hatch, “Yeah, okay here.”

“Yeah, great,” said Johnson as he sat in the back cradling a crossbow.

A loud crashing sound came from behind and from his mirror Nick spotted a Land Rover behind them swerve off the road and rolled over.

“Shit, did you see that?” said Nick as he tried to see what was going on.

Zack lifted himself back up, watching behind before shouting down.

“Yeah, they hit the truck. The rest made it though, just,” he said.

“Are we going back?” asked Johnson.

The Land Rover shuddered as they smashed through another group of the horde. Nick looked briefly at him then carried on driving. The vehicle shook several more times before Nick looked back at him.

“No chance, we don’t stop till we see the open road,” said Nick.

Johnson turned around and watched the burning town falling away behind them before he pulled himself forward to Nick.

“What do we do now?” he asked.

Zack appeared at the hatch, looking down at Nick. There was silence for a moment while Nick considered their situation. Blasts from the firearms continued behind them as the rest of the convoy kept up their fire.

“West, we just keep going west and maybe we’ll find something better,” answered Nick.

“You think so?” asked Zack.

“No, not really,” Nick sighed, “we don’t have any choice now.”

The Land Rover reached the top of the hill and joined the old highway heading west into the abandoned countryside of Wales, followed by the blood spattered remains of the convoy. As the last vehicle past the hill a series of explosions could just be heard from the burning town as the last of the powder caught fire.

Mexico

Madison awoke from the heat and light glaring in her face, at least it was a natural way to wake up, even if it meant far fewer hours sleep than she would have liked. They hadn’t bothered with tents, the night having been warm, and they were all more concerned with enjoying themselves than setting anything up at all. Jack strolled up to her as she still lay half inside her sleeping bag.

“Morning.”

“Hey, Jack, so what’s the plan?”

“Your father says there’s a good well in a village not too far from here, or at least there was a long time ago when he was there last, it’s worth a shot,” he said.

“Really? That much water would be a godsend.”

“Yeah, our stocks are looking a little low, and having enough water so we could all have a good wash would be great for morale,” said Jack.

“Always the tactician, Jack?” asked Madison.

“Of course, someone has to keep us alive.”

He offered his hand out to help her up which she gladly accepted.

“We’re heading out in ten,” said Jack.

“Have we any idea on the size of this village and the number of potential zombies?”

“Honestly, no, your father hasn’t been there in over twenty years, but I’m guessing a few thousand population before Z-day, so we might have a bit of a fight on our hands.”

“Think that’s a wise move?” asked Madison.

“Should be fine, just keep your eyes open and head in the game,” said Jack.

“That’s really helpful.”

“Yep, that’s what I am here for.”

It took five hours of riding until the village was in sight. Madison rode to the front of the stopped column to where Wells and Jack were surveying the area.

“How’s it look?” she asked them.

“Not great, but it could be worse,” said Jack.

“What are we talking about?” asked Madison.

“Well it’s a closed cover well, should be clean, and about a couple of dozen zombies in sight, will likely be at least a few more of course.”

“What do you think, Jack?” asked Wells.

“Well, we need the water, and those odds aren’t terrible.”

“Alright, then let’s do this, while we still have plenty of the day left,” said Wells.

Jack turned back towards the column.

“Listen up everyone, down there is all the water we could want, and it shouldn’t be too much of a fight to get it. So armour up, no subtlety here, we head down the hill and smash anything in our way. However, we can’t see everything, if for any reason the numbers are more than we expect, be ready to bolt, listen for my whistle. Dale, Greg, you stay here with the wagon. Everyone ok?”

They nodded and groaned in acknowledgement as they prepared for combat, just as they had done countless times before, not a single novice fighter among them. Jack turned his horse around and pulled his hatchet from his saddle, kicking his heels in. The group trotted towards the village at a relaxed speed, knowing they didn’t want to rush into anything. As Jack reached the first creature, his companions behind, he swung the weapon down onto the creature’s skull. He kept at the slow pace so he had time to prize the blade form the zombie’s fractured head as he rode past. Madison quickly joined in with the violence and moments later they’d reached the well, leaving six bodies in their wake.

“Riley, Joey, check the well out, everyone else, get this place cleared up!” shouted Jack.

The horsemen trotted between the lane created by the small houses of the village, until they reached a fork where two creatures staggered towards them. Madison went faster, and without stopping swung her hammer ruthlessly into the face of the first with a heavy horizontal swing, before quickly recovering and striking to the other side as she rode past her two victims.

“Alright, it doesn’t look too bad from here, get to the well, set up a perimeter. Take Billy and Lucy with you,” said Wells.

Madison nodded in agreement, her two assistants turning to follow her. She reached the well, Riley was fiddling with some sort of a mechanism.

“You two, you’re on guard duty, watch our backs!” she ordered.

She leapt from her horse and tied the reins to a pole on the well’s exterior. It was a tall structure protruding from the ground and a full cover on the top. It was made of modern materials and clearly only a couple of decades old.

“Any luck?” asked Madison.

“Yeah, looks good so far,” said Riley.

Before she could continue, she heard the joyous sound of water squirting from a tap, the water suddenly flowing out across the dry ground.

“Fuck, yeah!” shouted Joey.

“That’s a hell of a sight,” said Madison.

Jack rode back to the well with Wells at his side. They stopped abruptly.

“It’s working?” shouted Jack.

“Bet your ass!” she shouted back.

She pulled a small canteen from her backpack and filled it to the brim as the rest watched in awe and anticipation.

“Alright, we’re still sweeping the area, but it seems fairly safe so far. Get the wagon down here, we’re setting up camp. There’s no reason we can’t spend at least a day or two here before moving out,” said Jack.

* * *

The survivors had spent a relaxing day with all the water they could ever have dreamed of. The last of the natural light faded away and the guards were on duty, whilst the rest talked until they slept. At 3am Joey, finishing his guard duty, strolled over to the camp and kicked Dale lightly in the side.

“Come on you lazy bastard, time to go to work,” he said.

Dale groaned, sweat running down his face, it had clearly been an uneasy sleep, something that was far from uncommon in the fatigued group of survivors. He turned over and rubbed his face and eyes, trying desperately to compose himself.

“Come on, mate, get your act together,” said Joey.

“Alright, alright, I’m fine, piss off,” said Dale.

He fumbled to pick up his machete belt and finally began to wrap it around his waist and stand up. The extreme tiredness and heavy redness in his eyes should have been a tell tale sign to Joey, but it was dark, Dale kept his head down, and Joey was more concerned with getting some rest. Joey handed his lantern over to Dale, who stumbled off towards the edge of the camp. Joey watched him go, shaking his head.

“What a lazy bastard.”

Without any further thoughts, he lay down and got comfortable. Thoroughly exhausted from his shift, and with not a care left in the world, he quickly fell asleep. The other two survivors on duty were Jade and Greg, Dale’s brother. As Dale stumbled out to the edge of the camp he saw the folding chair that Joey had left from his shift. Glad to find a new place to rest he slumped into the chair, instantly feeling relieved.

Twenty minutes later Dale woke up abruptly, being shaken on his shoulder. He sprang from his chair and quickly pulled his machete from his belt, the adrenaline creating a short injection of energy to his fatigued body.

“What the fuck!” he shouted.

Greg stood before him.

“You were asleep, asshole. You know how serious that is, do you want to kill us all?” asked Greg.

“Fuck you, I’m exhausted, and it’s all clear anyway,” said Dale.