The Survivors of Bastion (Fall of Earth Book 1) (17 page)

Chapter Nineteen

Massacre

‘That’s the plan.’

              We all stood around in a rough circle by the Ranger, looking between each other.

              ‘You realise how many things in that could go wrong?’ Robbie said. ‘But… I know I’ll never have a better suggestion or alternative as long as I live.’

              I managed to muster a smile as I looked over at my younger brother. For the first time I realised how much he had grown up, seeing the shadows of stubble above his lips and around his cheeks.

              ‘You really think this is going to work?’ Hayley asked.

              ‘Presuming we stick to the plan,’ Leah said. ‘That doesn’t always work, though, does it?’

***

I’d like to tell you that it was like one of the movies we watched back when Bastion was thriving, that it was cinematic and heroic and that we fought bravely… But that wasn’t how it went down.

              I didn’t know whether or not the infected could perceive anything in some self-aware way, that they could see what was coming towards them beyond some primitive, primal interpretation of the events around them, but when the Ranger came smashing through the front gates and roaring through down the street, they truly did come running.

              They seemed to have been standing or wandering dormant for some time – Morgan had led them there, but with nothing to feast on they simply stood and waited.

              When the Ranger arrived they stormed towards it, but the infected just came on running. By my calculations, in the straight line it was headed, it would crash straight into the back end of the house on the corner, which stood at a little angle.

              They surrounded it, throwing themselves against the windows, beginning to crack the glass.

              My heart raced, watching it all happen, but then Rudy’s plan seemed to have worked pretty well, so why wouldn’t this?

              After a few seconds of revving against the cracked wall, ten or fifteen of the infected surrounding the vehicle, the charge blew.

              James knew how to stock and keep track of things, but none of us had had any experience with explosives before. I didn’t know quite how much to put in the Ranger, but when the explosion went off, it was big enough and loud enough to rival the one that Rudy had set off.

              We, of course, weren’t inside the Ranger. We were a decent distance from Bastion, a few hundred yards on one of the roads that led up on an incline.

              ‘Holy shit,’ Hayley muttered from over my shoulder. I remained gazing through the rifle scope, watching the smoke swoop upwards and clear from the ground level.

              The sight might have made me feel some relief, until I realised that it was likely that half of the infected that were on fire were people whom I had once known.

              A smile rose to my lips before it quickly dissipated and I lowered the scope, looking at the cloud of smoke.

              I looked around at my companions – not to my surprise, nobody else said a word. They were all too captivated by the sight before us.

              ‘If some of them weren’t there to begin with then they’ll be headed there now,’ I said. ‘Presuming that sound is one of the things that draws them.’

              I looked back through the scope at the street, watching the myriad of infected swarming around the car, stumbling into each other. Some of them were on fire, but that didn’t deter them in the slightest. It seemed that it was only those that had been blown to pieces that didn’t pose a threat anymore.

              A warzone.

              ‘How do we know if that’s all of them?’ James asked. ‘We have no way of establishing exact numbers considering we don’t know how many are already dead. What if some haven’t arrived yet?’

              ‘We’re just going to have to risk it,’ I said, looking about at the surrounding area that was in view. I could see no others beyond those that were clustered in by the flaming wreck of the car. ‘We need to go now,’ I said. ‘Make sure you’ve got everything, and that your safety is off.’

              I expected looks of scepticism or fear, and while the latter was ever present over us there seemed to be no reluctance amongst my friends. Everybody knew what had to be done, and what we were going to do, even if all of that was a terrifying prospect that shook us all to the bone with fear.

              We set off, each of carrying one of the automatic rifles from Ashby that we had brought with us. All of them were fully loaded, and we each carried with us a plethora of extra clips in the event that we needed them, which I had little doubt that we would.

              We sprinted on, finally reaching the stretch of road up to the gates. Leah covered us from behind, in the entirely possible event that a straggler approached us from another angle that hadn’t yet reached the source of the catastrophic noise that had bellowed out over the area surrounding Bastion.

              My heart pounded in my chest, a pang of dread and fear and adrenaline rushing through me as we headed through the slightly open gates.

              They stood less than fifty yards from us, where the house on the edge of the street hung at an angle to the sidewalk.

              The scene before us looked far more daunting than it had done upon the hill. Now that they were on a level with my eyeline, and everybody else’s, I suddenly felt a lot more vulnerable.

              It didn’t take long in the slightest for them to realise we were there – they were a hive mind. Once one saw us, all of them had seen us. The virus was some collectivist unit, like a colony of ants, ready to act for the benefit of the thing as a whole.

              Then they were all running at us.

              I’d like to tell you that it was some epic fight.

              I’d like to.

              But the reality of war and violence is that it isn’t attractive. Something had invaded us, had run our community into the ground, and when it came to neutralising an enemy, the safest way was often the quickest.

              ‘
Now
.’

              I didn’t really need to tell my companions what to do at all – I think it was innate. When you see something coming towards you that you know without a doubt will rip you apart without a moment’s notice, even if that thing takes the form of somebody who you had once seen every day for more than a decade, something kicks in within your mind that tells you to pull the trigger.

              My ears began whistling the moment the clattering began, bullet casings falling to the ground as we unleashed hell on our infected assailants. In the haze of smoke and sparks I could easily make out the bodies dropping to the ground like limp bags of sand. We were all aiming at the same level, trying to strike them in their heads. Even if we were a little low, separating body from head via the neck would suffice.

              The rows of them were so thick that few of our bullets missed.

              The most terrifying moment, above all, was the sound of our guns clicking when one of us had to reload. We hurriedly scrambled for more clips, hands shaking and breathing uneven as we raised the guns again and continued to shoot.

              How do I describe these things coming towards us? There was no humanity left in their eyes, no semblance of any of the people I had known. A few I recognised, though, and the fact that they were rabid didn’t account for the fact that I felt a pain and sadness welling up within me with every round that left the gun.

              The final few moments of our barrage of bullets were hazed and awkward, as we took out the final few who were coming towards us. They had strayed off, and we fired quickly and precisely in order to take them out.

              Even when they had all fallen, we continued firing into the rows upon rows of them. We weren’t unfamiliar with the ghastly realities of this world that we lived in, but nobody ever got used to seeing sights like this.

              This was by far like nothing I had ever seen.

              Finally we came to a stop, the gunshots halting and our breathing heavy. I looked at the horrendous sight before me, and remembered another book my mother had shown me – a war that had happened a long time ago, and the things that one side had done to the other just because they had been told they were the enemy.

              Was this who we were?

              They were stacked about haphazardly, some on top of each other, occasionally three.

              I looked about at my companions and saw the looks on their faces, the disoriented stares as they looked out ahead of them. I don’t think they were able to register anything other than the horror they had just experienced, and the aftermath of our actions.

‘That’s it… It’s over.’

              The five of us looked about the streets at the mess that had come about as a result of our actions.

              I had never felt more conflicted in my life. On the one hand we had managed to take Bastion back – the fact that bodies littered the streets wouldn’t have mattered so much if they didn’t belong to the people that I had once shared these streets with, who I had called my friends and my neighbours, my community.

              The guns were all empty – we had continued firing even when they were all dead, firing into the pile.

              We all looked about at each other, panting heavily as we took in the scene.

              ‘Oh, shit…’ I heard Hayley mutter from over my shoulder. I turned to look in her direction and saw the lone figure standing at the end of the street. ‘One more.’

              We knew that it was one of the infected from where we stood. They seemed to be analysing us from the fifty or so yards away that they stood.

              That was when James said it.

              ‘No… It’s Helena…’

              We all stared at the figure, and even though I had only met her a couple of times over the years during our scheduled meetings, I could tell that it was her. She had been a very tall woman, and her hulking figure was now more intimidating than ever with the blood that stained her form, the wild hair and the contorted face.

              She seemed to be waiting, and for a moment I held at some form of hope, that she would recognise James from afar, that some part of her mind would return to her.

              That notion didn’t last long though – after a few moments of us all waiting, utterly on edge, she released the most spine-chilling, gut-wrenching howl, raising her head towards the sky, before setting off at a run towards us.

              The automatic rifles were empty, but I had still had my father’s rifle slung over my shoulder. I raised the gun, steadying it, knowing that I could stop her within a second.

              ‘No,’ James said, ‘give me the gun.’

              ‘What?’

              ‘I’ve never done this before, and it’s only fitting that I put her to rest.’

              In a split second I thought back to Marcus and Maria, and how suddenly she had killed herself in the basement of the outpost.

              We didn’t have time to deliberate on these things, though – she would be here within seconds.

              I hurriedly passed the gun over to James, and he took it in his hands, raising it before him.

              ‘Just-’

              ‘I know how to use it,’ he said quickly. ‘I remember what you told me.’

              By my side I saw Robbie, Hayley and Leah shift uneasily, expecting James’s attempt to be botched.

              He fired – the bullet whistled past Helena’s head but she paid it no mind, continuing her sprint towards us as she grew ever closer.

              30 yards.

              20 yards.

              ‘Do it
now
!’ Leah shouted, but her effort wasn’t needed. I watched as James calmly took a breath, reloaded another a round into the chamber and steadied himself.

              She must have only been five yards away from the barrel of the gun when he pulled the trigger for a second time. From where I was stood I saw the bullet strike her square in the forehead. Her speed wasn’t enough to stop her as she moved towards us, no matter how fast she was going. The hard, smacking sound of the connection of the round with her skull signalled that terrible, powerful motion that sent her flying backwards, crumpling into a lifeless heap on the ground.

              Then we were left with nothing but silence on the streets of Bastion, comfortable in the probably knowledge that we had stopped all the known infected that had overrun us.

              I turned to James. He stood looking down at Helena’s remains, still holding the gun in the offensive position in his hands. I took a few steady steps towards him until I was by his side, and placed my hand on his shoulder.

              ‘You did good, James,’ I said, nodding at him. ‘Fancy giving me that back?’