The Undead Day Twenty (7 page)

He checks the spacing again. Watching as Howie leads through the gate into the field. Clarence and Dave with him. He spots Meredith running ahead with her nose to the ground. Paula and Marcy go through. He flicks his right hand out. Cookey and Nick move to the right inside the gate. Blinky and Mo go left. Roy turns to face down the lane, an arrow already nocked in the bow. Blowers stays in the middle of the gate, staring round at the landscape.

‘Buildings,’ he whispers to Maddox. ‘Stable block there…barn there….looks like a path goes down that side to a lower field. See that gap in the hedge? Point of danger. The stable and barn are points of danger. Charlie is moving round the field to gain a view. We watch those buildings and that access gap down the bottom.’

‘What she doing?’ Maddox asks, watching the dog run with her nose seemingly glued to the ground.

‘Doesn’t matter what she’s doing,’ Blowers replies curtly. ‘We watch the points of danger…keep your eyes on that gap down there.’

‘Blood on the floor,’ Dave says, pointing at the concrete hardstanding next to a hose stretching back to the stable building.

Blowers glances over. Seeing the others cluster round the stains on the ground. In his mind they are the elders. That’s the title he attaches to them. Howie, Paula, Clarence, Dave, Marcy and Reggie. The elders. He looks back to Roy, watching as the bowman probes the inside of his mouth with his tongue, pushing his cheek out. He sees the familiar frown of worry on Roy’s face and knows that’s the thing that keeps Roy from being an elder. The man is focussed solely on his own issues. He looks at Reginald and smiles wryly to himself, seeing the struggle taking place. Reggie wants to stay close to Mo. Mo protected him yesterday, using the skills taught to him by Dave, but he can also see Reggie craning his neck to see what the others are looking at. His intellectual curiosity is too great to deny. Blowers counts in his head, getting to five before Reggie mutters something to Mo and heads off across the field towards the others.

‘I’ll er…just seeing what they have,’ Reginald says politely as he passes Blowers.

‘No worries,’ Blowers says, turning to give a quick heads up at Mo.

It’s a feeling. A sense of order and discipline. That’s what Blowers strives for. Right now, there is order and discipline. The sides are protected. The rear is safe. Charlie is ranging out. Dave is with the elders. Right now they are safe. They have order. It doesn’t matter to him what they are doing or where they are going. Whatever the elders decide is right. He knows Reginald will now join in and together they’ll form the next phase of the plan and he’ll be ready whatever that is.

‘Right here by the looks of it,’ Howie’s voice comes over.

‘Subi said they stopped here,’ Paula says. ‘Said they used that hose…’ she points down the field towards the access point to the lower section. ‘Must have come through there.’

‘She’s off,’ Clarence says, watching Meredith start following a trail across the paddock.

‘That way,’ Howie calls out, motioning towards that access point. Blowers nods, his mind already assessing the next phase.

‘Line across the rear, watch that gate,’ he calls back and waits with Maddox for the others to fall in at either side. ‘Even spacing,’ he says quietly, watching with an expert eye as they move further away from each other while walking ahead behind the elders.

The feeling comes back. Order and discipline gained. He looks ahead, seeing the gap and knowing Charlie will get there first.

‘This what you do?’

‘Shut up,’ Blowers snaps the words out, silencing Maddox. He needs to listen and be ready. He watches the hedge, spotting the gaps between the tightly woven branches. Meredith pushes on, following a straight path down.

Maddox suppresses the urge to exhale noisily knowing it will be a show of his frustration. Earning his place in his mind meant being at the front with Howie. Not at the back with the followers. He bides his time, waiting for a chance to go forward and show he can lead and make decisions. He knows the damage done by his actions with Lani and although he stands by his belief, and was later proved right by the fact she turned, he also knows he made mistakes in
how
he did it. He knows he relied on the numbers in his crews and the use of force whereas it was a time for diplomacy instead of violence.

He finally came out of the medical section last night and saw first hand what Lilly had accomplished, which brought an immediate conflict within him. He was deeply impressed but he also realised it was done without him. He wasn’t needed. There were no armed guards inside the fort. No men with guns. Instead there was a weird feeling of peace. Lenski sensed the change too and it was her that told him to go to Howie and earn his respect back, either that or they leave. He didn’t do anything at first but then started to see the remaining youths from his crews here and there. They looked different too. None of them were in black for a start and all of them kept their distance from him.

‘Mr Howie, it’s Charlie…there is a big gap in the hedge at the bottom of the field. Lots of bodies here…’

‘Roger, stay back. We’ll come to you.’

Blowers picks the pace up, closing the gap between his team and the elders with an instinct that tells him Howie will push on faster. He does too. Howie starts jogging but the pace is already there and holding that distance steady. They go through the access gap to a furrowed field enclosed on all sides by thick hedge. Charlie at the far side on Jess aiming her rifle into a visible gap in the gnarled branches.

‘Slow down,’ Blowers says, sensing the urge in Maddox to rush forward. Maddox is not a leader here.

He scans the field, looking for points of danger. All of them do. All of them with eyes up, watching and scanning. The two gaps are the only obvious points of danger. As they reach the bottom so Blowers allows his line to collapse in to join everyone else.

‘Smell that?’ Blowers asks, glancing at Maddox who inhales the air before screwing his face up in disgust. ‘Infected. The smell gets worse every day. Shit, blood, piss…you smell that and you know they’re close.’

Maddox looks at the gap in the hedge, seeing the freshly snapped branches showing stark and obvious. Bodies everywhere lying torn and twisted. Mouths hanging open. Red eyes staring lifelessly. Flies buzzing to land and feast on the wounds. The stench is almost overwhelming.

‘Mohammed, to me.’

‘Yes, Dave,’ Mo runs forward, ignoring Maddox as he passes.

‘See the branches. The angle they are damaged point inwards from the road. The damage was done from the road. The access point is from the road into this field.’

‘Got it.’

‘What else do you see?’

‘Er…’ Mo casts about, watched intently by Maddox and everyone else. ‘Er…it’s wide so a few came through…the bodies here are all heading into the field so…so they’s came in from the road to be killed here, you get me?’ he goes forward to look through the gap to the road on the other side. ‘They’s got pushed back out…they’s all piled up, like a defensive point was made.’

‘Good. The bodies.’

‘Er…’ Mo looks round, nervously glancing up at everyone watching him. ‘Necks. Broken necks… and that one’s been bitten…human mouth?’

‘It is.’

‘Another one there, Dave,’ Mo says, shoeing a body over onto it’s back. ‘Right in the throat…’

‘What else?’

‘Else? Fuck me…er…’

‘Big man,’ Clarence coughs into his hand.

‘Big man? What big man? Oh…oh…’ Mo grins sudden and delighted. ‘Yeah that one…he got thrown from the road…you can see how he landed…strong fucker threw him…like Clarence does.’

‘Good. Go through and report.’

‘You sending Mo through first?’ Paula asks.

‘Yes, Miss Paula. Mohammed, go through and report.’

‘Yes, Dave.’

Mo goes through, ducking to gain the other side. He drops down onto soft bodies and out to gain the road. His eyebrows lift. His face showing surprise at the sheer numbers of infected lying dead.

‘Report,’ Dave says.

‘Give him a chance,’ Paula says.

Mo holds his rifle across his chest, his eyes scanning the ground and up to both directions of the narrow lane. ‘Came from both sides…’ he calls back. He spots something poking out under a body. The butt of a gun. He kicks the body over to look down. ‘Shotgun here, broken…used like a club…no gunshot wounds. Broken necks, bite marks…bladed weapon used but it was blunt.’ Mo stares round, seeing more as he looks. His eyes alive and twinkling. ‘Two sides, Dave. They fought on two sides and fell back to that gap in the hedge…bladed weapon used on this side.’ He back steps away to the epi-centre of the battle. ‘The strong fucker was on this side…broken necks everywhere and that big bloke was thrown from here…’

‘Good,’ Dave says, coming through the gap to drop lightly into the road. ‘Anything else?’

‘Er…’ Mo frowns, pursing his lips while examining the sides, both directions, the bodies, the gap in the hedge. ‘Nah, got fuck all, Dave.’

‘No, Dave.’

‘S’what I said.’

Everyone bar Maddox on the other side of the hedge pulls a face at the backchat from Mo to Dave, expecting a harsh response.

‘Which direction did they come from?’ Dave asks instead.

What the fuck?
Howie mouths. Clarence shrugs. Blowers shakes his head.

‘I don’t know,’ Mo says from the other side.

‘Look.’

‘At what?’

‘Both ends.’

‘Both ends? What’s that mean?’

Howie’s eyes widen. Clarence winces. Blowers looks down at the ground waiting for Dave to bellow.

‘Be clear, Dave.’

‘Holy fuck,’ Cookey mutters, taking a step back from the hedge.

‘My apologies, Mohammed. Look at both ends. One direction will have less bodies.’

A stunned silence.

‘Ah got it, yeah…yeah none this way…so’s they came the other way right?’

‘Yes.’

‘HA! Got it. Fuck yeah…’

‘Yes not yeah.’

‘Fuck yes. Can I say fuck yes?’

‘Yes.’

‘Ha! Fuck yes. Did I miss anything?’

‘Not of importance.’

‘Eh? What’d I miss?’

‘Footprints in the blood. The defenders were male and female. Both adults. The male was large build, the female was smaller build.’

‘How the fuck?’

‘This footprint is the same size as Marcy. More here on this side working back towards the access point to the hedge. The male’s feet are almost as large as Clarence’s feet.’

‘Yeah…I mean yes, yes I see that, Dave.’

‘Report back to Mr Howie.’

‘Got it.’

‘I heard it all, Dave.’

‘Mohammed needs to learn reporting back, Mr Howie.’

‘Righto.’

‘Mr Howie,’ Mo says, grinning widely as he climbs back through the hedge.

‘Mo,’ Howie smiles.

‘I er…I’s ready to report, Mr Howie.’

‘Okay, mate. Report.’

‘Dave?’ Mo asks, looking back at the hedge.

‘Yes. Mohammed?’

‘Can I do it in my words?’

‘The report must be understood, Mohammed.’

‘Do it in your words,’ Howie says.

‘Sir…’ Mo says, forcibly trying not to stop smiling. ‘So…big fucker and a woman same size as Marcy came from that way…’

‘Children’s feet here too, Mohammed. Six.’

‘With six kids,’ Mo says. ‘And they had a big fight…the woman had a blade but it was blunt as fuck, like a big blade…not an axe or a knife though…’

‘Machete.’

‘We think it was a machete innit…so they got trapped here. The big fucker threw another big fucker through that hedge and they got the kids through and held the infected back until the kids got away across that field. Someone was biting them too…hang on…’ He says suddenly, moving forward to peer at Marcy’s mouth then dropping to look at the body with the throat bitten out. ‘The woman did the biting, Mr Howie…same size mouth as Marcy…cos like Clarence’s mouth is massive you get me? Dave, I think it was the woman that did the biting…’

‘It was, Mohammed.’

‘It was,’ Mo says, nodding at Howie. ‘Er…that’s my report.’

‘Fucking brilliant,’ Howie says as Mo is sent sailing five feet to the side from a pat on the arm from Clarence.

‘I bloody adore you,’ Paula says, grabbing Mo’s face to kiss his forehead.

‘Mo Mo Dave Two,’ Cookey says.

‘Fact,’ Nick adds.

‘Fall back in with your team, Mohammed.’

‘Yes, Dave,’ Mo says, still grinning as he heads back.

‘Well done, mate,’ Blowers says, patting him on the shoulder.

‘Cheers, Blowers,’ Mo says, the grin on his face dropping the second he looks at Maddox. Coldness in his eyes. The eyes of a killer. In that second Maddox sees the total change in Mo. The old Mo would never have sought validation from others like that. The old Mo would have sucked his teeth and skulked with his head down. Mo falls back in, laughing again as Blinky punches him on the arm.