At the truck, Alex bent to grasp the wheel well. “Everyone lift and push on three.”
Hudson grabbed the base of the truck next to him, muttering, “Damn white-eye, think you’re so strong. I bet you can’t even...”
“One,” Alex said loudly. “Two. Three.”
With the other four men helping, the back of the truck lifted, rotating as they pushed until it was facing along the road instead of across it.
“Alex.”
He turned at Micah’s warning tone to see the first eaters come into view two hundred feet back along the road. He ran back to the bikes where Micah and Sam were already mounted, engine revving as Micah squeezed the throttle. Sam was staring back at the horde, looking terrified.
“Thanks!” Ridgewell yelled, jumping back into their vehicle.
Alex leaped onto his bike and switched on the engine, throwing a glance back at the horde. They were moving fast, for eaters, their lurching jog eating up the distance between them and their prey.
He sneezed again.
The soldiers pulled off, speeding away from them. Micah and Sam followed with Alex close behind, trying to ignore his itching nose.
The road turned sharply to the left ahead and they followed it into an open area between a school on the left hand side and an area of scrubby grassland and trees on the right. A mass of eaters were approaching across the common.
Ahead of them, the soldiers came to an abrupt halt, forcing Alex and Micah to swerve around them. Alex stopped beside them when he saw more eaters blocking the road ahead. If he hadn’t known better, he would have thought the hordes were co-operating to trap them. But eaters couldn’t do that.
He sneezed again and motioned through the window. Ridgewell rolled it down.
“The only way is the school,” he said. “I’ll get the gate unlocked and...”
“Got it,” the woman at the wheel shouted as she pulled off.
“No, wait!” Alex yelled.
She didn’t. Bumping off the road onto the grass to the right, she swung around in a tight circle and drove straight at the entrance into the school grounds. A second later, the eight foot high gates were twisted pieces of metal hanging lopsidedly from their support posts.
“So much for using the fence to keep them out,” Alex muttered, taking off after Micah and Sam who were already halfway across the car park just inside the gate.
He bounced up the curb onto the path leading to the wide, two storey building and came to a stop in front of the entrance.
“Not the main doors,” Micah was shouting at Hudson who was striding up to the double doors looking like his only concern was whether to shoot the locks or punch them off their hinges. “We need a smaller door that’s easier to barricade after we break in.”
Behind them, the first wave of eaters had reached the fence. It rattled under the onslaught. Hudson glared back at Micah, obviously not wanting to do as he said.
“He’s right, Hud,” the woman shouted.
Back at the destroyed gates, the eaters were flooding into the school grounds, trampling the manicured shrubbery beds around the car park. Without waiting to see what the others would do, Alex and Micah headed for the left side of the building.
To the side of the school was a large seating area and they zigzagged the bikes through the maze of benches and tables. Unable to get their vehicle through, the soldiers stopped beyond the benches and clambered out, loaded down with weapons, none of which would make even a dent in the horde almost on them.
The first eaters, those who had mastered the art of the unsteady jog, reached the vehicle as Alex and Micah got to the back corner of the building. Alex looked back to see Hudson, Ridgewell and the others dodging around benches. The eaters were crowding around the vehicle now, some of them tripping over benches and walking into tables, others lumbering between.
Alex looked up to see the black helicopter hovering overhead. His attention snapped back down when one of the soldiers, a man with red hair sticking out from beneath his cap, tripped over a bench as he glanced back at the horde. He crashed to the concrete. An eater lurched towards him.
Hudson reached the bikes and turned around, raising his rifle.
“Don’t shoot!” Alex yelled.
Sam leaned from the back of Micah’s bike and pushed at Hudson’s arm as he fired. The shot went wide.
Ridgewell darted back to the fallen soldier, sent the eater almost on him stumbling back with a kick to the chest, and hauled him to his feet, dragging him towards the others. Hudson waited until they were past him and fired into the horde again. The few that fell were immediately trampled by the rest.
Alex turned away and drove across the service area at the back of the school to where Micah and Sam were already dragging a wheeled metal waste container away from the wall. Behind the huge bin, a single door led into the building, its narrow, vertical window broken and the wire mesh that had run through the safety glass twisted back.
“How did you break the window so fast?” Alex said.
“We didn’t,” Micah replied, pulling his pistol from his belt before reaching in to unlock the door. He pushed the door open and aimed into the gloomy interior, stepping back after a couple of seconds. “I can’t see anyone, but since when did that ever mean anything?”
Alex rolled his bike in first, Micah following with his, and Sam coming in after them. Ridgewell ran in next with the red haired soldier stumbling in after him, still looking a little in shock. The others followed with Hudson bringing up the rear.
“Pull the bin closer so we can cover the door with it,” Alex said, moving his bike back and pushing down the stand.
Hudson glanced at him, a glare plastered across his face. He grabbed the edge of the big metal bin and dragged it in close to the door before coming inside. Alex slammed the door closed and reached through the window, gripping the bar along the back of the container’s lid and hauling it towards the door. A couple of seconds later, the horde hit the bin, shoving it up against the door and trying to reach over the top. Alex pulled his arm back in and stepped away from the door.
Someone slammed into him, spinning him around and shoving him up against the wall next to the door.
“What the hell was that?!” Hudson shouted into his face.
He stumbled backwards as Alex shoved him away. Regaining his footing, he turned and advanced on Sam, his face twisted in rage. Sam cowered back, raising his hands. Micah darted between them. Hudson raised his rifle.
Shoving the barrel aside, Micah blocked a punch aimed at his face and jabbed his fist into Hudson’s ribs, following up with knee to the groin. The big man dropped with a grunt, his rifle clattering to the floor beside him. The whole exchange took less than two seconds.
“Anyone else?” Micah said.
The remaining four soldiers glanced at each other then down at Hudson who was lying on his side, clutching his crotch with both hands.
He squinted up at Alex. “Collins almost died because of you and your lap dog.” His pain-filled gaze flicked to Sam.
Alex had to stop himself from driving a kick into the man’s face. “We saved him,” he snapped. “He was too close. If you’d shot that eater, the blood would have gone on him and he’d have been infected.”
Hudson suddenly grabbed for his gun lying beside him. Alex pulled his pistol from the holster at his waist and aimed at Hudson before he could bring the rifle up. In a flash, four army issue assault rifles were pointing at his head and chest.
Micah pulled out his gun. “The first one who fires is the first one who dies.”
There were a few long seconds when the only sound was the hungry moans of thousands of eaters and the waste container scraping up against the outside of the door.
“Glock 17s,” the woman said. “Police issue?”
Alex didn’t move his eyes from Hudson. “Yes.”
“Whose cold, dead hands did you take them from?” Hudson said.
From the corner of his eye, Alex saw a rifle withdraw.
“Stand down,” the woman said.
One by one, the other rifles lowered.
Hudson’s eyes darted around him. “You can’t believe this white-eye...”
“I said
stand down
, Lance Corporal.”
Her voice was calm and controlled, but Alex saw Hudson ever so slightly wince. His grip relaxed on his rifle and he placed it back on the floor. “Yes, Ma’am.”
Alex relaxed a little, lowering his gun and shifting it to his left hand. He held out his right to the woman who he only now noticed was the senior ranking officer in their little unit.
“DC Alex MacCallum.”
She looked somewhere around forty, her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, and she shook his hand with a grip strong enough to force him to hide his wince.
“Lieutenant Tracey Dent. You’ve met Ridgewell and Hudson. That’s Collins and Porter.” She indicated the redhead and a man even taller than Hudson with close cropped dark hair. The soldier nodded to him.
Collins glanced at Hudson, then walked over to Alex. “Thanks, man. I think you saved my skin back there. That thing was almost on me.”
Hudson made a derisive noise and muttered something under his breath.
Dent glanced at Micah and Sam. “Are you in the force too?”
Micah smiled, throwing a vague salute with his gun before returning it to its holster. “Oh, no.” He nodded at Alex. “I’m just along to keep him from getting himself killed. Micah Clarke.”
The lieutenant turned her gaze to Sam. Focused as he was on the door, he didn’t notice the attention.
“And that’s Sam,” Alex said, for the first time realising he didn’t know his last name.
Sam glanced back briefly at the sound of his name. “Are we safe?” he said, returning his attention to the door.
“Safe?” Hudson laughed as he hauled himself up gingerly from the floor. “We’re surrounded by thousands of monsters that want to rip our flesh from our bones with their teeth. What do you bloody think?”
Alex saw Sam’s shoulders slump and he threw Hudson a glare as he walked over to the door. After checking the lock was secure, he turned back to Sam.
“They can’t get in there,” he said gently.
Sam nodded, not looking up at him.
Having spent the day not wanting Sam to see him as a superhero, Alex now wished he would again, if only to wipe the look of fear from the young man’s face. He placed his hand on his shoulder.
“I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe, I promise.”
“Isn’t that touching?” Hudson sneered. “Trying to keep him from pissing his pants.”
Alex clenched his fist at his side.
“Hudson,” Dent snapped. “Take Porter and secure the ground floor.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” With a final glare at Alex, he and Porter headed along the corridor.
Sam leaned in close to Alex and whispered, “I’m trying not to be afraid.”
“I’m afraid too,” Alex said. “You’re doing fine. Hudson is simply suffering from the disease known as being a dick. Or, to give it its Latin name, Dickus Headus.”
Sam smiled. Alex thought he heard a feminine snort, but when he looked at Dent her face was perfectly straight.
“We’re all afraid, Sam,” she said, “even though some of us try to hide it with anger.”
“Maybe we should check the top floor,” Micah said, “in case whoever broke that window is still in here.”
“Yeah,” Alex said, “that’s a good idea.” He started after Micah, Sam at his side.
“I think we should take care of that,” Dent said.
Alex turned back. “And by ‘we’, you mean...?”
“I mean those of us with the training to secure the building.”
“Lieutenant Dent,” he said, “in the unfortunate event that we have to spend more than the immediate future together, I think we need to get one thing clear. You have your men to order around, but we aren’t them. So you do your thing, we’ll do ours, and we’ll all get along okay.”
She stepped forward. “Mr. MacCallum, with all due respect, I can’t have civilians who don’t know what they’re doing...”
“Lieutenant Dent, with all due respect, Micah and I survived being trapped in Sarcester with tens of thousands of eaters for a week.”
Ridgewell and Collins glanced at each other. Dent’s jaw dropped.
“You were in Sarcester?”
“Yes. Why?”
“We were there when those barriers came down. So many eaters came out we didn’t think anyone could have survived.”
“Well, we did. So if anyone knows what they’re doing, it’s us. We’ll be back when we’ve checked the top floor.”
He turned and walked along the corridor with Micah and Sam falling into step beside him.
“Think she bought it?” Micah muttered.
“No idea. Just keep walking.”
“I hate schools,” Sam said.
Their footsteps echoed around the empty hallway as they made their way towards the front of the building, where they assumed they would find the main staircase.
“You didn’t like school?” Micah said.
Sam shrugged. “The other kids always thought I was weird. I never fit in. I wasn’t exactly popular. I left when I was sixteen, but that was four years ago and I still don’t like being in a school.” He smiled. “It’s a good thing I never wanted to be a teacher.”
They reached the main foyer where the wide staircase rose from the centre of the large space. Eaters were pressed up against every external window and door, their moans audible even from inside. The volume increased when they saw the three people inside.
“They can’t get in, can they?” Sam said.
“I’m almost sure they can’t,” Alex replied. “It’s a tough building. We won’t be here long anyway. Just until they get bored and wander off.” He hoped.
At the top of the stairs, a wide hallway stretched out ahead of them with another hallway crossing it halfway along. Doors on either side of the stairs were marked as the boys’ and girls’ toilets. They followed the otherwise unbroken walls to the crossroads in the centre.
“You take left, I’ll take right, sweep the rooms to check no-one’s up here?” Micah said.
Alex pulled a skull-spiker from his pocket. “Let’s do it.”
He made his way to the first door, Sam on his heels. Peering through the glazed upper half, he knocked. When nothing appeared he opened the door and went in. The classroom looked like it had been left halfway through a lesson, papers strewn on desks, the whiteboard covered in maths equations, the chairs scattered haphazardly as though everyone had just leaped up and left them where they were. A door in the wall to the left was a small supply cupboard.
When he was certain it was empty, Alex went to the window and looked down at the horde outside. Eaters surrounded the building as far as he could see, ten feet deep in places. Without some way to distract them, those inside weren’t going anywhere soon.
Alex leaned his forehead against the cool glass and thought about Hannah. Another day was going to pass without him there to rescue her.
“I wonder what happened to them,” Sam said, looking around at the signs of a rushed exodus.
Alex turned away from the window. “Let’s go and clear the other rooms.”
They did six more rooms, working their way back and forth across the corridor towards the end. Each one was more or less the same, other than the different subjects written on the whiteboards.
With two more rooms left to go, Alex was checking a supply cupboard when he heard footsteps sprinting along the corridor outside. He ran back to the door in time to see someone disappear around the corner in the direction of the stairs.
“Micah!” he yelled as he ran.
Micah appeared from one of the rooms near the end of the hallway opposite.
“What?”
“Someone just ran past. He’s heading for the stairs.”
Micah broke into a run, reaching the main hallway just behind Alex and Sam. Whoever was in the school with them was already on the stairs. As he ran, Alex suddenly felt guilty about chasing the person. Whoever it was had been there first and hadn’t caused them any harm, while they had brought thousands of eaters with them. Alex changed his mindset from pursuit to reaching the person before Hudson opened fire on them.
At the foot of the stairs, Alex stopped to listen. He heard nothing.
“Where’d they go?” Sam said, breathing heavily.
Alex shook his head, looking around. “I think we need to-”
He was cut off by Hudson’s voice shouting. “
Ouch
! What the...
stop
it! No, don’t...
ouch
, damn it.” His tirade was punctuated by thuds and metallic clangs.
They took off in the direction of the noise and after a couple of corners found themselves in the cafeteria. Tables and chairs were lined up in orderly rows throughout the room. A metal counter with Perspex food displays and a cash register at one end separated the dining area from the kitchen.
Hudson was standing in the centre of the room, his hands raised in front of his face. Porter’s huge frame was folded behind a table not far from the door. He looked over at them as they burst through the door and smiled slightly.
At first, Alex couldn’t see what was causing the ruckus. Then a figure popped up from behind the counter. Something flew through the air, hit Hudson in the stomach, dropped to the floor and rolled away. It was a tin can. Baked beans, by the looks of it. Alex caught a vague glimpse of black hair and dark skin before the figure vanished again.
It all happened so fast he wasn’t sure what he’d seen.
“Nice shot,” Micah said, loud enough for whoever it was to hear.
Hudson turned to glare at them. “Don’t encourage-”
Another projectile was launched, finding its target yet again, this time on his shoulder.
“I said
stop
!” Hudson roared.
“Then go away,” a voice shouted back. “I got here first.”
Alex’s jaw dropped. “Is that...?”
“Look, kid, we...”
“And stop calling me kid!”
“Okay, that’s it.”
Hudson strode towards the door leading to the kitchen, ignoring the two more cans that hit him. As he burst through the door, his attacker scrambled over the counter and ran for the exit.
Straight into Micah who moved to intercept her.
The girl stamped on his foot. From the look on his face and his small whimper, it hurt. Alex knew what that was like.
“
Let me go!
” she screamed, backing away from him.
“No,” he said, his voice firm.
She tried to dart around him, but he stepped into her path again, holding his hands out, effectively preventing her from getting to the door. She backed away again.
The kitchen door banged against the wall next to it as Hudson blundered his way back into the dining room. “Don’t let that little monster get away,” he said, striding towards them.
“You’re a really nasty person,” Sam said.
Hudson rounded on him. “Like I care what a little bitch like you thinks.”
Alex clenched his fists. Dent was wrong; Hudson wasn’t afraid, he was just a vicious bully.
The girl watched their exchange with fear in her eyes. She turned back to Micah. “Please let me go.”
“We’re not here to hurt you,” he said.
She pointed at Hudson. “Tell
him
that.”
Alex stepped towards him, aching for an excuse to hit him. “Are you attacking little girls now?”
Hudson huffed. “I wasn’t going to hurt her, I was just going to stop her from throwing stuff at me.”
“But it was so entertaining,” Micah said.
Hudson glared at him.
“So can I go now?” the girl said.
“You can’t go outside,” Micah replied. “There are eaters surrounding the building. It’s not safe.”
She put her hands on her hips, her fear replaced by anger. “I was fine before
you
arrived. There weren’t any eaters here before
you
brought them.”
Micah lowered his arms. “Yeah, sorry about that.”
He smiled and she seemed to relax a little, her hands dropping to her sides.
Alex saw Hudson open his mouth to speak, which, as far as he could tell, was never a good thing. He was about to cut him off when Porter stepped forward.
“Come on, Hud,” he said, “let’s go make sure the rest of the ground floor is secure.”
The girl looked at Porter, then raised her gaze so she could see his face, her brown eyes widening slightly. Alex couldn’t blame her. The giant soldier made even him feel small.
Hudson glared at them, or simply looked at them with his normal expression. It was hard to tell the difference. He pushed past Micah and out the door with Porter following.
“What’s your name?” Micah said to the girl.
She studied him for a few seconds before apparently deciding it was okay to tell him. “Chloe.”
He smiled again. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Chloe. I’m Micah and this is Alex and Sam.”
Her eyes flicked to Sam and then Alex. She gasped when she saw his face. “You’re a white-eye.”
“That’s not a nice word,” Sam said.
She lowered her gaze. “Sorry. Survivor.”
“I’m sorry we messed up your hiding place,” Micah said. “We needed somewhere to get away from the eaters and this looked good. You chose well. Maybe you should tell us how to stay alive through this.”
He smiled and stepped away from the door, going to sit at one of the tables with a subtle flick of his head to indicate Alex and Sam should follow. Chloe looked at the door then back at the three of them settling at the table. After a few seconds, she went to join them, sliding onto a chair next to Micah.
“How long have you been here?” Micah said.
“Three days.”
Alex suspected he knew the answer to his question, but he needed to ask anyway. “Where are your parents?”
She stared at the table. “Eaters got them.”
“I’m sorry, Chloe,” Micah said.
She sniffed, not moving her eyes from the tabletop.
“Maybe we can help you, so you don’t have to stay here by yourself,” Alex said.
She rounded on him. “You can’t help me,” she shouted. “No-one can. You’re all going to die, just like everyone else!”
Nice going, Alex, he thought. Make the poor girl feel even worse.
“My mum and dad died too,” Sam said, his voice soft. “I know how you’re feeling. But Alex and Micah helped me.”
Her eyes filled with tears. Micah produced a clean tissue from his jacket pocket, handing it to her, and she buried her face in it. When he put his arm around her shoulders, she leaned against him, sobbing quietly.
For a while they sat listening to the heartbreaking sound of Chloe crying as Micah held her. Sam crossed his arms on the table and leaned his forehead onto them, hiding his face. The revelation that he’d lost his parents wasn’t a surprise. It explained a lot.
Alex thought about his own family. His parents lived in Edinburgh, still in the house where he’d grown up, and his brother, sister-in-law and niece were in Glasgow. It was unlikely the eaters had reached that far north yet, but it was only a matter of time. Micah’s parents and sister, who wasn’t much older than Chloe, lived outside the town of Matlock which was much closer. He hadn’t said anything, but Alex knew it had to be killing him not knowing if they were safe.
When Chloe stopped crying, they learned that she was thirteen and they were hiding out in her school. When eaters overran her house, killing her parents, she had run here and hidden. She was a tough kid. She also hated being called a kid.
“Do you have anyone else around here you can stay with?” Micah said.
“My grandparents live a few miles away,” she said, “but I was too scared to walk all the way there. And I don’t know...” She stopped and wiped at her eyes again. “...I don’t know if they’re okay.”
Finally, something he could do. “We can take you there to find them,” Alex said.
“You would do that?” she asked, evidently surprised at the offer.
He smiled. “Of course we will. As soon as we get out of here.”
She looked at the windows where the tops of the eater’s heads were just visible above the high sill. “And how are you going to do that?”
“Don’t worry,” Sam said, “they’ll think of something. They’re real live heroes.” He leaned forward as if he was imparting a great secret. “They left their capes at home.”
Chloe burst into laughter and Alex regarded Sam with new admiration. The young man may have been unusual, but he also seemed to know exactly what to say to make people feel better. It was an art Alex had yet to learn.
. . .
Having made sure the building was secure, the group of soldiers joined them in the cafeteria.
The first half an hour they spent waiting to see if the eaters would leave. When nothing changed, Ridgewell and Collins rustled up a passable, if cold, meal of baked beans, potatoes and corned beef from the supply of canned goods in the kitchen.
“How many do you think are left in Sarcester?” Porter said around a mouthful of slightly dry, but still edible bread.
Alex shrugged. “I really don’t know. Maybe a few thousand.”
“What’s law and order like?” Ridgewell said.
“I think most people are just shell shocked at the moment. Some people we know were going to set up patrols when we left, to make sure no-one’s taking advantage of the situation or to find anyone who needs help.” Alex suspected the fact that those people were Survivors and pseudo militia wouldn’t go down well, so he didn’t mention it.