The Abandoned Trilogy (Book 1): Twice Dead (Contagion) (38 page)

              Private Jasper put his foot down hard on the accelerator, his eyes focused on the windshield in front of him.

              “It’s going to be messy,” he said, “Really messy.”

              I didn’t say anything, for what could I say? I stared ahead and then they were there. In front of us, on the black tarmac road hundreds and hundreds of them, people, moving toward us, steadily, increasing their speed when they saw the coach coming toward them.

Here were the Twice Dead in the dead flesh. What we had seen on a computer screen for the last two or so weeks were now well and truly in front of us. And they had no intention of getting out of our way…

W
e hit them at speed. Private Jasper put his foot down on the accelerator and kept it down. The sound was stomach churning, and with the impact of the first bodies on the solid metal bull bars, the vehicle shuddered violently. The coach fortunately was a big one, high off the ground because of the wheelchair access needed for it.

It had toughened glass windows, which, thank God stood us in good stead because with all the bodies and body parts flying past us as we plowed onward and over them, they needed to be strong. The bull bars were acting as a scoop, not pleasant.

              I heard Jasmine scream, Seb swore and Cassidy yelled there was black stuff on the windows. I found myself pulling the Glock out of my bag and gripping the handle tightly.

              We drove at and then over bodies as if they were a bumpy, squelching carpet of flesh that we were trying to flatten out. Many faces scraped by the side windows in a grey blur, teeth exploded out of mouths, hands and other body parts slapped the side of the vehicle with fleshy plops.

The worst was when a body hit the main coach window that was when you saw bones snap, muscles rip before the broken body disappeared upwards, some landing on the roof of the vehicle and then bouncing off onto the seething mass trying to get to us.

“Fuck!” I heard Seb scream from the back of the coach, “The roof! The fucking roof!”

And then it happened. The door to the side of me flew open. It made a cracking sound as it slid on its hinges. I screamed as the speeding cold air blasted in from the outside.

I heard Private Jasper shout something, but the roar of the wind as we hurtled along the Twice Dead infested road drowned out most of what he was screaming.

The change in air pressure made the coach swerve violently, I clung to my seat, glad that I had snapped my seat belt around my waist.

              “Hold on!” I screamed to the others behind me, “Hold on tight!” It was inevitable with the amount of Twice Dead on the road that one of them would be able to grab hold of the sides of the door to try and hoist themselves in. I saw two meaty hands, hairy arms with tattoos; he was a big man, face as grey as potter’s clay, long blonde hair blowing in the wind, the torn flesh on his lips rippling over his flesh flecked teeth as he tried to get inside.

              I screamed again, what is it with us women screaming like bloody Banshees? I instinctively fired my Glock at his head, one bullet after the other. Like I had done to the Gorilla. He let go of the door, his head exploding like a black pumpkin as he fell into the seething mass of bodies behind him, but another one swiftly took his place.

He was reaching for my leg which thank God was covered with thick denim and I had put my adapted Doc Martens on which were firmly attached to my feet. I fired again, but the bullets only caught him in the shoulder and I would not be able to reload quickly enough once the magazine was empty.

I kicked out with my good leg, and managed to knock one of his hands off the side of the door. He managed to hold on though, forcing himself forward, reaching once again for the side of the door for leverage to get in properly. His mouth was moving, he was gnashing his teeth together, no dentures here, his black-blood shot eyes on my face. He was hungry for flesh. My flesh.

              Private Jasper was unable to help me because he needed to keep both of his hands on the steering wheel in order to ensure the vehicle continued moving in a straight line. He was screaming something at me again; the noise was horrendous. It was like the world’s worst opera playing in the O2 Stadium, with all the music and the cast coming on at the same time and bellowing out their lines, and songs.

              The Twice Dead male seem to swell in the door, he was almost in and then there was a blur behind me, a bellow of rage and a flash of linseed wood. Stevie smashed the two cricket bats he had duct taped together into the face of the Twice Dead male. The force of his blow was so powerful it sent the once human male flying over the tops of those below him.

              I screamed at Stevie to get back into his seat, that he would fall out of the vehicle, but he ignored me and when the coach swerved, I was terrified he would be thrown out and devoured by the Twice Dead, but miraculously he wasn’t, in fact, he only lurched on the balls of his feet slightly.

It was then I realised that holding onto the back of Stevie’s jeans by his leather belt and lying on the floor of the coach was Cassidy and holding onto his legs in turn were Gabe, Percy and the girls.

Stevie was like a demented cricket player, any Twice Dead head that tried to get in the door opening was smashed into a thick black glutinous jelly that luckily sprayed outwards as Stevie used the customised cricket bat to gruesome effect.

I had to duck and flatten myself into my seat to avoid being hit by the bat and goo. Private Jasper had to duck as well which made the coach swerve back and forth across the road, but miraculously it remained upright and from then on no Twice Dead made it passed the threshold of our moving metal sanctuary.

As quickly as it had happened, it ended though for all of us in our sardine can on wheels it seemed like an eternity. Then we were on an empty road and the Twice Dead were behind us and thank God, so were Adag and Mitch in their vehicles.

Cold air, that was already blasting into the coach finally made me shiver. Stevie stayed where he was as Cassidy let go of his belt and along with the others behind him slowly crawled back into their seats.

I heard whimpering, but I didn’t know if it was the dogs or one of the others. Stevie stood where he was, his bloody weapon covered in black sticky goo. He stared out of the coach’s windscreen as he slowly lowered it downward. He said nothing, just stared at the moving road before us. Empty, long and grey. Just the way we needed it to be.

I leaned over and took the bat from his fingers, gingerly holding onto the rubber handles as I bent forward and let it fall out of the still open coach door.

It hit the tarmac and rolled, splintered apart and then disappeared from our sight into a grass verge. There was a crackle from the walkie-talkie and I found myself speaking to Adag via Paul and then Mitch. We had been a battering ram for them, taking the brunt of the surge of the bodies with the bull bars, allowing them to get through before the Twice Dead could begin to regroup.

I had just put the walkie-talkie down on the seat beside me when I saw in my peripheral vision a pair of hands creeping up onto the lower step of the coach. I screamed, shoved Stevie backwards with my free arm and fired my Glock, which fortunately I was still holding, into the face of the slender Twice Dead female who was by then hoisting herself up from underneath the high coach step. Her face was partly burned, both her arms had the worst case of road rash I have ever seen, right down to the bone, but this didn’t stop her from almost getting into the coach.

Private Jasper had got his Glock from his holster, this time able to steer the coach with one hand and between us, we poured a reign of bullets into her. Her face exploded into black jelly as she finally fell onto the road, we all felt our back tires go over her body, followed by the Land Rover and then the van.

              We didn’t stop to shut the door of the coach; it was way too dangerous. I could hear Jasmine sobbing and Seb was cursing furiously as he had not been able to do anything to help.

              “Holy fucking shit,” it was Percy’s voice, “Holy fucking shit!”

              Phoenix who had been clutching his precious computer to his chest said calmly, “That was disgusting.”

              I turned my body to speak to everyone when the coach lurched violently from side to side, “Jesus Christ!” Private Jasper shrieked, I rocked in my seat, I luckily had not unfastened my safety belt or I would have been thrown out of the coach.

Two Twice Dead were now hanging down the front of the coach from the roof by their broken and twisted legs, which were probably tangled in the front part of the roof rack and they were bouncing back and forth against the thickness of the windscreen.

              I swore, as the snapped hands of the Twice Dead clawed at the windows, their eyes on the feast before them, mouths opening and closing, two men they had been once upon a time, but now they were Twice Dead.

Private Jasper threw the coach to the left for a third time and this time it worked, the two Twice Dead became temporary birds, they flew through the air, gracefully I thought as my eyes briefly followed their flight, they flew over a hedge and hit a row of trees with such force their bodies literally exploded.

              “Bloody hell!” I drew my legs away from the black goo on the steps of the coach and I stared out of the grunge-covered windscreen before me, my heart was hammering so loud in my chest I was sure I was going to go into cardiac arrest there and then.

              “Duke you bastard I am going to rip your head off your shoulders and shit down your neck!” I said out loud.

              “Get in the fucking queue!” Private Jasper said without looking at me and he viciously hit the water jet button so the goo on the windscreen could be wiped off. From then on no one in the coach spoke until we reached Brocklease Bunker a couple of hours later.

              We had survived the first part of our Day of Days.

We had to break through the steel gates once we got at Brocklease. Private Jasper was on tenterhooks, but I relaxed slightly for we were coming in via a private road that had wild garlic growing along the verges.

We hit the MoD gates at speed, everyone bracing themselves for the impact and then we were through. We drove down the stone covered dirt track that looked surprisingly well kept, and used I thought for a place that was pretty much an abandoned wild life park of outstanding beauty.

              And it was. Carpet upon carpet of wild garlic and blue bells were everywhere, along with many trees and of course as we drove further in, the lagoon, crystal clear water that seemed to go on forever. It reminded me of the Monocot Lake at Thorncroft.

              The bunker was suddenly in our view, directly opposite the lake. It was an eerie sight, a concrete frontage, shaped like a half moon, built into the side of a hill. The door to the bunker were solid steel, impenetrable by the look of it I thought in dismay as we slowed down.

              Private Jasper purposely parked as near as he could to the lake, putting the front of the coach at a slight angle so there was space between water and land. The ground was quite firm and I was aware of the white flowers of the waterside wild garlic being nearby. Behind us, the other vehicles ground to a slow halt.

              Private Jasper didn’t move. He gripped the steering wheel tightly. He needed to compose himself, soldier or not. I knew how he felt.

              “There aren’t any of them on the roof?” Seb called out, “Are they?”

If they had been they would already be in the coach, I said. I hoped I was right.

              Jasmine spoke, her voice wavering, “What were they?” she asked, “What were they?” I turned to look at my companions. This was going to be the hardest conversation I ever had, but it had to be done.

              Before I could speak Stevie spoke, clearly and calmly, “They were people,” he said, “They got sick and now they aren’t people anymore.”

              Cassidy frowned, “What are they then?”

              “We call them Twice Dead,” I said, “Once they were alive like Stevie said, then they died and they woke up again, only…only they woke up dead.”

              I didn’t expect Cassidy to understand what I was saying. He looked bewildered for a moment, and then he said, “They are bad then?”

              “Yes,” I nodded my head, “They are now...”

              “Very bad,” Stevie added, “They bit Gregory, and he became like them.”

              I heard a whimper from Jasmine. Eden said nothing, but her eyes were on my face and I gave her a sad smile. She didn't cry, at least not right then.

              “We can’t let them bite us then,” Cassidy’s words surprised me more than Stevie’s. He had made the connection. It was a simple connection, but a connection all the same.

              “No, we can't,” I said.

              Cassidy looked at Stevie, “You were very strong.”

Stevie said nothing.

              “You were amazing,” Gabe spoke from his seat and he reached over and squeezed the young man’s arm, “Braver than we were.”

              “Absolutely,” Percy said, “You saved us all.”

              “You all worked together,” Private Jasper suddenly spoke and he turned to look at everyone, and I saw in his eyes at that moment a grudging respect for the people he had seen as a liability even though he was trying to help.