Zombie Castle Series (Book 3): ZC Three Read online

  I could see Dave, Alex and Geoff standing at the front door of the bus, wearing full armour, weapons in hand. They looked a lot more terrifying than any fully armed modern soldier ever could. As the bus stopped, the door slowly hissed open. They stepped onto the field of carnage and immediately began swinging their weapons at the heads of corpses or remnants of corpses that lay close by and showed any signs of movement.

  The sounds of firing echoed from the end of the road.

  “Come on!” I shouted, “we need to get going.”

  Geoff lumbered up to the front door and banged on it. It slowly opened, and a man and woman emerged, staring with wide eyes at the three knights who stood with their shields and weapons held ready. They both had rucksacks on their backs. The woman held a cricket bat in her hand and the man a felling axe.

  A movement caught my eye. Three zombies appeared from the side of the house and started to head towards them.

  Before I could shout a warning, Dave screamed. “Contact right,” and raised his rifle.

  The knights turned to face the threat. Geoff shouted at the two to board the bus and stepped forward with his mace held ready. He called to Dave,

  “We’ve got this, save your ammo.”

  As the two people bustled onto the bus, the three knights spaced out and faced the approaching zombies.

  Everyone in my car watched intently. This was the first time we’d seen the knights in action and I was keen to see how their weapons from a different age would perform.

  Two more zombies had now appeared. Again, Geoff shouted,

  “Don’t fire, we can handle this.”

  The three knights stepped forward with their weapons ready.

  Dave and I kept our rifles aimed at the heads of the approaching zombies, fingers off the triggers, but ready to fire at a moment’s notice if need be.

  It was impressive to watch. All three attacked their chosen targets at the same time. Geoff’s mace destroying the skull of one, it fell to the floor spilling brains on the driveway. Dave’s powerful swing removed the head of another, to see it bounce across the lawn before coming to rest in a rose bush, while Alex thrust his sword at the face of the one approaching him. The razor sharp, heavy blade thrust at an upwards angle, entered through its mouth and burst out through the back of the skull. Killed instantly, its legs buckled, and he used the weight of it falling to pull the blade free.

  In seconds, three zombies had been killed quickly and effectively. As soon as the first had fallen, though, they turned their attention to the two remaining ones. Dave’s swing this time sliced through and removed the top of the nearest one’s skull, while Geoff smashed his mace into the side of the last one’s head with such force both its eyes popped out from the skull and dangled from the optic nerves as pulverised brains sprayed from the empty eye sockets.

  The display over, the three knights wasted no time boarding the bus, the continuous firing from the end of the road a compelling indication that we needed to get moving again.

  We were now thirty-two and a dog.

  Chapter three

  Dave picked up the radio as we drove back out of the cul-de-sac.

  “Shawn, get ready to move.” Shawn immediately replied.

  “Yep, I can see you coming. We’re attracting a bit of a crowd here, so moving on would be good.”

  Getting closer, I could see everyone who could use a weapon, including Becky, firing over the side of the trailer. Jim and Steve stood between the trailer and the van, also firing. Reaching the end of the road, I could see the reason why. The road in the direction we had come from was now teeming with approaching zombies. The pile of corpses littered the ground in front of the mass, showing that the shooters were just managing to hold the advancing tide of death back.

  Dave shouted to Steve and Jim to get back on board their vehicles. They both disengaged immediately and ran to the van and the bus, and as soon as the radios confirmed everyone was on board, Shawn pulled away. I waited for the bus and van to tuck in behind him, so I could resume my position at the rear of the convoy.

  The firing stopped when Shawn started moving and the pack immediately began closing in. Even in the thirty seconds I had to wait for the convoy to form, I could see in my mirrors that the zombies were getting dangerously close.

  Daniel, Chet and Dave waited, calmly standing on the seats of my car until those nearest were in range, before ending their existence with spear thrusts. As I sat there, waiting for the van to start moving, I realised how calm I was also feeling.

  The zombies weren’t numerous enough yet to cause us any problems and as they were only behind us, I knew that as soon as Simon pulled away in the van, I would follow him and leave them in my wake.

  The more zombies we killed, the more detached we all became from the act of ending the life of what had once been another member of the human race. It was a life or death situation and we currently had the upper hand. We were reasonably secure in an armoured vehicle we knew the capabilities of, and armed with a variety of weapons that could all end a zombie’s life in one thrust, strike or trigger pull. Unless we became trapped by an unstoppable volume of them, we could always escape.

  I didn’t know what the future would bring, but for as long as we could stay alert and work together to keep one step ahead of the relentless enemy that most of the population of the United Kingdom had become, we stood a chance.

  We continued driving.

  The further we got out of the city, the fewer undead we came across and these were easily dealt with by Shawn either smashing through them or having their brains destroyed by a spear thrust.

  As our new friends had promised, the road was clear. The evidence of obstructions that had been cleared, and dead and mangled corpses acting like a trail of breadcrumbs left behind, showed us we were on the right path.

  The main road, as they had already told us from their earlier experience, did contain more zombies, the reasonably clear, wide road acting as a funnel, channelling the undead towards the smoke still rising from Bristol.

  Shawn increased the convoy’s speed, everyone trying to keep as close to the rear of the one in front as they could, and all relying on Shawn to use the weight and power of the tractor to clear the way. Louise kept up a running commentary to warn us if he was steering around any stopped vehicles, so we could keep following and maintain position as best we could.

  I noticed, though, that when we had smashed through a crowd of them, the remaining ones turned and began shambling along after us, the target we provided far more tempting than the distant rising plumes of smoke.

  Dave had also noticed this and, pointing his thumb behind him at the now following zombies said, “I think we’d better make sure that when we pull off this road to get to the church, none of this lot notices. The last thing I imagine we want to do is attract another horde.”

  “Yes, mate,” I replied, “I don’t think it’s far now, so we can decide what to do when we get there.”

  Almost on cue, Jamie’s voice came over the radio a few minutes later, advising Shawn that the turning we wanted was coming up on the left soon.

  Louise’s voice came back almost immediately, saying there was a small group of zombies gathered at the entrance to the road we needed to take.

  Dave stood up on the seat and looked behind, back the way we’d come.

  “The ones behind aren’t in sight yet. We need to deal with the ones in front quickly and then maybe we’ll be able to avoid them following us.”

  Daniel and Chet put down their zombie spears and grabbed their rifles. Dave, seeing this, turned to them.

  “I think it’ll be best if we go quiet for this one, lads.”

  He picked up the radio.

  “Listen, everyone. The ones that are following us are out of sight for the moment, but as we already know, they will keep going until they find us. We need to get rid of all the ones in front of us as quickly and quietly as possible and get down the lane, so they lose our trail. I want to do i
t quietly just in case there are any others nearby. We don’t know how long we’ll be staying at this church, so the fewer we attract can only be a good thing.

  Shawn, see how many you can get with the tractor and then we’ll finish them off from the Volvo. If you boys in the bus could get ready to kill any ones we can’t get to, that would be a great help.”

  Dave’s quick and accurate assessment of the situation and the tactical plan to deal with it made perfect sense and everyone quickly acknowledged they understood what to do and the convoy continued.

  We stopped when told to by Louise. The three vehicles pulled alongside each other on the wide road to watch Shawn once again use his vehicle as our main weapon against the undead.

  A group of about thirty zombies had herded together at the entrance to the lane we needed to take. Maybe they were the ones left behind when they’d led them away from the church a few days ago and somehow, they knew that human flesh was close by and hadn’t joined the throngs heading towards Bristol, who must be continually passing as they were funnelled down the main road, following each other like lemmings.

  They’d noticed us by now, and they started heading in our direction. Shawn waited until they were in the centre of the road before driving straight at and through them, spears thrusting from the trailer, claiming more as the plough on the front of the tractor pulverised them.

  He drove a short way and used the full width of the road and its grass verges to turn around and line up on the remaining ones, again thinning them out.

  I saw him gesticulating from the cab and got the gist that he wanted me to have a go as he drove past us to turn around again.

  With a shout of, “Get ready lads,” I drove slowly into the remaining ones. Dave, Chet and Daniel soon dispatched the ones they could reach with their spears. I turned around and made one more pass, aiming the car at the last few in the road, bumping over the remains left by the tractor. If I could see one lying on the ground still moving, I tried to aim so my wheels would run over and crush its head. The weight added to my car with all the extra protection we had built onto it made this easier. When I got my aim right, you could feel the car rise slightly as it rode over the skull and then drop suddenly as the skull caved in and its brains spread over the road.

  One or two were still untouched at the edges of the devastation we’d caused in only a few minutes. Dave picked up the radio and told the knights to get ready, but to be careful and make sure any they stepped over were already dead.

  Pulling out of the way so I could turn around, Marc immediately drove the bus forward so the knights could get as close as possible to the few who were still staggering towards us.

  To an outsider, it probably looked like a well-choreographed and practised manoeuvre, it was all done so smoothly. To me, it showed again how well we worked together.

  The two groups had both survived and fought against terrifying odds before we joined, and now combined, we were proving a formidable force who could easily work together.

  Marc stopped the bus and the doors hissed open. With no hesitation, Dave, Alex and Geoff exited and took a few steps forward and ended the existence of the few remaining zombies. As soon as they hit the ground, they turned their attentions to the ones lying mangled around them, destroying the brains of any still moving, before turning and hurrying back on board.

  Less than five minutes after Dave had issued his instructions and with Shawn leading the way, we drove down the narrow lane that led to the village.

  As Dave sat back down in his seat, he summed up our performance.

  “Fuck me. I have never seen such unit cohesion from a bunch of FNGs before.”

  “FNGs?” I asked.

  “Fucking New Guys. We’re operating as if we’re bloody special forces or something, not a load of civvies driving around in bastardised Mad Max vehicles, including some chaps who like to dress up and pretend they’re King bloody Arthur. I doubt if I had the best of all the Marines I’ve trained in my whole career, that we’d be doing as well as we are.”

  I chuckled, “I think you’re probably right, mate. But this isn’t some training exercise or even a battle, where if one of us gets hurt we can call for immediate support and medevac. We’re fighting together as a family where we don’t get any second chances. We have no back-up apart, from each other. If a mistake is made, one or all of us dies. It’s as simple as that.

  “And that’s what’s making the difference, I think. I would do anything without hesitation to protect my wife and children, as would anyone else in this group, I imagine. But yes, I do agree the way we have and are getting through this is remarkable. Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine us doing what we’re doing. Not many days ago I was shitting myself, screaming in absolute terror as I tried to escape from the camp site we were on, thinking we wouldn’t even survive the next hour. Now, I must admit I’m reasonably positive about our chances, and I really think that if things carry on the way they have done, we’ve got a chance to eke out some existence from all this shit that’s happening around us.”

  “I bloody hope so, mate. Something or someone made sure we all got together. It would be a damn shame if we wasted the opportunity by getting ourselves eaten.”

  He stopped talking and stood up on the seat again.

  “I can see the spire on the church, it can’t be far now.” He looked back at Chet and Daniel, who were also sitting down. “On your feet lads, it looks as if we’re getting close.”

  As Jamie gave Shawn the last few directions, the atmosphere in the vehicle tensed.

  What would we find? A few days ago, eleven people had been in the church. They were in a secure place and had enough food to last for some time, with no need to leave the sanctuary they had sought shelter in. But a lot could happen in a few days and sometimes fate didn’t not play fair.

  Louise’s voice came over the radio as we entered the village green, telling us it all looked clear. It was a very picturesque place, a typical English village green, the church dominating the skyline with the pub facing it. The rest of the green was lined with pretty houses of all shapes and sizes.

  It was one of those places you liked to drive to for a Sunday lunch or maybe a drink on a warm summer’s day. As you sat on the bench in the pub garden, you would look around and say to yourself it was where you wanted to live and then reach for your phone to check out properties for sale in the area. You would then wistfully look at houses you just could not afford before finishing your drink or your meal and driving back to real life.

  On close inspection though, the abandoned cars littering the road, the barricade of vehicles blocking the entrance to the church yard and the corpses I could see lying by the church doors, shattered the rural idyll the village used to portray. It was quiet and peaceful, but it had an air of abandonment and panic.

  The vehicles stopped in a line, facing the vehicular entrance to the church that Shawn’s friends had told us they had helped to block, using abandoned cars left by their owners as they fled the chaos of the first day of the apocalypse.

  A few zombies that had been shambling around aimlessly started to head in our direction. Before anyone could ask, the doors to the bus opened once more and the three knights stepped down, quickly dispatching the nearest ones. A couple more were further away so they stood ready, waiting for them to get closer.

  While they were waiting, a shout from the church steeple made us look up. A man was leaning over the parapet, waving. Ian shouted up from the trailer.

  “Bob, is that you? We told you we’d be back, we’ve brought some new friends along. If you wait while we deal with the last few heading towards us, then we will clear the barricade and get inside.”

  The man high up on the steeple shouted he understood and disappeared from view, most likely descending the tower to come and meet us.

  Knowing the last few zombies approaching would pose no problem to the knights, I climbed out of the Volvo and went to the trailer to steady the ladder Simon was lowering. />
  Good old Maud. I didn’t need to say anything to her. She was standing, looking over the side of the trailer at approaching zombies, cradling Sarah in her arms. As soon as I saw a child’s hand touch the ladder, she said softly,

  “Now children, let’s wait up here until we get inside the churchyard. Then you can get down and help everyone. I need you to stay up here and help protect Sarah and me.”

  Even though I couldn’t see my children, I heard a chorus of slightly reluctant agreements as they made way for the adults to descend the ladder.

  We had a strange balance to work out between protecting the children at all costs, sheltering them from the constant horror we were experiencing, and preparing and training them to survive in the world we now lived in.

  I’d seen Stan and Eddie lining the trailer sides, using a zombie spear to kill as many as possible when driving through a throng of them, but also in the same day playing tig in the yard at Willie’s farm, running around laughing and carefree. Basically, being children.

  Their normal childhood had ended the second the outbreak happened, and they did need to be trained on how to kill them and to survive, as we all did. But I still felt better if they could be kept out of harm’s way whenever possible. The trick was to manage that, but still make them feel they were contributing to the group and part of the team we’d become. If they felt too overprotected, they might try something rash which could end in tragedy.

  We wasted no time and started to push the vehicles away from the entrance. Dave asked a few to maintain perimeter security and to back the knights up if need be, while everyone else helped move the barricade. The many willing hands soon cleared the way and the vehicles drove up the drive towards the church. Again, with no prompting, the convoy positioned itself to protect the main church doors. Jamie left the van back slightly, so he could block the final gap when everyone had entered the church.

  In the silence following the engines being turned off, the only sound was the squealing of protesting hinges as the ancient church doors opened.