CALM BEFORE THE STORM
Jack and Alice walked carefully along the street, the looming of the night sky made it hard for them to see the dangers that were ahead of them. Jack gripped his machete tight, waiting for the moment he would need to use it.
“Any chance I could have a gun?” Alice asked him.
With his attention firmly focused on the mission, he abruptly said, “NO.”
Raising her eyebrows at his response, she stopped walking. It took a few moments for Jack to notice she was no longer following him, he turned to her, “We need to keep moving,” he told her sternly.
“Not until you tell me what your problem is with me,” she demanded to know.
Rolling his eyes in frustration, “I don’t have a problem with you, I have a problem with the situation,” he replied.
Alice sighed, “That makes no sense,” she added.
Shaking his head, he replied, “I understand the dead walking around, I really do. But what I have trouble understanding is how those evil bastards were able to gain so much power over everybody.”
The anger in her eyes grew, “That is easy to say for you, we were left here, you were not.”
“I’m not saying it was not bad, but how come no one stood up to these guys before?” he asked.
She moved closer to him, “You don’t think people tried. How do you beat people who have no morals that will rape and kill without a second thought? An evil that uses the living as bait,” her eyes filled with tears as she spoke.
She wiped her eyes, “But I suppose you know exactly how to beat them,” she finished saying.
Alice waited for Jack to reply, but was shocked when his face turned to anger and he raised his machete swinging it past her head. Before she screamed, she looked to see his machete crashing into the head of a decaying corpse over her shoulder. As he pulled back his machete, Alice breathed heavy and looked Jack in the eyes. He suddenly spoke, “You beat them by being more evil than they are.” Alice looked in shock as Jack continued his journey.
She started to follow him again when he suddenly spoke out, “I don’t have much ammo, only about 30 rounds for both guns, and I’m going to need all of it to help the innocent,” he told her softly. He pulled a hunting knife from his vest and handed it to her, “Otherwise, I would happily give you a gun,” he finished.
Alice took the knife and gave a hint of a smile, they both continued on their journey in silence.
Back at the furniture store, Elle and the others were concerned about Ryan; he had bravely drawn the zombies away buying them time to escape. Elle stayed by the back door, she pressed her ear to the door waiting for the groaning of the dead to lose interest and drag themselves away. She was suddenly disturbed by shouting in the store.
“WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!” Bray shouted.
Zoe stood in front of him, “It’s impossible, we do not stand a chance,” she replied.
“So we just leave him to die then,” he replied angrily.
Elle stormed towards them, “Shut up the pair of you, we are not leaving him out there. So that is final, stop arguing and start thinking,” she snapped at them both.
She looked over to Mark, who was sleeping in the corner, “Nice to see someone relaxing,” she remarked loudly in a sarcastic voice. In the hope of waking him, he did not make any sign of movement.
“There may be a way,” Bray remarked while looking at the security shutters that covered the front entrance.
Paige lay on the floor near the front door, her head raised as everyone looked towards her.
Zoe looked confused as she made a remark, “How.”
It suddenly dawned on Elle what Bray was thinking.
“It’s clear outside, one of us goes outside, circles around the block and causes a distraction,” Bray spoke out.
“You are nuts,” Zoe replied with a look of shock on her face.
Elle simply smiled, “Sounds like a plan,” she happily said.
Zoe was the voice of reason in the room, “Wait just one minute, this is the kind of crazy thing Jack would do,” she told them.
“Well, Jack is not here right now, so I need to step up,” Bray replied to her.
Zoe shook her head in disbelief, “You are injured idiot! if you get attacked you wouldn’t last too long,” she actually laughed when she finished speaking.
“Look, we cannot always rely on Jack to do the dangerous, insane stuff, I’m going,” he barked back.
As the conversation continued going back and forth, Paige kept moving her head to the person talking. Just by her impression even, she looked confused.
Elle shouted out, “I will go!”
Quick to respond Zoe spoke out, “No, I will. You and Bray are the military; besides I am used to running in this hell hole.”
Bray was about to say something when Zoe jumped in first, “No arguments.”
The room went quiet for a moment, Zoe moved to the metal shutter looking outside, “OK, get everything ready, we need to get this done,” she told them.
Bray and Elle both gave a small smile towards Zoe, as they readied their weapons.
Alice hardly spoke to Jack as she followed him towards the Trinions car park. They turned a corner and Jack stopped suddenly, walking up behind him she looked to see what had made him stop. She looked around, the emotion in her face was obvious, her lips trembled and her eyes started to fill with tears.
Jack looked ahead to the evil, there was a long street covered in zombies, they all stood groaning reaching up to the sky. It did not take long to realize why, bodies hung from street lamps. Hung from their feet dangling above the dead.
“So this is how they keep their place safe,” Jack remarked.
He looked around the street, cars scattered the road, an ice cream truck caught his attention. He could not help but think of the children running after it, as its bell rang attracting them to the sweet ice cream treat. Now they were hung from street lights as a distraction to allow the others to move around freely.
Jack punched the wall in anger, making his knuckles bleed, “we need to get ready to get this done,” he whispered. Alice was silent, she was feeling sick. Jack took her hand, “Are you OK?” he asked softly.
She closed her eyes, a tear rolled down her face, “How can anyone be this evil?” she asked him.
Jack gripped her hand tightly, “Because they are soulless monsters and I promise you that tonight they die,” he told her, trying to comfort her.
She placed her arms around him and cuddled him tight.
“Come on, this way,” he said. Still holding her hand, they rushed across the street and into a building.
They approached a broken down old building, scaffolding surrounded one side of the building. The store front was open to the elements. A ladder was attached the scaffolding and Jack took the lead and started the journey to the roof. He knew from this position he would have a great vantage point on the enemy stronghold.
At the top, Jack was stepping on the roof when out of the darkness, something grabbed his ankle, he looked to see the remains of an arm, half the flesh was gone and bone was visible. The skeletal hand gripped Jack’s ankle, but there was no sign of the rest of it. Moving slightly Jack noticed a hole in the roof, the body of a Zombie was hanging from a cable in the hole. The Zombie was no risk to him, he could see the legs of the zombie were tied with rope, he knew instantly this was a victim. They obviously tried to hang him from the roof, but failed when the roof collapsed. They had just left this poor person hanging to die slowly. Before Jack could put the zombie out of his misery, Alice stepped in and used the knife Jack had given her; she cut the zombie’s hand away. The Zombie continued to groan, as they both walked away from the hole and to the far side of the roof. A construction table still sat on the roof, tools were scattered all over the roof. Several empty glass bottles also scattered the roof, as they reached the other side of the roof Jack leaned down behind the ledge to look at the enemy camp.
Alice joined him, she crouched down beside him, the night sky was now full. He looked towards the Multi story car park; he could see large oil drums burning away. This lit up the entrance to the car park, Jack could see three people standing guard, their only weapons were metal bars and knives. Jack gave a half smile, thinking the weapons they held were nothing serious to him. Alice noticed the smug grin on his face, “You’re not even scared are you,” she observed him.
Jack gave a bigger smile, “Completely, but I think I just figured out how we are going to do this,” he said with confidence.
Alice looked less than convinced as she looked out over the zombie infested street, “How exactly are we going to get anywhere near them?” she asked.
“First thing first, we need all the empty bottles we can find,” he told her, while standing up and grabbing the bottles closest to him.
Looking confused Alice just did what he said and started gathering bottles. Jack also picked up a screwdriver and rummaged through a toolbox, he pulled out a half box of matches. “Brilliant,” he uttered.
Alice brought the bottles she gathered to him, “Here, this is all of them,” she told him.
“Great, now I need some rags,” he told her.
They both looked around, nothing that could be used was found, Jack then turned his attention to the hanging zombie. He walked over to the hole. As he looked down, the decaying head looked up at him, deep down Jack felt sorry for it. He pulled his machete and moved closer to the hole. A creaking noise echoed and suddenly Jack fell through the roof, the cable that held the zombie up also held Jack. The zombie tried attacking Jack; he still had hold of his machete when Alice appeared, worrying about Jack. She watched as Jack tried to raise his weapon, his arm was caught up on the cable, the zombie grabbed him, the decaying jaw tried biting him, Jack knew he could not get his arm loose in time, so decided to cut the cable instead. Both Jack and the Zombie crashed to the ground hard, Jack winced in pain, the zombie grabbed Jack’s vest and dragged itself onto him. Grabbing it by the neck, he pushed it in the air and swung his machete against its skull, cracking it open and piercing the brain. The zombie slumped to the ground; he threw the corpse to one side as Alice came running into the room.
Jack pushed himself back to his feet, groaning in pain. Alice touched his back, “Wait, take it slow,” she warned him.
“I don’t have the time to take it slow,” he replied in a painful voice.
Jack shook his head, trying to shake it off. “Did you bring the bottles?” he asked.
Alice looked shocked by his question, “Funny enough, NO! I was more concerned about you, and not the bottle, stupid me,” she replied with a sarcastic smile. Alice walked away back outside to get the bottles.
Jack just shook his head again, he looked down to the dead corpse, “Sorry buddy,” he uttered. Pulling out a small knife, he crouched down and started to cut the blood stained shirt from the body.
Alice stood on the roof collecting the bottle she left behind. “Where are the bottles,” she said in a voice impersonating Jack. She was about to leave the roof when a loud noise rumbled, it sounding like thunder but stronger. Before she knew it Jack rushed back to the roof, he looked up to the sky. It was a noise he was familiar with, suddenly a loud explosion sounded out. Looking around the flames of the explosion lit up the night sky.
“What the hell was that,” Alice spoke out.
Jack stood frozen to the spot; Alice noticed the frowning expression on his face. “What is it?” she asked.
Not responding, he looked out over the rooftops towards the burning building in the distance. He knew what is was, the MI6 building they took shelter in had been destroyed. He suspected it might happen, but hoped he was wrong. It now meant the people that sent them here wanted them dead.
“So it begins,” he murmured.
“What!” Alice replied, concerned.
“No, nothing. We should get moving,” He replied.
Jack took some of the bottles and left the roof, once at the bottom he looked around for danger. Alice was curious to what his plan was. “So what are we doing?” she asked.
“Shh,” he responded.
He pushed Alice back into the darkness; the scuffling of feet could be heard. Then the sound of talking between a man and woman, Jack placed the bottles down on the ground.
“Wait here,” he told her.
As he started to walk, Alice grabbed his arm, he turned to look at her, she simply shook her head, ‘NO.’ Hesitant, he backed up back into the darkness; he stood in front of Alice making sure she was covered by him. The talking continued, “We need to check out the explosion,” a female voice spoke.
“I don’t get why, what is there to see accept a burning building,” a male voice complained.
“We get told to go, so we go. Unless you want to tell The Boss otherwise,” the female replied.
An eerie silence followed, until a car engine started and drove away.
“That was close,” Alice commented.
Jack remained silent, picking up the bottles he walked back out into the street, making sure no one else was around as he walked. Alice quickly followed, worried about what he was planning. She watched as he approached an abandoned car, he lay on the ground and crawled under the car. He pulled the screwdriver from his pocket, “Alice, hand me the bottles,” he told her.