Authors: K.A. Merikan
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With James’ and Ira’s combined effort, they managed to avoid being trampled by the panic-stricken crowd and leave Hyde Park unscattered. Rushing through little alleys and people's backyards, from time to time they would hear distant growling, a reminder that danger was breathing down their backs. No place seemed safe, they needed to reach Westminster. The passage had been fairly easy so far. Ira could never understand people’s tendency to run rampant in a group. It was always easier to stay safe if one had space to watch their surroundings and there was no risk of dying beneath someone’s boots. Maybe what drove the people of London to follow the terrified crowd through major streets was the same need that made humans seek comfort in one another’s arms at the time of danger.
He couldn’t stop thinking about how it was possible for the undead invasion to be this massive. If they broke into the city through one of the gates, coppers would stop them without any trouble, but from what he’d seen so far, Ira got the impression that the zombies appeared in various places all around the city at roughly the same time. This could be no coincidence, which meant that some menacing power was attacking London. This notion alone was enough to make his heart freeze.
James told him about a hidden entrance to the parliament. That could win them some time and they wouldn’t have to struggle through the crowds in order to get to the shelter. The metropolitan and military police supported by groups of ordinary citizens built barricades across London's major arteries to slow the zombies down, but the barriers also made it difficult for people to pass, women in particular.
Katherine and Juanita’s rich gowns were a disastrous hindrance and a danger to all of them. Ira saw the ease at which the nanny leapt over any hurdle they encountered in her short, corset-less uniform. Katherine and Lady Shelley however refused to drop their petticoats and bustles somewhere on the way against all reason. Ira gritted his teeth in anger. He did not care about the blackmailer's fate and wasn’t moved by seeing her struggle and lag behind, but he believed Katherine would be more rational than that. And why take that witch Juanita with them in the first place? James must have gone mad to be willing to protect her after all the sorrow she had caused him. He had too much of a good heart.
They maneuvered through the empty back alleys, breathless, but too determined to let fatigue stop them. James was leading the group, with his wife, the nanny and Henry right behind him. Ira followed them closely, guarding their backs. He gave James one of the daggers he always wore hidden beneath his jacket, and he was certain his lover would never complain about this habit again. Holding the other one in his hand, he moved behind the family, making sure the nanny and Henry were safe, as he was sure James could take care of one person just fine. Even if they did spend half of the 'lessons' in bed, he did train James in self-defense techniques.
In a small street to their left, they caught a glimpse of a group of boys in gray clothes. Just as they were passing by, one of the youths threw a cobblestone into a shop window, succeeding to make an opening for his friends and himself, though Ira doubted they were seeking shelter.
“Fucking bastards!” someone shouted from a window in the same street, enraged by the looting. Ira couldn’t care less though. All he wanted was to get his family into safety. They intended to go by steam carriage, but the streets turned out to be blocked by masses of people running in havoc and many vehicles lay uselessly on their sides all over London, thrown over by the crowd. Going on foot was much safer, which they proved by getting to Westminster unharmed and Ira only killed a few zombies on the way. It was only a matter of minutes until they were in the safe confines of the shelter when someone called out James’ surname.
“Hurst! Hurst! Over here!” The whole group stopped in their tracks looking up to a window on the first floor of a new side building, next to the parliament. An elderly, gray-haired man with a round, reddened face, was looking down at them. “We can’t open the emergency door! It’s already swarming with people... and...
not-people
too! Hurry to the wall, I will get you a ladder!” He dried his forehead with a handkerchief.
Ira looked around, noticing that they weren’t the only ones to hear about the ladder. He looked into tense, frightened faces and his world stopped. Bracing himself for a fight, Ira studied the able men around him. Some of them were with their families and just as desperate as him. He assumed at least six or seven of those who stopped when the ladder was mentioned could be a threat.
No one moved but it was the silence before the storm. The dumb old man had to assume everyone would just make way for the Hurst family, as if their lives were more important than anyone else's in the street. To Ira, they were, so he made sure everyone saw the dagger he was holding. It was efficient and deadly, even in less able hands than Ira's and from the looks he got, the young men knew it too. He turned the weapon in his hand, feeling its familiar weight, assuring himself that no one here could stand a chance against him. He found it baffling those able, young lads were willing to risk a confrontation with two armed men instead of targeting the undead who were way easier to take on. It had to be a primal fear that made people run instead of fight.
And just like that, the world went into motion again when a bunch of zombies came from virtually nowhere. Ira drew back, noting that the small crowd around them dispersed and he didn’t have to look up to know the ladder was not out yet. The undead walked about in torn, bloodied clothes, their eyes unfocused as if they were a family of paupers invited for a royal feast. Ira felt sickened at the sight of a slim hand held by one of the ghouls like a cooked chicken leg. He looked back to make sure the Hursts were safe when he heard Katherine’s panicked shriek and saw her pressing into James like he was her last chance for survival.
“We’ve got this under control.” James looked at little Henry who was howling into his nanny's arms. He was trying to keep his group together, a hard task when danger was lurking just a few feet away. “Move to the wall. The ladder will be here any minute and we will pass to the parliament’s shelter.”
Ira recognized the faint tension in James’ composed voice. The monsters hadn't spotted them yet, distracted by the commotion around them, but it could happen any second. Ira let out a long breath he didn't realize he was holding in and moved back towards the wall, standing between his party and the ghastly creatures. One of the rotting monsters followed a group of women towards the riverbank, but the other two inevitably settled their attention on their small group of five and a half, standing in place like a bunch of stunned chickens. Ira was done with waiting for God knows what. He lunged forward and stabbed the first undead right in the forehead, its rotting blood spraying his cheek.
“Be careful!” shouted Katherine, and he wasn't sure whom she meant as James joined his side.
Tense and focused, with lips pressed into a thin line, James shifted the dagger in his hand, ready to protect his family. He slouched forward when the second zombie moved right at him. Lady Shelley remained mute, which was refreshing after all the crying they had to endure on the way to Westminster. At the back of his mind, Ira fostered the hope she would run away, but he knew it was not likely.
“Get that fuckin’ ladder!” he barked at no one in particular, sliding the monstrous head off his blade and moving onto the next undead. It was easy enough after all the fighting he had done during his trips to the countryside. Back then, however, he didn’t have women or children to protect and judging from today’s experience, there was no guarantee the family was safe behind their backs. Zombies would appear from virtually nowhere, which confirmed Ira’s suspicion about a planned release within the walls. He could only wonder how those fuckers got in. His blood ran cold as he saw another pack of hungry monsters following a group of girls in maids' outfits, but he couldn’t afford to leave James and his family.
“We’ve got it!” The voice from above was an immense relief. Ira looked back just in time to see a ladder being pushed out of the window. It barely missed Juanita’s head and Ira grumbled beneath his breath when he saw her dodge it.
“Thank God!” sighed the nanny, hugging Henry as if he was a living teddy bear.
“Katherine, go first!” James was scanning the street and flinched when he spotted two stray zombies shuffling out of a distant alleyway. Ira felt a brief touch on his shoulder, but he was too focused on the task at hand to put any mind to it. He and James would have plenty of time to acknowledge each other's presence once they were in safety.
“Go!” he hissed, seeing that the lonely ghouls had spotted them and were now heading fast in their direction. “They’re coming!”
James nodded, and rushed to help his wife who was struggling on the ladder in her broad-skirted gown. “I’ll take Henry.” He grabbed the crying child out of its nanny's arms as soon as Katherine climbed high enough for the gray-haired man to reach her. “Ira! Be careful, please!”
When Ira glanced over his shoulder several seconds later, he was relieved to see James’ wife in safety. Relief was quickly replaced by a hot flash of anger when he saw Lady Shelley roughly shoving Emma, Henry's nanny away from the ladder. Ira intervened and pushed Juanita aside when she made a move at the wooden steps.
“Emma, join Lady Hurst!” he ordered, giving Lady Shelley a hard look to make sure she knew he considered the servant's life more important than hers. She froze in terror, not even daring to look away from his face.
James drew in a long breath, letting the nanny through and cast a nervous glance at the approaching zombies. They were dangerously close now.
“Hold on, Henry,” he told his son, who gave him a frantic nod. James started climbing right behind Emma. With the boy clinging to his side, James used his one free hand as efficiently as he could, slowly making his way up the ladder.
Ira looked up, to a metal bridge connecting the building to the Palace of Westminster, then moved his gaze back to Lady Shelley, now as pale as snow, her pupils nervously wobbling. She became even more rigid when they remained the only two people in this street, an easy prey for hungry undead.
If anyone were to ask Ira for his opinion, she deserved neither safe shelter, nor their help. He gave her one more look of contempt, before pushing his dagger back into its sheath and swiftly climbing up the ladder. He didn't care if she followed.
Unwilling to peek under Emma's skirt as she struggled above him, Ira glanced at the zombies he saw earlier. He got the impression they sped up to catch their meal while it was on the plate. Lady Shelley had to see it too, because he could hear a faint clattering of teeth from below as she climbed the first two or three steps of the ladder. “Please, hurry,” she uttered in panic.
Ira snorted, deliberately slowing his progress. Maybe she would run away once she realized she had no chance of getting into the building. Up by the window James scrambled inside, but his head reappeared as he reached out to help Henry's nanny.
“Ira! Are you all right? Is everything fine!? Hurry!”
“We’re coming!” Ira shouted back and sped up his movements with a dismissive shake of his head. He just wanted to be inside the building again, even more so when he heard a female shriek from above.
“They’re inside!”
Ira cursed beneath his breath, at once filled with unpleasant heat.
“Hurry” yelled James once more, before turning inside to deal with whatever was happening. Ira made a move to lunge up, but his hands clutched the sides of the ladder when it shook, and for a brief moment, his mind was back to his first earthquake.
“Let go!” Lady Shelley's cry was like a bucket of icy water. He looked down only to see her struggling to tear the hem of her dress out of a zombie’s hand. Ira's heart tumbled inside his chest, pushing up into his throat. Lady Shelley was right behind him, her legs obscenely revealed by the torn skirt. Her makeup was now a disaster, streaming down her face as she shook with violent sobs. Their eyes met. He took one foot off the stair and kicked, hitting her shoulder with the heel of his shoe. James might have wanted to save her, but to Ira, it looked like his lover intended to dig his own grave. This was the only opportunity to get rid of her plotting forever. Someone like her didn’t deserve to live.
“You bastard!” Juanita screamed, as she was being pulled down by the frantic undead. Ira wasn't sure which of the faces below looked more desperate.
“Give me your hand!” he shouted, reaching down, to make sure no one would blame him for Lady Shelley’s death. He felt his pulse skipping a beat with the excitement of what he was about to do.
She didn’t hesitate for a second, grabbing his arm with an ear-piercing shriek when another monster grabbed her ankle. Ira’s time slowed down and he could hear his own pulse as clearly as he heard the desperate woman below. The very moment she let go of the ladder and hung onto him with all of her body weight was the one he had been waiting for. His hand opened and Lady Shelley's face twisted into a mask of terror as she fell down, between the monsters, right into their hungry arms. Her gut-wrenching scream rang in his ears as he sped upwards, finally climbing into the building. He couldn't remember feeling so relieved in a long time.
Ira got into the room just in time to witness James delivering a deadly blow across a zombie's forehead. There were three corpses scattered around the bare, wooden floor of what looked like a simple clerk's office and from the looks of it not all of the bodies were formerly undead. Ira briefly turned his head towards a movement in the corner only to see Katherine and Henry with his nanny cowering on the floor.