Chet helped Maud out of the car and we joined them. As we approached I just said, ‘Knight didn’t make it.’ I exchanged glances with Chet and he nodded. It would be our secret.
Maud seemed to come to herself and said quietly, ‘Thank you.’
‘Right then Shawn, what do you need us to do?’ I asked, conscious that the zombies would be finished with the body before too long.
‘Chet, you start propping up the rear gate, like we’ve done with this one. I’ll come and help you in a minute. Tom, I managed to get those safes open. Why don’t you go and check them out; I haven’t had a chance yet.’
The mood was tense but everyone moved with a purpose. They were all, the children included, hurriedly carrying or dragging boards, steel roofing sheets or lengths of wood towards both gates and casting frequent anxious glances in the direction the hungry horde would be approaching from.
I ran into the house and made straight for the boot room, where the gun safe was. Its door was lying next to it with big holes cut into it. Shawn had obviously just cut the locks straight out. I was impressed as it must have taken some skill to be that accurate with the heavy piece of machinery he’d been using.
The contents of the safe made my day. There was an old looking side by side shotgun, a more modern over and under one and a scoped rifle. Quickly grabbing all three, I ran to the room where the cartridges had been stored in a cupboard. The contents had been strewn over the floor in Shawn’s haste to open the smaller safe. Once again the door to the safe had been skilfully removed. Grabbing one of the boxes inside it, I saw that it contained.22 rim fire rifle ammunition.
I’d used rifles occasionally so I knew that.22 rim fire was the standard rifle for small game and vermin. The farmer had probably used it for controlling the fox population on his land. I looked out of the window. The zombies were very close now, so I opted for just taking the shotguns because I was familiar with them. I didn’t think I’d have time to work out how to load and operate the rifle. I snatched up two cartridge bags and stuffed them with as many cartridges as I could find then I ran out of the door to join the others.
The zombies were almost upon us. All work had stopped and everyone had gathered together to watch them.
‘What now?’ I heard someone ask uncertainly.
‘Who knows how to use a shotgun?’ I asked.
‘I’ll stick with my crossbow,’ said Shawn firmly.
Both Chet and Andy shook their heads but Louise spoke up, ‘I had a boyfriend who used to go shooting a lot and he encouraged me to have a go. I’m not the best but I have been game shooting with him.’
‘That’ll do for me,’ I said, ‘which one do you want?’
She took the side by side, saying that it looked similar to the ones her boyfriend had given her to use. As she took it she broke the barrels open and inspected the gun. You can tell if someone is comfortable with a gun by the way they handle them and she looked competent enough. I handed her one of the cartridge bags and she deftly inserted two cartridges and closed the gun.
I checked mine and loaded it.
The zombies were now just fifty metres away. Stanley spoke up. ‘Dad, I’ve counted them. I think there are fifty five.’
‘Well that’s about fifty five more than I wanted to see,’ I remarked, wryly. ‘Shawn, what should we do?’
‘I think we should wait and see what happens, said Shawn thoughtfully. ‘They may just pass us by, although if they know we’re in here I doubt it. As long as they can’t get over the walls, we’ll be safe, but then again the walls aren’t high enough to hide us from view completely. If they stay at the walls, we’ll have to kill them. I haven’t figured out the best way yet but now we’ve got a variety of weapons, I’m sure we’ll find out by good old trial and error. The one thing we can’t do is wait them out. We’ll probably starve before they do and we don’t yet know if their presence here will somehow attract more. They may have a sort of zombie telepathy.’
I just looked at him. ‘Telepathy?’
He shrugged and grinned. ‘Hey, everything was a theory until it was proved right or wrong.’
The zombies were very close now. They’d followed the path of least resistance to us and that had led them directly to our weakest point: the gate.
I turned to Stanley, Daisy and Eddie who were standing beside Becky and a still dazed looking Maud. Stanley was gripping his cricket bat and Eddie was holding his zombie spear while Daisy stood with her hand on the handle of the knife Shawn had given her.
‘Kids,’ I said, ‘I want you to stay here and protect Maud, but I also need you to be our eyes. We may be concentrating too much on one area and miss something going on somewhere else. The three of you need to keep a good lookout and tell us if we miss anything.’
They all nodded, the determined expressions on their small faces showed courage far beyond their years.
The main gate started to rattle as the first zombies reached it and began to push up against it. More arrived. The gate began to groan alarmingly and some of the wooden supports fell down.
Shawn, Chet and Andy ran forward to try to reinforce it. It now had the combined weight of all the zombies pushing against it. I felt anxiety creeping up on me. We needed to get them away from the gate.
I picked up a spade, ran over to the wall just to the left of the gate and began shouting and banging it against the stone wall. Some of them turned, cocked their heads like dogs, and looked in my direction. I yelled at the top of my lungs and swung the spade even harder against the wall. It made a satisfying ringing sound.
Yes! They were beginning to move towards the noise I was making. I moved further away from the gate drawing even more of them in my direction. The rattling of the gate ceased, as they stopped pushing against it and made for me. Holding my position now that the gate was clear, I kept up the din until they were all gathered at the wall right in front of me, a mass of outstretched arms and contorted faces, reaching out, desperate to feed on me.
I risked a glance at the gate and was relieved to see the three men working furiously to strengthen it. My moment of inattention almost got me killed, as a zombie reached out and snatched the spade I was holding and yanked me towards him. My first reaction was to try to fight it but I was pulled dangerously close to the other outstretched arms. I screamed in fear and let go of the spade.
I staggering back panting. The other side of the wall was now lined five deep with zombies. The wall was nowhere near high enough and they were beginning to bend their torsos over the top of it. In desperation, I raised my shotgun, aimed it at the closest one and pulled the trigger. The gun kicked and the zombie’s head transformed into a mess of blood, bone and brain. The hideous creature remained upright, held fast by the pressure of the ones behind it. I took aim at another and it was flung backwards by the force of the shot.
I noticed that the recoil was more than I was used to, so when I broke the gun to eject the cartridges and reload, I checked the new cartridges quickly before shoving them into the barrels. They were thirty six gram fours which meant a good heavy load with a lot of stopping power. Ideal for pulverising zombie brains!
The problem was, now that one zombie was dead on the floor, the others had something to step on, which raised them up a bit more. And the more they leant over the wall, the more the weight of the others pushing from behind was virtually propelling them over it.
I heard Stanley, Daisy and Eddie shouting at the others to let them know.
As I shot and killed the two that were furthest over the wall, the others hurried over to join me. Shawn raised his bow and released a bolt that stuck in the head of another zombie.
Louise’s first shot hit one of them in the shoulder. Oblivious to the fact that its arm was hanging in tatters, it resumed its efforts to get over the wall. Learning quickly, she readjusted her aim and killed it with a shot to the head. The more bodies there were on the ground the more difficult our situation became, as it made it easier for the others to climb on to the growing pile. We’d only managed to take out six of them and they were almost over the wall.
‘Chet, Andy go to the sides and try and get some,’ I shouted frantically, as I fired both barrels again. Louise’s gun firing by my right ear felled two more. She hadn’t been lying when she’d said she could shoot.
Chet and Andy ran forward, bravely trusting us not to hit them, and wielding their axe and machete, hacked at the heads of the zombies closest to them.
The first one managed to scale the wall and fell clumsily over it. Shawn killed it instantly with a bolt.
I called Andy and Chet back. We stood in a line and paused for a second as four more flopped on to the ground just a few metres away from us.
Andy shouted, ‘Don’t shoot!’ and darted forward, using his heavy bladed machete to smash their heads apart before they even managed to get up. As he turned to run back to us another zombie fell over the wall and its momentum made it roll towards him. It seized him by the ankle and tripped him up. As if in slow motion, we all ran forward to help him but just as I was about to stab the creature, it bit deeply into his outstretched calf muscle. I drove the knife home and dragged its carcass away. Then Chet and I dragged Andy clear.
He was screaming in pain and anger. Stricken, we all looked at each other. There was nothing we could do; he’d been bitten and to all intents and purposes, he was already dead.
Andy knew this only too well.
More zombies were managing to clamber over the wall now, so we were forced to ignore Andy for the moment. There were now about ten of the things, all rising to their feet and lurching towards us, and more were coming over all the time. As they clumsily pulled themselves over, they dislodged stones from the top of the wall, making it even easier for the ones that were following.
We were in serious trouble. I wasn’t sure we’d be able to re-load quickly enough to get them all in time.
Behind us I heard a hoarse shout. ‘Look after yourselves everyone; it’s been a hell of an adventure! Chet, you’ve been a good mate. I love you like a brother. You’ll get through this.’
I was almost knocked flying as Andy barged past me. Swinging his machete with a yell, he launched himself at the nearest zombie, almost decapitating it with his first blow. His wounded leg forgotten, he pushed, kicked and slashed his way into the middle of them. Their attention was now fully focused on Andy and they all began to converge on him.
‘Fuckers!’ yelled Chet, tears streaming down his cheeks. Stepping forward, he swung his axe into the back of the nearest zombie’s head while its attention was focused on his friend.
We couldn’t see Andy now, but we could hear him swearing and shouting as the zombies formed a tight circle around him. Then his shouting turned to roars of pain, and the last glimpse I caught was of him swinging his machete into the head of one of them while another tore into his neck.
The sudden silence, apart from the sound of the zombies snarling and clothing tearing, made us realise that it was all over. But he’d given us a fighting chance. The zombies had eyes only for the place where he had fallen. Rage and a thirst for vengeance seemed to take over and screaming and swearing, Shawn and I hurled ourselves into the battle with Chet.
I looked round at a sudden scream from Becky and realised that the three of us were in danger of being surrounded. Without stopping to think, I launched myself at the nearest one and kicked at it viciously until it fell over. Then I grabbed Chet and Shawn by their shirts and dragged them through the gap I’d created. The shotgun was still lying where I’d dropped it. I snatched it up and assessed the damage.
Over half of them were dead. The last few were still stupidly struggling over the wall, which was now in poor shape as half of it had crumbled. A group of them was still feeding greedily on Andy’s corpse but the rest had now turned their attention back to us.
It must all have happened in a space of about ten minutes, but I was absolutely exhausted. Sweat was pouring down my face and my arms felt like lead. Wearily, I re-loaded and shot two more. We weren’t going to make it. Louise fired her weapon and Shawn and I looked at each other. He looked just like I felt. He just gave a shrug and fired his crossbow at another target.
Without looking back, I shouted, ‘Becky, get the kids into the car. Remember, I love you. Don’t try to help, just get them somewhere safe.’
The sound of my children screaming in anguish ripped at my heart, but I couldn’t look back. I had to buy them enough time to get away.
‘Kids, be brave for mommy,’ I called, tears pouring down my face. I prepared to take out as many as I could.
Now we were nine, but for how much longer?
Our backs touched my car. I heard Becky start it and registered the sound of the kids crying inside.
Louise, Chet, Shawn and I formed a semi-circle. I shot my last two cartridges. There wasn’t enough room to swing the gun effectively, so I threw it down and pulled my knife back out of its sheath, holding it ready.
‘I’m really sorry guys, I thought we’d get through this,’ was all I could say before the words stuck in my throat.
I heard a crack and watched stupidly as the head of the zombie closest to Louise exploded. I recovered enough to kill the one nearest to me with my knife, then watched in astonishment as the one next to it collapsed with a hole in the front of its head and the brains sprayed out of a gaping hole in the back of it.
I didn’t dare look behind me. There were too many zombies closing in on us. We were still fighting for our lives, but I could see more dropping in my peripheral vision. Someone out there was helping us and it couldn’t have come at a better time. We’d been seconds away from being overrun and slaughtered.
The wall of dead zombies we’d created kept the others away from us and the ones attempting to grab us from behind were steadily being thinned out by our unknown saviours, making it much easier for us to kill them. I looked for another one to kill, but all at once there were none. Every zombie was dead and the ground was littered with their bodies, all lying in heaps at grotesque angles.