Zombie Dawn Exodus (12 page)

The closest of the zombies took the first blast
directly in the chest. The specially design lead shot tore through
the creature’s chest and burst out of its back. The metal shot
ripped the decayed organs apart and severed the spinal column,
collapsing the creature to a lifeless lump of flesh. A few of the
stray pieces of shot struck the other two but caused no harm. The
man to his right fired several shots with his revolver, two of them
hitting one of the zombies in the leg, it dropped down but
continued to drag itself forward.

As Nick pulled the second trigger on the shotgun the
two remaining zombies flew backwards into the bus, inch sized holes
appearing in their torsos and multiple holes appeared in the
vehicle behind them. The heavy thud of the Bren followed almost
immediately. Each of the large calibre bullets tore chunks out of
the creatures and both were splattered against the metal work.

Nick turned back and gave a thumbs up signal to
Artur. He then pulled out the radio and lifted it to his mouth.

“Hammer One, there’s Z activity in the area,” said
Nick.

As before there was a short delay whilst the radio
crackled. The rest of the convoy was only a kilometre behind them
but they were finding with no line of sight the signal dropped off
very fast.

“Shit. Are you okay? Any casualties?” came the
crackling reply.

Nick looked around, making sure nothing else was
close to him.

“Negative, there was only a handful, we’re still
scouting the area,” he said.

“Be careful, clear the road if feasible, if not
we’ll take the backup route,” said the man on the radio.

“Shit,” whispered Nick to himself. He was not happy
at the prospect of having to take a detour. This meant using a less
substantial road that could easily be blocked or damaged in some
way.

Artur shouted something but Nick couldn’t hear due
to the next message on the radio.

“Roger, keep us appraised of the situation, we’re
sending a scout unit back to check on the last exit in case we need
to find a new route.

“Understood,” answered Nick as he placed the radio
onto his belt.

He turned back to Artur.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“I can see more zombies behind the bus,” said Artur
in a matter-of-fact tone.

Nick pulled out another two shells and slipped them
into the now empty chambers. As he broke open the barrel a waft of
smoke drifted out. He was always wary of using the gun. It made
noise and noise usually attracted attention, something that was
never a good thing.

“How many?” he asked.

“Not many, about two dozen, I think,” answered
Artur.

The two men to his right were waiting, ready for his
signal. He looked over to his left, the other two men were halfway
up the embankment and watching down for signs of trouble. With
another hand signal he directed them to move forwards and past the
vehicles. They each crept forward, both trying to get past the
wrecked vehicles quickly but also careful of what could be inside
them. Richard, the man with the revolver, was first past the bus,
quickly followed by his comrade Matt carrying a katana. The weapon
belonged to Nick, and unlike most of the weapons picked up by other
survivors, this was an actual reproduction of the real thing.
Experience had already demonstrated the usefulness of this
weapon.

Nick was now at the rear of a fifteen-seat minibus.
As he moved past he looked inside, checking around the seats for
any sign of survivors. The strange thing was that there were no
bodies or supplies anywhere near the vehicle, even the weapons were
missing and that could mean only one of two things. Either the
survivors stripped the vehicles and left the area or they were
attacked and the convoy had been stripped. Whichever it was, there
were no bodies so it looked like they must have left on foot.

He continued past the mini-bus and out into the
clear area behind the vehicles. The two men were positioned next to
him now. Up to the left the other two moved forwards, covering the
motorway from the flank. One of these men carried a British made
Lee Enfield No4 rifle, a weapon built and used originally in World
War II. It used the same ammunition as the Bren and was perfect as
a long-range rifle when on these kinds of tasks.

A short distance ahead was the horde, a large group
of the shambling dead. Artur had underestimated, there were about
forty of them and they were all heading in their direction. At this
range it would take only a few minutes for them to reach Nick and
his team. Richard leaned over to Nick.

“Is it me or is this all a bit weird?” he asked.

“Yeah, there’s something not quite right about all
this,” added Matt.

Nick looked around, trying to work out what didn’t
fit. It didn’t take long for him to spot the chains further ahead
and tied to a tree at the side of the road.

“Look!” called Nick as he pointed ahead.

“I don’t get it,” said Richard.

“Or me, why would you have chains at the side of a
main route like this? The only reason is to hold something back,”
said Nick.

Nick rechecked the area, looking for signs or clues
that might help explain what was going on. He turned and his
attention was caught by some papers on the floor of one of the
recently abandoned cars. He moved forwards and pulled out the
grubby stack of pages. The first sheet contained a map with several
areas circled including The Green Zone, as well as the cities of
Bournemouth and Reading. The second sheet was even more intriguing,
it showed an inventory of people and weapons at a base in the
south.

“Interesting,” said Nick.

Richard, still watching the closing horde inched
back to Nick to see what he’d found.

“Look, it seems these people were either heading to
this place or leaving it.

“So what happened to them?” asked Richard.

Nick stuffed the papers into his pocket and
rechecked the approaching zombies, they were not far away now, then
it hit him.

“I know what they were doing. Look, the chains are
to hold the zombies in one area. They were kept here and chained
up, ready for something big,” he said.

“Chained?” asked Richard.

“Oh shit!” shouted Nick as he pulled out the radio
from his belt.

“Hammer One, are you receiving?” he shouted.

Richard was starting to look a little nervous. The
zombies were now only a short distance away and Nick’s tone didn’t
inspire him with any confidence. Added to this was the first crack
of a rifle, it was Jim the man with the Enfield as he started to
pick off the zombies.

“Hammer One, this is an ambush. The Z-Zone is a
decoy. Please respond,” he said.

There was more static, punctuated by the sound of
the Enfield.

“Ambush, are you sure? It all looks…” the sound from
the radio cut off with a harsh screech.

Nick waved his hand in the air.

“Everybody to the trucks now, we need to get back to
the convoy. Come on!” he shouted.

Matt and Richard moved back, still watching the
wrecked vehicles for any sign of trouble. Nick followed them,
continually checking behind with the shotgun at the ready. A
grinding sound indicated one of the zombies was ripping a door out
of the way. Behind it another three appeared, all heading for the
group.

“There must be other groups chained up around here,
we’re surrounded, come on!” he cried.

Jim and his assistant were already at the bottom of
the embankment and jogging along the side of the road. Every few
steps Jim stopped and fired a carefully aimed shot, each time
felling a zombie.

Nick went past the wrecked cars to find another two
zombies lurch into view. With a double press of the dual triggers
he hit them with a blast from his shotgun. The combined power of
the two barrels sent the zombies flying backwards and to the
ground. He didn’t stop running but kept moving to the Land
Rover.

The rest of their team was now past the obstructions
and moving as fast as they could back to the vehicles. Right on
their tails were scores of zombies, many of them appearing from the
insides of some of the crashed vehicles and others from down the
embankments.

Artur opened fire with the Bren, putting down heavy
fire on the zombies and cutting dozens of them down. Nick and
Richard reached the front of the Land Rover first, quickly followed
by the rest.

“We’ve been screwed. This blockage was deliberate,
they’re hitting the convoy. We need to get back and fast!” shouted
Nick, as he continued on to the driver’s door.

He lifted himself up and hit the ignition, the
engine instantly kicking to life. The others from the bus were now
inside, all apart from Jim who was just a few feet from the door.
He turned and fired another two shots from his Enfield before
climbing inside. One of the passengers in the bus started firing
their own roof mounted Bren gun, clearing a path to escape.

In the Land Rover Nick was revving the engine when
Artur lowered himself down, shouted at Nick over the sounds of the
engine and gunfire.

“I heard you on the radio, you think they’ve been
hit?” he asked.

“Yeah!” shouted Nick.

Nick checked around them, noting the zombies
approaching in all directions. A large group was moving from the
embankment and would reach the bus before it could escape. Slamming
the gearstick into reverse he drove the Land Rover backwards
towards the threat. The back of the vehicle was normally equipped
with a spare tyre, though in these dangerous times it was now on
the roof and out of harm’s way. Instead, this vehicle was fitted
with a simple iron spike that stuck out a foot behind the rear
door. Whilst keeping his foot on the pedal Nick smashed the truck
hard into the path of the group of undead. The first was skewered
onto the spike and at least three were smashed against the door.
The vehicle shook from the impact but a few zombies would not stop
it, the four wheel drive simply drove over the bodies and smashed
into the next group.

Nick slammed on the brake and came to a quick stop.
Changing into first gear he forced down his foot and pushed down
the accelerator. He could see that Jim had safely climbed aboard
the bus and that they were already manoeuvring to move back into
the middle of the road so they could head back along the motorway.
The Land Rover was away first and Artur, now back on the top
resumed firing at the horde. As they left the scene of the ambush
he swung the gun around to face the direction they were travelling
in.

“Fuck!” he shouted, banging his fist on the
roof.

Nick couldn’t see the problem as his view was
blocked by several crashed cars. As he swerved past he saw a huge
number of zombies were climbing down the embankment and making
their way into the road. Nick slammed his foot down and stopped. He
pulled out the radio, shouting into it whilst Artur started firing
on the scores of creatures piling their way down. At this rate the
road would be full and blocking their way out in less than twenty
seconds.

“Hammer Two get a shift on, we’ve got more problems.
The road is about to get hit and we need to get out of here,” said
Nick.

“We’re on the way!” came the response.

Hammer Three was the designated weapon platform for
the convoy. It carried the heaviest weapons and was the vehicle
most likely to be able to fight their way out of dangerous
situations. As the fire continued Nick reached behind the seat and
pulled out another vintage weapon. It was a World War II Sten gun,
one of the mass produced sub-machineguns used by the British. He
rested it on the doorframe and added his fire to Artur’s. Between
them they cut down a swathe of the creatures. It was perfect timing
because just a second later the bus came steaming past and straight
though the channel they had created. Gunshots and shotgun blasts
came from the bus as it sailed past.

Revving the engine Nick started to build up speed,
attempting to catch up with the bus as fast as possible. The
thumping from the Bren continued as Artur cleared any zombies that
tried to get in their way. Two managed to make it into the road but
the heavy iron snow plough smashed their fragile bodies and the
Land Rover emerged unscathed. Putting more power down Nick moved
alongside the bus and then took up the lead position.

With the zombies now well out of sight the firing
stopped though their high speed continued. Nick pulled out the
handset for the radio, trying desperately to reach the rest of the
convoy.

“Anyone, please respond, this is Hammer Three!” he
shouted, there was no response.

Pushing his foot down further the heavily laden Land
Rover built up more speed and started to pull well ahead of the
bus. The scene of the blocked road was now well out of view and
they were only seconds from the rest of the convoy. Nick banged on
the roof, Artur looked down from the hatch.

“Yes?” he asked.

“Get ready, we’ll be there in twenty seconds,”
suggested Nick.

Artur lowered himself down and grabbed two boxes of
Bren magazines and lifted them up to his firing position. Opening
the tins revealed another half a dozen magazines, each one holding
thirty carefully made bullets.

The two vehicles rounded a wide bend on the motorway
to the sight of smoke.

“Shit!” shouted Nick.

He kept the speed up but pulled his shotgun close,
making sure he was ready in case of trouble. They moved closer
until they could get an idea as to what was going on. Through the
large side mirrors he could see the armoured bus not far behind
him. As the view of the vehicles up ahead became clearer, Nick
grabbed the radio to update them on what he could see.

“We’ve got smoke, I think somebody hit the rest of
the convoy,” said Nick solemnly.

“You’re kidding, right? The entire convoy?” came
back on the radio.