As the Light Dies (92 page)

His heart banged like a drum threatening to burst through his chest. He let out an almighty scream with all the breath he had in him and the pressure against his head increased tenfold. And then, in that instant the pressure was gone. He heard grunting and gurgling right beside him followed by growling and barking.

Gavin rolled away as fast as he could utterly amazed that he could. After several fast and frantic rolls he stopped and dared to look up. The figure that had rushed towards him at the last second was swinging some kind of baton against the infected woma
n’
s head and neck and shoulders. It was a man, a tall bulky man in dark clothes - some kind of uniform.

Gavin looked for the rabid terror dog and saw that Sam was fighting with it. Sam was ducking under and jumping over the swor
d’
s handle and six inches of blade where it protruded from the base of the do
g’
s neck. Unable to bite with his muzzle still on, he clawed and scratched the dog doing his best not to get bitten. Gavin jumped to his feet and instantly fell to his knees as pain shot up his leg like h
e’
d stood on a metal spike. He yelped with pain remembering his ankle.

He dared to look, and was amazed to see that he still had a foot, and that it was
n’
t covered in blood. He tried standing again gritting his teeth ready for the shooting pain knowing he had to help Sam and the new guy. Sam and the badly mauled infected dog rolled around and tumbled in the snow. The infected dog snapped wildly at Sam spraying strands of black saliva all over the place. Sam was putting up a good fight despite being hindered by the muzzle, but he was hindered.

Gavin was just thinking he had to get the muzzle off Sam before it got him killed when he saw the terror dog bite down on Sa
m’
s snout and start shaking. Gavin gasped with horror as Sam struggled to pull free again. It took him a few seconds of frantic pulling and furious shaking, but he broke free unharmed. The muzzle cushioned the blow. Relieved, Gavin limped towards Sam faster than before grinding his teeth against the immense pain when suddenly David appeared right beside the two dogs.

He was lying across the bonnet Gavin had climbed over behind Ann and Sarah, and with one fluid motion he brought the gun around from his side and pushed the barrel against the back of the terror do
g’
s head. Sam knew what this meant and scurried backwards, and as soon as Sam was clear David pulled the trigger and burst the do
g’
s head wide open in a spray of tarnished meat and bone.

Dean appeared next, leaping clean over David as he still lay on the bonnet and he raced straight towards the dark clothed man struggling with the infected woman.

Gavin was just about to call out for someone to help the new guy but saw he did
n’
t have to, and right then Dean yelled over his shoulder at him mid stride telling him to run and help Ann get in to the Eastgate.

“
O
K”
he yelled back pulling his sword from the infected do
g’
s body. Then he turned and started over towards Ann and Sarah.

David dropped down from the bonnet, spun around and started firing reputedly in to the oncoming tide of death. He aimed at the closest figures first constantly aiming for a head shot, certain that it was the only shot that made them stay down.

*****

Gavin looked back at his brother as he joined the overpass and started limping across. He was just in time to see his brother swing his sword up over his head and bury the blade deep in to the infected woma
n’
s head. He cringed. The blade sliced straight through her right eye and came to rest as it touched her top row of teeth
.
What on earth is going on?’
he thought as Sam caught up with him and bounded passed him towards Ann and Sarah. A fraction of a second later Sam howled and leapt through the air, covering the rest of the distance towards Ann and Sarah in a flash. Ann flinched seeing him coming at them like that, and before she had time to blink he landed in front of her kicking up clouds of dirty snow from all four paws. He darted behind her and Sarah and leaned against them, pushing them away from the doors. Ann realised what Sam was doing and just managed to say
,“
Sam i
t’
s...
.”
before the glass doors exploded outwards, disintegrating in to a million pieces as an upturned vending machine ploughed through and ground to a halt as it hit the thick snow.

“C’MON!”
yelled Andy waving them in
.
“HURRY!
”

Ann gathered Sarah up in to her arms and ran towards the newly demolished doors and a group of new people.

Gavin was in shock, he had
n’
t expected anything like that to happen. He spun around to call his brother and David, and he was relieved to see that he did
n’
t need too. They were just about to reach him, running like crazy with the new guy beside them.

“C’MON HURRY!”
yelled Andy as he backed in to the shopping centre.

Ann was so relieved that the
y’
d found people. Even though it was clear that the Eastgate was
n’
t being used as a rescue centre. She ran down the corridor carrying Sarah trying very hard not to slip on the slippery floor. Leann ran with her, holding her arm to steady her.

“I’
ll help you
,”
said Leann
.“
I covered the floor with hand soap from the toilets to help us slide the vending machine along the floor
.
”

Ann nodded not really hearing as Leann led her down the corridor towards the glass doors at the opposite end. They came out inside one of the shopping centr
e’
s main aisles, opposite the darkened jewellery shop Ann knew was there. Once through Sarah reluctantly looked around just as Sam darted through the doors behind them. He went straight to her side and stayed there letting her grab on to him. Ann knew that the others must be coming or else Sam would have stayed out there with them.

She looked back as Gavin joined them.

“
We ca
n’
t hang around
,”
he said
.“
Ther
e’
s too many of them, the
y’
ll break through these doors in seconds
.
”

Leann nodded
.“
Help me
,”
she said and she ran over to a nearby marble bench.

Gavin joined her, and yelping with the pain from his ankle he helped her to push it towards the doors.

“
With those other two benches we should have some time
,”
Leann told him between grunts.

Gavin nodded unsure as Collin came through the doors in front of them right as David started unloading his shotgun in to the infected mass behind them making them all flinch.

There was no doubting that he was inside the shopping centre, his shots rang out so loud that everyon
e’
s ears popped and started to ring.

The overpass was forcing the horde in to a bottleneck making it easy for David to take them down one by one. There was
n’
t the slightest hint of hesitation in him now. Not now that h
e’
d seen what they were capable of, getting back up after being shot at point blank range with a twelve bore shotgun and still coming!

Tearing his neighbours to pieces!

Seeing it for yourself was far different from hearing it from a stranger that yo
u’
d just met in your backyard that you suspected of stealing.

He fired repeatedly until he was empty. Then he reloaded as many cartridges as he could before he had to start firing again. Head shots, body shots, it did
n’
t matter. He just kept on firing and re- loading and firing and reloading. But there were so many of them pushing forwards, coming closer trampling the ones that h
e’
d managed to drop to the ground. Some were even forced over the side when there was nowhere else for them to go.

Before long they breached the shopping centres shattered doors. They climbed over the vending machine and then walked through the hole it had made.

David backed up further and further until he eventually joined the others as he stepped back in to the shopping centre through the second set of glass doors still loading and firing over and over.

His hands worked at lightning speed feeding the gun as the shots echoed inside the centre, dropping one infected after the other until finally the trigger just clicked and there was no muzzle flash.

David automatically pumped the gun again, click, he pumped again, click. He was empty and he was
n’
t reloading.

His nerves had taken over repeating the same move over and over.

“NOW!”
yelled Andy, and he and Collin let the doors go that the
y’
d been holding open for David and they both threw their weight behind one of the nearby marble benches and started grinding it in to place across the doors with help from Dean.

The new guy jumped behind the other bench with Gavin and Leann and helped them.

As the door was being blocked off Sarah broke away from Ann and ran to David as he finally lowered his gun and stood there in a daze.

She wrapped her arms around his waist still crying and hugged him tightly. He hugged her back briefly as he came to again and then he jumped over and helped the others barricade the doors feeling guilty for letting his nerves get the better of him. No-one said anything, they all understood, everything about what was happening was shocking, and it was clear to everyone that they were going to have to do absolutely whatever it took to stay alive from now on.

They managed to grind one of the marble benches across the doors before the horde reached the other side. The second one was in place within seconds, reinforcing the first adding enough weight to stop them for now.

Discoloured mottled faces pressed up against the glass on the other side. Black blood oozed from burst lips, missing noses and mauled fingers smearing the glass. Their combined noise was tremendous this close, their gurgles echoed throughout the deserted shopping centre like a vibration, everyone could feel it through their feet like a tremor.

A third bench was forced in to position before Andy suggested they make a run for it.

“
I do
n’
t know if those doors are reinforced like the outer ones
,”
he said
.“
Who knows how long the
y’
ll hold
?
”

No one needed telling twice.

They ran along the dark aisles passed the deserted shops and across the flyover to the opposite side of the centre.

As they ran Collin said
,“
Maybe the
y’
ll lose interest like the others
.
”

“
Others
?”
said Dean looking across at Collin.

“
Yea
,”
said Andy
.“
They chased us from the supermarket next door, tha
t’
s where we all work, or at least where we did work. We got in here across the overpass and blocked the doors and waited. And they just seemed to lose interest after a while, then moved on. But I do
n’
t think this new lot are gonna lose interest anytime soon
.
”

“
Me neither
!”
said Gavin.

No-one else spoke after that. They just ran following And
y’
s lead.

They reached the mountaineering outlet where Andy, Collin and Leann had kitted themselves out earlier and they stopped. Andy told everyone that he thought it was best if everyone got kitted out. He said that their time in the shopping centre was limited. No-one disagreed.

“
We wo
n’
t have much time before they break in
,”
he said
,“
and when they do we need to be gone
.
”

No-one said anything, they all understood and they set to finding more suitable clothing and started changing as fast as they could.

*****

David made sure his shotgun was reloaded and ready to go before he even thought about scavenging the shop. When he did, he gathered up everything he needed in to one neat bundle and changed as fast as he could and then repositioned his cartridge belts for easier access to the cartridges he had left, now that h
e’
d used all of the easy to reach ones, his supply was dwindling.