Dead & Alive (Book 1): Survive (7 page)

A look of concern covered Jack’s face, he looked at the crates “No, please,” he whispered in fear of what could be in the crate. He moved to the crate and looked inside. Looking inside, he could see two young girls they could have only been about twelve years old. He leaned into the crate; they looked lifeless, as he reached down one of the girls moved.

A young blonde child looked up at Jack. She looked dirty and dressed in filthy clothes. They were alive; Jack was relieved, pulled the girls out of the crate. Frank came running over to help. Some of the survivors also came to help. Jack looked to the other crate, “Quick open the rest,” he demanded. Everyone went to work to open the remaining crates, once open they had found six children in total.

They had very little water, but what they had, they give to the kids. Frank spoke to Jack,” What were they doing in there.” Frank was asking Jack.

“I don’t want to imagine,” Jack replied.

As they stood there, the heavy doors started to bang and a cracking noise echoed, the pole holding the door handle closed was starting to move. The groans of the dead behind the doors, started to scare the survivors and the kids, most of them started screaming.

Frank shouted out, “STAY CALM, WE ARE GETTING OUT OF THIS!” The doors cracked open slightly, a crack appeared and fingers of the dead started appearing.

“Frank! We need to get out of here,” Jack told him.

Bray joined them, “You have a plan,” Bray asked.

“We need to split up,” Jack replied.

“You serious,” Frank asked.

“There are too many of us, we’re too much of a target together. We split up the survivors into groups and move fast,” Jack told them both.

“Jack, Elle can’t move that fast,” Frank told him quietly. Jack looked over to Elle, “I will take care of Elle,” he told them.

“You two, split up the survivors and go separate routes, I will make sure Elle gets there,” he told them.

“Where?” asked Bray.

“The MI6 building, it’s secure and we have an evacuation point, if we get there, we can save these people, “Jack told them.

“That’s brilliant,” Frank told him.

The door started to crack under the pressure of the zombies. “We need to move now,” Bray told his friends. “We need to get out of this room first,” Frank replied.

“The windows, we are on the first floor. We drop out the windows and split up,” Jack told them. Jack continued to talk, “I will get Elle out of here,” Frank put his hand on Jack’s shoulder and then walked away to speak to the survivors.

Frank started to speak to the survivors, “We need to move, we will be going out the window and splitting up,” everyone in the room began to grumble, Frank continued, “Half of you will be with me the other half with Private Bray Murray.

We move in a few minutes, stay close and we will make it,” Frank finished. Jack was by the windows, he pulled the planks of wood from the windows. Looking out the window the sun had risen. The windows were stiff, so he broke the glass because the time was running out. The zombies were now pushing the doors so hard the brackets were beginning to move.

Once cleared, he shouted out, “OK, GO!”

Bray was the first out, he climbed on the ledge and was surprised it was only a few feet to the ground. He jumped down, raising his gun, “ITS CLEAR!” he shouted up to the window, and Jack started helping the people out. Several adults were out when Jack called for the kids; Clare had taken charge of all the kids.

She approached Jack, “We’re ready” Clare told him.

“You’re in charge,” Jack told her as he pulled a knife from his vest and gave it to her.

“For protection,” Jack smiled.

Clare threw her arms around him, “Thank you,” she whispered in his ear, as she pulled away, she kissed him on the cheek.

He then helped them down, Elle was talking to Frank. “I know what you have to do, I can’t keep up,” she told him.

Frank took her hand and pulled her up to her feet. “It never crossed my mind to leave you behind,” Frank replied.

“Jack will be helping you,” he told her. “NO, he will get himself killed trying to help me,” she replied.

Frank smiled and looked her straight in the eyes, “We both know, Jack would fight the devil himself to save you, and my moneys always going to be on Jack,” he reassured her. She smiled and with his help walked towards the window.

Jack now had everyone out, “Frank, your turn,” Jack told him. The heavy doors started to crack even more; they only had moments until the swarm made it into the room.

Frank started to climb out of the window, he turned back to Jack, “Good luck,” Frank told him, knowing he had the toughest task again, he continued to talk, “Look, I may not get a chance later, but thanks. You’re the reason we’re still alive,” Jack touched Franks chest, “Give me a kiss later,” Jack smiled as he replied.

Frank jumped down, “Bray, take your group and move,” he told him. Bray looked up to Jack; he gave a thumb up to him, a sign of respect for his friend who he did not think he would see again. Bray took his group and moved away. “Elle, your turn,” he told her.

He took her hand and helped her out the window, “You should leave me,” she told him.

“Never,” he replied. He then helped her down, as he let go of her the door started to crack open. “Shit,” Jack whispered, he knew the zombies would follow them. “WAIT THERE,” he shouted down to Elle and Frank. Jack looked around the room, a fire extinguisher hung on the wall, “My old friend,” he spoke to himself. He ran to the extinguisher and placed it in front of the doors, being close made the zombies go crazy, the zombies banged against the door and groaned louder and louder.

He ran back to the window, he took out his side arm, as he aimed his gun one of the doors smashed open. Jack fired at the extinguisher and an explosion echoed and the force pushed Jack out of the window, he hit the ground. “That hurt,” he spoke.

Frank helped him up, “You’re crazy,” Frank told him.

“You need to go,” Jack told him.

He looked to Elle and then back to Jack, “I want to see you both at MI6” Frank told them. He gathered his group and moved away in an opposite direction than Bray.

Jack and Elle stood alone, “Just you and me” Elle told him. He walked over and helped Elle by taking her arm and placing it around his shoulder. They started to move. As they walked away, zombies started to appear and followed them.

SEPARATE JOURNEYS

An explosion echoed throughout the streets, Bray turned to look towards the sound, it was obvious to him it came from the museum they had just escaped. Bray wanted to go back and check on his friends, but he had the responsibility of a group of survivors and the kids to think about first. Bray was leading the group down a long street, cars were abandoned, shops had been looted and bloodstains decorated the ground. Walking with his gun held high, Clare caught up to him, “Where are we going?” she asked.

Bray replied, “Somewhere safe, we will be meeting the others there.”

Clare looked at the group following, seven kids and four survivors followed them both. As they walked along the street, Bray looked at a body lay in the street, its body had been torn apart, the flesh eaten away, as he looked the body raised its head, he looked to see no flesh on its face, the skull could be clearly seen. Bray stopped, looking at the body attempting to drag itself towards him and the group.

Clare started to back up in fear, “We need to go, please I want to go,” she told Bray.

He looked at Clare and could see how scared she was. “Let’s go,” he replied. Before they could move a survivor ran over to the Zombie on the ground, a woman started hitting the Zombie with a crowbar; she screamed and cried as blood flowed. Bray ran over to her, he grabbed her round the waist and carried her away.

She struggled the entire way. “Calm down, please” Bray asked her. She started to cry uncontrollably, Bray let her go. “What’s your name?” he asked. “Zo... Zo...Zoe” she stuttered. Bray looked at her, red hair, pale complexion and in need of a good meal, Bray knew the survivors had been abused by their captors, but had no idea what had happened to her. He noticed a scar on her hand. “Zoe, I cannot imagine what they did to you, but they cannot hurt you now, but we need to keep moving,” Bray told her, as he touched her arm.

Zoe pushed his hand away in anger, “I don’t trust you,” she told him abruptly.

Bray stepped back, “Fair enough, but we do need to move,” he replied

. Clare spoke out, “Hey, they saved us. We would still be in the place if not for them,” Clare told her in anger.

Zoe turned to Clare, “They work for the government that left us here!” Clare told her, while growing angrier.

Clare was getting more and angrier also, “You bitch!” she shouted at Zoe.

Before Zoe could respond the kids in the group started screaming. A group of zombies had appeared from an alleyway and were walking towards them. Bray shouted, “This way” As the group ran past him, Bray moved towards the Zombie raising his gun, he was about to shoot when a car rushed past him and drove into the zombies.

one zombie was pulled under the car and dragged under the wheel
s
.

The Zombie was crushed under the weight of the car. The zombies that just hit the car started to get back to their feet, Bray opened fire, and he finished off the zombies. The car door opened, getting out the car was a familiar face.

Zoe walked towards Bray, as she walked past him she spoke, “I am never a victim that needs to be saved.” Bray sighed and turned to re-join the others. Zoe walked ahead by herself; Clare was back taking care of the kids. The survivors looked more scared than ever.

“This is going to be a long trip,” Bray whispered under his breath as he walked.

Frank was leading his half of the group towards the Thames, he planned to follow the waterfront and travel straight to the MI6 building. Ryan was very quiet; he had not spoken since Jack hit him. Frank was surprised by how quiet it was around them, he was expecting much more Zombie activity than what he had seen.

He decided to try to make peace with Ryan, he moved towards him, “Ryan, how you holding up?” Frank asked him.

Ryan looked in surprise, “What rank is Jack?” he demanded to know instead of answering the question.

Frank had a look of surprise on his face, “Why?” Frank replied.

“When we get to safety, I will be reporting him for striking a fellow soldier,” He told a shocked Frank.

“Are you fucking kidding me, he saved your ass and you want to report him,” Frank snapped at him.

“He had no right to hit me,” Ryan replied.

Frank grabbed Ryan’s arm, forcing him to stop walking, “He hit you because you were leading the zombies direct to the others,” Frank told him abruptly.

“That is no excuse, I was unarmed and could not fight them off” he replied.

Frank looked in anger, “No, you are just a fucking coward, and you’re lucky he stopped with just punching you, I would have killed you, chicken shit,” Frank told him and walked away. Frank took the lead again, they were approaching a bridge, in sight there was a roadblock in place at the bridge entrance. Army vehicles were scattered around the area.

Frank looked around and knew that at some point, the military tried to make a stand here and were obviously overrun. There were huge metal storage containers on the grass by the entrance to the bridge, Frank was guessing, but he assumed that they had tried to block the bridge with them, but run out of time. Frank turned to the group, “Everyone, look around and see if there are any we can use as weapons and any ammunition still here, they may have left something behind,” He told them.

Frank was now standing in front of the bridge, he stepped on something metal, he looked down to see rounds of spent ammunition, there were hundreds scattered all over the ground. Frank looked down in emotion, thinking of the soldiers trying to fight to save people. He could almost hear the screams of the soldiers that died here trying to save lives. He looked to the group they had collected a fair amount of ammunition already; he noticed Ryan walked towards the storage containers. Ryan went to open the container, Frank noticed blood on the ground near the containers, and Ryan took hold of the bar and started to pull open the metal doors. “STOP!” Frank shouted to Ryan. As he turned to look at Frank, the door was suddenly pushed open, dozens of zombies starting walking out of the container. Ryan ran away as fast as he could. Frank raised his gun and started shooting, but there were too many. He had taken a few down, but they were getting closer. “MOVE!” he shouted to the group.

He ran to join the group; Ryan was back with them. The survivors had found a few weapons, Frank took a weapon of a young woman and handed it to Ryan, “FIGHT, THAT’S AN ORDER!” Frank ordered him. Frank moved towards the zombies and carried on shooting, he ran out of ammo and needed to reload, he shouted back to Ryan, “COVER ME!” he told him. Ryan raised the gun, he started to move towards the zombies, he was shaking, Ryan freaked out and dropped the gun and started running away leaving Frank alone in the fight.

He rushed to reload his gun, “I wish Jack was here,” he whispered. He loaded his gun, he went to shoot towards the Zombie, but one of them had caught up to him. It lunged to bite him and was pushed over, on the ground Frank was trying to fight off the Zombie. Going though Franks mind, he knew he was screwed, in a matter of seconds the rest of the Zombie group would be on him. As he tried to push off the Zombie, suddenly someone hit the Zombie in the head with a metal bar, blood sprayed over Frank, but the Zombie was stopped.

Frank looked up to see the survivors standing there, with the weapons they found and the tools they took from the museum. Two men ran into the Zombie, one with a hammer in hand the other with a crowbar; they went in swinging, cracking skulls and smashing the brains of the living dead. The survivors with Frank raised their guns they had and started shooting, they were not expert marksmen, but they did the job and saved the day. With all the zombies down, Frank looked to the group, “Thank you,” he told them with gratitude in his voice.

A young man with a hammer in his hand replied to Frank, “You saved us, so we fight with you,” he told Frank.

Ryan walked slowly back to the group, everyone looked at him in disgust. Frank picked up the gun Ryan dropped. He walked over to Ryan, Frank looked in anger, and he put the gun back in Ryan’s hands. Then, without warning, Frank threw a punch straight into Ryan’s jaw. Ryan hit the ground again. He was about to raise the gun when the survivors joined Frank and stood over Ryan.

He lowered the gun. “Report me for that,” Frank told him angrily. “OK, we’re not far from our destination, God willing, we will meet up with the others there, let’s go,” Frank told them all. They all started to walk with Frank; Ryan was left on the floor as everyone walked past him, looking at him in disgust.

The rotting corpses of the zombies gave chase to the living, Jack was helping Elle walk to keep ahead of the dead. Her arm still round his shoulders, Jack held her with one hand and held a sidearm in the other hand. Elle glanced behind her, “there’s more of them,” she told Jack.

“Don’t look, just keep moving,” he told her.

Elle was starting to struggle, “We need to find somewhere safe to fix you up,” Jack told her.

“We can’t stop, I will be fine,” she tried to reassure him.

“You don’t get a vote,” he replied.

“First, I need to deal with our stalkers,” he told her.

They moved round a corner, there was a row of shops on one side, looking at the shop, he could see a pharmacy. “There, that is what we need,” he spoke.

They came to a stop, he let go of Elle and handed her his gun, “No, you need it,” she tried telling him, but he was not taking any notice.

“Stay here,” he told her, she leaned against the wall.

She watched as Jack turned towards the zombies heading towards them. As he walked towards them, he picked up a metal pipe that was lying on the ground. He moved faster, he swung the pipe at the first Zombie that came to reach. He swung the pipe directly into its head. As the pipe cracked against the skull of the corpse a loud cracking, noise echoed.

The side of the Zombie’s head caved in, blood and puss flowed out and the Zombie hit the floor, Jack stamped on its head just to make sure it was dead for good. Three more zombies approached him, he swung the pipe again, it hit one of the dead in the head, but the Zombie kept coming, the other two were fast approaching.

Jack kicked the Zombie in the stomach, forcing it backwards, he hit the Zombie from the top of the head this time, the pipe embedded in its skull, the Zombie hit the ground dead. The other two zombies were now right on top of Jack, he pulled his knife from his vest, and he forced the blade directly into the Zombie’s head. The fourth Zombie grabbed Jack’s arm, as it was about to bite Jacks arm a gunshot sounded out, the Zombie’s head burst open when the bullet hit it. Jack turned to see Elle aim the gun, “Nice shot” Jack laughed.

Elle lowered the gun, “I am full of hidden talents.” She smiled. Jack walked to Elle and once again helped her walk.

They headed for the pharmacy, they arrived at the door, and Jack noticed the glass was reinforced.

“Shit,” he whispered.

“We should just carry on to the rendezvous,” Elle said to him.

Jack looked at the front of the building, looking up above the sign he could see a window open, right next to the window there was a drainpipe running up the wall. “Right, I’m going up. If anything dead approaches you, don’t hesitate, just start shooting,” he told her.

Elle looked at him concerned, “Jack, I...” he stopped her by interrupting.

“I will see you in one minute,” he told her with a smile.

Jack grabbed hold of the drainpipe and climbed up the wall, Elle watched as he reached out to the window ledge, he took a firm grip and pulled himself over to the window, as he climbed on the ledge the brickwork broke away and he almost fell. Elle gasped in fear, “Jack,” she spoke out. Jack pulled himself inside, he immediately pulled out his knife, he was standing in a stock room, and there was nothing but boxes. He walked out the room and straight down the stairs, entering the back of the shop, he could hear a familiar groaning. A sound Jack was now getting used to, he looked round the shop, in the back of the shop was a big table. From a dark corner there it was, a Zombie walked towards him, it was wearing a long white coat, and had name badge.

Jack took notice by reading the name, “Harry, sorry about this,” he told it as he stabbed his knife into the Zombie’s head. Elle looked through the window at Jack as he killed the Zombie. She knocked on the glass, Jack rushed to the door and unlocked it, letting her in, locking it once she was safely inside.

He helped her to the table at the back of the shop. He lifted her up onto the table; she blushed as he put her down. “OK, we need to look at that foot,” he told her.

“Well, let me apologize for any smell,” she laughed. Jack laughed back, as he untied her black boot; he pulled it off her foot gently and then removed her sock. He held her foot in his hands, he moved it around and she winced in pain, he touched the top of her foot and then rubbed her ankle, Elle started feeling special, in a way she was starting to be turned on by Jack’s touch. She felt awkward, so kept smiling.

“Good news, it’s not broken, looks like the muscle is badly bruised,” he told her. Jack let go of her foot and looked at the shelves around them, he was looking for painkillers, and he also found a bandage and tape. He opened the painkillers, “Here, take these, they are Zapain, so will help with the pain,” He told her. He started to bandage her foot, “I need to make this tight, I promise it will help,” he reassured her.