RAGE (Descendants Saga (Crisis Sequence One)) (22 page)

I run the search.

According to the internet, my current location is Nine Elms Road near Battersea. If I make my way back a little to Ponton Road, I can cut across to Wandsworth and a Sainsbury Superstore there. Provided it’s also been abandoned, I’ll have access to clothes, food, even more weapons, and probably just about anything I might need.

I tip
an imaginary hat to the unconscious Vladimir Nesky and head for the back of the store. As expected, there is a rear door here, as well as a small break room with a refrigerator. Since I haven’t eaten a thing all morning, in preparation for giving fluids at the lab, I peruse the lunches and snacks left by fleeing employees of the business.

Someone was kind enough to order out and bring their uneaten
Subway sandwich to work. I check inside the wrap and find a club sandwich. Breathing a sigh of quiet relief, I pop it into my shoulder bag with the extra ammunition, along with four bottled waters I find in the frig door.

Back to the rear door, I unbolt it as quietly as possible and gradually peek out. No one in sight here. Still, I can’t take any chances. I ready the submachine gun and set off in the direction related on the cell phone GPS. Leaving it on, I’ll have a guide in this unfamiliar part of the city.
It will take me straight to the Sainsbury store.

The orange setting sun warns me of fleeting
time. I’ve got to hurry. In the distance, I hear screams. I don’t know who they belong to, whether infected or those under attack by them. The sound of helicopters sweeping over the city are ever present, as well as the pop of gunfire.

The trek toward the department store takes me nearly fifteen minutes. I see the infected along the way, but stay out of sight. They don’t exactly try to remain quiet, often howling and screaming in rage as they go. I don’t see anyone who is still normal though, assuring me further that this area of
London is abandoned by those heeding a warning to evacuate.

Street lights com
e on now, and businesses are seen by their inside lighting. Some are dark and their security gates down. As a matter of fact, when I finally make my way from the back of Sainsbury to the front doors, I find that the store hasn’t been opened from the previous night.

The automatic doors are still locked. Even looters have gone. I recall movies showing looters emptying department stores and businesses in such disasters, but no one has been foolish enough to risk infection or death.

I move to one of the smaller square windows in the glass façade and kick it in. The glass shatters into pellets, and I use the submachine gun to rake the fragments away, so I can squeeze through. I don’t know if any of the infected might notice the window and come to use it as an access point, so I quickly push a few shopping carts over to the place and stack them in front of it. At the very least, I’ll hear if anyone comes through.

Before me lies a veritable wonderland of foodstuffs and dry goods. First things first. I’ll make my way to the clothing section for young men and find something decent to wear and a good pair of shoes. Then I’ll eat my recently acquired sub sandwich and drink one of my bottled waters. After that, it’s time to explore and shop for items I’ll need to stay alive. The night is already come, but Sainsbury Superstore is open for business.

Welcome to the Jungle

Shots continue to ring out behind them. The Porsche
leaves in one direction. Holly throws her Honda into reverse immediately to keep the soldiers from killing them. She takes the rear exit from the parking lot and heads away in the opposite direction.

The soldiers jump into their military truck to follow her. It figures they would give up quick on the sports car. There
is no way they can hope to catch it.

Vladimir
punched the accelerator and never looked back. The car took several shots from the soldiers on its way out, but must not have any major damage. Nesky and Jonathan certainly didn’t stop.

All Holly can do now is try to save herself and the two teens riding with her.
“Stay down!” she says, pressing harder on the accelerator.

The military truck is slower, but her head start still do
esn’t make her faster than bullets. Another round hits the trunk. A few seconds later, a bullet shatters the rear window and goes into the glove box.

Holly continues to maneuver in serpentine fashion, hoping to avoid abandoned vehicles and gunfire.
So far, she’s hit no cars. It seems many people left in their own vehicles.

Holly
assumes these abandoned cars were left because of the infected attacking through here. If people were surrounded, they might attempt to flee on foot. That tactic probably didn’t save them, but staying in their cars wouldn’t either.

Rounding a bend in the road, Holly sees something she hoped not
to find. The infected are out here in force. A group of them head away like a herd on the move, like a pack on the hunt.

However, hear
ing the car, they immediately change direction. Holly hits the brakes. However, the infected already see her car lurching to a stop.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Garth
comments from the back seat.

Cassie peeks out from behind Holly’s headrest. “So many,” she says.

“Here they come,” Garth says.

The pack runs toward them hard and fast.
They are ruddy of skin and blood shot of eyes. Their clothes are soiled and torn. There are both men and women, boys and girls. They are all ferocious and infected.

“Uhm, Holly,” Garth says, “now might be a good time to go, don’t you think?”

“The soldiers are coming also,” Cassie says.

Holly sees them in the rearview mirror. It’s unclear if the soldiers in the truck can see the zombies coming around the corner ahead or not.

“What are we going to do?” Garth says

“Get in the trunk!” Holly shouts.

“What?” they answer, confused.

Holly turns, pointing. “Pull down the seats and climb into the trunk. If they can’t see us then maybe they’ll pass us by.”

Garth and Cassie pull the rear seats forward on their hinges and begin to scramble into the dark trunk space. First Garth and then Cassie. Holly climbs through the front seats and climbs in after them.

She can hear the fierce screams of the infected coming toward them. Holly pulls her legs inside, as the teens try to scrunch together and give her more room. Grabbing the nylon straps attached to the backs on the seats, she pulls them back into place, plunging them into darkness.

Almost immediately, they hear the truck rumble up behind them. Shots are fired, and Holly waits anxiously for bullets to pop through the trunk lid into the space and kill them. It doesn’t happen.

The soldiers
shout and shoot their weapons. The driver must be trying to throw the vehicle in reverse. Holly hears the gears grinding defiantly.

Footsteps
running over the roof pound the car, crashing onto the trunk and then leaving, no doubt chasing the one target they can still find—the soldiers in the military truck. There is so much shouting and shooting over the next sixty seconds it becomes difficult to discern what’s happening. The truck gets further away, but shots are still fired.

As Holly, Garth
, and Cassie breathe heavily in the dark, confined space, the noises grow more faint. It sounds as if the large truck has hit a car along the way in its mad dash to flee the onrushing mob of zombies. Gunfire grows distant and less. Either they have outrun the pack, or they have been overcome by them.

Holly waits a few minutes more and then risks a peek, pushing the seat back forward gently. She cannot hear anyone roaming about at the moment. Leaning out and looking around through the windows, Holly finds the street clear. The soldiers d
id a good job, leading away the threat, for now.

“Maybe you two should stay in here,” Holly suggests. “Just in case we
must use that method again.”

“We’re not staying in the car all night are we?” Garth asks. “I could go up high to the rooftops and scout for us.”

“I wouldn’t want to take the risk,” she replies.

“Holly, we
aren’t in Dr. Albert’s program for nothing,” he says from the darkness of the trunk.

“I know,” she says, “but let’s just stay together in the car, for right now.”

“Where are we going?” Cassie asks.

Holly looks out at the darkening sky. She knows they don’t have a great deal of time to just roam about. Dark will be upon them soon
, and they’ll need a place to hold up for the night.

“I’m pretty sure there’s a pub not far from here,” Holly says. “We could at least get something to eat and maybe find some news on.”

“Food sounds good,” Garth says.

“Yes,” Cassie agrees, “and maybe the news channels can tell us why the soldiers would shoot at civilians like that.”

“Exactly what I was wondering,” Holly agrees.

Climbing out of the trunk, but leaving the seat backs down for Garth and Cassie to have some light and fresh air, Holly takes to the driver’s seat again. The car is still running. In her haste, she never took the keys out of the ignition.

She turns the car around in the road, going very slow and scanning for more of the infected. The last thing they want to do now is set off another attack. The creatures might, or might not get into the car and rummage about. If so, their hiding place could be inadvertently discovered.

Holly drives cautiously back along
Kenington Road with her lights off. Movement appears to be a key factor in agitating the creatures. Several times she spots something and stops the car, waiting to see. Twice the moving thing turns out to be blowing garbage of some kind. Only once does another infected person cross their path.

Fortunately, the creature is far away at the time
, and the car is stopped before they look her way. Holly breathes and waits until the zombie passes, responding to screams in the distance. Evidently, Holly, Garth, and Cassie aren’t the only ones caught in this evacuated zone.

Noise and movement—
they must avoid both. However, as near as she can tell, light doesn’t seem to be a problem. The street lamps are on everywhere now, as the sun’s light fades to a dim orange at the edge of a twilight sky. Moreover, many businesses and homes still have lights burning inside, despite having been abandoned some time earlier. The creatures appear to pay them no mind.

Perhaps they’re more intelligent than we giv
e them credit for,
Holly wonders.
They are alive, after all, and surely the virus hasn’t completely wiped out higher brain function. Still, they didn’t bother searching the car earlier, even though someone must obviously be driving it
.

A few more minutes of cautious, slow driving brings them into view of the pub Holly saw earlier. The Ship
Pub is all windows and dark green framed façade on the outside. Potted flowers in bloom adorn the upper portion separating the pub from two higher cream colored stories above. Perhaps, the owners live in the upper floors.

Outside, the patio area around the front doors is full of picnic style tables with umbrellas shading them.
Only a few lights burn inside, and there is no one about on the street Holly can see. No one appears to be moving inside, either.

Holly brings the car to a stop before the front door, places the shifter in park
, and cuts off the ignition. She listens expectantly. Only the sounds of far away carnage, helicopters, and gunfire can be heard at the moment.

“Are we there?” Garth asks, whispering.

Holly turns back and nods, motioning them to scoot out of the trunk space.

Cassie
comes out first, sitting in the back seat while Garth extricates himself last.

“Oh, this looks nice
,” she says. “I’m glad the power is still on.”

Holly considers this comment. Power
is not lost yet. However, if matters should grow worse for the city, that might come in the days ahead. It is an unfortunate reality that power plants require people to keep them running properly. Subtle changes can quickly become big problems to be dealt with. Left to themselves, these plants will begin to shutdown. Grid losses will then create a cascade failure, interdependent parts collapsing one at a time until the whole is lost.

For the first time
, Holly begins to realize this problem is not going to be corrected any time soon. The more likely scenario will be a complete loss of London. Power will be lost. Those caught inside, as the military retreats, will either be consumed, or infected to join the rest.

Garth sits in the sit beside Cassie. “Let’s go inside he says, retrieving his katana from the back window.

Each of them looks around before they make their move from the car to the pub.

“Clear,” they each call out, satisfied that none of the infected are nearby.

Holly takes her keys, and they exit the Honda, leaving the car on the street. They might need it again soon. She leaves the doors unlocked. It seems foolish to worry about anyone stealing it now. Zombies don’t drive cars, after all, and there are nicer vehicles left abandoned in the streets.

They meet at the
entrance. Garth tries the door. It’s locked. “Great,” he hisses in frustration.

“Okay, okay,” Holly says. “Cassie do you think you could—”

She looks unsure. “I don’t know, maybe if I concentrate—”

“No time for that right now, Cass,” Garth says, pulling his katana from the scabbard across his back.

He inserts the blade within the thin gap between the two dark green doors. Garth raises the blade high in the gap, pauses, and then brings the sword down lightning quick, slicing through the metal deadbolt with hardly a bump. As he withdraws the blade, the doors swing out open.

“I wish you hadn’t done that,” Holly says, sighing.

“Why?” Garth asks. “What do you mean? The doors are open now.”

“Yes,” Holly agrees, “but you cut through all of the pieces that keep the door closed. We want to
close the doors after we go in.”

“Oh,” Garth says, looking a little embarrassed. He replaces his sword in the scabbard.

“Perhaps we could tie the inner door knobs together with a cord,” Cassie suggests.

Holly smiles. “Let’s do that.”

They go inside, and Cassie goes to find an electrical cord from an appliance in the kitchen. When she returns, she hands it to Garth. He’s holding the doors closed at the moment.

“I used a cleaver to cut this for you,” she says, handing it to him, leaving him with the task of making it work.

Garth accepts the cord grudgingly and begins the process of wrapping and tying the two knobs together. It is not strong. It won’t keep someone from breaking into the pub to come after them, but it might serve as a deterrent by not leaving the restaurant wide open for wandering zombies.

“We’ll leave the lights off, except what’s burning already,” Holly says.

“I’ll lower all of the window shades,” Cassie suggests.

“Even better,” Holly replies. “Just watch to make sure none of them are out in the street. They attack when they hear certain noises and when they see movement.”

Cassie nods, and Garth comes back to the bar, having already lowered the shades over the doors.

“Dark doesn’t bother me,” he says casually, searching behind the bar counter. “I’ll check the kitchen.”

Holly nods. She knows that Garth is able to see quite well in the absence of light. He can see in the kitchen right now, even though the darkness must be almost complete.

Cassie ha
s special abilities all her own. The girl moves from window to window as silently as a ghost. Holly notices Cassie searching the street carefully before lowering each wooden blind, using the rods to rotate the slats together and block the outside world as much as possible.

Several flat screen televisions are found in the pub.

“I’d say we use the one in the game room,” Garth says, pointing toward the rear of the restaurant near the restrooms. “It’s hidden away from any of the windows.”

Each of them enjoys a bathroom break, while the others keep watch. Then they gather together in the back room where a billiard table dominates the space. Several table are situated around the wall, and the flat panel is mounted in the corner on a
bracket near the arch leading in.