Ravage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel (34 page)

Chapter Forty

Twenty minutes later, Nick watched
Annaliese stroll over to the middle of the room and crouch down beside the
severed orang-utan head.  It was a tragic thing that even the park’s
animals had been dragged into Shawcross’s megalomania.

“We’ll make him pay for Lily,” Nick said as he knelt down
beside Annaliese.  He rubbed her shoulders.

“No need,” Annaliese told him.  “This isn’t Lily.”

“What?  It’s an orang-utan, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but it’s not her.  This is Brick.”

Nick frowned.  “Brick?”

“Lily’s mate.  He died when all this started. 
“They obviously cut off his head to mess with me; make me think it was Lily.”

Nick straightened up and sighed.  “Shawcross has lost
his mind.  What is he even fighting for?”

“The self-esteem he’s always lacked,” Annaliese said,
straightening up beside him.  “He was a worthless little wretch before all
this.  This is his chance to finally be somebody.  He’s starting as
he means to go on.  Power is not given, it is taken.  That’s truer
now than it’s ever been.”

“Then I guess it’s time to go to war,” said Nick. 
“We’re all clear on the plan?  Does anybody need to go over it again?”

Everybody said, “No.”  Renee just shook his head.

Nick got a good grip on the replica rifle with the nail in
the end and took a deep breath.  “Let’s do this, then.”

Renee handed Nick the bundle of keys he had found days ago
beneath the bar.  Nick was counting on one of the keys unlocking the hatch
in the cellar.  The rear of the building led out into a fenced-off yard
that had not been barricaded or even paid much mind.  It had been secure
when the group arrived so there had been no need to alter it; which was why
Nick was sure that it would offer a clear route out of the building without
Shawcross seeing.

He bid the others goodbye and headed back down into the
cellar.  Draped over a two-wheeled keg trolley was his black woollen
jacket.  He tugged it on and pulled it over his shoulders.  It would
help him blend in with the night.  Heart beating fast, he climbed up the
rear stairs and came up against the horizontal hatch.  He examined the
steel lock that fixed the door to the frame and then looked at the keys in his
hand.  There was a medium-length key that seemed to be made of a similar
tarnished-grey metal as the hatch.  He singled it out and inserted it into
the lock.  It was a relief when it turned easily.

Let’s hope the rest of the plan goes as easily
.

Nick moved his hands about the hatch, trying to figure out
it’s workings without making too much noise.  He discovered that it slid
upwards on railings and he gently eased it back on its moorings.

The hatch was open.  He climbed through.

The night seemed to flood over Nick like a living creature,
a cold black mollusc clinging to his skin.

Glad I remembered my jacket,
he thought as he climbed
out into the fenced-off yard of the restaurant.  He searched around and
located a large, industrial wheelie bin.  It was the perfect height for
helping him over the fence.  He quickly climbed on top of it, then eased
himself up and over the top of the nearest fence.  He dropped down on the
other side and winced as his feet struck the unforgiving pavement.

I’m going to need a new pair of ankles after all this.

He was at the side of the restaurant towards the rear. 
He could hear Shawcross and his cronies conspiring nearby, but they were out of
sight, which hopefully meant that so was he.

Got to keep it down.

He crept away from the voices and headed around the back of
the building.  If his plan was going to work then he needed to put some distance
between him and Shawcross before things played out.

Coming up on his left was the park’s rollercoaster,
the
Hood
.  Its walled-off surroundings would provide good cover for what
he was about to do.  There was a heavy bin nearby and Nick ran towards
it.  He hefted his foot in the air and knocked it clean over.  The
lid came loose and spun across the pavement.  It made an almighty
clatter.

“Shit!” Nick shouted.  “Come on, they’ll hear us. 
Run!”

He quickly hopped over the waist high fence that surrounded
the queuing area for
the Hood
and then crouched down beneath the
elevated steel tracks.

“They’ve escaped,” Shawcross shouted in the distance. 
“Come on, I hear them over there.”

Nick hid behind a support pillar and listened to the
footfalls of his pursuers get nearer.

“You’re a dead man,” Dash shouted.  It really was
him.  Somehow he had survived being pushed out of a cable car hundreds of
feet above the ground.

“You’re supposed to be the dead man,” Nick shouted
back.  “I watched you die, blud.”

“Can’t kill me, gangster.  I took that fall like it was
nothing.  Hit a dozen branches on the way down, but I walked that shit
off.  I lost my eye, though, and somebody needs to pay for that.  You
tell Jan he’s got it coming, too.”

Jan isn’t with them?  Then where the hell is he?

“He’s inside the rollercoaster enclosure,” Shawcross
said.  “The others must be with him somewhere.”

Nick grinned. 
That’s right, you arrogant
fool.  That’s what I want you to think.  Keep looking forward while a
speeding truck comes up behind you
.

He had to keep them distracted.

“Hey, Dash.  When I’m through with you this time,
you’ll stay dead.”

Dash sucked his teeth, the sound cutting through the
air.  “Come on down, then, hard man.  Let’s see what you got?”

Nick laughed.  “While I’m outnumbered?  Don’t
think so.  When I take you down, it’s going to be just you and me.”

“What do you mean…
outnumbered?
” Shawcross asked.

Nick bit on his fist
.  Shit!  I think I just
blew it.

There was a moment of silence and then Shawcross started shouting. 
“He’s not with the others.  He’s just distracting us.  Come on, back
to the restaurant.”

Nick had to do something; had to make up for his
mistake.  He shot out from behind the support pillar and scrambled back
towards the queue barricade.  He hopped over it mid-run and made a beeline
for Shawcross.  Dash was standing right beside him and so was Alan. 
The mystery of whether or not Michelle was with them was also solved.  She
most certainly was.

Stupid cow.

Michelle saw Nick running at them and shouted out a warning
to her cohorts.  Alan leapt out to block him, but Nick was having none of
it.  He swung his rifle like a bat and clubbed Alan around the top of his
head.  The older man staggered backwards and hit the ground in a daze.

One down!

Before Nick had time to prepare his next swing, Dash smacked
him around the head with a shovel.  Everything went black for a moment and
then he found himself on the floor, staring up at the stars.

Dash loomed into view, looking down on him.  “I’m not
impressed, blud.  I thought you was gonna take me out?”

Nick turned his head to the side and spat a mouthful of
blood onto the ground.  He felt a tooth come loose.  “If not in this
life then the next, I promise you that,
blud”

Dash laughed and raised the shovel up above Nick’s neck,
ready to take his head off.  Nick closed his eyes and waited.

“Get it over with,” Shawcross said.  “Kill him.”

Dash nodded and then looked down at Nick with a smirk on his
face.  “Say night, night,
Honky
.”

Thump!

Dash staggered sideways and tripped over Nick’s prone
body.  Just when he had expected to feel the bite of the sharp edge of the
shovel, something had happened.  Something had stopped Dash from
delivering his killing blow.

Somebody saved me?

Nick sat up in a daze to find Jan holding out a hand to
him.  “Get up, brother.  Looks like you’re having a party, but no one
invited me to dance.”

Nick took Jan’s hand and leapt to his feet.  He was
dizzy from the blow to the head, but he was ready for a fight.

Bring it the fuck on.

Dash scrambled to his feet.  There was a screwdriver
sticking out of his left arm and he had dropped his shovel to the ground.

“Are my eyes deceiving me?” Jan asked.  “Or is that
ugly, one-eyed motherfucker Dash?”

“It’s him,” said Nick.  “He survived the fall.”

“Survived so I could take you gangsters out,” Dash said
making a grab for the shovel.

Nick tried to stop him, but was too late.  Dash picked
up the weapon and raised it over his head.  He didn’t come at them,
though.  Instead he made a run for it, heading straight past Shawcross and
into the shadows.

Alan had gotten up of the floor, too, and was backed up
against Shawcross and Michelle. The three of them stood together in a triangle,
clutching weapons – shovels, spades, and pitchforks – as they waited for Nick
and Jan to attack them.

Nick picked up his replica rifle from the floor, but didn’t
point it at them.  Instead he held up his hand.  “Just give it up,
guys.  It’s over.”

“Nothing is over,” said Shawcross.  “There are three of
us and only two of you.”

“Maybe,” said Nick, his words slightly slurred as his mouth
started to swell.  “But I think Jan counts as two, so we’re evenly
matched.  No one else needs to get hurt here.”

“I beg to differ.  Give up now while you still have the
chance.  We outnumber you.”

“Actually you don’t,” said Annaliese, coming up from the
direction of the restaurant.  Pauline, Cassie, and Eve were with
her.  And so was Renee.  They all carried weapons and were clearly
ready to use them.  “I think you’ll find that you’re the ones who are
outnumbered and, after the day I’ve had, I’m quite happy to kill you all on the
spot.”

“That’s right,” said Nick.  “I don’t think the Geneva
Convention exists anymore, so if you want to be treated like human beings, I
suggest that you put down your weapons and start behaving like one.”

There was a standoff for a moment, the air tense and
vibrating.  Then Michelle and Alan threw down their weapons and put their
hands above their head.  Shawcross, however, kept a firm grip on his
pitchfork.

“Give it up, Shawcross,” Annaliese said.  “Michelle,
Alan, grab a hold of him, will you?”

Michelle and Alan turned around anxiously and looked at
their former leader.  “Come on, mate,” said Alan, reaching for the
pitchfork.  “Just give up.”

“Get off me,” Shawcross growled.  He shoved the
pitchfork at Alan and buried it in his belly.

Nick’s mouth opened but no words came out.

Alan rocked backwards, clutching his torso as it begun to
bleed.  Michelle screamed as her friend’s bodily fluids spurted out onto
the pavement.  She reached for the pitchfork and yanked it free, but that
only seemed to make the bleeding worse.  Alan fell down onto his side and
let out a gurgling moan.

Shawcross took off like a lightning bolt, taking advantage
of the chaos he had caused.  Nick gave chase, along with Jan and Renee.
 Annaliese and the others stayed put, tended to Alan.

We can’t let that weasel get away.

Shawcross headed off towards the front of the park.
 Nick did his best to keep up.  The wishy-washy feeling inside his
skull prevented him from running full speed and Jan, being the size he was,
wasn’t the greatest sprinter.  If they were not careful they were going to
lose Shawcross into the night.

Then they’ll be no hope of catching him.

“Bleeder’s fast,” said Jan, sweating despite the cold.

“You’re telling me.  Probably because he’s been eating
better than all the rest of us.”

He’s probably been controlling the supplies and rations
secretly for months.

They chased Shawcross around the front of the park’s office
block and past the open doors of the warehouse.  Beyond was Ripley Hall.

“He’s heading for the house,” said Nick.

“Isn’t it full of infected?”

Nick slowed down.  “Yeah, it is.  Who knows what
he’s up to.”

Jan slowed down to a jog and then a lolloping walk. 
“He’s got no place else to go then.  Let’s not corner him into doing
anything stupid.”

Nick didn’t like increasing Shawcross’s chances of running
away, but he was too out of breath to keep running so fast anyway. 
Against his better judgement, he allowed himself to slow down.  “Where
were you, anyway, man?” Nick asked Jan.  “You saved my ass back there in
the nick of time.”

“A man spends long enough in a prison, he starts to
appreciate solitude.  I was just walking in the woods, enjoying the
quiet.”

“I understand what you mean,” said Renee.

Jan looked at his fellow prisoner, dumbfounded. 
“You…you talk?”

Renee shrugged as if it was nothing.

“Long story,” said Nick.  “I’ll fill you in later.

“Fair enough.”

Shawcross was out of breath, too, and had slowed down to a
panicked stagger.  In front of him was the dark spectre of Ripley Hall.

“What are we going to do with him if we catch him?” Jan
asked.

“
When
we catch him,” Nick said.  “And I don’t
know.  I’ll figure it out once we have him.”

They entered onto the lawns of the grand old house and stuck
close to the rows of trees that towered over the lawns.  Shawcross kept
glancing back over his shoulder at them, but made no effort to increase his
speed.  He seemed broken and unable to run from them any faster.

Nick cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted. 
“It’s over, Shawcross.  You’re done.”

Shawcross turned around to face them.  He was panting
heavily.  “It…would…appear so…wouldn’t it?”

“No one else needs to get hurt, buddy,” Jan said. 
“Just surrender.”

Shawcross shook his head and gave them an icy stare. 
“You really think I’m stupid enough to do that?  You’d just kill me. 
You have no choice after what I’ve done.”