The Afflicted: A Zombie Novel (20 page)

Evan looked for something to barricade the door, but there was
very little. There was a small cart full of tools that Evan dragged over and pushed in front of the door. He rushed from one edge of the building to the other looking for an escape route. The scaffolding did not reach the ground as it was only on the last few top floors. There was a fire escape but it stopped a few floors short of the roof, as it was incomplete. There was no way of reaching it. They were stuck.

“Oh
, God, Evan, what are we going to do? We’re going to die.” Sasha sobbed into her hands, salty tears stinging her cuts.

“Sasha, can you just hold that cart against the door. I need to think for a minute.” If he kept her preoccupied it might keep her quiet, he thought. Evan looked at Amane, hoping for answers. He felt helpless. He had led them into a trap. This was the dead end he had hoped to avoid and his heart sank as he realised they weren’t going to make it.

A
mane picked up a piece of scaffolding and walked over to Evan. She handed it to Evan and looked him in the eyes.

“If we’re going down, we’re going down
fighting.” He weighed up the metal pole in his hands.

“Right.”
He embraced her and they kissed passionately. Sasha noticed them and left the cart.

“So what, I have to do the hard work while you two make out? Do you even care about me? Or what happened to Rob? Jesus Christ.” Sasha looked accusingly at Evan.

“I’m not even getting into this with you. Here.” Evan thrust the metal pole into Sasha’s hands who winced when she took hold of it.

“You’re going to need it. We’re in this together
, okay?” Sasha just grunted.

Amane
avoided looking at Sasha and looked around for more spare poles they could use. She picked one up, small enough for her to handle whilst Evan did the same.

The door suddenly banged against the cart and a single startled seagull flew up into the air from a walkway
adjoining the scaffolding.

“Shame we can’t fly to
o,” said Sasha, and through bloodshot eyes, prepared herself to face the mass of zombies now pushing against the door to the roof.

Evan looked at the
walkway and jogged over to it. Amane hesitated and then ran over to Evan. The wooden walkway extended over the edge of the roof onto a small platform. She walked over carefully, looking out over the city from a much greater height than she wanted to. Up here, exposed, she felt very uneasy.

“What are you doing, Evan?” she said looking at him. He was staring out into the open air and for a second it crossed her mind he might be
thinking about jumping.

Looking over her
shoulder, he considered the tower crane. It was the same one that Amane had seen yesterday. From the mast was a long horizontal jib, from which a large hook was dangling.

“That’s it,” he said, pointing past the platform, over a gap of about fifty feet to the crane. The towering column stuck out awkwardly against the blue sky. From where they stood, the mast went up another twenty feet or so to the operator’s cab. The worker’s arm jutted out, an Australian flag fluttering strongly in the wind.
Amane felt sick.

“You’re not serious.”

“I can do it.” Evan continued staring at the crane, sizing it up, working the plan through his mind. “If I take a long enough run up, I can make it. I’ll climb up to the cab and as long as it’s got power, I’ll figure out what I need to. I’ll swing the hook around to you and Sasha then back over to the car park. It’ll reach. We go back the way we came, Amane. The zombies won’t be able to follow us and the few left on the ground we can get past. This is a workable plan. This is our only plan.”

“A workable plan, a
re you insane? Have you grown wings in the last five minutes?” Said Amane, mad. “Do you see how far it is? If you even make it to the crane, you have to hold onto that thing when you hit it.” She held his arm worried he might go through with it.

“They’re coming!” screamed Sasha
, as the cart toppled over and the first of the zombies burst through the doorway onto the rooftop.

“Be ready
,” said Evan as he jogged to the far end of the walkway. Amane’s head spun as she realised Evan was going to jump. Sasha’s screams faded into the background as Amane watched Evan sprint past her and launch himself into the air. He glided silently, shirt flapping as the wind whistled past him and he dropped over the edge of the building out of sight. Amane raced down to the roof in shock to help Sasha fight the advancing zombies. Her metal pole connected with soft skulls and bloated stomachs. One after another, they were sent flying, only to be replaced by more. They kept on pouring in through the open door. Amane stood next to Sasha and whirled the pole above her head, smacking it into anything that came close enough.

“When I tell you to go
, run up to that walkway as fast as you can, okay?” said Amane.

“What?
” said Sasha, brutally bashing a man’s head in, ignoring the pain from her hands that were now dripping with blood: her own blood. “Where’s Evan?”

“He’s
gone to get help. Look, just be ready, okay.” They spoke no more and tried to hold back the unstoppable horde.

Amane
couldn’t believe what Evan was attempting, but she had to admit it was the only way off this building. Every step forward they took to hit a zombie they took two back. They were gradually being repelled backwards and would finally be cornered with nowhere else to run.

What if Evan didn’t make the jump? What if he did, but couldn’t hold on to the crane?
Amane felt queasy. The rotting guts falling at her feet she could handle, the thought of Evan plummeting to his death she could not. Gripping the metal pole firmly, she continued hitting the zombies beside Sasha, praying Evan would make it: for all their sakes.

C
HAPTER FIFTEEN

Evan hurtled into the tower crane with a resounding crash. A metal bar struck his chest and winded him. As he clawed for breath, he wrapped his arms desperately around the crane trying to stop his fall. His body banged painfully into the metal mast and he half expected to go bouncing back off, down to the ground where he would be breakfast for several hundred zombies.

Instead, his momentum took him
so fast and hard into the crane that it almost carried him past it. He managed to hold on, and trying to catch his breath, focused on the metal latticework before his eyes. As he regained control of his breathing, he gripped tightly onto the metal frame and looked down. He watched as two hundred feet below him, the zombies attacked the building, looking like tiny ants scurrying into their nest. All the way back to the marina at one end, and a junction at the other, the street was full of zombies, swarming toward them. Over the azure ocean, he saw the clear blue sky stretching toward Tasmania.

Carefully, he
reached into the mast and took good hold of a metal bar, intending to use the latticework as a ladder to climb up. The metal was cold and slippery. He ascended the sturdy framework steadily and eventually reached the control booth. He flung open the door and sat down in the chair, sighing as pain in his arms and legs sent throbbing waves through his body. He felt dizzy but he could not stop; Amane and Sasha were relying on him. Charlie and Anna were relying on him.

“I’m scared, I’m scared.”

Looking down to the roof, he saw Amane and Sasha battling against an escalating tide of zombies. They were slicing through the rotting bodies but when one went down another two came through the door to replace it. He noticed they were gradually being forced back to the walkway. He hit every button and lever on the controls in front of him and the crane juddered to life. The gears and motors hummed, and Evan crudely jostled the levers around until he worked out how to make the jib swing and he could lower and raise the hook. Swinging it to the roof, he pushed back the cab door and called out.

“
Amane! Sasha!”

He didn’t have to shout to get their attention
, as they were by now already standing up on the walkway, fending off the zombies, waiting for him. The rooftop was full of the dead and the walkway was weakening. Amane could hear it straining and threatening to give way as it was jostled and leant on by so many bodies. Evan stopped the jib above them and lowered the huge hook. Once it was within reach, Amane grabbed it and hauled herself on. The metal was icy cold to the touch. She sat astride it with the backpack resting against the chains that attached the hook to the jib. She pulled Sasha up quickly and they threw the metal poles down, gripping the dirty hook as Evan lifted it up and away from the roof. The zombies stared, still trying to grab them, although impossible, as the two women were lifted away and out of their reach.

Sasha sat hugging
Amane, her arms wrapped around her as her lacerated hands bled. Yesterday’s wounds had opened and she could barely close her palms, so she gripped Amane with her arms. Amane shut her eyes and clung onto Sasha tightly. The flag ruffled her hair annoyingly and the cold hook sent chills down her spine.

“Oh God
. Oh Jesus, this is crazy,” said Sasha. Despite the sun, she was freezing. The cold air whipped at her svelte bare legs and she struggled to keep a grip around Amane as Evan swung them out over the street toward the marina’s car park roof.

“Just keep still, Sasha,” said
Amane, quietly, keeping her eyes firmly closed. Sasha looked down at the street below teeming with zombies.

“Oh
, my, God.”

Swinging over the
street, she began to panic. The pain in her hands was excruciating. They felt numb and she shifted her weight to get a better grip. Sasha slipped, losing her hold on Amane. She screamed and flapped her arms uselessly. Amane had to open her eyes and reached out in desperation as Sasha flew away from her. Sasha’s bloodied hands managed to grab onto one of the backpack’s straps and she screamed in pain. Both women were pulled sideways over the hook. Amane grabbed the huge hook and held on with both hands as Sasha clung onto the backpack, legs kicking wildly, pointlessly, searching for a ground that was not there.

“Help
, Amane, I can’t hold on!”

Sasha dangled
from Amane’s back who, with all the weight, was struggling to hold on. Evan saw them and stopped the jib abruptly, which only caused the hook to swing more.

“Please help me, don’t let me fall!” Tears streamed down
Sasha’s cheeks as she pleaded for her life.

“Stop moving around! You’re too heavy, I can’t hold on!” said
Amane, trying to wrap her arms tighter around the hook.

Evan saw they were struggling to hold on and there was no way they would be able to climb back up on to the hook now. He began to
manoeuvre the crane’s arm again, hoping they could hold on until he got it over the roof and lowered them down, safely.

“
Sasha, can you climb up me?” Amane could feel her grip weakening whilst Sasha wriggled around below. Any longer like this, and they would both fall.

“No!” Sasha gripped the backpack fiercely. Blood was trickling down her wrists, dripping onto her face.

Amane tried to pull herself up but with so much weight on her back, she couldn’t do it. Her grip was loosening and her arms slipped. She only kept a tenuous hold on the hook by her hands and the roof looked a million miles away. She began crying. There was only one way she was going to make it.

She inched her hand over to the backpack strap and clicked the
quick release on her left shoulder. The backpack slipped down her arm and swung wildly. Sasha lost her hold but managed to cling on with one hand to the remaining strap that clung to Amane’s right shoulder precariously. Sasha’s free arm grabbed Amane’s leg.

“
No, Amane, no, please!”

Amane
looked down at Sasha’s face, freckled with blood and tears, utter terror in her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” said
Amane, quietly. She sobbed as her hand crept toward the other strap.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated
. Amane clicked the other strap and the backpack slid off her back. She watched as Sasha fell away. She would never forget that abject look of terror in Sasha’s eyes, the knowledge that she had seconds to live.

In
Amane’s ears, Sasha’s final blood-curdling scream lasted for an eternity. She tumbled through the air, dropping to the ground fast. From the cab, Evan watched in horror as Sasha fell, cartwheeling over and over. Her long blonde hair hid her terrified face from him. He heard the scream though and it sent a shiver down his spine. It was a scream that would haunt him until his dying day. The zombies below seemed to bellow as one, as she sped toward them.

Amane
watched and shuddered as Sasha hit the ground, crashing through a field of zombies, smacking into the road with a loud, sickening thud. Her bones shattered and her internal organs exploded, spraying fresh blood from her body over the zombies, waves of excitement spreading through them like ripples in a pond. A circle of nightmarish creatures descended upon her mangled body to feast. At the moment of impact, her spine snapped in half causing her head to spin around as if she was looking at her own back legs. Her arms and legs were twisted cruelly, pulled from their sockets, her warm blood drenching those zombies closest to her.

Amane
, with the weight off her back, pulled herself up onto the hook, cradling it. Her crying continued unabated whilst Evan continued sending the hook over to the car park, and when he was sure it was safely over the centre, he lowered the hook until it reached the surface. He saw Amane get off and fall to the floor. Leaving the safety of the cab, Evan began his tricky journey to Amane. Climbing out of the cab, he climbed up the metal mast and clambered stealthily over the jib, ignoring the zombies below, inch by inch, out to the point where the trolley held the hook in place.

Wrapping his suit jacket around his hands, he lowered himself through the arm into the chains and started to slide down toward
Amane and safety. Once he started sliding down, it was hard to stop. The first few feet were reasonable but he soon began to lose his grip and descend faster. He finally met the hook and rolled over painfully as he landed on the roof. He was dazed and lay on his back looking up into the never-ending turquoise sky.

Déjà vu, he thought, and forced himself to stand up, discarding his jacket, now torn to shreds. He held his hand to his head, trying to stop the spinning.
Amane grabbed his shoulder and he instantly felt better.

“Hey,” he said.

“Time to go,” she said, emotionlessly. ”Quietly.”

“Yeah
. Amane...” She strode off in the direction of the exit ramp. He jogged to catch up with her.

“
Amane, wait.”

Evan stood
in front of her. “It was an accident, you know. It’s not your fault.”

“I know it’s not
my
fault,” she said, bluntly. “It’s yours. Now stop talking and get walking. We probably have a five minute head start on those things before they find out where we are.”

Leaving Evan standing there, astonished, she walked off down the ramp without him. He followed, walking six feet behind her, keeping her in sight but unsure of what to say. Was she right? He hadn’t
forced Sasha to come with them, but it was his plan. Maybe he was lucky they hadn’t all been killed. He felt bad about it certainly, but, damn it, it was nobody’s fault. If only she had been able to hold on. A storm cloud brewed in Evan’s head.

As
Amane approached the swing doors to the shopping centre, he called out to her to wait and she stopped with one hand on the door. He placed himself in front of the door, forcing her to look at him, waving his finger as if he was admonishing a naughty schoolgirl.

“Fine, blame me, whatever. But you go out there unfocuse
d and you are going to wind up dead or worse.”

“Fine
,” she sighed. “I hope at least you still have the key to the boat?”

Evan took it from his pocket and dangled it in front of her face briefly before putting it back.
He was mad with her. He was mad with himself. But right now, they had to concentrate at the job in hand or they would both be very dead, very soon.

“Stick behind me. Move fast and quietly. There
are only a few boats out there so we should be able to find it before
they
find us. If, God forbid, we don’t find it, then...”

“Then what?”
Amane folded her arms and looked at him expectantly.

“Then I
don’t fucking know! What do you want me to say?” Evan caught himself before his temper took hold and let out a long slow breath. He looked her up and down and pushed open the door. He didn’t have time to argue now.

“Coming?”
he asked, angrily.

She nodded and he went through. It looked the same as it had done yesterday. It was eerily silent
. All the zombies had evidently given chase and left. A huge ornate clock hung over the doorway downstairs that Evan hadn’t noticed before. A smiling koala and a kangaroo pointed to the time. It was 11.57 and they were running out of time. Another day was slipping away.

Evan retraced their steps from
yesterday, which only served to remind him of George. He wondered where he had gotten to. The boy deserved a break and Evan truly hoped he was all right. Maybe they would meet up in Canberra one day soon. Evan promised himself that after he got Charlie and Anna that they would go and find George.

Amane
stayed just behind Evan keeping an eye out for movement. She did not want anything to surprise them anymore. When you looked closely, there were hiding places everywhere. She tried not to look too hard into the darkest corners; her imagination went to places she did not want to go to. Sasha’s face glared back at her from every shadow.

They skirted low down the first pier and had no luck. She
read names that meant nothing to her, ‘The Merri Rose,’ ‘Terrys,’ ‘Mangahoe.’ She noticed a few zombies in the marina heading their way but decided they weren’t worth telling Evan about, not yet anyway. They were too far away to need handling.

They had to go back down the pier and onto the next one
, which was almost deserted. One ship was still moored up at the end. She heard Evan give a quiet exclamation and soon saw why. The ‘Johanna’ was there waiting for them. A joyful Evan ran up the gangway and turned around beaming.

“This is it,
Amane!” He temporarily forgot the recent animosity between them and bounded across the deck up a flight of gleaming white steps to the bridge.

“Evan, wait!”
Amane ran up to him. “Be careful. We don’t know who, or what, could be on board.”

“Of course, don’t worry.
”

The last time someone had told them not to worry was Miguel
, and his dead body was currently skulking around Melbourne. Evan’s confidence reminded her of Rob. Too much of it could be a bad thing. Evan opened the door to the bridge and walked in. The ship’s bridge was spotless. Whoever owned it kept it in mint condition. Looking around, he felt a little bamboozled by all the controls and reluctantly thought back to what the Father had said: ‘Keep it simple.’