The Undead. The First Seven Days (106 page)

The sight of them triggers an instant response inside of me. The anger is knocking to come in, but I bite it down. I’ll need it later but, for now, I can do this myself.
  ‘ALMOST AT THE EDGE. NICK, YOU’LL GET A VIEW OF THEM ANY SECOND.’
  ‘ROGER,’ Nick shouts out loudly and racks the bolt back noisily.

I glance up to see him tightly gripping the handles and staring ahead with ferocious concentration. I put the glasses back to my eyes and see them surging forward.
  ‘HERE THEY COME,’ I shout as they reach within metres of the edge of the estate.

I drop the binoculars down and watch with the naked eye.
  The edge of the estate suddenly comes alive as a solid, black, mass emerges.
  ‘NICK,’ I shout out.
  ‘COME ON,’ Nick roars and the air is split apart by the heavy constant sound of the General Purpose Machine Gun coming to life.

Nick aims well and sweeps along the entire front row.

From far left to far right I can see bodies falling down as Nick sweeps across them. Then back again, as the awesome power of the weapon shows true.
  I lift the binoculars again and follow Nick’s arc of fire, watching as the bodies are shredded apart and sent flying backwards into the pressed ranks behind them. The following hordes stumble over their fallen comrades. I sweep back and my heart sinks as I see a solid mass stretching back into the estate and no sign of the end.
  I move my view down and watch with my breath held as they near the first obstacle we prepared. They move as one, keeping their lines smartly and presenting a solid wall. Not running, but not shuffling either. A steady pace as they advance.
  ‘Go on, go on,’ Cookey urges them on to the next trap.

‘Come on you stupid fuckers,’ another voice joins in and is taken up as more shout out urging and willing them to keep going.
  They reach the first ditch and I watch as the first few lines simply fall out of view, dropping into the ground.

Cheering erupts up and down the wall as the forward ranks of zombies drop down to be impaled on the sharpened spikes. The pressure from the oncoming hordes keep driving the undead forward to topple into the wide ditch.
  ‘YES!’ Cookey shouts with violence in his voice, ‘HAVE SOME OF THAT.’

I spin round and look to the back of the Fort. Sarah and Sergeant Hopewell are by the opened rear doors urging the woman and children to move out quickly. I guess Chris and the others must be outside lifting them into boats.
  I turn back in time to see the next ranks of zombies dropping down as they reach the ditch, but not going out of sight. The bodies must have stacked up deep enough to bridge the gap but it at least slows them and many have already been vanquished from the estate going up and now the ditch.
    The GPMG roars with incessant noise as Nick continues to sweep from left to right in a steady motion. Then two more loud and distinct bangs join in as Dave and Jamie start firing with their high-powered rifles.
  ‘READY,’ I roar out and see a visible reaction as the men and women on the line seem to hunch forward and push their shoulders into their weapons and aim down the sights. I pause just for a second as I watch the front lines of the undead army start dropping down as they run over the foot traps.
  ‘FIRE,’ I drop the binoculars for a second and scream the word as loud as I can.

I see a devastating effect as many of the zombies are dropped instantly by the volley. I use the binoculars again and see, not only the firing from our weapons are dropping them, but the foot traps are working far greater than I had hoped.

A small smile forms on my mouth as I see zombies staggering forward and then suddenly dropping down as their feet are penetrated by the deadly sharp metal barbs. They might not feel pain but the physical action of the metal driving through their skin and breaking the delicate small bones of the foot is enough to make them fall down.
  All along the lines I see zombies blown apart and shredded by the deadly hail of bullets from the GPMG. The rifles and assault weapons also prove very effective, not every shot is a headshot, but the simple action of being penetrated by a high-speed large calibre rifle is enough to blow them backwards and knock more down. Dave and Jamie’s shots are, without question, perfect. Puffs of pink mist explode time and time again as they blow the skulls apart and send deadly bone fragments into the closely packed horde.
  I glance up and down the line, to see men and women using bolt-action rifles. Rates of fire increasing as they aim, fire, rack the bolt - aim and fire. The movements becoming faster and more fluid with each shot.
  Placing the binoculars down, I stride forward and take up position on the wall with my assault rifle. Selecting single shot and pulling the bolt back, I take aim, which is almost completely unnecessary as there are so bloody many of them, so just waving the gun in their general direction will surely hit something.

I pull aim for front centre, at the section of zombies coming down the central road. The better weapons being used by the recruits and guards in this section means those zombies are suffering high casualty rates and being withered as they advance. Each one dropped is instantly replaced but still, we pour fire into them and every shot counts as they are slowly reduced.
  My shots join the deafening noise as I fire into the oncoming mass. Working in concentrated silence, the minutes pass as the zombie army slowly but surely takes ground and moves ever closer to the Fort, rising and falling as they step on the fallen bodies in front of them.

The foot traps keep working and they keep dropping down, but still they keep coming until they are but metres away from the first embankment.
  With no sign of Darren - Dave and Jamie have taken up their assault rifles to increase the rate of fire sent from us. Nick brings the GPMG to focus the fire directly into the front centre line on the road. With the sustained firing of Nick and the recruits and the guards all using assault rifles, the zombies on the road are obliterated.

Large gaps start forming as the following horde are forced to weave round the broken and mangled bodies.
  The undead army reaches the first embankment and I watch as the first lines rise up and over the crest to pour down the other side.
  A huge boom sounds out off to my left and I glance down, just in time to see flames shooting out the end of the cannon quickly followed by a cloud of thick black smoke. The result of the cannon fire are awesome and a whole swathe of undead are eviscerated by the scorching metallic fragments. The second cannon off to my right then booms out. I keep my eyes on the horde this time, and realise that everyone else does too. The impact is simply staggering and my mouth drops open as the grapeshot from the cannon spreads out, becoming superheated by the incredible power of the cannon and rips through whole lines of zombies.

The projectiles go through the first rank like butter, and several lines back are instantly taken down. Each shot of the cannon destroys hundreds at a time.
  Again, large gaps form as the zombies can’t move fast enough to fill the gaps and now the front line is not solid. But still they keep coming and it takes moments to prepare the cannon for the next round of firing.
  ‘That was fucking awesome,’ Cookey says, during the pause of firing, as we all watch the effect of the second cannon firing.
  ‘EYES FRONT,’ Dave bellows and snaps us all back to the moment.

Stepping back, I look down the top of the inner wall to see the archers have split into two groups. One group on the left and the other on the right. Two archers from each group are standing next to the cannon flame holder; their bows dipped down with arrows resting against the wire in the rest position. The end of the arrows have been swathed in something, ready to be lit and fired into the deep ditch.
  As the zombies reach halfway between the two embankments the archers are given an order to prepare. They move out into a long line stood well back from the wall. Each of them presses the arrow into wire as they lift their bows and pull back to stand braced. For a second, I’m transported to medieval England as I see long lines of archers holding their bows aimed high into the air.
  ‘RELEASE,’ someone shouts and the bowmen and women release their arrows to fly high and straight. The arrows reach the arc of their trajectory and the strength of gravity takes over, pulling them back to earth, gathering speed as they plummet down. The arrows drive into the zombie army, many of them striking into the exposed skulls and taking zombies down with instant kills. Some of the arrows hit arms and legs, causing the zombies to be pushed down, only to rise back up and keep going with the long barbs stuck through their limbs, or they crawl along the ground only to be trampled down by more zombie feet already pierced and damaged by the foot traps.
  As the first volley of arrows hit home, the second volley is already in the air. The two cannon both fire with massive recoiling booms and again whole swathes of undead are killed outright. More large gaps form and their lines become more ragged.
  The GPMG, the assault rifles, the single shot rifles, the cannon and the archers, all pour deadly fire into the undead army, as we continue to cull their numbers.
  ‘I SEE HIM,’ Jamie drops his assault rifle to quickly pick up the scoped sniper rifle.
  ‘Where?’ I call out, ceasing fire to glare out at the army.
  ‘Sir, he’s on the road, about fifty metres back from the front line. There’s a whole dense section clustered round him,’ Jamie shouts back as he rests the rifle on the wall and looks down the scope.

Dave has already dropped his assault rifle and picked his rifle up to rest alongside Jamie and stare down the scope.
  ‘I see the dense section,’ Dave shouts out.
  ‘NICK, FIRE INTO THE MIDDLE,’ I turn and shout at Nick, waving my arm to show him where I want the fire aimed.

Nick nods once, grim faced and turns the heavy calibre weapon onto the front middle section.
  ‘THEY’RE AT THE SECOND BANK,’ Clarence’s deep voice shouts.

I look across and see the zombies are now scaling the far side; they reach the crest of the embankment.
  ‘FIRE ARCHERS MAKE READY,’ I shout out, but the constant and sustained noise prevents my voice from reaching the archers further down the lines. I run back to the Saxon and pull the microphone out.
  ‘FIRE ARCHERS MAKE READY,’ I repeat and my voice is amplified down the lines.

The fire archers move in to cluster round the cannon flame holder. He presses the flame against the ends of their arrows which start burning with oily black smoke curling up.

The fire archers step forward to get a view from the wall and hold with their arrows pointing down to the ground.
  The zombies scale the bank and start pouring down the nearside, dropping down into the fuel filled ditch.

I hesitate, to give more time, until the nearside bank is thick with undead staggering down.

I glance across to see the fire archers staring at me with pleading looks.
  I raise my right arm up high, signalling the archers who pull their arrows back and take aim with their bows.

Clarence turns to stare at me; glaring at me to give the order to release, but I hold and wait for more undead to drop down.

The ditch is deep and I know they can’t climb out, so they will have to use the bodies of their undead brethren to bridge the gap.

The risk is that the ditch will become too clogged with bodies and prevent the arrows from igniting the fuel.
  At the last second, when the guards and recruits are turning to look at me with desperate looks, I push the button down on the microphone and lift the mouthpiece.
  ‘RELEASE FIRE ARROWS.’

The archers release and their arrows fly out, leaving a thin black trail hanging in the air behind them.
  The timing was perfect. The arrows strike home and the flaming heads ignite the fuel held in the hoses and containers. They detonate within a split second as the ditches explode.
  Bodies are flung high up into the air and the pressure wave clears the nearside bank instantly as the bodies are pushed back up and go spinning off. The zombies still coming over the crest are then met with a boiling surge of flames and metal fragments. More and more of the undead are shredded and turned to carbon.
  The zombies on the road are being taken down in droves. The GPMG and the assault rifles held by the recruits and guards concentrate solely on them. The incredible sustained fire withers the lines and soon there is a very deep horseshoe shape forming. The undead react and rather than just filling the gap from behind, they surge in from the left and right; seemingly desperate to keep that area protected.
  The undead keep surging up the second bank and down the nearside to be instantly incinerated by the wall of flames leaping up from the deep ditch.

With every gun now aimed at the road, we hold them at bay. We take many down and slowly, ever so slowly, we reduce their numbers.
  Dave and Jamie lean forward with their rifles resting on the wall, their breathing slow and controlled; looking intently down the scope and gently squeezing the trigger to send a bullet with Darren’s name etched on it spinning to his evil, undead skull.

However, the zombies appear unwilling to give up their beloved leader and they press into densely packed ranks ahead of him; pouring in from the sides to present an undead shield.
  ‘He keeps moving back,’ Dave reports out loud, his voice matching his manner; calm and controlled.