Thrust & Parry: Z Day (19 page)

He
span round to face the truck just as two or three zeds with holes that would have fit an orange in them began to charge. He flicked the SA80 in his arms to automatic and squeezed the trigger. He hadn’t pulled the rife into his shoulder and the recoil hit him in the gut, winding him slightly. Rounds ripped through the left hand zeds face and the remainder caught the middle one on the top of his head, it was sliced off as if it had been hit with a machete. Jim dug the rifle into his hip and pulled the trigger again only to hear the ‘dead man’s click.’ This was the name given to the click that you hear when your rifle either has a stoppage or runs out of ammo as you move into a dangerous situation. He instinctively dropped the rifle with a clatter and drew his pistol. It was a fraction too late as the zeds arm caught him in the chin. He flew backwards and landed on his back, hard. His head bounced off the tarmac and suddenly everything felt very distant. He could hear sounds but it sounded like there was a layer of water between them. He was brought back to his senses as he was hit in the face by something.

“What was that?
Water? No it’s warm and sticky like BBQ sauce. Blood? Is it mine?” Jim thought to himself. He looked himself over slowly. Every time he moved his head it felt like his stomach was trying to escape through his nostrils. He gipped and vomited all over himself. He could now hear shouting over the thunder of the Gimpy as sounds began to come back to sharp focus. He could now see the cause of the blood. The zed that had hit him was now laid next to him. Its head was pretty much gone and most of its left side had disappeared. Paddy must have clocked it with a Gimpy burst just after it had hit him.

“Come on Jim get the fuck up! Why are you laid there? Get up!” Paddy yelled in between bursts of fire. Jim shook himself out of it and got to his feet. His jaw felt like he’d spent the last week chewing rocks and every movement sent a wave of nausea over him. He still had his pistol in his hands and his sharpshooter over his back. There were still around five zeds clawing at the truck door closest to Jim. It was the other side of the truck to Paddy so they were the only safe ones during this fire fight. “Jim
get the fuck to safety this is my last ten!” Paddy shouted and Jim realised he had only ten rounds to get to safety before Paddy had to reload. He weighed up his options and decided that the truck was the only safe area near. He sprinted forward as he raised his pistol and fired of seven or eight rounds into the crowd. Three dropped and the remaining two turned towards the noise just as Jim reached them. He rammed the pistol into the left hand zed’s right ear and fired. Out of sheer luck the right hand zed’s ear exploded in a mess of brain matter and they both dropped. Jim stood for a second in shock before ripping the door open and throwing himself in. He pulled the door shut behind him and turned to find he was looking down the barrel of Monica’s SA80. She noticed it was him and dropped the rifle before pulling him into an embrace.

“Thank god I thought I was a goner!” She exclaimed as she released him. He got on the net as he slid past her without a word and into the driver’s seat.

“Jim to Paddy, I need you in a position to cover me so I can get the door closed once the trucks in. How copy? Over.”

“Paddy to Jim, I can see the back end of the car park is clear if I can move down to the light pedestal in the centre it would put me in line with the door.”

“Jim to Paddy, We can’t risk damage to the truck. Bring the Gimpy down with Sam and move down to the drill hall door. The zeds have moved away from it and are now with the truck. Set the Gimpy up at the far end, get Sam to release the door and move down the corridor. It should give you a nice long corridor to drop them in together. Over.”

“Paddy, roger, Out.” Jim sat in silence for a minute before jumping on the net once more.

“Jim to Laura, move down with Paddy so you’re in a safe position, close the store room door as you go.”

“This is Laura I will do.” She replied. Time seemed to tick by and after what seemed by a lifetime he heard the Gimpy kick into life. He hoped to god Paddy had enough time to take the zeds down. He sat in the relative comfort of the truck listening to Paddy’s bursts of fire, indisposed with Sam’s rifle firing off the odd shot. He felt so helpless but he had to get this truck to safety. Eventually Paddy sparked back up on the net.

“Paddy to Jim, clear to proceed. Be aware I have 75 rounds remaining. After that I will be combat ineffective.”

“Roger that Paddy, out.”
Jim replied and crunched the truck into gear. He pulled it forward as far as he dared and lined it up best he could. “Paddy, see me back will you.” Jim pitched over the net, realising he had a mucker that was experienced in backing trucks up.

“Can do boss, wait one.” Replied Paddy as he moved into position. They chatted over the net as Paddy directed Jim into the tight gap and into the drill hall. After several agonisingly slow minutes were everyone expected to get pounced on every second the truck finally slid home. Jim shut the engine off and jumped down in time to see Paddy yanking on the chain like a man possessed to get the metal door to slide back down. It hit the floor with a clunk and Jim collapsed against the driver’s side tire. The last thing he remembered was Paddy shouting for one of the girls to help him before the world went black.

Chapter 16

David was pacing the living room carpet in his parents’ 3 bed house in Illingworth. It seemed to be the only room that didn’t risk reminding him of the nightmare that had just occurred. He was around 6’3” and didn’t look like the type of guy you would pick a fight with lightly. He wasn’t particularly buff as far as muscles and toning goes but he was a broad guy, emphasised by the beer belly he sported. His short, mousey brown hair and baby faced features gave him a sort of boyish charm that he covered under a weeks’ worth of stubble.

Gary was in his and David’s bedroom, He was packing things he thought would be useful in an old gym bag that had seen better days. The bulk of it was clothes but he was finding weapons with the most unlikely of items. He was shorter than David by around 3 inches and a lot thinner. He didn’t carry the same broadness of David and so many people underestimated him. He was usually the preferred target of the duo for some pisshead in a pub when they went out. Gary would nearly always show him the error of his ways leaving the pisshead reeling back into whatever corner he’d crawled out from. That was to say as long as David hadn’t stepped in first if not to see the colour drain from the pissheads face as he looked up on the man.

Gary was David’s younger brother but only by a year. They might as well have been twins as they were as close as they come. They had speculated many a time about the zombie apocalypse while slaving over a hot Xbox controller in an attempt to prove who was the best virtual athlete or while making dinner for the family together, photographing each step as if to say ‘Yes, we cooked this, aren’t we awesome.’ It was the family’s style; they all had the same dry sense of humour that they called upon on cue when there was ever any form of social gathering. Although each was funny in their own way it was clear that David was the joker of the family.

Usually it would be the step-father Patrick who would take charge of the situation but as David glanced up at the ceiling under his parents’ room he knew he had to take charge. He was now the man of the family. As if to emphasise the point to himself he began pulling serious and macho poses in the large mirror over the fireplace. It was that moment that Victoria, who had finished packing and was stood at the door watching, decided to chirp up.

“Yes, yes such a rugged man. Now, can we sort out this plan or do you need another minute flexing in the mirror before you can think straight?” David jumped as he span round and even began to reach for the aluminium baseball bat on the couch before realising it was his younger sister. Victoria was several years younger than both David and Gary and was very much cocooned by them as much as possible. It wasn’t that they didn’t want her seeing the bad, bad world for what it was. They were just very protective brothers. Understandable really as she was the only female sibling. They would count their step sister on their dad’s side but after the call Vicky got last night there didn’t seem much use in counting it any more. David pushed the thought from his mind as he quipped back.

“What’s the problem Vic? Jealously?” he went on to throw out several macho poses, emphasising each one with a “Ka-pow” or “Bam.”

“Yeah, yeah I think all women should look like you. There would be much less in the way of teen pregnancies. No fucker would want to come near them.” Vicky giggled back to him.

“Anyway serious times now Victoria. It’s serious.” David made a grave face and put on an overly posh accent before returning to his normal voice and continuing. “Are you all packed and ready?” Vicky nodded and pointed to a large purple suitcase with a cricket bat lent up against it that was now sat by the door. “Good, now we just need to wait for her majesty himself to get his hairy arse downstairs and we can sort this out.” David moved to the bottom of the stairs.

“Gary, oh Gary. Hurry up or you’ll be late for school.” David shouted in his best motherly voice. Gary’s head appeared over the banister followed by a carrier bag from the local supermarket filled with an assortment of blunt objects.

“Quit whinging Tiny and catch.” Gary replied as he released the handles, letting the bag fall. David stepped forward and caught it like a rugby ball making an unnecessary grunting sound to emphasise it. Gary disappeared and called back “Give me another 5 and I will be ready.” David turned to Vicky.

“Someone should tell him he doesn’t need any make up to be beautiful.” David said in his best gay voice and Vicky was engulfed in a fit of giggles that brought tears to her eyes. She loved her brothers and had a special bond with them in their own way. She could sit and listen to David rant for hours and be left with a stitch from laughing so much where as she would sit and have in depth discussions over a brew with Gary until the early mornings. Vicky moved to the mirror in the hallway and sorted her hair out before checking her face for spots and grimacing at the bags under her eyes. She wasn’t wearing any make up; she didn’t see the point now. Who was she going to impress, the zombies? Vicky stood around 5’7” and wasn’t a particularly skinny girl. She had the same broad shoulders and rugby player legs that her whole family carried but her body was a perfect hour glass shape, she had what people called a booty and large breasts that made most boys drop to their knees. As much as she complained about herself she knew deep down that she was an attractive girl but in this situation she felt no need to dress to the nines.

“Gary, my darling, we need to leave.”
Added David, trying his hardest to sound like a women from the Victorian era. David knew he had to keep the mood light after the night’s events. All his effort went into making sure he kept his younger siblings from crying. He crossed the thought from his mind as he felt himself tear up.

“Alright dickhead, I’m ready and packed up. Are we off then?” Garry asked impatiently. He was ready to go but now his brother was messing around. David acted overly gay and sauntered over to the mirror and fixed his hair.

David was the comedian in the family, he would try anything to get a laugh from someone and more times than not, that someone was Victoria. She loved her brother’s sense of humour and made sure everyone around, mainly her friends Tom and Ajay, knew how funny he was.

David had been in a relationship with Emily for over three years and he loved her more than life itself, he knew she was safe because she had called him only 10 minutes beforehand saying she was ready when they were but they needed to hurry as she could hear strange noises from her garden, this didn’t worry her. Emily was built very similar to Victoria, but she had long blonde hair that never seemed to be out of place. Emily had studied a form of dance martial arts for the last year or so called Capoeira. She had become quite proficient in it and had recently begun training with weapons.

“Right, let’s go over the plan once more just because I know you two are sharing the same brain cell this week.” David said with a smile. All he got in return was 2 sets of glaring eyes throwing daggers at him. “We move from here over to Emily’s place and grab her. From there we can meet up with Ajay and the race traitor…”

“Shut up David.” Vicky said. David had made constant jokes about Tom and Ajay’s relationship since it had started 3 months ago. Tom was whiter than white to the point that he could go on holiday and come back with less of a tan than before he stepped on the plane. Ajay was affectionately known as the Cheshire cat by Vicky. The joke if she smiled in the dark you would see only a pair of eyes and a smile. She was a westernised African. She, like the last generation of her family, had been born in the UK and the only difference between her and the ‘natives’ was the colour of her skin. It had
meant that she had been picked on relentlessly and because of this she had an attitude that wouldn’t look out of place in the ghettos of America. Normally Ajay had a Yorkshire accent but when she got annoyed it turned more and more ghetto.

“Anyway, as I was saying. We meet them two and then head off to the colony. Gary did you get the directions?” David continued. Gary nodded and produced a piece of paper form his cargo shorts leg pocket. They were directions he had pulled off of Google in case the satellite navigation failed them. “Good. Vicky
wait here. We will be back in a second.” Vicky shot him a dirty look and sat down on the bottom step. They treated her like a child when it came to killing. David and Gary stepped out of the house and closed the door behind them. David looked down the street while Gary looked up it. It seemed clear but looks can be deceiving and David was sure he could hear something. His concerns were confirmed seconds later as the reanimated corpse of his next door neighbour began shuffling out of its garden. Gary put his hand on David shoulder and stepped forward as if to say ‘I got this.’

He stepped out of the gate slowly just as the zombie reached theirs and tried not to be noticed as he brought his weapon up. He was using a table leg he had taken off the family dining table. It was about 3 foot long and solid oak. Just as he was about to swing his death blow on his former neighbour
it’s head snapped over to stare straight at Gary. It let out blood curdling cry before it’s head disappeared under the table leg. Gary grunted as he brought the heavy leg down on its head. David smiled as he watched the events. He moved over to stand next to his panting brother to admire his handiwork. The zombies head was completely caved in.

“Did you see his head go?” Gary asked regaining his composure.

“Fucking yes mate. Although, I have to say it wasn’t much of a show. Could you try make it last a bit longer next time? Maybe a little bit of dancing or something?” David replied. They both stood and chuckled for a minute before David began to wander back inside leaving Gary to keep watch.

“Let’s go princess.” David said as he opened the front door and ruffled Vicky’s hair. She swatted him off and sat scowling at him.

“Fuck off and take my bag bitch.” Vicky replied with a smile.

“I am your faithful protector not your man servant.” David said bowing low. On his way back up he picked up his and Gary’s holdall and turned to leave. Vicky followed, tugging her case on the wheels with her cricket bat in her spare hand.  They packed the bags into David’s Volkswagen Polo while Gary looked round nervously. They jumped in and sped off towards Emily’s place.