Thrust & Parry: Z Day (21 page)

“Tom, we got a problem.” David said swerving away from the petrol station in an attempt to keep them away from him.

“Get into the barracks quick!” Tom shouted as he mounted the pavement to get round a stray zombie that had decided he was going to be first to feast on the meals on wheels flying past them. David pulled round the corner, his tyres skidding and throwing up smoke in an attempt to find some grip on the blood-slicked road. Tom followed him round, his engine whining to change gear. Tom was too busy grappling with the wheel, his knuckles white, to move it up one. They reached a gate and David made a snap decision. He could either pull up and wait for the gate to be opened or barge through and risk totalling his Polo. He glanced in the rear-view mirror and saw the zombies were only feet behind Tom’s car and decided to go for it. He braced himself and, without slowing down, pointed the car at the centre of the gate. The car hit with a sickening crunch and the gate gave. It popped outwards and fell on the windshield, cracking it into several star shapes before it fell on its side against the wall to David’s left. His car spluttered and began to slow. David hauled it round in a tight circle and it shuddered to a halt in the centre of the car park. Tom followed him in, watching in horror as the events unfolded before him. He pulled the car up at a right angle to David’s before leaping out, weapon ready. The rest of the survivors followed suit and quickly moved into the small area between the two cars. This gave them a safe corner where they could defend from. The zombies began to pour in from the gate like a broken dam. As they neared the group Tom had a random thought.

“Why had they all huddled inside that
shop. What had possessed them to cram into there?” Tom pondered this as he raised his pipe high in the air to drop it on the first zombies head. As the zombies outreached hands got within 5 feet of him it suddenly lurched sideways and dropped to the floor. Blood spurting out of several holes in its side. Tom hadn’t heard the first shot go off but he heard the constant rattle of a weapon in the hanger. Several of the zombies pouring into the gate dropped with limbs and chunks of flesh flying off in all directions. Several managed to charge through the hail of bullets and Gary hit one of them hard in the head with a massive sideways swing that sent it spinning off, almost headless.

“Yeah, get some Yeah!” He shouted in his best Texas accent. David followed it up with and downward swipe on the next zombies face that made it drop like a kid on an ice rink.

“I have taught you well grasshopper, yet you still have much to learn.” He shouted over the din of the weapon. He drew the baseball bat in a classic stance as the next zombie neared him. Gary stepped in front of him and dropped the zombie for him.

“And the crowd goes wild!” Gary shouted as he moved back to his spot He looked up to see that there was now several people firing from the roof in at least 3 different locations. David stepped forward, swinging wildly as he went and caught five or six zombies who all dropped. He stopped suddenly as he heard a scream from his right. He turned to see Emily getting dragged down by a small group that had formed round her.

“Leave my girlfriend alone you undead bastards!” He screamed as he charged at the group. He began swinging randomly at the group, hitting them anywhere he could. He dropped several of them but most of his swings were hitting arms or backs as they clawed and ripped at his girlfriend.

“Fucking move you idiot!” Shouted a voice from the bunker on the roof and David reluctantly stepped back, changing targets to more of the same. The machine gun on the roof switched its fire to the mound of zombies and blood began spurting from it. Vicky, who hadn’t had any zombies at her side yet stepped forward to fill Emily’s space and sliced the bat at one of the zombies heading for David. She caught it on the back of its neck with a crunch and as it dropped the top of its head exploded in a shower of brains. Vicky had felt the bullet whiz past her and the heat from it. The crack as it passed her made her ears ring. She span round and saw a figure on one knee on the roof with a gun pressed up to its face. Tom stepped behind her as she span and began swinging his pipe at the horde. It dug into one of their ears with a clang that suggested they had had surgery. He swung over and over again at the approaching zombies and only stopped when he heard a familiar scream. Ajay had been swinging away with her crowbar when a zombie had snuck up behind her and sunk its teeth into her shoulder. She had barged it off and was now beating it relentlessly with her crowbar.
The zombie was dead after the first swing but it didn’t stop her. Tom had seen enough of these things to know how they turned and fear overwhelmed him as he stood watching his soon-to-be-zombie girlfriend unleash her fury on the zombie.

“Yeah, not so fucking tough are you now you cunt!” Ajay screamed at it. She only ever used the word ‘cunt’ when she was truly pissed off and hated its use in general. Tom eventually found a way to move and walked over to her, forgetting everything else that was going on around him. Even when a zombie pounced in front of him and was dropped by one of the shooters he simply continued walking, his face now smeared in blood and brains from the close encounter. He put his hand on Ajay’s good shoulder and
she span round. Weapon still raised mid assault. Her face softened as she saw him.

“Sorry babe. I guess I’m a goner now.” Was all she said before she collapsed to her
knees. Tears stung his eyes as he watched her fall. She hit the floor before beginning to stand once more.              

“Ajay?
You’re alive?” Tom was utterly confused by the events. Ajay stood up and looked at him with a hungry look. Tom realised it was no longer the girl he loved but her reanimated corpse. Tom raised his pipe but couldn’t bring himself to bring it down on her. She lunged forward and sunk her teeth into his neck. He squealed like a stuck pig before shoving her off and finishing the deed. She dropped as he flung his hand up to his neck. He was next but he didn’t want to have to let the Winston’s decide his fate once he turned. He span round to the nearest shooter on the roof.

“Shoot me! I’ve been bitten! Fucking shoot me!” He yelled at them. The shooter obliged a second later and a neat hole appeared in Tom’s head. He dropped to the floor, dead. David was now pulling the corpses off his girlfriend until her bloodied face was showing. Her breath was a light wheeze and her eyes were already glazing over.

“The carrier bag. On my case. It’s the only way. I love you.” Her breathing stopped and her eyes glazed. David pushed all emotion deep down inside him and stood up. He had to get his family out of this. He strode over to the car, dropping several zombies with his bat on the way and stopping as bullets raked the ground in front of him. He was sure they weren’t aimed at him but he didn’t want to be hit by them. As he pulled the boot of his Polo open he noticed the machine gun had stopped.

“Why was it
stopping. They needed it more than ever.” He thought as he tugged the carrier bag off Emily’s case. As few seconds later it sparked back up again.

David tugged a hole in the bag and pulled out a small black device with a metal strip to pull out. He remembered Emily talking about this. She was a school teacher and the council had given each teacher a box to give out to the kids and put on their key rings. When the metal strip was pulled out it emitted a loud, high pitch whine to alert passers-by that that person was in danger. They were known as ‘rape alarms.’

“She really was a genius.” David mused as he ripped the metal from the device and launched it into a dark corner of the car park. It instantly began emitting the noise and the charging zombies stopped to stare at it for a second before charging in its direction. He launched several more and even grabbed the closest zombie and tucked it into its shirt pocket, sending the zombies close to it into frenzy that lead to them ripping the zombie apart.

“Fucking move.
Get into the building.” The machine gun had stopped and the figure controlling it was now stood at the edge of the roof motioning towards a set of double doors to David’s left. David complied and ushered Gary and Vicky towards it. The machine gun sparked up again as they began sprinting towards it. It had attracted some of the closer zombies back to them who were now dropping with chunks missing from various body parts. They reached the door and David hauled it open to let his family in before launching himself through and slamming it shut. They all held it in place while David found the two locks and clicked them shut. A figure appeared at the double doorway slightly to their right seconds later.

“Fucking good show guys.
I’m Jim.”

Chapter 19

Jim woke up in a strangely happy mood, for some reason he knew the day was going to be a good day. He sat up wincing at the pain still in his head. The pain had turned to a dull headache, nothing a few paracetemol couldn’t get rid of. He looked over to Laura’s bed space and she was still sleeping, he then looked at his watch.

“Christ it’s nearly 11:30.” He exclaimed in hush tones. Where had the day gone? He hadn’t slept that well in weeks. He glanced around him making sure he hadn’t slept through any attacks and noticed Sam and Paddy were the only ones not in the room. He quickly and quietly dressed, arming himself with his pistol and moved towards the door. Stopping he pressed back against the wall to the left of the wooden door and peered around the corner. He couldn’t see anything but the 12 foot long lobby that previously hosted all stagging on. He peered again and saw movement to left of the wooden doors with reinforced mesh. He raised his pistol and moved forward.

“Army.
Stop or I will fire.” He shouted and he heard a gasp followed by a little giggle. This confused Jim. It obviously had to be human. He stepped forward and around the door. And there right in front of his eyes was Paddy sporting an average sized erection with Sam bent over with her shorts around her ankles.

“Errr... Sorry boss. What’s the plan for today?” Paddy asked with crimson cheeks. He tried acting as normal as possible.

“Well I best let you two finish off… whatever you’re doing” Jim said trying to stifle a laugh. Sam still bent over looked at Jim, clearly unimpressed with his intrusion. It became clear to Jim he’d interrupted at a very crucial point.

“Fuck off then!” Sam snapped at him.

Jim walked away and couldn’t control his laughter anymore; he let out a side splitting laugh and started singing to himself. “Let’s get it on” and once again he laughed uncontrollably. The images of Sam and Paddy’s ‘encounter’ got Jim thinking about his own with Laura and Monica, he felt aroused but knew he didn’t have time to do anything about it. As he sat down at his bed space Laura sat up and tilted her head to the side.

“What’s so funny baby?” She asked with that rare innocent smile. He looked nervously at Monica who was still sleeping, her breathing was heavy and every so often she snorted.

“Well, let’s say our friends are… erm… how do I put this? Getting to know each other better” He said suppressing his laughter.

Laura winked at him, trying to remind him of
their very own endeavour. For the first time this made Jim very uneasy and he started shifting in his seat. He turned away and busied himself packing his bed space away. Paddy’s emergency procedure in case they were overrun was well planned out and included packing all kit away so that it could be moved at a moment’s notice into the truck. Once he had finished he did a quick headcount and realised the stag position was empty. He dug in his pockets for a moment before pulling out the scrap of paper that had the stag list on. It was supposed to be Sam for the next ten minutes and then it would be his turn. Now slightly pissed off he threw his kit on and snuck past the moaning entanglement that was Saddy, as Jim now liked to call them in his head, and moved up to the Sanger.

The Gimpy was loaded with a 200 round belt and Jim did the usual checks to ensure everything was set in case of a contact. He was stood for around 20 minutes before he heard the distant whine of
several engines roaring up the main road to his right. He strained his neck to listen and realised they were getting closer.

He left the stag point and sprinted over to the rooftop opposite to get a better look. He couldn’t believe his eyes at first.
A dented Polo and a newish looking Astra was speeding down the road towards him. He watched as the Polo threw its right indicator on as if to move into the petrol station. At that moment a horde exploded from the petrol station shop towards the cars. Jim raised his rifle to try and get a few shots off but couldn’t find a decent angle. The indicator changed to a left as they approached the road overlooked by the Sanger. The Astra mounted the pavement as it swerved round one of the zeds.

The Polo was first round as Jim sprinted back round to the Sanger and took up a position behind the Gimpy. The Astra followed it round and Jim could now see the drivers’ grave, concentrating faces. Jim expected the Polo to slow and prepared to jump down and let it in, however, that was not the case. The driver lined up the Polo at the gate and sped towards it at full speed. The gate bent and broke under the impact and bounced off the Polo’s windscreen before resting up against the wall.

“Shit!” Jim exclaimed before hitting his pressle for the PRR. Paddy was on radio stag and he hoped to god he had finished shagging and put his headset back on. “Paddy, Stand to! Stand to!” He called down the mic.

“Roger, Out.”
Was all he got in reply. A minute or so later the girls and Paddy appeared at the hatch and moved to pre designated positions that Paddy had arranged while Jim was out cold. They now had all round defence on the compound. The only difference to the drill being everyone was now facing inwards.

The Polo sounded to be in trouble now as it spluttered to a halt in the car park. The Astra pulled up facing the rear driver’s side window and six figures jumped out before taking defensive positions in the gap created by the cars. There were 3 males and 3 females in the group and it seemed that the males took the dominant roles as they tried to protect the women. The horde of zeds began charging at the group and Jim began sustained bursts into the group, dropping as many as he could. His aim was not particularly to kill them; he just wanted to ensure he slowed them down enough to retrieve the survivors. His first burst hit the zed closest to the survivors and he saw he had interrupted one of them from slotting it with what looked like a pipe. As Jim poured rounds at the thickening horde the survivors on the ground went into action and in his peripheral Jim saw one of the men swing a large lump of wood and damn near knock one of the zeds heads off. Jim was impressed.

He could hear what sounded like an American mantra and hoped to god they weren’t Yanks. Another survivor raised a metal bat and dropped the next zed out cold. He could now hear a slightly Japanese accent from another survivor and wondered how this rag tag bunch had met. At that point the rest of Jim’s new section opened up, dropping zeds like professionals. Jim kept his rate of fire up and sprayed into as many different zeds as he could. There was a sickening scream from the group and Jim looked down to see one of the females getting dragged down by a group of zeds. He turned the gimpy on them and tried to line up a shot when one of the males stepped in the way and started swinging the bat wildly at them. Yelling something about a girlfriend.

“Fucking move you idiot!” Jim called down as he struggled to find a shot round him. The male stepped aside and Jim instantly opened up on the group. He knew by this point that the girl was dead and just wanted to put enough rounds down to keep the group from getting back up. Paddy, who had been picking his targets carefully, now chose a zed that was advancing on the guy with the bat. He lined it up and began to squeeze as a cricket bat caught it in the back of the neck. He watched as it dropped and found his shot over the offending survivors shoulder, watching through
his sight as its head exploded. Paddy switched targets as he saw the girl with the bat spin round to see who was shooting. He found a zed had managed to get behind the group and was about to grab one of the girls from behind. He lined up the shot and stanched it to try and get it before it sunk its teeth into the survivor but the round dug itself into one of the tyres on the Astra. He watched as the zed sunk its teeth into her shoulder. She screamed and barged it off before beating the living shit out of the zed. It was clearly dead but she didn’t stop. He began lining up the shot on her now, knowing she was going to turn and stopped as he saw one of the males was carelessly walking through the carnage to her.

“He has to be the boyfriend.”
Thought Paddy as he watched. One of the zeds must have decided he was easy pickings and charged at him. Paddy dropped it to allow the survivor to continue. For some reason he felt like he should protect him, if not only to give him a chance to say goodbye. The guy put his hand on the infected girls shoulder and she span round to hit him. She lowered her weapon and they spoke for a moment before she dropped to the floor, dead. Seconds later she rose back up as an animated corpse and Paddy lined the shot up again. He paused as the guy raised his pipe, giving him a chance to finish his own girlfriend off. The guy paused.

“That’s not your girlfriend anymore, fucking finish her.” Paddy breathed as he watched it unfold. The zed pounced forward and sunk its teeth into the survivor’s neck. He pushed it off and clobbered it round the head with the pipe and it dropped. The guy turned and looked directly at Paddy.

“Shoot me! I’ve been bitten! Fucking shoot me!” He yelled at him. Paddy obliged and squeezed off a shot. Monica, who was still a little out of it from being woken up, was doing her best to kill as many as she could. She had dropped 5 or 6 of them and caught several of them in the neck but she felt like she wasn’t doing as well as she should be. She had just dropped one of the zeds from behind when a new sight filled her sight. Monica spotted one of the survivors crouched by a pile of zeds that the dying blonde girl was under. He looked to be talking to her and she watched as he dropped his head before standing and walking purposefully towards the Polo’s boot, swinging his bat at any zed that came close. She noticed one of the zeds coming from the side and it didn’t look like he had seen it. She pushed her change lever down to automatic before aiming in the general direction and letting off a burst. It was wildly inaccurate but one of the rounds caught the zed in the head and it dropped. The rest of the burst bounced off the tarmac in front of the guy and he stopped briefly before continuing. She saw another one approaching from behind and tried to fire again only to hear a dull click. Her weapon was empty. She watching in horror as it closed in on the guy. She was franticly digging in her webbing for her next magazine when the zeds head snapped back and it fell. It was Laura who had fired. She was to Monica’s right on the roof closest to the petrol station and had been lining up the same shot.

Laura smiled to herself and hoped Jim had seen her save the survivor. She glanced over but all she could see was his face screwed up in a determined snarl as he fired the Gimpy. She looked back at the guy who was now holding a bag and a small black device. He pulled something out of it and started emitting a high pitch whine. He launched it into the corner of the car park and most of the zeds followed it, barging into each other to try get to the noise. He pulled several more and launched them close to the first. She watched in awe as he pulled another one and grabbed one of the passing zeds before tucking it into his pocket and giving it a kick. The zeds surrounded the noise and ripped the offending zed apart.

Jim had stopped firing as he watched the zeds chase the noise and stepped out of the Sanger.

“Fucking move.
Get into the building.” He called as he stood at the edge of the roof. He pointed to the entrance doors and the ringleader with the bat started ushering the remaining survivors towards it. He sprinted back to the Gimpy and opened up on the zeds that had noticed the movement. The survivors reached the doors as the zeds faces reached the tarmac with a splat and Jim sprinted towards the hatch. He threw himself down and jogged through to the lobby. The 3 figures stood panting against the door, they looked up as he entered.

“Fucking good show guys.
I’m Jim.”