The Dead Walk The Earth (Book 4) (30 page)

Bull followed Taff’s lead and also relaxed his posture a little, lowering his weapon but keeping his finger resting against the trigger. It would only take a fraction of a second for either of them to raise their weapons again and go onto the offensive, but for now they wanted to appear less intimidating and more approachable. In that kind of situation, it would not take much for a nervous person to snap and loose off a number of rounds once that the strain became too much for them. He stood up straight, revealing his full size and bulk, mirroring the mountain that was standing beyond the threshold before them.

“Jesus H. Christ,”
a disembodied voice drifted towards them from within the darkness beyond the door.
“That fucker’s as big as you, Al.”

Al and Bull watched one another, each studying the other and forming their own judgements on their capabilities and intentions. The voice was not mistaken. The two men standing on either side of the doorway were monstrous, well above six and a half feet, and with shoulders as wide as the hatchway.

Bull stared back at the monolithic man. Just from studying his stance, how he held himself and the information that his eyes relayed to him, he knew that it would be a hard fight if things went wrong.

The man’s features were hard and weathered. A huge scar left a large portion on the side of his head bare where the healed tissue prevented his hair from growing back. His stern expression conveyed a lifetime of military experience, and his unflinching stare told a thousand stories of horror and brutality. But there was something else in his eyes, and Bull could see it clearly. Behind the concentrated and terrifying glare there was a man who had refused to let go of his humanity. He was intelligent and compassionate, but right now the animal that was willing to kill was on the surface and in complete control of his actions.

“Everyone lower your weapons,”
a female voice ordered from within the darkness.
“Let’s keep things friendly.”

Immediately every gun barrel was pointed away from Taff and Bull. Even the big man at the entrance to the tunnel averted his aim and adopted a friendlier posture. Now that the lights were no longer glaring into their faces, the team were able to see the people in front of them more clearly. From what they could tell, there were possibly eight of them altogether, all heavily armed, clearly ready and very willing to fight.

“Are there any more of you?”
the faceless feminine voice asked.

“Yeah, there’s a few,” Stan replied, staring at the exact spot where the woman’s voice came from, but still unable to see her.

There was no point in lying or trying to conceal their numbers. Kyle and Mark were behind them while Charlie and his band were up on the surface. The people in front of them would soon see their strength if they allowed them entry. Any attempt at deception at this stage would be a bad start to any future cooperation that they hoped to share. If the group from within the base suddenly decided to attack them, there was very little that Charlie and his men could do to help Stan and the others anyway. It would only take a few bursts of automatic fire, even a grenade being tossed through the door to deal a deadly blow to Stan, Taff, and Bull. Within seconds the hatch could be sealed again. Stan had no choice but to place his trust in the survivors standing on the other side.

“Call them in,”
the voice ordered after a few moments of thoughtful silence.
“Tell them to keep their weapons tight, and call them in.”

Within a couple of minutes, the whole team were through the door. The tunnel suddenly felt overcrowded now with so many bodies standing together in close proximity. Kyle and Mark were the last to enter. As they stepped through, a figure shifted beside them, appearing like a giant phantom from within the shadows along the walls. He reached for the hatch and pushed it shut, slamming the locks into place before turning to face them.

“What the fuck have you been eating in here? People?” the veteran grunted as he eyed the large man and then turned to look at Bull. “Are you two related?”

“I’m better looking,” Bull replied flatly from the gloom.

Another figure stepped forward from amongst the shadows. Of average height, slender, and moving with a masculine gait, but even in the darkness it was unmistakably identifiable as a woman. She turned to face Taff and nodded, seeming as though she was about to speak. The Welshman grunted, took a slight step backward, and cocked his head towards the man standing just behind him and to his left, indicating Stan. The woman instantly recognised what was being wordlessly said to her.

“You the commander?” she asked.

Stan nodded. He took a step forward, his scarred face becoming clearer in the dim light. The woman watched him for a moment, studying his posture and the blank but frightening look in his eyes. She saw nothing within his face, not even the faintest trace of emotion or even life. There was no hint of a smile or softening of his eyes. His face was a mask of complete emptiness; a blank canvas that was incapable of holding paint. He stared back at her, his eyes boring deep into her as though he was able to see into her thoughts. He did not blink or turn his gaze, but remained fixed upon her. She shuddered internally.

“I’m Tina,” she finally said, holding out her hand and hoping that a moment of contact would break the cold armour of the man.

“Stan,” he simply replied as he shook her hand, the expression in his face remaining completely unreadable.

From the corners of her eyes she checked on the dispositions of her own troops. The militia were behind her, with Al to her left and Flash to the right. The newcomers were covered, but she could sense that it would take less than a split-second for them to react. She recognised that a gunfight at such close quarters between the two groups would result in a catastrophic loss on both sides, and she doubted that anyone would survive when she caught sight of the high-explosive grenade in Stan’s hand.

She could sense that both groups were nervous, except for Stan, of course. The man seemed to be utterly unaffected by the circumstances and the tenseness of the situation. It was as though he was completely detached from reality, looking in on their world from somewhere far away while controlling a robot in human form by remote. Tina shuddered to think of where his mind truly was.

The men looked hard and mean, covered with beards and an array of mixed clothing and weaponry. They appeared more like mercenaries than members of a legitimate army, but there was no such thing as the army anymore, and Tina suspected that she and her troops looked no better. Stan and his group had clearly been through a lot. She could see the horror in the intense stares in their eyes, and the physical and gruesome scars upon their flesh. For a moment she wondered just how brutal and ruthless they had needed to be to have survived for as long as they had. She imagined that they were once probably part of a much larger group and had most likely lost many of their number over the years. However, she also saw that they were still human beings, surviving against the odds and doing all they could for one another, just like she and her people had done for over a decade.

She stepped back and shrugged her shoulders.

“Okay,” Tina began, realising that someone needed to do something to release the strain of the situation.

She could already see that the commander of the new group was not about to order his men to relax just yet, so she took it upon herself to make the first move towards progression.

“Let’s skip the foreplay, shall we?”

“Yes, let’s do that,” Stan replied, holding her gaze.

“We’re here, hemmed into this slaughter chamber, and at your mercy,” Taff pointed out. “If we wanted a scrap, would we have let you do that?”

“I doubt it. But why are you so trusting? You don’t strike me as the type of men who would happily waltz into the unknown.”

“We’re trying to turn over a new leaf,” Bull snorted from the shadows.

Stan shrugged. He was quiet for a moment, and everyone seemed to be waiting on him to speak. He was tempted to say nothing, but he knew that he needed to wrap up the preliminaries as quickly as possible, breaking through the barriers of distrust and uncertainty so that they could move on.

“You know what a LAW-94 is?” he asked coolly.

Having never served in the infantry, Tina had no idea what Stan was referring to, but just one glance at Al told her that
he
fully understood the veiled threat. Al’s jaw muscles had stiffened visibly even in the dim light, and his full attention was fixed upon Stan. He leaned across to her, his glare remaining on the newcomers.

“It’s an anti-tank weapon,” he murmured. “A shaped charge that can punch through most armoured vehicles.”

“We’ve left two of our men topside with eyes on your base. If they don’t hear from us within the next couple of hours, they’ll put a big nasty hole through one of your gates,” Kyle sneered. “Is that trusting enough for you?”

“Dirty fuckers,” Al snorted in a low voice.

“Touché,” Tina nodded, feeling a strange sense of admiration and respect for Stan and his men. “I guess we’ll just have to play nice and trust one another then.”

Al’s face remained contorted with anger and concern. If Stan was telling the truth, then the roles had certainly been reversed. They were now at
his
mercy while two of his men watched the base from the outside, their fingers resting against the trigger of an anti-tank weapon. For a moment, he imagined the damage that would be created if just one HEAT - high-explosive anti-tank - round was fired into the already weakening defences. The warhead would punch cleanly through the steel, and undoubtedly the gate would collapse from the shock of the impact and subsequent detonation of the explosive charge. None of the gates would stand up to such a weapon, and the dead would spew in through the gap in their thousands.

“We don’t have time for any fucking around here. We’re here to help you, and we need your help in return,” Bull stated plainly.

“What help do you need from us?” Al asked, still smouldering over the thought of the LAW-94 that was pointed at their base.

“We know your situation, and it’s looking pretty shit. We’ve been in comms with you for some time, but you suddenly stopped transmitting a few weeks back. So, Charlie here was sent out to have a nosy.”

Stan nodded his head towards the tall, older man who was standing at the back of the group.

“Did you like the music?” Charlie asked with a grin.

He was unsure of who it was that he had helped, but he was certain that at least one of them was present. He looked at Al and then at Flash, both of whom were still standing in their flanking positions on either side of the team.

“That was you?” Al asked in surprise.

“Yeah. You looked like you were up to your necks in it, so we intervened. Glad to have been of help.”

“It’s appreciated,” Al replied with genuine gratitude and a nod of respect.

“You’re lucky we were in the area. You were going nowhere at a rapid rate of knots, my friend. What were you lunatics thinking?”

“How did you find your way here?” Al asked, suddenly feeling embarrassed and wanting to change the subject.

“We followed your bread-crumbs,” Charlie replied. “You’re a pretty noisy bunch, and you leave a lot of bodies in your wake.”

“We ran into a bit of trouble earlier when we were trying to find a way through,” Al grunted in way of explanation.

“Well you did a pretty good job at clearing the place out, mate,” Kyle replied. “It’s pretty empty down there now.”

“We should head back,” Tina suggested, turning to lead them along the tunnel and into the main part of the FOB. She stopped and gestured towards Stan. “You’re here now, so you may as well come along, too.”

Tina led the way with Al, while Flash and a few of the militia remained at the rear. Stan and his men were in the middle, fully aware that they were being herded but willing to play along for now. They would have done the very same thing if the roles had been reversed. It was only prudent to keep a close eye on strangers when meeting them for the first time. They walked in silence for a few minutes and clearly still suspicious of one another but gradually realising that neither group wanted to cause harm to the other.

Stan pushed forward, ignoring Al’s attempt at passively blocking his path, and fell into step alongside of Tina. Taff and Bull also adjusted their positions, and within a hundred metres Al realised that the newcomers had strategically stationed themselves within the column so that neither group held the advantage over the other.

“Check-mate,” Bull grinned back at him, his teeth flashing brightly in the flitting torchlights. There was no hint of threat in his voice or his expression, just satisfaction that he and his comrades were now better positioned to defend themselves.

Al shook his head as he kept on walking, realising that there was very little that he could do. He kept a mental note of where exactly his huge counterpart was, and promised himself that if things suddenly became hostile, he would make a point of launching his assault against him first.

“You said that you want
us
to help
you
,” Tina continued as they made their way through the gloom. “It makes no sense that you would leave the safety of an island and come all the way here to pull us out of the shit.”