The Last Plague (15 page)

     The air was sucked from Frank’s lungs. “Firebomb the town. Jesus.”

     “We could do with Jesus right now,” said Gawen.

     “I only believe in my SA80,” Pike said.

     “Fucking atheists,” said Gawen. “Heathens.”

     “Piss off.”

     “Cut the yap, lads. We’ll have every hostile in the area upon us.”

     “Sorry, Corp,” they said together.

     Private Sibbick led them along the street. Gunfire and detonations from nearby. Far off screams that caused Frank’s skin to burst into gooseflesh. He held Florence by the shoulders, guided her in front of him.

     “What caused this?” said Frank. “What has happened?”

     Guppy grunted. “Where have you been for the last few days?”

     “On a stag weekend.”

     “Lucky bastard,” said Pike.

     “It’s a virus,” said Guppy. “As far as we know.”

     “How far has it spread?”

     “Everywhere.”

     “The whole country?”

     “Maybe the whole world. We’re not sure.”

     Something cold uncoiled in Frank’s stomach.

     “Have you heard about any other areas of the country?”

     “We haven’t heard much. It’s all a mess.”

     “A big fucking mess,” Gawen said.

     Frank could only shake his head. “But where has this virus come from?”

     Ahead of them, Sibbick halted. The others did the same.

     Guppy looked at him. “Nobody knows. And if they do, they’re not telling the likes of us.”

     “No one tells the grunts anything,” said Gawen. “Wankers.”

     “Stop moaning, Gawen,” said Pike. “Always fucking moaning.”

     “Go fuck your mother,” Gawen replied.

     “I’d rather fuck yours.”

     Private Sibbick turned, addressed Guppy. “Corp, the school is on the next street.”

     “Good,” said Guppy. “Everyone stay on their toes. Keep sharp. Let’s go, lads.”

     They moved.

     “Don’t say that about my mother again, Pike,” said Gawen.

     “Piss off.” 

     “Shut up,” said Guppy, “or I will personally kneecap both of you and leave you here.”

     “Sorry, Corp,” said Pike.

     “Sorry,” Gawen muttered.

     “That’s better,” Guppy said.

     A shadow passed overhead.

     Pike stopped. “What the…”

     Something came out of the sky and plucked Gawen from the street. Frank caught only a glimpse of it. Large and dark, made of sinew and bone, and stinking of wet rot. He saw its burning white eyes as it grabbed Gawen and made off with him.

     Gawen screamed from above them.

     The leathery flap of wings; the glimpse of a black shape against the sky.

     “Holy shit,” said Pike. He was breathing hard through his mask. “It took Gawen. It took him. What the fuck was that?”

     Sibbick fired off a short burst into the sky.

     Florence sobbed.

     Then there was silence. Guppy glanced overhead.

     “Keep moving. Let’s go.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

The infected filled the street, flocking towards the school. Twisted, wretched faces; twitching and sagging bodies. They surged and staggered with the fervour of zealots, a mindless rhythm in their appalling jerking movements.

     The refugees retreated from the fence.

     Joel made a small, child-like sound. His face was slack and boneless.

     “We’re fucked,” said Magnus. He looked around at the other terrified faces, then to Ralph.

     Ralph said nothing.

     People were crying and screaming. The police officers aimed their weapons towards the swarm of infected bodies.

     The infected reached the fence, trying to pull it down with clawed hands and even their mouths. Some of them attempted to climb the fence with black spindly limbs. More infected clawed at the gate, thrashing and roaring through wide mouths.

     The police opened fire.

     Bodies were ripped open and thrown back into the swarm; others collapsed where they were standing. But those behind the fallen kept coming.

     The refugees headed towards the school. Ralph, Magnus and Joel were herded with the crowd. Ralph turned back to see the battle behind them.

     The infected tore open the gate and skittered over its wreckage. The fence came down with it. They poured into the car park. They closed down the yards between them and the line of police officers, and the line fell as it was breached. Some of the officers turned to run, but were caught and dragged back into grasping hands and jagged sucking mouths.

     Some of the infected had been soldiers.

     The police sergeant fired his handgun into the thrusting mass of infected. He took down a few staggering, grasping bodies. His gun clicked empty. A group of infected brought him down and pinned him. One of them, a young woman no older than twenty with bleached-blonde hair, forced her hand into his mouth and down his throat. The sergeant bit into her arm even as he choked. An infected man buried his face in the sergeant’s groin, and his mouth came away red and dripping. The woman pulled something pink and slippery from the sergeant’s mouth, threw it away and then locked her mouth to his raw lips. The sergeant’s eyes bulged and he tried to scream. He vanished amidst a throng of squirming bodies.

     And then there were no more police.

     The infected came for the refugees.

     They slashed and clawed and used their teeth. They tore at the stragglers at the back of the refugee crowd. They ripped at soft flesh. There were wet tearing sounds and screams of agony and terror. The last sounds of beating hearts. A woman’s scream became a liquid gurgle as her throat was removed by an Asian man with a nest of pale tongues emerging from his dripping, gasping mouth.

     The infected were jackals amongst lambs, tearing through the crowd, snarling and hissing. The air stank of hot blood and slaughter. Screaming faces. Bloated faces deformed to ruin. Rows of teeth too large for their mouths.

     Ralph pushed against the bodies massing around him, crushing him. He grabbed hold of Magnus and Joel. They were buffeted and slammed by flailing arms. Magnus was hit in the face; he cried out, clutching his nose.

     There was no way out of the car park except into the school; otherwise they would have to go through the infected to escape onto the street. Some desperate men and women took this option and were caught before they could reach the fallen fence. They weren’t seen again.

     A man fell against Ralph, and tried to shoulder him out of the way, but Ralph pushed him back. The man was grabbed by a fat infected woman and dragged to the ground. She smothered him like a blubbery sea creature. Ralph turned away, elbowed his way through the crowd with Magnus and Joel behind him. He glanced back to see infected men and women clawing through the crowd of refugees, getting closer. People were dragged away and battened upon.

     Ralph pushed his way to the front of the crowd, trying to get inside the school. There was only one door. The people inside the school were trying to shut the door on those outside. A few men were attempting to keep the door open, wrench it from the hands of those inside. Punches and elbows were thrown. A man spat out his teeth.

     Ralph helped keep the door open. A man from the other side of the doorway tried to scratch out his eyes. Ralph batted away the man’s hand and punched him in the face.

     The infected tore their way through the crowd. The panicking refugees were easy prey. Men and women were turned inside out and flayed; bones were separated from meat.

     Ralph pulled Magnus and Joel with him as he pushed through the doorway, shoving others out of his way. They staggered into a classroom. Chaos. Bodies falling. Children screaming and clutching their mothers.

     “Where do we go?” said Joel.

     “Away from here,” said Ralph. “Anywhere but here.”

     The infected tore through the doorway, into the school. Blood hit the floor and the walls. Ralph felt warmth on the back of his head. He kept pushing through the bodies. A man was clutching his bleeding throat. People pleaded to Ralph. He looked them in the eyes but did not stop for them. He headed for the doorway leading to the corridor.

     He saw Susan Blake sitting in a corner across the room, her eyes closed, embracing her dog.

     He left her there.

     More screams and wails. Some people were too numb with horror to even flee or resist. Their deaths did not come quickly.

     Ralph pulled Joel and Magnus into the corridor. Refugees ran past him in both directions. Some tripped and fell. Not all of them got up. He moved down the corridor.

     “We can escape through the playground,” said Ralph.

     “The playground?” said Magnus, still holding his nose.

     “I think there’s a gate at the back.”

     Ahead of them were people with the same idea.

     Ralph glanced back to see the infected entering the corridor. The rooms behind them were slaughterhouses. No one would come out of them alive. A man was dragged to the floor as he tried to escape. He was buried by a scrum of ragged, slippery bodies.

     They ran out into the playground.

     Ralph stopped. So did Magnus and Joel.

     The infected were in the playground.

     They were killing and feeding.    

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

The school fell to the infected. Frank, Florence and the soldiers had watched it from the street. Frank had seen the refugees overwhelmed and consumed. A slaughter. The screams lasted for a while after the school had been overrun.

     Now they moved along the street. The infected were everywhere.

     “What the fuck took Gawen?” Pike said, flicking his eyes towards the sky. His voice was reedy, uneven. Scared. “What the hell was that thing?”

     “He’s gone,” said Guppy. “Nothing we can do for him now. Focus on your job.”

     “Is it still after us?” Pike’s movements were quick and erratic. He kept muttering under his breath.

     “There’re many things after us tonight, Private.”

     “Very true,” said Frank.

     “Contact!” Sibbick sighted a roaming infected coming towards them. He fired three rounds.

     The infected man flopped to the pavement like a boned fish. 

     “Keep moving,” said Guppy. “We need to get out of Horsham before the bombs hit. Other units will try to regroup outside the town.”

     “Sounds easy,” said Pike. He gunned down a naked woman running at him.

     They moved past dead soldiers. This is where the battle for Horsham had taken place. Frank sensed the soldiers stiffen. There were abandoned checkpoints to the safe zone. Broken barricades and toppled sawhorses. Spent shell casings on the road. An armoured vehicle was burning, throwing light upon the faces of the dead at their feet. 

     Frank slipped in a mush of blood and slick remains. He pulled Florence with him. He would not let her fall behind.

     Burning cars lined the street, painting the houses with the colour of flame. Shapes flitted through the smoke. The soldiers slowed, rifles aimed into the grey haze.

     “Steady, lads,” Guppy muttered. “Steady as you go.”

     An infected man with both arms deformed into tendrils emerged from the smoke. Guppy put him down; two rounds to the chest and one to the head.

     “Did you see his fucking arms?” said Pike. “Mutants. Fucking maniacs.”

     More infected came out of the smoke. Rasping, snapping mouths and grabbing fingers.

     “Check your targets, lads,” Guppy said.

     Sibbick and Pike sighted the approaching infected. Fired. Short bursts. The infected went down.

     Frank kept hold of Florence.

     “Contact!” Pike shouted as a little girl sprinted across the street. He fired. The bullets took her in the chest and throat, and she fell. Pike walked to the girl and stood over her, shaking his head.

     “Fuck’s sake,” said Sibbick. “I hate it when the kids get it.”

     “Oh shit,” said Pike. “Oh shit…”

     “Focus, Private,” said Guppy. “Come on. She’s dead.”

     “I don’t know if she was infected. I’m not sure. I don’t know. Oh fuck, I killed a normal girl. Just a little girl. A little girl...”

     “Get a hold of yourself, Private,” said Guppy. “Breathe.”

     Pike shook his head. “No, Corp. I don’t think she was infected. She wasn’t infected. She was normal.”

     Frank looked down at the dead girl. She was no older than ten years old. The bullets had opened her throat. Her chest was wet and red. No expression on her face. He couldn’t tell if she was infected.

     “Calm down, Pike,” said Guppy. “Calm down, son. It’s okay.”

     “I killed a little girl. It’s all fucked. Everything’s fucked.” Pike started to cry under his mask.

     “It’s okay, mate,” said Sibbick. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

     “Let’s move,” said Guppy. “We’re not safe here.”

     “That’s the point, though, isn’t it?” said Pike. “Nowhere is safe.”

     “This isn’t the time. Not now.”

     Pike ripped off his gas mask, and his face was wet with tears. His mouth trembled. He was just a boy, really. Blonde hair and acne.

     “Put your mask back on, Pike,” said Guppy. “Don’t be silly, lad.”

     “We’re all fucked,” Pike said. “Nearly all of my mates are dead. We’re all gonna fucking die sooner or later. Like Gawen. Like everyone else. Like the lieutenant and Sergeant Baker. Like Matheson and Williams and Boyle. We’re food for the monsters. Either that or we’ll become monsters. There’s no point anymore. We’re fucked.”

     Guppy lunged for the young soldier, but he was too late.

     Pike stuck the rifle barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger. The back of his head exploded. He dropped. Guppy shouted. Sibbick turned away.