Zombie Dawn Outbreak (22 page)

“You bet! I’ve checked all the news sites, video feeds, the lot. The shit has hit the fan right across the world. If we wait much longer we’ll never get out,” he said.

They were interrupted by the flickering of the lights. With just two flashes the lighting in the house was cut. There was a lot of shouting from the group around the band equipment though the music still kept playing. Max and Zack stepped back into the room, wary of what might lurk in the darkness. A shape moved passed them and they both watched it carefully. As their eyes adjusted to the light they noticed it was the drummer, he disappeared into the hallway. Zack looked around, checking for any sign of the zombies. So far it looked like they were okay.

With a flash the lights came back on, the man must have left the room to flick the trip on the consumer unit. There was no sign of him though and this concerned Zack. The man on the microphone shouted over the speakers for the drummer to come back and get in the game.

From the hallway the drummer emerged, but to the shock of Zack and Max he was covered in blood. Taking just a few steps he staggered into the room and then collapsed. One of the women screamed, the rest dropped their instruments and ran over to the wounded man. Max stood in disbelief and finally believed that something bad was really happening. Zack on the other hand ran straight for the door where the drummer had come from. He threw he weight against the door and swung it shut just as a bloodied arm pushed through the gap. He tried to shout to the others for help, but the Saxon song kept on pounding away. The arm waved around trying to grab at Zack. He turned to Max but he was still stood there, doing nothing. Zack waved at him, trying to draw his attention. Finally Max snapped out of it and grabbing the nearest thing he could find, a DVD box set of Dirty Harry films. He ran forward, smashing the box down on the hand. It loosened its hold and the two of them were able to force the door shut.

Zack slid the door’s bolt across, sealing the room, at least for now. Whilst Max stood watching the unfolding scene, Zack ran across the room and pulled the cable on the music. With the sound gone it was replaced by groans from the injured drummer. A large puddle of blood expanded across the floor and it was obvious to most of them that he was going to die. A woman screamed, whilst the others tried to stem the flow of blood from the hurt man. The two, who until now had been sleeping or more likely passed out, were forced awake by the shrill scream. The drummer started to shake, blood spurting from his mouth before finally laying still.

“Fuck!” shouted the Tony, the oldest of the group.

“Is he dead?” screamed the drunken Naomi.

“Of course he’s dead,” shouted Tony, “look at the fucking holes in his body!”

He turned to look at Zack, “Did those fucking zombie things do this?”

Zack backed off, sensing danger from this man.

“Probably, why don’t you look outside?” he suggested.

“Yeah, maybe I will!” he shouted.

Leaving the body of their friend on the ground, Tony walked over to the large bay window that looked overlooked the street. There were two large curtains currently pulled across it to keep passersby from looking in. As the rest of the group continued talking he ripped open the curtains to reveal the full bay window. At every pane of glass was a bloodied and pale face.

“Fuck!” shouted Tony as he stumbled backwards, falling onto his back.

Laura, the woman who had been screaming was hiding in the corner of the room, muttering to herself, obviously scared to death by what she’d seen.

John, one of the men that had being playing the guitar knelt down to the wounded drummer.

“Have you seen this?” he asked.

The rest followed his gaze as he pointed out the wounds on the man. There were what looked like bite and chew marks on his neck, shoulder, waist and arm.

“He was only out there for a few seconds. What animal would attack like that?”

“Look, people!” shouted Zack as loudly as he could.

“I’ve already told you. There’s some kind of outbreak going on and they’re attacking the living. That’s you and me. We can’t stay here. You need to get out of town, that’s what me and Max are doing.”

The door to the hallway started shaking as the creature tried to force its way inside. Tony ran up to the bay window and closed the curtains, covering the windows. He then turned back, giving a forced grin, and moved to the wall socket pulling the plug on the sound system, finally quieting the room.

“I can’t take looking at them anymore,” he said in a matter of fact tone.

With the music now gone they could all hear the hammering and battering sounds from scores or maybe even hundreds of the monsters trying to work their way in.

The glass shattered and the curtains were quickly ripped down. Tony turned to see dozens of the creatures forcing their way through the smashed glass windows. Almost simultaneously the door to the hall ripped open and a number of zombies staggered into the front room. These two groups now surrounded the revellers in the large room. To their front was the smashed bay window, to one side was the broken door to the hallway and at the back of the room was another door that led into the kitchen. Steve, one of the guitarists, tried to escape from the room but was caught by the first zombie in the corridor and thrown up against the wall.

Naomi started screaming again, whilst the others panicked and each doing what they thought was best in the situation. Tony lifted the drum and its cheap metal stand and swung it at the first creatures coming into the room. The other men grabbed the guitar and microphone stand and joined in, smashing and striking at the zombies at the bay window.

“Get this fucking thing off me!” screamed Steve.

Zack and Max attempted to help the man at the wall who was trying to avoid being bitten. As the three struggled with the tall zombie even more poured in from the corridor.

Naomi, still screaming simply drew attention to herself by her noise and was soon dragged down by three zombies. She reached out, grabbing the only item that was on the floor, it was the remote control for the television. She lifted it and swung it hard into the face of one of the zombies. It knocked the creature to the side but it was quickly back and bit into her hand forcing her to drop it. She opened her mouth to cry for help but another zombie climbed over her and bit down into her throat, tearing out a mouthful of flesh. As the blood gushed from the wound she made one final effort to throw the closest one off her, but it was too late. With the massive trauma to her body she passed out and it was probably for the best as more of the zombies joined in the feeding frenzy.

Laura, who was still delirious from whatever she had been drinking or eating previously, staggered to the corridor with a fire poker in her hands that she must have grabbed from the fireplace. She may have been as drunk as Naomi, but she had no intention of simply screaming and then dying. Two more zombies entered the room from the corridor and screaming loudly she rushed at the first one, stabbing hard with the weapon. With little effort the heavy lump of metal smashed into the creature’s chest and impaled it on the door. Even as it lay pinned it kept moving, trying to bite and snap at her. On the shelf next to the door was a lamp. She grabbed it and smashed it hard on the zombie’s head. The lamp smashed into pieces and yet the zombie still wouldn’t die.

“Die, you fuck!” screamed Laura as she grabbed onto the poker and pulled at it. With one final tug she managed to pull it from the zombie’s body and without hesitating she stabbed again but this time at its head. With one swift motion it penetrated the front of the head and smashed out through the rear of the thing’s skull. It collapsed lifelessly in front of her. Another zombie tried to grab her but she ducked under its arms and kicked at its leg. The brittle bone snapped at the knee and it fell to the ground near the skewered zombie.

The final zombie from the corridor staggered towards her. Now seriously pissed off she bent down and placed her boot onto the skewered zombies head. With a tug the poker pulled out. Holding it like a baseball bat she swung the heavy wrought iron tool and managed to strike it in the head, caving in its skulls and dropping it to the ground. The weight and mass of the tool however swung it off to her right and ended up embedded in the wall, narrowly missing Zack and Max in their struggle with the tall zombie. As she tried to retrieve the weapon another zombie appeared and forced her back into the room. She retreated to a small table covered in large potted plants.

Steve was pinned to the wall and was using all his strength to hold off the tall zombie. Every few seconds it snapped its jaws, trying to take chunks out of him. Max, being the bigger and stronger of the two managed to pull it off Steve. As the zombie staggered backwards Zack looked around for a weapon. The closest thing to him was the television unit. It was too big for him to use effectively so he grabbed the next closest thing, the Playstation 3 console sitting on the shelf next to it. Pulling it out of its alcove the cables dropped from the rear. It was about as big as a flattened shoebox and weighed a few kilos. Lifting it above his head he brought it down hard onto the zombie’s head, the creature dropped to its knees. With one more swing he connected with the zombie’s jaw and sent it flying into the television set.

“Bloody hate consoles!” he shouted.

Max grinned at him as he grabbed a world atlas from the bookshelf and smashed it into the face of another. The zombie’s feet came up, almost as though he’d done a wrestling clotheslines move. As it lay on its back Zack stepped in and issued the coup de grace with the console. Back in the front of the room the small group led by Tony were still smashing away with their instruments at the zombies. The guitar was already broken into pieces and one of the zombies lay shaking on the ground with a drum around his head. The group were fighting their way back towards the rear of the house. Laura was armed with what looked like a large terracotta flower pot. She smashed it onto a zombie and then ran, dodging the outstretched arms of at least a dozen zombies to almost reach where Max was stood. With just a few feet to go she tripped over a fallen zombie, landing hard on her left arm. She howled in pain, possibly breaking the arm in the fall.

Looking at the rear of the house Zack could see the path through to the kitchen was clear. It was their only way out as more zombies were forcing their way into the rest of the house.

“Come on!” shouted Zack, though only Max seemed to be paying him any attention.

Zack grabbed the woman’s right arm and started dragging her to the kitchen. Max joined in, desperate to get out of the room that was now swarming with the undead. Zack and Max were already almost at the door to the kitchen before Tony spotted them. One of his friends was dragged down, bitten and torn at by zombies. Lifting up a cushion from the sofa he held it in front of him and simply ran, barging zombies out of the way. One tried to block his path so he thrust the cushion at its face, jamming it inside the creature’s mouth and then punched the cushion repeatedly. With its mouth blocked he was able to smash it back until he could move past it. Steve was still on the floor and seeing the attempted escape quickly got up and chased after Max.

“Hey, where the fuck are you going?” shouted Tony.

Max turned briefly to shout back.

“We said we’re going and we are. Join us or stay here,” he said as he disappeared into the kitchen.

Tony followed and just as he reached the kitchen doorway more glass shattered, revealing yet more of the things making their way into the house. The entire front room was now packed with creatures. Anybody still left was either dead or soon would be. With a last look Tony rushed into the kitchen and slammed the door shut behind him. Inside stood Steve, Laura, Zack and Max, stunned speechless by the recent events.

“Where are the others?” asked Max.

“Gone, they’re all gone,” said a stupefied Tony.

“Look, like I said. If we stay here we’ll die. There are too many of them, we need to get away from people and find somewhere safe. We’re going to The Mall,” said Zack.

“Mall?” asked Steve.

“Yeah, you know, in the retail park, near the cinema,” said Max.

Steve nodded in acknowledgement. The door started shaking, the zombies evidently trying to make their way into the kitchen to finish the job.

“Come on, follow me,” said Zack.

He opened the back door and led the small group out into the back yard. The yard was quite small and had a large eight foot high wall all around it. There was a large shed right at the back and a tree next to it. As they stepped out the exterior light flicked on, alerted by their presence.

“Great,” muttered Tony.

“Won’t that draw more of those things to us?” said Laura, as she pointed at the light.

“No shit!” answered Steve sarcastically.

In the distance the sound of shouting and screaming could be heard, along with the sound of house alarms and the emergency services.

“I told you, this place is going to hell,” said Zack.

He climbed the lowest branch of the tree and lifted himself onto the top of the flat roofed shed. Max followed him and from their raised position they had a much better view of the area. From the shed they could climb down the wall and into the street or they could drop the other side into the neighbour’s garden. Out in the distance Zack could see an orange glow. He concentrated, trying to work out exactly what it was.

“Holy shit!” he exclaimed as he worked out what was going on.

“What?” asked Laura.

“The flats three streets down are on fire and there are people fighting in the street near it,” said Zack.

Max turned back to the other three, gesturing to the wall.

“Look, we’re going to take the lane that way,” he gestured off to his left, “and then over the fence to follow the railway line. We’ll take it till we get to the bridge.”

“And then?” asked Tony.

“Then we’ll be at the retail park and can get supplies and dig in.”

Laura moved to the tree, offering up her hand. Max and Zack helped her up whilst Tony and Steve watched.