British Zombie Breakout: Part Two (3 page)

Graham shoved him down into the ditch beside the road just as
a shot whined past into the hedge.

'Oi! Who goes there?' Another shot whistled past and a torch
lit up the hedge. For a few seconds the beam swept to and fro. Then
the torch went out and a voice spoke into a radio.

'Sarge, you still down by the 'arbour?'

'
Yeah, what's going on up
there?
'

'Dunno, I 'eard summat.'

'
Yeah, we can all hear things. Was
it you or someone else firing off rounds? Sounded like it was by
the castle.
'

'Yeah, it was me sarge. I 'eard summat. Summat made a noise in
the 'edge opposite.'

'
Did anything
scream?
'

'No, sarge,'

'
Well, it's probably not zombies,
then. Animal most likely. Go and have a proper
look.
'

Graham felt his hair stand on end. He pushed Bill forward,
pointing to a gap in the hedge, relieved the soldier hadn't kept
the torch switched on.

'Quick, through there,' he said in whisper, 'be quiet.' He
picked up a pebble and threw it as far as he could back the way
they'd come.

A volley of shots followed the sound of the stone landing in
the hedge, sparks flew up from the road and the torch beam swooped
to the gate.

'There's a gate, sarge, I 'eard summat, like
movin'.'

'
Was that you shooting again? What
can you see?
'

'Nothin' yet.' The soldier's heavy boots crunched across the
road and the torch beam bobbed as he ran towards the gate fifty
yards from Bill and Graham.

Graham lay hardly breathing in the bottom of the ditch while
Bill eased himself through the hole in the hedge. Between the
branches, he could see the soldier's torch beam flicking back and
forth across the field. The instant Bill's feet disappeared, Graham
squeezed through to the other side and kept perfectly
still.

'Alright, I checked the gate and the field but there in't
nothin'.'

The torch lit up Castle Mount and back down the other side of
the road, illuminating the fronts of houses and garden walls.
Meanwhile, Bill and Graham crawled as fast as they could into the
woods.

'Still can't see nothin', sarge.'

'
Good. It'll have been a cat or a
badger or something. It's zombies and stray locals we're after. Now
get back to your post.
'

The soldier shivered as he crossed back to his doorway. 'It's
not true what the ovver lads bin saying about zombie dogs, is
it?'

'
Nah, pull yourself together and
stop wasting ammo.
'

Chapter
6:
Return to Castle Mount

There was a quarter moon, which gave just enough light to see
by in the DT room. Steve connected up a set of bulbs to a portable
battery pack. While it was still light enough to see, he'd tried
all six soldering irons before realising the reason they didn't
work was the power was still off. Instead he found a box of
solderless connecting clips to join up the LEDs when the torch
arrived.

'Stevie, what are you doing. It's not safe to have lights on
in here. Switch them off at once and come back to the
canteen.'

'Sorry mum.'

'Didn't you hear the shots being fired up the
road?'

'Oh, yeah, what was that?'

'It was Graham and Bill getting shot at, that's
what!'

'Are they back alright, mum?'

'Yes but it doesn't feel very safe here.'

'We could go back to the castle, through the
tunnel.'

'OK, come back to the canteen and we'll see what the others
say.'

'I'll just scoop up the stuff I need for the
torch.'

'I think we should drive out the first chance we get,' Bill
said. 'The longer we hang around the village, the more chance of
getting caught.'

'Now it's dark, we've no idea who we'll run into either in the
village or beyond. You heard what the Ministry was telling the army
about how many zombies got out.'

'It'd be easier to get out at night, as there's only one road
out of here, up the old cliff road. Have to do it without
headlights, though.'

'Sounds like a recipe for driving off the edge up
there.'

'We could get in behind an army truck with our lights off,
following theirs.'

'What about road blocks?'

'Not heard any coms traffic about road blocks. I get the
impression the zombies are on foot.'

'We've got the rest of the night to think about driving out,'
Janet said. I just don't feel at all secure here. Steve had the
idea of going back to the castle.'

'How's that go then, lad?'

A noise from the kitchen startled everyone. Bill ran round,
his revolver at the ready.

'It's OK, it's just the fridge and freezer coming back on,
they must have re-connected the power. At the same time everyone's
phone beeped and showed a signal.

'Cell tower's back up, too,' Alex said.

Meanwhile, the klaxon on the school tower stuttered a few
times, then began to wind up, faltered, stopped, started again,
kept going. Everyone winced; so loud, it was the most awful sound,
especially as everyone knew by instinct that it only started up for
dire emergencies.

'Oh no! That's going to bring all the soldiers down on
us.'

'Quick, all of you, out the back and into the woods,' Janet
said in her 'get that boat out of here' voice.

With the klaxon blasting through the night and the little
light flashing above it, the band of survivors hurried out of the
back door of the canteen. A loud whoosh caught them all by
surprise. It was immediately followed by an explosion and a shower
of flame and sparks as the top of the clock tower disintegrated.
Shrapnel shattered tiles on what remained of the school roofs and
smashed another window somewhere. The sound of the klaxon died into
the echoes of the explosion which left everyone's ears ringing and
their vision with black spots. Distant cheers and sounds of
laughter filtered through the night air from the
village.

'Crikey, someone's been keeping up with his target practice,'
Bill said.

'Laser-sighted,' Alex said. 'I saw the red spot on the clock
face just before it was hit.'

'Well,' Janet said. 'I think that's decided it for us. We go
straight to the castle. With the portcullis down the army can't get
in, so we should be safe until we decide what to do
next.'

'Makes sense,' Graham said. No-one disagreed.

'Have you all got your bags and coats?'

'Mine are, like back in the canteen,' Maisie said.

'And mine,' Rachel, Sarah and Steve said.

'OK, go and get them quickly. Steve, did you bring the
components to convert the torch?'

'Oh, yeah, the torch,' Bill said.

Janet rolled her eyes. 'The soldiers might still pay the
school a visit. Hurry up and don't leave anything
behind.'

Five minutes later they were deep in the wood, heading towards
the field below the castle.

'You think that soldier's still hanging around on Academy
Row?' Bill said.

'How should I know?' Graham said.

Rachel cursed as a low branch caught at her hair.

'Quiet!' Janet hissed.

'Can't we use the torch, Mrs Reynolds?'

'Not unless you want to be shot at,' Graham said, still wary
after his earlier encounter with the soldier.

'Or they lob over another RPG, like the one that took the
clock tower out,' Alex said.

Janet put up her hands and stopped everyone. 'Listen, this is
life or death here,' she said in cold quiet voice. 'No-one speaks
until we get inside that tunnel, understand.'

There was no reply, so she turned and led the way, skirting
the edge of the field, until they were under cover of the bushes
concealing the way into the tunnel under the moat. Half way there
they had all thrown themselves flat to the ground as an owl swooped
low, calling loudly and a shot fired from Academy Row rang out
across the sky above the meadow.

'Looks like that trigger happy soldier is still around,'
Graham said once they were safely through the door and inside the
tunnel itself, with the door locked behind them.

'Which is exactly why we take every possible precaution from
now on,' Janet said. 'This is not a school holiday.'

'I brought the sword back in, too,' Fred said, trying to sound
helpful.

'Well done, it might have been a bit of a give-away if a
soldier had been snooping around later and found it.'

Chapter
7: The Trick With The Stone

As the party approached the door leading into the barrel
shaped dungeon, Janet whispered to Steve to turn off the
torch.

'Why's that, mum?'

'Think about it.'

'Well, OK, the torch is pretty powerful and if it gets waved
around while pointing up in the air, it'll be seen from right
across the valley?'

'Yes, very true and?'

'Someone else might be, like, up there already,
miss?'

'Very good, Maisie.'

'The castle is a great vantage point …' Steve said.

'Exactly.'

'But mum, no-one can get in.'

'The army's pretty resourceful. If they wanted to get in
there's plenty of ways, including lowering someone down to keep
guard, using a helicopter.'

'We haven't heard any helicopters since this
afternoon.'

'No but I'm sure they have other ways.'

'Even simple stuff, like ladders or ropes and grappling
hooks,' Alex said.

'Please Mrs Reynolds, we don't have to stay down here all
night do we?' Rachel said.

'Graham's got a pretty good trick with a stone,' Bill
said.

'What's that?'

'I could climb up the ladder and throw a stone as far away as
possible. When it lands if there's anyone up there, they'll fire at
it or at least shine a torch in that direction.'

'OK, do it. But please, be careful!'

Sarah grabbed Graham's arm and hugged him. 'Just don't let
anyone see you.'

Steven switched the torch on inside his bag, so there was just
enough light for Graham to find the ladder. Once he was there,
Steven turned the torch back off, leaving the rest of them in
almost total darkness. All they could see was the rectangular hole
of the trapdoor into the tower. They could hear faint creaks of his
feet on the ladder and then saw his fleeting silhouette at the
trapdoor.

It seemed to take forever for Graham to do his stone throwing
thing. Alex found herself gnawing at her knuckle in anticipation of
a series of shots ringing out. The others fidgeted and sighed by
turn.

Finally, Graham's voice called softly from above, 'OK, I've
thrown small stones all around the place and nothing's happened, so
I think we're OK.'

Rachel jumped up and down and let out a little
yelp.

'Shh,' Karen said. 'There are still soldiers around on Castle
Mount outside. If we make too much noise they'll hear
us.'

'That's right,' Janet said. 'Come on. Kids go up first. Don't
go out of the tower though.'

Once they'd all assembled in the base of the east tower, and
the trapdoor shut so none of them could fall down in the darkness,
Janet held a conference.

'OK, we can't go putting the lights on in the keep but that
has got to be the best place to be. There's just enough moonlight
for us to see our way to get inside, then try and find another
light source so we can save the torch battery.'

'Good point,' Graham said.'

'There're candles for sale in the shop, aren't there,' Fred
said.

'Oh, yes, but we need to get all the blinds and shutters
closed before we can use them.'

'Why can't we like use the electric lights?'

'They'll be too bright. I'd rather stick to candles. Remember
now, complete silence.'

Janet supervised rolling the blinds down in front of each
window, then carefully closing the wooden shutters, which were
mounted on the inside of each window. They had to be moved slowly
in case any of the hinges squeaked. Eventually, they had the place
shut up tight and were able to light a couple of candles in the
shop.

'What will Old English Monuments say about us using all the
stock, Mrs Reynolds,' Alex said.

'Samuel hasn't exactly found the place awash with visitors
since the devastating effect on the population of the first
outbreak. What I think is, assuming we all get out of this alive,
Old English Monuments might actually welcome the
publicity.'