British Zombie Breakout: Part Two (4 page)

Janet recognised in the faces of her companions what she had
said was good for morale, so she continued in the same vein. 'I
mean we might be photographed or even on TV when we get out of
here. If we're wearing OEM insignia clothing, it can't do them any
harm, and there'd be a real outcry if they asked us to pay for any
of it.'

'You really think we'll, like, be on TV?'

'We might be interviewed on the news, sort of thing?' Rachel
said, flicking her hair. 'I like the sound of that.'

Alex smiled to herself, thinking there was no way on earth
Rachel would pass up a chance to be on TV. None of them would hear
the last of it.

'When we get back to civilisation, I shall make sure of it!
Now then, what else is there?' She wandered around the little shop
with the others following her. 'Here we are, car blankets, sweat
shirts, biscuits, we should be able to keep warm at
least.'

'There isn't much left in the snack bar, I'm afraid, mum,'
Steve said. 'We ate most of it earlier.'

Janet looked around the group of kids. 'How can you be hungry
after all those pies?'

'Mum, that was hours ago.'

'Like it feels that way,' Maisie said.

'I think it's all the danger makes you hungry.'

Janet turned to her friends. None of them looked as if they
were about to disagree.

'Don't worry, there's more here in the shop, shortbread and
toffees, probably chocolate bars.'

'I'm dying for a coffee,' Karen said, 'What about you, Bill?'
she said, squeezing her husband's arm.

He nodded. 'Me too. I can't believe how long it seems since we
all met up on the quay this morning after the klaxon went
off.'

'Samuel's office,' Janet said, 'if I know my partner, and I
believe I do. He's got a kettle and some instant coffee up
there.'

'I'll go and make a start,' Karen said.

'And when we've all had something to eat and drink, I suggest
we make ourselves as comfortable as possible and settle down for an
early night, OK?'

Chapter
8: Flying Zombie

The Victorian benefactor who had rebuilt the castle had
shutters fitted to all the windows for no reason other than he
liked the idea. They certainly weren't there originally. Old
English Monuments hadn't been able to present sufficient reason to
justify the expense of having them removed, so they had stayed and
they were now what would prevent anyone, even someone aboard an
army helicopter, from knowing the survivors were inside. As soon as
the band of survivors felt secure, more candles were placed to
provide light at strategic places, like the stairwell.

After each had taken a turn in the facilities available on the
ground floor and chosen a fleecy top to wear for extra warmth in a
size and colour appropriate to their liking, the group met in
Samuel's top floor office. Karen handed round coffees to those who
wanted them and a box of Turkish delight and two packets of
shortbread were consumed with unreserved enthusiasm.

'Mum, I know you said about us getting an early night but I'd
like to do the work on converting the torch because we might not
get another chance and it would be incredibly useful to be able to
detect zombie blood.'

'How long will it take?'

'Only about half an hour, with any luck.'

Maisie yawned loudly and Steve gave her a reproachful look.
'Oh sorry, I'm not like tired really, just
y'know…bored.'

Alex knew if Maisie felt half of what she did, rather than
boredom, it was more a sense of relief to be somewhere reasonably
secure.

'All right,' Janet said to Steve, 'but be as quick as you can.
Graham, would you like to keep an eye on him?'

Steve had emptied the bits and pieces from the DT room onto
the desk and found that in his haste he had scooped up one of the
soldering irons, which, now that the power was back on, he could
plug in to convert the torch. He quickly determined by burning out
three of the LEDs that the best arrangement for the voltage
supplied by the battery was a series-parallel one. Graham watched
with interest as Steve connected the LEDs, so that the normal white
beam was activated by the main switch and the UV set was activated
by the flash button.

'I can't wait to test it,' Steve said when it was
completed.

'Come on then,' Janet said with a smile. She and Graham
accompanied him down to the courtyard and across to the main gate
where the portcullis had trapped three of the zombies when the
teenagers made their perilous escape earlier. They saw that the
vertical gate must have been levered up by the army and the mangled
zombie carcasses had been removed. An acrid smell of decontaminant
chemicals was strongly evident. They each watched as Steve
depressed the flash button on the torch. For an instant a wan
violet light shone over the heavy black bars of the portcullis.
Immediately visible were splashes of zombie blood, fluorescing
vivid green where the army personnel hadn't sprayed enough
decontaminant.

'Wow, did you see that?' Steve said in an excited
whisper.

'Works perfectly,' Janet said, giving Steve a squeeze. 'I can
see how close it was now; you are such a hero rescuing the other
kids. Come on, let's go back into the courtyard, being out here
gives me the creeps.'

'Aw mum,' Steve said, not making it clear whether he was
objecting to his mother's show of affection or her having the
creeps.

Once safely back inside the keep, Steve put the torch away in
his bag, together with the spare components.

'I wouldn't mind taking a look from the ramparts,' Alex
said.

'Not for me, thanks,' Graham said.

'Well I'd like a look round before turning in,' Janet said.
'Anyone else?'

Alex wasn't surprised to see that Rachel and Maisie had no
intention of going outside.

In cautious silence Janet, Sarah, Bill, Steve and Alex climbed
the stone staircase onto the ramparts to see what there was to see.
They were careful to keep the moon to the side of them, so that
they didn't cast a shadow or form a silhouette which might be seen
from below. From the castle walls, they saw that floodlights had
been set up all along the quay down in the harbour and the bulky
figures of armed personnel striding back and forth. Mounted on the
back of an army lorry, a searchlight flicked on and beamed across
the village, showing wisps of smoke escaping from the still
smouldering piles of rubble which were all that remained of a
number of shops and houses. Less than half a minute later it was
switched off again.

'I notice the Black Lion pub's still standing next to the
marketplace, there,' Bill said.

'Yes, I wonder if any pints of their best hand-pulled ale
'evaporated' this evening,' Janet said.

'I'm sure drinking on duty isn't permitted.'

'Maybe not, but not all of them will be on duty all of the
time.'

The yellowish glow from the floodlights cast an eerie light
over the harbour and a little way into the village. A vehicle's
headlights swung into view at the top end of the cliff road and
began a steady crawl down the steep hill into the
village.

Janet was about to suggest they went back to the keep when a
large, white shape swept overhead from behind the onlookers and
glided down in a wide circle. It gave a series of piercing
screeches as it swooped over the short section of Castle Mount
before it became Academy Row, where it turned past the school and
then on into the town half a mile further on. At the second
screech, a dozen shots were fired. Alex saw flame shoot from the
end of a gun and ducked in terror with the others. Bullets could be
heard slamming into the castle wall somewhere below.

'That soldier's a maniac,' Bill said in a hushed voice. He had
ducked down as soon as the creature flew up and surprised
them.

The soldier's radio carried clearly through the darkness,
which was cut in two by the beam of the searchlight playing over
the castle walls. There was some indistinct shouting and a truck
engine started up somewhere further off.

'
Michaels, is that
you?
'

'Here sarge,' sounded the voice of the soldier Bill and Graham
had so narrowly escaped from earlier in the evening.

'
I hope you didn't hit that
thing?
'

'What thing sarge, the flying zombie?'

'
Flying zombie my backside! That was
a barn owl and it's a protected species.
'

'But you said to shoot first and ask questions afterwards and
it screamed just like you said.'

'
Screeched. I'm patrolling the
marketplace, so I heard it myself.'

'Can't have been an owl it was white and really big. Right
over the top of me it was.'

'
Screech owl some people call 'em.
That noise they make is on the telly in all those
murder-mysteries.
'

'Don't watch 'em.'

'
Never mind, stop firing off random
rounds. Bert's coming up to relieve you in half an hour. Think you
can behave yourself 'til then?
'

'Yeah sarge,' The soldier replied in a weary voice.

Chapter
9: Texts

'What was all that shooting about?' Karen said, her face
looking white and drawn. She reached out a trembling hand and
pulled Bill in through the door to the keep.

'An owl flew over and gave us all a fright,' Janet said,
'including the soldier who likes to shoot at everything. We heard
him talking to his sergeant on the radio.'

'He told his sergeant it was a flying zombie!' Bill said.
'Real city boy, that one.'

It looked like Janet's plan for an early night was going to
founder again because before she could open her mouth, Maisy's
phone chimed. And before Maisie could say the word 'text', Alex's
and Rita's phone each produced their chosen text melodies. There
had been such a succession of events, everyone had forgotten the
cell tower was operating once more.

'It's my mum, and she's OK,' Maisie said, waving her phone
like a flag.

Within five minutes every phone had received at least one text
and there were tears all round as they realised mums and dads and
other close relatives were safe. Most were in Buntinton, Samuel had
sent his text from a hotel in Colesford forty miles away, and Bill
and Karen's daughter had sent a worried-sounding text from her home
in the north of England.

Funny how they came through all together,' Alex said almost
beside herself with joy at a text she'd received from her mother on
her father's phone.

'Well,' Graham said, 'it makes me suspicious.'

'What do you mean by that?' Bill said.

'Yes,' Sarah said, 'how can it be suspicious?'

'The cell tower has been working since around the time we left
the school when the rocket blew the klaxon off the clock
tower.'

'Yes, so?'

'Well, everyone we know must have been worrying about us and
sent texts hours ago.'

'And…'

'And so they didn't get through because the authorities didn't
allow the networks to relay the messages until they knew we were
all missing.'

Alex began thumbing in a reply to her mother, saying where
they were but Steve leapt forward and cancelled the text just as
she was about to send it.

Alex, close to the end of her tether, barely contained herself
from screaming. 'Why did you do that?'

'Graham's right, isn't he?' Steve said. 'This is what they
want. If we reply, it'll give away our position.'

'It's lucky there's only one cell tower in range,' Graham
said, 'otherwise they might be able to work out where we are by
what other towers our phones log into. As it is, they may work out
we're still in Kilkorne because it's the only tower we're in
contact with.'

'OK,' Janet said, 'it's probably best if we switch the phones
off anyway. I don't imagine a single one of us has brought a phone
charger with them.'

With reluctance, the others either mumbled or nodded their
assent, and phones were switched off.

'Right, let's settle down for the night. We've had quite
enough excitement in my opinion.'

'Girls up here with us?' Karen said.

'Us chaps will take the museum on the floor below, then,'
Graham said.

Graham woke at around two a.m., knowing that, although he'd
only managed four hours sleep, he was too wide awake to go back to
it. He lay still for a while, trying to think what had roused him.
Bill, Fred and Steve were still fast asleep. It wasn't just the
hardness of the floorboards in the museum, mitigated to only a
small extent by the few cushions they had found, something was
nagging at the back of his mind. His thoughts were circling around
how they might be able to get away from Kilkorne altogether. They
could try and walk out but it was over a mile to the other side of
the village from the school; and what would await them after that,
other than getting caught? No, they needed some sort of transport.
There was the grocer's delivery van but he could see them getting
stopped instantly if they tried to drive out in broad daylight.
That only left driving out at night. But how to get away without
alerting whichever soldier was on duty halfway up Academy Row,
between the school and the castle?