Endurance: Apocalypse (The Endurance Series Book 2) (2 page)

She yanked his head off and dangled it in front of her face for a moment and then she tossed it down the train.

Danni stood, ran to the door and pulled the doors apart. She stepped out onto the tracks and ran for an exit.

Danni entered the station, the breeze was the only sound, eerily howling through the underground; the station was deserted. She ran up the escalators and stood at the top of Waterloo station. Staring along the station she saw corpses scattered across the ground. Splattered and smudged blood decorated Waterloo. The screams from outside echoed through the station, the occasional explosion vibrated under Danni’s feet, moving balls of dust across the ground.

Danni looked to an odd wooden platform which stood below the Waterloo clock.

‘What the fuck?’ Danni mumbled.

Voices sounded out from the left. Danni decided to run out of the station and onto the bridge.

As Danni stood in the middle of the bridge, she looked over to the London Eye which appeared perfectly normal on the late summer afternoon, but the roads beneath were something else.

Cars were overturned and ablaze. Some buildings had gaping holes in their sides, revealing women and men inside pushing themselves against the walls, crying.

Danni heard a loud whirring sound behind her. As she turned, she saw the black, menacing machines crawling through the sky; weaving past the distant buildings.

Without too much hesitation, Danni ran towards the footbridge. As she reached the steps, the bridge collapsed, causing the steps to sway from side to side, throwing Danni to the ground. She landed on her back again. She landed awkwardly; it felt like someone had hit her back with a bat which sank below the skin and jabbed her spine, it took her breath away as she rolled on the ground, groaning.

She watched the machines shoot at the running people who were flipped into the air.

A car drove at speed through the wreckage. As Danni looked up from the ground, she saw a man driving with two toddlers in the back and his wife shouting and screaming inside. The man was driving recklessly, knocking into innocent people and swerving past the overturned cars and chunks of rubble. As he drove, he turned to his kids; he failed to see a woman pushing her pram into the road in a panic. The woman had a bloody wound to her head, she wandered into the road, confused and disorientated. She paused in the middle of the road. Danni stood up and shouted, ‘Get off the road!’ 

The driver saw her and tried avoid the woman and pram. His car mounted the kerb and flipped. It landed back on its wheels and he continued to drive it until the black machine blasted the car into flames. Danni was hit by the hot air from the blast, forcing her to cower on the ground, covering her face. After the explosion, Danni looked away from the sky and back to the road. The car was ablaze and the woman and her pram had disappeared.

‘Shit,’ Danni said.

She looked around for a moment and spotted the pram on its side; the top of it was alight.

Danni ran over to the pram. As she reached it, she knelt down and tried to pat the fire out.

‘Save her.’ Danni heard a quiet voice whisper. She turned to see the woman, scorched and almost unrecognisable, reaching out to her. ‘Save my baby, please!’

Danni looked into the pram and saw a small and piteous figure; the skin was mostly black with only streaks of pink. Danni turned and retched. One moment she was on the underground and the next she was in the street staring at a dead baby.

She looked back to the woman; as Danni leaned over to help her off the ground, she realised that the woman was no longer breathing. Her eyes were shut, her arm still stretched towards the pram.

Danni stood up and called “Home” from the contacts on her phone.

The phone buzzed three times and Danni’s nephew Jerome answered with: ‘Hello.’

‘Hello baby it’s Auntie Danni, can you pass the phone to mummy or daddy?’

‘Yeah,’ he said. 

‘Danni?’ a female voice said.

‘Sadie pack up your stuff, we have to leave the house and get out of central London. It’s happening’

‘Okay.’ Sadie said.

‘I’ll be there in a minute.’ Danni said as she hung up.

Danni sprinted, there were occasional explosions around her and bullets flew by, nearly hitting her, making her flinch and dodge as she ran.

She hid whenever she saw people running. It didn’t matter whether they were being chased or not, she didn’t want to chance being spotted by infected humans.

As she ran, Danni watched scared civilians around her. Her ears rang, her mind shut down into a trance. She lost the feeling in her feet and legs as she ran, her ragged breathing was no longer noticed. She saw the infected humans beating people. They seemed a little different.

How did this all happen?
Danni thought to herself.

As Danni concentrated on her surroundings, she was barged to the ground; jolted back to normal consciousness. Her head hit the ground, dazing her. As she looked up, she saw a pair of bloodshot eyes staring at her. Her sight regained normality and as it did, she lifted her leg up and kicked her attacker in the face. She pushed herself off the ground and the infected man launched himself at her again. She punched him in the face, to no effect. He swung his arms wildly at her, she ducked and turned like a professional boxer, avoiding each punch until his swings slowed and weakened, making it possible for Danni to grapple his arm. She held his wrists and pushed up on his elbow, a sharp crack announced it had been broken. She stamped on his ankle till that snapped and then she broke his neck with a more satisfying third crack.

She reached her house at a dead run. Danni’s Sister Sadie, Sadie’s son, Jerome and their mum, Lynne stood outside waiting.

‘Why would you wait out here? You could have been killed!’ Danni shouted.

‘We didn’t know what to do.’ Lynne said with a shaky voice.

‘I know, sorry mum.’ Danni said. ‘I would hug you but I’m covered in blood.’

‘What’s going on?’ Sadie asked Danni.

‘It’s happening. You know? What me and Dad went through. It isn’t a trial run this time, this is real. We need to move out of the centre of London.’

‘Why not just away from London?’ Lynne said.

‘We wouldn’t make it, we would be killed; we’re all vulnerable on the move so we can’t go too far and…’ Danni paused and stared into the sky in front of her, prompting Lynne and Sadie to turn too. ‘Shit where’s Carl, Sadie?’

‘He’s inside, why?’

‘Cause we can’t go anywhere yet, we need to get into the basement, now.’

Danni turned and picked up the two rucksacks that Lynne packed.

‘Get to the basement, I’ll get Carl!’ Danni shouted.

Lynne ran back to the house and Sadie picked up Jerome and followed Lynne.

Danni ran into the house shouting for Carl. ‘Yes?’ Danni heard him answer upstairs.

‘Get down here; we need to go to the basement right now!’

She heard his heavy footsteps from above, across the landing and then coming down the stairs. Carl’s blonde hair was a mess, as was his beard.

‘We need to get down there right now!’ Danni said.

‘Where’s Sadie and Jerome?’

‘They’re already down there, let’s go.’

They ran to the door under the stairs which led to the basement. Carl ran down first and as he did, Danni watched as bullets pierced through the walls and shattered windows. Pieces of the sofa exploded up and fluff floated in the air like snow. The wooden front door was shattered, splinters flying everywhere. One bullet skimmed Danni’s shoulder. She screamed out in pain and clutched the wound. She followed Carl and ran down into the basement.

Danni reached the basement where Sadie, Carl and Jerome were hugging; Lynne was shaking.

Still holding her shoulder, Danni walked over to her mum and kissed her on the head. Lynne looked up and gawped at the blood on Danni and her shoulder.

‘Oh my God, darling.’ Lynne said.

‘It’s fine mum, just help me treat and dress it.’

Dust fell from the ceiling and the basement shook.

Lynne ran over to a wooden cabinet and pulled out a medical kit, she tipped the cabinet over, smashing it on the floor. She knelt down and picked out a bottle of vodka.

Danni, Sadie, Carl and Jerome looked over to Lynne confused as to why there was vodka behind the cabinet.

‘I know Graham too well.’ Lynne laughed, the others laughed too until they were knocked off their feet by another explosion.

‘Stay down.’ Carl shouted; his voice was drowned out by blasts.

They listened to the explosions above; they began in the distance but suddenly moved to a position right above them. Jerome clamped his hands over his ears and dust fell through the floorboards, covering them all.

The explosions moved away again and Danni sat up.

‘It’s okay, we’re okay now.’

Everybody sat up except Lynne who went towards Danni in a crouched position.

‘This will help darling,’ Lynne said, gently stroking around the wound.

Lynne opened the medical kit and picked out bandaging, bacterial wipes and tape.

‘Lay down for a minute and hold still.’ Lynne said as she undid the vodka bottle.

Lynne placed the cap next to her knee and slowly poured vodka on Danni’s wound. Her arm flinched and Danni groaned.

‘Fuck!’ she said, then, ‘Sorry Jerome.’

Jerome laughed and said, ‘Don’t worry auntie Danni.’

‘Don’t use that naughty language, ever Jerome.’ Lynne said.

Lynne poured more vodka onto the wound; Danni clenched her fist and pressed her clenched fist to her forehead, making a knuckle imprint.

‘That should do.’ Lynne said, squeezing Danni’s good shoulder gently. She then took an anti-bacterial wipe and swabbed Danni’s shoulder around the wound.

‘Luckily it’s only a scrape, you were lucky.’

‘I’ve been lucky too many times; one day…’

‘Don’t talk like that.’ Lynne interrupted.

As Lynne continued to clean Danni’s shoulder, arm and wound, Carl asked, ‘So what now?’

‘We wait I guess?’ Sadie said.

‘We move.’ Danni said. ‘As soon as I’m bandaged up, we get out of here. We have to keep moving so we aren’t an easy target.’

‘Surely moving will make us an easy target?’ Carl retorted.

‘No, if we stay here, they’ll know where we are, they’ll know we’re down here and they’ll come and get us.’ Danni said.

‘How do you know?’ Carl asked.

‘Carl, really?’ Sadie rolled her eyes. ‘Danni knows how to survive this better than any of us.’

‘Yeah but this is real life now, this is actually happening in a real place to real people.’

Danni stood up and her bandage peeled away from her arm. She walked up to Carl who quickly stood up. Danni grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.

‘What the fuck did you just say? Was Tom not a real person then? Did he deserve to die, did I deserve to die? Is that what you’re saying?’

‘He didn’t mean that at all darling.’ Lynne said.

‘Can’t you talk?’ Danni spat at Carl’s face.

‘I didn’t mean that, I just meant it’s actually happening now, maybe it was set up for you to survive and for…’

‘Shut the fuck up! Me and Tom had to fight for survival. If you were in the replica you would have been killed within the first few seconds you stupid, scrawny prick!’ Danni shouted and she threw him aside.

Carl despondently looked to Danni and back to Sadie. Sadie shook her head and Jerome stared at Danni.

‘You all have a choice. You can stay here and hide, or you can come with me.’ Silence filled the room as everybody stared at the ground.

‘If you come with me, you will be expected to fight. You will be in danger. I will do my best to protect you. I will teach you to fight and how to fire a gun.’

Silence again. Danni stared at the four of them they looked tired already.

‘Come on!’ Danni shouted. ‘We aren’t dead yet.’

‘Of course we’re with you.’ Lynne said and everybody nodded.

‘Good.’ Danni said with a grim smile. ‘I need to teach you all a few things. We’ll do it quickly here and then we’ll move.’

‘Where are we going Auntie Dan?’ Jerome asked.

Danni knelt down to Jerome and patted his head. ‘We’re going to a friend’s house. He’ll be able to help us.’

‘Who’s that then?’ Carl asked.

‘Flynn, he’s an ex-army veteran.’

‘How old is he Danni?’ Lyne asked.

‘He’s about my age mum.’ Danni answered, confused.

‘I was wondering if he was old.’ Lynne said, reacting to Danni’s facial expression and tone of voice. 

‘Right, well when I’m bandaged up, I’ll find dad’s old pistols for mum and Sadie to practice shooting.  Can you shoot, Carl?’

‘Not well.’ Carl said.

‘Okay I’ll teach you too.’

‘Can you teach me?’ Jerome asked.