The Common Cold (Book 2): A Zombie Chronicle-Cabin Fever (21 page)

“Aim for the head, Sam,” he said instead. The second shot
hit dead centre of the same man’s forehead. Beginner’s luck, Danny thought, still
feeling a small sense of pride in the boy’s success. Danny took out the middle
zombie and Sam fired again, tearing the final one’s throat. It kept on coming,
getting too close for comfort. Rob took it out.

“Nice one, Sam,” Tom said. “Where did you get the gun?”

“I found it,” he replied enigmatically.

“Where?” he pressed the boy a little
harder for the truth.

“I got it from Cliff,” he replied. Tom looked at Danny and
shrugged his shoulders questioningly.

“Did Cliff give it to you?” Danny asked, trying to avoid sounding
like an angry adult.

“Yes,” the boy hesitated. “No. I took it from his bag.”

“Oh, Sam,” Danny said. “I was going to show you how to use
one and give you your own. You didn’t need to take one.”

“It was after Cliff left us,” Sam protested. “He left his
bag behind.”

Danny had walked up to him and put his hand on the boy’s
shoulder. “It still wasn’t yours to take. We might be going through a difficult
time but some stuff still belongs to others.”

Sam held the gun out for Danny to take back.

“No. You keep it. Just make sure it is safe. If everything
is okay tomorrow I’ll show you how to shoot it properly and protect your sister.
I did promise you, remember?”

Sam nodded and smiled. He put the gun back in his coat
pocket.

“Let’s get this show on the road,” Tom announced, revving up
the now warm diesel engine.

“You bet,” Rob replied. “Are you going to drive this thing
back to the cabin?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan.”

“Okay. You head off and we’ll follow in the truck. I’m sure
we can catch up to you; I don’t imagine that thing is exactly fast.”

“We’ll see, shall we?” Tom put it in gear and headed out the
main door, driving over two of the bodies before disappearing down the road.
Rob pressed the Close button and the door clacked noisily back down.

“Come on guys,” Rob said. “Let’s get our asses back in the
truck and follow Tom.”

Together they rushed back outside and secured the building doors.
Sam, Oskar and Sandy climbed in the back. Before Rob joined them he turned to
Danny.

“Three for three, did you see that?” he said, a little in
awe.

“I know,” Danny replied. “Probably fluke but part of me
wanted to hug him with pride; the other part was a little frightened that he’s
stolen it. But I guess the survival instinct starts young.”

“What can you do, eh? It’s the dodgy crowd he mixes with,
isn’t it?” Rob said, smiling and climbed into the back of the truck. Danny got
in the front, noticing Janet was in the driver’s seat.

“My turn!
I want to try out a
left-hand drive, see what it feels like.”

“Sure babe.”

*

Gunning the engine, Janet slewed around the corner on the
snow and went in pursuit of the tractor. It was faster than they’d anticipated
as Tom was now more than a hundred yards ahead already. Rob sat between the dog
and Sam; he was still concerned that the dog might turn as it must have ingested
some of the foetid creature. He had seen the way the wild cat had looked after
it was killed. Although it didn’t seem to have turned - it was still warm - it
did seem to have a lack of fear of groups of armed humans, behaviour not particularly
normal for its kind. Rob prayed he was wrong; he really liked the animal, it
had a way about it that was different from other dogs he had owned in his life.
Perhaps it was a greyhound thing.

Janet easily caught up with the tractor and settled down to follow
it all the way back; everyone began to relax now they were in the truck. A
shout interrupted their thoughts.

“Guys!”
Rob shouted through the
communications window to the cab. “We have a big problem. I know why the
streets were empty in Denver.”

“What is it?” Janet called back, keeping her eyes on the
road. She glanced in the rear view mirror to her left and saw. “Oh, bloody
hell!”

“That’s an understatement, Janet,” Rob replied. “Looks like
there’s thousands of the bastards
chasing us!”

Danny peered in the mirror on his side and saw the problem.
“Oh, fuck me,” he muttered as his blood ran cold. A mass of the Infected was
running along behind them, some struggling to keep up while others, behaving
like sheepdogs, marshalled them into a single group and forced them in the
right direction.

“God damn it!” Janet cried. “They’re catching us up.” Danny
saw it too. The bloody things were running really fast. This shouldn’t be
happening.

“Tom needs to get into the truck,” Janet said. “That tractor
just isn’t fast enough.”

She hit the horn, attracting Tom’s attention. Tom turned
around and immediately saw the problem. Danny signed for him to come alongside
and get on board. Veering off to the side of the road and pulling back on his
speed, Tom quickly fell back arriving next to the truck. Grabbing hold of the
cage supporting the canvas sides he leapt off the tractor and clung on for dear
life. Under its own steam the tractor slewed off the road and made its way
across the rough terrain, straight for the smaller lake they had been driving
past. Shit, we’re going to lose it, Tom thought as he watched the tractor bounce
its way awkwardly towards the water. At the last moment it flipped onto its
side just short of the water’s edge and the engine stalled. Right now, though, the
captain had bigger problems - just holding onto the truck took all of his
strength.

Seeing the temptation of warm bodies ahead, watching as one
jumped between vehicles, the zombies were driven into a frenzy of bloodlust.
Their speed increased, even the awkward ones began to run faster. Janet floored
the accelerator, taking the corners at breakneck speed while struggling to stay
in control on the icy road. Slowly they appeared to be pulling away from the
horde of impending death.

“Can anyone hear me?” Sandy called into the walkie talkie
she had carried with her ‘just in case’ to quote her words.

“Yeah.
Is that you Sandy? What’s
up?” the voice came back.

“Hi Laurie.
Get Mike to fire up the
thingy,
what’s it
called.
That big
speaker.”

“The LRAD?”

“Yes.”

“What’s the problem?”

“Thousands of the bastards are chasing us. Looks like we get
to test it on them right now!”

“Will do.”
The radio clicked off
and Sandy waited for a call back. Meanwhile they continued their headlong fall
back to the cabin. The radio crackled again. “Sandy?” Laurie called.

“Everything ready?”

“No, we don’t have Danny’s phone!”

“What?”

“Danny’s phone is needed for the music!”

“Oh, shit.” Sandy poked her head through the communication
window. “Danny, do you have your phone on you?”

“Yeah.
Why?”

“It’s needed for the LRAD.”

“Shit! Damn it. Yes,” Turning to Janet, he spoke calmly. “If
you can keep up this speed, we’ll have about thirty seconds before they are
upon us. That’s time enough if you can drop me next to the LRAD; don’t stop,
just slow down. Then park up behind it and get everyone into the cabin. Okay?”

“Sure thing, love,” Janet replied as she focused on not
crashing at the last furlong. He squeezed her leg in reply.

Racing around the final corner the cabin came into view. Carrying
rifles at the ready, BB and Mike were standing by the LRAD, hopping from foot
to foot, eagerly awaiting Danny’s arrival. Peering closely Danny saw no-one
else around the cabin; good, the others must be inside, hopefully fully armed
by now.

Janet slowed briefly next to the LRAD and Danny jumped out
and rolled across the ground as his foot slipped. He came to an abrupt halt at
BB’s feet, a pain shooting up his leg as his foot twisted with the force of the
fall.

“Argh!
He cried in pain. “Help me
up, BB.” The two struggled together before Danny was finally on his feet and
fumbled in his pockets searching for the phone.

Meanwhile Janet picked up speed again before slewing to a
halt over by the helicopters. The passengers fell out of the vehicle and made
their way into the cabin. The last thing Janet saw was Danny over by Mike and
BB being helped to his feet after his fall.

Delving into his pocket Danny got the phone out and fumbled
as he tried to insert the jack into the earphone socket. He finally succeeded
in connecting it to the killer device. Meanwhile the cabin door slammed shut
and several faces peered out at the terrifying scene that was unfolding. The
few versus the many; at least this time the few had a game changer, or so they fervently
hoped.

The horde was now less than a hundred yards away, their
anticipation of a warm meal palpable.

“You two go inside, now!” Danny ordered. “There’s no point
in risking all three of us. If this doesn’t work I want you where you can
defend my wife and the kids.” Mike and BB looked like they would argue but
Danny turned away and focused on what he had to do. He heard their footsteps as
they ran to the cabin. Fifty yards now and he turned it on. Faint tones of
Kylie Minogue became audible and the effect on the charging mass was immediate.

As if hitting a brick wall, they slid to a walk and then stopped;
the undead began shaking and walking in circles, clutching their heads as if in
agony. They looked almost comical in their state of confusion. After the
headlong rush to capture their prey it was amazing to see the change that had
come over them. Their heads appeared to steam, and eyes began to pop from their
sockets, hanging loose like ’Seventies clacker toys. Finally, one by one they
began to fall to their knees, at which point their heads began to crack open as
their brains boiled over, splitting their heads like water melons. The air took
on a pinkish-green hue as the fine spray of brain matter burst forth, making
Danny rush to the cabin to avoid breathing it in. It was the sound of it all that
would stay in Danny’s mind forever; it was like buttery popcorn, a cracking pop
followed by a wet slapping as the slurry hit the ground. Soon those few still standing
were slipping on the gooey detritus under their feet. Hundreds of heads had
burst, leaving a lake of degraded brain matter pooling across the flat approach
to the cabin. It was already starting to freeze on the edges, trapping the last
and only partially affected creatures, leaving them flailing helplessly as they
began to freeze to the ground.

Seeing the zombies off to the periphery were relatively unaffected,
and once the air was again clear of the steamy, reddish mist, Danny came out
and switched off the LRAD. The others followed him out of the cabin and together
they began to dispatch the remainder as they attempted to continue their unending
quest towards their quarry, apparently attempting to walk outside the lethal
sound zone. More deliberate activity, Danny noticed. Soon there was only the
occasional moan to be heard. Kylie had done her worst and saved the day.

Standing there in shocked horror the group surveyed the
scene of carnage. Total silence reigned; no sound at all. The stench was overwhelming
from the massive quantities of steaming brain matter that covered the ground as
far as they could see.

“Holy shit,” Danny muttered as he looked back at the LRAD. It
looked so benign, just standing there, silent and waiting for instruction.
The once peaceful camp site now looked like a scene from a war
film, with bodies and gore strewn everywhere.
Somehow it didn’t look
real, there was simply too much of it for a human brain to process. Small wisps
of steam rose slowly in the last rays of the evening sun, heat had re-entered
the corpses of the Infected one last time before they were permanently put out
of action.

“I’d say the sooner we get that bloody fence up the better,”
Janet observed. “They must be leaving the cities in search of something, food
possibly.”

Danny looked at his wife and then at the others. Considering
the number of dead lying before them, there was remarkably little emotion on
display. Perhaps you can’t have emotion over killing the already dead. Maybe mass
death was just an irrelevance now - them or us, he thought.

Sam had come outside and was standing with Janet, holding
her hand. In his other hand was his revolver. The sight surprised Danny. I
really have to help him come to terms with all this, he thought, perhaps when I
have managed to do so. Penny had stayed inside with Ethel and
Laurie,
together they just stood at the window, staring out
at the unbelievable scene in front of them.

Everyone looked up as a door latch clicked on the other side
of the clearing. Angela stood on the small porch, wearing what looked like a
short-sleeved night gown, trying to make sense of the scene. Her mouth was
working but no words would come out. Stepping out into the slurry, wearing what
looked like slippers, a look of horror and fury alternated on her face. She’s
mad as a hatter, Danny thought, and now she’s tipped over the edge; at least
she’s not carrying that knife. He began to move slowly towards Janet and Sam,
his protective instincts aroused. They were standing by the LRAD, which was
also clearly Angela’s destination.

The young woman began screaming garbled, indecipherable words
and at first Danny thought she might actually be speaking in tongues, as was
supposed to happen in the End of Days. He saw movement back in the cabin, just
back from the open front door. He could just make out Cliff’s form, standing in
the shadows. What the hell’s going on, he wondered. His hand tightened on his
gun as he prepared to react quickly.

Angela had made her way through the hardening slop of brain,
oblivious to the viscous matter splashing up her legs as she walked. Arriving
at the LRAD her words became understandable.