Road to London: City of the Dead

I
July 19th

The arrow on the gauge had been flashing red for nearly an hour but James insisted on pushing the Land Rover on. It was only when he saw the petrol station of Bunerton come into view that he gave any indication of slowing down. Nathan ran his index finger along the edge of his knife. It didn’t draw blood, but felt as though it had so he stopped. The blade had begun to blunt from use. He turned his eyes on Svetlana who was checking the equipment in her first aid kit. Nathan was aware that she knew everything was there, but he also knew that checking calmed her nerves.

Svetlana was beautiful when she was nervous. She was a pretty girl normally but the fear of death seemed to bring out the best in Svet’s cold features. Nathan suspected that some of it was due to the fact that when her face paled it highlighted the contrast between her complexion and her jet black hair. The cherry red streaks seemed to glow more fluorescently as well, although he knew this was probably his imagination. He took a moment to watch her fingers tremble as they placed a hypodermic needle full of morphine back into its designated slot.

Next he looked at Hiya-kō, who sat opposite him with her legs crossed. She appeared to be meditating as she rubbed a whetstone back and forth across the glistening steel of her katana. Nathan knew that if the car crashed and she let go then the sword would probably decapitate him. But he wasn’t worried. Hiya-kō was the kind of person you knew wouldn’t let go.

Hiya-kō was attractive as well but in a completely different way. She too had icy black hair that fell over her pale face but this black was deeper, more absolute and less shiny. Hiya-kō was definitely not nervous, she appeared proud and composed yet humble. Nathan had no real idea what a Geisha was, but he suspected that Hiya-kō would be the perfect model of one. She noticed him watching her and met his eyes. Instead of averting his gaze he stared on and after a respectful acknowledgment she looked back to the sword.

By this time the car had pulled into the petrol station car park. James had already got out and was stretching his back with a pained expression on his face. Conrad leaned over into the back of the Land Rover and gave the instruction to move out in his moderate Texan accent. Nathan considered mocking it, but then decided that doing so would be inappropriate so instead he waited for Svet to open the door and hopped out after her. He suddenly understood why James was in such discomfort. The Land Rover was only designed for five people and even after tearing out the back seats seven was an extremely tight fit.

Nathan put his hand across his face to keep the sun out of his eyes while everyone stretched out. The ethereal purple, blueish glow seeping through his fingers. He still hadn’t gotten used to it yet.

“Gogo,” asked Conrad, to which Hiya-kō answered with a nod. “you got the list?” She handed him a piece of paper on which a catalogue of supplies was scrawled in surprisingly legible handwriting. “Israel, Hiyako, Nathan,” he paused while the three acknowledged him, “There’s a Tesco about three hundred metres down the road from here, we’re gonna go and stock up while the others fill up on gas.” The three gave silent nods to show they understood their orders and Conrad turned to the remainder of the group.
“It’s not gas.” Muttered Israel, who had jumped on the opportunity and was fighting back a smile
“What?” asked Conrad, turning back to Israel with a bemused expression.
“It’s called petrol...” Conrad was silent for a few seconds before breaking out in a grin when he realised Israel was messing with him.

As this was going on James was confirming his previous fears. After around a minute of prodding and poking at the nearest fuel station he kicked the pump and swore loudly. “There’s no way we can get into these things, they’re self service and there’s no power...” There was silence for a moment before Katrina spoke up “Can’t we bash our way in?” James glared at Katrina, who returned his look blankly and he decided that the question wasn’t worth his time. There was a gap in the dialogue while the group silently groped in the dark for a solution to the problem at hand.
“What about these other cars?” Svet asked. She motioned to the abundance of Vauxhaul Astras and Ford Focuses that lay abandoned all around them.
“What about them?”
“Well, most of these will be at least half full of fuel so... can’t we siphon some of theirs?”
James made a triumphant exclamation and skipped over to the pump. “Conrad, pass us your axe.” After taking minimal care to catch the fire axe single handed, James pulled the hose out of the pump and took a large yet precise swing at the piping to sever about a metre length or rubber tubing.

Leaving James and the others to siphon the petrol, Conrad led Nathan and the others down the road towards the Tesco’s, which stood out like a shining pyramid amongst the bungalows of this little English town. Bunerton looked to Nathan like the kind of settlement that was made of about three villages that had grown into each other over time. There didn’t seem to be any kind of structure apart from the newly built stretch of road that connected the motorway to the Tesco car park.

When they reached the shop they found the glass in the automatic doors already smashed, judging from the lack of blood on the jagged edges Conrad concluded that the break in must be the work of hungry teenagers and so decided that it was safe to go inside. Nathan stepped carefully through the hole in the door and was greeted by the distinct smell of stale dairy products. It was deathly quiet inside the supermarket and Nathan had to tell himself not to tiptoe as the group gathered in a semicircle around Conrad by the basket rack.

“Hiyako and Nathan, you go to food. Israel and I’ll take everything else. Don’t move further than an aisle away from your partner and keep your weapons ready, if you hear the signal get out however you can and we’ll meet in the car park. Everyone clear?” The group answered with only nods apart from Israel who added an “Aye, Aye Cap’n” which made everyone snigger except Hiya-kō who didn’t appreciate sarcasm, or maybe just didn’t understand it. She and Nathan walked to the food aisles and began collecting the items on the list, which mainly consisted of canned and dried foods. Nathan took the initiative and picked up some Coco Pops (which Hiya-kō seemed to have forgotten were an essential part
of any teenager’s diet).

There was no artificial light in the supermarket, so Nathan had to rely on what the sun was generous enough to share with him through the slim skylight in the roof. He was trying to make out the label on a bag of rice when a hand touched him on the shoulder. Nearly jumping out of his skin Nathan lashed out with one of his knives, intending to bury it in his assailant’s neck. Hiya-kō parried the blade effortlessly with her bare hand, the look on her face betraying no emotion despite it nearly being impaled. “Fucking hell Hiyako! I nearly killed you!” Nathan spat, trying to sound sincere yet keep his voice down. Hiya-kō scoffed, obviously amused at the idea of Nathan being able to kill her.

She made a gesture to the very bottom of the list, where the words “beef burgers” had been scrawled messily next to some Japanese characters that Nathan assumed meant “Big Mac” when translated literally. He looked back to Hiya-kō, cocking his left eyebrow. The girl shrugged. Nathan shook his head and tutted condescendingly as he turned and began walking towards the meat counter.

Any meat out in the air would undoubtedly have gone rotten weeks ago so Nathan decided to look in the Freezer room behind the counter. It felt cool vaulting the glass obstacle and seeing the shop from an entirely new perspective. The doors to the freezer section swung open silently, as if they had been recently oiled. Nathan was grateful for this. He hated creaky doors.

The first thing he noticed was that the floor was wet underfoot. Looking down he was shocked to see his shoes soaked in blood but then realised that without air conditioning the frozen meat would have begun to defrost. The second thing he noticed was the stink. A stink of fetid and rotting flesh that made Nathan realise that his hunt for burgers would probably end here. It didn’t seem to have a source and made him recoil. The third and most unnerving thing about the room that he noticed was the regular crunch, crunch that was coming from somewhere in front of him. He looked up and saw something that made his whole body freeze like the carcasses around him.

Spread throughout the freezer room, chewing on the various animal corpses that hung from the hooks on the ceiling were slouching figures. They swayed uncertainly and cast huge crimson shadows in the red light that the room was bathed in. They looked to Nathan like they could have been here for days, working away at their rock hard feasts oblivious of their shattered teeth and broken jaws.

None of the Dead had noticed Nathan yet, preoccupied as they were. Thankful for this he began backtracking at a snail’s pace, aware that even the sound of sloshing blood under his shoes could give him away. When he was confident that he could make a break for it Nathan turned and began to run, bumping into a large obstruction face first.

The obstruction was a very tall and very large man. Nathan had to crane his neck to see his grey, vacant eyes and wide mouth that leaked blood down his chin with every breath. Nathan heard the Dead behind him taking interest and beginning to move in for whatever twitching appendage they could get their hands on. From what he could hear these Dead moved sluggishly, probably because their muscles were ruined from being in near zero temperatures for so long. This meant that Nathan had a few precious moments to move the Tall Man, warn the others and get the fuck out.

As swiftly as he could Nathan whipped his knives from their makeshift sheaths and plunged them upwards, under the Tall Man’s ribs, hoping to reach the heart. The man flinched and a mouthful of fresh blood fell to the floor between him and Nathan. However, the large fist clenching around his neck and slamming him into one of the freezer room doors told him that he had missed. Knowing that it would be pointless to try and wrench the Tall Man’s hand loose, he grabbed the handles of his knives, retracted them a few inches then repeatedly drove them deeper and deeper into his chest.

More blood than Nathan thought was possible spilled out of the Tall Man to join with the vast amount already on the ground but the hand stayed clenched. The Tall Man leaned in to take a chunk out of Nathan’s neck and was rewarded by more frequent and more vicious, relentless stabbing. Just as Nathan was about to give in and shout to the others to flee, a sharp crack sounded and everything that was left of the Tall Man’s scrambled brain flew out of his right ear.

The grip finally weakened, but Nathan didn’t stop to breath. He tore out his knives and ran towards his savoir, who stood stock still, holding the smoking Nambu pistol in her left hand. Knowing that the Dead from the freezer room were only feet behind him and that more were probably going to be summoned by the gunshot, Nathan ran as fast as he could behind Hiya-kō. His heart felt like it was about to explode but still he ran, with only the flash of the Japanese girl’s hair to guide him through the aisles.

He kept running until he was through the shattered doors (his shoes crashing though the unbroken glass jutting out of the frame) and then he kept running to the car park where Conrad and Israel were standing. He ran faster when he saw the horror on the pair’s faces when they noticed what was chasing him. Even though he could hear his own heart beat and had stopped breathing altogether he kept running.

He had to stop, he had run further than he ever had before and now he had to rest. It would be easy to just lie down and let the snapping jaws of the Dead take him to a place where he could sleep. He began to slow, then tripped, only just managing to keep footing. He thought of Svet. How she would react to seeing him ripped apart so close to safety. The thought kept him running.

Nathan could hear more Dead pouring out of the adjacent streets and alleyways like clotting blood but all he could see was the Land Rover a hundred or so metres ahead. He heard Latiwa and the others yell and he heard the whistle as Molotov Cocktails were tossed over his head and the roar of the flames as they exploded amongst the hoards of screeching Dead that were hot on his tail. He saw the Land Rover lurch into action and he saw Conrad’s outstretched hand. Nathan reached for it, his fingertips straining and stretching.

A flash of light. Hot. Black.