Autumn exodus, p.5
Autumn - Exodus, page 5
Committed.
No other option.
Keep going.
The dull light was as much a hindrance to the dead as it was to the living, and the constant heavy drumming of the persistent rain on the roof provided the group with a little cover. In the miserable tank-like conditions, the limited awareness of the undead made them sluggish and diminished their compulsion to attack. The deeper into the building Joanne went, the more torpid the occupants all around her became; some stood staring into shop windows, perhaps at their own reflection. As her eyes adjusted to the gloominess indoors, she gradually began to recognise her surroundings. She banked right, heading for where she thought the nearest escalator was, the rest of the group still following. The number of dead had slowed her down enough for everyone to be able to keep up.
Joanne ran past the husks of stores she recognised, pausing only once when she caught sight of a leather jacket she’d once coveted, then squirmed around benches and dried-up fountains and other street furniture remnants that now felt like obstacles deliberately strewn in her path to stop her getting to the escalator. That was as far as her plan currently went, and it was by no means a given that they’d all make it upstairs. Plenty of people in the following pack were running out of steam.
Now that they were indoors, the group’s collective noise was amplified, echoing along the length of this vast, cathedral-like space. Up ahead now she could just make out the entrance to a sprawling toy shop where she’d bought presents for her brother’s kids, and an overpriced sports shop opposite where she’d sometimes bought her running gear. The escalator was right between the two stores. She put her arms out in front of her now, the better to plough through the corpses, forcing a way through.
Fuck.
There was enough light trickling in through the glass ceiling for her to see that, from the bottom to the top, the steps up to the first floor were covered by the truly dead, flesh trampled and smeared, blocked. Backed-up with rot.
Joanne started digging, grabbing at scraps of clothing and yanking corpse after corpse out of the way to get closer to the escalator. She sensed the rest of the group bunching up behind her.
‘Leave it,’ Sam said. ‘We’re not getting through this way.’
She ignored him. Kept working. Worked faster. Had to get up.
‘That’s us fucked,’ Chapman said, already pushing back the dead hordes alongside Sanjay and Ruth. They were grouped at the bottom of the escalator, lashing out at anything that came close enough to shove.
‘Keep at it,’ David shouted. ‘If they get on top of us, we’re screwed.’
Joanne was still trying to clear a route up the blocked escalator, but it was like shovelling snow from the bottom of an avalanche. The more she moved aside, the more rotting debris came tumbling down on top of her. Fuck, are there as many of these damn things up on the first floor as there are down here?
‘Push them back!’ Gary encouraged from his exposed position on the outermost edge of the group. The dead just kept on coming, no apparent end to their numbers. ‘Why are there so many of the fuckers in here?’
‘We’ll work it out later,’ Ruth said, swinging her rucksack around like it was a medieval mace, battering a swathe of spindly monsters out of the way. ‘For now, just keep fighting.’
Sanjay was pushed back against the counter of a coffee stand. He began stripping anything he could from the displays and throwing it into the seething crowd in an effort to halt their advance. David saw what he was doing and helped him to hurl tables, chairs, and other bits of furniture into the crowd, whatever wasn’t screwed down. Unfortunately, the need for silence and stealth had been abandoned in panic, and now David was acutely aware that the more they did to try and hold back the army of the dead, the more of them they’d be alerting to their presence. And now some silly bastard was hitting something against a metal railing way over to his right, deeper into the mall. It was like they were ringing a dinner bell, the clanging clearly audible over the rain. ‘What the fuck are you doing?’ he demanded. ‘Sam, is that you?’
‘I’m over here,’ Sam said, gasping for breath as he lunged at corpse after corpse with his knife.
‘Then who the hell is banging that fucking gong?’
Whoever they were, they had to be borderline suicidal. The incessant tolling noise continued, and David said a silent word of thanks as he felt the pressure of the crowd around him shift and then lighten slightly as the horde refocussed. By no means all of the dead were seduced, but a decent number had changed direction towards the source of the rhythmic sound.
Joanne was still hard at it, trying to find a way upstairs. She heaved another flaccid carcase out of the way, then realised it wasn’t just flesh and bone blocking the escalator. She ran her hands over the angular outline of a gore-soaked shop display, and realisation dawned. ‘Someone did this.’
‘Did what?’ Sam asked.
‘Someone blocked the escalator. Trying to stop any more of the dead getting up there, I guess.’
‘The same person who’s making that bloody noise, I expect. It’s coming from upstairs.’
‘Whoever it is, they’re not helping.’
‘I’m sure they’re just looking out for themselves. Looks like we’ve walked into someone’s patch and wound up the crowds.’
‘Oh, that’s just fucking perfect,’ she said, and she turned her attention from the impassable escalator to the ever-shifting crowds.
Ruth was dripping with sweat, struggling to keep fighting. Alongside her, Selena hacked tirelessly at those cadavers unfortunate enough to stagger into range. She raised her knife, ready to slice down into the ripe flesh of the monster now directly in front of her, only for the creature to catch her wrist. She froze, unable to compute. The corpse shone a light into her face.
The man was alive!
His face illuminated by the soft glow from his torch, he lifted his finger to his lips to tell her to stay quiet, then beckoned for her to follow him. She grabbed Vicky’s hand and Vicky alerted Ruth who took hold of the back of her jacket, then reached for the next person behind and gestured for them to do the same. As the metal chiming continued somewhere overhead, and as more of the dead drifted away in search of its source, other members of the group began to realise what was happening. There was no argument. Whatever they were now walking towards couldn’t be any worse than the prospect of staying put. Even the strongest fighters were flagging, impossibly outnumbered. The walls limited the escape routes for both the living and the undead, and the building was continuing to fill. They’d end up drowning in decay.
The message worked its way through the two hundred or so members of the group, and as the ugly, hammering noise continued elsewhere, the silent conga line of the living disappeared into the shadows of the mall.
7
The man led them back towards a branch of Marks and Spencer’s they’d passed a short time earlier. He used a staff entrance at the side of the store for access, then took them up to the first floor. He was silent throughout, and no one else said a word. They walked in a snaking line through the shadowy store, too relieved to have escaped from the dead to be concerned about what might come next. At the back of the line with Joanne, Sam allowed his mind to wander. He imagined a whole community of survivors living up here in a similar way to how Brian, Eric, Joanne and the others had managed to eke out a decent existence in John Kennedy House on Surrey Quays. He made fleeting eye contact with Joanne, and she almost managed a smile. It was relief, more than anything, but he smiled in return. In just a few short minutes they’d gone from utterly hopeless to somewhat hopeful.
It won’t last, Sam thought, keeping his optimism in check. It never does.
The department store felt like a haunted house. Wherever these people had chosen to base themselves in Lakeside, it wasn’t here. It smelled musty, like it had been left undisturbed for centuries, not months. There was dust everywhere, cobwebs draped like curtains. Sam thought the mannequins terrifying; their vacant, frozen expressions somehow even more menacing than the disfigured faces of the dead. It was jarring just how abnormal the mundane had quickly become. Seeing clean faces and bodies dressed in coordinating, carefully chosen clothing was alien, a mockery. People dressed in scraps now, didn’t shave, barely washed. He couldn’t imagine ever giving a damn about his appearance again.
They left the store through a back door marked ‘staff only’ and were soon deep within the catacombs of the shopping centre; a maze of corridors, storage areas, access routes, and fire escapes that the public didn’t usually see. Finally, they stopped in a cavernous loading bay. The man who’d led them to safety waited for them to all catch up. ‘Thank you,’ Vicky said.
‘Don’t mention it. You’re from the Monument, right?’
‘How did you know that?’
Another figure stepped out from the shadows at the back of the room. He seemed hesitant, reluctant to be seen. When Chapman recognised his face, he completely understood why he’d been keen to stay hidden. It was Mihai, Dominic Grove’s beleaguered quartermaster. ‘I wanted to explain—’ he started to say, but Chapman wasn’t having any of it. When Mihai came into range he swung for him, knocking him off his feet.
‘You fucking Judas,’ he said, and he spat at the crumped heap of a man lying at his feet.
On hearing the noise, someone else had entered the loading bay. ‘You’re not going to punch me too, are you, Chappers?’
It was Allison Woodhouse, the clipper captain. Chapman’s reaction this time was the complete opposite. He grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her.
‘I can’t believe you all made it,’ she said.
‘Not all of us did. We lost a few folks along the way.’
Allison pushed herself away from him. ‘I didn’t want to do it,’ she said. ‘I didn’t know what was happening until it was too late. Piotr made me think we were all getting out. I didn’t realise. I didn’t have any choice.’
‘I believe you.’
‘Mihai was the same. Piotr lied to him too.’
David helped Mihai to his feet. ‘It’s true,’ Mihai said, and he spat blood onto the ground. ‘The fucker forced us to do it. He fed me a load of bullshit about getting the supplies onto the clipper to keep them safe from the fire. Next thing I know, we’re on our way. He’s a fucking psychopath.’
‘Sounds about right,’ David said.
Chapman wasn’t convinced. ‘I don’t believe him.’
The man who’d led them to safety had been watching the reunions from a distance, but now stepped in. ‘You’re going to have to argue about it later, I’m afraid. We’ve got more pressing things to worry about. I’m Noah, by the way.’
‘Pleased to meet you,’ said Sam. ‘Thanks for your help.’
‘That’s alright. By the way, if you’re unsure about allegiances, it was Mihai who acted as bait so I could come and get you all just now.’
‘You been living here long?’
‘Me? Since all this started. I used to work here. Security. That’s how I know all the back routes.’
‘We appreciate it.’
‘Don’t mention it. Seriously. I’m not hanging around.’
Marianne pushed her way to the front, sweat-soaked and streaked with dirt and gore. ‘What did you mean when you said there’s more pressing things to worry about?’
‘Did you not notice the bodies downstairs? Want to know why they’re inside instead of outside? I was set up nicely here until your mate Piotr turned up. Fucker trashed the place.’
‘Did you see the plane in the river?’ Allison asked.
‘Couldn’t miss it,’ Chapman said.
‘There was no way past. I told Piotr I couldn’t go any further downriver, so he made us get off the clipper and come this way.’
‘Where did you dock? We didn’t see it.’
‘I let her drift. The last thing I wanted was for Sir Arsewipe to have a change of heart and decide we’d go back to the Tower.’
‘So what happened?’
‘It had been relatively peaceful until he showed up,’ Noah said. ‘The dead had been pretty spread out, lethargic, nothing to bother about. But the entire legion came flocking in from miles around as soon as the looting started. This lot came crashing through like a bloody steam train.’
‘But that’s just stupid. Why take such a risk?’
Allison was shaking her head. ‘Because Piotr never has to deal with the consequences, does he. He was never planning on hanging around. You know what he’s like... he takes what he likes from a situation then disappears, leaving nothing but chaos behind him. It’s everyone else who takes the risk or has to deal with the consequences, never him.’
‘He’s gone now though?’
‘Long gone, yes. He was planning to go east. Said they’d have a better chance somewhere quiet like Norfolk or Suffolk.’
‘You’re bloody lucky we’re still here,’ Noah said.
‘You did say you weren’t hanging around,’ David said.
‘We’re just waiting for the right moment. A gap in the clouds, so to speak. Quite literally, actually. It’s pissing down out there.’
‘It’s impossible to stay here now,’ Mihai explained. ‘We’ll never get all the bodies out, and even if we did manage it, we won’t be able to keep them out. It’s too big a site for just a handful of us to defend. It’s the same problem we were facing in London, only a bit smaller and with Boots and Body Shop.’
‘It’s nowhere near as bad as London though, is it?’ Marianne said. ‘There’s only a fraction of the number of them here.’
‘Thousands instead of millions, yes.’
‘But there’s more than a handful of us now. The odds are quite different.’
‘But it’s still too much of a risk,’ David said. ‘Too many ways to get ourselves trapped in a corner or surrounded. I for one don’t fancy hanging around. No sense barricading ourselves in here with a few thousand corpses for company when there are so many similar places that might be empty.’
‘It’s not as straightforward as that, though, is it? Speaking for myself, I don’t think I can keep running. We’re not all as strong as you. I’m on my last legs here, and I know I’m not alone.’
She looked around. There were nods and mumbles of support.
‘I’m sorry, but your friend here’s right. Staying here’s just not an option,’ Noah said. ‘Holing up in these dark backrooms? Staying quiet, hiding from the bloody dead masses? What sort of life is that? Nah. Your man Piotr fucked us over. This place is no good now.’
‘Where were you planning on going?’ Sam asked.
‘I’m from Brentwood, just up the motorway. Going to see what’s left of the place, then consider my options.’
‘How will you get there?’
‘Walk. Short bursts. It’s too much of a risk to try anything else around here. My fear is they’ll hear us if we’re not careful leaving. If even a handful get the scent, the rest will follow.’
‘Makes sense.’
‘There’s a service station less than a mile away,’ Noah continued. ‘It has a couple of food outlets and a Travelodge, and it’s fairly isolated. We agreed we’d head there first, then move on. Take it step by step and see where we end up.’
‘I might manage a mile,’ Marianne interrupted. ‘I know it won’t be easy, but I think we can all manage one last push.’
‘Sounds like this place will give us a little breathing space,’ David said. ‘If we’re all in agreement, I think we should head out now and see what happens. The way I see it, other than heading back to the boat and maybe trying to get onto the south bank, right now we don’t have a lot of viable options.’
8
Another coordinated burst of noise from Mihai up on the first floor of the shopping centre allowed the group a sliver of space to escape. Noah led them along cut-throughs and service roads that, without his insider knowledge, would otherwise have remained undiscovered. But the volume of bodies crammed into the mall was such that the undead were everywhere already, even in these remote, dark corners.
There was no doubt that Piotr’s wrecking ball actions had left Lakeside uninhabitable. The population density of this part of Essex had been high, and there’d been a disproportionate concentration of workers and shoppers within a couple of miles of the mall when death had indiscriminately swept across the world. As the group had already discovered, the geographic complexities of such a built-up area had made it easy for corpses to accumulate, but difficult to drift away. Until something else caught their attention, tens of thousands of corpses were stuck, going nowhere. And the single factor most likely to trigger another unpredictable chain reaction within the massed ranks of the volatile undead was them.
It was a heavily industrialised, built-up area, but there was a surprising amount of open green space between Lakeside and the service station. David checked over his shoulder regularly as they marched across the grassy scrubland and wasn’t at all surprised to see corpses following. ‘It’s because there’s so many of us,’ Noah explained. ‘They’re bound to see one of us, aren’t they. I’ve only ever been up here on my own before now.’
They had a clear view of an elevated stretch of the A282 road directly ahead. There were stationary lines of traffic in both directions, but no obvious signs of movement. ‘Looks quiet up there,’ David whispered.
Noah nodded. ‘I’ve never seen many of them on the roads. Think about it – no one ever walked on the motorways and A roads, did they? All the bodies that were up there when it happened are likely still stuck in their cars.’
