“So why didn’t they turn him? He looks normal.”
“He was already dead. The virus wants to spread itself. There’s no point infecting someone who isn’t going anywhere.”
Mike nodded at the Focus. “They aren’t going anywhere either.”
“But they were alive so the virus could infect them, kill them and raise them from the dead. Now they have the potential to spread it by killing others.” I looked at the way the cars were blocking the road. If we could move the Cruiser, we should be able to make it past the Focus. “We need to see if there’s a tow rope in the Land Rover.”
We walked back to our vehicle and opened the back. A length of thick blue rope lay amongst various tools and a tire iron. Mike took the rope while I turned the Land Rover around so the back faced the Cruiser.
“Are there any survivors?” Elena asked as I performed the manoeuvre.
“No,” I said. “Everyone’s dead.”
I got out and Mike tied one end of the rope to the tow bar on the Rover. I found a piece of solid chassis on the Cruiser and tied the rope to it. Getting back in the Rover, I put it into first and slowly let up the clutch. The vehicle moved forward until the rope tautened. Then I gave it more gas gradually until it moved forward again, slower this time as it pulled the weight of the Cruiser.
I drove forward twenty feet, creating enough of a gap to get our vehicle through.
As I stopped and put the Rover into neutral, I told Mike to untie the rope.
“We need to move fast,” he said, pointing at the woods near the Focus.
There must have been twenty of them coming through the trees, lumbering towards the road. Maybe they were the group that had turned the family in the car. Our noise had attracted them and now they wanted our blood.
Mike went to work on the rope, untying it from the Rover. He went to the Cruiser but I stopped him. “Leave it, Mike. We don’t have time.” I waited for him to get back in the Land rover before I turned it so we were facing the right way. The zombies were all over the road, staggering towards us.
“Go, man!”
I stomped on the accelerator and we lurched forward into them. A nasty that had once been a young woman with long blonde hair went down under the front bumper. We drove over her and the Rover shuddered as her bones broke beneath the wheels.
Hands grabbed at our vehicle, sliding greasily along the windows as we drove past. Yellow eyes set in blue mottled faces stared in at us with hatred and hunger.
We got past them and I let out a breath of relief.
“If those soldiers are still following us, they’ll get a nasty surprise,” Lucy said.
I frowned. It was still worrying me that the soldiers had given up. We had spent long enough at the crash site for them to catch up with us if they were still coming this way. Maybe they had just been low on fuel and had turned back. No, they wouldn’t have a vehicle parked at a checkpoint with no petrol in the tank. It didn’t make sense.
“Mike,” I said, “check that map. Back where that last checkpoint was, I thought I saw a side road. Where does it lead?”
He picked up the map and traced back along the road we were on with his finger. “Yeah, it’s here. It cuts through some farmland and a couple of villages.”
“Does it meet up with this road again?”
He scanned the map and nodded. “Yeah, near the coast. There’s a crossroads. That road meets up with this one.”
They were going to cut us off.
I told the others. The soldiers were waiting for us ahead.
According to the road signs, we were only a couple of miles from the coast. At a speed of sixty miles an hour, which was the speed we were travelling at, we would be there in two minutes. Straight into an ambush.
There was no going back now. We had to get to a boat before nightfall. We needed safety, a place to sleep. These woods were dangerous. This area was crawling with zombies and soldiers. We had to take our chances at the coast. To stay here would mean certain death.
I increased our speed to eighty and peered at the road ahead. The rain started again and I put the wipers on at full speed. The sound of the blades wiping rhythmically across the wet glass was like a countdown, ticking off the seconds until we reached the crossroads.
Daylight was fading and my hope seemed to be going with it. Were these our last moments? I couldn’t accept that. I pressed the accelerator and the speedometer needle climbed up to ninety.
“There they are, man.” Mike pointed at the crossroads ahead. The army Land Rover was parked on the side road, headlights cutting through the evening gloom. Positioned next to the vehicle were the two soldiers. They saw us coming and adopted firing positions.
“Where do the roads go?” I asked Mike frantically.
“This road heads down to a marina. The side roads just go along the top of the cliffs.”
We had to get to the marina. If the Land Rover could withstand the bullets they were about to spray us with, we might be able to get to the marina and onto a boat before they got back into their vehicle and caught up with us.
We were almost at the crossroads.
“Hold on,” I said.
The firing started.
Bullets peppered the Land Rover and I heard both tires blow out. The steering wheel juddered in my hand. I lost control.
We careened off the road and onto grass.
I fought with the wheel.
Elena screamed from the back seat.
I saw the grass disappear ahead. Disappear into darkness. The cliff edge.
The ground beneath the flat tires was rough, bumpy.
Then suddenly it was gone.
We were in the air, flipping and falling.
The rocky wall of the cliff hurtled by the windows. Below us the dark churning sea waited.
We hit the water like it was a concrete wall and everything went black.
eleven
“Alex!”
The voice came from far away. I felt hands on my shoulders, shaking me. Something very cold covered my legs. Wet and cold.
I opened my eyes. We were sinking. Waves lashed against the windows. Freezing water poured in over our legs. “Is everyone OK?” I asked.
“As good as we can be in the situation,” Mike said. “Alex, we’re sinking.”
I nodded, trying to clear my vision of the black floating spots that danced there. “We can’t open the doors until the car fills with water. Something about equalizing pressure.”
“We’ll fucking freeze to death by then, man!”
“So we need to break the windscreen and climb out.”
Mike looked around for something to break the glass. “The tire iron,” he said. “Elena¸ it’s in the back.”
She leaned over the back seat and into the trunk. She grabbed the tire iron and handed it to Mike.
The sea water was rising. It spread over the seats.
Mike took a swing at the windscreen and managed to crack it. A second blow shattered the safety glass. We both used our legs to push it clear of the frame.
“Bring the rucksacks,” Mike said. “There are things in there we’ll need.”
The girls passed the rucksacks forward.
“Tie the straps together,” I suggested. “They’ll float. We won’t lose them if they’re all tied together.”
Mike unfastened the clips and attached the straps so the rucksacks were looped together. He pushed them out through the hole where the windscreen had been and climbed out onto the hood. I followed him and we helped the girls clamber through.
With our weight on top of it, the Land Rover sank quickly into the deep water.
“See that beach?” Mike said, pointing at a stretch of sand beneath the cliffs. “Head for that.” He pushed the rucksack raft into the water and followed it. I let myself fall forward into the water and gasped as I felt the icy wetness cover my body. I grabbed the rucksacks and kicked my legs to stay afloat.