him they were still alive.
“Come on, Ryan,” he whispered, knowing his friend would never hear his encouragement. “Come on.”
Off in the far distance a shot barked out.
“Yeah!”
Ali punched wildly into the air.
The crowd below also responded with excitement, lifting their moans up a gear at the stimulation.
“I knew you’d make it,” Ali told the damp air. “You mind telling them you’re old friend Ali is here?”
He stepped back into the flat, closing the glass doors behind him. He rubbed his wind-chilled hands together and surveyed the sanctuary before him. Strewn around the room were the contents of the scavenged rucksack. There was more than enough in the kit to keep him comfortable for a number of days.
He righted the dropped bottle of water. Two thirds had spilt across the counter. The small lagoon had surged its way to the edge and was now running off the work surface in a series of thin rivulets. Ali opened the kitchen drawers and found a clean dishtowel, and with a long sweep he brushed the water into the empty sink.
Again he berated himself for his latent domesticity.
“Right. Let’s get to work,” he announced as he dried his hands.
Chapter Seventeen
Rail
The long stems of the wild grasses whipped against Cahz’s shins as he ran down the street. Everywhere there was a crack or pothole, lanky green shoots had sprung up, wrapping round the rusted streetlights and corroding cars. He stumbled for a moment, footing lost to the wobble of a broken services hatch. The slab had cracked down a fault line fractured open by winters of ice.
“I need…” Ryan panted out from behind, “…to rest.”
Cahz spat out a distasteful wad of mucus like an old time prospector chewing tobacco. “We’re not far from the railway line, Ryan.” He turned and grabbed the man by the bicep, pulling him on. “You can rest when we’re safe.”
Ryan stumbled forward. “Nowhere is safe.”
“All right, somewhere they’re not coming at us from every angle,” Cahz barked out. “Now move!”
“I’m gonna hurl.”
Cahz grabbed the young man by the shoulders and spun him round.
“Look at them.” He pointed down the road.
Bent double trying to catch his breath, Ryan lifted his head to look. Clambering past the rusted cars and derelict buildings, an army of walking dead shuffled after them, a thousand pairs of dead eyes transfixed by the fleeing living. The cries of distress from Ryan’s daughter did nothing to drown out the clamour. Like the howl of icy wind the monotonous sound hung steady in the air, a dull drone perpetually calling, the cries from their dead mouths and the scuffing of their dead feet. It all echoed off the walls and clutched at Ryan’s pounding heart.
“Listen to them,” Cahz repeated demandingly. “Listen to that. That’s the sound of a million lost souls and they’re coming for us. Now I stayed behind to save lives, not waste them.” He grabbed Ryan under his left shoulder and violently pulled him upright. “Get your ass in gear.”
“I can’t,” Ryan pleaded in gasps.
Cahz held his gaze. “Don’t let Elspeth down.” He let go of his grip and watched the young man’s face for a sign that his goad had worked.
Finally Ryan took a deep breath and nodded.
As they turned to move a shot rang out.
“Cannon?” Cahz called.
Cannon appeared from a corner ahead.
“Embankment’s this way,” he bellowed. “We’ve found the railway.”
Cahz and Ryan jogged past the freshly dispatched cadaver and up to the fence cordoning off the railroad track.
“How do we get in?” Ryan asked.
“I don’t see a gap in the wire,” Cahz said, looking up and down the track.
“Do we follow it up and look for a way in?” Cannon asked.
“Cut it,” Cahz decided.
“But they’ll just follow us in,” Ryan argued.
Cannon was already sawing at the wire with his knife.
“Yeah, but if we get in and run up away from the opening they’ll make a beeline for us. They’ll miss the gap,” Cahz said as he anxiously surveyed the road they’d come down.
“I’m only cutting a crawl space,” Cannon said over his shoulder. “Enough for us to squeeze through. But those dumb fucks ain’t smart enough to think of bending down.”
The first zombie came round the corner on stiff, jerking legs. It shuffled like the lobotomised inmate of some insane asylum. Cahz fired and a dime-sized hole appeared in its forehead. Its head snapped back and its infected brains exploded out the rear of its cranium. The force of the impact threw the limp cadaver hurtling back. It landed hard in a mound of masonry with a crunch.
From behind him Cahz heard scrambling.
“Come on!” Cannon called as he followed Ryan through the gap.
There was a steep drop down to the gravel of the railroad. Cahz used the momentum of the slope to break into a run as he hit the level.
“Come on, run!” Cahz called as he barrelled past his companions.
Cannon grabbed Ryan’s backpack strap and hauled him along.
The three jogged along the lines, each trying to find their own rhythm over the sleepers. The screams of the baby secured in the rucksack wailed like an emergency siren.
Cannon turned to Cahz. “We’ve got to shut her up, boss.”
“How?” Cahz had been hoping his buddy’s undisclosed parenting skills would have held the answer, but Cannon’s statement scuppered that hope.
“She’s not…” Ryan panted out, “…going to stop while we’re…”
He tripped and fell sprawled out across the tracks. He gave a grunt of pain.
Cahz whipped round. “You all right?”
Bent double, Ryan gurgled.
“Are you all right?” Cahz asked for a second time.
“Ah, fuck,” Ryan moaned. He slowly sat back on his haunches.
“Oh, nasty,” Cannon let slip.
Ryan’s face was pitted with gravel and blood. He brought a blooded hand down from his face and took a sobbing breath in.
“Get a move on!” Cahz grabbed Ryan’s hand and hauled him on like a parent dragging a reluctant child.
“I’m bleeding here,” Ryan said as he stumbled to his feet.
“It’s just superficial,” Cahz said.
“It stings to fuck.”
“You’re a big boy, Ryan. I’m sure you’ve skint your knee before,” Cannon said.
“Fuck you, big guy!”
“You’ll have far worse than a bloody nose if you don’t shut up and move out,” Cannon said.
Ryan picked up his pace to catch Cannon. “You threatening me, you prick?”
“Whoa!” Cahz interrupted. “Stow it. We don’t have time to dick around like school kids.” He pointed at Ryan. “Listen, you pick up the pace if you don’t want to be supper for those dead fucks back there. As for you,” Cahz turned to Cannon, “I know there’s shit going on, but stifle it until we’re safe.”
Cannon clamped his mouth shut and drew a loud breath through his nostrils.
