“Okay. Keep it down. Aaron, be ready.”
They lay in silence as the scavengers moved closer. Their voices became clearer as they approached the hiding place.
“I got a coat in this one, nothing else.”
“It is the damn clowns!” Johnny gasped.
“Get down!” Bucky ordered. “Do not move unless our car doors open!”
“The car is coming closer, too, “Johnny informed them.”That’s four of them. I forgot the driver.”
“We’re done,” Aaron replied.
“No, we’re not. If your door opens do what Bucky told you. Otherwise, just stay down and don’t move,” Lacey ordered. It seemed she like was as tired of Aaron’s bitching as much as Bucky was.
“Wait. You hear something?” Bucky asked. Over the engine he picked out the sound of wind gusting through the underpass. “I swear there’s a breeze or a wind or something?”
A window smashed on the car behind them. “They’re here!” Johnny gasped.
“That’s no breeze!” Lacey whispered.
“Guys!” came a voice from the outside. Johnny peered out from his blanket and looked through the rear windscreen. The driver of the car leant out of the window and directed their attentions further along the road. “Look!” The driver pointed along the road.
The clown followed his finger. “Shit! Let’s wrap it up, double time. Now!”The three gang members ran to the car and dived into its open doors. Within a few seconds they vanished inside the vehicle. The overbearing sound of agony swept beneath the bridge, thunderous and horrifying, as if a million souls all wailed in unison. The headlights from the clowns’ vehicle swerved back and forth as it reversed between the parked cars and performed a turn in the road. Bucky peered out from beneath the blanket. Ahead of them, parting around the vehicles, came a mass of infected as far back as his eyes could see. He leant over and re-engaged the locks.
“What is it?” Lacey asked.
“Infected. Thousands of them. They’re heading this way.”
“Oh shit…”
“Everyone, just keep down and don’t move or we are history this time.”
The overbearing breeze that engulfed the underpass emitted from the infected as they moaned in mass was deafening, thunderous, too loud to even comprehend.
Lacey sighed.
“Lacey, keep it cool. If we stay quiet and stay still, they’ll walk right past us.”
“I hope so,” Aaron whispered from behind them.
The first snarl passed by the car followed by hisses and growls almost animalistic in their primitive form. Bucky listened, eyes closed as bodies brushed up against his door. Hisses, snaps and unstable vocals engulfed the vehicle as more and more infected wandered by. The car swayed as bodies pushed against its frame. Bucky prayed the vehicle’s alarm was disengaged. More bodies hit the car. The metallic thud of an object striking his door made Aaron yelp. Still, Bucky squeezed his eyes tight, unwilling to peer at the carnage moving past them. Horrendous wails and moaning thundered throughout the underpass. Bucky wanted to open his eyes and peer at the world outside, but knew he’d see nothing. As curiosity took its hold, he gave in and peered through the thin material, but beneath the blanket nothing could be seen. More hisses and snorts passed by, replaced by different noises and unstable vocabularies. A window thudded. Bucky’s heart leapt into his throat. This was it… but it wasn’t. They hadn’t been found. Whoever thudded the window moved on. More infected wandered past, some sighing, some coughing but all vocalising their terrifying sounds of death. This was nothing like Bucky expected. Everything he’d seen in the movies or played in video games did no justice to the real thing.
He lay there silent as the grave as the mass of bodies continued to amble past. He noted the aching within his groin as the need to pee grew stronger and stronger. Rasping howls drifted onward. Aggressive snarls breezed past. Bucky lay there, unflinching.
First light began to break the darkness outside, that much he could see from beneath the blanket. The mass of infected moaned past in their large herd.
The day outside began to dawn. Time passed onward and still the infected trudged around the vehicle. Silhouettes could now be seen from beneath the blanket as the daylight grew brighter. They moved stiff and erratic, as if all thought processes on walking had been forgotten and only the basic skill for movement remained.
As the masses continued by, the burning in Bucky’s groin became worse. He’d have to pee soon, whether it was outside the car or in his pants.
Gaps began to appear within the silhouettes. The monstrous growls became thinner. The masses turned into stragglers, who soon became individuals. The moans became distant and Bucky felt safe enough to poke his head from the blanket. Blood smeared across his window. He peered around. The underpass outside now stood empty.
“Is that it?” Johnny asked as his head popped from beneath a tartan pattern. Bucky ignored him a moment as he scoured the area around them.
“Yes, I think it is.”
Bucky found a sports car with its roof down and decided to piss inside the interior. For some reason, he found great joy soiling something that was worth tens of thousands of pounds back in the old world. The road had been littered with flesh and blood. Whether it was here before the infected came or something they brought with them he didn’t know.
After his urine finished pattering the leather he tucked himself inside what once were cricket trousers and turned back to his friends. They’d all taken a piss break too and were sorting their clothing out ready to go.
“How many do you think there were?” Johnny asked as they exited the underpass and ascended to the flat ground.
“God knows,” Aaron replied. “Thousands.”
“More than that,” Bucky began, “there had to be at least ten thousand. We were holed up in that car for hours as they came past, and they didn’t let up. It could have been a hundred thousand. Who knows?”
“I know that I have no desire to go through that kind of shit again,”
