“Form up, on me. Form up, on me,” Squad leader Corporal Ford shouts from the side of the road, adjacent to where a barrier is being moved from across a road that leads into the city, into the quarantine zone.
The men that can’t stand to move and form up are dragged from the path of the tracked Warrior assault vehicle that is turning to lead the way into the city, its cannon pointing the way.
Jason’s head is clearing as he breathes in the fresh air and his stomach is settling, a large gulp of water from his canteen helping. He checks on Den, who is looking a better colour and is alert, so he quickly checks his equipment ready for the off and Den follows his lead.
As the Warrior moves past the thirty members of A7 squad and past the barrier, crossing the threshold into the quarantine zone, Corporal Ford follows it in and his men fall in behind him, their senses heightened. Overhead, an Apache helicopter flies, tracking the Warrior on the ground, staying ahead of it. Its role is to scan the area below, find targets and attract the targets to it, getting them out into the open so that they can be engaged either by it or the ground troops, or both.
Jason finds himself on the left flank, his SA80 rifle gripped in both hands across his body as the Squad move down, spread across the road, following the Warrior. Almost immediately, he sees curtains twitching in the houses by the side of the road, as the poor residents who are trapped in the quarantine zone look to see what this new intrusion into their community is. Jason can’t imagine how these people must be feeling, trapped in their homes, unable to escape the pending doom on their doorstep—especially the people in the houses here, so close to the cordon, yet so far from safety. He knows they have been told by the authorities to stay in their homes and barricade themselves in as best they can, but it must take some courage to do that and not try and flee past the cordon. It must be even harder for the parents with their children trapped with them.
They have no choice but to stay put though; if they try to cross the cordon, they will be shot, the authorities have made that very clear and although it hasn’t been shown on any TV station, Jason has heard rumours that more than a few people have met that fate trying to cross. So, they have to stay indoors, there is nowhere else for them to go; to go outside would be too great a risk, as nobody knows where the Zombies are, and they could be just down their street or next door!
“What’s going on!” a voice shouts away to Jason’s left.
As Jason swivels around, he raises his rifle all in one swift motion, to see a frail-looking elderly gentleman in his dressing gown and slippers standing in his doorway. The man now has at least ten rifles pointed at him, but that doesn’t seem to faze him in the slightest.
“Please go back inside and lock your door, Sir, this is a military operation,” Den shouts back at him.
“Fuck that, Sonny Jim,” the man replies, “what the fuck is going on?”
“Sir, we are here to make the city safe, so please go back inside and let us get on with our jobs.” Den tries again.
“How long is that going to take, son?”
“I don’t know, Sir,” Den tells him.
“For fuck’s sake,” the elderly man says before turning around, going back inside and closing his door.
“You should become a politician,” Jason teases Den.
“Piss off!” is the only reply he gets back, as they move forward again.
Corporal Ford soon calls ‘Halt’, though, checking his map. He then tasks three men to break off from the group to recce Station Street, a smaller road, leading off this main road. He shows them exactly how much of Station Street is in their assigned area, how far they need to go before returning to the main Squad.
The three troops head off on their recce of Station Street and the main Squad move forward again. Only a short distance is travelled until another road junction is met and three more men are despatched down it. This is repeated as the squad moves along. The main Squad will not fall below six men, and when there are only six left, no others will be sent on recces until others return. When a road is reached with only six men remaining, the Squad will wait until others return. All Squad members have comms but everyone is under strict instructions to only use the comms when needed, since there isn’t enough bandwidth for anything more, with the amounts of troops that will be on the ground in London today.
Just as Jason is starting to think the mission is going well, his stomach turns again but this time it’s because he hears the crack of gunfire in the distance. He immediately lowers to one knee as do the rest of the Squad, their heads darting from side to side, trying to determine where the sound is coming from. There were only a couple of shots fired, but is it coming from one of the streets that their Squad is in, do they need back-up? The Warrior in front of them stops when the Squad does, at least giving some protection from that direction; every member of the squad would like to be sitting inside that vehicle right now and craves the safety it offers.
“Where do you reckon that gunfire is coming
