“Are you ready?” Jason asks Tyrone, drowning any thoughts of them bugging out.
“No time like the present, my good friend.”
So, they move, leaving even the small bit of cover offered by the corner of the gate and wall behind. As soon as they turn right onto Barnard Road, they can see the junction with the main road. Somehow, they both remembered it being farther when they ran down from it to the school. Thankfully, it still looks relatively quiet on Barnard Road. They don’t take any chances though and move from one covering position to the next, working their way up to the junction, which they are both dreading reaching. Neither of them sees any people peering out of their windows as they go; the residents have retreated to take refuge wherever they feel safest in their homes, and who can blame them, with a battle against the Undead taking place one street over!
Before they know it, Jason and Tyrone have reached the junction, stopping only about two meters away from it to assess what is actually happening, taking shelter in the opening to a path that leads up to a front door. Their vantage point is useless, however; all they can see is the junction and some of the main road that leads out of the city, which all looks the same as when they left apart from the smoke haze now hanging over the junction. The smoke is drifting up from where the battle is and from the noise alone, it is obvious they need to move position to get a look down the road towards the city.
“Cover me, I’m going to have a look around the corner,” Jason tells Tyrone and starts to inch out of the opening and around to the right, following the low wall that traverses around the corner of the road. Passing the Barnard Road sign, he gets closer to getting a view, his head darting from one side to the other constantly looking for threats that might spring out of nowhere. Gunfire cracks and explosions are now loud and close; he gets down onto his belly, his rifle gripped in both hands out in front and he crawls the last meter or so. His legs and feet help push him forward and gradually the battle scene reveals itself to Jason’s unwanting eyes.
At first, Jason’s shock is subdued by his confusion, and he struggles to make sense of the scene being acted out around 100 meters down the road. Trying to get his head around it, he is hampered further by all the smoke that blurs the view. His first impression is of a riot; there are agitated figures moving all over the wide road, and they seem to be concentrated around a mound in the middle. Then he sees it, his brain contorting as the realisation sinks in and suddenly, the shock hits him.
Machine-gun fire is erupting from the mound; it’s the Warrior, the Warrior is buried under a mound of Zombies, hundreds, if not thousands of them covering it completely, apart from the opening where the machine gun is firing.
Someone is firing that machine gun, so the crew or at least one of them must still be alive inside the Warrior, but where is the rest of their Squad? Jason searches the mob, but he can’t see any Squad members. Have they retreated, are they dead or worse?
Jason concentrates, looking closer, and eventually makes out one of the figures that looks like it is wearing camouflage but he isn’t fighting; he is climbing up the mound, ignored by all around, and he is going to the side of the small opening where the machine gun is firing. The figure, who is definitely in camouflage, stands and starts strangely clawing at its front. The figure then falls to the side straight in front of the machine gun opening, and as it does, the figure explodes into a ball of flames and smoke. As the smoke slowly clears, there is one thing missing; the sound of the machine gun has been silenced.
“It sounds like World War Three! What is going on, how are the lads getting on?” Tyrone says from behind Jason, his legs bent and his back pinned to the low wall, his rifle aimed outwards.
Jason doesn’t know how to answer Tyrone’s question, as he can’t find the words.
“Jay?”
“It’s terrible, have a look for yourself,” Jason eventually says, rolling onto his side to look at Tyrone.
Both men’s concentration drops for a moment as they prepare to swap positions and they don’t see it until it’s almost upon them—and by then, it is too late to react. A tall long-haired male Zombie runs down the centre of the main road, its long black coat raised into the air, flowing behind it from the speed it is travelling at. Jason, panicking, tries to bring his rifle into some kind of firing position but he is too slow.
The creature doesn’t slow or move in their direction; it stares straight at them though, and then, as it draws level with the two of them, its mouth opens and it lets out a ferocious ear-piercing scream in their direction, its grey, vile dead face and black eyes crawling with evil malice.
Inexplicably, the creature doesn’t attack, but it runs right past them, runs towards the battle ahead of it, seeming to pick up even more speed, almost floating above the road.
Jason finally has his rifle in a position to shoot. He is too stunned to shoot, however, and too late, the creature is gone. The two men watch it go until they see it jump far into the air, flying into the centre of the melee.
“What the fuck,” Tyrone manages to say eventually. Jason is still too stunned to speak. “It ran right past us, why didn’t it attack us, Jay?”
I don’t know,” Jason manages to say eventually, “I think there is more going on here than meets the eye… these Zombies
