As we approach the turning for Hermitage Street which connects with North Wharf Road, thankfully there is no evidence of Rabids coming out of it, so I take the turn.
I’m anxious that the walls of Orion have already been overrun and that Dan isn’t there ready to open the gate for us. Has he already had to fall back into the safety of the building, or worse, did the walls or gate get breached before he made it back inside? Should either have happened, we are in the shit and our only option would be to turn around if we can and fight our way out, to try and find somewhere to hole up like the rest of the population caught in the quarantine zone. Getting back to the house is the strongest option I can think of at the moment, but not one I want to be forced to take.
To my relief, as we drive down Hermitage Street, everything seems calm; there are no monsters jumping out at us at least. Rapid gunfire is still audible not too far away, though. Maybe the infected Rabids stay close together in the swarm so they are all at the other end of North Wharf Road?
The girls are still huddled down in the back and I try to be as reassuring as possible, but whimpers are still coming from both of them. Approaching the end of the road, I slow the car and then creep forward until a view of North Wharf Road and the Orion Building is possible.
There is a quite a thick haze of smoke on North Wharf Road, the breeze bringing this haze down from the billows of smoke in the distance, rising above the London Metropole Hotel. The smoke is a remnant of the fires resulting from the massive explosions that very nearly engulfed us on Edgware Road, I should think?
This haze can’t hide what is happening at the Orion Building. The strong sun is shining through and lighting up the siege happening at the walls and gate of the building.
Dozens of Rabids claw at the front wall whilst others are massed at the gate, but this is nothing compared to the stream of Rabids moving past them and out of the Basin. This is the same stream I have just driven through on the main road.
The ones at the back of the mass at the gate are starting to climb over the others in an attempt to get closer; there must be something attracting them to get into the building’s compound. Dan and his team—it must be them, they must still be in position waiting for us. A determined Rabid climbing overreaches the gate and stretches up to grab the top railing of it, lifting itself up. As soon as its head raises over the top of the gate, the Rabid’s head whips back sharply and it falls back dead, getting lost in the throng below. Somebody has just shot it.
This confirms to me that if not Dan, then somebody, somebody is still there waiting for us, waiting to open the gate! Whoever is there, they won’t wait much longer. They will have to fall back inside before the gate is overrun.
I quickly dial Dan’s number in an attempt to tell him we are here and for him to get ready, but after a few rings, it goes to voicemail. He may not have heard it or is too busy to answer. I try to think on the positive side.
Nevertheless, my plan remains and if we are going to get into Orion, it’s now or never!
Chapter 9
Meanwhile, back on top of the flyover, the sniper watches the man put his binoculars back in his jacket pocket and go to get back into his black Land Rover Discovery. Suddenly, the man pulls a handgun out, pointing it at a house across the road from his position. The Sniper cannot see who or what he is pointing it at, though? The man soon puts the gun back into its holster without firing it and gets back into the Discovery.
Before he has a chance to see the Discovery drive off, Alan, his watcher next to him, spots another target low at two o’clock; the Sniper swivels automatically and shoots. The shot misses the head he was aiming at and only hits his target’s shoulder. The target doesn’t seem to flinch in the slightest, but keeps running across the street and jumps straight through one of the front windows of Edgeware Tube Station. The noise of smashing glass is followed by screams, human screams, that can just about be heard coming from inside the station.
No wonder his sniper team had been ordered to only take head shots; body shots don’t even slow these fuckers down, while a leg shot might make them stumble but not for long.
Seeing another target himself, he takes the shot, vaguely aware of the black Discovery passing beneath him. This time, the target’s head explodes, and the skull showers the street right next to its newly-released brains.
“Great shot, Mike!” Alan congratulates me.
One of his colleagues somewhere behind shouts a warning he can’t quite make out above the constant noise of gunfire. There is immediately a flash of light followed moments later by massive explosions. Fuck me, he thinks. That’ll sort them out, not for a second losing concentration on his assigned target area.
But then something does make his concentration waver; to his left and ten metres below, a mass of targets erupts from beneath the flyover. Did those explosions even make a dent?
“Alan, 10 o’clock—are you fucking seeing this!”
“Fuck me, where the hell did they come from!”
Alan immediately aims his automatic and starts
