The sounds of explosions and gunshots are like the music from the magic pipe of the Pied Piper calling the rats out. Rabids emerge from the buildings and the park in increasing numbers and they all move in one direction, the direction of the battle. I have no choice but to go with the flow. It’s too late to turn back; they are behind me. I keep my distance as far away from them as possible. As unnerving as it is, one thing is for sure; my question has been answered, and it is as if I am invisible to them. I wouldn’t stand a chance if that weren’t the case.
The roar of a helicopter engine bursts into the road, as it swoops out over the buildings in front of me, without warning. Both of the Wildcat’s hold doors are wide open and I can clearly see the face of the door gunner as the helicopter hovers just above the height of the buildings and across the road.
I come to a stop as my hand goes up above my head and I wave at the gunner, letting him know I’m in the area. A look of determination is etched across the man’s face as I wave at him frantically. A Rabid runs past my right shoulder from behind, careering down the road as if it knows what it about to happen. The gunner has to have seen me, but it makes no difference; the door gun erupts, sending a hail of bullets down. Just in time, I jump to my left and roll away from the barrage. The road is ripped to shreds where I had stood from the ferocious onslaught, as the gun cuts down anything in its path. Fucking wanker, I think to myself as I roll to my feet and run to take cover behind a stone wall at an entrance to the park. He saw me and fired anyway.
The gunner sprays the area with high-calibre bullets, indiscriminately. Rabids are torn to pieces where they stand and the same is happening on the other side of the Wildcat as the second door gunner sprays the opposite side of the road.
Bullets smash into the stone wall behind me, cracking it, raining chippings onto me. Around my feet, the slabbed pavement disintegrates, blown apart and I fear getting hit by a ricochet. The gunner is targeting me deliberately; does he think I am a Rabid too, is he stupid? Rabids don’t stand and wave, they bite. Let’s see if this idiot prefers Rabids that shoot back, that’ll really freak him out. I edge right away from the road and the hail of bullets, moving around the wall into the park. Using the low-hanging greenery as cover, I move back from the wall and gradually, the hold of the Wildcat enters my sights. The fuckwit behind the door gun hasn’t let up, his contorted face mad with the power afforded to him by the gun. I aim carefully and fire. Hitting my mark, the gun whips from his grasp as my bullet hits the steel lever holding the gun. A look of confusion instantly changes the gunner’s face and it takes him a moment to recover before he takes hold of the gun again. He immediately starts to fire it again, but the direction of his aim has diverted to another area of the road. I go back over to the wall and sit down with my back against it, staying off the shattered slabs. I have a drink and wait until the onslaught has finished and the helicopter moves off.
Soon enough, the Wildcat powers its engines and I hear it fly out of the area. Whether it has run out of ammo or targets, I don’t know—the latter, I suspect. The bottle of fruit water is all but empty so I down the last of it and throw the bottle out into the road, where it disappears nicely into the debris.
Getting up, I walk back out onto the road ready to see the fresh carnage that will be laid out for me. The scene doesn’t disappoint, a new haze of dust hangs in the air to blend with the smoke. Beneath the heavy haze, obliterated bodies move, squirming Rabid bodies whose heads evaded a bullet. Dark patches of black blood pool and glisten on the ground as if the numerous wrecked cars scattered around have decided to squirt their engine oil out simultaneously. The blood starts to soak up some of the falling dust particles that are too big to escape gravity.
The destruction and killing has minimal effect on me; I have become so used to it over the last days. I’d always thought that the bloodshed I witnessed on the battlefield in my army days was horrific, and it was. Those images tormented my dreams, but they pale in comparison to the new images my brain has stored up for me. I dread reliving them when this is over, if it ever is.
Chapter 19
Body after mutilated body passes me by as I walk down the remainder of Bayswater Road. I have given up on moving between hold points, as there is little point now. New Rabids are still walking onto the road from side streets, buildings and the
