The passenger door swings open. “Move, move,” I shout at Dan and Ian, then, “Cover the rear,” as they get in.
Before the back door is even shut, the car is speeding forward towards the main building, more firing coming from the back, from both the men now on the back seat.
“Is the gate closed? How many hostiles are through?” I demand.
“I counted nine through and they are moving fast towards us; it’s difficult to get head shots. The gate’s not fully closed, bodies are jamming it, Boss,” Dan shouts.
The car is weaving quite badly as it drives down the short road leading to a small island at the entrance of the building. We have picked up a puncture but I daren’t slow anymore. As I drive around the island, I’m too fast and sideswipe two cars that are parked there. But I control it and come to a sudden stop just outside the main entrance.
The three men are out of the car in an instant and take up covering positions. I’m also out, but my main concern is getting the girls out and inside as quickly as possible. Running around the front of the car, I see more men from inside the building coming out and taking up positions. I ignore them and pull open the back door, grabbing Emily off Stacey’s lap.
Gunfire starts again from all around, Emily’s arms and legs wrapping around me tightly and I hear her crying uncontrollably. I take Stacey’s hand, virtually dragging her out of the car and then we are running towards the entrance doors of Orion.
Gunfire continues and then, as we cross the threshold into the building, I hear Dan shout, “Fall back inside! Fall back inside!”
Turning, I see Dan and his men running toward us. Too close behind them, Rabids are chasing, and farther back at the gate, more are squeezing through the gap that remains and running and leaping through the air at speed down the short road to the building. Car alarms are sounding from the cars I had hit on the island. It will only attract yet more of them.
I look over at the reception booth and am amazed to see Lindsey still sitting there, perched behind the booth, looking frightened to death—and who can blame her?
“Lindsey,” I shout, “get ready to shut and lock the doors on my command.”
“I’m ready, Andy,” she replies in a fairly confident voice.
Dan and his men are just feet away from the entrance but three Rabids are right behind them, with more following closely. There are three other men covering the door, all pointing handguns at the hostiles baying for our blood. Emily is still wrapped around my body and neck, and Stacey is still gripping my left hand tightly. But in my right hand is my Sig, aimed out of the entrance, waiting patiently.
Dan is the last one to make it through and as soon as he does, we open fire on the three closest targets. I hit one in the head with my second shot then someone else hits another and it goes down. The last is shot to pieces by all four of us about six feet from the entrance.
“Close the doors!” Dan and I shout almost in unison.
The heavy glass doors slide closed quickly, seconds before another Rabid gets through. Its head smashes into the glass with a resonating thud that caves its head in and the Rabid bounces back off the glass, leaving a round red patch on the glinting surface.
What was once a normal woman, dressed in what looks like a business suit and with long blonde hair, is now lying flat on her back, spread across the gold Orion logo on the outside marble entrance floor. Dark red blood from her head pours across the bright white marble. We all stand and watch in silence as she twitches in her final throes of life.
Looking up and beyond, more hideous creatures are coming down the road and across the island, more getting through the gate all the time.
“Close the inner door,” I instruct Lindsay.
A mechanical whirring starts and from the left, the inner grey steel door slowly starts to slide across, cutting off the view of the Rabids; they are now at the glass doors, all in a desperate frenzy to get at us, clawing hard, trying to find a way in, teeth gnashing.
Chapter 11
My neck and shoulder are damp from Emily’s tears, her head is still buried tight in there and she is still sobbing. A parent’s job is to protect their children as much as possible from the horrors of this world, but I have just driven my youngest child through what I can only describe as Hell on Earth, and we are so lucky to have made it through in one piece.
I don’t even know if my son is alive or dead, and a cold fear waves through me. Flicking the safety on my Sig, I push it into the back of my jeans as my holster is under Emily's body. With the Sig away, I reach into my front jeans pocket to get my phone with Emily still clamped around me. Has Josh been trying to get in contact? I haven’t heard or felt it ring but with what we have just been through, it could easily have been missed.
Lifting the phone, the little green light flashes, meaning that someone has been trying to get in contact. God, please let it be Josh. The screen lights up and tells me there are several missed calls and numerous text messages. Unlocking the phone, I quickly check my missed phone calls, to see three from Dan, unsurprisingly, two from Catherine and one—yet more surprisingly—from Colonel Reed. But none from Josh. I move into the text messages and scroll past the ones from Dan and Catherine again, and from Karen…and then, with a wave of relief, I see there’s a message from Josh which I immediately click
