“Okay, that's not good” Samir muttered.
The cars on the other side also suddenly turned towards them, and the traffic lights ahead began flashing from red to amber to green, and then back again in quick succession. Brandon was happy he wasn't epileptic right now or it would have meant sudden death for all of them. All of the cars began screeching their tyres on the road as they all accelerated towards the shudder-machine. They were being driven at from all angles, encased by a circle of angry cars heading right for them.
“Shit, what do we do?” Brandon shouted, “I have nowhere to go”.
Samir looked out the window, trying to find any small passage they could try and aim towards, but there was nothing. Suddenly an idea flashed into his head.
“Mateo, stop fighting the hackers” he shouted.
“What?” Mateo shouted back.
“Just do it, I think I know what will happen”.
So, Mateo did as suggested, he took his fingers away from the laptop and sat back, taking a deep breath, while Brandon and Mariam screamed at Samir to ask what the hell he was thinking. Brandon lost complete control of the steering wheel again and it turned and glided to the left, smacking against the front of three cars in the process. The rest of the cars hell-bent on destroying the shudder-machine continued their same course and they all hurtled towards each other, colliding with an enormous crash. Sparks flew in all directions. One engine caught fire, which set off a chain reaction, and the rest of the engines ignited in a series of pyrotechnical explosions. More cars crashed into the inferno creating the world's largest bonfire, a crushed mass of steel and aluminium speckled with roasting flesh. Brandon's 4x4 had clipped three cars on its path and then started to turn again, the carnage all playing out behind them.
“Okay, now fight the hackers again Mateo, stop the car, open the doors and then we need to head straight for the subway there” Samir shouted pointing to the metro sign they were close to.
Samir had been nervous, his adrenalin kicking in and keeping his thoughts focused. It was the same feeling he had performing surgery now, and once he'd manage to relax into it, he could analyse and see the situation. There was no way out of where they were headed. While Mateo fought for control of the 4x4, the other cars were destined to plough into them, but then he saw the underground station and it all just clicked. The other cars weren't the priority, they were. If they relinquished control then the hackers would be taken by surprise and have to make a sudden manoeuvre with the 4x4. The split-second confusion would mean they took their focus away from the other cars to put it back on them, crucial seconds to hopefully avoid the main car onslaught. The rest was easy, they would miss the burning column of ex-cars, they would hack back into the cars computer and they would make a run for the underground train station. Mateo was jabbing at his laptop so hard it sounded like he was going to break it and then a second later the car stopped and the doors unlocked.
“Now the cars are all in a pile over there shouldn’t we just carry on?” Brandon said, to which Samir butted in with his finger, pointing ahead of them.
In front of them were more cars that were under the kill command. Brandon conceded and jumped out quickly followed by the others. The metro station was about fifty metres away and they sprinted furiously, the cars around them edging closer. One screamed past Mariam, missing her by mere inches, others bearing down on them at a furious pace. They continued running to reach the safety of the underground station, diving in just as another car crashed over the side walk and struck the front of a building, crumpling itself into an unrecognisable mound of metal and human appendages.
They all filtered down the steps, jumping over the ticket barrier and pushing people out the way. Random citizens tumbled away confused before regaining composure and looking towards the fab four transfixed, as if hypnotized. Mariam pulled out Mateo's phone as they ran further down each escalator and tried to contact Sheryl again. There was no signal. Of course there wasn't, they were over one hundred and fifty metres below ground. She continued running, trying to keep up with the others, she wasn't the fittest out of her friends, but that was not stopping her almost keeping up with them.
They reached the bottom of the escalators and saw a train approaching so instantly ran towards it desperately. As they did this, they noticed that all the people around them were turning to look at them, not the normal look to see who is running around, but a deep inhuman stare. They all stopped dead in their tracks at the edge of the platform, the inhumans still staring, a stare that slowly altered into something much more sinister. Each one of them began to surround them.
“Is this what I think it is?” Brandon shouted to Mateo.
“Yep” Mateo replied, who had dropped to the floor and was typing in a frenzied way into his laptop, “They have just hacked all these people”.
They were all astounded. They knew that everyone was to all intents and purposes a zombie, their daily lives controlled by impulses they couldn't override, but this was on another level.
“Can you do anything Mat?” Mariam cried, now completely terrified.
“Hang on” he said as all the movies about zombie apocalypses suddenly started to seem less fanciful.
DANNY
Danny sat in
