WalkerZ - A Zombie Apocalypse Story

Chapter 19 - Concert of The Damned

"Tom!" Andrew's face broke into a relieved smile, and he pedalled toward his friend who was weaving his way through the randomly parked cars on the dual-carriageway. Alan the dog was held on a short piece of rope and Tom smiled wanly back at them. His face was masked by grief, and dark shadows hung under his eyes.

Andrew parked his bike and hugged him fiercely, joined a moment later by Eddie.

"Hey guys," he said. "It's good to see you."

As he disengaged from his two friends Merryn took her turn to hug him, and it was then that Tom broke down, deep sobs shaking through them both as he clung to her, Alan whining at his feet.

"Come on," said Merryn after a few minutes, "let's find a spot off the road and get some food into you."

Tom nodded and a few moments later with a mug of hot soup in his hand he filled them in on the details of Marcia's final moments.

"She was one tough old lady. I climbed to the top of the Tor to the north of the camp before I made my way down onto the road. A swarm approached from the west, and just seemed to roll over the camp. It didn't even change pace really. A few walkers milled around for a bit while Marcia was still alive and firing, but the rest just kept going. The fences were fine against one, or even a few deadheads, but the swarm hit the fence, then the zombies behind walked up over the other ones and kept rising until they got over the fence.

"Marcia was in the same tower she was when we found her. She was firing away for about five minutes and you could hear her shouting at them at the time. For such a nice lady she had a pretty impressive repertoire of swear words. But, they kept rising up, building up a pile of deadheads until they reached her. There was a single shot from a pistol, then a massive boom a couple of seconds later as her hand grenades went off. I don't know how many she took out, but it wasn't enough. I'm ahead of them, but not by a long way. Didn't have time to sleep."

Merryn rested a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You did everything you could, Tom. Marcia would have been happy you got out and took care of Alan."

"I couldn't save her," he said, tears once more welling up in his eyes.

"That's not a lady who needed saving," said Eddie. "She went out on her terms. Marcia would have been far more interested in saving you and Alan, than needing to be saved herself."

Tom nodded and wiped his sleeve across his eyes. "Thanks, Ed. So what now?"

Merryn straightened up from where she'd been making a fuss of the dog. "You and Andrew are going to get back to base. Take two of the bikes. That one's got a pannier on it that Alan can go in. Eddie and I will take the other one and scout ahead. We have a radio, so we'll report back to base and let them know what's going on. You need to report straight to Captain Summers and brief him on what you know. He's making plans for defence, and he's assuming the swarm is going to hit them. If it doesn't then that's fine, but we need to know where it's going."

"May I suggest an alternative?" said Andrew.

Merryn cast him an amused look. "I'm assuming this is an 'I've got a better idea' moment?"

"Well, yes." Andrew grinned at her. "Back at the last junction there was a sign for bike rental. I can't imagine they've all been plundered, so why don't Tom and I go back there with one bike? I can cycle back to base, Tom can have the electric one with Alan as they're knackered. That leaves both you and Eddie with an electric one so you'll be more mobile."

"Yup, better idea, but if you get stuck, come back to us here," said Merryn. "Okay, get going you two, Eddie and I will move out west and see what we can see."