Private Conti inched the small
mirrored device around the corner of the housing tenement, that he and Dewbury
were hunkered down in. He winced as the bullets struck the paramedic and threw the
portly male to the ground with a thud. The
deserter watched in fascination as the shorter female snarled a cry of rage and
lifted a wicked looking crossbow. Conti held his breath as she let fly a bolt
at the sinister Mr Smith. The former
soldier had held the “Men in Black” in awe having seen them in action. He had
thought them as beyond human, so he was horrified as the bolt flew true and
struck the agent high in the shoulder and dropped him to the tarmac.
The low moaning of the D-Subs grew
louder as the MiB went down. As one they surged forward in an effort to get to
the warm flesh of the agent, their teeth bared in anticipation. Conti withdrew
the device and hitched his assault rifle up, nudging the nervous man that hovered
behind him, he indicated that the deserters should get while the going was
good. Without a backward glance, the former soldiers ghosted away from the crash site.
 |
| one of the PEFs comes close to being revealed but then turns around and retreats |
April heard the sickly thud as the heavy rounds struck Gobbo,
a fine spray of blood flew from the medic's head as the bullets
tore a crease down the side of his face. She stood frozen to the spot as Gobbo’s
daughter – Astrid raised her bow to return fire, dropping the agent in the
black coat. A door slamming open behind
her, had her spinning around with her ASP held loosely in her hand. A zed
stumbled over the threshold, falling forward and allowing April the chance to
crash the heavy extendible baton into the back of it’s head.
Astrid felt her father’s blood splatter the side of her face
as he was spun around, before crashing to the floor. The young woman pushed down a surge of fear
for the stricken medic and sighted down her crossbow, shooting the bad guy who
had fired on her dad so callously. She grinned fiercely as the bolt lodged in
the sinister agent’s shoulder and taking him out of the action. That grin turned into a shout of both
surprise and glee, as she spotted her dad’s crewmate clamber over a wall behind
the agent, firing an assault rifle at a couple of the zombies that were milling
around. Raising her hand, Astrid called
out to the fiery paramedic, gesturing for her to run toward their group.
Smith, gasping from the pain in his shoulder, shook his head
to clear the woozy feeling that was threatening to drive him into unconsciousness. The girl was limping passed him, not 10 feet
away, but he couldn’t bring his pistols up to take her out. Grimacing against the agony of the barbed
bolt pressing against his clavicle, he staggered to his feet. Looking around, he decided that discretion
was the better part of valour and darted/stumbled along the high wall that marked
the boundaries of a wooded park.
Anna, hearing the stricken cry of Gobbo’s daughter as he was
shot down, near boiled over the garden wall that she had been resting behind.
Landing awkwardly, she ignored the flare of pain from her ruined ankle, she
lifted her borrowed rifle to her shoulder and mowed down a trio of D-Subs that
threatened to attack her fallen crewmate.
The paramedic looked left and right but failed to spot the mysterious
agent who had gunned down her friend, grimly striding forward as more and more
shambling D’s flooded the area.
Reaching the fallen medic, she bent down to palpate Gobbo’s carotid
artery. Feeling a strong pulse, Anna turned his head, tutting at the crease
where the round had scraped passed the older medic’s temple.
“For Christ’s sake Gobbo, get your fat, lazy arse up of the
floor!” she shouted in his ear, accompanied by a hard pinch to his trapezius muscle.
With a shout the middle-aged medic, practically jumped up as
the pain from his trapezius temporarily outweighed the pain in his head. “What
the fuck?!?” he spluttered as he shook his head, trying to orientate himself. As he staggered sideways, he glimpsed sight
of a zed bearing down on his beloved daughter.
Drunkenly he raised the heavy firearm that he still clutched, pulling
the trigger and discharging a spray of pellets at the creature and throwing it
backward. The noise chased the last of
the cobwebs from his brain and he pulled his kin into a powerful bear hug.
“Touching as this is people, I think we need to get the hell
out of here…” Drawled Anna, nodding at the reporter in greeting and pulling on
the arm of her crewmate.
“Of course, Putters professional at all times!” laughed the
portly medic, delighted to see his young friend and mentor whole. “The ambo is
just up the alleyway, ready to go”.
Pistol fire, followed by the
sound of roaring engine, drew their attention as they realised that the
mysterious agent had somehow escaped. All four of the humans, grimaced at the
sound of snapping bones clearly heard over the squealing of tyres.
“I somehow doubt that’ll be the
last we see of him.” Astrid surmised, slowly shaking her head at the thought of
the formidable foe coming after her and her loved ones. The others nodded in agreement and turn back
toward the waiting ambulance and safety.
“Let’s get out of here.” Said Gobbo,
grimly stepping over the still twitching remains of the D-Sub he had perforated with
his shotgun moments before.
The shock of being shot in the head
clearly slowing his thought process, it was some few precious seconds before
his brain caught up. Still twitching remains…
With a hungry moan the zed
lurched to it’s feet, clawed fingers reaching for April’s clothing and pulling
the startled reporter in close, trying to bite the young woman. April tried to
swing with her baton, but the creature was too close and pinned her arm to her
sides, causing the blow to be ineffectual.
The others, caught by surprise could only watch in horror as the two
combatants fell to the floor in a tangled heap of thrashing limbs. After long
seconds, there was a loud snap as April leaned her full weight onto the
creature, snapping it’s neck and causing it to go limp.
 |
| an event - a previously dead zed comes back to unlife... |
April stood, wiping blood off her
coat and looking pale as she staggered toward the ambulance. “Hurry,” she implored, “we’ve got to get out
of here.” Pushing passed her stunned colleagues, she clambered into the back of
the vehicle and slumped onto the trolley, staring up at the roof of the truck.
 |
| April loses a round of combat with the zed before killing it... |
With a shrug, Gobbo got behind the
wheel and gunned the engine as the others got into the emergency vehicle. Throwing it into reverse, he put his foot to
the floor and backed the ambulance out of the hot zone.
That's it for this episode of my ongoing ATZ - an English Adventure.
hope you enjoy
dGG
April clutched the torn sleeve of her jacket, the pain from the D-Subs bite was abominable and she thought she might pass out. So far she hadn't checked to see if the flesh had been broken by the filthy teeth of the creature and she was petrified to look just in case it had. She'd seen the films, she'd read the books and seen first hand what the bites of the zombies did to humans. Glancing fearfully around the ambo, she saw the two medics deep in conversation, no doubt catching each other up on the recent events. Gobbo's daughter Astrid, was watching her with her too clever eyes, taking in everything, analysing everything. Nothing would get by that one, nothing...
