Coldbrook (Hammer)(148)

Someone stood in front of the car and grabbed Walt, and for a second Vic thought it was a biker pulling the corpse away so that they could drive on. But then he saw the stained and torn summery dress, and Sean rested his rifle against the dashboard and shot the woman in the throat. She shook, her head flopping to one side where her spine had been shattered. But she did not fall.

Sean fired again. As the woman slumped back, a biker tried to stand, tugging to free his leg from beneath his crashed bike. He was bleeding from a terrible wound in his throat, the blood spurting across his chest and stomach with each heave on his trapped limb. He did not appear to be in pain.

‘Close your eyes,’ Sean said, but he didn’t wait for the others to heed his advice. It was far worse seeing a fresh one shot.

‘Give me the rifle,’ Vic said. ‘You’ve got to drive.’ Sean handed it back without a word and Vic leaned between the front seats, resting the rifle’s barrel on the dashboard.

‘We’re not even in the town yet,’ Marc said, his voice higher than usual.

‘Laptop okay?’ Vic asked.

‘Yes, but we’re not even—’

‘Hush it down, Marc,’ Vic said softly. Marc glanced back at him, then nodded. Vic wasn’t sure whether to feel comforted or terrified at the older man’s brief display of panic.

Sean steered around the crashed bike and the bodies. Three Unblessed bikes roared on ahead, and Vic saw the unmistakable form of Chaney riding one of the choppers, his Remington 870 still slung across his back.

‘Daddy,’ Olivia said, tugging at the back of Vic’s sweat-soaked shirt, ‘are we going home?’

Vic pressed his lips together but did not look back at his wife and child.

‘School bus still behind us,’ Sean said, looking in his side mirror. The bikers had given up some of their weapons to the four adults on the bus, but Vic couldn’t bear to think what might happen if even one zombie made it on board.

As the first biker passed the burned school, a crowd surged from behind its boundary wall. Chaney grabbed the shotgun from his back and swerved wide to avoid the running people. He fired, pumped the gun one-handed, fired again. The two other bikers shot their way into the town. Chaney glanced back at the approaching vehicles, and then powered away.

‘Heads down, close your eyes,’ Vic said over his shoulder. He smashed out the remaining shards of windscreen with the rifle barrel, then aimed ahead.

‘Can’t afford to run into them,’ Marc said.

‘I know,’ Sean said, pressing hard on the gas pedal.

‘I mean it. Fuck the radiator, burst a tyre, and we’re—’

‘I know!’

‘Easier if they’re lying down,’ Vic said, and he fired. A man went down. Didn’t know him. He fired again at another man wearing fatigues, only winging him. Didn’t know him. Sean veered past the rushing crowd and Vic shot once more, knocking a woman onto her back. Knew her. It was Kate Morris, the wife of one of the mechanics down in Coldbrook. He wondered where her husband was now.

Vic shot another woman directly ahead of the car. She fell and Sean drove over her, and as she rolled between the chassis and the road it sounded as if she was hammering to get in, clawing at the metal.

Vic glanced back at Lucy where she hugged Olivia’s face against her chest.

He fired again. A man went down and Vic knew his face from one of Danton Rock’s bars. As Sean powered along the street, Vic bestowed the favour of true death on several other people who got in their way, two of them soldiers.

‘Army,’ Vic said.

‘Not usually here?’ Marc asked.

‘No. Guess they were sent to Coldbrook when Jonah sounded the alarm.’

‘Let’s hope they didn’t hang around,’ Marc said. Vic didn’t reply, but he wondered just what they would find down in Coldbrook’s shallow valley.

In the town square, one of the bikes had crashed and a scrum of zombies was tearing at the biker. Chaney had parked his bike and remained astride it, firing his shotgun into the mess of bodies. Sean slammed on the brakes and Chaney looked their way.

‘He needs to get a f*cking move on!’ Marc said. He waved through the shattered windscreen, urging Chaney to mount up and move out.

‘Trying to save his buddy,’ Vic said. He sighted on the struggling pile and pulled the rifle’s trigger. The zombies paused in their attack, stood back, revealed the dead biker with his holed helmet leaking blood. Then they turned their attention to the car.