Coldbrook (Hammer)(156)

‘What d’you mean?’

‘Her disease. She’s in and out of coma.’

‘But Coldbrook’s safe?’

‘For now. Drake and his people are helping us. I came up when Lucy told me what you’d done.’

‘Where are you now?’

‘Inside the duct housing, looking out. Vic . . . there are hundreds of furies. Those biker guys and a few others are holding the perimeter. But for every one they shoot down, two more take its place.’

‘I see Chinooks. There are soldiers there?’

‘Yeah. Zombie soldiers.’

‘Shit,’ Vic said. ‘But their weapons?’

‘Mostly outside the boundary,’ Holly said.

Vic had flicked the satphone’s speaker on and Chaney was listening in. He’d calmed the kids down and told the adults to keep watch at the smashed windows. They could see more zombies converging on them from the hillsides and back along the road, but they needed a breather so that they could pause, plan.

‘So how do we get in?’ Vic said. ‘That fence and hedge isn’t much, is it? Amazed the bastard things haven’t just marched through it.’

‘Me too. But aim for the gate. It’s open, but blocked off with the two largest vehicles – a few of the f*ckers squirmed underneath them but they were shot, and their bodies are blocking the way for others.’

‘Miss, my name’s Chaney,’ Chaney said over the satphone to Holly. ‘You know as soon as those trucks pull back there’ll be a flood of ’em. And though Vic here’s a mean driver, he won’t be able to run them all down.’

‘Hey, Chaney. Yeah. But it’s the only way. Vic, try and pull up against the duct housing, might be able to just step across.’

‘Won’t be long before they follow us down the duct.’

‘You’ll have to be quick. But we’re ready to block off Coldbrook’s garage as soon as we’re all inside.’

‘You won’t be in one of the trucks?’ Vic asked, because he could already see that whoever drove them from across the entrance would be in major trouble.

‘Can’t. Been stabbed.’

‘Stabbed?’

‘Long story. Vic . . .’

‘Yeah?’

‘Just . . .’ Everything unspoken between them for years remained unspoken, but its weight reached them both.

‘Jeez,’ Chaney said. ‘Be there soon, miss. Open the bar.’ He clapped Vic on the shoulder and turned to tell everyone what was happening.

‘Yeah,’ Vic said into the phone. ‘See you soon.’

Holly signed off.

He started driving again, slowly, heading for Coldbrook’s main gates as he had hundreds of times before. The closer he came, the more he saw of the desperate siege that the compound was under.

The two trucks were parked nose to tail across the gate. There was a man on each roof, shooting any zombie that managed to scramble up that high, and piled in front of the gates were a dozen bodies. He’d have to drive over them. More were sprawled around the perimeter fencing, and they formed a raised step from which others tried to launch themselves over the hedging. Most fell back with a bullet in the head. A few made it over to be shot inside the compound.

But how much ammunition could these bikers have been carrying?

‘Chaney!’ Vic shouted.

‘Here.’

‘I think once we’re through the gate I can swerve around, then back the bus against the duct housing. Rear emergency exit should be just the right height.’

‘Won’t that take too long?’

‘Few more seconds. Best bet.’

‘Sure.’ Chaney moved back down the bus. ‘Okay kids, and you guys, everyone to the back of the bus, hunker down, stay low. Anyone with ammunition left, watch those broken windows. Miss? The second we stop, you pull the emergency handle and pop open that back window. There’ll be someone there. You do as they say. Understand that, kiddies? Do as they say, and there’ll be candy and ice cream for tea.’

‘I don’t want candy,’ a kid said, ‘I want my mommy.’

‘Yeah, well. Me too,’ said Chaney.

Vic ran down four adults and two children, and then the trucks across the gate drove apart and the bus bounced over the piled corpses, landing heavily. Inside the compound, he turned sharply to the left, the bus shuddering, steering wheel vibrating, and felt the back end skid around on the grass. Yes! he thought, because that gave him the angle he needed.