Ravage: An Apocalyptic Horror Novel(115)

“They have to be,” said Annaliese.

But then she saw them.

“Jesus,” said Eve. “Is that Jan?”

Up ahead, surrounded on all sides by the dead, Jan fought for his life. He battled the dead bare fisted, clocking them with right hooks and snapping the necks of any that got too close. Fighting side-by-side with him were Nick and Renee. All three of them were unarmed and desperately trying to survive.

“They’re going to get ripped apart,” said Pauline.

Annaliese gunned the engine and shifted into gear. “Not if I can help it.”

The truck shot forward, accelerating quicker than she expected. She steered the bonnet towards the thick lines of the dead and sped up as much as she could.

The first body she hit went clean over the bonnet and landed behind them. Blood splattered the windscreen, which somehow had remained intact. The second body went down rather than up, falling beneath the big wheels of the utility truck.

Annaliese stamped on the brake and turned the wheel sideways, sending the vehicle into a skid. More bodies went down as the truck slid along like a plough. The windscreen finally cracked and glass shards fell onto the bonnet.

The truck came to a stop. The dead were all around.

Annaliese rolled down her side window and screamed through the one inch-gap. “Nick! Jan! Renee!”

In the distance, amidst the shadows of rotting bodies, the three men turned around. They saw the truck and seemed relieved by its presence. Immediately the three of them started making their way towards it. They pushed and punched at the dead, dodging their grasps and avoiding their bites. The truck was their salvation, and they were so near…

But there were just too many of the dead. Their reaching, clawing hands made a net impossible to escape.

Annaliese watched in horror, praying for her friends to make it. But there seemed to be no way.

A dead waiter knocked Jan sideways with an elbow, which led to the man losing his footing. His ankle twisted and he fell down to one knee. It was all it took for the dead to take him. Probing hands dragged Jan to the floor and wrestled him into submission. He kicked out and caught a dead man in the chin, managed to snap the neck of another that knelt down beside him, but as soon as one body fell away, two others joined it. He could not fight them all.

Nick saw that the big man was down and stopped his journey towards the truck. “Jan!” he shouted out, trying to push his way through the dead. Renee fought to help, too. But the dead were all over them. Jan disappeared under a blanket of bodies and then was gone from sight. His angry shouting was the last thing they would know of him.

Annaliese shouted through the window. “Nick, Renee, come on. Come on!”

Nick shook his head in despair at the loss of Jan, but he seemed to find the resolve he needed to continue. He and Renee made a last-ditch effort to get to the truck.

Come on, guys. You can make it.

Just as Nick and Renee were getting close, a scream startled everyone inside the truck. Annaliese craned her neck and saw through the rear window that Michelle had snapped out of her daze and was now standing up and screaming hysterically at the dead all around her. As soon as they spotted her they turned and headed for the truck.

“Damn it,” said Eve. “They’re coming this way.”

The first of the dead reached into the truck and grabbed at Michelle’s ankles. Annaliese watched, powerless, as she was dragged kicking and screaming into the crowd. She disappeared so fast that it was as if she were sinking into a sea. One minute she was there, the next she was just another part of the ever-moving mob.

Nick and Renee made it to the truck, slumping up against its side with exhaustion.

“In the back,” Annaliese shouted to them. “Get in the back.”

The truck bounced on its suspension as the two men leapt onto the cargo shelf. The dead clawed at them, trying to drag them back out again.

Time to go.

Annaliese stepped on the accelerator. The truck bolted forward.

Stalled.

A body leapt onto the bonnet and thumped at the broken windscreen. Annaliese cursed out loud and got the engine back in gear. She tried to pull off again and was relieved when the vehicle shot forward and picked up speed.

Glad I still know how to drive.

More bodies fell beneath the wheels and the truck whined unhappily under the additional stress. It was never designed to drive over bodies.

“Where do we go?” Eve asked. “They’re everywhere.”


The dead were indeed everywhere, and that was just the ones from the house. When the ones from the bottom of the hill arrived, there would be zero chance of escape.

“We need to head for the access road just past the house,” Annaliese told her passengers. “It leads down the hill and into the towns. It’s how the staff and delivery drivers used to come and go.”

Eve took a breath and nodded. Annaliese could feel the younger woman shaking beside her. In the rear view mirror she could see Nick and Renee fighting to hold on. Despite not wanting to, she slowed down. She didn’t want to lose the two men off the back.

“Wait!” said Eve.

Annaliese turned to her. “What? What is it?”

“We need supplies or we won’t last the week.”

“We have to go. We have no choice.”

“What if we can’t find food…or water?”

Something occurred to Annaliese. Something that made her point the truck towards the woods. “Hold on,” she said. “I know where we can get supplies, but we’ll have to be quick.”