Free British Zombie Breakout: Part Two by Peter Salisbury

the east. ETA in
ten. '
    ' Any sightings
yet? '
    ' Unit four reports movement on the
main road on the edge of Stannicvale. '
    ' Confirmed. Zombie group heading
north on Vale Road. '
    'Vale Road!' Sarah said. 'I saw the sign, that's the main road
into town. The one where we stopped at the first café.'
    'So here, we're on the next street over and about a mile from
where the zombies are.'
    'Did you hear that?' Bill said. He'd run back up the stairs,
carrying several lengths of metal tubing.
    'No, what?'
    'Gunfire.'
    Graham opened the window and let in the intermittent rattle of
automatic weapons, interspersed with a 'whoomph' of something
larger.
    'Here come the helicopters.'
    'It's not safe here, is it?'
    'Like, we're all going to be killed,' Maisie
wailed.
    'I could try getting hold of that professor again. He might be
in contact with the army.'
    'Brilliant,' Janet said, resisting the urge to hug her son
again. 'Karen, you're the fastest typist. Steve, move over, tell
her what to say.'
    'We don't even know if he's on our side,' Bill said, 'After
that message where they said his department had made the detector
torch.'
    'Quick, open another browser tab. Put the postcode in. Here
it's on this store letterhead.'
    'Now what?'
    'Click 'Search', it should display a map with our location.
Yes, there, read off the grid reference.' Janet scribbled it on a
scrap of paper. 'Right, now go back to the email and send the
postcode and the grid reference.'
    'How will that help?' Karen said, clicking the 'Send'
button.
    'If that gets through to the army, they should at least avoid
shooting us as being zombies.'
    The sound of weapons fire grew closer and the explosions
became louder and more frequent. Through the window, they saw a
whole building collapse two blocks away as a helicopter hovered
nearby, strafing into the streets below.
    A moment later, the helicopter stopped its strafing run and
turned in the direction of the fugitives who were all gathered
around the window.
    'Duck!' Janet screamed.
    Everyone threw themselves to the floor and crawled under the
nearest desk or counter, expecting a blizzard of bullets at any
moment.
     

Chapter 26: The
Message
    'I'd say someone's got your message, lad.'
    'Yes, and now they're coming to get us!'
    The roar of the helicopter's engines drowned out every other
sound. The whole building vibrated, until there was a shudder
through the office ceiling. Then the engines cut and the vibration
subsided, until the whirr of the blades could be heard winding
down.
    'Has this place got a flat roof?'
    'It must do. And I think we're about to have
visitors.'
    A soldier burst through the fire escape door from the
roof.
    'You the Janet Reynolds party?'
    He was quickly followed by another four men, all in full
flight gear and each with guns pointing only slightly above the
fugitives' head height.
    Bill and Fred slowly lowered their sections of tubing. Steve
swivelled his chair towards the men and raised his hands. While the
helicopter had been landing, the gunfire outside had
stopped.
    Janet carefully extricated herself from under the counter and
stood up. 'I'm Mrs Reynolds.'
    'And are there are nine or ten of you here?'
    'Ten,' Janet said, adding in a defiant tone. 'And we are not
infected.'
    'That's what we've been told, Mrs Reynolds. I have orders to
escort you down to street level but first I need to do a weapons
check.'
    'I have a flare gun and Sarah has the spare flares,' Janet
said.
    'Put them on the desk, here, if you please.' The airman passed
the flare gun back to one of his men. 'Anything else?'
    'Look here young man,' Bill said, handing over his revolver.
'Have you come to rescue us or to take us to that Breathdeep
place?'
    'The Commander will inform you of that shortly.'
    'What about the zombies?'
    'The other units have seen to them. You'll be quite safe with
us.'
     
    Commander Douglas Hodgeson greeted the fugitives in person.
After introducing himself, he said, 'I'm pleased to see you all
looking well.