Free The Undead Day Twenty by RR Haywood Page A

lying torn and twisted. Mouths hanging open. Red eyes staring lifelessly. Flies buzzing to land and feast on the wounds. The stench is almost overwhelming.
    ‘Mohammed, to me.’
    ‘Yes, Dave,’ Mo runs forward, ignoring Maddox as he passes.
    ‘See the branches. The angle they are damaged point inwards from the road. The damage was done from the road. The access point is from the road into this field.’
    ‘Got it.’
    ‘What else do you see?’
    ‘Er…’ Mo casts about, watched intently by Maddox and everyone else. ‘Er…it’s wide so a few came through…the bodies here are all heading into the field so…so they’s came in from the road to be killed here, you get me?’ he goes forward to look through the gap to the road on the other side. ‘They’s got pushed back out…they’s all piled up, like a defensive point was made.’
    ‘Good. The bodies.’
    ‘Er…’ Mo looks round, nervously glancing up at everyone watching him. ‘Necks. Broken necks… and that one’s been bitten…human mouth?’
    ‘It is.’
    ‘Another one there, Dave,’ Mo says, shoeing a body over onto it’s back. ‘Right in the throat…’
    ‘What else?’
    ‘Else? Fuck me…er…’
    ‘Big man,’ Clarence coughs into his hand.
    ‘Big man? What big man? Oh…oh…’ Mo grins sudden and delighted. ‘Yeah that one…he got thrown from the road…you can see how he landed…strong fucker threw him…like Clarence does.’
    ‘Good. Go through and report.’
    ‘You sending Mo through first?’ Paula asks.
    ‘Yes, Miss Paula. Mohammed, go through and report.’
    ‘Yes, Dave.’
    Mo goes through, ducking to gain the other side. He drops down onto soft bodies and out to gain the road. His eyebrows lift. His face showing surprise at the sheer numbers of infected lying dead.
    ‘Report,’ Dave says.
    ‘Give him a chance,’ Paula says.
    Mo holds his rifle across his chest, his eyes scanning the ground and up to both directions of the narrow lane. ‘Came from both sides…’ he calls back. He spots something poking out under a body. The butt of a gun. He kicks the body over to look down. ‘Shotgun here, broken…used like a club…no gunshot wounds. Broken necks, bite marks…bladed weapon used but it was blunt.’ Mo stares round, seeing more as he looks. His eyes alive and twinkling. ‘Two sides, Dave. They fought on two sides and fell back to that gap in the hedge…bladed weapon used on this side.’ He back steps away to the epi-centre of the battle. ‘The strong fucker was on this side…broken necks everywhere and that big bloke was thrown from here…’
    ‘Good,’ Dave says, coming through the gap to drop lightly into the road. ‘Anything else?’
    ‘Er…’ Mo frowns, pursing his lips while examining the sides, both directions, the bodies, the gap in the hedge. ‘Nah, got fuck all, Dave.’
    ‘No, Dave.’
    ‘S’what I said.’
    Everyone bar Maddox on the other side of the hedge pulls a face at the backchat from Mo to Dave, expecting a harsh response.
    ‘Which direction did they come from?’ Dave asks instead.
    What the fuck? Howie mouths. Clarence shrugs. Blowers shakes his head.
    ‘I don’t know,’ Mo says from the other side.
    ‘Look.’
    ‘At what?’
    ‘Both ends.’
    ‘Both ends? What’s that mean?’
    Howie’s eyes widen. Clarence winces. Blowers looks down at the ground waiting for Dave to bellow.
    ‘Be clear, Dave.’
    ‘Holy fuck,’ Cookey mutters, taking a step back from the hedge.
    ‘My apologies, Mohammed. Look at both ends. One direction will have less bodies.’
    A stunned silence.
    ‘Ah got it, yeah…yeah none this way…so’s they came the other way right?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘HA! Got it. Fuck yeah…’
    ‘Yes not yeah.’
    ‘Fuck yes. Can I say fuck yes?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Ha! Fuck yes. Did I miss anything?’
    ‘Not of importance.’
    ‘Eh? What’d I miss?’
    ‘Footprints in the blood. The defenders were male and female. Both adults. The male was large build,