Escape From Dead City Page 5

  After taking another step forward, he looked at Arthur with deep pleading eyes. “Do you think that’s really true sir, you know those stories, are they really eating people?” He then looked over his bosses shoulder at the three people that were standing behind him and his hand automatically dropped down to the radio strapped to his waist. Before Arthur even had the chance to answer, he said, “Excuse me, but who are they sir? You must know you can’t bring them in here, well, not through this door anyway. It’s against the rules.”

  “You don’t have to worry about them, my old friend, just forget that you’ve ever seen them,” Arthur tried his best to change the subject as quickly as he could, they did not have the time to stand around answering his questions. “As I said, what are you doing all the way over here?”

  “I’m heading home right now,” Charlie said, his eyes still looking up and down at the three strangers before him. “Grace and the kids will be worried sick with all the news. Anyway, the soldiers say they don’t need me here anymore, they told me I might as well leave.”

  “But Charlie, it’s crazy out there, there’s no public transport, Westminster bridge is gone and there’s damn roadblocks everywhere.” Arthur said, seemingly more than a little worried for his friend. “The army is shooting everyone and anyone if they see one of the infected. So how the hell do you think you’re going to get all the way back home to Croydon?”

  “I’ll walk it all the way there if I need to,” he said as if surprised at the question. “I know that it may well take me a good few hours but if that’s what I’ve got to do, then that’s what I’ve got to do.” His eyes broke away from the others and seemed to glance off into the distance. “I just need to get back home to my girls.”

  Arthur smiled at the man. “Good luck mate, and hey, please be careful, just make sure you look after yourself out there.”

  Stepping out of the doorway, Charlie began to make his way down the alleyway. He soon enough stopped for a second and turned back, “And good luck to you too, sir, whatever the hell you’re up to.” With barely a halfhearted smile he set off again towards the crowds.

  “Let’s get going, everybody inside,” Arthur said as he continued to watch the hefty man that soon disappeared deep into the swarming mass of bodies. “We don’t have much time left; the train will be leaving soon.”

  Once they were all through the doorway, Arthur swiped his pass again under the same style reader inside, thus closing the heavy barrier. He did not want anyone, or anything else, to join them inside the station; they would have enough problems as it was. After checking that the coast ahead was still clear, they carefully went into the nearest building, up a steep staircase and down a thin, grey painted corridor. Before long, they came to a long, high window that overlooked the whole station concourse.

  Arthur just stood there in plain view, as he watched the hundred or so of soldiers that were now inside the station and forming a series of tight security cordons around the long line of platforms.

  “Get down you bloody fool,” Pauline whispered as she dropped down to her knees, keeping well out of sight. “Someone will see you and that’ll be the end of it.”

  “You don’t need to worry about that,” he said with a silly grin spreading right across his face. “It’s made of one way glass, Pauline,” he gently tapped his index finger on it. “It’s so that we can see exactly what’s going on down there. You know, for security reasons, in times of disruption and the like. And I can tell you that it has sure come in handy at times.” The other three slowly got up on their feet too and joined him over at the window to view the situation below.

  “Well, I’m no expert, but I’d guess it’s got to be that one,” Pauline said pointing over to the large blue and black train that was berthed away over on platform ten. They all just watched as a small group of civilians, carrying a pile of boxes, were being directed and hurried along the concourse towards it.

  “Well Arthur,” she continued. “You’ve got us this far but it still looks hopeless to me. It’s surrounded by those soldiers, there’s no way we’ll be able to get anywhere near it without being seen.”

  “Perhaps there’s some other way we can get out of London?” Gordon said as he looked down at the machine guns that were hung around the soldier’s necks. “Once we get out of the city centre, maybe things will start to look a bit better, and if we can get out into the countryside, then we should be safe there. Surely it’s better to try that than get caught by the frigging army again.”

  “Hey, don’t you go giving up on me yet Doc,” Arthur said as he turned and continued his march along the grubby corridor. “There’s another way we can get on to the train, come on folks, I’ll show you.”

  This time they walked down two steep flights of stairs and ended up in what felt like the deep bowels of the old Victorian built station. As they made their way slowly along in the near darkness, all above their heads was a variety of dripping pipes and huge runs of electrical cables. Arthur, as usual, just kept on talking as they walked. “Every single platform is connected together by these old maintenance tunnels, which means that we can get up right inside the platform staff’s huts which are situated near the cab of the train. And from there, we can then hopefully get on and hide inside the luggage car.”

  “I don’t frigging like all these hopefullies,” Gordon muttered to Pauline, they were just out of earshot of the younger man. “I’m telling you this, my dear, he’s going to get us caught, trust me.”

  “And what the hell else are we supposed to do? I don’t think we’ve got any other options,” Pauline snapped back at him. “Unless of course that is, you want us to go back out onto the streets.”

  Gordon did not bother to try and answer her question. He just carried on walking and decided to keep all his worries to himself for the time being.

  “Here we go,” Arthur motioned them over to a long vertical steel ladder. “As I said, this will take us right up to the platform staff hut. I didn’t see any of the soldiers around earlier, like Charlie, the army must have sent them away. So hopefully folks, it’ll be nice and empty for us.”

  There was that damn word again, Gordon thought as he glanced over at Pauline again, this time she chose to ignore him. She did not even give him one of her looks.

  “Okay everyone, just follow me,” Arthur said as he started to make his way up the twenty-foot ladder. “And please, I need you all to keep real quiet until I’ve taken a little look inside.”

  In a silent procession, they made their way up until Arthur stopped at the very top and carefully lifted the small wooden doorway open just a couple of inches. Light from the room above flooded down the tunnel ladder and once Arthur had taken a peek around, he opened the hatchway up fully. He turned back to look at the others, his smiling face looking down at them, surrounded by the bright light that was behind him.

  “See my faithful friends, I told you we’d be just fine,” he whispered before crawling out into the small room.

  Once they were all inside the cramped twelve foot by twelve foot glass and steel building, Arthur crawled over to one of the windows and carefully lifted his head up just high enough to have a little look outside. There was no one way glass fitted to help him out this time. As he sat back down to face the others, he still had that silly smile smeared on his face.

  “Looks just fine and dandy, see, I told you I would get it sorted,” he said as he winked over at Margot. “All of the soldiers seem to be down at the other end of the platform keeping guard. Now listen carefully, I’ll go out first and open the door by the external air valve, once we’re all inside I’ll close it again and no one will even know we’re in there.” He watched closely as all of his companions each nodded back in turn.

  After a couple of deep breaths, he slowly slid open the door of the hut so they could all see the impressive first coach of the train. Their intended target, the luggage car was the one that was coupled directly behind it.

  Like some sort of Special Forces
commando or secret agent he had seen in a film, Arthur darted over and hugged his slender frame against the cold steel body of the train. Slightly crouched, he inched his way along until he came to the double doors of the intended coach, then bending down to be almost level with the platform, he operated a valve on the side of the train and the doors rushed open. The others were right behind him and they funneled inside on his command, where with another flick of his wrist he operated the valve again. He managed to jump inside before the large doors slid closed again.

  “We need to find somewhere better to hide,” Pauline said as she looked around at the variety of boxes and pallets that were stacked up around them. “And we’d better bloody hurry people, I’d bet it’s only a matter of time before someone comes in here looking for something.” As soon as they started their search, the train juddered slightly and began to move off, ever so gently at first. A little glance at each other showed just how close they had come to missing their only way out of the infested city of London.

  ***

  Gordon had already found some large boxes that seemed to be scattered at random away at the far end of the dark, barely lit coach. He planned to stack them up in a semi-circle close to the wall to provide them with hopefully a pretty good hiding place. As he lifted the first box off another, he came face to face with something causing him to drop the box, sending its array of medical contents all over the floor. A machine gun nozzle was aimed right between his eyes.

  “Freeze!” A booming voice filled the entire carriage. “Anyone who moves will be shot and killed.”

  Shocked, the four of them did just as they were told.

  A loud clicking was quickly followed by the long array of lights above them jumping into life, in just a couple of seconds, the entire carriage was as bright as a sunny summer’s day. That was when they saw the line of soldiers filing into the carriage; at least a dozen of them were filtering in through the single leaf door at the end, spreading out and carefully surrounding the four stowaways. The soldiers however, still kept as much distance between them as possible.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” another voice spoke out this time. This one seemed to be far more calm and reassuring than the first. “Would you all please line up against the wall, and would you please do it now.”

  Pauline was the first to see him; he looked slightly different from the rest too. Sitting perched on top of his short grey hair was a small black beret and not the round, steel helmet that the rest of the soldiers in the coach wore. He also was not carrying a machine gun; he obviously did not see the need for one just yet. She watched as he then slowly turned his back on them and spoke into a small radio for a few seconds before turning around and marching over to the four of them.

  “I need you all to strip please,” he said in his calming voice as his eyes checked out the visitors. “You must remove all of your clothes now.”

  “Piss off you frigging pervert!” Margot immediately shouted back. “Why don’t you just fuck off and go and get your cheap thrills somewhere else.”

  “Hey sis, be quiet please,” Pauline gently touched her forearm. “We just need to do as he says. This is how they check whether we’re infected or not. If we don’t do it, they’ll probably end up killing us anyway. Please honey, can you just do as he says.”

  After an angry glare towards her sibling, Margot swore under her breath then did as she was told. Along with all the others, they started to get naked.

  “Not a-bloody-gain,” Gordon muttered as he removed his creased up trousers once more. “Could we not just tell them that we were only checked a couple of hours ago?”

  “Yeh, that sure sounds like a good idea to me. Now why didn’t I think of it,” Pauline replied. “Well go on then, tell them all about it, I’m sure they’ll just believe everything you say.” Gordon continued to undress, quickly realizing how stupid he must have sounded.

  Margot was right about one thing. A few of the dozen or so soldiers did seem to get some excitement at the sight of the two fit, naked young women that were now standing before them in all their glory. One of them even let out a low-key wolf whistle.

  “Steady on men,” the beret wearing soldier grunted. “Let’s keep your concentration up boys; they could be infected with the damn virus for all we know. I’m sure you wouldn’t find them so appealing when they’re chewing your frigging dick off.”

  Another person then gingerly entered the carriage; wearing a white coat, he proceeded to examine every inch of skin on the four intruders. Pauline clearly saw that this guy was nothing like the ones who had examined her and Gordon before at the hospital. This one was far too portly to be in any arm of the forces and his shoulder length hair was certainly not the army standard.

  This new scientist turned to the army leader, with a simple shake of his head he eventually stood his heavy frame back up. “There are no signs of any infection, no new injuries, they appear to be all clear, Colonel.” Without even looking again at his new subjects, he left the luggage carriage room the same way he had come in. The head soldier got back onto his little radio and again his conversation was over and dusted in just a few seconds.

  “Okay people, you can all get dressed now,” he shouted over to them. “There’s someone who wants to meet you.”

  They definitely got dressed a whole lot quicker than they undressed; the dozen pairs of eyes that were still watching them seemed to have that effect. As soon as she was ready, Pauline walked over to the head soldier until she stood barely a few inches away from him.

  “So I take it we’re not going to get a proper apology from you then?” she said. “Will you not even give us a little ‘sorry folks’ for putting us through that damn farce?” The soldier just smiled back at her with contempt, he made it all too clear to her that he was not the type to say sorry to anyone.

  “Hurry up,” was all that he said. “Let’s get yourselves moving ‘folks’.” Still smiling, he pointed over to the single leaf door.

  As they walked off, Arthur joined up with one of the helmeted soldiers who was leading them forward. “How the hell did you know about us?” he said. “Please, can you tell me that, just tell me how you knew we were hiding in here?” he was still trying to figure out where his perfect plan had fallen down.

  “The driver,” the old soldier replied, he was not even attempting to hide the reason. “He called up and complained that we had opened and closed the luggage vans door just a few seconds before we departed. Of course we knew it wasn’t any of us, so we came down here to investigate.”

  Arthur cursed away under his breath; he should have realized that the train driver would have seen some sort of signal in his cab when the door was opened. He cursed himself again for being so stupid, he should have thought of a way round that.

  Without any more speaking, they were marched through two almost empty carriages until they reached the third one. Just as they entered it, the train itself entered a long tunnel and the whole carriage fell into total, pitch-black darkness.

  “Hey,” Gordon shouted out as he ground to a halt. “What the hell’s up with all the damn lights?”

  “Just keep bloody moving,” the soldier said as the nozzle of his gun was dug hard into his prisoners back.

  “Where the hell are we going?” Gordon just needed to know.

  “For the last damn time, mister,” the soldier’s mouth was now right next to Gordon’s ear. “Get fucking moving.”

  Slowly they edged their way along in the darkness.

  6- The First Meeting

  10:20 A.M

  Racing through the outskirts of London

  “Please, will you all come on in and take a seat,” a female voice deep in the darkness spoke softly as they got to around halfway down the still darkened carriage. “And then my children, I would be ever so grateful if you would tell me your names and what you’re doing on my train.”

  As they got closer to the end of the carriage, they at last exited the long tunnel and the bright early light from ou
tside shone directly onto her face as she sat before them. It was certainly not what they were expecting to see. A small and apparently frail old woman, she looked to be well into her seventies, with a head full of wild grey hair and enough wrinkles on her face to make a dozen maps.

  “Sorry about the lack of light my dears, I assure you there’s no need to be afraid. Come over here and sit your selves down,” she said as she pointed them towards the luxurious seats that encircled around her. “You see it’s these damn florescent lights, they play a merry havoc with my migraines.” Pauline was the first of them to sit down; she took the seat that was directly opposite the frail looking old woman. Then she smiled.

  “Good morning ma’am, I’m Doctor Pauline McCann,” she said, as she looked right into her eyes. “We also have my colleague Doctor Gordon Henry, that young lady with the funny looking hairdo is my little sister Margot and the guy that’s always stuck to her side is her boyfriend Arthur.”

  “And what type of doctors are you?” The old lady asked as she moved herself slightly forwards in her seat, as if she was trying to recognize their faces.

  “Medical, we’re both general medical,” Gordon finally decided it was time for him to speak up. “We’ve come from St Thomas’s A and E department directly to the train.”

  Pauline butted straight back in; a little glance over to Gordon clearly showed him her displeasure. “Okay, so there you go ma’am, you now know our names, is there any chance of you telling us yours?”

  It was then the turn of the little old lady to smile. “Sorry child, that’s so very rude of me. My name is Mary Doyle, that’s Professor Mary Doyle.” She held out her hand to Pauline, the smile she wore now looked as broad as she could manage. “And as you’ve probably guessed already, this little trip has all been arranged for me and my people.”

  Pauline shook her hand gently and did her best to return that smile.