Highschool of the dead: The British Outbreak
Chapter 12: The black swordsman
½ mile outside Chester Safezone
Z-day + 41
18:10
Jason watched and waited in cover, trying to deduce if his target building was, in fact, empty as he suspected it was. He did not mean to stay in the shop that he was watching for long, just long enough to go through the kit Akio had given him, and time to plan his next move. After a few minutes, and with the sun beginning to go down, he decided to go in.
He drew his pistol and screwed on his suppressor. He took a deep breath, took a look around and then moved in, sweeping his pistol left to right for threats. The shop was a typical run of the mill convenience store; he'd picked it because it would offer a counter for him to search through his bag on, and also yielded the possibility of some bonus supplies.
That idea went out the window pretty quick when he entered the store. The shelves had been picked clean of almost anything worth taking. All that was left was some decaying food, a few magazines, and some bottles of alcohol. Jason cleared the store quickly and shut the door before putting his bag on the counter. He holstered his sig and opened it up, sorting through the contents.
"Ok, we got rat packs, radio, water bladder, purification tablets, a flare gun with 2 shells, cleaning kits, mess tins, camping stove and gas bottle, and... Hello, night vision minoculars!"
Jason put the contents back in the bag, putting the goggles in last so he could get at them easily. He then looked at his watch and planned his next move.
It was coming up on 18:15. Being mid-May, that meant he had roughly 3 hours of sunlight left and a little under 10 miles to cover. It wouldn't be impossible to make it to the hotel before nightfall, but it would be cutting it close and didn't leave any time to be held up by groups of infected or survivors.
'I don't want to be out after dark but I want to get close to the hotel with what light is left. Let's see, somewhere I can bunk down... got it, Tim's house.'
Tim was an old friend of Jason's, they'd been bro's for years. If he was at his house, he wouldn't' mind Jason crashing there and he wouldn't mind given the circumstance. Jason packed up his kit, taking a moment to have a look through the shop and looted a bottle of Jack Daniels and a can of tomato soup before heading back out into the unknown.
...
After nearly 3 hours of stealthy travel, Jason was finally on Tim's street.
The street was a typical council estate suburb, consisting of identical 2 storeys, yellow brick rendered, semi-detached houses, each with a garage attached. There were signs of a rush evacuation; car's missing, suitcases and bags left in the driveway, some open from when their owners had tried to grab some last personal items before jumping into their cars and running for their lives. There was a lot of blood on the ground, in the windows, on the cars, everywhere. And of course, they were here... in force.
"Jesus, can't you lot just bugger off somewhere else?" muttered Jason. He was crouched behind a hedge, sizing up his options.
There were about 30 odd of them in the open, plus who knows how many he couldn't see. Too many for knife and bayonet. He could shoot them, but his L85 would make a hell of a lot of noise, drawing out the ones in the houses, and any who heard the gunshot echo. He could do it with his suppressed pistol, but he'd burn through most of his ammo, and he still had about 6 miles to cover tomorrow before he got to the hotel. If only he could thin out the number of infected then he stood a better chance.
He looked around for an option. He thought about to possibility of tripping a car alarm, but then spotted something better. In the front yard of one of the houses was a metal cage, and inside it was a collection of gas bottles. He quickly pulled out the flare gun and loaded a shell
"I hope they're full," Muttered Jason as he trained his L85 on them. He took a deep breath and fired.
Ka-pow! Ka-pow!
The gas bottles shook as they were hit and Jason could hear them leaking gas. He lowered his rifle and picked up the flare gun. He pointed it at the bottles and fired.
Thump... BOOM!
Jason looked away from the flash and put his arm up to shield his face from the blast, but even as the heat wave hit him, his face was covered with a shit ass grin. He reversed himself and ran for the back garden of the nearest house, kicking the gate open and moving into the back garden. He could see over the back fence, there was a string of identical garden fences, and he could see Tim's house down the line, about 8 houses down. Jason looked at the fences again, then smirked as he had an idea.
He removed the bayonet from his L85 and stowed it before slinging the rifle. He made sure all his kit was secure before getting ready to run at the fence.
"What's the matter Danny?" he muttered, "Never taken a shortcut before?" he rushed the fence and jumped, putting his hands on the top and flicking his legs up and over. He landed on the other side on his feet and kept running, vaulting over the next fence and the next. At the 6th fence, he landed hard and stumbled forward, crashing through the 7th fence and landing face first into a flowerbed. He pulled his face out of the dirt and spat out some fertiliser.
"Ok... that didn't happen," he said. He stood up and looked around, thankfully there were no infected in the garden so he took a moment to drink some water from his water bladder and wash the remaining dirt from his mouth. He then peaked over the last fence into Tim's garden. There were no infected in the garden, and he couldn't see anyone in the house's windows. He removed his patrol bag and lightly chucked it over the fence, it landed in the garden with a light thud on the overgrown grass. Jason then vaulted the fence, landing in the garden at a crouch and raised his L85 on the house. After a second of stillness, Jason reclaimed his bag and moved toward the back kitchen door. He knocked at the door, after waiting a moment with no answer; he retrieved the spare key which Tim always kept under a plant pot by the door. He unlocked the door and stepped inside.
The kitchen was empty of life, but there were signs that someone had been there recently; there was an empty, opened tin of baked beans on the kitchen counter, and the sauce on the tin was still fresh. He then moved through the house silently, his L85 ready at his shoulder. The living room had more signs of someone having been in residence; the sofa looked like it had been slept in, and there was a duvet on the floor nearby.
Jason kept moving. He moved upstairs as quietly as he could, the landing was clear and he went to the first room, the bathroom.
The sink inside was covered in blood, some fresh and some dried. There was a pair of bloody scissors on the counter, as well as a roll of dressing and empty packets of medication on the side. Someone had defiantly had a bad day here, and they weren't long gone. He moved into the next room, the bedroom was clear and then he moved to Tim's room.
As expected, the room was empty of life. The room was a typical teenage boy's bedroom; there was a poster of a pin-up girl on the wall, a desk with a laptop and some photo's on the desk, and an unmade bed. Jason moved over to the desk. He picked up one of the photo's and blew away the light covering of dust. It was a picture of Tim and himself, taken a few years prior on top of a Welsh hill; they were both exhausted to the bone but happy and proud, because they'd just completed their silver DofE expedition. He put the photo down and cleared the rest of the house.
...
30 minutes later
Jason breezed through the book he'd found as he waited for the ration pack to finish cooking on the camping stove he'd placed on the desk. He dumped the book; it was boring and suffered from a severe lack of naked women and fast cars. Instead of searching for another to read, he decided to check on the zombie contingent outside. He'd last checked on them 5 minutes ago, but he knew that even as slow as they were, a lot could change in 5 minutes.
He looked out of the window, sticking to the shadows so that if there was someone out there, they wouldn't see him as easily standing in the window. There were about 20 or so in the street, mainly meandering around, moving on anything that attracted them. Jason was about to move away when he saw them react to something. He moved so he could see what it was more easily.
To his surprise, it was a person. He couldn't see much of them, due to a combination of the low evening light but also because they were wearing what looked like a black coat of some type. To Jason's surprise, the figure reached across himself and drew a sword, before charging forward into the infected.
The first infected fell as the swordsman decapitated it with a single stroke of steel, and gore, and he kept the momentum going. Jason watched astounded. He'd seen Akio do incredible feats of CQC with infected, but she was more of a ballet dancer, often weaving around infected to dispatch them from behind or a blind spot. This person, however, was more like a battle tank, killing absolutely anything and everything that came near him from the front.
Jason thought the action was cut short when an infected managed to get around to the swordsman's left and bite him in the arm. But the swordsman seemed to be phased little and unaffected by this, and he simply dispatched the infected by bringing his sword around and taking off most of the infected's head.
Jason then realized something; this swordsman was certainly killing everything in front of him, there were infected coming up behind him. If this kept up, not only would he get tired, but he'd also get overrun and killed. Jason thought he was, at least, worth meeting, and who know's, maybe he could convince him to tag along.
Jason grabbed his pistol and suppressor and rushed downstairs. He didn't bother grabbing his kit but did make to turn off the gas under his ration pack. Jason emerged into the street with weapon raised; he fired into an infected that was just behind the swordsman. The swordsman spun round, staring at the dead infected, he then looked at Jason.
They looked each other in the eye.
"I've your back. Keep doing what you do," said Jason as he popped off another infected.
"I like to know who has my back mate," replied the swordsman, stepping in and dispatching another infected with a slash from his sword.
"Talk later. Fight now," replied Jason. The 2 fighters resumed their brawl with death incarnate. Occasionally they would glance back at one another, to see if one was turning to kill the other. Only to see each other in their element, of the swordsman slashing and slicing his way through infected with his sword, creating arcs of blood and gore lead by flashes of steel. And of Jason, steadily and calmly putting rounds into the infected with pinpoint accuracy, creating neat holes in their foreheads.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Click!
"I'm out," called Jason. He instantly regretted not grabbing more magazines for his Sig. Instead, he holstered the weapon and pulled his knife. It didn't really matter, though, there were only 3 left in front of him. As the closest reached to grab him he stepped forward and planted a front thrust kick into its chest. Jason went for a low sweep as it stumbled back and it collapsed to the tarmac. With both hands, he then dropped his knife into its forehead, killing it. Jason was about to rise to engage the next when a glistening arc went over his head as the swordsman slashed horizontally at the Infected.
With the 2nd infected being dealt with by the swordsman, Jason focused on the 3rd and final one. He pulled his knife out and stood up. He dropped into the Zenkutsu Dachi front stance that Akio had taught him. He waited for them to get close before snapping off a roundhouse kick into the infected's head. It collapsed over to the side as the boot armoured foot made contact with the side of its head. As it sprawled on the floor, Jason brought his leg up and dropped it on the infected head finishing it with a well-placed axe kick. Jason pulled his boot out of the infected caved in face, wiping the core and blood off on the infected t-shirt. He turned round, to see the swordsman driving his sword into an infected corpse that Jason was sure was already dead. The swordsman looked up.
"Just making sure," He said. Jason understood.
"Better safe than bitten," Jason replied, as he offered a hand to the swordsman. "Sergeant Jason Rees, British Army."
"Johnny Hall," replied the swordsman, shaking Jason's hand with his sword free one. "Army? What are you doing out here?"
"Long story. Best told inside," replied Jason. He motioned to Tim's house and headed inside. Johnny was hesitant at first but followed after deciding that it was probably better to call it quits for today and to sleep in the same house as someone who could take care of himself. Jason led Johnny up and into Tim's bedroom. As he passed the desk, Johnny spotted the picture of Jason and another teenager.
"This your house?"
"No," replied Jason, "My friend Tim's. I needed a place to bunk overnight before continuing on with my mission."
"What mission?" asked Johnny, feeling it was about time for some answers.
"Get comfortable, this is going to take a while," replied Jason. Johnny put down his sword and sat on the bed as Jason began to explain.
"So it all began at the start of the outbreak...,"
...
"So you were exiled from the Chester Safe zone because you killed 3 kids who were acting like them?"
"Yup," replied Jason. "Ain't it a bitch?"
"So if you were exiled, how are you still a member of the army?" asked Johnny.
"The Safe zone council exiled me; they didn't dismiss me from duty, honestly they don't have the authority. Also, my CO gave me an assignment, to secure a forward operating base for them so they can come in and set it up, and then I'm to run it," explained Jason.
"How do you know they're actually coming?" asked Johnny. To him, the whole idea sounded a little too good to be true.
"I don't," replied Jason, surprising Johnny. "I don't know if it was an actual order or just something my boss said for me to do to keep me alive. All I know is that as long as I have an aim or an objective to fill, then I can keep on living. You're more than welcome to come with me if you want."
"What?" asked Johnny, surprised at the offer. "You hardly know me."
"I know enough," replied Jason. "If you've survived this long that means you're smart and can take care of yourself, to say nothing of your sword skills which I've seen and are impressive. You've also got a sense of honour. When I called that my pistol was out of ammo, you could have stabbed me in the back, finished off the rest of the infected, taken my kit and you'd be much better off, but you didn't. Even after the fight, you could have finished me off pretty easily."
"I'm not so sure...," started Johnny.
"I am," stated Jason. "A skilled man with a sword who knows how to use it, against a soldier armed only with a knife, no guns and no backup? Sounds like a one sided fight to me. Anyway, as I see it you have 2 choices;
"1. We can go our separate ways. I'll go to set up my base. You can either live on as you are or go to the Chester safe zone. It's not quite normal but it's better than running for your life out here. Or 2. You come with me, help me set up and run this base, and you won't have to constantly look out for yourself, you'll have food, weapons and a relatively safe place to sleep at night. The choice is yours."
"I'll think about it," replied Johnny after a moment's thought. Jason smiled.
"Ok, now I have a question for you."
"What is it?"
"I saw you got bitten in the arm by an infected before I joined the fight. But you haven't been affected by it. Why is that?"
"Easy," replied Johnny smirking. He took off his black trench coat, to reveal a long sleeve shirt of chainmail underneath.
"Chainmail, clever," replied Jason. "But isn't it heavy? Surely it would hinder your mobility,"
"Meh," shrugged Johnny. "I never liked running anyway. This way I can just kill anything that comes at me and I'm safe against bites."
"Fair enough," replied Jason. He started fiddling with his watch. "I'm going to get some rack. I'm setting an alarm for 04:30. I wanna be fed and out of here by 05:30. If you're coming with, be ready to roll by then. The master bedroom is on the other side of the hall. I'll take in here if you don't mind."
"Sure," said Johnny. He stood up and headed for the door. "Goodnight."
"Night."
Tim's house
Approx 3 ½ miles outside Chester Safe zone
Z-day + 42
04:30
BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP! BEEP... BEEEP!
Jason groggily switched off his watches' alarm. He swung his feet over the edge and laced up his boots. He then clicked on his pistol holster and reloaded his pistol, before checking over his L85. Once satisfied that his weapons were fully functional and ready for action, he set about cooking breakfast.
He turned on the gas under the ration pack as he'd been cooking last night that he never got around to finishing. He also pulled out 2 chocolate bars and started eating. As he was half way through the first Mars bar, there was a knock at the door, a moment later Johnny came in, fully tooled up and ready.
"Morning," he said, still partly yawning.
"Morning," replied Jason. "So does this mean you've decided to stick with me?"
"Haven't really got anything better to do," replied Johnny. "Plus you seem to know what you're doing. I could use someone like that watching my back."
"Good enough for me," replied Jason. He grabbed the second Mars bar and offered it to him. "Breakfast?"
"Cheers," replied Johnny. Jason dug out another ration pack and put it in the now boiling water in his mess tin. "So what's the plan?"
"We head for a small hotel out in Rowton," replied Jason, "That s where we're headed. Once there, I use the sat phone in my pack to call my CO and he sends the cavalry. I reckon it's a 2, maybe 3-hour hike to the hotel."
"And if it's overrun?"
"We call for back up and the cavalry comes early."
"And if they can't get through?"
"Then we sit tight till they do," Jason was getting slightly irate. Before Johnny could come up with another 'what if' he cut him off.
"Look. They will be there. If they don't show, then we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Now let's eat and let's roll."
...
½ hour later
"So what kind of birds you into?" asked Jason out of the blue. Johnny looked over at him incredulously, Jason was just walking and scanning with his rifle as normal.
"What?" Johnny asked.
"Well if we're going to be working together, travelling together, fighting together and potentially dying together, I'd rather know more about the guy covering my arse," explained Jason. "So, girls. What do you fancy?"
"Umm...," thought Johnny, trying to work out both his preference and Jason's sanity levels. "I've always had a thing for glasses."
"Really?" asked Jason. "So the quiet glass type then? You should have met my friend Hanna. She'd have gone nuts for you."
"Really?"
"Well you're about 6'2, handsome and look like you just stepped out of a Game of Thrones. She'd be all over you before you could say 'you know nothing, Jon Snow.'"
"And what about you?" asked Johnny.
"I've got a girl," Replied Jason, "Name's Akio. You'll probably meet her later."
"She's a soldier?"
"Yeah."
"I thought soldiers weren't allowed to have relations with other soldiers?"
"We're not."
"Then why?"
Jason sighed, "Akio came on to me about 2 weeks ago. Initially, I pushed her away, a soldier under my command and all that. But then we lost one of our team, Fred. He was seeing our team's medic. She was devastated, she left the military and is now a nurse back at the safe zone. But Fred's death taught me, life is short, especially the life of a soldier."
"So you both just thought 'fuck it' and shagged?" summarized Johnny.
"We haven't shagged... yet," replied Jason. He was about to continue on when he stopped on the road. "Do you hear that?"
Johnny stopped and listened. They both could hear something. An engine? Defiantly a car engine, getting closer. Before Jason could say anything, a green SUV came around the corner. There was a man standing in the sunroof, with some kind of long firearm in hand. He pointed it at them.
"Cover!" ordered Jason. Johnny got out of the road and went behind a car at the side of the road. Jason dropped to a knee and flicked the safety of his L85, he took a quick breath before putting the rifles ELCAN x4 lightweight day sight on the man with the weapon. As the car closed, he started firing.
Ka-Pow...Ka-Pow! Ka-Pow!
The man with the weapon fell backwards on the car, his shotgun firing off into the air with a BOOM! The driver jinked the car towards Jason, attempting to hit him. Jason dove out of the road into a cover between 2 cars, the car missing him by inches. As the car's breaks screeched as it came to a halt, Jason unclipped the quick release on his patrol bag, freeing him from its weight. He took cover behind a car.
"YOU KILLED MY SON MOTHERFUCKER! I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" screamed an angry male voice. The glass of the car's back window shattered above him, followed by the report of a shotgun. Jason looked over to where Johnny was in cover. He could see him, crouched behind a car with sword drawn. He looked over at Jason. Jason pointed at him and then motioned towards the man followed by tapping himself on the head and lifting his L85.
'You move down behind the cars. I'll cover you.'
Johnny appeared to understand and nodded back. He disappeared behind the car and started moving. Jason stood up behind his car and pointed his rifle at the man, who was standing by his car.
"British Army! Drop your...SHIT!" shouted Jason. He dropped back behind the car as another shotgun blast rang out.
"Ok, fuck this guy," muttered Jason. He came back to the car and was about to fire, but Johnny beat him to it. The swordsman leapt from cover at the gunman's 9 O'clock, thrusting his sword forward and stabbing it into his flank. The man screamed in pain, but it was short lived, as in one fluid motion, Johnny pulled his sword back out and spun around, slashing the man's neck open. He collapsed in a gurgling pile, bleeding out of the open wound. Down the road, Jason emerged from cover and advanced towards Johnny and his victim. He stopped beside him, his rifle pointing at the still gurgling soon-to-be corpse.
"Nice one," said He then fired his rifle once into the man's forehead. "Just to be sure. Let's clear the car."
"Right." They advanced on the car, taking a side each. The car itself was weighed down with supplies, and there was no one else in the vehicle. Jason looked in, to find it was packed with camping gear, food, medical supplies, clothes... some of them still in plastic wrapping.
"You know," said Jason. "It's still a good 6 or 7 miles to our objective. We'd get there faster in this thing." He pointed to the 2 dead men. "And they won't need it anymore."
"I can't drive," said Johnny, "can you?"
"ish...," said Jason slightly sheepishly. He reached up and pulled the dead corpse off the roof and dropped him unceremoniously on the floor. He squatted down and picked up the man's shotgun, checking it over.
"Define 'ish'," Pressed Johnny. Jason sighed.
"I've been driving for about a year and have failed my test twice."
"On?"
"One time I clipped the curb. The second time I... got into a street race during the test."
"What?" Johnny was almost laughing while Jason was fuming.
"It was one of my friends alright! And I'm very competitive. Catch," he closed up the now empty shotgun and tossed it over the car to Johnny, who caught it. "You know how to use one of those?"
"I grew up in the country. Of course, I do," He replied. He broke it open finding the chambers empty. "Shells?"
"Go through their pockets. These bozos will probably have some," replied Jason. He moved over to the corpse of the man who'd been shooting at him and started rifling through his pockets. Sure enough, he found about 8 shotgun shells and brought them over to Johnny.
"Alright. Let's get out of here," Jason removed his patrol bag and chucked it in the back before jumping in the driver's seat and Johnny the passenger seat. James adjusted the seat before turning over the engine.
"Right. Let's go," Jason released the clutch and gunned the engine... and promptly stalled it.
"Not. One. Word," was all Jason said to Johnny, who just sat silently in the passenger seat (doing he best not to laugh) as Jason restarted the car and drove off.
Target Hotel
Approx 10 miles outside Chester Safe zone
Z-day + 42
5:20
"Well, this is unfortunate," said Jason. "If expected."
They'd just arrived at the hotel and found the car park packed with infected, but fortunately, it appeared that the building itself was still secure.
"Right then," said Johnny, "Let's kick some zombie arse."
"Let's go," Jason gunned the engine and the car roared into the hotel car park, running into one as they skidded to a halt. The 2 jumped out of the car and started killing.
"So how are we going to secure this place?" asked Johnny as he impaled an infected with his sword. "That fence ain't gonna hold back a large group."
"I know," said Jason as he stabbed his bayonet into an infected's skull before clearing pulling it out and firing on another one. "We're gonna put wooden or metal pallets against the fence or something. Put snipers and lookouts up on the roof; maybe build a sanger or something and a more solid gate in."
"Sounds like a plan," called back Johnny as he finished dispatching another infected and moved onto the next one. Between the 2 of them, it didn't take long to clear out the car park in its entirety. They then closed the wooden gate and parked the car against it to reinforce it. Once they confirmed that the hotel was, as they expected, secure, they started moving supplies in from the car and storing it in the front lobby.
Jason glanced down at his watch, 5:45 am. Marsden would be up by now. He retrieved and dug into his patrol bag, pulling out the sat phone from it and turned it on. .
"Does that thing even still work?" asked Johnny. Jason nodded back.
"Regular mobile phones are dead," He said, "but we've had limited success with sat phones like this one. If we can get a signal, which we have, we can call base for support. Excuse me a mo."
Jason opened up the contacts list and pressed the call button on the contact for the ops room at Chester. The phone rung for a moment before someone picked it up.
"Chester Safezone Ops room. Please identify and authenticate Alpha. Over."
"This is Recon team Juliet Romeo. I authenticate Alpha; Six-One-Zero-Alpha-Tango-Charlie. Patch me through to Major Mike. Over," said Jason.
"Roger Juliet Romeo. Wait out."
A few moments later, Jason smiled as Marsden came on the phone, "Sergeant. How are you doing?"
"All good here sir. The objective is secure, for now. We made a hell of a lot of noise while clearing out the car park. If you could get a speed on the reinforcements and the builders, it would be greatly appreciated,"
"What do you mean by 'we' sergeant?"
"I encountered by a civilian swordsman on my way here. He's agreed to help for now and I see him staying at the base as a civvie volunteer, and I'd be welcome for the help sir."
"Come again Sergeant. Did you say, Swordsman?"
Jason smirked, "That I did sir. Crazy SOB fights infected with a hand and half sword."
"Can't wait to meet him. I'll have the convoy underway within a few hours. Can you hold your position till then?"
"I think so sir. It's just a question of how many come and how much ammo."
"Very well. I'll have the Special Ops detachment on standby as a QRF. Call if you need them. Anything else Sergeant?"
"One last thing sir. On the way here, we were engaged by a pair of x-rays. We defeated them with no injuries and commandeered their car full of supplies. I'll write up a contact report when I next can,"
"Very good Sergeant. Carry on,"
"Sir," said Jason. He hung up the phone and took a deep breath.
"Looks like we're going to have to dig in and hold out for a few more hours."
Please Review, favourite/ follow!
Dear readers, I hope you enjoyed that last chapter.
One of my readers contacted me recently about being confused about the specifics of some of the weapons used, particularly the L85A2 and other members of the SA80 family of weapons (L98A2 and L86 LSW), so let me clarify for all the gun nuts amongst you.
MOST of the L85's are late Afghanistan spec, i.e fitted out as the British army had them towards the end of the war in Afghanistan. They are fitted with ELCAN X4 day sights (some with micro red dots on top), railed handguards, vertical grip/pods and magpul Emags. There are pics on the internet if you want to see what it looks like.
Other than that, there will be some older spec weapons coming but most of the rest is pretty self-explanatory but I will give some specifics if I want to/ is necessary to the plot.
Next chapter will be out I don't know when.
From
Jango