AN ... Sorry for the long delay, but I'm back ... and the story should be back on track.
23:45 Hours
The room had fallen totally silent, not a single person present wanting to say anything.
Mason sat in one of the chairs that ringed the table, his posture slightly forward, expectation in his eyes as he waited for the first response to his plan.
Philip sat opposite, disbelief and a little unease written across his features.
Wilkes sat at the head of the table slowly massaging his temple with one of his hands.
At long last he spoke.
'No, absolutely not. I will not risk further lives when we can all get out of here.'
Mason leant back in his own chair, his expression didn't change.
'With all due respect sir, we have very little time, precious little ammunition and are rapidly running thin on ideas. If anyone has a another idea or even a better one, I'd love to hear it.'
Philip looked from Wilkes to the private and then back again.
'You cannot seriously think that this is a good idea?'
Mary walked up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
'I'm sorry but he's right. Whoever you choose to go, if anyone goes back out there they won't be coming back, it's suicide.'
'He won't have to choose miss,' Mason said. 'As I see it this has volunteer written all over it.'
Wilkes turned to stare at the soldier, a smile starting to form on his face.
'You're out of your damn mind, you know that don't you?'
Mason smiled back.
'Amen to that sir.'
He turned back to look at Philip.
'The way I see it the first thing that I need is a truck, a big one. Something that won't be tipped if I get into trouble. Any ideas?'
Philip tilted his gaze to the ceiling his hands holding the sides of his head.
'Okay...okay, if I can't talk you idiots out of this then I'm coming with you.'
Mary gripped his shoulder harder, he placed his hand on hers.
'We need one of the feed trucks stored at the cattle yards, it's plenty big enough for what you need but the keys are in the office. You need to get them while I drive it. You don't want to be drawing attention to yourselves ransacking the place and then fumbling the operation of the truck. I can get it started quick, I've driven something like it before.'
Mason leaned forwards and lowered his voice.
'You need to stay here and look after your son Philip, we can do this without you, it's too dangerous.'
'Do you or any of these men know how to drive a diesel stick shift? No? I didn't think so, I'm going. There are more than enough people to protect my son here.'
'No.'
Philip turned his head and looked where the voice had come from.
'No', Mary said again. 'Thomas needs you.' She stepped back a pace and held both hands in the air stalling naother protest. 'I know you want to help but you can do more good here. I'll go. I used to live on a farm. I've been around these machines all my life.'
All eyes in the room locked onto hers, eyebrows were raised.
She smiled back at the astonished looks.
'What can I say guys, men aren't the only ones with skills.'
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
00:10 Hours
Mason looked over the bonnet of the burned-out car that they picked to shelter behind.
His eyes just above the line of the car he saw a sight that he had thought he might see;
Almost twenty dead littered the area between where they were and where they needed to be. He ducked back down and then turned to the others that were with him.
Gibbs as usual was no more than three feet away, one hand wrapped tightly around the fore-stock of his rifle, the other curled ready on the trigger.
Mary crouched next to him, her eyes wide, disbelief and horror written across her face. The 15 minutes that it had taken them to get here they had seen sights that no-one should have to witness. She had come close to screaming a couple of times, only the privates hand across her mouth stopping her.
She just hunkered there, eyes wide, staring into space.
He had his doubts about how she would cope with what they were going to have to do but, now, he had little chance to change his mind. He reached out a hand and placed it on her arm. She flinched a little but managed a small nod and smaller smile when he raised his eyebrow.
He looked at Gibbs and made a quick hand gesture.
The soldier stood and, picking his spot, let the chunk of concrete that he held in his hand fly up and towards a metal roofed shed fifty yards away.
The make-shift missile hit the corrugated sheet with a huge resounding crash and dozens of un dead eyes turned in the direction.
Gibbs ducked back down just as the masonry landed.
As the creatures started to move away the three figures slowly got to there feet and dashed across the open space towards the office. As they broke cover the fourth member of the team stood up from where he was situated.
Twenty yards further from where the concrete landed Fripps stood and walked to the end of the roof he was on. Where the others had been quiet as church mice his job was to be to be anything but.
Jumping on the metal roof and screaming at the top of his lungs his job was to draw the dead away from the building that housed the keys to the trucks and keep them occupied as long as possible.
He was very convincing.
He swore, he shouted...he insulted the things below him. First personally then parentally.
As he was running out of insults he saw three shadows scurry across the yard and angle towards the huge vehicle sheds that held the trucks.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Mason launched himself at the nearest truck and yanked open the door.
The thing inside must have been attacked and sought shelter there thinking that he would be safe. They had been half right. They were safe from the things outside, but not the infection that had been raging in their own bodies after they had been bitten.
It literally fell out of the cab and landed on the soldier. Mason let out an involuntary cry and threw his arms across his face to protect himself.
The went down in a struggling heap.
Mason got a hand under its chin to keep the snapping jaws from his throat, but it was strong, and it was only a matter of time.
From the side something whistled through the air and the figure above him flew off to the side. Gibbs stood over him, his rifle held backwards and used as a club. He shifted his grip and lifted the weapon again bringing the stock down with as much force as he could.
Once...the butt of the rifle bounced off the things skull, digging a deep bloodless furrow in its scalp, tearing away the better part of an ear as it hit the floor under it.
Twice...the blow landed solidly against the face mashing the nose to a pulp and flinging teeth through the air, turning the remains of the face concave.
Again...The stock lodged in the skull as the weapon went straight through the destroyed features, crunching through bone and cartilage both.
The body twitched, legs and arms thudding against the floor, then lay still, properly dead this time.
Mason pulled himself off the floor and leant against the side of the truck. Just as he opened his mouth to offer thanks he heard the huge diesel engine growl into life.
Gibbs ran to the large double doors and threw them wide.
Mason grabbed the rail on the side of the huge truck and swung himself into the cab.
The vehicle roared out into the night, all pretence of quiet gone now.
It sped over to the shed where the other soldier was hastily making his way down to a lower level.
The things around the base of the building turned their heads looking for the source of the new noise.
They saw it...
They moved...
They ran as fast as they could towards the new threat...
They were pulled and ground to mince meat beneath the massive wheels as it ploughed through them. Mary and the soldiers hardly felt the bumps as bodies were ground to pulp underneath them.
One of the creatures, a middle-aged woman still in her nightclothes tried to come in from the side, just as Mary turned the wheel towards the metal shed. Her body was caught between a large expanse of rusting, broken metal and the side of the truck. The body crushed between the two, shredded to bloody strips as the gap closed. Behind the truck appeared a long red and black stain, clothing stuck to the mess in gory clumps.
Mary slammed the brakes on fully as the truck reached the structure where the soldier waited. She looked up and saw him drop down into the back from ten feet further up. She heard rather than felt him as he landed on the mound of feed that was still in the back.
She reached out and crunched the shift into first and pushed her foot hard to the floor.
The truck roared off in the direction of the town. The remnents of the force that had greeted them as they arrived running after them.
Mason took the opportunity to lean his head against the head rest and closed his eyes.
Well, he thought, that was the easy part.
Now things could get...tricky...