Zombielandia (Book 2): No Safe Harbour Read online

  Zombielandia Two

  No Safe Harbour

  Copyright © 2017 Lee Wade

  All rights reserved.

  No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Under no circumstances may any part of this book be photocopied for resale.

  This is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and persons, living or dead, is unintentional and coincidental.

  Cover Photography from Shutterstock.com

  For Leighann, Jonathon and Cerys as always.

  For all my family, new and old, thank you for your continued support.

  Thank you again mom and dad for being my editors and biggest fans!

  With the deepest respect to the officers and crew of Her Majesties Royal Navy.

  From the deep, deep demon ark,

  As I swim in the dark,

  Lurking beneath the seven seas,

  Lie in wait we watery zombies,

  I hope the devil does not dial the code rate number,

  That jolts us to life from our slumber,

  For I dread the jangle of hells gates coloured keys,

  That unlocks the wrath of we watery zombies.

  MARK WADE

  Prologue

  An explosion in the university buildings in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, unleashed an unknown virus on the population of Northumberland and it wasn’t long until this virus spread around the globe.

  We were holidaying in Devon when it all kicked off and we soon formed a tight knit group with other survivors at our camp site.

  We were learning to survive in the new world into which we’d been thrown, when one day we were taken captive by the Royal Navy. Over the following weeks we planned our escape from the Somerset, the vessel on which we were being held, before finally managing to flee from them when entering port at Faslane in Scotland.

  From Faslane we travelled with other survivors of our group along the canals of Scotland before finally arriving on the Island of May where after visiting our home in Togston, we decided to settle on and start to build a future for our families.

  We lost a lot of good people on our travels to both rotters and people alike. Rotters are what we refer to the walking dead as, IE, people who have died and kind of come back to life, what you would call a zombie if you like. We were getting good at dispatching rotters; it was other people that we feared the most now.

  Zombielandia Chapter Seventy Two

  Babs and I sat in the light room at the top of the light house that evening, Jaffa curled up on the sofa beside us. We sat up there often, watching the sun go down. The kids were already sleeping and the North Sea seemed calm that night. Then I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye, I strained to see what it was. I grabbed the binoculars and searched the surface of the water, and then we saw it. It rose from the sea in front of our island. A submarine, The HMS Vigilant, the submarine my brother had been serving on before the outbreak. Someone had found us, was it the Royal Navy hunting us down as deserters? Or had my brother finally caught up with us? One thing was sure, life on our island was about to change again….

  Chapter One

  We raced back to the light house as fast as our legs would carry us; all the time thoughts were racing through my mind. What if they’d come to take us and everything we had again, maybe they weren’t in contact with the Somerset or anyone from Faslane, after all the Somerset hadn’t been when we’d boarded, maybe it was my brother. They could just be like us, a group of survivors who had escaped the chaos and despair and were looking for somewhere safe to settle. We were well armed these days, but we wouldn’t be able to defend our island from a well-armed Royal Navy vessel and its crew.

  As we approached the lighthouse Becky and Anthony were already outside, did you see it too Becky shouted out as we raced towards them. My heart was pounding now and the adrenalin was certainly starting to kick in. Get everyone, in the living room, now! I shouted. I was starting to think that blocking off the other entry to the island had been a bit fool hardy now. We’d thought no one would find us here, but we could have blocked off our only means of escape. All the boats were in good working order and ready to go. But we couldn’t outrun them and they’d just blast us out of the water if they wanted to anyway.

  Chapter Two

  Everyone gathered in the living room. The news of the approaching submarine hadn’t taken long to spread throughout the group and the room was filled with the sound of nervous conversation. You could feel the tension in the air.

  I decided to speak up first, we’d never actually appointed an official leader or whatever you wanted to call it, we tended just to discuss everything as a group and make decisions that way, although I knew people looked to me to make decisions when no one else would or when we couldn’t decide as a group. Basically, when the shit hit the fan, they relied on me to make the tough decisions.

  So, this is how I see it, I started, if they’re friendly, then happy days, we’ll make them welcome and do what we can to help them if that’s what they’ve came here for. If they’re anyway associated with that lot from the Somerset and they’ve come here to take us and our shit again, fuck them, this light house has stood here in all weather for hundreds of years, we secure the door and sit it out, if they attack us, we fight back. Who’s in agreement?

  Fuck them, I say we fight chipped in Becky. They took our shit once before, we didn’t go through all that crap and our friends didn’t give their lives for those fuckers to take it all again. Bring it on, I’d rather die fighting than end up back serving those dirty old bastards again.

  I guessed Becky was on board with the plan then.

  How we gonna know what they’re after until they’re here? Amy asked.

  Good question, I had no idea, but then they answered the question for me.

  Chapter Three

  SURVIVORS WE ARE YOUR SALVATION, WE HAVE COME TO RESCUE YOU, PUT DOWN YOUR ARMS AND JOIN US, DO NOT BE AFRAID, WE ARE OFFICERS OF HER MAJESTIES ROYAL NAVY.

  They must have been watching us again; I could only assume that my brother wasn’t amongst them. The message had been clear. However on this occasion we’d only seen the one vessel.

  Sandie said that they must have come into contact with the Somerset at some point and were probably another one of the vessels in the fleet that it had been gathering.

  I hoped not, it was going to be hard enough getting out of this alive as it was, never mind with the Somerset and its fleet of vessels to contend with as well.

  Chapter Four

  So it was decided, we were going to stay and defend the light house if we needed to. We could see from the light room that they were fully surfaced now and were starting to make ready several rafts in order to get to the island. They were wearing the tell-tale blue sashes which left us in no doubt that they were affiliated with the Somerset. They would be in the harbour within minutes and if they’d been watching us as I suspected, they’d be heading straight for the light house.

  We quickly gathered as much as we could from the vicinity of the light house, chickens, fire wood, anything we could lay our hands on. Hopefully they’d come, take what they could easily lay their ha
nds on and then leave us be inside the light house.

  Chapter Five

  As we gathered in the light house again Simon prepared to secure the door. Then I had an idea, maybe a few of us could make our way to the harbour and set up an ambush, maybe even take them out before they even landed on the Island.

  Paul, Becky, Lia, Sandie and I volunteered to go down to the harbour and prepare to ambush the incoming rafts. All we had to do was sink them, and then we’d be able to pick them off one at a time if they continued in the water to the island. Hopefully though they would see sense and just make their way back to the Vigilant.

  We armed ourselves and made our way down to the chapel which overlooked the harbour, we took radios so we could stay in contact with Simon and the rest of the guys back at the light house. If anything was to go wrong we would be able to give them advance notice to secure themselves in. We hid out of sight amongst the chapel ruins and watched and waited for the rafts to come in close.

  Chapter Six

  They were soon in range of Sandie’s gun. Should I give them a warning shot before I blast the fuckers out the water she said? I guessed we should, after all we weren’t cold blooded murderers, well, at least not yet any way.

  Sandie fired a single shot into the air high above their heads. They reacted instantly, firing in the direction they had heard the shot fired from. They started rowing with more purpose now. Fuck it, take the boats out I told Sandie.

  She took the rafts out one at a time; there were eight in total with a mixture of roughly half a dozen sashes and Navy personnel in each. I was hoping that they would just turn and swim back in the direction of the Vigilant. But as their rafts slowly deflated and sank they just dived into the water and continued swimming towards the harbour.

  Sandie started firing at them, but some of them ducked under the water before she could take them out. Then it went silent, there was none to be seen in the water any more, but not for long, a few minutes after they’d disappeared under the water they slowly started to immerge in the harbour, firing back at us as they did. I remember my brother telling me about the depth test they had to do each year and how they had to be able to hold their breath for several minutes in order to pass. I’m sure this wasn’t the purpose of the exercise, but it certainly helped them now.

  There must have been about thirty or so that had managed to make it to shore. We all started firing at them now and managed to take a few more out before they made it to the relative safety of the track where they were hidden by rocks and overgrowth. We radioed back to the guys in the light house to keep them in the picture. We knew that they would have to pass the chapel before they could make their way to the rest of the island, so the five of us prepared ourselves for the fight ahead.

  It was a fairly narrow track up to the chapel so we thought we may be able to pick them off a few at a time and hopefully not many would make it past us, giving the guys back at the main light house a fighting chance to take any survivors out.

  Chapter Seven

  The attack didn’t come from the guys on the ground though, but from the massive guns on the Vigilant. Shit, we hadn’t expected that. The old chapel just crumbled as the shells hit the already ruined walls. Their men must have radioed back with our position and got them to take us out. I suppose that is why they are the Royal Navy and not just some normal Joe Bloggs trying to survive in this shite world!

  We had no choice but to abandon our post at the chapel and try and head back to the light house. It was occurring to us that were out in the open now as we fled the chapel heading towards the visitors centre. They were soon hot on our tails, firing at us as we fled. Paul was the first to fall, we tried to stop and help him, but it was to no avail, they were coming up on us quick now. They took out Lia and Sandie as we tried to help Paul back to his feet, we started to drag Paul by his arms, but we soon realised he was gone too, Becky fired a single shot into his head as the pair of us continued to flee.

  I don’t know how or why but we managed to get split up in all the carnage. I somehow managed to get back to the main light house. I radioed ahead as I was approaching and the guys had the door open ready for me, I dived inside and they secured it behind me.

  They’re all gone I said, they’re all gone I cried out! Who? Sophie was crying,

  Who has gone? She was shaking me now. They’re dead I said, Paul, Lia, Sandie, all dead. Becky is still out there somewhere; we need to get her on the radio.

  Sophie was hitting me now; the kids were all screaming and crying. Amy started shouting, we need to fight back now, everyone to the light room. The rest of us that could fight headed up to the light room where we could see the Sashes and Navy below starting to surround us. There must have been at least two dozen of them still left. We had the advantage of a bird’s eye view, so we blew out the windows and took as many of them out as we could before they could all take cover.

  Chapter Eight

  I tried desperately to get Becky on the radio, but there was nothing.

  I knew it wouldn’t be long before the vigilant had repositioned in order to be able to fire on the light house. It was solid and had stood for decades, but I doubted it would survive the onslaught of the Vigilant for long.

  Right, head count now! I shouted. There was Myself, Babs, Luke, Emily, David, Sophie, John, Amy, Anthony, Maddison, Margaret, Hayley, Britney, Alfie, Simon, Lorna, Lucy, Daniel, Scott, Holly and Michael.

  Fourteen adults and seven children, I classed the twins as adults now, they were old enough to fight, and they’d have to be now anyway!

  Right, we have three choices as I see it, I said.

  One, we surrender and go back to the living hell on the Somerset or somewhere shittier where none of us will have any of the privileges we had before, no matter who or what our family do or are, or they may just decide to execute us as we walk out the front door, but maybe, just maybe, the children will be okay.

  Two, we wait it out, hope we are out of range of the Vigilant or that the light house cab hold up to the onslaught, and again if they do manage to take us, hopefully if they’ve survived they’ll take pity on the children.

  Three, some of us stay up here and spray out some cover fire whilst the rest try to make it to the Hope or Saltwind. Hopefully some of us would get away and manage to slip past the Vigilant as it was pounding the light house. It would be starting to get dark soon, so maybe some of us might make it past.

  Not fucking great options I thought to myself, but I was not going down without a fight.

  Margaret spoke up, if someone wants to show me how to shoot one of those things then I’ll stay while you lot get the kids out of here, me too, Sophie said, I want to take as many as these fuckers out as I can!

  Somehow this didn’t sit right with me and the rest of the guys though. We didn’t want to leave anyone behind and if we did have to, I wanted to be fighting next to them, but I needed to put Babs and the children first. Christ what a decision we had to make!

  Chapter Nine

  It wasn’t long before the gun fire started again; we all headed back up to the light room thinking we’d be able to take a few more of them out before the inevitable heavy artillery started.

  However, when we looked out of the window, they weren’t firing at us, they were firing away from us, back towards the track that led to the rest of the island and ultimately led back to the harbour.

  It was rotters! The Navy and sashes that we had took out earlier when they were in the water, they must have headed towards the noise as they instinctively do and were now attacking the Navy below us.

  Aim for the live ones I shouted! Fuck the rotters I thought, they were helping us at this moment in time, we could deal with them later. The Navy were now getting it from both sides; they couldn’t turn their backs on the rotters, but were getting fired upon from us above in the light house as well. We were still taking fire from the ones at the rear of the light house, but at least we were increasing our odds of making it out of the light house
and off the island alive.

  Soon the corpses started to mount up, strewn across the ground below us, some taken out by us and some by the rotters. Some of them were already starting to turn into rotters themselves. The remaining Navy soon began to spread out and move away from the light house. Stop shooting I shouted, everyone, quiet, now! We kept still and sure enough most of the rotters started to follow the noise being made by the retreating Navy, there were still a few consuming the dead, but most were soon out of sight.

  Right everyone, grab the children and anything you can safely carry, we are out of here now!

  Chapter Ten

  We cracked open the front door and headed out as quietly as we could with seven children in tow. It wasn’t long until there were a few rotters on us, Christ, where the hell was Becky! All we had were our guns which would alert everyone and everything to our escape. Becky would have just axed the fuckers! Where was she?

  We were soon heading down the track towards the harbour, fucking hell, there was more sashes coming into the harbour on rafts, they must have radioed for reinforcements. We started to fire at them as we ran towards our boats, they started to return fire. Hayley and her two children were shot down in front of us as we raced towards the Hope, we stopped to pick up the children, but they were gone, there was no time to do anything about them, we were starting to take fire from behind as well now, the remaining Navy on the island must have over-come the rotters and were closing in on us too now, we were taking fire from all angles!

  Things started to become a blur, like I was in a dream, running on auto pilot or something, I was just concentrating on holding on to my family whilst the rest of the guys were trying to protect the other children. We made it to the Hope with anyone that could clamber on board. David started her up and we were soon heading out of harbour. We were still taking heavy fire from the rafts in the water and the Navy standing on the harbour.