'Anything. Try it,' Steve said, reaching up for one of the handles.
Steve and Alex had to both swing from the handles to get the wheel to move at all. At first there was the most awful screeching of rusty steel, then, with a rattle of chains, Steven and Alex were flung sideways as the wheel began to spin. There was a terrifying, shuddering roar of the portcullis coming down that Alex barely heard, having hit her head on the wall of the tiny room. Then a ground shaking bang as two tons of wood and steel crashed onto the stone pavement, blocking the way between the towers.
Alex staggered outside through a haze of dust and immediately reeled back at the sight of three zombies crushed and trapped beneath the splintered points of the portcullis. A moment later and she and the other kids would have been overrun. One of the pinned zombies squirmed feebly, the second didn't move but the third one gaped like a fish out of water. The rest of the zombies hurled themselves at the portcullis, screaming and reaching through but the kids kept well back. Alex collapsed onto a carved oak bench. She knew their escape had been way too close for comfort.
It was quite a small castle, really, the only other feature being the square tower in the middle, the keep, which housed the museum. Fred burst through a small door set into the main gate, ran inside the keep and grabbed the longest, sharpest thing he could find: a slender eight foot pike with a steel tip. He dashed back and used it to dislodge a zombie that was trying to climb up the outside of the portcullis. It couldn't have got through but Fred felt it necessary to poke it in the ribs until it screamed and fell, flailing its arms, onto the cobbles.
Maisie was crying. 'There's, like, no way they can get in, is there?'
'It's old but it's solid,' Steve said. 'The walls are ten feet thick.'
Rachel's legs unfroze and she threw up in the direction of the zombies the other side of the portcullis. At first even they seemed repulsed but then the smell drove them crazy, wild-eyed, screaming and growling.
Rachel wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. 'We've got to get away from here,' she said.
'No argument there,' Fred said, already on his way through the gate into the castle courtyard.
'I wonder what's happening in the town?' Alex said.
'Let's take a look, Steve said, leading the way to the stone steps that went up to the ramparts.
Rachel, Fred, Maisie and Alex trailed after him. From the top of the castle walls, they peered through the crenellations and looked down on the school. Parts of it were ablaze, as was most of the town. The sound of shouts, screams and gunfire wafted upwards with the smoke. They watched one house burn out after another, until the whole centre was ash. After a while the screaming stopped and was replaced by random sounds of stuff being smashed. Alex had no idea if her mum and dad had managed to get to their car and get away, or how many of her friends had become zombie fodder.
On the opposite side of the village half a dozen heavy, camo-coloured vehicles roared down the hill and quickly dispersed into the streets. Rapid bursts of gunfire followed with more screams, many of which were cut short.
'Sounds like the army's arrived to clean up,' Fred said.
'Are the zombies still by the gate?' Steve asked.
Maisie peered down through a murder hole between the gatehouse towers. 'I can see 'em,' she said, 'There's like seven or eight of 'em.'
'We could shoot them with the cross bows in the museum, couldn't we?' Rachel said.
Steve ignored her. 'How about you?' he said instead, putting a hand on Alex's shoulder.
Alex was too upset to speak. She thought of what they'd been told in school, that some bright spark had dreamt up crossing the common cold with another hideous natural virus to make a contagious bioweapon. Apparently, the idea wasn't to actually use it, just to have it as a deterrent. Experiments on rats showed it was supposed to kill you in a week, after enough bits of you had dropped off. Of course, somehow the virus got out and then, predictably, it mutated, so the antivirus didn't work anymore and death had become much more unpleasant and lingering. With no effective antivirus, it spread like wildfire. The UK was cut off from the rest of the world, no planes, no ships, no aid. Another really great feature of the disease was it made anyone who got it madder than hell and highly desirous of attacking and either killing or infecting anyone who hadn't already got it. Six months ago in England, zombies had become a reality.
Looking at her ruined little town and terrified of what the future would hold, Alex clung to the cold stone walls and wept.
Chapter 4: Fishbone Alley
With the rapid approach of trucks, gunfire and screaming, Graham took charge of his group. 'OK, we need to get away from here as fast as possible,' he said.
He set off down the concrete steps at the end of the quay furthest from the harbourmaster's office. Holding on to the railings to support her wobbly legs, Sarah followed with the others close behind.
'We can take the coast road for half a mile,' Graham said. 'There's all the fishing sheds we can dodge between if the zombies or the army arrive before we make it to the bottom end of Castle Street.'
'Stuff the sheds…' Bill said, then stopped at a sharp look from Janet. 'I mean never mind the sheds, we should cross now, straight into Fishbone Alley, left through Smugglers Snicket by the market place and get into Castle Street that way.'
'I agree,' Janet said, already running across the road.
Fishbone Alley was a narrow cobbled street with overhanging buildings. There was no chance an army truck could get through. It had a dog-leg, too, so within a minute they were out of sight of the harbour, clinging to each other as they each stumbled over the uneven surface.
'Council are supposed to have fixed this,' Graham grumbled, having tripped and been pulled up by Sarah.
'Costs plenty to re-set cobblestones,' Janet said.
'You mean you and the other counsellors spent so much time arguing about the so-called Zombie Defense Plan, you never got round to it.'
A shot rang out from the harbour, followed by a blood-curdling shriek and squawking gulls wheeling overhead. Arguments forgotten, they all ducked instinctively and cowered against the back wall of the Black Lion pub.
Graham crept forward and peered round the corner of the wall into a marketplace which was empty, except for a few abandoned stalls. He looked right to where Rum Lane led down from the High Street but all he could see was a wall of smoke. 'All clear,' he said, taking a diagonal route to the snicket on the other side of the square. Sarah clung to his hand, feeling closer to him than she could remember having felt for months. The stalls provided good cover but she was terrified a zombie would leap out from behind one of them.
Apart from a scare when a rail full of brightly coloured, cut-price shirts blew over as they passed, they made it to Smugglers Snicket without incident. It was a one hundred yard long gap between rows of houses and gardens on either side. Overgrown and over-hung by plants and trees, it was just wide enough for single file.
Janet hoped a bunch of zombies wouldn't appear in front of them and the army come in from the rear, because if that happened, they'd be trapped and end up either shot or mauled. Horrible screams and sporadic gunfire echoed around the town, the high walls of the snicket making it impossible for her to tell from where. Smoke billowed across the roof tops.
'Anyone got an idea where that's coming from?' she said.
A breathless Karen replied, 'My guess is the harbour but it's hard to say in here.'
'We'll be in Castle Street in a moment,' Graham said.
The others pushed past him while he stopped to snap off an elderberry branch that was thrusting its way between someone's garden fence panels. As he ran after them, he pulled off the side branches, to leave a six foot staff. It wasn't the strongest of wood but it helped quell the fear that made his heart pound.
Bill was first to the end of the snicket but Janet thrust her way to the front. She took a mirror from her bag and used it to look round the corner, left back to the coast and right to Castle
Mound, as the last section of Castle Street was called.
'Can you see anything?' Karen whispered.
'Yes, plenty,' Janet returned dryly. 'But fortunately no sign of either zombies or soldiers.'
'What next,' Sarah said. 'Castle Street is completely open. If anything comes up or down it, we'll be seen instantly.'
'Exactly and I don't want to be mistaken for a zombie by a trigger-happy soldier,' Graham said.
'You shouldn't have worn that hideous green jumper, then.' Sarah laughed despite feeling so light headed she didn’t know if she was going to faint or run in two directions at once.
'We've got two options as I see it,' Janet said, still surveying the street from inside the end of the alley. 'There are houses and shops on this side and bushes the other side of the fence over there,' she said pointing to the other side of the street.
'We can either dodge from doorway to doorway over here,’ Bill said. ‘Or climb the fence and be safely behind the bushes all the way up to the castle,'
'Fence and bushes,' Janet said. Everyone else nodded.
'I'll go first, then,' Bill said, leaping out and sprinting across to the fence. It was only a low horse fence and he was over it in a second and concealed behind a stand of laurel bushes.
Karen was about to follow, when a roar came from around the corner at the lower end of Castle Street. It was the engine of a heavy army truck, the driver changing down a gear for the corner. Karen, Graham, Sarah and Janet flattened themselves against the wall of the house at the end of the snicket which faced in the direction the truck was going up Castle Street. They heard it surging up the hill and seconds afterwards it thundered past. No more than a sigh of relief later there was a screech of tyres as it to slammed to a halt. The diminished group didn't wait to listen to it reverse towards the mouth of the alley, they ran for the first gate they came to that led to a garden. It was locked with a huge chain. Graham hurled himself bodily at the gate opposite. Its feeble catch snapped and it swung straight open, sending him tumbling onto a lawn. Janet, Sarah and Karen got through the gateway just before the truck pulled level with the end of the snicket.
The truck door opened and closed, and there was the crunch of heavy boots striking the ground.
'See anything?' a solider's voice came from inside the cab.
'Nah. I thought I did but there's no-one here.'
'Come on, Sarge, you're getting jumpy.'
'Yeah, well. Orders is orders and I don't take no chances with zombies. It's shoot first and ask questions later.'
Janet, Sarah and Karen crouched behind a huge pink hydrangea, while Graham crawled from his sprawled position to behind a compost bin. Karen had to press her hand over her own mouth to stop herself from whimpering. The sergeant's footsteps continued down the alley. He found the open gate and darted a look into the garden, submachine gun ready.
'Nah, there's nothing,' he shouted back to the truck and his retreating footsteps were replaced by the roar of the vehicle as it continued on its way.
Sarah's hands were shaking so badly, she had to cling to the gatepost as she inched her head round to make sure the alley was clear.
'They've gone,' she said in a croaking voice. She felt her legs were so unsteady, she'd never make it to the other side of the road. Later, she couldn't remember how but in less than a minute, she found Graham had bundled her over the fence to join the rest of her friends, gasping for breath in the thick of the laurel bushes.
Chapter 5: Haunted
Eventually, Alex's senses returned. Looking around, she could see she was alone. Then she heard Steve shout at Fred in a commanding tone from inside the keep. Although Alex was most probably safe, high on the ancient walls, she still couldn't believe they had left her all alone. She went down the stone steps, careful not to look back at the gatehouse, where the zombies were still snapping and growling the other side of the barrier, then up the spiral staircase inside the keep. The others were in Steve's dad's office, where they'd found a radio. Alex's first idea was that it was lucky the thing had batteries, since the mains power was still off. Rachel was trying to find a news channel but it was all whistles, squawks and crackly European stations. The radio was old technology but it'd still have worked if it hadn't been for the so-called digital radio revolution that had made several million perfectly good radios useless overnight.
'This thing's an antique,' Rachel said, switching off the radio. 'It should be in the museum.'
'Assuming we can get rid of the zombies, or they go away by themselves, how are we going to get out of here?' Fred said.
'What?' Rachel said. 'Don't we just walk out?'
'Steve…' Alex said, 'that portcullis, how much does it weigh?'
'More than two tons.'
'Is the power still off?'
'Makes no difference, it's not electric.'
'But the drawbridge is, like, electric,' Maisie said with a sniffle.
'Not the portcullis.'
'So how did they get it up in the first place?'
'Alex, I have no idea,' Steve said. 'I've never seen it raised or lowered before. That would be why it was all rusted up and didn't fall straight away.'
'Besides, who wants to, like, go out that way?'
'What do you mean, Maisie?'
'Well apart from disgusting squished zombies, Rachel puked like all over the place.'
'Yeah, pretty much a last resort, even assuming we could move the thing, which we can't.'
'How about dropping ropes over the walls?'
'Have you seen how far down it is?' Rachel said.
'No ropes,' Steve said, shaking his head and looking around the untidy office as if searching for clues. He leaned back in the swivel chair at his dad's desk, his hands tapping restlessly on the smooth veneer. Maisie and Fred sat on wooden bench opposite the door and Rachel perched on the edge of an unopened packing crate in the middle of the floor. Alex paced back and forth, biting her thumb in the hope that it might help her concentrate.
'Secret doors, passageways?'
'We could try and find the tunnel,' Steve said, hauling open the desk drawer and rummaging about amongst the papers and packets of Kilkorne castle insignia pens and keyrings.
'There's a tunnel?'
Steve nodded but carried on rummaging.
Rachel jumped up and stamped her foot. 'So what are you looking for?' she said. 'You're always dawdling about.'
Alex wasn't surprised that Steve stopped what he was doing, turned and looked at Rachel in a way which said, 'It's a pity the zombies didn't get you.'
Rachel slumped back on her crate, crossed her arms and stared at the floor.
When Steve did reply, he simply said, 'Keys.'
At that moment something clinked in the back of the drawer and he drew out a large metal ring, holding it up for them all to see. From the ring hung four heavy iron keys.
'There's a chamber below the east tower. They used it as an oubliette.'
'Like, what's an 'oobli'-thingy?' Maisie said.
'It's a sort of dungeon. A nasty dark place they threw you down and forgot about you.'
Maisie shivered. 'So it's full of, like, ancient dead bodies? I ain't going down there!'
'No, no bodies, about a hundred years ago they cleared it out and made it into a store room.'
'How does that help?' Rachel said in a sulky tone.
'Yeah, what use is a dungeon?' Fred said.
'My dad once told me something about a supply tunnel going out under the castle walls but I've never been down there. It's supposed to be haunted.'
Maisie gasped. 'With, like, ghosts?'
Rachel looked up at last. 'Really, haunted?'
'So they say.' Steve laughed. 'Can't be worse than zombies, though… can it?'
Chapter 6: Weapons
Getting across the road and into the bushes was only the first part of the adults' ordeal. The land was owned by Old English Monuments, a national charity, so the grass of the steep-sided moat and outer courtyard were kept
carefully mown right from the drawbridge to the perimeter fence with the turnstile. However the steep seaward area outside the fence was unmanaged and allowed to grow into a mixture of long grass, saplings, shrubs and mature trees. It was this wilderness of an incline which the adults had to climb.
The alternative, to stay on or near Castle Street itself would have been disastrous, as proven by a succession of army vehicles which used it as part of their circuit of the town. They simply rounded up all the zombies along with anyone in the way who was suspected of becoming contaminated. To be suspected of contamination it was sufficient only to be picked up in the same area as a zombie. Resisting capture was seen as a certain sign of the onset of zombieism; the army had been ordered not to be discriminating and to brook no argument. Rather than send in specialists wearing protective gear to clear up, any buildings in which zombies had been killed were torched.
The small band of harbour survivors picked their way up hill through the thick undergrowth, stumbling the whole time on the uneven ground. Five times their way was blocked by thick clumps of barbed brambles and they had to make a detour. Each time they heard an engine approach, they ducked down so they couldn't be seen from the army vehicles as they raced past.
Halfway up the hill and sorely wishing the smooth tarmac only yards away wasn't out of bounds, a heavy, rattling thud was heard from above. It made the ground shake and was accompanied by the sounds of guttural zombie screaming.
'What was that?' Sarah said, stopping to catch her breath.
'Can't have been the drawbridge,' Janet said, 'because that would've been already down, so it must have been the portcullis, though it hasn't been used for years. As far as I know.'
Karen was glad of the chance to rest. 'Why would the portcullis come down?' she said.
'Must have been the kids did it.'
'But why?'
'I'd say to keep the zombies out but it also means the kids'll be trapped inside, unless Stevie's remembered about the tunnel.' Janet refused to allow herself to think anything other than that her Stevie was alive and in control of things up there.
Finally, hot and dishevelled, they made it to the top of Castle Mound and came up against an overgrown section of the perimeter fence. To make sure there was no danger of them being discovered they hung back so there was sufficient undergrowth to keep them safely out of sight. Tentatively, they surveyed the scene: ahead several zombies were hanging around the turnstile; clearly visible were the bodies of the dead ones trapped under the portcullis and the drawbridge. It was not an area that was safe to enter. Looking to their right, there was the equally horrifying sight of the burning ruins of their village. The only disadvantage of remaining hidden was that both times the kids were up on the castle walls, the adults missed seeing them.