'Yeah,' Fred said with a grin, 'there's a couple of handy-looking war axes in the museum.'
Chapter 9: Let Me Out
Alex let Steve take the lead with his torch all the way down to the floor of the oubliette and then to the far end of the tunnel. She passed him the bottle of oil. He poured some onto the lock in the hope it would penetrate through the small holes and gaps old locks tended to have, and poured some onto the key before trying it in the lock. Then he waggled the key back and forth. It turned a little more each time but still stuck at the crucial point of bringing back the bolt. With the application of some more oil and patient wiggling, the key eventually turned and the door creaked open.
Alex was expecting to step out into a clear area, like a field or a terrace or even a road but the way was blocked by a tangle of branches and brambles.
'We could do with Fred bringing one of those swords down from the display on the museum walls,' she said.
'Good idea,' Steve said. 'None of the swords are very sharp but any one of them should be enough to get us through that stuff.' He scuttled off down the passageway and shouted up from the floor of the dungeon.
Fred made short work of the brambles and, as he was cutting through the final couple of feet, another helicopter thudded past above. This time they all clearly heard it coming but again there was the terrifying booming in the tunnel and the vibration in the air.
'Let me out, let me out,' Maisie squealed, pushing forward, careless of any remaining thorns catching at her clothes.
Rachel followed right behind Maisie. 'See, see!' she said to Alex as she dashed by. 'Horrible!'
The five kids paused to recover some degree of composure just outside the thicket that concealed the secret tunnel. Alex was standing a little apart, surveying the road where it passed the end of the field they had come out into. It was at the rear of the castle, beyond the outside edge of the moat, perfectly hidden from anyone approaching the front of the castle.
Alex took a moment to attempt to gather her thoughts once again. The first outbreak of zombieism, the one which had cut the UK off from the rest of the world, had been extinguished. A total curfew lasted a week, while armed police and soldiers checked everyone in affected areas. Any zombie was shot on sight and the body removed for disposal. The bioweapon research centre had been in a remote corner of Cornwall, not far from Kilkorne. In the first wave, Alex had assumed that her little Cornish fishing village wasn't a place the zombies would bother with, their apparent intention being to ravage the more heavily populated London and the Home Counties. But this was a fresh outbreak of the disease.
'Why had they come here?' Alex wondered.
Steve came up behind her. 'I guess this is the closest village to the research station,' he said.
'What?' Alex said, 'Was I thinking out loud?' She was frightened of letting her mind wander.
'No, I didn't hear you say anything. I was just thinking about why the zombies would come here, when last time they headed straight for the big cities.'
'Well that was just what I was thinking.'
'They're still acting like they've got a purpose.'
'Whatever that is.'
More gunfire echoed around the village, the roar of an engine, then a squeal of brakes.
'I can't see anything, can you?' Fred said, joining Alex and Steve.
'No,' Alex said, 'but it sounded like that was in the harbour.'
'I agree. They'll be keeping the zombies from getting on the boats,' Steve said. 'I'm sure my mum must have got out to sea straight away. She's very capable like that.'
'What do you think we should do now?' Fred said.
'It's been all quiet at the school for a while,' Alex said.
'Are you mad?' Rachel hissed, joining the others, Maisie trailing behind.
'Like what about the zombies? Duh!' Maisie said. 'The school'll be a death trap.'
'The soldiers came in at the back of the village, swept through the school and chased the zombies down to the harbour.'
'And how do you know all that, Alex?' Rachel said, hands on hips. 'You always think you know everything!'
'Well, if you're referring to my knowing a helicopter isn't a ghost, I think we can both agree on that one.'
'But how do you know they've cleared the school out?' Fred said.
'Because when I went up to the ramparts to see where the helicopter went, I could see and hear where the soldiers were and I saw them setting more fires to destroy the remains of the zombies in the school.
'What about the ones that were after us by the castle gate?'
'They went down the hill into the town. If the soldiers haven't got them already, it won't be long.'
'You really think we should go for the school?' Fred said.
'Yes, if we go carefully. I want to get my bag back for one. I left it in the classroom.'
'Good point,' Rachel said. 'Mine's there, too. With my money and phone in it.'
'And mine, I think.' Maisie said, wavering. 'But I don't want to see, like, any dead people.'
'What was it the army did last time?' Steve said, 'Move in, kill, burn, move out.'
Alex shuddered at the thought. 'Let's hope they haven't burnt down our classroom, then.'
'I don't wanna go,' Maisie wailed.
'You can go back down the tunnel and wait in the castle,' Steve said.
'On my own?' Maisie said, looking like she was about to faint.
'I'm for the school,' Rachel said. 'My bag's got all my makeup, everything.'
Alex raised an eyebrow and sighed but Rachel didn't notice.
'I'm with Alex for the school,' Fred said.
Steve agreed and said he was going to lock the outer door to the tunnel, so if they had to retreat back there, at least they'd know there weren't any zombies inside.
While he was doing that, Alex suggested they all turn out their pockets and see what they'd got between them.
Chapter 10: In the Thicket
'What's the point of that?' Maisie said. 'Don't we just let the army, like, look after us?'
'Give ourselves up to them?' Fred said. 'Maisie, don't you read anything?'
He was taking the words right out of Alex's mouth.
'Last time the zombies got out,' he said, 'they put the survivors in quarantine. They just locked them up all together in big compounds. After a week, they all turned into zombies.'
Maisie tugged at her lip. 'Oh, yeah, I remember. There was, like, a big thing about it because there were probably loads of people put in who weren't infected until they were, like, in there.'
'Exactly, and we're not infected but we have no way of proving it.'
'Maybe they've got a way to tell if you're infected now,' Rachel said.
'Not that I've heard,' Fred said.
'What's that?' Steve said, returning from locking the door to the tunnel.
Alex spoke in a firm voice, 'We're agreeing on not giving ourselves up to the army.'
'Yeah, I heard about what happened last time.'
'They still might be able to tell who's infected,' Rachel said.
'We could do with some up to date information,' Fred said. 'It's a pity we couldn't get anything out of that radio in the office.'
'My phone's got built-in radio,' Steve said.
'Great, let's try it.'
Hearing the noise of an engine, Alex looked towards the road just as two army vehicles roared up the hill to the castle. Several shots were fired. Alex felt a tug on her sleeve and turned to see Steve pulling her after the others who were already disappearing into the thicket.
All was quiet for a few minutes but none of them dared move, as there was no sound of the army trucks departing. Then a voice sounded over a bull horn.
'Is there anyone in the castle? This is the army. We are here to help you.'
'Like hell,' Alex said.
'They'll see the portcullis is down and the dead zombies,' Fred said.
The bull horn sounded again. 'If there is anyone in the castle,
we can take you to a place of safety.'
Maisie jumped up and opened her mouth to shout. Rachel leapt at her, putting her hand over Maisie's mouth and pulled her down.
Maisie squirmed and tried to squeal through Rachel's hand but Rachel held her tight. 'Shut up, Maisie,' she growled, 'I'm not letting anyone take me away.'
'All other survivors from the village have already been moved to a safe and secure compound,' boomed the voice from the top of the rise.
'My mum,' Maisie sobbed.
'It's Monday,' Alex said, seeing that Maisie was too bewildered to make sense of what was happening. 'Monday she goes shopping in Amberford.'
Maisie nodded. 'Oh, yeah, like first thing.'
'Yeah, after she drops you at school. It's twenty miles away. She should be fine.'
'This is your last chance, anyone not surrendering will be shot as infected.' To emphasise the point, one of the helicopters swooped up and hovered, turbines whining and blades thumping, above the entrance to the castle. The kids huddled close under the trees but could see what was happening. A net was lowered by rope from the helicopter. A few minutes later, the net was winched up containing the remains of the zombies that had just been shot and the ones that had been killed by the drawbridge. The helicopter then thrashed away into the distance and the trucks trundled slowly back into the village.
Tired and dejected, the little band waited in the bramble thicket for what seemed like forever. Finally, the trucks were heard driving out of the village after which, the second helicopter did a last circuit before heading off in the direction of the bioweapons facility.
'I don't feel so good,' Maisie said.
'We should turn out our pockets to see if we've got anything useful,' Alex said.
Apart from three cereal bars and two small bottles of drink between them, they only had a few coins, a pen knife and Fred's sword.
'Where's your mace?' Alex said.
'Dunno, must have let it behind.'
'You may as well leave the sword here, it's too long to be much use and it's heavy.'
'Can't disagree with that.' Fred stuck the sword into the ground by the door to the tunnel. 'But if we're going to keep away from the army, we're not going to get far on this.'
'We do need to check out the school. Get our stuff,' Steve added.
'What about your phone?' Rachel said. 'We could call someone and you said there was a radio in it.'
Steve shrugged. 'Yeah but it's in the school.'
'I'm about all in, Fred said. 'What time is it?'
'Ten to two.'
'That's halfway through the afternoon!'
'Yeah, well, we've been chased by zombies, hid in my dad's castle, escaped by a secret tunnel and nearly been shot at by the army.'
'Come on, let's go,' Alex said, 'I need the washroom after all this excitement and I won't be happy until I've looked for my bag.'
Once they had crossed the field on the outskirts of the village and re-joined Academy Row, the kids saw that the short stretch of road down to the school was deserted.
Chapter 11: A Mother's Pride
The wait the adults endured had been agonising. They could only assume by the absence of screaming from inside the castle, that the kids were safe. Luckily, they didn't hear the commotion caused as a result of the first helicopter going over, when Rachel and Maisie thought the dungeon was haunted.
'So, Janet,' Graham said. 'What's this about a tunnel?'
Janet explained what she hoped Steve had remembered about how to get out through the base of the dungeon.
'Have you been down this tunnel?'
'Not since Samuel first took over the custodianship, no.'
'What was it like?'
'Bit damp, dirty. Oh…'
'What?'
'I just remembered Samuel had locks put on the trapdoor down to the dungeon. It was to stop people falling in.'
'So they won't be able to get out, then?'
'If Stevie hasn't forgotten about the tunnel, I'm hoping he has remembered where to find the keys.'
'Easy to find?'
'In the drawer of his dad's desk in the office on the top floor of the keep.'
'Hmm,' Graham said. 'Assuming all that, where're they going to come out?'
'They should pop out on the other side of the castle from here, facing down towards the school. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't go back down there.'
'Why'd they do that?'
'Get anything they'd left behind. Just seems a kid thing to do.'
'Can't we try and get the kids attention?' Sarah said.
Graham looked worried. 'What, just walk up to the portcullis and call out?'
'I don't think that's a good idea,' Janet said. 'There's a lot of zombie blood around and it would be all too easy to get contaminated. Until we know what the status of the children is, I say we stay outside the perimeter fence.'
While her companions' thoughts were haunted by images of the zombies milling around the castle entrance, drooling, dribbling and grunting, Janet felt proud of her son, knowing that it must have been Steven who first lifted the drawbridge, then dropped the portcullis on the unfortunate zombies.
'What now?' Karen said, thinking everything had gone rather quiet. The noise of an army helicopter sent them scuttling deeper into the bushes, its ferocious downdraft buffeting their cover. In a state of intense anxiety, they heard the announcements and watched the winch lower the net to remove the zombie bodies.
Eventually, the helicopters rumbled overhead for a final circuit after 'tidying up' at the entrance to the castle. Janet tried to call her son on her phone but couldn't get a signal.
'It's still not safe to go closer to the castle, is it?' Karen said.
'Not with the chemicals the army may be sloshing around places where the zombies have been. Besides, all we have to do is make our way down the other side of Castle Mound into Academy Row, so we can get a view of the school and the place where the tunnel comes out.'
By the time they spotted the kids, they were far down the road, practically at the school gate and too far away for it to be safe to call out to them or even to be heard at that distance. Once the adults discovered the kids had indeed escaped the castle, they decided to shadow them, protecting them by bringing up the rear.
Chapter 12: Maisie's Triumph
Keeping a sharp lookout for zombies, Alex, Steve, Maisie, Rachel and Fred made their way back to the side gate into the school yard. Alex scouted ahead while the others waited for her at the gate, ready to run at the least hint of danger. Scattered and glinting in the afternoon sun all across the school yard were dozens of shell casings. Nearly all the windows were shot out and bullets had pock-marked the stonework. Alex was greatly relieved to see no sign of any dead bodies, either zombies or people. When she gave the all-clear, they ventured into the bottom corridor where they'd seen the first zombie coming at them. All the classrooms on the ground and first floors on the far side of the quad were reduced to smouldering rubble. Through the gap, they could see the burnt out remains of the Admin block.
'The army did this?' Rachel said.
'Yeah, to get rid of the zombies and dead people.'
'Looks like our classroom is still OK, p'raps,' Maisie said.
'We should be able to reach it using the stairs that aren't burnt out.'
'Good thing it's on the first floor. Looks like the zombies didn't get chance to go up there.'
Everyone seemed happy to let Alex go first again. She beckoned them up from the top of the stairs. Unlike the grassy quad and the yard outside, there were no shell casings on the floor.
'The only thing is, our classroom is down the far end right next to the burnt out section.'
'What does that mean? I can see the door from here.'
'I just hope it's alright inside being right next to the fire.'
Each classroom they passed on the way to their own looked as if it had been left at the end of a normal day, except some of the desks and cha
irs had been turned around a bit, where everyone had rushed out when the klaxon started up. As they got closer, Alex noticed there was more light coming through the window of the door to their classroom. She found herself holding her breath as she reached for the doorknob. The window was frosted, so she had no idea what to expect when the door opened. She turned the handle and pushed but the door wouldn't move. She rattled the handle a few times but it still didn't open. Then there was a crash of something falling on the other side. Without thinking, everyone ran back to the far end of the corridor, not stopping until they reached the stairs.
'What the hell was that?'
'How should I know?'
No-one moved for what seemed an age. Silence fell like a blanket.
Finally, they crept back down the corridor, ready to run at the slightest sound. Nothing happened, so Alex tried the door again. It wavered but wouldn't open.
'Is it locked?' Steve said.
'No, just stuck. And of course we can't see inside.'
'Fix that,' Fred said. He ran into the next door classroom and came back with a metal baton.
'Where'd you get that?'
'Crazy Brown's room.'
'Oh, right, that's what he used to whack on the desk when we got too noisy.'
Alex jumped back as Fred swung the baton at the window. The first time it bounced off, the second the glass showered into the room, raising a cloud of dust. Fred tapped at the jagged edges and they peered inside. The reason Alex had seen more light through the window was that the whole far wall was missing, the ceiling was sagging, with tiles dropping down from it and everything was covered in dust.
Knocking the glass out had loosened the door and it swung open.
'I can see my stuff,' Maisie said.
'Yes, but is it safe to go in?'
Before the words were out of Alex's mouth, Maisie was tip-toeing across the floor. She grabbed her bag and jacket and ran back, then stood in the corridor shaking the dust off. The others simply stared at her.
'Yeah? Like, what?'
'How? How did you know the floor wouldn't collapse?'
Maisie shrugged. 'Just saw my stuff.' Thinking that was sufficient explanation, she turned away and began checking through her bag.
'Perhaps one at a time, then?' Fred suggested.
'Hold on, Maisie seems pretty good at this,' Rachel said with a sly smile. 'Urm, Maisie, dear?'
'Yes?' Maisie appeared not to notice Rachel's unusually syrupy tones.