Cartilage Chapter 1

Cartilage:- Chapter 1:

“Run!”
The sound of shouting and hurried feet echoed down the corridor, they had breached the barricades. I grabbed at my radio and began issuing orders, “Fiona! Get here now! Bring Billie and Hattie with you!” This had happened before, many times in fact, because someone hadn’t closed the front gate properly, usually Viv. I’d explained to her how to close it, but she never listened. Always listening to her iPod, I swear getting that generator working was the worst thing I ever did. But never mind that now, ‘they’ were coming in, and I was the only frontline defence until Billie and Hattie got here. I readied my riot shield, a bulky but necessary defence, and braced myself for the impact as the Scout charged into me. I’d been charged before, but you never get used to the force ‘they’ can run at you with. I smashed back at it with the shield into the wall and swung my police baton made of carbon steel down onto its head and resumed my original position. The Scout turned and fled back to its comrades grasping at its shattered skull. “Where are you two?!”
“On our way Tim, we were helping get the Vault doors closed.” The Vault was what we called the inner sanctuary of our makeshift fort, it was originally a department store but its multi levels and garden centre made for a perfect base. The breach had been in the rear store room that had the larger of two exits, the other being a side door into a nearby alley. The Vault was the former Gold card member’s room and had been refitted with defences and barricades by Hattie, our resident mechanic expert. I needed her now to fix the gate that had been smashed by constant barrage.
Fiona came running along the corridor, followed by Billie and Hattie.
“Righto Boss, what’s the job?” Billie said.
“We need to push ‘them’ back out of the store, I haven’t scouted ahead yet so that’s why your here. When we get in I want you to climb up onto the gantry and tell us their positions.” I grabbed his shoulder before he ran off, “And don’t let Martin hear you call me Boss, you know what he’d say.”
He smirked, “Sure do,” he winked, “Boss.”
I ignored him and moved towards the store, “Okay team, let’s get these bastards out!” As we turned the corner I saw the Scout from earlier huddled in front of the door. “Billie, got your slingshot?” He snapped back the elastic as confirmation, “Good, fire one at its head, we’ll see if it’s still alive.”
The steel bolt cracked through the air and hit it square on the head. Nothing. Then it reared up suddenly and lunged out at us, I thrust the shield in front of Fiona and blocked its swipe. Fiona swept it’s legs out from under it and stabbed it repeatedly in its head. “Well, that’s one down,” she sighed.
“It’s not over yet though, love.”
“Ooooh, “love” eh!” Billie and Hattie cooed. I gave them a look and they both stopped giggling.
“Door. Now.”
“Yes, Boss. Up on the gantry, I got it.” Billie opened the door hesitantly and checking the coast was clear, climbed up onto the gantry. “Okay Boss, first 10 metres in is clear, then 4 over by packing and 7 mulling around the entrance,” he reported over the radio.
“Got it Billie,” I turned to Fiona and Hattie, “Are you two ready?”
“Yeah, I’ll do my best,” Hattie looked worried.
“Always, Boss,” Fiona grinned.
“I hate you.” Damn her cute teasing.... I mean er... just teasing.
“I know.” She knew just how to push my buttons, and right before a fight. If we both make it out of this I’m going to get her back.
“Okay, Billie, take out one of the packing ones when we take down the other three.”
“Righto. Aiming now.”
“Good lad! Let’s go. Slow and quiet now.” We crept through the door and slipped through boxes of industrial coat hangers until we were behind the ones by packing. ‘They’ were chewing on a small body. “Shit.” I grabbed my radio and whispered, “Billie, can you see who it is? Is it one of ours?”
“Hang on.” I listened carefully to his footsteps on the metal above, tense seconds followed. “Yeah, I see them.” His voice lacked the cockiness it normally did.
“Well, is it one of ours?”
“Yeah...It’s um... It’s Nieve...” His voice was rasping, probably holding back tears. Nieve was a new arrival, we found her last week on her own. She’d been drifting with some others when they’d been attacked. She was the only survivor.
“Okay...” I wiped the sweat from my face, “Well, let’s see if we can give her a proper burial.” 
“Boss...”
“Yeah, Bill?” One of ‘them’ lifted it’s head and sniffed the air, “Sorry not now Bill, they know we’re here. Fiona that one to my right, Hattie my left , Bill the one with its head up. 3...2...1
GO!”

... We launched into ‘them’ with weapons flying. Billie took out one of them with a single shot and me and Fiona cleanly dispatched our targets, but Hattie was struggling. She wasn’t a fighter and Fiona had to help her finish it off.  The noise of the fight had drawn the attention of the ones by the door and, slowly but surely, they made their way towards us.
Billie began taking pot-shots at the taller ones, actually taking two out, which left 6 for us. I gave my shield and baton to Hattie and took her axe. Hopefully it would give her an advantage, or at least slow them down until either me or Fiona could help.
I decided to give the order early. “Come on, best to strike early!” There was a grunt of ‘yeah’ from Hattie but Fiona was already running, swinging her spear violently.
I sprinted to the nearest one and swung the axe into it’s forehead and quickly jumped back and away, ready to strike at the next one to my right that was charging. Again I swung the axe and smashed it’s skull. Fiona had already decapitated her 3 targets and moved on to help Hattie. I signalled to Billie to join me as we secured the gates ready for Hattie to fix the fittings.
The gate opened out onto a huge industrial estate car park, giving them the advantage of seeing how many of ‘them’ were heading towards them. I couldn’t see any nearby, but there was a group of about 50 trudging about 30 metres from the gate.
I grabbed my radio, “Okay, Martin! Where’s our reinforcements? There’s a big group in sight that could turn at any moment.”
“What reinforcements? We’re all shut in the Vault waiting for you to give us the all clear.” The confused response was filled with static; the Vault’s thick walls always interfered with the radios.
“I told you Martin! We can’t fight a full invasion! Who the hell do you think we are?! We’ll hold and hope that they don’t decide to turn until the gates are fixed. But when I get back you and me are going to have a serious chat!” I threw the radio at the wall, luckily it never smashed.
“You okay Boss?” Billie asked, still keeping his eye on the oblivious mob.
“I will be when my boot’s firmly up Martin’s arse! I cannot believe him!”
“I understand Boss, but maybe you should keep it down a bit. Seeing as lard-arse isn’t sending anyone to help we best not risk it.”
I shook my head, “Yeah... yeah, you’re right. Sorry.”
“No worries. I got your back.” He winked in a knowing way. I knew he’d wanted me to overthrow martin and take charge before, but I’d never wanted to. Too much responsibility if everything went wrong. But now, after Martin had completely disregarded my simple request of back-up, a revolution was brewing. That is if we get this gate fixed! I turned round to check on the girls to see Fiona comforting Hattie. She still wasn’t used to the casualties of the new world.
“Hattie. We’ll all end up like Nieve if we don’t get this gate fixed. Now hop to it!”
She dried her eyes on her sleeve and ran over to the gate to fix the supports. Fiona gave me a dirty look and went to keep watch with Billie. I knew I’d been insensitive to Hattie, but if we didn’t get this gate repaired then we were all in the shit.
It took 10 minutes for Hattie to get the gate back to full strength; my riot shield was used to repair a small gap by the middle of the gate. It was worth losing to keep the shop secure.
“Great job Hattie. I’ll call the others back out.” She nodded half-heartedly and left the room, giving the body of Nieve, who had been covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, a wide berth. Fiona threw me my radio from the floor and stormed out after Hattie.
“Don’t worry Boss, they’ll cool down by tomorrow.” He peeked through the window of the riot shield to double check ‘they’ weren’t massing around it. I raised the radio to my mouth to sound the all-clear but Billie pushed it away. “What’re we doing Boss?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean, about Martin.”
“I’m going to do what needs to be done for the good of the group.”
Billie smirked, “I hoped you’d say that!” He stood up straight and clicked his heels together, saluting me. “At your service, Boss.”
“Stop it. This isn’t going to be a military coup.”
“A what?” I sometimes forgot he was only 13.
“A coup, uprising, revolution, ousting...”
“Oh yeah, yeah, yeah... Well. Should we get to it?”
“No time like the present.” I raised the radio again. “Martin. All clear, you can stay there though. I want a word with you.”
“Fine.” He knew what was about to happen. Martin had taken it upon himself to be leader after Alan was killed. Alan was the only person in authority in Manchester that we knew of; he’d been an MP and was the only form of government around. I wasn’t around then but apparently Martin just took charge. People like me, Fiona and Billie who had joined up after he took power didn’t really listen to him, but those from before just accepted him. But now it was time for change! And I was the man for the job. 20 years his junior I had a better connection with our group. The oldest person was Mike, he was 47, then Martin 39 and the others were either teens or in their mid-twenties. I’m 19 but I still commanded respect. Hopefully that would work in my favour to win overall support in my leadership.
When we arrived at the Vault a table and 5 chairs had been laid out. Three on Martin’s side, two on mine. Martin was already sat, his elbows resting on the table, hands under his chin. The two seats beside him barely held the stocky frames of Mike and Kirch, Martin’s only allies in here. I sat down on a chair opposite and Billie stood behind me. I was about to ask why he hadn’t sat down when Fiona slouched into the chair next to me, giving me a sly smile. More footsteps behind me gave me more confidence of my support.
“I know what you want Tim. But I think we can make a deal.” He took a deep breath, “I’ve let you down Tim and I want to make it up to you.”
“I’m listening.”
“What if I give you some more people for our defence team?”
“Two things: First; it’s not our defence team, it’s mine. Second; you have no authority to send people to fight, had you asked for volunteers to be reinforcements maybe people would have come, but no. You locked them in here so that should my team fail, you still had some people to save your sorry arse!” This was met by a chorus of “Too right” from the crowd behind me.
“So you want complete control of all decisions for the group? Is that right?”
“Yes.” We both stared each other down until he had to blink.
“Very well then, so be it.” I grinned cheekily until I noticed that Martin was smirking too. “Kirch, as we discussed.”
Kirch stood up and revealed a loaded Luger pistol, he only one we had and was saved in case of an emergency. Billie’s grip tightened on the back of my chair, but he didn’t stand down. “What are you doing Martin?” I asked, trying not to let the panic show in my voice.
“I’m safeguarding my future. Now get up and leave, you and all your supporters can get out now and no-one will get hurt.”
Billie was about to speak out but I stood up and shook my head. This was a fight we couldn’t win. Martin sneered, “Good. Now we have an understanding. Anyone who wishes to stay will accept my decisions, clear? Anyone who doesn’t will suffer. If you leave now with Tim then you can never come back. Make your choice! Stand forward if you’re leaving with him!” He stood up and raised his arms out as he spoke, like some divine priest.
I looked toward the group of stragglers who were with me before. Six stepped forward out of the group.
“I’m with you Tim!” Liam said. Liam was just a new recruit and I was surprised by his loyalty. The other five were Joe, Cassie, Erik, Connor and Holly. They’d all arrived after me and I’d never really spoken to them.
“We’re with you too Chuck!” Billie grinned, slapping my shoulder.
Martin stepped forward, “So it’s decided! You nine will leave now and never return. Understood?”
“Absolutely,” I stepped through the crowd of Martin’s followers catching Hattie’s gaze, “Good luck.” My new group followed me to the store where we’d fought earlier, with Kirch still aiming the luger at us. I grabbed my police baton and jumped onto a crate, “Get your weapons, we’re leaving! We can and we will survive without them. They are cowards! And if they can’t see their own destruction then we’ll leave them to suicide.” My group quickly grabbed what they could.
“Right, now leave. And remember what Martin said.” Kirch grunted from the door.
Liam opened the gate and let everyone pass, “Run guys, I’m gonna knacker this gate.” He whispered and once everyone was through he swung his axe into the weakest pane and the hinges, breaking half the gate. I looked over my shoulder to see that Liam had caught up with us and Kirch aiming the pistol.
“Don’t try it Kirch! You’ll waste your ammo!” I shouted back as we rounded the corner of the industrial estate.
We ran down the street for another 10 minutes, passing some of ‘them’. Luckily ‘they’ were busy with a fresh corpse and we stopped at a four-way junction.
Billie walked up to me, out of breath, “Where to boss? We can’t keep running like this all night.”
“I know...I know...I KNOW!” I shouted at my sudden realisation, making the others jump. I turned to Fiona, “How about that college hall we stayed in when we first met?”
“That should be good enough for one night.” She said, “But we better get there before total nightfall, come on!” She led us off again at full speed so as not to bump into any more of ‘them’.
“We can discuss things properly when we get there.” I shouted as we rounded another corner.
“If we get there!” Billie wheezed as we saw a huge group of ‘them’ turning towards us. I looked to the others who were readying their weapons.
“Ready boss!” Billie shouted.
“Ready!”
“What’s the plan?” Liam asked.
“Erik and Liam go right. Cassie, Connor and Billie go left. Holly and Fiona with me down the centre. Go in, hack, slash and make it through to the other side. Ready? GO!”
Everyone screamed a shocking war cry and launched into the fray with no hesitation. I just hope we all make it, we need each other. And if we’re to survive then we need to act fast.
See you on the other side!