Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #19 October 2015 | Page 66

Trouble at the Docks
Chapter Seventeen
By Jim King

“Over there, left, LEFT.” The shout came from
a corporal of second platoon. He had seen movement
down the narrow street; scores of figures.

disbelief as a wave of walking corpses came closer to
the end of the street and the wide open square.
He pressed down on his trigger and started
screaming as loudly as he could. “LEFT, LEFT, ENEMY LEFT”

More men turned to face the street. The closest
Ironside noticed the movement and swung around to
bring its Maxim to bear, the other three continued to
fire at the fortress wall.
Within the shadows of the street there was
clear movement, a great crowd of people, slowly advancing. The people of the town came into view, walking slowly, some seeming to stagger, several dragging
themselves along the dirt with clearly visible wounds.
Then they came closer, advancing out of the shadows
and into the light of day.
A shot was fired, then another. The Maxim
fired a short burst then a second. Figures stumbled
and fell or were knocked off their feet but, before the
disbelieving eyes of the British soldiers, they began to
stand up again. Some trying to rise were trampled by
the figures behind them as they mindlessly advanced.

In the front compartment Digby and his gunner were focused on the wall of the fort, seeking new
targets. The loader crouched ready to reload the main
gun but was otherwise unoccupied. Over the steady
chug of the idling steam engine he could hear something, faint, but oddly familiar. The voice sounded
like... “Lieutenant listen, they’re shouting from the
rear.”
Digby could hear nothing but he had a hatch
overhead and with the almost complete absence of enemy fire now he risked unlatching the hatch and lifting
it a little.
“… ENEMY LEFT.” The Lieutenant automatically turned to the left seeking the target and saw the
shambling mass of walking corpses struggling forward
despite the fire of most of two platoons.

Shouts spread across the square and more and
more soldiers turned to face this new threat.
On Greyhound the left side machine gun turret
was denied a clear target on the wall, the smoke stack
blocked most of his arc of fire forward so he was
looking for a target to his left when he saw the sudden
shift of men and fire leftwards. He rotated his turret
left to bring his main vision slit to bear and stared with

“DRIVER LEFT, LEFT, ENEMY LEFT, ENEMY LEFT.” For perhaps the first time in its military
career Greyhound managed a standing turn without
breaking down, but the turret gunner was already
franticly spinning the turret rotation wheel and so the
turret came to bear on the shambling corpses long
before the Land Frigate had turned.

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