Stella the Zombie Killer

Stella the Zombie Killer Part 16

'What the hell is that?' said Jared.

'A harpoon,' Hook replied. 'There was a whaling exhibit back in 2018. We found this in storage.' The two of them stood at a first floor window at the front of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

'What are we gonna do with it?'

'Fire it into the phone box.'

Jared stared out across the street and the hundreds of deads; the phone box was a little to the right and surrounded by deads, as was a figure in combats and a vest fighting them off, its left arm swinging uselessly at its side. 'She's not gonna last much longer.'

'That's why we're rushing, Captain. Pleased to see that you're fully fit again.'

'Right, sorry,' said Jared.

Hook hauled the window open. 'Aim for the middle of the phone box. It'll catch in the frame of the door if it doesn't bury itself in the ground.'

'It'll be a concrete floor!' Jared protested.

'Not a time for discussion, Cap. Get it done.'

'What are you gonna do?'

'Something noisy.'

'Will it pull her back up?' said Jared, nodding at the harpoon.

'It's a harpoon not a Batman grapple gun; she'll have to climb.'

'She'll never make it.'

'You haven't really met Stella properly yet, have you?' said Hook, and he was gone, running down the stairs and back through the freezer room to the main doors.

Jared set himself behind the harpoon and took a few moments to familiarise himself with the weapon. The launcher had been bolted to the floor and could be manipulated to face any direction in front of Vic's. The missile was already loaded. A trigger sat ready underneath. Not the most complicated weapon Jared had ever fired. He lined it up with the phone box, saw how far Stella still was from it. His eyes flicked back and forth from Stella to the box. He was sweating.

'Whatever you're going to do, Hook, do it now.'

***

Hook dashed down the stairs, back through the freezer room and into the store of fuel. He grabbed a crate of bottles with rags stuffed into the necks. Molotovs.

'That's not part of the plan!' Gregor shouted as Hook ran into the rotunda. 'You can't use those; you'll have angels swarming all over us if they see a fire. For God's sake, you know better than I do that just standing outside the front door's enough to have all of them swarming over us for days.'

Hook paused at the desk, slamming the bottles of fuel down as he did so. 'What do you suggest I do? Throw some harsh words at them?'

'Trust the plan and trust Stella. You start throwing bombs about and this place is no longer a secret.'

Hook, breathing hard, stared at the other man, his eyes wide, searching for a solution in Gregor's face.

'She'll make it,' said Gregor. 'You know she will.' He placed his hands on the crate.

***

Stella swept a dead's legs from under it and then stamped on its head, cracking but not crushing its skull. She stamped again, finishing the job. The sweep had been slow, the stamp weak, she knew. Energy levels were falling. Behind her, the Ismaili Building was more than halfway. No point in turning back. A valuable second passed as she tried to calm her breathing. More and more deads were noticing her and the phone box was still twenty metres away.