As we approached Regents Park the sounds of gun fire again could be heard, but it seemed sporadic rather than constant heated combat. The sound of helicopters could be heard overhead again too. We passed by the carnage where the helicopter gun ship had mown down the zombie horde, and while trying to keep as low a profile as possible tried to assess what was going on.
There was still a crowd outside the gates, but they had moved on from where we had saw them initially. That area of the ground was littered with bodies on the floor. We saw two moving groups of ground troops patrolling outside the fencing along with an armoured personnel carrier now parked on the street.
Inside the park additional armed troops could be seen around the fencing area. I glanced up at the roof tops and could see soldiers manning their positions there too. It looked at first glance as if the zombie incursion had failed. I turned to Mina. “Okay. Let’s try this.”
We picked our way through the concourse leading to the crowd still trying to gain entry into the park. A soldier was stood at the closed gates. He was barking out instructions, but above the noise of the crowd I could not hear what he was saying.
Mina turned to me. “ Why have they closed the gates?”
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I looked around and saw one of the two patrols heading back towards us. I called out to them. “Will they be opening the gates soon?”
“Negative” said the soldier. “We are evacuating everyone inside. The park has had multiple incursions along its perimeter. Clear the area.”
“And head where!”, screamed Mina.
Overhead more helicopters were touching down inside the park, and we could see that the people inside the park were boarding these craft before they took off again.
The APC had opened its doors and both patrol groups were heading back to the vehicle.
A panicked cry went up from the crowd when they saw their protection departing.
I turned to Mina. “We keep moving. It’s what we have been doing, and it’s kept us alive so far.”
Mina looked dejected. “And go where?”
I looked back at the crowd. “Anywhere but here.”
Overhead more helicopters were ascending and descending in the crowded airspace. As I looked it seemed that one helicopter slewed sideways. Its trajectory now took it directly into the path of another. I yelled for us all to run.
A fireball erupted as one helicopter buried inside the other and then the air above us was filled with flying metal shards, and slivers from the destroyed spinning rotary blades. The burning chassis of the two helicopters plummeted straight down in a screeching crescendo.
Mina and me hauled the child free as the burning metallic husk fell upon the screaming crowd. My lungs felt seared and my ear drums deafened as a second fireball engulfed them. I covered the child and flung us to the floor as the flames blew outwards over us.