Though we could not yet see it, I guessed that a heavy machine gun had been placed opposite the exit and it was systematically mowing down the beasts who were trying to escape that way. Abruptly, the helicopter gunships departed – for no reason that was readily discernible. “That can’t be good,” I thought. “Why would these most potent weapons suddenly leave the field of battle with the job not yet done?”(Vercingetorix’ mistake?) The chatter of other machine guns started up, further away, on both sides of the campus – and, faintly, others more distant than that. I guessed that all exits from the campus had now been blocked. Somehow, the zombies had been herded here (how?) and, now that the acres that comprised the main campus of Melbourne University were full to bursting point with tens of thousands of them, the trap had been snapped shut. There was no escaping and they were being wiped out from the air and from the ground. “That’s one way of clearing a route from the port,” I thought. I supposed that’s what they were doing – but who could know for sure? The zombies who had pressed forward to the exit – and had not yet been cut down in the hail of bullets – started to retreat, back in the direction of the cricket oval. This made for an even greater crush of panicky bodies. Then came a growing rumble from the air. None of the zombies paid it any heed – but I recognised what it was. Little wonder that the helicopter gunships had moved away. They were making way for a far more potent weapon in the form of an approaching jet plane. Not good news. For a moment, I naively thought it might have been a passenger service but, of course, it was not. The sound of the jet engine was quite different. Though I could not see it, the rate at which the rumble was growing suggested the plane was flying fast and low. Time for ‘Plan B’. I tugged on David’s hand and roughly pulled him sideways – out of the main flow of the throng and towards the rounded tower of St. Hilda’s college. Within a few short seconds, there was a blinding flash and a deafening ‘foomph!’
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