“The revenants got into the square from every side. The swarm from the harbour followed us in first and then the ones from the town came in. Some of ’em had marine uniforms on. We didn’t really know how the disease worked then — they’d probably eaten infected meat and never knew it until revenants ripped them half to pieces or the locals shot them or whatever happened, and then they got up again. I saw a white coat in there as well, that was the Coroner Corps uniform, white coat, army shirt and breeches, long boots. Cap was gone but I recognised him: Lieutenant Miller. Right bastard but he didn’t deserve that. Someone had shoved a bit of glass in his neck and it was still there.
“The Marine Captain in charge told the men to wait until the revenants got to fifty yards. The bastards came on, moaning. I stood with my boys to look after ’em and do what I could. Not a one of ’em didn’t trust me to do what needed doing. Best men I ever knew. Marine Captain tells ’em to take aim. Just what’s in front, nothing else. Then fire.
“Must have been thirty, forty revenants dropped just like that. Right in the head, brains blown back on the faces of the ones behind. But they missed a lot as well. Bullets went into shoulders or necks or chests or just missed altogether and that was no good to anyone. They reloaded and second ranks came up to fire. Another thirty-odd went down. But there were thousands behind ’em and they kept coming, kept getting closer, no matter how many dropped. One got past the others on a blind spot. I put it down with my pistol once it got close enough. Revenants were all over the square, and more coming in from every street. I couldn’t see an end to the swarm behind.
“And that’s when the navy started shelling us.
“The spotters on the Indefatigable couldn’t see an end to the swarm either. So the commanders tried something else. They saw us in the square, thought we were going to fight down to the last man and decided it wasn’t worth waiting until a crowd of two thousand turned into a crowd of two thousand and a few more because we’d joined ’em.
“First shell hit a ways past the square. Finding the range. Then another one just before it. Then they had us, and revenants were flying in the air, coming down among the marines and even just bits of the damn things could be dangerous. All they needed was a head, a torso, and an arm to crawl with. Buildings getting hit as well, shrapnel flying all over, good men cut down before the revenants even got to ’em. We thought we might last hours out there before the revenants finished us but we weren’t going to last minutes with the navy joining in as well. The Marine Captain was down. Me and my marines were cut off from all the others. Shells still coming in, blowing holes in the line and bits of men and rifles falling on us.
“Nobody’d tried explosives on revenants before. We never usually met them in those kinds of numbers, not then, not until the last outbreak. Somebody must have thought dropping a shell into a pack of ’em would do a world of good. And yeh, some of ’em dropped. But the rest stayed up. Didn’t matter how much you ripped out their guts, they kept coming. And the shelling made them worse. The blast wave, the pressure, it did something to their nerves. Didn’t knock ’em down at all. It hurt them. Drove ’em mad. They didn’t moan any more, they screamed. They came at you running. They never ran if they could help it otherwise, just kept coming at a walk. And now we had hundreds in the square still on their feet, only thing stopping them getting us was the shells still coming down and tossing them about until they got up and tried it again.
“There’s two things you can do in that kind of nonsense. Freeze up or run for it. Best thing I did that day was shout at all my marines and tell them to run for it with me. Couldn’t stay out there. Nobody was going to get out of that square alive if they stayed.
“The shells had cleared one of the streets so we made for that. Couldn’t call it much of a street — buildings on both sides blown out, rubble everywhere, bits of revenants in the wreckage, arms coming out and grasping at you. Lieutenant Miller was there — torn in half, one good arm still holding his pistol but no idea what to do with it. I put him down and took it for myself, and his ammo. Needed ’em both just to get down the road. Somebody did a drawing of me for the papers after it was over. The Fury in the White Coat, they called me, with my two pistols. Kept on carrying two after that as well, even at Tringarrick. You can never have too many.
“The town hall was still standing. Don’t know what happened to the mayor and corporation. Don’t care. I’d have probably put them down if I saw them. I got twenty men past the revenants and the shells — not enough to defend the place but there wasn’t anything else left standing. Nice strong stone building, harder to blow apart than all the timber ones and they hadn’t targeted it directly so we blockaded it best we could, took one corner over the cellar entrance and holed up there. Nobody got through without some kind of injury. I had gashes all down my left side from shrapnel. Two of the men died within an hour and we put ’em down again when they got up.”
She went quiet for a few moments.
“What happened then?” I asked.
“Long night. Longest I ever knew. We escaped in all the shelling so the revenants didn’t know where we were at first, meant we had time to get some barricades up. And they kept on shelling all the time. Ten hours, it went on. Must have been more than one dreadnought out there. They were trying to level the place. Didn’t work. Just made things worse.
“Revenants kept coming, soon as one of ’em knew where we were, they all bloody knew or seemed like. We only had the ammo we brought with us and it wasn’t enough. We blocked all the windows so they had to come in through the courtyard. We could get good range on them there but we ran out of rounds in three hours. After that it was hand to hand. Good thing it was one of those places with halberds, and swords and all that hanging on the wall. I kept a few bullets back for the end and let the boys take the cutlery. We formed a line in a corridor, the ones with pole arms would pin the revenants while the ones with swords and axes smashed their heads. We blocked up the corridor with the corpses and then they found another way in and we set it up again. Must have been hundreds, between those we put down in the courtyard and the ones in the corridors. Most of them shrieking at us, still bloody mad because of the shelling.
“We couldn’t keep that up. We were down to eight and we were exhausted. A fair few of the ones coming at us had revenned in the square as well, that was the worst. Sticking a knife in the eye of someone you’d been eating at the same table with for weeks. I didn’t let the men see the look on my face. Just got it done and moved on. But we had to go. There was only the cellar left. We’d taken a look earlier — opened it up, went down, had a good yell, so we knew there wasn’t anything coming after us from down there. But there wasn’t any way out, either, or that’s what we thought. MacDonalt found a door to the sewers, brand new sewers, they were still digging to try and improve public hygiene and beat the cholera. I went out first because I was the last one with bullets in my guns. I’d been saving them for us. We saw a couple of revenants in there but that was all. I put them down. We barred the door behind us. Wouldn’t last forever, not against the ones gone mad from the shelling but it was all we had. Ran for it and found a way out, and all it did was take us back into the streets.