Camouflage was still stuffing and holding pressure on Sue’s wounds even as we came to a screeching halt outside of the main building. We were met by a crowd of people but most importantly a medical team all in surgical gear and a gurney all-ready to rock. I jumped out so they could put her on it and take her to surgery straight away. I could smell the burnt oil and tortured brake components from the Land rover, the thing was that hot and been driven that hard over fields and road for the last six miles that I could almost imagine it licking the cold concrete it was now sat on, leaking fluids from many places, just to cool itself down.
As they put Sue on the Gurney, removing clothes from her as they did so, she cried out in pain, but still kept repeating ‘No transfusion, NO TRANSFUSION!’. I held her hand as we went through the door but had to let go. I gave one of the doctors the litre of blood but told them she would not take a transfusion from anyone else as she believes it would dilute her blood. She took it without a word and was gone.
The gunfire at the gate had finished and Puns guys were slowly driving back towards us. Pun had disappeared. Gone to file a report Camouflage had said. With whom was he meeting I could have asked but I didn’t know or care right now. The guys told us that the Humvee broke off as soon as we got through the gates and long before the soldiers with Javelin missile launchers made it out the gates. Camouflage was stood dripping in Sues blood as was I. He looked at me genuinely sad. He didn’t need to say anything, I could read it on him, and I knew it myself. She wasn’t going to survive this without more blood.
The Para driver of our 110 turned up with a bundle of clothes and towels. ‘Here you go lads, get out of all that blood-soaked kit.’ He looked at me and smirked. ‘And you out of that Digi-pattern shite you grave robbed.’
Camouflage took it with a ‘cheers’ but I was hesitant. ‘Thanks, I can’t.’ I could barely speak. ‘I need to be with Sue.’
The driver was great. ‘Not telling you that you have to have a shower bud, just get out of that kit, mop yourself down a bit with the towel and put some clean gear on. It’ll make you feel better, take you two minutes and to be fair they won’t let you see her dripping in blood and shit so…’ He gestured to the kit again with a smile. Camouflage was down to his birthday suit already right by the doors and wiping himself down with his towel. His blood-soaked clothes on the floor several feet away from him.
I thanked the chap and did the same. Fuck it, I bagged off outside the entrance and started towelling down my blood drenched arse and legs. The big streak of blood I wiped from out of my arse crease and between my balls was horrendous and matted in all my hairs. Once as clean as I could get with just a towelling down I slipped on the donated DPM trousers, vest and fleece jumper too. None of the Paras took a second glance, two of them even came over and chucked our old clothes straight into a yellow Haz-mat bag, so we didn’t have to. Fair play those blokes had been through some shit in the last twenty-four hours, losing several of their own but were still humane and willing to help. Once we were both dressed we thanked those that were still hanging around, shaking hands and pats on shoulders and headed inside to wait on news of Sue. I Had emptied my pockets and had two small vials of Sues blood and two needles and syringes. I stuck them into the pocket of my new clean and warm DPM trousers I had just changed into.
We had only been waiting 5 minutes, but it felt like we had been there hours. Pun had turned up and had several ration packs with him that both he and Camouflage tucked straight into. I couldn’t touch mine, I felt sick, nervous, scared you name it, if it was a bad feeling then I had it. I looked at them, not with annoyance but curiosity. ‘How can you guys eat after what has happened today?’ They both stopped chewing and looked at me with mouths full and cheeks like that of a greedy hamster. I shook my head and held out my hand. ‘Sorry, that came out wrong.’ I turned around 360 degrees on the spot and said. ‘What I mean is, we have lost people today, been beaten, shot at, adrenalin at level one hundred out of ten and I can barely swallow my own saliva never mind scoff down a ration pack of food.’
Camouflage looked at pun, finished off his mouthful and put down his food. He stood up and said. ‘Brian. Mate. We are trained for this. This is what we do. We are trained that when there is a lull in fighting or action to get food and water down our necks, sort our kit and get some kip. That’s it, it’s just training, we don’t mean any disrespect to those we have lost or Sue.’
‘I can’t though.’
Pun was about to speak but the door opened and the female doctor that I gave the litre of blood to earlier came into the room. ‘Brian?’ She asked the three of us.
‘That’s me.’ I said expecting the worst.
‘Sue is asking for you.’ Before I could ask her how she was she continued with a solemn look. ‘She is not good. Her liver was nicked by the bullet and we have repaired the damage. Luckily it was only a nick, or she would have bled out long ago, but she has lost so much blood that she keeps going into shock. We have used up the litre you gave us and as much other fluids as we can but without a transfusion she will die within the next fifteen minutes or sooner.’
I felt like my stomach left my body and someone had taken my legs and allowed me to float. My head was back to swimming again. ‘But she thinks a transfusion will dilute her blood and possibly render whatever possible cure she has useless.’
The doctor looked at me. ‘That is a real possibility. Yes. But she will definitely die without it.’
‘Can I see her please?’
‘She wants to see you, but I needed to ask you if she can have the transfusion as she is not capable of rational thought in my opinion.’
I thought for a second. ‘It’s what we have all gone through to get her here. If it’s all in vain then what was the point? If there is any hope she can be the answer then no transfusion.’ The doctor nodded and turned to lead me through the doors. I looked at Pun and Camouflage. Camouflage gave me a brother like nod and a wink, and I went through the door.
Chapter 12
I entered through the heavy rubber sealed double doors into the bright white surgical room. I could see the end of the surgery table and hear the chirping and bleeping from the multitude of machines that she was plugged into sounding like R2D2 with a lisp but not her. She was surrounded by doctors and people in surgical scrubs. I could hear Sue still refusing antibiotics as well as a blood transfusion. As I approached they parted and eventually left us. Sue was as white as paper, her lips drawn thin with no colour. As she saw me she smiled and motioned, though barely so, for me to hold her hand. It was cold but clammy, her eye colour was starting to fade. Her voice was quiet but still music to my ears.
‘I’m sorry. I really thought we could see how this all panned out together.’ She smiled as she said it knowing I’d remember it was pretty much what she said when we first met when she had the arm bite. She saw my smile. ‘I’m sorry but the cure over everything my darling. It runs in the family.’ She screwed up her eyes as a wave of pain washed over her and continued. ‘A bit vain but make sure they call the cure after me please.’
I laughed. ‘Your last wish is that they call the cure “The Sue”?’
She turned back to me and croaked. ‘Twat!’ And coughed as she stifled a laugh. ‘My name is Sue Jenner. Great, great, great however many times, granddaughter of Edward Jenner. I said it runs in the family didn’t I?’
‘Yeah, you did.’ I agreed, though added. ‘From the stories I have been told about him in the last few days I don’t remember him dying creating his cure though, or did he Sue?’
She sighed more involuntary than meaning to. ‘You must see it’s the only way. If new blood dilutes or antibiotics affect what I have then all this is for nothing.’ She shuddered and her eyes seemed to lose their light for a second like a momentary power cut where everything dims for a split second. There was no point in arguing with her, she was way past the point of no return now, no matter what they pumped into her she would soon be gone.
‘
Any last requests apart from that Sue?’ I asked her smiling but with more than just one tear in my eye as her body bucked again and her face scrunched up with pain, with yet even more light leaving her once bright eyes.
‘Cremate me and ashes in Berkeley.’ Her body slumped but her head turned towards me and her hand gripped just perceptively a little more. ‘Kiss me Brian.’
Still gripping her cold, clammy hand I bent forward and kissed her lips. She sighed, her hand went limp and the umpteen machines she was attached to burst into a mono tone bleeping competition. I pulled away and looked at her face, her eyes were shut, and her lips were still slightly parted. She was gone.
The medical team rushed in. I knew that they weren’t here to revive her, it was far too late to try that. I let go of her hand and stood back letting the medical bods get on with what they were about to do. She was going to be bled and parted out to gain as much material as they can from her body to create the cure she possessed within. I didn’t stand there much longer and left the room even before they could ask me to.
As I came out Pun and Camouflage were still there waiting for me. I looked at them both and cried my eyes out. Camouflage hugged me in his bear like grip. I broke away slightly. ‘I’m sorry.’
He hugged me closer. ‘Don’t apologise mate, let it out, it’ll help in the long run, that’s one thing I do envy of you civvies. Not taught it’s weak to cry.’
I pulled away, Pun hugged me too and offered his condolences. ‘What’s the plan now then mate?’ Asked Camouflage.
I had stopped crying but was still sniffing heavily. ‘Our job is done. We got Sue here, they have all her notes and her body. I imagine all they have to do now is drain her, harvest her organs, bone marrow and glands to get as much material as they can from her, and then we can have her body back I suppose.’
‘They have cremation facilities here.’ Pun piped up. ‘If that is what she would have wanted of course.’
I thanked him and told him I’d have a word with someone later on. In the mean time I needed to rehydrate and get some serious sleep.
Pun showed us to an empty twin room and said we could crash here until we were ready to leave. I had three two litre bottles next to my bed along with towels and underwear. Once I saw that fatigue hit me and I made my excuses to crash out here and now. Camouflage said he’d leave me to it for a few hours, he wanted to have a look around and wind down before hitting the sack and getting some well-deserved rest.
Alone in the small and spartan room I sat on the end of the bed for a bit and cried. When I couldn’t cry anymore I stripped off and found the vials and syringes clanking in my pockets. I thought about what had happened to our guinea pigs at the school. The syringes could hold 15ml. Cynthia and dale had been given just 5ml and 10ml respectively. When the poor sods did die any symptoms that they did have disappeared as did the turning into a zombie bit that everyone feared. Sue was also able to walk amongst them. We never tested if our guinea pigs could do that bit so I wasn’t sure if 5ml or 10 ml would be enough. 15ml was quite a bit though by the look of it but why were the vials 25ml size? Would taking the whole 25ml be the best thing to do? Was any of this a good thing to do? I knew absolutely fuck all about biology aside from shagging, the human eye and Photosynthesis thanks to GCSE Biology class.
I took off the protective cover from the needle throwing it on the floor and looked at it, shiny and sharp. I took one vial and gripped it in my hand to warm it, gave it a good shake, turned it upside down and put the needle in through the cap drawing out the maximum 15ml. Once full I squeezed any air out of the syringe and needle. I knew pretty much sod all about injecting myself except from what I had seen on casualty on boring Saturday nights at home and the film Trainspotting, but I did know not to inject an air bubble into myself, getting an embolism was not in my plans today, but then again, this wasn’t on the cards either. I put my belt around the crook of my arm and started flexing my fist and forearm until a nice big, juicy vein presented itself, I then slowly pierced the skin with the sharp tip of the needle, still getting a sting from its entry and then the vein itself and squeezed the plunger to get the contents inside me. I withdrew the needle and was about to put it down when I looked at what was left in the vial and thought to myself. ‘Fuck it, in for a penny and all that bollocks!’ I drew the remaining 10ml or so out, followed the same procedure and injected that too and just sat there for a few minutes with my head hung low.
Still sat on the end of the bed totally bollock naked I reached for the MOD issue towel, wrapped it around my waist and headed out the door and down the corridor to the shower room. I hung the towel up, turned the taps of two showers onto full and stepped in. It wasn’t Hollywood hot and steaming but it was warm and covered me in its wet embrace. I felt myself beginning to sob and then start crying again but instead of just standing there feeling sad for myself I soaped my-self up to rid me of Sue’s dry, caked on blood. The water ran off of me coloured brown where the blood and grime headed for the drain. I had just started washing my hair when my whole body suddenly and violently convulsed out of nowhere, knocking the air from my lungs. I was bent over double, clutching my stomach, gasping for air and panicking as the next one came and put me on my knees like a roundhouse kick to the head. My vision blurred momentarily then I vomited ferociously. My vomit hit the walls and floor with such force it bounced back at me and would have made Linda Blair from the Exorcist proud. Three waves of such happened, it just flowed, like ten pints of shit lager and an even shitter madras had to vacate my body in an incredible hurry. My stomach and diaphragm ached so badly like I had torn something inside me, the vomiting had been so violent. When the cramping had subsided enough I pulled myself gingerly to my feet by the shower taps. As soon as I managed to stand up straight my legs suddenly gave way again and I hit the floor on my knees with a thump shitting myself spectacularly. Brown shitty water gushed from my arse like the vomit had from my mouth. It kept gurgling and then gripping me from the inside and gushing out again like someone was inside me wringing my bowels out like a wet flannel. Despite the adverts, Imodium would have been like factor thirty sun cream against Enola Gay and the Little Boy bomb for as much use as it would have been now.
I had been slumped against the wall here for about twenty minutes, I had no energy, like it had run out of my arse along with the brown stuff. The water cascading from the two shower heads above had washed the vomit and shit away, well, most of it, the bigger nuggets I had to reach out with my foot and push them through the drain grate with my big toe, bloody glad I didn’t eat sweet corn, but the smell lingered from both of my bodily emanations. I was dizzy and thirsty. I stood up unsteadily and quickly washed the watery shit from my arse and legs with what soap I had left. I swished my foot around the floor as I turned the water off to make sure what I had expelled was heading for the drain. I was starting to burn up, my face and shoulders were on fire! I turned the taps off and grabbed my towel and dried myself whilst leant against the cold tiled wall to keep my balance and cool my back and shoulders.
I walked back to my room semi slouched and bouncing off the walls as I went, entered and sat down with a bump. I grabbed the clean under clangers I had been left and put them on, grabbed a bottle of water and gently sipped at it as much as my stomach would allow and led back pulling the scratchy wool blanket over me, more for comforting than warmth.
Chapter 13
I woke up, soaked in sweat and surrounded by empty plastic water bottles and lids. It was light through the curtains, so I assumed I had best get up. I looked across to Camouflages bed, it was neat and made, so I wasn’t sure if he had slept in it and remade it or he hadn’t. These military types are too damn tidy sometimes. My head was thumping but there was no water left. I don’t remember waking up to drink it though. I did know I was so hungry I could eat a horse then chase and eat the jockey!
I towelled the sweat off me with my used towel… that seemed to be rather dry. It was on the end of the bed where I had left it,
so it wasn’t a clean one. How long had I been asleep?
I opened the door and walked up the corridor to the mess. Camouflage was in there chatting to some guys in various uniforms from various units I imagine. He saw me and stood up, made his excuses and came over to me. ‘When Pun and I said we like to sleep when there is a lull in the battle, we didn’t mean for two days mate!’ He chuckled.
‘Two days?’ I asked unbelieving.
‘Yep. You’d semi wake up and wave an arm around for water, eyes going everywhere but where you needed them to be, have a few gulps then crash out again.’ He paused and looked around briefly. ‘I told Pun and anyone that asked that you were tired, emotional and not used to this type of thing. Not that you had injected yourself with Sue’s blood.’
I looked at him with a ‘How the fuck do you know.’ Look.
‘You crashed out before you could hide the syringe and empty vial. I hid it when I first found you, knew what you had done and kept a close eye on you. Apart from stinking the showers out.’ I looked at him sheepishly and he continued. ‘Which I sorted and you sweating like a dog outside of a Chinese takeaway you seemed okay. How do you feel?’
I Absentmindedly rubbed my forearm under my fleece jumper where I had injected myself. ‘A bit dizzy, thirsty as hell and hungry. Very hungry.’
‘Well.’ He thrust me the 2l bottle of water he had in his hands. ‘This will have to do for the moment as you have two hours until lunch is served.’ I took it and cracked the lid open to take a drink. ‘In the mean-time, come with me.’
I followed Camouflage as I glugged from the bottle, but I still felt very low on energy. We left the building and headed over to the Vehicle pool. As we walked through the double doors and into the relative darkness of the building, we headed to the left and towards the battered and scarred 110 we had made the journey here in. The doors were all open and it was obvious some people had been doing work on it.
The Reanimated Dead (Book 2): The Answer Page 11