by Taylor, Dan
Abel and Lydia left the room. They met Angela and formed a mini huddle. They spoke softly so Roy would not be able to hear.
Lydia started, “It’s Roy Barrett, Angela, from that daytime gameshow, Mousetrap. He is in a bit of a bad way. He says his wife and her daughter were infected and attacked him. He killed them in self-defence. He has a helicopter and can get us out of here.” She was surprised by how casual she sounded at these words. She was very conscious about Angela’s condition and did not want to make it any worse.
Angela’s eyes lit up for the first time all day. There was some hope.
“The only thing is he’s lying,” Added Abel bluntly, unaware of Lydia’s intentions. “The crime scene doesn’t add up. It’s true the wife was infected and the blood trail would let us believe that she came upstairs and attacked him in the bedroom. There was a struggle, the mirror got smashed and he gauged her eyes out. He then beat her to death but I don’t know what with. He dragged the body and put it in the tub. The little girl however was clean. There was no blood. I would bet she wasn’t infected at all. Maybe she saw what happened and try to protect her mum but he killed her. He didn’t even know about the outbreak and when I asked him about the dead, he didn’t mention the girl.
“Can we arrest him?” Angela asked quietly. It was the first thing she had said for a long while. Abel was pleased to see the first spark of the old Angela back.
“You know I would love to but I don’t think we can. He is our best chance of getting out of here. When we when we are out of this god forsaken town I will slap on some cuffs, but not just yet.”
The bedroom door swung open and interrupted the huddle. Out stepped Roy Barrett. His hair was rinsed, face and hands were cleaned. A new yellow sweater and bow tie hid the blood-stained shirt underneath. He was holding up a silver key with a small helicopter shaped key ring.
“Let’s fly,” he exclaimed and gave an inappropriate TV style smile which was completely out of place with the trashed and blood smeared crime scene behind him.
Chapter 36
Klutz did not feel tired. With such a busy and emotional day, he thought he would be shattered. His breathing had returned to normal and he could wriggle in the gurney at command. He felt almost human. There was something different about him but he could not work it out. It must have something to do with the thing that had infected him. He didn’t quite understand the science of it but knew that this thing had completely changed him forever. He also understood that he was infectious to other people so would have to be careful in the future.
“Are you ready?” asked Jason, the ginger haired man in the white lab coat. Klutz responded with a nod. Dr Leitner watched the proceedings from a distance. There was something Klutz did not trust about the doctor. He thought maybe they had gotten off on the wrong foot. This was an unusual situation to say the least and him calling Klutz a clone and leaving Jason, who was clearly his assistant, to explain, had revealed an uncaring and un-doctor-like side to Dr Leitner. Klutz had acted like an animal today and was dangerous so maybe that’s why Dr Leitner was treating him like an animal he rationalised. A metal collar had been fitted around Klutz’s neck which chained him to the floor. It had exactly two meters of slack.
The bindings around Klutz’s wrists, waist and legs were removed and for the first time since being captured he was free to move his body. Gingerly he sat up and looked around. The room was large and white. There were four soldiers in black gear pointing machine guns at him. They were still as statues and their faces were covered by shining helmets so you could not tell them apart. ‘Clones,’ Klutz thought to himself. He could hear a fan whirring above him and the breathing of the soldiers beneath their masks. His senses were heightened. The room had a neutral sterile smell except in one corner which had a vile sickly smell. He looked across to see the smiling face of Mr Smith. His large frame looked monstrous on the gurney which seemed smaller in comparison. His body was oozing clear liquid which was where the smell was coming from.
Klutz swung his body so his legs dangled off the gurney edge. He had his back to Mr Smith partly because he did not want to look at his smiling face but mostly because he could not stand the smell. He lifted himself up onto his feet and stood firm and still for a while. He was back in control. Klutz moved his arms around and stretched. He took one step towards Jason who was a few feet back now and tripped over himself. He fell with his arms outstretched and grabbed onto Jason’s trouser line who toppled down with him. The soldiers moved in swiftly their guns pointed towards Klutz’s face.
“Ohh my god, the virus is still in control,” Jason shouted terrified. Leitner stood still observing the situation.
“No! Please don’t shoot me. It was me not the virus. I tripped that’s all. I just tripped. I do it all the time. I’m a bit clumsy is all.”
Jason clamoured back while Klutz pulled himself up. They both composed themselves. Jason was about to say something when Dr Leitner strolled forward. He brushed Jason to the side and held out his and towards Klutz.
“How do you do Mr Campbell. And welcome back to the land of the living.” He smiled with his toothy grin. “How does it feel to be the first person to be cured of the Brain-Dead Madness?”
Klutz did not know how to respond. He took the Doctors hand and shook it. “I’m cured? I won’t attack anyone again?”
“I do not know,” Dr Leitner replied curtly. His accent reminded Klutz of Albert Einstein or at least how he imagined Albert Einstein to speak. “When I say cured, what I really mean is you are the first person who has a chance of being able to live with the virus. As of yet there is no scientifically proven functional cure, procedure or medication which can reliably remove the virus from your body and I’m not sure there ever will be. At the moment, you see you are more virus than you are Ronnie Campbell.” He smiled again as if that would make the news any better.
“But I feel like me?” Klutz replied.
“Do you really?” Questioned Dr Leiter. “You died today Ronnie. You died and your body was reanimated by the thing that killed you. Your consciousness is back and you have control of a body that looks like yours but not one tiny cell is the same as what you had yesterday. It is true that over time humans will replace all their bodies cells. But these are created by you and can take fifteen years to complete. You had your whole body replaced in less than a day by an invading species. Whether or not you are really you is a philosophical question. When you buy a new car over time you need to replace parts. Over a long period of time you may replace every part of that car. Is this the same car you started with? Ronnie do you really feel like how you remember you were?”
Klutz though for a moment. “No. I don’t feel the same. I feel better than I was before. I feel like I can hear better, see better, smell better. I feel like a completely new car.”
The Doctor once again gave a toothy grin. “So, let’s take this car out on a test drive. Jason will take you through some exercises and will measure your reactions. I would also like to put you through an MRI machine to see how your brain is functioning.”
The doctors were tired but could sleep on shifts until the work was done. This was important work and they were glad to be doing it.
Chapter 37
On top of Roy Barrett’s mansion was his helipad. The slightly raised platform was hexagonal in shape and had a clear white H painted in the centre. Eight floor uplighters lit up the silver helicopter which rested grandly just off centre. Able was amazed they did not spot this from the ground and assumed it must be the darkness that had concealed it. The silver eight-seater helicopter had a brown nose pained on the front with whiskers and the word Skymouse written in comic sans on the tail.
Interpreting the usual question about his helicopter Roy stated, “Mousetrap paid for this helicopter. The Skymouse. She’s a beauty.” His wet hair was plastered across his head revealing a slight combover. He kept his television smile.
“She is more than that. She’s our salvation from this living nig
htmare,” replied Abel warmly but not forgetting what he had witnessed in the house.
Roy jangled his keys and unlocked the doors. He slid open the sliding doors to the back and helped Lydia and Angela onto the brown leather seas. He gestured to Abel to sit upfront in the co-pilot seat. Before pressing the ignition button, Roy turned to ladies in the back and told them not to worry. He was an experienced pilot and they would be out of here and into a fancy hotel soon enough. He would even put them up. His television smile was now magnanimous.
Roy turned the helicopter’s landing lights and ignition on. The engine gave a high-pitched whirr as the blades spun into life. He pressed a button on the ceiling and there was a beep. Abel felt he helicopter start to lift off the ground and then sink again onto the platform. He looked at Roy who no longer had his smile. He was gaunt and looking straight past Abel in white terror. Angela screamed and Abel turned around. The woman who was dead in the bathtub was standing in the doorway which lead to the roof. She was dripping in blood. Her head was visibly caved open and she was dragging the lifeless corpse of the little girl in her hand. One pale arm was outstretched towards them as were her mushy eye sockets.
“Roy, we got to get out of here,” Abel shook Roy hard and he seemed to regain his senses but couldn’t stop looking at the dead child being dragged by his wife.
“What do I do?” Roy mumbled. “It was an accident, she knows that, it was her fault really. I think they’re ok. She’s alive at least.” He was talking to himself more than anyone else. Roy leaned to one side and put his hand onto the door handle as if he was going to get out.
“Roy? What are you doing?” Abel pleaded futilely, “You can’t help them.”
“It my wife,” Roy half-heartedly protested.
“That’s not your wife anymore. She’s infected and we have to leave,” Lydia pleaded from the back seat.
The woman was dragging herself sluggishly but deliberately towards the helicopter. Lydia got ready her knife.
“This is my helicopter and there are six spare seats in the back she and her daughter are coming with us. That’s final.” With these last words, he jumped out the helicopter. The three inside watched in total helplessness. As he walked around the helicopter with arms spread wide to greet his wife he was apologising and crying. She reached out for his face and he let her feel him. He smiled back at her with that famous smile and he felt her forgiveness wash over him. Her soft cold hand became hard claw she dug her fingers into his cheeks. He wailed in agony as she pulled him towards her and bit off his lips. A sick and final lovers kiss. She then sank her teeth into his neck and consumed chunks of flesh and windpipe. Within seconds he bled out. Her attention on Roy did not last long. The three inside the helicopter soon became her focus. Abel leaned across and shut the open pilot door. They were trapped like sardines. The woman banged her hand on the passenger door which rocked the helicopter a little.
“Lydia, what do we do?” Abel asked. They needed a plan and he didn’t have one.
“Get us out of here co-pilot!” She yelled.
“I can’t fly a helicopter. I’ll kill us!” Abel objected.
“We don’t have a choice. Either you try to get us out of here and maybe we survive or the Stepford zombie is going to break in here and kill us. How different can it be from driving a car?” The last part of that sentence did not come out as convincing as she had thought and she hopped they wouldn’t be her final words.
Abel looked around for some sort of manual or user guide. There was nothing. The woman outside grabbed the passenger door handle and Lydia grabbed it from the inside. She was strong for someone missing half her brains and Lydia knew it would not be long before she was inside. Abel saw a bunch of dials and switches on the panel in front of him and above him. There were foot pedals, a T-shapes stick in front of him and a pole next to his thigh to his right. Logic told him the pedals was the accelerator and brake, the T stick was some sort of steering contraption and the stick to his right was a…handbrake? Maybe this was just like a car after all. It was time to put the pedal to the metal so he floored what he though was the accelerator. The helicopter turned on its skids one hundred and eighty degrees. The crazed woman was knocked over by the force. She stood up in time to have what remained of her head sliced off by the tail rotor.
This minor victory was short lived as the spinning forced the helicopter off the small lading platform it spun wildly until it teetered on the edge of the building. Abel adjusted the other pedal in time to stop the helicopter from spinning off the roof but it didn’t matter. The weight of the vehicle shifted and the copter began to fall. As a reaction Abel grabbed what he had though was the handbrake and pulled upwards. The rotors spun faster and the helicopter lifted up. It rose above the mansion. The uplighters on the helipad outlined the grim silhouette of the woman, with no head, and her dead child. Leaning on the T Stick the helicopter lurched forward with its brown mouse nose down and propelled them onwards in the direction of the quarantine zone. The slightest movement of the T-shaped stick seemed to send the helicopter in a different path. Abel had no idea how to slow down the aircraft. The newly built walls of the quarantine were closing in fast. Dials were spinning and a warning alarm rang through the helicopter. They crashed nose first five meters from the wall. It was the loudest bang Abel could remember ever hearing. The rotor snapped off and flew into a crowd of infected. The canopy summersaulted and landed on its sides creating a thick haze of dust.
Chapter 38
The General had made Delta One aware of the helicopter crash outside Camp Nectar and within the infected zone. In less than ten minutes he and Six had abseiled the concrete quarantine walls to investigate. Delta Three remained on top of the walls with a silenced sniper rifle for cover. The helicopter was almost unrecognisable. The cockpit and passenger compartment of the helicopter was upside down and crumpled out of shape like a jagged tomb containing what they hoped would be some uninfected survivors. The helicopter had not caught fire which was a relief. The blades had been snapped off and had flown far away. One blade had pinned an infected man to an oak tree at his mid rift. Its arms stretched out towards them groaning wildly but safely attached out of reach. If Delta One and Six were not hardened soldiers and didn’t still have the effects of worker bee coursing through them this grim sight would have turned their stomachs. They were used to this now. Not just the infected crazies in all manner of horrific states, but they had seen plenty of chaos throughout their careers. Some through the British Army warring in Iraq and Afghanistan and some working with HIVE in covert operations throughout the world. HIVE was not a secret organisation but the majority of their operations were not reported on.
There was a quick fluttering sound which whipped past Delta one. The pinned man’s left eye imploded into its socket and then he collapsed onto the blade not moving. Delta Three had shot him. Delta One grimaced as once again. Three had shot a civilian without being ordered to. Delta One spoke into the microphone on his helmet to remind three to only shoot if necessary. He didn’t want to reprimand him on the coms link for everyone to hear. The last thing he needed was a sniper, who should be covering him, acting out.
Cautiously Delta One and Six walked over the broken glass and debris towards the wreckage. One signalled to Six to look inside while he waited his gun drawn. Six pulled on the handle of the passenger compartment but the door had been caved in shut. She pressed a button on her helmet which turned on a flashlight on the side and peered through the smashed window.
“Two passengers Sir, both female. One is in police uniform. It may be PC Angela Crow who is on the missing list. As best I can tell she fits the description.”
She then looked at the pilot. Who responded to the flashlight in his face by wearily covering his eyes.
“The pilot is alive...Just. He needs medical attention. No sign of hostiles in inside.”
Delta One quickly went through in his mind the best exit strategy. The quarantine zone entrance was surrounded by infected so
taking the survivors there was out of the question. A helicopter ambulance would be quickest but would draw a lot of unwanted attention. Three was a skilled enough marksman to stop a lot of people from getting to them but they would need an Army of trained HIVE soldiers to stop everyone at the quarantine entrance. This would ultimately lead to more civilian deaths. Something he had been ordered not to do. They would have to carry them over the wall. He commanded Three to get some rope and some backup to cover them just in case. One by one the three survivors were hoisted over the wall.
Chapter 39
It was dawn and crowds of news reporters had gathered around a makeshift wooden platform. On top of which stood a wooden podium. The raging infected had quietened down and most had moved away from the quarantine entrance and back into the town. Prime Minister Ken Lockhart was stood on the platform next to General Holt. He had decided the press conference should be held outside Camp Pollen. It was the quieter of the two camps and housed some of the uninfected which was good publicity to show all they have been doing to help the situation.
“Good morning everyone and thank you all for coming,” General Holt spoke into the microphone. “We have a prepared statement from myself and the Prime Minister. Afterwards we will open the conference up to a few questions,” he spoke clearly and concisely. He stood stiff and was regimented in the way he spoke, as anyone who has served a long time in the military are prone to do. A camera flashed and he resisted the urge to blink. “Yesterday, at a time we believe to be between 1100 hours and 1500 hours, there was a biological event in the town of Bayhollow in the county of Hampshire. We believe this to be an intentional act although we are still investigating into motives at this time. The town and surrounding areas have been evacuated however a large number of this population have been infected with the biological agent. The exact identity of the agent is still unknown. We believe the numbers who were subjected to this biological agent to be as much as four hundred and fifty. We do however believe we have identified the culprit and this person is currently being held by the military. We will not be releasing their identity whilst investigations are still ongoing. This is an unprecedented event in the world and we haven’t seen anything like this since Rhodesia almost forty years ago.” He looked at he stunned crowd who all paused for a moment before bursting out at the same time with questions. They had never heard anything like this. General Holt straightened his uniform then turned to the Prime Minister. “I got them warmed up for you,” he said with a nervous smile.