by Taylor, Dan
Seeing Abel getting worked up made Kapa Nine Six feel calm. ‘He who raises his voice first has already lost the argument’ he thought to himself. He spoke very slowly and clearly so Abel would understand. “You would not be aware of this as you have not been privy to news over the past day but the entire police force in the area, bar you, Sergeant Green and PC Angela Crow, are infected or dead. The Chief of Defence himself has requested that a state of emergency be placed over Bayhollow and the surrounding areas, which are to be managed by HIVE in conjunction with the British Army. This includes security of the site, managing the quarantine, researching the cure and investigating any crimes that may have been committed. Now PC Coleman, if there is anything you need to tell us, if you saw anything strange or think you saw anything, you have to let us know.”
“I’ve told you everything.” Abel replied indignantly.
Agent Kappa Nine Six leant into the recording devise, “Very well, debrief ended 0916 Hours.” He clicked the stop recording button. “Thank you, Mr Coleman. You may return to your bed for rest. I’m going to stay for a wash up with Sergeant Green here. A military nurse will be over shortly to run a few tests and hopefully give you the all clear. You remember the way? Just down the hall. If you wouldn’t mind shutting the door on your way out, I’d be much obliged.”
Abel just nodded. He looked at his Sergeant who had a panicked look on his face. Abel shut the door and decided it would be worth looking around before returning to his bed.
Chapter 41
It was past dawn and Klutz had been put through a manifold of tests. He had response tests, where he was prodded and poked in different places, his eyes had been examined with a machine that takes photos of the back of his eyes, his hearing had been tested, he had been through various motor neurone tests, an ECG and MRI as well being asked to complete tasks like catching a ball or walking along a set track marked with masking tape on the floor. Jason had by this point gone back to the dormitory to catch some much-needed sleep while Dr Schaf Leitner remained to carry out more tests.
Klutz had noticed they were only testing him and not with the smiling psychopath who had bit him. If fact during the night Jason had moved the bald man’s gurney so that he faced a blank white wall. The only time they would even acknowledge him would be if they wanted to collect more samples of the clear ooze from his sores. Klutz had assumed this was because he was recovering from the disease and Mr Smith was not, but it still felt strange that they were happy to just leave him tied up and ignore him like he was the ghost at the feast. Something else Klutz had noticed was that he did not feel tired. At around 4.00am Jason had been yawning a lot and even the sight of him yawning did not make him feel tired. Yawning is supposed to be infectious. Just the sight of seeing or hearing a yawn or even reading about yawning is supposed to make us yawn. This is even true of intelligent animals like apes and dogs. Jason had read somewhere that sociopaths and psychopaths are immune to other people’s yawns because of a lack of empathy. This made him wonder about himself and whether the Brain-Dead Madness virus has had a bigger impact on his psychological state than he realised.
Schaf opened a brown paper bag he had brought in with him and pulled out a sandwich. “Do you like ham sandwiches, Ronnie?” He asked holding the sandwich out in front of him.
“You can call me Klutz, most people do,” Klutz replied pointing to his Duchess Hotel name badge. “Yes, I like ham sandwiches. I’m no vegetarian.” He smiled briefly but then his face dropped as he remembered what had done to the family in the woods. Yes, he certainly was no vegetarian.
“Why do you call yourself Klutz?” asked Schaf.
“Well I’m clumsy,” Klutz replied bluntly.
“You know Klutz is a Yiddish word. It comes from the German ‘Klotz’ meaning blocky or wooden. The word reminds me of a time logo ago that I spent aboard a large wooden pontoon in the sea doing scientific experiments. I named it the Klotz. I spent a long time aboard the Klotz testing all manner of diseases on animals.” Klutz did not know what to make of this information. He was handed the sandwich and tried to put it towards his mouth when something odd started to happen. Klutz started shaking and sweating profusely and he felt physically sick. He held the sandwich inches from his mouth but for some unknown reason he could not bear to take a bite. He looked at the doctor who had an interested look on his face. “Allow me,” said Dr Schaf Leitner as he took the sandwich and shoved it into Klutz’s mouth. The doctor then firmly held Klutz’s mouth shut by holding one hand on the top of his head and one hand on the bottom of his chin.
Klutz screamed with his mouth closed. The sandwich tasted like lumpy spoilt milk. It had smelt fine when it was brought to him, but in his mouth, it was all wrong. He felt bile and blood start to rise from his stomach. He was trying to swallow but his body would not let him. Klutz gagging and out of desperation, threw the doctor off him and sent him sliding on the floor across the room. Klutz doubled over and then fell onto his hands and knees gagging. Mushed up bits of sandwich fell from his mouth and then he projectile vomited a hot, wet, bloody mixture onto the floor. He stayed on all fours gasping for breath.
“Just as I suspected,” said Dr Leitner who had picked himself up and was brushing himself down. He opened another brown bag and this time he grimaced at what was inside. He pulled out a bloody mass of meat. “Here you go. This will make you feel better”. His old bony fingers clutched the meat at arm’s length as if the substance was so revolting, he had to get rid of it. Schaf navigated around the pool of bloody sick towards Klutz.
Klutz, still on his hands and knees, took the dripping meaty mass in his hands. “What is it?” he asked nervous about the answer.
“The man strapped to the gurney in the corner, who told you his name was Mr Smith, is actually called Callum Jamison. He was my assistant before Jason. When he broke into this camp, presumably to find me, he killed two soldiers. Bit right through their necks and took their heads clean off their bodies. That meat you hold in your hand is part of one of those soldiers. I snuck into where they were keeping the bodies this morning and took some for you. I think you should eat it.” Schaf looked at Klutz intently, waiting to note down how her reacted.
Klutz felt big tears in his eyes. They started to run down his face so he wiped them off with the back of his hand. To his horror, they were tears of blood which made him cry more. Big red tears streamed his face, staining him like a red painting. He clutched the meat tighter. His body would not let him drop it. He did not want to be a cannibal. He did not want to be a monster. The meat smelt good and his tummy rumbled and his mouth salivated with blood. He looked like some demon creature on the floor with his face streamed in blood around the eyes and mouth. He raised the meat to face. Crying and shaking he tried to force himself to drop the meat but slowly and shakily his hand moved ever closer to his crimson, wanting mouth. He ate the juicy protein greedily and then went very quiet. He was a monster.
Schaf pulled some more meat from the bag. This time a larger portion. Klutz started to protest but his hunger got the better of him and he ate that as well. Schaf washed the human blood off his hands and then handed Jason a damp town to clear the blood off his face. “Why?” Klutz questioned to nobody in particular.
“Why? Because I needed to see,” replied Schaf, “You could not control what you did. You tried to, I saw that, but ultimately you had to give in to feed. It was the same with Callum. I knew the man for years. He did not want to attack and bite you, but he too had to feed. You think you are the murderer but you’re not. You are the victim. The victim of an aggressive and history changing disease. Smallpox, Cholera, Bubonic Plague are nothing compared to what you have. But you are also the first person to have some control of the disease. You are, thanks to me, not mindless like the rest in Bayhollow. You will never have a normal life not just because of your drastic change of diet but because of the abilities this disease has given you. During your testing, you mentioned you broke your legs only yesterday. They are now healed.
Your hearing and eyesight are much above that of a regular human. You are stronger and your brain works at a quicker rate. We are yet to see how or if you age. Some might say that a diet of human meat is a small price to pay for these new abilities.”
“It still isn’t worth it. The guilt I have. Bayhollow, my home, is destroyed and half the town is dead or as good as dead. If I had stopped…Callum Jamison… Everyone would be alive.” The red tears started to flow again. “How did this happen? What about you? He was your assistant. Why didn’t you see this coming?” Klutz questioned.
“I have to take some blame but I am not in control of that man. I am a man of science and I work with HIVE to help protect this world from these diseases. We first spotted this infection in China, then Brazil and the Congo. There was no link except it appeared in tropical and poorer regions. We took samples with us to find a cure but to no avail. Callum had become religious of late. He had joined an Eastern Orthodox Sect of Christianity. He started to hate Western Culture. They’re all sinners he would say. I never thought this was possible. I never thought this was inside of him. He stole a sample and injected it into himself.” There was a slight quiver in his voice. “I have to go now and rest. Please rest too. I have to keep you chained and this room will be guarded by HIVE agents. I hope you understand. We do not want you to hurt anyone. Remember you are the victim here. The victim of Callum Jamison.” Schaf turned and left the room. ‘Maybe he felt responsible for this too’ thought Klutz.
There was the whizz of the door opening and closing then a rustling sound as the decontamination shower cleaned Schaf and then the room was in silence. Silence until in the corner of the room Callum Jamison started laughing quietly. Klutz could her him trying to say something between laughs but Callum could only manage wispy groans. Groans which were becoming more and more audible. It sounded like he was saying “Lies. Lies.”
Chapter 42
Abel was exploring the building he was in. The walls, floor and ceilings were white. The building smelled like damp wood and bleach. It was hospital-esque but the white carpet tiles were distinctive of a terrapin modular building. It had to have been erected yesterday when the virus broke out. HIVE and the British Army responded to this disaster suspiciously quickly.
He had a peak at the room opposite where he was interrogated in. It was another small white area with a grey plastic table. ‘The interior decorators clearly need to be fired’ Abel thought to himself ‘or at least told to have a bit of an imagination’. He closed the door to the room. For a purpose-built quarantine operation, there seemed to be a poor use of space. Why would they need these small meeting rooms? Abel felt for pen and pad in his pocket forgetting it had been taken from him. He tried the next door and poked his head inside. The room was dimly lit. There was a camera sat on a desk facing a window pane. The window looked into the white room with the grey desk. Abel opened the door to white room again. There was no window, just a white room. He walked up to the wall where the window should be and felt the wall. It was smooth and cold like glass. Very impressive he thought. The interrogation rooms he had seen at different police stations had one-way observation mirrors but they had never been made to look like part of the wall. The starkness of the room created a sense of exposure and isolation. A perfect design for making suspects uneasy. Abel felt troubled butterflies in his stomach as he pondered about the room he was interrogated in, and who had been watching him behind the glass.
Abel once again crept into the empty dark room being careful not to be spotted by an Army nurse or any HIVE agents lurking. The darkness of the room took a while for his eye to adjust to. The camera was switched off but set up ready to go on its tripod. On the desk, he spotted a vanilla folder. In neat, black, biro letters down the right edge was the words, Sergeant Phillip Green.
Inside the folder was several documents. There was a mug shot of the sergeant’s face, a short bio about the Sergeant and a note pad with sprawled writing inside it. Abel picked up the notepad and realised what it was. It was hand written notes from the interrogation of Sergeant Green. He flicked it open to see what was written.
The handwriting was erratic as if it was written down in a hurry: something common when taking live interview notes. There was the letters NVC next to times and then notes of responses to questions. NVC Abel recognised as Non-Verbal Cue. This was something police officers are trained to spot to detect if someone is lying. A non-verbal cue can be someone suddenly sweating, fidgeting or covering their mouth. A common method to spot if someone is lying is by the position of someone’s eyes when answering a question. For instance, up and to the right is when someone is visually remembering something, so when Sergeant green was asked what time he started his shift his eyes pointed in that direction before he answered, “Eight thirty in the morning,” he was telling the truth. Down and to the left indicates someone is thinking about a sense they had previously had so when Sergeant Green was asked about what the conditions were like at the Royal Duchess, his eyes pointed that way before answering, “It was warm and clear, but we were all hot from fighting off those things,” he was telling the truth. And when your eyes point up and to the left you are visually constructing images in your head so when Sargent Green was asked if he felt HIVE had made an error in shooting the infected police officers he said, “No,” or when they asked him if he had ever heard of Operation Cauldron he said, “Never heard of it,” he was Lying on both accounts.
Abel noticed the words Operation Cauldron written a few times. He recognised it from somewhere but could not place it. Feeling he had completed the limit of his snooping without being caught, he returned to his hospital bed. Now being fully adjusted to his surroundings he could take a proper look at the room he had woken up in. There was a line of hospital gurneys with patients strapped to their beds. They were all unconscious. They must also roll around in their sleep, he thought flippantly. The only signs of life were the rhythmic beeping from ECG machines and the puffing compression and refilling of oxygen from the respirators. Abel stopped briefly to look at a dark screen of an ECG. The green lines moved creating mountainous peaks and troughs indicating the heartbeat. Abel thought this was a good representation of how yesterday had been. Trough when the outbreak starts, peak when he sees Lydia again, trough when he is chased into the church, peak in the church’s relative safety, trough when the vicar Pete Anderson was hiding an undead secret, peak when they had a helicopter to escape, trough when their pilot got killed and he had to try to fly the contraption.
Abel laid down on his gurney. On a metal side table was his notepad. ‘This has magically returned,’ he thought to himself. He picked up the notepad, flicked through to makes sure everything was there and then put the notepad back into his pocket where it belonged. He was about to rest when he saw something bobbing outside the window. It was a person, jumping to look inside. They could jump just high enough for their eyes to reach above the window pane. Abel moved towards the window. He peered down at an angle and saw Lydia.
“Abel, there you are. Thank God you’re OK. Well, come on. You have to get out of there,” she bobbed up and down, “We are in a secret government base where there is some shady stuff going on. Come with me I have to show you something.”
Chapter 43
Abel grabbed two pillows and placed them under his sheet. He strapped the pillows to the gurney, mimicking the rest of patients, and gingerly climbed out the window holding his ribs before a nurse had the chance to spot what was going on.
“How did you find me?” Abel asked Lydia who beamed back at him with a big smile. He was surprised to see her looking so well after the crash and surprised she had managed to find him so quickly.
“It was easy really. The area I was taken to is a lot less restricted. I went to the bathroom and slipped out the window. Then, thanks to many years of playing Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation, I snuck around looking through the building to find you.” She clasped her hands together and pointed her index fingers as if it was a gun and sw
ayed left and right in a James Bond Fashion. “They said you might have been infected so I was going to try the big white tent first and you will never guess what I saw. Come with me.” She grabbed Abel by the hand and pulled him down behind a bus stop shelter. Crouched down with her long black hair tied back, she looked more like Lara Croft on an Adventure than Snake from Metal Gear Solid. The bus stop was out of place in the make shift Army camp. It painted a picture of the quiet sleepy bus route this was a day ago.
“Did you find Angela? Is she ok?” queried Abel. He was worried for her. She was after all in a pretty bad state before the helicopter crash.
Lydia looked down and paused for a second, “she is ok. She was sleeping when I saw her but mentally...” She gave a deep sigh and shrug, “They told me she was catatonic.” Lydia’s eyes watered slightly and she rubbed them quickly to gain composure. She was on a mission. The journalistic mission of a life time.
Abel thought it was best to drop the subject. “Are we just going to crouch here or are you going to show me what you found?”
The large white tent was across the road. Lydia pulled Abel close and carefully pointed towards the entrance. “You see over there. Two guards. It was easy for me to get around and find you. People are being rescued all the time and most of these buildings are for them to recuperate before moving on to wherever they need to go. But that tent is different. It has armed guards, which mean there is something important or secret inside. We need to go in and find out what is really going on.”
Abel looked at the guards. They wore black HIVE uniforms and were armed with machine guns. “Are you mad? Look at them. We will be shot before we make it through the door,” he exclaimed. “You know what is in there. There is no secret. They probably have their most infected patients. There is a biological hazard sign up there.” He pointed to the fluorescent yellow triangle patched to the tent with the recognisable black, geometric circular thorny symbol. It’s not something you see in everyday life, except in hospital bins for hypodermic needles or in secret laboratories in bond films.