They grouped Amy with her fellow polices officers, after the brief humiliation of stripping for their inspection and an interview, they were assigned to a tent and given instructions to clean up and meet in the HQ tent in one hour. Their new home was sparse, a bed and a box each in a large tent housing twenty other adults. The box was superfluous since most were wearing everything they owned. The bed was small but still looked an upgrade on the alternative. They were shown to the shower block, where they washed in cold water and got back into their dirty clothes, enjoyed twenty minutes of sleep or rest before being summoned to their induction.
The camp was calm, the arse had fallen out of the world in less than a day and the mood was quiet, but relaxed. Besides the continuous construction work, there was an unnerving peace. Everyone here had seen the horror and felt saved and they let themselves believe everything was okay and they'd be all right. Then a shot would ring out and remind everyone that there were things outside the wire that didn't want them to be safe. Amy joined her fellow police officers in the HQ tent. Some she recognised, others were from different stations, the ranks were mixed but they all shared the same bemused look. In front of them, a middle-aged woman smartly dressed, a senior police officer and an army sergeant.
“I need not tell you, we are in trouble.” The smartly dressed woman was a master of understatement. “We are currently the main London South survivor centre, we are running constant rescue missions in the local areas and bringing those we find here. We have a limited military resource and their job is to defend the camp from the external threat and rescue those who need saving. This camp is growing hourly and we don't have the resources to police it, fortunately for us, we have many officers such as yourselves. And we need you.”
The senior police officer stepped forward. “I understand this is a hard situation, but we need you to do your job maintaining law and order inside of the fence. People are scared and desperate, without you the camp will descend into a chaos that could rival the streets we saved you from.”
Almost as if rehearsed, the army sergeant stepped forward to say his piece. “You won't be armed, you will have a radio and you will be a visible presence. If you get in trouble, you call my team. We are in charge of internal security team and we will step in and restore order where you're not capable.”
“Questions?” The smartly dressed woman appeared keen on wrapping up the briefest of briefings. The audience looked around at each other, no one appearing willing to ask a question except for Amy who raised her hand to the irritation of the three presenters.
“Yes?” The senior police officer snapped.
“What's the plan for tomorrow and the day after? We're just going to wait for those things to arrive in sufficient numbers that we don't have enough bullets to put them down?”
“The situation is fluid. We're not alone, there are many camps like this throughout the country and we are in communication with them all. Today, we're regrouping, tomorrow we will be on the front foot.” The woman was obviously a politician, but not one she recognised.
Amy guessed the important ones were safely squirrelled away in the most high tech of bunkers and not slumming it with the proletariat in a field behind a few chain link fences.
“This camp is very impressive, we were getting the shit kicked out of us on the street for the last week, why, when you knew what was happening, didn't we receive more support? We were left on our fucking own.” Amy enjoyed swearing casually to help hammer home her point, especially with superiors. It worked better with the bosses who knew her best.
“Officer! You are out of line.” Amy's superior wasn't impressed with her choice of words, he wasn’t familiar with her.
“We appreciate mistakes may have been made, but we are working tirelessly to rectify them. We're all in this together.” Definitely a politician.
Amy wasn't impressed, but still knew she had a duty to help. There were no further questions.
The senior office wound up the briefing. “You will be summoned in small groups and given your assignments. I wish we could give you a break, but you're needed. People need the reassurance of seeing you doing your jobs, they need to feel safe.”
With that, everyone got up and drifted out, awaiting their next instructions. Amy attracted glares from those in charge as she left, but all made no further comment.
CHAPTER FORTY
THE PROMISED REINFORCEMENTS hadn't yet made their way to the research facility, forcing the soldiers to spend the last two days pulling extended shifts. They spent any time in the barracks sleeping or speculating on the state of the world. Morale was in the toilet and tiredness, mixed badly with fear and confusion.
Kenneth was making his way to relieve Bobby, the soldiers now patrolling solo rather than in pairs and the young lad was on edge. They met at the perimeter fence and greeted each other with a smile.
“You okay there kid?” Kenneth could see Bobby was struggling, but he couldn't offer much more than some sympathy and the promise of some kip.
“You know how it is Kenny, I think about me ma' and sis. I thought I saw one earlier.” Bobby signalled towards the field beyond the fence.
“Your family?” Kenneth was confused.
“No, a man, it looked like he was eating something, a rabbit or something. I don't know.”
Kenneth got closer to the fence and looked out beyond. Long grass, a few trees and that was pretty much it, as far as the eye could see nothing but greenery. “You head back mate, get some sleep. I hear our relief will be here by the morning and then we can all start getting some proper rest. This shit will blow over soon.” Kenneth wasn't lying, it was pretty much what he'd been told, and he hoped it was true. Bobby started walking back and Kenneth patted his shoulder as he passed. “It'll be fine.”
“Perimeter A2 checking in.” Kenneth spoke into his radio as he started walking the well-trodden route in the growing grass.
“Copy that.” A crackled radio voice responded.
Kenneth checked his rifle as he walked, a habit from Afghanistan. It was a warm and dry day but not up to Afghani standards, distinctly less dust and sand blowing around to work into well oiled moving parts of a clean rife. Still, he never wanted to fire his weapon on British soil in anger, but if he needed to, he wanted to make sure it was ready. Kenneth and his fellow soldiers had been given very little detail on what was happening outside of the fence. From what they'd overheard from the research bods and seen on the news, the soldiers had wasted too much of their too little spare time speculating. A chemical attack on food or water supplies seemed to be the popular theory, turning the population into frenzied maniacs. Bobby had stated it was down to smartphones, either China, North Korea or both had programmed the signal, to drive people loopy. He said it explained why a lot, but not all people, were affected. If the head sheds hadn't confiscated their personal phones, it was likely Bobby would have destroyed them himself.
Whatever it was, it hadn't found its way to them yet. The official government line was very much one of denial and downplaying of the facts, but it was becoming obvious that this would have to change soon. Sky News had footage of one of the survivor camps being built. It looked impressive for a few days’ effort, but this appearance only led to other sightings. It can't be more than another day or two before it's all official and the shit truly hits the fan Kenneth thought.
A car horn and shouting came from the gate. Kenneth naturally wanted to run over and see what was going on, but his training and experience told him to keep patrolling. To not be distracted and remain alert, with those at the gate distracted, the rest of the site was vulnerable. This wasn't Kabul, a car bomb would probably not go off, mortar shells wouldn't rain down, a sniper wouldn't start picking off high value targets and an assault probably wasn't about to begin. This was East Sussex. However, a desperate person may try to get access, cut through the fence, maybe try to climb over it. It wasn't Kenneth's place to question the wisdom of sending civilians away into the unknown. He was a so
ldier. He followed orders.
Kenneth carried on following the fence line, occasionally glancing to the gate between concentrating on his job. A man holding a child, maybe two or three years old, stood beside a red Ford Focus. There was shouting, but it was impossible to tell what was being said. It was easy enough to detect fear and anger. The soldiers held firm, he wasn't coming in.
Kenneth stared back out to the fields he could make out something maybe a kilometer from the facility.
“OP this is Perimeter A2.” He awaited a response from his radio. Kenneth glanced back to the front gate then to the thing in the distance. He strained to make out what it was when his radio screeched into life.
“Perimeter A2, this is OP.”
“I can see something one klick out of the west fence, do you have a visual.” Kenneth's optics on his rifle didn't offer much in the way of magnification, but he could see it was two people. They were unarmed and looked exhausted, slowly making their way to the facility.
“Perimeter A2, covering entrance gate, continue to monitor and we'll assist when we can.”
Kenneth wasn't surprised, but he needed to report it. He continued walking, switching attention from the two distant figures, the gate and any other potential threat. A soldier at the gate screamed a command at the man.
Then the shot rang out. Followed by three more. Kenneth crouched to one knee and raised his rifle towards the gate, the man carrying the child was slumped against the car, the child motionless in front of him. A woman emerged from the car in hysterics and ran towards her downed family. She screamed at the injustice, the loss and with great anger. The radio erupted with several panicked voices.
She kneeled by the child and picked up the lifeless body. She scrambled with it to the man and hugged them both, crying uncontrollably. The commanding voice of the Major demanded calm on the radio and then silence. Kenneth stood up and looked back out to the field, the figures in the distance were making slow progress, not put off by the sound of gunfire. He turned back to the gate, and the woman was remonstrating with the soldiers standing over the bloody corpses of her loved ones. She strode forward in anger. The soldier fired in fear. She was with her family.
Kenneth's radio screeched back into life, again the Major's voice restored calm. He was on his way down. The command was simple, all soldiers to hold their position. Kenneth looked back over the field, the two figures he could see were now a group of nearly ten. He glanced up at the observation post, gave his head a slight shake, and concentrated on the job in hand. He knew the reinforcements should have been here and things were about to get really shitty. They were just going to have to let it play it out.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
THE CAMP HAD grown in three days. Hundreds had turned to thousands, the perimeter fence had been pushed out ever further, and the resources stretched to bursting. Although the rescue teams had been successful in bringing in civilians, key workers were in exceptionally short supply. Medical personnel, military and police were at the sharp-end of the outbreak, many either joining the ranks of the infected or becoming a feast for them.
Amy didn't feel tired anymore, she was beyond that. Policing the camp was tougher than the streets. The hours were longer, the people more violent, scared and all about to snap. Fights would break out over water or tinned fruit, often with deadly consequences. After two members of the camp's police force were beaten to death, the military had relented and armed them, albeit with batons and pepper spray only. Firearm trained police officers were moved to defend the ever growing perimeter as the numbers of soldiers dwindled through increasingly dangerous journeys beyond the camp.
Amy had enjoyed two hours' sleep and set off with her partner, PC Derek Jones. Derek was a good man in his early thirties. At a touch over six foot tall and an athletic build, he was the poster boy for a modern police service. He was also a father and husband with his family still unaccounted for. When they had downtime, this was all that occupied his mind, but when they were on patrol, he was a fully focused professional. Amy liked that about him. She thought it was a shame about his family, she fancied him but she knew a shag and some intimacy was what she needed, Derek didn’t.
The camp had grown by layers, resembling the circles in a tree trunk, every section was fenced off to the outer one it bordered. Further in the camp went, the more important the occupants, gates were manned but not secured until you reached the innermost level. Today, they assigned Amy and Derek to patrol the outermost level. These were the newest guests of the camp and often the most traumatised having spent more time surviving in the wild than others. Fights here were commonplace and more vicious. It was hard to adjust from caving in a head of a vicious monster to sharing your water ration with another desperate soul. They were still on edge, not able to trust the safety the camp offered. It would be a tough shift. Amy and Derek had their gear and started making their way through the camp. The first gate was relaxed, and they were waved right through. This part of the camp the people smiled, laughed and life seemed almost normal. They reached the next gate, tension rose, but it was no worse than a Palace vs Brighton game at three o'clock on a Saturday. The people didn't smile, they kept their heads down and their belongings close.
As Amy and Derek approached the final gate, the atmosphere changed completely. The gate was closed, several armed soldiers stood wearily on either side keeping a close eye on anyone who dared to get within ten feet of them. Amy and Derek stopped and waited to be invited to approach, a soldier signalled them as he opened the gate. They walked through to the last section and the first sight that greeted them was a woman, in her forties kicking a child firmly in the back. The child crashed to the floor and turned in shock to see the woman bearing down on him. He was maybe seven white as a sheet and stared open-mouthed as she reached towards him and grabbed a chocolate bar he had in his top pocket. The tears started to stream down his face. She didn't hear Amy approach, but she felt the baton strike the back of her leg behind the knee sending her crumbling to the ground.
“What the fuck is the matter with you? All of you!” Amy screamed as loudly as she could. The woman writhed in pain clutching her leg as Amy picked the chocolate bar up and handed it back to the boy. “You should eat this sooner rather than later sweetie.”
The boy took the bar and scrambled to his feet before running off without saying a word.
“You like the new rulebook don't you?” Derek smiled at Amy.
“It's simpler, everyone's a dick.” Derek offered a mischievous smile.
“What about the boy?” Amy returned the smile sarcastically.
“He didn't say thank you, did he?”
Amy and Derek started their patrol leaving the woman struggling to get back to her feet. This level of police brutality might normally draw a crowd, but in this part of the camp, in these damned times it didn't even warrant a second glance.
The odour in the air was that of death. The camp was overcrowded and water not in good enough supply for washing. The corpses piled up around the fence line, there were not enough soldiers to deal with the problem and a distinct lack of volunteers amongst the scared civilian population to assist. The military or the police patrols concerned few civilians, most appreciated they wouldn't beat them half to death for a bread roll. However, some were scared, Amy had noticed it the previous day. Just one or two people acting suspiciously. At first Amy thought were up to something, then she realised these people thought she was up to something. The streets of Croydon had taught her that not everyone trusted those in authority. Today, there were a few more people acting in this way.
“Have you noticed them?” Amy asked.
“How long have you been in the police? If a few people giving you the stink eye bothers you in a world where people are eating each other, maybe it's time to find another profession.” He allowed himself the light-hearted moment, he couldn't afford many.
“The last time I looked, resignations weren't being accepted. And besides, where else offers the perks
of luxury accommodation, exotic tinned food and the opportunity to meet and interact with interesting people?” They walked at a leisurely pace, there was no need to rush anywhere and it was a nice day, a light summer's breeze that would be pleasant if it wasn't for the stench it carried.
“But you have noticed them, right?” Amy was sure she wasn't going mad.
“Yeah, I've noticed, I've heard them too. There are stories, it's all bullshit, of us and the soldiers snatching up people and taking them for the white coats to experiment on.”
“You're shitting me?” Amy half laughed.
“People just don't believe they're safe. They won't let their guard down. Nothing is coming from the outside through those gates so they're turning their fear inwards. I don't blame them, some of those white coats and their bosses, our bosses, they don't seem like good people.”
“There aren't many good people anymore.”
“Yeah, but these fuckers, I don't think they've ever been right. For all we know, they started this shit.” Derek half believed his own accusations.
“Now you're sounding like the one who should consider their career choice.”
“Hey, there's lots going on and we know nothing, especially of what goes on in the treatment tents.” He’d become more serious.
“You’ve seen those things, they can’t take any chances.” Amy hated the turn in conversation, she didn’t enjoy defending the regime, she knew it stunk too.
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