by Mark Tufo
‘Until they round her up,’ Scott said, correcting him. ‘The woman who had sex with Jeremy, she must be the one who’s carrying it now.’
‘Unless they find her corpse.’ The doctor took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, then leant closer to Scott again. ‘You do realise the implications of this, don’t you Mr Griffiths? If no one sees it being transmitted, the damn thing could be inside anyone.’
Chapter 75
The van stopped again, and all those inside knew that this was the end of the line.
School.
Tammy thought she was going mad when she realised where they were. She pressed her face against the window and watched as armed guards opened the school gates and allowed the van through. It was a bizarre collision of the normal and the surreal: the banality of the out-dated school campus, now alive with military activity, their equipment everywhere. Right in the middle of the netball courts, near to the temporary classrooms, was a helicopter, and it didn’t take a genius to identify stockpiles of guns and missiles. What the hell was going on?
They’d reached some kind of checkpoint, manned by more soldiers, this time armed with clipboards, pens and tablets rather than guns. Scott craned his neck to see what was happening. At the front of the van paperwork was exchanged, lists of names compared... were the people of Thussock being processed? ‘Looks like I was right,’ Dr Kerr said. ‘They’re rounding everyone up.’
‘I guess.’
‘My money’s on that fracking site. Must be something to do with that. Problem is they never fully investigate these things before someone gives their high-powered friend a grant and tells them to get on with it, do they? It’s always profit before people, you know?’
‘I don’t reckon this has got anything to do with digging holes in the ground.’
‘You never know though, do you? I was dead against it from the start. I got on all the committees and went to all the public meetings, but did it make any difference?’
‘I doubt it,’ Scott said, wishing he’d shut up.
‘Damn right it didn’t. All the objections were just dismissed. It was an absolute bloody whitewash. You’d think they’d be legally bound to act on objections, wouldn’t you, but you’d be surprised.’
‘Nothing surprises me anymore.’
The doctor was about to say something else when the van juddered forward again, processing complete. It followed the narrow road towards the main school buildings, then curved sharply to the left.
A few rows behind, Phoebe watched with wide eyes as they drove deeper into the campus. She’d almost been on the verge of getting used to this place, but every last shred of familiarity had been stripped away today. There was the assembly hall which doubled-up as a gym, and the Portakabin classrooms, freezing cold even on warm days, the uncomfortable temperature keeping her awake during Maths. There was the dilapidated technology block and the music rooms, and the playing field and—
—and this looked less like a school now, more like something out of a science-fiction film. The relatively new leisure centre towards the back of the site had always seemed out of place, but now it looked positively alien. It was surrounded by armed guards, and much of the car park space had been filled with camouflaged temporary buildings. As she watched, another van similar to this one drove away from the leisure centre. Parts of the angular building were covered in heavy-duty plastic sheeting, like someone was trying to shrink-wrap the place.
The van stopped again. The driver turned in a tight circle, then reversed back into the space the other vehicle had just vacated. There was a delay, probably less than a minute but which felt inordinately long, before the back doors were opened and the van’s passengers were asked to move out, politely but very firmly, by more faceless military personnel.
The doctor returned to his wife. Michelle and the girls waited for Scott. He walked with them in silence.
The gap between the back of the van and the leisure centre door was several metres wide. Big enough, Scott thought, to be able to make a run for it if he wanted to. But even though the barrels of their rifles were pointing at the ground, there were enough armed guards around to deter anyone thinking about trying to make a break for freedom.
Dr Kerr was just ahead of them. ‘Is anyone going to tell us what’s going on?’ he demanded of one of the soldiers. Scott couldn’t hear what the reply was, but it was clearly insufficient as far as the doctor was concerned. He continued to rant, oblivious to the proximity of their weapons, sounding increasingly angry, winding himself up but, it appeared, no one else. None of his questions or demands seemed to warrant even the most cursory of responses.
When they reached the inside of the leisure centre, Tammy stopped walking, dumbfounded. It looked as if the entire population of Thussock was already here, that they were late to the party. She remembered how this room had felt like a vast, cavernous space when she’d first come in here, bigger than the rest of the school combined. Right now, though, it felt uncomfortably cramped. It looked like something out of a film, one of those old disaster movies, she thought, or maybe something she’d expect to see on the TV news after an earthquake or tsunami. The floor was covered with row upon row of people lying on metal-framed camp beds or sitting on thin foam mattresses and bedding rolls. Thussock had seemed like such an insignificant place in comparison to Redditch, but the sheer volume of people gathered here in close proximity made it feel horrendously overcrowded. She was feeling claustrophobic, and the fractious atmosphere wasn’t helping. People were uncertain... afraid. Considering how many people were trapped in here, it remained unexpectedly quiet.
‘Chelle!’ someone shouted. Michelle looked up and saw that Jackie, Dez and the twins were camped on the far side of the huge room, leaning up against the back wall. There was a space next to them. Without waiting for anyone else, Michelle marched over to her friend. The girls sat down in silence, still in a state of shock, but Scott remained where he was, reluctant to follow. His heart sank when Dez got up and walked over to him. There was no escape, no way of shaking him. Between Dez and Dr Kerr (who’d also followed them across the gym and who was setting up camp with his wife just a couple of metres away), he imagined he’d be struggling to breathe if they were stuck in here for any length of time.
‘How long have you been here?’ Scott asked Dez.
‘Couple of hours.’
‘And have they told you anything?’
‘Nothin’. You got your pack yet?’
‘My pack?’
Dez pointed to a half-demolished mountain of cardboard boxes in the diagonally opposite corner of the hangar-like room. More were being taken away as Scott watched. ‘You get a couple of pillows and sheets, some water, a bit of food, and this,’ Dez explained, pulling a laminated card from his pocket and handing it over. Dr Kerr intercepted it. He adjusted his glasses to read it, flipping it over first, holding it up to show Scott the biohazard symbol printed on the reverse.
‘Residents of Thussock... We apologise for any inconvenience. A biological concern has been identified in the immediate area.’ He stopped and looked from Scott to Dez and back again. ‘A biological concern? Who wrote this garbage?’
‘What else does it say?’ Scott asked.
‘Blah, blah, blah... not a lot really. It’s all just bullshit and flannel. All very vague... all residents are required – by law – to remain on these premises until such time as the hazard has been successfully contained and neutralized.’
‘And that’s it?’
‘Pretty much.’
‘Shit.’
‘Well, there’s not a lot we can do for now,’ the doctor said, and he handed the card back to Dez, then ambled back over to sit with his wife.
Scott realised Michelle had gone. He looked around and found her on the other side of the leisure centre with Jackie and Tammy, collecting boxes. He watched her every move.
Bottles of water, pillows and a few chocolate bars kept the girls and George occupied temporarily. Michelle walked
over to Scott. ‘Mind if I sit here?’
‘If you want,’ he grunted.
‘What’s happening, Scott? You’ve been talking to the doctor... what does he say?’
‘He knows as much as I do. Nothing. You see the card?’
‘This thing?’ she said, picking one out from her cardboard box and studying it. ‘Doesn’t say much, does it?’
‘Not really.’
‘Look, Scott, I just—’
‘Do me a favour, Michelle, just don’t even talk to me. In fact, just stay away.’
Chapter 76
The last time Scott had seen Barry Walpole, the two of them had almost come to blows over the death of Ken Potter. Barry had been full of anger then, ready to defend his late friend’s dubious honour. He’d been a formidable creature that day, all piercing eyes, bulging veins and flared nostrils. Not now, though. Today Barry was a shadow of his former self. He was quiet and subdued, timid almost. Scott didn’t even notice him there until he almost tripped over him on the way back from the bizarrely heavily guarded toilets. ‘Strange how they’ve got armed guards round the toilets, isn’t it?’ Barry said. His voice was drained of all its former energy. He was sitting cross-legged on a mat, holding a frail-looking old woman’s hand, his other arm around her shoulder, his size dwarfing hers. He carefully let her go and stood up. ‘You all right, Scott?’
‘I’m okay,’ Scott replied, perfunctory. ‘You?’
‘I’m all right. Mother’s struggling, though, aren’t you, Mum?’ The old lady barely looked up. ‘You been here long?’
‘Few hours. You?’
‘Since first thing. I was only just out of bed when they started hammering on the door. Requisitioned a load of stuff from the yard, they have. Buggers. You got any idea what’s happening?’
‘Not a clue,’ Scott answered quickly. Having seen what happened to Jeremy he felt sure he probably knew more than most but he couldn’t bring himself to explain. Besides, he thought, what good would it have done other than to push everyone closer to the edge than they already were?
‘What about Doc Kerr? I saw you with him. Does he know anything?’
‘If he does he isn’t saying. It’s all just speculation right now. Look, Barry, I have to go. I need to get back.’
‘Course you do. Got to look after the people nearest to us, eh Scott?’ he said, crouching again and giving his mother’s hand another tender squeeze.
‘Absolutely.’
‘Sorry,’ Barry said unexpectedly.
‘Sorry for what?’
‘For being so hard on you after Ken...’
‘No problem. You weren’t to know. None of us were.’
‘Right. Okay. Hopefully see you back at the yard in a couple of days when all this has blown over?’
‘Yep. Almost looking forward to it, Barry.’
‘That’s the spirit. Look after yourself, lad.’
‘I always do. You too.’
Scott continued back across the hall, watching his family as he weaved between the rest of Thussock’s refugee-like population. People had continued to be herded into the leisure centre continually through the day, but their numbers had reduced to a mere trickle now. Space was at a premium, the narrow gaps between each family’s individually claimed area of floor steadily reducing. In places it was difficult to get through.
Scott didn’t feel scared, he decided, just uneasy. He didn’t like not knowing, not being in control. He sat down next to Michelle, not knowing what else to do. As much as they’d pissed him off today, his family was all he had left.
‘The atmosphere’s changed in here,’ she said. ‘Can you feel it? It’s like there’s a storm brewing. It’s making my head hurt.’
‘What do you expect?’ he said, still not able to find it in himself to be civil. ‘They’ve dragged everyone out of their homes at gunpoint and locked them in a school gym. Hardly going to be a fucking party, is it?’
She chose her next words carefully. The last thing anyone needed was Scott kicking off and causing another scene. Keep him sweet. Keep everything together. Keep it all ticking over like I always do.
‘What do you think’s going to happen?’
‘How am I supposed to know?’
‘What are they trying to protect us from?
‘You’ve read the card, same as I have. Biological hazard.’
‘I know that, but Dez said he was talking to the doctor... he was saying something about this being something to do with all those deaths... about them being linked.’
‘Yeah, that’s what he reckons.’
‘So are we going to be okay, Scott?’
‘Well there are plenty of soldiers around. Don’t know what good all those guns’ll be against a bloody biological hazard though.’
‘And are we going to be okay?’
‘You tell me.’
She was about to speak again when Phoebe interrupted her. ‘I still can’t see him, Mum.’
‘Can’t see who?’
‘Dad. If they’re bringing everyone here, then he should be here too, shouldn’t he?’
Michelle stood up to comfort her daughter and help her look. Scott lay back and stared up at the high roof of this expansive gym, counting metal struts and ceiling tiles, doing everything he could not to get drawn into their impossible conversation. He wished he hadn’t found Jeremy. It would have been easier not to know. He’d have to tell them at some point, and then they’d—
—a sudden commotion erupted on the far side of the leisure centre, near to the rapidly depleting stack of supplies. Scott got up fast, scrambling to his feet. He couldn’t see much through the sudden chaos. Many other people were up now, though most remained defiantly rooted to their own pockets of space.
It was different on the other side of the gym. There people were trying to get out of the way, both from whatever it was that was happening and also from a mass of soldiers who were wading through the crowds. Their weapons, this time, were held ready to fire.
A bubble of space had opened up around a woman lying on the floor. Her body was convulsing, limbs flailing, kicking and lashing out. All around her people were trying to get away, grabbing at their bedding and supplies, desperate to move but finding their progress impeded by other people all doing the same. Two soldiers without weapons, wearing slightly different suits – medics or scientists, perhaps, Scott thought – approached the woman writhing on the floor.
‘I’m not getting involved,’ Dr Kerr said, appearing by Scott’s side. ‘It’s Edie Fitzpatrick. She’s epileptic. That’s all this is. They’ll realise soon enough.’ Scott just looked at him and the doctor anticipated his unspoken questions. ‘I know, I know... Hippocratic Oath and all that... Thing is, they’ll help her and I know she’ll be all right. They know who we are and I’m sure they’ve access to as much medical information as I had, more probably. Until someone tells me exactly what’s going on here, I’m not helping anyone.’
‘Don’t blame you, Peter,’ another voice said. Scott thought he recognised the man, though he wasn’t immediately sure where from. Then it dawned on him. It was Sergeant Ross, out of uniform. Strange how much attention he’d previously paid to the uniform, not the man, Scott thought. ‘Mr Griffiths,’ the police officer said, acknowledging him.
‘Sergeant.’
‘Care to tell us what’s going on here, Dan?’ the doctor asked.
‘I was going to ask you the same question.’
‘Hold on,’ Scott said. ‘How can you not know? You’re the bloody police, for Christ’s sake.’
‘This hasn’t been a typical investigation...’ the sergeant began to explain.
‘You can say that again. Fucking amateurs. You arrest me, spend a day trying to get me to confess to crimes I know fuck all about, then just turn me out again without a frigging word.’
‘What was I supposed to do? Like I said, Mr Griffiths, this hasn’t been a typical investigation. We thought we were looking for a serial killer, and you have to admit, you g
ave us more than enough cause for concern...’
‘You treated me like a bloody animal. You’d decided I was guilty before you’d even—’
‘That’s enough,’ the doctor said, scalding both of them. ‘Don’t you think we’ve enough to worry about without fighting amongst ourselves? How much do you know, Dan?’
The Sergeant rubbed his eyes. He looked around then answered Dr Kerr in hushed tones. ‘Not as much as I should do. You know what it’s like yourself, Peter, we’re at the arse-end of nowhere out here. It still takes forever to get the information you need. It shouldn’t, but that’s how it is.’
‘What kind of information?’ Scott asked.
‘Test results. Forensics.’
‘It would have helped if you’d listened to me,’ Dr Kerr said, clearly disgruntled.
‘I know, and I’m sorry.’
‘I said we were missing something crucial. All along I was trying to say that...’
‘I know you tried, and I’ve apologised. With the benefit of hindsight we—’
‘But you just dismissed everything I told you. Bloody hell, Daniel, the gender of the victims should have made it clear.’
‘Gender?’ Scott interrupted. ‘What’s that got to do with it?’
‘Male, female, male, female... it’s what we were saying earlier. This thing is a parasite, transmitted sexually.’
‘We were almost there,’ the policeman said. ‘We’d found foreign DNA traces on all the bodies, but we didn’t spot the pattern.’
‘What pattern?’ Scott asked.
‘On most of the bodies we found traces of the DNA of someone else, but we didn’t know who because none of them were on the database. It took us a while to work it out... longer than it should have. The DNA belonged to the next person to die, you follow? But there were never any signs of a struggle, that’s what threw us. Just blood and genital mutilation.’
Dr Kerr took off his glasses, breathed on the lenses, then cleaned them on his jumper. ‘Scott here saw an attack today. Tell him, Scott.’