E Virus: The Diary of a Modern Day Girl (The Beginning of the End)

by Ward, Jessica

  With our guns raised we quickly turned our lights back on. We pointed the light ahead. We couldn’t see a thing, nothing was there. We looked at each other both equally perplexed at the strange noises, when the rustling started again.

  This time it was coming from behind us. We turned around slowly, guns at the ready. Again we couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

  We were starting to get freaked out. We were both hearing the sounds, but we couldn’t see anyone. We decided to head back, we’d had enough excitement for one day.

  We turned to leave as I felt something brush past my feet.

  “What the fuck was that?” I jumped back, grabbing onto Lacey’s arm.

  We aimed our torches down quickly.

  “Oh my god, RATS!” Lacey screamed

  There were three of them, and they were absolutely massive, easily the size of a cat. They were scurrying around our feet, running away from the light. Watching their thick worm like tails following behind them made me jump back. I hate rats.

  We both shrieked and ran back to the base, as fast as we could. We didn’t look back, we just kept running. We were both horrified. When we were nearing the ladder a loud noise stopped us dead in our tracks.

  It was an ear piercing scream, followed by a gun shot. And it was coming from above.

  We looked at each other, panicked. We darted back upstairs, our guns still in our hands. We had already completely forgotten about the rats. We threw the trapdoor back down and raced back towards the base.

  We didn’t have to get very far. As soon as we ran outside, we saw what happened. Duckface and Andy were stood, both of them in shock, looking at the dead body before them. Andy still had his gun aimed at the body, as if he was waiting for the corpse to move.

  I couldn’t see very clearly at first. They were both stood over the top half of the body, but I could see clearly the combat trousers and boots belonging to the recently deceased. By this time the Sergeant and the rest of the group were running out, to see what all the commotion was about.

  As I edged closer I gasped. It was Greg. Or rather it used to be. His face was covered in blood, his skin was rotting and puss oozed from the sores and boils forming on his arms and neck.

  There was no doubt about it, he was infected. What was more worrying was that he was on the inside of the fence, not the outside. Somehow, he managed to get in.

  I couldn’t believe it. I wasn’t seeing things after all. I thought back to the night I saw him. His bones were all disfigured. Looking down on this corpse, there were certainly differences. His body wasn’t as out of place as when I first saw it. I could see where he had broken bones, however they were nowhere near as severe as what I saw in my first encounter.

  “What happened?” The Sergeant demanded. We all looked up, he was as shocked as the rest of us, yet he was trying to keep hold of his calm demeanour.

  Duckface was as white as a ghost, she took a few steps back and ran back to the base. No one made any attempt to follow. We were all fixated on the body laid out before us.

  “Well?” The Sergeant asked.

  “I don’t know what happened, we weren’t here. We heard a scream and a gun shot from inside and ran out here” Lacey defended.

  Andy looked up. He threw his gun to the ground. “I saw Lola leave the base, she was headed this way, probably to find these two” he looked to us. “I followed her, I didn’t know where the girls had gone. Greg came out of nowhere; I didn’t even know it was him at first. He went to grab Lola. She turned to run away. As soon as she was clear I took the shot.”

  He was clearly shaken up, but I could also see his anger building. Why he was angry, I wasn’t sure.

  “It was only after I shot him I figured out it was him” he exclaimed.

  “OK, thank you Andy. You did the right thing.” The Sergeant tried to reassure him.

  His words didn’t seem to provide Andy with any comfort; he left his gun on the ground and made his way back to the base.

  The Sergeant turned to Lacey and I. “Girls, please go back to the base. It’s not safe out here anymore, we need to secure the area and dispose of the body” He told us. His tone was firm, yet I could sense the underlying pain in his voice, he was trying so hard to mask.

  Lacey and I headed back to the base. There was no sign of Duckface or Andy, so we went back to check the plane.

  The Professor stopped us before we stepped into the plane.

  “What happened? Is everyone alright?” He asked us. I had barely spoken to him lately. No one had. He had wrapped himself up in his work; constantly conducting tests on the samples he had been given. He never shared his findings with us. Whenever I asked, the majority of his responses went straight over my head.

  “Greg’s dead” I told him.

  He smiled as he looked at me and shook his head. “I know that dear, I mean what happened just then” he asked reiterating his first question.

  “Greg’s dead… again” Lacey responded wittily.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. I know it was sick. It was a horrible thing to happen, but the way she said it just set me off. The Professor, just realising what happened started to chuckle. It didn’t take long for us all to be in stitches.

  “Why are we laughing?” Lacey asked, trying to calm herself.

  The Professor carried on laughing. He had a deep belly laugh but it was mixed in with the famous Jimmy Carr laugh, we all know and love.

  The sound of his laugh made me crease up even more.

  “Well… at first I was laughing at you… now… I’m laughing at him” I said between gasps. I hadn’t laughed this hard in a long time. We were all wiping our eyes as tears ran down our faces.

  Once we had all calmed down, we told the professor what we had just witnessed.

  “Oh dear. That isn’t good news at all. I’m starting to regret my earlier outburst. This isn’t a laughing matter at all” He said firmly.

  He hurried outside, mumbling something about needing fresh samples and isolating the virus. We shrugged and carried on into the plane.

  As soon as we got into the plane and after hearing our voices, Duckface made her way down.

  “Can I talk to you for a minute?” She asked me.

  I looked at Lacey, not too sure what she wanted. Lacey shrugged her shoulders. “I’ll leave you guys to it then” she said as she got up and made her way outside.

  I smiled at her as she left, before I turned to face Lola. “What is it?” I asked curiously. We barely spoke anymore. She had shrugged me off like she had the rest of the group. She was hardly pleasant to be around.

  “I want to talk to you about Andy” She told me. She seemed to be in a much better mood than she had been previously.

  “I think he still likes me, he followed me out and he saved my life.” She started. I looked away from her and rolled my eyes. Here we go again. I’ve endured countless conversations like this with her in the past. She overanalysed everything.

  She didn’t stop there. “I wouldn’t take him back straight away, he has to work to get me back. He obviously likes me though, otherwise why would he follow me out? You know. He’s probably realised how much he needs me” She said confidently.

  Oh god, I didn’t want to get involved. I don’t know why he followed her, he said he came to look for Lacey and I as we had vanished. He probably did. I could see that Andy had tried to keep himself to himself, but damned if I knew if it had anything to do with Duckface or not.

  “I don’t know why he followed you out, like he said Lacey and I disappeared so he said he went to look for us? It’s anyone’s guess. He hasn’t spoken to anyone very much, so I can’t offer any suggestions.” I tried to kill the conversation. I didn’t have the energy to sit analysing every single move he made. My mind was still on Greg. I was starting to wonder, how did he even get in?

  “Well, if he hasn’t spoken to anyone, it must be because he regrets breaking up with me, don’t you think?” She asked me, she wasn’t going to let this
drop.

  “I don’t know Lola, if you want my advice, don’t read too much into it. It was good he was there when he was, he saved your life. If you’re that bothered just go and speak to him. Maybe even start by saying thank you” I told her.

  She sat thinking for a few minutes. “Yeah, I could say thank you, but I don’t want him to think I’m bothered. I still haven’t forgiven him. I don’t want him to have all the power, I want to be the one to click my fingers and for him to come running.”

  I groaned. Typical Duckface behaviour. No matter what the poor guy did, she wanted to make him miserable; I hoped he wasn’t thinking of reconciling with her. She still wasn’t worth the effort.

  “Lola, you really need to get a grip. I’m not being funny but he saved your life. If he wasn’t there, chances are you would be dead by now. Give the guy a break. If he wants to get back with you, work it out together. I’m sorry but that’s all I can say to help you.” I snapped at her. I didn’t mean to be so blunt, but she needed to get a hold of herself.

  “Ok, I’ll speak to him… Thanks” She replied weakly. She seemed a bit deflated, but I couldn’t bear to listen her incessant rambling anymore. My patience with her was already wearing extremely thin.

  With that, she wandered off. No doubt to find Andy. I sat there shaking my head. I hoped to god he wasn’t going to take her back. I felt bad for the guy, he had already endured years with her, and I didn’t blame him at all for having enough of it.

  Lacey wandered back into the plane shortly after Duckface left.

  “What was all that about?” She asked, taking a seat on the sofa.

  “You don’t want to know” I replied rolling my eyes.

  Chapter 16 – Where’s Andy?

  It wasn’t long before Lacey and I had gone looking for the boys. They were taking ages, and I was eager to find out what happened to Greg. I figured they would be able to shed some light on the earlier events.

  “Where are they?” Lacey asked me as we stepped outside. We looked all around us; we couldn’t see a single soul. The fencing looked completely untouched, as it always had been.

  “I have no idea, they must have gone inside” I told her making my way to Hangar 3.

  She followed keeping up the same pace as me. “Where do you think he got in from?” She asked as I was asking myself the same question.

  “I don’t know hun, don’t think he came in through the fence though, when we came out it was all still intact” I was as confused as she was.

  “Let’s find the rest of them and see if they’ve found anything” she suggested.

  We walked through the entrance door, we couldn’t hear anyone moving about inside, so we went to investigate.

  We checked the main hall first. Everything was how we left it. The beds were still set up, nothing looked out of the ordinary so we made our way back to the supply room.

  “I bet they’ve gone into the tunnel” I speculated as the trapdoor was wide open. They obviously weren’t in the room; we wandered round anyway and checked around the shelving just to make sure.

  We both leaned in to the hole in the floor, the opening to the tunnel. After the rat fiasco, neither of us were in any rush to go back down there. We knew they were down there and I could see a faint light moving around the bottom.

  “Paul, Nick, are you down there?” Lacey shouted down.

  We could hear movement, but no one responded. We shined our torches downwards, trying to get a closer look.

  The Corporal quickly came into view, shielding his eyes from the light.

  “We’re all down here girls” The Corporal shouted up to us. “Don’t worry we’re all ok but don’t come down. We’re just making sure it’s safe.” He dismissed us “Go back to the base, we’ll be up shortly” he walked out of sight, obviously carrying on with the search.

  “Do you think Greg came up from there?” Lacey asked me slightly concerned.

  “I don’t know, your guess is as good as mine” I answered. I was starting to get worried. Maybe we were in more danger than we thought. What if the infected had made their way into the tunnel system. We didn’t know for certain, but it certainly brought up more questions we simply couldn’t answer.

  George was down there with the others. He knew his way around, only he knew where all the exits led out to. I was now 100% certain I had seen Greg alive in his infected state, days after he fell to his untimely death. There’s no way he could have gone out the base, I was even more mystified as to how he had managed to stay hidden for so long. If there was a tunnel exit somewhere on the base, which there very well could be, it could explain how Greg got to us on the inside.

  Even more worrying, in order to do that, he must have kept himself sustained in some way. How did he do it? Although there were many buildings scattered around the base, we certainly hadn’t checked them all. Had there been other survivors who hadn’t been as lucky as us? Had their safe house been comprised by the infected, including Greg? Were there more of them lurking around? I was full of questions.

  “Shall we go back?” Lacey asked me, interrupting my chilling thought process.

  “Yeah, let’s make a move” I replied, my mind still wandering.

  As we walked out into the daylight, I scanned the area around me. There were no signs of life, everything was quiet. I could still make out faded blood stains across the tarmac, most had been washed away by the rain. They were ghastly reminders of the battles we had previously faced, taking out our targets from the roof.

  There was hardly ever anyone on watch nowadays. We kept the fencing up as an extra precaution, but there was no longer a need to place anyone on watch. I had unexpectedly begged to differ.

  “Shall we go up to the roof?” I asked Lacey, half way through my daydream.

  “Can do, why?” She asked.

  “The infected are coming in from somewhere, although they could be getting into the tunnel system, I think we should still keep an eye out” I replied.

  She nodded in agreement. We went back to the base to find our old rifles, and we made our way to the roof.

  I hadn’t set foot on the roof since the day Greg died, well the first time that Greg died. It felt strange going back up there.

  I looked towards the spot he fell from, my mind replaying the events that followed. My eyes cast towards the fire burning in the distance. The Sergeant had burnt Greg’s body, it was the only option, and it was safest all round.

  I looked back to Greg’s first resting spot. I couldn’t bring myself to look over the edge. I knew he wasn’t there, but I still couldn’t muster the courage to look down, afraid of what I might see.

  My fear of heights had all but vanished. I no longer got the sinking feeling that pulled my heart into my stomach. I always stayed a couple of feet away from the edge, only daring to get closer whilst lying down. Don’t get me wrong, I could never sit on the edge with my feet dangling down that was just a step too far.

  It didn’t take me long to settle into my previously familiar surroundings. I took the rifle and scope from my back and placed it on the roof, scoping towards Hangar 3. Lacey had set up next to me and was checking the areas outside of the fencing zones.

  I stayed clear of the area around the fire. My mind was already getting the better of me and I didn’t want to dwell on it. Greg was a good man, he was finally at peace.

  I looked towards the side nearest the woods, but even with my magnifying scope, I couldn’t see into the trees. I wondered whether the infected were in there. I couldn’t see any movement, only the winding bristling through the last of the remaining leaves. It was cold outside, my hands were already starting to lose their feeling. I sniffled as the cold attacked my sinuses.

  I pulled my scope back towards the entrance to Hangar 3. I could see the boys making their way out the building. They looked tired. They obviously hadn’t found anything of interest. I wondered if they had seen the same monster sized rats we did. They would have of course handled it a lot better than we did.
I couldn’t imagine any of them screaming and running away.

  I quickly pulled my scope up as I noticed something out of the ordinary up on the roof of Hangar 3. It was only a small single story building. It was the height of a bungalow, our main base towered over the smaller building laud out in front of us.

  I was amazed it had taken me so long to spot. There on the roof was a darkened stain. I angled my scope for a closer look, the boys had spotted Lacey and I and were trying to wave to us. Lacey waved back but I ignored them and kept my attention on the roof.

  The closer I looked, the more the stain came into view. As the clouds cleared letting more sunlight through, I could see the colour more clearly. It was blood. I looked around the roof in more detail and noticed more speckles of blood lining the roof below.

  I looked closer at the speckles which had formed on the roof, when I noticed, they were handprints.

  I had solved the mystery as to how Greg had got in. He must have climbed onto the roof somehow and dropped down inside the fencing. He must have seen Lola coming and dropped down to attack. Luckily (or unlucky depending on how you want to look at it) Andy was there to stop him before he caused any real damage.

  I shouted Lacey over, she was already looking at me, bemused as to what I was so fixated on. So I pointed it out to her.

  “Oh my god, is that blood?” She asked me. I nodded as she leaned in for a closer look.

  “Do you think that’s how he got in? He climbed up?” She said following the exact same thought process I did.

  “Pretty much. It makes more sense than him coming up through the tunnel don’t you think?” I asked her.

  “Definitely” She replied “We need to tell the others. I don’t think they’ve spotted it yet.”

  I agreed “You stay here hun, I’ll go down and grab them. I’ll bring them up here so they can see for themselves” I told her.

  I made my way downstairs to tell the others what we had seen. Nick stopped me before I had a chance to get to them.