by Samie Sands
As my eyes adjust to the bright light outside, I can see infected everywhere, which is why Jake sounded so afraid. They’re currently far enough away that if we move now, we’ll be fine, but if we stayed any longer, we would probably find ourselves in trouble.
A glint of metal catches my eye. I spot the axe that’s hanging loosely in Jake’s hand. “I just needed something to feel safe, so I can protect you two if needs be,” he says, seeing me eyeing up his weapon.
Wow, that’s smart. At least one of us is prepared!
***
We’ve been walking across fields for hours. We’ve managed to avoid the roads so far, thinking if we are the cause of a search party, the authorities will use cars to hunt.
Michelle is definitely slowing us down. She isn’t talking about it, but her wound is really getting to her. With no painkillers to help, there’s not a lot we can do either. I can see that Jake is constantly on edge because of this. He wants to speed up, but must know it would be incredibly insensitive to mention it, because his mouth remains firmly shut. Despite this, I can feel the tension burning off both of them, and can sense I’m in the middle of a silent war. I keep trying to make conversation, to avoid the subject, but am not getting much response.
I’m about to address the situation, to get rid of the elephant in the room, by insisting that we all rough this out together, no matter what, when Jake taps us both and indicates that we need to crouch down. I open my mouth to question this, but Jake shushes me before I can speak.
I might not know what’s going on, but I can be certain it can’t be good. My heart starts to race as I strain my ears to hear. Voices! I can hear people speaking, which means we aren’t the only ones ignoring the Lockdown. I’m so excited at the prospect of other law breakers like us, people that might have medication for Michelle, weapons, and advice for us about our journey. I start to stand and cry out when Jake grabs me and shoves his hand over my mouth roughly. I look at him in shock, noticing him shaking his head ferociously at me.
When my anger at his actions subsides, I realise he’s right. I pull his hand off my face, indicating that I finally understand. Of course those aren’t going to be people like us, blatantly standing around talking. Not unless they’re idiots. It’ll be someone from the armed forces, or paramedics. Someone from the authorities that—as of a few days ago—have been ordered to kill anyone they find outside. I can’t believe how close I was to putting us all in the firing line. I need to be more careful!
We remain crouched down, hidden for ages. It feels like an hour, but in reality is probably about fifteen minutes. The voices continue, getting louder and louder. We can’t make out exactly what’s being said, it’s all too muffled, but it seems to be turning into a heated argument. Just as I’m starting to get really terrified that we’re about to get found out, the shouting begins. Really loud yelling, like the people just don’t care what they’re going to attract. This becomes scuffling, as if a fight is breaking out. I’m physically shaking now, frightened of how this is all going to end.
Eventually, the noise begins to die down. I stay frozen, holding my breath, willing my heart not to beat so loudly, desperately praying it’s all over and whoever the voices belonged to have moved on to another location. Just as I start to relax my shoulders, a gunshot rings out. A yelp passes my lips before I can stop it. Michelle and Jake both snap their heads around to stare at me, eyes wide open. I slap my hands over my mouth, panicked. How the hell did I let that happen? Now we’re absolutely going to be killed! What happened to me being more careful?
None of us dare move a muscle. We’re all waiting, shrouded in tension, just preparing ourselves to be killed. I’m willing every second to hurry on past with us unseen. I can’t hear anyone rustling around looking for us, but you never can tell.
Eventually, to my utmost relief, we hear a car engine roar and drive off—we must be closer to a road than we realised. Once we can no longer hear the vehicle, we each stand up, still silent, and still wary. None of us say anything, we’re all in shock. Michelle powers on forward, determined to find out what happened, her injured leg temporarily forgotten in the flurry of activity.
Jake and I rush after her, scared of what she might find. Someone might still be there, in which case she’s putting us all in grave danger. As we push through the bushes, we quickly find out that there has been someone left behind. There’s the body of a man lay on the flood, absolutely drenched in blood. Clearly he was the recipient of the gunshot.
I can’t help but wonder what got this guy killed. He clearly isn’t infected, so was it just an argument got out of hand, or was he killed by a government official in cold blood?
Jake starts to tug on my sleeve, trying to silently communicate something to me. I glance around, looking to where he’s pointing, to see a few guests coming along to join our little party. The noise of the gun must have attracted the attention of the infected, and now they’ve spotted us, which has just piqued their interest.
We move quickly, but I make the fatal error of turning back, just to confirm our safety. I see them all feasting upon the dead man’s body as if it’s the most delicious meal they’ve ever eaten. This shouldn’t be too much of a shock, as I did see what happened to Tim, but the way they’re pulling him to bits, dragging out his intestines and organs, is revolting. I know he’s already dead but to see him torn apart as if by wild animals is insane.
AM13 is not like any other virus or disease I’ve ever seen. There’s something really different about it, the way it seems to turn people into empty shells of themselves, slaves to a weird hunger that turns them into cannibals, unable to even control themselves. It’s not right. It’s definitely not natural. Maybe the people online—who said it was a government weapon to control population—weren’t nutjobs. They had it right all along. If that’s the case, the scientist that invented this virus did a bloody good job. Too good.
I turn away, disgusted, and jog to catch up to the others. I run for as long as I can before I have to stop and throw up all the contents of my stomach. Luckily there isn’t too much in there since we skipped out on breakfast.
After that terrifying incident, the whole day is spent walking, pretty much in silence, trying to digest the events of this morning in our own way. We’ve succeeded so far at staying hidden by keeping off the road as much as possible and hiding in small lanes and backstreets where necessary. Now it’s starting to get dark and we’re all very tired and hungry. Especially Michelle, who’s looking worse by the minute. Sweat is dripping down her face and neck and she looks very red and stressed out. The blood is leaking through the bandage on her leg, making me silently worry that she’s not going to make it through all of this in one piece.
“We need to find somewhere to rest soon,” I announce quickly, finally being decisive. Michelle looks over to me gratefully. She’s obviously wanted to say this for a while, but must have been worried that we’d think she was weak because of her leg.
Luckily there’s no argument from Jake either. “Yes, I agree. In fact, I know of a warehouse that isn’t too far from here. It’s the stock room of a clothing company, so it’ll definitely be empty. We can use that for shelter tonight. It’ll be warm, safe, and out of the way. What do you think?”
“Do you think we can get something else to wear?” I ask. I don’t think I can go through another freezing night—especially not if I’m surrounded by potential layers. “I’ll pay for anything I take when all of this is over,” I insist.
Jake smiles weakly at me, nodding quickly.
As we break through the door of the warehouse, the alarm goes off briefly. Luckily Jake’s axe comes in handy as he smashes the controls to bits with it, silencing it before it gets out of control. I let out a sigh of relief in the knowledge that we have somewhere to sleep indoors once more.
After a quiet dinner of canned fruit and vegetables, a quick grab of some new clothing, and a last minute check that all the doors are secure, we all find somewhere to settle
down and sleep, far too tired to talk or even think.
I feel much more refreshed and happy when I wake up—amazed at what a calm, dreamless, warm sleep can do for my mood. I’m already feeling much more positive about what we have achieved, and how far we’ll be able to travel today.
I decide to make everyone a half decent breakfast to wake up to, to help them both feel as optimistic as I do today. Who knows, maybe the lighter mood will help us travel even further and get this journey over with quicker. I stand up and scan the room, and immediately notice that something is wrong. Jake is still fast asleep, where I left him last night.
But Michelle is missing.
Chapter
Twenty
Okay, don’t panic. Do not freak out. If I just stay calm, everything will be okay. Deep breath. Okay, don’t panic. I keep repeating this to myself while my insides dance about, completely ignoring my brain. I try to rationalise with myself that she can’t have gone too far. I mean, she’s left all her stuff here, and her injured leg is pretty severe. She’s slow, so no matter where she is, we’ll be able to find her.
Why the hell did she leave? It’s not like her to just vanish with no good reason! What is she up to? If I could just figure out why she’s no longer here, I might be able to work out where she is. We’ve scanned the entire warehouse, just looking for a sign or a clue, and there’s just nothing.
Jake hasn’t uttered a single opinion on the situation, which puts me on edge. If he hasn’t got anything to say, he must think something bad has happened. Well, he’s wrong. She’s fine, I just know she is.
“We should probably go outside to look,” he finally mutters. As he looks up at me, his pale face is filled with a fearful expression. “Maybe it’s best if I go and you wait here…”
“No way!” I hiss. “You are not leaving me alone. What happens if we all get separated?” My heart is pounding in my throat. I don’t want to be left alone, I can’t. I won’t be able to stand it.
Jake nods, grabbing his backpack, along with Michelle’s.
“What are you doing?” I ask, snatching it from his grip. “We can’t take this. What if Michelle comes back? She’ll think we left her.”
“But what if the warehouse gets surrounded by infected? Or what if the authorities find it? I know what you’re saying, but we don’t want to lose these supplies unnecessarily.”
“I—” I start to argue, before realising that he’s right. “Yeah, okay. I’m going to leave something, though. Some sort of sign that we’re coming back.” I would hate it if Michelle came back here to find us just gone.
“Don’t leave a note. Just in case. We don’t want anyone to be able to track us.” I half-heartedly roll my eyes at Jake’s paranoia, but I listen. This is the sort of time that over-caution is a good thing.
I finally settle on leaving my mobile phone in plain view on the warehouse floor. If someone else was to discover this, they might not think too much of it. Even if they did suspect, by the time it’s charged enough for them to start figuring out who it belongs to, we will be miles away. I may even be at home. However, Michelle will know it’s mine. She’s joked many times that I’m addicted to my phone, so she’ll assume that I’ll never leave it behind. I hope that’s what she thinks anyway. I hope she gets my message.
As soon as we get outside, I stick close to Jake’s side. He whispers as we move, talking to himself more than me. I settle myself on giving each worry a little time to go over in my brain—as much as I know that isn’t useful. I just cannot work out what Michelle was thinking, taking off like that. I keep desperately trying to find some logic in there somewhere. Surely she knew that we’d worry and look for her? What could be so important that she’d risk all of us?
We quickly cover the area near the warehouse before deciding to expand our search out towards the main road. There’s a small business park that isn’t too far away, which we passed yesterday. Jake suggests that she may have gone there looking for supplies. At first I dismiss this idea, before realising that he might have just hit the nail on the head. It’s clear that Michelle thinks she’s been holding us back, so it’s actually likely she might have wanted to do something by herself to rectify that.
The closer we get to the business park, the more convinced I become that this is where she’s going to be.
***
“Michelle. Michelle!” I’ve given up trying to be quiet and am just yelling her name at top volume. We’ve been searching here for absolutely ages with no luck. We’ve even broken into most of the buildings just to check she isn’t trapped. Nothing.
We’ve stumbled across a few infected people along the way. Obviously some people did try to hide inside buildings when they noticed early signs of the virus, but it looks like the predictions were correct—once AM13 is in your blood stream, you have no hope. You will succumb to it. Jake actually had to kill a couple of them when they tried to attack us. I looked away as he brought his axe down into them over and over again. I shouted at him to make sure he got them in the head, but didn’t pluck up the courage to check if he’d followed my advice. I’m sure he must have done the job right, because it’s unlikely we’d have escaped unscathed otherwise. I just can’t bear the thought of the killing, or the dead bodies we’re leaving behind.
I’m also desperately trying to ignore the blood covering us both. The smell is making my skin crawl. We must look like mass murderers, which doesn’t help me deal with what we’ve done. I just sincerely hope we can get back into that warehouse later and change out of these clothes. I won’t be able to feel anything close to normal until the evidence of this day is out of my sight.
The fear is really gnawing in my stomach now. I just can’t believe we haven’t found her yet. What if something bad has happened to her? Possible scenarios are finally making their way into my brain. I’ve been trying to force them away all day long, but now I can’t stop them. What if she’s been eaten? Or just bitten and decided to get away from us? Or what if she’s been kidnapped? Or caught by the authorities? The only hole in all of these theories is me and Jake. Why would any of these leave us behind?
The only other possibility is that she was starting to go loopy with pain. What if she started to hallucinate and crawled off into a ditch somewhere? Would we have found her, if that was the case? We’ve looked just about everywhere. Oh God, I feel so awful. I just want to know exactly where my friend is.
Jake keeps trying to say something, but can’t seem to find the words. I know exactly what it’s going to be. He’s going to tell me that we’ve looked all day, everywhere possible, and shouted her name loud enough for anyone to hear. He’s going to add that we’ve worn ourselves out, wasting a whole day of supplies by not progressing on our journey, and another day of looking will be pointless. He’s going to tell me that if we haven’t found her by now, we never will. I can’t bear to hear those words, so before he opens his mouth again, I interrupt.
“No!” I announce, startling him. “We have to stay, we can’t just leave Michelle. You know we can’t. She’s injured, and probably alone somewhere, frightened.” He makes a noise as if to speak, but I keep on going. “She’s my best friend. She would stay for me, and I’ll stay for her. I know you want to go and get this journey over with, but we started it together and we should end it that way. If we leave her now, we give her no chance of surviving. She may even be back at the warehouse already!”
Jake nods tightly, remaining silent. It’s clear that there’s no changing my mind, and I’m sure that a part of him is relieved really. He isn’t being callous, I’m sure of that. He’s just focusing on finding his son, and surviving.
I hold my breath as the door to the warehouse swings open, but my heart sinks into my shoes at the emptiness and my mobile phone is still abandoned on the floor, exactly where I left it, taunting me. Frustrated tears prick my eyes at this horrible situation. How has everything gone so wrong?
I eat a few bites of food in silence, shrouded in misery, before climbing ba
ck into bed to try and get some rest. After some time, I feel Jake’s arms snake around my waist, trying to comfort me. I know I should probably shake him off, but I’m just too scared and upset to face the night alone.
I don’t sleep a wink. Thoughts of Michelle just swirl round and round in my mind. I’m still trying so hard to work out where or why she might have gone. I think back to our conversations before we left—planning our breakout, giggling at our rebellious nature—trying to piece together a solution. It’s then I realise maybe she headed back to the office to try and get help, to get her leg sorted. It was pretty bad and it would have only gotten worse without medical attention. That’s why she left her bag behind, so Jake and I would have plenty of supplies. And she didn’t tell us because she knew that we’d insist on going with her, which would put us way behind schedule. Plus if Jamie had let us in, we would never have escaped again. She was thinking about us, putting our needs before her own.
As much as I hope this is the truth, I still feel bad for Michelle. I hope she makes it in one piece and Jamie is kind when she arrives. Also, I wish she’d told me. Yes, I would have gone back with her, but I wouldn’t have minded. This journey isn’t exactly fun and she knows how important she is to me.
Oh God, I just hope she turns up tomorrow and we can put all this behind us. At least that way we’ll know for sure what has happened.
Chapter
Twenty-One
The morning slowly arrives with still no sign of Michelle. The desperation is starting to consume me now. This is getting ridiculous. People don’t just take off for no reason in the middle of a dangerous virus-riddled situation like this! Why the hell has this happened? I just can’t believe that she’d leave us with no clue of her whereabouts. I’d never do anything like this to her, ever!