The Infected (Book 6): Last Shot

by Gowland, Justin

  “You’re a fucking twat.” He said pushing past me and into my room.

  I turned in time to see him sit down in my chair. “Hey Mike!” he said before lifting my glass and downing the contents in one swallow.

  “Hi, Chris!” Mike said sipping at his own whiskey.

  Chris lifted the empty glass “I’ll have another.”

  Grumbling as I walked over I snatched the glass out of his hand and refilled it. I grabbed another glass and filled it for myself before handing the other to Chris. He downed it again and set the glass on the coffee table.

  “Aren’t you on painkillers?” I asked him.

  He shrugged “Like that has ever stopped me from having a drink.” He turned to look at Mike. “I thought you would be in here with him,” he said jerking his uninjured hand in my direction.

  Mike nodded.

  “I suppose you were talking about the oil rig?”

  I sat on the edge of my bed and said “Yeah, I was just telling Mike that if he showed me how to use the lifeboat I could do the job on my own.”

  Chris looked at Mike and raised his eyebrow.

  Mike looked at the glass in his hand and said “I haven’t given you an answer to that yet Marc. Like I said you really do need two people and I also said I would come with you.”

  I turned to face him “Mike not to be too polite but I really only need your help in showing me how to pilot the lifeboat.”

  “Marc do you really think that we’re all chicken?” Chris said in his rumbling tone.

  I paused before saying anything because my temper was starting to rise. “Look I don’t think any of you are chicken, but each one of you has a good reason for not going. Chris, you and Tessa are having a kid. Mike is going to be said kids granddad. David has his wife and his two kids. Amy just fucking hates me at the minute. So that just leaves me and the fucking pup and I don’t trust that fucking dog.”

  Mike stood and walked over to the counter and poured some water into his glass. He drank that before coming to sit back down. “Look, Marc, everyone would want to help take them out. Well everyone but Amy for some reason. But is this the right time to do it?” he said perching on the edge of his chair.

  I looked at the ceiling before answering “I’m not certain if it is the right time to do it, but I am beginning to think it might be the only time to get it done.”

  Chris actually nodded and said “To be honest I agree with you Marc, but you can’t do it on your own.”

  I was starting to get sick of going round and round. “Ok how about this, Mike you come and show me how to use the lifeboat. Chris, you set up some delayed charges for the legs, something that will stick to them. I’ll tootle (travel in a leisurely way) out to the oil rig. Chuck the charges on the legs and tootle back to shore before they blow.”

  Chris started laughing “Did you just fucking say ‘Tootle’?”

  Mike was grinning as well.

  “So what if I did?”

  “Nothing you just sound like an old geezer when you said it.”

  “Fuck you! You’re older than I am.” I said grinning.

  We all started laughing and the tension seemed to slowly drift out of the room. For the rest of the night, we sat drinking and laughing. Tessa came in later on and dragged both Chris and Mike out of my room whilst casting the evil eye at me. I was too pissed to be bothered, so I blew her a kiss and waved them all good night before falling onto my bed.

  Chapter Eleven

  That night I had another nightmare. I was struggling against hands that were trying to hold me down, but their faces were shrouded in darkness. The hands were pushing hard into my shoulders and every time I cried out to be released they would grip tighter. This seemed to drag on and on. The pain from their hands getting worse with each second. I started to cry and said that I would do anything if they would only release me.

  “Anything?” a ghostly voice asked.

  “Anything please,” I said crying, tears streaming down the sides of my face and running into my hair.

  The hands disappeared and I struggled to my feet. I was standing in a dark room and could see no further than a few feet in any direction. A light clicked on and I saw a little girl tied to a chair.

  The voice returned “Kill her!” it said.

  “No, why would I kill a child?” I shouted.

  “If you do not kill her we will cause you more pain than you could possibly handle.”

  I shook my head and screamed “No…no, I won’t do it!”

  The hands returned and pushed me back to the ground and the pain was worse. I screamed into the darkness and the hands gripped tighter and tighter. This seemed to go on forever till I begged to kill the child. Knowing in my heart that I would never be able to, but I might be able to free her from her bonds. The hands faded and I staggered upright. With wobbling legs, I staggered to the child. She had a cloth over her eyes and mouth. She was no older than four or five, had the darkest hair I have ever seen. Her dress might have been yellow at one time but was so filthy you might never have known. Her small legs were just as dirty and she was barefoot.

  “How am I going to kill her?” I asked to the darkened room.

  A large hunting knife was slid out of the darkness. I picked it up and looked at the handle and saw a cross of bone inlaid into it.

  “One strike.” The darkness said. “One strike is the only chance you will get.”

  I raised the knife and for anyone looking it looked like I was about to plunge the knife into the poor girls head. My hand struck downward but at the last second my hand moved and I sliced through the bounds tying the girl to the chair.

  “Run quickly!” I shouted turning my back to her. Hoping the hands would return whilst I had the knife.

  “That is most unfortunate.” The darkness said right before something landed on my back growling in my ear.

  I turned my head slightly as I fell and saw the little girl grasping my shoulder. Her eyes were gone and her mouth was filled with rotten stumps. She pulled back opening her mouth so wide I thought I might fall in. Her head came down so quickly all I could do was scream. I fell forward with the feeling that the skin on my neck and shoulder was being torn away in chunks.

  I woke with sweat streaming into my good eye and my head felt like I had a jackhammer instead of a brain inside. Rolling to the side of the bed I screamed out loud in pain. I had rolled over onto my injured elbow. I rolled quickly onto the other side of the bed and I threw up everything that was in my stomach which was much more than bile and stomach juices. I rolled onto my back whilst trying to calm my rolling stomach. The burning in my throat made me feel like throwing up again. Slowly I opened my good eye and stared at the ceiling. The smell of the sick beside the bed made my stomach roll again. I sat up quickly and shuffled to the bottom of the bed and stood up. The room spun and I ended up sitting back down quickly. Taking my time I tried standing and then took baby steps toward the bathroom. Turning I sat on the toilet and held my head in my hands. The room had stopped spinning and my head started to clear. When I felt that I could stand and not fall over I looked into the mirror. My eye was still swollen shut and the bruising still covered most of that side of my face, but it did seem to have faded slightly. Shaking my head, I stripped and turned on the shower. Ten minutes later I felt better and was climbing into my clothes when I heard a knock at the door. Trying hard not to hurt my arm as I pulled on my t-shirt I opened the door and Amy was scowling back at me.

  Running my hand through my hair I mumbled “Morning Amy!”

  She stood there looking at me and she looked as if she wanted to fight me just like Chris. The only difference in that was that I doubted that I would be able to stop her, at least not in my current state.

  “Fuck you’re good morning!”

  ‘Oh, shit!’ I thought.

  “Look, Amy, just get it over with so I can clean up my puke.”

  That shocked her; it took her a few seconds to think her way around that. “Do you kno
w how much trouble you have caused?” she asked.

  I shrugged my shoulders “To tell you the truth I don’t have a fucking clue what you are going on about. Mind you everything I have done lately according to you has caused heartache and pain.”

  “This isn’t a joking matter.”

  “Look I know that all women think that men can read minds, but we fucking don’t! So why don’t you tell me what’s got you all bent out of shape?” I asked slowly getting pissed off with her cryptic words.

  “Tessa is upset and it’s not good for her.”

  At last her cryptic words began to make sense. “Look all I did was have a few drinks with Chris and her dad last night.”

  She put her hands on her hips “That’s just thing you didn’t just have drinks with them. You started to make plans for assaulting the oil rig.”

  I paused and soaked in that information because to tell you the truth with the hangover I couldn’t remember what exactly we had ended up agreeing on. “So what have I supposedly done then?”

  Amy looked at me in my good eye and said “You convinced Mike into helping you with the boat and Chris has been down in the armoury all morning sorting out explosives for you. Tessa is beside herself because she thinks that Chris is going to follow you to the lifeboat. She thinks that if they do go with you, then it will be the last time she sees one or both of them.”

  I shook my head “Look it’s clear that you think I am the fucking devil or something, but I can’t and won’t stop either of them doing what they want. Unlike you I am not a fucking control freak.”

  Amy’s face went bright red and her hands started to flex at her sides. To be honest I knew she was losing it but I really didn’t give a shit about it. If Chris and Mike felt the need to help rid the world of that shit stain Benton’s Pharmaceuticals then who was I to stop them. I just wanted to put right all the mistakes that I had made by letting that fucking cat out of that lab.

  Amy finally opened her mouth “Just who the…..” I didn’t let her finish, I slammed the door in her face and locked it from the inside.

  I could hear her screaming at the door and even heard a few bangs on it. I spent the next half hour cleaning up the puke and trying to get rid of the smell using anything smelly I could find in my room. When I had finished I noticed that the screaming had stopped and so had any banging on my door. Throwing the cleaning materials in the large bin I headed for the door.

  I actually paused before opening the door. I was scared that Amy might still be out there in the hallway and this time she would have a gun pointed at the door just waiting for me to open it.

  Chapter Twelve

  Opening the door, I found the hallway clear and that no one was nearby. I smiled to myself don’t get me wrong I didn’t like upsetting Amy, but lately her mood swings had gotten out of hand and each time they were pointed toward me. Stepping into the hallway I closed and locked my door. The last thing I needed was to return and find her inside my room. I managed to get to the lifts without any interference from anyone and took the first one to level two. I walked into the armoury and Chris was sat at the table fastening blocks of C4 to digital timing units.

  “Hey, Chris!” I said sitting down at the table.

  He looked up with red eyes “Hey Marc!” he said before going back to the explosives.

  “You look like shit mate!”

  He sat back and ran his good hand through his hair “Fucking feel it mate. Tessa and Amy were trying to make my life hell this morning. I escaped up here and luckily they haven’t come to find me.”

  “I doubt they would mate. Amy was all but saying I am the devil incarnate. They think I have brainwashed you and Mike into coming with me when I leave to take down the oil rig.”

  He turned to look at me “When did she say this?”

  I shrugged “She came and stood outside my room screaming at me this morning.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, to be honest, mate I don’t know what has got Amy’s undies in a bunch but whatever it is, she likes to take it out on me.”

  Now it was his turn to shrug which caused him to grimace.

  “I gather you’re doing the explosives?”

  He nodded “Nothing special really, just some C4 and timers attached to some magnets that Philip found in a storage room somewhere. Easy to set you just set the amount of time using the up/down buttons and then hit the green button to set it. Hit the green button and the countdown starts.”

  “How much do you think I’ll need?”

  “Shouldn’t need more than two blocks per leg.”

  “So eight of them then?”

  “Sounds about right but to be on the safe side I’ll give you extra.”

  “Great!” I said smiling.

  We sat together as he slowly finished setting up the explosives. I would have given him a hand, but I really didn’t want to blow up the Bunker. We talked as he worked and as usual the talking turned to everything that had brought us to this point. It was good to talk like that. The door opened and Tom stepped inside looking at a clipboard.

  “Hey, Tom!” Chris and I said at nearly the same time.

  He looked up from the clipboard and his eyes went wide when he saw what was on the table in front of us.

  “Erm…hi guys?”

  Chris actually laughed “Don’t worry mate these are for the oil rig.” he said waving his good hand over the explosives on the table.

  “Do you know what you’re doing?” Tom asked looking rather nervous.

  Chris just gave Tom a rotten look and carried on with the last two explosives.

  “I don’t,” I said and jerked a thumb toward Chris. “But he does!”

  Chris laughed and I stood up and walked toward the door and turned before stepping out into the hallway “I’ll catch you late Chris and Tom try not to disturb him too much.”

  I stepped into the hallway to the echoes of Chris’ laughter. Next stop for me was to find Mike. I had a rough idea of where in the bunker he would be, but it might mean that I run into either Amy or Tessa and I really didn’t fancy that. The first level hallway outside the lifts was full of the kids from the makeshift school. I walked through them and headed toward the office that Mike and David had been using to plan the works to the outside of the Bunker. I heard a few whispers from the direction of the kids once I had gotten through them and walked away. I couldn’t hear what was said so I just kept on going. I walked through the doors to the Operations Centre and headed for the side the offices were on.

  I heard a door open and the Doc’s voice “You come back for another check up in a month Amy. Hopefully, you will be feeling better by then. Just remember you need to rest and not push yourself too much.”

  I ducked around the side of a column and watched as Amy walked past and out through the door and into the hallway. So that answered why she was being such a twisty bitch lately, she wasn’t well. Now I felt like a huge tit for being such a shite toward her. When I felt it was safe I headed for the office. I knocked on the door and then slowly opened it. David was looking at the door and I walked inside.

  “Marc!”

  “David you haven’t seen Mike by any chance?”

  “Yeah! He and a few of the guards went out scavenging for something he said would help when you both went to the lifeboat.”

  I stood trying to figure out what he was going outside of the fence line for. “Any idea what he was heading out for?”

  “Sorry mate I haven’t got a clue. He did say that you would like it!” he said shrugging his shoulders.

  “Ok! How’s the planning going?”

  “Not bad we have plans down for at least three outside buildings. The planted area is coming on and the people tending it says that the shoots are already showing on some of the vegetables. The guards have only had to put down a few infected since the horde that was let loose against the fence. So all in all I would say things are going ok for us at the minute.”

  This was great news it would mean
that if I got killed or couldn’t make it back at least the Bunker would be set.

  “Mate that’s great news. Right, I’m going to head off and have a rest. If anything comes up and you need me I’ll be down in my room.” I said turning and heading for the door.

  “Sure no problem…” There was a pause “erm…Marc could I ask you something.”

  I turned with my hand on the door handle “Yeah! What’s up?”

  “Are you sure you don’t want the rest of us to come with you?”

  I sighed “Look we all know this mission is possibly a one-way trip and if by the grace of god I do make it back here. I really don’t fancy the idea of telling some one’s partner that they died.”

  He nodded his head “Fair enough I thought I would ask one more time. When are you thinking of going?”

  “As soon as this eye and arm gets better and once I have hashed out the plan with Mike.”

  With that said he looked back down at the paper plans and I left the room and headed to the fourth floor and my bed. Walking the hallways was quite strange for me because everyone was bustling about and very few people stopped to say hello.

  I lay there on my bed and looked at the ceiling. I stared at the small cracks in the concrete and the different patches of colour. Drifting off I slept for a few hours.

  Getting up I decided to go have some food in the dining room. I walked in and saw that most of our little tribe were getting food and winding down from a hard day outside of the Bunker. Grabbing a tray, I piled some stew of some sort into a bowl and turned to look for a seat. I saw Rosa sitting with Tom and headed over.

  “Hey, guys mind if I sit with you?” I asked looking down at them.

  Tom looked up and nodded at the empty seat opposite them, but Rosa never even raised her eyes in my direction. Sitting down I placed the tray on the table and started to eat.

  “That’s a lot of explosives Chris is setting up,” Tom said.