Pointing on to the drawing with my finger, I said “Move the tree line back another ten meters or so. That should give people more time to react to them and hopefully take them down before they start slamming into the fence.”
“They did seem to move a lot quicker than the normal infected.” Mike said, rubbing the back of his head.
“Anyway, that was all that I wanted to come and talk to you about.” I said, turning to leave.
“Marc?” David said.
I turned around to look at them.
“It’s good to see you taking an interest.” He said, smiling.
“Yeah, nice to see you weren’t turning into a basket case.” Mike said, grinning.
Smiling, I left them to it and as I was closing the door I could hear them talking about when to arrange the cutting of the trees. I slipped past the school area and decided to head to the radio room and touch base with Jake. As usual, he had his feet up on the desk, his headphones on and his eyes closed. Walking over, I grabbed his booted feet and pushed them to the floor.
“What the fuck?” He shouted, nearly falling out of his chair.
He saw me laughing and glared at me.
“When are you going to learn?” I asked, holding my sides.
Lifting his headphones off and setting them down, he said “Fuck you! I hoped the infected had got you.”
I tilted my head at him and said “And they would leave you alone because you already look like one of the fuckers.”
His old face broke out in a grin and he held his hand out. I reached down and shook it.
“Good to have you back, Marc.”
“Thanks, Jake. How are things here?”
“Boring,. I’ve had a few chats with a couple of survivors further south but nothing near to us. There has been a few coded messages on different channels as well. When I try to pick them up again they’ve gone as quickly as they came.”
I shrugged “Well, we know that Bentons are out there so it makes sense that they have coded their transmissions.”
He nodded.
“Anything else I might want to know about?” I asked, looking him in the face.
“Nothing really.” He said.
“Okay. Well, I am heading to my room for some rest.” I said, leaving.
I looked over my shoulder and saw Jake lift his feet back onto the desk and slip the headphones over his ears and close his eyes. The old coot will end up dying like that.
Back at the lifts I saw Tom heading my way. He looked up from the clipboard he was carrying and saw me standing there. He stopped and I could see him trying to decide whether to turn round or continue on to the lifts and risk talking to me.
In the end I called out “Come on, Tom, I promise that I won’t bite.”
He walked forward and stood beside me as we waited for the lift.
“It’s good to see you out and about.” He said, looking intently at the clipboard.
Turning to look at him “Look, Tom, it's ok. I understand why you and Rosa never told us who her father was. Tell you the truth, if I had been in your shoes I would have done the same.”
“That’s where you are wrong, Marc.” I looked at him feeling a little shocked “You told everyone about your role in letting the virus out with that cat. Rosa and I did the coward's thing and kept our mouths shut.”
The lift came and I pressed the fourth floor button and Tom pressed for the third.
“I should have said something when I knew that you were heading out to face them on your own but I just couldn’t.” Jake said, turning to look me in the eyes.
“Tom, I have already talked with Rosa about this.”
“You have?”
“Yeah, and I don’t blame either of you for anything, least of all Rosa. You even less so. If anyone is to blame, it is me. I should have listened to everyone and not gone looking for them, but, being stupid, I did.”
Tom looked at the lights indicating the floors and just as the doors opened he said “Thank you.”
I shrugged my shoulders. The doors closed as I watched Tom heading through the doors and into the library. The hallway to my room was quiet and I slowly walked toward my now silent room. Pushing open the door, I saw that someone had been tidying my room. The dirty clothes and bedding were gone and the plates of non eaten food had been taken away. I headed to the small fridge and pulled out a bottle of water and sat in one of the chairs. I noticed that whoever had cleaned the room had taken Spirit’s food and water bowl. I felt the pickle of tears at the corner of my eyes.
Spirit hadn’t been in my life for long but she had a huge impact. She wasn’t the bravest of dogs, but when the need for it was there, she had it in spades. It was funny to think that out of those that we had lost she was at the forefront of my mind. Jay had died too early for me make a connection like I had with Spirit. That, and she had shared my life and room with me every day. So I suppose that she would be in my heart more than nearly everyone else. There was someone that she would never have beaten, but that last time out I had screwed that up big style. I doubted that Amy would ever forgive me for what I had done at the lifeboat station and who was I to blame her.
I sat there wishing that I had something stronger to drink than water. Standing, I headed over to the small kitchen and looked through the cupboards. In the back of the last cupboard was my bottle of Jack Daniels. Grabbing a glass, I went and sat back down. I poured more than a double and swallowed it in one go, coughing at the hot feeling in my throat. The rest of the day and night was taken up by that bottle.
Chapter Twenty Five
Morning came and I woke to find myself still in the chair but someone had come in during the night and covered me with a blanket from the bed. My head throbbed and my throat felt like someone had sprayed the inside of it with glass.
Rubbing my eyes, I glanced around the room and slowly stood up. My head started to swim so I sat back down and waited for it to stop. This time when I tried to stand I did it slowly. I managed it and headed for the bathroom and the shower. Each step made my head feel like I had a lump of concreate inside of it. Reaching out, I flicked on the small light and instantly regretted it. It was like shards of glass piercing my eyes into my brain. I closed my eyes and slapped the wall where the light switch was till I felt it click under my hand. Slowly opening my eyes again, I waited till they got accustomed to the small, dark room.
Stripping slowly, I piled my clothes outside of the bathroom and turned the shower on. I stood waiting for the water to warm and could feel the goose pimples rise on my body. The cool air actually made the hangover seem bearable. With water warm enough, I stepped into the shower and let it run over my and it slowly washed the aches away. Washing took longer than I would have liked but I was hung over and I never had anything on today or any other day.
Stepping out of the shower, I grabbed the towel from the rail, drying my hands first and then wrapped it round my body. With my dry hands I flicked the light switch and this time the light didn’t shoot into my eyes causing pain. Yeah, it still didn’t feel great but it didn’t hurt either.
I walked into the bedroom and went to the wardrobe. I pulled out a grey t-shirt and jeans. Getting dressed was fun because every time I dipped my head, the blood rushed to it causing me to sit up a little too quickly. Pulling on my boots was the worst part but I ended up lying on my back on the floor and lifting my leg, rather than trying to bend over. As I finished, I heard a soft knock at the door. Standing with the same care a baby would I walked over and answered it.
Amy stood in the hallway.
“You look like shit!” She said, looking me up and down.
“Yeah, I feel it as well. I spent the night saying goodbye to Spirit and Jay.” I said, running my hand through my wet hair.
“From the bottom of a bottle?” She asked with a frown.
“Yes, from the bottom of a bottle.” I said, starting to get slightly pissed off.
“Look…”
“Amy, just tell me what you wa
nt.” I said, interrupting her.
She managed to look pissed off and upset at the same time.
“I came to ask if you would like to have breakfast with the others and me.”
“Why?”
“We all heard that you spoke with Rosa and Tom yesterday and you never killed either of them.”
I shook my head. “You think because I found out who Rosa’s dad was and Tom’s boss, that I would have hurt either one of them?”
“Well, David and Mike did have a bet going.” She said with a slight smile.
Yeah, those two fuckers would have bet on anything.
“Ok. I’ll meet you up in the dining room.” I said.
She looked at the ground and said “No, it's ok. I’ll wait here for you.”
“Suit yourself!” I replied, closing the door and heading back to tidy my dirty clothes from the night before. Now I would usually have left them on the floor but I felt like making Amy wait. It was childish but who said I couldn’t be childish every now and then.
Opening the door, I saw Amy leaning against the wall opposite it. She straightened up when the door opened and I stepped out. We walked together up the hallway to the lifts. There was a gap between us and it felt like it could have been a hundred miles but was probably only ten inches. The lift seemed to take its time and we rode it up to the first floor in the same silence we had walked the hallway. A few people came in on different levels and said hello.
I saw a few raised eyebrows when Amy and I walked into the dining room. Mike was the most open. He elbowed David in the ribs and caused him to spill his breakfast. Chris sat with Tessa and he had the biggest grin on his face a man could have. I sat down next to him and Amy headed to the other end of the table where she was pounced upon by Tessa and Jane.
Chris leaned toward me. “So….?”
“No!” I replied.
“Really?”
“Yeah, she knocked and was waiting outside my door this morning.”
“What did she want?” He asked, looking puzzled.
Now it was my turn to look puzzled.
“What?” He asked.
I shrugged and said “Amy said you lot wanted me to come and have breakfast with you all.”
“Oh, she did!” He said, looking down the table at where the women were talking. Their heads were stuck together in whispered conversation.
I was just about to say something to Chris when the door to the dining room burst open and Philip, David’s son came running in.
“Their….their…. their…” He said bent over and huffing.
David got up and ran over to his son and placed his hand on his bent back.
“Take your time son.” David said.
“That’s it dad! We don’t have time. There’s a horde of infected bashing on the rear fence.” Philip said in a strained voice.
We all shot up out of our seats and ran for the doors to the dining room.
About the author.
Justin Gowland was born in Zambia. His father had been working there as an electrical engineer in a copper mine. He returned to the North East of England with his family when he was Three.
He had a normal sort of childhood, but was always interested in reading. He wrote short stories and played a lot of D&D.
On leaving school and he joined the Army as a Junior Leader and then moved onto the adult services at the age of eighteen. One of his last postings was to Hereford and after spending nearly six years he left.
He married again for the third time and it was his wife who said "What’s the point of writing your stories if no one is going to read them?"
Justin published his first series ‘The Reaper Trilogy’ in mid 2014 and is currently working on the Infected Series.
Suicide Run (The Infected Book 5) Page 12