“Can I help you?” she asked me concerned.
“I’m looking for doctor Toni do you know where she is?” I asked her.
“In her lab maybe?” she replied.
I shook my head at her, “No she wasn’t there, its urgent do you know which apartment is hers?”
She smiled, “Yes it’s that one”. And she pointed to the one that would be positioned directly above the lab on the lower level.
I thanked the woman and she left to get on the lift whilst I pretended to knock on the door and wait, as soon as the lift doors closed and she was gone I set to work breaking into the doctors flat. It was surprisingly easy to do but then again the builders that had converted the wards hadn’t been able to use the best materials it was all second hand and used materials from other building sites.
Inside I could tell the doctor was maybe a little OCD with the cleaning and décor arrangement, she had pictures on the walls all placed at the same height and all in the same frames. She must have paid a good price to get someone to do a supply run for those. There were bottles of bleach all lined up in her kitchenette area, along with washing up liquid, sponges and gloves. She must really have loved cleaning in the old life to hoard it all now, I took care not to dislodge anything that would make her suspect I had been here. The bedroom door was closed and I took a quick breath before slowly opening it, her bed was neatly made with three teddies all sitting in precise positions next to the pillows, she had managed to get hold of a very modern and plush looking wardrobe, opening it I saw she had loads of the same white coated outfit along with an expensive looking evening dress and one outfit that looked casual and comfortable. After finishing looking round I could tell that Micah was definitely not here and hadn’t been for a while, there were no men’s belongings or things, it looked like she had just erased him from her life. I went back to the kitchenette and had a quick rummage in her bins, Bingo! Underneath some paperwork was a photograph of Toni and Micah, they looked happy. The picture had been taken out of a frame very hurriedly and crumpled up, why bin the picture if he was ‘Ok’? Had he like I expected turned and she was trying to cover up things and hide what was going on?
I glanced up at the clock in her room and sighed I had about ten minutes to still meet Monique before she went to work with the Boss, I left the doctors quarters and locked the door behind me making sure that it all looked the same as it had done before I went inside, even the lock just clicked back into place. Rushing down the stairs to my floor I just bumped into Monique as she was leaving.
“There you are, I was worried I thought something might have happened!” she exclaimed.
“I need to talk to you”, I said pulling her into a corner so we could talk.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
So I filled her in on the doctors edginess, leaving the lab unlocked and unmanned and then lying to me about Micah’s where a bouts.
“So you just broke in to her flat?” she whispered looking around us as she spoke.
“I had to know if she was telling the truth about him, he looked really ill, really sick to the point of turning and now he’s gone”, I said.
She bit her lip, “So what do you think happened?”
“I can’t know for sure but I think he turned and she either killed him and disposed of him or she’s hidden him somewhere”, I replied.
“Hidden him where? This whole place is full of the eyes and ears of the Prime Minister, if she finds out he turned and the cure didn’t work….” She trailed off.
“Then she might come looking for me and Callum, Damien knows obviously that I nearly turned and had the cure and he knows Callum had the cure. If she finds out it didn’t work for Micah she might know me and Callum aren’t completely infection free. Plus all she’s got to do is raid the lab and look at Toni’s notes”, I said rubbing my tired temples and wishing that the impending headache wouldn’t come.
“Look I better go ok, I’ll keep an eye on the Boss and if she hints of going near the lab I’ll let you know”, she said placing her hands on my shoulders, “What mess have we got into Stacie?”
I shrugged, “I really don’t know but I’m beginning to think that I don’t trust the doctor much”.
As I watched Monique go off to work I feared for her, what if the doctor was setting us all up and eventually makes out to the Prime Minister that we were the ones going to throw her off her throne. She might just be mad and grief stricken enough to do just that if he has turned, especially when she hoped that our cure might help him.
I went into my apartment and straight into the kitchenette to find Chantelle had been in and had placed a bottle of water by the sink. I scooped it up and drank nearly the whole thing in one gulp, next to it she had also left me some homemade bread from the shop downstairs. I mentally thanked her as I was starving, once I had been for a little nap I would go to find her and thank her properly. Walking back out into the living room I noticed a note had been stuck to my bedroom door, I paced over to it snatching it up and unfolding it.
‘Stacie I’ve heard from the doctor she’s told me about us both not being cured, I don’t know how to feel about it. Does it mean we will both turn at some point or are we infected but somehow immune now from the turn? I’m so sorry at the way I treated you back in Brighton, I really need to see you to talk about something it’s important! I have the day off tomorrow can I come and see you then? Say about 2pm as I know you need some sleep. Just leave a note at my room if you’d rather I didn’t but if I don’t hear from you I’ll take it as a yes and I’ll see you then.
Sorry,
Callum’
I put the note in my trouser pocket just in case anyone was to come in and see it, I fluffed up my hospital standard pillow and lay down, within in minutes I was in a rather unsettled sleep.
My dream took me to an old abandoned house, the windows were all shattered and covered in slimy green moss, other plant life had infiltrated the walls and were now growing inside. My view of the house was distorted with interference sparking in like on the old television sets but I worked through it to see the rest of the place. I was standing in an old bedroom, the bed had been torn to shreds with claws and pure force, the curtains had been stained by blood a long time ago and were now a rotting brown with dead flies littering it like sequins on a dress. A small crease of sunlight faded in through the strange rotting curtains casting a coffee coloured glow around the room, a smell of death hit me but I didn’t reach as I was used to the smell now it had become second nature to put up with it. I raised my hands to open the curtains and nearly fell over in shock, my hands were the elongated claws of a Crusher, they were dirty and blood stained with grime from months of hiding in a dark a dingy ward at the back of the hospital.
Freaking out I rushed over to a broken mirror which had shattered shards all over the bedroom floor, reaching it I tried to peer into what was left but all I got was a puzzle piece effect of a crushed face. I let out a petrified scream, there was no way I could have turned without knowing, where was I? Had I turned and fled the Boss’s sanctuary? Or had I turned and killed everyone before going into hiding? I turned to the window and pulled open the rotted curtains, the sunlight pierced my eyes and I felt blinded for a moment before fighting to look out, I spotted the hospital and focused on it. It was like I was sending out electric feelers under the ground, they traversed through the soil and concrete until it reached the hospital, I could feel the Shanti town and all the bodies were hot and alive. Inside the main building I could feel all the alive bodies walking around doing their daily business until……An infected one caught onto the invisible radar it wasn’t were I expected it to be, I now knew my body was still asleep on the upper levels somewhere, I wasn’t looking through my eyes but one of my Crusher’s and they had detected a threat in the same building as me.
Suddenly one of the other Crushers grabbed me, it forced me to turn round before screaming in my face…it almost sounded like RUN!
I sat upright
in my bed, my heart hammered so hard I felt sick, I had to make sure Cain and the others were safe. Jumping off the bed I rammed some clean clothes on that had been left for me as mine were sodden in sweat, before rushing out the door, I swiped my rifle just before locking up and I ran the whole way down to the lower levels. I rushed to Chantelle’s apartment and banged on the door but there was no reply.
“If you’re looking for the girl with the baby she’s gone to work at her crèche”, a small foreign woman said with an Arabic accent.
“Thanks”, I said and turned on my heel to go to the crèche, once I was at the floor where all the businesses were I calmed down a little as I spotted her and Cain happily playing with six other children. There was another girl there and I recognised her from the camp back near Brighton.
I knocked on the glass door and Chantelle smiled as she stood to open it for me, “Stacie hi, I wasn’t expecting to see you up so early it’s not even lunch time”.
“Er I wanted to thank you for the water and bread”, I smiled taking Cain from her and giving him a cuddle, he tried to chat to me in his own little language and I felt my heart melt at how cute my sisters child was.
“That’s ok, are you sure that’s all, you look worried?” she said.
I looked up from Cain’s cute little face and tried to not look so worried, “Look I think something might be happening over the next few days, I think it’s going to be trouble and it might force us to leave this place, I just want you to be ready to leave right away if you have to”.
“Stacie what’s going on? We only just got here”, she looked saddened by my news.
“Look I just want to keep you two safe and Ollie I need to find Ollie”, but I said the last part to myself, “Look just be on the lookout for trouble, it might come in the form of guns, fighting and weapons but it might come as the infected”.
“Stacie?” she sounded tired and confused.
“That’s all I know so far ok. And look I know she seems nice but don’t trust the doctor, don’t trust anyone that isn’t you!” I said passing Cain back to her, “And Chantelle”.
“Yes”.
“If anything ever happens to me, promise you will look after Cain for me”, I begged.
“You know that I will…Stacie stay safe ok we need you just as much as you need us, I know you think we can survive without you but you seem to hold us all together somehow, don’t be a heroine unless it’s really necessary”.
“A heroine? I am no hero of any sort, you are for taking on my sister’s child as your own”, I smiled.
“I’ve been there since the moment he was born, I feel connected to him in a motherly way. You know that I will always be there for him no matter what but he needs you too, he needs his aunt”, she said.
I nodded, “And no matter what I will be”.
She turned from me and locked the crèche door, she looked a little pale but she just laughed and started playing with the children again. The girl from the camp was signing and clapping her hands and all the children were following her. The crèche wasn’t completely ready there was still a small amount of decorating to be done but I knew that the mothers here needed to work and get money to keep their children warm and clothed so any mention of a crèche would mean pressure on Chantelle to open it right away. I just hoped that she hadn’t done it all for nothing and that all those children would be safe.
I headed off to the half of the building I knew Ollie would be cleaning, it didn’t take me long to find him he was scrubbing the floors to the toilets on the Boss’s floor, I knew I couldn’t really talk to him about what I knew here so I wrote him a quick note and when I cuddled him I put it in his pocket and told him to read it when no one else was watching.
“Is everything ok?” he asked me.
“No”, I told him the truth as that’s what he said he always wanted, “But it will be, I’ll make sure of it”.
He looked at me hard in the eyes not blinking, “I want to help, you said that the next time I could help”.
I felt numb in my chest as I had agreed to that but he was just a kid, “Read the note Ollie in private then come find me at my apartment tomorrow at around two, Callum will be there and we can decide what to do. Like I said, this is the next time and I need your help”.
He smiled but it wasn’t a smug smile that he had gotten his way, it was a nervous smile that showed me even though he was so young he was growing up to be a strong and unstoppable young man.
As I left him to continue his job I nearly walked right into Psycho who was walking in from his shift but he was a little early to be coming in now.
“Is everything ok?” I asked him.
He looked me up and down and snarled in his aggressive tone, “It will be once I tell the Boss what’s going on”.
“What do you mean?” I questioned him.
“We were attacked by a group of creatures but by the looks of things a hell of a lot more are coming. Must be brought here by our smell or yours, the newbies”, he replied.
I felt my heart slow down he hadn’t cottoned on to us yet, “How many creatures? Do you need help?” I asked.
“No we’ll be fine to sort them out, little girls like you should be seen and not heard. Now run along and play with your dollies or something”, he then huffed off to tell the boss.
I headed back to my apartment, locking the door behind me and placing a chair behind it to barricade myself in, I knelt down and placed my hands to the floor I had an idea. I wanted to know how many creatures were coming and I wanted to find out what that Crusher had sensed. I closed my eyes and thought for a moment before trying to make everything leave my mind, I needed it clear and free from anything that might distract me. Then I pushed it out, all the electrical feelers I had felt and seen the Crusher from my vision come dream do, I traced them all down the walls and floors until I reached the ground, I then forced them outwards like an electrical pulse it flashed out and searched all around city streets, turning and curving, weaving and winding until it hit the infection maybe a mile from here. In my mind I could feel them coming, there had to be hundreds of them all teamed up to force their way to the thing they wanted so badly, fresh human flesh. I tried to enter their minds like I could the Crushers but I wasn’t connected to them like I was with the others and it just flushed them with a cool power making them angry and howling, their throaty, vile cries curdling the blood of the people who could hear it.
Then I thought about it, maybe that’s the distraction we need to take down the Boss, send out all her reinforcements to take down the threat and leave her unattended then we could get rid of her but what happens when all her army of people come back to find her murdered? Will chaos erupt? I sighed and began to bring back the electric current before stopping and gasping, I felt it, the infected thing the Crushers had sensed. It felt huge like a mutated infected, I tried to feel and locate it properly but all I knew was that it was in the deep lower levels maybe the basement.
I snapped all the power back into me and stood up fast, I needed to find it and destroy it before it got loose and killed everyone here. I ran out into the ward completely forgetting to lock my door and flew down the stairs as fast as my legs could possibly carry me, I swung round corners like a mad woman and raced along down the much lower levels. Pausing momentarily I quickly sent out a flicker of the power to try and narrow it down as to where this new threat could be hiding, I felt the invisible feelers reach out and trace through the walls, there it was just a few corridors away from my position. Sprinting off I ran round before skidding to a halt as I could hear voices coming my way, the guards must be patrolling this area but how come they haven’t found the infected? Maybe they knew about it and chose to ignore its threat or they might not know and they too could be in grave danger.
Looking around I spotted a small cut out section of wall which housed a high trolley with a blood pressure machine on it, I pulled it over slightly and squeezed behind it just as the guards turned the corner. I waited and
tried not to breathe or move a muscle as they chatted between themselves they didn’t even notice that the trolley was sticking out a little since the last time they walked past, which in my judgement was bad security, they should if they were good at their job pick up on the small details.
Once they had cleared my section of corridor I snuck out and pushed it back in slightly but not all the way just in case I needed to use it to hide again. Taking a few steps forward I realised I didn’t need to send out the electric pulse to try and find the infected I could feel it close by, just by the hairs on my neck standing tall to attention. I slowly walked next to the wall and traced my hand over it feeling through it to see what room the infected was hiding in but it was as if it felt the current as I heard a low grumbling howl which probably wouldn’t worry the guards as it could have been mistaken for the grumble and groans of the building itself but I knew exactly what it was. I turned my head to the direction it sounded from and I briskly walked towards it, then I came to the door which I knew it was behind. I placed my hand on the metal which was as cold as ice, I knew the creature was on the other side and that it too had probably placed its hand to where mine was, ready and waiting to crash into mine to take me down. Then all of a sudden a huge smash erupted through the door sending a shaking feeling up my arm and into my bones, the creature was smashing its fists on the door pounding away trying to get out and escape, trying to run to feed, trying to get to me.
I took out my rifle which I had hung round my neck and over my back, I aimed it at the door and waited. The door itself began to buckle and bend under the immense pressure from the creature’s hits and punches. I felt my mouth run cotton dry as the thing crashed away, I could see by the height it was hitting at that the thing was taller than a normal creature.
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