The Abandoned Trilogy (Book 1): Twice Dead (Contagion)

by Suchitra Chatterjee

  “It doesn’t matter,” Rachel turned to Wolf, ignoring her brother for the moment, “For what it is worth Colonel, I am sorry, really sorry.”

  “You weren’t involved ma’am,” Wolf said, “Captain; get the troops ready to leave right now.”

  “Where are we going Sir?” Elise said.

  “Back to Thorncroft.”

  My eyes went huge at these words, “Oh shit,” I whispered.

  “To collect Private Jasper and Corporal Peters?” Elise said. So they had been missed. Sooner than even they had anticipated.

  “No, to join them,” Wolf replied and I groaned out loud, “Do you have any more of this inoculation you created?”

  Zimmerman shook his head, “I can make more, but I will need some of the pathogen…” the explosion of glass made me step back and even Phoenix pushed his chair away from his computer. He momentarily lost control of the Bee-in-the-SKY and it fell, but no one noticed it because the Twice Dead body hurtling through the French Windows followed by gunfire was what everyone in the room was interested in.

  Phoenix had to take the Drone right up to the ceiling to get it out of the way of flying debris. Not wanting to lose the Bee-in-the-SKY, he flew it out into the open through the shattered doors.

  I had briefly seen Elise and Wolf pulling their guns, but that was it, and outside it was chaos because there was more than just one Twice Dead.

  “Oh Christ,” I said and I thought about Private Salter. Where was he? Was he still sitting on the truck step? Had he been bitten, or worse, eaten? Oh Shit!

  “What is going on?” I turned at the sound of the voice. Corporal Peters was standing at the door, I wasn’t quick enough to put myself between him and the computer screen, but that wouldn’t have made any difference as the audio was still on.

  He strode into the room and pushed me to one side. He stared at the screen and what was on it, shock etched on his face as he watched the scene unfold from the lens of the Bee-in-the-SKY. Bullets flying about, people screaming, Wolf and Elise’s voice shouting out orders.

  “What the fuck?” Corporal Peters grabbed hold of my arm, “What the hell is this?”

  “Your old unit getting the shit kicked out of it by the Twice Dead!” I twisted free from his hold.

  “Where are they? What the hell is going on?”

  “They’re about 70 miles away from here,” I said, it was no use trying to hide anything anymore from the young soldier, “They were redeployed by Epsilon Command, to pick up survivors, Corporal Peters, this contagion didn’t happen by accident, it was done on purpose.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” Corporal Peters barked at me.

  “They went to this place to pick up a man called Zimmerman,” I grabbed the papers that Phoenix had printed off from his bed and shoved them under his face, I had to make him believe me and so my brain went into overdrive with what I had to say, “It was a mass Human Cleansing, no one was supposed to survive worldwide, a New World Succession for a new world, only it went tits up, the pathogen that caused the contagion wasn’t safe, Zimmerman apparently tried to warn his fellow scientists, but they didn’t listen to him, he returned to his family here in England to try and save them, but the pathogen was released earlier than even he expected, but he had created an inoculation for the pathogen, that was why Wolf was sent to Birenchester, Zimmerman probably managed to get hold of someone in your Epsilon Command and that is why your quarantine here was cut short.”

  Corporal Peters was standing rock still, clutching the papers I had thrust at him, his pupils were dilated, but at least he was listening to me.

  I took another breath, “And that’s not all, Duke and Charles, they are Epsilon Command plants in your unit, the rest of you, well you are all just combat soldiers, cannon fodder for their use, all the other survivors that were rescued, they’re dead, apparently they contracted the contagion when they were taken from their place of rescue, only that wasn’t what happened, they were murdered by whoever was an Epsilon Command plant in the military unit that found them.”

  “Murdered?” I could see that Corporal Peters didn’t believe me. Didn’t want to believe me. He shook his head.

  “Bullshit,” he said. He started to walk away when he heard Wolf’s voice again on the computer screen. His eyes swiveled and I realised that Phoenix was playing back what the Bee-in-the-SKY had recorded. Thank fuck Phoenix had included a recording ability into his Drone.

  The young soldier watched and listened, right up to the attack of the Twice Dead.

  “Now do you believe me?” I said quietly.

  He didn’t speak for a moment, but when he did, I saw he had gone into soldier mode and I was glad, “If all survivors were being killed off, why wasn’t the same done to all of you?” he snapped at me.

  “But it was, only we knew more than any of you,” and I told him about the vaccinations we were supposed to have been given and also the phials that Duke had put in the Yellow Room, replacing the medication that Paul was taking for his pain.

  “All the Zombies,” Corporal Peters said trying to quickly process the mass of information I was throwing at him, “I thought they were heading for cities.”

  “So did we,” I said grimly, “Something has changed, don’t ask me what, we know Jack Shit.”

  “They are the Twice Dead,” Phoenix spoke as he flicked the Bee-in-the-SKY back on. We saw that some of Wolf and his people had got away, trucks were moving, there was no sign of Wolf’s jeep, obviously it had been abandoned.

  I couldn’t see who was in which vehicle, but there had been casualties, before Phoenix moved the Bee-in-the-SKY to follow the departing vehicles I saw a host of Twice Dead devouring several combat clothed bodies, they were umbrellaed over their doomed prey, rising and falling like deadly mutant swans.

  “I hope those Epsilon Command bastards are having their entrails sucked on,” I said to Phoenix.

  Corporal Peters grabbed my arm again, I winced I was going to be black and blue very soon “The Colonel is coming back here?”

  “Yes,” I nodded my head.

  “That might not be possible,” Phoenix said and we both turned at his words. He had switched from the Bee-in-the-SKY to the Epsilon Command Drones that were still out and about. It wasn’t just a few rouge Twice Dead that were out and about, there were hundreds of them, no thousands would be more accurate. Fuck.

  “They are driving blind,” Phoenix said from his vantage point at his computer, his fingers lightly going over the mouse pad as he steered his Bee-in-the-SKY, keeping it airborne, “They won’t stand a chance, they’re heading for a grouping of Twice Dead.”

  “We have to try and help them,” Corporal Peters said, “Shit we have to help them!”

  “How?” I said helplessly, “What can we do here; we’re miles away from them?”

  “Radio,” we turned, Adag was standing at the door, for how long I don’t know, but obviously, enough time to understand what was going on.

  Of course! Mitch’s military radio.

  “Phoenix bring your computer into the office! NOW!” I shouted and this time I grabbed Corporal Peters arm, “Can you get them on the radio?”

  It took a moment for him to register what I was saying, but seconds later we were all in Adag’s office and Corporal Peters was frantically fiddling with the knobs as Phoenix plugged in his computer.

  “Get Seb and Paul,” he said without looking up from what he was doing, “I need their help.”

  Adag swiftly left the room. It gets a bit hazy for me after that. I remember Corporal Peters using the radio, his head bent forward next to the mouthpiece, his knuckles white as he gripped it.

  “Alpha Delta to Sunray!” Corporal Peters barked into the radio mike, “Alpha Delta to Sunray!” It seemed to take forever; I remember that the world around me sounded hollow and empty. I did hear people speaking, but I wasn’t sure who was saying what. My eyes were on Corporal Peters and the radio, which for the moment was deader than the Twice Dead.
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  Corporal Peters twisted various buttons on the radio, his fingers moving almost as fast as Phoenix’s on the computer keyboard. I wished we had Private Salter with us, he was a communications geek.

  How much time passed I don’t know, but Wolf’s voice suddenly came over the airwaves. Loud and clear. He was alive. I was surprised how relieved I was. Really surprised.

  “Sunray to Alpha Delta,” his voice was clear, calm, though I suspected he was probably shitting himself privately. I knew I was.

  “Colonel you are flying blind,” Corporal Peters spoke rapidly into the radio, “Heading into more trouble.”

  “Get on the dual carriage way,” Phoenix said, “Look for signs for the A233, keep on that road; it will take him to the village of Linton, it’s clear of Twice Dead for the moment.”

  Corporal Peters relayed the message. I realised that Adag had wheeled Paul into the office and he was wedged next to Phoenix, his hollow face animated and alive. He had what looked like a silver remote control in his hand. He was clicking on it.

  My hearing seemed to come back to normal; I heard a crunch of wheels. It was Seb.

  “Our dish needs more power for the Bee-in-the-SKY,” Phoenix said without looking up from his computer screen, but he was aware that Seb had arrived, “Can you link it to the solar generator?”

  “On it,” Seb said and swung his wheelchair away from the office and shouted for Gabe and Percy to help him.

  I had to leave the office; I had an urge to remove myself from the gravity of the situation. I saw Percy and Gabe running out after Seb into the garden. I heard them shouting. I moved to toward the dining room doors to see what they were doing. They were trying to move the generator. It had long cables, but it needed to be moved a good fifty feet in order to be in line with the satellite dish on our roof. It had taken six of Wolf’s men to get it off the truck and into place.

  “Cass, Stevie!” I shouted, “Cass! Stevie! We need your help!” They came running along with Eden and Jasmine who had been in one of the furthest bedrooms clearing it out.

  Seconds later, we were all outside with Seb shouting orders as he unhooked wires and gathered them up.

  Between all of us, we managed to carry the generator to its new place. It wasn’t easy but we did it.

  “Hurry!” Seb shouted as he began to jam plugs and wires back into place into the generator, he had a huge black cable wound over his arm, one of the ends had a round three pronged plug socket on it which he pushed into the back of the big machine, the other end was the polar opposite with three thick metal prongs coming out of moulded black rubber, “Eden, Jasmine get the ladder from Mitch’s garage!”

  The girls had no idea what was going on, but the sense of urgency compelled them to obey. It was a heavy ladder, big, but between them, they managed to carry it from the garage to the front of the building.

  The ladder was swiftly put against the wall and raised up to the overhanging ledge that lead to the home’s satellite dish. Seb held out a long cable with the separate socket on it, “Someone has to go up there and plug this into the black box by the satellite, not the grey box, the black one.”

  “Oh God,” Gabe said his face draining of colour, “I can’t do heights.”

  “Me neither,” Percy said his face equally as pale, “We both have really bad vertigo, that’s how we met, at a Vertigo Support Group.”

  I almost burst out laughing at the absurdity of it. I grabbed the plug off Seb.

  “Hold the ladder,” I said to the two men. I tied the cable around my waist and grabbed the sides of the ladder. My leg brace is made of a special kind of plastic, flexible and luckily not heavy.

  I hopped onto the first rung and moved upwards, I didn’t look downwards, just upwards. I was terrified and I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull myself onto the ledge, which was some 15 feet above us.

  The ladder had been custom made for the building so it had two thick metal hooks that were now wedged into a purpose made concrete lip in the wall so it was pretty stable, but that didn’t stop me thinking about how high up I had to go to get on the roof itself.

  My hands grasped the top of the ledge, my fingers feeling the gritty coldness of the stone, I felt them slipping, oh shit, I was going to fall! My fingers came away from the ledge, but I was moving upward, not falling as I expected, I felt myself being pushed on the bottom, hard, and Stevie’s voice, shouting to me, “Grab the railing Lucy!”

  I saw the railing sticking out of the roof, just under the other side of the ledge, my hands flayed about, but I managed to grab it and then I was scrabbling onto the roof, thankful I had my trousers on, but I still scraped my legs through the cloth and it hurt like a bitch.

  The roof of the home where the Satellite dish was flat and gravel covered. As I got up, I unwound the cable from my waist, and then Stevie was behind me, pulling the cable with me as it was heavy and we were running, or rather I was hopping toward the dish and the boxes.

  Two boxes, one black, one grey. Black box. It was sealed. I almost screamed, but Stevie was on his knees in front of the black box and seconds later it was open and I saw the point in which to push the plug.

  I couldn’t have done it without Stevie, it took both of us to force the plug in and then Stevie rushed back to the edge of the roof.

  “It’s in Seb!” he shouted.

  “Go to the grey box!” Seb shouted back up, “Push all the switches from green to red, do them three at a time!”

  Once again, Stevie had to help me get the grey box open. There were about thirty or so switches. Three at a time. Seconds later the satellite dish began to rotate.

  “Tell Seb the dish is moving,” I said to Stevie. He relayed the message and we got a reply that this was OK.

  Stevie turned around to me and said, “I can see the coach.”

  Coach? What coach? Oh of course, Mitch and Private Jasper. Thank God!

  Ten minutes later Mitch was up the ladder, his face ashen. To my surprise, he hugged me and then hugged Stevie.

  “Go back down;” he ordered us both, “I will deal with this now.”

  The thought of having to use the ladder to go down to the ground made me feel ill. Stevie took hold of my hand and said kindly, “I will help you Lucy.”

  And he did.

  In the office Corporal Peters was relaying information to the Colonel whilst Phoenix told him where the Twice Dead were. The army convoy had moved off the dual carriageway and were now on B roads.

  “How many made it out?” I heard myself ask. Private Jasper was at the window with his revolver, which he was loading. He looked up at me.

  “Seven down, two slightly wounded, but not by the Twice Dead,” he said.

  I felt sick.

  “Who?” I said. I thought of Private Salter, and my stomach churned.

  “No idea as yet,” was the response.

  “The Twice Dead are following them,” Phoenix said from the computer, “They are moving a lot faster.”

  I moved to the screen and looked at the Drone footage that was running alongside the Bee-in-the-SKY on Phoenix’s computer screen.

  The once shambling Twice Dead were moving faster than the last time we had seen them. Men, women and children, and the Sentinels, moving their troops along, following the survivors of the Birenchester attack, converging from all directions.

  It reminded me of a couple of blockbuster Zombie movies I had seen on YouTube. The Twice Dead weren’t as fast as they were, but they had certainly increased their speed from the last lot of footage we had viewed.

  Evolving. They were evolving.

  “You need to get everyone inside now,” Private Jasper said as he snapped his revolver into his holster and started to check his rifle, “Everyone in the cellar who isn’t able to handle a weapon of some sort.”

  I turned to Stevie, Cassidy, Eden and Jasmine who were hovering nearby. Jasmine had picked up on the urgency of the situation and surprisingly had not tried to get Corporal Peters attention. She looked at me
and I gave her a reassuring smile.

  Gabe and Percy looked at me questioningly.

  “Take the dogs girls,” I said to Eden and Jasmine, “And go into the cellar, Cassidy, Stevie, get Mitch and tell him you need to go to the store room for the things from the Sports Shop, he will know what you mean, tell him to find something for Gabe and Percy.”

  Stevie and Cassidy hurried away. I heard Cassidy asking Stevie what was wrong and Stevie saying that bad people were coming.

  “We want to help too!” Eden said.

  “You’ll help by looking after the dogs,” Gabe said and added before she could start to argue with him, “They’ll be frightened, take them downstairs and keep them with you.”

  “We need Phoenix and Paul here in the office,” Corporal Peters said from where he was sitting, he was now loading his revolver whilst waiting for Wolf to request further information, “They are our eyes and ears.”

  I nodded my head and limped to my room where I retrieved the Glock along with three rather large boxes. I hadn’t looked at them properly; just glanced under the bed and saw they were there.

  I pulled them out; two were much larger and heavier than the other. To my surprise, one was a box full of Glock cartridges and a spare Glock whilst the other two were filled with 60 green M67 hand grenades.

  There was a note on top of them, written by Wolf I think for it said, “I really hope you don’t have to use these, just pull the pin out and throw them as far as you can, please remember to then drop to the ground and cover your ass.”

  I laughed even though nothing was really funny at that moment.

  Private Jasper’s face was a picture when I showed him the grenades.

  “Don’t ask,” I said and then I loaded my Glock and went to find Mitch. He was with Cassidy, Stevie, Gabe and Percy in the storeroom, he had given them all cricket bats and I was surprised to see that lying on the table behind him was a samurai sword.

  He saw me looking at it and he smiled faintly, “My Grandfather bought it back from Burma after the war, a trophy, never thought I’d ever have to use it.”

  “Where’s Seb?” I said suddenly.