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

by Suchitra Chatterjee

The end of the world might have taken place but the survivors wouldn't stop shagging, we had proven that already!

  “Eden, OK?” I asked.

  Yes, not squeamish,” Nat moved to another shelf, reaching for some pink boxes and looking at them, “We need to think about contraception,” I wasn't expecting that but I didn't react adversely.

  “Condoms?” I said.

  “And the pill, “Nat found them quickly along with iron supplements and added them to his growing pile of medication for taking with us.

  “Might be too late for Jasmine,” I said.

  “It’s already too late for Private Spencer, “his words made my mouth drop open, I tried to visualise the soldier he was referring too, petit, red headed, very pretty. She rarely spoke, she had been one of the soldiers who had helped dig Zimmerman from out under the truck at Ashby Ridge.

  “How far along?”

  “Eight weeks, she didn't realise.”

  “Whoops,” I said.

  Nat didn't laugh, “Duke’s the father.”

  I went still, Nat nodded his head, “Apparently Corporal Duke had other vices, most of the unit were scared shitless of him, no one said no to him.” I could have told Nat that Duke’s comrades were afraid of him.

  “Rape.”

  “After a fashion.”

  “Rape is rape,” I said.

  “She consented.”

  “After a fashion, does Wolf know?”

  “He will when you tell him.”

  I took a step back, “Me?”

  “Yes.” Nat said and he waited for me to argue with him.

  “Can you do an abortion?”

  “Yes, in fact as we are in an International state of emergency I can force her to have one,” his answer shocked me.

  “You need Wolf’s go ahead,” I now understood why Nat had drawn me into this awful dilemma.

  His expression told me I had hit the proverbial nail small on the head.

  “Is that what she wants?” I asked.

  “No.” I wasn't expecting that answer. My whole body went cold.

  “She has a job to do and it doesn't include that, at least not right at this moment in time.”

  What could I say?

  “I will tell him,” I said, “But that is all I will do, the decision will be his alone.”

  “Thank you, “and he nodded his head, returning to his work of collecting meds to take with us.

  I stared at an elaborate display of cosmetics on the other side of the counter.

  When did a Zombie or in our case a Twice Dead Apocalypse start to become easy? I heard Karma bark and Bryson’s asking if I was ready to move out. Move out? Shit, Army speak again, problem number 2 in my life.

  Back out on the high street, Nat headed back to his patients and Eden. Private Bryson and I took the things we had acquired back to the coach and then we got word from Wolf via a soldier, everyone bar, Nat, Phoenix, Duke, Zimmerman, his sister, Cassidy, Jasmine and the children were to make their way to the outlet.

  “He’s order bloody mad,” I muttered but I obeyed mainly because Bryson said he didn't particularly want to drag me there kicking and screaming.

  I have never been in a shop quite like the one we all found ourselves in some ten or so minutes later. It was huge. A specialist sporting, camping and ex-military surplus outlet that was spread over a basement and two upper floors. I have to confess I was impressed but I also had a feeling of foreboding. Why did Wolf want us here, and specifically us but not the others?

  “Cricket bats!” Stevie shouted in delight as soon as he entered the outlet and he rushed over to them and started to inspect what was on offer.

  There was no sign of Wolf but Elise was waiting for us. She wasn't friendly, she barely looked at me, instead she told us in brusque voice as why we had been called to the outlet. Everyone in the group had to get clothes from the ex-military supplies on the first floor, and yes before the question was asked, that included the civilians whose presence had been requested.

  “Requested?” Seb said incredulously, “I was practically dragged here!”

  Mitch, who was standing beside me, took his cigarette out of his mouth and said rudely to Elise, “You can fuck off! I left the army years ago!” He turned to leave the way he had come in but he was blocked by an apologetic looking Jasper and Private Reece.

  “Sorry,” Jasper said and he did look sorry.

  “What the bollocks is going on? “Mitch said in a belligerent voice.

  “Where you aware there is a recall to duty clause in a state of national emergency in your discharge papers Mitch?” Wolf’s voice came from above, and we all looked up, he was coming down the stairs, and hot on his heels was Private Rodriquez, carrying items of clothing flung over his left arm.

  “What are you on about?” Mitch frowned.

  “A recall clause, valid until you are of 60 years of age, but Mitch, you are only 59.”

  Mitch’s mouth dropped open in shock as realisation of what Wolf was telling him began to slowly set in, not just with him but the rest of us as well.

  Wolf, followed closely by Rodriquez walked briskly over to where we all had congregated, “Your rank was Sargent when you were discharged, I no longer have a Sargent and I need one, so welcome back to duty Sargent Lyndon,” as he said this Rodriquez held out what he was carrying to the now horrified Mitch. A combat jacket with three stripes on the arms.

  “You are fucking taking the piss!” the old soldier spluttered as he stared bug eyed at the jacket being offered to him.

  “You have two choices,” Wolf’s face was expressionless, “Put it on…or put it on.

  Mitch looked at me and I looked back at him helplessly, “Is there actually a recall to service clause in your discharge papers?” I asked.

  “Well yes,” Mitch was forced to admit, “But it’s very rarely used, in fact it is never bloody used, not for old farts like me!”

  I reached out and took the jacket from Rodriquez, “At least you are an NCO,” I said in a conciliatory voice.

  “Oh fucking hell!” Mitch groaned and he took the jacket off me and looked at it with horror filled eyes, “I’m too fucking old to be back in a uniform!”

  “Tell it to the Marines,” Private Bryson said and Mitch gave him the filthiest look he could muster as he dragged the jacket on.

  “You bastard,” he said to Wolf, and then added, “Sir!” There was a snort of laughter from Peters who turned it into a sneeze because Elise glared at him.

  “Percy,” Wolf turned his attention to the former Herb and Tea Café owner and he smiled at him.

  Percy blinked, looked confused, we all did and then something dawned on his face, and he genuinely went a very funny colour. Something akin to puce and vomit green.

  “Oh shit,” Percy whimpered.

  “An honourable discharge when you were 25, seven years in the 167 Catering Support Regiment RLC, leaving with the rank of Corporal, “Wolf revealed what none of us knew and Percy smiled weakly, “Also with a national emergency reactivation clause, Phoenix is a mine of information on that computer of his, I hope you aren't going to argue with me like Sargent Lyndon just did?”

  “Fuck me!” Jasper said, surprise etched on his face, and he laughed as he added, “He’s one of us! A Grunt!”

  “I’m just a cook,” Percy squeaked weakly, Wolf looked at him steadily, until he added in a defeated voice, “Sir,” and Rodriquez handed him a jacket with the Corporal insignia on the sleeves.

  Percy looked at it with the same horrified expression on his face that Mitch still had on his.

  “Well that has come back to bite me on the ass,” Percy said to Gabe who was far from sympathetic.

  “Its where he learnt to cook,” Gabe said and he shook his head in disgust, “I told him that the small print in his discharge papers would come back to haunt him, I said to him, get it revoked on medical grounds, your vertigo, but did he listen to me? Did he fucking bollocks!” Gabe crossed his arms across his chest, and added, �
��So now I am married to a bloody soldier! Great!”

  There was a trumpet of laughter from Bubba and sniggers from the other soldiers. Even I was hard pressed not to snigger, mainly because of the look that Percy gave me.

  Bryson slapped Percy on the shoulder and said, “That is the best fucking news I have heard all day! Welcome to the unit!”

  “I think I am going to be sick,” Percy moaned but he didn’t resist when Bryson helped him put on the jacket.

  “Everyone else, “Elise said curtly, “Find what kit you can, that includes you four,” these words were directed at myself, Seb, Eden and Stevie.

  Seb was sitting open mouthed in his chair, “I’m disabled,” he said, he didn't look at Elise and she didn't look at him.

  “Me too,” Eden said and she glanced in my direction

  “Me three,” Stevie’s words made me grin.

  “Me Four,” I said, and then I pointed out, “And, you have excluded Jasmine, Phoenix and Cassidy.”

  Wolf was obviously expecting this objection, “Phoenix doesn't need the physical structure we will need in order to survive this new world, his mind is already structured in a way that works best for him and ultimately for us. Jasmine has three children to look after, I doubt if their Grandmother will be able to do that on her own. Cassidy is too volatile and unpredictable in his ways to cope with the kind of discipline we are all going to have to live with from now on,” Wolf saw me stiffen and added, “But that doesn't mean he won't contribute something, it will just have to be well supervised and set to his capability, Seb your expertise with customising wheelchairs was adapted from your racing days, you haven't forgotten those skills, if anything you have improved them, Eden, you have the ability to know when the Twice Dead are about because of your Hyperosmia, we need that ability and we need to understand it more, also you are not squeamish, Lieutenant Barnes has requested you work with as his Nursing Assistant, Stevie, you are quite simply one hell of a warrior with a bat and sword and we urgently need to learn that skill because whatever guns and ammunition we get will at some point run out but the Twice Dead won't.”

  Stevie blinked, he looked at Wolf uncertainly, His unique way of using his sword and cricket bat during the battle of Ashby Ridge was now known as KNC, coined by Mitch, it stood for Katana Noggin Cricket.

  Bubba and Rodriquez were still regaling their comrades with how Stevie had uniquely dispatched many of the Twice Dead, during the Battle of Ashby Ridge, as well as how he had saved Rodriquez’s life when a Twice Dead knocked him to the ground.

  Stevie looked at the two cricket bats he had just picked up and then at me. I wasn’t sure what to say, mainly because everything Wolf had just said was accurate, more or less. I also wasn’t so sure about dragging poor Mitch and Percy back into the military, but what could I do?

  “Can I have a jacket like Kai then?” Stevie said to Wolf and this caused a lot of laughter but it wasn't cruel laughter and Wolf responded in the affirmative. Private Reece clapped him on the shoulder and asked him to help him choose a cricket bat for his lessons in the new and deadly art of KNC, not as Bubba pointed to be mistaken for the delicious chicken once made by a famous Kentucky Colonel.

  Kai said to Stevie, “I’ll help you find one, and one for Cassidy too.”

  Wolf’s words had silenced Seb, he hadn't seen himself as being skilled, nor had Eden, she looked slightly stunned.

  “Oh,” she said and then she smiled. Private Topaz called out her name and drew her in with the other female soldiers, Chang and the pregnant Private Spencer.

  Elise gave me what I can only describe as a dirty look as she joined Eden and the other women, she seemed angrier at me now than before. What had been said for that to happen?

  Wolf turned his attention to me and I crossed my arms over my chest, I said nothing, mainly because I knew he expected me speak.

  A hand on my arm made me turn, it was Bryson.

  “We need to find you some kit Ma’am,”

  “Not a fucking chance,” I said shaking his hand off my arm. This was ten steps too far.

  “Suck it in Lady of Shadows,” Seb said sourly as he swung his chair away in order to follow Mitch, “They outnumber us, in a nutshell we are well and truly fucked.”

  “Well put, Seb,” Wolf said pleasantly, “And just to make you feel even worse, you get a rank too because we need to work together in the same way.”

  Seb’s mouth dropped open and my stomach boiled at the very horror of the implication of his words, “You are quite educated, as well as your mechanical skills, so you get the rank of Lieutenant, the same of as Barnes, Eden and Stevie, come in as Private Second class and you Lucia…”

  “NO!” I yelled and I put both my hands over my ears,” You can kiss my mixed race ass! NO! LALALALA!” I sang out loud, to drown out his words.

  Wolf was smiling even more now, enjoying so it seemed every minute of fucking us all well and truly over, “Tell her Rodriquez, when you pull her off the ceiling where she is currently is sitting!” and he walked off.

  “Oh bugger,” Seb said and he exhaled and then he was gone, his wheelchair sliding over the lino floor at speed.

  “Ma’am,” Private Rodriquez said patiently, I couldn’t actually hear him as I had my hands firmly over my ears but I was able to lip read.

  I dropped my hands to my side, “Go on,” I said in a resigned voice. He smiled then and told me. My eyes widened.

  “Does Elise know?”

  Rodriquez frowned and I remembered that he knew her as Captain Lacks-Renton so I said that.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Oh shit,” well that explained why she was so extra pissed with me. I turned and looked at Private Bryson, “I take it you are still my bodyguard?”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” he said, “Until the Colonel decides otherwise.”

  “I can now make your life miserable, you know that don’t you?”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” he said, and he smiled his lazy Southern smile, “But you’ won’t.”

  “No, I won’t, you are right there, but I will make Wolf’s life bloody miserable,” I said grimly, “Of that I can promise you!”

  I had taken Eden and Stevie aside before we had got back on the coach and told them not to say anything as yet to the others from the home about their new found positions in Thorncroft’s hybrid world of civilians, soldiers and God knowns what we were.

  Stevie had no problem with this, he understood that Cassidy might become anxious if he thought he was losing Stevie’s friendship to the soldiers, he would make sure that his friend felt secure and as with the rest of us, look after him because Cassidy despite his strength and size was the most vulnerable of us all in the home with Kai coming in a close second, though I would never tell him that.

  I think Eden would have loved to lord it over Jasmine, she might not have a boyfriend but she was now getting to do things that in her old world she would have never got to do. She was coming into her own, but I wasn’t going to let her get too big headed, I nipped that in the bud PDQ.

  “Things are changing for all for all of us Eden, even Jasmine, whether we like it or not, we have play our part in it...” I exhaled, “Even me.”

  “I want to tell her,” Eden said in a disappointed voice.

  “I think it will become obvious to her soon enough,” I said to the young woman, “And have you thought, if Jasmine has a baby, you will have to help Lieutenant Barnes to deliver it.”

  Eden hadn’t thought of that. Her eyes went huge at first with shock and then with genuine delight.

  “So don’t try and make her jealous, be her friend, like you are mine.”

  Eden’s mouth dropped open, “We’re friends?” she whispered.

  “Yes,” I said simply, “That is if you want me as a friend.”

  Eden slipped her arm into mine and hugged it, “I won’t say anything yet,” she promised me and then she made me laugh out loud by adding with a sigh, “I will have to put tape over my mouth though!”

&
nbsp; Our next but one port of call was the Mega 24-hour supermarket on the outskirts of the town. It was as silent as the town had been.

  It wasn’t locked, but it was empty of both the living and the dead. We went through the same procedure as we had done in the town with regard to safety measures.

  Elise was pretty much blanking me but I pretended not to notice. I said nothing to her about the rank that Wolf had slapped on me. As far as I was concerned it made no difference to who I was as a person. If he felt that I had to have a rank, well OK then, but it wasn’t going to change me if I could help it. It had taken me a bloody long time to get where I was now as a person, I wasn’t going to muddy the waters anytime soon.

  However, it was bloody difficult to ignore it as all the soldiers were now calling me Ma’am even when I told them not too. Kai whispered in my ear, that if it was ok with me, when we were on our own together as friends, could he call me Lucia?

  “You can call me that all the time,” I said to him, he grinned at me and shook his head, he wasn’t going to buck the military system totally but at least he had a streak of rebellion in him.

  Once it was deemed safe we all went into the supermarket and if it wasn’t for the lack of supermarket staff, we all looked like early morning shoppers, getting what we wanted and needed from the shelves.

  I stood at the automatic doors of the supermarket staring inside at the goods on display, as people surged in, moving to the aisles they wanted to go to.

  “Can I go get some games, Lucy?” Cassidy hovered near my elbow, his breath on my neck, “Can I? Please!?”

  “Yes,” I said automatically and he happily trotted off to find where the games were kept in the store.

  “I could kill for some whiskey,” I heard Bubba say to one of his companions as they came in through the doors behind me.

  “Nothing beats Four Roses bourbon,” Jasper’s voice, “Smooth as milk, 80% proof.”

  “No, it has to be Jim Beam Apple, “Bryson said firmly, “OK, so it’s only 70% proof but that apple in it, gives it that extra kick you need.”

  “It also gives you one of your five a day,” I said, and they looked at me with puzzled expressions on their faces, I sighed, “I keep forgetting, we speak a different language.”