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

by Suchitra Chatterjee

  “We all speak English,” Jasper said.

  “No,” I said as I walked away, “You lot speak Americanish, I am the only one speaking English here!”

  Jasmine, of course was with the children. She was keen to find things for them, like a basinet, a car seat, toys and clothes and such like. Peters was given permission to help her.

  Rachel had briefly checked on her grandchildren, they had been glad to see her and she had hugged them, and then looked at Peters and Jasmine and said apologetically, “I’m really sorry to keep on imposing on you.”

  “It’s OK,” Peters said with a smile, “They’re no trouble, are they Jaz?”

  Jasmine smiled and shook her head, she was happy to look after them, this was what she wanted I thought, to be a mum, to love and look after those she loved.

  Private Salter had gone with Stevie to look for chips which I remembered were crisps in English, whilst Mitch was Elise going over the supplies they needed. Despite his protests, Mitch had fallen quickly back into his old military ways with ease. Not that he would ever admit that.

  Percy had gone with a group of soldiers to pick up food, he looked resigned to his fate I thought.

  Gabe was walking the dogs, accompanied by Seb who really didn’t want anyone’s company. I think Gabe was a bit pissed at his husband over the recall to duty but he was a pragmatist if nothing else and I was sure they would sort things out between them in the long run.

  I was aware of Bryson now hovering in the background and I said as I headed in the direction of pharmacy area yet again, “Want me to stick a GPS tracker up my bum for you Bryson?”

  “It would certainly be helpful Ma’am,” was the response. I laughed, shook my head and went to see what I could scavenge again in the way of meds and other useful items.

  Mitch was driving the coach, he and I had barely had chance to speak since his recall back to active service.

  Well Mitch had spoken to me, words to the effect of what did I think of desertion, unfortunately there was a serious sense of humour of failure from a one Private Isaacs who heard Mitch’s seditious mutterings and seconds later Mitch was hauled over the coals and given a bollocking by Elise which he took stoically as he stood to attention. Coward that I am, I slunk off, and left him to his fate.

  I sat up front in the coach, beside me was Wolf. Elise was sitting next to Phoenix who was controlling the Bee-in-the-SKY to make sure our way back to Thorncroft was clear of all things Twice Dead.

  Rachel had asked if she could ride in the van with her brother. Wolf had refused at first but I took him to one side and asked him to let her.

  “We need her to work with us,” I said when he started to refuse my request, “And he is her brother, blood is blood as they say.”

  Wolf saw the sense in my words, he nodded his head, and I told Rachel she could ride with her brother. She thanked me and hurried over to the van.

  Bubba the Bitten as we were to call him looked surprisingly well. Nothing like the Gorilla who had succumbed to the contagion. Bryson was sitting with him.

  In theory he should have been trussed up and sedated, but no one wanted to do that. From our experience of the transformation into a Twice Dead, Bubba had to go into a coma and that was when it happened. Right now though he was wide awake and cracking jokes with his friends.

  The coach was hot and crowded and some of us smelt like we had rolled in Twice Dead Goo. Well we had actually and there were a lot of comments about certain people needing baths as soon as possible.

  We were overloaded, but no one was complaining. We rumbled down the road, starting our journey for what was to be our shared home from now on. New for the Colonel, his people and the Zimmerman’s, but for us we were going home, to a place we all knew well.

  Karma was squashed under the legs of Private Bryson, but he was content. Jack and Russell were happily snuggled in their owner’s arms.

  “Well we have our work cut out for us Corporal Williamson,” Gabe was really rubbing salt into the wound with his husband, who glowered back at him, “We are going to be really busy in that kitchen, I hope all of you like wild garlic and apple soup,” Gabe tugged on the ears of a contented little dog sitting on his lap, “Because you will be eating a lot of it from now on!”

  “That stuff stinks,” Private Salter said from behind him, and then added “Worse than you do,” And he leaned over and sniffed at Percy’s neck, wrinkled his nose and fanned his hand in front of his face whilst going, “PHEW!”

  “You think I smell bad now boys,” Percy said with an evil smile when the laughter had died away, “Wait until you all start pooping wild garlic scented turds because you will, remember, I’m in charge of the kitchen!”

  There was a groan from Private Topaz, “I fucking hate garlic,” she said making a face.

  “I like the garlic and apple soup we made,” Eden said licking her lips.

  “Me too,” Stevie agreed with her, “And the garlic butter bread too.”

  “It is really yummy,” Jasmine tried to reassure Private Topaz who remained unconvinced, “You liked it, didn’t you Curtis?”

  Peters grinned, “Yes but the gas it gave me after…” Jasmine slapped his arm as he laughed.

  “It is really nice,” I said to Topaz, “It’s easy to cook too, we eat it all the time.”

  “Does that make it a special needs soup then?” Eden piped up. There was a moment of silence before I started to laugh, as did Seb, Mitch, Stevie and Jasmine. It took a minute or two for the others in the coach to get the joke and then the laughter came thick and fast.

  “I think,” I said peering through the gap in the headrest at Eden who grinned at me, “That will be the name of that particular soup from now on.”

  “Much better than calling it the Twice Dead Soup,” Percy said which made us all laugh again.

  Cassidy was asleep, the noise in the coach not waking him up, his head rocked against the window, his mouth partially open. Stevie took some pepperoni sticks out of a heavily laden bag he had bought onto the coach from the supermarket. He handed them around and there was the sound of foil being ripped open and then everyone was chewing the salty meat. I ate my stick slowly, I actually preferred the spicy Meatster stick from Aldi’s, but this filled a gap.

  Poppy, the baby was finally asleep. She had been crying for a while but a bottle feed and loving cuddle soon settled her. She was put in a car friendly basinet that the supermarket had also provided and Jasmine was sitting beside her, watching over her, like a wolf mother watches over its cubs.

  Corporal Peters was seated next to Dov and Seth who were squeezed into one seat. They were squabbling, they were hot, tired and fractious, not surprising really.

  Corporal Peters spoke to them both sharply, and Dov began to whimper. Corporal Peters lifted the little boy out of the seat, and as he did Seth viciously pinched his brother’s leg, making the boy scream in pain and of course burst into tears.

  Corporal Peters was having none of that, he was up in an instant and seconds later Seth was wailing because his bottom had been smacked by the soldier.

  I watched Corporal Peters sit back down with Dov on his lap who snuggled against him, sobbing softly as he clutched at his combat shirt collar with his chubby hand.

  “You, young man,” Corporal Peters said to the older boy, who was bawling loud enough to wake a Twice Dead before its time, “Will be going straight to your bed when we get home.”

  This made Seth wail even louder and Jasmine checked the baby in the basinet, and then said to crying child, “You shouldn’t pinch your brother, Seth, that’s very naughty.”

  Clutching what was obviously his burning bottom, the boy sobbed that Dov had been pinching him beforehand.

  “That doesn’t mean you should pinch him back,” Jasmine pointed out sensibly taking me by surprise and then she moved in her seat and pulled the crying child onto her lap, and wrapped her arms around him, and he sank into her, weeping for a bit longer but she rocked him as she had rocked the sl
eeping baby not so long ago, humming gently until his snuffling had stopped and he was falling asleep against her. She stroked his damp head and kissed it.

  I rolled the green foil from the pepperoni stick into a ball and pushed it into the pocket of the borrowed combat jacket. Jasmine’s life was set out for her now I thought. Her focus was the children, her skill wasn’t in battle, it was the skill of motherhood. Like Eden, the punch drunk pumpkin had come into her own. And like Eden it wouldn’t be easy but then who ever said life was easy?

  I turned to look out of the window, the empty road was a reminder of all that no longer existed, and Mother Nature whispered that she was stronger than all of us, than the New Age Succession, the Thorncroft Rebels, even the Twice Dead, that she would always win always come first, but if we were really careful and played by her rules, she just might let us survive.

  This was our new world, our new beginning whether we wanted it or not. We had survived a mass extermination attempt by the New World Succession. A bunch of disparate disabled people whose lives until now revolved around a beautiful residential home where we were gilded prisoners.

  Two cripples, four retards and a not so idiot savant. That was us in a nutshell. Add to the mix, Mitch, ex-soldier, recalled to duty, and former driver for the home, Percy and Gabe, a married couple with two dogs, a shit load of Gung Ho American soldiers, one vile collaborator to the New World Succession, an abandoned German Shepherd and of course the mass murderer supporter Professor Zimmerman and his family. What a bloody combination I thought and I smiled because I didn’t know what else to do.

  “Something amuse you?” Wolf had obviously seen me smile.

  “Just thinking,” I said, “Anyway I’m not talking to you.”

  “For God’s sake don’t think,” he shuddered at my words, “You’re dangerous when you think too much.”

  “And you’re not?” I said and then I added, “I am what I am.”

  “A pain in my ass that is what you are,” he said.

  “You are not my favourite person either,” I pointed out.

  “Fighting comes naturally to you, I think,” Wolf glanced briefly over his shoulder to the soldiers and civilians that filled the coach, checking them, ensuring what was left of unit and us were, were they were supposed to be.

  “It happens when you wake up, after years of being of being asleep,” I said.

  Wolf turned to look at me, “We are outnumbered on all sides, you know that as well as I do,” he said it quietly.

  I didn’t make a flippant remark because he was right but that didn’t mean it was the end of us all. Far from it.

  “If my life had stayed the way it was, as it was before,” I said carefully, “I wouldn’t have minded, I didn’t know anything else, but now, well, we have two choices, die or fight to create our own world, our own succession, dying I am not afraid of, it’s the living that will be hard, but I am buggered if those bastards are going to win, the succession or the bloody Twice Dead.”

  “Yes,” he said and he nodded his head, “So now you understand why we have do things in a certain way, you can hate me all you like Lucia, but this is HOW it has to be, you have to fight fire with fire, the New Age Succession is world-wide, and they must have planned for this for a very long time, what they didn’t plan for was the rise of the Twice Dead, that is the only edge we have, you said it yourself, and it’s a poisoned edge because the Twice Dead are as dangerous to us as they are to our enemies.”

  He sounded sad and tired. I blinked. “I don’t hate you,” I said somewhat taken aback by his words, I frowned, “Why do you think that?”

  “Because of what I have had to do to you all since I arrived,” he replied, and I was shocked to hear a slight crack in his voice, he covered it well, but it was there, below the surface of the man he was, “And now this, forcing Mitch and Percy back into military life, and making all of you to live by military rules and regulations, that were never meant for civilians, least of those with disabilities,” this was so hard for him I realised, he was trying to make things right with me but they had never been wrong in the first place. Bloody annoying, yes, but wrong, no.

  Yes, I was pissed about certain things, but I saw the logic in them, despite the fact I was seriously pissed. Didn’t he see that? He didn’t and then it hit me. What he couldn’t say to me, what he was hiding from, even now. I was momentarily floored. I wasn’t expecting this.

  When we were in the woods, when he was shaking me until my teeth almost fell out of my head, he had said he needed me, along with how much he cared about me, then tried to cover it up, I hadn’t noticed, because I was so distraught at the time. He needed me, he cared. As much as the others needed me and cared but in a different way, in a way I certainly never expected to happen in my life time.

  We hadn’t just fucked in that field, oh no, we had done more than that, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Oh God.

  I could let sleeping dogs lie, and he would continue to be the hard assed American Colonel giving out orders, being ruthless and cut-throat in order to ensure all our survival.

  And yes, my first instinct was to turn away from him, that would be the easiest thing to do, but, you know what? Since I had decided to take charge of my own life, I did everything the hard way on a point of principal.

  I took Wolf’s left hand in mine and entwined my fingers into his. I felt him go still, I stared out of the window to the side of me, aware that he was looking down at our hands.

  “You don’t get off that easily Wolf,” I said, “Suck it in as Seb would say, I’m here to make your life miserable, really miserable.”

  His fingers tightened around mine, “Of course,” I added, “We will more than likely kill each other before the week is out, so you won’t have to suck it in for all that long.”

  I turned to look at him, and the tired and sad look, had been replaced with a combination of, confusion, hope and fear.

  “Ever thought that what you feel, just might cut both ways?” he hadn’t but he did now and the grip on my hand increased and I snorted, “Not very bright are…” I didn’t get to finish my sentence because he kissed me, he leaned in and caught my face with his free hand, drew me toward him and kissed me full on the mouth and, yes, it was nice. Really nice.

  I held his cheek with free hand and pressed my face against his.

  “I’m still going to make your life miserable, mind you,” I reminded him, it was his turn to laugh and I kissed him this time and he closed his eyes briefly, his hand so soft against my cheek.

  I took his hand and kissed the palm, letting my tongue roll briefly over the salty skin. He laughed again, shook his head and said, “You are something else Lucia Lal.”

  “Disabled? Damn! I didn’t realise!” I said and he jabbed me in the ribs and I doubled up with the giggles. It was then I became aware of Elise watching us, I think her mouth was open ever so slightly.

  “Yes Captain?” Wolf said without even looking in his subordinate’s direction, as he placed a hand on my leg and kept it there, “Is there a problem?”

  “Erm, no Sir,” she stammered.

  “I sincerely hope not,” he said and his voice was unfriendly.

  “Elise has her own problems she needs to deal with,” I said calmly as I straightened myself back up, “Don’t you Elise?”

  Elise’s expression was one of hostility and resentment. It reminded me of the day we first met.

  “If you say so,” she said curtly.

  “Oh I do say so, bonking does that to you, I guess, especially when you do it in the back of a van.”

  The coach swerved and I heard a snort from Mitch in the driver’s seat, and people behind us swore and shouted for Mitch to keep his eyes on the road,"I told Seb it’s getting to be a habit with Thorncroft residents.” I didn’t mention Wolf and me and what we had done in the woods not so long ago, but Elise wasn’t stupid, she could put two and two together fast enough.

  Wolf wasn’t slow on the uptake either. He raised
his blonde eyebrows and then slowly turned his head to look at Elise.

  She was lucky that Phoenix who was sitting beside her had his ear phones in and was lost in his own Bee-in-the-SKY world. And if those sitting behind her understood what we were talking about, they had the sense not to say anything as it was officer talk.

  “Trying to be funny Major” Elise was furious with me, her using the rank I had been slapped with proved that, but she kept her voice calm.

  “What are you afraid of?” I continued, as she glared at me, “Are you afraid of caring about a man in a wheelchair, do you think it makes you any less of a soldier or an officer?”

  “It’s none of your business, Ma’am!” Elise was fit to burst with anger, resentment and embarrassment.

  Anger because I had pushed her over, resentment because Wolf had put me above her rank wise and embarrassment because she had fucked Seb, not only fucked him but liked it, I had been there when she had done it.

  “Oh but it is my business,” I said flatly, “Get over it Elise, deal with it one way or another, you think is going to be easy for any of us? I sure as hell don’t know what the futures hold, I wish I bloody did, but I don’t, so you banged bones with a man, well hello, this is the Twice Dead 21st century!” I suspected ears were wagging in the back of the coach but to give everyone credit, they were talking among themselves and not making it obvious.

  “You don’t know what you are talking…” Elise began but I interrupted her.

  “Actually I do, and you know what, bollocks, damn well sort your head out, I’m sorry I pushed you over by the way, I really am, because I like you, you treated me like a human being when others didn’t, but I know why you are actually pissed off with me right now, and you know what Elise? Resentment and jealously doesn’t suit you at all, nor does embarrassment, so here is your first order from the military drafted civilian who now outranks you, deal with it all, soon, including Seb, and that by the way is an order!”

  How Wolf kept his face straight I don’t know, “Sir,” Elise said in a strangled voice but Wolf didn’t appear to disapprove of how I was sorting out not just Elise’s issues with me, but those she potentially had with Seb and he said as much.