E Virus: The Diary of a Modern Day Girl (Book 1): The Beginning of the End

by Jessica Ward

  Once the bonfire was burning away, the boys finished off the fence. Once it was all done they retired to Hangar 5 for a much needed shower. We didn’t see any more infected that day.

  Chapter 11 – Moving Day

  It felt better knowing we had more space to roam around. Once the Sergeant had given both bases the OK, Lacey and I made our way to Hangar 5. All we knew about the hangar was what Nick and Paul had told us. We were all keen to have a nosey, and see what we had to work with.

  Lacey and I had decided we would move our living quarters to the second base. We both needed a change of scenery, and truth be told we wanted to stay as far away as possible from Duckface.

  Nick and Paul were over the moon when we told them what we were thinking. They had both wanted to move with Andy anyway, so it suited them perfectly.

  Josh and Greg wanted to stay in the main base, they had spent far too long in Hangar 5, and weren’t in a rush to get back.

  The Professor and George had also decided to stay where they were; they had more space and wanted to move the rest of the lab equipment from Hanger 5 over to the bigger base.

  The Corporal moved over with us, so that Andy wouldn’t be the fifth wheel, whilst the Sergeant stayed put.

  Duckface kept to herself, she barely left her room anymore.

  To give my aching shoulder a break, George positioned himself on watch duty. I think he liked being back in action, there was no doubt about it; he still had a wicked shot. He spent most of his life in the RAF, back in the day. He often told us it was where he felt most comfortable, he was in his element being back in the game.

  After Lacey and I packed our things, we made our way over to the newly acquired base. The boys were already over there, eagerly setting everything up, making it a bit more homely.

  I was so looking forward to having a hot shower. Although we had running water in the other base, it was always cold. We had to clean ourselves with cold wet towels most of the time. My hair hadn’t been washed properly in so long; I couldn’t wait to take it out of my high ponytail it was constantly in, and get rid of the dirt and grease properly, that had built up all this time.

  As we entered the base, it saw how much different is was from the larger base behind us. The large base we lived in for the past couple of weeks remained open plan. This base was split into multiple rooms.

  The entrance to the base was obviously the garage. Spare tyres, various tools and even a hydraulic ramp stood in the centre of the room. To the side of the room, gym equipment was piled up in a corner.

  We carried on through the door in front of us to the main hallway. Through the door on the left hand side I could see Andy unpacking. It was a small room, enough to hold a single bed and a small cupboard. But at least he had his own room and some peace and quiet I thought. We waved to him as we passed.

  We still didn’t know where either of us would be sleeping. I hoped that like Andy, me and Nick would still have our own room.

  We carried on exploring our new home. The hallway carried on all the way down to the end of the building. As we passed Andy’s room, another hallway to our left branched off. Lacey carried on towards the end of the building whilst I followed the other.

  I came to a door on my right. I opened the door to find a small kitchen. There was a microwave, a fridge and a sink. It wasn’t much, but it was 10 times better than the non-existent kitchen on board the plane. We had to heat our MRE’s using these horrible pouch things called FRH’s. They came in every MRE box and were designed to heat food out in the field; they made the food lukewarm at best.

  The microwave was a much welcomed alternative. I was already looking forward to the luxury of a hot meal.

  I closed the kitchen door as I ventured out once again into the hallway. Further down the hall on my right was another room. I looked through the window in the door, and saw the remains of the Professors lab. It wasn’t as clinical as I had imagined, most of the equipment had already been taken to the other base, but it looked more like a classroom than it did a lab.

  I looked to the door on the opposite side. This, for now was my favourite room. It was the shower room. It was very basic. Showers lined the walls at the centre of each cubicle. There were around 12 cubicles all lined up. Opposite the showers was a line of 12 sinks, each against a mirrored wall.

  I looked at myself in the mirror; it was the first time I’d taken a good look at myself for a while. God I looked rough. The days of wearing makeup were long gone. My hair was all over the place, I thought I’d snap a hairbrush in half if I attempted to put a brush through it.

  I looked exhausted; my face was thinner but I had the biggest bags under my eyes I had ever seen. It was horrific. It looked as if I had completely let myself go. I stared at myself; it didn’t even look like me. Thinking back to my old life, I never spent hours doing my hair and makeup; I much preferred to stay in bed as long as possible. But I always looked presentable. My hair was always neat and tidy, I never went out without makeup on.

  I walked over to the full length mirror in the corner of the room. I was still wearing my homemade army outfit. I had definitely got skinnier. I was never fat in life; I always stayed healthy size 10. I was now easily a size 8, maybe even a 6. My waist had shrunk dramatically, the arm fat I always complained about completely vanished. My stomach looked a lot more toned, my legs were more defined. I was relieved I hadn’t lost my boobs or my bum; in fact, my bum looked so much perkier than used to be.

  I felt good about myself. All I needed was a shower and I knew I’d feel even better. I left the bathroom and went to find the others. More importantly I went to find my bag. I packed my shampoo and conditioner, given the nest that was currently residing above my head; I’d need the whole bottle to tame it.

  I made my way back to the main hallway and checked the rooms, I shouted to Nick. “Nick, where’s our room?”

  “In here babe” He replied. We had the room right at the end other end of the base. Our room was obviously an old office. He had pushed the desk into the corner of the room and had made us a bed out of two camp beds pushed together. He had covered the beds in blankets, trying to make our new bed as comfortable as possible. He had already brought my bag to the room. I pulled nearly the entire contents of the bag out before finding my shampoo, conditioner and shower gel.

  “I’m off for a shower” I told him. “Don’t forget your towel” he replied as he threw a brown cotton towel at me. With that I ran back to the bathroom, eager to get out of my clothes.

  I switched the shower on and started taking off my clothes. Looking in the mirror I could see the full extent of the damage the rifle had done to me. My whole shoulder was bruised. I could almost make out the shape of the rifle where it had dug in; it was all black and blue.

  I quickly hopped into the shower, hoping the warm water would soothe it slightly. I stayed in the shower for nearly an hour. I had to put 4 lots of shampoo in my hair alone, before I saw a single bubble. The water was black as it washed away the dirt and grime.

  Nick eventually came to look for me as I was taking so long. “Babe, you still in the shower?” he asked.

  “Yeah why?” I asked. “Well it’s been like an hour” he shouted over the flow of the water.

  He pulled open the cubicle door. “What the hells happened to your shoulder?” he asked concerned.

  “It’s ok, it’s just the kickback from the rifle” I told him.

  “looks painful, maybe take a break for a while? Until the bruising goes down” he asked.

  I nodded, “Or, you could kiss it better for me?” I said grinning.

  He looked around making sure no one else was about. “OK” he smiled; he was already tearing his clothes off as he came in to join me.

  * * *

  It didn’t take long for us to settle into our new surroundings. It already felt a lot more homely than our original quarters. We all regularly visited both bases throughout the day, but went back to our own little communities at night.


  The Professor remained as always, hard at work. He was forever writing notes and playing with various chemicals. He worked off a laptop, powered by the main generator. His surroundings weren’t the most advanced, but he did his best.

  George spent most of his time on watch, along with Josh. He was becoming a good mentor for the young private.

  The Corporal and Leon handled the training. They made sure we all carried on with our training on a daily basis. They spent an hour with each of us every day, we learnt hand to hand combat, how to handle different weapons and they even gave us classroom training.

  Andy seemed a lot better in himself. He put all his efforts into his training; the boys had turned the old garage into the gym. When he wasn’t training with Jameson and Leon he was in the gym working out. I thought he wanted to get away from the tension between him and Duckface. They were rarely in the same room as each other. He was doing what he could to avoid her.

  Like Duckface, Greg had started to keep to himself. He had turned very skittish, he didn’t like to be around people, and he was turning into such a recluse. He started behaving very odd. He gave up training and spent most of his time in his new room on the jet. He preferred to eat his meals alone in his room; we only got one word answers out of him at best.

  I never spent much time with him, so I had no idea what made him act this way. I spoke to Josh about him, and even Josh said that it was out of character for him. According to Josh he was always quite talkative.

  John had a theory that the infected shook him up, although he couldn’t understand why.

  “Who knows, he was fine when we we’re out there, he was shooting them all just like we were. He didn’t shit himself or anything. He just got on with it.” Josh told me.

  “He started acting weird the day after all that shit happened. I reckon it all got too much for him and now he can’t handle it. Happens to a lot of people you know” he said.

  I agreed with him, although I still thought there was more to it than that. Over the next day or two he started to go downhill. The odd times we saw him, he looked incredibly pale. It looked like he was coming down with the flu. No one else in the base felt ill, so I decided to speak to the professor about it.

  “Professor, I want to talk to you about Greg” I started.

  “No need, my dear” he replied calmly. “I saw him a few hours ago. I suspect this isn’t just a case of the flu. I took a blood sample whilst he was sleeping. In a few minutes I should have the results” The Professor continued. “Whilst I was taking his blood, I noticed a small scratch on the palm of his hand. It looks to be an infection of some sort. Once I have the blood work back I can figure out how we can treat it”

  “Is he turning?” I whispered to him.

  “I’d say that’s unlikely. I checked his body after I found the scratch. He doesn’t seem to have been bitten. But we can’t rule anything out at this stage.” He lowered his voice.

  I stayed with the professor until he checked the blood. He lifted his head from the microscope he was using and wiped his head. He rubbed his eyes before taking another look.

  “Please, bring the Sergeant to me” he whispered looking up at me. I saw the fear in his eyes and the slight tremble in his voice as he spoke to me.

  I didn’t argue as I rushed off to grab the Sergeant. He was in his make shift office on the plane. “Sergeant, please come with me, the Professor wants a word, urgently” I added.

  He followed me back to the Professor. Jameson and Leon had seen the professor and had wandered over to find out what was going on.

  “Sergeant, I have just run a sample of Greg’s blood. Please see for yourself the results.” He motioned to the microscope. The Sergeant sat down to take a look. After a few seconds he stood up and took a step back.

  “It’s the virus.” The Sergeant announced, taken aback. “Was he bitten?” He asked the Professor quickly.

  “As far as I’m aware, no he hasn’t.” The Professor replied. “However, he has a nasty looking scratch on his hand. I believe he may have come into contact with one of the infected when you were building the fence.” He continued. “His health is starting to deteriorate, as the virus gets stronger. Right now his immune system is trying to fight it, hence the flu like symptoms.”

  “So why hasn’t he turned?” The Sergeant asked.

  “Well, I believe that as the scratch was small and quick, only a small dose of the virus got in. this being the case, his immune system is able to fend off part of the virus, prolonging the effects.”

  “What does this mean? Is he going to turn?” I asked the Professor.

  “I think so. This is something I’ve never seen before so I can’t be 100% sure. Given the results of the blood sample, the virus is already embedded in his blood stream. His immune system will continue to fight the virus, but eventually his body will shut down. When this happens the virus will fully takeover”

  “How long do we have?” The Sergeant asked.

  “A day or two tops” The professor replied bluntly.

  We all looked around at each other, shocked and disturbed by the news. I felt sick. I hardly knew the guy but tears still welled up in my eyes. He wasn’t going to be around for much longer. That I knew was certain. What do we do about it? Would we wait until he turned and shoot him like we did the rest, or would we shoot him now eliminating the danger before he became a threat to us all?

  “What’s your call Serg?” Leon asked.

  The Sergeant stood for a moment and thought. “We ask Greg” The Sergeant replied as he headed off back towards the plane.

  A few minutes later the Sergeant came out, leading Greg to the Professor.

  “I’m infected aren’t I professor?” Greg asked.

  “There’s no easy way to say this, but yes” replied the Professor solemnly.

  Greg looked around us all and fell to his knees. “I’m so sorry” he sobbed. “I should have said something, I was afraid this would happen. I didn’t know what to do; I locked myself away, I tried to stay away. I don’t want to hurt anyone”

  He was a big man, he had a good heart but he was a proper lads lad. Seeing him fall to his knees, he looked like a scared little boy. He was completely and utterly defeated.

  I knelt down beside him. “How did it happen?” I asked.

  He sat on the floor, wiping his eyes. “One of those fuckers got to the fence beside me, it got its hand through the fence and grabbed me. I pushed it off me and was about to shoot it, when it’s nail scratched through my hand” he said holding his hand up. “After the fight was over I scrubbed my hand trying to get as much shit out of it I could. But it was too late. The damage had already been done.” He started sobbing again.

  The Sergeant knelt down beside him. “What do you want to do, Soldier?” he asked.

  Greg looked up. He scrambled off the floor and bolted for the roof. “The only thing I can do” he shouted as he ran.

  We all ran after him, Leon was only a few seconds behind him and catching him up. We were a few paces behind. The Sergeant was screaming for him to stop.

  We got to the roof a few seconds too late. He was stood on the very edge, facing the ladder. “I’m sorry, I’ve let you all down. Please forgive me” he said tears streaming down his face.

  “Don’t do anything stupid” Leon said making his way slowly towards Greg.

  “Goodbye” Greg answered as he leaned back.

  “NOOO” The Sergeant shouted, running towards the edge, trying to stop him. It was too late.

  We all heard the crunching of bones as he fell to his death.

  Chapter 12 – Securing the Base

  The Sergeant called us all in for a meeting. “It is with deepest regret, I must inform you all of Greg’s passing. He was a good man and a good soldier. He developed the virus whilst out on the field. He gave his life so our lives would be spared. He didn’t want to put us all in any danger. He will always be remembered”

  Duckface rolled her eyes. I couldn’t believe it. I
n all this time she still hadn’t lifted a finger, and now she didn’t even seem to care that Greg had lost his life. I bit my tongue, but inside I was infuriated.

  It was wrong to think, but I had wished it was her. Inside I knew, if she was ever to get infected, she wouldn’t have sacrificed herself. No, she would have killed us all.

  We all sat in silence for a few minutes, paying our respects. I felt numb. I had killed countless numbers of the infected; it got to the stage I had forgotten they were once people. Greg’s passing had brought a new light to the situation. We had to be extra careful. It wasn’t just the bites that were fatal, scratches were too. We needed to stay as far away from the infected as possible. The threat was becoming even greater as time went on.

  The Sergeant finally broke the silence. “We need to get back to business. We will no longer stay confined to our bases. We survived for a reason. Greg did not give his life so we could spend ours cowering from the world. We are all soldiers now, and we are all going to act like it.” He looked around at each and every one of us.

  “Prepare the vehicles. I want this whole base cleared TODAY. I want to find out where exactly the infected are coming in from. Once we find their entrance I want it blocked off”

  “Serg, how do you know they’re coming in from outside?” Leon asked.

  “When they infected staged the attack, I recognised very few of them. Most were civilians, ones that we hadn’t rescued.” The Sergeant admitted.

  The Sergeant was right. The attack on the base was most definitely staged. The runners didn’t come out until the last minute. The slow moving groups were coming from all directions, it was way too convenient. I don’t know how they did it. But they were certainly showing signs of intelligence I never thought possible.

  “I want two vehicles to sweep the area. I want everyone armed to the teeth. Any sign of the infected, you shoot. Aim for the head. We move out at 1600”

  We had just under an hour. The boys split into two teams. Lacey and George started to make their way back onto the roof. I was about to join them, when I stopped. I had spent far too long on that roof. I hated seeing the boys in danger, when I was perfectly safe. I wanted to go with them. I hadn’t left the confines of the base in weeks. I knew I had a good shot, plus I would be safe enough in the car. Besides, Lacey and George could easily cover us from above.