by Jessica Ward
A thick heavy oak door blocked our escape. Even if we tried to knock the door down, we would alert the rest of the gang, and they would know we had broken free. For their sake and ours we waited.
After a few hours passed, the leader who Miss Robinson had earlier confirmed as a boy named Ben, entered our room. He was extremely cocky. He had embraced and taken advantage of his leadership role. The lost boys didn’t respect him or necessarily agree with him, they just did as they were told. They were most likely scared of him.
We heard him coming up the stairs. Before he entered I quickly alerted everyone and we sat back down with our hands behind our backs. We were going to use the element of surprise.
He had a thick Manchester accent. He walked with an invincible strut. He had the attitude of I can do what I want. He had no respect for his elders and only cared for himself. He had a loud mouth, everyone knew when he entered a room.
“Not so ard now are ya?” He looked at us all grinning. “We propa fucked use up out there, big bad army men rollin up in ya bad man car” he spat. He grinned as he held the keys up to us “Mine now, init” he told us. The two boys behind him sniggered.
He pulled a handgun from his tracksuit, where it was tucked in behind his back. “This is mine too” he said holding it up for us all to see.
He walked over to Andy, bending down to his level. I could see Andy’s fists tightening behind his back, the skin was starting to pale against his knuckles as he tried to control his anger.
“Was this yours mate?” The boy taunted him. Andy didn’t say a word. The boy flipped the gun around holding it by the barrel and struck Andy across the face “Are you deaf or summit?” He shouted. Andy still didn’t move.
“That’s enough” I shouted to the boy.
He turned and looked me up and down. “I’ll tell you when it’s enough, old man” he sniggered, dismissing the rest of us.
All of a sudden we started to hear the commotion outside. Screams and shouts could be heard in every direction. It seemed, the lost boys cover was blown.
The infected must have been alerted to our gunshots, and our car they were recklessly driving around. We heard the car whilst we were locked away. The boys were revving the engine; to the infected they may as well have been ringing a dinner bell. They were quickly approaching the manor house, coming in from all directions.
I could hear gun shots as the lost boys attempted to fend off the infected.
“Close that door quick” Ben quickly motioned to the other two boys. They did as they were told. They fumbled with the door, but quickly locked it into place. As they turned around I noticed they had our other two handguns tucked into their trousers, exactly like their leader.
We listened as the battle continued. We heard gunshots fire, as the other boys attempted to ward off the horde of the infected gaining rapidly on them.
I heard the boys shouting for help. “Ben, we’re being attacked, help us” they screamed from below. Their leader made no attempt to acknowledge them, let alone help them.
“Fuck, there’s shit loads of them out there” Ben told the two others.
“Are you not going to help your friends?” I asked him.
“Nah, fuck em, we’re alright in ere. Not going out there, fuck that” he responded coldly. Beneath his cool exterior I could tell he was as scared as the rest.
We heard the doors slam. They had retreated inside. We heard glass smash from beneath us as the infected forced their way inside.
Seeming slightly shaken to the new threat outside the leader continued to threaten us. “If any of use make a noise, I’ll shoot you in the head, swear down I will”
“Oh I don’t doubt that for a second” I responded, staying calm. “You left your friends to die out there, if you can do that, you are more than capable of pulling that trigger.”
“Shut up, int my fault whats going on outside, you don’t know me” He hit back aiming the gun for my head.
Miss Robinson started to cry. We all kept our hands behind our backs, the boys still unawares.
“Stop crying, stupid bitch” the boy shouted “shut the fuck up” He was now pointing the gun in the middle of her head.
I’d had enough, I sprang into action pulling the gun from the boy nearest to me. Aiming my newly acquired weapon at the boy I shouted for him to put the gun down.
The second boy tried to scramble for his gun, Leon was quick to respond, knocking it out of his hands before he had a chance to do any damage.
“Ben, Give me the gun” I told him.
He looked at me, he was down, but he certainly wasn’t out. “Fuck off, No. Give him the gun or I’ll shoot” he said pointing to one of the other boys. His gun was still firmly attached to his former teachers head.
“You don’t want to do this, give us the gun and we’ll all get out of here” I asked him calmly.
“No, don’t even try telling me what to do” He said, he was full of anger.
“Ben, mate, just do as he says, it’s not even worth it” One of the boys piped up, obviously starting to see sense.
“Listen to your friend” Leon told him. “It’s over”
“NO” he screamed as he pulled the trigger.
Miss Robinson slumped back. Blood covered the young boy. He turned to aim the gun at us, his face of pure evil. I quickly shot him in the kneecap. He fell down dropping the gun. He screamed in pain as the searing bullet pierced through his skin, shattering his kneecap as he fell.
I had no choice. He would have shot us all if I hadn’t have acted.
With their leader down the 2 remaining boys made a hasty retreat. They didn’t get very far. The infected were already inside the building. They ran straight into the open arms of the infected. They were ripped apart within seconds.
The boy was bleeding out fast. We tried helping him up, but he was having none of it.
“Get the fuck off me, you wankers” He yelled, pushing us away from him.
There was nothing we could do for him. We did what he said; we left him in the room, just as the infected made their way up the stairs.
We had three handguns between the four of us. We had lost the rest of our rifles and ammunition when we were held captive.
The whole manor was a blood bath. Groups of the infected feasted on the children. Screams could still be heard in the distance. Some of the boys must have fled into the woods to escape. Judging by screams and the cries for help, they hadn’t got very far either.
The battle was over. The boys had lost; the infected had taken over leaving nothing but death and destruction in their path.
We fought our way out the building, when we got out we realised we didn’t have the keys to the car. I was kicking myself when I realised we had left them in the pocket of the former leader Ben.
We had very little ammo left, and the infected were still roaming around the house. We had no choice, we made our back way to the building, and to the room we had just come from.
We maneuvered our way up the stairs, stepping over the bodies of both the lost boys and the infected.
As we got back to the room, we saw that the infected had already descended on the body, using my last few bullets I took them out one by one.
He was already dead. Blood poured out from his wounds. His neck had been ripped off, flesh hung from his body. His stomach had been torn out and his organs were now visible encased in blood. It wasn’t a pretty sight. His eyes, still wide open showed the pain and suffering he endured in his last few moments.
I leant down next to the boy and checked his pockets. It didn’t take me long to get a grasp on the keys. I quickly yanked them free, and closed the young boy’s eyes. I put a bullet through his head before I left. Just to make sure he wouldn’t awaken in an altered state.
We all sat there, wide eyed as the Sergeant revealed the day’s events. It brought a shocking realisation back to us, on how bad things actually were out there.
Chapter 15 – Communications Centre
Much
to my surprise, the Sergeant insisted on keeping the communications with the outside world open. In the Sergeants eyes, the trip (although not quite according to plan) proved successful. They were able to confirm that there were indeed survivors out there, and that they were still alive, no matter how fucked up they might be.
It started to cause a divide within the group. Given the hoax call and the danger the team were put in, not everyone was overly keen on inviting new people to our safe haven. Duckface was enraged with his decision. The thought of ‘unsavoury guests’ darkening our doorstep had not gone down well with her at all.
She wasn’t the only one to turn her nose up, Leon wasn’t convinced and neither was Josh. Although they didn’t agree with the decision, neither of them dared question the Sergeant. The Corporal also had his doubts, but still remained optimistic.
I didn’t really know what to think. We had the resources to help people, but how on earth would we go about finding them? And how do we know they want to be found? Are they worth putting one of our own at risk?
All these questions kept whizzing through my mind. I didn’t have the answer to any of them. The more I thought about it, the more positive I became. It’s very easy in a situation like this, to presume the worst. To lock yourself away from the outside world, and even pretend it’s not there.
Duckface was a prime example. She was full of negativity, she was very bitter. She let the negativity surround her, and was starting to let it spread to the others. Her outlook on life was very bleak. She did only what suited her, she was very self-centred. She didn’t care if the people outside lived or died, they were of no importance to her.
I decided very quickly that I didn’t want to end up like her. I had to put my trust in the Sergeant, and believe that what we were doing was for the greater good. I asked myself, what would I do if I was out there? The answer was clear. I would do what I could to survive, and hold out hope that I would be rescued.
I knew the Sergeant and the Corporal wanted to rescue others, perhaps to make up for the lives lost in the main base. The Sergeant had made that decision for the greater good. To secure what was left of the base, and to provide refuse to future survivors. I understood his reasons perfectly. He sacrificed his family and his men for his beliefs. I would help them both; after all they took us in when we landed on their doorstep. They made sure we had a roof over our head, food, water and even training. For that I was extremely grateful.
The Sergeant didn’t want to waste any time getting back out. He sent the boys out on a daily basis, searching the nearby areas. They stayed away from town centres, sticking mainly to the country roads and the outskirts. The Sergeant stayed firmly connected to the radio frequencies.
As usual, I stayed on the base. We never saw any of the infected around the base. As far as we were all aware, it was safe. We barely used hangar 3, our ammunition didn’t have the chance to deplete. There was no threat. All was quiet and peaceful on the base.
Day after day they returned empty handed, they occasionally came into contact with the infected, but were yet to find any survivors.
I was apprehensive the first time Nick went out. After the Sergeant told us what happened that day, I didn’t have much faith in the outside world. I wanted to, but I knew I had to be realistic.
The Sergeant spent most of his time on a new project. He wanted to get the satellites working again. Greg was the communications engineer, without him things were certainly more difficult. The Professor put his research to one side, and helped the Sergeant with his project.
They had set up on the roof. Within a few days the satellite signal started to pick up. Our mobile phone signals were starting to come back. Very slowly we were able to access the internet.
Duckface slowly started to come out of her room. One morning, during our daily meetings in the dining room, she had handed over her phone, and explained to the Sergeant, the group she had created on Facebook.
“The E Virus Support Group?” He asked.
“Yes, it’s how we found this place, someone put down that they had heard it was safe.” She replied.
“Ok, I’m sorry I don’t quite understand Facebook, I’ve never used it, nor have I had any intention. Please go on” he told her.
She proceeded to tell him all the ins and outs of Facebook. I could see his eyes glazing over, but bless him, he still listened.
When she finished babbling on he had a look for himself. He looked up in surprise “the last post was 3 days ago.” He told us all.
Wow, I was surprised people still had internet access. It seemed that even in our darkest days, internet was still possible. The post simply read:
Quelqu'un est-il là-bas?
“What the hell does that mean?” I asked.
“It’s French I think hun” Lacey replied.
We soon found out it was written by a French national called Claude Zidane. After a quick Google Translate it read:
Is anyone out there?
They obviously weren’t here in the UK, but it was a good sign, it meant there were people in other countries still alive, and had access to internet.
It was rather ironic that, even with the world falling apart, Facebook was still the most common communication method throughout the world.
“This is very good Lola, are you able to continue communications? It seems like the best way for us to locate fellow survivors” The Sergeant asked.
Duckface looked around the room, her expression clearly showed her reluctance. She still didn’t like the fact that we were inviting strangers into our base. She was worried they wouldn’t be ‘her sort of people’. Her arrogance had no limits.
Despite her feelings towards newcomers, she agreed. To make sure she wasn’t going to withhold any important information, the Sergeant made a point in checking the page daily as well.
We had all decided collectively, not to give our position away. Given the incident with the lost boys, it was safer keeping ourselves hidden. We didn’t want to attract any unwanted attention. Duckface seemed a lot happier with this.
Whilst Duckface emerged herself in her new communications role, Andy started to keep more to himself. He trained harder than ever; we all saw a big change in him.
He went out with every team that ventured into the outside world. He didn’t seem to like being stuck inside; he went out at every opportunity.
I never ventured in the outside world. Part of me wanted to, I had been keeping up my fitness regime, but I didn’t know what it would be like out there. If I got into danger, I don’t know if I had quick enough reactions. The infected were things out of nightmares, they terrified me. What terrified me even more was the thought of ending up like that. I didn’t want to put myself, or anyone else for that matter in any danger.
Things were starting to get boring around the base. With no immediate danger, we struggled finding things to do.
After a conversation between Lacey and I, we decided to revisit the tunnel. The curiosity started to get the better of us, and we needed an escape. With Duckface licking the Sergeants arse every time we turned around, we needed a breather. She was so wrapped up in her new role; she was on a power surge.
We made our way over to Hangar 3. No one rarely ventured over, there wasn’t much in their apart from the emergency camp beds and supply room.
I entered the supply room, and made my way over to the trap door. Remembering my previous struggles and broken nails we pulled open the door together. Grabbing a few torches from the emergency supplies we pointed them down the dark hole.
The smell was the first thing that hit us. A damp earthy smell made its way to the surface, along with a chilling breeze that made us both shudder.
The wooden ladder looked stable enough, it had been there a while, but it was solid wood. I made my way down the steps first. As soon as my foot hit the concrete floor, Lacey started to make her way down.
The whole tunnel was pitch black, only our torch light illuminated our path. The tunnel was much bigge
r than I expected. The concrete walls circled their way around, going off in all directions. It was so easy to get lost.
We decided to investigate the main tunnel only. The last thing we wanted was to get lost or trapped down here. We had to sneak off in the first place; George didn’t want anyone to go down there.
“This place is huge” Lacey exclaimed, her voice echoed through the tunnels. She giggled as her voice carried down the tunnel.
I whispered back “shhh, you’ll cause an avalanche”
She started giggling again “You only get avalanches in snow, I think we’ll be fine” she whispered back.
I started to laugh with her; I was always getting my words wrong. We made our way through the underground passageway shining our torches in all directions. It was deathly silent all around us, the sound of dripping water, somewhere in the distance along with our footsteps were all that could be heard.
I felt like an explorer discovering the winding passageways of the Pyramids; well I would have done, had it not been so cold.
There was a definite breeze pushing past us. “There must be an opening around here” I told Lacey “That breeze has to be coming from somewhere”
We carried on down the passageway, eager to find the source. It was still pitch black in front of us when Lacey stopped me.
“Did you hear that?” She asked slightly concerned.
I stopped for a minute trying to listen out. “Hear what?” I asked her.
“That rustling over there” She pointed her torch in front of us. “I swear I just heard something”
I stopped again trying to listen out, but I couldn’t hear anything. Still, I was starting to get a little jittery. We brought our handguns with us; I slowly pulled mine out its holster.
We carried on, tiptoeing our way forward, more aware of our surroundings. This time it was my turn to stop.
“I just heard it” I whispered. We both stood there, not sure what to do. We switched our lights off as the rustling got louder, it was coming closer.
With our guns raised we quickly turned our lights back on. We pointed the light ahead. We couldn’t see a thing, nothing was there. We looked at each other both equally perplexed at the strange noises, when the rustling started again.