by Jessica Ward
“Why what is it? What have you seen?” He asked trying to get more information out of me.
“Babe, just go upstairs I’ll be up with the rest in a few minutes” I didn’t mean to snap at him, but he was starting to get on my nerves slightly. He did as he was told. I turned to grab the others and show them the marks on the roof.
I raised my voice slightly so they could all hear me. “Can you all come up to the roof please, I’ve got something I want to show you all”
They all turned around and looked at me. Leon was the first to respond. “If you’re taking us all up to the roof to show us your boobs, you can save yourself the effort and flash us right here.” He joked. I ignored him, it was typical Leon he was always making jokes. Underneath his pervy exterior he was a nice guy. I didn’t bite back, instead I put it down to male stupidity and carried on.
“I know how Greg got in!” I exclaimed. That was all I needed to say, without another word they all made their way upstairs, no questions asked.
I was greeted on the roof by Nick, I could tell he now understood my urgency as he helped me up onto the roof. As everyone else clambered up he pulled me into his arms. “I’m sorry babe I was just worried, thought I had done something wrong”
I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him. “It’s fine, sorry I snapped just needed to tell everyone so we could stop it before anymore came up” I replied. We had a good relationship. Even when spending this much time together, it didn’t harm our relationship. We were always honest and straight with each other. We always worked through our problems. I had never been in such a strong relationship before. It’s why I didn’t hesitate to say yes, when he had asked me to marry him.
I felt sad as I thought back to all our wedding plans. We were going to get married in the summer, next year. It never really hit me until now, that I would never get the wedding I had spent so much time planning and wanting. Although I hadn’t bought it yet, I already had the perfect dress in mind. It was a corset style ivory gown; it was strapless and floated down to the floor so elegantly. It had small Swarovski crystals making their way down the bodice floating down towards the floor.
The hotel was already booked, it was to take place at Mottram Hall, a grand hotel on the outskirts of Prestbury. We had spent over 2 years saving for our dream wedding, and although it was still a while off, we were so looking forward to it.
I put my wedding dreams to the back of my mind, it was starting to depress me. I had more important things at hand. One by one, each of the men took it in turns to view the blood stains on the roof.
“This is incredible” The Professor said amazed. “The upper body strength required to complete such a task, they are indeed showing incredible signs of intelligence beyond what we first conceived possible” he babbled on.
“We couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary in the tunnels” Paul piped up. “Apart from a couple of rats” he added.
Lacey and I looked at each other. The thought of those rats made us both shudder. We ran away as soon as we saw them, but no one else knew we were down there. We had decided between ourselves to keep it that way.
The Sergeant addressed us all. “I have been speaking to the Professor here, about the infection in livestock. He has confirmed to me that animals can contain the virus, however they do not react to it the same as humans do. Although they are not considered dangerous, one bite can cause the same effect as an infected human. Therefore, we will keep the tunnel off limits and for emergency use only”
We all agreed. I would be happy if I never had to set foot in that place again. My two main fears growing up were spiders and rats. To this day I still don’t fare too well with either. Infected rats was just a step too far.
“However, there are far more important issues at hand. If the infected, as I suspect can indeed now climb. We need to increase security to prevent this from happening again.” The Sergeant spoke up. “We need barbed wire across the top of the roof. I suspect this won’t stop the infected completely, but it will slow them down.”
He was right; we couldn’t risk this happening again. What if Duckface and Andy hadn’t been there? He could have jumped on top of me or Lacey, or he could have made his way into the tunnel and ambushed us there. We were very lucky to get away. Thank god Andy was there.
I wondered what he and Duckface were talking about; I hadn’t seen either of them for a good hour. I didn’t have to wait long to find my answer. Duckface poked her head out of the roof hatch.
“Is Andy with you?” she asked peering out.
“No, I thought you went to find him?” I asked.
“I did, I couldn’t find him anywhere so I presumed he was with you, I heard you all on the roof so I came to check but he’s not here. Obviously” she replied snottily.
“Well he must be around here somewhere” Paul said looking around “he can’t have gone far.”
We all made our way downstairs, to try to find him. He looked upset when he walked off, he probably needed some time to calm down, and collect his thoughts.
Chapter 17 – Keeping the Peace
We checked every inch of the base, we couldn’t find him. He had gone, it didn’t take us long to realise that. His car had also vanished.
We were starting to panic. Where the hell was he? He was in the outside world completely alone. He had taken his belongings from his room, along with his guns and some ammunition from the store.
The boys quickly hopped into the trucks, they rallied a search team and headed out. Lacey and I were left in the base with the Professor and Duckface, even George had joined the search party.
“Where the hell could he have gone?” I asked Duckface who was completely inconsolable.
“I…. Don’t…..know” she gasped between sobs.
“Well did he say anything to you before he left?” I asked, trying to get something out of her.
She shook her head. It was useless; I couldn’t get anything rational out of her. Even Lacey was trying to calm her down. We had sat her back in the plane, and got her a glass of water.
“Why….has….he….. left me?” she cried, I could barely make out what she was saying she was crying that much.
Lacey looked at me and shook her head. “I’m sure he’s fine Lola, the boys will find him and they’ll bring him back” she said patting her on the back.
Duckface grimaced as she pulled away from her. Lacey stood up “I’m only trying to help Lola, I’m just as worried as you are” she told her with an irritable tone in her voice. I could see she was trying to stay calm and rational, but she was finding it hard.
“you..d…d…don’t care” Duckface gasped for air.
Lacey was about to retaliate as the Professor stepped in. He took Lacey’s spot and sat down beside her.
“Now, Lola we haven’t always seen eye to eye, but we all have your best interests at heart. You need to stop this, for Andy’s sake and try and help us figure out where he could have gone. Can you do that?” He asked.
She shook her head. “Just… leave me alone” she said deflated. She wailed and started crying all over again.
“Ok, we will give you some time to compose yourself. We’ll be outside if you want to come and talk to us, wont we girls?” he was speaking to her as if she was a small child. It seemed to be working.
Lacey and I both nodded. There wasn’t much else we could do. We obviously weren’t going to get anything out of her in this state. We left the plane and went to sit with the professor.
“I take it neither of you know anything of Andy’s whereabouts?” the Professor asked.
I answered the Professor. “No I haven’t got a clue. He’s been keeping himself to himself lately, hardly any of us have talked to him”
The Professor was trying to make sense of the situation. “If he was keeping to himself, he may have had this planned for a while.”
“What do you mean?” Lacey asked.
“Well, it doesn’t sound like he’s up and left without a destination in
mind. He must have had his reasons.” The Professor replied looking towards the plane. “He’s a smart boy, he wouldn’t leave unless he was sure of where he was going. He knows the danger, and he knows wandering out into the world would be a fool’s game. There’s no way he wouldn’t have a heading or a safe place in mind.”
The Professor was right. He had been spending most of his time working out and training. He had put a lot more time into it than any of us had, and he was way more advanced as a result. Looking back it was as if he was preparing for a fight. He must have considered leaving for a while.
“But why wouldn’t he tell us?” Lacey asked.
I answered before the Professor had a chance to. “He knew we would try and stop him. This is obviously something he felt he had to do for himself”
The Professor added “He probably didn’t want to put anyone else in danger”
The Professor had a nasty habit of being right. That definitely sounded like Andy, he would rather put himself in danger than risk anyone else. He was always putting others first. But still, it didn’t condone his behaviour. Leaving without telling anyone, it just wasn’t on.
“I’m going to go check on Lola, then I’m going to check Andy’s room. See if I can find any clues as to why he’s disappeared.” I told them both.
I made my way back towards the plane, to see if Lola could offer any useful information.
When I pulled back the curtain into the living area, she was sat on the sofa, staring into space.
“Lola, are you ok?” I asked.
She didn’t turn to look at me, she just nodded. She carried on staring into space. She had stopped crying, her breathing was almost back to normal. She took in a few deep fragmented breaths but made no effort to respond.
“Are you ready to talk yet?” I asked, trying to be as nice to her as possible. Again, she shook her head.
“Ok…. When you’re ready to talk just come and get me. If not I’ll come and check on you in a little while” I was doing what the professor did, and was speaking to her like a child.
She didn’t acknowledge me, so I left her alone and made my way over to the next base, where Andy spent most of his time.
As I walked through the fencing area I could see the tyre marks the boys had left, as they wheel-spinned their way out of the base in a hurry. I wandered around the base, trying to figure out what Andy was thinking, when he decided to leave us.
I opened the door into his room and sat on his bed. The room was neat and tidy; he had even made his bed before he left. It was an understatement to say I was upset with him.
I understood his reasons to a point. But to not say anything to anyone, that was just rude. The more I thought about it the angrier I became. My fiancé was now out there, searching for him along with the others. If anything happened to Nick I would hold him solely responsible.
I searched his whole room from top to bottom, I even checked under the bed, trying to find some clue as to where he had gone. After a while I had no choice but to give up. I had torn his whole room upside down, and completely drawn a blank.
I wandered into the kitchen, I needed a drink and a few moments to collect my thoughts. I would have loved nothing more than a nice cool glass of white wine to calm my nerves. I hadn’t had a drop of Alcohol since this whole fiasco began. I felt like a recovering alcoholic of the verge of a relapse.
I was about to pull open the fridge, we had used the powdered orange from the MRE packs to make fruit juice. That would have to do. It was then I saw the envelope hanging from the fridge door.
How on earth did we all miss this? I pulled it off and opened it up. It read:
As you have probably all noticed, I’ve left the base.
Please don’t try to look for me, I’ve gone to find my family. I know they’re out there somewhere I owe it to them to find them.
Tell Lola I’m sorry.
Don’t worry, stay safe. Love to you all.
Andy x
I went to put the note back in to the envelope when I felt something hard in the corner. I pulled out Andy’s wedding ring.
I guess reconciliation wasn’t on the cards after all. He started to go up in my estimations. At least he had left a note. I went back to the main base, to get through to the boys and bring them back, there wasn’t any more we could do. Even if they found him, he wouldn’t come back. There was no point risking the whole group’s safety. He obviously had his heart set.
I rushed back to the base and met with Lacey and the Professor. I showed them the note. The Professor instantly dialled through to the boys from the radio transmitter, whilst Lacey and I went to have a conversation with Duckface.
We boarded the plane, with the envelope in hand we sat beside Duckface. She still hadn’t moved.
“Lola, we’ve found something we need to show you. Andy left a note.” I told her.
For the first time, she broke her gaze and looked up at me. A tear fell down her face. I handed her the envelope, with the ring still inside.
She read the note and pulled the ring out of the envelope. She broke down again.
“It’s ok; we know where he’s gone. He’s going to find his family, he’ll probably bring them back here” Lacey spoke softly, trying again to calm her down. She kept her distance but still tried to rationalise with her, and stay positive.
“No he won’t” she sobbed. “I know he won’t”
“How do you know he won’t Lola?” I asked. I didn’t like the way she said she knew he wouldn’t. She knew more than she was letting on. I needed to get the truth out of her.
She didn’t say anything. I looked questioningly at Lacey. “Lola. Did you speak to Andy before he left?” I asked firmly.
She carried on sobbing. Lacey was starting to see where I was going with this. “Lola, if you have any feelings for Andy or care at all for his wellbeing, I think for his sake you should tell us” she pushed.
She looked up at us. “He told me it was over…that there was no chance of us ever being anything….he said I changed and I wasn’t the same” she started to cry again.
I knew exactly what he meant. She had turned into a selfish, tantrum throwing, too faced, stuck up cow.
“Did he tell you he was leaving?” I asked now slightly irritated. She nodded. “he said it… it wasn’t healthy being trapped here together….”
Lacey interrupted before I could get a word in edgeways. She was not at all pleased. “So you knew Andy was leaving? But you didn’t say anything. You lied to us and said you didn’t know. You watched as everyone left to search for him, when you knew where he was going all along?” Lacey was fuming.
“I’m sorry your relationship didn’t work out and all that, but that was your own damned fault. You risked the lives of my husband, her fiancé and the rest of the group. Because you were too damn selfish to say anything” she carried on.
Duckface reared her head; her grief had turned to anger. I saw the hatred in her eyes as she glared at Lacey. “You don’t know anything. I don’t even know where his family live. For your information he didn’t have anything to do with them when we were together” she told Lacey.
“And I wonder why that is. Is it because his family saw straight through you and knew what a selfish little cow you really are” Lacey wasn’t holding back. She had wanted to say something to Duckface for a long time. Lacey had finally cracked.
I tried to calm the situation down. “That’s enough both of you. This isn’t helping matters at all. There’s nothing we can do about it..”
“Me, selfish? That’s rich coming from you. You have no right to question my relationship. It’s my husband and my life; it’s no concern of yours” Duckface cut me off mid-sentence.
“In case you haven’t noticed, it’s all of our concern. Grow up and take a long hard look at yourself” Lacey hit back. “Your just a good for nothing, whiny little bitch. No wonder he left you”
Duckface snapped. She slapped Lacey right across the face. I stood wide mouthed as it
happened. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I knew they hated each other with a passion, but I could never have foreseen this. Duckface was always all talk, I had never seen her lash out at anyone.
Lacey turned to Lola and grinned. “I’ve been waiting for you to do that for so long” with that, she grabbed Duckface by the neck and dragged her outside. She threw her down the last couple of stairs as I ran after them.
They both snapped. Duckface launched herself at Lacey as Lacey swiftly dodged out the way. Duckface fell to the floor. The boys had just pulled in at that moment, all were as wide eyed as myself and the Professor, who had rushed over to see what all the commotion was about.
“You stupid cow” Duckface spat “I always knew you were beneath me!”
She lunged at Lacey as she side stepped and pushed her back. Duckface was going ballistic she kept running at Lacey as Lacey simply dodged her attacks. She didn’t even retaliate or fight back. What was going on?
Duckface made one last attempt, grazing her nail down Lacey’s left cheek. She drew blood. That was Laceys turning point. She punched her square in the face. Duckface fell to the floor instantly.
The Sergeant ran over at this point. “Girls what on earth do you think you’re doing? Back to your living quarters immediately” he yelled. He was furious, I had never seen the Sergeant that Angry. His voice shook throughout the whole of the hangar.
Duckface pulled herself up from the floor. “Fuck you all, you’re all dead to me” she snarled as she made her way back to the plane. She had completely lost it.
Paul and Nick ran over to us. “What was all that about?” Nick asked.
“It’s a long story, I’ll you about it later” I told him. I watched as both girls went their separate ways.
The Sergeant, still outraged ordered us all to our living quarters. “I want all of you to get to bed. It’s late and I have had enough of these childish antics for one day” He scorned us like we were all naughty children. After the drama of today, I couldn’t blame him.