Captain Lewis watched as his troops gathered nervously at the main gates. He silently assessed them all and hoped that he looked calmer than they did. He certainly did not feel it though. May Williams from the medical section was just saying goodbye to Senior Aircraftman Freddie Samuels. She was fussing about him, straightening his collar and tucking his shirt in at the back. He smiled goofily, letting her rearrange his attire. Lewis could just overhear what was said. The two had worked together for quite a while and obviously had a close bond. It seemed to Lewis as though she treated him like a younger brother, taking care of him and keeping him out of trouble. He was a really good natured boy but not the brightest or bravest amongst them. Williams finished with a tight hug, holding him captive for several seconds before releasing him and hurrying away, back to her new charge.
Gradually all the soldiers climbed into their vehicles apart from Wood. Lewis kept a discrete distance from his number one marksman, and allowed him a few moments. He looked around at the soldiers all now sitting glumly in their vehicles. How many would return? He had noticed that even Millington was looking downcast this morning, most unlike him, normally totally unflappable.
Millington had expected Bannister would ride with him in the middle vehicle but for some reason Bannister got in beside Sergeant Harper Hutchison of the MT section, the driver of the rear Landy. That must have been his orders, Millington reasoned with a slight feeling of disappointment. He had been looking forward to cheering up his buddy. He turned around to look at the vehicle behind but Bannister’s head was down and he did not see his friend’s smile.
Wood cast a glance towards the mess building one last time. A figure was walking hurriedly towards them. It was Charlotte Collins. He smiled and felt a surprising thrill of relief, although there was still a slight shadow clouding his sentiments. He took a couple of steps towards her as she approached. “I thought I’d have to go without saying goodbye.”
She rubbed her eyes and looked extremely weary. “I’m so sorry, I meant to join you for breakfast but I completely overslept. Sorry.” She could not meet his gaze and looked exhausted.
“No worries. I’m sure you must be knackered and needed the sleep.” She nodded, still not looking directly at him. “Well it’s great that you made it down to say goodbye. Thanks.”
She smiled briefly and now looked up at him. There were dark lines under her eyes and it looked as though, rather than oversleeping, she had hardly slept at all. “Be careful out there.”
“Hey, you know me, I’m indestructible.” He tried to lighten her mood but there was not even the slightest flicker of a smile.
“No you’re not. Just you be careful. I want you back in one piece.” She was saying the right things but somehow seemed to lack conviction. She kissed him lightly and stepped back, releasing him, or dismissing him perhaps, so that he could get into the vehicle. She waved quickly and then was gone.
“Emotional farewell?” Private Darby of the MT section grinned and turned around as Wood got into the Land Rover. Wood just grunted in return.
Lewis tapped Darby on the shoulder. “Drive.”
Corporal Bell slammed the gates behind them and Lewis turned around to check if there was any sign of the station commander Group Captain Denny. There was none.
“Déjà vu,” Wood muttered.
Darby snorted and looked over his shoulder. “Another micking day in paradise.”
“Don’t get complacent. We may have done this before but that doesn’t mean it’s all going to play out the same way. How are you doing?” Lewis turned to look at Squadron Leader Singleton who sat in the back beside Wood, her eyes wide as she hunkered down in her seat. She nodded but said nothing. Her fear was evident.
Wood scanned her face surreptitiously. The frown and the look in her eyes told him everything he needed to know. “Has anybody shown you how to use one of those?” He pointed to the Browning in her lap that was, as yet, without a magazine. Again she nodded.
“Well you’ll need one of these. It won’t do you much good without it.” He held a magazine out to her. “Show me how to load it.” He spent several minutes talking to her about the gun, the history of Brownings and generally boring her about weapons in general and admirably distracting her from the horrific reality of their situation. Lewis smiled and turned back to the front of the Land Rover and stared out the window intently.
The journey to the GVF laboratory involved taking the same route initially as their last outing but then joining the M11 motorway northwards. They passed the same wreck of vehicles where they had to fight for their lives two days previously. Lewis decided best not to mention it to Singleton. On this occasion they proceeded unimpeded and this time there was nobody watching them. Their journey would have taken no more than fifty minutes before the state of emergency was declared but now took them almost two hours. The road was empty and they made good time to the motorway but from there they were in unchartered territory. It was impossible to know what they would find. Lewis could not help worrying whether the roads would be clear, or whether they would they find mass pile-ups and death? Darby, ever the optimist, thought the former and he was not entirely wrong.
When they reached the slip road he was driving faster than Lewis was comfortable with, as though this was any normal day in good conditions and Lewis told him to slow down, ever vigilant for hazards. They entered the motorway and it all just felt wrong to him; newspapers had seemed to find their way everywhere and they blew across both carriageways like ravens swooping in the wind. The silence and stillness was eerie and Lewis commanded Darby to drive at forty miles per hour until they had ‘got the feel of it all.’ Silently Darby cursed as he would have loved nothing more than to thrash the vehicle. Cars had always been his passion.
Initially they passed nothing at all. The road was utterly deserted and forlorn. After a while Darby had started to relax and speed up. As they neared the end of the section on the motorway they encountered the first vehicle, an old, white Ford Sierra that must have been well cared for as it looked as though it had just come off some garage forecourt. The rear windows were blacked out and the body work had been lovingly altered by some enthusiast to give it a real ‘boy-racer’ edge.
“Awesome,” Darby enthused. “I bet it’s even got fluffy dice and everything.”
Singleton and Wood shared a smirk. Lewis was more concerned with what it was doing there and why it had been abandoned. It was in the middle carriageway with the driver’s door open. He imagined whoever had been driving it had probably not even bothered to put the hand brake on before running for their life in front of a horde of angry diseased.
Half a mile later and they again had to slow down to negotiate a mess of vehicles. It was hard to identify a cause but there were several cars and a lorry blocking all three lanes which forced them onto the grassy verge by the hard shoulder. The vehicles had all burned but there were still human remains. A charred corpse was hanging out of one and another lay on the road, several metres away. He or she would have been unrecognisable to their closest family members and Singleton cringed when she saw the mess.
“Don’t look.” Wood gently shielded her eyes until they had passed and she bit her lower lip to stifle a sob.
Captain Lewis exchanged a concerned glance with Wood. He was secretly trying to monitor her state of mind. Until then Singleton seemed to be taking it all in quietly. Her attention had barely wavered from outside the Land Rover, even when someone spoke to her, and she had hardly uttered a word all journey. Now she seemed to be captivated by something in the foot-well of the car.
Wood had also been quiet, Lewis noticed, brooding thoughtfully in the back seat. The mood was sombre and there had been minimal radio contact with the other Land Rovers who also seemed to be suffering from the same melancholic malaise. As the journey progressed Sergeant Wood turned to Singleton again with a troubled expression.
“Do you really believe this trip is important ma’am? Worth all of us risking our lives for?”
She thought that she detected a note of scorn in his voice and sat up straight, almost defiantly. Lewis leant back surreptitiously in his seat so that he could listen without having to turn around. He noticed with amusement that even Darby had stopped humming and tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.
“Yes I do," she retorted. "Most definitely.”
“Why?”
She sighed and looked out the window, her vision seemed to cloud over and she became wistful. “Because I have to believe there is something remaining more than just this. More than just a few random bunches of survivors, maybe a few scattered military units, perhaps some people on remote islands or whatever, all pitifully, independently trying to make it through another day. Pretty soon all of the sick will be dead, either through starvation, through the disease shutting their organs down, or by killing each other, or something. Many of the people who may well still be alive and healthy today will have died, again either through starvation, or killed by the diseased, or some other cause. All that will be left will be a few remnants of humanity; lawless, hungry and desperate, with no relevant, functioning concept of society or morality or ethics. And even then there’s no telling whether the disease will have got into the food chain. Will it affect other animals? And if so, will that have an impact on any future food sources available to those who remain?
“At the moment there still seem to be quite a few of the infected alive. If we can find some way to immunise ourselves then it makes life much safer for us. But more than that, if we could only find a cure then maybe, just maybe, we can bring some of those poor, sick people back from the brink. We can return them to life, back to humanity, and actually end up with more than just a few bedraggled stragglers at the end. Maybe it will justify our not having been exposed to date and the security we were fortunate enough to enjoy behind the walls of Headley Court. Maybe it will justify our very existence. So yes, Sergeant Wood, I do think this is worth risking my life - all of our lives - for. If only one of us returns but out of that we have some way to save many then yes, it will most definitely have been worth it.”
Out of the corner of his eye Lewis could see her nostrils were flared, she was breathing heavily and she was angry. She glared at Wood, defying him to disagree.
Wood thoughtfully considered her words before replying. He held her look and there was an unexpected hint of a smile on his lips. Singleton thought he looked as though he was sneering and was about to retort more forcefully. Until now she had been starting to develop a sense of regard for him, but maybe everyone had been right all along. Maybe he was every bit as arrogant as he came across.
He nodded slowly. “Thank you ma'am.”
She was speechless for a moment. His reply took her very much by surprise and she showed it. “Is that all? ‘Thank you.’ For what?”
“Well, I don’t have a problem with what we’re going to do. I don’t mind putting my life on the line for something that’s worth it. All of my military career I’ve been sent into dark, unsavoury hell-holes and ordered to find this person, subdue that person, or eliminate someone else. I’ve not always been told who they are or what they’ve done. I’ve just been told that it’s necessary. And that’s always been good enough for me. I’ve done it, and believe me I’ve been good at it; very good. But I’ve never really known to what end my actions have been directed.
“So now you tell me that what I’m risking my life for could actually bring some benefit to the lives of others. We might actually prevent the total annihilation of the human race, so for once I may actually make a real difference, for the better, to this miserable world. All of my training, all of those years and those hellish experiences may actually have been for something positive in the end. Not only have you just validated my sorry existence to date, but you’ve just given me the best goddamn reason I ever had to gamble with my life. So like I said, thank you.”
CHAPTER 4
They exited the motorway and Lewis was glad to be off it. The peculiar silence and emptiness punctuated by occasional scenes of carnage seemed more than ever testament to the collapse of society. It was one thing to drive down a normal road in a town where there was no traffic but to be on a motorway for an extended period and not see another moving vehicle felt extremely eerie to him.
GVF Laboratories were now only a short drive away and they soon found themselves entering the huge business park. Large signs emblazoned with the glossy, bright logo of GVF welcomed them, beckoning them onwards.
As they neared their destination Lewis turned to Singleton. “Are you ready for this?”
She sat up straight in her seat and took a deep breath. “Yes.”
“Good. I need you to stay alert and focussed. You and Dr Handley may see important things or notice details that the rest of us miss. I want to ensure we get absolutely everything we can from this trip, that we get all the information possible. I don’t ever want to have to come back here so we have to do it right first time. Okay?”
“Absolutely. I’m ready.”
“Good.” He smiled at her reassuringly. “And stay close.”
Lewis got on the radio to the others. “Right, we’re nearly there. Last check of weapons and psyche yourselves up. Nobody getting jittery please. I want this to be textbook, and don’t let your guard down for one moment. And Dr Handley, I need you to be alert. If you see anything that may be of use then speak up. Let’s do it.”
Bannister had been sullenly silent all journey but on hearing Lewis he turned to glare at Senior Aircraftman Freddie Samuels who was sat behind him. “That means you numb-nuts. No mistakes this time.” Ordinarily he might have said this in jest but there was no smile in his eyes or teasing note to his voice. Hutchison glanced at Bannister thoughtfully. Bannister had been huddled in his seat all journey with his jacket tightly wrapped around him. Hutchison thought that he looked dreadful, as if he was suffering from flu or something. Maybe that explained his ill humour; that and the stress they were all under of course. He said nothing.
Finally they arrived. They had not seen a single infected person on the entire journey although there had been several more corpses. The road narrowed and the tarmac became smoother and newer than on public roads. They had to pass through an outer fence which had a small guard room and barrier across the road. The guardroom was a low, brick construction with big windows, all of which were broken. Furniture had been smashed inside and there were trails of blood on the walls. The barrier was made of wood and seemed relatively flimsy so Lewis indicated to Darby.
Darby grinned. “Excellent. Hold on.” He floored the accelerator and tore through the barricade, sending bits of wood flying with an almighty crash.
“Enjoy that?” Lewis asked.
“You bet sir, I’ve been dying to do something like that all journey.”
Lewis matched his smile. “Well, I hope your ‘dying’ is only metaphorical and not literal.”
“Sorry sir, what?”
“Nothing. Don’t worry.”
The road continued through some attractive landscaped areas with water features that would once have been calming and pleasant but were now fetid. After a short distance they came to a second, more substantial barrier and an inner fence that presumably surrounded the entire site. It was higher than the outer one and was topped with razor-sharp coils. It was connected to the guardroom which was again a single-story, brick building but larger than the first. The barriers here were metallic and more robust. Whether they could have smashed their way through without damaging the vehicles this time was a moot point but did not really matter anyway. Pressed right against the fence and filling the entire width of the entrance were three large delivery trucks that had been parked to keep intruders out. They faced into the secure area with the rear bumpers hard up against the barriers leaving no gap for anybody to try and squeeze through, and as some rolls of tangled barbed wire had been wedged underneath the trucks, they completely obstructed any access.
“End of the road. Think we’
re going to have to leave the Landies here I’m afraid.” Lewis looked carefully all around before getting out.
Sergeant Hutchison and Corporal Kevin Berthon, an army soldier who had been a patient at Headley Court, parked their vehicles beside the first. Doors on all three were tentatively opened. Sergeant Garrick Straddling walked briskly up to Lewis, his SA80 assault rifle gripped so firmly in front of him that his knuckles were pale.
“Survivors.” He pointed with the rifle at the blockade. “There was certainly someone alive after the state of emergency was declared.”
“Yes indeed,” Lewis answered slowly. “A place like this would be fairly easy to secure and defend. As long as they sealed the doors in time before anyone contaminated got in they might have been okay. Let’s just hope they managed to stay alive.”
Wood had joined them now. “Looks like the easiest way in is to open up the back of one of these trucks and go through it.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Lewis agreed. “We could climb over the fence or even up onto the roof of the guardroom but that’ll take time to get us all over and will make it harder to get out if we’re in a hurry. It would be nice to have an easy exit route, just in case.” He turned to face his troops.
“This is where the Land Rovers stop.” He gestured to the three drivers. “I want them turned around and ready for a quick getaway. The rest of you, we go in on foot from here. Mayoh and Samuels, get the bolt cutters and get one of these trucks open. Careful though, there may be a nasty surprise lurking inside. Bannister, keep an eye on them please. Everyone else, on your guard and keep eyes out for hostiles. I want a defensive cordon until we’re through.”
As Senior Aircraftman Samuels bent down with the tool, about to cut through the lock on the back of one of the trucks, Bannister leant forwards. His head was thumping and he felt peculiar.
“Don’t screw it up, jackass,” he muttered. “Do it right for once.”
The Blood of the Infected (Book 2): Once Bitten, Twice Live Page 4