The Blood of the Infected (Book 2): Once Bitten, Twice Live

by Stanton, Antony J.

  “Like I already said, I’m not totally sure but I think that woman bit me.”

  “Like a vampire?”

  “No. Well, yeah, I guess so.”

  “And you haven’t been bitten again since?”

  He was getting more annoyed and snapped at her. “Exactly when would that have happened? I’ve been on base all the time, apart from when I was with you both today.”

  Singleton was silent, thinking and Lewis could not fault the man’s argument. “Okay Bannister, that’s all. You can go and finish your meal.”

  “Yessir.”

  He started to leave but Lewis was irritated. “Oh and Bannister, when you talk to Squadron Leader Singleton you will address her as ma’am. Do you understand?”

  He glared back. “Yes sir.” He spat the words out sarcastically and in his strong, Liverpudlian accent it sounded particularly cutting. As he turned to go Lewis saw that Denny had been hovering around the entrance to the ante-room but he quickly walked away now.

  Bannister left them alone without a further word. He was hungry and the pounding in his head had not subsided all day. Thoughts of slipping off base again were competing with his overwhelming tiredness, but at the moment he had rediscovered his appetite. The first thing on the agenda was food; that, and avoiding any company - and especially his overbearing friend Millington. He was not feeling well, his patience had evaporated and his thoughts revolved almost exclusively around the mysterious woman that they were now calling a vampire. As far as he was concerned, the sooner he got off base the better, leaving all these losers behind to their own fates.

  Singleton watched with a frown as he stormed away. She was far from convinced. “I don’t like it. I know what he says is true about not leaving Headley Court but it does look as though the mark has changed.”

  Newman nodded vigourously and Lewis felt perplexed. “And his attitude, not only now but all day has been really off. I put it down to stress before but maybe he was bitten by one of the infected after all.”

  Newman shook his head. “I checked him over really thoroughly, especially after I became suspicious. There are no other marks on him. I’m absolutely positive.”

  “Well then,” Lewis started," perhaps…" but he stammered and did not finish his sentence. It all seemed just too ridiculous and he did not know what to say.

  Newman spoke up now, for the first time voicing doubts that had troubled him silently for a while. Doubts that many had held in the shady recesses of their minds but nobody had discussed in public. “Since they all returned from their mission the other day when Bannister first got that mark on him, there was mention of vampires coming to their aid. Nobody seemed to take it seriously sir, and no one has really spoken of it again because it was so far-fetched. I guess we have all been too busy or preoccupied with the other things going on, or maybe nobody wanted to acknowledge it as even remotely possible. But the fact is that someone, or something, did come to their aid at the petrol station, and he has got a bite mark on his neck. That would seem to imply that the three of them who claim they saw it might actually be telling the truth. I know it seems crazy but what other explanations are there sir?”

  “And we still have absolutely no idea what happened to the bodies of Rohith and Sinna. They just disappeared into thin air. Could the two incidences possibly be connected?” Singleton asked with uncertainty, hardly daring to give credence to the possibility.

  Lewis shrugged feeling entirely unnerved, and none of them spoke. It all just seemed too insane to even discuss, let alone contemplate. Finally he broke the impasse. “Look, there’s a lot of crazy stuff going on at the moment, I really don’t know any more. There are no answers to either mystery, at least none that I am willing to consider. And if, for one insane moment, we accepted that there was something… something else, something supernatural at play here, then where the hell does that leave us? What do we do about it? Other than keeping a close eye on Bannister, I’m not sure what else we can do right now.”

  Feeling ever more troubled and beset on all fronts, he left to assemble the sergeants and all those who had been on the mission. He also wanted to try and track down the elusive Denny. It was time to debrief the trip to the laboratory, the loss of one man so far and the imminent turning to insanity of another, before he could even start to get his head around the thought of vampires. Life was hard enough as it was. They really were existing from day-to-day, living completely on the edge. They were fighting for their lives and slowly but surely losing the battle. With each passing day it seemed that another soldier had been killed and they could not continue with this level of attrition. If they now had to deal with vampires, as well as the infected, then he just did not think they could survive much longer.

  CHAPTER 14

  Sebastian had missed the entire exchange earlier between Darius, Farzin, and the two newcomers. He had arrived at RAF Headley Court late that afternoon, after the mission to the laboratories had already returned. He had sat in coincidentally almost the exact same place that Farzin was sat earlier that day, observing the military base from a discrete distance but close enough to see who was in the guardroom. Other than removing his sunglasses, he hardly stirred as afternoon turned into evening into night, a statuesque vigil that paid no dividends. Without moving, he could sense just about everything that happened all around him. The aromas of animals and birds bobbing nearby came to him, carried on a light breeze. In the distance he could smell rain on tarmac and grass. There was a hint of food being prepared somewhere on the base as the soldiers went about their protected lives, unaware of the sentinel sitting so close.

  He shut his eyes for a while, taking in the noises from all around. He filtered out the sounds of the trees with their branches moaning and leaves whispering, telling secrets that even he could not understand. Occasionally a voice was carried to him from within the compound, a shouted order, a tense argument, the sounds of discord and fear. Rarely were they the noises of happiness and harmony.

  The light changed its hue and he watched a thousand different colours illuminate the clouds as the hidden sun sank thankfully beneath the horizon. There was no moonlight tonight but he could still see quite clearly, his eyes ensnaring every available photon. His night vision was not the same as during the day. The rods and cones in his eyes had adjusted and developed. Colours were lessened and less important. It was more shades of brightness, and shades of warmth, the living showing up more readily than the dead, almost like a negative. Interestingly he found that the infected were clearer at night than were the survivors, something to do with the illness that raged inside their beings, he supposed. He sat quite still and stirred only when a rabbit had got too close and did not live to regret it. Motionless and silent, watching and waiting…

  Later that night Lewis was doing his rounds. As he approached the medical centre he forced a smile onto his face. Singleton was sat at the desk in her office with her head in her hands. He stood quietly observing her for a moment before she suddenly became aware of his presence and jerked her head up.

  “Uh, was I asleep?”

  “You were snoring,” he smiled. “And dribbling.”

  “You’re a liar.” She returned his smile and slapped his arm.

  “You look exhausted. Surely you can’t be staying with Darby tonight? Not after the day we’ve all had.”

  “No. Howes, Hanson and Newman will be sharing that dubious pleasure.” She indicated one of the other rooms. “If anything happens they’ll come and get me. Anyway, you look fairly tired too. I’ve been watching you. You do everything yourself, never asking for help. You’re going to wear yourself out and you’re no use to anyone if you’re exhausted. You should learn to delegate.”

  “I guess there are things that need to be done, and I want them done properly,” he replied thoughtfully. “But I will delegate Doc, I promise. Listen, I wondered, after what you had said to Samuels about there being a possibility of him not being contaminated. Do you suppose there’s any hope for Dar
by?” He knew he was clutching at straws but wanted so desperately to believe there was a chance.

  However she was already shaking her head.

  “No I don’t think so I’m afraid. He’s already exhibiting symptoms; tiredness, irrational behavior, personality change, that kind of thing. In theory that could all be due to shock, but I think that hoping for him to be the one-in-a-million case with natural resistance would be like getting infected with smallpox, for example, and hoping to have natural immunity. There is a possibility but it’s so slight as to not even be worth considering.”

  “Yeah, I kind of thought as much.” He felt deflated but tried to shake it off. Once upon a time, not so long before, his naturally cheery attitude would have readily resurfaced, but these days he was finding it harder and harder to remain positive. It reminded him of Denny. He forced himself to smile; again. “Hmmm, I was thinking, has anybody checked you over for bites yet?”

  For a moment he could see the playful, coquettish look pass over her face and could imagine how she must have been when she was younger and less troubled.

  “No I don’t believe they have.”

  “Well then, best you come with me and I’ll ensure that you're clean.”

  “And what if you find any bites?”

  “Then I’ll have to tie you to the bed like Darby I guess.” These days black humour emerged at the most inopportune of moments.

  She became serious then, the playful look had vanished. “You know I mentioned I wanted to capture one of… them… To have one of them to study,” she could not bring herself to say the word.

  “Yes,” he answered suspiciously.

  “You know I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, don’t you? I need you to know that I wouldn't have wanted it this way.”

  “Of course. What’s happened to Darby is a terrible thing. I feel just as bad for him as you do. Don’t forget, I am his commanding officer. Everybody on the mission was my responsibility. I lost two good men today and I feel dreadful for them both. That’s how it is at the moment. Life is hanging in the balance and every time we set foot outside of the gates there's the prospect that someone is going to die. We knew that when we went today but it was a risk worth taking, a risk worth dying for. I pray their deaths are not in vain. And to be honest, if we had followed your idea and gone out to try and catch one of them to study, then someone may have been bitten in the process anyway, so we’d be no worse off than we are now. However the reality is that, as sad as it is, we do now have a carrier and I hope that somehow you can use Darby. Study him, I don’t know, maybe experiment on him, whatever, and perhaps find a cure to all this madness."

  She nodded, looking upset, so he changed the subject.

  “Have you had a moment to fire up the laptop and check it?”

  “Not yet. I’ve been too busy with the patients and, in truth, I’m a little scared.”

  “Of what?”

  “Scared that what I truly want to be on it, won’t be there at all. I mean, surely if it was explicitly entrusted to Isabelle by her father and she was told to look after it, then that would suggest there must be something important there, right?”

  He could feel her examining his eyes for any sign that he thought so too, needing him to agree, to validate her beliefs and allow her to keep and nurture the smallest spark of hope that had started to smoulder in her heart.

  “Well, yes," he replied, "Isabelle most definitely believed it had been entrusted to her to look after. And I can’t believe it was just to safeguard the family photos. It’s got to be something important. And that, combined with the fact that we now have one of the scientists from the drug’s development, is the best news we have had for a long time.”

  It was all too much for Singleton right now and tears came to her as her legs sagged but Lewis caught her arm and refused to allow her to sink to the floor.

  “Now, come on you, let’s get you checked out,” he beamed mischievously at her and she returned his grin. The coquette was back as she wiped at her eyes.

  “Yes okay then Captain, if you insist. But I want to get one thing straight - I’m only interested in you for your body.”

  “Well that’s just fine by me.”

  She cringed for a moment and looked reluctant to say what was on her mind.

  “What is it now?” he moaned.

  “I hate to say this, and am disgusted with myself for demonstrating such stereotypical weakness, but you do know this is a classic example of a psychological syndrome. In times of stress or fear it’s a well-known fact that one gets aroused and more inclined to intimacy, and I have been really stressed and frightened today.” She was teasing him but there was truth in what she said.

  He smirked. “Again, fine by me. Maybe that's how James Bond gets lucky so often. To be honest I’ve been pretty stressed out myself.”

  She stood up straight and as he put his arm gently around her waist she sighed and her shoulders relaxed. The spark of hope grew into a flicker, then a small flame took hold and the heat started to warm her throughout. She smiled the first genuine smile for a while and he could not help but join her. Could this really be it? Could it truly be the information that they had been praying so desperately for? Information that nobody actually believed they would be fortunate enough to find. Information that had cost the life of Samuels and was about to claim Darby’s humanity. And if it was, could they even use it and create a cure or antidote? These days survival by itself was just not enough. Or had it all been for nothing, an expensive mistake and a fool's hope?

  That small hint of optimism, the possibility that they had found what they needed, was so precious and important to grasp hold of and nurture, but so misplaced and misguided. When civilization had collapsed and humanity was on its very knees, when life at RAF Headley Court was fragile and fleeting, with soldiers dying on practically every mission off base at an unsustainable rate, and rapidly dwindling supplies of food and ammunition, they had no right to harbor even the slightest glimmer of hope. Yet compared to all of these trials and tribulations that they had faced so far, neither she nor Lewis, nor any of them, could possibly have realised that the worst was yet to come. If they knew the dark forces that even now were gathering to oppose them, so much more determined and malevolent than anything they had yet encountered, that flicker would have been quashed as swiftly as a human life can be ended.

  As they retired to his room most people on the station were already asleep. Only a few were still awake, one of who was the next person due on guard duty.

  Leading Aircraftman Patrick Scovell checked that he had batteries in his small MP3 player and rifled through his playlists before making his way to the guardroom to replace Flight Lieutenant Walkden. He was oblivious to the fact that he was about to entertain a vampire with his dubious disco moves. As Walkden left him alone, he pressed ‘play’ and a song began, ‘Another One Bites The Dust’, by Queen. Not knowing how much longer he, or any of them, had to live, the exuberance of youth and the comfort and peace of mind born out of denial helped him to enjoy the moment for what it was; a small slice of true escapism from the horrors that so totally besieged them on all sides. After a few bars of music he began to sing along and dance, and Sebastian, still in his seated vigil, slowly started to smile. Scovell was an extrovert and a natural entertainer, although this was the first time he had performed for such an unusual audience. Human and vampire, both briefly content in their little reality together, both caught up in a struggle for survival in a brutal and unforgiving new world. However neither could possibly have any idea that when they encountered each other next it would be in decidedly more violent and deadly circumstances.

  Sebastian watched as the young man with a shock of dark hair and a mass of freckles like tombstones in a graveyard had gyrated un-rhythmically around the guard room in the candle light. Sebastian had smiled and enjoyed the performance although it had only distracted him for a while. Despite how horrendous life must be for the humans, the man nevertheless seemed to be a
ppreciating the moment and he admired his carefree attitude. He was reminded of himself before he had been turned, in happier days a long, long lifetime before.

  The dancer was replaced by an older, more portly man with greying hair and a bushy moustache. There was no music on his watch, there was most certainly no dancing, and in truth for much of it there was very little surveillance either. He had slouched in his seat, wrapped a thick, blue coat around himself and within several minutes his head drooped and nodded onto his chest. Sebastian could imagine the snores reverberating around that small guard room, filling the space for a short while with safe familiarity and the comforting sounds of normality.

  He was not entirely sure why all of this mattered so much to him, why he enjoyed watching the people come and go, but most importantly why he felt the need to see this human girl again. Perhaps it was a link to his past. Being the most recent addition to the clan, that might be a link that he had not yet fully relinquished. Maybe with the collapse of society he felt a need to reacquaint himself with the man he had once been. Or it could be a lot simpler than that? That the woman fascinated him? Or… possibly something more? A memory, perhaps, a reminder? He could not answer, or maybe preferred not to think of it.

  It was not just humans that had suffered in this Armageddon but the vampires had certainly been affected as well. The easy relationships within the clan that he had always assumed they had maintained for so long were close to breaking point. Or had some of those relationships been unbalanced anyway, but he had been too blind to see it? It placed a stress on them all that Sebastian could not help but be disturbed by. Darius had been a charismatic leader for aeons, even with respect to a vampire’s normal existence, but never had they faced any situation even remotely like this. It was inescapable that the status quo was about to be forever unsettled. The time for action was nigh, and Darius just did not seem to be meeting the challenge. Although Sebastian did not yet know what had befallen the clan that very evening, he suspected that a violent confrontation was not far from any of them, a thought that filled him with unease. He wondered where all their loyalties would lie when the conflict dawned; most were obvious, but about one or two in particular he had his doubts.