I managed to get back to my feet and walked into the room. Looking round I noticed that my bed was unmade and there were clothes thrown on the back of the chair. Which made no sense because I didn’t wear a black bra. Turning to look at Amy, I raised an eyebrow.
“Err…I’ve been sleeping in here to keep your dog company.” She said, blushing.
I shook my head and walked over to the wardrobe and pulled out some clean clothes. Laying them on the sink top, I turned the shower on.
“I’m just going to have a shower and get changed. Can you tell Chris and the others to meet me in the Operations room on the first floor? We may as well start using it in there for meetings.” I said and started to get undressed.
Closing the bathroom door slightly I climbed into the warm shower and started to lather up. I must have been in a world of my own because I nearly jumped out of my skin when I felt a woman’s breasts press up against my naked back. Turning slowly round in the shower stall my lips found Amy’s and all the heat from the water didn’t compare to the heat coming from our two bodies as they pressed together.
“I missed you so much.” I whispered to her.
“Shh!” Was the only reply I got.
We were pulling on our clothes when we heard a knocking at the door.
“Come in.” I called out.
Chris walked in and as soon as he saw Amy he started grinning.
“You can fuck off with that before you start.” I said.
“Not a word passed my lips.” He said, flopping down on the chair.
“What did you want, Chris?” Amy said, grinning.
“We saw three cars pass the entrance camera and they passed by them in the opposite direction half an hour later.” He said.
“Looks like Tracy and her goons managed to catch up. Chris, we need to have a meeting. Is there any chance we could arrange for everyone to meet in the Operations centre in about half an hour?” I asked.
“Can’t see why not. Do you want that Mike and Tessa there as well?” He asked.
“Yeah, if you don’t mind.” I said.
He nodded and stood up to leave.
“One other thing, mate. Could you get me a new rifle from the armoury as well, please?” I asked.
“Sure. I’ll see you upstairs soon.” He said, leaving the room.
Amy walked over and wrapped her arms around me and buried her head into my chest.
“In answer to your statement in the shower, I missed you too.” She said.
Stroking her hair I watched as the dog sat on the end of the bed watching us. I really did need to find it a name. I couldn’t be calling it dog for the rest of its life. I stood stroking Amy’s hair and thinking if we could only get rid of Tracy things may start to look brighter.
“We need to get moving.” I said, moving away from Amy and toward the door.
“I suppose. I wish we weren’t jumping from one problem to the next and had some time to ourselves.” She said with a sigh.
We headed toward the lifts with dog in tow. When a door opened and Rosa stepped out, she stared at me and then ran up to me with her arms out for a hug. What the fuck? I looked at Amy and she just shrugged. Rosa slammed into me and I looked again at Amy. I could see a small smile playing on her lips. This was something I wasn’t expecting in the slightest.
“Err…hi, Rosa!” I said pulling away from her.
“Marc, we all thought you were dead. I felt so bad, what with me being such a bitch before you left. Amy and I had a big talk whilst you had been gone and she put me straight about how I had been acting.” She said, looking at her feet and blushing.
“Really?” I asked.
“Well…what really happened was Chris and David rescued Amy and brought her back here. Me, being the bitch that I was, said that it was all her fault. Amy then dragged me to the gym and we had a fight. Best to say I lost and afterward I asked her how she managed to protect herself. Well, after a lot of nagging by me she agreed to teach me. We’ve been going up to the gym every day for training. And she has also told me how much of a bitch I have been to everyone. Once I started to change everyone started to treat me nicer and Tom even moved back in with me.” She said, blushing again.
Looking over at Amy I said “Shit, I should get kidnapped more often.”
A pissed off look crossed Amy’s face and I received a slap on my arm from Rosa. Shit, man, I’m getting double teamed by these two.
“Alright, I surrender.” I said, laughing.
“Marc, we have to get to the meeting.” Amy said.
“Is it anything I need to be there for?” Rosa asked.
“I don’t…” I began to say.
“Actually, seeing as you have been running the security system, I suppose you should be there.” Amy said, interrupting me.
This near knocked me on my arse. Again, so much had changed is such a short time. Amy and Rosa set off for the lifts and I looked down at the dog sitting beside me. She just looked at Amy and Rosa and then back at me as though to say ‘Well, are you going to catch up or what?’ I shook my head and set off after Amy and Rosa. I managed to catch up with them just as they reached the lifts.
Heading out of the lift we all moved toward the Operations centre on the first floor. This might have been the first time that I had been inside it since we entered the bunker. Opening the doors, I walked inside and saw all the familiar faces from before my kidnapping and now the new faces of Tessa and Mike which were sitting beside Jake. He caught my eye as I walked passed and he nodded at me. I just smiled at them sitting together in their own little huddle.
Chris and David sat in front of the rest of the group. I walked up and sat down beside Chris. I was surprised to see Rosa and Amy head over to Jennie and her two kids to sit down. I would have thought Amy would be sitting up here with the rest of us.
Chris stood up and cleared his voice “First thing to say is welcome back, Marc, and welcome to our new friends.”
A small round of applause spread round the large room.
“Now, we all know that Marc had been voted in as leader just before our fucked up trip to Thorne. So I would like to ask everyone if they are still okay with that.” He said in his rumbling voice.
Everyone in one way or another said yes. I might have actually blushed at that.
“Okay, with that said, I will now turn this little get together over to Marc. Thanks for coming back, bud, you had me frightened that I would have to be in charge.” He said, as he sat down grinning.
“Well, thank you very much, you fucker!” I said, laughing as I stood up.
“Right. First order of business is to let you all know what happened to me after the crash.” I said.
Speaking slowly and trying to remember enough details I told everyone what had happened. I left out the bits where Mike and his group had helped Tracy in keeping me hostage. Finishing off with our fight with the infected and then being followed as we escaped and my suspicions of it being Tracy and her goons.
“We’ve seen three cars pass in front of the camera down at the track entrance. So it stands to reason that we have been followed by someone, whether it be Tracy or someone else. Now we have to decide what to do about it. We have enough food, water and electricity for quite a while and we all know that we can lock ourselves in here. But we may have to evacuate if something ever went wrong. At that point they will either try to get inside the bunker or try to kill us.” I said, sitting back down.
Chapter Six
Everyone was quiet for about ten minutes before Jake spoke up. “First thing, I want to thank you for bringing my family here safely. Secondly, there is no way in hell that I am going to let Tracy or whoever it is out there put them at risk. With that being said, I would like to put forward we head out there and get rid of them in any way we can.”
I could see nods coming from other members of our group. I saw Amy stand up.
“I agree with Jake, but before we go outside all guns blazing, we need to find out who and what we are
dealing with.” She said, looking at everyone.
“I agree with Amy.” David said. “It might be an idea that we find out where they are camped and do a recon.”
“Who the fuck are you and what have you done with David?” I asked. “Recon? Bloody hell! Since when have you been Rambo?”
Everyone burst out laughing, even David, although he was a little red in the face.
“No, seriously I agree with what you’ve said. So we now need to figure out how to find them and to do the recon.” I said, smiling at David.
“There’s something in the armoury that might help with that.” Tom said.
“Like?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah, right. There are some trackers that are in magnetic boxes. If we can get one on a car we will be able to track them with the hand units.” He said.
“Okay, that sounds good but how do we get them to stop so we can get it on the car?” I asked.
“We don’t. The magnets are really strong. All the car has to do is to drive over the top of it.” Philip said from beside his mom.
“How big are they?” Amy asked.
“Not much bigger than a packet of cigarettes.” Tom answered.
I sat and thought about it and I could see a huge hole in the plan.
“That sounds great but we might have a problem about that. What if we place the device and they don’t drive by anytime soon.” I asked.
Chris turned to look at me and said “Well, stands to reason they will have someone watching the drive and they will have a car nearby. Let’s say we take the A.P.C. out for a little joyride. We could drive round with them following us and when we get homesick, we just head back. They’ll follow us and we know they haven’t got anything that can take on an A.P.C. They’ll head back to their little hideout and drive right over the tracker that one of us places out there whilst they are gone.” Smiling as he finished talking.
“That might actually work.” Tom said.
“Okay, so next thing we need to decide on is who is going to do what? Chris of course will drive the A.P.C. and I want another rifle with him just in case they have managed to get something that can take out the A.P.C. Amy, I’d like you to go with him. You’re the next best shot here…..”
“What do you mean the next best shot?” She asked before I could continue.
“Well, next to me you’re crap.” I said, smiling.
“You’re going to pay for that one.” Whispered Chris.
I could see the tightness round her eyes and to tell you the truth I was a little worried.
“Anyway, next point is we need someone to creep down there and place the tracker and because I haven’t done anything for the bunker in a while, I’ll do it.” This little statement caused all kinds of shouting.
I waited for the room to calm slightly before standing and shouting “Will you all shut up?!”
When the room was finally quiet I said “Look, I need to do this. I want that bitch out of our lives more than anyone else. It was my fault by letting her go thinking and hoping that it would be the last we saw of her and that mistake turned round and bit us all in the arse. Now we may have a way to get rid of her once and for all and I am going to be part of it either way.”
“But, Marc, we only just got you back.” Amy said with tears in her eyes.
“I know but this is one debt that I personally want to cash in. That bitch has hurt so many people and it has to end.” I said.
Before anyone else could say a word I walked out of the room and headed to the dining room. It had been awhile since I had drank a hot drink of any sort. Making a mug of coffee, I sat as far away from Mike’s group that were probably eating their first hot meal since the infection. I was sitting watching the doors wondering who they might send after me and I wasn’t surprised when I saw Chris walk in. He stood at the doors looking round the room. When he saw me sat in the corner he walked over and sat down opposite me.
“Marc, you’ve got to understand how they feel.” He said.
“Look, I do, but you need to realize that I was held hostage by her all so she could come here and take over the bunker. It was only by pure luck that she got me and not you.” I said.
“I think David would be better coming with me and for Amy to plant the tracker.” He said.
“No. If you and Amy take the A.P.C. then I will feel a hell of a lot better. If David goes and you get into trouble, well, let’s just say I wouldn’t want him freezing up and god forbid you or him getting killed. And before you say it the same goes for this end of the mission, I can look after myself better than any of the others. I have proven that three times up until now.” I said, lifting the mug of coffee to my lips.
He looked across the table at me and said “You’ve just got back; don’t you feel like having a rest?”
“Yes, I want to have a rest, but I know I’m not going to get a rest until that fucking bitch is either dead or…..fuck, I don’t know.” I said, feeling pissed off with everything.
“Look, we won’t be doing anything till tomorrow anyway. So why don’t you come and shoot your new rifle and have some fun on the range.” Chris said, standing.
“Fine, but you and the others aren’t going to change my mind.” I said.
“You do know that you sound like a spoiled child?” He said, laughing at me.
“Fuck you!” I said, standing up.
He was right and I was acting like a spoiled child, but Tracy had to be dealt with and I wanted to be there when it happened. If only to be able to look into her eyes as she got what she deserved. Following Chris down to the range I passed a few people who thanked me for saving them. I felt really uncomfortable when they heaped praise on me. I didn’t feel like I had done anything special. I just wanted people to survive the mess that I had caused. Yes, I still blame myself for letting that cat out of the lab and for the death of Tony. So I struggled on with the hope that if enough people survived then things would at one point get back to normal.
We entered the range and there on the bench was a brand new just out of the wrapper MP5 sub machine gun with tactical harness and webbing. Picking it up, I made sure it was clear and then proceeded to load several magazines. Chris just stood and watched as I fired shots down range and made adjustments to the iron sights. It wasn’t till I was halfway through my third mag when I heard another set of shots coming from further down the range. Clearing the MP5 and ejecting the mag I decided it might be worthwhile having a look see. I came to the last alcove and nearly fainted, as I watched Philip taking shots with a SA80 at the targets on the range.
“Hold the fuck up!” I shouted.
Philip stopped shooting and made the rifle safe before placing it on the bench in front of him. Chris walked down and stood just behind me.
“I thought he wasn’t suppose to fire anything?” I asked Chris as I turned round.
“Well, Jennie said that if he was helping Tom in the armoury then he should know how they fire and how to use them correctly.” He said in a quiet voice.
“Okay! So why did she change her mind. Because before we left for Throne she was dead against him having anything to do with weapons in the first place.” I said.
Philip spoke for the first time “Well, mom freaked out a little when you didn’t come back. She said that if you had problems out there, what about the rest of us? It took her a few day to calm down and then one day she just said that Maddie and I needed to learn how to defend ourselves just in case there was no adults around to protect us. So Chris has been teaching us how to maintain and fire our rifles safely. Amy has been teaching us a little unarmed combat in the gym. Dad has also been doing the unarmed combat with us.”
“Shit, man, what are we doing raising a child army?” I said looking at the ceiling.
“No. We are just preparing them for the worst. Marc, you have to admit that if the adults die, then the kids would have to learn these things on their own and that’s more dangerous than what we are doing now.” Chris said.
Sighing,
I looked at him and said “Suppose you're right. It’s just I never wanted the kids to go through any of this.”
“I agree but you also have to think that this situation may go on for a long time.” He said.
“What?” I asked.
“It’s something we noticed whilst you were being held by Tracy. The infected are not rotting anymore. Jake thinks that it might have to do with the green slime they produce.” Philip said.
Could today get any better? First we have kids getting taught how to use semi-automatic weapons and now the infected are not rotting away to nothing like I hoped that they would.
“When did he come up with that idea?” I asked.
“The other day we had a visit from the infected. There were eight coming up the drive, so David, Amy and I went out to deal with them. Afterward, David made a passing comment on how fresh a corpse looked. When we looked closer we saw a sort of green shine to its skin. When we got back inside and talked about it with the group, Jake came up with the idea that the green slime is acting pretty much like a super sun cream. It’s protecting the infected from the elements. A bullet or trauma to the brain still kills them, just Jake feels the weather won't.” Chris said, leaning against the wall.
I couldn’t believe it. The infected were here to stay if what Jake said was correct. If only Jane had come with me instead of running off with the company. She might have been able to give us more information. Then a light bulb lit in my head.
“Has Jake managed to get in contact with any other groups?” I asked.
“He hasn’t he complains that all he hears every day is static. Why?” Chris said standing up.
“Do you remember Jane?” I asked him.
“You mean the doctor from the labs?” Chris said looking puzzled.
“Yup. Well, she and the company bosses went running for some ship or something. If we can get in touch with them then we might get some more information on the infected.” I said.
Spiteful (The Infected Book 3) Page 4