Spiteful (The Infected Book 3)

by Justin Gowland

  “He say anything?” I asked as I walked toward him.

  Shaking his head he said “Hasn’t made a sound since we put him in there. Did you have a chat with Tracy?”

  “Yeah, she nearly deafened us. I don’t think she liked the idea of us finding out about her little plan.” I said.

  “Well, she deserves worse than having her plan ruined.” He said, standing.

  “If I can talk Mr. Rat into telling me where she’s camped, maybe we can end the problem at the source. Anyway, I’m going to have a little chat with him.” I said, pointing at the door.

  “You need me?” David asked.

  I shook my head and said “No, it should be okay. Go and see Jennie and the kids.”

  “But what’s happening with a guard shift for the night?” He asked.

  “Chris is talking with Mike and I think they will sort something out.” I said.

  I opened the door and stepped into the conference room. I saw Mr. Rat sitting in a chair at the table. He looked up when I stepped into the room. His eyes were ringed with red and looking at him under the lights I could see he wasn’t too clean. Making sure my rifle was secured on my harness I sat down opposite him.

  “So what do I call you?” I asked.

  He snorted and said “Bob.”

  “Okay, Bob, you probably know why you’re here?”

  “That bitch wants to kill you.”

  “That, mate, is a given. The reason you are here is because I want to know where she and Thomas are hiding.”

  He smiled and said “What’s in it for me?”

  Now it was my turn to smile “Well, I won’t turn you over to Chris and David. They want to do some interesting things with you.” I said.

  His face wilted.

  “Yeah, I can see that you understand. Now where is she?” I asked.

  “You’ve got to promise to let me live if I tell you.” He said, nearly crying.

  “Okay, Bob, I’ll tell you what, if you tell me everything I want to know, I will let you go.” I said.

  “Can I not stay here? I promise to help out.” He said.

  I shook my head and said “Sorry, but if I did that the others wouldn’t be happy. Best I could do would be a pack with supplies and a weapon. And before you get your hopes up it would be a crowbar or something like it.”

  “Fair enough.” He said, slumping back down in his chair.

  “So where is the bitch hiding out?” I asked again.

  “There’s a small village about three miles away called North Duffield. We took over the small school and have been using it as our base.” He said.

  “Well, there aren’t that many of you lot left after tonight.” I said, laughing.

  “There’s more than you think.” He said.

  “Eh? I thought there were only six or seven of you not including that bitch.” I said

  “She still has another fifteen men.” He said.

  “Where did she get them from? When I was at Thorne she was supposed to only have six men.” I said.

  “She never told that group about our little haven in North Duffield. She’s been gathering people ever since you kicked her out of here.”

  “How has she managed to do that?” I asked.

  He cocked his head to one side before answering “She met Thomas in High Duffield. They got together and they started to gather men. They would tell them that the bunker held weapons and other stuff and they would rule the North East from here.”

  God, I didn’t know she was that power hungry and I agree that the bunker would make a good power base.

  “Well, she fucked up on that score.” I said standing.

  “Wait! Where are you going?” Bob asked.

  “You’ve told me where to find her so I’m going to go talk with my friends.” I said, heading for the door.

  “What about me?” He cried as my hand touched the door handle.

  Turning to look at him I said “You’ll stay here until we find out if you’re telling the truth or not.”

  “But I am.” He said.

  “We’ll see.” I said, opening the door and going out.

  Closing the door behind me I saw Mike sitting with a man I had seen with his group.

  Looking up, Mike came over and said “Robert here is going to keep guard on our guest for us. We have other men on a shift rotation until we get rid of him.”

  “Thanks, Robert.” I said.

  “No problem, and can I say thanks for letting my family and me stay.” Robert said.

  “That’s what we wanted with this place. Don’t open the door for any reason. I’ll send someone up with food for him later. Mike, can you come with me? I want to have a chat.” I said.

  “Sure.” He said, following me out of the Operations room.

  We headed for the lifts and I said “How adamant are you with wanting to learn how to shoot?”

  “Well, I think the more people who can defend, the better.” He said.

  I thought on that as I pressed the lift button.

  “Right. You’re going to be getting a crash course from Chris today. But first we need to get everyone together and have a little meeting.” I said.

  He nodded and followed me into the lift. We headed for the security room and I used the speaker system to ask that Chris, Amy, David and Tessa meet me in the security office. Mike and I sat back and waited for them to arrive. Chris appeared first and then Amy and David arrived at the same time looking slightly bedraggled for sleep. Tessa took the longest to get to us.

  “Okay, Marc, what’s so important that you had to wake us up?” Amy asked.

  “I had a chat with Bob.” I said.

  “Who the fuck is Bob?” Chris asked.

  “Mr. Rat.” I answered.

  “Oh, okay. So what did the scumbag have to say for himself?” Chris answered.

  “He told me where to find Tracy. The thing is, I thought she would only have Thomas with her since we killed those that were covering the intakes. It seems that I was wrong. She has a lot more men than I was lead to believe.” I said.

  “How many?” Amy asked.

  “Well, if we believe Bob she has another fifteen men at her base.” I said.

  “It’ll be hard taking on that many.” Chris said.

  “I don’t think it will. We have better weapons and some training and she just has thugs.” Amy said.

  “That’s beside the point. We just don’t have enough people to do a run against that many.” Chris said.

  “That brings up another point. I want you to start teaching Mike and Tessa tomorrow.” I said.

  “That’ll help.” He said.

  “You said he had told you where they were, Marc.” David said.

  I looked at him and said “It’s about three miles away. They’re holed up in High Duffield. Apparently that’s where she went after leaving here and it’s also where she met Thomas. I want to hit them in the next couple of days.”

  “I get to kill her.” Amy said out of the blue.

  We all turned to look at her and she said “She tried to kill me and she kidnapped Marc. I want to make sure she dies this time.”

  “Fair enough, as long as I get Thomas.” Chris said.

  “Hey, hold on, what do I get?” David said.

  “I’m sure we’ll come up with something.” Chris said, clapping his friend on the shoulder.

  “Okay, so we know where she is and roughly how many we are going up against.” I turned to look at Mike and Tessa “Sorry for the baptism of fire for you two, but we need to get rid of this problem soon.” I said.

  “I understand.” Tessa said.

  “It’s about time she got what she deserves.” Mike said.

  “Okay, it’s getting late so let’s all go get some sleep. The next couple of days are going to hard. I suggest that we meet tomorrow night in the Operations room and go over a plan on how we are going to do this.” I said.

  Everyone either nodded or said okay and drifted from the room leaving just Amy
and myself.

  “Come on, let’s get to bed.” Amy said.

  I raised an eyebrow at the way she said that. But I allowed myself to be pulled up and along to the lifts. We headed down to my room without saying a word. She pushed my door open and pulled me into the room. All I could see was her face close to mine. Those eyes I could fall into and never surface. The next thing I knew we were kissing and our hands were rushing over zips and buttons trying to get our clothes off. Somehow in the struggle to remove clothes we ended up on the bed in a tangle of arms and legs. The rest of the night passed by in a blur of heavy breathing and sweat.

  Chapter Nine

  The morning came and I found myself alone in my bed. Rolling over, I covered my head with a pillow and tried to fall back to sleep but thoughts of last night kept battering my brain. I sat up and swung my legs over the edge, running my hands through my hair. I sat trying to remember when Amy had left me. Standing, I stretched my muscles and headed for the shower. I was sure my body smelt of stale sweat and sex.

  As usual, the shower washed it off and after a few minutes I felt like myself. Stepping out of the shower I towelled myself down and went in search of finding some clean clothes. Once I was dressed, I gathered up the sweaty sheets and carried them to the door. It was only then that I noticed the pile of dirty clothes next to it. I really needed to get these washed. Laying a sheet on the floor, I piled my dirty clothes and the other sheets in the centre and made a sack. Picking up my rifle and hanging it over my shoulder. I grasped my sack of dirty laundry and headed off to the third floor and the barrack rooms that had washing machines.

  The third floor was busy and it shocked me to see how many people we actually had in the bunker now. Moving toward the nearest barrack room, I was intercepted by an old woman.

  “And where do you think you’re going?” She asked.

  “Er…I’m going to wash my gear.” I said, a little shocked.

  “No you’re not. You’re going to give me that bundle and I’m going to do it for you.” She said.

  “Thank you but it’s not necessary for you to do that.” I said.

  “It’s the least I can do for letting us stay here.”

  “I don’t want you to feel like I expect this treatment. And what do I call you?”

  “I’m Ruby and you’re not putting on me. Thing is, there is very little for us to do here and people are getting bored and when they get bored they start to fight.” She said.

  I hadn’t thought about that. ‘Some kind of leader I am.’ I thought to myself.

  “Well, Ruby, as long as you’re okay with it.” I said, passing the sack of dirty clothes and sheets to her.

  “It’s not a bother in the slightest.” She said, taking the sack of washing.

  “I have to thank you as well.” I said “You’ve given me something to think about with regards to finding things for people to do.”

  “That’s what old people do. Give good advice.” She said, taking the sack and disappearing into the bunk room.

  I looked round the library area and saw a lot of people just wandering from one place to another without actually doing anything. Only the few kids seemed to be actually busy, but saying that, they were all playing on the games consoles. I needed to talk with Amy, Chris and David about what Ruby had said to me. Leaving the library I took the lift to the second floor and headed for the indoor range. Sure enough, I found Chris and David teaching Mike and Tessa how to load and unload two SA80’s.

  “Morning, lover boy.” Chris said, as I walked into the range.

  “And you, young, sir, can get fucked.” I replied, laughing.

  “Can you remember when Jake asked Rosa and Tom to be a little quieter…?” He started to say.

  “You can stop right there before you dig a deeper hole for yourself.” I said.

  David laughed and carried on watching Mike and Tessa. They ran through the loading drills a couple more times and then started firing single shots down range. I watched and was surprised to see that Tessa was a much better shot than her father.

  “So how are our two recruits doing this morning?” I asked.

  David shouted for them to cease fire. Once they had cleared their weapons and placed them on the bench in front of them, they turned round.

  “They are not too bad.” Chris said.

  “That’s a bit off my mind.” I replied.

  “It was a shock when I fired my rifle for the first time.” Tessa said.

  “Yeah, can be a big shock your first time.” I said.

  Mike and David came to stand next to me.

  “They should be okay to provide fire support by tomorrow.” Chris said.

  I nodded and smiled at them all.

  “Well, I have another problem. You know what they say, if it rains it pours. I spoke with a woman called Ruby this morning and she brought up the fact people are getting bored and when they get bored they fight amongst themselves.” I said.

  “That Ruby is a smart old bird. She was the one that suggested the school as our sanctuary.” Mike said.

  “That old woman has a great head on her shoulders. But the problem is I don’t know what to do about it.” I said.

  “You’ve got your answer already.” Mike said.

  “What do you mean?” Chris asked.

  “Before Tracy turned up at our place, we had someone in charge of that kind of stuff and you’ve already spoken with them.” Mike said.

  “Look, I’m going to need you and Tessa when we go after Tracy and I don’t want you switching jobs every time I need you.” I said.

  “Don’t be bloody daft. I could never balance my bank account, how the hell could I help in running this place? Tessa would rather poke out her own eyes than stop what she is doing now.” Mike said, laughing.

  “Okay then, smartarse. Who would you suggest?” Chris asked.

  “Ruby.” Mike said in reply.

  “The woman Marc spoke with this morning?” David asked.

  “Yeah, she’s great. When we got to the school she jumped straight in and helped everyone get settled.” Tessa said.

  The more I thought of it, the better it got. She had put herself forward this morning without even saying a word. I mean, it was her suggestion that people need something to occupy them.

  “That’s fine with me. Does anyone know where Amy is?” I asked.

  “Last I saw of her she was working out in the gym.” Chris said smiling.

  “Get your mind out of the gutter.” I said, turning to leave the range.

  “Watch what you’re doing in the gym, mate. The last thing we need is you getting injured.” Chris said to my back.

  I didn’t even bother to turn round and said “And you, my friend, can get bent.”

  I headed down toward the gym with the laughter of my friends chasing me. Opening the doors, I looked inside and saw Amy working out with a pair of small weights in front of a full length mirror. Walking slowly across the mats toward her, I smiled at the effort she was putting into her routine.

  As I got closer to her I called out “You know it’s polite to leave flowers or a cooked breakfast.” I said.

  “It’s also polite to go down on a woman when she asks you to.” She said, laughing.

  “Now that’s just nasty.” I said.

  “What did you want to talk about?” She asked.

  I walked over and told her about my talk with Ruby earlier in the day and the conversation I had with Chris and the others. She dropped the small weights and walked over to where she left her towel.

  “So what do you think?” I asked.

  “To tell you the truth, I’ve spoken with Ruby and she seems to have her head screwed on right. She might very well be the woman for the job.” She said, turning round.

  “Okay. I’ll talk to her later today. What about Tessa and Mike?” I asked.

  Amy walked over and wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled me in close.

  “You not going to kiss me?” She said.

&nbs
p; With a large sigh I bent forward and kissed her soft lips.

  “Better?” I asked.

  “Hmm…much better.” She answered.

  “Well?”

  “Well what?” She said, looking up at me.

  “How do you think Tessa and Mike are getting on?” I asked.

  Leaning her head against my chest, she said “If Chris thinks they are going to ready, then they should be ready. What has you worried?”

  “To tell you the truth, I don’t want anyone to get hurt. But they are forcing us into a fight.” I said.

  “Look, Marc, the thing you have to understand is that it doesn’t matter, because sooner or later Tracy and her group were going to force us to fight them.” She said, pulling away slightly.

  “I know.” I said, resting my head on top of hers.

  “What have you got planned for today?” She asked.

  “I thought that I’d have a look at the map and sort out how we are going to get in and out.” I said.

  “Sounds like a good idea. Do you want any help?”

  “Okay. But you are going to have a shower first, right?” I said, skipping out of her reach before she could hit me.

  “You cheeky bastard.” She said, coming for me.

  I just turned tail and ran out of the gym shouting over my shoulder “I’ll see you in the dining room.”

  The door swung shut as she was saying something and I was pretty sure it was along the lines of ‘Fuck You!’ I headed back down to the barracks floor to find Ruby. I was laughing as the doors to the lift opened and I stepped out. Looking around I couldn’t see Ruby anywhere so I spoke to a young man who was sat reading a book. He told me that Ruby was in one of the barracks rooms, but wasn't certain which. Opening each door I looked inside and it was in the last room that I saw her sitting on one of the beds.

  Walking over she looked up and said “Your clothes are clean. They’re drying.”

  Smiling, I sat down beside her and said “That’s not why I am here. I had a chat with the guys about what you said earlier and Mike said that there was someone who could help me out.”

  Looking puzzled at me she said “Why come and talk to me about it?”