The three vehicles drove through the gates. The occupants disembarked and Lewis went first to Singleton and Handley.
“Successful mission I hear?” she smiled, looking relieved, then noticed the wound to his cheek. “Are you okay?” There was genuine concern in her voice.
“Ah, it’s nothing, just a flesh wound,” he grinned. “And yes, we did have a pretty successful day out, all in all.” He motioned for Williams and Millington to bring their charge over and Singleton got down on her haunches.
“Hello there, I’m Dr Singleton. How are you?”
Josh did not answer but hid his face in Millington’s coat and Millington answered for him. “His name’s Josh, ma’am.”
“Well hello Josh and welcome to Headley Court. I’m sure you’ll be very happy here and we’ll take great care of you.” She could not contain the grin that broke free and spread across her face.
Straddling stalked past with an expression of thunder and Singleton looked quizzically at Lewis.
“What’s put the bug up his ass?”
Lewis sighed and rubbed his face wearily. “Ahhh, tell you about it later.” He looked quickly around at the assembled group. “Where’s Denny?”
She shrugged with a frown and was about to answer when they saw him walking along the driveway towards them from the main building, looking as though he had just woken up. His hair was dishevelled, his uniform un-ironed and he looked as though he had slept in it overnight.
He walked up to the group, saluted stiffly and addressed them all in a loud voice. “Well done to you all, it’s great news that you have all made it back safely, I’m absolutely delighted. I understand that you have brought back lots of good supplies for the base and even one new member?”
He looked at Josh, strode towards him and thrust out a hand. Josh hid again behind Millington and Denny coughed in embarrassment. “Oh well, cat got your tongue, eh?”
“He’s just a bit shy sir, a bit shell-shocked is all,” Millington answered for him again.
“Well maybe later then. Anyway, well done everybody.” He stood for a moment looking round at them all as though he was searching for someone in particular, then turned on his heel and strode away.
Lewis stared after his retreating commanding officer then turned back to Singleton. “How’s he been today?”
She sighed. “I think he’s okay, he just seems really stressed. I guess the responsibility is wearing him down. Every time someone gets killed he takes it very personally and that makes it hard for him whenever anybody leaves the base I think.”
“I know how he feels,” Lewis replied and truly meant it.
There were too many people around them to discuss the matter further and there was too much to be done so the subject was postponed. The two doctors checked everyone over thoroughly for bite marks before the vehicles were driven up to the main buildings and unloaded.
“I’ll come and see you later,” Lewis called out to Singleton as he walked back towards the Land Rover.
“Yes, I’d better check that scratch on your face,” she replied with a smile. He felt that the normal sense of antagonism between them was slowly dispersing. Perhaps she also realised that with Denny losing the plot, the two of them would be the most senior officers on base and would be increasingly reliant on each other. Maybe she had started to construct a bridge on her own bank of the river.
Before departing Lewis called Millington and Williams over to him for a moment. They spoke quietly out of hearing of anybody else. Williams nodded enthusiastically. Millington gave one of his characteristically big smiles and softly scooped the boy up into his thick arms before carrying him towards the medical section. Lewis watched them go with a grin and a warm sensation in his stomach, replacing the ever-present gnawing anxiety. He marvelled at the gentleness that Millington displayed, such tenderness that only the completely self-assured seem to possess. The man very clearly had a good and genuine heart, which was probably why every single person on base was so fond of him.
By the time Singleton returned to check Josh more thoroughly he hardly resembled the boy they had rescued from the petrol station. The grime had all but gone and he was starting to talk a little. When he spoke, regardless of who had addressed him, he directed his replies to Williams or Millington. They had the distinct feeling that tears were never very far below the surface and tried to keep conversation and questions as light as possible. There was plenty of time later to dig a little deeper and find out what had happened to his parents and whether he knew of other possible survivors. Medically he seemed fine; he had not been bitten and there were no obviously broken limbs, cuts or wounds. He was just pitifully in need of a good feed, some proper sleep without nightmares and a little loving care.
Lewis stuck his head around the door and smiled at the three of them. “You ready?”
Williams nodded and led Josh by the hand out of the medical centre.
They found Pethard sat in a deep, green velvet armchair in the ante-room beside the dining room. He was dressed neatly in uniform, his hair was combed and he was clean and shaven but he stared into space, not moving, hardly breathing and not really looking as though he was actually awake at all, apart from the fact that his eyes were open. Lewis signalled to Williams to wait outside. He coughed as he approached but Pethard did not appear to hear. It was only when Lewis sat down in front of him that he was forced out of his daydream and to focus on life.
“Oh sorry sir, I didn’t see you there.” He went to stand up but Lewis put a gentle hand on his shoulder and encouraged him back into his seat. His eyes were red and he barely looked at Lewis at all.
“How are you doing?” Lewis asked in as calm a voice as he could muster.
“Oh okay sir, you know, it’s still really hard but I’m getting there.”
“Pethard, it’s only been a day. Of course it’s hard and it’s going to continue to be hard for you, we all know that.”
“Yes sir, but we’ve all been through similar things, there’s nothing special about my situation. I’ve got to just face up to it and get back to work. We all need each other, now more than ever.” There was a lot of truth in what he said but few people on the base, if any, had had to witness the death of a loved one at such close quarters and in such a brutal manner. There was a profound sadness in him and Lewis could not help but admire him for his stoic attitude. Although his heart was breaking he still realised his place on the base was as vital as everyone else’s and that others depended on him After all, he may still one day be needed to save someone’s life. This only made Lewis even surer that he was doing the right thing.
“Well if you feel up to it I have a special request I’d like to make of you. But I’ll quite understand if you feel that this task is not for you at the moment.”
Pethard tried to summon up a look of enthusiasm but it remained well short of convincing. “Yes sir, of course. What is it?”
“We found someone today off base. A survivor. Someone who needs to be looked after and I wondered whether you might be able to help with that?”
He beckoned Williams in and both Lewis and Pethard rose instinctively to their feet.
“What?” Pethard was dumbfounded and speechless. Lewis had seen men unable to communicate effectively when surprised, spluttering and getting their words mixed up, but to be so completely at a loss was rare. Pethard looked at the small boy in front of him who stood meekly staring at the floor and then back at Lewis, his eyes wide open and his mouth flapping. No words came out, just a strangled, moaning sigh.
Lewis could feel his eyes becoming prickly and strived to control his emotions. “We found him today,” he said, trying to keep his voice level. “He was hiding in a petrol station just outside Stansted Mountfitchet. He’s all alone and needs someone to look after him. I just wondered whether you might be up for the task? Perhaps you and Williams can both look after him between yourselves, you know, make sure he gets somewhere comfortable to sleep, make sure he gets fed with everyone else an
d just be there for him in general.
“I mean obviously we’ll all help to take care of him as needed, but maybe just to have you and Williams in particular to look out for him, it would be a great help. You think you can manage that?”
At last Pethard found his tongue. His eyes were shining and tears had started to flow but he turned his back and quickly wiped them away. “It’s a miracle!” That was all he managed to say at first and Lewis found himself now unable to stop the tears and dabbed surreptitiously at the corners of his eyes as the explosion of emotion from Pethard caught them all up. “It’s a miracle.”
Without knowing why, all three adults found themselves laughing hysterically. Pethard turned to Lewis and, forgetting rank and place, actually clapped him on the back and pumped his hand vigourously, and for another brief moment their microcosm in the shadows of the ante-room was only just big enough for the four of them and too small and solid for any outside horrors to break in.
Josh stood in the middle of the adults, staring up at them in confusion, not knowing whom they were, where he was or where his father was, but on some level realising that for now at least, he was safe and amongst people who would take care of him. Even he, young as he was, felt the slightest inkling that not all was bad with the world just then and tears came freely to all four of them in that little cosmos in the ante-room.
Lewis left Williams and Pethard with the boy and walked slowly away with a broad smile on his face, to the station medical office. He found Singleton and Handley sat facing each other on chairs, chatting in low voices. Privates Hanson and Howes were pottering around in the background, teasing each other and winding each other up with little quips and digs. Howes had been serving in the medical section for just over a year and although Hanson was new on base the two had bonded quickly. It was a real love-hate sort of relationship. Howes was much shorter and dumpier and yet seemed to be the more elegant, graceful and quick-witted of the pair. Hanson was always the one to play the fool to Howes’s wise-cracks and the two were a humorous double-act, bouncing off each other.
“Knock knock.” Lewis stuck his head through the door and flashed a large, genuine smile, a rarity at these times.
“Come in, we were just talking about you actually,” Singleton replied warmly.
“Oh yes?” He resisted the urge for smutty banter.
“Just wondered how you had got on with young Josh and Corporal Pethard? By the size of your grin I’d have to guess things went pretty well?”
“Oh I think they’ll do just fine. I think that’s exactly what each of them needs right now.” His smile grew and became infectious.
“Sounds like you had a successful day out?”
“Well, we got just about everything we went out for. We fought off a few septics, no one was too badly injured and best of all we found a survivor, so yes, I’d say that it was an immensely successful day; for once.”
They all beamed at each other. It was amazing how one happy event could so radically change the atmosphere on base and replace the bleak feelings of the previous couple of days, albeit temporarily.
“Now let me have a quick look at that scratch on your face.”
Lewis watched her closely as she came near to him. A look of concentration was on her face as she dabbed at the wound with some antiseptic cloth, making him wince.
“Oh you big baby, it doesn’t hurt does it?” she laughed.
“It could have been a whole lot worse, believe me,” he smiled, still feeling extremely grateful to be alive.
“Have you been to see Denny yet?” Singleton asked, her eyes narrowing.
“Nope, that was next on the agenda. Has he been out and about much today?”
“No, we’ve hardly seen him.”
“Personally I can totally understand the pressures he’s under and how he must be feeling,” Lewis said. “That’s pretty much how I feel every time I take troops out with me off base.”
“Well please don’t let it get to you too much. If you start to feel stressed then do come and talk to me about it. Or I mean talk to any of us,” she added quickly
Lewis had never seen Singleton acting so concerned about him and he was genuinely touched. He had not previously realised how helpful it was to have a little support from her.
“How are you sleeping?” Handley chipped in.
“Oh you know, like everybody else I’m sure. Nightmares, waking up in the middle of the night in tears, not knowing where I am and then suddenly everything comes flooding back. Just the usual, until I get so tired that every once in a while I sleep for about twelve hours straight and wake up completely spaced out but vaguely refreshed.”
Handley nodded. “Yep, sounds familiar. Well, we have some drugs for that, if you need them.”
“Thanks. I may take you up on that. Have you had this same chat with Denny?”
“Well we intended to today but he’s not been in his office and we couldn’t find him. We’ll try again later. It’s important that we all look out for each other.”
“Hmmm.” Lewis was pensive. “Look I was thinking. Finding a survivor today, and one so vulnerable, has given me pause for thought and reaffirmed what I had already been thinking. It really is not enough to seal ourselves off from the outside world. If this young boy can manage to stay alive then there will undoubtedly be many more survivors out there. We have got to try and find them.”
Singleton leaned forward, her eyes gleaming with excitement. “I am so glad you said that. I couldn’t agree more. And what about my suggestion to capture one of the infected and study it?”
Lewis looked doubtful. “I just don’t know. I have to say that I think, at the moment, I would tend to agree with Denny still. I can see your angle and there may well be benefits but it really would be so bloody dicey and I certainly wouldn’t like to try it.” Her expression blackened and he found surprisingly that he did not want to disappoint her so he tried to soften his remark. “We can continue to think about it though and see if we can’t come up with some sort of plan in case the opportunity presents itself. But it did make me wonder; what about trying to come up with an antidote?”
Handley and Singleton exchanged a look that sent goose bumps up Lewis’s arms. Hanson glanced at Howes, for once with a genuinely earnest expression. The two of them slunk off to a rear room to avoid the serious discussion that they knew was about to ensue.
“Funny you should say that,” Handley said. “We’ve been discussing that very subject today actually.”
“Yeah? As a matter of fact I’ve been contemplating it today myself,” Lewis replied. It seemed that he was not the only one thinking of matters beyond their own existence. “So what did you guys conclude?”
“Well, we thought that for everyone on the base I guess the most important goal must be just plain and simple survival, day to day stuff. Getting through each day without dying, basically. But after that, then what? That’s all good but that kind of closes our eyes to the outside world, letting everybody else perish whilst we few survive? That doesn’t feel right to me.
“As you say, now that we have found a survivor, and such a vulnerable one at that, it really must mean that there are indeed many more of them. There may be people hiding alone or in groups. They may be in remote locations away from other sick people or just in particularly secure places, who knows. But what is probable is that they won’t survive indefinitely without help; our help.
“We both think that our aim now, our moral duty even, should be to try to help others. If it’s not safe at the moment to capture one of the infected to study then perhaps we should be making more effort at finding survivors. But also we should be thinking about trying to create a cure or immunization. We are a medical establishment after all.”
Singleton was leaning forward again looking hard at Lewis whilst her colleague spoke. Lewis regarded them both with veiled eyes but he could not hide his interest in what they were suggesting, nor the sudden sense of excitement at having a worthy cause to focus on.
For once their lives would have real meaning, something that had been lacking for the past few days and weeks.
“Okay, that sounds reasonable,” he said cautiously, “and I think I would agree with you, especially after finding Josh today. Why do I get the impression that you have already worked out a strategy?”
Handley and Singleton broke into big grins and Howes, who had been listening through the half-closed door, gave a soft chuckle.
“Well of course,” Singleton said, “we’ve had precious little else to do today with most people off base, and we needed something to stop us going stir-crazy.”
“Okay let’s hear it then.” His goose flesh had returned with a vengeance and he could feel himself wanting to buy into the plan before he had even heard it. The desire for more than just their own basic survival was overwhelming. The need to have a goal to give them all some hope for the future was all-consuming.
“Well as you may know, the research for the drug Mnemoloss was conducted largely at GVF Laboratories. They are on the outskirts of Cambridge. That’s only about twenty miles away, straight up the motorway. Jump on the M11 and less than half an hour later, bingo, easy as that.”
Lewis smiled ruefully, remembering the troubles they had gone through in order just to get to a nearby village. “Well, almost. And you think the cure might be there?”
“No, probably not,” said Handley. “They would never have predicted side-effects like these and when they realised that things were going so badly wrong I doubt they would have had time to do all that much about it. But an awful lot of the research may still be there; the data, test results, just about everything anyone would need to start to look into a cure or an inoculation. It’s without a shadow of doubt the best place to begin, ground zero.”
The Blood of the Infected (Book 1): Once Bitten, Twice Die Page 30