Aftermath: The complete collection

by John Wilkinson

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Look at the state of this place, it’s full of stuff.’

  ‘Good idea Driver, look for something to carry them in.’

  I found some carrier bags below the till cabinet, and a couple of sports bags that had been on sale. We filled them with as many boys and girls toys as we could, stuffing them in every space available. We put the bags by the entrance to the shop, to pick up on our way out. Rhino and Murphy joined us, after clearing out the car park, and burning all vehicles with possible traces of the disease. I found a few adventure park maps on the floor, and we searched area by area. Most of the theme park had burned to the ground, with the odd brick building still standing. Large plastic slides, colourful fascias and the roof to the dodgems, had all melted under the extreme heat, and then re-hardened as the cold and rain came. We plotted a route through the park, that covered every possible area. If we found the remains of something we couldn’t recognise, we just burned it, to be sure. We found nothing alive, just the burnt remain of customers who died long ago. There were a couple of black birds, sat on the largest building still standing, a large slide that descends down around a circular stone centre. The plastic slide was missing from the sides, melted and broken into pieces on the floor. The birds took flight as we got closer, disappearing into the black sky. The winds rattled anything not fixed down, bits of debris blew around our feet. When we had finished the search, we headed back to the Viking, collecting the bags of toys as we past. The vehicle was covered in dents, all over the bodywork, caused by the impact of the hail storm we sat through. It was twenty to nine pm, we had an hour to kill before the pre arranged meeting with all participating companies, to confirm completion of the kuru mission, and finalise the journey back to camp blue. So Blue and White Company played cards, in the back of the Viking, as Sergeant Davis filled out some paperwork. The game of choice for Blue and White Company is colourfully known as ‘Shit Head,’ and had been played in the Fleetwood Barracks for over fifty years. We enjoyed a few boiled sweets, and some powdered electrolyte drinks, only just better than going thirsty. Keane won nearly every round we played, I’ve always thought there was a large slice of luck involved in winning Shit Head, but I couldn’t ignore his success rate. After my second powdered electrolyte drink, I needed to go and relieve myself, and headed off the Viking to find somewhere suitable. I walked over to the nearest bus, and pissed against the flat front tyre, as I looked up at the darkening sky, searching for any sign of the sun or moon. As I turned to walk back to the Viking, I heard a whimpering sound, coming from on the bus. I pulled my rifle out, turned the tactical light on and climbed up the steps and onto the bus. There was a musty damp smell coming from the coach, wet clothes and mould spreading across the roof. I couldn’t see anything ahead, so I carefully shone the light on my rifle onto each seat, and under it. There was further abandoned belongings and rubbish, clogging up the walkway and seats. Around halfway, I noticed something in my torchlight, at the end of the bus, taking up the back seat. It looked like a body, but it wasn’t until I got closer that I could tell what it was. There was a man, recently deceased, sat with his right pant leg rolled up to his knee. There was a pool of blood on the floor by his feet, and after further inspection, a large wound on his calf, that looked self inflicted. Maybe he thought he’d have a better chance of survival, eating his own flesh. How desperate for food must he have been? If I had to pick an area of my body to cut off for food, a part I could lose but still survive, I think that’s where I’d have chose. He might have hit a blood vessel, and slowly bled out, dying not that long ago. His blood, that covered the floor by his feet, was still red and shiny. There was a rucksack by his side on the back seat, half open with his belongings falling out, a knife by his right hand stained with his blood, and dried blood stains on his fingers and his beard around his mouth. By his left, was a plastic shopping bag, covered in blood. With the muzzle of my rifle, I inspected the bag, finding a few strips of black and bloody flesh. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed movement on the seat to my right, and quickly moved my rifle to its position. There was a pile of coats, with something moving underneath. I lifted them off, one by one, unveiling a tiny child. She tried to hide, and then escape, but I stopped her. ‘Please, don’t. I’m not going to hurt you.’ She looked at me with her big brown eyes, I tried to wipe the blood off her face, but she flinched, and withdrew. I held my hands in the air, and then slowly moved them to her, letting her watch them, and then gently wiped the blood off her face. She too looked badly undernourished, her arms and face like a dolls, tight and dry. I asked her what her name was, but she wouldn’t speak. I felt she understood me, but was too frightened to talk. She looked really young, maybe five or six, it was hard to tell she looked so ill. She had light brown hair, that was almost black with dirt and grime, and she was wearing dirty white shoes, blue jeans and a dirty denim jacket with a rain jacket over the top. She climbed off the seat and ran over to the man on the back seat, and cuddled him. ‘Is that your dad? I asked, moving closer to her. She didn’t respond, she just continued to cling onto the man.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Said a voice behind me. I turned around to find Little D climbing up the steps of the bus, ‘We were going to send out a search party.’

  ‘I’ve found a little girl’ I replied, as he walked up the walkway to meet me. I stood aside, so he could see her, she was still refusing to let go of the dead man.

  ‘Is that her dad?’ Little D asked.

  ‘I’m not sure, she won’t speak.’

  ‘Has she been eating him?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘It looks like she has, that would be my guess.’

  ‘If she has, it’s only been to stay alive.’

  Little D left the bus to get Sergeant Davis, and explain the situation, as I tried to convince the child to come with me, but she wouldn’t budge. When Little D came back aboard, he told me Sergeant Davis want to speak to me. I left him to try to talk the child around, and went to meet him, stood by the Viking with Murphy and Rhino.

  ‘Is she infected with kuru?’ Asked Sergeant Davis, with a look of concern.

  ‘I don’t know, I don’t think so.’

  He sighed and walked away, leaving Rhino and Murphy looking at me. I could hear him swearing to himself, before he returned.

  ‘Ian has confirmed she has been eating flesh, I’m going to have to kill her humanely’ he said, pulling his revolver out.

  ‘Are you fucking joking?’

  ‘We have orders to destroy all infected, and burn all remains. As per our mission objective.’

  ‘Why would you? She’s not-’

  ‘We have our orders Driver, they are not going to accept us bringing a carrier back to the camp.’

  ‘She’s not a carrier, she’s a fucking child.’

  ‘Keep your voice down.’

  ‘Why? Are you concerned she’ll understand what you’re planning to do?’

  ‘We cannot let our feelings affect our decision making’ interrupted Murphy.

  ‘I cannot fucking believe I’m hearing this, fuck your mission objective, this is not the same thing. This child’s dad has probably died trying to keep her alive, only for us to kill her. This is not the same thing, she’s showing no signs of the disease, but just because she ate some flesh to stay alive, you’re going to kill her. Do none of you have children? Someone must, Murphy? Chris?’

  None of them could look me in the eye, until Rhino spoke.

  ‘I have two boys.’

  ‘And what do you think about this?’

  He didn’t respond, or I continued before he’d chance.

  ‘Would you do anything for your children? If you were desperate, if they hadn’t eaten, and they would die. What would you do?’

  ‘I would do the same.’

  ‘Too fucking right you would, you all would
.’

  Sergeant Davis, Rhino and Murphy looked at each other, hoping for a divine intervention, but I was not going to let up, this was bullshit. As Sergeant Davis remained silent, listening to everyone, Murphy spoke out.

  ‘How do we explain to General Morris-’

  ‘We don’t have to explain shit’ I interrupted. ‘We found this child, and brought her back to the camp. If you’re worried about her, she can stay in the camp medical centre under observation. But she’s a child, not a danger, we need to keep this in perspective.’

  Sergeant Davis asked each member what we thought should happen, and told me not to interrupt.

  ‘For what it’s worth’ said Rhino. ‘I agree with Driver.’

  ‘Killing her doesn’t sit well with me’ said Murphy, ‘But we would be disobeying military orders.’

  I tried to interject but Sergeant Davis stopped me, and asked Murphy to continue.

  ‘But maybe the orders don’t take into account all possibilities, maybe we need to make some decisions ourselves.’

  Little D walked out of the coach holding the little girl, who had her arms wrapped around him tight. I could see a tear in Rhinos’s eye, which told me he’d been affected by the situation, and was thinking about his boys. We should be protecting children like this, not hurting them. The army needs to adapt to the world we are now in, the fight has changed and we have to change with it.

  ‘Ok’ said Sergeant Davis, ‘Put the child on the Viking Ian, we need to move out. Rhino and Murphy, can you search the remaining buses, and torch any bodies.’

  I helped Rhino put the Flamethrower on again, before they started clearing out the buses. Little D carried the little girl onto the Viking, and fastened her into the seat between myself and Keane, who due to the medication was having a doze. The girl didn’t know what to do, or where to look. She started to cry to herself, I tried to console her, but she didn’t want me, she wanted her dad. My heart went out to her, I cannot think of a more terrifying situation for a child to be in, she cried herself to sleep within five minutes. When the lads had finished searching the buses, we left the theme park, and headed towards the final meeting point, with the rest of the companies. We were the last ones to arrive, Murphy pulled the Viking up onto the muddy verge, and Sergeant Davis got out. As he was speaking to the other sergeants, Rhino leaned over and asked me about Emma. I told him a little bit of my back story, and he talked about his own. He had two young boys, Alex who is eleven, and Zack who is seven. They were both safe in the camp, along with his wife Annette. It was nice to hear a story with a happy ending for once, a family still completely intact. Most people I’ve met seemed to have lost at least one member of their family, maybe that’s just how life is now. Rhino showed me a picture of his boys, playing football at Deepdale, where they had represented Preston North End at youth level. I reciprocated with a photo of Emma and her mum, I’d removed from my farm before it burnt down. Sergeant Davis arrived back after finalising the mission objectives with the other sergeants. Tangerines and Royal Blues Companies were given the details of areas to keep a closer eye on, including the coordinates for the kuru camp we had destroyed. They had a further eight weeks to observe, to confirm the area was clear of disease. After a few miles back on the road, the members of Blue and White Company were getting some sleep. I pulled out my diary, and proceeded to write up today’s entry. When I have finished, I’ll try to get some sleep myself.

  Chapter FOUR

  7/12/27 - Time 20:50

  I slept pretty much the whole journey back to Camp blue, Keane waking me up as we drove through the Delta Security Base. I rubbed my eyes to get them working again, and then stretched my arms and legs. ‘Torriero’s men weren’t at their camp’ said Keane, making no attempt to hide his yawn.

  ‘Where have they gone?’ I asked, still a bit groggy.

  ‘Anyone’s guess.’

  I looked at my watch, which said five thirty seven. As the Viking came to a stop outside the hotel, the men got to their feet and collected their belongings. Little D unfastened the seat belt around the young girl, and lifted her up. She grabbed hold of him around his neck, still fast asleep. ‘I’ll take her to the Medical Centre’ he whispered to his brother, who nodded his approval. ‘Mission successful’ said Private Farrell, leaning out from his guard post, as we walked through the entrance to the hotel.

  ‘Yes’ replied Sergeant Davis, turning around to his men before we dispersed. ‘There will be a briefing with General Morris tomorrow after breakfast, to talk about the mission, which we must all attend. Thanks for your help men, get some sleep and I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  I followed Sergeant Davis through the silent first floor corridor to my door, before quietly opening it and going inside. Everyone was still asleep, I pulled any blankets not covering children, back over them. Emma was asleep in my bed, so I climbed into hers and went to sleep.

  It felt like I had barely got to sleep before I heard the sounds of children, and sensed their movement around me. At first, they mustn’t have realised I was there, as I was left alone, but suddenly I was jumped on by what felt like a football team. ‘Dad, Dad’ shouted Emma, sitting on my back and wrapping her arms around my neck. ‘I never knew you were there, when did you get back?’

  ‘A few hours ago’ I moaned, rolling over and letting her give me a proper hug. The boys came over for a hug too, which was nice. ‘Did you miss me?’ I asked.

  ‘I missed you, but I was fine.’

  ‘You were crying the first night’ remarked James, much to Emma’s horror.

  ‘No, I had hurt my toe’ she stammered. ‘Remember, I hurt it on the table leg?’

  ‘Was she crying?’ I whispered to Josh, who nodded his head smiling. I grabbed hold of them all, and squeezed them tight, until they were shouting for me to let go. ‘Well I have certainly missed you all’ I said, letting go of them so they could breath. When Bernard was up, we all got dressed, washed and went for breakfast. I told Bernard about the mission, over toast and tea, and the children told me what they had done over the past few days. Across the dining room, I saw Adrian having his breakfast with Max, we acknowledged each other and then had a quick word. He said he’d joined The Bees Company, on an interim basis, to complete a case sensitive mission. Rumour around the camp was it involved scouting Torriero’s main camp, believed to be in Leeds, which had missed much of the devastation. General Morris wanted fresh intel on the numbers Torriero could call on, and what weaponry they had. Camp Blue had conducted a few missions to obtain military weapons from abandoned army premises, and found them missing, leading to worries they might have ended up in Torriero’s hands. When breakfast had finished, Mrs Brownhill came to collect the children, and I had a quick word with her, with a promise to speak to her tonight, as I had a meeting to attend now. She looked happy to see me, and I was certainly happy to see her. I left Bernard heading towards the stadium, for another day training the new recruits, as I went to the kuru meeting on the third floor. When I got there, I meandered around the back until I saw Blue and White Company, and joined them, just as General Morris arrived on stage, accompanied by General Brown and Captain Jones.

  ‘Good morning soldiers’ said General Morris, as Captain Jones helped General Brown to his seat. ‘I’m glad to be informed the mission to destroy kuru was a successful one, with no serious casualties.’ I looked around the company for Keane but couldn’t see him, as General Morris continued. ‘I believe Office Keane of Blue and White Company, and Officer McGough of Imps Company picked up minor injuries, and will spend the next two weeks off the front line. Sergeant Davis, if you could talk us through the mission findings please.’ Chris climbed up the stairs to join General Morris on the stage.

  ‘We found and destroyed the source of the disease, and all infected humans. There was a camp within the Pentland Hills where a group of manipulative individuals were praying on the de
speration of others. We found evidence these men were killing and eating other humans, some after intoxicating them to a point they couldn’t defend themselves. There was a restricted area within their camp where they would cut up the bodies, removing anything considered edible, before disposing of the remains. Evidence suggests these men were also responsible for another abandoned camp found by Tangerine Company within their search area, that included a similar mass grave, full of rotting body parts. We believe these men would have continued to kill and eat humans, until becoming infected themselves. We also found evidence they were possibly responsible for a spate of attacks in and around the forest, targeting lone walkers.’

  ‘Did you destroy all traces of the disease?’

  ‘We systematically burned everything deemed a possible infection, including humans, bodies, dogs and birds. We also burned all sites where this practice was taking place, including camps, abandoned camps, buildings and vehicles.’

  ‘Are you confident you destroyed everything?’

  ‘We obviously cannot be one hundred percent sure everything was destroyed, but the mission was completed in a systematic way, in order to be as sure as we could be. We believe the local community contained the disease within the hills, and did a good job in killing those infected when they found any. If any infected did slip through the net, the chances are they would die due to the extreme conditions, a fate to which many have already befallen.’

  ‘Can you tell me anything about the locals, who had been containing the spread?’

  ‘The town of Hillend has been fenced off, and is being used as a camp. They had control of the area, and erected a fence all the way up the A702, with guard towers and patrols.’