by John McCuaig
Breaking free from her captors and turning quickly around, Margot stormed straight out of the luggage carriage and headed off down the thin corridor.
Everyone knew where she was going and in hot pursuit right behind her were both her sister, Pauline, and Gordon.
Page just smiled, “Let them go,” he shouted to his men as he removed the last of his clothes and beckoned the fat Tech forward. “The Professor wanted to keep them on board, they can be her problem now.”
8- Choices, Choices, Choices
12:55 P.M
Back en route to Dover, back up at full speed
“You fucking bitch!”
The carriage door flew open wide and Margot screamed as she stormed right up to Mary, drawing her fist back, getting ready to strike her down. Anger filled her eyes and face; she wanted, in fact she needed to take at least a little slice of revenge.
However, she never got close. A soldier by his civilian leader’s side managed to catch a hold of the young girl before she had a chance to strike the blow. Once he had a good, strong grip of her arms, he managed to pull her away to a safe distance, more than far enough away from the shocked looking Mary. However, by this time, both Pauline and Gordon had also now arrived in the dimly lit carriage.
“Hey,” Pauline shouted over to the heavyset soldier that was holding tightly onto her sister. “Leave her alone, you bastard! I’m warning you, let her go now!”
“Piss off,” he snarled back as the young girl still swung and waved her arms around, trying her best to beat him away. “And you’d better tell her to calm the fuck down. I’ll snap her scrawny neck if she doesn’t stop her struggling.”
“Let her fucking go right now!” Pauline screamed, as she got closer and closer. “If you harm her in any way then God help me, I swear I’ll frigging kill you.”
“Everyone calm down,” it was Mary’s turn to shout as she jumped out of her seat and got herself in between them. “Would everyone just please calm down and shut up for a minute!”
“Why, Mary? Why the hell did that have to happen?” Pauline said to her. “Just tell me why did you order them to kill him? You didn’t even try and save him, you didn’t even give it a god damned try. You keep saying you’re after a cure, well then surely this would have been a good chance for more study and testing.”
Mary was slightly stunned. She looked at Pauline with disbelief on her face; she found it hard to believe the doctor would say that, she had first-hand experience of the virus and what it could do.
Motioning over towards a handful of soldiers that had followed in right behind them, Mary got to work. “Help him,” she said, pointing over to the one that was holding onto Margot. “I want her restrained to the chair in front of me. I want her to be able to hear what I’ve got to say, but not to move. And please gentlemen, be gentle, don’t harm her if you can help it.”
“You’re not tying up my sister, no bloody way!” Pauline screamed as she watched as two more soldiers grab themselves a good hold of Margot. Enough was enough, she moved forwards again to help her.
“Please Doctor McCann,” Mary’s voice had by now returned to being all soft and reassuring. “Trust me on this; it’s for her own safety. If she gets too carried away, then even I will not be able to save her from the soldiers, no one will, not you, not anyone. Now please my dear, the both of you need to sit down next to her, and then I’ll explain everything to you all.”
“Pauline,” Gordon grabbed a hold of her before she could do anything stupid and whispered in her ear. “Please, can we just do as she says for now, please?”
She eventually nodded over to Mary. But the Professor could easily see that her eyes still showed a deep rooted anger and hatred.
Pauline waited until her sister was tied to the chair before she then sat down right next to her. “Don’t you worry about this, sis,” she said. “We’ll get you out of those ropes soon enough, I promise you with all my heart.” She then turned back to face Mary again and nodded the once to show that she was ready.
“Thank you,” Mary mumbled as she too sat down and sighed. “You see, I picked the two people that you talked to earlier quite deliberately, my dear,” As Mary spoke, she kept constant eye contact with Pauline, not the once looking over at anyone else. “Without even being there I know only too well what they told you, and I’m sorry to say that it’s by and large all true. I wanted the truth to be given to you, and the others, quite slowly, too much too quickly and you might have all reacted so wrongly.”
She let out another sad, little sigh that signaled that things had already started to get way out of hand. “I wanted to wait just a while longer but I guess it’s going to have to be now.”
“So someone did make the virus?” Pauline said. “What that Ben guy said was true then?”
“Yes my dear, our very own British military made it as a new biological weapon. It was, and I suppose still is, called Newtonmore Seven, after where it was made and developed. It was designed to just kill people, you know to drop it down on the enemy, in one of their towns or cities and then just sit back and watch as the virus quickly wiped them all out.” Mary then looked out of the window for a second or two; her mind seemingly racing away as it all came flooding back. “But as you’ve seen, it actually worked a bit too well, far too well to be honest. We could not get it airborne but once in the bloodstream, it had some incredible side effects as we’ve all seen only too clearly. Then, and this was quite surprising, it was deemed to be too dangerous even for the army to keep and the decision was made by the government to destroy all of the samples. And even all of the research documents relating to it as well.”
“So then what the hell went wrong?” Pauline snapped back. “How in God’s name did it manage to escape?”
“One of the techs at the lab in Scotland stole a single vial. He just disappeared one night and we were at first suspecting that a ransom demand would be coming, you know some sort of demand for money or whatever.” She then looked at all three of her eagerly listening visitors one by one.
“However, after a bit more digging into his background it turned out he was in fact a sleeper agent for some minor terrorist group; they were so small that even most of our intelligence officers had never heard of them. We then got the message that the virus was going to be released in exactly one week. As I said there were no demands made, no prisoners to be released, no money wanted, and no pull out of the Middle East. I don’t mind telling you that message was as scary as hell; we were just told that it was all going to happen on a certain day and there was nothing we could do to stop it.”
“So that’s why your team was put together?” Pauline asked as she pieced together the story. “So you would be ready when he released it.”
“Yes, that’s quite right my dear. A search was still ongoing to try and find him and the virus but we needed to be prepared to move quickly if he wasn’t found. We did have a little info about the virus still left even after every piece of the research was destroyed, but there was of course no actual specimen for us to work on. Therefore, a research team, and its own contingent of soldiers, was placed in every major city in the country with orders to collect an infected sample when it eventually did hit and then get the hell out to a safe location. Once there, we were to continue with our work to find a cure.”
“So it was London that was their target?” Gordon said.
“Well, I’m afraid it’s not quite that simple either,” Mary continued, her tone dropping down again. “It seems the only reason we were given a week, it wasn’t to spread panic, it was so they could somewhere grow a whole load more of the damn virus. Unfortunately, every major town and city in the entire country was hit at the exact same time. You see, that’s why we are all now trying to get across the channel to France. I’m sorry to say it my dear, but there is nowhere that’ll be safe anymore in Great Britain.”
Pauline just sat there in a strange abstract silence. She did not have a clue what to say, her mind raced away too at the
thought of the tens of millions of people who were at risk, dead and eaten, or already infected and turned into one of those things. Then she snapped back to reality as she remembered the fate of her sister’s boyfriend.
“Well, if you had no real info to work from,” Pauline pulled herself forward, even closer to Mary. “Why the hell did you order them to kill Arthur? Why not try and see if we could save him?”
“What you don’t know is that all the info we have left is stuck somewhere in here,” Mary said as she gently tapped the side of her head. “You see, I was the head of the research group that made the virus. I was also the one that demanded to the politicians that it and all the info relating to it were destroyed. You have to understand this, my dear, I know better than anyone else on the whole planet the evil, destructive power of this virus. We are nowhere near ready to test any sort of attempt at a cure and I will never, ever, have more than one of them in here with us. Trust me; it’s far too confined in here to risk that. If it somehow got released, then we could easily find ourselves over run by them in next to no time.”
“So what you’re saying is that there’s not much chance of you even finding a cure? Do you honestly think there’ll ever be one or are we all just destined to frigging die like them?” Pauline could not help but look over towards her sister who was still sobbing away beside her.
“Maybe, but also maybe not, but that’s the choice you now have my dear. You can all either just give up now and only look after yourselves, or you can join me and help us to try and find something that will work.”
She looked over towards Margot and then back towards Pauline. “Yes you’re quite right, maybe there will never be a cure once you get infected, but I’m pretty sure that we can develop a vaccine just given some more time. Think about it Pauline, even that would no doubt save many countless lives.” She pointed over to young Margot, who still had her head bowed down towards her knees. “You could make it so that she would no longer be at risk of infection from the virus.”
Gordon and Pauline just looked at each other until Mary spoke up again.
“I know that it’s hard to make these choices, I had to make the choice about killing your sister’s boyfriend,” she was speaking ever so softly again. “But while you are thinking about it please understand, and remember just this one rule. I will do it again without a second’s hesitation if I have to. Trust me on this Doctor; anyone who gets infected has got to be killed straight away.”
As she stood up, she said one last thing. “I’ll leave the three of you alone to discuss what I’ve said. When I come back you are either fully with me and you will follow my plans and orders one hundred per cent, or I’ll stop the train somewhere nice and quiet and ask you all to leave.” Her frail hand lifted and pointed over to a window.
She slowly turned away and left the carriage along with her merry band of faithful soldiers. The three stowaways were all alone again.
“I just frigging knew it,” Pauline said as she gently untied her little sister from the chair. “It was the frigging army involved but I have to admit it, I never guessed it was going to be her who actually made it.”
“I’m still going to kill her,” Margot snarled as the last of the ropes were removed from her arms. Rubbing her sore, red wrists, she looked at her sister Pauline right in the eye. “I promise you that bitch is going to pay for killing Arthur.”
“For Christ’s sake girl,” Pauline grabbed a hold of her by the shoulders. “Didn’t you bother to listen to anything she was saying? There was nothing we could have done for him; in fact, she saved him from a slow, horrible death. I’ve seen for myself what it does to people, so you’ve got to trust me on this, girl, if he was bitten, then she sure as hell done him a big favor.” Margot was just staring out the large window again; a single tear was slowly rolling down her cheek, and dropping onto her plain white t-shirt. “Listen to me very carefully Margot, what he done to try and save us was wonderful, please remember him for that, remember him as the brave man he was.”
The little sister slowly turned her head, nodded just the once then went back to facing her window.
“That’s a good girl,” Pauline said. “Trust me, it’s all for the best.” She then motioned to Gordon and they quietly went to the other end of the carriage leaving her sister all alone with her grief.
“See, Gordon, I told you right from the beginning it was all about bloody man-made zombies,” Pauline said almost laughing out as she spoke. “You should’ve listened to me; you should know by now that I’m always right.”
“Well, at least I’m glad that you can make some fun of our situation,” Gordon muttered back as he too looked to the outside quickly going by. “I take it that we’re going to agree to help them out? I sure as hell can’t see that we have any other choice.”
“Yeh, sure darling, we’ll have to join up with them,” she said. “It seems that this nut house has now got itself a few more inmates.”
For some reason they both burst into a little laugh. Except for the still silent Margot that was, she was still too busy planning.
***
13:15 P.M
Back in Mary’s carriage
Mary was sitting all alone again when the young girl called Chloe Yeates came over to her with the hourly report. She had just sent all the soldiers away; she wanted to be alone for a little while. At first, she felt like sending her away too until she saw the look on her face.
“Hi Professor,” the young girl beamed towards Mary as she seemed to stand to attention. “I’ve got the latest results for you to go over, but to be perfectly honest ma’am; they’re still looking pretty bad.”
That was an understatement. The young researcher spent the next five minutes reeling through the long list of tests they had just completed and the sad, but not surprising news was that every single one of them had no effect on the virus. It was the same as every previous report; all that they had tried had been a complete blank.
“It’s only what we expected my dear,” Mary replied as she beckoned the plain, blonde haired girl to sit down across from her. “We can’t fight this virus like we would with any other. I’m sure in time we’ll need to come up with some new way of thinking about how we’re going to kill it.” As she looked over, the young girl was smiling away at her as she eagerly devoured every single word that she heard. Gently, Mary put the hefty report file down at her side.
“My dear child,” she whispered as she leant slightly forward. “Would you mind if I asked you some things of a personal matter?”
“Of course not, ma’am,” Chloe replied, she was slightly surprised at this request but in a strange way, she also felt quite excited by it as well. “Please, ask me anything you want. Anything at all.”
“Why did you stay with me?” Mary moved even closer towards her. “You know, when we got the team together last week and you all started to find out what was going to happen. It’s puzzled me for a while, you’ve got yourself a brand new husband waiting for you back at home. And both of your parents and three brothers are out there somewhere, probably fighting for their lives against the undead as we speak. So with all that going on why did you not just leave us and go back to be with them. I can certainly understand some of the others staying put, but why in God’s name are you still here?”
“It’s all for the greater good,” Chloe said, she seemed slightly concerned and puzzled by her question. “When you got us all together that day and explained to us about the virus, when you showed us the crazy growth rates and what could happen if it was set free, how could I then possibly leave you? If I left you they would all still be at risk, that would never change, but by me staying here, I hope there is a better chance that we can find a way of destroying this damn thing. Once we do that, and only when we do that, then we can save my family together.”
“So you’re still confident that we can succeed?”
“Yes ma’am, of course,” she pointed down to the test results that were lying down on the floor. “
We are doing so much work here I’d guess it’s only going to be a matter of time. I know for certain that we will find it, Professor. Believe me, I have got every confidence in you ma’am. You’re a genius.”
“Okay then,” Mary took her turn to smile over at the girl. “Thanks for that Chloe, thank you my dear child for taking the time to talk to me. You can now go and start running the next batch of experiments.” She took both of her hands in hers and gently squeezed them tight. “And of course you are right; we all have to keep the faith, we will succeed.”
Mary watched as Chloe left with a skip in her step back into the next carriage and sighed. She could not help but think that the poor girl had lost the last of her marbles. She wanted to tell her the whole truth but suspected she would not be able to handle it. That time would have to be soon, but it was not just yet.
Closing her tired, strained eyes, Mary thought back to the days when she had first designed the Newtonmore virus. As she was engineering it, she quickly knew that this one was going to be something special; she knew that its killing power would be without equal in the annals of history.
And even knowing all that, it was still her choice to continue with her work. She could have stopped at any time but chose not to.
It was she that had made the virus.
It was her choice.
9- Have they arrived too late?
13:55 P.M
A couple of miles outside the city of Dover.
The mighty train came to a stop once again, but not in a dramatic crumpled heap like before, thankfully this time it was in a nice and controlled manner.
“Are we there?” Margot lifted her sleepy head up from her sister’s lap and peered out of the window. “Sis, have we arrived at the sea?”
Gordon quickly looked outside too, but then turned back to Pauline and slowly shook his head. He was not sure where they were but it was clear enough that they were still deep in the wild, green countryside.