by John McCuaig
Corporal Taylor and two of the other soldiers flooded in, but just as quickly froze when they saw their leader lying in a pool of his own blood on the floor. Instinctively, all three raised their guns at once and aimed right at the defenseless Mary.
“What the fucks happened here?” Taylor screamed right at her. “Why did you kill him?”
“I’m sorry but I had no other choice,” she said. “You have to believe me Simon; his plans would have caused the death of all of us.”
“What the hell are you talking about woman?”
“He was going to take us back to England, to try and find some more of the army. He would have marched us right through the countryside and into the zombie’s arms. Think about it for a moment son, there is no chance that we could have survived that journey. There are hardly any of us left, and look what happened to us even when we were at full strength.”
“Just fucking shoot her, stop all the yakking and just bloody shoot her!” the soldier to Taylors left snarled. “She killed the Colonel, it’s what she deserves.”
“Hold on a second,” Mary held her hands up to stop him from getting any closer. “Before you kill me please just promise that you’ll keep us away from the mainland, and you’ll let my team carry on with their research. They must be kept safe and given time to find the cure, please guys, that must be your only goal.”
“Get out now, get back to the mess hall,” Taylor mumbled to the other two soldiers as his gun dropped down to his side. “Leave us. I need to talk to her alone.”
Neither of the men moved, they kept their guns trained on the old woman.
“Get out now,” Taylor shouted. “Leave this to me.”
“She better not walk out of here alive,” the closest soldier whispered back as he slowly dropped the gun to his side. “I’m telling you this; if she does then I’ll kill her myself.”
“Get out now,” Taylor screamed right into his face. “That’s a bloody order, private. Now move it.”
Even though his face clearly showed his deep anger, the soldier did just as he had been trained for all his adult life. He followed the orders of a superior rank. Both he and his comrade left and slammed the door behind them.
Taylor stood his gun up against the wall and sat down beside the Professor, they both looked down at the still body of Colonel Page.
“Well, I must say that you’ve gone and put me in a very difficult position ma’am,” he said just as he let out a long sigh. “The men will demand that you are killed, they will want some vengeance. But I also know you are the best chance we have of destroying the virus.” He took off his helmet. “So give me a little clue then, how are we going to solve this one?”
“You must realize that you are now in charge of the soldiers, you are the senior rank left on board.” Her eyes momentarily dropped down towards Page again. “Whatever you decide, Simon, the soldiers will follow your orders whether they like it or not.” She took a gentle hold of his rough hand, “I’ll not beg you for my life. I’m just asking you to look after the others, let them carry on with my work. Please, at least give them the chance to succeed.”
After a few seconds of looking at her, Taylor stood back up and went to pick up his gun again. He turned back around to face her.
“My heart is telling me to shoot you here and now,” he said. “But my head says that we need you alive. I know it was you who made the virus, the Colonel told me, and therefore I’d guess you are also probably the best person left in the world who can work out how to kill it.”
He opened the door. “I’ll get all my men down into the mess hall and explain to them that the Colonel had gone mad. I’ll tell them how he was going to take us back. As you said, he would have led us to our deaths.”
“Thank you,” Mary said as she too stood up. “Thank you, we just need to get somewhere safe so we can continue with our plans. I’ll find us that place.”
“Don’t bother thanking me, Professor,” Taylor said as he slung his gun over his shoulder. “Be aware I’m not doing it for you, I’m doing it for what you know. Just make sure you find us the damn cure.” As he went through the door, he stopped once again. “And if I was you, I’d keep your distance from my men for a while, I’m sure they won’t be nearly as forgiving as me.”
Once he was gone Mary started to cry. Looking down at Page, she realized that yet another death was on her hands. And every single one of them was because of her choices. As the tears finally ran dry, she left the room and headed for the outside, she still had plenty of work to do.
On arriving up on deck all the civilians were there waiting, they had heard the shot and had since been told by a soldier exactly what she had done.
No one said a single word; she just walked right past them and headed up the stairs to the wheelhouse.
17- What’s happening next?
03:10 A.M
Leaving the port
“Well, is it true what they’re saying,” Pauline shouted over to Mary as she walked onto the observation deck on her way up to the wheelhouse. She had no fear or shame. “Did you kill the Colonel?”
“I had no choice my dear, it was either him or us,” she paused and looked her right in the eye. “We can’t go back to England, we can never go back.”
“So where the hell are we going to go then?” Pauline broke off her stare, she watched for a few seconds as the coast of mainland Europe slowly disappeared into the darkness. Soon enough, even the rows of lights from the port were well out of sight.
“North,” Mary for now sounded far more downbeat than Pauline had ever heard. “We have to get to somewhere deserted; we just need to get somewhere that has no one else around. Once we’re there, we can then continue on with our work in peace and quiet.”
“North’s a pretty big place,” Pauline said softly, trying not to push her too hard, even she could see she was close to breaking. “You might need to be a little bit more specific than that.”
“The Orkneys or the Shetlands, we need to get away north of mainland Scotland,” Mary said. “There must be plenty of uninhabited islands dotted around there. Any one of them would do just fine.”
“Let me find you one of them,” Pauline said as she placed her hand on the Professors arm. “I’ve seen the look on some of the soldier’s faces. It might be too much for them to see you walking around up here giving out orders. Please just get back to your cabin Mary; it’ll be much safer for you in there. I promise I’ll keep you updated.”
“I need to check on my people,” Mary said. “To see what results we got from the samples of Chloe. They may need some help from me.”
“No, I’ll get one of them to come down and see you Professor, and I’ll make sure they’ll bring you all the info you need.” She pointed back towards the doorway. “Now please, can you just keep out of sight for a little while, and now, before they get back.”
Pauline went over into the wheelhouse to let Mary go back to her cabin. Gordon was still in there wiggling the wheel each way every second or two. Straight away, it was all too clear that while he might be a pretty good doctor, he was never going to be much of a seaman.
“Tell me something, how well can you steer this thing, darling?” she asked as she looked over at the dozens of multi colored displays that were spread all around before him. “If I give you a certain location, do you think that you can get us there?”
“No problem at all,” he replied before he gave her a little smirk. “Well, I’d like to think so anyway darling, well actually I’m pretty sure that I’d get us there eventually.” His smile did not seem to be improving her mood, so he just carried on anyway. “In all honesty, it’s actually a bit like a glorified computer game, here, come over here and have a look at this.” He pointed to a large and colorful display to his left. “See the green line, that is where we should be going and the red line is, well, that is what we’re actually doing at the moment.”
Pauline looked at the one perfectly straight line and the squiggly mess that just
about followed along after it, well, just about was being more than polite.
“I’m really starting to get the knack of it now love,” Gordon went on. “With a little bit more practice and time I’ll be just fine.”
“Okay, put in the Orkney Islands and see if it will give you a course.” She tapped away on one of the display screens, “And see if the nice little computer will tell you how long it’ll take us to get there.”
“Co-ordinates,” he replied. “I need the actual map co-ordinates to feed into the computer, it isn’t that clever, my dear. All the maps are over there on that desk, you should find what you’re looking for right over there.” He looked out the window to see nothing at all; he was just peering out into the darkness. “And anyway darling, can you tell me why the hell are we going all the way up to the Orkneys? What do you think we’re going to find once we get there?”
“Nothing,” Pauline said. “Absolutely nothing at all, at least that’s what I hope.” She soon found the map, and not having a clue which island was which, she just picked the first one that looked and sounded about right. It was called Auskerry, and according to the map, there were no buildings upon it. “Okay Gordon, listen carefully,” she said as she peered down to the map, “Here you go-
Longitude- 2-34-0
Latitude- 59-2-60”
Walking back over, Pauline heard the rapid tapping of the keyboard as he fed in the info, followed by a long, high whistle from Gordon.
“Sixty one hours,” he said. “But to be perfectly honest doll, going by my dodgy steering skills at the moment, I’d make that well over seventy.”
“Change our course then,” Pauline said, now it was she that was looking out to the deck to double check that Mary had gone. “I’ll go down below and see if we’ll be okay for food and water for that long.” Gordon nodded to her as she left the bridge.
***
03:25 A.M
Back in Mary’s cabin.
Before checking in on the galley and telling the scientists to update Mary, Pauline decided to stop off at the Professors cabin and let her know where they were heading.
“It will be at least three days until we get there,” she said as she sat down beside the old Professor, they could both feel the boat gently changing direction and veering over toward the right. “I just picked any old island to be honest, ma’am. We can sort it out a little bit better once we get ourselves closer.”
“That’s good news,” was all the reply that she got. “Thank you my dear.”
“Do you think we’ve got enough staff and equipment left to continue on with your work?” Pauline had to say something. She needed Mary to come back to them, she was too important to be left mopping around. “I know that we’ve lost a fair bit of both getting from the train to here.”
“I’m not too sure,” Mary replied, still looking down at the bloodstain on her floor. “Hopefully we still do but more importantly, I could really do with another one or two of the undead to study as well.” She turned to face Pauline. “But to be honest dear, I’m also beginning to wonder if it’s all worth the damn effort.”
“Please excuse me, Mary, but pull yourself fucking together woman,” she grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her up to her feet.
“Why the hell do you think you can get away with feeling sorry for yourself in here when there’s so much work still to be done? You’re the only hope we have of at least saving something from the virus. Don’t you bloody even think about giving up on us?”
Pauline pointed up to the ceiling. “I’ve still got Gordon up there in the wheelhouse, and my Margot is asleep just along the bloody corridor. They are the only two things left in this whole fucked up world that I love. And come on, what about the lives of that poor Michel and those two wonderful little children of his? You just dare stand there and tell me that it’s now all over, you just dare and I’ll feed you to the fishes myself.”
Mary just stared at her for a few seconds before answering.
“Of course my dear, I’m sorry, you’re as right as usual. Now please, I think that you’ve got to go now and check up on a few things for me.” Pulling a white hanky from her pocket, Mary dabbed gently at her puffed up eyes. “Thank you ever so much for out little chat. It’s just what I needed, you’re an angel.”
With a gentle squeeze of Mary’s hand, Pauline smiled then disappeared back out the little doorway.
After a few minutes standing alone to pull herself together, Pauline went down into the now empty mess hall, the soldiers had left it seemed, and gone back to their own quarters. Opening up the long row of cupboards, she found them to be pretty empty, just a few odd tins and some dried stuff like pasta and rice. The only thing they had plenty of was bottled water. Counting it up she worked out that it would just about do, they may not feast like Kings on this trip, but at least they would have enough to eat to survive for a few more days.
“Hey sis,” Margot whispered as she entered the room, as she came over, she instinctively kept her distance from where the beasts used to be tied up. “Don’t tell me you’re still hungry?”
“Hey,” Pauline said as she grabbed one of the bottles and twisted off the cap. “No, not really. I’m just checking on what we’ve got. Anyway, what are you doing in here? I thought you were going to have a sleep.”
“I’ve tried,” she said as she planted herself down on a nearby tall wooden stool. “But every single time I close my eyes I keep seeing Arthur lying there dead as that pack of monsters start to feed on him, slowly ripping him to pieces. It’s all just too much to take in at the moment.”
Pauline sat down beside her, in all the madness she had forgotten what had happened to her sister’s boyfriend and the effect it must still be having on her.
“I’m sure it doesn’t feel like it at the moment honey, but it will get a little easier as time goes on. I promise.”
Margot flashed over a halfhearted smile just as the crying started. One of Michel’s children was calling out from a nearby room.
“Mama…mama…mama.”
Standing up straight away, Margot moved quickly towards the door, “I’ll go and see if I can help him with the kids. I might as well try and do something useful, I can’t sleep anyway.” With a little wave, she was almost out of sight. “See you later,” she called back.
As she left, Pauline knew that her little sister was a bit more grown up than she had thought. A smile slowly spread across her face as she went back upstairs to see if Gordon was getting any better with his fancy steering skills.
She did not hold out much hope.
***
03:40 A.M
In Mary’s cabin
Searching around in all the cupboards and under the bed, Mary looked for another bottle of Scotch but none was to be found. Anyway, deep down she knew it was going to take something other than alcohol to make her forget. Not for just what she had done, but for the choices she might have to make again in the future.
Lying down on her bed all she could do was stare at the bloodstain on the wooden floor from the Colonel. It seemed the soldiers had deliberately left it there as a constant reminder to her. She closed her weary eyes and somehow started to drift off to sleep.
***
03:55 A.M
In Michel’s cabin
Margot finished the lullaby and peeked over at the children who were still wrapped up in their father’s arms. All three of them were now fast asleep.
As she got up to leave, she saw his old gun perched high up on a shelf. Getting up on her tiptoes, she got a hold of it and brought it down. It felt good in her hands, and then she realized that at last her chance had come. A little smile spread across her face.
Opening the door as quietly as she dared, she headed for the cabin that was at the end of the hallway.
18- A Slice of Revenge
04:05 A.M
Back in Mary’s cabin
Something deep in her mind told her to wake up. Opening her old and tired eyes, Mary saw young Marg
ot sitting directly opposite her. Even in the darkness, she could see that nestled in her arms was that rifle.
“Hello there, Professor,” the teenager whispered softly. “See, I told you that I would be having another little chat with you.”
“Why hello there, Margot,” Mary sat herself up on the edge of the bed. “I knew that this day would come. I’m just a bit surprised that it’s here so soon my dear.”
“Don’t you frigging dare call me my dear,” Margot said as she cocked the gun, sending one of those long bullets deep into the chamber. “You should be on your knees right now, begging me for your life, bitch.”
Mary laughed.
“What’s so fucking funny then? Tell me!” Margot screamed as she raised the gun up high and aimed right at the Professors head.
“I’m afraid if you’re trying to scare me then you’ve sure picked the wrong day…my dear.” Mary smiled at Margot, then rose, turned her back to her, and looked out of the small porthole window. “Let’s see, so far today a virus which I helped to create has been unleashed on the world, and going by what we’ve seen, nearly everyone on the planet is dead. My own team has been practically wiped out by the beasts, including David and Chloe, my God; they were barely little more than children themselves.”
“Yeh, I know only too well it’s all your damn fault, Professor,” Margot snarled. “It’s your fault that Arthur was eaten alive.”
Mary ignored her. “And now I’ve had to kill the Colonel just so we could have a chance, no matter how small, to put right all these wrongs.”
The rifle fired. The bullet blew out the port hole window and sped off away into the darkness. Mary barely flinched as it whistled past her ear.
“Look at me!” Margot screamed as she chambered another round. “Turn the fuck around, bitch. I want you to look into my eyes as I kill you!”
Slowly moving around to face her, Mary showed no fear.