Chapter 15
Frankie
As we walked back towards my home town, I found myself thinking about all that I'd lost. My parents, my friends, everyone I'd ever known. I wondered if I could take some time out to go and visit their graves, given that we'd stopped to visit Tom and Amber's grave, I'm sure Jade wouldn't mind. I had no graves for my friends, but being able to visit my parents would be enough.
'You alright?' Jensen asked.
'I'm just thinking about my parents,' I replied quietly.
'Didn't you say you buried them in your garden?' He asked kindly.
'Yeah, it's actually not too far from here. I was wondering if Jade would let me go and visit them,' I said quietly.
He put his arm around me and squeezed me a little, I was grateful to the comfort, especially given how much of a pain in the arse he'd been lately.
'I think she'll let you, can I come with you?' He asked gently.
'Yes, I'd really like you to,' I smiled. After many hours of searching the remainder of Stalybridge and some of Ashton the sun was beginning to set, we needed to find somewhere to stay for the night. We were walking along a main road when we heard the familiar noises of walkers, we stood for a moment listening to where the moans were coming from. Tessa pointed towards a large sports field, we could just make out their shapes in the distance. As soon as they saw us they would gain speed and be on us in no time, I could feel my body quaking with fear as I knew what was coming next.
'We need to run!' I called to everyone.
They turned to see the dead on the field, not a minutes walk from where we were standing.
'Where is safe?' Jade asked in a panic.
'The hospital is the only place nearby, but last I checked it was overrun,' I shouted back.
'Let's hope that's not the case now!' Tessa shouted. We ran as quickly and quietly as we could towards the hospital, I could feel my heart beating through my chest. Every nerve in body was on edge, all I wanted to do was scream out of fear, but somehow I held it together and ran with the others.
As we turned the corner to the hospital I saw something that I never in a million years expected to see. There were tall, thick metal walls surrounding part of the hospital. I could see someone sat on the roof keeping watch, we waved our hands and called to them to warn them about the dead heads. The man called down to some one behind the gates and the gates creaked open, we ran inside to find ourselves surround by a large group of people. There was about twenty of them, Jade took charge to tell them about the biters and they told us to get ready to fight.
Dom who was holding Violet asked them where she could stay while we fought, the woman who appeared to be in charge told him to take her to the nursery which was located in the far end of the hospital. We gave Dom the freezer bags which had the vaccine in and told him to take them with him, Finn and Jensen went with him while the rest of us stayed.
A small dumpy woman lead Dom inside while we got ready to fight, it felt nice to have a large group of people behind us when engaging in combat with the dead. I almost felt like I was back at Sanctuary, we got out our weapons and followed the woman in charge.
My palms were sweaty, my head was thumping and my pulse was racing. Every part of me wanted to run inside like a child, while we'd come across herds before, we'd never faced a horde this large. Even with the added numbers beside us I felt afraid, I gripped my knife shakily, trying to ready myself for the assault. As the moans grew louder, my fear swelled.
I swear the next few moments past in a blur, I remember hearing the loud moaning noises and seeing Dom, Jensen and Finn reappear. He looked fearful, no doubt he was concerned about Violet's safety. I watched as they opened one of the gates to let some of the dead through, the group was so well organised that they took down half the horde within moments. I dodged as one dead head tried to get at me, Finn grabbed hold of it while I stabbed it in the head. I had to watch out for the arrows from the crossbows as I killed the undead, I fell down and Jensen pulled two biters off me.
I joined the others as the other gate was opened to let the rest of the corpses in, I held up my knife ready for an attack. I grabbed hold of one as it lunged for Dom, I threw it to the ground and stomped on his head until I felt the squelch of it's brain beneath my feet.
'Cheers,' he said graciously as he kicked a dead one in the stomach to stop it getting at Delilah. It was hard to keep track of everyone in the frenzy of things, I tried to keep a look out for anyone in trouble. I clocked a rather small red-headed girl getting cornered by two walkers, I raced over to kill one with my knife and kick the other one out the way. She shot it with her crossbow and thanked me as she ran back to help her people. I saw Delilah keeping a group of walkers off Rowena, an older man was helping her.
I turned just as a biter was trying to take a chunk out of me, fortunately someone from the other group had spotted and shot it. It fell to the ground with a thud, I looked up to see that my saviour was an older man in his sixties. He was a tall and large man covered in old tattoos, his hair was thin and white not that he had much left. His eyes were a pale blue that seemed to look right through you, his skin was as white as snow which seemed accentuate his already deathly appearance. I gave him a warm thankful smile as I went to rejoin my people. It was lucky that these people came to our aid, many if not all of us would have perished in the battle had it not been for them.
The horde didn't seem to end, even though I could count at least fifty bodies on the floor there was no sign of them dwindling. I carried on fighting though I was feeling worn out, I saved Rowena as a biter tried to get her from behind. As I pulled it away and stabbed it in the head she turned to thank me but was interrupted by seeing her mum in trouble. She bolted without saying a word and I followed her knife in hand to help save Jade, how she had managed to get surrounded by six of them I'll never know.
Rowena, a few people from the other group and I cleared out the walkers that had cornered Jade, I sliced my way through them not letting the smell make me sick. In all the years of this world I had found that it wasn't so much the sight of these things that was as horrific, it was the smell. It was so indescribably awful yet you got used to it, not that it ever made you not want to be sick mind you. Rowena went over to Jade and helped her up, she smiled gratefully at her daughter before returning to the fight.
As the bodies of the biters piled up, it became harder to fight in the grounds. I saw the woman in charge leading people outside the gates, I could see the corpse numbers dwindling but there were still enough left to provide a challenge. I climbed over the bodies and followed the others outside the gates, I could see Dom helping Jensen up as she'd fallen over the pile of corpses that were near the walls.
I stood near the others preparing myself as what I hoped would be the last wave of biters coming our way. As the dead lunged for us, we spread out preventing them from cornering us. I jumped out of the way as one went for me, I grabbed it by what little hair it had left and smashed it's face into the ground. I quickly stabbed it in the head then turned to kick another one nearby, Dom sliced its head off while I ran to give the others a hand.
I could see the woman in charge and the guy who'd helped me trying to take on a large group of biters, I raced over to take care of one that was creeping up behind the leader. She thanked me kindly before continuing to take care of the group, Jade, Delilah and Tessa were running over to help but Tessa got pulled down by a biter on the ground. She kicked it multiple times before it finally let go off her, Brooke ran over to stab in the head and help her up.
As a team we took care of the remaining walkers, by the end we were all exhausted but thankfully still alive. The large gates were closed after the horde was defeated, the woman in charge welcomed us to their home. We climbed over the corpses along the way checking to make sure that they were all dead, to my relief none of our group had been hurt badly. We followed the leader to a large canteen area, before we had a chance to ask her anything she told us to sit tight while she we
nt to check on her people.
'How's Violet?' Jade asked Dom.
'She's okay, a little shaken up but she'll be alright. I gave her some food and told her to stay put for a while,' he replied tiredly.
'What about our package?' Jade whispered.
'It's fine too,' he nodded.
'Mum are you alright, you had a pretty close call back there?' Asked Rowena worriedly.
'Don't you worry yourself, I'm fine. Takes more than a few corpses to take me down,' Jade smiled.
'You need to be careful mum, your not as young as you used to be,' Rowena scolded her. 'I may not be young, but I can fight just as well as the rest of you,' she scowled at Rowena. Rowena sat there looking frustrated, I understood why she was worried but Jade had saved our backsides more times than I could count. We all looked out for each other but some of us needed to know when to stop pushing, like Jensen, I thought as he started to make a fuss over me. 'Are you alright? Did you get hurt?' He asked panicked.
'God damn it, I'm fine, now lay off will you,' I snapped. He sat there mumbling an apology then just went very quiet, I'd had enough of him making a fuss. I'd survived alone, for months before finding him and Jade. It was like all of a sudden he thought I couldn't survive. I was getting sick and tired of him, being like this.
'Jensen,' Jade called.
'What's up?' He asked clearly not wanting to leave my side.
'Go and fetch Violet for me,' it was an order.
'Can't Dom do it?' He asked almost whining.
'Don't argue, just do it please,' Jade gave him that 'don't give me lip' look and he did it.
He walked off in a huff towards the nursery, I gave Jade look of relief and gratitude.
'Brooke, will go with him please?' Jade asked her politely.
'Yeah sure,' she answered tiredly.
'You alright?' Jade asked me.
'I really wish I knew what had gotten into him lately, he's been like this for months and nothing I say seems to make any difference.'
'Want me to have a word?' Jade offered.
I shook my head and pushed my hair back out of my face.
'No, if he thinks we're ganging up on him it'll only make him worse,' I replied sadly.
'Alright, but let me know if you change your mind. As much as he deserves it I don't want him ending up with a black eye,' Jade laughed.
'I wouldn't like to get whacked by you,' Finn joked.
'Hey, I'm not that bad,' I laughed defensively.
'You do have mean right hook,' Dom joined in.
'On that training session, you hit me real good. My eye still hurts,' Finn mocked her playfully.
'Bitch,' I said laughing. 'Jerk,' Finn replied playfully.
For a moment we just looked at each other and smiled, I was surprised he remembered that joke.
'Guess you weren't so sheltered after all,' I laughed.
'Hey, I did have a life you know,' he pouted.
'Who'd have thought it,' I smirked.
'Man, I miss that show,' he said.
It was then that I remembered, I'd picked up something in one of the houses we went into. I never actually thought I'd get to watch it, but you never knew.
'I don't know if this place has a TV but if they do, I have something we can watch,' I beamed.
'What?' He asked.
I puled out the DVD box set, it was only the fourth season, but if we got to watch it, it sure would be great.
'Oh my god! Is that?'
'Sam and Dean, it certainly is,' I laughed.
'Awesome, lets hope they have DVD player,' he giggled excitedly.
'I'm amazed your mum let you watch this,' I said happily.
'I wasn't afraid of much as a kid.' We sat laughing and joking, no one else I'd met since all this began had ever seen the epic television show that I loved so much. I couldn't help it, but as soon as Jensen walked through the door, my smile vanished. We sat and ate dinner while we waited for the leader to come back, on the other side of the canteen I spotted the man who had saved me. I walked over to say thank you when he got up and extended his hand.
'My names Eli, pleasure to meet you,' he said with local accent. I shook his hand and introduced myself, I took him over to the group so they could meet the guy who saved me. He seemed genuinely happy to meet us, he shook everyone's hand before going back to his seat.
The woman in charge came back shortly after, she was a large woman with short greying hair and pale blue eyes. She was small in height, she barely came up to my chest. I had a feeling that despite her dwarf-like stature that she was not one to mess with.
'I'm Ester, thanks for the assistance back there it was most appreciated,' she said in a firm but kind voice.
'No problem, glad we could help,' replied Jade extending her hand.
Ester shook her hand and took a seat.
We talked in length about where we were heading, I was waiting for Jade to tell Ester about the vaccine but she never did. I felt confused, wasn't that the whole point of this mission? Ester told us that we could stay, they had plenty of spare rooms. We followed Ester to an empty wing of the hospital, while I was trying to pay attention to what Ester was saying my mind kept thinking back to Jensen, I didn't know how to get through to him.
'We haven't used this one yet, I thought you would want some space to yourselves,' Ester told us politely.
I still kept thinking about why Jade hadn't told Ester about the vaccine, once we were settled in and Ester had returned to her quarters Jade called us into one room.
'Jensen can you and Brooke go and fetch the vaccine from the nursery please?' She asked us.
I sat not looking at him as they left, I hated feeling relieved that he was gone but I just couldn't help it. I sighed, I felt tired and hungry, despite having eaten not long ago.
'He's really driving you crazy, isn't he?' Rowena asked softly.
'Yeah, I just don't know what to do about it,' I replied sadly.
'You should talk to him,' Jade told me.
'I know, and I will do. For now we have other things to deal with.' We sat talking about our next move, while we waited for Jensen and Brooke to return. I tried to smile but couldn't, I just wanted things to go back to normal with Jensen and I. I wanted my sweet, loving, fiancée back.
When they returned we were in the middle of a discussion about whether to give the vaccine to the hospital people.
'I realize that this is what our mission is all about, I just want to make sure that we are giving the vaccine to those that deserve it,' Jade explained.
'I think they have proven their goodness,' Dom told her.
'I'm not saying we don't give it to them I'm just asking if we should wait,' Jade looked a little flustered, clearly this debate was getting on her nerves.
'Why don't we just vote on it?' Rowena chimed in.
'Seems like the best idea to me. I vote we give it them sooner,' I replied strongly. 'Me too,' Violet told us. After an hour of debating, we'd finally reached a decision. Violet, Jensen, Delilah, Rowena, Finn and I wanted to give them the vaccine now. Jade, Brooke, Tessa and Dom wanted to wait.
'Looks like we're giving it to them,' I said proudly.
'Alright, but who's going to talk to them about it?' Jade asked.
'I vote for you, Jade,' I told her. It was pretty much a unanimous vote, Jade wasn't too happy about it but she agreed. For now however, we all wanted to sleep. I settled into my room with Jensen sleeping next to me, he put his arm around me but I pushed it away. He couldn't just act like a dick and not apologise, then think we could just be normal. I heard him sigh, but I ignored it.
I woke in the morning to hear Jade talking to the others in her room, I put my shoes and coat on and went to join them. Jade and Delilah were checking the vaccine bags, while the others sat happily eating food.
'Are they all still in once piece?' Asked Jade.
'Yeah, none of them got broken,' Delilah replied cheerfully.
'That's a relief,' Rowena chimed in.
'What's the plan?' Asked Jensen.
'We need to talk to Ester, she's the one in charge. Though be prepared for shock and disbelief,' Jade said nervously.
'It is a lot to handle, if I hadn't seen it first hand I'm not sure I would believe it,' Finn piped up.
'That's true, but we have to try,' Jade answered.
'Do you think we should ask any of these people to come with us?' Delilah asked. 'I don't think we should ask in case they take that as we are asking for something in return for the vaccine, but if they offer I don't think we should say no,' Jade made a good point, we had to be careful how we approached these people.
'We don't want them thinking we are trying to take advantage of them, but an increase in numbers wouldn't do us any harm,' Rowena said.
'There are only nine of us after all, and we need all the help we can get,' Jensen piped up. 'I hear what you're all saying, but look at it this way. If they offer to help us, then they are good people and we'll welcome their aid. If they don't offer then they aren't as good as we thought and we don't want selfish or bad people coming with us,' Jade replied shortly.
I had to admit she was right, the only thing worse than having small numbers for a mission this large was having large numbers of people you couldn't trust.
I had wondered if any of them had thought about how we were going to prove to these people that the vaccine worked, yes Tessa had been bitten but you could put that down to a dog bite.
The only way to prove the vaccine worked, was to let the hospital group see you get bitten. No doubt they'd quarantine the person who got bitten, but it didn't matter. We all knew we were safe from turning, I instantly knew, I would put myself forward. Yes, I admit I wanted to do it partly to prove to Jensen that I could still be useful and that I wasn't a child. Not only that, I wanted to do my part to help.
'When they ask for proof, one of us is going to have to be bitten by the dead, it's the only way they'll believe us,' I told them all.
'Who's going to volunteer for that?' Tessa asked.
They all sat murmuring to themselves, I knew it would be scary. While we didn't have as much reason to fear the dead as everyone else, getting bitten wasn't something to be happy about. After a long silence, I finally piped up, 'I'll do it.'
Dead World Rising (Book 3): The Cure Page 15
