“As are we” Leon came forward and shook our hands. “We haven’t been introduced yet, I’m Leon, and this is Josh and Greg” he said pointing to the two others. They both turned around to us and waved, but carried on unloading.
“The Corporal tells me you’ve been training. You’re in good hands Corporal Jameson trained me when I started. You’ll be privates in no time”
“We brought you back some presents” Paul interrupted, he was grinning from ear to ear.
Lacey and I looked at each other, our faces beamed. We liked the word presents, very much.
Paul and Nick turned around holding 2 combat uniforms. They each had a pair of boots in each hand too.
“Your size I believe Madame” said Nick offering me the shoes.
“I don’t like these presents” I replied pouting. “Me either” said Lacey with the same disappointed expression.
“Well if you’re going to act the part you need to look it” Paul laughed. He defended his manhood as he said it. Lacey did not look impressed.
The Corporal took pity on us. “They may be a bit too big” he said handing us each a sewing box. “Feel free to alter them if it makes you feel better.” He carried on “You can take it in at the sides so they don’t fall down or get too baggy?” he kindly suggested.
“Thanks, I’m sure we’ll find a way to alter these, wont we Lacey” I said looking at her, grinning mischievously, a new idea starting to form in my head.
With our new clothes in hand, we headed up to the plane.
“What are we going to do with these? I can’t even sew” She asked as we threw the clothes down on the sofa.
“I have no idea, but I’m not wearing them as they are, have you felt how heavy they are?” I answered.
We decided to try them on, to see how bad they were. We looked at each other and burst out laughing.
“Oh god, we look like a bunch of idiots, it’s so baggy I can hardly walk.” Lacey laughed.
“Marshmallow comes to mind. We need to do something about this” I grinned. “I don’t care where we are I’m not having people see me like this”
As Duckface walked in, we both fell silent. Our laughter quickly subsiding. Duckface was getting particularly hard to read. One minute she was fine, the next she would be in a stinking mood. We never knew what would come next with her. We looked at her, slightly apprehensive.
She turned to me “I don’t want us to fall out. I know I haven’t been getting involved, I can’t do what either of you do. You really helped them today; Andy might not be alive if it wasn’t for you. Who knows what would have happened.”
I appreciated her coming forward, but it wasn’t that easy to forgive her behaviour. “I’m not being funny, but that’s why we agreed to the training. You wonder why everyone’s off with you, it’s the same old Lola we’re all used to. You don’t seem to care about anyone else apart from yourself.”
“Ok, I’m not going to argue. At least let me help you with these uniforms. I can sew, I’ll help you make them a little more appealing. What do you think?”
I looked at Lacey. She didn’t look overly impressed, but we both knew we needed someone who knew how to sew, and unless George was a veteran and part time crochet artist, we knew she was the best we could get.
“Yeah fine, you can help us with the uniforms. But don’t think that it makes up for all the shitty stuff you’ve said and done” Lacey replied pulling off her new ensemble.
“That’s fine, thanks” Duckface mumbled. She wasn’t happy with Lacey’s response, she expected us to go running into her arms overjoyed at her revelation, playing best buddies again. As nice as that thought was, it just didn’t work that way.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. It was a good start though.
We spent the next couple of hours, ripping, cutting and sewing up our uniforms. By the time we had finished, there was more material on the floor, than there was on the finished product.
I had decided to keep my leather boots. They had a bit of a heel, but were chunky enough to still be considered sensible (to us). In order to keep my boots I had to make my military trousers into hot pants. Running around the hangar training had us all sweating. We didn’t have the luxury of air conditioning so I figured I should stay light. I kept the pockets as they were for storage (in case the shorts were questioned by the boys)
The shirt didn’t need as much work. I undid a few of the buttons and tied it into a knot above my waist. I rolled my sleeves up to my elbows and pulled the shirt in at the sides.
Using a piece of discarded material from the trousers I made myself a headband, giving the whole outfit a Rambo effect.
Lacey followed my lead and did the same. Once we were both happy we had shredded enough unnecessary weight, we went back to the hangar to see if the boys needed help.
As soon as they saw us walking out from the plane they all turned to face us. The Sergeant looked at us as if to say ‘What the hell have you done to my uniforms’ The Corporal couldn’t help but laugh.
We looked at the boys. Nick and Paul were both in hysterics as Lacey and I looked at each other puzzled.
“What?” We both asked.
“Only you to could turn an official military uniform into a fancy dress outfit” Paul laughed.
“It looks like you’re on your way to a hen do” Nick grinned.
“Well, I’ve certainly never seen that before” The Corporal smiled. “As long as you’re happy with them”
“I trust it won’t impede in your training?” The Sergeant asked, now seeing the funny side of it too.
I had the perfect response already lined up. “Au contraire! The boots were too heavy so I decided to stick with my leather boots. I kept the pockets in my shorts, extra space for more ammunition. As you can see the whole outfit is a lot lighter than it originally was, meaning we will keep our speed up and not have any unnecessary weight pulling us down”
The Corporal grinned. “You make a fair argument. I think you both look lovely” he said trying to keep the peace.
I noticed the professor over in the corner, unpacking his equipment. I went over to introduce myself.
“Hi, Professor” I smiled as I shook his hand.
“Hello my dear” he replied, caught a bit off guard with my new outfit. “I do hope the Sergeant didn’t fool you into thinking that attire was official military standard” he laughed. He had a well-spoken British accent, rather posh. He pronounced every word perfectly I could tell he was extremely well educated. As soon as I heard his voice I was reminded of Stephen Fry, he sounded exactly like him.
He was a typical English gentleman. He was in his early sixties; he spent his younger years in Cambridge University where he studies the natural sciences along with chemical engineering. After graduating from Cambridge, with honours, he started out his career as a lab assistant on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. After a great number of years in Cambridge he moved to Cheshire, to take up a new position with Astra Zeneca, based in Alderley Edge.
When the RAF established a base on the airfield, Astra Zeneca sent over a team of scientists to assist and gather research needed for their project. Professor Hyatt led the team in question.
“No, I wasn’t fond of the uniform he issued us with, so I made some minor adjustments” I joked.
“How very resourceful of you” He replied with a smile. He was a kind man, and had a quirky sense of humour.
“The Sergeant explained that you have been researching the virus?” I asked him, changing the subject and getting back to the original reason I approached him.
“Yes, I came to the base in order to find out first-hand, the way the virus was spreading from human to human. My seniors would not allow an infected person to enter the laboratory, so instead they agreed I could bring a team here, to conduct my research.”
“So where is the rest of your team?” I asked. I already knew the answer, if they weren’t here the chances are they were dead, or worse infected.
“They wer
e in the main base, where our main laboratory was. They were still inside when the lockdown took place.” He sighed. “Not only did I lose my team, I also lost all my research along with it.”
“I’m sorry professor” I said as I saw the pain in his eyes. “I take it you were working on a cure?”
“Yes, that was the intention. However, the more we studied the virus the more complex it became. It started to evolve as it spread its way through the continents. My research is inconclusive at this stage, I’m very sorry to say.”
“How do you mean it evolved?” I asked wanting answers.
He pulled over two crates and offered me a seat.
As he sat down opposite me, he explained. “Well, the E-bola virus on average, has a timeframe of around 21 days from infection to death. This new strain of virus takes at best 72 hours. As the virus passed from human to human, the population of the infected accelerated dramatically. What we don’t know as of yet, is how the virus is able to reanimate the deceased and at what point in the viral timeline it started to mutate.”
This was starting to go over my head, but I tried to take in as much as possible.
He carried on. “Viruses such as E-bola are very resistant. They adapt to their surroundings. They only have one need, to stay alive. In order to stay alive they need to infect a host, they feed off the hosts nutrients until there is nothing left. Once there is nothing left they must find another, and repeat the process, so on and so forth”
I tried to take all this new information in. I knew very little about the virus but I was eager to learn more.
“So does this explain why the infected are turning into zombies?” It felt strange using the word zombie. Zombies are what you see in horror films, they were not part of our everyday life. Or at least they didn’t used to be.
“In a way yes. I have a theory on why the corpses are reanimating themselves, but I have yet to discover the research to back it up” he explained.
“My theory is that the virus has mutated itself in such a way, that it is able to take over parts of the brain, and keep it functioning for extended periods of time. In science terms it has been able to access and work alongside the cerebral cortex. As a computer would, it has rebooted certain sections of the brain to enable movement and other senses.”
I started to understand vaguely. “So it kept the brain working so it had more time to find someone else to infect?” I asked.
“Precisely. As soon as the virus hits the reanimation stage, it has exhausted nearly all the nutrients from the host. It becomes desperate to find a new host, to survive. Along the way the virus must have worked out, it could stay in the host’s body by ingesting the nutrients of another host, whilst passing the on the virus to said host, completing the chain.”
It all made perfect sense. The virus, like us, was just trying to survive. It explained why the only way to kill the infected was to shoot them in the head. I still had more questions.
“This would explain the new behaviour the infected are showing” I told him.
He didn’t seem to understand. I explained to him my involvement with the infected and what myself and the Sergeant observed of them.
He sat listening closely to everything I had to say “That’s very interesting. The Sergeant mentioned the predatory behaviour showing amongst the infected. Again I have a few theories as to why this could be happening. But lack the concrete evidence.”
He went on to explain the various functions of the brain. He explained that within the cerebral cortex, there were lobes, which control human functions. The Professor thought that the virus can only access certain brain functions; however he believes that the longer the virus is present in the body, and is able to sustain itself. It has the power to reboot the lobes and access more of the brain. He compared this to a child growing into an adult. He believes that the virus starts its life when it enters the human body. As the virus ages, he believes it learns to understand the body of the host, and manipulate the functions in order to increase its life expectancy.
This explained why the infected had started out as stumbling slow movers, after surviving for an extended period of time, and by feeding they must have gained the energy and the intelligence to restart other areas of the brain, giving them enhanced features to what they originally had.
“Does the Sergeant know about this?” I asked.
“Not until today” the Professor replied. “I suggest you speak directly with the Sergeant on how he wishes to proceed.” He quickly changed the subject “Please excuse me, I am going to reacquaint myself with an old friend” He got up and walked over to the other side of the hangar where George was sitting, perched nicely on a fold up camp chair. He left me alone to take in the new information.
I sat there for a while, processing. I felt nothing. I didn’t know what to think, things seemed to be getting worse and it was out of all of our control. I hated not knowing what was coming next. In normal life I was always extremely organised, Nick was always happy to go with the flow, I always needed to know what I was doing from one day to the next. Don’t get me wrong I didn’t think way into the future, but I couldn’t get in the car and drive, without having a destination in mind.
At that moment, I felt like I was driving around a dark countryside trying to find my destination, but I couldn’t see past my own headlights. I was completely lost.
I knew I needed to speak to the Sergeant about this, he would know what to do. I tried to put it to the back of my mind for the time being, we had more new faces around, I was sure the dynamics of the group would change yet again.
I made my way over to the rest of the group. They had unpacked the entire contents of the truck and the boys were keen to play with all the camping gadgets they had found.
I headed over to the Sergeant keen to get his views on the recent information I had just learnt.
Over the past week and a half of knowing the Sergeant, he never failed to look out for me. He was a figure of authority, yet he cared for me as a father would for a daughter. He had told us he had three daughters, all were in their early twenties. Unfortunately they had been locked in the building when he gave the orders to shut it down. I knew this weighed heavy on his heart.
“Sergeant, what are we going to do about all this?” I said, my head still completely baffled.
“Don’t say anything just yet, we will hold a meeting later on today once everyone’s settled in and we’ll work this out together.” He replied gently.
I wandered off, still collecting my thoughts. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, my shoulder was starting to ache from the kickback of the rifle. I stood there rolling my shoulder around trying to sooth the ache.
Nick strolled up to me and grabbed me from behind.
“Does someone need a massage?” He asked rubbing my shoulder.
I turned to face him “Please” I smiled. He didn’t give the best massages in the world. He often got bored half way through, but something was better than nothing, plus it would take my mind away from the infected.
Chapter 10 – Mending Fences
The Sergeant called a meeting later that night. I was about ready for bed when he called us all together. We all went through to the dining room upstairs, on board the plane. We all just about fit around the large table. The Sergeant stayed stood up.
“I trust you have all introduced yourselves to one another?” He asked, breaking the ice.
We all nodded. “Good, now let’s carry on with the main reason I’ve called you all here”
He proceeded to tell us about the professor’s findings and a brief background on the events since the virus took over.
The professor explained to us all what his current theories were in terms of the way the virus evolved. We all sat in silence as we listened.
After the professor was done the Sergeant addressed us all again. “Now, the question is, what do you all want to about it?”
We all looked at him confused. I didn’t have a clue where he was going w
ith this.
“I want to take back the base. We have been trapped in here too long. I refuse to sit here withering away whilst the enemy takes control.” He said pointing outside. “We should be out there searching for civilians and helping those in need. This is one war I refuse to lose.”
“Ok Serg, what’s the plan?” Leon asked, clearly in agreement.
“Simple, we clean this base up. If you see anyone infected, you shoot to kill. Any survivors you bring back to me” He answered firmly.
From that point on, we all had a part to play. The Sergeant didn’t want me and Lacey to go out, so he put us back on the roof as snipers. I was happy with that, I much preferred shooting from a long range. I was still dying to get my hands on the 50. Cal in the ammunition store.
Although Duckface still refused to take part in any exercises she reluctantly agreed to look after any new survivors we come across, as a welcoming committee. I already felt sorry for the new survivors who would have to deal with her. If she didn’t like someone she was often rude and abrupt, you really had to know how to take her.
In the meantime she agreed to help the Professor alongside George carry on the research.
I was glad she was still keeping her distance, although we were in a much bigger area than we were at the apartment, it didn’t make her any less annoying.
Her and Andy’s relationship didn’t seem to be doing so well. Andy seemed to be spending more time with the boys, and seemed reluctant to stay by her side, where she wanted him. The odd time I saw them together neither of them seemed happy, poor Andy looked miserable. I caught her a few times shamelessly flirting with Josh and Leon. They were always polite to her, but I could tell in the way they looked at one another they thought she had a screw lose.
She reverted back to her old ways, now there were new people around she wanted to play up to every single one of them, boasting about herself. Even her mannerisms were over exaggerated. It was like watching a child hyped up on sugar let loose around a sweet shop.
E Virus: The Diary of a Modern Day Girl (The Beginning of the End) Page 10
