E Virus: The Diary of a Modern Day Girl (The Beginning of the End)

by Ward, Jessica

  We had just under an hour. The boys split into two teams. Lacey and George started to make their way back onto the roof. I was about to join them, when I stopped. I had spent far too long on that roof. I hated seeing the boys in danger, when I was perfectly safe. I wanted to go with them. I hadn’t left the confines of the base in weeks. I knew I had a good shot, plus I would be safe enough in the car. Besides, Lacey and George could easily cover us from above.

  After thinking it over I approached the Sergeant. “Sergeant, I’m coming with you” I told him bravely.

  He studied me for a while, “Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer to scope from above?” he asked me. I shook my head. “Fair enough” he shrugged “Arm yourself quickly.”

  “You can ride with me” The Corporal said as he handed me a handgun. “Is that it?” I asked him. He smiled and took a step to the side. Behind him was a line of assault rifles, shotguns and submachine guns. “I’ll take that one” I said pointing to the shotgun.

  “Nice choice” he replied as he made his way to the driver’s seat.

  Nick quickly came over to me. “What do you think you’re doing?” He asked, clearly annoyed.

  “I’m going with you” I told him.

  He looked at me, a mixture of panic and frustration washed over him “I don’t want you going anywhere” He said sternly grabbing my arm.

  I pulled my arm loose “Babe, I’ll be fine, I’m a big girl I can take care of myself”

  His expression changed. He looked upset. I knew he was worried about me; he didn’t want me in any danger. But it wasn’t his choice it was mine. “Ok, be safe” he kissed me on the head. He knew this was a battle he couldn’t possibly win. I was very stubborn. Once I had made my mind up about something that was it. No one was going to change it.

  Nick headed off to join Andy and Paul, clearly still not impressed. Leon and Josh went over to choose their weapons.

  I wandered over to the front of the truck, I opened the passenger door as Leon came around the side of the van.

  “What do you think you’re doing getting in the front?” Leon joked.

  I looked at him and smiled. “Shotgun” I replied coolly, pumping the cartridge into place.

  “Can’t argue with that mate” The Corporal laughed as I climbed into the front seat.

  “Try not to hurt yourself” he sniggered as he go in the back.

  We started by driving around the outskirts of the base checking out the area around us. We didn’t see any of the infected at all. The further out we drove, the more greenery we saw. It was stunning. Glorious green fields spanned for miles, completely untouched. The weather outside was cold and crisp. We were in early October so the leaves were just starting to fall off the trees, turning the leaves a lovely golden bronze. They crackled as the cold breeze ran through them. There were no more buildings around us, just the concrete runway.

  The afternoon sun would soon be starting to set.

  “The perimeter looks secure so far” The Corporal announced. I carried on looking out the windows. The whole base seemed so quiet. As we carried on around the base we got to the back end of a business park. Still nothing could be seen or heard. We slowed down as we checked the fencing, making sure there were no gaps. All was secure.

  We did a full circle, until we came to the main base. It was still on total lockdown. The base itself was huge. The building must have been at least a mile long and a mile wide. I shuddered as I thought back to all the people trapped inside, all infected. We drove all around the building.

  “How many people were inside there when it got locked down?” I asked the Corporal. He looked at me, his face pained by the memory “At least 1000” He replied sadly. “We did what we had to do” he went on. “There’s no way they can get out, don’t worry”

  He pulled the truck around to the main entrance. There was a small crowd of the infected gathering, obviously alerted to our presence. They were pushed up against the reinforced entrance trying desperately to get to us.

  Leon banged on the roof.

  “What do we do Jameson? Shall we take them out?”

  The Corporal looked around and stepped out the truck. The Sergeant had stopped behind us, and was getting out the car. He looked at the Corporal sternly. “Take them out” He ordered as he went to relay his instructions to the rest of the boys.

  The Corporal looked at me, “stay in the truck, I’m leaving the engine running, I need you to stay on the lookout.”

  I did as I was told. I hadn’t been this close to so many of the infected before. The smell was the first thing that hit me. Remember the smell when you open your outdoor bin, a day before the dustbin men come to remove it, and you find that the bags in there have all split? Well imagine that smell mixed in with the smell of heavily blocked drains. Well that doesn’t even come close.

  Flies surrounded the infected. Sores were protruding through their pale yellowing skin, some had already burst, dripping yellow viscous liquid down their faces. Signs of decay were present; parts of the skin not covered in sores looked as if they were being eaten alive from the inside.

  Looking into the eyes of the infected would give me nightmares for weeks after. The corneas were completely red; the pupils were completely dilated and had completely removed the iris. The areas around the eyes were covered in black veins, which covered the whole of their faces.

  As they snarled and chewed at the air, I could see that most of them had parts of the mouth missing. Holes caused by decay were tearing the muscle from their cheeks, revealing their teeth as they gnashed. The gums had all but gone, revealing the jawbone pooling with blood.

  I was terrified. They looked so much worse up close. The desperation to get to us was frightening. I watched as body parts flew off into the air and into the emerging crowd, as assault rifles and submachine guns cut through the flesh of our enemy.

  They screeched and hissed as shards of metals pierced through their stronghold, leaving a path of death and destruction directly opposite the entrance.

  It didn’t take long for the boys to dispatch of them all. I sat back in the truck. Looking around at the trail of death that lined the road made my stomach turn. The innards of the recently departed both smelled and looked foul. Steam was coming from the bodies as they laid to rest in the cold air.

  Not forgetting about the mission the Corporal jumped back in the truck. “Let’s carry on” he said to me as he looked over, his expression completely normal. “Are you ok?” He asked me slightly concerned. I hadn’t moved a muscle since the ceasefire stopped. I was still trying to take in everything that had happened around me.

  “Yes, fine” I replied quickly shrugging him off.

  We continued the rest of our journey in silence.

  We carried on around the perimeter of the fence, and we came to some smaller buildings. Most were derelict and served no purpose for the army. They were clearly from the days of the war, the brickwork was crumbling, some of the structures had already caved in.

  As we passed them I noticed the road ahead was familiar. We were back on Old Hall Lane, on the other side of the fence. I remembered the emergency exit sign we had passed when it all came rushing back to me. “I know where they’re coming in from” I told the Corporal. “What? Where from?” He asked slightly confused.

  I directed him to the entrance we had come through when we first discovered the base.

  “We closed the gate behind us once we got in. We made sure we did. But if those things can figure out a way to ambush us, I have no doubt in my mind they could figure out how to open a gate” I told the Corporal.

  He agreed as we pulled up to the gate. It wasn’t how we left it. The gate wasn’t closed properly. The bar had been pulled right across, stopping it from closing completely. The Corporal walked up to the gate for a closer inspection. He closed the gate properly and walked to the back of the truck. I stepped out the passenger side, to get a breath of fresh air. I was still shaken up by the previous bloodshed I had witnessed.
I started to understand why Duckface didn’t want to be a part of it.

  “We do what we have to, to survive” Leon said as he strolled along side me, noticing my inner turmoil.

  “It’s not that” I told him, “It’s the way they looked, they weren’t people. Those things. Whatever they are, they’re not people!” I wasn’t making much sense, but Leon seemed to understand perfectly.

  I watched the Corporal as he pulled out a metal chain from the truck, he was securing the gate so nothing else could get in.

  As he wrapped the first coil around the gate, a set of sprinters came running towards him. Without thinking we all ran to the gate. Leon and Josh pulled out their handguns and started firing. I ran over to the Corporal to help him wrap the chain into place.

  More and more of the infected came pouring out the nearby golf club. To our right, the Sergeant was racing towards us with the second lot of troops. He stopped short as they jumped out the car and started firing directly at the club house. The sprinters kept on coming. The boys were taking them out as they got to the path in front of them. They couldn’t shoot all of them, and they managed to outrun the attack.

  The sprinters were getting closer and closer to us as we finally locked the chain into place. We stepped back with seconds to spare, as the first sprinter launched himself at the gate, pulling at the chain.

  He looked up at me and the Corporal, his eyes filled with hatred. He knew what we had done, we had stopped their entry to the base. He let out an hear piercing scream as he shook the gate wildly. The Corporal quickly placed a bullet through his head.

  More and more came out all running for the gate, pulling on the chains. I reached for my handgun as my hands shook. I was terrified, seeing them up close was all the more disturbing. I was still trembling as I flicked the safety off and took two out, hitting them point blank.

  The fear was starting to leave my body as the adrenaline took over.

  As I took more and more of them out, already getting used to being in such close range of the danger, I climbed to the top of the truck with the shotgun on my back. I pulled the shotgun towards me and emptied the barrel into the crowd that was gathering below. I took 4 out with one shot. I cracked a smile. It was so wrong, but I was proud of myself. I almost wish someone was there to video it. It was a good shot.

  When I was out of ammo, I jumped down. Ditching the shotgun I pulled the handgun out of its holster around my thigh. I emptied the remainder of my magazine into the crowd. Still, they kept coming.

  I quickly pulled a new magazine out and locked it into place, discarding the empty mag on the floor, I kicked it out my way and carried on shooting.

  “Looks like we found the nest” The Corporal shouted over his shoulder.

  Leon was the first to respond “At least we’re on the right side, this time” he yelled back.

  “Not for long, the gates not gonna last much longer” The Corporal yelled back.

  We all carried on shooting. I had already emptied 4 magazines, I was quickly losing patience. My shotgun just wasn’t getting the job done. The handgun didn’t fare much better.

  It was useless; there were hundreds of them, still scrambling out the building. We needed more fire power. We couldn’t use explosives; we would risk blowing up the gate and the rest of the fencing around us in the explosion.

  I ran to the back of the truck and found the submachine guns. I quickly grabbed them and ran back to the boys. I threw one over to Leon as I readied the other.

  The Corporal and Josh moved to our side, backing up as they kept on firing. Leon and I stepped forward. Making a quick calculation of the average head height of these things, I pulled the trigger.

  My shots hit the first few targets but the kickback of the MP5 caught me off guard. My last few shots went over their heads.

  I stopped firing and tried again, this time I aimed a little lower.

  Fully prepared for the kickback I steadied my weapon as I kept the MP5 at a constant level.

  Bullets shattered the skulls of the infected in front of us. They were packed that tightly against the fence that the dead were still upright as the infected behind them kept propelling them forward.

  Blood, guts and pus coated the gate and the floor surrounding it. The gate wouldn’t hold for much longer. The infected continued to surge towards us, pushing the fallen closer to the front.

  The Corporal jumped into the truck, he shouted out of the window as he started the engine. “Move out the way I have a plan”

  We quickly did as he said, we jumped out the way as the truck reversed into position.

  We reloaded our weapons and jumped on the roof alongside him. “What do you want us to do?” I asked.

  “Aim as far away as you can. We need to hit them from behind”

  I knew what he was getting at. We aimed out and fired on the infected pushing their way into the crowd.

  They started to fall. The pressure on the gate lessoned at they finally started to fall.

  A few minutes later they were all down. We looked at the massacre in front of us, and at the gate which was starting to lean in towards us.

  “We need to do something about that gate” The Sergeant sighed as he came over to us.

  “We’ve got some extra fencing in here Serg” Leon suggested. “Yes use that. Fence the area off. I don’t want anyone using this gate again; there are plenty of other exits we can use. Block it off” he commanded.

  It didn’t take long for the boys to have the area secured. I reloaded the weapons whilst the boys got to work.

  The world was still in complete meltdown. But I wasn’t going to resort to manual labour just yet.

  Once the area was blocked off, we headed back to the base. We all felt safer knowing the base was secured. We had taken out over 100 out in one day, but it was taking its toll on our ammo supply.

  The Sergeant knew this too well, so had already given us another mission. We were to pay a visit to Hangar 3.

  It was already to starting to get dark outside, so we decided to leave it until the next day. As the darkness surrounded us, I headed back to our living quarters.

  We had already unloaded the trucks and placed the weapons back into the ammo store. I was already tired from the day’s events. I just wanted to go back and get food, a shower, and bed.

  I wandered back to the small base, it was completely dark at this point, but the moonlight illuminated my path. It was a clear night; I could see the stars were twinkling in the night sky. I slowed my pace as I took in the spectacular view from above.

  It was quiet all around me; you could have heard a pin drop. Even so, I was starting to get the uneasy feeling that I wasn’t alone. I looked all around the base, my eyes adjusting to the darkness around me. I couldn’t see anything.

  I quickly looked behind me, I was sure I was alone. I couldn’t see anyone at all. I stood still, like a deer in headlights; I was so sure someone was out there. Fear started to take over, I couldn’t speak. I just stood there unable to move. It was completely irrational; I couldn’t see or hear anything so why was I so scared?

  I shook my head and wiped my eyes, I was just being silly. I blamed the day’s events mixed with exhaustion for playing tricks on my mind. I was about to head back to the base, when something to the left of me caught my eye.

  I turned around and looked towards the corner of the building I had just came from. A dark figure stepped out from the shadows and into the moonlight.

  It made no effort to advance towards me; it just stood there staring at me. I stared back, trying to figure out what it was. It didn’t look human. Its back was hunched over and its head was completely bent off to the side. Its arms and legs were completely disfigured; they seemed to move independently from the rest of its body.

  The more I stared, the more of its features I was able to make out. The area between the nose and chin was completely mangled. The skin looked like it had been completely ripped off, revealing parts of the skull. Its mouth had been completely
removed bearing its blood soaked teeth. Bits of flesh were hanging from its face, blackened puss oozed out from beneath the wounds.

  Its eyes bared the hollowing resemblance of death, a face that hell itself would spit back out.

  It still made no attempt to move. It’s never took its eyes off me. It’s eyes were hollow. There was no emotion in its eyes, just death. The more I looked at it, the more familiar it became. The clothing, the hair, even the build. It was Greg.

  I stood still a couple of seconds not sure what to do. I quickly made up my mind. I bolted for the smaller base and headed for the roof. I knew there was a rifle up there. I quickly pulled the ladders out and climbed up the roof hatch, scrambling to get to the gun. I flew myself on the ground at the edge of the building, ready to take my shot.

  I looked around me trying to find my target. He wasn’t there. I checked the corner he came out from, nothing. I searched the area around the fencing, no one there. I ran to each corner of the roof, desperately trying to find him.

  There wasn’t a soul outside. I sat down trying to figure out what happened. I felt like I was losing my mind. I was so sure I saw him out there. I couldn’t get his picture out my mind. Did I really see him? I was starting to doubt myself.

  I felt like I was going mad.

  Chapter 13 – Hangar 3

  I never told anyone about my experience outside. I still wasn’t 100% sure it was real. I had shrugged it off as my mind playing tricks on me. I did a quick check of the area the next morning, just to be sure. But I couldn’t see anyone or anything out the ordinary.

  We had more important things to concentrate on, we were going take back Hangar 3.

  That morning, the Sergeant handed us all two-way radios.

  “What’s with the walkie-talkies?” I asked.

  He motioned for us to all to gather round as he spoke. “I’ve been working on our communications equipment. I have fully charged our two-way radios. From now on I don’t want anyone going out without them.”

  He carried on. “There’s been a slight change of plan. I will be splitting the teams up slightly differently today. Team 1 will accompany me. Team 2 will accompany the Corporal to Hanger 3.”