“Hey mate can I help you?” I shouted.
The figure turned round to look at me and I saw that it was PC Foxton.
“What the fuck do you want?” I asked.
“So it is true that bitch of a doctor managed to help you escape then?” He said looking at the axe in my hand.
“Yeah well what with bent coppers and corrupt business men I was completely screwed wasn’t I.”
“Yeah well they want her to come back they said that she can help sort out this mess you made.”
“Where is your bum chum at then?” I asked.
Looking at the ground I could see his hands clench before he answered “He died last night at the hands of one of those fucking monsters last night. Dr Jackson said it was all your fault because you opened the door to the lab to check on your fat mate.”
“Fuck you dickhead. What would you have done if it was your boyfriend?” I said sarcastically.
“I’ll give you boyfriend.” He shouted as he ran at me.
Stepping to the side I brought the handle of the axe down on his back as he ran past me. Hitting the ground face first his face cracked of the paved drive. Moving quickly I sat on his back and leaned forward to whisper in his ear “Look she isn’t wanting to come back with you, so you can get lost.”
Grunting he said over his shoulder “That’s where you are wrong, she already said that she wanted to come back.”
“What are you going on about?” I said.
“I said I would like to go back.” A soft female voice said from behind me.
Standing up and turned round to see Jane with a small bag hung over one arm.
“Jane if you go back they’re just going to take advantage of you.”
She just shrugged her shoulders and said “Yes I know Marc but we need everyone to try and help get this infection under control I can’t exactly help here.”
“I’ll take you back doctor, and I won’t say anything about this waste of space but I swear to god if we ever cross paths again I’ll kick the shit out of you.” Foxton said standing up rubbing his hands on his trousers.
“Yeah right.” I said.
With that being said Foxton and Jane climbed into his car and they pulled down the drive. Half way down the brake light flared and Jane stuck her head out of the passenger window and said “Marc, I left the keys to the house on the kitchen table. If you leave and decide you’re not coming back can you please leave them under the rock near the front door?”
“Yeah.” I shouted back.
She waved and then pulled herself back into the car as it moved down the drive and on to the main road. I stood looking at where the car had turned for a while before walking back to my car. Grabbing the supplies I had got from the village I walked back into the house and into the kitchen. Dumping everything on the floor I looked round and saw the keys on the table. I walked over and looked down at them and shook my head. It was typical that Jane had left me here on my own, every female in my adult life had left me in one way or another so I suppose this wasn’t anything new. Picking them up and putting them in my pocket, I started to put away everything that I had bought that day.
After everything was put away and I had brought the camping supplies into the kitchen I made a coffee and wen to sit in the living room. On the spur of the moment I turned the TV on and was greeted by images of violence and blood on nearly all the channels. The news was saying that it was no longer riots but some kind of terrorist attack that had infected people. Nearly all the major cities and towns in the UK were now affected and there was rumours that the infection had broken out in mainland Europe and the US. I sat staring at the screen unable to tear my eyes away from it as a list of affected UK towns and cities streamed by on the bottom of the screen. Drinking the coffee I made my mind began to wander with regards to what the government was going to do about all of this. When the telephone in the hallway rang. I stood and walked into the hall and picked it up.
“Hello?” I said.
“Marc, its Jane I’m glad you’re still there.”
“Where else would I go? Your bosses made me legally dead so I don’t exist anymore.”
“Look please don’t be angry, I never did that to you.”
“Sorry, I know you didn’t. So why the phone call?” I asked.
“I thought I would let you know what I found out when I got back here, just in case it might help you.”
“Ok, so what have you found out?”
“They aren’t going to be able to control it. Dr Jackson thinks that this might be what’s called an extinction level event. In other words there is no cure for it. Marc unless you can find somewhere very secure or somewhere it hasn’t managed to get a hold then you may as well be dead.” She said sobbing.
“Aren’t you just the ray of sunshine?” I said starting to get pissed off.
“Please Marc, don’t be like that….”
“Shit! Jane how the fuck am I supposed to be? You ring me and tell me that I might as well just walk in front of a car and kill myself than hope this might end anytime soon.” I said shouting down the phone.
“It was just that I thought I might pass you some information on the creatures before I leave.”
“What do you mean leave?”
“The company are pulling all the staff out and we are getting flown out somewhere safe.” She said sobbing down the phone.
“So you and your precious company get to escape the shit that you have caused and live somewhere safe. Whilst the rest of us mere mortals end up being snacks or something worse. Well fuck you all and tell Dr holier than thou Jackson that if I ever get my hands on him I rip his fucking heart out.” And with that I slammed the phone down.
Chapter Twelve
I slid my back down the wall to sit on the floor and I cried into my hands for what seemed like an age. The noise and voices coming from the living room seemed to echo round the house as my sobs heaved in my chest. As the daylight started to wane I started to pull myself back together and I stood up. Wiping my eyes on the sleeve of my shirt I blinked at the gloom slowly crawling up the hallway walls. The TV was still on and was casting flashes of light though the doorway. I walked inside and turned it off then pulled the curtains closed and walked back toward the kitchen checking the front door to make sure it was locked as I passed. I couldn’t remember the last time that I had anything to eat so I grabbed a Pot-Noodle and turned the kettle on and sat at the table waiting for it to boil.
Night seemed to have just dropped like a hammer on the little house and the silence seemed to make the place seem foreboding and sinister. I knew that there was only one other house on the road nearby and that was on the other side and about five hundred meters towards the junction to the village and Catterick Army Barracks. At least that was one thing that I had on my side the remoteness of the house made it more secure than if I was in my flat. The only downside that came with the remoteness was going to be the difficulty in getting any supplies. With it being dark I thought an early night was in order and checked the doors and carrying one of the axes I went up to bed. Putting the axe near the head of the bed I stripped of my clothes and climbed in between the sheets. I lay looking at the light bulb hanging from the ceiling and wondered what I was going to in the morning. I closed my eyes and the darkness behind them pulled me down into a dreamless sleep.
The next day I got up to the empty house and made my way into the kitchen and made some breakfast. The fact that I had so little to do and no one to talk to seemed to make me slightly depressed. I walked into the living room and turned on the TV and got nothing but static from all the channels I could get. Now that didn’t make anything feel right, putting my cup and bowl on the coffee table and went into the hallway to try the phone, only to hear nothing but a busy signal from the handset. Shit this could only mean that things had gotten even worse during the night. I should have stayed up and checked the late news last night. What Jane had said about getting somewhere safe came back to haunt me. Where the fuc
k was I supposed to find anywhere secure enough? I walked back to the living room and sat on the couch to eat my breakfast. I had food and water and this place was a little off the beaten track and therefore a little safer than most places. Jane was right though I really did need to find somewhere a little more secure than a small house. The only problem that I could think of was where would I find somewhere like that?
I took my cup and bowl into the kitchen and put them in the sink and raised my eyes to the fields behind the house and that’s when I nearly pissed myself. Stumbling across the fields behind the house were four people and when I say they were stumbling, I mean falling flat on their faces only to stand back up and continue their march across the fields. Even from the distance that I was from them, I could tell that they were infected. It wasn’t from any obvious injuries or missing limbs, it was just by their stance and the jerky way that they walked. I slowly moved to the side of the window so that I could look round the side and hide if needed. I didn’t know how well they could see and I didn’t want to chance them seeing me. Standing watching them I got a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach. If I had four walking behind the house then how many might be walking down the road at the front. Getting down on my hands and knees I crawled down the hall and the slowly climbed the stairs. I could have ran up them but I didn’t want to make any noise that could be heard from outside. I opened the bedroom door at the front of the house and went inside.
This room must have been Jane’s parents’ room what with there being a large double bed with a flowery print on the duvet. A large wooden wardrobe, matching set of draws and dressing table with mirror. The window was behind the dressing table and mirror so again I stood to the side against the wall and peered outside toward the main road. Sure enough I could see several heads moving past the hedge at the bottom of the garden. At least luck was with me and none of them had decided to have a walk up the drive, well not yet anyway. Putting my back to the wall I slid down it till my butt hit the floor and just sat with my arms round my legs.
“Come on Marc think. What the fuck are you going to do?” I whispered to the room.
Of course if I had answered myself then I would be going nuts. I decided that the first thing I needed to do was get a pack sorted with emergency gear just in case I had to leave quickly. Standing back up I risked one more quick look out the bedroom window and a small plan jumped into my head. Just outside the window was a small roof over the front door and it was a short drop down to the ground. It would only be a short run to my car which I had parked pointing back down the drive. With that plan in mind I was going to sleep in this room from now on. Going back to my room I gathered my gear and took it downstairs. In the kitchen I laid the backpacks on the table and split all the gear and food into them. Then I strapped a long handled axe to each. My thought was that if I took both backpacks with me then if I had to make a run for it as long as I grabbed one of them I would still be ok. Carrying them both upstairs I put them near them window and sat down on the bed to think.
Now I might have been a little tired, I don’t know but when I woke up and looked at my watch it was just after one in the afternoon. I stood up and risked a look out the window and saw nothing on the main road. I closed the curtains thinking that if I did that it would make it harder for the infected to be able to see me. My stomach rumbled letting me know that I had missed lunch so again I quietly went back downstairs to the kitchen. My mind was elsewhere and because I was wool gathering and watching my feet instead of looking where I was going I didn’t see the two infected looking at me from outside the kitchen window. As soon as they started to moan I bloody well noticed them and looked up. One was a male, at least I think he was a male. He had the left half of his face eaten away and what little muscle left was hardly holding his jaw in place giving his face a lopsided look. His eyes seemed to do circuits in his sockets when he saw me look up. Raising a bloody pulped up hand to strike the window I could see the white bone of missing fingers. The other looked to be a teenage girl and to be honest from what I could see she looked nearly normal apart from a crescent shaped bite mark on her shoulder. The only thing that they both had in common was the green slime or whatever it is, leaking from their eyes and ears.
“Fuck what do I do now?” I asked.
Backing out of the kitchen I closed the door and quickly went back upstairs my grumbling stomach forgotten. I went into the front bedroom and glanced out the window. From where I was standing I couldn’t see any of the creatures. Sitting down on the bed I looked out the window trying to come up with some sort of plan. I suddenly I heard a loud crash from downstairs followed by their moan echoing round the house. I stood up quickly and looked at the door to the bedroom I quickly crossed the room and closed the door it was then that I saw it didn’t have a lock. I could hear their moans getting louder on the other side of the door. I needed to put something in front of the door to give myself a few minutes breathing room. That’s when I saw the chest of draws out of the corner of my eye. I quickly pushed them in front of the door. I knew that it wouldn’t hold for long if there were more than two of them in the house and by the sounds coming from downstairs there was a lot more than two.
Chapter Thirteen
Grabbing the two back packs I moved to the window and waited for a loud enough noise from downstairs to cover the noise of me smashing the glass. Shattering the glass with the axe, I ran the handle of the axe around the edge of the window to get rid of the remaining large fragments. Throwing the two backpacks out of the window, I climbed out and on to the small roof over the front door. Looking down I couldn’t see any creatures lurking below me so I hung off the edge and dropped to the floor. Grabbing the backpacks off the floor I opened my car and threw them on to the passenger seat. Casting a look over my shoulder I could hear the smashing of furniture and loud moans coming from inside. I jumped into the driving seat and started the engine and pulled down the drive and out on to the main road.
Turning to the left my thoughts where to head for Catterick Garrison and the Army if there was any authority left that would provide safety then the Army would be it. Pulling up to the junction I followed the sign for the Garrison and headed down the country lane. Cresting a hill I saw the town Garrison of Catterick spread out below me. I stopped the car to look through the windscreen at what was below me. I could see movement in the streets but I could also see smoke and what looked like a few crashed cars. I was trying to decide whether I should head down there or would it be safer for me to try and find somewhere out of the way. The only down side to the latter was that I didn’t know the area very well. Taking that thought on board I decided that if anything I might be able to find some better gear and maybe more food. Putting the car in gear I moved down the hill and slowly made my way toward the middle of town. Taking my time to swerve round a few crashes and abandoned cars. Every time I even thought I saw or heard an infected person I pulled over and turned the engine off.
Looking out at the world around me I could see ravaged bodies lying in the gutters and on street corners but the most frightening thought was that there wasn’t enough of them for a town this size and that could only mean that there were plenty infected walking about somewhere. I came to a large roundabout in the centre of town and pulled over and turned the engine off for what seemed to be the twentieth time. Rolling down the window I listened to the world outside of my car and heard the crack of gun fire from somewhere off to my right. Was it my lucky day had the Army managed to find somewhere to defend? Would they let me in? These thoughts and others were jumbled in my already panicking brain. Starting the engine I thought my best chance would be to slowly head that way and stop every now and then to try and get a bearing on where the shooting was coming from. It took me maybe thirty or forty minutes to pin point where the shots were coming from and I also knew where all the infected were. Set back from a large ten foot fence was a three storey red brick building and spread out along the fence were the infected. Sitting there watching the inf
ected push each other into the fence links I hadn’t a clue how I was going to get past them and inside the fence.
I watched as an infected fell to the floor with its head split open like a water melon spilling green, red and grey gore all over the ground. Then I heard the crack of the rifle round split the air followed by an increase moaning from the infected. Watching the roof line of the building I was looking for any movement along its edge and it wasn’t long before I saw a flash then another infected fell beside the other. From the looks of it the sniper had racked up quite a few kills. They weren’t all in a single place but well-spaced out along the fence line.
Climbing out of the car I grabbed the nearest backpack and started moving up the road crouched over. I was trying to see if the infected were all the way round the fence line or if there was any entrance or way in that didn’t have any infected near that I could use. The infected did seem to be thinning out the further toward the back of the compound. Keeping behind the bushes and cars on the road I managed to make it to the rear of the compound and found it nearly devoid of infected. There were the odd group of three or four here and there but they were widely spaced. I quickly moved to a small grove of trees near to what I thought was the back entrance to the compound a small gate set in the ten foot fence line. I must have sat in the trees for about ten or fifteen minutes before trying to find out if the gate was locked or not.
I crept out of the trees and slowly made my way to the gate whilst trying not to make any noise. Just my luck the gate had a huge padlock on it and it was fastened tight. Looking around I could see corpses lying on the ground inside the fence and nearly all but a few had BDUs on. I looked up at the roof of the building and I saw someone waving their arms over their head at me. I gave a heart hearted wave back and I was just about to move away from the gate when the figure pointed at its self, then at me and finally at the gate. From the rudimentary sign language I took that to mean that they would come down and open the gate for me. I waved back and then pointed to myself and then the trees, the person on the roof gave me a double thumbs up and I made my way back to the trees to hide. Sitting in the shadows I watched the compound and after what seemed to take ages I saw a small figure in BDUs detach itself from the shadow of the building and head for the gate. Keeping myself low I headed for the gate and got there shortly before they did. He was about five feet eight and had a lean build and short cropped blonde hair. His nose had been broken at one time or another and he had serious looking grey coloured eyes.
Pet From Hell (Infected Series Book 1) Page 5
