Duncan released himself from the seat, stretching out his back. His assault rifle was missing, but he still had his handgun strapped to his hip. One of the others came too and unclipped themselves from the seat.
‘Are you okay?’ he asked the voice box that concealed his voice was broken, allowing the person to know he was male.
‘I’m fine,’ said a robotic voice in reply.
‘Ahh,’ groaned a third person in a robotic voice.
‘What happened?’
‘We were shot down,’ said Duncan.
‘Are you guys still alive?’ a young man poked his head in through the smashed hull. He was wearing the same black body armour as them, minus the helmet. ‘We have incoming, so get your fucking arses moving.’ He disappeared from sight. A moment later the sound of controlled bursts of an automatic weapon filled the air. The howls of the insane could be heard drawing closer by the second. Duncan slapped his hand against the marine’s belt release, getting a groan out of the man.
‘Give me a hand...’ said Duncan, not knowing any of their names.
‘Nightmare,’ replied the marine stood beside him.
‘Troll,’ moaned the injured on.
‘Right, let’s get the fuck out of here.’ With an arm slung over each shoulder the two of them managed to carry Troll out of the wreckage. The cockpit of the helicopter had wiped out the first three floors of a building to the right-hand side of the street. One of the rotators was sticking vertically out of the road. The helmetless soldier was knelt behind a part of the separated hull, using it as cover as he took pop shots at the horde of infected charging down the street towards them. Duncan looked left and right, high and low. He didn’t know where he was, how far he was from the skyscraper, but none of that mattered. All that mattered was getting off the street and away from the infected. The horde would not stop chasing you once they caught the scent. He was fairly sure they didn’t have enough bullets to shoot their way out of this one.
‘Nine o’clock,’ announced Nightmare.
Duncan looked over to the left, an open door led into a destroyed hair salon. It was the quickest route off the street. The three of them made haste. Duncan automatically pulled his sidearm from its holster. The barrel was pointed forward, as they approached the doorway. If any fucker jumped out of the shadows, then they would be deader than a can of spam.
‘Fall back,’ Duncan yelled to the helmetless marine.
The young man’s head popped like a balloon, as a single gunshot rang out. Blood, gore, brains and pieces of skull flew in all directions, as the headless body dropped like a sack of potatoes towards the floor. Duncan glanced towards the surrounding rooftops, as they rushed into the hair salon. All sorts of confusing thoughts were filling his head. Why was someone attacking them? Who had shot them down? Why had someone shot them down? What were they going to do now? He was using the fighting the infected, but now someone else was after them too? Why would someone do that? The mission had gone from difficult to impossible.
***
Jasmine darted across the street, dressed in a smelly old brown coat she had found in the shed. A hammer was tucked into the coat pocket. It wasn’t the best weapon, but it was better than nothing. At either end of the street were burnt out cars, making it impossible for the infected to amble through. Every single alleyway leading into the street had been blocked by more burnt out cars. Every building in the street showed signs of intense fire damage, all but one. It was their base. Jasmine ran up the stone stairs to the four bedroom house, avoiding the trip wires at the bottom. There were traps everywhere. The whole place was set up so that any infected that got this far would have limbs removed. She entered through the front door. Silence greeted her. The first thing that caught her eye was the wall of remembrance. It was where they hung the pictures of the fallen. There were a lot more pictures here than the last time Jasmine looked. Her heart sank at the sight of her own face hanging on the wall. What did that mean? Did it had something to do with the black out? She still had no memory of how she got from the bedroom into the river of mud with the infected. Her eyes scanned the faces of her dead friends. She couldn’t see Liam’s anywhere. Did that mean he was still alive? Jasmine headed down the corridor into the main living area. A bin in the centre of the room burnt brightly. She rushed over to the fire, holding out her hands and allowing the warmth to touch her frozen skin. Her eyes dropped to the chocolate bars on the coffee table. Only now did she realise how hungry she was. Her hand reached out, snatched as many of the bars as she could fit into her grasp, and began to undo them as quickly as she possibly could.
‘What was that explosion?’ A female voice asked, from the front door.
Jasmine turned to the sound of footsteps heading straight for her. Two people appeared in the doorway. The look of shock on their face said it all. Jasmine recognised Penny, but the woman looked a lot wilder than she had done before. Her heart practically skipped a beat at the sight of Liam. It dropped as he raised his gun to face her.
‘No. Don’t shoot, it's me!’
‘Jasmine...?’ Liam looked confused.
‘How the fuck is she talking?’ Penny asked what they were both thinking.
‘I don’t know what’s going on, but please don’t shoot me.’
‘Jasmine, how did you get back?’ Liam was stunned by the sight of his girlfriend.
‘We should kill her,’ said Penny.
‘No!’ Liam barked.
‘She is infected.’
‘Does she look infected to you?’
‘Is that what happened to me?’ Jasmine could feel a sickening sensation pull down into the pit of her stomach. It made sense. The last memory she had was of fucking Liam and then she was knee deep in the river of foul smelling mud. The reason she had no memory was that she had become one of the infected. Jasmine dropped her bum down onto the couch, buried her head into the palms of her hands and began to cry. ‘Did I...? Did I hurt anyone?’
‘No,’ said Liam, lowering his gun. ‘You didn’t hurt anyone.’
***
President Gomez grabbed handfuls of his hair, as he rocked back and forth in his leather chair. The entire war room was listening in on the conversation. The translator on the phone conveyed the Chinese General’s words to them. ‘The time for talking is over. My country will not fall victim to this man made virus.’
‘We need more time, General,’ replied President Gomez.
‘There is no more time,’ explained the translator.
‘We believe we have found a cure. We don’t have to destroy each other.’
There was a long pause.
‘You are talking lies. You are trying to buy time. Your country is in ruins, your people lost.’
‘No. I have a team extracting the cure right now. We can stop the spread of the infection. We believe we can cure those that have been infected. Give us two days, and we will have the cure for you.’
‘In two days I will have lost half of my country.’
‘General...’ the phone line went dead. ‘General?’ President Gomez asked, hoping for a reply. ‘General? GENERAL! YOU FUCKING IDIOT!’ Gomez picked up the phone, ripped it from the table and threw it with everything he had against the war room wall. He dropped himself down into his chair, breathing heavily. Everyone in the room was quiet, waiting for the command they knew he had to give. ‘We will wait until this Experiment sixty-one is collected.’
‘Sir, the helicopter went down. We haven’t heard from the team.’
President Gomez looked for words, but none would come.
‘We have to act now before the Chinese attack.’
‘They are frightened. Send in another team to extract Experiment sixty-one.’
‘There is no time, Sir.’
‘DO IT! I will not be responsible for the destruction of the planet. Do you understand me?’
***
Troll was lowered down onto the alleyway floor, as his robotic voice groaned painfully and loudly into the air. Night
mare ripped the voice muffler from his throat and tossed it to one side. The voice within was that of a young woman. ‘Can’t... breathe,’ she whimpered. ‘I... don’t... want.... to... die.’ Duncan looked back the way they came, half expecting the infected to be hot on their heels, but the noise of the rain was going a long way in concealing their movements. Nightmare reached down and began to unclip Troll’s body armour.
‘What are you doing?’ Duncan asked.
‘I am checking her wounds.’
‘She is a woman,’ pointed out Duncan. Nightmare said nothing in reply and continued to unclip Troll’s body armour. Duncan got up and turned his back. The infection virus was activated by love and lust. The reason they all wore masks, full body suits and wore voice boxes to conceal their voice was to hide their sex. Men and women couldn’t work together. The slight erotic or sexual thought would turn you into one of the infected. Duncan couldn’t even risk looking at the woman’s body, even if it was injured. What if he turned?
‘Shit,’ cursed Nightmare.
Duncan couldn’t look back, but Nightmare could tell at a glance this woman was dead. Her torso was black and blue. A metal shard was sticking out beneath her rib cage. ‘How is she?’ asked Duncan, as the screaming horde of the infected ran by the mouth of the alleyway. A single gunshot rang out into the air. The infected horde changed direction, bouncing off one another, as they headed into the alleyway. Duncan looked back at Nightmare standing over Troll. Blood was pouring out of a gunshot wound in the young woman’s chest. Troll was silent.
‘What the fuck did you do?’
‘What I had to. Let’s move out!’ Nightmare transitioned to her sub-machine gun and fired a controlled burst at the charging infected. The first few went down, causing all those behind them to trip over. Nightmare ran off in the other direction, Duncan fell into step behind. This mission was getting worse by the moment. The infected were after them. Someone was hunting them. And his only surviving team mate could no longer be trusted. Duncan was on his own in a hostile environment.
***
‘What the fuck do you think you are doing?’ Penny asked, in a hushed whisper. The two of them had retreated into the doorway of Penny’s bedroom. Jasmine was sitting on the couch, eating a can of cold beans. She was wearing one of Liam’s jackets, whilst enjoying the warmth of the fire.
‘What do you mean, what am I doing? She is my wife,’ replied Liam.
‘You saw what she turned into. She nearly killed you.’
‘Yes, but she isn’t infected now.’
‘How do we know that? How do we know this isn’t some weird pause in the infection?’
‘This is different, Penny. She isn’t acting like the infected. She isn’t bleeding, screaming or trying to attack us.’
‘She turned into one of those monsters. She has lived with them for over two weeks. She is still infected.’
‘Perhaps the virus is stopping.’
Penny shook her head slowly. At no point did she take her eyes off of Jasmine. The young woman by the fire looked harmless, but Penny had been one of the people that had dragged the screaming Jasmine out of Liam’s bedroom. She had looked into her bloody eyes, as the young woman had attempted to rip out her throat with her teeth. Penny knew that this woman was dangerous.
‘If you do this I will not help you,’ said Penny.
‘She is my wife, Penny. I cannot just abandon her, not now.’
‘You are a fool, Liam.’ Penny stepped back into her bedroom and closed the door. Liam listened to all the various locks and bolts being slid into place. Penny had reinforced her bedroom door with metal bars, padlocks and bolts. There was no way in hell to gain access to the bedroom unless you had a sledge hammer and a lot of time. Liam let out a long sigh. This was it. He was now alone with his wife. His heart swelled at the sight of her. Jasmine was his world. He was still in the state of mourning for her. He knew she wasn’t dead, but he had enough experiences with the infected to know that no one ever came back. Yet, here she was. Jasmine was back. Jasmine was normal. Was he doing the right thing? It didn’t matter. His life was meaningless without her.
***
The black body armour and helmet was a smart move in theory. It kept the marines safe from knowing what sex the other was, but Duncan was not a fan. The helmet vastly restricted his line of sight and muffled his hearing. Duncan was forced to twist his head left and right to get a proper view of the surrounding area, as he jogged through the city streets. The rain wasn’t letting up. Periodic flashes of lightning flickered across the skyline, as the heavens rumbled. Nightmare was leading the way. Duncan checked the GPS scanner attached to his arm. Experiment Sixty-One was not far from their current position. It would only be another twenty minutes until they arrived at their intended destination. Duncan just hoped that someone would turn up at the evacuation point to pick them up. They had lost all communication since being shot down. Duncan could see the infected lying by the side of the road or trapped within shop windows. These ones were weaker than the others. The howls they released were nothing more than a whimper. They were gaunt as if they hadn’t eaten in weeks. Perhaps, they hadn’t. They were human after all. He had never seen a weak infected before. Did that mean these monsters had a limited lifespan? If they didn’t eat and drink they would die? A single gunshot rang out, twanging off a car bonnet in front of Nightmare. Both marines dove for cover. Duncan used the back end of a car that had run into a streetlight for cover. A second gunshot echoed in their direction.
‘Can you see the shooter?’ Nightmare’s robotic voice asked.
‘Negative,’ replied Duncan. He poked his head out from behind the car and looked towards the rooftops. He ducked down just as a third gunshot rang out and part of the road beside him was chipped away. ‘Shit. I think he is north of our position.’
‘We need to take this fucker down.’ Duncan looked around, he was a good ten foot from the nearest shop, which was full of a half-dozen infected. That was the last place in the world he wanted to take shelter in. ‘I am going to rush into the nearest building,’ said Nightmare, ‘cover me.’ Before Duncan had even been able to give a response, Nightmare started the countdown. ‘Three, two, one, cover me!’ Nightmare broke from cover, as Duncan raised his handgun towards the buildings at the end of the street and opened fire. This was no aimed gunshots. This was squeeze the trigger and hope for the best. For a brief moment, he thought he saw someone move in a third-floor window. Duncan dived back behind his cover, dropped the empty magazine and slapped in another. Nightmare was gone, leaving Duncan alone in the pouring rain.
***
Liam couldn’t contain his smile, as Jasmine stepped out of their bedroom. She had changed into her own clothes. She wore a short sleeved blouse, black combat boots and gym pants, which left absolutely nothing to the imagination but were perfect for running in. ‘You look beautiful.’
‘You always say that.’
‘It’s because it is true.’
They stood there for a long moment, staring at each other.
‘Oh, I made you some actual food,’ said Liam, pointing to the spread on the coffee table. He had put together some sandwiches, biscuits, a tin of fruits and several packets of salt and vinegar crisps, which were their personal favourite.
‘Thank you, Liam.’
Jasmine joined him on the sofa, helping herself to a stale cheese sandwich, but she didn’t care. She was so hungry that she would most likely eat raw meat and for a vegetarian, that was saying something. Liam sat sheepishly beside her. It was like their first date all over again. It was like he didn’t know how to act around her. ‘Can I ask you a question?’
‘You can ask me anything.’
‘What happened to me?’
Liam sighed deeply, and she could see the pain in his eyes as he recalled the memory.
‘We were making love in the bedroom when you turned.’
‘I turned into one of them?’
‘Yes.’
‘Are you su
re?’ She still couldn’t get her head around it.
‘Yes. You were screaming, blood poured from your eyes, and you attacked me.’
‘Why didn’t you kill me?’
‘I couldn’t do it. You are my, Jasmine.’ He cupped her face within the palms of his hands. ‘I love you too much. I knew deep down in my heart that you were not evil. I knew you would come back to me and I was right. You are here right now, and you are healthy again.’ He was smiling from ear to ear. ‘I have missed you so damn much, Jasmine. You can’t imagine how hard it has been. Every day I ask myself, what is the point in going on? What is the point in living without you?’
‘You must keep living, Liam.’ She placed her hands on the back of his. ‘No matter what happens, you must always keep living, do you understand.’ Jasmine couldn’t help it. She loved him so much. She kissed him. It was a sweet, loving, gentle kiss. She could feel all the tension flow from her muscles. It was like a bubble of love had consumed her. She felt safe, and she felt protected. Strong hands grabbed her by the throat, squeezing her windpipe so hard that she was certain it was going to be crushed. Jasmine pulled back, as Liam screamed like a madman in her face. Blood was pouring from his eyes. It was like someone had just sliced his eyeballs open. Blood was pouring out of the sockets like water from a leaky tap. Fear gripped her. Fight or flight kicked in. Jasmine tried to push herself away, but Liam dived on top of her, forcing his body weight down.
‘Li...’ she tried to say his name, but no words came out.
She had never seen Liam make such an expression of hate and anger.
This thing wasn’t her husband.
This thing was a monster.
The edges of her world began to go dark, as Liam squeezed her windpipe with everything he had.
***
Penny stuffed her clothes into her backpack as quickly as she possibly could. Liam’s hysterical screams echoed through the base. ‘I told him it was a mistake,’ Penny muttered to herself, as she placed all her pre-prepared survival tools into her bag. She had enough food and water for a few days. She had matches, cooking equipment, her combat knife, handgun and rifle. Smashing and crashing could be heard coming from the next room. Jasmine called out for help, but Penny ignored her. It was a trap. That bitch was infected, and now Liam was too. Penny pulled on her coat, picked up her bag and rushed to the bedroom window. She slid back the bolts that kept the metal bars in place and raised the bars like the boot of a car. She threw open the window. A thick piece of rope, tired off against her bed, was lowered down the side of the building. It took her straight into the back garden where a drain cover would lead her down into the sewer. It was why the group originally took this building. It had an escape route out of the area. This was the first and last time she was ever going to have to use it. Penny took one last look around her home from home and climbed out the window. Jasmine cried out, and Liam howled. ‘You are on your own,’ Penny told the world, as she made her escape.
Infection: Experiment 61 (Last Human Book 3) Page 2
