Infected

by Rolfe, Michael I

  Revenge

  The Colonel summoned Major Brown and Dan into the room and said, “You need to hear this.” then to the Professor he said, “Go on Oliver, you have our complete attention.” The Professor recollected the last meeting in the governments COBRA Briefing rooms on the morning of the outbreak and repeated what the late Prime Minister had said: -

  “The Secretary of State for Defence also sends his apologises, he should have been here, and in fact we had our regular meeting scheduled for this time. However, he took it upon himself to gallivant off at short notice to inspect some military base or other…. The Secretary of State for Defence sends in his stead, his assistant, the young Mister Philip Collins…” The Professor continued “So you see Sir Anthony Butler should have been at that meeting but never showed, and I don’t have to tell you that no one from that meeting survived other than myself and Major Brown, and that was only because we left early. And now to find Butler in the enemy camp and with Jensen in tow, there can no other conclusion than Anthony Butler had a major part to play in the outbreak of the Infection.”

  Lt Colonel Curtis had a problem, he was in an awkward position and could see the logic in the Professor’s argument, however the conclusion that he had come to had not been proved beyond doubt. On the face of it, Sir Anthony Butler looked guilty as hell, but there could be other logical and not so nefarious reasons for Butler’s absence from the COBRA meeting and for his presence in that camp, for one thing he could well be being duped by Major Jensen who the Colonel was sure was guilty. The other problem was that until five minutes ago Professor Thompson was the highest-ranking government official known to have survived the outbreak and was technically in charge, although he seemed happy to let the Colonel run the show. But now that the Secretary of State for Defence was known to be alive, he was for good or bad the senior of them all, and as a result the Colonels boss!

  The Colonel was now almost certain that the ‘enemy’ was in fact unsuspecting British forces who were being manipulated by Major Jensen, who was possibly in league with Sir Anthony Butler and probably subservient to him. The Colonel said “It is time we took the fight to the enemy; the problem is that we are still not sure who our enemy is. I will not order an attack on those men in the north because I am sure they are innocent of any crime, they are just following the orders of those they believe to be legitimately in authority. However, I am convinced that Major Jensen is guilty and as such is a legitimate target, but I want him alive, we need to question him to ascertain the guilt or otherwise of Sir Anthony Butler.” The Colonel then looked at Dan and said, “Captain Charles, I want you and your Aura team to join forces with Patrols Platoon, you are to plan and execute a mission to capture and return Major Jensen here for interrogation.” Dan had always thought of his ‘rank’ as sort of an honorary title and was surprised to hear the Colonel to address him as Captain, but he kept his face neutral as he asked, “And if Jensen chooses to die rather than be captured?” The Colonel knew Dan’s real nature, and so he fixed him with a fierce look as he answered, “I really would like him alive, so please do your best to facilitate that, however once I have finished with him, you can take a short and private walk with him and if you return on your own… well let just say I don’t think anyone will question Jensen’s absence.”

  Dan returned to his quarters to collect some equipment, he had only been there for a few minutes when Pam arrived. They had not seen each other over the last few days; she had hardly left the hospital and looked tired and drained. Despite her best efforts, she had not been able to save all the wounded from Porton Down and had held the hand of the young man as he slipped away, her failure to save him had affected her deeply. She ran to Dan, hugged him hard knowing that would not be able to comprehend or even empathize with her sense of loss, but his strong embrace and the knowledge that he was doing his best to comfort her helped her immeasurably. He knew he should say something, tried and failed, after a few false starts he spluttered into silence and just continued to hold her in a tight embrace. Pamela was shaking, and Dan thought she was crying and hugged her harder, Pamela broke out from his arms and looked at him, he in turn looked at her and to his surprise he realised that she was not crying, she was laughing, his confusion made her laugh even harder. Dan was still trying to figure out why she should be laughing at such a time, but he was total bereft of any answer. Pamela was still laughing as she said, “If you hugged me any harder you would have crushed my ribcage, as a bereavement councillor you are totally inept, but you are just what I needed!”

  Dan said, “Well one thing I can say that will make you happy is that we have found Major Jensen and we are going to get him and bring him here for interrogation.” Pamela stopped laughing, looked at him, her concern was obvious, and she said, “Be careful, he is very dangerous.” “I know.” Said Dan. “No, you don’t. What I mean is that he is like you, he… he has no empathy. Dan, he is a full-blown psychopath!” she said.

  Jensen considered himself to be a mortal god, he was better that these other lesser beings that he was forced to share the planet with, they were just chattel to be used and discarded, they were his to kill at will and killing was something he liked very much. Killing was Jensen’s drug of choice, and he was hooked, nothing else came close to it. His preferred method of despatch was to tie his victim to a table, bed or chair so they were completely helpless. Killing men was fine but Jensen was a pragmatist and he preferred his victims to be women, it was not a sexual thing, it was just that they were weaker and easier to subdue. He liked to look into their eyes as they died. He always thought of them as ‘his’ victims and that he owned the last part of their lives, he collected those last few precious minutes and stored them like trophies in his memory so that he could relive the moment repeatedly. His favourite part of the whole experience was when they realised that their lives were about to end, he loved the various emotions that they displayed, there was incomprehension and confusion “Why are you doing this?” he could read in their eyes, to abject terror. Most tried to plead but there was never any hope for them, for Jensen had no sympathy or empathy whatsoever. Sometimes he would see acceptance in their eyes, but that was no good, they had to want to live, or taking their life meant little to him! When this happened, he found that if he gave them a glimmer of hope, that they may in fact survive then their will to live was rekindled, and to see that hope crushed again was like ecstasy for him. Like a cat toying with a mouse, letting it go so it could catch it again… and some of his victims had taken a very long time to die! With every person he killed, he felt it necessary to explain to them that he was responsible for taking their life away, “It is not your life, it belongs to me and I am ending it now.” he would say and he revelled in the look on their face. Patrick Jensen may have been a psychopath, but he was also quite insane!

  Jensen had thought Dan was a kindred spirit, but he seemed happy to kill the Infected and showed little inclination to kill humans. Jensen could not find any pleasure in killing the Infected, they were as good as dead, and their life was not worth taking, besides they were dangerous! Jensen felt like a god, but he knew that he could be killed and so avoided the Infected when he could, however during the few times that he had come in to contact with them he soon realised that if he looked them in the eye they would not attack him, he truly was a god amongst men, he was invincible!

  Jensen strode confidently across the parade square, returning the salutes from the lesser beings in the camp, and in the dying light of the day made his way directly to his private quarters, stepping through the threshold and closing the door behind him. He took another step into the room then stopped abruptly as he noticed that someone was standing there staring at him, Jensen saw his own dead eyes reflected in the expressionless face of the man stood before him, and then heard him say “Hello, we’ve been waiting for you all day.” Jensen felt an arm wrap expertly around his throat, cutting off his air supply and negating any chance of returning the greeting or calling for help, then some
thing jabbed into his arm and he heard a voice behind him mockingly saying “Count backwards from ten for me.” and after a few seconds he felt the strength flowing out of his body and he lost consciousness.

  There were three other men in the room with Dan, all from Patrols Platoon and standing over Jensen’s inert body, one whispered “So far, so good.” They placed him in a large hold-all with a solid base and strapped him securely, then zipped it up. There were two straps at the back where Jensen’s head was and one at the feet end. Two soldiers grasped the straps on the heavy end of the bag while one held the strap at the feet end and in unison they lifted the hold-all up and followed Dan silently out of the door and to the perimeter fence where they were met by Janet and three other members of the Aura Platoon, all armed with compound bows and swords, then the group disappeared into the night.

  The walk away from the camp was fraught with danger, normally they would not move at night because of the chance of running into the Infected, the Aura worked well, but only if you could look the beasts in the eyes, but in the dark, that was not possible. However, the team had to operate at night to reduce the chance of detection from the soldiers guarding the camp, this was also the reason the extraction team was kept to the minimum, the smaller the team the less the chance that they would be discovered.

  Dan led the small party away from camp, his sword drawn ready to silently despatch any Infected that took an interest in them, Janet and the rest of the Aura team followed suit by having their swords drawn or arrows nocked ready to protect the Patrol Platoon members that were still struggling with the burden of the unconscious Jensen. Out of the darkness there was a growling sound that was instantly cut short, this was instantly followed by a sound not unlike a of a sack of potatoes falling to the ground, someone had despatched an Infected without comment or drama, and the small team moved on without a check in their pace.

  Fifteen minutes later they arrived at the LUP (Lie up Position) where four other members of Patrols Platoon were waiting. There was barely a pause while fresh men took over the burden of carrying Jensen and the enlarged team moved on in silence towards the rendezvous with the helicopters.

  Jensen was conscious well before the rendezvous with the choppers and was voicing his displeasure at being tied to a stretcher and placed in a bag. Dan paused the march, unzipped the large hold-all that contained Jensen and said, “I would suggest you keep very quiet, and very still, because you would not want us to drop you if we come in to contact with Infected attracted by your whining.” Jensen was then cast back into total darkness as the hold-all was zipped back up. Feeling vulnerable for the first time in his life was not a sensation that he relished, he also felt insulted, and “How dare these lesser beings treat me like this.” He raged silently to himself, but he could see the logic in keeping quiet, if these plebs left him helplessly tied up like this amongst the Infected he would not stand a chance and the beasts would tear him apart! So, he would do as he was told, keep still and silent, after all that was the logical thing to do. But he would bide his time and wait for an opportunity to escape, or at the very least to make these lesser beings pay for the affront and they would pay in blood, and that thought alone was enough the keep him patient.

  If was not until first light that the extraction team reached the rendezvous point, and they went to ground in an all-round defence, someone positioned at each point of the compass, watching and waiting for the choppers to arrive. An hour later the sound of an aircraft engine could be heard in the distance and the Radio Operator called the helicopter, gave a code that they were at the RV and were ready to be extracted. Within a few minutes the choppers were landing, and they stayed on the ground just long enough for the teams to jump aboard and were airborne and heading south within seconds, arriving back at Camp Pegasus within two hours.

  On seeing Jensen, Lt Colonel Curtis said cynically “Welcome back, we’ve missed you!” Then to the MPs he said, “Secure the prisoner in the interrogation room, and make sure he is uncomfortable.”

  The MPs interviewed Jensen for hours, but he refused to even acknowledge their existence, he just treated them with total disdain. Colonel Curtis attempted to engage him, but he fared little better, and he left the room wondering if perhaps the interview should become more of an interrogation, or even use stronger methods to expedite results?

  Jensen had been held for over a week, and Colonel Curtis was still no closer to establishing the guilt or otherwise of Sir Anthony Butler, Jensen simply would not engage in conversation with anyone, let alone dish the dirt on his former boss and implicate him in the crime of mass genocide. The Colonel and Major Brown met to discuss the situation, Major Brown mused uncertainly “I don’t think appealing to his better nature will work, perhaps we should consider torture or at least the threat of torture?” but the Colonel replied, “I did briefly consider that but we are trying to re-establish civilisation not regress to the middle ages, besides that type of thing is illegal and does have a habit of returning to haunt you at some stage in the future”. Major Brown said, “Then it seems we are at an impasse…”

  Jensen was sat in his cell and he could hear the muted conversation of the two guards that were permanently posted outside the door. He was relaxed and almost happy, when he was first taken he had worried that he would be tortured or just killed out of hand, but it soon became apparent that his captors needed him alive, and to his relief did not seem willing to administer any form of torture, they had not even partaken in the standard practice of sleep deprivation. This, he thought made his captors weak, they were playing by the old rules of civilisation and that was an indulgence that this new world, “his world” would punish, and he would be the instrument of that punishment. He had now fully recovered from the ordeal of being taken, they had been feeding him and he felt strong. Although was not being cooperative in the interviews, he was totally compliant in all other aspects of his captivity, he sat, stood and walked when told to do so. This was not because he had been broken by his captives but was because he was setting them up for a fall. Jensen had noticed that the MPs that were guarding him had become complacent and they were no longer as wary of him as they had been when he first arrived. Jensen was carefully cultivating his own aura, but this aura was one of weakness and total compliance he was to all outward appearances totally submissive, docile even. Jensen was also taking a note of the guard’s routine and he had noticed a weak point that he planned to exploit. One of the guards was regular, regular in as much as he would go to the toilet every hour almost on the hour and this is when Jensen planned to make his move.

  It was 01:00 in the morning; Jensen was by the door of his cell listening for the sounds that would tell him that the “regular” guard was leaving to go to the toilet. Jensen heard the guard mumble something about requiring the loo, and the other guard reply “You really should see a doctor about that.” to which the first guard responded, “Fuck you, I’m just healthily regular!” as he walked away.

  Jensen waited for thirty seconds before implementing his plan; he was just about to feign choking to lure the one remaining guard in to his cell when there was an unexpected noise from outside his cell. A key turned in the lock and the door opened to reveal a soldier, holding a knife glistening with fresh blood.

  “General Butler’s compliments sir, I’m here to get you out, take this.” said the soldier as he handed Jensen an assault rifle. “Follow me, sir.” said the soldier as he backed out of the cell. Jensen took the weapon and followed him through the threshold then looked down to see one of the guards lying on the floor in a pool of blood, he felt no pity for him, only a slight sense of yearning and a feeling of something left unfulfilled. He had planned, no, not just planned, he had looked forward to killing this man that now lay lifeless on the floor and he felt somehow cheated, and this feeling of frustration was only exacerbated when he saw the blood-soaked body of the second ‘regular guard’ as they made their way towards the exit.

  The soldier led the way out of the
building that housed Jensen’s cell and towards an isolated compound on the far side of the camp, they passed under a sign stating, ‘Aura Personnel Only!’ and through two quarantine gates on the way. The soldier whispered “Sir, neither quarantine point is manned at night because the part of the camp that we are heading to is not used after dark; we will be safe there until the extraction team arrives.”

  They made their way into the compound and then to a room and closing the door, the soldier said, “We are ahead of schedule, I had planned to break you out later but I saw an opportunity to expedite your extraction when one of the guards went to the toilet, so I acted sooner than planned, but not a problem, we will just wait here for an hour.” He paused for just a second or two then continued “I’m sorry Sir, but I have to ask, have you told the enemy anything that would incriminate the General?” Jensen was proud of the fact that he had not divulged anything, but was also embarrassed that he had been captured and had to be rescued. Now he saw a way of recovering his dignity and make out that this whole episode had been little more than a fact-finding mission, so he said “I have been able to ascertain that the Generals cover is still intact and although they suspect he was responsible for the outbreak, they have no hard evidence to confirm this. They seem unwilling to act against him without confirmation of his involvement and this will be their downfall. We need to eradicate all personnel on this site, to rectify this glitch in the Generals plan ASAP, then the Generals strategy will be a total success, he will be the supreme leader and I will be his right-hand man, and I’m sure you will be rewarded for your contribution to the cause!” The soldier smiled in the darkness and said “No reward is necessary; I am simply doing what is right, oh! Look, the MPs are here to take you back into custody!”