“Have Shannon and the Gorilla come yet?” Jasmine asked me innocently and everyone looked at me expectantly.
I didn’t like lying but right then I simply could not speak the truth, instead I shook my head and said, “No, not yet.”
Before any more questions could be asked Captain Lacks-Renton appeared, striding toward us from the side of the building where the garage was.
“The Colonel wants to speak to you,” she said curtly
“I need to get them some food,” I nodded toward the four people with me under the tree who were staring at Captain Lacks-Renton with frank and bewildered curiosity.
Elise opened her mouth to tell me that wasn’t her problem, but Stevie blurted out, “Are you a real soldier? You are very pretty.”
Captain Lacks-Renton was pretty. Tall, physically fit, she stood five foot ten in her socks. She was African American, her skin was smooth and dark, she had high cheekbones and when she stood in profile, you glimpsed the last of the Pharaohs in her bones, the slightly flared nose, the delicate chin, the smooth forehead. Her eyes were ink black and under her army helmet, her dark springy hair was scraped back into a matronly bun. She looked good in green combats, she still had a woman’s shape, but it was a strong, lean shape, fit and toned.
Captain Lacks-Renton’s mouth snapped shut, she stared at Stevie in surprise and he smiled at her, “I’m Stevie,” he said proudly as he introduced himself, “I am going to be in the Olympics.”
“Oh,” she said taken aback by his candid friendliness, “Are you?”
“Yes,” he nodded his head vigorously, “Could I have a drink please soldier lady? I am really thirsty.”
To my surprise she nodded her head, “Take them to the kitchen,” she said abruptly to me, “It’s clear in the dining room, the Colonel is in your office, go there after.”
I lead my little troop of people back into the building. I had to take a deep breath when I stepped over the threshold, but the soldiers had cleared everything up, the walls had been washed down, but the holes in them reminded me what had happened not so long ago. I could smell disinfectant, and Eden wrinkled her nose and sneezed.
“What is that?” she said gagging, “It stinks.”
It’s just disinfectant,” I said.
“It smells horrible!” Eden made a face, “It’s nasty.”
I though could only smell disinfectant and said as much.
“It’s stinky!” Eden ever the drama queen held her nose in an exaggerated fashion, “Like…like stinky fruit,” I told her to put a peg on her nose, which made the others giggle.
There were thick green bags with the words “MEDICAL WASTE” on them, but they were sealed and a soldier in a yellow bio-suite picked them up in gloved hands and took them out of the room.
The kitchen had been spared the onslaught of Gregory’s rampage, the door had been shut and so for me it was not contaminated in my mind the way the dining room still was.
There was no sign of Seb, Adag, Phoenix or Mitch as I hurried my four companions into the kitchen. They protested at first as they weren’t normally allowed in the kitchen, but I assured them that it was OK and that Adag knew.
I made them help prepare the food. They were surprised, but delighted. Salad and big thick ham sandwiches all round and yes, Cassidy could have two sandwiches and I would make everyone a big cup of soup and who wanted an apple or an orange and, yes, Cassidy could have both as long as he helped get the cups out of the cupboards to make the soup.
Cassidy beamed at me, no one asked him to do anything I realised, his clumsy gait, his unpredictable emotions made people, even the ones that had a modicum of liking for him wary of him.
“I’ve got them Lucy,” he said as he clattered the plastic beakers onto the table and began to line them up in a neat row.
“Get the butter out of the fridge,” I instructed him, “I’ll butter the bread.”
As we were making the sandwiches, one of the soldiers came into the kitchen from the side door. The one called Corporal Peters who had almost hit Phoenix. He blinked when he saw us and stopped in his tracks. Jasmine turned and their eyes met. She gave him a big smile.
“Hi,” she said.
He looked almost as stunned as Captain Lacks-Renton had done when Stevie had spoken to her.
“Oh, huh, hi,” he said and he shuffled uncertainly. He was out of his bio-suite now, in combat greens and carrying a black case.
“Do you want a sandwich?” Jasmine asked him innocently, “I can make you one.”
“The soldier is very busy Jasmine,” I said and Corporal Peters quickly walked across the kitchen and through the door that lead into the dining room, but I saw his eyes flick back toward Jasmine, and then he was gone.
“Shall we make sandwiches for the Gorilla and Shannon?” Eden asked me innocently.
I shook my head. She frowned, “Won’t they be hungry when they get back?”
“They will eat in town,” Stevie spoke up, “Won’t they Lucy?”
“They could do,” I said and I changed the subject, “Can someone get the coleslaw out of the fridge?”
Very soon, I had everyone sitting around the huge butchers block on stools in the middle of the kitchen with their sandwiches, salad, soup fruit and hot drinks.
“Stay here until I come back,” I instructed them, as soon as they were tucking in “Don’t talk to any of the soldiers, don’t go into the dining room until I say so, OK?”
I headed to the office, which Wolf had now taken over. Adag was sitting on a chair by the window, she looked pale and ill. She was smoking a cigarette. Mitch was there too, also smoking.
“Where are the others?” I asked.
“Seb’s with Paul,” Mitch spoke, “The medic has given Phoenix some stuff to help relax him, he’s in his room, but he’s ok.”
I looked at Wolf, “Your Captain said you wanted to speak to me?”
“I want to speak to all of you,” he said abruptly, “Epsilon Command has put us all under quarantine for the next three weeks, we can’t leave here and neither can you.”
I digested this information and then said slowly, “They think we might have been infected by Gregory, don’t they?”
“It’s protocol,” he said.
“Really?” I said in my mildest voice, “If you say so.”
“You have done this to all of us,” he said sharply, “You should have told us about him, told us he was here.”
“Like you told us why you were here?” Mitch snapped, “Trust cuts two ways Colonel, and you hid from us what had happened outside the home.”
“You knew what had happened,” Wolf stated the obvious.
“That isn’t the point,” Mitch, I could see was getting worked up.
“Stop it,” Adag spoke, her voice sounded reedy. I wondered how far she was from breaking. She was more than likely thinking about her daughter in London, probably aware that there was no chance of her having survived the contagion, “What is done is done, when the quarantine is over, what happens?”
“We will return to our base for further orders.”
“What sort of orders?” I asked.
“Trying to take back control from the Twice Dead,” he replied.
“What are they doing?” I asked.
“Gathering apparently, moving across the country,” he exhaled, I could see he was wondering how much he could tell us, but what could we do with the information, we were alone in more ways than one, “They appear to eat their own as well as the living, there seems to be some sort of basic collective intelligence from what little info has been gathered by the Drones.”
“Cannibals who eat cannibals?” Mitch grimaced with the horror of it.
“No,” I said before I could stop myself, “The stronger eating the weaker in order to survive.”
Wolf looked at me sharply; it was obviously something that he and the powers that be had not thought about.
“What happens to us then?” Mitch asked suddenly.
Th
e Colonel didn’t answer and Mitch looked at him expectantly as did Adag even though she had said very little so far.
“They don’t want us,” the realization came to me quickly and I found I was not at all surprised by this revelation, “Not two cripples, and a bunch of retards, even the ones with high IQ’s.”
“I don’t make the rules, Epsilon Command does,” I was surprised to detect for an instant a dislike of what he had been ordered to do.
“What the hell?” Mitch said incredulously, “You are taking the piss aren't you?” However, the expression on Wolf’s face told the old soldier that I was right, we were to be abandoned when the quarantine was over.
“Well fuck you then,” Mitch said savagely, and he stood up and walked out of the office. He hit the door with his fist as went passed it, he was so angry.
It took a bit longer for this information to register with Adag.
“So you are going to leave us here to die,” she said.
“I have no say in the matter,” Wolf said curtly.
“Just what most people said in Europe during the disabled Holocaust in the 1930’s,” Adag’s parting words as she followed Mitch out of the office made Wolf physically flinch, “And we all know how that ended.”
I laughed. Yes, I know, it wasn't funny but I couldn't help it.
“You have a seriously warped sense of humour,” Wolf said tightly.
“Far from it,” I said with a smile, “I was just thinking how predictable people are, they run par to course, one size must fit all, no deviations or difference, but I guess that is what you are used to, being army, thinking outside of the box, it doesn't come naturally, does it?”
He didn't reply but my words made his lips tighten and I saw his fists clench. He so wanted to slap me, I could tell. I left the office and went back to the kitchen to make sure everyone was OK and to get my own lunch.
The Colonel’s platoon consisted of 26 men and women. Of rank there was Wolf, a Colonel, a Captain, Elise Lacks-Renton, a Lieutenant Nat Barnes who was the unit’s medic, Griffin was a Sergeant, but he was the man who had been bitten by Gregory, a couple of Corporals, one of them being Corporal Peters and the rest were ordinary if varying lower ranks.
For the sake of sanitation for the residents of the home, Adag opened up the new stand-alone conference centre on the far side of the home which was to be used for NHS Special Needs Conferences. Now it was a temporary billet for the soldiers. It had been built as a money spinner for the home, smart conference facilities which included four toilets, a couple of urinals and two shower rooms.
The owners of Thorncroft had found a niche market that would popular because it was in such a scenic and remote place, it had its own large kitchen for catering and a lot of NHS Trusts had started to put in bookings to use it. Now it was just a glorified dormitory for unwanted guests.
In those very early days of our quarantine, I had no interest in most of the soldiers we were forced to live along side. They were not by any stretch of the imagination our friends at that moment in time. In three weeks-time they would abandon us, that is if the Twice Dead didn’t decide to come our way and finish us all off once and for all.
Adag called Seb, me and Mitch to her quarters that evening after Jasmine, Eden, Paul Stevie and Cassidy were in bed. Phoenix was in no fit state to leave his room.
Neither Seb or I had ever been in Adag’s grace and favour flat before as we were residents, not staff, but with the onset of the Twice Dead disaster, the line between resident and staff had blurred overnight.
Adag made us all tea and coffee and then she got down to business. She told Seb the news that we weren’t being taken to a place of safety by the military when they left.
“They are leaving us here?” he said and he couldn’t hide the incredulity in his voice, “They are leaving us here?”
“What else do you expect them to do?” I said dryly as I reached for my mug of tea on the tray, “Rescue us?”
“Well yes,” he was stunned, “Surely they must be wondering how we survived when everyone else didn’t!”
“Obviously that isn’t important,” I shrugged my shoulders, “They leave in three weeks after the quarantine ends and we will be on our own, no one is going to look after us other than us.”
“Bastards!” Seb clenched his fists in anger, pressing them hard onto the arms of his chair, he was angry.
“It might have been different I think,” I said reflectively, and I took a mouthful of tea, “If were weren’t disabled.”
My words shocked Seb. His mouth dropped open.
“Well, DOH!” I said surprised by his reaction, “Isn’t it obvious?”
“What about Adag and Mitch?” Seb looked at the Thorncroft staff when he got his composure back.
Before I could answer Adag spoke, “The Colonel spoke to me again, he said he was authorised to take me and Mitch with him when they left.”
Now it was my turn to be taken aback. I had assumed that Adag and Mitch would suffer the same fate of abandonment as us. Obviously not.
“I told him to stick his offer up his arse,” Mitch fumbled with the top pocket of his shirt and took out a packet of cigarettes, he didn’t take one out, just tapped the packet.
“I was of course politer with my answer,” Adag said primly, “But not by much.”
“Able bodied cunts,” Seb said savagely.
I laughed. Wolf was right, I did have a seriously warped sense of humour. I hadn’t noticed it until now.
“You should go with them,” I said to Mitch and Adag, “You have a chance…”
“No,” Adag cut me off, before I could more, “We stay together, for better or worse.”
“We don’t stand a chance on our own,” Seb said.
“We’re not on our own,” I said.
“Oh yeah, look at us,” Seb said derisively, “Two cripples, a bunch of retards, a couple of Aspies, with only an OAP and a middle aged woman to keep the Twice Dead Hordes from our door!”
“I am not an OAP,” Mitch gave Seb a dirty look.
“Seb, if you can’t say anything constructive, can you please shut the fuck up?” Adag’s words were calmly said, but all our mouths dropped open in shock for Adag never swore in front of the residents. She smiled “If you don’t mind,” she added proving she was still a professional.
Seb pressed his lips into a thin line and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Cripples, retards, Aspies or not,” Mitch interjected, “We all have to pull together now, we know the military isn’t going to help us, so we help ourselves, they will be gone in three weeks, so we need to prepare to look after ourselves, for the moment we are ok for food, electricity and water, however, the food won’t last, we can’t be sure how long the electricity will stay on and the same goes for water.”
“We have the stream,” I pointed out, “The water is from an underground source, and there is the old well, at the bottom of the garden, it’s boarded up, but I’ve heard water moving about in it when I sit by it.”
“It’s fed from Lake Monocot,” Adag nodded her head, “We have the extreme weather food storage in the cellar, it’s mainly canned food, but it’s food at least.”
“There’s wild garlic growing all around this place,” Mitch said suddenly, “And the trees are heavy with fruit, we don’t do anything with it, how about we start to gather it and try and preserve it?”
“Apples, pears, wild garlic, blackberries,” I mused, “Going back to basics.”
“It’s a start,” Adag said but she didn’t sound enthusiastic, “But we have to think about the others, we know what has happened but they don’t.”
“We don’t know everything,” I pointed out.
“I think we know enough for now,” Adag replied “But for Eden, Jasmine, Stevie and Cassidy, they are going to have to be told that…” she swallowed hard, “They won’t be seeing their families ever again.”
I hadn’t fully thought about that. I had been worrying about how to tell them th
at they would never see the Gorilla and Shannon again.
Seb had told me his family was in London like Adag’s daughter, Mitch had no one like me, but the others, they had families outside of the home.
I thought of Paul and his family, but like Phoenix, he was quite disconnected to his emotions when it came to things like love and affection. He understood obsession in that he could focus his attention on a particular concept, idea or thing.
“Cassidy rarely sees his family,” I said at last, “He doesn’t talk much about them.”
“He has you,” Adag said and I looked surprised and she smiled at me.
“He connects to you because you look similar.”
I looked at her blankly, “He once said you and he had the same colour arms.”
Of course. My skin was light brown, cream with a bit of mocha I often thought, an inheritance from an Indian father I barely remembered, Cassidy was mixed race too, white mother and Jamaican father. I hadn’t thought about that.
“Stevie will take it the hardest I think,” Mitch said.
“We don’t know how any of them will react,” I had a good idea actually but I didn't really want to think about it just then, “We will just have to deal with everything on a day by day basis.”
“Who’s going to tell them about Shannon and Gregory?” Mitch said suddenly.
“I was wondering about that, “I said.
“Might be best to say nothing,” Seb responded.
“They have a right to know,” Mitch said heavily, and he took a cigarette out of the packet and put it behind his ear, “We can’t protect them forever.”
“We’ll find the right time,” Adag said, “And yes, Mitch, you are right, we can’t protect them forever.”
“What about the Twice Dead?” Seb spoke up.
“Well, they haven’t arrived here yet,” I stated the obvious.
“The Yanks won’t help us,” Mitch said with the knowledge of his former life, “They will just wait out their time here and move on, we’re just collateral damage and an inconvenience.”
“I’d say they are an inconvenience to us,” I said dryly and then I added, “Let’s do some foraging tomorrow for food, we have to start at some point so I guess it might as well be now.”
The Abandoned Trilogy (Book 1): Twice Dead (Contagion) Page 9
