The Abandoned Trilogy (Book 1): Twice Dead (Contagion)

by Suchitra Chatterjee

  When it came to me, I sucked in my breath, no one noticed because I was still unwell and a bit wheezy in the chest. I opened my mouth to speak, to tell both Mitch and the Colonel my theory, but the words died in my throat. I chewed on my lower lip.

  “They could have been sealed off from the contagion,” Wolf nodded his head, “And if they saw the warning on the computer, they would have stayed were they were.”

  “Are you going to check?” I asked.

  Wolf looked uncomfortable and Mitch gave a tight smile, “Seems his Epsilon Command have said no, they think it highly unlikely that anyone survived in the town and it’s just an old fire dying down, when the quarantine is over here, they have to move out, it’s not just us being abandoned.”

  It was a gentle jibe, not as cruelly said as before, more with sadness and I saw Wolf’s hands clench slightly.

  “You can leave with the army if you want Mitch,” I said and he gave me a filthy look.

  “No fucking chance,” he snorted.

  Wolf got up and looked at me steadily, “Don’t be causing any more problems Ms. Lal.”

  “I never cause any problems,” I said primly, “And for Christ’s sake, call me Lucia not Ms. Lal, I’m not a 90-year-old spinster! “He laughed as he walked away, heading for the office.

  “What do you think?” I said to Mitch, he knew what I was referring too.

  “It’s possible,” he conceded, “Survivors seem to be as random as hell, us here, and if the couple from the café have survived, that is even more random…”

  “Maybe it’s not,” I said softly and I leaned over and touched his leg, and he looked at me with a quizzical eye.

  “The Colonel said a few other survivors had been found in remote places, he didn’t say where, just remote.”

  “Well the café in town isn’t remote,” Mitch, said frowning.

  “No,” I agreed with him, “But it is an unusual café and what’s its specialty?”

  “Everyone knows that.” Mitch said with a laugh “Wild garlic and apple soup like you made for lunch the other day…” his voice trailed off as what I was saying began to take root in his mind.

  “Thorncroft is surrounded by wild garlic, wild garlic and trees, lots of trees, we’re smack bang in the middle of an ancient forest, even when you leave the drive way you have trees on either side of you, but I think it’s the fields of wild garlic that have protected us and what’s the bet all the other places where survivors have been found have wild garlic growing near or around them, and probably with a lot of trees too.”

  “But the café...” Mitch began.

  “The owners live downstairs,” I interrupted him, “Quite well sealed, but their stock is downstairs with them, a lot of Wild garlic, dried, to make it stronger.”

  “But Gregory,” Mitch was confused, “He became one of them here.”

  “Yes, he became ONE of them whilst he was HERE, but he wasn’t one when he arrived here, he was still human, I suspect if he had gone outside and tried to leave, he would have avoided the wild garlic, what if the contagion is nature based and you fight nature with nature, don’t you?”

  Mitch was struggling to take everything in that I was presenting to him, “Eden said the dining room smelt of stinky fruit when Gregory’s body was on the floor and even when everything had been cleaned up she could still smell it.”

  “I couldn’t smell anything,” Mitch said.

  “No, but remember Eden’s has a heightened sense of smell.”

  “We can’t exactly prove it can we?” Mitch said slowly.

  “No, we can’t,” I agreed, “But it will go a long way explain as to why the Twice Dead didn’t come this way to snack on us, wouldn’t it, instinct, move away from the source of what bothers you?”

  “You’re not going to tell Wolf this are you?” Mitch said.

  I shook my head, “It’s just a theory, but even if we knew it was correct, we don’t really owe them anything, do we?”

  “They saved your life.”

  “I’m grateful to them for that.” I conceded Mitch’s point, “But I had to blow the Gorilla’s head off his shoulders, so I think we are pretty much even on that score.”

  That made Mitch smile.

  “If we are right,” I then said to Mitch softly, “It means that something in wild garlic could protect us.”

  “I always thought that it was garlic that kept Vampires at bay,” Mitch mused as he stood up, “That theory has well and truly been fucked over,” he looked at me, “Would you like a cup of tea?”

  “Mother Nature makes the rules,” I said, “Not us, and not the supernatural, and yes please, three sugars, oh and a piece of wild garlic on the side.”

  Roaring with laugher Mitch headed into the kitchen.

  Stevie wheeled me outside so I could sit on the patio. He then went to find Cassidy as he was teaching him how to weight lift. Paul was in his wheelchair on the patio as I was parked up, pale, wrapped up warmly in his favourite blanket, but enjoying the sun. He glanced at me, nodded his head and then closed his eyes.

  I saw Jasmine, she was picking cherry blossoms, helped by Corporal Peters, and she took them over to where Gregory was buried and laid them on top of the mound. She patted them carefully around the grave then stood up.

  She saw me and waved. I waved back. Then she turned and grabbed hold of Corporal Peters arm and pointed to where the summerhouse was, beyond the old well and just before the pathway into the wooded area.

  He followed her, obviously Wolf had told his people to keep an eye us and not let us wander off. I felt sorry for Corporal Peters, stuck with Jasmine who would probably drive him mad with her inane chatter.

  Mitch bought my tea out along with some coffee for Paul in a plastic spouted beaker. Adag was behind him, carrying a tray with food on it for Paul. She smiled at me and said, “How are you feeling.”

  “Like shit,” I said grumpily.

  “You look like shit,” Paul said as Adag put the tray on a small table that was by his chair.

  “We’re twins then,” he chuckled, then coughed. Adag handed him a napkin and he wiped his mouth, we both pretended not to see the flecks of blood on his lips and in the napkin.

  “Is Phoenix ok?” I asked Mitch and he nodded his head. I sipped my tea, it wasn’t too hot and it was sweet. I drank deeply.

  “He even did a shift in your room.”

  “Shift? My room?” I frowned.

  “You had to have someone with you at all times, to make sure you weren’t sick again, everyone took a turn, Cassidy, Stevie, Phoenix, even Eden.”

  “I would have thought she would have pulled my tubes out,” I said wryly.

  “You’re very hard on her,” Mitch said.

  “Even though she has been pinching everyone’s things?” I said with a snort.

  “You excuse Cassidy’s behaviour and stick up for him,” Mitch said quietly, “Nothing is cut and dried for anyone living here, you know that better than anyone.”

  I hadn’t thought of it that way, “She irritates the hell out of me,” I muttered.

  “It can’t be that easy for her,” Mitch sat on the bench beside me, “She’s not as pretty as Jasmine, she’s not got any kind of talent like Stevie, she has some intelligence, not just instinct like Cassidy, all she can do is try to make people like her, which she was very good at, other than with you.”

  “She’s in the dog house with everyone,” I said.

  “Pretty much,” Mitch said, “Other than Cassidy who isn’t one to hold a grudge.”

  “I wouldn’t have thought Jasmine had it in her to hold a grudge,” I commented.

  “People can surprise you,”

  That I had to agree with him about that.

  Paul was drinking some soup. Taking small sips. Adag was massaging his free hand with an ibuprofen gel. His fingers were swollen. The soup smelt good. Garlic and apple again. I had a feeling that we would be eating a lot of wild garlic from now on.

  I heard a whirr of tire
s on gravel and turned my head. Seb was heading toward me.

  “Thank God you are up and about,” he said, “I was getting a crick in my neck watching over you.”

  I laughed as he pulled up beside me, and then I said, “We need to talk later on, in Adag’s place.”

  He nodded his head.

  Seb then went back inside with Mitch to get some lunch, taking my empty tea mug with them. Adag was talking to Paul, out of the corner of my eye, I watched them, she made him laugh, he was getting weaker and weaker, and without the treatment, he had been having to help make him comfortable he was going to be in a lot more pain before the end came.

  Adag had never allowed herself to be emotionally attached to any of the residents, not in the days when things were ‘normal’.” She did her job and she did it well.

  However, she had without realizing I suspected formed a strong attachment to Paul, she would put it down to being caring, but I knew it was something more than that. They didn’t say much to each other, but he was comfortable in her presence, just as if he was with Stevie.

  He didn’t drink much soup and soon asked if he could be taken inside. Adag wheeled him back into the building.

  “Mitch told me to bring you this,” Eden’s voice made me jump. She was holding a mug. I smelt apple and garlic. Eden wouldn’t look at me as she handed over the mug of soup. She shuffled her feet, not wanting to be where she was. She had a field dressing on her head, clean white and firmly held in place by surgical adhesive.

  I contemplated ignoring her and letting her walk off, but Mitch’s recent words had struck a chord with me.

  “Sit down Eden,” I said abruptly and she looked uncertain. I patted the bench that Mitch had been sitting on. She sat down gingerly, placing her hands in her lap and then lowering her head so she was looking at her shoes.

  “How’s your head?” I asked her and her hand instinctively went to her forehead, touching the thick gauze and tracing it with her fingers.

  “It still hurts,” she said.

  “My throat hurts too,” I said, “My stomach too,” I was staring ahead, to the trees and the abundant wildlife that surrounded us.

  Eden was pulling on her fingers; I could see it out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head and said, “Why are you so horrible to Cassidy?”

  She stiffened, waiting for me to get angry with her, but I just looked at her and finally she raised her head and we were facing each other.

  “I don’t know,” she mumbled.

  “I think you do,” I said, “You’re not stupid Eden, I thought you were, but you’re not, you’re quite smart really.”

  She looked surprised, “You’re a bit like me I think,” I gave a faint smile, “People don’t realise I have got a brain too, they think I am stupid.”

  “I don’t think you’re stupid,” she said and she picked at her nails.

  “Cassidy isn’t smart like you, he can’t help that, he can’t help being hungry all the time, it’s not his fault.”

  “I know,” she said, and then she added, “He said sorry to me, for hitting my head.”

  That surprised me, “He’s been nice to me,” she added and she swallowed hard.

  “The only person who is being nice to you,” I said gently.

  She nodded her head, tears leaked at the corner of her eyes, but for once, she didn’t burst into her usual crocodile tears.

  “Stevie won’t talk to me; he says I-I made you ill,” there was a bubble in her voice, but she managed not to cry in her usual hysterical way.

  “You didn’t make me ill,” I said and her eyes met mine, and I saw she didn’t believe me. I reached out and took her hand, surprised at my action, “Eden I am in this home because I am disabled too, or had you forgotten that?”

  She blinked, “Part of my disability is something that…” I tried to think how to explain it to her so she understood, “Is that sometimes fluid builds up inside of me and it has to be drained out of my spine, it makes me really ill, do you understand.”

  “I-I think so,” she said after a moment’s silence.

  Her hand was limp in mine, “And taking people’s things is wrong, very wrong.”

  She hung her head, “I know,” she said.

  “Try and not do it anymore, ok?” I said.

  She nodded her head, “And I will try and be more understanding, ok?”

  She rubbed her eyes and sniffed, “OK,” she said.

  “Have you made up with Jasmine yet?” I asked her. I felt her stiffen, her hand went taut and she said nothing.

  “No then,” I said, I started to move my hand away, but her fingers gripped mine.

  “I told her she was being bad,” Eden said.

  “Bad?” I echoed. Now I wasn’t expecting that. I thought she was mad at Eden for the same reason Stevie was.

  “She took her knickers off,” Eden said.

  “What?” Confused I looked at Eden and her face reddened.

  “She took her knickers off for that soldier.”

  I wasn’t sure if I had heard right, “What do you mean?”

  Eden squirmed, she licked her lips, “That soldier who was at the picnic,” she touched her head at the memory, “I told her she shouldn’t, she-she shouted at me.”

  “When did this happen?” I asked faintly.

  “The day after you got sick,” Eden said in a miserable voice, “She takes her knickers off for him all the time now.”

  “Oh my God,” I said in a faint voice.

  “I said she shouldn’t do that,” Eden squirmed unhappily, “He’s not her boyfriend, is he?”

  “No,” I said when I could find my voice, “He isn’t.”

  “I-I didn’t tell anyone,” Eden’s loyalty toward her friend surprised me, even though they weren’t talking, she was trying to protect her, “She’s my friend, you won’t tell will you…”

  Christ! What was I going to do?

  “You were right to tell her it was wrong Eden,” I said and I squeezed her hand, “And I am sorry I was so nasty to you, shall we try and get on from now on?”

  Her face lit up. She nodded her head.

  “You can tell Stevie that you and I have talked and we are ok,” I said to her “And if you really want something, then ask for it, you might not get it, but you just might, OK?”

  She nodded her head vigorously and stood up. I watched her skip away, and I exhaled deeply.

  How the hell was I going to deal with Jasmine and her yo-yo knickers? Oh FFS!

  I saw Jasmine and Corporal Peters return from the summerhouse. She was in front of him; she was laughing, singing and twirling around. Corporal Peters followed her, it looked so bloody innocent. I looked at the two of them more closely, squinting as I did. Jasmine’s face had a pink hue to as did Corporal Peters and I noticed his uniform wasn’t as neat as it had been when he had been wandering around the garden with Jasmine. Moreover, wasn’t her top now on inside out? I could see the shop label clearly; it hadn’t been like that when she had left the building.

  If I went to Wolf what would he do? Jesus, I couldn’t bring myself to go to Wolf and tell him that one of his men was…I rubbed the bridge of my nose. I tried to make of what I had just been told. Who was I to be angry at? Corporal Peters? Jasmine? I found I wasn’t angry with either of them. Jasmine oozed sexuality if I thought about it properly. She was flirty, pretty and available. There was no one to keep an eye on her properly now that things had changed in the world.

  Relationships weren’t frowned upon in the home, but they were carefully managed, especially for those residents who could be taken advantage of. Like Jasmine. Had Corporal Peters taken advantage of Jasmine? Instinct told me it wasn’t the case, but he should have known better, no matter how alluring she was.

  I mulled over my concerns about Jasmine over along with a million other thoughts that included the Twice Dead, potential survivors in the café in town, a possible way of keeping the Twice Dead at bay and how it could be proven.

  Phoenix.
I needed to speak to Phoenix. He had his computer and I knew he had hacked into COBRA again.

  I saw Cassidy and Stevie walking toward me, they had been doing their weight lifting outside and some of the soldiers had joined them, Stevie told me as he carefully took the brakes off my wheelchair.

  I asked Cassidy to carry my soup mug in for me which he happily did.

  “We’re making supper,” Stevie said as he pushed me into the dining room.

  “What are we having?”

  “Oven Chips and scrambled eggs,” Cassidy said happily licking his lips.

  As we entered the dining room I saw Captain Lacks-Renton, she was coming out of the office, her eyes rested on me briefly and I made a decision based on instinct.

  “Captain, can I speak to you?” She stopped and moved toward me, I turned to Cassidy and Stevie, “Can you push me over to that corner? I need to speak to the Captain, why don’t you go and check what you need to cook supper and see if there is any ice-cream in the freezer in the cellar.”

  The two young men trotted off and Captain Lacks-Renton, stony faced joined me in the corner of the dining room.

  “Yes?” she said curtly.

  “I need your advice,” I said exhaling, “I know you don’t like me, well I don’t like you very much either so we have that much in common if nothing else.”

  Captain Lacks-Renton’s lips parted to make brusque comment, but then it registered with her exactly what I just said and those same lips twitched ever so slightly though her eyes remained cold and unfriendly.

  “What do you want advice on?”

  “Sex,” I said.

  Her mouth dropped open and her expression turned from hostility to one of total and utter shock.

  “Pardon?” she said in a strangled voice.

  “Sit down Captain,” I said, she did, and I told her what Eden had told me, about Corporal Peters and Jasmine. She listened silently, and when I had finished she was silent for a moment.

  “That’s a hell of accusation to make,” she said, her shock had turned into defense of one of her men.

  I sighed, “Captain, it’s not an accusation, Jasmine is of age, she has a right to a sex life as much as anyone has, just because she has a disability doesn’t mean she doesn’t have physical needs, and I don’t think Corporal Peters has raped her.” Realization set in when I saw her facial expression chance, “Oh God, you thought I meant that didn’t you?”