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

by Suchitra Chatterjee

  “Moot point,” I snarled back, “Let me go, you’re hurting me, OW!” I yelped because it did hurt and I swore at him.

  On the other side of the road, further down was an army jeep, the one we had used to locate Stevie. He pulled me over to it.

  “Get in, don’t fucking argue with me, or do you want some help?” Apparently I did want some help. He swung me into the passenger seat, I tried to punch him in the arm, bad move, he grabbed both my hands and yanked them into my lap, used his knee to force me to stay in the seat and then from his back pocket with his other hand he produced plastic cable-tie cuffs. I knew what they were. We had some in the home, on very few occasions they had been used on violent residents. Even Cassidy had only had them used on him once before.

  My eyes went wide with shock, “NO!” I yelled wiggling desperately in the leather seat of the jeep but Wolf was leaning on me, he held them in front of my face, his fingers crushing my wrists.

  “Sit still or I will put these on you!” I went still but I was furious. I glared at him which really bothered him, not. He then let go of my wrists and stepped back.

  “Move out of that seat and you go back home with these on,” he slapped the plastic cuffs onto the dashboard of the jeep.

  “Whatever,” I said and crossed my arms over my chest, sinking into the seat. Angry that I was at his mercy.

  “I take it was your idea to break the quarantine?” Wolf said as he stood by the jeep.

  “Why do you think it was my idea?” I said indignantly.

  Wolf looked me squarely in the eye, and I couldn’t lie so I didn’t say anything.

  “You are a Goddamn liability,” he said.

  I rolled my eyes, “I’ve been called that all my life,” I said with a snort, “Even when the Apocalypse comes around, I’m still a fucking liability!”

  “You had no idea what could be out here! You just got in a car and drove away, have you got a fucking death wish?”

  “You told me the Twice Dead had left town,” I said.

  “They could have come back!”

  “What as? Humans?” I was getting sarcasm down to a fine art.

  “We know very little about the Twice Dead.” Wolf ground out the words. I almost said that actually, we knew a damn sight more than they did and their poxy Epsilon Command, but I didn’t.

  “You were told not to come into town, we weren’t, the Twats you take orders from don’t exist in my world, because we don’t exist in theirs, remember?” I had made a point that he didn’t like but could

  “You won’t do this again,” he said, emphasizing each word, “Not while we are here.”

  “As far as I am aware Gabe and Percy are the only ones left alive in Thorncroft,” that was my way of telling him I had no intention of leaving the home again.

  Wolf looked at the empty high street, his eyes finally rested on the black patch on the pavement, the mangled walking frame and of course the dentures and slippers. I saw him squint, and I felt laughter bubble up inside of me. I put my hand to my mouth, Wolf tilted his head to one side.

  “What?” he said and I snorted. He looked at me. I pressed my fingers harder on my lips.

  “An old lady,” I said trying not to laugh again, “She got eaten by the other Twice Dead, they…they didn’t eat everything…”

  “And you think that is funny?” Wolf said tightly to me.

  “No,” I croaked but I couldn’t look at him when I spoke, “It’s not funny…well not funny ha-ha…oh fuck I don’t expect you to understand…” I assumed his expression would be one of outrage when I let myself look up at him but to my surprise his lips were pursed tightly together, and he was standing rigid at an angle, his arms akimbo, looking at the walking frame in the distance. He caught my eye.

  “It was the teeth,” I whispered, “The teeth did it for us…”

  “And not the slippers?” he said, my eyes went wide and I wondered if I had heard right? He quickly turned away, he coughed and I realised he was doing everything he could not to let me see him laugh.

  “No, it was the teeth,” I assured him.

  Wolf walked away then, heading for the café, with the words, “Stay in the jeep!”

  For once I did as I was told, mainly because I was hysterical with mirth, I managed not to laugh too loudly this time though.

  Wolf returned to the jeep fifteen minutes later. He got into the driver’s seat. I said nothing. He tapped the steering wheel for a few seconds.

  “Mitch is taking them and their dogs in the car, they’ll bring what they can, I’ll arrange for a couple of the trucks to come here and empty the shops of what you might need in the way of provisions, Mitch said there was a supermarket nearby, we’ll take what we can from that for you.”

  I wasn’t expecting that.

  “Oh,” I said uncertainly, “Thank you.”

  “Did Private Salter know what you were doing?”

  Oh shit.

  “He’s under curfew, remember?” I replied in an even voice.

  Wolf laughed, softly, he was far too clever to take that for an answer to his question, “Did he?”

  “Would you believe me if I said no?”

  “No. I wouldn’t.”

  “Please don’t be angry at him, I put him in a shit position, he said you’d be really angry, be angry with me, not him.”

  “He’s a soldier.”

  “I’m very persuasive,” I said.

  “How do you do it?”

  “Do what?”

  Wolf sighed, “You don’t see it at all, do you?” he glanced at my bewildered face, “You really don’t,” he shook his head, “No more trips to town Lucy, I mean it, disobey me again and I will have Lieutenant Barnes sedate you for the duration of the quarantine.”

  “OK,” I said meekly, “What about Private Salter?”

  “I will be having words with him but it will be between him and me.”

  “Thank you,” I said and I exhaled with relief.

  Wolf smiled then, it was a warm smile, filled with amusement and things that he wanted to say but decided not to. I frowned. I was missing something really important and I didn’t know what it was.

  I was distracted from my thoughts as I heard dogs barking and moments later I saw Mitch, along with Percy, Gabe and the dogs coming out of the café, carrying some of their belongings. Moments later Duke and Private Jasper appeared and half an hour later we were on our way back to Thorncroft, to face the wrath of Adag.

  Chosen Elite –the people chosen by the governments of the New World Succession to survive the release of the deadly pathogen. The basis of being one of the chosen is linked to physical and mental health, with an emphasis on a person’s IQ. The only exception to this rule is those with ancient bloodlines such as those linked to the Royal Families of the World.

  People with physical and mental health issues are excluded from the chosen Elite, along with anyone who is LGBT. Racial groups are to be strictly adhered to, with a back to basics rule of the following:

  Caucasian Nations – to include Aryans, Hamites, Semites.

  Mongolian Nations – to include North Mongolians, Chinese, Indo-Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, Malayan, Polynesians, Maori, Micronesian, Eskimo, Native American.

  Zenci Nations – to include indigenous Africans, Melanesians, Australian Aborigines, Dravidians, Sinhalese.

  No mixing will be allowed outside of the Nations groupings. Inter-relationships between groups allowed.

  Adag was as mad as Mitch predicted she would be. Madder in fact if that was at all possible. I wish I could say that she wasn’t justified in her anger, but she was.

  “What were you thinking of Lucia Valerie Lal?” she screamed at me when I limped through the door and into the lounge where she was waiting, pacing up and down like a frantic Mother Hen, “And you went with her Mitch? Have you lost the plot? I can’t believe you were both so bloody stupid!”

  I winced, not because she was shouting at me but because she had called me by my full
birth name and also because we had an audience, Cassidy, Seb, Stevie, Jasmine and Eden were at the lounge dining table just finishing off a late lunch.

  Private Salter was having lunch with them, and he paled when the Colonel crooked his finger at him and I mouthed the word sorry to him as he walked passed me. He gave me a resigned, “I told you so look,” exhaled deeply and followed the Colonel into the office.

  Mitch squirmed under Adag’s wrath, we both did, standing together like two naughty children.

  “And don’t you sit there all innocent like, Seb Garrow, if you weren’t involved in this, I am Gunga Din’s sister!”

  Seb winced, and then there was a soft cough and Adag realised that hovering on the threshold of the door into the lounge were Percy, Gabe and the dogs.

  “Sorry to intrude,” Gabe said meekly.

  “Doggies!” Cassidy yelled in delight, “Stevie we’ve got doggies!” He scrambled out of his seat and lumbered over to Gabe and Percy, “Can I stroke them? What are their names? Oh, Oh! He’s licking my face! Stevie, look, look!”

  Cassidy’s joy and delight was infectious all round, and the tension in the room, lessened. Adag smiled and Gabe placed Russell into the big teenager’s arms, much to his delight and the dog wiggled about, licking Cassidy’s face even more and yipping excitedly. This was the cue for the others at the dining table to get up and gather around Gabe, Percy and the two dogs, laughing and asking all sort of excited questions.

  We had been in the process of getting two dogs for the home, it was part of a pilot scheme that Thorncroft had signed up for. Specially trained dogs to live in residential homes like ours to interact with the residents. I had liked the idea. We all had. Funny how random memories pop into your head when you least expect them too.

  “Jasmine, Eden,” Adag said, composing herself momentarily and giving Gabe and Percy a welcoming smile, despite being as mad as hell, “Show our guests to the family flat, Stevie can you get some clean linen for the duvets, Cass, unlock the patio area, it’s enclosed so the dogs will be safe to run around in it,”

  “Thank you,” Percy said and he threw me a sympathetic look but had the sense not to say anything. At least not then.

  “Kitchen, now!” Adag turned her attention back to Mitch and me, “You too Seb.”

  “I’m innocent!” Seb protested but he followed us.

  “Bollocks to that!” Adag said and Mitch and I cringed, she was even madder than we had thought she would be.

  In the kitchen, with the door firmly shut, Mitch, Seb and I had to tell her everything. I put forward a good argument, backed up by Seb and Mitch but she was still angry.

  “You didn’t tell me!” she exploded, “You went off and you didn’t even tell me what you were doing!”

  “You’d have said no,” I pointed out to her. I was pressed against the fridge, Seb had taken cover behind the wooden butcher’s table we now used to eat our breakfast at and Mitch had an unlit cigarette in his mouth and was trying to blend into the wallpaper behind him.

  “Too bloody right I would have said no!” Adag shouted, could her face go any redder, “The last time someone went into town, they both died! Or had you forgotten that?”

  “The Gorilla died here actually,” Seb said and Adag swung around and pointed a finger at him, her eyes narrowing into two evil looking slits.

  “Don’t be facetious with me Seb, those days are over, understand?” she wasn’t asking him, she was telling him. I waited for Seb to come back with a rude comment but to my surprise, he slowly nodded his head.

  “We’re not dead Adag,” Mitch ventured to speak and Adag turned on him, and he physically flinched as she told him what she thought of his logic.

  “No? It can be arranged!” she shouted at her colleague, “I get woken up by Colonel Wolf, asking me what the fuck is going on, he thought I knew what you two idiots were doing, I had to tell him I had no bloody idea, he believed me, I am glad to say, mainly because I blew a blood vessel! And he said you tried to run his men over when they attempted to stop you!”

  “We did not!” I was outraged at the very suggestion, “Anyway that bastard Duke was going to shoot us, if Corporal Peters hadn’t stopped him he would have!”

  “You deserve to be shot!” she yelled at me, and suddenly there were tears in her eyes, and she turned away, rubbing her face with her hands, “I’ve lost one daughter already…you stupid, stupid girl!”

  My mouth went dry and my throat convulsed. What had I done? I didn’t regret going into town to look for Gabe and Percy but I sorely regretted not telling Adag. I could see that Mitch and Seb felt the same way.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered, “But…but I had to do it Adag, I wish I had told you now, I really do.”

  Adag turned around and we stared at each other and she said softly, “Things have changed for all of us Lucy, it’s a new world and it’s not a nice new world either, all we have is each other, we have to trust one another, even if we don’t agree with what the other wants to do, this can’t happen again, it can’t, understand?”

  “It won’t,” I said and I meant it.

  Adag looked at Seb and he nodded his head. His face was as pale as mine. Her gaze then rested on Mitch, and he gave her a weak smile.

  “You should have known better,” she said to the handyman, but her voice was no longer angry, she had got her point across to us all.

  I am not a spontaneous person, or at least I wasn’t until recently and before I could think about it properly I moved from the fridge and put my arms around Adag waist and hugged her hard, pressing my face into her neck. She was stiff for about two seconds and then she wrapped her arms around me and held me tightly.

  “Your heart is too big,” she said in my ear, “You care way too much.”

  Me, care? I didn’t know the meaning of the word, well I kept telling myself that.

  “I am really, really, sorry,” I mumbled. She kissed my surprised cheek and stepped back. I touched my face, the warmth of her kiss made me think of Theresa again.

  “You will be if you do it again,” Adag said and she turned to Seb.

  “Don’t you be hugging me,” Seb said immediately and Adag laughed.

  “I know how to unplug your batteries,” she said to him “Remember that Sebastian Garrow,” Seb really tried not to laugh, he failed, called her a cow, but he had a big smile on his face, then he swung the chair from behind the butchers block and followed me out of the kitchen. I got the impression Adag wanted to speak to Mitch in private.

  Seb and I went to see what was happening with Gabe and Percy in the family flat. It was organized chaos. The girls were helping them put clean linen on the double bed in the guest suite. Neither batted an eyelid when told that the two men were a married couple.

  In fact, the first thing Jasmine said to them was, “Have you got any wedding photos?” which Gabe did have as the pale blue album was one of the first things he grabbed when told he had just half hour to pack up what he could.

  Jasmine sat on the bed with him, looking at them and crying out in delight at pictures of the cake, the pretty dresses worn by the bridesmaids and page boys. Eden though was more interested in Percy’s collection of CD’s that he had bought with him and they were discussing who was the best singer, Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin. Cassidy and Stevie were playing with the dogs in the closed patio area.

  “They will be good for hunting rabbits,” I said to Seb. “They won’t be a burden.”

  “That’s is if Gabe and Percy want to stay,” Seb was watching the dogs as well, “They might want to strike out on their own, I mean what can we offer them here?”

  “Hope,” I said.

  “Yeah, right,” Seb’s response was droll as usual, “Hope? Is that hope that we all don’t get chomped on by the Twice Dead?”

  “Seb,” I said feeling surprisingly fond of him at that moment, “You are a dick, a big dick,” He laughed, not offended, he swung his chair away from me and headed for his room.

  As I hea
ded back to the lounge, the office door opened and Private Salter stepped out. He shut the door behind him, pulling it shut with his good hand. He exhaled loudly. He saw me. I gave him a sheepish smile.

  “Did he rip you a new one?”

  The young soldier grimaced, “He ripped me two new ones,” he said, “And my curfew is now 1800 hours and I have to do five circuits of the grounds every morning and evening until we bug out, he also said if corporal punishment was still part of the Military mandate I’d have a backside hotter than hell itself.” He made face, “I felt like I was back in High School.”

  “I am really, really sorry,” I said sincerely.

  To my surprise he smiled, “I’m glad they are alive,” he said.

  “Me too, and if it is any consolation, Adag ripped me three new ones, to add to the four that your Colonel gave me when they caught up with us.”

  “Ouch!” Private Salter’s sympathy was heartfelt. Before he could say anything else the office door swung open, Private Salter snapped to attention and Colonel Wolf looked at the soldier and then at me.

  “You two better not be planning anything else,” he said in a warning voice.

  “I was thinking of planning an apocalypse,” I said with a deadpan expression, “But Private Salter informed me I was too bloody late and that he was NEVER going to help me in anything EVER again.”

  Private Salter’s face was a picture, he chewed desperately on his lower lip, trying to choke back a snort of laughter, “Not funny Lucy!” was Wolf’s response, but his lips twitched, he turned to his subordinate, “Salter, aren’t you supposed to giving doing your first circuit run right now?”

  “Yes Sir!” Salter responded and all but ran from the room.

  Wolf was still mad at me but I had to admit, the man did have a pretty damn good sense of humour, he just kept it mostly under wraps.

  Stevie came and told me that Phoenix had asked for me a while ago as he wanted to tell me something. I made my way to his room. I tapped on the door and entered.

  He was sitting crossed legged on his bed. He looked up at me and said, “Where have you been?”