“Did anyone get bitten by those fuckers?” Jed asked. Loud enough for everyone to hear, but not enough to travel far beyond the alley. Three guys answered, complaining about the nature of the attack. Jed looked at them sternly,
“From what I’ve heard, there is some kind of infection going around. If you have been bitten, then you are infected. You might be OK now, but soon you won’t be. So you need to get the fuck away from the rest of us.”
Instinctively the rest of the group drew away from their bitten friends. The three soon found themselves standing a couple of meters away from everyone else in the narrow alleyway. One of them tried to argue his case, “It’s just a scratch. She barely broke the skin. Doesn’t even need a plaster. I’m clean.”
“I don’t give a fuck.” Jed answered, pulling his gun. “Anyone bitten get out of here, or get a bullet in the head.” They all backed away, slowly, until they reached the end of the alley and could turn the corner. If any of the others questioned Jed’s judgement they were careful not to say it out loud. Jose gave him a look that tried to be quizzical, but without suggesting any opposition to the man waving the gun.
“I’ve just spoken to Bobby’s mum, and to Britney’s sister. Both of them got bitten by those freaks yesterday, and have spent today biting everyone they can get close enough to. Shit’s got crazy, and I’m not letting any fucker have a chew on me.”
Jose had seen enough to not assume that Jed had lost it. The attacks over the last couple of nights had worried him, and in a way, it was good to see someone else freaking out. It was some confirmation that he was not going nuts himself. The rest of the gang did not look so reassured by Jed’s behaviour, but they didn’t challenge him. After a bit of hesitation, the three who found themselves with the wrong end of a gun pointed at them backed themselves out of the alley and got a corner between themselves and the rest of the gang.
“Anyone else who’s been bitten can walk away now. If I find out later that any of you is hiding something, even a scratch, I swear I will fucking execute you.” No one moved.
Jose wished that he hadn’t gone out that night. He could have been safely at home searching for jobs or college courses. Instead he had to worry about being shot by a mad man, or chewed on by a bunch of lunatics. He didn’t have much time to dwell on his poor life choices, as someone spotted a crowd approaching them from the far end of the alleyway.
Birstall
Hannah had been out of quarantine for three days, but the facility was still on full lock down, so she still felt imprisoned. Very little information was being shared with people at her level, so rumours were everywhere. She had found herself spending a lot of time with Phil, who seemed to know more about what was going on that anyone. How much of what he said was fact and how much was invention she never could tell. He did not seem sure himself. Facts seemed too farfetched, fiction didn’t seem broad enough to cover the reality.
She sat on the grass looking out over the fields, then the trees that surrounded them and tried to work out what was true. The undeniable facts were that their facility had been attacked by terrorists, who had planted multiple bombs in their midst. The explosions had killed several people, and had released some of the nasties they were working on into the local environment. Some people were still in quarantine having been exposed to these nasties. No one from the site was being allowed to mix with the wider world, so they obviously posed a serious risk. Everyone not specifically quarantined seemed healthy. Stressed, but normal.
Beyond the facts there were lots of rumours. No one could say for sure whether the terrorists were amongst the dead, or if they had escaped. The possibility of their escape was far more fertile ground for invention, so there was a lot of talk about what they had been infected with before escaping, or what they had stolen during their attack, and could now have been unleashed into the world at large. If they had attacked with prior knowledge of what was being utilized in the work at Birstall this could have been act one, scene one in a major act of biological warfare. If that was the case, the rest of the play was being kept a closely guarded secret. The other possibility widely discussed was that they had escaped, but were infected by the same thing that was keeping their colleagues in quarantine, and were spreading the virus across the country. There was little to do each day other than discuss more and more outlandish theories. The senior team obviously knew more, but weren’t sharing. As the facility had always worked in total secrecy, this was not challenged.
Only a few days had passed, but it had felt like months, when a conference was announced for the next morning for all to attend. There was to be a full briefing on what had occurred, and to establish their next steps. Hannah was mulling the announcement over, when she was joined by Phil, who still walked slowly with a highly-pronounced limp. She wondered if he would ever fully recover. He always talked as if it was nothing, but she had seen the mess his legs were in after the explosion. The fact he was not in intensive care somewhere spoke wonders about his first aid skills and his mental strength to work through the pain. She knew that it wouldn’t go down well if she mentioned her admiration to his face, so she led with the question,
“So, what are they going to tell us tomorrow?”
He looked around conspiratorially, as if to make sure they were alone, “Apparently, we have discovered an aphrodisiac that will make a man irresistible to all women. We need to find some way to suppress this discovery, otherwise life will become as poorly acted as a cheap porno.”
She scowled at him, but could not help but smile at the lightening of the mood. “I’m not sure the global population could handle such an invention. I guess tomorrow we start working on a way to make men think with their brains instead of their balls for once.”
“Unfortunately an impossibility. We must work with what we’ve got, or let the species die.”
She hesitated before asking, “Seriously, what do you think is going on here?” When she had first arrived at Birstall it had felt strange asking too many questions, and being surrounded by so many people who knew far more than she did. Most of her life she had been the nerd who people expected to know everything, and she had rarely disappointed. If she was stumped she would read and research until she wasn’t. It was tough not having that easy route to knowledge, and that challenge was what she normally loved about her job. The answers were not so easy to find, and could take years of painstaking research, which could ultimately prove futile. Now they had reached the stage where the mystery had swung too far, and she wanted more answers and less questions. Phil admitted that he could not give those answers,
“I don’t know. I guess we will both have to wait until tomorrow morning… I’m not expecting the news to be good though. We would have been kept updated if the situation wasn’t critical.”
Hannah nodded, but said nothing in response. She did not react when she felt his arm move around her waist. She liked having him close to her, and could feel the warmth of his body against her. But the situation was a mystery to her. No man had ever shown this kind of interest before. It took a full minute of internal debate before she concluded that it would be OK to reciprocate the gesture and slip her arm around him. She was more scared than she had been when the bombs were going off. He did not seem perturbed by her reticence, and nothing more happened between them. Nevertheless, she found it difficult to think about the next day’s meeting as she lay in bed that night. She was awash with feelings that she had always deemed beneath her, as she had never felt them before. The apocalyptic scenarios of the previous few nights were replaced by thoughts of a geekish man who had proven himself unshakable in a crisis, and who seemed interested in the intelligent, but utterly un-glamorous person that was her.
She kept trying to force her thoughts away from Phil, and for minutes at a time she managed to ponder the possibilities that could be included in the next day’s announcement. She assumed, or at least she hoped, that they would be getting back to work the next day and there was some serious project afoot. Sh
e hoped that there was no bigger disaster afoot beyond what they already knew about. She feared for the state of the people in quarantine, and wondered about the fate of those had caused the recent destruction. In the end she could find no answers to the big questions, so she submitted to the thoughts of Phil that were determined to take control of her mind, and gave them free reign.
Hannah was not sure what point she had fallen asleep, but woke a few moments before her alarm feeling fully refreshed. Whatever time she set her alarm for she seemed to have a knack for waking before it, though it was rare for her to feel properly awake before she’d had a coffee. Immediately she thought back to the previous day, and now found herself wondering if actions had just been friendly camaraderie or if there was something more to it. Putting the thoughts to the back of her mind, she went for a shower and got ready for the big meeting.
She arrived nearly twenty minutes early, but found that the room was already looking pretty full. The usual rush two minutes before a conference started was not being observed; everyone was too keen to find out what was going on. The cellular nature of their work meant that very few of those around her were familiar. Several faces she had seen around often enough, but could not put a name to. Plenty more she could have recognized as working in the facility without knowing where she had seen them before. The majority were total strangers. Around the room she could see clusters of people talking. Not many appeared alone as she did. After a minute of scanning the room she spotted someone from her team, but she was talking to a group of people that Hannah did not know, so she found an empty seat and sat down alone. She wondered when Phil would get there, and if he would join her.
It was a long twenty minutes, but long before it was up the room was too crowded to see more than a couple of meters in any direction unless you were exceptionally tall. She was not, so gave up on being able to spot anyone she could talk to. Birstall didn’t have a conference room that was intended to hold the entire staff, as there was no occasion expected that would warrant it. This was the biggest room they had, except for a couple of the labs, and the number of bodies crammed into it caused a heat and stuffiness that the air conditioning could not come close to handling. But the discomfort was forgotten as one of the directors appeared through a side door and made his way to the lectern at the front of the room.
Even with her partial view from a long way back, Hannah could see the beads of sweat already forming on the Director’s forehead. It was too soon to blame the heat. She had never seen the man before, but recognized him immediately due to his seniority. His background was entirely within research, and his directorial role had never seemed to sit comfortably with him. Rumour had it that moving from a lab coat to a suit was a decision forced upon him by his wife rather than his own choosing.
While he may have lacked a natural on stage presence, the situation ensured that his arrival captured the full attention of his audience, with dozens of sentences halted midway as his entrance was acknowledged. He spent a few moments adjusting his microphone, then launched strait into reading the statement that he had printed in front of him. He barely looked at his audience as he delivered it, and read the words in front of him badly.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, as you are aware, a few days ago our research facility was attacked. People were killed and buildings destroyed… The nature of our work requires us to deal with some extremely dangerous organisms, to exploit their potency and redirect them to more benevolent ends. In normal circumstances our procedures are flawless in keeping these organisms under control. The recent attack compromised these procedures… In the explosions, not only were undesirable organisms released, but they were allowed to mingle in a heated environment, awash with growth mediums that has allowed them to create something entirely new and incredibly dangerous…
No doubt you are aware that three of our colleagues have been kept in quarantine since the explosion. They have all been exposed to this new organism… According to all clinical tests they are dead… Pulse is zero. Respiration has stopped. Body temperature matches the air around them. Brain activity has dropped below anything that could be consciousness. Despite this they continue to move, and are dangerous to those around them… At every opportunity they will attack and try to bite any one close to them. Having analysed their saliva it is clear that the new organism is present and would be spread far easier than the common rabies virus is…
If this was isolated to Birstall finding a way to control this virus that’s been created would be a top priority. The news we’ve been receiving suggests the situation is far worse than this… The terrorists who caused this were not apprehended, and it appears highly likely that they escaped carrying this new virus, and it is spreading fast throughout England, and, it appears, the wider world. Until this is controlled all resources at our disposal will be dedicated to finding a means to control this outbreak. All department heads have been briefed, and everyone is required to report in to their departments by ten o’clock this morning for a briefing on their new assignments… All authorisation to leave this facility remains cancelled until further notice.”
He walked off stage to silence. The audience slowly started filing out of the back door, no one having anything much to say, especially as the silence around them would make anything said completely public. Hannah knew that by the time she got back to her accommodation she would have about half an hour before she needed to report in. She was in a hurry to get back so she could be alone to digest what she’d just heard. Having spent three days in quarantine it was clear that she had had a near miss and could by now have easily been one of the active dead. She felt healthy, but part of her wanted to demand further tests to make sure she was not carrying anything dangerous.
When Hannah got back to her room she was surprised to find Phil waiting for her. He couldn’t move fast following his injuries, and she had been all but sprinting. He either hadn’t attended the update, or had been next to the door when it ended to be the first into the corridor to get a lead. She had hoped to be alone, but seeing him there she realised that that was the last thing she wanted. Without thinking she flung her arms around him, and found herself crying into his shoulder. As she regained her composure she found his own tears were dampening her hair. Deep within her a hope sprung that he needed her as much as she found herself needing him.
Newcastle
Ruth woke up feeling relaxed. The events of the previous days didn’t occur to her immediately, and when they did, it all seemed a bit ridiculous. While still in bed, she looked at the clock and knowing that it was late enough in the day for all of her family to be awake and busy, figured that it would be OK to give them a call for an update on what was going on. As she picked up her phone she saw that there were several missed calls from the previous night. Her phone had been in her room charging and she hadn’t given it a thought while everything had seemed OK the evening before. Going to bed she had been drunk enough to not even check for messages. Three voice mails waited for her, but they weren’t worth listening to as she was calling anyway.
It was just before seven in the morning. Her call was answered before the second ring, which she was not ready for. It was her mother who answered, and the fastness of the response, and the tension in her voice showed that she had been waiting by the phone for a call. The initial hello’s were enough to make clear that her mum was on the edge of panic. Ruth asked her what was wrong.
“Have you seen the news this morning?” was asked in return.
“No, I’m still in bed. Normal people aren’t awake at this time in the morning. What’s wrong?”
“The whole country is falling apart, and you’ve managed to sleep through it? Some virus is spreading across the world turning people into mindless psychopaths who attack anyone they can get close to. The police and the army are overrun and can’t keep order. Martial law has been declared across half the country, including Newcastle. Please, keep yourself inside with the doors locked. Don’t let anyone in.”
“Wh
at the fuck’s going on? We were all in playing board games last night. Has the world gone to shit overnight?”
“Yes the world has ‘gone to shit.’ The police have moved their families in here, and encouraged your dad to build up the barriers around the farm. Everyone is armed and ready to shoot anyone who approaches without answering questions. Nowhere in Norfolk is considered safe. Apparently, we are at the epicentre of ‘this shit’”
“Are you going to be OK? Is there anything I can do?”
“We’re on a farm. We have guns like no one else does, and we can feed ourselves. No one is better placed to deal with a crisis than we are. I wish you were here with us. If it looks like you can travel safely, then get back here, but don’t move recklessly. Stay locked up in your house. At some point the military is going to take control of this, and I think they will shoot first and ask questions later.”
“Come on. It can’t be that bad. It’s been completely quiet here. I am perfectly safe, and Newcastle is not a dangerous place to live.”
“Please just stay indoors and out of trouble, for a couple of days at least. Feel free to laugh at me in a few days’ time, but just humour me for now. Something is very wrong, and I don’t want you mixed up in it.”
“If you want I can be on the next train home?”
“No. please don’t travel. Right now there are too many lunatics about. Its better if you stay where you are.”
“Have you got any idea what’s going on?”
“Every news report that you watch seems to have a different rumour, but the main one seems to be a new virus is spreading. It’s like rabies. It makes people aggressive and bitey, and it can be passed on through saliva. The policemen who’ve moved their families here seem to think that’s what it is, and they’ve been close to it from the start. They’ve told your Dad to get guards on all approaches, and to shoot anyone who doesn’t respond to verbal instructions. Into the air at first, but if that doesn’t get a reaction the legs. If they keep coming after that, the head. On no account should he let them get close.”
The Farm Page 7
