Vinnie broke the window. Abe climbed in. The door opened. We raced inside. Abe bolted the door.
There was a row of metal lockers on the wall. They had big padlocks. There was a dirty workbench. Abe saw a big hammer. Abe tried to break the padlocks with the hammer. He hit and hit.
I looked out the window. The battle was still going. The viros had got through the main gate. The swarm oozed like angry mud. Bodies were piled up everywhere. The gunfire was deafening.
‘This is taking forever,’ said Abe.
‘If you keep smashing those lockers like that,’ said Vinnie, ‘then nothing inside them will be any good anyway.’
‘You think of something, then,’ said Abe. ‘Better still, I will.’
He headed to the door. He waved the hammer.
‘I’m going to kill him with this.’
‘You’ll not get close enough,’ said Amber. ‘We need a better plan.’
‘We don’t need a better plan,’ Abe said. ‘This one will do.’
Abe unbolted the door. He went outside.
‘Well, at least let us come with you,’ said Amber.
Farmhouse
We went back outside.
The Tall Man’s men were in two places. One group was in the arena. They were facing in all directions. The viros liked the arena. They kept attacking it.
Another group was in charge of the farmhouse. Some fired out the windows. Others were on the roof. Some were in the back garden. They were shooting over the wall. There were bodies everywhere. Nothing could get close.
I guessed the Tall Man was in the farmhouse.
We ducked behind the nearest building.
‘The farmhouse is too hard,’ I said.
‘We’ve got to try,’ said Abe. ‘We can’t let him get away.’
‘I don’t think he’s getting away any time soon,’ said Vinnie, ‘but Jake is right, we will need to find a better way.’
I thought Abe was going to mean about me. He didn’t say anything. I felt alright. Amber looked around the corner.
‘Jake’s right,’ she said. ‘It’s far too open. Those men are going to shoot at anything that comes towards them, including us.’
‘Especially us,’ said Ellis. ‘Don’t forget how silly we made them all look when we got out of here.’
Abe wasn’t satisfied.
‘I’ll do this on my own,’ he said.
He went to go.
‘No,’ I said.
I grabbed him to the floor. We fell over hard. It hurt.
‘What the …’ Abe said.
I held tight. I wouldn’t let go. Abe sat up. He started hitting my head.
‘Let go, Jake. Let go of me!’
‘No, Abe,’ I said. ‘I’m not letting go. They’ll shoot you.’
Abe kept hitting me.
‘Get off me!’
‘No!’
Abe’s fists really hurt. I didn’t let go. Abe was my friend. I didn’t want him to die. He didn’t like me. That didn’t matter. I was going to protect him.
Vinnie grabbed Abe’s fists.
‘Stop now, Abe,’ he said. ‘You’re hurting him.’
‘So what?’ said Abe. ‘He deserves it.’
Vinnie pulled Abe’s collar. He went face to face.
‘I. Said. Stop. Hurting. Him. Now!’
Vinnie’s voice was fierce. Abe stopped. Vinnie looked at me.
‘It’s alright, Jake,’ said Vinnie. ‘You can let go now.’
I stood up. My head hurt. I was covered in dirt. Vinnie pulled Abe to his feet. He pushed him against the wall.
‘Let go,’ Abe said. ‘You’re hurting me.’
Vinnie didn’t let go.
‘Listen to me very carefully,’ he said. ‘If you carry on like this you are going to get yourself killed. Some might say that you would deserve it. That’s up to them. More to the point, your silly behaviour is going to get us killed as well. And that’s not going to happen. So, you need to calm down and get yourself together.’
Vinnie put his hand on Abe’s shoulder.
‘It’s not you against the world, Abe,’ he said. ‘It’s us. And that’s the way it is going to stay.’
Vinnie let go of Abe.
‘Now say ‘Sorry’ to Jake and let’s get going.’
Abe tried to look at me. He couldn’t. He mumbled something at the floor. Vinnie lifted his head up.
‘Properly,’ he said.
Abe looked quickly at me.
‘Sorry,’ he said.
I didn’t know if he meant it.
‘Me too,’ I said.
I knew I did.
Door
There was gunfire everywhere. The viros were all around the arena. The men inside were trapped. The viros crashed onto the cars. Others crashed into them. They kept coming. The men were firing a lot. There was no escape.
A gang of men raced from the farmhouse. They were going to help their trapped friends. They ran straight past us. They were too busy to care.
‘Now’s our chance,’ Vinnie said.
We ran really fast. I looked straight ahead. I ignored the dead bodies. I didn’t think about the bullets. All I saw was the wall.
Vinnie and Abe got to the wall. They climbed over. Amber and Ellis did as well. I grabbed Baxter. I helped him over. I followed. I landed in a flowerbed. I grazed my knee. I didn’t care.
There was one door here. It led inside the farmhouse.
I turned back to the arena. Loads of viros pushed themselves over the cars. Two men fell down screaming. They were underneath the crowd. Another man fired his gun everywhere. It was the biggest gun I had ever seen. His eyes were wide. He was shouting. His gun didn’t stop the viros. They jumped on top of him.
More men ran to help them. They came from the farmhouse. Someone shouted, ‘Fire in the hole.’ I saw a big explosion. Bits of bodies flew everywhere. There was loads of smoke. It was really blurry.
‘Jake,’ said Ellis. ‘We’re going inside.’
Abe went through the door. We followed him.
It led to a small kitchen. Abe and Amber went in to the next room.
‘Stay where you are,’ said Amber. ‘Don’t move or I’ll shoot you where you lay.’
I went in. The Tall Man was laying on a rug. He was covered in blood. His shirt was all torn. I saw his skin was really ripped. Baxter growled at him.
‘Not you lot,’ the Tall Man said. ‘What do you want?’
‘You,’ said Abe. ‘We want you.’
The Tall Man’s laugh was frothy red.
‘You’re too late. They got me first.’
The Tall Man leaned up on his elbow.
‘I got bitten out by the fence. Luckily, my family had left last night. We dropped them off at the base. I was overseeing repairs to the fence when we were swamped by a horde of those things. I managed to get away but not before one of them bit me bad.’
The Tall Man winced.
‘My men dumped me here and left me to turn. I’m surprised it has taken so long.’
Abe grabbed Amber’s pistol. He pointed it at the Tall Man.
‘What’s to stop me shooting you right in your stupid ugly face?’ he asked. ‘Give me one good reason.’
The Tall Man laughed again. I saw bubbly blood on his lips.
‘I know I hurt you back there and I know you hate me now,’ he said, ‘so there’s all the reason you need. Go ahead and kill me, it has to be better than laying here waiting to turn into one of them.’
The Tall Man was right. Why would you want that to happen? I was going to tell Abe to shoot. It was a good idea. But then I had a thought.
‘Wait,’ I said at Abe. ‘Don’t shoot him.’
‘Stay out of this, Jake,’ Abe said. ‘This is between me and him.’
‘I know,’ I said, ‘that’s why I say don’t shoot.’
Easy
I pointed at the Tall Man.
‘It is easy to shoot him. He wants you too. It will make his pain go away. It also makes the bad things he did go
away as well.’
Abe stared at me. I carried on talking.
‘What if you leave him alone? He will be a viro. Imagine that. His friends and family will hate him. They will run away. The world will hate him. He might be a viro forever. That is real punishment.’
Abe said nothing. He looked angry. Amber put her arm around his shoulder.
‘Jake’s right, you know,’ she said. ‘If you shoot him now you are only making things easy for him.’
The Tall Man understood. He knew what was happening. He screamed at Abe.
‘Shoot me, you little shit. Shoot me in the head.’
Abe pointed the gun.
We all waited.
I held my breath.
Abe’s arm shook.
He closed his eyes.
Abe’s thoughts were so loud in his head.
I closed my eyes. I waited for the noise.
Nothing.
I opened my eyes.
Abe gave the gun back to Amber.
‘Let’s go,’ he said.
We left the Tall Man to turn.
I wondered about turning into a viro. How did it feel? When would you know? The lady soldier was sure she would turn. The other soldier said maybe. Vinnie thought he would. He didn’t know when. Did anybody? Maybe it just happened? I wasn’t sure. Mum might know. She wasn’t here. I felt heavy inside.
I guessed how bad Vinnie must have felt.
‘Would you kill me?’ I asked the others. ‘Would you?’
‘What do you mean, Jake?’ said Ellis. ‘Why do you want to be killed?’
‘Like the Reverend or the Tall Man?’
I sounded scared. I didn’t care.
‘If I got bitten? Would you?’
Ellis didn’t know what to say. It was a hard question.
‘But it’s not going to happen,’ said Amber. ‘You’re not going to get bitten.’
‘How do you know?’ I said.
I cried. Big things moved in my tummy.
‘No one knew this would happen to the world. All we do now is run and hide. We try to stay alive. We don’t want to get bitten. The world is scary rubbish.’
My tears were dripping heavy now.
‘What about that man under the bridge? He was so scared. He killed his whole family. He killed himself. I am scared like him.’
Ellis started to cry.
‘Perhaps we should die now?’ I said.
I looked at Amber.
‘Perhaps you should shoot me. You should shoot all of us. That might make it better?’
Amber looked angry.
‘I’m not going to shoot you, Jake. I’m not going to shoot anyone. We are going to get through this. We are going to stay together and look after each other. We are going to help you find your mum.’
‘My mum,’ I said. ‘We never will. She is long dead.’
Amber looked in my eyes.
‘You might be right, Jake. She might be dead. But she might also still be alive. She might be looking for you.’
Amber shook me.
‘Surely that’s a reason not to die? Surely that’s enough to keep going?’
‘I’m frightened, Amber,’ I said. ‘I’m tired of being frightened. I’m frightened of being frightened.’
‘We all are, Jake,’ she said. ‘We’re frightened all the time, but we’ve made it this far and that makes me think that we can keep going just a little bit longer.’
‘Amber’s right’ said Vinnie. ‘We have to keep going.’
Vinnie smiled at me.
‘You’re one of the bravest kids I have ever met in my life. You can’t give up now. If you do, then there is no hope for any of us.’
‘Don’t give up, Jake,’ Ellis said through her tears.
Abe looked at me. He didn’t smile. He wasn’t angry. He just looked like all the fun he ever knew was sucked from him.
‘You were right about the Tall Man,’ he said.
Abe sounded very far away.
Dangerous
The battle was big. There were viros everywhere. Small groups of men were still shooting. Others were hitting viros with knives. The viros didn’t stop coming through the fence. I didn’t know where they all came from.
‘It’s far too dangerous to be out there,’ said Vinnie. ‘We need to stay here and wait until we can get away.’
‘But how will we do that?’ asked Ellis.
She was still upset.
‘There are still vehicles down by the front gate,’ replied Vinnie. ‘We need to get there somehow and hope that one of them still have its keys in the ignition and has enough petrol and then we need …’
Vinnie stopped talking. He scratched his head and laughed.
‘I’m not sure what I’m talking about,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what we’re going to do.’
‘We’re going to get out of here,’ said Abe. ‘That’s what we’re going to do.’
Abe looked at me.
‘How did you get in here when you came back for us?
I waited. I didn’t want Abe to get angry with me anymore.
‘There’s a concrete pipe behind that shed,’ I said. ‘It leads under the fence.’
‘We don’t need to worry about the fence any more,’ said Abe, ‘but we do need to get out of here so that’s the way we should go.’
Abe started climbing over the wall.
‘Follow me,’ he said.
There was loud whistle. It was followed by a huge bang. The air filled with dirt. Abe fell back in the garden.
There were more whistles and more bangs. Mud and viros flew everywhere. It was so loud. I couldn’t think. I shut my eyes. I hugged my knees. I wanted to be really small.
‘That’s mortar fire,’ said Vinnie. ‘It must be the army.’
‘Have they come to save us?’ asked Ellis.
Vinnie shook his head.
‘I doubt they know we’re here,’ he said. ‘They must be clearing out the viros before they hit the base up the road.’
The mortar bombs dropped like dangerous rain. The viros screamed everywhere. I shivered. It was so frightening. Baxter whimpered. I cuddled him.
‘It’s alright, Baxter,’ I said.
I started to feel weird. Things weren’t easy to see any more.
‘Don’t shoot. Don’t shoot,’ I heard Ellis say.
I wondered who she was talking to? Other people were speaking. I didn’t know them. I came off the ground. I wriggled but it didn’t matter. I was flying.
‘Move it,’ someone said.
I didn’t understand. What did I need to move? I spoke but my words were broken. They didn’t come out my mouth. My arms and legs didn’t work. I was loose and useless. I was moving but it wasn’t me.
I heard shouting. There was screaming. I heard bodies breaking. I saw insides coming out. I imagined the world spinning badly. Lots of people said things. No one spoke to me.
‘I’m still here,’ I said.
THE END
Viro (Book 2): Viro Page 10
