by Jessica Ward
George? This made no sense. Why hadn’t he included me in the teams? I had more than proved myself the day before. I had figured out the entry point, and my kill count was way above everyone else.
“What about me?” I asked him.
“You will be stationed back on the roof. Hangar 3 is still an unknown, and no one knows the area like George. I need him on this one and I need you to provide cover.” He replied.
I reluctantly agreed. He was right after all. It didn’t go a miss that the Sergeant had mentioned nothing of his team visiting the hangar. I pulled him up on it.
“And where will your team be going?” I asked quizzically.
“I received a faint distress call from the outside last night. Unfortunately the signal was lost in the early hours this morning. We will be going to check it out.” He told us all.
The Sergeant had been working on the communications equipment ever since we took over the base. By the sounds of it, he had finally got it working, or part of it at the very least. I was still sulking about not being included as part of the ground team, but it seemed to perk Nick up.
“It’s ok babe, we’ll be fine. We all know how well you did yesterday. Besides you looked so hot shooting that MP5” He whispered as he squeezed my bum.
I wasn’t in the mood. I reluctantly grabbed my rifle and made my way to the roof. At least I got to spend the day with Lacey. I had to admit, I did miss her whilst I was out the day before. We were already becoming inseparable.
We watched together, as the Sergeant headed for the main base, choosing to leave through the main gate. Once they were out of sight we turned our attention to Team 2, they were already at Hangar 3 and were making their way inside.
Our job was certainly a lot easier now we had secured the entry gate. We didn’t see a single person, infected or otherwise that day. It definitely put me in a worse mood. I wanted to be in the action, not confined to the roof. It was boring. I wandered where the Sergeant was going, and what sights he would come across along the way.
The boys seemed to have struck gold. They came in and out of the newly acquired hangar with boxes and boxes filled with new guns, explosives and ammunition. We would definitely be set for a while.
Once the truck was full, the Corporal and the boys drove back to the base, ready to unload. Lacey and I made our way downstairs, both of us sick to death of sitting on the roof.
With the Sergeant still gone, the Corporal was left in command. Once the truck was unloaded, we all stopped for lunch.
“You know we’ve still got loads of fence left over” Nick said gulping down his food. He carried on after he swallowed “We could easily build another walkway into that other hangar. Then we’d have even more room.”
“That’s a fine idea son” George agreed. “Did you know there is an underground tunnel which runs through this base?” George asked as he carried on, clearly it was a rhetorical question. “Well there’s an entrance in that building.” He said pointing in the direction of Hangar 3.
“Where exactly does the underground tunnel lead to?” the Corporal asked.
“It leads out to the middle of Isles Woods” he replied “Just the other side of the base.”
We all agreed, we would build a fence and secure yet another base. We quickly finished our lunches and set about loading the fencing into the truck. As usual, Duckface refused to cooperate, instead creeping back into the plane. She was becoming such a recluse, she barely left the confines of the plane.
As the days went on, she had got less and less sociable. She had the worst attitude I had ever seen. She thought the whole world was against her, since Andy dumped her she had an almighty chip on her shoulder.
She refused to speak to any of us. Only surfacing when told to by the Sergeant or the Corporal. She never spoke to the Professor and refused to acknowledge his presence when he entered the room.
As we were making headway securing more and more of the base, the Professor remained, as always, hard at work. Since Greg’s death, he had gone into overdrive. Although he was his usual pleasant normal self, I could tell that his death weighed heavy on the Professors heart.
He blamed himself for Greg’s death. Although he never confided in us, the way he buried himself in his work, spoke volumes. He kept himself to himself a bit more; his only aim in life was to find answers.
None of us had any idea of what he was doing. People grief in different ways, this was his way of dealing with it.
As soon as the truck was full the boys made their way back over to the hangar to make a start on the fencing work. Back on the roof all was quiet. It was looking like we have secured the whole airfield.
Even so, the fence was an extra precaution. Always better to be safe than sorry. The boys carried on building into the night. With little danger around, it was worth risking it. Lacey and I had switched to night vision scopes, so we could carry on watching over them, well into darkness.
By 9pm the fence was complete. There was still no sign of the Sergeant or the rest of Team 1. As time went on we started to get worried, we didn’t know where they had gone or what had happened to them.
We tried getting through to them on our radios, but they were completely out of range. I was worried about them all. What if something bad happened to them? They had been gone over 12 hours, where could they possibly be. I was nervous; the worst case scenarios kept running through my mind.
I knew they could all handle themselves, but what if they got ambushed? Or worse, ran into a horde of the infected. I could have killed for a cigarette, I gave up a few years ago, but I wanted something to settle my nerves.
Thank god Nick hadn’t gone with them; if he had I would be an inconsolable wreck by now.
I decided to take a tour around the new building. I hadn’t seen it yet, and I need something to take my mind off the worry.
I made my way through the newly erected fencing. Ever since I thought I saw Greg, a few nights ago, traveling through the fencing made me jittery.
I kept a swift pace as I wandered over, trying to spend as little time as possible outside. My heart was pumping. Partly from my nerves due to the unknown fate of Team 1, and partly from my past experiences with the infected.
I opened the door to the new base and glanced around me. It was way too small to be considered an aeroplane hangar. Through the door on my left was a room the size of a gymnasium. Rows upon rows of green fold out camp beds had been set up. The army must have set this up as extra living quarters for survivors. It was very basic. It looked like a shelter home.
Each camp bed had a brown folded blanket and pillow at the edge of the bed, confirming my theory.
On my right were large, keypad entry double doors, leading to another supply room. The doors were propped open, from the boys earlier raid, so I let myself in.
The room was slightly smaller than the room opposite, but not by much. Steel racking lined the walls, emergency backpacks still hung on the walls. I looked to my left and I couldn’t help but laugh. Nick had already moved his fishing gear in here, it was propped up against the wall next to the backpacks.
More fencing and barbed wire stood in the middle of the room. At least the army was well prepared.
I wandered over to the next room, wanting to find the entrance to the tunnel George had spoken about.
I walked around the whole room, checking the floors as I went along. I couldn’t find any opening at all. I could have easily asked George where it was, had I not wanted to discover it on my own accord.
I left like Indiana Jones, trying to find the lost temple. Only it was a tunnel I was looking for. And rather than searching the jungle, I was searching an old army base, in the middle of an airfield. Ok, so it was nothing like Indiana Jones, more like a modern day Sherlock, Lacey was my Dr Watson, I chuckled at the notion of us solving crimes together, I doubted we would get very far.
After my second lap of the hall, and looking under all the beds I gave up. I decided to check the supply room instead,
positive that the entrance wasn’t under any of the beds.
I wandered back into the supply room. Paying close attention to the floor around me I started to search. It was a lot harder to search the supply room, the floor space was minimal. Empty crates and boxes filled the area.
After checking around the floor space available, there was nothing there. Positive that the door must be in this room I tried moving some of the boxes out the way to get a closer look.
Empty boxes littered the middle of the room; I started pushing them out the way.
The floorboards in the room had certainly seen better days, they were very old fashioned, the closer in I got the more careful I had to be. Holes where the floorboards had snapped sunk into the floor.
Just as I was moving the final lot of boxes, my heel got caught. I tried to pull my heel out but it wouldn’t budge. I threw the boxes down irritated it was blocking my path.
I bent down for a closer look at the hole I was caught on. When I looked it wasn’t a hole. The heel of my shoes had got caught in a metal ring screwed to the floor.
I looked around me. The section of the floor I was stood on was slightly out compared to the rest.
I quickly realised this was it! I had found the trapdoor. I quickly pushed the rest of the boxes out the way.
After uncovering the boxes I saw two steel hinges bolted to the floor. I knocked on the trapdoor, it was definitely hollow.
I pulled at the metal handle which had earlier wrapped its way around my heel. It was stuck. I pulled harder and harder putting all my weight into it. I felt it open slightly, but it was still jammed.
I stood upright and planted both feet on the flooring around me. I pulled the handle leaning all by weight back when it finally lifted.
As it opened dust flew back in all different directions, the force of the door pulling back made me lose my footing, I quickly let go of the handle to regain my balance. As I did, I cracked my index finger nail and my thumb.
Perfect. This is exactly why I stay clear of manual labour. My nails were always in perfect condition, and they were completely natural. I didn’t need acrylic or gel false nails, my nails were incredibly strong, they hardly ever broke off. Until now.
I shook my hand, the pain where my nail had split just below my nail bed started to throb. I quickly dismissed the pain, more interested in finding out what was underneath the door.
I looked down the pit in front of me. A timber frame ladder led the way down. I pulled on the ladder making sure it was secure. I looked around trying to find a torch, when the familiar sound of a car engine approached.
I let out a huge sigh of relief. Team 1 was finally back. My yearn for adventure now subsiding as I quickly closed the trapdoor, and made my way back to the base to greet them.
As the team exited the car, I could tell they were all exhausted. They didn’t bring with them any new survivors, and both they and the car looked like they’d seen better days.
They were covered in dirt. The car was dented and scratched; splashes of blood covered the wheels.
“What happened?” I asked as they stepped out.
“It’s a long story” Leon replied hobbling out the car. “We’re fine, don’t worry, just a bit banged up.”
The Professor came running over, his face a picture of concern. “Are you all ok? Have any of you been bitten or scratched? Have you come into contact with the infected?” He was bombarding them all with questions.
The Sergeant put his hand up to silence the babbling Professor. “Don’t worry Professor; we haven’t come into close contact with the infected.”
The Professor looked relieved. “Ok, good… As you were men” he nodded as he wandered back to his lab.
“Good to have you back” the Corporal greet the Sergeant with a friendly handshake.
Andy was the last to get out the car. He was visibly shaken by the day’s events. He looked like he had just been in a street fight. There was bruising around his eyes and face as he shakily pulled himself out of the car.
Chapter 14 – The Search for Survivors
After they had all freshened up, Team 1 joined us in the plane, to fill us in on what had happened that day.
The following is the account the Sergeant and the rest of the team gave us. The Sergeant explained the events to us in full.
* * *
As you all know I received a distress signal from the communications box I have been working with. The call came from a young female. She said she had children with her, and was in need of urgent rescue.
I managed to communicate with her only once. I told her my name and that we were nearby. She told me her coordinates and the line went dead. That was the last I heard from her. When I lost contact, I immediately tried to re-establish the connection. When my attempts failed, I assembled the team.
She had made the call from Bramhall Hall, a stone’s throw away from where we are now. Andy was familiar with the area, and after I approached him, he was keen to join the team. He told me it was in the middle of a woodland area not far from here.
We made our way to the Hall. We took the long way round, wanting to avoid the centre of the village. It is a highly populated area and we needed to stay clear of the infected. We took the long way round, not wanting to draw any attention to ourselves.
I was apprehensive of spending longer on the road than we needed to. But staying out of sight was by far the best option.
We made our way through Woodford, up towards Poynton. We turned off down a country lane which led out to a main road, which I’m told leads to Hazel Grove. Andy kindly directed us to the park, which didn’t take us long to find.
Before long we were at the entrance to the park. There were no sign of the infected so we drove in. We were fully armed by the time we got to the house, although our drive towards the manor was uneventful; the infected were nowhere to be seen.
As we pulled up, we all got out the car. I wanted to do a quick sweep of the area, just to make sure, so I sent Leon ahead to secure the area.
When Leon finally returned, there was an ambush waiting to greet us also. Kids of all ages surrounded us. We were outnumbered 10 to 1.
I offered them a place with us, but they declined. They were all wielding knifes and homemade bats, they knew we were coming and had planned an attack.
The team readied their weapons to attack, but I ordered them not to shoot. I wasn’t about to have their blood on our hands. After all, they were still children. Who knows what horrors they had already faced, that drove them to this.
The leader emerged from the group. He was a young boy, no older than 16. He had a shaved head, he was tall but quite scrawny. He obviously didn’t have the best upbringing before the virus took over, he was brutish and thuglike. The type that would definitely be in the runnings for a gang member as he got older.
The boy stepped forward, and eyed us all. He turned to his crew members and with a grin he said “Fuck em up”
The first lashed out and stuck Leon in the kneecap. As he fell to the ground the others started to advance. I fired out some warning shots into the trees, they took a step back, but carried on when they realised we weren’t shooting at them.
We defended ourselves as much as we could, I didn’t want to harm the children. We used our rifles as batons and managed to push them back, and hold them off. But we were still outnumbered. We pushed our way out of the crowd but had no choice but to retreat into the woods.
The remaining kids, hiding in the bushes took off with our vehicle in the attack. Luckily we were still armed.
We walked around for hours trying to find a way out. The kids had set up a perimeter; they had lookouts stationed at each post. They were very well organised. They had used the great hall as a safe house; they had claimed it as their own.
After a few hours we saw our vehicle return. Clearly none of the kids knew how to drive, the car was covered in dents and scratches, but it was still drivable. We needed to get the car back. As much as I wanted to help
these lost boys, there was nothing we could do for them. They were already too far gone.
We hid in the nearby foliage and watched as they pulled a young woman from the car. She was tied up and gagged. They pulled her out the car and pushed her to the floor. As she scrambled to get up, the leader punched her back to the floor. She must have been a school teacher, I overheard a few of them call her Miss Robinson.
Leon pulled his rifle up to aim, when I pushed the gun down. I wasn’t prepared to shoot anyone living, especially a child, no matter how messed up they were.
Whilst we were busy watching the scene unravel before us, a group of infected came at us from behind the trees. We struggled with them, but in the end we had no choice but to shoot, giving away our position.
We quickly dispatched of the infected as the group of boys soon surrounded us. Our cover was blown. We were outnumbered, and couldn’t escape without causing serious injury to the boys, so we let them take us. We refused to give up our guns, but as they knew we wouldn’t use them, they took them anyway. They took us to the house and tied us up, they locked us a room with Miss Robinson.
The room they chose for us was an old bedroom, there was a grand four poster bed in the centre of the room, hand crafted from Royal Oak. The furniture in the room matched the bed perfectly; even the walls surrounding us were wooden panelled.
It didn’t take us long to untie ourselves. They had neglected to take my pocket knife. It wasn’t long before manoeuvred myself free. I untied the others, including Miss Robinson.
She was terrified. She begged us to take her with us, which we were more than happy to do. She was a timid woman, she had a very pale skin tone and mousey brown hair. She wore glasses which were all bent out of shape. She didn’t look like she was capable of hurting a fly, let alone being able to defend herself. But she needed our help and we weren’t going to let her down.
We calmed her down and promised to take her with us. We told her about our base, and that she would be in safe hands with us.
