After It Happened (Book 2): Humanity

by Devon C. Ford

  Neil mulled it over.

  "It’s a bit cold blooded isn't it?" He asked. Dan told him it was a teenage girl who suggested it.

  "You've cloned yourself!" He laughed, then faded off to his thoughts.

  "If you're serious, I can do it. I need a long wheel based pickup with a removable tin back, like the farm ones."

  "Done" said Dan, and left him to his tinkering.

  "Bring that flash Disco of yours in for an oil change too" Neil shouted after him.

  Dan walked through the farm, keeping Ash close. He saw Chris and Ewan deep in conversation by a large lean-to, basically a three sided barn where the spare vehicles had been stored. Pig saw them first and bounced over to play with Ash and lick at his face until he swatted a huge paw at her and played. She was small for a collie, not much bigger than Pete's cockers, but considering her early life she was lucky to be alive. She always stayed close to Chris with an unquestioning loyalty.

  He spoke with them for a while, hearing their plans for the farm over the coming years.

  Chris seemed awkward after Ewan left them, but asked him "What's this I'm hearing about a rescue mission?"

  He wasn't entirely shocked that people had talked, but was certain it hadn't come from his Rangers so people wouldn't know how they planned to do it.

  "I'm going to suggest it, yes. Our cattle are kept better than they are from what we've heard"

  Chris was pleased, and offered any help he could provide.

  "I might need everyone who knows how to use a shotgun to stand guard if we all go. I think I'll need all the Rangers on this one" he said.

  "No problem" he replied, meaning it.

  Dan was happy with the support, and reckoned any future coup attempts would fail based on his popularity. He lit another smoke and wandered towards the sound of single rounds being fired from a rifle. He found Steve drilling Leah on their makeshift range which was framed by high banks on each side and dead ground in front.

  Steve had done well, making scarecrow type targets in between the trees. As he approached they spotted him and stopped. They seemed to be having an intense conversation, and as he got to them Steve asked if Leah could demonstrate her current exercise. She beamed at him under the weight of her vest, with the G36 hung across her chest.

  Dan looked at her for a while before saying, "Continue"

  He called Ash to him and walked back a short way.

  Steve stood ready with his stopwatch, as Leah drove in a lazy circle to come back to the range. As she neared, he yelled "CONTACT" and started the clock. She slammed the brakes on the vehicle and slid from the driver’s door to drop to the ground. She appeared under the open door and fired two rounds from the G36 into the closest dummy.

  One in the chest, one on the head.

  She rolled to the side and rose to her knee where she fired two more into the next dummy. Again, her accuracy was good. She ran forward ten metres and dropped to one knee again. Steve yelled "STOPPAGE", so she dropped the carbine to hang at her chest whilst she drew the Glock as she simulated a weapon jam. She rose as she fired two more rounds, slower this time but still as lethally accurate, then advanced at a crouch.

  "RELOAD, CLEAR PRIMARY WEAPON" Steve shouted.

  Leah dropped to her knee again, holstering the Glock.

  She dropped the magazine from the carbine and racked the slide three times before seating a fresh magazine and pushing it home. She chambered a round and called out "RELOADED", then stood and stalked to the end of the range using available cover to good effect. On approaching the final dummy Steve shouted "AUTOMATIC FIRE", prompting Leah to duck into cover and make herself small. Steve then called, "ENEMY RELOADING" and Leah popped out to fire five rounds into the last target.

  "STOP STOP STOP" Steve called. Leah safetied her weapons and ran back for debriefing. She was barely breathing hard.

  "Twenty-nine seconds, four enemies down, no injury" Steve declared. Both looked at Dan.

  "I am impressed!" He said with a genuine smile as he walked towards them. "Why five rounds in the last target?" He asked.

  "No clear like of sight for headshot. Four shots to the centre mass until I got line of sight" she barked like a marine corps recruit. Dan really was impressed; their little girl was becoming quite the capable killer.

  "What's your time?" She asked, in an innocent voice which oozed with challenge.

  He thought about it for a while, then decided to humour her.

  "Let's find out" he said, taking the G36 and a spare magazine. He thought through the exercise and decided on a different approach.

  "I'm not that familiar with this weapon, so that's my excuse if you beat me!" He said jokingly.

  He climbed into the Defender, put the seat back about two feet and drove a loop as Leah had.

  Steve called the start of the contact, and Dan accelerated hard to the range. He skidded to a stop and took out the first two dummies with a single headshot as he rounded the Defender's door.

  He ran forward, and when the weapon jam was called he fired a double tap from his Sig into the dummy before taking the position it was in.

  He cleared and reloaded quickly, then stood and stalked along the left side to the next piece of cover. On being told he was under automatic fire, he took cover and dropped to the floor. The instant the "RELOADING" call came he rose and fired into the head of his last remaining target.

  He strolled back to Leah and handed over the weapon. She looked at Steve, hoping.

  "Nineteen seconds" he said, keeping his face neutral and hiding the smile that threatened to emerge.

  Leah looked dismayed. He hadn't done that to humiliate her, she knew that, but she felt like she was being taught a lesson.

  "Cheer up, kid. At thirteen I would've shot my toes off!" Dan said kindly.

  He bent down to her "Seriously Leah, you're good. Really good. Keep it up and you can have my job soon"

  She smiled her biggest grin before Steve told her to sprint to the farm and back before cleaning the weapons. She ran away, feigning annoyance but actually very happy.

  "There's a big difference when they shoot back, mate" Dan said tiredly to Steve.

  'We both know that" he said "I just wish she didn't have to find out one day"

  NO ESCAPE

  She lay there and coughed all night.

  It wasn't a normal cough; it was a deep, chesty cough that racked her whole body into convulsions and went on endlessly leaving her breathless and weak. Her skin burned and her head pounded.

  She cried during the brief respite, and tried to breathe in shallow gasps so as not to aggravate the cough again.

  Each one was worse than the last, and her heart beat so fast she thought it would burst. She had no idea how long she had been like that; all measure of time was lost in the endless cycle of pain and delirium.

  Effectively, that's what happened to her the next day when she was too sick to move anywhere. Others were in the room with her, but they were trapped inside their own failing bodies too.

  During a coughing episode, the pressure on her cardiovascular system became so intense that the multiple haemorrhages in her system caused too much clotting for her weakened body to deal with.

  She suffered a fatal heart attack and died within forty-eight hours of exposure to the poisoned air.

  Two of the group who had been allowed into the bunker, seemingly to rebuild their country and its infrastructure when the infection burned itself out, survived past the forty-eight-hour mark without any symptoms.

  The junior medical lab assistant, Emma, sat alone talking to herself. At first glance you would think that she had seen too much and the trauma had caused her grip on reality to weaken.

  It hadn't, she sat with her eyes closed and visualised her lab as she spoke her notes out loud into a small digital voice recorder.

  "Infection through airborne means is most likely due to the lack of other visible means of transmission. Very fast gestation period, ranging from ten to fourteen hours, death
followed within thirty-four hours of visible symptoms to all subjects monitored. Other subjects available for monitoring left the test area during gestation."

  She opened her eyes and looked at the array of bodies who had died in front of her as she walked between them making observations and notes.

  "Two subjects out of twenty-nine remain unaffected. Based on the available, and very limited, data I can extrapolate no common denominator to establish a basis for immunity. Gender, age range, ethnicity, physical size and appearance are effectively opposite in both surviving subjects."

  She stopped recording and looked at the other survivor sadly.

  The Colonel had gone downhill significantly since people started to show signs of infection. He had ranted loudly about being that last high-ranking Army officer left, making him Commander in Chief. He shouted at the bodies, giving his authority to launch tactical missiles at Russian cities immediately before ordering further strikes on China. On seeing the lab assistant watching him he began to scream that she was a Chinese spy and ordered her arrested immediately. She wasn't Chinese, she was part Korean and had never actually been there, but she was sure that it would be a waste of time to explain this. She left him to his solitary war and monitored the other now non-survivors.

  She took a small rucksack from the possessions of a soldier who would no longer have need it, collecting similarly useful items from everyone and closing their eyes when required.

  She sorted her small pile into order and packed her rucksack, including the blessedly thin and light laptop and its charger; useless without power and knowing that the battery life must be preserved until another source was found. She carefully wrapped it inside a zip topped plastic bag to protect the contents.

  She readied herself to sleep in another room not occupied by dead people. She did not feel brave enough to travel at night, and planned to leave in the morning. She would have to leave the Colonel so as not to be shot on sight for the crime of looking a bit Chinese.

  THUNDERBIRD TWO

  Dan had spent two days scouting and recovering the things he needed. He had found a coach company and managed to start an almost brand new vehicle which was stored inside a large weather proof unit.

  Ian was recruited to drive it, and it was now parked on the road by the farm.

  Steve had found a hi-capacity Defender pickup truck. A one-thirty wheelbase with three seats up front. Neil had gone over it mechanically first, then started on the tubular steel work in the back. He had brought Mike in to consult, and a series of flexible rubber mounts were fashioned to stop the machine gun from shaking itself loose.

  His additions to Leah's plan involved Steve and Lexi acting as snipers, and for that he needed them accurate over three hundred and fifty metres minimum.

  The sights of the newer semi-automatic rifles were swapped out for more powerful optics, and in the absence of heavier weapons they practiced with their new HK416's.

  Dan was worried that he would have to rely on Joe to fire the big gun, but Neil was the only person other than himself who had ever even seen one fired before, let alone used one. He told him as much, and said he was coming. He would hear no argument against and Dan didn't try too hard. He was glad to have Neil with him if this went down.

  On their first day of sniper training, Steve declared the 416's to be inadequate.

  "It's not the accuracy, it's the weight of the round" he explained. "To guarantee a kill at the distance you're looking at, we need bigger guns"

  Dan considered the heavier of the hunting rifles, but these only held a few rounds and were bolt action. He thought for a while, then turned to Lexi.

  "Clean and stow the HK's and remove the optics. Put the holographic sights back on please?" He said, then turned to Steve.

  "Remember that army camp you went to years ago for your E&E training?"

  He did.

  "Good, were going in ten minutes"

  RETURN TRIP

  Dan drove hard as Steve scanned the countryside. Ash nosed his now huge snout through the nap between their seats, and when Steve gave him a sideways look his tongue slashed out like a viper to drench his face with sticky dog drool.

  Steve told Ash exactly how much he enjoyed it and was answered with a short growl. He leaned over closer to his window for the remainder of the journey.

  They arrived there by lunchtime, drove straight through the gate and into the camp after a drive by check.

  Dan navigated them between the buildings back to where he found the soldier. He told Steve the story on the way there, explaining that he had wished he could bury the man but had an unshakeable feeling that he was being watched.

  He felt much better now he had a well-trained pair of eyes watching his back; not that Ash wasn't good backup, but he had yet to master using a carbine.

  "That explains this exotic piece then?" Steve surmised, patting the rare short barrelled SPAS shotgun resting on the dash where it sat when it wasn't on Dan's back.

  They got out of the discovery quickly as it stopped. 'Vehicles attract fire' he remembered being told repeatedly when he was younger.

  They fanned out each side to find hard cover, scanning all round looking for any sign of danger. There was none, but neither of them fully relaxed.

  "People probably know what this place is, and who was based here" Dan said.

  "But I doubt they know where they keep the good stuff" Steve finished for him "there's more guns here than in West Africa"

  "I'm happy with these ones" said Dan as he moved carefully forward, Ash stalking by his side "but more rounds and some heavier toys would be nice"

  He followed Steve through buildings past where the soldiers’ boots were still visible, eventually stopping by the unremarkable door of an unremarkable building.

  The electronic keypad and swipe card system was long since rendered useless, but brute force was making a comeback. They spent some time using their 'master key' to cut a squareish hole in the thick layered metal, planning to use Neil's patented door opening piece. He hadn't yet named his invention, and Dan thought of dubbing it 'the swipecard'. He looked at the reinforced door, then at his still attractively unique Discovery. Not wanting to risk damaging it, he suggested that they find a disposable vehicle to use. They took a diesel jerrycan and starter pack on a hunt, both setting eyes on a large Unimog at the same time. Dan smiled; these things would go places which would embarrass their own fleet of Land Rovers.

  "Yes please!" Steve said.

  He tinkered with it for a while with no joy. They had to drag a generator from the vehicle workshop nearby and attach a long set of jump leads to the battery.

  After spraying some flammable engine starter from an aerosol can into the air filter - a trick of Neil's - the huge Mercedes engine barked and struggled into renewed life.

  They scanned around for evidence that the noise had alerted anyone, and when they felt comfortable turned back to their new addition.

  Although technically the short wheel based version, this was basically a very capable off road militarised lorry. They checked it over, and it even had a weapon mount above the three-person cab. The back was like a large high sided skip, with sides thick enough to be safe from small arms fire. It was filthy, but it was a very good find.

  "This is too God damned cool to leave behind" said Dan.

  Steve grinned at him, "Don't you mean too valuable?"

  "Yeah. That too" he replied "now let's get those tyres pumped up"

  They used the generator to power a compressor, having found the tyre pressures indicated on a helpful sticker in the driver's door frame. There were two spares in the back, luckily. They would never have loaded them without a forklift.

  Steve revved the huge engine, making Dan smile again. He slowly eased it towards the armoury door with the creaks and mechanical moans of being unused loud in the air.

  It was backed up, and the heavy chain fixed to the towing hitch. On the other end was Neil's 'swipecard'; effectively a folding anchor made of hea
vy steel.

  They posted it through and heard the loud metallic thud of it hitting the concrete floor below.

  Dan hoped it would hold, as it was designed for slightly less resistance than reinforced steel.

  Flashes of his training came back to him; "an expensive door lock is only as strong as the sixteen screws holding the hinges into the wood"

  He hoped the chain was strong enough to do the job, as it wasn't wood screws he was trying to break here.

  He gave Steve a thumbs up as he climbed into the cab of the Unimog, revving the engine and creeping forwards to take up the slack.

  Dan ran clear, calling Ash away with him.

  The chain clanked and created under the growing pressure, each knotted link snapping into place with enough force to sever a carelessly placed finger. Steve gunned the big diesel again and again, until the steel door gave its first sign of weakness. It buckled outwards slightly, at the same time as a large chunk of concrete fell away.

  Steve knew what he was doing, and Dan doubted that anyone he knew had the same deft foot control as a helicopter pilot. He relaxed the pressure on the clutch slightly, allowing the pressure to ease on the door for a second before he lifted the pedal again, faster this time. More of the door surround fell away with each movement as Steve made each pull faster and harder than the last.

  Eventually, with a noise like metallic thunder audible over the huge straining engine, the concrete split and the door fell away with a loud bang. The Unimog shot forward and bounced on its suspension, then stalled.

  Steve tried to fire it up again, but it would only let out a wheezing noise as it refused to turn over.

  He got out, full of sadness. Dan felt the same; he would've loved having the truck for a number of justifiable reasons.

  Priorities.

  They allowed the dust to settle before moving into the armoury. Dan had put Ash in the discovery with the windows open; he was likely to hurt himself on the rubble but could still sound a warning.