We peered through the windows, not just making sure it was safe, but we also needed a way in; without being detected.
The large Georgian house was still untouched, the inside was perfectly intact, and we couldn’t believe our luck. We knew we would be safe for the night, so long as we were the only ones inside.
We didn’t have much luck finding an entrance towards the back, so we snuck around the side of the building. There was a small white door; we figured it was worth a try.
After a bit of brute force, we were able to break the lock. We cautiously made our way in.
We had entered into a function room. It was clearly set up for a wedding. Tables filled the room, all covered in white cloths. The chairs were also covered in white fabric, as beautiful purple ribbon embraced each chair, tied perfectly into a bow. Silver wear was intricately placed around each table setting; whilst crystal wine glasses stood finishing off the elegant yet untouched table decoration.
As attractive as the tables were, it could do nothing to hide the signs of the new world.
The floral centrepiece, which was clearly once a lavish and colourful display had wilted and died. It was now a sad reminder of the world we were now a part of.
Bread baskets sat strategically placed on each table, once warm and fresh, the bread was now stale and covered in mould. It did nothing but accentuate the abandonment of this happy occasion, which most likely, had ended before it even had the chance to begin.
I felt bad for the couple, whose wedding had obviously been cut short. Your wedding day is meant to be the happiest day of your life. I couldn’t imagine this being the happiest day of theirs.
I was brought back to reality as George spoke up. “Something’s not quite right here.” He said simply.
Chapter 3 – The Wedding Crashers
“In what way?” The Professor asked.
“Well, there was clearly an event due to take place here” George looked around as he spoke.
“It leads me to wonder, where are the guests?” He asked us all.
He had a point. Name cards were placed on each table setting. Each card had a name clearly hand written in perfect calligraphy. Someone had gone through a lot of effort in designing each card. This was obviously not for display purposes.
We looked out the windows, facing towards the front of the building.
Sure enough, milling around outside were what we can only presume, the wedding guests.
They were all dressed up to the nines, the ladies; mostly wearing pastel coloured dresses had huge matching hats, the typical attire of wedding guests. The men were in suits, all different cuts and colours. They hadn’t noticed us yet.
“Stay away from the windows” Leon whispered as we backed away slowly.
Carefully closing the double doors leading into the room, we used some of the tables and chairs to barricade ourselves in, remaining as quiet as possible.
We barricaded the door we had used to sneak through, just to make sure we were safe.
“What do we do now?” I whispered to the group. By this time the daylight was fading, slowly pulling the room into darkness.
“We stay here for the night. We’ll be perfectly safe as long as they don’t notice us.” George whispered back.
“Ok”, I agreed. At least we were indoors.
Staying well away from the windows, we carefully pulled the cloths from the chairs and cleared the tableware.
We each used the chair covers as padding for the uncomfortable cold wooden floor, and used the table cloths as blankets. It wasn’t exactly the comfort, one would find in a 5* hotel, but it was certainly better than sleeping in the woods. We had a roof over our heads, and for the time being, I was grateful.
Our clothes were still damp from our previous encounter. I was shivering, it was so cold. We all sat against the walls, exhaustion, hunger and thirst getting the better of us.
After a while, Paul and Nick decided to explore our new surroundings. Keeping well away from the windows, they wandered around the room, taking in the grandeur of the great hall we were now residing in.
The room itself was beautiful. A magnificent roman mural stood as the focal point in the room. Dark oak panels lined the walls, the wooden floorboards only a few shades lighter, adding depth to the room.
As I watched the boys make their way around the room, I saw Nick’s eyes light up as his foot caught on something underneath a plain white cloth covered table. He lent down and pulled out a crate, full of cartons of orange juice. He pushed it to one side as something far greater caught his eye. Upon hearing the familiar clinking sounds of bottles banging together, the rest of the group looked up. He had found the Champagne.
Lacey and I looked at each other. Our eyes lit up. Nick and Paul carefully pulled bottle after bottle out the crates and handed them around. Upon seeing what the boys were doing George shook his head.
“Everybody, stop.” he whispered sharply, stopping us all in our tracks.
Even at a whisper, our voices still echoed through the oak panelled wall of the grand room. We had to be very careful.
We looked at him bewildered. “How exactly do you expect to open those bottles without making noise and attracting those things to our whereabouts?” George whispered obviously agitated.
Deflated at the sudden realisation, we put the bottles down.
George carried on. “Besides, I don’t think now is the best time to be getting intoxicated, do you?” He asked Paul.
“No, it’s not.” Paul mumbled.
The Professor interrupted. “That’s not to say there won’t be a time in the future.” he said, happily taking the bottle out of Paul’s hands.
“Ahhh, Bollinger. The good stuff” he whispered as he wandered back to his resting spot, carefully placing the bottle in his backpack.
George began handing out the cartons of orange juice. “This will do just fine, for now” he announced in a happier tone.
To say I was gutted would be an understatement. Do you know what’s worse than not having what you really want? Being able to see what it is you really want, yet still not being able to have it.
It was as if the Bollinger was calling out for me. It was one of my favourite champagnes. This couple clearly went all out for their wedding day. It was just a shame they weren’t able to enjoy it.
Not being able to bear the sight of the champers any longer, I pushed it behind my backpack. “One day.” I thought to myself.
The orange juice wasn’t a bad alternative. My lips were that dry, I felt them crack as my lips parted. The orange juice was most welcome in our current situation.
It definitely did the job; it was no Bollinger, but I suppose you can’t have everything. At least the juice helped replenish the much needed vitamins we were all serverely lacking.
As we settled in, I decided to quiz the Professor on the incident in the lake. He knew more about the infected than any of us. He had headed up the research for the global pharmaceutical company Astra Zeneca. They were hoping to find a cure before the outbreak reached critical levels. Unfortunately, Ebola worked a lot quicker than they did.
When Ebola reached disastrous proportions they sent Professor Hyatt and his team to conduct their research on site, alongside the Sergeant and the rest of the RAF and Army forces that had been drafted in to help with the containment. That was how he ended up at the Woodford Airbase.
Once the main base on the airfield was compromised, the Professor had luckily been away from his main lab, and at the time, was conducting research in a smaller hangar. That’s where the Sergeant and the rest of the boys found him. He was safe, along with Greg, Josh and Leon. Now, only the Professor and Leon remained. The Professor dutifully carried on with his research, in the hope that he could eventually come across the cure or vaccine.
“Professor, what do you think of the way the infected are behaving?” I whispered.
“Well, it’s funny you should ask dear.” he started.
“I’ve been asking myself
the same question. I think have no doubt that the E Virus is capable of mutating and evolving. I do believe that they have harnessed the power of the brain, and are using it to not only regain quicker reflexes, but also in communication.” The Professor continued in hushed tones.
“One may compare the behaviour of the infected, to that of a wild dog. They have learnt to hunt in packs. They see this as an increasing their chances of catching prey. We do need to bear in mind that their food resources aren’t as ample as they once were.” The Professor continued to explain.
“You mean there aren’t as many survivors around?” I asked.
“Precisely.” he nodded. “They have already learnt there is strength in numbers, they are already showing signs of hunting behaviour. It’s quite extraordinary really.” The Professor added.
George interrupted the Professor. “As educational as this conversation is, I think it’s about time we all put our heads down and got some rest.” he suggested with a sharp, authoritive tone in his voice.
That night, we followed the same routine as always, one of us took watch whilst the others slept. Luckily I wasn’t on watch duty that night. I curled up in Nick’s arms and I actually slept better than I had done since we lost the base, although when I woke up that morning I was still full of exhaustion.
It took me a bit longer than usual to wake myself up; by this time the rest of the group were already busy packing up. The great hall really came into its own in the daylight. The hand painted mural really stood out; it was indeed the focal point to the room.
I carefully made my way to the window, making sure I couldn’t be seen from the outside.
The undead wedding guests were still drifting around outside. I looked to my right and spotted a car park, where a decent amount of cars sat parked, no doubt belonging to the infected guests, unknowingly blocking our exit.
“What’s the plan then?” I asked the rest of the group.
We didn’t exactly have the advantage. We were outnumbered and were seriously lacking weapons, transport and supplies.
Nick led me to the double doors at the entrance. He put his fingers to his mouth gesturing for me stay quiet. I leaned over the stacked tables and chairs and looked out the small window within the door.
Hovering only a few yards from us were four members of the wedding party, three men and one woman.
I quickly stepped down. I didn’t want to alert them to our presence. The sight of the infected never failed to terrify me. What worried me even more so; was that it seemed the infected were getting smarter, they had already learnt how to work together.
“Shit, what do we do?” I asked Nick, shocked by the new revelation.
“It’s ok.” he said soothingly “we have a plan.”
Now the plan was a bit risky to say the least. We were going to take out the four partygoers, and see if they had any keys. If so, we would sneak out the side entrance we had first used to enter the building, and make a run for the car/cars.
If they didn’t have keys, we would be back to square one, but with four less infected to worry about. There were certainly a lot ifs flying around. But what other option did we have? It was a chance worth taking.
We carefully removed the barricade from the door. The infected guests were still unaware. As long as they didn’t notice us until the last minute, we had a small advantage.
We had found a different use for the champagne now. The boys had armed themselves with the bottles, and were going to use them as bludgeons.
“What a shame to see all that good champagne go to waste.” The Professor sighed. “I highly doubt the French will be making any of their Special Cuvée for a while now.” he carried on.
I couldn’t help but smile. He was a man of good taste. He reminded me of an older version of my friend Marc. I hoped he was ok out there, wherever he was.
With a deep breath Nick and Paul threw the doors back. Alerted to our presence the infected turned. Before they had a chance to react Leon and Ryan sprang into action dispatching of the two largest men. With an almighty smash the infected fell. Champagne poured down their faces as Leon and Ryan rammed the remaining of the smashed bottles into their skulls.
Immediately after, Nick and Paul ran out following the same technique their friends had perfectly executed a few seconds previous.
It was now time for the Professor, Lacey and I to do our part. We quickly handed chairs to the boys who barricaded the new entrance ways.
Whilst we were building the barricades George checked the pockets of the recently deceased.
When we had all finished, George looked up. He shook his head in dismay. He had found nothing.
“What now?” Lacey asked.
“We think of another plan dear, that’s all we can do.” The Professor tried to comfort her, although you could tell that he didn’t seem to be holding much hope.
As we stepped over the dead bodies, something caught my eye. A turquoise , satin covered clutch bag lay on the floor, now encased in a pool of blood.
I altered my course slightly and bent over to pick it up. Wiping away the blood that now covered my hands I popped the magnetic clasp open. In it laid a lipstick, a small coin purse and a set of keys.
Just as I held the keys up, I felt movement by my feet. I quickly looked down as the infected woman seemed to be regaining consciousness.
Before she had a chance to get back up I slammed my foot into her skull. It was the single most disgusting thing I had ever done.
Brain matter splattered all over my shoes whilst more blood poured out and sunk into the carpet. I jumped back eager to get away from the bloody mess in front of me.
“Good work.” George commended me as I wiggled my blood splattered shoes, throwing off the biggest of the chunks onto the floor.
At that moment Ryan made his way to the side table to the left of us. None of us had noticed it. Lying on the floor, up against the table was another set of keys.
Perfect. We got what we were looking for. Right on cue, we heard thuds against the windows and doors. Our cover was well and truly blown.
We dashed back to the function room and quickly barricaded the door. We ran across to the other side and in one fail swoop, ran outside into the open.
I looked down at the keys I was holding. It had a BMW emblem across the front. I looked over to the car park. Crap, the place was full of BMW’s. As I ran to the cars I pushed the button, praying that one of the cars would flash, alerting us to a getaway car.
I wasn’t let down. A white shiny one series lit up as we dashed towards the cars. Not even half a second later, another BMW lit up. Ryan and I looked at each other.
“Shit, which ones which?” I shouted as I ran.
“Press yours again!” Ryan shouted back.
The infected had spotted us, they were still yards behind us, and they hadn’t caught up to us yet.
We slowed as we finally reached the cars. I pressed the button again. This time the blue 3 series lit up. “Guess that one’s mine.” I shouted back.
Ryan quickly changed direction along with Leon, George and the Professor.
The rest of us threw ourselves into the 3 series, I handed the keys to Nick as he effortlessly started the car.
Throwing the car into reverse, we quickly made our escape.
The infected were throwing themselves at the cars as we pushed our way through the crowd. As we neared the end, the bride came into view.
She had a beautiful ivory gown; it was strapless and had lace detailing flowing effortlessly down into the train. She had a small veil, held into place by a small diamond tiara. I could tell, had she still been human, she would have made a dazzling bride.
The blood stain on the front of her dress, and the large chunks of flesh missing from her arms and neck proved otherwise. Her pale complexion and black veins showed her for what she really was.
She opened her mouth as the familiar black viscous liquid flowed freely down her mouth and chin, staining her once pristine ivory gown
.
She lifted her head to the sky and let out an almighty shriek. Her once perfect blonde locks were now knotted and wild. Chunks of hair were missing and her fingernails, once perfectly manicured were covered in blood. She curled her hands into claws as she leaped towards our car.
“DRIVE!” I shouted to Nick, as he floored the BMW.
As soon as we were clear of the infected, we pulled up along the side of the road. Ryan stopped behind us.
“Where are we going then?” Nick asked, awaiting instruction.
I looked around the car. We were all drawing a blank.
“I don’t know, we didn’t plan this far.” I replied, suddenly realising our mistake.
Chapter 4 – The Sorting Office
“Where to mate?” Ryan asked, getting out the car.
“I was going to ask you the same question.” Nick replied.
I opened the door and looked around me. We were back in the countryside. I almost suggested going back to the apartment. After all we had managed to live in a relatively normal environment, with minimal danger. I would actually be quite happy, having my own home comforts back.
It was then I remembered. I didn’t have my damn keys. Duckface, the rancid, horrible, inconsiderate bitch had stolen them, along with my car. God I hated her. She had run off to find her (ex) husband and left us all to die at the hands of the infected. Not only that, she had done it on purpose. She made damn sure she would be the last to leave the base. She had taken it upon herself to unleash to tenants of the main base, she had done it purely out of spite.
It was her fault we were in this situation. It was her fault we had no safe place, no roof over our heads and no belongings. She had ruined it all. She had made no effort with any of us since this whole fiasco began. She only cared about herself, she had always been that way, and we had all been way too easy on her.
I hoped to god she was alive out there somewhere. If I ever saw her again, I’d make sure she got what she deserved.
I could feel the anger building up inside me just thinking about her.
E Virus: The Diary of a Modern Day Girl (Book 2): The Path of Destruction Page 3
