For Those In Peril (Book 2): The Outbreak (39 page)

Just
then, I heard the sound of Mitch’s seaplane off in the distance. Searching the
sky, I saw it coming in from the west. Within minutes, it had dropped onto the
water and come to a halt a few feet from the back of the boat. Mitch climbed out
onto the pontoon and nodded in the direction the rib had just disappeared in.
‘What did
they
want?’

‘They
wanted Claire. They were attacked while trying to get supplies for the clinic.’
I stared off into the distance. ‘Gordon’s dead, and one of the marines was shot
in the confusion. Claire’s gone to see if she can fix him up.’

Mitch’s brow furrowed. ‘That can’t be right. I’ve spent most of the afternoon
trying to see if I could find any infected drifting around out there and I saw
the ribs over at the Suil Ghorm Lighthouse on my way out; the thing is, they
were still there when I passed it again an hour ago. They can’t have been trying
to get supplies there, and the lighthouse was automated years ago so there’s no
one on the island; infected or otherwise.’

Now I
was worried. ‘Could you see what they were doing?’

‘I
didn’t really pay them much attention, I just noticed they were there and moved
on.’ Mitch’s eyes narrowed. ‘Why?’

‘Because if that’s the case, then Nick must’ve been lying about what happened.’

‘Why
would he do that?’

‘I
don’t know.’ I glanced around uneasily: night had fallen as we spoke, but I knew
the waters well enough to handle the passage in the dark. ‘But I think I need to
see if I can find out.’ I leaned into the companionway, ‘Daz, get up here; we
need to head up to Rhum right away.’

‘Daz,
pull in the sheet there,’ I pointed to the left, ’and tighten up the jib.’

We
were a couple of hours out of Tobermory, and with stiff winds, we were making
good progress. Yet, I wanted to go faster. Daz wasn’t listening to me; instead,
he was staring back the way we’d come.

‘Daz,
sheets!’

He
pointed over the stern. ‘Ben, is that no’ Mitch?’

I
turned to see the seaplane flying low over the water towards us, flames spewing
from the engine compartment.

‘Yes,
and she’s in big trouble!’ I steered the boat into the wind, trying to work out
what to do next. As I watched, the seaplane stuttered and dipped towards the
sea. Somehow, Mitch was managing to keep it in the air, but it didn’t look like
she’d be able to continue to do so for much longer.

A
realisation of what was about to happen swept over me. ‘Daz, pass me the
spotlight.’

Daz
reached into the cabin and pulled it from its bracket before handing it to me. I
pointed it in Mitch’s direction, clicking it on and off several times. Mitch
must have seen my signal because she changed her course and headed directly
towards us.

Daz’s
eyes widened. ‘What’re we going to do?’

‘Get
the dinghy ready!’ I pulled the boat round, trying to shorten the distance
between us. ‘She’s going to end up in the water, and when that happens, we’ll
need to get her out as soon as possible.’

Within
a couple of minutes, we had the dinghy over the side and ready to go. Just then
there was a loud crash, and I glanced up to see the seaplane had finally hit the
sea some 200 yards away. I turned the boat into the wind once more before
jumping into the dinghy; cranking the engine as far as I dared, I sped across
the choppy waters. It was only a few minutes before I reached the stricken
aeroplane, but it felt like an age.

As I
neared, I could see flames licking up the left-hand side towards the wings as it
tilted sharply to the right. Inside, Mitch was lying, unmoving, across the
controls. Bringing the dinghy alongside, I climbed onto the pontoon and pulled
on the door; it didn’t move. I banged it hard and tried again: this time it
opened; Mitch stirred, lifting her head and looking around, a dazed expression
on her face.

‘Mitch, over here! You need to get out of there!’

Mitch
stared at me, as if trying to work out where I’d come from.

‘Mitch, the plane’s on fire,’ I beckoned to her. ‘You need to get out!’

‘Oh,
right … Yeah.’ Mitch turned her head, but remained in her seat. The heat from
the flames was becoming unbearable and the plane’s cockpit was rapidly filling
with thick, acrid smoke. Knowing there wasn’t much time, I leaned into the
cockpit and punched the release button on Mitch’s seatbelt before pulling her
towards the door. This seemed to be the jolt she needed to bring her round, and
she scrambled into the dinghy behind me. I gunned the engine; we made it about
twenty yards before the fuel tank in the wing finally exploded, engulfing the
plane in a fireball that rose thirty feet into the air. By the time we got back
to the boat, the plane had sunk from sight, leaving nothing but an oily slick on
the water and the lingering smell of burnt kerosene.

‘That
was close. Mitch, are you okay?’ Daz was peering into the dinghy.

Mitch
ran her fingers through her hair, flinching as she reached the point where it
was stained with blood. ‘Yeah, I’m fine. Just a bit banged up.’

Daz
and I helped her onto the boat; other than the shallow gash on the side of her
head and badly bruised ribs, she’d got away lightly.

‘So
what happened back there?’ Then another thought occurred to me. ‘What were you
doing flying at night? Were you looking for us?’

Mitch
dabbed at the cut on her head with a wad of tissues. ‘No. It’s Tobermory; I
don’t know what happened. Somehow the straw bales at the north end caught fire.
We tried to put them out, but the fire was too well set in. I realised it was
only a matter of time before it burnt through and the infected could get in. We
wouldn’t be able to hold them off on our own and I thought our best chance was
to get the marines to come and help us, so I got out to the plane and took off.’
She took a deep breath. ‘I spotted them almost immediately, sitting in the water
as if they were waiting for something to happen.

I was
confused. ‘Spotted who?’

‘The
marines; in one of the ribs; they were just up the coast from Tobermory. I
circled round to get their attention, only when they realised I was there, they
opened fire.’

An
incredulous expression flashed across Daz’s face. ‘They shot at you?’

‘Yeah.’ Mitch frowned. ‘It was like I caught them by surprise or something. Once
they saw I was hit, they sped off towards Tobermory.’

I
paced around the cockpit. ‘What the hell’s going on?’

I’d
assumed the other rib had taken the injured man back to Rhum, but it couldn’t
have made it all the way there and back again in the little over two hours which
had passed since Nick had come to get Claire.

‘Ben,’
Mitch glanced at me, ‘you don’t think they could have had something to do with
the barricade catching fire, do you?’

‘I
don’t know, but we’d better go and see if we can find out.’ With that I turned
the boat sharply and headed back the way we’d come.

We saw
the flames from Tobermory well before we finally pulled into the bay. The straw
bales which had kept the inhabitants safe for so long were now nothing more than
ashes and many of the houses which formed the barrier at the back of what had
once been the safe area were ablaze. By the light of the fires, we could see the
infected: they clustered around the bodies scattered along the road; pulling and
tearing at the flesh of those they’d just killed. Close to the shore, a young
girl, about the same age as Sophie, was silhouetted against the flames as she
chewed at the face of a man I no longer recognised. I shone the spotlight on her
and she looked up: blood dripping from her pale face, her long, blonde hair
matted with the red liquid. Her eyes searched the darkness, burning with anger.
She stood up and took a step towards the water; now she could sense that the
living were near, she was no longer interested in the dead.

‘Turn
it off! I don’t want to see her like that.’ Mitch looked away, unable to watch
any more, and I realised who the girl was, or at least who she’d once been. I
switched off the spotlight. ‘Sorry, Mitch.’

‘You
couldn’t have known.’ Mitch wiped her face. ‘She was so beautiful, and now look
at her … what’s left of her.’

‘I
don’t understand it. How come none of them tried to get away?’ Daz stared in
disbelief. ‘They could’ve just swum out to any of the boats in the harbour an’
been safe. Hamish an’ me talked about it when we first arrived; what would be
the best chance of escapin’ if the infected somehow got in.’ There was a pause
before he spoke again. ‘How come they just stayed on the shore an’ let the
infected get them?’

I
stared back towards the remnants of the town which had felt like our last
semblance of normality, wondering, like Daz, how it was possible that no one had
escaped. There must have come a point when they knew the infected were going to
get in: yet, it looked like none of them had even tried to get away. Knowing we
wouldn’t find the answer here, we turned and headed back out of the bay; after
all, with everything gone, there was little reason to stay.

‘Wait,
what’s that?’ Daz was pointing ahead of the boat. I clicked on the spotlight
again and played it across the water where it illuminated a man’s body floating
face down, arms out to the side.

‘Daz,
wheel!’ I ran forward and as the body came alongside, I reached down and grabbed
the back of the man’s jacket, pulling it up until I could reach through the
guard rails and grip him properly. ‘Mitch, can you give me a hand?’

Between the two of us, we managed to manhandle the body onto the deck. By then,
Daz had turned the boat into the wind and we were no longer moving. I rolled the
body over and Mitch gasped. ‘Oh shit!’

It was
Hamish. There were no signs he’d been attacked by the infected; instead there
were three large holes in his chest.

Daz
stared, wide-eyed. ‘He’s been shot!’

Mitch
slumped down onto the roof of the cabin, looking lost. I looked grimly at Daz.
‘That explains why no one managed to get away.’

‘We
need to work out what’s going on.’ I paced back and forth; Daz was at the helm,
while Mitch and I were in the cabin. ‘Why would the marines attack Tobermory?’

‘I
don’t know, but Nick’s had it in for us right from the start.’ Mitch shook her
head. ‘You heard him in the bar the other night. Maybe with Gordon gone, he
thought he’d get his revenge.’

‘Yeah,
but it doesn’t really make sense.’ I stopped and stared up the companionway,
watching Daz for a few seconds as he adjusted the wheel to keep us on course. ‘I
mean, if the other rib was waiting outside Tobermory, then it can’t have been
taking an injured man back to Rhum, and from what you said, they spent most of
today at the Suil Ghorm Lighthouse, not out looking for supplies for the
clinic.’ I rubbed my forehead. ‘So how did Gordon end up dead?’ A coldness
suddenly rushed over me. ‘You don’t think Nick had anything to do with that, do
you?’

‘I
don’t know, but I think we need to find out.’ She pointed west. ‘The lighthouse
is just over there, we could be at it in a couple of hours; it’s not that far
out of the way. If we can work out what they were doing there, it might help us
understand the bigger picture … whatever that might be.’

‘You’re right.’ I strode across the cabin and climbed into the cockpit, taking
the wheel from Daz. He looked at me curiously as I turned it left until we were
on a new heading, taking us straight towards the lighthouse which, thanks to
automation, still blinked its signal out into the night’s sky despite everything
that had happened.

I
stared downwards, scuffing my foot through the loose earth. ‘What d’you think?’

We’d
reached the island on which the lighthouse perched and had lost no time in
setting the anchor before going ashore. From there, it had been a short, but
difficult, climb up to the small cluster of buildings which nestled at the top.
Once there, I scanned the ground with the spotlight, illuminating evidence of a
struggle by the door of the lighthouse itself, and marks that suggested someone
had been forcibly dragged inside: it was the only trace we’d found that anyone
had been on the island any time within the last few weeks.

Mitch
knelt down and ran her hand across the dirt, before picking some up and rubbing
it between her fingers. ‘This looks fresh.’

Suddenly, there was a loud bang; Mitch jumped to her feet as Daz and I took a
step backwards. For a moment, there was silence and we stood stock still, eyes
searching the darkness which surrounded us.

‘What
the hell was that?’ Daz hissed, his eyes wide with fear.

‘I
don’t know; I think it came from in there.’ I nodded towards the lighthouse
door, training the light on it as I spoke.

‘D’you
think there’s one of
them
in there?’ Daz whispered.

‘I
can’t see how an infected could have made it up here; it’s too steep.’ Mitch
whispered back. ’And no one’s lived here in years.‘

‘D’you
think it’s him, then?’ Daz’s eyes were locked on the door.