Humanity: After It Happened Book 2 (6 page)

“Where did you come from?” Dan asked.

“Racist.” said Selina mockingly “My family’s from Bolton and I moved down for University” Neil laughed at her sense of humour.

“No!” Dan stuttered “I meant…”

“We know what you meant, silly sally” said Marie.

“We had to leave the city because supplies were running out and the smell was awful.  There were also a lot more people like them back there making it unsafe to stay” she added.

“So, what do you ladies do?” asked Neil politely, as he called a stop to readjust his grip on the makeshift stretcher.

“Selina’s a madam in one of Europe’s most prestigious brothels and I’m an award winning pole dancer” Marie said, without even a hint of frivolity.

Both men were taken back by this, and both felt instantly foolish when the women started to laugh simultaneously.

Marie sighed “I am – was – a Detective Sergeant in the City’s Major Investigation Team” she let that hang and noticed a close scrutiny from Dan.

“He is some kind or architect, but to be honest I switched off whenever he spoke about work” she finished.  ‘He’ was called Paul, and was looking a little green from the concussion.

“Well, I’m a pharmacist…  Student.” said Selina feeling totally upstaged by Marie who was still locked in a staring match with Dan.

“Shall we give you three a little time alone?” she asked them politely.  Dan snapped out of his trance to see that his bloodstained dog stared at her as intently as he had been doing, one lip curled up in a wonky smile.

LOVED OR UNDERSTOOD?

Dan and Neil drove their new additions back in awkward silence.  Dan kept stealing glances at Marie in the rea view mirror, which he caught Neil noticing.

They spoke freely of their experiences in the last few months, of how people in the city who had survived the virus, it was a virus in Selina’s opinion, had simply died of a lack of basic skills such as the ability to find water when their taps ran dry and the local shop was looted.

Twice before they had encountered hostile groups who wanted to take rather than build.  They were the last of five people originally in the group; one died on the bonnet of their minibus and the other had killed himself about two weeks after he found them.  Marie said that this was very selfish of him, as they had to clean it up.

The Glock was originally hers, taken on a whim from the holster of a dead colleague before she gave up and left work for the last time, but she was the first to admit that she had never fired one and hadn’t a clue how they worked; she had devoted her life to catching the people who used them on others.

Paul was deposited immediately into the care of Kate, who made loud noises about people plaguing her with serious head injuries.  Marie and Selina were given the guided tour of the house by Dan.  He didn’t want to seem eager, but he couldn’t bear to part with Marie so soon; there was something intriguing – no, enchanting about her.

He took off his kit in Ops and allowed Leah to clean the M4 and two pistols; his own weapons were dirty through firing, and the Glock through neglect.  Leah was keen to show off, and Steve was there to keep an eye on her and make sure nobody was killed by a stray bullet ricocheting around the office by accident.  Selina made a comment about child soldiers which went ignored.

He was as thorough as he could have been with the tour, introducing everyone he could remember the name of and offered to show them the farms and garden to extend the time.

“No thanks” said Marie “I’d love a cup of tea and a shower though”

Dan said he couldn’t help with the shower, then turned red as his courage abandoned him entirely. Penny gladly took them away from him and explained how the water was heated in the bathrooms for washing.  They were taken to ‘Primark’ as it was dubbed – the clothing store, and allocated a place to sleep.

Lexi returned from the gym where she had been teaching a chilly self-defence class and heard of the new arrivals.  She poked her head into medical and shrieked.

“PAUL!” she squealed, running to his bed and landing on him.  A barrage of questions followed, none of which he could answer as he was barely conscious still.  Kate ejected her from the wing and she excitedly grilled Dan for answers.

“We rescued three from a bunch of local redneck equivalents” he said “I know nothing more about the bloke”

“I do!” she said, almost hyperactively “He’s an instructor at my club!  He’s amazing!” Dan could not say he was put out to hear that she had interest in another man.

“Just wait ‘til he’s better!” she said “He’ll be able to teach everyone better than I can!” and with that she bounced from Ops.

Dan and Steve exchanged looks of surprise.  Lexi had a crush on the man, and luckily he was still alive. 

At dinner the new arrivals, bar Paul who was in medical with Lexi waiting on him, were greeted by Penny.  They were told to relax for the night and tomorrow they would be found a role to play.

For Selina that was purely academic; as someone with pharmaceutical knowledge, Kate had laid a very strong claim to her as a medical assistant.

Marie was a different matter.  Dan wanted her close, purely for selfish personal reasons, but she had no interest and no skill with firearms.  She had other necessary requirements for the Rangers, but he had to find a way to keep her with his unit where he held sway.

She had not made a big deal of her skills, saying that she probably had very little to offer in a self-effacing manner.  Dan thought of expanding the Ops role to justify having both Marie and Leah there.

As they now numbered forty-one, forty-four with Ash and the spaniels, he could not get close enough to Marie after dinner to capitalise her time without looking obvious.  He gave up and went outside to smoke.

To his surprise, Marie also came outside and lit a cigarette.  She saw him and raised a conspiratorial eyebrow, “Dying breed” she said solemnly “very few of us anti-social smokers left in the world now”

It seemed to be a well-rehearsed ‘break the ice’ smoking conversation.  He didn’t know what to say.  All of his moody swagger deserted him when she spoke.

“Have you thought of joining the Ops department?” he asked in the absence of anything better to say.

“Can’t say, to be honest.  Not sure I’d be much use to you gunslingers.  I’m more used to pointing your type in the direction of baddies and saying ‘fetch’”

Her smile took all the insult out of her words.

“It’s not about gunslinging” he reasoned “it’s about tactical planning more than anything”

She said nothing, so he pressed his advantage.

“Fancy a drink?” he offered

“Long day” she replied flatly “I’ll probably just get to bed”

Dan accepted this as chivalrously as he could, but reflected that he probably still seemed like a jilted boy as he walked inside, calling Ash after him.  He stripped off his coat as he stood in his room, hoping for another glance of the captivating woman who was not in the slightest bit impressed with him.  He gave up, and went to bed.

REVENGE

“Revenge is an act you want to commit when you are powerless, and because you are powerless” said Billy magnanimously.

Kyle thought that he couldn’t give a single shit for the theory, he just wanted to hurt Dan.  Badly.

He had run across country for as long as he could remember, terrified of that dog chasing him down and ripping his flesh like he had heard it did during the hospital fiasco.

He had run for hours with no clear direction or purpose.

As it got dark he had no idea where he was, but he saw light from a fire and he heard voices.  He ran towards it, and as he burst through the trees and into their sight, he collapsed with exhaustion.

The group seemed startled to see him emerge into their camp.  They looked to Billy, who seemed to be calling every shot.

Now he sat, wrapped warmly and given food and alcohol, he listened. 

“Relax, Kyle” said Billy with a smile “You are among friends now”

Kyle was petty and selfish, but he wasn’t entirely stupid.  He was a little worried about who these men were and what they did to people they found.

“What’s brought you to us then?” Said Billy.  He was unsure whether to tell the truth at first, but his anger at how he felt he had been mistreated was very raw.  Tears stung at his eyes as he realised what he had done, blaming anyone but himself.  He told them about the house, about Dan and the Rangers, about how they strutted around with their machine guns whilst others had to work for their food.  Billy lapped it all up, making the right noises and pulling sympathetic faces when Kyle’s indignation reached its height.

“I think we can help you, Kyle” he said, smiling a dangerous smile.

He would have his revenge on Dan and his smug bastards.

SITE THREE

She had to admit, things were getting tiresome.  There was only emergency generator power for the lighting and air conditioning, and this was run on a huge underground fuel tank.  The systems were augmented by external solar panels, but these weren’t enough to rely on alone especially as they needed cleaning and were probably covered in leaves still. 

The generator was used to top up the batteries, and every day the power levels dropped slightly lower than the day before.  One of the staff reckoned it would only last another month or so, then they had to outside.

Months ago, the order had come for the cabinet to lock down as an epidemic was feared.  There was a query regarding biological warfare, which nobody had a definitive answer to.

They had watched for two days how the country fell apart.  Hospitals were inundated at first, then totally overwhelmed when people started to die.  Looting started as soon as the bounds of social cohesion began to fray, which surprised nobody.  Quickly, even the looters started to get sick and die.  By the time the external power grid failed and severed their link to the cameras outside of their immediate control there was nobody moving.

Four senior politicians had got through the screening process, which was basically anybody that had the slightest raise in body temperature was deftly diverted to another room which did not lead to the bunker.  With those politicians had come some key senior military commanders and their bag carriers, along with a research staff who had been in place for some time by their pale complexions.  Add to this the maintenance staff and a handful of police officers assigned to escort and protect the politicians, there were thirty-six souls locked underground.

There had been thirty-seven, but one man was determined to open the sealed entrance and condemn them all in the hope that his family were still alive.  One of the police officers had abruptly ended negotiations with the enraged man using a gun.

Now it seemed, after months of living underground, there was no rescue coming and no contact from the outside world either.  Satellite phones, secure digital hard line networks, internet, radios; all had gone quiet weeks ago.  People started to say that this was a global event, and that they may be the only ones alive.

Eleven similar locations on the UK mainland had been activated simultaneously, and communications between four others had been established.  Three of those showed signs of outbreak within twelve hours of lockdown, and all contact was lost shortly after.  The safe assumption was that they had all died.

Only contact remained with one other bunker, site one, over five hundred miles away in Scotland.  It was in a very remote location, intentionally, and was the secret base of virology where bio-weapons were tested and constant theoretical war games were played.

A modern day plague was the new nuclear option, it seemed.  Even better actually, as it was deniable.  The virology lab held synthesised accelerated samples of just about everything that could kill a person, then tried to find ways of juicing its lethality to biblical proportions.  Information security protocols were adhered to in the first few weeks, but as it started to dawn on everyone that this was very real so the story began to unfold.

From what the scientists had seen, this was a form of influenza based on their observations on camera.  It had an unbelievably fast gestation period, and was lethal within forty-eight hours.  Exact cause of death was unknown as no test subjects were available to be autopsied, but the best guess would be fever and heart failure.  They swore it wasn’t one of theirs, and voiced suspicions that if it was a bio-weapon attack then it would probably be airborne and most definitely Chinese.

There were some in the bunker with various religious beliefs.  Some of these hypothesised the coming of the end of days which led to counter arguments and eventually a number of heated fights which had to be split up more than once.

An ageing Lieutenant Colonel with an impressive shock of white hair and a dazzling array of medals was all for their immediate departure; he planned to lead them all to a nearby barracks where they would be equipped as soldiers and he would lead them onwards. 

Most people though the man unstable, and it was rumoured that the last time he had seen active service was before most of them were born.

Their decision was made for them at the end of February, when the generator began to splutter and finally gave out.  This year’s resolution; don’t die of suffocation in a hole in the ground.