Pet From Hell (Infected Series Book 1) (4 page)

BOOK: Pet From Hell (Infected Series Book 1)
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Chapter Eight

 

Thomas Jones had finished work and was walking back to his boarding house on the outskirts of Durham. He had been studying Law at Durham University for the last year and a half and was enjoying it. Working as a bartender in one of the cities pubs was great and the perks where great. That being said the perks where the girls that came in at the weekend looking for more than just alcohol. His route from work to his rooms took him past a small park and even though there had been muggings in the park he had never had any trouble. Roughly half way through the park the path narrowed the bushes on either side of it spilled over the sides making it just wide enough for one person to walk through.

A rustling of one of the bushes reached his ears and though the park was well lit the area where he stood was dark with shadows. He stopped and looked round trying to see if there was anyone else in the area. Not seeing anyone he continued on his way when a small cat shape pushed through the bushes to stand in front of him on the path. Thomas’ family had cats from since he was a young toddler. So he stopped and bent down reaching out with his hand.

“Hey there buddy you lost?” He said.

The cat never made a sound and neither did it move to leave so it wasn’t scared of Thomas. Stepping forward Thomas bent and held his hand out again.

“Come on little guy.”

This time there was a low rumble coming from the cat that Thomas mistook for purring so he moved closer again. This time he stretched his hand out toward the cat and he got his hand to within twelve inches of it when the cat struck out with one of its paws a dug a furrow on the back of his hand. Thomas stumbled back hissing with pain from the scratch when the cat launched itself at him. Lashing out with his arm he caught the cat and launched it into the bushes beside the path. Thomas ran down the path away from the cat and continued his way home exiting the park about five minutes later.

Coming to a stop under a street light outside of the park he looked at the damage the cat had made to his hand. There was a good three inch cut from his wrist to his knuckles it was ragged and bleeding. It was red along the edges and felt like it was burning slightly. Mind you he had been scratched before by his own family cats but this cut was deeper than any he had ever had in the past.

“Fucking wild cats they need putting down.” He said out loud.

Walking the rest of the way home took him another half hour along the way Thomas started to feel warm and a little lightheaded. Fumbling the keys into the lock and pushed open the door to see Jamie one of the people sharing his boarding house come out of the living room.

“Tom mate you look like hammered shit are you okay?” Jamie said looking at Thomas.

“What? Oh yeah fine just feeling a bit run down mate. Might grab some water and head off to bed.” Thomas replied.

“Ok well the rest of us are in the sitting room watching Shaun of the Dead on the TV. If you feel any better later on come down.”

“Ok.” Was all the reply Jamie got.

Thomas slowly made his way up the stairs to his bedroom. Opening the door he stumbled to his bed letting the door closer shut his door. He never even managed to take his clothes or shoes off as he rolled on to his bed and closed his eyes.

At the three in the morning Thomas’ eyes flicked open and he rolled on to the floor the room with a thud. The room was dark with very little light coming into it from the small window. You might have been mistaken that Thomas was drunk from the way he climbed to his feet. Shuffling his feet he made his way toward the door and banged his whole body against the door with another thud. This continued for a short while until there came a shout from the other side.

“Tom, dude you ok?”

Thomas became slightly more energetic with trying to walk through the door causing it to shake in its frame.

“Jamie can you get him to fucking stop I need to get up early for class in the morning.” Shouted a female voice.

“Sara shut the fuck up. He could be having a fit or something in there.” Jamie shouted back.

The bashing on the door continued and more voices where heard on the other side.

“Tom I am going to open the door mate. Please if you’re having a wank cover yourself up.” Jamie shouted.

The door handle turned and Jamie pushed the door open and Thomas fell back on to the floor. Jamie looked into the dark room and could just make out Thomas sat on the floor.

“Dude you ok?” Jamie asked.

The last thing that Jamie saw before dying was his friend Thomas launching himself from the floor toward him with his mouth wide open and a mad look in his eyes. The most disturbing part of the image was the green substance flowing out of Thomas’ mouth, nose, ears and the corner of his eyes. After that the whole boarding house was filled with screaming and shouting.

People from the neighbouring houses dialled for the Police and scrambled to help those inside. If they had not opened the door then maybe they would have been able to contain what was happening but the first police officer on the scene opened the door and was killed by Thomas who seemed to launch himself from the doorway. Followed closely by his house mates who clambered over Thomas and the police officer trying to get to the people gathered on the pavement. So the infection spread from one street to the next very quickly. By the following morning most of Durham City and the surrounding suburbs and small villages were infected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Nine

 

I woke with a small amount of light coming through the window on to my face. Rolling over on to my side away from the window I tried to close my eyes and go back to sleep. It never seemed to come back so I swung my legs over the side and sat up. What was I going to do now? Was the only thought that seemed to shout inside my mind. After all I was officially dead and I had no job or anything else for that matter. Jane was trying to help and I was thankful for it but I really did need to sort this out myself. Pulling on the clothes that I had been wearing the day before and my boots. I opened the door and quietly made my way down to the kitchen. Pushing open the door I saw Jane sat at the table with a cup of coffee in her hand and a dour look on her face.

“Morning Marc.” She said looking up.

“Morning. What you doing up?” I asked.

“Probably the same as you. I couldn’t sleep so I thought I would come down here for a warm drink.”

“Great minds eh?” I said.

“Something like that.” She said and the dour look returned.

I walked over to the kettle and flicked it on and turned to look at her.

“What’s up Doc? I’ve always wanted to say that. ” I said with a small smile.

“I listened to the local news this morning as I made my coffee.”

“And?”

“There’s been a breakout of some kind in and around Durham City and it is spreading very quickly.”

“Oh shit you don’t think….”

“Yes I am sure it is the infection from the lab. That cat that you saw must be carrying it and has managed to spread it.”

“That’s fucking great, just fucking great. I should have kept that fucking door closed.” I said storming round the room.

“Look Marc you didn’t know what was loose in that Lab or what we were working on. I think, if you had then opening that door would have been the last thing you did.” She said.

“So what happens now? What are we going to do?” I asked.

“To be honest with you I don’t know. If the government can get control of this infection quick enough then we just sit here and wait till it is over and then go to the authorities.”

“Ok, and if they can’t get control of it?”

“Then it won’t be long before the whole country is either infected or dead.”

“Well that’s a cheerful thought Doc.” I replied turning to make my coffee.

I heard a sigh then she said “Look Marc we won’t know what is going to happen just yet. The information I got off of the news was very sketchy at best and we both know that all the doom and gloom they run is all that people watch it.”

I had to agree every time you turn the news on it is doom and gloom as Jane put it and very little in the way of happy stories.

“Ok I agree with you on that point.” I said.

I took my coffee and went to sit at the table. Looking out of the window at the garden and fields beyond I started to drift off in my thoughts. Life had again taken a different turn yet again and I now had to try and figure out what I was going to do about it. Drinking the earthy tasting coffee and watching the clouds move across the light blue sky seemed to lull my thoughts.

Jane left the room and closed the door behind her leaving me to my thoughts. It was probably good that I no longer had any immediate family left. Because if Jane was right and if this thing spread quickly then everyone was going to be in danger. Slowly the coffee cooled in my hands and I got up to pour it down the sink. What was I going to do if this did get worse? What was Jane going to do? Again thoughts seemed to rush in and then just as quickly rush out of my head leaving no information that I could cling to. I heard the TV through the wall and left to kitchen to go and see what was being said if anything. Jane was sat on the edge of the couch raptly watching the TV. So I chose to sit in the single chair and watch.

Because the TV was just an old set it only had the standard five channels and no news channels. We both sat and waited for one of them to have the hourly news so that we could find out what was going on. I was getting nervous as the clock ticked its way to the hour.

Jane changed the channel just as the news had started.

A woman in her late forties, dressed in a pale cream jacket sat looking at the camera.

“Good morning I am Gillian Goodweather and welcome to the News on the BBC. The time is 10 a.m. on Monday the 2
nd
. The top news story this hour is the riots and violence in the North East. Early this morning police were called to a suburb of Durham City to find a whole street in uproar. This violence seemed to spread quickly throughout the city and outwards to various villages and towns. We have now been reliably informed that violence has also started in several other large towns and cities in the North East. The government have yet to comment on the violence but the local police have said that it seemed to be spreading quite quickly.” She said.

“We can go to our Newcastle reporter Michael James at St James’ Park. What’s happening there Michael?”

“Well Gillian as far as we know at 3 or 4a.m. this morning there seemed to be some kind of riot in Durham City. Now reports seemed to say that it had all started at a student boarding house in the suburbs and spread quickly throughout the city. Now we don’t know why it started or by whom but what we do know is that ordinary people have joined with the students in the violence. Police had managed to cordon off the area where it first started but soon after came under attack by the mob. We have had eyewitness reports to say that police officers have also been sighted amongst the rioters but we have not been able to get an answer from the authorities on that. Not long ago we were informed that several fights had broken out here in Newcastle and the latest was here at St James’ Park. As you can see behind us the police have raised road blocks and have deployed their riot gear in response.”

The cameraman changed angle to look over the reporters shoulder to show a line of police with riot shields and batons. In front of them slowly shambling down the road were men, women and what looked to be children. Each of these people seemed to find it hard to walk but there were a lot of them.

The voice of the reporter came back but the cameraman kept the camera pointed at the slowly approaching crowd.

“As you can see Gillian the police are attempting to bar the rioters from entering the rest of the city. Apparently all attempts to establish dialogue with them has failed and they have been warned that all defensive measures will be used if they do not disperse.”

The crowd were no more than twenty meters away from the police lines. The cameraman must have dialled up the zoom because the picture changed to a close up of a man at the front. He must have been about forty and was wearing the remains of a dark grey suit. The thing that stood out the most was the lack of lower jaw and the tongue flopping up and down with each step. His white shirt was covered from the neck down in dark brown blood. Green slime or something had run in lines from his eyes and ears to the bloody collar of his shirt. You could see the cameraman must has started to shake because the image jumped around the screen. It was just as that was happening that we heard a retching sound coming from somewhere off screen. The image managed to stabilize and then zoom back to show the police line waiting. A huge growling moan seemed to issue from the TV speakers and we saw the rioters break into a sort of shambling trot toward the police. An officer stood behind the main line started to shout orders as the crowd got closer and closer. The line of police raised their shields to take on the first line thinking that they would stop but the crowd just kept coming. Those behind the first line seemed to crush the ones in front in a desperate need to get at the police in front of them. Two of the police were brought down and then it was like all hell had broken loose. Blood and gore seemed to fly in all directions the screams of those men being torn apart vibrated the whole TV on its stand.

Jane jumped up and slapped at the off button on the front before turning and running into my arms with tears running down her face and her breath hitching with sobs. Guiding her slowly to the couch, we sat down beside each other and I held her close as she cried. We sat holding each other for what seemed like an age but was actually just ten minutes. Before Jane leaned away from me and rubbed her hands over her face.

“Marc, what are we going to do? That infection it’s from the cat isn’t it?” She asked.

“Yeah, Jane I think we can safely say that it’s what that cat passed on to Tony.” I replied.

I sat looking into her eyes and I could see the fear behind them. I was trying to come up with ways to get out of this mess but all I could think of was to hide out somewhere. Jane had stopped crying and was slumped back on the couch looking tired and drawn.

“Jane why don’t you go have a lie down and we can think of what to do after you get up. You and I are not going to be able to think of anything whilst we are both upset.” I said to her.

Sitting forward so that she perched on the edge of the couch she turned and gave me light kiss on my cheek stood up and walked out of the room. My skin tingled where she had kissed me and I’m pretty sure I blushed after she had left the room.

 

 

 

BOOK: Pet From Hell (Infected Series Book 1)
7.25Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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