The Abandoned Trilogy (Book 1): Twice Dead (Contagion) (13 page)

              “Fruit picking,” I replied as it would be rude not to answer.

              “Don’t be Goddamn facetious,” the Captain snapped at me “You went away from the building and into the woods, you don’t know what the hell is out there!”

              “Fruits trees and a shit load of squirrel crap, oh and some bird poop too,” I responded and this made Seb and the others laugh. I saw a soldier standing behind Duke smile, though his expression quickly went back to neutral indifference. I saw the name PETERS on his combat jacket, he was also the soldier Jasmine had offered to make a sandwich for in the kitchen. Well, he at least had a sense of humour.

              “What’s your problem Captain?” Adag finally spoke, “We live here remember? Or had you forgotten?”

              “You were told we were under quarantine!”

              “You are under quarantine,” Adag corrected her, and then repeated, “We live here.”

              Before a full scale argument could erupt, Colonel Wolf strode over from the direction of the home, with a face as hostile and unfriendly as everyone surrounding us.

              Adag drew herself up to her full height and said coolly before he could utter a word, “Colonel, you have made it inordinately clear that we are not your responsibility, so therefore I don’t think you and your unit have the right to tell us where we can or cannot g.”

              Colonel Mason Wolf was in no mood to play nice, and he took two steps toward Adag and she instinctively drew back, I was standing beside her but I held my ground, “You might not be my responsibility,” he said snapped, “But if you bring those damn things to our doorstep, then it will become my responsibility to clear up the carnage, just like we had to do with your Goddamn friend!”

              Adag’s face drained of colour, and I felt a surge of fury well up inside of me. Something that very rarely happened. Adag was grieving the loss of Gregory, we all were but the Colonel’s words had wounded her further. I saw it in her eyes.

              “Well done Colonel Wolf,” I turned on the angry officer, furious with him, “You have given new meaning to the phrase ‘how to be an absolute bastard in less than ten seconds, in fact, I think you have broken the world record, congratulations.”

              Seb laughed though there was nothing about the tense situation that was still building up around us.

              Wolf didn’t apologize, I didn’t expect him too.

              “You were told,” he said in a voice spoke of no quarter given.

              “And now you are being told,” I responded in an equally intractable voice, “We don’t do told or is American English a different language from the Queen’s English?” We were now facing each other, I am not tall, and Wolf was a good six foot in height but I had drawn myself up and my stance made it clear, unlike Adag, I would not back down.

“What is he talking about Lucy?” Jasmine’s clutched at Mitch’s arm, trying to make sense of what was being said.

              “What friend?” Stevie said and he looked at Adag and then at me, a puzzled expression on his face.

              “Don’t worry about it,” Adag had managed to compose herself, “Let’s go inside, if you have finished Colonel?”

              “You’re rude,” Cassidy spoke, his words were directed at Wolf.

              “You’ve not told them?” the soldier Duke spoke and I swung around, ready to tell him to shut the hell up but Wolf beat me to it.

              “Be quiet Corporal Duke!” Wolf barked at the soldier but it was too late, Eden, Stevie, Cassidy and Jasmine clamoured to know what they had not been told.

              “I’ll tell you all in the kitchen,” Adag said and she gave the indifferent Duke a malevolent look and with Mitch who was incandescent with rage, I could see it just by looking at his face, herded everyone, other than me and Seb toward the kitchen.

              Without meaning too, Jasmine had broken the stand-off between me and the Colonel. The American officer chose that moment to dismiss the soldiers, who were waiting for their orders, “Bunch of Goddamn retards,” I heard a soldier mutter behind me, not the one called Duke, but someone behind him. Unfortunately, the Colonel didn’t hear him, because he was speaking to his Captain but I heard him.

              “Speaking from personal family experience are we?” I said loudly, “I guess that is what happens when your parents are too closely related!”

              There was no response to my words, I didn’t expect there to be but someone in the ranks laughed.

              Seb looked at me strangely as he hadn’t heard the soldier either and I said to him, “Tell you later.”

              “What was that about?” Colonel Wolf said turning to look at me.

              “Nothing,” I said flatly.

              He didn’t believe me but he didn’t pursue it then, instead he said “You’re not to go into the woods from now on, do you understand?”

              “No,” I said crossing my arms across my chest, “Actually, I don’t.”

              “Me neither,” Seb followed my stance.

              “Don’t push me,” the Colonel said pointing a finger at me.

              “Or what?” I challenged him.

              “This isn’t a game!” Wolf was not used to being defied, least of all by two cripples.

              “I think we know that better than anyone here, right Seb?”

              “Too right!”

              “We can send a couple of soldiers with them Sir,” to my surprise Captain Lacks-Renton spoke, breaking the second standoff between me and her senior officer, “It will give us a chance to check the lie of the land, keep us on our toes.”

              There was a tense silence as Wolf gave this suggesting some thought.

              “Make sure they follow protocol,” Wolf said, he was staring at me, forcing me to keep eye contact with him. I wanted to look away, but I didn’t.

              “You,” he said to me as he suddenly swung on his heels and walked away “Are pain in my ass.”

              “The feeling,” I muttered under my breath, “Is totally mutual.”

Captain Lacks-Renton blocked me from heading into the building, “Don’t push him,” she said.

              I stared at her, wondering what made a woman want to become a soldier.

              “I don’t push anyone,” I said and she laughed then.

              “Oh, but you do,” she said as she walked away, “You do.”

              “I don’t know who is worse,” Seb said to me, “Him or her!”

              “Him,” I said. I didn’t understand what either the Captain or the Colonel meant about me pushing them.

              “What were you on about before?” Seb asked me. I told him.

              Seb grinned, “Nice put down Lady of Shadows, I need to remember that one!”

              Despite my angst and outrage over what had just happened I smiled.

              “I better check on Phoenix,” I said. Together we headed back to the home, I went into the building and checked on Phoenix, whilst Seb disappeared in the direction of the kitchen.

Phoenix didn’t answer me when I said I would bring him some food later on and then I left him in the comfort of his darkness, wondering if or when he would find a way out of his fear anytime soon.

After checking on Phoenix I went into the kitchen. Sitting at the butcher’s block were Cassidy, Eden and Jasmine. It was obvious Jasmine had been crying as had Eden. Stevie’s eyes were red and Cassidy just looked bewildered.

Adag was relieved to see me, she was filling the kettle with water at the sink, “Can you start making some lunch Lucy?” she said, “Mitch has taken Paul to his room, he was feeling sick.”

“Sure,” I said.

“They know about Shannon and Gregory,” Adag said to me. Jasmine gave a little sob and of course Eden copied her.

“I’ll come back after I have seen to Paul,” Adag said and she left the kitchen.

“Where are Gregory and Shannon?” Cassidy said.

“They’re dead, stupid,” Eden snapped at the big teenager, “You never listen!”

“Oh,” Cassidy nodded his head and then said, “Can I have something to eat Lucy?”

I had to resist the urge to tell Eden to leave the kitchen, instead I said abruptly to her, “I need your help to make lunch Eden.”

Eden, who had been about to say something horrible again to Cassidy, stared at me in surprise. Her mouth snapped shut. As much as I liked the gentility and safety of Thorncroft, I had noticed that the residents weren’t encouraged to help make food, they could make suggestions as to what they liked to eat, but not help in the making of it.

“Oh,” she said, “OK.”

              “You too Jasmine,” I said to the quiet girl and then I added, “And you both get the stinky job of chopping up the wild garlic and onions.”

              Jasmine smiled then and I said to Eden, “Can you manage that, or will the smell be too strong for you?”

              Eden had no intention of not being able to do something with her best friend and she said quickly, “I’ll put a peg on my nose,” I blinked, had she just made a joke?

“I want to help as well,” Stevie piped up distracting me.

              “Me too,’ Cassidy said to me, nudging my arm gently and almost sending me flying.

Fifteen minutes later I had everyone organized in the kitchen. Jasmine and Eden were happily chopping up garlic and onions for the soup. Questions about Shannon and the Gorilla were on hold for the moment, thank God.

              “You can help make blackberry smoothies,” I said to Cassidy, and he gave me a beaming smile when I sat him down on a stool with a bowl, a load of blackberries and I showed him how to get rid of the little stalks and then put them in the bowl so they could be washed.

              “You can eat one or two of them,” I said to him, “But the more you eat, the less there will be for your smoothie.”

              Cassidy grinned at me, “I’ll be good,” he promised and like Eden, he set about sorting out the berries.

              “I want to make a smoothie too,” Stevie said to me, he was hovering nearby. I had told him to help peel some apples to make some apple pies. He shuffled off to wash the apples before hunting for something to peel them with.

I had noticed we were running out of bread, but we had plenty of flour, we’d make bread until that ran out. I wondered when we could go into town, if the Twice Dead had left the town we could go there and empty the local supermarket of their none perishable goods.

              I decided not to mention this until after the Military had left. Mitch had told us that the home’s coach had a tank full of petrol and if we were lucky, we could fill up at the local petrol station just outside of town.

              I was also thinking about weapons, we would need weapons, guns were out of the question, but there had to be other weapons we could get our hands on, but who would teach us how to use them? I only knew how to fire the Glock because of Jack; my prodigious memory had served me well.

              My brain was on overdrive; I was thinking in ways I had never allowed myself to think before. It was if this contagion that had created the Twice Dead had woken me up too, and that I knew more than I realised that in my time lurching from Foster home to Care facility I had learned how to survive, but just hadn’t realised it. Until now.

              I made Phoenix a cup of hot chocolate and took it into his room. He had moved, but was still lying on his bed, his face to the wall. I put the cup on his bedside table and said softly.

              “I just want to say Phoenix, without your help, we wouldn’t have known half of what is going on, thank you.”

              I turned to leave and just as I got to the door Phoenix spoke, “Is Gregory dead?” his voice was low, but audible. I stood where I was.

              “Yes,” I said.

Slowly he turned in his bed and sat up. I didn’t put the light on as the light behind me in the hall allowed me to see him. Paul actually looked better than he did right now and Paul was dying.

“I liked him,” Phoenix said.

I didn’t let my surprise show at his words, “So did I,” I said as the young man reached for the hot chocolate.

“What do they want?” I knew he was referring to the military, the people who had stormed the home and had almost rendered him catatonic.

I told him. Briefly and concisely. He listened and when I had finished nodded his head.

“Is your computer still connected to COBRA?” I asked him and then I realised his computer was no longer on his desk though they had left his modem in situ, but his keyboard and screen was gone.

Phoenix saw me looking at his desk; he didn’t appear concerned that his computer was not there. He reached over to his bedside cabinet and opened it, my eyes widened as he pulled out a mac pro notebook.

“Keep it out of their sight,” I said to him.

“I will,” he said.

“I suggest you pretend not to be awake,” I said softly.