The Abandoned Trilogy (Book 1): Twice Dead (Contagion) (16 page)

“She won’t say anything to the Colonel,” Duke said looked at it bruised hands and flexed them and I knew instantly what he was saying. If I told the Colonel, he would find a way to hurt Salter again.

“You better go,” Corporal Peters stepped in front of me, blocking Duke from my view. I clenched my fists, but I knew that Corporal Peters was right. I swung on my heels.

“I told you she was clever,” Duke said to his companions as I shut the door behind me, my skin was clammy, with confused thoughts running through my brain. I was not only confused.

I was scared too. Really scared. Not of Duke, he was dangerous, I knew that instinctively, there was something about him really disturbed me but it wasn’t fear, no what I was truly scared of, was myself. The world I had closed my eyes too for so long was now directly in my line of sight and as it looked back at me, all I could think was, “Bring it on you bastard, bring it on…”

Adapted Makaton
-
a language program born out of the original Makaton language for Thorncroft residents. The adapted Makaton language program has been effectively used with individuals who have
cognitive impairments
, such as
autism
,
Down’s Syndrome
,
specific language impairment
s,
multisensory impairment
s and
acquired
neurological disorders
that have negatively affected the ability to communicate, including stroke patients. Adapted Makaton relies more on signs and lip syncing than it does on verbalization.

I
didn’t see Private Salter for a while, the beating he had been given along with the Pack Run put him out of commission for a while. Adag had allowed for him to be put into one of the spare rooms near to the TOR so that the medic could tend to both men at the same time.

              To say Wolf was angry about what had happened was an understatement, of course none of the soldiers would say who had kicked the shit out of Salter and he refused to name his attacker. He kept insisting he had fallen over during the pack run, which of course Wolf knew was a load of shit.

One unexpected thing did come out of the foraging incident. The following day Gregory’s grave had a weatherworn empty ammo box at the head of it and all our ‘gifts’ had been placed into the box and more pink blossoms placed added. No one came forward to say they had done it.

Mitch went and got a pot of white pain from his garage and painted Gregory’s name on it and whilst it was drying Cassidy, Stevie, and the girls decided to stick seashells on it as the last trip Gregory had taken them on was to Bognor Regis.

              I realised that as long as every one of the group with learning disabilities had tasks to do they didn’t ask too many questions, even about Shannon and Gregory. With regard to their families, they were given a simple explanation that there was a problem with the telephone lines and the satellite dish and it would be a while before we could contact people on the outside of the home.

              I had told them this whilst Stevie was with Paul in the garden taking in the sun, although Stevie had kept his promise about saying nothing to the others about Gregory’s horrific transformation, I couldn’t rely on him not to say something that could cause distress, however unintentional.

              Eden and Jasmine grumbled that they would miss their favourite shows on TV, but Seb cheered them up by saying they would record and when the satellite dish came back on line, they would be able to do a catch-up. A blatant lie, but one that was accepted.

On the night before the third day of the quarantine, Wolf made a request of us. Would we mind spend the afternoon in the woods with two of his men, he was aware that we didn’t need to go looking for wild food on that day, but he would be grateful if we did so.

              He put the request to Adag who then put it to Mitch, me and Seb in her flat, which was now our base of operation as Wolf was using the home’s office when he wasn’t in the Conference billet or the green canvas tent in the grounds.

              “Why?” Seb had asked.

I was thinking of the bitten man in TOR Space, and I suspected it had to do with him and I said as much.

“We can’t really refuse,” Adag said briskly, “But Paul is really unwell, I’ll sedate him, he’s in a lot of pain, Phoenix won’t want to come with us, but he likes to stay in his room anyway, he’s not a fan of the soldiers, understandable really.”

Wolf had no problem with Paul and Phoenix staying in their rooms, especially as he was told they would be sedated. He assumed that Phoenix would be sedated as well; we didn’t disabuse him of this notion.

The two soldiers who came to the woods with us were Corporal Peters and the one whose life I had saved; Private Jasper his name was. His neck was bandaged; he was still a bit pale, but he was able to do scouting duty with Corporal Peters.

We took a picnic. To my surprise, Wolf gave us some army rations, which included chocolate, much to everyone’s delight.

Initially we spent a pleasant if somewhat surreal afternoon in the woods, with picnic blankets on the ground next to the stream and a wild garlic field.

Adag and Mitch bought foldable chairs for her, Mitch and me whilst everyone else sat on the blankets, other than Seb who was firmly ensconced in Lewis who had no problem moving over the grass, leaves and mud. Jasmine and Eden kept out of his way, they had learned their lesson from the last time.

The soldiers, with rifles in their hands moved around, scouting the area, but there were no Twice Dead to deal with, just the sound of birds, running water and the breeze gently pushing the leaves on the many trees that shaded us from the warmth of the sun.

We found a nice place to put down the blankets in a clearing surrounded by trees, a small stream and of course what Buckrams was famous for, a shit load of wild garlic and bluebells.

Mitch set the baskets of food down on the ground. Even though we needed to be careful with the supplies we had, Adag and I made the decision that it would be a proper picnic and sandwiches were made with long life wraps filled generously from two blocks of catering cheese, and of course crisps, fruit and cans of fizzy drink. I opted for a flask of tea as did, Adag, and Mitch.

Cassidy had bought his PSP with him and was playing his favourite game on it, his eyes glued to the screen as the animated cars and people scattered about doing his bidding.

Stevie was sitting with the girls and making daisy chains, there were so many daisies to pick and they were happy to sit there and create a long white and yellow chain that they wanted to drape over Seb’s chair.

He of course told them to get lost, he was reading a book, a thriller, he wasn’t too keen on books about Zombie’s anymore he told me. Understandable.

Mitch sat in his chair and closed his eyes, dozing, not saying anything and Adag to my surprise produced a knitting bag. She was making a jumper. It was powder blue; the wool was delicate to the touch, and very fine.

“It’s for my daughter,” she said to me as her needles clicked away in a steady rhythm, “I might as well finish it.”

I sat for a while, I had also bought a book with me, but I couldn’t concentrate. I got up and limped over to the stream, there was an overturned log I could sit on and stare into the stream, which is what I did.

Eventually it was time to eat and we set the picnic out. Impulsively I called the soldiers over to join us, they were standing by a large oak tree, looking around, bored I could tell, not surprising, they hesitated at first, then slung their rifles over their shoulders and joined us.

“I never got to thank you,” Private Jasper accepted a tin cup of tea off me, along with a cheese wrap and an apple.

I nodded my head.

“What’s your name?” Eden asked the young soldier. He told her. She stared at him and then held out a daisy chain bracelet to him.

Surprised he took it, Jasmine did the same for Corporal Peters, who looked embarrassed, but he accepted it.

Everyone exclaimed in delight when I produced the thick bars of chocolate that Wolf had given us. One for each person.

Cassidy snatched his from my hands and I gave him a steely look and his face reddened, “Sorry Lucy,” he mumbled and he hung his head.

“You know I always give you, your fair share Cass,” I said. He looked up at me and nodded his head. I smiled at him and he beamed back and happily opened his treat.

I don’t like chocolate, but I didn’t say this, I put mine to one side. Jasmine popped a piece of chocolate into her mouth and said to Corporal Peters “Do you have a girlfriend?”

Corporal Peters blinked, Seb laughed, “Welcome to our world Corporal Peters,” the soldier looked bewildered, but he answered Jasmine’s question.

“No,” he said, “I don’t.”

“OK,” she said and she turned to Eden “Let’s get more daises.” The two girls scrambled up from the blanket and hurried over to a large patch of white and yellow flowers and began to carefully pick them.

Corporal Peters and Private Jasper looked at each other and Adag spoke as her needles clicked steadily, the wool in the bag moving slowly upwards into the sleeve she was working on, “They have Learning Disabilities, they don’t think like you do, they never will, and yes they are different.”

Private Jasper looked at me and frowned, “Do you have learning disabilities?” he asked.

“No,” I said.

“She’s a cripple like me,” Seb spoke and he laughed, “But we have all our conkers, they don’t,” He nodded toward the others.

Stevie who was eating his chocolate looked up and said, “What are conkers?”

I explained to him to him what they were. He frowned, looked at Seb and said, “You’re stupid.”

“He’s got a point there,” Mitch spoke Seb could respond, “You might have all your conkers Seb, but you don’t always use them the way you should.”

I laughed and Seb gave me a dirty look.

“What about the others?” Private Jasper said curiously, “The other boy in the wheelchair, and the one whose computer we took away? Do they have learning disabilities?”

“They have something called Asperger’s Syndrome,” Adag spoke again, “It makes them very clever in certain things, but not in others and they are often socially inept, some don’t understand emotions the way we do, it’s a complex disability, because some do have learning disabilities, it’s known as Autism as well, you have probably heard of that.”

They had because they both nodded their heads.

“How’s Private Salter?” I asked. The two soldiers wouldn’t meet my eye, they shifted uncomfortably but they couldn’t ignore my question.

“OK,” Corporal Peters was the one who finally spoke, “He was never good at the pack-run.”

I snorted, “Is that what you call it when someone beats the living shit out of someone and almost kills them? That’s a new one on me.”

Corporal Peters and Private Jasper said nothing, well what could they say?

“I like how you speak,” Before the silence could become embarrassing, Jasmine trotted back to blanket with her daisies. She sat down and smiled at Corporal Peters, “You sound different to us.”

“He’s a Yank,” Seb said.

“Yank?” Jasmine looked puzzled.

“We’re from America,” Corporal Peters explained glad for the subject to be changed.

Jasmine let out a squeal of delight, “My mum and dad took me to America once, we went to Disney World!”

“I went to Disney World,” Cassidy said suddenly, he was still playing his game.

“Liar,” Eden joined her friend on the blanket, flopping down beside her.

Cassidy threw his game console at Eden, she screamed as it hit her on the side of her head. Blood spurted and Cassidy let out a bellow of murderous rage, “I’m not! I’m not!” He started to get up, intending to vent his outrage on the shrieking Eden, but Mitch was suddenly beside him, wrapping his arms around him, shouting at me to deal with Eden. Adag had dropped her knitting and joined Mitch with Cassidy who was screaming he wasn’t a liar.

In a matter of seconds, the peaceful picnic in the woods had descended into a Cassidy meltdown. Private Jasper had grabbed a tea towel from the blanket and pressed it against Eden’s bleeding head but I swore at her, “Why the hell do you goad him Eden?” I shouted at her, “You have to spoil everything for everyone don’t you? I wish he had knocked your bloody head off you horrible little bitch!”

Corporal Peters had jumped up from the picnic blanket and went to help Mitch and Adag whilst Stevie stood where he was for a moment and then he ran off. Seb shouted his name and followed him in his chair.

Jasmine was crying even though she hadn’t been hurt and I turned to where an enraged Cassidy was screaming he wasn’t a liar as three people tried to hold him down.

“I believe you Cass!” I shouted, “I believe you!” I didn’t expect my words to penetrate his rage, very little usually did, but as I shouted the words, his bright red bulging enraged face turned to mine and we looked at each other and he stopped screaming and fighting.

Just like that. Mitch and Corporal Peters almost fell over each other, Adag ended up on her ass on the grass behind her and Cassidy hiccupped, and he said in a pitiful voice to me, “I did go to Disney World Lucy, I’ve got pictures, I met Mickey Mouse.”

I limped over to Cassidy and he grabbed hold of my good leg and buried his face into it, his huge bulk heaving with sobs. I put my hand onto his head and stroked it gently.

“He’s nuts!” Corporal Peters gasped as he scrambled to his feet.

“No!” I snapped at the soldier “He’s upset, because that little cow is always taking the piss!” I turned to give Eden a venomous look.

“He hit my head!” Eden wept.

“She’s going to need stitches,” Private Jasper said as he pressed down on the wound, “I’ve got a dressing I can put on it, but it will need to be sewn up when we get back.”

“Fucking good,” I snarled, “I hope they hurt!”

“Stop it Lucy,” Adag had got up and dusted herself down, “Mitch, can you go and look for Stevie and Seb, Corporal Peters, thank you for your help, Eden, I am sorry that Cassidy threw his game at you, but Lucy does have a point about your behaviour, Jasmine, stop crying please, you’re not hurt.”