The Abandoned Trilogy (Book 1): Twice Dead (Contagion) (46 page)

“It’s not a nice way to die,” Rachel said to me gently.

“No?” I said contemptuously, “Forgive me for not caring.”

“She saved my Grandson Dov.”

I looked sharply at Rachel, “Before the attack, he had asked to go to the toilet, she had taken him there, they were trapped in the house, by the time they got out, the trucks were moving, they had to run, the Twice Dead you call them, went after them, Dov, he’s just a little boy, only four years old, he couldn’t run fast enough, she could have left him, she didn’t, she picked him up and she ran with him, the back of the last truck was open, she had a choice, drop Dov and run and jump onto the truck, but she didn’t, she threw him into the truck as she ran, one of the soldiers caught him, in throwing him, it took her off balance…she fell…” I didn’t need to hear the rest of the story.

Why on earth had Private Charles done that? It didn’t make any sense. Why had she sacrificed her life for a mere child? She had no need to do that, Zimmerman was safe in one of the outgoing trucks, he was what they had come for. His sister was safe, along with two of her three grandchildren, the New World Succession had all the leverage they needed to keep Zimmerman under their control and make him do what they wanted.

“Nothing is ever what it seems,” Rachel said and then added, “And nothing is as cut and dried as we might think it is.”

“She might have saved him,” I said, “But she was more than happy to let everyone in Thorncroft die, that didn’t cause her any lost sleep.”

Rachel nodded her head, “I know, but even monsters, can care about certain things in their lives, history is littered with people of that ilk.”

I couldn’t deny her words. Rachel moved to where her grandchildren were, calling their names. She sounded weary, no wonder, she was related to a man who was involved in mass murder on a breathtaking scale, but it wasn’t her fault. She was innocent as were the children. Being angry at her and three young children was wrong and I knew it.

“You need to sit down,” Nat said. I shook my head. Stevie appeared at that moment, Karma panting at his side, telling me Phoenix was on the coach with his computer, ignoring everyone as usual and that Salter and Private Jasper were there too.

I walked away from the coach, heading to where a clump of trees lay uprooted, near to a large thatch of shrubbery that eventually slid down a steep embankment into part of the river we had not so long ago been doused liberally with. The tree trunk I sat on had fallen to the ground long ago, the bark was old and moss covered and it had partly sunk into the ground.

I let my eyes scan the landscape behind us. Natural beauty surrounded us, green belt land that would now truly turn back to nature. What man had made would fall into decay, it would melt away over time and become part of Mother Nature’s plan for the planet. Maybe that was not a bad thing I thought. We sure as hell didn't deserve her.

The hand that clamped over my mouth was strong, it crushed my jaw and then I was being pulled backwards off the tree trunk, and into the springy bushes away from the drop down embankment.

Twigs and leaves scraped over my face, I felt the sting of my hair catching in the bushes and being pulled out. I clawed at the hand with my fingers struggling against whoever or whatever had hold of me and then I felt the cold nub of a gun against the side of my head and Duke’s voice soft in my ear, “I could have shot any of you, not very clever letting your guard down like that,” I tasted blood, not my own, Duke’s, his wrists were a mess, torn and still bleeding though he had bandaged them up as best he could.

He had got out of two sets of plastic handcuffs, he knew his stuff, more than perhaps we had realised. The initial shock of being dragged into the bushes wore off quickly. I licked my lips, I tasted more blood. Why wasn’t I afraid? I should have been terrified, but I wasn’t. I felt nothing at all. Duke gripped my jaw tightly, “The Colonel should have realised I wouldn’t just carry one gun, you always have to be prepared.”

Why hadn’t he shot anyone yet? He had ample chance if he had been hiding in this undergrowth for a while. He had a gun yes, I thought and then it hit me. He didn’t have any ammunition for it, other than the clip that was in it.

It also wasn’t an army regulation gun, it was smaller, a back-up just in case he needed it. My mind was working overtime, he also didn’t have a full magazine, he probably had to use the Glock when he was legging it from the Twice Dead, but he still had some bullets, not enough to do what he obviously wanted to do.

He wasn’t aware I had a gun in my bag, and several magazines, he had seen me with my sword, but he had no idea that Wolf had given me a Glock.

“Make any noise,” he whispered in my ear, “And I will start shooting your friends,” He had nothing to lose, but what he didn’t yet comprehend was that neither did I. He moved his hand from my mouth, pressed the gun nub harder into my temple and in the semi-darkness of the shrubbery said softly, “Aren’t you going to tell me I don’t stand a chance?”

Our eyes met as I looked up at him and I said calmly and equally as softly, “No,” The bushes he had pulled me into were growing wild around several large trees that sloped steadily down the embankment. There was a natural hollow behind the bushes before they met the bark of the trees; we were lying on dirt and bracken, light filtered in from high above, there was a smell of ancient dried leaves that had rotted over the centuries and returned to the earth, a continual recycling of the planet, untouched by man.

The bushes had sprung back into place when he had dragged me in, I could make out pricks of light through the thick foliage, but it was not dark because as tall as the bushes were, they had not grown over themselves and light flooded in from high above.

I could hear and see birds flying above, there was a hum of life in the air. Not human life, nature. Shadows passed over us from above, wings that floated on the air currents, a life above, but so little life below.

“You’re a lot like him,” Duke said as he pushed me onto my back and pressed down on me, his face so close to mine I could smell his breath, “A lot like him.”

A lot like who? The Colonel? That was debatable.

“He had no idea you existed,” I frowned, what was Duke talking about, “Your Uncle, your mother’s brother,” I stared up at Duke, not really taking in what he was saying, my mother’s brother? Who the hell was my mother’s brother?

“How does it feel to be related to one of the architects of the New World Succession,” he said with a soft laugh, “General James Bowes-Lyon, a member of the British aristocracy, royalty no less, as well as being the highest ranking officer alive in this country, you might hate and detest Zimmerman, but he is nothing compared to the General, nothing at all.”

My mother’s maiden name had been Bowes-Lyon. Social Workers occasionally mentioned that my mother’s maiden name had been the same as the Queen’s mother. That hadn’t imbued me with any kind of pride I can tell you, mainly because I had watched the documentary
The Queen’s Hidden Cousins
on YouTube.

Despite Duke’s revelation, it meant nothing to me, other than momentary surprise, followed by disgust that my blood was soiled with blood of people who had turned their back on their own children just because they were disabled. Just as they had done to me.

So I was genetically related to a man who was as bad if not worse than Zimmerman. I didn’t know him; he didn’t know me. Our only connection was a woman who had been dead for many years. My mother.

“If you’re going to kill me can you please get it over and done with, I’m very tired,” Duke pressed the Glock muzzle harder into my head, but I didn’t move or flinch.

“Do it,” I said. We stared at each other, my body was limp under his.

“Strength,” he murmured, “So much strength, just like him,” He moved the gun from my head, I didn’t know what he was going to do, and I didn’t much care. He was distracted by my reaction to his revelation along with my indifference to him blowing my head off. He didn’t know how much mental pain I was in right then because it was bottled up inside of me, just below the surface, not quite ready to explode or in my case implode.

“I had a feeling the Colonel wouldn’t insist on you all being inoculated by the Lieutenant when we left, he’s been questioning a lot of things of late, more since he met you, a lot more, you were his catalyst, but then you are unique.”

I moved my head so that we were looking each other, he wasn’t aware that Paul was dead, he had been long gone from the Ridge by then, “Paul won’t turn,” I whispered, I knew right then how to break his icy demeanour, “Your contingency plan didn’t work, the phials are safe in my room, and you know what that means? Zimmerman can create an inoculation for us, for the children who will be born in the next nine months’ time, you screwed up Duke, you got bested by a bunch of cripples and retards, the same cripples and retards who are going to bring down your New World Succession, your chosen elite won’t be the elite for much longer, that will be our legacy, how’s that for the ultimate in irony? A Bowes-Lyon defeated by a Bowes-Lyon?”

He would have shot me right then, I saw it in his eyes, and I will him to do it.

“Son of a bitch!” what happened next is still a bit of a blur. Duke was suddenly no longer on top of me, he shot off of my body like someone had greased him from head to toe then pushed him down a flat slide. He was dragged hard and fast from under the bushes where we both lay.

It was so rapid, he let go of his gun, it slipped from his hand, he tried to grab it as he slid, but I rolled to one side, hard and fast, my body stopping him from reaching the handle, he swore, I felt his fingers grab one of my ankles, he intended for me to be pulled out with him, but he had grabbed the ankle that had the leg brace on it, as I was now on my side, my good leg was free and I hit him hard in the mouth with the heel of my boot. I saw a flash of red, a grunt of pain and I began to roll, tumbling my way out of the bushes, my fingers grasping the gun as I did.

I was suddenly in the sunlight, all around me were soldiers, I caught a glimpse of Stevie, I heard shouting, dogs barking, swearing. I was momentarily dizzy, I felt hands under my arm pits, it was Nat, hoisting me to my feet, he was shouting something, but I was looking for Duke.

Rodriquez and the soldier I now knew as Bryson had pulled Duke from out of the bushes, I remember wondering how they knew where we were and what to do?

Duke wasn’t going to be taken that easily. Even my kick to his mouth had not incapacitated him. What we didn’t know at that moment was that he had specialist fighting skills and he used them to good effect. He sent Bryson flying backwards and then he had Rodriquez in a headlock.

He was going to break his neck I thought! He was going to kill him! The world slowed down again for me, I found myself evaluating everything in nano-seconds.

“Drop!” I screamed suddenly, “Drop!”

Rodriquez body suddenly went limp, his muscles relaxed and he became almost boneless, just as he had done during the Twice Dead battle and he was under attack and Stevie had saved him. Duke wasn’t expecting this. He tried to yank on Rodriquez neck, but he had hesitated a second too long.

The crack as the cricket bat hit the side of his head was satisfying in ways I cannot even begin to describe. Stevie is not very tall, most of the soldiers, including Rodriquez are over six foot-tall so he was never in Duke’s line of sight.

The blow sent Duke spinning, though he didn’t go down, at least not right then. I saw an explosion of blood, and teeth, I think one of his eyes popped partially out of its socket, and I felt my arm rising upwards, the gun in my hand aimed and I fired. I caught him in the shoulder and he spun again, this time going down onto one knee.

“That’s for Adag and Paul,” I whispered and then my hand dropped and the gun was limp at my side. I felt Nat’s arm move protectively around my chest and for the moment I leaned against him, glad of his presence.

Bryson had got up from where he had been sent flying, and through burning eyes I saw all the surviving soldiers move purposefully toward the wounded man. Bryson booted him in the side of the head. More teeth and blood exploded from his ruined mouth. His body slammed to the ground, he struggled to get up, moving feebly, I saw Wolf watching, he didn’t try and stop it, he just watched.

“Don’t,” I heard myself shout, “Please, don’t…” Yes, I had shot Duke, but I hadn’t killed him. I could have aimed for his head, but I hadn’t. I wanted to hurt him, but killing him would not bring back Adag and Paul. It would not resurrect Gregory, it wouldn’t give any of the residents of Thorncroft or the soldiers their families back and it wouldn’t change the fact that I was related to one of the people who was part of the mess we were all in now.

The men stopped, they looked at me and I heard myself say, “We can’t become like them, we just can’t.”

“I can,” Bryson said savagely and he kicked out at Duke’s face again, but the blow never landed because Stevie, grabbed his arm and pulled hard.

“No, Lucy said no,” he said, his voice quiet, but was heard by everyone in the clearing and then he added, “No, you are a good man.”

Bryson went still. Stevie’s words reverberated through the stillness of the day.

“Fuck,” I heard someone say.

Bryson nodded his head and stepped back and Stevie let go of his arm.

Wolf moved from where he had been standing, he stood over the bloody and broken body of one of his former men, “Your precious New World Succession used you the same way they used us,” he said, “Lieutenant Barnes, tend to this piece of shit please,” he then turned to Bryson, “Private Bryson, please escort Lucia to the coach, stay with her, don’t let her out of your sight.”