The Abandoned Trilogy (Book 1): Twice Dead (Contagion) (48 page)

It took a bit of time, the van sure as hell rocked on its hinges and finally it culminated in two gut wrenching bellows, muffled a tad by the van doors being shut, then groaning and sighing, kissing and then there was silence and the rocking subsided.

I stood for a moment or two more then went over to the back of the van doors and knocked on them. Hard. I had the sense to step back. I heard a cry from inside, the sound of movement, cursing, yelling, most of it I won’t repeat, but it was ripe that was for sure.

All of this went on for what seemed an age. I waited patiently and then the van doors swung open and Captain Lacks-Renton all but fell out of the back of the van clutching her Glock. She was disheveled, her combat shirt was on inside out, her pants weren’t fastened properly, and her face was flushed and her eyes bright. She was also bare footed and ready to fight and then she saw me. Her mouth dropped open.

I crossed my arms across my chest and waited.

“Lucy,” she said in a stunned voice, when she finally could speak, “Seb its Lucy!”

“Lucy?” Seb’s voice from the interior of the van was as incredulous as hers, “Holy shit!”

“I waited until you had both finished,” I had the satisfaction of seeing a look of complete and utter embarrassment fill every part of her face and work its way swiftly downwards until I think it got to the tips of her toes.

“Oh fuck!” I heard Seb say with a groan from inside the van.

“Yes,” I said pointedly, “I think you both just did.”

Elise pointed the Glock at me, “I could shoot you right now,” she said between clenched teeth.

“I’d leave that particular pleasure to Colonel Wolf,” I replied in a flat voice.

              The shock on her face took me by surprise, I assumed she’d realise he had survived, dumb now that I thought about it, “He’s alive?” her eyes welled up though she didn’t let the tears fall.

              “He was when I last saw him,” I said and I peered into the dimness of Mitch’s van, “If you are dressed Seb, you can join us out here.”

              “You are such a bitch Lady of Shadows,” I suspected Seb’s face was flame red, well I had caught him with his pants down, literally.

              I didn’t bother to offer to help him, he had taken his clothes off so he could put them back on. Elise glowered at me but she had the sense not to say anything. I went and sat in the front of the van. It took quite a few minutes for Seb to get himself presentable and transfer himself into Lewis.

I wondered how long it would take Wolf and the coach to get here. It was logical for them to make their way to this place. It would take a bit of time as they couldn’t come the way I had come due to the landslide, but I was sure Phoenix would help plot a pathway for them.

              When Seb was safely in Lewis and Elise was leaning against the doors of the van, arms across her chest, I updated them as to what had happened since we had all last seen each other.

I was looking at a copse of trees as I spoke. I tried not to flinch when I spoke about Adag and Paul, about their sacrifice that had allowed us all to survive.

“How many grenades?” Elise said when I told her how they had decimated the Twice Dead hoards, heading toward us, “Where the hell did they get those from?”

“Wolf gave them to us,” I said, “He was under the impression at the time we would need them.”

“We did,” Seb said.

“Not for that, never for that!” Out of the corner of my eye I imagined I saw Adag and Paul, under the shaded tree like the one Jack and I used to sit under when we had a picnic in the garden. Jack had loved picnics. So had I. I exhaled.

              Elise knew about Duke, Seb had told her, but she still sucked in her breath when I told her how he had tried to kill me and yes the bastard was still alive though in rather a bad way due to the kicking to the head he had taken.

              “The mother fucker,” she exploded, “Shame Bryson didn’t finish him off.”

              “There’s been enough death,” Seb surprised me with his words of moderation, he ran his hands through his hair, “Is Mitch ok?”

              “He’s fine, smoking like a chimney probably, knowing him,” I replied and I gave them a rundown of all the survivors, I also told them about Bubba being bitten.

              “Oh no!” Elise shook her head, “He was a good soldier.”

              “He’s still alive,” I said sharply.

              “Not for long,” Seb said, “You know how it will go Lucy.”

              “My name is Lucia,” I said automatically, “Not, Lucy.”

              “What’s the difference?” Seb became his usual obnoxious self and I wasn’t in the mood to ignore it.

              “A whole damn continent,” I snapped, and he looked puzzled. I rolled my eyes.

              “My father was Indian,” I said, “It’s Lucia, not Lucy.”

              “Oh,” Seb said and then he surprised me by saying, “Sorry, I didn’t know, you should have said.”

              “You’re not White?” Elise looked at me closely, squinted, and then, “You could have fooled me.”

              “No,” I said firmly, “I’m not White.”

              “Figures,” Elise said, “Now I know where your shit attitude comes from.”

              “I could have got it from my mother,” I responded.

              “Nope,” Elise said and she crossed her arms over her chest, “That kind of attitude comes from colour.”

              She had a point. I pushed my hand through my hair, “How’d you two get here?” I didn’t mention that I had seen the GoPro footage and it appeared that Seb had forgotten all about it. He and Elise exchanged glances.

              “We had a spot of trouble with the Twice Dead ourselves,” he admitted.

              “Yeah,” Elise nodded her head, “It got a bit hairy at one point.”

              “I can relate to that,” I said grimly.

              “Why are you on your own?” Elise asked suddenly, “Where are they?” it had suddenly registered with her that something wasn’t quite right.

              “I’m my own person,” I said flatly, “I went for a walk…last night.”

              “Oh shit,” Elise said as she realised what I was saying, “Lucy…Lucia, he’s going to fucking kill you.”

              My eyes narrowed, “I don’t answer to your Colonel.”

              “Keep telling yourself that girl,” Elise gave a sharp and humourless laugh, “What the hell were you thinking of? You could have been attacked…you slept outside? Holy fuck!” she shook her head, “They will be worried sick…Shit!”

              I knew that but I refused at that moment to think about that, “They will probably come here,” I said. Seb was staring at me in an odd way, and he said softly, “It wasn’t your fault Lucia, none of it was your fault…” How did he know? I had hidden it well or so I thought I had.

              The pain inside of me was now rapidly rising to the surface yet again. And this time I couldn’t contain it. It was like a tidal wave. It was engulfing me. I thought I had pushed it down deep inside of me, but I hadn’t. It was rising to the surface yet again. I felt sick.

              Seb reached out, trying to touch my hand, but I shied away from him. I shook my head.

              “Don’t,” I whispered to him and I rubbed my face, now hot and burning, “Please don’t…”

              He ignored me, he reached out and took my hand and he said the words that finally broke me, “I liked Adag, Paul too, I wish I had told them that, I wish I had said...” I pulled my hand from his, a single tear slid down my cheek.

              “No,” and I turned from him, walking away, my eyes on the woods now in front of me. Seb shouted my name, but I kept on moving, I had to get away. Far away. I had to run from these feelings that were crushing me from the inside out.

Elise came after me, grabbing my shoulder, trying to stop me, I turned, and shoved her hard in the chest, she wasn’t expecting that. She went over, landing on her ass with a grunt of pain and surprise.

              And then I was running, yes running, through the bluebells, across wild garlic, stumbling, falling, scraping every part of my body all over again, my heart was fit to burst with the grief that now was pouring out of me.

              I ran and ran and ran. I ran until I could run no more. Until my body demanded I stop and only then did I collapse, in a copse, amid beautiful and ancient trees with roots and branches that spanned the earth and the sky. I fell on a large patch of moss and wild lavender, curled myself into a tight ball of pain and anguish and I screamed. I screamed until my throat was raw and then I cried.

Yes, I finally cried.

I cried until I could barely breathe and then, I lay where I was and prayed to die. To go to sleep and never wake up like I had tried to do all those years ago when I lived with Theresa and Jack. This time around I could not live with my grief and what I saw as my failure to those I should have been able to save.

              I had failed at saving everyone. Shannon was dead. The Gorilla was dead. Adag was dead. Paul was dead. Bubba had been bitten and would die eventually, put down by his own people because there was no other choice.

              I had failed Jack and Theresa. I hadn’t been able to save them. I was supposed to have died with them but I had lived. And I had lived yet again when others had died. It wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t fair!

              I lay with my face pressed into the lavender, clawing at it until my fingers were stained purple and there I lay my face pressed into Mother Earth until the exhaustion of my grief overtook me and I slept.

I woke to the sound of barking. I lay where I was, not sure how long I had been asleep. The sun was high in the sky; it was after noon I thought. I had been asleep for quite a few hours by the look of it.

I heard the barking again, it was getting closer. It was Karma’s bark! I opened my mouth to call out his name, but my throat was so sore I couldn’t do it.

              I eased my body up into a sitting position, rubbing my throat and wishing I had something to drink. I hurt more than I thought was possible. My bad leg felt like a piece of floppy rubber. I massaged it and exhaled as my muscles reacted to the stimulation.

The barking got louder, and closer and closer and then Karma was hurtling toward me coming in from the north, a bundle of happy black fur who landed on me with delighted slobbery kisses and licks.

              How I hugged him, my hands running over his lean body, feeling his fur and inhaling his wonderful doggy scent. He was happy to flop down beside me, and let me stroke and fondle him. He gave happy little yips and I said in a croaky voice.

              “How did you get here?” Like he could answer that question. I took in my environment. Where the hell was I? I had run blind and I had run a long way. Karma wagged his tail and then I heard the shouting.

              Karma barked at the sound of the shouting. I tried to shush him, grabbing his velvet muzzle but he wasn’t having any of it, he wiggled free from my grip and continue to bark. Why hadn’t I left him in the bloody petrol station like Corporal Peters had wanted me too? Stupid dog!

              Of all the people to come crashing through the trees, he was the last person I wanted to even speak too much less look at. Behind him was Private Jasper and Bryson and when Bryson snapped his fingers, the German Shepherd jumped up and bounced over to him.

              “Thank God!” I heard Private Jasper say exhaling long and hard.

              I wouldn’t look at Wolf and he turned to his two men and said curtly, “Get back to the others, tell them we have found her, I’ll bring her along shortly.”

              Like hell you will I thought, but I didn’t say anything. Bryson saluted and moved off immediately, Karma at his heels. Private Jasper though hesitated.

              “Sir,” he said tentatively, and to my surprise Wolf didn’t bite the man’s head off for not obeying him immediately.

              “I’ve got it,” he said in a surprisingly gentle voice, and Private Jasper bit his lip, looked at me, worry in his eyes and then he slowly turned and followed his companion and Karma.

              Wolf didn’t yell at me right then, which kind of surprised me. He stood for a moment looking down at me whilst I in turn stared at the ground. He walked over to my side, sat down next to me, pulling his knees into the same position as mine and said, “You are the biggest pain in my ass Lucia Valerie Lal.”

              Lucia. He hadn’t forgotten.

              “Just go away,” I said. My voice cracked slightly, from the pain of crying and screaming from before and now because I was thirsty and my throat was dry.

              He didn’t go away. Instead he unhooked a green canvas covered water bottle from his dirty uniform belt and handed it to me.

              I was too thirsty to tell him to shove it up his bum. I unscrewed the top and took a long drink. It was cold. Probably water from the river. It had a sweet taste. I wiped my mouth, put the top back on and handed it back to him.

              “Thank you.”