The Abandoned Trilogy (Book 1): Twice Dead (Contagion) (55 page)

              I dropped my hands to my side, “Go on,” I said in a resigned voice. He smiled then and told me. My eyes widened.

              “Does Elise know?”

              Rodriquez frowned and I remembered that he knew her as Captain Lacks-Renton so I said that.

              “Yes,” he said.

              “Oh shit,” well that explained why she was so extra pissed with me. I turned and looked at Private Bryson, “I take it you are still my bodyguard?”

              “Yes, Ma’am,” he said, “Until the Colonel decides otherwise.”

              “I can now make your life miserable, you know that don’t you?”

              “Yes, Ma’am,” he said, and he smiled his lazy Southern smile, “But you’ won’t.”

              “No, I won’t, you are right there, but I will make Wolf’s life bloody miserable,” I said grimly, “Of that I can promise you!”

I had taken Eden and Stevie aside before we had got back on the coach and told them not to say anything as yet to the others from the home about their new found positions in Thorncroft’s hybrid world of civilians, soldiers and God knowns what we were.

Stevie had no problem with this, he understood that Cassidy might become anxious if he thought he was losing Stevie’s friendship to the soldiers, he would make sure that his friend felt secure and as with the rest of us, look after him because Cassidy despite his strength and size was the most vulnerable of us all in the home with Kai coming in a close second, though I would never tell him that.

I think Eden would have loved to lord it over Jasmine, she might not have a boyfriend but she was now getting to do things that in her old world she would have never got to do. She was coming into her own, but I wasn’t going to let her get too big headed, I nipped that in the bud PDQ.

“Things are changing for all for all of us Eden, even Jasmine, whether we like it or not, we have play our part in it...” I exhaled, “Even me.”

“I want to tell her,” Eden said in a disappointed voice.

“I think it will become obvious to her soon enough,” I said to the young woman, “And have you thought, if Jasmine has a baby, you will have to help Lieutenant Barnes to deliver it.”

Eden hadn’t thought of that. Her eyes went huge at first with shock and then with genuine delight.

“So don’t try and make her jealous, be her friend, like you are mine.”

Eden’s mouth dropped open, “We’re friends?” she whispered.

“Yes,” I said simply, “That is if you want me as a friend.”

Eden slipped her arm into mine and hugged it, “I won’t say anything yet,” she promised me and then she made me laugh out loud by adding with a sigh, “I will have to put tape over my mouth though!”

Our next but one port of call was the Mega 24-hour supermarket on the outskirts of the town. It was as silent as the town had been.

It wasn’t locked, but it was empty of both the living and the dead. We went through the same procedure as we had done in the town with regard to safety measures.

Elise was pretty much blanking me but I pretended not to notice. I said nothing to her about the rank that Wolf had slapped on me. As far as I was concerned it made no difference to who I was as a person. If he felt that I had to have a rank, well OK then, but it wasn’t going to change me if I could help it. It had taken me a bloody long time to get where I was now as a person, I wasn’t going to muddy the waters anytime soon.

However, it was bloody difficult to ignore it as all the soldiers were now calling me Ma’am even when I told them not too. Kai whispered in my ear, that if it was ok with me, when we were on our own together as friends, could he call me Lucia?

“You can call me that all the time,” I said to him, he grinned at me and shook his head, he wasn’t going to buck the military system totally but at least he had a streak of rebellion in him.

Once it was deemed safe we all went into the supermarket and if it wasn’t for the lack of supermarket staff, we all looked like early morning shoppers, getting what we wanted and needed from the shelves.

I stood at the automatic doors of the supermarket staring inside at the goods on display, as people surged in, moving to the aisles they wanted to go to.

“Can I go get some games, Lucy?” Cassidy hovered near my elbow, his breath on my neck, “Can I? Please!?”

“Yes,” I said automatically and he happily trotted off to find where the games were kept in the store.

“I could kill for some whiskey,” I heard Bubba say to one of his companions as they came in through the doors behind me.

“Nothing beats Four Roses bourbon,” Jasper’s voice, “Smooth as milk, 80% proof.”

“No, it has to be Jim Beam Apple, “Bryson said firmly, “OK, so it’s only 70% proof but that apple in it, gives it that extra kick you need.”

“It also gives you one of your five a day,” I said, and they looked at me with puzzled expressions on their faces, I sighed, “I keep forgetting, we speak a different language.”

“We all speak English,” Jasper said.

“No,” I said as I walked away, “You lot speak Americanish, I am the only one speaking English here!”

Jasmine, of course was with the children. She was keen to find things for them, like a basinet, a car seat, toys and clothes and such like. Peters was given permission to help her.

Rachel had briefly checked on her grandchildren, they had been glad to see her and she had hugged them, and then looked at Peters and Jasmine and said apologetically, “I’m really sorry to keep on imposing on you.”

“It’s OK,” Peters said with a smile, “They’re no trouble, are they Jaz?”

Jasmine smiled and shook her head, she was happy to look after them, this was what she wanted I thought, to be a mum, to love and look after those she loved.

Private Salter had gone with Stevie to look for chips which I remembered were crisps in English, whilst Mitch was Elise going over the supplies they needed. Despite his protests, Mitch had fallen quickly back into his old military ways with ease. Not that he would ever admit that.

Percy had gone with a group of soldiers to pick up food, he looked resigned to his fate I thought.

Gabe was walking the dogs, accompanied by Seb who really didn’t want anyone’s company. I think Gabe was a bit pissed at his husband over the recall to duty but he was a pragmatist if nothing else and I was sure they would sort things out between them in the long run.

I was aware of Bryson now hovering in the background and I said as I headed in the direction of pharmacy area yet again, “Want me to stick a GPS tracker up my bum for you Bryson?”

“It would certainly be helpful Ma’am,” was the response. I laughed, shook my head and went to see what I could scavenge again in the way of meds and other useful items.

Mitch was driving the coach, he and I had barely had chance to speak since his recall back to active service.

Well Mitch had spoken to me, words to the effect of what did I think of desertion, unfortunately there was a serious sense of humour of failure from a one Private Isaacs who heard Mitch’s seditious mutterings and seconds later Mitch was hauled over the coals and given a bollocking by Elise which he took stoically as he stood to attention. Coward that I am, I slunk off, and left him to his fate.

              I sat up front in the coach, beside me was Wolf. Elise was sitting next to Phoenix who was controlling the Bee-in-the-SKY to make sure our way back to Thorncroft was clear of all things Twice Dead.

              Rachel had asked if she could ride in the van with her brother. Wolf had refused at first but I took him to one side and asked him to let her.

              “We need her to work with us,” I said when he started to refuse my request, “And he is her brother, blood is blood as they say.”

              Wolf saw the sense in my words, he nodded his head, and I told Rachel she could ride with her brother. She thanked me and hurried over to the van.

              Bubba the Bitten as we were to call him looked surprisingly well. Nothing like the Gorilla who had succumbed to the contagion. Bryson was sitting with him.

In theory he should have been trussed up and sedated, but no one wanted to do that. From our experience of the transformation into a Twice Dead, Bubba had to go into a coma and that was when it happened. Right now though he was wide awake and cracking jokes with his friends.

              The coach was hot and crowded and some of us smelt like we had rolled in Twice Dead Goo. Well we had actually and there were a lot of comments about certain people needing baths as soon as possible.

We were overloaded, but no one was complaining. We rumbled down the road, starting our journey for what was to be our shared home from now on. New for the Colonel, his people and the Zimmerman’s, but for us we were going home, to a place we all knew well.

              Karma was squashed under the legs of Private Bryson, but he was content. Jack and Russell were happily snuggled in their owner’s arms.

              “Well we have our work cut out for us Corporal Williamson,” Gabe was really rubbing salt into the wound with his husband, who glowered back at him, “We are going to be really busy in that kitchen, I hope all of you like wild garlic and apple soup,” Gabe tugged on the ears of a contented little dog sitting on his lap, “Because you will be eating a lot of it from now on!”

              “That stuff stinks,” Private Salter said from behind him, and then added “Worse than you do,” And he leaned over and sniffed at Percy’s neck, wrinkled his nose and fanned his hand in front of his face whilst going, “PHEW!”

              “You think I smell bad now boys,” Percy said with an evil smile when the laughter had died away, “Wait until you all start pooping wild garlic scented turds because you will, remember, I’m in charge of the kitchen!”

              There was a groan from Private Topaz, “I fucking hate garlic,” she said making a face.

              “I like the garlic and apple soup we made,” Eden said licking her lips.

              “Me too,” Stevie agreed with her, “And the garlic butter bread too.”

              “It is really yummy,” Jasmine tried to reassure Private Topaz who remained unconvinced, “You liked it, didn’t you Curtis?”

              Peters grinned, “Yes but the gas it gave me after…” Jasmine slapped his arm as he laughed.

              “It is really nice,” I said to Topaz, “It’s easy to cook too, we eat it all the time.”

“Does that make it a special needs soup then?” Eden piped up. There was a moment of silence before I started to laugh, as did Seb, Mitch, Stevie and Jasmine. It took a minute or two for the others in the coach to get the joke and then the laughter came thick and fast.

              “I think,” I said peering through the gap in the headrest at Eden who grinned at me, “That will be the name of that particular soup from now on.”

              “Much better than calling it the Twice Dead Soup,” Percy said which made us all laugh again.

              Cassidy was asleep, the noise in the coach not waking him up, his head rocked against the window, his mouth partially open. Stevie took some pepperoni sticks out of a heavily laden bag he had bought onto the coach from the supermarket. He handed them around and there was the sound of foil being ripped open and then everyone was chewing the salty meat. I ate my stick slowly, I actually preferred the spicy Meatster stick from Aldi’s, but this filled a gap.

              Poppy, the baby was finally asleep. She had been crying for a while but a bottle feed and loving cuddle soon settled her. She was put in a car friendly basinet that the supermarket had also provided and Jasmine was sitting beside her, watching over her, like a wolf mother watches over its cubs.

Corporal Peters was seated next to Dov and Seth who were squeezed into one seat. They were squabbling, they were hot, tired and fractious, not surprising really.

              Corporal Peters spoke to them both sharply, and Dov began to whimper. Corporal Peters lifted the little boy out of the seat, and as he did Seth viciously pinched his brother’s leg, making the boy scream in pain and of course burst into tears.

              Corporal Peters was having none of that, he was up in an instant and seconds later Seth was wailing because his bottom had been smacked by the soldier.

              I watched Corporal Peters sit back down with Dov on his lap who snuggled against him, sobbing softly as he clutched at his combat shirt collar with his chubby hand.

              “You, young man,” Corporal Peters said to the older boy, who was bawling loud enough to wake a Twice Dead before its time, “Will be going straight to your bed when we get home.”

This made Seth wail even louder and Jasmine checked the baby in the basinet, and then said to crying child, “You shouldn’t pinch your brother, Seth, that’s very naughty.”

              Clutching what was obviously his burning bottom, the boy sobbed that Dov had been pinching him beforehand.

              “That doesn’t mean you should pinch him back,” Jasmine pointed out sensibly taking me by surprise and then she moved in her seat and pulled the crying child onto her lap, and wrapped her arms around him, and he sank into her, weeping for a bit longer but she rocked him as she had rocked the sleeping baby not so long ago, humming gently until his snuffling had stopped and he was falling asleep against her. She stroked his damp head and kissed it.