Strangers

27

The waiting was endless, unbearable. It was late now, dark outside. Their interminable incarceration had lasted most of the day and showed no signs of ending anytime soon. Frustrations were beginning to show. There were occasional glimpses of trouble, only for those involved to immediately separate when military interest was aroused. Much of the bad feeling seemed to be down to the dwindling level of supplies. What had appeared to be a virtual mountain of cardboard when Scott and Michelle had first arrived had been reduced to a few remaining boxes. There was a sudden change in mood when a door opened and the stocks were replenished. The smell of hot food temporarily soothed the tensions within the leisure centre.

There was an initial crush but the ever-present threat of military intervention kept things moving with civility. Scott fetched enough for him and his family. He found himself sitting close to Dez, Sergeant Ross and Dr Kerr as they ate.

‘Can’t say they ain’t lookin’ after us,’ Dez said.

‘They can stick their fucking food,’ Scott said, poking with a plastic spoon at his dish filled with some kind of meat stew. His stomach was churning. ‘I’d rather be hungry and out of here.’

‘I don’t think you would,’ Dr Kerr said. ‘They’re keeping us safe until they’ve got this thing under control.’

‘Like hell.’

‘Much as I hate to admit it,’ Sergeant Ross said, ‘I think you’re right, Doc.’

‘I know I’m right.’

‘I’m not so sure,’ Scott said.

‘Why not?’ Sergeant Ross asked.

‘Think about it… why are they really keeping us here? Why would they want the whole of Thussock locked up in one room?’

‘To keep us safe,’ Dez quickly volunteered. Scott looked at him in disbelief.

‘You’re so bloody naïve. It’s never about us, it’s always about them. If the doctor’s right and there is some kind of fucking weird, previously unheard of, sex-starved parasite-thing running loose around here, where do you think it is? Do you think there are even more soldiers outside trying to hunt it down?’

‘There are. I seen them in the fields.’

‘Yes, but the bloody fields are empty. If this is a parasite, then it’s almost certainly going to be in here, isn’t it? It’s where the people are, not where they aren’t. Those soldiers out there weren’t looking for the parasite, they were looking for us, the people of Thussock. They want us where they can keep tabs on us.’

‘He’s got a point,’ Dr Kerr agreed.

‘Wait… didn’t someone say you seen an attack this mornin’?’ Dez said to Scott. ‘Can’t you find who it was? Point her out or sumthin’?’

‘I’ve looked and I haven’t seen her. Anyway, who says she’s still the carrier? She might have had her wicked way with someone else. It could be any one of us by now. Could be you, Dez.’

His words had a noticeable effect on the others. They all stopped to consider the implications of what he’d just said.

‘So it has to be about finding the carrier and isolating them now, doesn’t it?’ Sergeant Ross said. ‘That’s what all this is about. They’re waiting for them to show themselves.’

‘So can’t we jus’ find them?’ Dez suggested. ‘Dob them in?’

‘And how are you going to do that?’ Scott sighed. ‘Fuck’s sake, if it was that easy, don’t you think they’d have already done it? They don’t know, that’s why we’re all left hanging.’

‘This is all well and good,’ the doctor said, ‘but what if it’s someone we know? What if it is one of us or worse still, one of our families? You were the one who had a close encounter this morning, Scott. How do you know your wife wasn’t infected?’

‘Because I dragged the dirty fucker off her and kicked the shit out of him before he could get near her. And I saw him infect someone else, that’s how.’

‘And are you sure you weren’t infected?’

‘I’m sure I didn’t get fucked, if that’s what you mean.’

‘But we don’t know for sure that this thing is only transmitted sexually, do we?’

‘No, but the only contact I had with Jeremy was to drag him away from the house and punch him in the face. I didn’t share a drink with him, didn’t kiss him…’

‘And was this morning the first time you’d seen him?’

Scott paused. ‘No. He came around last night. He had dinner with us. I swear, everything was normal back then. He’d only changed this morning. His behaviour was completely different…’

‘I don’t think you’re infected, Scott,’ Dr Kerr said, sensing the other man’s patience was wearing thin. ‘For the record, I don’t think your wife is either. But you can see the point I’m making here, can’t you? We just don’t know. We don’t even know if there’s just one of these things or whether there are more…’

‘Jesus,’ Scott said under his breath. He hadn’t thought of that.

‘Think about it… there are hundreds of people in here, how do we know how it’ll react to these numbers? Maybe it behaves differently in crowds… maybe it divides or reproduces…’

‘I’m getting out of here,’ Dez said, suddenly agitated.

‘How?’ Sergeant Ross sighed. ‘Don’t be an idiot, Dez.’

‘I’m not an idiot. I jus’ think…’

‘But you don’t think, do you? Never have.’

‘There’s no need for—’

‘There’s no need for what? Fuck’s sake, do you understand what’s happening here? They’re playing it all light and friendly, giving us food and water and trying to make it like everything’s going to be all right, but our lives might be on the line here. Scott and the doctor might be right. Your life, Jackie’s life, your kids’ lives… Do you think they’re going to let any of us go until this thing gets found and neutralized?’

‘Who says they’re gonna let us go anyway?’ Scott said, fuelling the flames.

Dez was beginning to panic. ‘I’m not stayin’ here. You can all piss off. There’s no way I…’ His voice trailed away. They were all looking at him. Staring at him. ‘What?’

‘Calm down, Dez,’ Sergeant Ross said, wishing he was in uniform. ‘You’re making me nervous.’

‘Calm down! You’re tellin’ me to calm down at a time like this…’

All still looking at him. All uneasy. All starting to think the same thing. Scott vocalised their concerns. ‘Is it him?’

‘It ain’t me,’ Dez said quickly, almost laughing at the preposterousness of it all, then almost pissing himself with fear when it dawned on him they were deadly serious. How could they think it was him? ‘Come on, Doc… Sarge… you both know me. You know it ain’t me…’ The longer they watched him, the more he began questioning himself. He tried to remember where he’d been recently, who he’d been with, how they’d behaved… then common-sense kicked back in. ‘You’ve both known me for years,’ he said with a little more certainty in his voice. ‘If there’s anyone you wanna worry about, it’s him.’ He turned and looked directly at Scott.

All eyes shifting. Slow, subtle, shuffled movements away from the others. The doctor shook his head, exasperated.

‘Bullshit,’ Scott protested. ‘I already told you—’

‘That you had a physical encounter this morning with a man who was infected and who’s now dead,’ Sergeant Ross said. ‘Dez is right, we hardly know you.’

‘An’ you arrested him,’ Dez continued, grabbing the sergeant’s arm. ‘You wouldn’t a done that if you never had good reason. He was there when them others died. Jackie told me. It’s him… he’s the one.’

More definite movement now. Whether their actions were subconscious or not, they were all trying to put distance between themselves and Scott. Or was it distance between themselves and each other?

‘You’ve got this all wrong,’ Scott started to say before Dez cut across him.

‘That’s what a carrier would say. Ain’t that what a carrier would say? It wouldn’t wanna get caught out. It wants to hide and keep killing.’

Scott shook his head. ‘Are you completely fucking stupid? We’re talking about a parasite, not a murderer. It’s not killing or even thinking about killing, it’s feeding.’

‘Same difference.’

‘No, it isn’t. If I’d had contact and I’d been carrying it, wouldn’t I be dead now? I’d either be dead or trying to fuck someone. I wouldn’t be sitting here talking like this with you, you bloody moron.’

A moment of silence. ‘He’s right,’ the doctor said. ‘We need to take a step back and calm down, not let our emotions get the better of us.’

‘It’s like The Thing, ain’t it?’ said Dez, relaxing slightly. ‘Remember that?’

Scott, Sergeant Ross and Dr Kerr just looked at him. ‘Bloody idiot,’ the sergeant said. ‘Don’t you know when to give up?’

‘I’m serious. Did you see that film, The Thing?’

‘Long time ago. Why?’

‘Because this is like that, isn’t it? All those people trapped together. One of them’s an alien, but they don’t know which one. They might not even know it themselves. You see it, Doc?’

‘No. Doesn’t sound like my kind of film.’

‘There’s this bit when they’re trying to work out which one of them it is,’ he continued, oblivious to how infuriating he’d become. ‘They figure out a test, an’ they all sit round in a circle while everyone has it done.’

‘I remember,’ Scott said. ‘Can’t remember what happens though.’

‘What do you think happens? The bloody monster doesn’t wanna be found out. It goes apeshit.’

‘How exactly is this helping, Desmond?’ Dr Kerr asked.

Dez paused. His face dropped. ‘Sorry. Bit nervous. All I was thinkin’ was why ain’t they doin’ sumthin’ like that?’

‘It’s a fair point. Maybe they will. Maybe they just haven’t worked out the test yet?’

‘Should be pretty easy though, shouldn’t it?’ Sergeant Ross said. ‘All they have to do is look at the last body. The carrier’s DNA will be on them somewhere. Or in them.’

‘Sounds too easy,’ Scott said. ‘So why aren’t they doing it? Because you’re right, if they can work out who the carrier is, they should be able to check us all then isolate that person.’

‘Maybe it’s not that straightforward,’ the doctor said, struggling to keep up with the increasingly surreal situation. ‘There could be any number of reasons why. Maybe they’re waiting for an exchange. Maybe they can only stop it when the parasite’s in the process of passing from host to host?’

‘You think that might be the case?’

‘It would explain why they over-reacted when your daughter was with that lad,’ he said, looking at Scott. ‘If I’m completely honest, I don’t know what to think anymore.’

‘It’s all down to perspective, isn’t it?’ Sergeant Ross said. ‘We look at things from our point of view, don’t we?’

‘I don’t follow,’ Dez said. ‘Don’t talk in riddles.’

The sergeant’s shoulders slumped forward, like he was carrying an immense weight. ‘Something Mr Griffiths here said a few minutes ago that we all just glossed over. Who says they’re planning to let us go? We’ve assumed they’d shut us all away in here to keep the parasite out, but maybe the opposite’s true? What if they’ve got us rounded up because they’re trying to keep it in? Who says our safety matters to them? We might just be bait. Expendable.’

‘You think it’s like a worm or sumthin’?’ Dez asked. ‘You think you can see it? You ever seen Rabid? Wait, no, not Rabid… Shivers. It’s about this sex slug. Goes crazy in a block of flats in Canada in the seventies an’…’

They were all looking at him again. ‘Shut up,’ Scott said, and this time he did. There followed an awkward moment of quiet, only disturbed by the low hubbub of conversation elsewhere.

‘It would make a good weapon, wouldn’t it?’ Sergeant Ross said.

‘Come on, Dan,’ Dr Kerr sighed. ‘Are you serious? Now who’s scaremongering?’

‘I’m serious. Think about it. All those invasions they’ve spent billions of pounds of our money on over the years… this thing would make wars like that a hell of a lot easier and cheaper. Just drop the parasite in and let it do what it apparently does. If the area can be contained, it’ll just keep killing and being passed on from person to person until there’s only the final carrier left.’

‘Stupid idea,’ the doctor scoffed.

Scott didn’t agree. ‘No more stupid than anything else I’ve heard. I think you might be onto something. That’d explain why we’ve got the army here and not the NHS or Environmental Health.’

‘So what are we going to do?’ Dr Kerr asked. ‘Do we just sit here and wait for this thing to show itself. If it’s in here with us, surely it’s only a matter of time before it needs a new host? There’s never been any longer than a couple of days before kills… maybe that’s how long each new body can sustain it for.’

Sergeant Ross looked around the crowded leisure centre. Some people appeared to be getting used to their incarceration, accepting everything they were being told with blissful ignorance. They were reasonably comfortable, well fed and watered… Others clearly remained unconvinced, defending the independence of their own little areas of space, perhaps only deciding not to fight or protest for fear of the heavy-handed military response they’d already seen demonstrated.

‘Way I see it is this,’ he said. ‘We don’t have much in the way of options right now. This place is probably surrounded. We certainly are, anyway. Stay alert and keep your wits about you. Stay close to your families and make sure they don’t mix with anyone you don’t know. Hold onto your own, lads. Don’t let anyone else get too close. Bottom line is this – if this parasite or whatever is being passed from person to person, and all the people of Thussock are in here with us, then it’s only gonna be a matter of time before it shows itself.’