Strangers

29

Scott was at the end of his tether. They’d been cooped-up here for over an hour now. He was sitting with his back to the door, holding George while Michelle consoled Tammy and Phoebe. The madness outside wore on, though to a lesser extent now as more of the population of Thussock, those who’d escaped and run blindly into the night, were rounded up. The longer Scott spent trapped in here, though, the harder it was to sit still and do nothing.

They were wrong, all the others.

Between them they’d agreed to sit tight and wait until everything had died down outside before giving themselves up, but giving himself up just wasn’t in Scott’s nature. And if they did surrender, he doubted the military would be as welcoming as the rest of them seemed keen to believe. The others were naïve, stupid even. He couldn’t afford to lose control, not now, not with so much at stake. He needed to get out of Thussock.

There was a lull outside. Time to move.

The soldier was sitting on the other side of the door to him. Scott reached across and tugged at his sleeve. He sat up with a start. Christ, had he almost been asleep? ‘What’s your name?’ Scott asked, voice low.

‘What?’

‘I don’t even know your name.’

‘Gary Waites.’

‘Can I trust you, Gary?’

‘Sure you can. We’re all in this together now, far as I can see.’

‘Good man. Listen, I’m worried.’

‘You ain’t alone.’

‘Something’s not right here.’

‘Things haven’t been right around this place for a long time now.’

‘No,’ Scott said, shaking his head and lowering his voice again, ‘I’m not talking about in Thussock, I’m talking about in here.’

Gary looked concerned. ‘Like what?’

Scott paused. Should he do this? He was running out of options. ‘Have you seen anyone who’s been infected with this thing yet?’

‘I ain’t seen nothing. Just a couple of the bodies and that guy in the leisure centre, why?’

‘Because I have.’

‘And?’

‘And I didn’t think about it until just now… that bloke who turned back there, I knew him. Used to work with him. His name was Warren.’

‘So?’

‘Like I said, it didn’t mean much at the time, but I was watching him just before it happened and he looked… different.’

‘Why are you telling me this? What are you saying? You think I’m infected?’

‘No, no… it’s not that. I respect you, mate. You’ve come in here and nailed your colours to the mast and I respect that. No, it’s not you, it’s them I’m worried about.’ He surreptitiously gestured towards Dez and Jackie at the other end of the room. They were sitting in the opposite corner to Michelle and the girls, their twins safe between them.

‘What about them?’

‘I think…’ he began before stopping again and clearing his throat, nerves getting the better of him. ‘Look, I might be wrong, but I think I know what I’m talking about. I found one of the bodies last week and this morning we had an infected bloke hanging around by our house…’

‘Just say what you’re thinking,’ the soldier said, pulse racing, hints of desperation and panic in his eyes.

‘I’m trying to tell you I think I know what people look like when they’ve got it in them. I’ve seen them. It takes its time to show itself, but I’m starting to think… Look, it’s that woman over there… I think she might be infected.’

The fear in the soldier’s face was clear now. He lowered his hand towards his pistol. Then he paused. ‘Are you sure?’

‘I’ll be honest, mate, not a hundred per cent. But I don’t know about you… I don’t want to take any chances. My missus and my kids are in here, you think I’m going to risk them? But that woman… she’s got the same kind of look about her as the guy at the house this morning and the bloke who turned just now in the gym. I’ve been watching her. I tell you, if I’m right, I don’t reckon it’ll be long now…’

‘So what do we do?’

‘What can we do? Just be ready for when she turns I guess.’

Gary sat back, weighing up his options. What was it his commanding officer had said? Be wary of anyone showing any signs of sexual activity. Watch out for displays of physical contact… we don’t know how fast this thing moves.

He went for his gun again. Scott grabbed his arm. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked, his whispered voice full of feigned concern.

‘I’m going to talk to her. Find out where she was before she came in here, who she was with.’

Scott relaxed his grip and let go. Perfect. So easily manipulated. Gary got up and walked over to Dez and Jackie. Dez looked up. ‘Problem?’

‘Split up.’

‘What?’

‘You heard me.’ He raised his pistol. ‘Both of you get up. Move away from each other.’

Jackie started to panic. She grabbed the kids and reached out for Dez at the same time. He tried to pacify her then scrambled to his feet, blocking the soldier’s way through. He put his hands up in submission. ‘Look, mate, I dunno what this is about, but you’ve got the wrong idea about us… we just—’

‘Shut up,’ Gary ordered, and the volume of his voice was enough to panic everyone in the classroom. Scott picked up George in the confusion and made for the door.

‘What’s wrong with you?’ Jackie said, sobbing, still trying to pull her family closer together. ‘Dez ain’t done nothing wrong…’

Gary looked from Dez, to Jackie, then back again. Dez made another move. Gary shoved him back and aimed the pistol at his chest. ‘Don’t, man…’ Dez said, mouth dry. ‘This is fuckin’ crazy…’

The soldier was frightened. Confused. He didn’t know what to do now. He didn’t know how to stop this, didn’t know which of these strangers he could trust and who he couldn’t. ‘Which one?’ he asked, looking around for Scott. ‘Which one is it?’

Scott remained low behind a desk, clutching George close to his chest. Michelle and the girls were crawling towards him.

At the other end of the room, Dez moved forward again, but Gary was having none of it. He raised his pistol level with Dez’s face. ‘Don’t move,’ he yelled. ‘Don’t you fucking move!’

‘Wait, wait, wait…’ Dez protested, terrified. ‘You got this all wrong.’

‘I’ve got nothing wrong,’ Gary said, ‘I know what’s going on here. It’s one of you two… one of you is infected.’

‘I swear we’re not. We never went anywhere near anyone who—’

‘Shut the fuck up!’ Gary screamed, but all his noise did was make matters worse. Dez pleaded with him, Jackie wailed with fear, the twins both began to cry…

In the midst of the chaos, Scott bolted for the door with George. Michelle had no choice but to follow, Tammy and Phoebe close behind. She tumbled down the steps, losing her footing and falling onto the tarmac, scuffing her hands and knees but barely noticing the pain through the fear. Scott tried to move but she grabbed hold of his shirt and pulled him back. She could hear shouting inside the classroom from which they’d just escaped, five desperate voices fighting for space.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ Michelle demanded.

‘Getting us out of here,’ he said, brushing her off and starting to run.

‘Are you completely out of your fucking mind? Do you know what—?’

A flash of light and a single gunshot from the classroom silenced her.

Tammy and Phoebe were already running. Michelle sprinted after the rest of her family, then overtook Scott and blocked his way through. ‘What the hell did you just do?’

‘What I had to do to keep us safe.’

‘Keep yourself safe, more like.’

‘You’re out too, aren’t you?’

‘But Jackie and Dez… the kids… you engineered that… you made that happen…’

‘Fuck ‘em. And fuck you, too.’

He pushed past and ran on with George. Michelle knew she had to stick with him if she wanted to stay with her son. The sound of another two shots inside the classroom sealed the decision.

The outside world felt wholly alien now. There were still a couple of helicopters high overhead and whilst quieter than before, a never-ending buzz of noise continued to come from around the leisure centre. Michelle watched the rest of her family run on ahead, feeling bizarrely detached from everything now, almost as if she was watching events unfold on TV. Only the fear and the cold air and spitting rain reminded her she was still alive and a part of this. She watched Scott and wanted to wrestle George from him and take the kids away. I don’t know you anymore. Don’t know if I ever really did. We’ll never be safe as long as we’re with you.

They waited in the shadows between two more imposing school buildings until she caught up. ‘Move faster or you’ll get left behind,’ Scott said, his voice detached and unemotional. He looked around for Phoebe. ‘Which way now?’

She couldn’t immediately answer, could barely even think straight, traumatised with fear and struggling to make sense of her surroundings. She looked around again, then gestured down the side of the next school block. Scott sprinted along the wall of the building, using it both as cover and support. He stopped at the furthest corner, gesturing for the others to stay low and almost overbalancing with his son, then looked ahead.

Nothing. It was clear.

Most of the chaotic activity was still concentrated around the back of the school, the area from which they’d escaped. From here Scott could see the main gates. He’d expected to see a mass of soldiers and equipment there, but posts had clearly been abandoned in haste. Michelle grabbed his shoulder and swung him around. ‘You’re going to get us all killed.’

‘No, staying here will get us all killed.’

‘We’re not safe.’

‘That’s why we’re leaving. We can do this. We’re gonna run for the hedge over there, then follow it around to the gate and slip out the front. There’s no one there. We’ll get out, find a car, then get as far away from Thussock as we can, right?’ Scott looked into each face in turn, waiting until he’d seen something positive – a nod, a mumble, some kind of definite agreement, no matter how slight – before he moved.

Just a few steps away from cover and Scott was on his face on the ground, George squashed beneath him, screaming. He picked himself up and put his hand over his son’s mouth, trying to stop his noise. ‘Shh… they’ll hear us.’

‘Is he okay? George, love, are you okay?’ Michelle asked, trying to get closer. Scott turned his back on her.

‘I tripped, that’s all. Keep moving.’

He looked back and saw that none of them were following. Phoebe and Tammy were standing around something he couldn’t make out in the darkness. What did I just fall over? He went back and saw it was the body of a woman, facedown. A pool of blood glistened around her naked crotch, steam still rising. Her torn, blood-soaked knickers were around her knees. ‘Was she…?’ Tammy started to ask.

‘Infected?’ Scott interrupted. ‘Probably. None of our concern. We need to move.’

He shifted George in his tired arms, struggling with his increasingly heavy weight, and ran on. Phoebe still wasn’t following. ‘Come on, Pheeb,’ Michelle shouted at her.

‘Does this mean it’s got out?’

‘What?’

‘This woman… does this mean the parasite-thing got out of the leisure centre?’

‘Obviously,’ Scott said, ‘but it doesn’t make any difference. As long as we keep away from everyone else we’ll be fine.’

‘But it does, though, doesn’t it? It does make a difference.’

‘Listen to me. We’re going to just keep doing what we’re doing and get out of Thussock. We can worry about all this later.’

‘But wait,’ Phoebe said, still refusing to move, ‘I don’t get it. There was ages between all those other people dying.’

‘So?’

‘So why is it getting faster? Is it getting hungrier? It’s not long since it got that man in the leisure centre, is it?’

‘I don’t know. Does it even matter? Just shut up and move, for Christ’s sake.’

She still wasn’t going anywhere.

‘Does it mean there’s more than one of them now?’

Shit. She might be right.

‘We need to go,’ Scott said. This time he kept running, giving the others no choice but to follow.

And it was far easier to get away than any of them expected. A final breathless dash across a patch of open space and they’d made it beyond the school gates.