Pet From Hell (Infected Series Book 1) (6 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Grabbing the two back packs I moved to the window and waited for a loud enough noise from downstairs to cover the noise of me smashing the glass. Shattering the glass with the axe, I ran the handle of the axe around the edge of the window to get rid of the remaining large fragments. Throwing the two backpacks out of the window, I climbed out and on to the small roof over the front door. Looking down I couldn’t see any creatures lurking below me so I hung off the edge and dropped to the floor. Grabbing the backpacks off the floor I opened my car and threw them on to the passenger seat. Casting a look over my shoulder I could hear the smashing of furniture and loud moans coming from inside. I jumped into the driving seat and started the engine and pulled down the drive and out on to the main road.

Turning to the left my thoughts where to head for Catterick Garrison and the Army if there was any authority left that would provide safety then the Army would be it. Pulling up to the junction I followed the sign for the Garrison and headed down the country lane. Cresting a hill I saw the town Garrison of Catterick spread out below me. I stopped the car to look through the windscreen at what was below me. I could see movement in the streets but I could also see smoke and what looked like a few crashed cars. I was trying to decide whether I should head down there or would it be safer for me to try and find somewhere out of the way. The only down side to the latter was that I didn’t know the area very well. Taking that thought on board I decided that if anything I might be able to find some better gear and maybe more food. Putting the car in gear I moved down the hill and slowly made my way toward the middle of town. Taking my time to swerve round a few crashes and abandoned cars. Every time I even thought I saw or heard an infected person I pulled over and turned the engine off.

Looking out at the world around me I could see ravaged bodies lying in the gutters and on street corners but the most frightening thought was that there wasn’t enough of them for a town this size and that could only mean that there were plenty infected walking about somewhere. I came to a large roundabout in the centre of town and pulled over and turned the engine off for what seemed to be the twentieth time. Rolling down the window I listened to the world outside of my car and heard the crack of gun fire from somewhere off to my right. Was it my lucky day had the Army managed to find somewhere to defend? Would they let me in? These thoughts and others were jumbled in my already panicking brain. Starting the engine I thought my best chance would be to slowly head that way and stop every now and then to try and get a bearing on where the shooting was coming from. It took me maybe thirty or forty minutes to pin point where the shots were coming from and I also knew where all the infected were. Set back from a large ten foot fence was a three storey red brick building and spread out along the fence were the infected. Sitting there watching the infected push each other into the fence links I hadn’t a clue how I was going to get past them and inside the fence.

I watched as an infected fell to the floor with its head split open like a water melon spilling green, red and grey gore all over the ground. Then I heard the crack of the rifle round split the air followed by an increase moaning from the infected. Watching the roof line of the building I was looking for any movement along its edge and it wasn’t long before I saw a flash then another infected fell beside the other. From the looks of it the sniper had racked up quite a few kills. They weren’t all in a single place but well-spaced out along the fence line.

Climbing out of the car I grabbed the nearest backpack and started moving up the road crouched over. I was trying to see if the infected were all the way round the fence line or if there was any entrance or way in that didn’t have any infected near that I could use. The infected did seem to be thinning out the further toward the back of the compound. Keeping behind the bushes and cars on the road I managed to make it to the rear of the compound and found it nearly devoid of infected. There were the odd group of three or four here and there but they were widely spaced. I quickly moved to a small grove of trees near to what I thought was the back entrance to the compound a small gate set in the ten foot fence line. I must have sat in the trees for about ten or fifteen minutes before trying to find out if the gate was locked or not.

I crept out of the trees and slowly made my way to the gate whilst trying not to make any noise. Just my luck the gate had a huge padlock on it and it was fastened tight. Looking around I could see corpses lying on the ground inside the fence and nearly all but a few had BDUs on. I looked up at the roof of the building and I saw someone waving their arms over their head at me. I gave a heart hearted wave back and I was just about to move away from the gate when the figure pointed at its self, then at me and finally at the gate. From the rudimentary sign language I took that to mean that they would come down and open the gate for me. I waved back and then pointed to myself and then the trees, the person on the roof gave me a double thumbs up and I made my way back to the trees to hide. Sitting in the shadows I watched the compound and after what seemed to take ages I saw a small figure in BDUs detach itself from the shadow of the building and head for the gate. Keeping myself low I headed for the gate and got there shortly before they did. He was about five feet eight and had a lean build and short cropped blonde hair. His nose had been broken at one time or another and he had serious looking grey coloured eyes.

Stopping just short of the gate he said “You’re not infected or anything are you? No bites or scratches?”

“No I’ve not been infected. I’ve been hiding out near Thirsk for the last couple of days but they attacked the place I was at this morning and decided to make a run for it.” I replied.

“Ok keep an eye out and I’ll let you in.” He said coming to the gate and pulling some keys out of the leg pocket on his trousers.

I watched the infected bash against the fence and shuffle from side to side as he opened the gate. Opening the gate just enough for me to slip inside he closed it straight after I passed through.

“Hi my name is Marc.” I said holding my hand out to him.

“Look mate we should get out of sight before these things see us. You can tell us your life story later fucking on, ok?” He said and set off for the building.

He set a quick pace and I followed as closely as I could, all the time trying not to make too much noise. We reached the back of the building and stood in the shadows, whilst I was breathing hard he was barely out of breath. He slipped round the corner and I followed on the side of the building where some steps leading down to a green painted door. Opening the door a coppery smell hit my nose and I could see smears of blood on the tiled floor. Stepping inside behind the soldier he closed the door and we were in the dark. I heard a click come from beside me and a torch was shone in my face.

“Ok bud you can follow me we have the top floor to ourselves and we managed to clear the infected out but the other floors have a lot of blood splattered all over so don’t touch anything. We still don’t know how they pass it on.” He said moving past me.

I knew how it was passed on but until I could figure out who they were and how many I was going to keep that information to myself. Following the soldier through the building I saw what must have been a massive battle in the corridors. Bullet holes riddled the walls and blood and gore was splashed all over the floor and walls. We passed rooms with blood splatters smeared under the closed doors giving me the impression that bodies had been dragged inside. We climbed some stairs and came out in a small vestibule. Bodies had been stacked against the doors leading outside and the sight of that many dead bodies piled on top of each other started to make me feel sick. I gagged and leaned over at the waist and threw up all that I had inside it splattered over the floor and my boots.

I felt a hand on my shoulder then a voice said “Come on mate we have to get upstairs I need to take over from Chris so he can get some sleep.”

Chapter Fourteen

I stood up and turned to follow the un-named soldier up the stairs to the third floor then down a remarkably clear corridor to small green door. Opening the door I could see a ladder leading up through an opening on to the roof. I had never been so grateful to see a small patch of blue and white sky in all my life. I scrambled up the ladder and out on to the roof. I fell to my knees gasping for breath that I didn’t know I had held after seeing the pile of bodies. After what seemed like hours I looked around the roof I saw how flat it was but there were a few chimneys and skylights but the rest of the roof was flat. The soldier walked past me and headed toward the far end of the roof and walked round a skylight. Getting up off my knees I walked on my shaky legs toward the skylight.

As I got closer I heard a deep voice come from the other side of it.

“Okay Jay so who’s our guest?”

“I think he said his name was Marc or something like that.” Jay said.

I walked round the skylight and came face to chest with the biggest man I have ever seen. He must have been roughly six feet seven and had arms and legs the size of tree trunks. With black close cropped hair and deep brown eyes peering down at me.

A hung hand was thrust in my face and the deep rumbling voice said “Hi my name is Chris Jones and that blonde streak of water is Jacob Evans but you can call me Chris and he likes to be called Jay.”

I took his hand a winced when he closed it round my tiny hand.

“Erm… Hi I’m Marc Jenks.”

“So Mr Jenks…” Chris started to say.

“If we are on first name terms you can call me Marc.” I said interrupting him.

“Ok Marc then. What’s brought you to this neck of the woods?”

“I was hiding out at a friend’s house just outside of Thirsk and those things started to try and get in, so I ran for it and I thought with the army being here it would be the safest place to come to.” I said looking at the floor.

“Well mate as you can see things have not turned out to well here either.”

“Too fucking right we got well and truly bum fucked.” Jay said looking over the edge of the building.

“Jay shut the fuck up mate.” Chris said looking angry at him.

Jay just shrugged his shoulders and walked off on a circuit of the roof.

“It was late yesterday afternoon when those things first started to turn up. The officers tried to sort out skirmish lines and put as many civvies on buses as we could before trying to ship them out of the area. The only thing we didn’t know at the time was that every person that got bit or died because of them, became one of them and attacked the rest of us. Out of our unit there is only me and Jay left and the bodies you saw lying downstairs are the rest of it. Our mate got bit and didn’t tell anyone and when he died he started to attack the rest of us. Jay and I were up here on lookout when it happened and we were lucky to find out those things can’t climb for shit. So you know how we got here and we know a little about you but what made you want to hide out at your friend’s house?”

I looked round at Chris and Jay and thought that if I was going to survive then I needed to start trusting people. So I called Jay over and asked them both to have a seat and sat on the roof cross legged and told them everything that had happened from finding Tony in the lab up to coming to Catterick looking for the army.

Jay shot on to his feet and started toward me with hatred in his eyes before Chris managed to clamp one of his large hands on his friends arm.

“Jay calm down.” Chris said.

“Calm down, fucking calm down. How can I calm down knowing that this is the fuck that started all this.” He said through gritted teeth.

“I didn’t…” I started.

“Marc give me a second to talk to him will you and please keep your gob shut.” Chris said looking me in the eyes.

I lowered my head and listened as Chris went on to tell Jay that from what I had said it wasn’t my fault all this was happening but actually Dr Jacksons’ and that the only thing that was my fault was going to my friends aid and opening the door to the lab.

Slowly Jay started to calm down but I could still see by his eyes that he blamed me and to tell you the truth in the back of my mind so did I. Standing up Jay stomped off on a circuit of the roof and every now and then spat over the side and muttered to himself.

“Look he doesn’t mean anything by it, it’s just that he tried to call his parents before the shit really hit the fan and he couldn’t get through. I’m lucky, I don’t have anybody left to call not even a girlfriend.” Chris said.

“Same here my parents died a while back and I never had any other close family.” I said.

“So seeing as you were at ground zero, do you have any information on these things?” He asked.

“Not really, I know that they are dead and that the only way to kill them is head trauma. The one thing that I have found out is that noise attracts them quickly and that their eyesight is crap. You mentioned that they can’t climb, so that’s something new.” I said.

“Yeah we found out about the climbing when we were up here and they couldn’t get up the ladder to us. They just milled about at the bottom of it and we managed to just shoot straight down on them. Cleaning up after that was a pain in the arse.” He said with a faraway look in his eyes.

“What have you been doing for food and water?” I asked.

“This is the Brigade HQ, it has a small kitchen downstairs with enough food in it.” Jay said from over my shoulder.

I looked back at him and he said “Look mate I’m sorry for going off on one. It’s just been one nightmare after another since this all started. I don’t blame you, I just needed to vent off at someone and if what you are telling us is true then you worked for the bastards that caused it all.”

“It’s ok, I blame myself for it all. If I had left that goddam door closed and not went to check on Tony then maybe a lot of people would still be alive.” I said.

Jay just shrugged his shoulders and continued walking past Chris and me. I had a feeling that even though he said he didn’t blame me for everything, in some way he still did.

“Look I am going to get a little shut eye.” Chris mumbled and walked over to a pile of sleeping bags and rucksacks stacked against another skylight.

Pulling my bag off my back I pulled out the sleeping bag then my cooking gear and a couple of tin cans of soup. Setting everything up and cooking the soup must have taken me about ten minutes, by that time I could hear snores coming from the large sleeping bag that Chris was in. Jay came over and sat opposite me and I could see that he wanted to ask me something but was finding it hard to voice his words.

“What do you want to know?” I asked giving him the opening he needed.

“What’s it like out there? We sort of lost communication early on and never seemed to get it back.” He said.

“Well the last time I heard anything was that it had spread right across the country and that they had rumoured outbreaks in Europe and the U.S.”

“How the hell did it get that far?” He asked shaking his head.

“To be honest I don’t know, from what I saw it doesn’t show straight away and that sometimes it takes hours for someone to become one of them.” I said pointing toward the moans we could hear from the roof top.

“It spread like wildfire through the Garrison, they didn’t seem to take very long before they came back as those things.”

“Like I said, I don’t know how it happens, maybe if you get killed by them then you change quickly or if you have multiple bites. Like I said this is all guesswork.”

He looked at his hands and then looked up and said “Do you know how to use a rifle?”

“I did a six year stint with the R.A.O.C (Royal Army Ordnance Corp) a few years ago, but I was trained on the SLR and you lot use the SA80 now don’t you?”

“Yeah, but it shouldn’t take much to get you up to speed with one. It’ll also help because we will have three shooters and it will make our security a lot easier.” He said with the first smile I had seen on his face since we first met.