Infected Read online

  Captain Mitch Backer, had been flying for “Lantic-Line” for five years, he was happily married to Joan and they had a three-year old boy named John. Joan was due to give birth to their second child within the next two weeks, during the ultra sound they had opted not to know the sex of the child, so Joan referred to the baby as “Baby” while Mitch resorted to calling it “The Bump.”

  Flight LL261 had been airborne for some seven hours and fifty minutes and was one minute from touching down on the runway at Dulles. “What the hell was that” said Tony Edwards a Trainee Pilot, who was seated towards the rear of the cockpit nearest to the locked security door sealing off the flight deck from the main passenger cabin. “You are the “want to be Pilot”, you tell us!” joked Bill Harvey the Co-pilot. “No, there is nothing wrong with the aircraft, there is a noise coming from the passenger cabin.” said the young man. “Could you be more specific” asked Mitch, who could not hear any sound emitting from the cabin over the noise of the engines. Tony Edwards answered “Well, it sounds like, screaming.”

  09:30 - Day One of Outbreak Dan and Pamela

  Dan was keeping watch on the outside “It is quiet out there for now, I should get the car off the road and into the garage,” said Dan “we will need it at some stage and having it in the garage means we can get into the car unseen.” Pam could see the logic in this, but she did not like the idea of Dan going outside, so she hesitated. “We are going to need that 4x4” Dan reiterated. Pam said “Okay, but how are we going to do this?”

  Dan walked through the connecting door and into the garage, then Pam locked it behind him, she then went back upstairs and looked up and down the road to see if it was clear, it was, “GO!” she shouted down the stairs. Dan did not hesitate, he opened the garage door and walking swiftly towards the car, Philip Jenkins looked up as Dan approached, and Dan returned the stare looking into Philips eyes to see if there was any trace of humanity left, but he could see no emotion whatsoever. Philip looked into Dan’s eyes for a second or two, then turned his head away and ignored him completely. Dan had the sharpened Katana sword in his hand and thrust the blade straight into the top of Philips skull, then twisted and retracted the blade. The body slumped to the floor and remained still, never to move again. Dan got into the driver’s seat without giving Philip’s body a second glance, he started the engine and reversed off the body and into his garage, got out of the car and quietly closed the door.

  As soon as Pam as seen the garage door close she made her way downstairs and stood by the still locked connecting door, Dan knocked on the door and said, “Garage door is secure and I'm okay, start your count.” Pam counted slowly to 60 seconds then said, “Still okay?” Dan replied, “Yes I am fine, you can open up now.” Pam unlocked the door and admitted him into the house. “You had better disinfect the sword before you do anything” she said.

  They had planned the retrieval of the car to the last detail, from Pam’s single command word “GO” to start Dan on his way, to using the garage as an “airlock” / holding area where Dan had to wait for sixty seconds to make sure that he was not infected. They had not discussed the fact that Philip would have to be euthanized but they both knew that it had to happen, but what had surprised Pam was that Philip had hardly reacted to Dan, perhaps he was just too weak due to blood loss?

  Day One of Outbreak - 10:10 hours - Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms

  Present at meeting: -

  Prime Minister

  Deputy Prime Minister

  Secretary of State for the Home Department

  Assistant to the Secretary of State for Defence

  Secretary of State for Justice

  Secretary of State for Wales

  Chief Medical Officer, Professor Oliver Thompson

  Major Peter Curtis on Detachment from Second Battalion the Parachute Regiment

  “Where the hell is everyone?” ask the Prime Minister “This meeting should have started ten minutes ago!” There was a shuffling of feet, which must have required an inordinate amount of concentration, because most of the ministers in the room were also looking at their shoes. However, no one seemed to find any inspiration in admiring their overly expensive loafers, as no one responded to the Prime Ministers question. One person who was not looking at his shoes was Professor Oliver Thompson, the Chief Medical Officer. He looked around the room at the few ministers who were in attendance, and seeing that none of them were going to venture an opinion, he cleared his throat and said, “I suspect that they are caught up in the mayhem happening through London, may I suggest we start the meeting and should other ministers arrive we can bring them up to speed?” The Prime Minister liked this man but was not so predisposed to certain other individuals in this room, whom he knew would be vying for his job come the next election. He was also at the helm of an uneasy coalition government, and he was concerned to note that there were more of the “other party” here than his own side, so no, he would wait and give the no shows more time to attend.

  They sat in an awkward silence for a few more minutes before the Chief Medical Officer said “Sir, I really must insist that we start the meeting, I have information that once you hear it will necessitate immediate action, we should delay no longer!” The Prime Minister fixed the Medical Officer with his trademark icy glare, he did so not because he was annoyed with the man for he knew he was right, but the PM need time to think, also he could show no sign of weakness, so he would show strength now by doing the unexpected and agreeing and apologising to this man, if it had been anyone else in the room he would not have been able to.

  The PM opened proceedings by saying “You are quite correct, we can delay no longer, my apologises for procrastinating. The Secretary of State for Defence, also sends his apologises, he should have been here, and in fact we had our regular meeting scheduled for this time. However, he took it upon himself to gallivant off at short notice to inspect some military base or other. Quite frankly I think the man should have stayed in the Army given the amount of time he spends on military bases.” This produced a polite chuckle from the assembled ministers, for they knew that the Major General (retired) Sir Anthony Butler, the errant Secretary of State for Defence, had narrowly lost the election to be leader of the Conservative Party, and had he won he would now be the Prime Minister. The current PM indicated a fresh faced young man sitting towards the other end of the table and continued “The Secretary of State for Defence sends in his stead, his assistant, the young Mister Philip Collins. As for the other no-shows, I feel that we will have to assume that they have been unavoidably delayed by whatever the hell is going on and accept apologises in their absences, we will have to see what we can achieve without their esteemed presence.” He looked at the Chief Medical Officer, “Professor Thompson you have the floor, enlighten us please.”

  Professor Oliver Thompson did not waste any more time and said “Prime Minister, the situation was brought to my attention at 07:00 this morning, when I received a call from Mathew Peterson, an old student of mine, he is the on-call consultant at an Accident and Emergency department. I consider him to be very reliable, level headed and clinical, in fact he was one of the brightest students that I have had. I mention this to emphasise to you that I trust this man’s judgement. I have also received similar reports from other sources, but Mathew Peterson gave what is so far, the most lucid account.

  These are the facts as we know them- so far: -

  The first recorded cases were seen at 04:00 this morning, the symptoms are as follows: -

  The first subject will exhibit extreme violence towards any individual not so affected with the same condition. If victims survive the initial attack, which is by no means certain given the ferocity of the attacks, they will also exhibit the very same extreme violent reaction.

  Once an attack has taken place the victim will start to have convulsions within approximately twenty seconds and a full-blown reaction within thirty seconds, in other words they too become extremely violent. Once a victim exhibits sympto
ms they are ignored by their attacker or any other person so infected.

  It appears that infection is not airborne but is spread by a bite, or transfer of infected blood to a fresh victim via an open wound, also possibly by a scratch, although at this time infection by a scratch is not proven.

  To date no one who has managed to survive the initial attack by an infected person has failed to become infected themselves. In other words, so far no one has shown any immunity to infection.

  We speculate that the rate of infection will escalate to such a degree that the infected people will outnumber the healthy within two to three weeks!” he paused to allow that to sink in.

  The Chief Medical Officer had been speaking for less than two minutes and he completed his presentation by saying “I am sorry to inform you that unless we take immediate and drastic action Britain will quickly resemble hell on earth, in short, this is Armageddon. One more thing, I am convinced that this outbreak is not a natural occurrence, it is man-made and it is my firm belief that this is a deliberate attack on the nation by persons unknown. But whatever the cause of this outbreak, I reiterate that we must take immediate and drastic action to reduce the rate of infection.”

  The room was silent and the Chief Medical Officer could almost hear the thoughts of the politicians. They were all out of their depth, no one knew how to respond, and sure they all had questions but as none of them could fully comprehend the enormity of what he had just told them, no one wanted to be the first to ask a stupid question. The ministers needed to address themselves to the problem at hand and not worry about their political personas, what the hell was the matter with these people? Could they not tell that their way of life was over, they no longer needed to worry about the results of the next election, because all that was gone, and for far beyond the foreseeable future!

  The Prime Minister was the one person in the room who had taken on board all that the Chief Medical Officer had said, he knew implications of what he had been told and he knew that history may not forgive him for what he knew he must now do. However, he was human, so he would at least ask for qualification, he looked directly into the Chief Medical Officers eyes and asked, “When you say, “Drastic Action” what exactly do you mean?”

  There was no hesitation, and looking directly at the PM, replied in a clear voice “I mean shoot on sight any person exhibiting signs of infection!”

  There was a sudden uproar in the room as ministers jumped to their feet to shout their objections to shooting voters!

  The Prime Minister did not even flinch, he already knew what the Chief Medical Officer would say, and he and Professor Thompson were still looking directly at each, both ignoring the uproar around them, the PM knew how painful it must have been for him to give voice to those words and it had taken real guts for him to do so. He gave him a nod, said “Thank you!” before dealing with the uproar in the room.

  “That is enough!” shouted the PM “this is not the House of Commons, you will now be silent, unless I ask you a direct question!” Order was restored to the room and the PM turned again to the Chief Medical Officer. “I would like to thank you for your assistance so far, but we both know that your work here is done. I now order you to assemble a team of your choice to be based at Porton Down research facility, you will look for and find a cure or some way of preventing infection. You have my express permission and the authority of my office to take all steps to achieve this.”

  The PM then looked directly at Alan Curtis, the Army Major on Detachment from the Parachute Regiment, who until now had been standing unobtrusively at the rear of the room “Major Curtis, you will leave with the Chief Medical Officer, you will assemble as many men and commandeer any equipment you feel is necessary, you will personally command this team. You will protect the Chief Medical Officer and his staff and will take any action necessary to facilitate their research, any questions?” “No Sir!” replied Major Curtis.

  “You will leave now, and good luck to you both.” said the PM. The two men made for the door, Chief Medical Officer paused, turned and walked back toward the Prime Minister shook his hand quietly said, “And good luck to you sir!” “Thank you, Oliver” said the PM and watched as Professor Oliver Thompson turned and left the room.

  The Prime Minister waited until the door was closed, then he turned to address the room, “I hereby impose…” he started to say but was interrupted by Philip Collins the Assistant to the Secretary of State for Defence who cried out in shock and pain. The PM glanced at Collins who was rubbing his hand and looking somewhat embarrassed “Sorry Prime Minister, I felt a sudden pain” said Collins. The Prime Minister continued “I hereby impose martial law on the entire country.” again the PM was interrupted by an outcry from the room as the ministers once again rose collectively to express their outrage. But the Prime Minister was not looking at them, he was watching Philip Collins who had just gone into convulsions… the time was 10:30.

  Day One of Outbreak - Flight LL261, Washington Dulles International Airport USA

  “Screaming?” ask Captain Mitch Backer “Yes, women screaming, and not in a good way” said Tony Edwards the young Trainee Pilot. “Let us get this thing on the ground then we will deal with it” said Mitch.

  Mitch made a perfect landing, showing just what a good pilot he was given the noisy distractions taking place beyond the cabin door, he taxied off the runway and headed to gate 16. “Please get the flight attendant on the phone” he instructed. Tony Edwards, was relatively new to the job and had only been with “Lantic-Line” for three months. He had never flown with Captain Backer, but he instinctively knew that the Captain was a good man and someone to be respected. Picking up the intercom and pressing the call button for the station that he knew was within reach of the chief steward, who would still be strapped into the seat for the landing, but there was no answer. Tony was still raw, eager to impress and keen to help, he totally forgot the company regulation about keeping the security door locked and the fact that he should not open it without a direct order from the Captain. He hung up the phone, unstrapped himself from his seat, and opened the door.

  He did not have a chance to take in the blood splatted walls or mutilated bodies lying on the floor, he was grabbed immediately by Mary Peters, the pretty young hostess that he had a crush on. It appeared the feeling was mutual as she sank her teeth through the cotton of the uniform shirt and into the flesh of his right bicep. He screamed out loud and pushed Mary away, she stumbled backward with the fabric of Tony’s uniform, his blood and flesh between her tight clenched teeth. Tony’s crush had ended abruptly, and as Mary sprang forward to renew their liaison she ran straight into the closed security door, howling with rage as she clawed at the door, Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!

  Captain Mitch Backer parked the Airliner at gate 16 and started to close the engines down, he looked round sensing that something was wrong behind him and saw, young Edwards convulsing on the floor, Mitch turned to his co-pilot Bill Harvey “I’ll finish here, you see to Edwards,” he instructed. Bill Harvey nodded, unstrapped himself from his seat and made his way back to help, “What's the matter lad?” he said as he placed a friendly hand on Tony’s twitching shoulder.

  Tony was no longer keen to help or accept help, instead he now had an intense desire to harm and there was no conscious thought to his actions. An observer could have been forgiven for assuming that Tony was being controlled by a force that has been dormant in humans from a time so long ago that that humanity had no record of it, a long supressed animal instinct buried deep within our DNA that prescribed ferocity in an attack. However, the force controlling Tony went well beyond anything that nature could conceive to provide the human race with the tools necessary to survive in the animal kingdom, this violence berserker was so intensely evil it could have only been perceived by man himself.

  Bill’s hand was grabbed, then pulled away from him, at first Bill was relieved that young Tony had responded and allowed his hand to be drawn away. There was a slig
ht delay and then the pain started as Tony sunk his teeth into the flesh of Bill’s palm. His first reaction was to pull his hand away, but he realised that Tony was not letting go, if he pulled any harder the flesh would tear from his hand, so he straddled Tony attempting to hold him still to prevent any further damage. Bill was still feeling some concern for the younger man, even as the mania overtook him.

  Captain Mitch Backer was still strapped in his seat, he looked over his shoulder to see both men rising from the floor. They were on him in seconds and he knew beyond doubt that he would die. Even through the searing pain Mitch Backers last thoughts were of his wife and young son, and as he cried out in agony, he was also giving voice to the frustration that he would never know if his unborn child was a boy or girl.

  Day One - 10:31 hours Corridor Leading from the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms

  Major Peter Curtis briskly led the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Oliver Thompson, along the corridor leading away from the Briefing Rooms, as he walked, he was speaking into a radio, and he ended a curt conversation by saying “Your location figures 5, out!” He glanced over at Professor Thompson, “There is an armoured car waiting at a rear entrance for us, it will take us to rendezvous with a helicopter that will fly us directly to the Porton Down research facility. I am Peter by the way, how are you holding up Professor?” Professor Thompson replied, “Please do call me Oliver, I’m fine, all things considered” The two men shook hands awkwardly as they walked toward the exit, Major Curtis made sure the Professor was safely in the armoured car, glanced around and then stepped in behind him. “Get to the chopper and don't stop for anything!” he ordered the driver. They were at the helicopter landing site within ten minutes and were airborne almost as soon as they stepped aboard. As soon as they were in the air Major Curtis used the radio, signing off about ten minutes later, then shouted over the din of the engines “I have arranged for a company of men to be deployed to Porton Down, we will also have other assets on site or directly available to us, I will brief you fully once we are on the ground.”