Designated (Book 1): Designated Infected (10 page)

Rage billowed in her eyes as she
stared up at him. Her face darkened as she quickly dragged the right
wheel, spinning the chair as she began to roll away rapidly. 'It is
far too late for that Fadei. Far,
far
too late; what do you want?'

Fadei stuttered as he tried to articulate his reasons
for being there.

'The pathogen.'

She grabbed the tyres with both hands, the front wheels
rising off the decking as she stopped the forward momentum of her
chair. 'Which one?' The words came out of her in a harsh whisper as
she turned her head and gazed over her shoulder at Fadei standing
cradling his weapon.

'You know which one Anna... sorry, Anastasia.'

She sagged in the chair as she slowly turned to face
Fadei. 'I tried to warn them; I really tried to warn them.'

She pushed her hands across the wheels, rolling back
towards her work station. She picked up the microscope as she rolled
by planting the heavy lump of cold steel and plastic next to the
computer. Plugging it into the side of it, an image of a swirling
blood sample bloomed on her monitor a second later. Picking up the
mouse she clicked and dragged a box across the screen zooming in on
that sector of the image.

'You see here, this sample is my own blood the
Erythrocytes or red blood cells are uniform in size and shape. The
Platelets or Thrombocytes and Leukocytes or white blood cells are all
normal; as well as the level of Thrombocytes which in my case is
three hundred thousand.'

Clicking on the edge of the screen she pulled up another
image. 'This is a sample of Infected blood drawn from a patient.'
The last word left her mouth in a stilted half whisper, the look in
her eyes and turn of her lips showing clearly what she thought of the
“Patient.” 'As you can see from this, the Thrombocytes,
Erythrocytes and Leukocytes are all of a disproportionate size and
mass to regular examples of cellular structure. The same applies to
the haemoglobin in the Erythrocytes and levels of Thrombocytes are
six times the highest normal level.'

Fadei's brows furrowed, as he stared at the moving swarm
of cells on the screen. Leaning in, he pointed to the doughnut shaped
Erythrocytes. 'What are these black pieces on the edges? They look
like octopus tentacles.'

Anastasia leaned in and shrugged. 'Honestly, I have no
idea. I have been studying these for over a year now and I have
absolutely no idea what they are. It could be parasitic larvae, it
could be a base level mutation of the cell walls, I honestly have no
clue. In over three hundred samples I have been through, they are the
only thing that has been remotely similar, although even they have
varied in shape, size and quantity.' She threw her hands up in the
air as she leaned back heavily into her chair and ran her fingers
through her hair, scratching at her scalp.

'Show me.' Anastasia gave Fadei a sceptical glance but
brought up another digitally recorded sample. Fadei leaned in,
resting his hands on the desk as his rifle dangled off its sling and
thumped gently against Anastasia’s chair. 'Will you move that
please; it's rather disconcerting?'

Fadei grunted, but pushed his weapon up onto his back,
the weapon lying along his spine as the barrel rested against the
base of his battle vest.

'It may be disconcerting but it is also the only thing
that would stop you from having an Infected chew your face off and
rip out your lungs.'

Anastasia gave a rather discomforted glance in Fadei's
direction before casting her eyes back to the screen as she looked at
the latest image. Tapping his finger against the image, Fadei pointed
to a small clump of cells in the bottom left hand corner. 'Enlarge
that.'

The mouse's cursor skated across the screen as Anastasia
enlarged the group, the small tentacle like strands slowly drifted in
the ebb and flow of the blood sample as the Erythrocytes spun lazily
through the liquid.

'See these things?' Fadei tapped the image again
pointing at the tendril-like barbs as Anastasia nodded. 'These ones
are, well more cone shaped and obviously split at the ends. Whereas
the others in the first lot were ridged and humped and looked like
octopus tentacles as I said.'

Anastasia nodded, 'I can see that but what's your
point?' Fadei rubbed at the bottom of his chin, scraping away the
itch that had been building. 'Well, if they are supposedly Infected
with the same pathogen then wouldn't these things be identical?'

Anastasia sat bolt upright in her chair stunned surprise
registering on her face as she realised just how dense she had been.
'I cannot believe I didn't see that before. I just assumed it was a
natural variation in the viral make up, but it's not, look!'

She pulled up a third sample then a fourth, moving
quickly through a dozen more. Both saw that no two samples were in
any way similar. 'You do know what you have found here, don't you?'

Fadei shrugged, 'No.'

'This shows that the virus changes itself entirely at
the base level from host to host but,' she stopped as the realisation
dawned once more, 'it also means that there is no way we can cure
this.'

10

Baker rolled round the corner, his rifle pulled tightly
into his shoulder as he exited the tunnel. Gunfire drenched the
corridor in a wall of sound, it fell upon him like the crashing of
the seas, gritting his teeth he snapped off his barrel mounted torch
the darkness sinking in as he sprinted towards the flickering orange
glow; his thumb dipped to the selector switch on his rifle and with a
gentle flick of the opposing digit changed the selector. Andrey
sprinted, clutching his AS VAL to his chest like a dying child as he
hurried down the corridors after Baker. His boots barely skimmed the
rough surface of the floor as he flew like a banshee. Spinning round
a corner he jumped, planting one booted foot on the opposite wall as
he propelled himself forwards down the corridor. He saw the shifting
shadowed form of Baker only metres ahead of him as he slipped his
rifle to his shoulder.

Baker heard the approaching feet and grinned as he
dropped to a knee, the reinforced pad on his knee skittering over the
rough surface of the floor. As he hit the corner and spun round it,
he pulled his rifle tight to his shoulder, firing as he sighted on
the swarm of Infected at the end of the corridor. Andrey dug his foot
into the floor as he snapped to a halt beside Baker, both men firing
at will as they sent rounds down range and into the heads of any
Infected they could get a bead on.

The heavy thump of a belt fed weapon filled the corridor
as Kingsley strode out the door of the office. The belt of the PKP
6P41 rattling as it was drawn up from the box beneath it. The machine
gun drove against his shoulder, over-and-over, as the bolt flew back
and forth sending round after round into the mass of bodies before
him.

A whooping cry of exultation rolled down the corridor
drawing out the gunfire. Baker looked across the sea of writhing
bodies as they fought to push through the hailstorm of lead that was
being driven into them. Rawlings knelt in the doorway, his rifle
perched against his hand and the door frame as he covered Kingsley's
back. His weapon danced from head to head as he fired, his optical
sight turning the world a hazy mix of greens as he stared through the
scope of his rifle.

'Running out of ammo here!' Bolton slid a magazine
across the floor to Rawlings' feet as he continued to fire. For
seventeen minutes they held off the tide of Infected, bodies falling
amidst a swirling rain of blood and gore. The harsh and heady mix of
blood and cordite filled the air as they began to slowly back down
the body strewn hallway.

'Come on, fucking move it. Andrey,
get them out of here. Kingsley, give me that gimpy and get the hell
out of here, I'll hold them off.' Kingsley glanced at Baker a
cursive filled retort bubbling its way up only to be stomped back
down by a single glance from Baker. '
Now,
soldier!
'

Slowly, and with a heavy heart, Kingsley lifted the
machine gun's sling from around his shoulder and handed the weapon to
him. Shifting the sling so that the weapon sat braced against his
upper arm, Baker stepped into the middle of the corridor and squeezed
the triggers of both weapons.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, the professional
soldier was throwing himself against the walls of Derek's mind,
screaming at him in disgust as he threw aside any semblance of
training and drenched the hall way in a mire of barely aimed lead.

The report almost deafened him as he unleashed a wall of
death, the first seventeen Infected dropped as their heads simply
disappearing in a glimmering haze of red. The cases cascaded around
his feet in a dancing shimmer of hot brass as they bounced off the
floor.

Andrey skidded to a halt. 'Down there and turn left.
Watch your footing the floor is covered in shit. Take the ladder down
to the lower levels and head for the control centre.'

Rawlings looked at Andrey and nodded, 'What about you?'
Andrey grinned, his missing front teeth leaving his smile slightly
twisted.

'I am going to go have some fun. Can't let your boss
have it all, can I?'

Rawlings shook his head as he turned down the corridor,
'You're fucking nuts, mate. A good shot, but bat shit-crazy.'

Andrey shrugged as he moved off. 'Blame my mother.' With
that the Russian squad commander vanished round the corner and was
gone.

****

Rawlings sagged down against the wall of the control
centre as he turned a bullet end over end. Lifting it to the bright
strip lights, he stared at it, the smooth polished casing reflecting
his gaze as he rotated it through his fingers. 'You know, King, they
say there is a bullet out there with your name on it. I wonder who
has mine.'

Kingsley shrugged. 'Don't know, mate, but I know who has
mine.' Rawlings' interest was piqued as he sat up slightly looking at
his team mate.

'Who would that be?'

Kingsley grinned and reached inside his tunic pulling
out a glittering gold chain. Set into a small hoop at the end was a
single nine-millimetre round.

'Me!'

Rawlings grinned as he stared at the bullet for a moment
before sliding his knife from the sheath and raising the tip to the
round he held. 'Think I'll join you there.'

For over an hour they waited in that small room two
hundred feet below the surface. The seconds seemed to stretch forever
as they waited for the smallest sign of Baker or Andrey. They sat
there staring ahead of them as the time slowly slid away; dripping
into a void so deep that not even the hand of God could reach it;
but, for the men and woman trapped in the darkness God was the last
person they would look to for help.

Fadei had arrived twenty minutes after their arrival,
with Anastasia, her lap filled with the discs and papers she had
managed to scavenge from her work station before Fadei had carried
out one of his directives and liquidated the room.

As they all sat in a brooding silence, the door hissed
and slid open. A beleaguered Andrey entered, his hand clutched to his
side, as blood slowly seeped between his fingers. He cast a cocky
grin around the room before he pitched forward, a dull clunk issuing
forth as his unconscious form hit the floor. Kingsley stared at the
prostrate man before he climbed to his feet and lifted him on to the
only table in the room. He pushed the neat stacks of Anastasia's
files to the floor before laying the still bleeding body upon its
matte-grey surface.

An angered cry of indignation spilled forth from the
wheelchair bound scientist before she was rudely quieted by Kingsley.
'Shut it, woman. This man's life is more important than your anal
retentive OCD.'

Pulling his suit from his unconscious body, Fadei
examined Andrey's wounds. 'Thank the Gods.'

Rawlings stuck his head in and sighed with relief.

'Thank fuck for that, I would have hated to shoot the
guy who saved our arse.' Bolton stirred from his stupor long enough
to ask, what everyone was carrying on about. 'He wasn't Infected.'
Nodding his satisfaction at their answer, he lay back down and went
back to sleep. Four hours after falling face first to the floor,
Andrey stirred. A harsh pain filled moan escaping his lips as he
tried to push himself upright. A gloved hand clasped his shoulder
and pushed him back down.

'Don't move you gap toothed tit, you'll bust the
stitches.'

Andrey smirked as he cracked open an eye.

'Well it's just as well for you then, I would love to
kick your arse right now!'

Baker smirked, as he stared down at the man he owed his
life to.

'And why would that be?'

Andrey chuckled as he pointed at his side, wincing in
pain at the twisting muscles as they tugged the stitching holding his
torn flesh together. 'For avoiding that damned saw disk and letting
this happen, although it is probably a good thing. Otherwise I would
have had my head ripped off by that one behind me.'