Designated (Book 1): Designated Infected (38 page)

Kingsley nodded silently, not relishing the thought of
thinking over what had happened for a third time. Baker watched
Kingsley as he mulled over what to say next.

'Colinson had the guy committed to Broadmoor, apparently
some tit in screening didn't do their checks and he had a history of
familial and personal mental health issues that would have excluded
him from even joining the service in the first place.'

Kingsley
gave Baker a sidelong glance as he drove, gauging his friends
reaction to the statement.

'How the hell did he get in then? I'm sure someone
should have flagged the guy and given him the boot.' Kingsley stayed
mute on the subject as he pulled the sun-visor lower shielding his
eyes from the broaching dawn on the horizon.

Baker shook his head and settled back into the seat,
half closing his eyes as he watched the sunrise, the gold streaked
sky of a new day rolled towards them as silence took hold, both men
content to say nothing as they chased the horizon.

The drive seemed to drag on for longer than usual as
Baker brooded in his seat, thoughts of Ridgmont's actions still
burning away in the depths of his mind, the beak nosed accusatory
stare was still lingering in front of him whenever he looked in the
mirror. Derek knew that before the year was gone he would find a way
to hold the smug bastard of a Colonel accountable for his actions;
especially the deaths they had led too.

Baker's head banged against the toughened glass of the
window as the Land Rover slid sharply to a halt. The high pitched
squeal issuing from the non-existent brake pads set his teeth on
edge. Reaching back he grabbed his go-bag and clambered from the
vehicle then set off towards the waiting plane as Kingsley jogged to
catch up with him.

'Oi, bitch, what you doing leaving a brother behind like
that?'

Baker smirked as he turned and glanced at his friend.

'Hey, I'm a white guy I thought I was slow enough for
you to be able to catch me, being black and all.' Kingsley glared at
him slightly as he picked up his pace.

'Very fucking funny arse hole still would have been
polite to wait. I would have waited for you.'

Baker chuckled as he threw his bag on to the pallet with
the rest of the kit and walked up the ramp.

'Like fuck you would've, you would've fucked off and
left me to carry your kit as well.'

Kingsley grinned at him as he dumped his bag next to
Baker's and boarded the plane.

'True.'

It was another twenty minutes until everyone had arrived
and the plane finally began to taxi down the runway.

'So what exactly will we be doing over there anyway?
Colinson wasn't very forth coming with the information.'

'Honestly, I haven't the faintest idea. All I know is
it's a joint exercise, us, the Germans, and the French are clearing
tunnel systems of any “Hostile forces”, other than that,
who knows.'

Kingsley groaned as he settled in and tried to fall back
to sleep.

'Sounds like another damned rabbit hunt, diving into
holes, crawling through tunnels full of God only knows what. Wonder
whether Alice is up for a quickie.'

Baker
residence

North
East London

Janet's arm strayed across the bed searching for the
warm muscular mass that was the man she called her husband; rolling
over on to her side she stared at the cool empty sheets. The hot
sting of tears welled up in her eyes as she gazed at the vacant
sheets. Turning over, she looked at the clock on the bedside table
and the folded note resting against the lamp behind it. Picking it up
she gently unfolded the slip of paper, a small smile graced her elfin
features as she read silently,

I lay awake for one last chance,

One last chance to see that smile,

That smile that spills across my heart,

That draws me in and fills my soul.

I awake before the sun for a chance to be the one,

The one to see the light play across your skin,

The one to see the light dance in your hair,

The one that glows with the newborn dawn.

I leave before the dawn and I die a little more inside,

Each time I leave before you awake,

A little more of my soul it takes,

Until I come once more home and no longer doomed to
roam.

Derek.

Sighing softly, she folded the paper and set it back on
the side table as she stretched and rolled silently out of the bed;
her feet tapped lightly on the carpeted floor. Letting the soft satin
sheets fall from her grip, she padded nude into bathroom and turned
on the shower.

The ice cool water spattered against the blue and white
tiled wall. Stepping in she gasped as the water hit her sleep heated
skin, the flowing frigid droplets raised a sea of stippled goose
bumps as they slid across her supple form. Her hands flowed across
her skin as she washed away the sweat and grime of the night, the
soft swelling mound of her stomach giving her pause as she let her
hand rest atop it, softly sliding her slim digits over the already
protruding mound.

A small smile teased the edges of her mouth as she
thought of when she was going to tell her husband exactly what it
meant. Although a thought tickled her mind, for all his teasing and
playful jibes she couldn't shake the feeling that he already knew
exactly what the small potting of her stomach meant to them both.

Stepping from the tiled cubicle she reached for a cream
coloured towel. Draping the soft fabric over her shoulders she used
the excess to dry her hair. Walking through to their shared bedroom,
she idly flicked the television on as she perched on the end of the
bed; watching the flat panel shudder to life. The face of the early
morning newscaster floated into reality, a small sheaf of A4 pages
clutched in his hands as he stared into the camera.

'It has just been announced that the London 2012 Olympic
games are to be suspended for the foreseeable future, the
announcement comes in the wake of month long discussions brought
about by the rise of a virulent virus sweeping the globe.

'It has also been announced that the government has
passed a measure allowing all current law enforcement personnel
trained in the use of fire arms to bear them at all times.

This controversial measure never before seen in the
modern policing era, has been the result of the Goodmayes tower block
riots and the incidents in Dover and Calais. Members of the British
armed forces, Special Biological Warfare Division along with members
of the French, Bureau de Confinement Biologique, were called in to
quell a suspected biological threat. As a result nine British and
French soldiers were killed and six more wounded, their families have
been notified.

'Alongside the aforementioned measure we will see the
rapid installation of permanent CO19 police units in every major
hospital in the United Kingdom and similar measures are being
instituted in the Republic of Ireland.

'This measure is in response to the crisis that struck
China two years ago resulting in the rapid international quarantine
of The Peoples Republic which is still in effect.'

He shuffled the small clutch of papers in his hands as
he collected his thoughts before switching to another topic. The
television drifted into the background as Janet rose from the bed and
walked to the wardrobe to begin preparing for the shift that lay
ahead of her.

42

Central
Middlesex Hospital

North
West London

'Hey Jimmy.'

Jimmy looked up, his hair hanging down over the side of
his head as he dumped the rags in his hand back into the bucket, the
gleaming trolley catching the light as he pushed it out of the way of
the door. The wet rubber mattress lay upright against the wall as
soap filled water drained off it, running in thin streams across the
floor.

He flushed slightly as he watched Janet walk by, 'uhh
h,h,hi Mrs. Baker.'

His face flustered and flushed as she drew closer, the
clicking of her semi-high heeled shoes echoing through the small
walled yard.

'Now Jimmy, how many times have I told you to call me
Janet?'

Janet shot him a warm smile as she walked by causing
Jimmy's face to become a slightly deeper shade of red.

His mouth opened and closed several times as he tried to
reply, too tongue tied to form the words fully. His eyes locked on
her shapely legs and travelled slowly up as she moved towards the
staff entrance, his slightly leering gaze lingered on the soft
swaying of her buttocks as the doors slowly slid shut. Shaking his
head to clear the image, he picked up the mattress and dumped it on
the hospital bed before pushing it into the storage area, turning and
walking back inside to carry on with his rounds Jimmy smiled the
image of Janets shapely legs and rump swimming to the forefront of
his mind once more.

The clanging of steel doors assaulted Janet's ears as
she made her way into the changing room. Stepping past several other
rows, she reached forwards and opened the door to her one foot by six
foot locker dropping her handbag into the bottom as she stripped her
leather jacket from her shoulders. She pulled the lab coat off the
back of the locker door and slipped on the size six trainers she kept
for work.

Stepping into the corridor, clipboard in hand, Janet
checked off the listed priorities, she was staring at the page as
Kevin stepped up next to her, a pile of folders clutched tightly in
his arms as he hurried to keep pace.

'So what have we got Kev?'

He hurriedly shuffled the notes as Janet spoke.

'We have three coming in from accident and emergency,
one on ward six and another on ward eight, the scan picked up an
accelerated count in all five of them, and Jones in the booth thinks
they could be progressing to stage two possibly three.'

Janet cursed under her breath as she pushed through the
heavy swing doors and made her way to the triage and containment
room. Sighing, she stepped into the room as Kevin followed close on
her heels.

She took one look at the man lying on the examination
table and felt her heart fall, he was curled into a foetal ball, his
trousers lacking their normal cream lustre, the back stained a liquid
brown from his own excrement.

Kevin stepped forwards and rolled the man over towards
them. Looking up Kevin and watched as Janet physically recoiled at
the sight of the man's face. His eyes swollen shut from the pustular.
melanoma like, lumps forming on his eye lids and across his face,
distorting his features so badly that he no longer looked human.

Kevin clamped his teeth tightly shut as the bile rose in
his gullet; he had to look away as the man's mouth opened and a thick
stew of bile, meat and organic matter spilled out covering the floor.

The man's hands shot out clasping onto Kevins wrist;
with a strength that left him reeling. Kevins arm was drawn towards
the waiting, wanton, pustule covered lips as they curled back from
the man's yellow meat encrusted teeth. Janet raised the clipboard and
sent it scything through the air, edge first, into the man's wrist,
the crack of metal on bone audible to the dozens of people sitting
outside, even through the heavy wooden door of the triage room.

The internal door swung out wards as the black clad form
of a police officer spilled through; his leather and Kevlar gloved
hands wrapped themselves through the Infected man's hair and shirt
dragging him backwards off the table and onto the floor. His boot
thundered down trapping the man's form between it and the floor as
his hand snapped backwards dragging the heavy taser baton from his
belt. With a force reserved for only the most violent of riots he
brought it down, the baton cleaving the air in two, ending only when
it connected with a static filled crunch on the top of the man’s
forehead, the three millimetre long bars, pierced the man's skin,
discharging the baton's collected energy in seconds.

Janet stared in fascinated horror as she watched the
patient convulse and spasm as the voltage coursed through him, his
face contorting as he tried to drag himself free of the boot pinning
him down. The wet squeaking of skin on the vinyl tiles set Kevin's
teeth on edge as he stepped back, his posterior banging painfully
against the work surface bolted to the wall.

Wincing sharply as the pain lanced up his back, a red
hot trail of fire dancing along his vertebrae, its white hot feet
kicking at the battered nerves of his spine sending his back into a
rumba of convulsive tension. Kevin's hand strayed to his lower back
as he watched the officer drag the snarling twisted form away, its
feet bouncing against the tiles as he tried to claw his way towards
the meal that could have been. Janet pushed a stray lock of hair away
behind her ear and straightened her lab coat as she looked at her
fellow doctor. The man stood trembling ever so slightly as he checked
himself over for any sign of damage.