Suicide Run (The Infected Book 5) (5 page)

              Chapter Seven

The thing was, she had every right and I knew it. I watched her pull away and Spirit ran along beside her. Chris gunned the engine and pulled away following her as we moved through the streets.

The safe house turned out to be a huge brick firehouse. They had managed to force open one of the garage doors and they drove the ATV’s straight inside. I hopped off the back and watched as Chris pushed the door closed. I followed them both up a flight of stairs and we headed to where the firemen and women would have slept. I dropped my rucksack and the hunting rifle on one of the beds and sat down. Amy walked passed me and head to where the toilets were.

“Is she really that pissed with me?” I asked.

“Really? Are you that fucking dumb? Of course she is pissed off with you. Marc, you left in the middle of the night and didn’t say anything to anyone. It was by chance that Jake remembered you asking about the ship in Hull. We then managed to put two and two together and thought you would head down here.” Chris said throwing his leather jacket on to a bed sitting down.

“How did you catch up so quickly?” I asked.

“David. He managed to find those ATV’s and some leathers big enough for me. After our little conversation the other day Amy decided that she was going to come and kill you. As you can gather, we managed to talk her out of it. We left the same day and drove non-stop down here. It was pure luck that I heard the truck last night.” He said lying down on the bed.

Spirit came in and jumped up onto the bed beside him.

“Well, go on then!” He said, closing his eyes.

“Go on, what?” I said.

“Go and talk to Amy. You know, for being the smarter of the two of us you can be rally thick sometimes.”

I stood up and headed toward the toilets. I stopped at the door and listened. Inside, I could hear her quiet sobs.

I lightly tapped on the door and said “Amy!”

“Fuck off, Marc, I’m not ready to talk you yet.” Can the muffled shout.

“Amy, I want to say……”

“Fuck off!” She shouted, followed by a thud against the door.

I could imagine her throwing her boot at the door. I headed back to the bed and sat down.

“Fuck’d up again?” Chris said with a small laugh.

‘Pretty much.’ I thought and sat watching the toilets for Amy to come out.

After a while my stomach rumbled and I grabbed my rucksack and pulled out some MRE’s and bottled water.

“Chris?” I said.

“Hmmmm?”

“You hungry, mate?” I asked.

“You know me, bud. I’m always hungry.”

“Can you go ask Amy if she wants anything?”

“Really, you that scared of her?” He said laughing.

“Wouldn’t you be?” I said.

He thought about it and sat up to look at me and said “Mate, I would sleep with my boots on if I were you. Because if she comes for you whilst you sleep, you might have a chance of running away.”

“Funny fucker!” I said.

He climbed off the bed and gave Spirit a stroke and headed toward the toilet.

“Anything else you want me to ask her while I am being messenger boy?” He said.

“Since when did you become the fucking comedian?” I shouted.

“Just now!” He said, flipping me the middle finger and then pushing open the door and walked into the toilets.

I sat there watching the door and waiting for it to open. Nothing happened for a good ten minutes and then it opened and Chris walked out. My head whipped around to look at him but all he would do was shake his head. I looked down at my feet and felt so rejected. Could she not see that everything I had ever done was for the good of our group? Chris sat down on the bed opposite me and didn’t say a word.

“That bad, huh?” I asked.

He looked toward the door and then back at me before saying “You do realize that she is head over heels in love with you?”

I looked at me feet “Yeah, I had a feeling. But I had to try and do this. If Benton ever found us, it would be a nightmare.”

Chris swung his legs up onto the bed and said “Look, I know why you did it and I even agree with us having to deal with Benton. But to run off by yourself in the middle of the night, Marc, even for you, that is a stupid plan. You have friends and a group of people who rely on you and us to keep them safe and secure.”

Standing up, I looked toward the toilet door and then started walking toward it.

“I wouldn’t if I were you.” Chris called after me.

This time it was me who gave the middle finger. I pushed the door open and walked in. Amy was standing near the rear of the room with her arms crossed under her breasts. She looked up and shook her head.

“Get out of here, Marc. I am not in the best of moods with y…..”

She never got to finish that sentence because I had locked my lips on hers and pulled her into my arms. I could feel her hands beating against my chest and her struggling to get free.

Our heads came apart and she started “Get off, you sel….”

Again I kissed her and this time the hands beating on my chest weren’t as hard and she didn’t struggle as much. I needed some air and pulled back slightly and Amy said “You fucking bast….”

As you guessed it, another kiss. This time her mouth parted and the kiss became the start of something else. The love we made on the toilet floor was full of heat and passion. There were several times when Amy would either cry or lash out, but we both knew that neither of us were actually angry at the other. We lay there on the floor tangled in our discarded clothes. I held her body close and feel her breathing against my chest.

Amy opened her eyes and looked up into my face and said “You scared me.”

“I know.” I said, running my fingers through her hair.

“You told me that you would never leave without me and then you go and do this.”

“Amy, it’s like what Chris said. This is a suicide run. I just wanted to keep the people I love safe. The only way I could do that was if I did this on my own.” I said softly.

She shook her head slightly and said “I can understand that, but going after them on your own won’t do any good. They probably have a ton of men and more equipment than we do. Plus there is the fact that you had lost the only vehicle you had.”

“All right. I concede that it wasn’t a very well thought out plan, but I had to make sure you would all be safe.”

“Ok, smart arse, what would you have done if they captured you and they forced you to tell them where we were?” She asked, raising herself on her elbows to look in my face.

To tell the truth, I hadn’t actually thought about it. I lay there looking at the ceiling thinking of what she had just said.

“I didn’t think of that.” I said.

She nodded her head and said “Like I expected. Marc goes off half-cocked again.”

Smiling, I tickled her side and said “That’s not what you said five minutes ago.”

She squirmed away from me and stood up. There she stood, naked as the day she was born and I felt like my heart was about to burst from my chest. That and another part of my body was quite happy to see her standing there like that.

“You fucking git.” She said, laughing.

I rolled over and started pulling on some underwear.

“You do realize you’re trying to pull on my knickers?” She said.

“Yeah, well, they feel nice and they fit better.” I said, grinning.

She leaned over and pulled them out of my hands and laughed again. I found my underwear and pulled them on and then grabbed my gear off the floor and headed for the door.

“I’ll give you some privacy.” I said, my hand on the handle.

“You’re not going out there dressed in your underwear, are you?” She said.

“Why not? It’s not like he wouldn’t have heard us.” I said, pushing open the door and leaving her standing in her bra and panties with a bright red face.

I saw Chris lying on his bed with his eyes closed and slowly padded to the bed I had chosen.

“I heard you two making up.” He said without opening his eyes.

“Erm… yeah, we did.” I said feeling, my face getting warm.

This was worse than getting caught whacking one off by your mother. Nah, change that to getting caught by your older brother. Because you just knew the fucker was going to use it whenever he could to blackmail you.

“Good. At least now we can get on and find these Benton arseholes without me worrying about Amy shooting you in the back or worse.” He said, grinning.

I dumped my gear on the bed and turned shocked to look at him and said “You’re not going to drag me back to the bunker?”

He shook his head and said “Nah! We were going to do that but then Jake of all people said that these wankers wouldn’t give up until either all of us were infected or dead. So it was decided a small team might be able to find them and put their boat out of action.”

I sat down on the bed with probably the second shocked look on my face today.

“David and Mike are scouting out a boat for us and Jake is trying to find Benton’s ship on the radio. He said there might be something on the side channels. We are supposed to check in each night so that we know how everyone is doing.” He said, sitting up.

I nodded and started to pull my gear on when the door the toilets opened and Amy walked in wearing the leather biker trousers and a black t-shirt. Everything else she carried in her hands.

“Right. Now that the toilet is free.” Chris said standing up and walking past Amy.

She blushed as he walked past. He laughed at her blushing and patted her on the shoulder. He pushed open the door to the toilet and stepped out of view. Amy walked over to the bed opposite mine and sat on the edge. I watched as she pulled a large black holdall out from underneath the bed.

“Are we ok?” I asked.

“Let’s put it this way, sex is not always the answer, but it is a start.” She said pulling some black cargo pants and a white t-shirt out of the holdall.

Chapter Eight

Spirit came in and went to sit beside Amy’s bed. The bloody dog was giving me the cold shoulder as well. This day seemed to be getting better by the minute. Standing up, I headed back to where we had parked the ATV’s and looked out through the windows in the large doors. Outside looked quiet. But having a closer look I could see movement inside the houses. At first I thought it was survivors but it wasn’t. A door banged open and two infected came lurching out into the street. The echo of the door crashing open was like a starting pistol.

Suddenly there were infected streaming from houses and alleyways. God only knew how we had gotten into the fire station without this lot going nuts. I watched as they all converged into one large group and then moved off down the street away from the fire station. I started to think about Matthew and how I had left his body in that pub. Turning around, I saw Amy leaning against the wall watching me.

“Penny for your thoughts.” She said.

I shrugged my shoulders and looked back out the window. I nearly jumped out of my skin when she placed her hand on my shoulder.

“Come on, Marc, something is on your mind. What is it?” She asked, turning me around gently.

I looked down and said “Matthew.”

“Who’s Matthew?” She asked.

“The lad I left in the pub.” I said, feeling the tears welling up behind my eyes.

Amy pulled me in to a hug and the tears started to flow. The weight of having to shoot him was heavy on my chest. Having Amy here and Chris had brought home to me how much I needed people around me to share things like that. Amy didn’t say anything and just held me until the tears had run their course. I stood wiping my eyes and nose with my sleeve when Chris came walking in.

“Sorry to interrupt your women’s meeting, but we need to call in.” He said.

“Erm, Chris?” I said, walking over.

“Yeah, Marc?”

“Fuck you, Chris!” I said walking past him.

I could hear him saying to Amy behind me “I missed this shit.” I smiled and kept walking because I had missed our banter, too. We sat down on the beds and Chris pulled out the radio and turned it on.

“Bunker, come in Bunker. This is Search calling.” Chris said.

“Seriously you called your team Search?” I said.

“Oh and you would have thought of something better?” He replied, smiling.

“Anything would have been better than Search.” I answered, smiling as well.

This might have gone on for a bit longer when the speaker on the radio squawked.

“This is bunker, come in, Search. Have you managed to find Wayward Child? Over.” Jakes old voice came out of the small speaker.

“Oh fucking come on!” I said, feeling a little pissed off.

“Marc, it’s just a code.” Amy said placing a hand on my arm.

I shut up.

“Search to Bunker. We have found Wayward Child and he is safe. I repeat, he is safe and sound. Well, maybe not sound but he is safe.” Chris said, grinning.

I made a grab for the radio then but he held it away from me and kept me at bay with the other arm. I swear he could keep a tank in place with just one arm.

“Marc, sit down.” Amy said, sounding a little like a mother angry with her child.

I slumped down next to her and Chris leaned back with the radio.

“That’s great news. I’ll let everyone know when we have finished up with the reports.” Jake said.

The radio squawked again and David’s steady voice came out of the speaker “That makes our news just as good then. We have managed to find a working lifeboat. It has a full tank of fuel and is ready.”

“A lifeboat?” I said.

“Yeah. Jane said that they are nearly unsinkable so we tried to figure out where one might be and they have been looking for one.” Chris answered.

“That’s great news.” Jake said.

“Where are you, David?” Asked Chris.

“A nature reserve called Spurn Point. It’s on the headway of the Humber just down from Hull. We went to a local library and found it in the yellow pages. Mike said that we would have found it on the internet quicker, but I had to remind him that there is no internet anymore.” David said, laughing.

“That’s great news. We should be able to get there tomorrow. We just need to sort out things here and we’ll head out first thing.” Chris said.

“Mike said to ask Marc if he still has Spirit.” David asked.

“Yeah! The psycho mutt is still following him around. Why?” Chris said.

Spirit lifted her head to look at him and let out a low growl.

“It’s just that we found a male Alsatian on the way here. He’s just a pup but shouldn’t be long before they are the best of friends if you know what I mean.” David replied, laughing.

“That’s good news. Everything here at the Bunker is fine. The fence is fully up and they have started the foundations on some of the external buildings. There have been a few infected come up to the fence and it held up really well.” Jake said.

Chris lifted the radio and asked “How many tried to get in?”

The radio was silent for a while before Jake’s old tones came out of the speaker “Tessa said there were sixteen spread out along a hundred meters of fence. They had them all finished off within twenty minutes.”

“How did the guards do?” Chris asked.

“They did fine. Tessa reckons they could have killed them quicker but all practice is good practice.” Jake said.

“We’re going to have to sign off at our end. The batteries are dying really quick.” David said.

“No problem, David. We should be heading that way early tomorrow morning. Hopefully if the roads are clear enough we should there around midday.” Chris said.

“Look forward to seeing you all. That’s us signing off then.” David said.

There was a squelch of static from the radio’s speaker. Then Jake’s voice came out “Well, it looks like we are going to signing off as well. But it’s good news that you found Marc and he’s ok.”

“Let everyone know he’s fine and we’ll talk to you all tomorrow.” Chris said.

“This is Bunker signing off. Good night, guys.” Jake said and the radio went silent.

Chris turned off the radio and put it into his rucksack. I stood up and walked down to the toilets and stepped inside. I leaned against the wash basins and looked into the mirror. Looking back was a face that to tell you the truth I barely recognized. The beard that I had grown shadowed my face and the dark circles under my eyes stood out. I shook my head at the image facing me. How could anyone trust me to lead them? And from the radio conversation, my leaving had caused a huge problem.

The way I saw it, I had left with the reasoning that by doing that I was keeping them all safe. The door creaked and I turned to see Chris sticking his head around the door.

“You okay?” He asked.

I looked at him and answered “I suppose so.”

He opened the door further and stepped inside letting the door close slowly behind him.

He leaned his back against the door and said “I know you think that what you were doing was the best for everyone, but what we really needed was you to be there to help pull it all together. Before you go off on one, yes, you were the one that started all this, and it was a huge fucking accident, mate. What you have to also understand is that everyone back at the Bunker became lost the night you fucked off. Nearly everyone was ‘What happens now?’ and ‘Who’s going to save us?’ And shit like that. I have known you the longest and even I was fucking worried and you’re a fucking tit!” he finished grinning.

“Fuck you, too, mate!” I said with a small smile.

“I tell you one thing, if Amy and I hadn’t come looking for you, you would have had Tessa, and, mate, that is the last thing that you would have wanted. She had this long piece of fishing line and she said ‘If you don’t go bring his skinny arse back here, I will find him tie this fishing line around his balls and drag him back. Mate, when I saw her face I knew that she meant every word.”

The thought of someone tying fishing line around my balls and dragging me along like some dog had the effect of shrivelling my pride and joy and making my two best buds try to climb back inside. My face must have shown what I was thinking because Chris just nodded.

“Let’s get some sleep.” Chris said, moving away from the door and pulling it open.

I walked out following him and headed to the bed I had chosen. Amy was already lying down, and by the regular movement of her chest, I guessed that she was asleep. I sat down on the edge and pulled my boots off before lying down. Just as I was closing my eyes I felt the bed dip slightly, and opening my eyes I saw Spirit lay down across my legs. Reaching down, I gave her a gentle pat on her head. I lowered my head and closed my eyes again and this time I let the darkness behind them take me.