Alien Virus (18 page)

Before he went away, Frank had told Tony
about a very special substance that was being channeled to Earth
from their Universe. It was this substance that held the key to the
survival of Man and his planet. How it would be applied and what
effect it would have, Tony didn’t know. Frank was always very
conservative with this sort of information. He’d hint at something,
then later Tony would get a few more details. He’d mull these
around for a while, seeing how the idea could be right, how it
would work in practice and what the implications were. Then, when
he’d made some effort towards understanding, Frank would come along
and tell him clearly how it all worked – really spell it out for
him. And then he’d understand it clearly.

At one time Tony wondered if the whole thing
was made up: the alien virus, other Universes, other lifetimes. But
then he thought: what other explanation is there? In the end, he’d
only know when he died what was beyond the grave: another
incarnation on Earth, life on his home planet or total oblivion. If
there was nothing else to life, it wouldn’t matter if he acted as
if he
did
originate from another Universe; as though there
was
a virus affecting mankind, and as if this Earth
would
be annihilated if he couldn’t help to stop it. So in
the end, he decided that was the best way to be, and he hadn’t
looked back since.

*

Early the next morning, there was a knock on
our chalet door. It was Frank.

“We’ve got to leave as soon as possible:
you’ve got half-an-hour to pack – okay?” I nodded, suddenly very
awake.

“I’ll tell Kate.”

Kate asked why we had to leave so quickly. I
told her I’d no idea; but if Frank said we needed to leave, then
we’d better go. I realized later that I was starting to sound like
Tony. Before we left, Kate insisted on checking the outside shed to
see if Sandi had been back for her things. Kate returned with a
smile on her face. I looked at her questioningly, and she said “All
gone.”

Within thirty minutes we were on the road.
Tony had telephoned Harry and Jo, and they said they’d meet us at
the ferry. It was thirteen miles from the chalets to the pier, and
we got there in just under twenty minutes. Harry and Jo were
already in the queue. As the ferry boat docked, I noticed two
police cars on the boat. I tapped Tony shoulder and pointed. He
nodded. Frank said,

“It’ll be fine – just keep your eyes
straight ahead.” The vehicles rolled off the boat, and the police
cars sped past us, obviously more concerned about getting to their
destination than looking at the queue of vehicles waiting to board.
On board the vessel we took a quick look around to see who else was
there, then locked the car and headed upstairs. I wondered if Sandi
had contacted the Police about us.

“I don’t think so,” replied Frank as we made
our way towards the coffee lounge. “It’s more likely they were
going back to follow up on their visit to Harry and Jo’s place.”
Frank was about to open the door to the lounge, but I stopped
him.

“How did you know they were on their way?” I
asked. Frank looked away for a moment, then straight back at
me.

“Let’s just call it intuition.” He opened
the door and we were greeted by Harry and Jo.

“Have you lot got some sort of contact with
a higher power?” Harry asked Frank, partly in jest. “I’m sure the
cops were on their way back to our place.” Jo nodded in
agreement.

“We’re going to need all the help we can get
– so everyone needs to get in contact with their own ‘higher
power’,” Frank replied, removing his coat. Kate, Audrey and Gareth
entered and greeted Harry and Jo.

“Lovely meal last night Jo, thanks.” Kate
said.

“It was nice to have your company,” Jo
replied. “Frank was a bit mysterious on the phone this morning – he
didn’t say where we were going, just to pack a bag for a week or
so.”

Audrey nodded. “It’s safer that way. Frank
will tell us more about it in Kirkwall.

The boat from Eday went directly to Kirkwall
that morning with no other stops. The plan was to take the
afternoon boat from Kirkwall to Papa Westray. The trip was calm,
with the sea water like a millpond. I stood on the deck with Kate,
drinking in the panoramic vista, and the smells and sounds of the
sea.

“I think I’ve travelled more in the last
week than I ever did as a journalist in London,” I said.

“Regrets?” asked Kate.

I shook my head. “No way... this is an
adventure of a lifetime.”

“You seem to have accepted Frank.” Kate was
right – I had. But when I thought about it, it seemed crazy. It
wasn’t ‘logical’, and it wasn’t the sort of thing you could explain
to anyone else.

“What about you?” I asked. She looked out to
sea, considering the question. “Suppose he’s not Frank,” I
continued, “what difference would it make?” This was a question I
honestly could not answer myself.

“In one way, none. If we believe the things
Frank taught us, they still remain true. And Steve is only saying
the same things Frank said. But if he’s not Frank – why pretend?
What’s he hiding from us? Are we safe with him? We’ve all adopted
him as our leader – but we don’t know where he’s leading us.” I
understood her line of thinking.

“I know what you mean – but he did pass the
test. He can’t be motivated by the infection.”

“Unless the virus has mutated and is now
undetectable by our tests,” Kate added. That was a frightening
thought. It meant that anyone of us could be infected, and we’d
never know. Just as we were contemplating this, Gareth arrived on
deck.

“I heard Sandi came back,” he said. I
nodded. “Did you see her?” Kate shook her head.

“No we didn’t Gareth – but to be honest, I
think we’re better just forgetting about her now. I know you were
close, but we’ve got to move on – I’m sorry.”

“Oh, that’s all right, no worries. I seemed
to be jinxed at the moment.” He hung his head over the railing,
staring down at the foam below as the ship cut through the water.
Kate put an arm around him.

“I really think Sandi is a good person
Gareth – but she’s not one of us. I don’t think she’s dangerous –
she’s just infected by the virus.”

“Doesn’t that make her dangerous?” I
asked.

“There’s different degrees of infection –
it’s not black or white. Sandi is probably a marginal case, her own
cells battling with the virus. Sometimes they get the upper hand,
other times the virus has control. She’ll probably do or say
things, then wonder why the hell she did them. Didn’t you say she
was lactose intolerant Kevin?”

“Yeah, she told me she was allergic to dairy
when she was a child – her mother used to give her soya milk.”

“Well, that will have saved her from the
full infection. We don’t have to worry about Sandi, she’ll be taken
care of.” They seemed wise words, but I don’t think either Gareth
or I knew exactly
who
was going to take care of her. I know
Gareth wanted it to be him.

***

Twenty
-
Five

After arriving in Kirkwall, five of us
headed for the Bothy Bar for a drink and something to eat. Harry
and Jo had some business to attend to first, so they said they’d
meet us there. Home–made fish and chips was on the menu, and we all
settled for that – with glasses of the local ale. As we sat with
our drinks, waiting for our food, we watched the midday news on one
of the television screens in the bar.

‘
It was confirmed today that a new and
extremely virulent strain of avian flu has reached Britain. The
Home Secretary has ordered supplies of a vaccine thought capable of
providing protection against the virus, and the government is
considering measures to implement compulsory inoculation of all UK
citizens. Here’s our medical correspondent, James Harvey…

‘
This new strain is worrying health
officials in the government. They’re concerned that the Asian
virus, known as AV021, could signal an epidemic more deadly and
widespread than the flu outbreak of 1918, and the Prime Minister is
urging his
party
to back the proposed legislation. If
it goes through, vaccinations could start as early as next
week…
’

We all looked at each other. Then Frank
spoke,

“It’s all right – it was predictable.”

“But doesn’t vaccination mean injection of
the virus?” I asked. Frank nodded.

“Yes it does; but we’re not going to have
it,” he replied.

“What will they do it we refuse?” asked
Gareth.

“To be honest, I don’t know – and I don’t
think they know either. It will probably depend on
how
we
object – whether we make a stand and say this shouldn’t be allowed,
or we simply run off and hide.” Whilst we were thinking about that,
our food arrived. As we were eating, a thought occurred to me.

“Frank – when we met in London, you told me
that you had…” I was going to say ‘ten times the normal level of
sodium in your body’, but suddenly realized that only Frank would
know he told me this. This was a great opportunity to test, once
and for all, whether or not the man sitting next to me was really
Frank Peters. I paused.

“I told you what Kevin?”

“Sorry, I’ve just gone blank.”

“Kevin, it’s very important that we’re open
and honest with each other. If you want to test me, go ahead – I’ll
play your games. But whatever I say, it won’t convince you. When I
used to go around talking to people in London, and told them about
an alien virus, they inevitably thought I was crazy; to tell them I
was immune because I was born on another planet would have had them
calling the funny farm.”

“So you’re saying that you’re immune because
you’re an…” I looked round the bar to see if anyone was listening.
There were only three other people in the pub, and they were
engrossed in a football match. “…because you’re an
alien?
” I
whispered.

“Yes – and it’s got nothing to do with
having ten times the average level of sodium in my body, or
whatever I used to say.” He had said it – the exact phrase that
Frank had used in London. And yet, he was absolutely right – it
didn’t prove anything. If he’d spoken those words to me in the
Bells, he could have said the same thing to thousands of other
people in London, including Steve Saunders. And then Steve Saunders
could have killed Frank.

“But salt
does
neutralize the virus?”
asked Kate.

“Yes, of course… it prevents it being
active; but the virus can still be inside you. Salt keeps acts as a
barrier to the virus so it can be dealt with – but it doesn’t
destroy it. If it was that easy, I wouldn’t have spent the last ten
thousand years on this planet – none of us would.” Just as I
thought I’d understood something, Frank had the ability to throw a
spanner in ointment (if you’ll excuse the mixed metaphor) and make
me question this ‘new reality’. How could I, how could any of us,
believe that we’d lived on Earth for ten thousand years?

As we were contemplating Frank’s words,
Harry and Jo appeared. They said they had to head off down South to
visit Jo’s mother, who had become very ill. Tony seemed unhappy
about this, but Frank said it was fine: they had to do what they
thought was right. It was the last time that the seven of us would
be together.

*

In London the next day, the affects of the
virus exploded onto the streets. With the arrival of the new ‘bird
flu’, the medical services provision reached bursting point and
then collapsed. Doctors and nurses fell ill alongside their
patients, so there was no–one to tend the sick. There was little
they could have done in any case. Last minute attempts were made to
vaccinate anyone and everyone, but these only exacerbated the
situation; the inoculations contained the virus itself. With the
mass of the population already infected, it took little to push
them over the edge.

It started with normal flu symptoms – a sore
throat and a cough, followed by fever and general aches and pains –
particularly in the chest – and complete lethargy. Those who
attempted to carry on working merely spread the virus. Just like
the 1918 pandemic, it wasn’t only the very young and elderly who
were hit: those in their twenties and thirties were equally
affected; and once the virus took hold of them, death followed
quickly.

From London, the virus soon spread outwards
to other UK cities – and then other countries. Parliament struggled
on in London for a little while with a drastically reduced number
of MPs, then had to move out of the capital to Edinburgh. Those MPs
who had not yet been hit by the virus moved up North to join their
counterparts at the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood. And still it
went on. The army was called in to maintain basic services in the
cities. Hundreds of thousands moved away from the towns into the
countryside, thinking it safer there. But all they succeeding in
doing was to spread the virus to the country areas.

In a desperate attempt to stem the tide,
local councils ordered anyone infected with the virus to stay at
home. It was a death sentence for their whole family – reminiscent
of the Great Plague of the sixteen hundreds when red crosses were
put on the doors of infected households in London. The scientists,
what was left of them, couldn’t understand how the virus could
spread so quickly and so far. They had no idea that the mass
majority of humankind had been infected with this virus for dozens
of centuries, and the recent avian flu merely acted as a trigger
for the alien organism to overrun their hosts. They had no answer
to the epidemic – nothing they did would slow down its pace in any
way. The pattern was soon repeated in many other places around the
globe. Only the cooler places in the far north and far south
managed some sort of containment. Orkney was safe – for the time
being.