E Virus: The Diary of a Modern Day Girl (Book 2): The Path of Destruction (19 page)

We busied ourselves around the kitchen, the smell of bacon soon filled the air. That was enough to wake Nick and Paul as they came to investigate.

"Is that bacon?" Paul asked eagerly.

"Smells like it." Nick replied. He walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. "Smells really good." he told me.

He was trying to make up for our previous disagreement. I still held a bit of a grudge; I wasn't the most forgiving, which isn't the best trait to have. But we are who we are I suppose.

I gazed out the window as I watched the boys lower the two bodies into the graves. The bodies were covered in white dustsheets; they had found  them in the garage. Blood stained parts of the sheets. I felt a pain in the pit of my stomach. Suddenly, I didn't feel very hungry.

After a few minutes, they came back inside.

"Shall we go outside and say a few words?" Ryan asked the rest of the group.

We all made our way outside, over to the freshly dug graves. We gathered around as Ryan started the proceedings.

"We are here today to say goodbye, but also to give our thanks." Ryan started.

"We say goodbye to our new found friend, Nathan. He was taken from us far too soon. We also say goodbye to this man here. I am ashamed to say I do not know his name. We thank him for the roof he has provided us with. We did not know him in life, but none the less, we are grateful he has provided us his home." Ryan continued.

"We pay our respects, and we hope you have both found peace in the afterlife." Ryan finished.

George stepped up. "Let us pray." he announced.

"We pray that young Nathan is watched over and that he finds peace and serenity. We also pray for this man, we pray for forgiveness. For he did not know his actions as the virus consumed his body. We pray that he too, finds peace. We also pray for the lives we have lost. Greg, Josh and the Sergeant who cannot be with us today. We pray for the people who have suffered the infection. Finally, we pray for ourselves. We pray that we are watched over, and guided on the rightful path." George finished.

"Rest in Peace, Nathan." Ryan whispered.

Sarah and Jared walked over to Natha's grave. With his skateboard in hand, they lowered it into the grave.

We all pulled out flowers, from the nearby flower bed and threw them into both graves. We each took a handful of dirt and placed them on the bodies.

After that, we headed back inside. Lacey and I served breakfast; we all ate in silence. After we had finished, George took the first watch. Nick and Paul helped the rest of the team cover the graves as Lacey, and I started to clean up.

Duckface spent the rest of the day, keeping well out of our way. She took herself back to her room and locked herself away. Andy must have taken in what Lacey and I had said
, he started to distance himself from her.

"Andy, what exactly happened when you left?" I asked him as we all sat around as a group.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Did you try and find your family?" I replied.

Andy sighed. "Yes, I did. I drove to my mum's house first. The cars were still in the drive, so I thought they might be ok. The house was still locked. I pulled out a spare key above the doorway and let myself in." he told us.

"When I got inside, the whole house was a mess.
everything was smashed up. There was blood everywhere. All over the walls, the carpet, the doors. It looked like there had been a struggle." He carried on.

"I went into the living room; the sofas were turned over, and the TV was broken, smashed to bits on the floor. I walked into the kitchen, and it was the same. Complete chaos. It was then I heard small footsteps
upstairs.They sounded so light, I thought it was my little sister. I ran upstairs, hoping she was ok." He stopped; I could see the pain in his eyes.

"When I got upstairs, I saw them. I pushed open the door to my sister's room, and there they were. Mum was on the floor; she was so disfigured I couldn't make her out at first. Her face had been completely chewed off. Blood covered the carpet and the walls. My sister was leaned over her, chewing on the remains of her leg." Andy screwed his face up, reliving the memory.

We all listened intently, horrified at the events he had recounted.

"I shouted for her to stop. It was then she looked up at me. As she opened her mouth, blood dripped down her front. Her
hair was a complete mess; her skin was so pale. Her eyes were black. She screeched this strange high pitched scream and ran at me. That was it. I closed the door and ran straight out the house. There was nothing more I could do." Andy finished.

"That thing.
It wasn't my sister. It looked like her; it dressed like her, but it wasn't her. I can't explain it; it just wasn't her." Andy explained.

"Why didn't you
comeback?" Paul asked.

"I wanted to, I really did. I felt like I needed some time on my own first. I drove somewhere safe, and I just sat in the car. I stayed there all day and night. I just couldn't get the picture of my little sister out of my head." Andy replied.

"I eventually decided to go back to the house. I wanted to see if it was still in one piece. That's when I found Lola. She told me she was the only one to get out alive, and that the base had been overrun. She showed me the bite on her arm, and she told me that she had escaped and had been attacked at the house. She told me that as soon as the infected had bitten her arm, it ran off as if it didn't like the taste of her." He finished.

Lacey sniggered. "Sorry,
its just I can almost feel sorry for the infected. Even if I were infected, I wouldn't go near her."

Andy smiled. "Anyway, I didn't know what else to
do, I stayed with her, waiting for her to change. She never did. That's when I figured; she must be immune.  She was all I had left, so I stayed with her. We went out on the search for food one day, and when we came back, I saw your note. I questioned her about it, and she seemed shocked. I dragged her into the car, and we went off to find you guys." Andy finished.

We sat there, opened mouthed, as he revealed to us the events that had taken place. I started to understand where he was coming from, but something still wasn't quite right.

"So once you found out what really happened, why did you still stay with her?" I asked.

"I knew if I said anything to her, she would run. If she is the cure, I needed her on side. For my sake and yours, I put it all behind me." Andy explained.

I understood where he was coming from; I did. But no matter what she was, I just didn't have it in me to put it behind me.

"She will get what she deserves soon enough." The Professor announced.

I was about to ask the Professor what he meant by that when George came in, interrupting our conversation.

"We seem to have attracted some attention." George announced.

"In what way?" Leon asked.

"Come look." George replied.

We made our way to the dining room window, it gave us the best viewing spot and it was what we had been using for the lookout point.

Sure enough, a small crowd of the infected were gathering. They hadn't figured out where we were, as of yet, but they certainly knew we were in the area.

They wandered around like vultures, scouring the area for their next meal. The infection seemed to be evolving at a particularly fast rate. The sores which were previously evident had turned into what looked like some kind of fungus. yellow and brown sprouts shot out from beneath the flesh, encased in black thick liquid.

The black veins were much more predominant as the cold dead eyes searched the area in a desperate attempt to sustain themselves.

"What do we do now?" I whispered my eyes following the infected.

"We stay away from the windows and doors. We stay quiet and hidden" George replied.

"The longer we stay out of sight, the more of a chance we have of staying alive." Ryan replied agreeing with Georges answer.

"Go and warn the rest.
no loud noises, no lights, we stay in the shadows as of now." George finished. 

We gathered together once again in the living area at the back of the house. The front was now off limits. When the infected wandered out of sight, we closed each and every curtain of the house.

"We still need to refuel." Leon pointed out.

"Yes, and we will. I think perhaps drawing the
infected's attention away from us, and to an alternative location would do us some good." George advised.

We decided to lay low for the rest of the day. It wasn't exactly a hard task. Our group had already been deflated since Nathan's sudden passing. We weren't exactly in the most talkative of moods.

When night fell, we scrambled around in the dark. Nick, Paul, Lacey and I had found solace in one of the en-suite bathrooms. As it had no windows, we were able to keep the lights on, even in the dark.

The four of us sat with two bottles of wine, and a rather large bag of kettle chips we had found in one of the cupboard's downstairs.

It was a sight to see. Lacey and I sat in the empty bath, whilst Paul and Nick sat on the floor. We had all pulled cushions and pillows out from the bedroom and had made ourselves a nice little set up.

"I swear to god, I don't know how long I can cope with Duckface." Lacey moaned.

"I know, if we have to take much more of this, I'll throw her over the fence myself." I replied.

"Fat lot of good it would do. Apparently the infected can't stand her either." Paul joked.

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again, this whole cure business is a load of bullshit." Lacey replied.

"Agreed."
Paul piped up.

"Well, you all know my feelings." I told them.

We spent the rest of the night in our own little world, closed off from the rest of the group. It was like old times although we had never hung out together in the bathroom before. It was usually a night in, Lacey and I would take turns in hosting; the boys just went where they were told.

On the odd occasion, we would all meet up in
Alderley Edge for a few drinks in the Bubble Room or dinner at the Merlin. Regardless of the occasion or where we were, the four of us always got on extremely well. Even when spending day after day together, we never once got on each others nerves. It was a mark of true friendship.

Chapter 21 - Reinforcements

The following days passed by without a hitch. We kept our heads down; we kept quiet throughout the day, and kept to the shadows at night. Duckface kept to herself, which was just how we liked it. The less we saw of her, the better.

Andy came out of the room a bit more each day. Now that he had seen the light, or rather seen Duckface, truly, for what she was, we were all the more willing to have him around.

It did help that he had told us about the events which followed, after his sudden departure from the base. I suppose he needed to see for himself, the state in which his family were in. I could tell it weighed heavy on his heart, but at least now he knew, there was nothing he could have done. I suppose it provided him with the closure he was so desperately looking for.

We took turns keeping watch, following the same routine we had many times before. The crowd of infected grew each day. Only by one or two at first, eventually slowly yet surely the numbers grew and grew. It was if they had signalled to the others that we were close. They stood around, as if conserving their energy.
the fungus became apparent in each and every infected member of the crowd.

The Professor was particularly interested in the infected members which had been around for a while. We could see the fungus growing almost overnight.

With the Professor's fascination with the infected, and his thirst for knowledge, the Professor spent most of his time on watch. He readily took down notes; he had found an old pair of binoculars, so he was in his element.

The boys had managed to retrieve some fuel close by. The house next to us had a rather large boat, so the boys successfully syphoned out the fuel and refilled the narrow boat tanks. We had our getaway plan. We kept a stash of food in the boat, along with the supplies we needed.

All in all, we were prepared for the worst case. The boys, Jared included, had scoured the house for any type of weapon. They had been lucky enough to find the stash of gardening tools which the gardener had clearly left behind. We had all we needed for the makings of an angry mob. Unfortunately for us, the real angry mob was gathering its forces just outside our walls.

The infected crowd 30-40 strong had now cottoned on to our whereabouts. We had all kept a safe distance; we hardly made any noise. The Professor suggested they smelt us. That meant bad news for us. It meant that no matter where we went, the infected would surely follow.

"We need to reinforce the gate." Ryan announced a few days into our hiding stint.

"How do you propose we do that?" George asked.

It turned out, Ryan and Leon already had a plan. They had found an energizer, and had taken out the battery from the Mercedes SLR. With that they had found some jump leads.

"I have a plan." Ryan grinned.

They quickly set to work putting the equipment together. After this had been done, they opened the front door. They stepped out onto the large driveway and walked up to the gate.

This stirred the infected greatly. They launched themselves at the gate pushing their fungus covered arms through the bars, eager to get a hold of them.

The infected seemed a lot more vicious than I had ever seen them before. Saying that, perhaps since their main food source had dwindled so severely, they had a new found desperation.

The boys kept a safe distance; they were out of arms reach for now. This would all change the moment they closed in on the bars. The boys had already found their way around that. They were to place the jump leads on the bottom of the
fence, that way the infected wouldn't knock them off, and the biting risk was minimal.

Leon bravely stepped forward and clipped the jump leads to the bars. As soon as Leon had backed up a safe distance, Ryan flicked the energizer on.

A surge of electricity flowed through the bars, knocking the infected back. They surged forward once again, not yet realising the new risk. Once again they were jolted back. This happened three or four times in a row. After that, they had learnt, they weren't getting in through there.

The infected looked towards us curiously. They growled at the boys in dismay. The crowd still gathered
it's forces, although now each and every creature out there stayed a safe distance from the bars.

"That won't hold them off forever." George stated.

"The whole perimeter will need reinforcing." George continued.

"We search the house, we find what we can." Ryan finished.

We all set to work scouring the house, starting with the Attic room. We had all noticed the large loft hatch built into the landing's ceiling. I wasn't overly keen on going up, I had such a bad phobia of spiders, they terrified me just as much as the infected did.

I don't know what it was about
spiders, they just made my skin crawl. The way they moved, scurrying along the floor and the walls. They weren't exactly the best looking insects. Although I knew they could do no harm, the irrational part of my brain just couldn't get over the fear. My fear was that bad, I couldn't even be around the dead ones.  I wasn't the type to scream and runaway, the phobia took over my whole body, I would freeze. My heart would be pounding, and I wouldn't be able to take my eyes off them. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't walk into a room, knowing one was there.

Ryan pulled the hatch door down, wooden ladders folded out. The cold air blew down. The smell of freshly laid wood wafted down. The house was a fairly new
build, it hadn’t had the time to build up the damp, musty smell, familiar with the attic dwellers out there.

Ryan was the first to climb up. Leon, Nick and Paul followed shortly after. It wasn’t long before they shouted down to us.

“Guys, come and have a look at this.” Paul shouted.

Lacey, George and I made our way up the ladders. I was a little wary at first. When I popped my head up through before, I was stunned. The sight before me was unreal. The whole attic had been laid out as a security centre. CCTV cameras covered nearly every corner of the house. We hadn’t even noticed them, even after all this time.

The security console stood in the centre of the room. There were fifteen screens in total. An executive black leather chair sat in front of the screens, a steel desk lined the bottom.

The cameras were pointing in all directions. From the first screen, we could see the gathering crowd of the infected. As my eyes moved along the screens, I could see different parts of the house.
The front door entranceway, the dining room, living area, kitchen and the various hallways weaving throughout the house. Nearly every room was covered, down to the garage. The final screens showed the pool area, the garden and the boats.

“My, my, this is useful.” George gasped.

I turned my attention to the rest of the room. Tools of all different shapes and sizes hung against the far wall. Spanners, screwdrivers, pliers and a range of tools I had never seen before all perfectly aligned and brand new.

As I glanced over to the left of the wall, I spotted a chainsaw and some heavy blades. A wooden workbench sat underneath. I didn’t understand. Why keep tools in the attic? This guy must have been a
survivalist, either that or he was really big on security.

The attic spanned the length of the whole house. The space we were stood seemed to be only a very small part.

Two doors stood on either side of the room. Although the attic roof was made of timber and the floorboards of course, concrete walls seemed to line the room. I made my way through the door on my right. A small kitchen diner opened up. It was very surreal looking into this sparse, no frills attached kitchen. It had a small electric oven and hob, microwave, kettle and sink. That was it. It felt as if I was looking into a student kitchen, not a million-pound mansion. A plain pine effect table sat in the corner, against what looked like a small pantry. It had four chairs around the table and some very basic table settings.

I investigated the room further. I started to open each and every cupboard. A few plates, bowls, glasses and mugs filled a few of the cupboards. Underneath the sink, I found basic cleaning supplies. All in all, it wasn’t a lot. Is this where the help lived? I wondered.

I opened the pantry door, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Canned food lined the shelves. There were shelves lined with canned soup, there must have been at least 50 cans on one shelf. Canned Tuna and Salmon lined the shelf below, there must have been over 100 tins. Three industrial sized cans of chilli stood below, along with a whole range of cereals.

I noticed a few gallons of cooking oil along with tub after tub of Skippy peanut butter. Just laying eyes on the peanut butter made my mouth water. Nick never understood my fascination with peanut butter, I loved the stuff. Skippy was by far my favourite. I am ashamed to say, after a long day at work, I would come home and grab a jar of peanut butter along with a spoon, and eat it straight out of the jar. Nick would always pull a face, and wouldn’t kiss me until the smell of peanut butter had well and truly gone.

I looked beyond the peanut butter as more cans lined the shelves. These ones were filled with veg. tinned carrots, peas and even potatoes filled the shelves around me. Underneath the veg was tin after tin of Spam.

I looked towards the very top shelf. Spanning around the small room were crates filled with Evian bottled water and a variety of different types of energy drinks.

The final few shelves contained a mixture of seasonings, herbs, dried fruits and nuts as well as granola bars and power bars. All in all, there was enough food here to feed an army.

This guy had been well prepared for the outbreak; unfortunately, he didn’t seem to get a chance to use it. I
headed out the kitchen area, just as George and Leon went to take a look inside.

“Checkout the other rooms, it’s amazing what this guy’s done with the place.” Leon suggested.

“I’m going to have a look now. I can tell from this room alone how prepared he seemed to be.” I replied.

I headed back into the security room. Nick was watching the screens as he watched Paul run across the screens. They had found some walkie-talkies and were busy locating the elusive cameras throughout the rest of the house.

The door on the other side of the room was now wide open. I poked my head through the door. This room was as equally bland as the kitchen. There in front of me was a small living room. It had a flat screen TV wall mounted on the far wall. Hundreds of DVD’s lined the walls around the TV. A leather corner sofa dominated the area of the room. In the far corner of the room, a small bar area sat. It was filled with all kinds of spirits.

The walls around me were bare. I felt as if I was in a secret underground bunker, not an attic room. Yet another door sat flush against the furthest wall. I opened the door and made my way into the final room. This was the biggest room of them all. Two bunk beds sat side by side. They had very basic bedding and a thin mattress and pillow. A small bookshelf was leaning against the wall. A door arch, where clearly a door should have been fitted, led into the remaining room. Two large double beds filled this particular room. Between both
beds a glass frosted door, already half opened lead into a bathroom.

I walked over to the door, whilst taking in my new surroundings. As I opened the door, the first thing I noticed was the shelving. Row upon row of toilet paper and towels circled around the room. A little further down, wicker baskets followed the trail of supplies.

I pulled out some of the baskets to see what was inside. One was filled with different kinds of shower gels. Another shampoos, and another conditioner. Fresh toothbrushes and packs of toothpaste along with cotton wool, cotton buds and other various toiletries filled the rest.

This homeowner really had thought of everything. Only a small sink, toilet and shower cubicle filled the room. On the wall next to the shower was a
tankless water heater.

I headed back to the bedroom. There was a small walk in wardrobe against the far wall. As I went to open it, I realised it was locked. I screwed my face up as I wondered why anyone would possibly want to lock their wardrobe. Surely a survivalist wouldn’t really care if anyone borrowed their clothes. Although, when I thought about it, I knew if it were me, I’d have a lock. Especially when sharing a space with Duckface. She had a habit long ago, of taking things that didn’t belong to her without asking. Whether it
be clothes, shoes or even nail polishes. They would reappear a few days or weeks later, when she eventually decided to return them. They always ended up in the worst imaginable condition.

She would bring whatever it was she had ‘borrowed’ back and simply say “I borrowed this, hope you don’t mind.”

By that time, even if I had minded (which more often than not I did!) it was too late; she had already had her slimy little hands all over them.

“We’re going to check the garage.” George called up.

The sound of his voice brought me back to reality. I had been so wrapped up in exploring the new surroundings, I had completely forgotten about the real reason we went up in the first place. We needed to reinforce the outside walls.

The electric gate was doing a grand job of keeping the infected out. The only downside was
, the batteries had to be swapped and changed fairly frequently. This wasn’t a major issue. After all, we had two batteries to use. We took the battery out of the Range Rover and swapped it for the Mercedes battery before it went dead. As soon as we took the Mercedes battery off, we put it on charge. We had a nice little system going, although the infected were starting to get wise to our system.

The Professor was able to observe their behaviour on the infected through the security system in the attic. He would sit up in the attic throughout the day, with a bottle of red wine at his side.

I was starting to worry about the Professor's drinking habits. When he wasn’t sat by the screens, he was downstairs in the secret wine cellar choosing his next tipple.

His drinking habits had turned him into a bit of a recluse. In a way, I kind of understood his need to drink; after all, spending time with Duckface on a regular basis would cause anyone to hit the bottle.  

Even so, I didn’t condone his behaviour. I tried to keep Jared and Sarah away from him after he had a few. They had been through so much already; the last thing they needed was to see the Professor intoxicated on a day to day basis.

Jared and Sarah had started to revert back to their usual selves. We all tried our hardest to include them, and to keep them occupied. On the odd occasion I would hear Sarah sobbing in the bathroom, I desperately wanted to comfort her, give her a big hug and tell her it would all be ok. But she needed some space, and she needed her time to mourn.