E Virus: The Diary of a Modern Day Girl (The Beginning of the End) (21 page)

The Sergeant had managed to block the entrance with the truck. With the area secure for the moment, I made my way down.

The boys headed towards the trapdoor. Paul successfully made his way down along with the Nick. The Corporal was running towards the trapdoor as the Sergeant was getting out of the truck.

I heard the sound of the glass smash in the truck as the infected pushed their way through. The Corporal screamed for the Sergeant as the newly reanimated Josh ran towards him. The Sergeant was trapped; the horde on the outside had almost made their way in. He tried to fight off Josh, but he had lost his gun in the scuffle.

The Corporal was about to make his way out as the Sergeant shouted back. “STOP! Don’t you dare, get into that tunnel and close the door.”

He was still struggling with Josh. He was trapped between the passenger seat and the door. “GO NOW” he screamed as the horde behind him found their grasp on the Sergeant.

With that the Corporal slammed the trap door shut, and turned to face us all.

We were all stood in the pitch black, with only our torches to light the way. I was clinging on to Nick. I thought I was going to lose him. I couldn’t bear seeing him so close to the infected. He could have easily been in Josh’s shoes right now. Poor Josh, seeing him getting ripped apart, hearing him scream and writhe in pain. That would haunt me for a long time.

“What do we do now?” Paul asked, looking to the Corporal.

He shook his head, not quite knowing what to say, he was still in shock. He had just lost his mentor.
I knew how he felt. We all looked to the Sergeant for guidance. He acted like a father figure to me, without him I felt lost.

He was a great man. He lived for oth
ers. His main goal in life was to save as many survivors as he could. He wanted to build a better future. His final gift to us saved us all. He forfeited his life, to save ours. I vowed to myself I would never forget that. His final act of selflessness.

We heard the crash from above. The shutter must have completely caved through
, as we heard masses of footsteps directly above us. We needed to get away, fast.

We all stayed silent as George led us down the small dark passageway, much narrower than the last.

“We need to get to get to hangar 3” he whispered. “There are emergency supplies in the supply room”

“How do we know it’s safe” Nick whispered back.

“We don’t, but it’s a risk we need to take” The Corporal answered, his voice barely audible.

We could still hear the infected trampling above us, but the further away from the base we got, the quieter it became. That was a good sign.

It didn’t take us long to reach the end of the narrow corridor. Our surroundings were starting to look a lot more familiar as we came upon the main passageway. I thought back to the rats that had caused our swift getaway last time, I squeezed Nicks hand even tighter. I was more aware of the floor around me, I knew how big those things were, and I certainly wasn’t going to let any of them near me.

George took
us to the wooden ladders, which led out into the supply room. The Corporal was the first to climb the ladders. He stopped half way up trying to listen out for any movement coming from above.

The coast was clear. The Corporal slowly and carefully opened the trapdoor. We had to stay as quiet as possible. He peered out before looking back to us and nodding. Leon followed shortly behind.

They started throwing down the emergency backpacks. Nick and Paul started to hand them out at the bottom.

After the third bag came down we heard a
thump on the supply room door. The Corporal and Leon both turned around.

There in the
small window, they saw one of the infected throwing himself at the door. It was another former military man. He was riddled with signs of infection. He screeched a sound I never thought humanly possible, as he used his whole body as a battering ram.

We heard similar screeching in the distance. He had alerted the others. Our cover was blown. Within seconds more and more piled in front of the door, trying desperately
to find a way in.

Leon
quickly threw some boxes of ammunition down along with a few extra handguns.

“We need to get out here before we attract any
more attention, let’s just take the rest of these bags and go.” The Corporal ordered.

“But what about the…” Leon tried to ask. He got cut short.

“No, we haven’t got any time. I’m not losing anyone else” He threw the remaining backpacks inside, along with Nicks fishing gear as Leon made his way down.

With one swift move the Corporal pulled the handle clean off the trapdoor. As soon as he was inside he slammed the door shut.

Seconds later the all too familiar sound of a door being broken through could be heard from above.

“Quick, pass me that rope” The Corporal whispered to Leon. He was pointing to one of the backpacks. Leon swiftly passed it up to the Corporal.

The infected were getting smarter. They had seen where we had escaped from and were scratching at the trapdoor and the floor around us. The Corporal flicked the latch into place and wrapped the rope around the ladder.

“That should hold them back for a while” He said as he tied the final knot.

“I suggest we make an immediate exit” The professor advised.

I wasn’t about to argue. We all pulled on our heavy backpacks. “Christ, what on earth is in here?” I whispered. I looked over to Nick, he was busy getting his fishing gear in order.

I rolled my eyes. Typical. We needed a quick getaway and he refused to let go of his prized possessions.

We followed George down the long winding passageway. The smell was certa
inly more pleasant down here then it was up there.

The further into the tunnel system we went, the more my eyes adjusted to the darkness.
The area all around us was filled with damp. The weather hadn’t been kind to us lately.

Water fell from the ceiling forming small puddles down the centre of our path.

“George where are we going?” I asked after we had been walking for a while.

“We
’re nearly there, don’t worry” Came George’s simple reply.

“Where is there?” Lacey asked
slightly annoyed. She was starting to get agitated. We all were. We had lost everything. Even more importantly, had lost two of our own. We had narrowly escaped from the infected, and our base was now completely overrun.

“Isles Woods of course” George exclaimed, as if we should have known.

I stopped. “Why are we going into the woods?” I asked.

It was the Corporals turn to respond. “It’s the only exit out of the base”

“Ok, let’s just get there, I’m exhausted.” I moaned. That day took everything out of me. Now my adrenaline had worn off my body had started to ache all over. My head was starting to pound with the dehydration and my shoulder was throbbing where yet again, I had been feeling the effects of the kickback from my rifle.

We traipsed deeper into the tunnel, as the puddles started to get bigger and bigger as we went along. My feet were starting to hurt.

“I don’t know how much further I can carry on” I groaned. “My feet are killing me, my heads banging and this backpack is too heavy”

It was taking its toll on Lacey as well. “This is carrying on forever guys” she moaned.

“There’s an opening just up ahead” George pointed out. “Can you feel that breeze? It’s the fresh air coming through”

He led us down a narrow passage. I could see a faint light creeping out from the end of the tunnel.

“Finally” I huffed. I stopped as I neared the end slowing down my pace. It was indeed an exit into the woods. But it had caved in. Only a small muddy crawlspace could be seen at the top of the opening, leading out into the daylight.

Great. Just what I wanted to see. Nothing was straight fo
rward. We threw our bags down as I sat on the floor near the exit.

“I don’t suppose there’s another exit
somewhere?” I asked, trying to be optimistic.

“I’m sorry this is the only one” George told us. “I had no idea it had caved in. Saying that, I haven’t been here for years.”

Well he failed to mention that when we started our little journey. But we had no option. Nick and Paul went over to the opening and pulled some of the mud and debris back.

“We can all fit through there
, it’s fine!” Paul said.

Lacey glared at him. I joined in the staring contest. We had no extra clothes, no hot shower waiting for us. We would get
covered in dirt and grime and god knows what was on the other side of that wall.

As we all sat there, contemplating our next move. The familiar rustling sound could be heard in the distance.
Eugh, rats! I had almost forgotten they were there. I hadn’t seen them along our journey; they must have been startled by the new people taking over their home.

I suppose that was a good enough excuse as any
to get moving. Leon was the first to try it out. He pulled himself up and crawled through the small space. As soon as he was out Nick handed him his backpack.

“All clear” he shouted back to us.

Lacey and I stayed towards the back, we figured the boys could widen the opening for us, leaving more space for us to push through.

I felt sorry for the Professor, his stereotypical white lab coat was going to be ruined after this. It was already showing signs of wear from our earlier ordeal.

Finally it was our turn, the surge of rats coming towards us certainly made us pick up our pace. We scrambled towards our small exit and pushed ourselves though. I looked back to the Corporal, who was the last one out.

Rats flowed towards him like a wave crashing down. There were hundreds of them, what were they running from?

It didn’t take me long to find the answer. The Corporals torchlight made its way down the long dark passageway we had just come from.

There in front of us, limping towards us was the Sergeant.

He was all banged up, he looked as if he had just come out of a bar fight. Blood trickled down from his forehead as he struggled towards us.

The rats beneath us were going mental, they were swirling all around the Corporals feet
, trying to get away. The Corporal tried to make his way forward wading through the army of rats.

“Sergeant, is that you? Are you ok?” The Corporal shouted.

The Sergeant pulled his head up slowly. He looked quizzically at the Corporal. He bore his teeth and let out an almighty screech.

He was infected. He sprinted towards the Corporal as the Corporal scrambled over the rats trying to get out. He pulled himself up into the crawlspace and made his way through.

The Sergeant grabbed onto his boot as we all tried to pull the Corporal out.

The Corporal managed to kick his way free as we all fell into a pile at the bottom of the opening.

The Sergeant was now half way through the opening.

We scrambled trying to get up as the Sergeant snarled hungrily.

From out of nowhere, George stood at the top of the opening and smashed down a large heavy rock straight onto the Sergeants head.

The Sergeant instantly went limp. We heard the crunch as his skull caved in. Blood seeped through from under the rock, trailing down the opening.

The Corporal fell to his knees and sobbed. I had never thought it possible. The Corporal was as strong willed as the Sergeant was. But he was broken. We all were. We had lost so much in such a short space of time.

I looked around each person. Signs of exhaustion were present, along with fear, uncertainty and sadness.

We no longer had the security of the base. Our leader was dead, along with Josh one of our protectors.

Andy had vanished along with Duckface.

I thought of Duckface and I scowled. She had betrayed us all. There was no doubt in my mind that she had unlocked the main base, and set the horde of undead hurtling towards our safe house. She would have done it out of spite.

She knew Andy wouldn’t have her if she was the last woman on earth, so she seemed determined to make that happen.

I had no idea where either of them had gone. But I hoped to god she was still alive. If I ever saw her again, I’d kill her myself. First off, for setting the infected free, secondly for stealing my car. More importantly, for murdering the Sergeant and Josh. I was holding her completely and utterly responsible. Had she not opened the main base or left the gate wide open, we wouldn’t be in this mess. She was the most vindictive, evil, heartless bitch I had ever laid eyes on. And I vowed to myself I’d make sure she got what was coming to her. Whatever the cost.

I looked around my new surroundings. We were in the middle of the woods. Leaves lined the floor around us as mud and water pushed through from the woodland floor. The mud was thick, with every step I took it tried to consume me, pulling my feet further to the floor.

I started to shiver, it was freezing. Although the trees provided some shelter, the chilling breeze was still able to cut through the trees blowing past us, in an attempt to freeze dry the mud which stuck to our whole bodies.

What the hell would we do now? We had lost our base, and everything inside it. We were completely on our own. We had no food, no water and no shelter.

The sun was starting to set. We had no idea where we were going to go. With no protection and no car there wasn’t anywhere we could go, apart from deeper into the woodland.

I thought back to the events that inevitably brought us to this. The weeks we spent trapped in the apartment. The time we spent at the base. We never thought it at the time, but we were living in luxury. Ok, so none of us had a fresh home cooked meal for months. But we had a warm bed to go to each night, and we always had a roof over our heads. The danger of the infected was minimal. Yes we have a few close calls, but we were easily able to
escape.

Looking around the woodland in front of me, I started to appreciate what we had before. I had no idea how we were going to survive our new conditions.

The infected were a bigger threat than ever. But they weren’t our only set back. We would have to work harder than ever, just to stay alive, to survive in the outside world.

None of us knew where our path would take us, or where we would end up.
This really was the beginning of the end.