Extinct (AM13 Outbreak Series), page 8
“But you have been disgraced. If the others see you, there is no telling what they might do. They don’t know what’s happened here, and it’s unlikely that they’ll believe you. Plus, I can actually fly the damn helicopter.”
Although Andy’s tone sounds neutral, I can sense the distrust behind his words. I don’t know why he doesn’t trust Tom; he’s the only one that proved himself untrustworthy—in my eyes anyway.
Although I’ve calmed down now and a whole lot has happened since then, I don’t think he’s entirely innocent in Jasmine’s murder. However, I don’t want to focus on that, especially when I can’t prove it, because we have too much to do. That’s just one of those things I’ll have to deal with afterwards.
This is much bigger than me, than any of us.
That’s starting to become a little mantra of mine, running over and over in my head, trying it’s best to drive me forwards throughout all of this madness.
“Okay.” Tom finally agrees to Andy’s plan and I internally let out a sigh of relief. Having a plan, having something to focus on, a direction, is exactly what we all need right now. “But it’s getting late now, too dark to fly. We should wait until morning.”
Reluctantly everyone agrees to that and we head off to find where Billie, Melody, and the others have been hiding. When we get there, we find the two men fast asleep and the woman pacing up and down, nervously chewing on her fingers.
“Oh God, Billie, Melody, I’m so glad that you’re okay.”
The thought of introductions fills me with an intense sense of fatigue. The prospect of meeting new people in this horrible environment shatters me. I’m just too tired. I’m glad to see that everyone seems to be in the same position, because no one really bothers past saying our names and shaking hands.
Instead, Andy and Tom grab a couple of nearby tents and we all crash out pretty quickly. There is a discussion about taking turns keeping watch, but I barely hear it. You wouldn’t think that after all of the awful events of the day, I’d be able to sleep, but the emotional exhaustion consumes me…
***
I feel Tom’s arms slip around my waist, instantly making me alert; his skin warm, his touch sending electricity through me. My heart tinkles excitedly; my body is filled with adrenaline. This is going to happen; he’s really going to kiss me. After all this time…
My lips tingle with sensitivity, waiting, expecting him to meet them. I’ve waited so damn long for this, in this moment; I’m actually struggling to remember exactly why it’s taken so long for us to get to this place. I know I’m not exactly the most forward person in the world, the most sexually confident, but the amount of passion coursing through my veins, I don’t know how I’ve managed to resist!
I lean in towards him, enjoying his embrace. I peer upwards, pursing my lips, waiting…waiting…
Nothing.
I flick my eyes open, and suddenly Tom has vanished. It’s just a blurry white light above me. I blink a few times, trying to get Tom back, trying to recapture that almost magical moment. But it’s too late. I’m awake and he’s gone.
He’s gone, and I’m alone.
Wait, I’m alone?
I feel around me, trying to recall the events of the night before. I’m sure Billie was sleeping beside me. I swear I remember Melody going with the woman she knew and Billie coming in with me, but my brain is fuzzy, foggy.
“No!” I hear someone yell. “God no!”
I peek my head outside the tent, crawling forwards slightly, my heart pounding painfully in my chest. My eyes are swimming as a dizziness takes over me.
“No, no, no!” The woman, I can’t even remember her name—why can’t I remember her name—screams again.
I stare up at her, wishing my brain would function properly, wishing I wasn’t so full of sleep. What the hell is going on? Where is everyone else?
“Argh!” I yell as a searing pain rips through my arm. I yank it towards myself, the sight of the blood gushing from it making me feel sick. I actually throw up a little from the pain, but it simply dribbles down my chin, not even making it to the floor.
The sleepiness I felt before starts to take over me again. I feel my eyes close, but I try to force them to stay open. I want to figure out what the fuck just happened to me! But my body wins out, and my brain shuts down.
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
“Georgie?”
My body is shaking painfully; my bones feel as if they’re rattling within me. I want to cry out, to make this pain end, but my mouth is way too dry. I try to raise my arm, to give some kind of signal that I’m aware that someone is trying to get my attention, but that I don’t need that right now, but I can’t.
What the hell happened to me?
I feel like I’m suffering the worst hangover known to man, but I know that isn’t possible because getting pissed hasn’t exactly been my top priority since zombies started roaming the streets.
I can’t help by worry about the agony my body is currently going through. Is that normal? It certainly doesn’t feel normal.
“Georgie, are you okay?”
It takes me a few moments, but I recognise that it’s Tom speaking to me, and suddenly nothing else matters. The last thing I remember, we were kissing…
Wait!
That doesn’t seem right. Were we actually kissing? I remember it feeling real, but now that I think about it, it doesn’t seem very likely. Since he’s been back, there hasn’t been any sign of romance between us—we’ve had too much else going on.
I try to shift myself into a sitting position, but I moan loudly at the random shots of pain that seem to be coming from everywhere.
“Georgie?” He starts to sound worried, so I nod, trying to be reassuring.
“I’m okay,” I croak.
“Oh, thank goodness! Someone, grab some water.”
I blink my eyes and glance around me, trying to soak in all the information I can figure out for myself. I can see faces swimming around me, but only a few that I recognise. Wasn’t there another man here? That woman’s husband or boyfriend or something?
“Is she going to turn?” Melody asks in her weak voice, and something about her question resonates deep within.
“Turn?” I start, but Tom shushes me once more.
“No, you’re fine. You will be fine.”
My head is pounding too heavily to figure out why that answer didn’t quite make sense, but I’m acutely aware of it. I’ll ask him later, I won’t forget.
I gulp down the water as if I’ve never drunk before, almost until the point that I feel sick. Someone eventually gently takes the bottle from my hands and although I hate the dictation, I know it’s the right thing to do. Water is in short supply, I know that. I shouldn’t be selfish. Just because I’m excessively thirsty doesn’t make me a priority.
“What’s going on?” I ask, wanting to move from where we are, wanting to be safe again.
“We’re getting out of here.” Tom smiles at me. “We’re leaving today, don’t you remember?”
“Erm, okay.” I’m confused, should I remember this? “Like, now?”
“As soon as we can get you moving, we’ll head off.”
“Tom!” Andy’s voice rings out, a warning tone to his words. Tom glances away, and for some reason I can just sense that something about this is going to go wrong. It just sounds too good to be true and the general rule of thumb is when it sounds that way, it usually is.
“Let me move now, I want to go now.” I’m filled with an absolute determination that I need to do this. I don’t want whatever is going on to prevent me from leaving the nightmare, from going back to the UK.
“I need to explain something to you first,” Tom says, his tone kind. I nod, internally rushing him along. I don’t know why he can’t just tell me whatever on the way home.
Home.
I can’t believe that I might be going home, back to my house, my safe, lovely house with all my stuff, my things. I want to be there so damn badly that I can almost feel it. I almost feel like I’m there. My bed sheets, my sofa, my clothes…
“Okay, so you know we have the cure?”
“We do?” I ask, barely remembering.
“Yes…” He glances over to the others, looking for support. “Do you remember me telling you about the guy I know in the UK?”
I nod, mentally scurrying through my brain to find this piece of information. It sounds familiar, but I just can’t place it. I’m just trying to get this conversation over as quickly as possible. I just have this feeling that time is against me.
“Okay, well he’s scientist with a lab that he’s been using to fight AM13. He had some progress, but with this, well, he can cross-examine it with what he has and reproduce the formula. It can’t save anyone who is already infected—fully changed, I mean—but the rest of us will be fine.”
“Okay, so you’re going to take it to him?”
“Erm, no. Don’t you remember any of this? Andy is going—we’re going to split up. I’m going to stay and find the rest of the survivors here. We don’t want to just…leave them.”
“What about the rest of us?”
Tom exchanges another glance with Andy. Something tells me that they’ve had an in-depth conversation about this already.
“Now we need to get you upright,” he says quickly, changing the subject.
“Are you sure…” another voice says.
“It’s okay…” I start, moving gently, but even attempting to put any weight on my arm has me screaming out in sheer agony, so painful it almost knocks me back out.
I glance down, one eye half closed, dreading—but also knowing—exactly what I’m going to find. It makes sense that I’ve been bitten, but knowing that and seeing and believing it are two very different things.
Bile rises up in my throat as my eyes finally rest on it. I want to look away, but I can’t. I’m transfixed, staring at the bleeding, gushing, already slightly blackened wound. Tom has clearly tried to wrap it up, but it’s too bad, too gross.
However much you try to hide it, the end result will be the same.
Tears and panic flow through me and I feel myself start to internally give up. I can’t believe after everything I’ve been through, this is the moment I die. It almost would have been better to have been one of the early victims of the virus. Then at least the time before my death wouldn’t have been agonising, depressing. At least I wouldn’t have had to live through the Lockdown and the awful camp on this island. I wouldn’t have had to lose Frank, Ruby, and Jasmine…
At least I won’t have to fight anymore…
“Don’t worry about that. It’ll be fixed in no time.” Tom shatters my thoughts, holding the vial of liquid up in front of me.
“No,” I gasp. “There’s only a tiny bit of it. You can’t waste it on me.” I don’t say it aloud, I don’t even want to admit it to myself, but I’m absolutely desperate for the cure. I don’t want to die; I especially don’t want to become infected—that’s got to be the worst way to go!
“Tom…” Andy warns again, but Tom sends him a nasty look that silences him. I watch him extract a part of the liquid with a needle. My body recoils and screams out in desperation at the same time.
I have a million and one arguments for why he shouldn’t give me the cure, but they all fall apart on my lips. Instead, I sit meekly in silence as he injects the yellowish stuff into my veins. I look around trying to gauge the reaction of the others. I’m surprised more of them didn’t put up any sort of argument about this. It doesn’t seem fair that nothing-me is getting preferential treatment.
Apart from Andy, who is clearly furious—which isn’t surprising since he clearly hates me—they all just look afraid. Billie is paler than I’ve ever seen anyone look before in my life. Her lips are pursed together in a thin line, as if she’s trying to stop a barrage of words from spilling out. I wish I could smile, do anything reassuring, but I just can’t. Even my natural trait for wanting everyone around me to be comfortable and happy has just vanished into thin air.
“Now,” Tom talks calmly, as if this is a completely normal situation. “He also scraped one of your legs with his teeth before Andy managed to kill him. That injury won’t be so bad, but it’ll probably hurt.”
This is an understatement to say the least. It’s absolute torturous pain, and from my hip too—I think I must have been scratched or bitten there as well—but I do my best not to complain. My head is somewhere else anyway, thinking of Andy and the fact that he saved me. I’m sure it was only so no one else got hurt, but it still seems a little strange…
As we move—me almost entirely supported by Tom—my mind starts to focus on myself. I’ve been infected, but also cured. I wonder what effect this will have on my body. I’ve already changed enough, I feel like I’ve lost enough of myself, I don’t want more to disappear. Although, thinking that way is selfish. I need to remember that I’m the lucky one.
I’ve been saved.
CHAPTER
TWELVE
It isn’t until I actually see the helicopter with my own eyes that I allow myself to believe that it’s real. A part of me thought it was all going to turn out to be some sort of elaborate hoax for some reason. I just never thought that seeing home again was even slightly possible, however much I wanted it to be true.
I’m tired, so weary from just moving that fairly short distance to this point. The virus is having a nasty effect on me already and I hate it. I feel so ill, strange, just unlike me. I just want it gone; I want my body free of it. The external injuries are one thing, but right now I’m more concerned with the devastation going on inside of me.
“So, what now?” I hear someone ask in my peripheral hearing. “Who’s doing what?”
“Georgie can come with me,” Andy snaps, and I spin my head around to stare at him. Why the hell would he want me with him? He hates me, I hate him. He killed my friend, for goodness sake!
At least, I think he did. The more the virus consumes me, the more I’m struggling to remember why I was so sure that he was guilty of that.
“Don’t you think…?” Tom starts.
“No, I don’t. If this isn’t enough liquid for your scientist, then we’re going to need her blood, aren’t we?”
My blood? Oh God, it’s like I’m “the one”! The one who has the immune blood, to end the whole thing!
The more that happens, the more it really is like my books coming to life. Or at least, what would have happened in the plot, if I’d had the time to finish the series.
“And Melody too—we can’t be certain she hasn’t had the cure too…”
“No, she definitely hasn’t, Edmond didn’t even see—”
“We don’t know that, we weren’t here,” Andy interrupts. We’re all silenced by his firmness, he simply will not be argued with. “Now, I don’t mind if you three want to come too, but I think Tom’s going to need some help. Plus, we don’t know for sure how dangerous it’s going to be over there; at least here you know what you’re getting. By the time I’ve seen the scientist I will know exactly how safe it is and I’ll come back for you, and anyone you find.”
His argument is so convincing, he has me wanting to stay, so it’s no surprise when Billie and the other two agree to his plan. I spot the woman eyeing me suspiciously too, and that’s when I realise that me and my bite are also having a major impact on their decision. I quickly glance at Andy and Melody, wondering how they are feeling about the prospect of being stuck in confined space with me, but neither of them show any signs of fear.
“Yeah, okay.” Thomas seems completely defeated now. “The scientist’s name is Michael, and his lab is over here. I’ve drawn you a map; if you land here you won’t be too far away…” I tune out as Tom and Andy discuss the logistics of our plan and think about what’s ahead. Despite the inevitable nerves I feel about all of this, there is also a massive element of pride. I realise just how important this mission is that we’re about to embark upon—I’m actually going to be doing something that makes a difference, that has a huge impact on the human race. That’s something to be really, genuinely proud of, especially for someone like me who’s shy, meek, an introvert. Usually a nobody. If this goes to plan, my name will go down in history. There aren’t many people who can say that.
The more I think, the wilder my imagination becomes. I decide that when we rebuild, back at home, I’ll ensure that I have a say in what goes on. I refuse to let us be led by a similar sort of pricks that we’ve been living under here. If I get to live, I’m going to make my life meaningful, do something positive with it. I refuse to be the weak, pathetic, nothing person I’ve always been. I’m going to take this second chance, and become a better person because of it. I’m not going to throw all of this luck I’ve had down the drain.
“And you’ll be okay?” Tom asks, directly to me now. He must be able to sense my distrust of Andy—I haven’t exactly been discreet about it. But as much as I’m not relishing the idea of spending more time with him, I have to. This is bigger than me—that now means more to me than it ever has before. “I’ll be over with you soon, I won’t be gone long.”
I nod, smiling gamely. This is going to be fine. We’re going to make it fine. We’re going to ensure that everything is all right again, that we go back to normal.
I quickly glance over to Melody. Now that I’ve had the cure and I know I’m going to be safe, I feel overly protective of her. It’s people like her, children, who won’t be too affected by this, who can make us a decent race once again. She doesn’t even look at me, she’s falling asleep where she stands, clearly overwhelmed by everything that’s going on.
She is someone who deserves to live, who needs to. She’s lost everything, but she won’t lose herself—I won’t let her.
Then something utterly surprising happens. Tom leans across and kisses me on the lips. It’s only very brief but it sends a wave of emotions crashing through me. As he leans back, I gaze into his eyes for a moment, to try and see what it all meant, but his expression remains guarded. I chose to think of it as a good thing, a positive change—a start to something new. I allow myself to believe that he means it to be something that we will revisit when he comes to the UK, when all of this is over—just to give myself the hope that I need.
