Before the cart comes to a complete stop, creatures are swarming all over it, on its cages and cab. Climbing over it, fighting to get to the prize at the luggage cart’s front. Within seconds, the vehicle is hardly visible underneath the plague of death.
Chapter 11
Lance Corporal Broad’s phone is still active as Winters takes it slowly away from his ear. The only sounds coming from it now are those of feeding, threatening to make Winters’ stomach burst through his throat. He is racked with guilt and shock by what he has just been listening to. The horrific deaths of two young men that he sent out on that mission.
Winters goes dizzy; he has to quickly sit down in the nearest chair and take hold of his head in his hands before it falls off his shoulders and onto the floor.
Winters knew what he was doing when he sent them off on the reconnaissance mission. He knew it was very high risk and still knows now that it had to be done, as there was no other way to be sure. That doesn’t make him feel any better about the order he dished out to the unsuspecting men only a short time ago. Broad had looked so young, he couldn’t have been more than in his mid-twenties and the private Winters saw him walk off with was even younger. His stomach somersaults again; it is going to happen, and he can’t hold it back.
Winters manages to grab a bin from under the desk next to him, and puts it on the floor in front of his chair. His stomach lets go and Winters urges nothing but bile into the bin. His stomach contracts violently three times before he manages to bring it under control. He spits the last dregs out and closes his eyes for a moment.
“Are you okay, Lieutenant?” a female voice asks from above him.
“Yes, sorry,” Winters manages to say.
“Don’t be sorry; aren’t you feeling well?”
“I’ll be okay in a minute, thanks, just came over all dizzy.”
“Can I get you some water?”
“Yes, please,” Winters replies, his head still in his hands. Slowly, the blood returns to his head, the dizziness subsides, and his wits start to return. He has to report what he has just witnessed to Colonel Reed.
“Here you go, Lieutenant,” the female voice says and Winters lets go of his head, sitting up in the chair.
“Thank you,” Winters replies and looks up to see Sam holding out a small plastic cup of water for him. He feels his face flush with embarrassment.
“Has it passed?” Sam asks with a look of concern etched across her face.
“Yes, thank you, Sam. It’s not like me to do that,” Winters tells her as his foot pushes the bin back under the desk to try and hide the evidence.
“What brought it on? Was it the phone call you were on? Have you had some bad news? Tell me if I’m being nosey, but I couldn’t help but notice you on the phone and it looked serious, judging by your face.”
“Yes, it was serious, I’m afraid. I have to report in with the Colonel to tell him if you want to join me?”
“Yes, okay, I’m at a bit of a loose end now that Major Rees has left. I should report back in with my superiors to be reassigned,” Sam tells him.
“You will want to hear this first,” Winters says as he gets up to check to see where the Colonel is.
“It sounds ominous,” Sam says as she starts to follow Winters.
Colonel Reed is back at the front of the command room, standing looking at a blank screen. Winters assumes he is waiting for the drone footage of Terminal 4 to appear.
“Colonel, I have new intel, Sir,” Winters announces as he walks up behind the Colonel.
“Continue,” the Colonel orders without turning to look at him.
“Sir, the two men I sent on reconnaissance to Terminal 4 are dead.”
Colonel Reed now does turn to look at his assistant. His arms are folded across his chest and he has a stern look fixed to his face as he says, “Continue.”
“Sir, they drove a vehicle down towards the building and the fire, as I ordered. About halfway there, they were attacked by multiple hostiles. The two men retreated and managed to make it back to the Terminal 5 area, but unfortunately, they were then overpowered and killed. Sir, the hostiles were people infected with the virus.”
“How did they report back to you if they were killed, Lieutenant?”
“Sir, I had an open phone line with one of the men for the whole contact. I listened to the whole thing. Sir, Terminal 4 is compromised; we now have infected directly outside this building and it is certain that more of the infected are spreading out to other parts of this base, Sir.”
“Holy shit,” Colonel Reed growls to himself, his eyes bulging with a look of anger on his face. “Thank you, Lieutenant dismissed.”
Sam looks over at Lieutenant Winters from the periphery, now understanding what had come over him. The phone call she had seen him on was that one. He had ordered two men outside to see what was going on and they were both killed. No wonder he had been sick.
“What are they going to do now?” Sam asks as Winters comes away.
“They will activate one of the contingencies in place. I won’t know until they have decided,” Winters replies as he watches Colonel Reed already picking up a phone with an urgent look on his face.
“That sounds ominous,” Sam says.
“It definitely won’t be good news.” And then Winters has a thought. “Come with me,” he tells Sam.
Winters heads for the exit of the command room at a quick pace. Sam follows his exit, struggling to keep up with him, confused at what is suddenly so urgent that it involves her?
Sam follows him over to the conference room where they had come from. She assumes he is
