A chilling thought crosses my mind, of back when we were flying over the Thames and seeing that Rabids had crossed over the Thames to the Southbank of London. I’ve no doubt some have been washed out to sea and who knows where they could wash up? Is it possible the virus could spread beyond our shores? From what I’ve seen, anything is possible; no wonder the authorities are nervous and have closed worldwide airspace!
Chapter 5
My train of thought and my sorry attempts at making a decision are abruptly interrupted as the public address system sounds, surprising everyone in the lounge. The entire group of people in the room stops whatever they are doing, freezing to listen to the address.
“Attention, Attention,” a female voice squawks loudly over the PA. “All personnel report to your posts immediately to await further orders; this is not a drill.
“Attention, Attention, all personnel report to your post immediately to await further orders; this is not a drill.”
The address repeats five times, but as soon as the first address is complete, the frozen statues all around the room spring back to life. They all rush to leave to wherever they need to be. Last bites of sandwiches are taken, final swigs of drinks gulped down and final goodbyes are said to colleagues and friends. Everyone is back on duty with a job to do and judging by the faces we see leaving, each one has a steely determination to do their duty.
I for one, feel like a lame duck as they all leave, almost embarrassed to be still sitting down watching as these men and women rush towards their unknown fate.
Josh and Alice must be feeling it much worse than me; they both look very fidgety, restless and a bit guilty watching their comrades leave. I am sure they both feel like following them.
Within a few minutes, the room is almost empty with only a few civilians like us remaining, feeling useless and unsure what to do with ourselves. All at once, a quiet descends over us and a tension that wasn’t there before seems to surround us.
Emily comes over to me and sits on my lap.
“What’s happening, Dad?” she asks nervously.
“I am not sure Em, the soldiers have had to go and do their jobs, I think,” I tell her, unsure what to say.
“Are they going to kill the Zombies?” she asks, turning to look at me.
“I think they might be going to try, my love.” It then registers what she said. “Where did you hear the word Zombie?”
“Around, everybody is saying it. Zombie is the word for the bad people isn’t it?”
“I suppose it is one of them,” I reply.
“Well, at least that has got rid of the queue for the food,” Dan jokes, trying to break the tension, but I’m not sure it works.
My phone, sitting on the table and plugged into Stacey’s charger, starts to ring, making us all jump a little and we all turn to look at it in trepidation.
“It’s Colonel Reed.” Stacey stutters slightly, looking at the screen before picking up the phone, pulling out her charger lead and handing it to me as I take Emily off my lap and get up.
“Colonel.”
“Richards, have you eaten?”
“Yes, Colonel”
“Good, transport is on its way to pick you up from there; it will be with you in a few minutes, so be ready.”
“Where am I going, Colonel?”
“They will bring you to me, we have things to discuss.”
“What things, Colonel?”
“When you get here, I will tell you, Richards. And bring your man Atkins with you, I’m sure he won’t want to miss out.” I look over to Dan.
“Okay Colonel, I will ask him.”
“Good, see you shortly,” he says, and he hangs up.
When the call ends, I hover just away from the group for a moment or two, thinking, trying to figure out what the hell I’m going to do. I can’t work it out though. I can’t figure out any good options, even favourable ones for that matter. Maybe there just aren’t any and I just need to play it by ear and deal with the situation as it happens?
Tucking my phone in my pocket and turning back to the others, I see they are all looking at me, waiting to hear what the Colonel wants.
“The Colonel is sending transport to pick me up for another meeting he asked you to attend to, Dan. You are not obliged, mate; if you want out, now is the time to say and I wouldn’t blame you, not one bit,” I tell him seriously.
“Let’s see what he has to say,” Dan replies without having to think.
“Yes, we need to see what the score is.”
Sitting back down to wait, Emily jumps back onto my lap and I put my arms around her waist.
“How long will you be, Dad?”
“I’m not sure, not too long I hope; will you be okay waiting here for me?”
“Yes, as long as you’re quick,” she says looking down at the floor.
“I’ll be as quick as I can,” I tell her.
“You will be fine staying here with us for a while, won’t you Emily?” Catherine says from beside me, “and don’t let Reed pressure you, Andy; you don’t owe him anything.”
“Don’t worry, he won’t,” I tell her, trying to convince myself.
The few remaining people rattling around in the large space are all in small groups like us, and someone from most of these groups has come over to us, introduced themselves and asked us if we know anything about what’s going on. One of us tells them what we do know, which isn’t much and all of these people seem as ignorant
