The Z Infection by Russell Burgess Read Free Book Online Page A

inside.  Tony was his second in command.  He was in his forties but
looked as fit as a teenager.  He was always whistling, which did get on my
nerves after a while.  Si was the youngest one.  He was a London boy, from the
East End, and he also provided the jokes and light relief.  The fourth member
of the group I only knew by his nickname of Shaky. He was about thirty and had
muscles on top of his muscles. 
           What surprised me most about this little group,
was that they all seemed to be so well educated, perhaps with the exception of
Si.  They would often quote things that seemed out of place to what they did
for day jobs.  It didn’t matter to me, of course, I was just happy to have some
company.  The task I had been given was dangerous.  I could never have completed
it without them.  In fact they saved my life many times in that first week and
probably scores of times in the next month and we became good friends through
all the hardship and danger.
    The first place I decided to head for,
was Great Ormond Street Hospital.  We knew some of the injured had been taken
there and that contact had been lost.  I wanted to know why that was.
    It soon became clear that it was
going to be almost impossible to get through by a direct route.  Even as we
were leaving Whitehall, just after the warning was issued, we were advised that
the Prime Minister and other government officials were to be relocated in the
next half hour and that the area around Charing Cross was already a no-go. 
That seemed incredible.  It was only a few hundred metres away.
    Our driver, Shaky, decided on a more
circuitous way and took as across the river on Westminster Bridge.  Once on the
south side of the river we made our way along to Blackfriars Bridge and crossed
back to the north side. 
    There were people everywhere. 
Thousands and thousands were on foot, heading across the river to the perceived
safety of the south bank.  We seemed to be the only ones going in the opposite
direction.  Some tried to warn us not to go any further, others just ignored us
completely.  We saw some people with horrific wounds, bites mainly.  Some of
them dropped where they were and we carried on past.  There was nothing we
could do.  There were too many injured.
    The more I saw of it the more I theorised
that this was some form of disease.  People seemed to be becoming infected
through bites and scratches and they were expiring quicker than with any known
virus I had ever encountered.  The only thing I could compare it to is a bite
from a venomous snake.  There are some species that can kill a human being in
just a few hours.  This was happening much faster.
    By the time we were about a half mile
from the hospital, Shaky had stopped our vehicle. 
    ‘We’re not going any further,’ said
Taff.
    I looked him, expecting a reason to
be given, but he just pointed straight ahead.  In front of us, shuffling down
the street towards Holborn junction, were hundreds of them.  No, actually I think
there were thousands of them, all with the same vacant expressions, all walking
with that slow and purposeful gait.  All with the same thought at the forefront
of their minds.
    ‘Get us out of here,’ said Taff,
calmly.
    Shaky turned the car around and we
drove back towards Blackfriars Bridge.  By the time we made it there Taff had
already been on the phone to his boss.
    ‘There’s no way through to the
hospital,’ he said.
    I didn’t hear what his boss said, but
Taff’s next words chilled me to the bone.
    ‘I think we are in some serious
trouble.’
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Three
    Anna Hasker
    15:00 hours, Friday 15 th May, Heathrow
Airport, London
    I had arrived at Heathrow, for my
flight to Edinburgh, about two hours earlier than I would normally.  I had had
a fight with my boyfriend at breakfast, about him going on yet another lad’s
weekend.  This time it was Amsterdam.  He just