E Virus: The Diary of a Modern Day Girl (Book 2): The Path of Destruction (7 page)

“What going on babe?” I asked.

“We’re taking a slight detour, going to camp up for the night and try again tomorrow. George doesn’t think it’s a good idea carrying on when those things are out” he told us.

I nodded my head in agreement. “Ok, so where are we going now then?” I asked him.

“Do you remember
Jodrell Bank?” He asked me, grinning.

Of course, I remembered Jodrell Bank. It’s where we went on one of our first dates. Nick has always been intrigued by the night’s sky; he used this to “woo” me.

He was such a gentleman when we first met. He was the type to open doors for me, walk me to the door and kiss me goodnight. He was so respectful, and he never pushed for more. I loved that about him. I was so used to guys being overly forward; mostly they were all after one thing. But not Nick, I could tell straight off the bat, that he was different.

It was a breath of fresh air, just being able to hold a conversation with him. We had so much in common, the same interests, the same outlook; we talked for hours and were instantly comfortable in each other’s company.

That was the last time I visited
Jodrell Bank. He took me to the observatory, and we gazed at the stars projected onto the ceiling. He was always good at thinking up things to do.

We were now on the long road leading up to the centre. The huge white Lovell telescope towered over the observatory as we approached.  Nick held out his hand as I weaved my fingers around his and squeezed his hand tightly.

I longed for the days we would go out just the two of us. As grateful as I was for the fact we were not alone in all this chaos, we hadn’t really had any alone time since this whole fiasco began.

We did a lap of the area, just to make sure we were alone. It didn’t look like we had anything to worry about; there were no cars in the car park and the whole area seemed deserted. I wasn’t entirely surprised. When the virus first hit the UK, and the announcement was made to close all schools,
Jodrell Bank probably felt no need to remain open. It was always popular for school trips and families. School trips probably provided the majority of their income. Without the schools the footfall would dramatically decrease.

With a deadly virus making its way up the country, I doubted anyone was in the mood for a day out. They were more bothered about what was going on down here, rather than up there in the night’s sky.

We parked directly outside the entrance; we purposely positioned the cars ready for a quick getaway, although it didn’t really seem necessary; but better to be safe than sorry.

We headed inside the visitor
centre, strangely enough the doors were unlocked. We entered into the reception area. Blue section tape weaved its way up to the reception desk.

“As if they’ll be expecting a queue.”
I thought to myself.

The walls were black, different photos of various planets added depth to the dark wall.

The carpets just reminded me of my school days. Blue, felt like carpet squares filled the room. Hard wearing enough for the multitude of visitors, and school children passing through each month.

The whole centre just seemed so… educational.

We made our way through the maze of blank TV screens built into the wall. Various tables containing pens, crayons and papers littered the area. Really it was just everything you need to keep a child occupied for a short amount of time.

Interactive boards and speakers dotted the rooms we walked through. No longer active, they were just a sad reminder of the world we had left behind.

We made our way through the multiple tourist attractions and were pleasantly surprised when we reached the end. There in front of us was an abandoned café; it was still in perfect condition. It hadn’t been touched.

We all rushed over to the fridge, where bottles of water, juice and even cans of coke lined the shelves.

A huge coffee maker sat by its side. I grabbed the first bottle of water from the fridge; it took me only a few seconds to finish the entire bottle.

We were all suffering from dehydration. I could tell, by the way the boys insisted on sharing with us the colour of their wee every time they took a leak. There were clearly no secrets amongst our group.

The Professor and George quickly found a table and settled down, the last few days had taken its toll on all of us, but they seemed to be feeling it the most.

“I’m getting too old for all this malarkey” George sighed.

“As they say, you’re as old as you feel” The Professor replied.

“In that case, I’m way into triple figures” George chuckled.

It was nice to see them getting on so well. George and the Professor tended to keep to themselves. I understood why. We were from a completely different generation to them although we all got along; we each had our own different outlook on life. They were both older and a lot more experienced than we were; they probably still saw us “young-uns” as George puts it, as kids.

“Would anyone like a coffee?” Nick shouted over as he and Paul fiddled with the coffee machine.

“Babe, I don’t think it will work.” I told him.

He smiled at me and flicked on the switch. The machine sprang into life. We all looked up astounded.

“We have electricity?” I asked, still shocked that all of a sudden we had access to such a luxury.

“It would seem so” The Professor replied getting up off his chair. “I’ll take a black coffee” he shouted over to Nick.

“George, mate, can I get you anything?” Paul asked.

“Just a good old fashioned cup of tea would do me.” he said. “But I doubt that’s possible, the milk will be completely out of date by now.”

Paul rifled through the boxes underneath the machine; he poked his head out and emptied a pile of small UHT milk pods onto the table. 

“Your wish is my command” he joked as he poured boiling water into a cup. “Do you take sugar?” he asked.

George shook his head. “No thank you, just as it comes.”

Leon and Ryan sat on another table; Paul came over to them, ready to take their order. He had even found a white apron, which he had already donned, and he was holding a small notepad.

“And for you fine gentleman?” he asked them.

Leon and Ryan
laughed, they seemed to have perked up since the events at the base. “Nah mate. I’m good thanks” Leon answered as Ryan simply shook his head.

“Is there any hot chocolate?” Lacey asked.

“And marshmallows?” I added in.

“I don’t know, not around here. Check the kitchen baby” Nick shouted over.

Kitchen? Lacey and I looked at each other. We got up off our table and went to explore.

We headed around the back of the counter and pushed open the metal door. It was much bigger than I expected. It was very clean, almost clinical. Stainless steel pans hung from the
ceiling. A sparkling steel multi-ring burner complete with ovens sat against the wall. The work surfaces were spotless.

Two steel heavy doors sat at each end of the room. We looked around opening the cupboards underneath the island placed in the centre of the room.

We were rudely interrupted by a banging sound on one of the heavy duty steel doors at the end of the room.

We both froze. We stood back up as our gaze met with the source of the sound.

Peering at us from a small glass window, was what I can only presume was the chef. He had somehow locked himself in the refrigerated chamber once the infection took over. How he managed that, I have no idea.

As Lacey and I came into view, he seemed to become more animated. The signs of infected were clear. His skin had begun decomposing and looked as if it was being eaten from the inside out.

Gaps appeared in his cheeks, his teeth visible through the holes.

No sound could be heard through the door; only the bangs as the door shuddered from the force of him launching himself at the door. Even then the bangs weren’t exactly deafening, it couldn’t be heard at all from outside the kitchen.

Lacey and I backed up, keeping our gaze on the chef. As soon as we reached the door leading into the café I shouted for the others to come in.

“
Erm, guys… I think you need to see this” I told them opening the door.

“What is it?” Nick asked.

“Just come” I replied bluntly.

“When we get a chance I will.” he whispered in my ear whilst grabbing my bum, clearly mistaking my tone.

I rolled my eyes. We were way past the “wooing” stage now.

Although I was now used to the sight of the infected, they were, after all becoming a regular occurrence in our everyday life, their appearance still gave me the chills. They weren’t exactly pleasant to look at; the sight of them still frightened me.  It wasn’t just that though, we knew how much of a danger they were. You wouldn’t be thrilled to be sharing your swimming pool with a great white shark, nor would you like to be in the same cage as a lion or a bear. This was no different.

The boys piled into the room as Lacey, and I pointed to the door. It didn’t take any of them long to figure out what we were so afraid of.

Strangely enough, it was the Professor who was first to get a close up look of the infected, curiosity must have got the better of him.

“This is very interesting,” he said to himself.

“You and I have very different ideas on what interesting is Professor.” I told him.

“Oh, don’t worry, we are perfectly safe. For one, these doors cannot open from the inside, and two, these doors are incredibly durable, there is no way our friend over here is going anywhere.” He replied.

It put me at ease, at least for the time being. Leon and Ryan came back into the room holding chairs. They made their way past us and placed them against the door.

“No harm in adding a few extra precautions.” Leon told us.

“I think I’d like to study this chap, maybe learn a little more about his characteristics.
If it’s ok with the rest of you?” The Professor asked.

We all looked at each other. George was the first one to speak up.

“I have no problem with that. On the understanding that this fellow does not leave the chamber, and the chairs stay up against the door” George told him firmly.

We all agreed with George. We couldn’t risk him getting out. He was still a danger, plus, given the way he was looking at us, should he escape we would all be on the menu.

“I wonder what’s behind door number 2.” Paul said changing the subject; he was trying to keep things a little more upbeat.

He peered through the frosted glass.

“I think that’s the freezer” I pointed out.

Without warning, he opened the door. We all stood back waiting for another infected to jump out.

“Paul, what the hell do you think you’re doing” Lacey scorned.

“Relax, there’s no one here, I already checked.” he said, “chill babe, its fine” he added.

Lacey still wasn’t convinced. She peered into the room. Paul quickly navigated past her and into the room. It was piled high with different meats, breads and even cakes.

We immediately set to work unpacking the freezer and placing the foods on the counter behind us.

I started assessing the different foods we now had access to. It was starting to look like, for the first time since the infection took over, we were going to have a proper meal.

“Right then, who fancies a Full English?”
I asked the rest of the group.

“What?
Really? You have to ask?” Ryan said smiling. I hadn’t seen him this happy since our time at the base; he had a nice smile. It was miles better than the brooding, end of the world look he had seemed to master. He was starting to become more himself.

Lacey and I got to work. We had already found the pantry. We opened an industrial sized can of baked beans and piled a
mountain of bacon onto a plate and threw it in the microwave on the defrost setting.

We had everything you could possibly need for a decent fry up. We had bacon, sausages, black pudding, baked beans and even hash browns. The only downside was we didn’t have any eggs or butter. They would be rotting away with our chef friend in the fridge.

It didn’t take long to have all the food prepared. Although to the boys it was hours. They were so impatient, constantly coming in and out the kitchen. All we heard was “Is it ready yet?”

Lacey had snapped before I did.

“Well, the more you ask us, the longer it’s going to take, carry on, and you can make it yourselves.” she said as she told them all off.

Although Paul and Lacey never had children, I always thought she would make a great mum. She certainly had a good head on her shoulders; well she had to, to keep Paul in check.

She had patience, but she knew where the line was, and if anyone crossed it they would know about it.

Once the food was finally prepared and on the table we all tucked in. That day we felt like we ate like kings. We each had a plate so full; it would probably feed the 5,000.

The Boys had put a huge teapot on each table, so we pretty much drank tea until it came out our noses.

Once our plates were almost clear, and our stomachs ready to pop, we just sat there. We were comfortably full, and exhaustion was now starting to take over.