Tuesday's Gone - Chapter One

Two suvivors take flight across Oxfordshire amidst an outbreak of catastrophic proportions, tested to their wits end as every day, hour, minute and second becomes a fight for survival.

Chapter One.

 

‘Alpha Tango Control to all Alpha Tango, Location?. Over’

‘Alpha Tango 28 to Control. We’re currently south-bound on Banbury Road making our way to Boots, Cornmarket Street. Female shoplifter. Over’

‘Control to Alpha Tango 28, Byhill Site security reporting currently peaceful protest by The Animal Rights Foundation members outside their facility, all units required to cancel any previous requests. Proceed on urgent at this time, on urgent to prevent breach of the peace.’

‘Alpha Tango 28 to Control. Confirmed on our way, over.’

Lauren looked at her crew mate Dave.

‘Oh the joy, our shift ends in 3 hours, bet those bloody animal activists kick off again, isn’t there a guinea pig farm out that way too?’

Dave shrugged his shoulders and said ‘Yeah, the Laymon’s farm is out that way, they’ve had a few problems with the ALF but this is Byhill they’re a testing company or research lab or something, GlaxoSmithKline outsource to them sometimes, to be honest the Animal Rights Foundation aren’t massively aggressive, there’s been one or two incidents of fringe members doing daft things like sending ransom letters to scientist and the such, but nothing really serious, they’re nothing like the Animal Liberation Front, nothing like those buggers.’ Dave shook his head and whistled.

Lauren raised her eyebrows.

‘Woooo get you knowing the ins and outs, you’ve been swatting up then?’ Lauren was well aware that Dave’s probationary review was coming up soon and he would be able to start applying for specialist units, his unit of choice, Lauren knew, would be the Tactical Support Team. The Tactical Support Team went into situations like football riots or violent protests in full body armor to diffuse situations and attempt to bring about order.

‘Doesn’t hurt to be up to date Lauren, and anyway, I’m putting my application in soon to transfer, it’s something I meant to mention to you at some point.’ Lauren feigned a pout, but was pleased for her crew mate, she had no desire at this time to move into any specialist units, she enjoyed general patrol, and her unit of choice, Armed Response, wasn’t an option to her at the minute.

‘Aww Dave, don’t leave me, I’d miss ya’ Dave grinned at her, he’d just got through checking the location of the Byhill Site which he discovered was just fifteen miles northeast of their current location between Prattle and Noke, two small Oxfordshire villages which he’d heard of but never been to, there wasn’t much of note to either of them and they both had near nonexistent crime rates.

‘Like a hole in your head, right Lauren?’ .

‘Like a hole in my head’ she affirmed ‘ Dave shook his head and swung the vehicle around and started on their short journey north along Banbury Road. Their police car’s position highlighted by a small blinking blue dot which was the GPS system on the satellite navigation unit, Dave glanced quickly at the route and was sure he’d find his own way there now, it was an easy route towards the B4027.

As they made their way north along Banbury Road, Dave realised they were going to make pretty slow progress, it was just after lunch on a Friday, people knocked off early of a Friday, people crawled home at lunch time they were stuck in lines of traffic on Banbury Road and whilst they were only requested on urgent their progress was getting slower, people generally didn’t move out of the way of police cars unless they were flashing and screaming.

‘Alpha Tango control to all units for Byhill Site, security have reported some disturbance within the grounds, advise current positions, over.’

‘Alpha Tango 28 to Control, we are currently on Banbury Road heading north towards site, traffic moderate to heavy at this time, request response upgrade in order to activate sirens, over.’ There was a silence for a few seconds and Lauren looked out the wind screen at the car in front as the driver launched his cigarette from the window.

‘Nice littering ticket there’ she said getting her pocket book out to fill in the details of the vehicle so that she could put the ticket in the post. The radio came to life again,

‘Alpha Tango 19 to Alpha Tango 28, we are currently on site, no major disturbances now we are in attendance, protest continues to be peaceful we will keep you updated, over.’

‘Alpha Tango Control to Alpha Tango 19, thank you for update, over, Alpha Tango Control to Alpha Tango 28, no requirement to upgrade response at this time, Alpha Control 19 already at site, reporting no major disturbance, no arrests at this current time and protest continues to be peaceful, updates pending, over’.

Dave turned the volume down on the radio.

‘Flipping Jonesy being an arse, he knows damned well we’ll be sitting like twats in traffic in the centre, he had a moan on this morning in the briefing room when he realised we’d got the traffic car’.

‘I dunno what it is with you and Jonsey, Dave, he isn’t that bad, just a bit of a jobsworth’ she snapped her pocket book closed. ‘God isn’t it muggy’, Lauren opened her window and hung her elbow outside, the smells and sounds of Banbury Road filled their police car.

‘Jonsey spends all his sodding time showing the rest of us up, he insists on taking the smallest piece of crap through CPS, even when he knows they’ll just drop it before court, and so when I drop something like a common assault cos it won’t stand up for s**t in a courtroom, I look bad and end up with a bollocking’

Lauren continued to look out of the window and realised her mistake, Dave had been disciplined following a major complaint from a victim of crime, the incident was a good 2 years old now, but it was still raw to him, she knew the Sergeant at the time had cited Jonsey’s unfailing arrest and prosecution rate during the disciplinary.

‘Nob head probably hasn’t got any life outside of work, lives and breaths it, does my head in.’

Dave finished and set his jaw, Lauren peered at him from the side, his jaw was tight and she could tell he was pissed off now, his dark hair mussed and matted, the air being so muggy and their stab vests not to mention their shirts, ties, combat trousers and steel toe capped boots made them both hot and bothered, he’d rubbed his hands through his hair a few times, there was the faint shadow of stubble at his chin and Lauren wondered if he’d shaved that morning. Dave’s nostril’s flared and he barked out of his window.

‘PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN YOU DOUGHNUT’ to a female driver who literally opened the hand holding the phone to her ear in traffic, it dropped and she stared with large, shocked eyes at him.

‘Ha ha, bless her, you’ve just scared the s**t out of her’

‘Well she shouldn’t be on her sodding phone’ then he banged his hands on the steering wheel in frustration at yet another red light.

‘OH COME ON!’

Lauren was glad when the radio blarred into life again, but her pleasure at the distraction was short lived.

‘Bravo Victor to Alpha Tango Control, any requirement for attendance, we are at a lose end and available, over.’ Dave looked at Lauren and grinned, Lauren just rolled her eyes.

‘Bloody armed response, must be bored of polishing their weapons.’ Lauren tutted.

‘Yeah’ and she looked out of her window, they were stationary again due to the zebra crossing being used, the driver in the vehicle next to her was picking his nose, Lauren felt her stomach churn over as he inspected what he’d found up his nose then popped it into his mouth. Traffic started moving again and as soon as the car was out of sight its driver and his actions were also ou tof her mind.

She thought about Bravo Victor which was the call sign for the Armed Response unit, and she thought about Andy Spencer, cocky and cocksure, impossibly handsome and seemingly intelligent. Andy had pursued Lauren mercilessly for three weeks finally talking her on a date, and Lauren remembered the three months they’d dated, she’d started to care deeply for him, he seemly cared for her until she found out that he had a pregnant wife, found out by accident, a flippant remark made in HQ canteen, Lauren had been on a training day and having lunch with a girl called Emily Tait from HR, Lauren had waved at Andy who had beamed and waved back to her, Emily turned to look at who she was waving to and then had leant forward and said;

‘He’s a right one him, tried to take me out on a date, you’d think he’d know I know about his wife, I have access to the personnel files’ Lauren had felt tears prick her eyes.

‘He’s married?’

‘Yeah, his wife’s pregnant, I only know that cos I authorised a compassionate leave day when he had to rush home to take her to the hospital cos she was having pains.’ Lauren had looked up at Andy at that point, and the look on his face said it all, the look on his face when he realised who Lauren was lunching with was a picture. Later that day Lauren sent a text message which read.

‘You prick’ and he didn’t even have the courtesy of replying or apologising or even trying to lie to her. She hated him for what he had done to her, hated him for what he was doing to his wife. But most of all she hated herself to letting down her guard, for letting him in, she hoped that Andy wasn’t deployed to Byhill, she couldn’t trust herself not to punch him on his deceitful chin.

‘Come on, Come on!’ Snapped Dave, drawing Lauren back from her thoughts. A learner driver had pulled out from the junction Dave was turning into, but her positioning was bad and she’d pulled out in front of the police car then panicked upon seeing it and stalled the car.

‘Okay Lucy we need to move out of the way because we are blocking the junction now’ said Alistair her instructor and with that Lucy gunned the engine dry for a couple of seconds and finally she started it again but succeeded only in creeping forward a few feet before kangarooing and stalling to a halt again. This was Lucy’s first experience driving a car and she felt sick, scared and she struggled to staunch the flow of tears with her finger tips a cursory look at the car clock stated she had 1 hour and fifteen minutes left of the lesson, she wanted it to be over now.

‘It’s okay Lucy, just take as much time as you need’ said Alistair again as he handed her a couple of tissues ‘the police car can get around now, and the other drivers will just have to wait, they were learners once too.’

Lucy resigned herself to the decision she was never going to drive again, she hadn’t looked properly, and her driving instructor had been the one to punch the breaks. All that Lucy could think about was what might have happened if she hadn’t had her instructor with her, she’d have been ploughed into by a police car, would she be sent to prison for something like that? In an attempt not to have to look at Alistair with the tears in her eyes she looked out of the driver’s side window and saw two police officers, the male driver raised his eye brows and the female officer smiled kindly, Lucy sobbed harder.

The police vehicle finally passed them on the junction, Alistair said.

‘I think you can go now Lucy, don’t worry, it’s only your first time out, you’ll get used to things like that’

‘I can’t, I just can’t do it, can you drive me home please?’

‘She was a bit of a looker, blond and nervous, how I like ‘em’ Lauren tutted.

‘You’re so up your own arse Dave!’ He laughed.

‘It’s the uniform, babe, they love it.’

She looked out of the window marveling at how quickly his annoyance at Jonsey had passed and she waved at a little boy who was pointing at them as they went past, his mother talking to him and also pointing. Lauren smiled, she liked kids, especially when they were young and still had that innocent wide eyed like of the police, before they morphed into Kevin of Harry Enfield fame, and would declare with great sincerity but with nothing to back it up.

‘I ‘ate coppers’

‘Yeah, I’ve noticed, men seem more interested when I tell them I’m a copper, or maybe it’s the handcuffs’ Dave laughed. For sometime they drove in silence, as they made their way out of the city, towards the suburbs, away from the milling visitors, those taking photographs, the students wandering around with their bags on their backs their folders held like toddlers in their arms, their hair swept to one side, socks and pleated skirts, the runners, with their ipods and their methodical plod, their little nods or smiles at other runners, I know you, I know how you feel now. Children running ahead of parents, the street dwellers, those that just hung and drank or did drugs and those that actually lived on the streets, falling out, laughing drinking eating, life happening as they wound their was out of the city and into the sprawling suburbs, Oxford was strange like that.

Having taken a cursory look at the satellite navigation system Dave affirmed to himself that he was still enroute towards Noke.

‘So this place is it actually in Noke or Prattle?’ asked Lauren.

‘I have no idea, control gave us Noke, so I’ll make towards that, when we get a bit closer you can get me a location, okay?’

They were on a suburban road now, one lane track with maximum speed limit posted, Dave was currently doing 85, and Lauren tutted.

‘Might help if you slowed down a bit’ he continued to watch the road ahead, but eased off of the accelerator,

‘Oops’

‘Yeah, speedometer is there for a reason Dave’.

‘Then nick me’ he retorted.

The road was now hugged on each side by large trees, a sign here and there declaring ‘Deer Crossing’

Lauren indicated one of the signs with a wave of her hand

‘Remember that daft old dear, that came into the station and asked us why we didn’t move the deer crossings because, where the deer kept getting knocked over, how I kept a straight face whilst explaining to her that it was warning that deer might cross, rather than an actual crossing for deer, I’ll never know’

Dave snorted and said

‘Public kill me, what about the bird that reported her car stolen, when we got there it was sitting in her driveway, large as life, and her excuse…..it was covered in snow, she couldn’t see it’. Lauren laughed, she’d not heard that one before, but she certainly was not surprised.

Whilst they’d been swapping stories, Lauren had pulled the map out of the driver’s side door and flipped it open, she was hunched over it studying its creased pages, a strand of hair kept falling forward and tickling her nose it was starting to annoy her, but there was nothing more she could do than brush it back again, it soon fell into her face again. She huffed, slammed the map book closed.

‘Bugger this’……she said stuffing the map back in the door pocket and grabbing the radio ‘Alpha Tango 28 to control over?’

‘Control, Alpha Tango, go ahead’

‘Alpha Tango 28 to Control, map grid reference or postcode would be great for this place if you can be bothered, we know you guys are probably playing snap or something, you know you should do a real job’ said Lauren, the operator tutted audibly.

‘Control to Alpha Tango 28. Hey you guys want to get off on time today? cos I can just keep the jobs coming you know, burglarize a couple of houses myself, keep you two rejects out of mischief, GSM 28 over 92 or OX3 9TQ.’

‘Alpha Tango 28 to control, ta love, and try it I’ve no qualms nicking your scrawny arse’

‘Control to Alpha Tango 28, actually for your information I was on e-bay, over’

Dave sniggered.

‘Bunch of bloody reprobates, you know they’ve got a bloody gym in that control room, none of them use it, they all sit around eating bloody chocolate and drinking coffee.’

‘Ah they do a good job of keeping us uninformed.’ Lauren tapped the postcode into the satalite navigation system and the route changed, Dave looked at it to catch his bearings.

‘How about un-uniformed, did you hear about that newbie and the tart John Royd?’

‘Yeah, at least the gym got used for something.’

‘A-ha, okay, keep going here for about a hundred yards, then there’s a road just off to the left’ she looked through the windscreen.

‘Right there, hang a left here fella’

Dave barely tapped the brakes as he turned into the country lane that fed Byhill Site. Lauren slammed into his shoulder

‘Jesus Dave, this ain’t the skid pan.’

Upon entering the country lane, they saw the crowds of people milling around carrying placards and the vehicles, some of which were fire and rescue, an ambulance, an armed reponse unit and a dog unit, the police and other services milled around looking bored, the protestors with their tie dyed shirts, and long hair, some in dread locks, with roll ups hanging out of their mouths, their wrists adorned in love beads all with the pale, sickly look of the vegetarian walked in circles chanting slogans about Byhill being ‘animal murderers’ and ‘animals have souls too’.

Dave sighed audibly.

‘Right then, lets do this thing’ he opened his door and climbed out, the day was balmy now rather than hot and the sun diffused through the green leaves, whilst the sun was warm, the canopy kept the area cool. Then she mentally kicked herself, if it were raining she’d complain about that too and she remembered her father used to say ‘bloody typical English, complaining about the weather.’

‘Alright Dave, Lauren?’ came Mark Jones’ greeting, Dave raised a hand and muttered.

‘Yup arsehole’ then grinned at Lauren before striding forwards. Lauren stood by the patrol car and looked at the mele, she didn’t want to join her colleagues, because Andy Spencer was stood, legs at shoulder width apart, his muscular arms crossed and sticking out of a short sleeved black shirt, he as laughing and joking with his crew mate, a tall black officer who Lauren didn’t’ know, but it was evident he must know who she was because he elbowed Andy and nodded in Lauren’s direction, Andy turned and looked towards her, he smiled widely and nodded, Lauren glared at him and then walked towards her team mates who were standing away from Andy and his crew mate, secretly and she hated herself for thinking it, but she was bloody glad she’d taken a few minutes to put on mascara that morning, if she looked good, he’d know what he’d lost.

‘Hi Lauren’ said Jonsey’s crew mate, Eddie Devlin.

‘Alright Ed, how’s things?’ she caught sight of Andy start to walk towards her and so she ensured she looked to be in deep conversation with Ed.

‘Ahh, they’re just riled up about the animal experiments, they’ll bugger off soon enough and if they don’t control’s already said they’ll just swap us around when our shifts come up’.

‘Good, I’ve got plans tonight’ she answered making sure Andy was close enough to hear and quickly snatching a look at him she felt deflated because he had stopped a few feet away and was chatting to one of the protestors who was attempting to engage him in a debate about whether or not guns were evil tools of mass murder and destruction, she wondered if he’d actually heard her declaration of having plans.

‘See if guns weren’t invented, then there wouldn’t be any wars’ said the hippy, Lauren turned her attention to the conversation, then she couldn’t stop herself she walked over and stood in front of the dreadlocked hippie wearing, ironically, a camouflage jacket, which had probably come from an army surplus store, she looked him up and down and then saw his gum boots, sighed and said.

‘Guns are not the precursor to wars, wars are created by people, humans, the likes of you and I a gun and indeed any weapon is just a tool like anything, like a fork or a butter knife, they are not invented to kill, but people do use them to kill.’ The hippy started to argue but Lauren cut him off ‘guns were originally designed to hunt for food or to be used for defense, not to be used to gain advantage that comes from using them as a murderous tool, they are merely tools that people decided to use for killing.’ Andy was looking at her with a wide mouthed gape.

‘Well I don’t like them’ said Hippie before walking off.

‘Nice, good argument’ said Andy to the retreating hippie and then grinned at Lauren.

‘Got a minute?’ she looked at him with what she hoped was contempt and said.

‘No’ then went and joined her crew mates and stood next to Dave looking around, there were probably about 30 protestors shouting slogons about animals having rights and that the testing facility was a murdering ground. One of the protestors were shouting through a megaphone and when Lauren could understand what he was saying, she heard him explaining why there was no need to test on animals. There were no facilities to get a drink and nowhere to go to the toilet, that coupled with the fact that Andy Spencer spent the whole time staring at her meant that for Lauren, 4pm could not come soon enough. Eventually their change of shift arrived, just in time for the refreshment van to arrive too.

‘Sodding typical’ said Dave nodding in the direction of the catering van, something that was always provided when there was requirement to spend long hours at an operation.

‘Aww sod it Dave, I’m so ready to go home now’ she said as they walked towards their patrol car.

‘So what are you plans tonight?’ for a minute Dave caught her off guard and she looked confused.

‘You told Ed you’ve got plans tonight’

‘Oh yeah, that, cinema with a friend’

They climbed into the car and she watched as Andy and his crew mate got in their 4�-4 with the rear windows blacked out, he looked towards her, but she couldn’t see his face. Andy sighed.

‘You okay mate?’ asked Danny, his crew mate.

‘Yeah, fucked up is all mate, oh well, onwards and upwards is what I always say.’

‘Your missus moved out now then?’ Andy nodded.

‘I knew it was going to happen once the baby was born, she told me, I shouldn’t have expected any different really should I.’

‘Listen mate, you ever need to get together for a beer and a chat, just let me know okay?’ Andy looked out of the 4�-4’s window and nodded looking towards Lauren’s patrol car, she’d got in the passenger side, he couldn’t see her, he wished he could he’d like to see her one last time. Maybe one day she’d let him explain, right now, he would have to let her anger subside first, he knew that if he waited she’d eventually talk to him. Dan put the 4�-4 in gear and started to crawl out of the lane, Dave to the annoyance of Lauren held back letting the 4�-4 go first and then Ed and Jonsey’s patrol car.

‘Yeah, later prick’ said Dave smiling widely and waving to Ed and Jonsey

Dave swung out into the lane, they watched as the other two police vehicles left in a cloud of dust, Dave stole a look at Lauren, he was driving slower than he usually did, she was sitting against her door, her head in her hands and looking out into the lane ahead. Dave excelerated a bit to see if he could rouse her into telling him off for driving too fast, but she was too far in her own world to notice.

‘So’ he said stopping the car at a give way on a blind junction, he looked left and right to ensure nothing was coming ‘Andy Spencer, what’s the story there?’ Lauren jerked and looked at Dave who grinned.

‘It stuck out like a sore thumb, you looked like you wanted to shove something down his throat and I think it was maybe your fist’ Lauren sighed.

‘God, am I that transparent?’ she turned and looked at him, tears in her eyes. Quickly Dave put the hand brake on and switched off the engine, then turned in his seat to look at her.

‘Took the piss didn’t he?’ she said and wiped at a tear. She looked vulnerable, Dave had never seen her look helpless she’d always been such a strong woman and a good police officer, it was why he enjoyed working with her.

‘I’m sorry’ Dave said.

‘What you sorry for you idiot!’ she did a strange sob laugh thing and his heart melted further for her. Dave being married for the past 5 years had been single for 14 years prior to that and knew what it was like to be taken for a fool.

‘Listen, you need anything, anything at all, I’m here okay?’ Lauren looked at him, sniffed, wiped at her eyes.

‘You tell anyone I cried in front of you I’ll bust your balls’ they both laughed, it was typical Lauren, gone was the scared girl Dave had seen for the briefest of moments and back was the little fire rocket he knew.

The flash was blinding, the boom ear shattering, Lauren screamed and Dave grunted as their patrol car jumped audibly, trees and branches whipped all around them, battering the car, a branch careened through the back passenger side window and Lauren was covered in tempered glass, she felt pieces imbed into her face, she raised a hand to wipe at them causing small cuts on her hands, Dave was grabbing at her shouting over the impossibly long explosion, he unclipped her seatbelt, grabbed her around the waist and fell out of the car backwards into the stones and gravel, his first thought being someone had fire bombed the car, wanting to get himself and her to safety. He lay on top of her, her face down in the dry, stony lane, ironically she could smell his aftershave and hear his heavy and laboured breathing in her hair and ear as he tried to protect her, she couldn’t breath but she lay still, winded and wounded and unable to do anything other than allow Dave to lay on top of her. He could feel her heart beating wildly even through her stab vest, eventually the explosion subsided and when he thought it were safe Dave looked up and around, trees had bomb blast damage, a couple of smaller ones had toppled including the one that had gone through their car window, the air was warm and he could smell burning, burning undergrowth and burning flesh, he hoped it wasn’t Lauren’s but thought it more likely to be that of the protesters or small animals in the undergrowth. Finally the area was utterly, utterly silent, preternaturally silent, the sort of silence where death looms and his cracked whisper into Lauren’s ear seem to be earth shattering.

‘You okay? She tried to move, but his weight was too much, her face stung from the glass, her ribs ached from the fall and crush, she couldn’t catch her breath when she tried to breath her chest stabbed painfully, she feared broken ribs at least and a punctured lung at worst.

‘Get …. Off … me ….. Dave’ she managed to choke out. Dave rolled off sideways and lay on his back he looked up at the sky, it was grey, strange that it should be grey it had been such a bright day, but his shocked mind couldn’t figure it out, and he put it down to the encroaching evening. Lauren was groaning next to him, he was relatively unscathed, somehow in falling out of the car Lauren had ended up hitting the ground first, and Dave had landed on top of her, he had some scratches to his hands and face from the shattering glass of the car but apart from that he was not hurt at all. Her groans worried him and he got up onto his knees. She was white as a sheet, whiter than he’d ever seen her and she had porcelain skin and red hair anyway, her hazel eyes were glazed, and criss crossing her face on the left hand side was bits of glass and blood, her hands were peppered with glass and beads of blood, he looked down the length of her body, but could see no other wounds, but her hands were gripped at her right holding tightly to her ribcage as she gasped and choked and groaned in pain and shock.

‘Lauren’ he grabbed hands and she spat an angered no at him with wide fearful eyes, ‘Lauren, let me see’ he said gripping her tiny hands in his and holding them tight, he looked at her as seriously as he could and she relaxed her grip

‘Lauren, trust me, let me see, if you’re hurt you need me to help, okay’ she fought a bit longer her eyes wild with pain then she succumbed, unable to fight the pain or his gentle but forceful strength. She flopped back on the ground, the pain was lessening now and she allowed him to remove her hands, she felt the myriad scratches but it was nothing compared to her ribs.

‘Am I….am I …’ she gasped again, it was getting easier to draw breath ‘ bleeding?’ Dave shook his head and then pressed the area, Lauren screamed in pain, Dave ripped open her stab vest and then her shirt, underneath she had a pure white vest on and he felt intrusive seeing her in her underwear but he ploughed on and pulled up the vest, to be greeted with the biggest, blackest bruise he had ever seen, the skin was not broken and very carefully, as carefully as he could he traced the ribs in her chest, feeling each one, she screamed on contact with the bruise and spat.

‘F**k off’ through clenched teeth but he carried on feeling anyway, finally satisfied he pulled her vest down to allow her some dignity then sat back and sighed heavily.

‘There’s a wicked, sodding bruise on your ribs, but I don’t think any have broken.’ He said to her and looking around he saw what must have caused it, a large wickedly pointed boulder near to the police car, and almost certainly where they’d fallen out of the car, she’d obviously landed on it, with Dave’s 15 stone bulk landing on top of her.

‘What the f**k was that?’ she managed to get out, the white hot pain starting to subside.

‘I’m going to get the first aid kit, clean your face up, radio in, okay?’ she sat up, Dave was facing away from the facility they had been on duty at and was just getting to his knees, Lauren had rolled left then onto her left side and managed to get up onto her bottom facing the direction they had come, towards Byhill 13 she stared for some seconds, unable to comprehend what she was seeing, unable to make head nor tail of it. Dave saw the look on her face and followed her gaze. She started to sob. Dave just stared, his mouth opening and closing, not a sound coming out.

‘Dave, what the f**k is that?’ she finally croaked and he answered with.

‘Gas masks.’ he managed.

Nodding Lauren got up as quickly as was possible still gripping her injured side, she swooned but managed to keep consciousness and using the side of the car for support scrambled around to the back where she, popped open the boot and grabbed the nearest utility bag intending to pull it out and search it, but pain ripped through her side as she tried to lift it and so she gave up getting it out and instead rummaged through them for their standard issue masks, she was sweating and shaking, her gaze perpetually attracted by that ugly bruised blotch on the beautiful landscape, she tried not to breath too much scared of what she was breathing in, she wondered if it was a nuclear cloud.

Shaking himself awake, and realising they had to act and act fast, Dave grabbed the radio.

‘Alpha Tango 28 to Alpha Tango Control. Over’ he listened to static and every silent second filled him with foreboding, just a twenty or so minutes ago, Jane had signed them off their shift, and now the silence that met him made his heart beat punctuate every single moment feeling lost in that static void.

‘Alpha Tango 28 to Alpha Tango Control. Over’ finally a frantic voice came on

‘Control…. Oh f**k it! Dave? Dave Langford?’

‘Yeah?’ all standard operating procedures had gone out of the window. Dave felt his heart sink.

‘Dave! Oh thank God, haven’t you been listening to the radio?’

‘No, there’s been a f*****g explosion here!’ he barked.

‘One of the scientist at Byhill, it’s a research facility, they mess around with things, government funded and controlled, Jesus, I don’t know what they’ve been doing, but it’s pretty bad.’

‘Jane, you’re rambling’

‘Yeah, yeah anyway that scientist feller dropped an emergency beacon, you know the government highest level s**t, god I can’t even remember what it’s called I’m that scared.’

‘Jane, it’s a Lucifer Red Code.’

‘Yeah, one of those, f*****g hell, someone got in, let out the animal test subjects, set off a f*****g bomb, things have escaped, the army’s on its way now, Dave I think the scientist is dead, I heard it, it was, oh god, it was…….’ she broke off Dave heard her sob, then she took a long gulp of breath and continued.

‘Get Lauren and get out of there do not proceed, we’re re-calling all units, those we can contact. Make to HQ on immediate, the Chief Super’s called an emergency briefing. Gold Command is being set up. Dave move and move fast, don’t stop for anything, or anyone, I’ll see you soon.’ The radio cleared, he heard her speaking with Simon Wight, relaying the same thing.

‘Hey, Jane! Jane’ He had a thousand questions.

‘Dave clear your radio, we’ve got a lot of people to contact, only use your radio in the most extreme of circumstances.’ His Sergeant had cut into the line, effectively taking him off of the general air-waves and talking directly to him.

‘Do as Jane Said, get out and get out fast, over.’ The radio was now alive with people talking all at once, Dave dropped it, and pulled out his ear piece then looked towards Byhill.

Morbidly fascinated by the obscene purple and grey cloud, dispersing into the air above the Byhill site, and spreading alarmingly fast over Oxfordshire, Dave could do nothing more for long seconds than stare as It hung there mocking them in its mystery above the serene looking plains and forests under which scientists messed around and distorted the natural order of things.

Dave suddenly remembered Lauren. He looked out of the rear view mirror and couldn’t see her, fearing for her he flung open his door.

‘Lauren!’ She was around the back of the patrol vehicle hunkered down and searching through a black utility bag.

‘I can’t find my gas mask Dave!’ When she looked up her eyes were red and watering she sniffed. ‘Lucifer Red Code, Jesus, we’re screwed aren’t we? Someone let out test subjects, they could be infected with anything and where’s the military? Jane said they’d been deployed, I can’t see them’ Lauren was on the verge of hysteria. Her question was answered by the sound of automatic weapon fire, screams of pain and anguish carried on the still air. At the sound of warfare, she started rummaging through the bag again, frantically searching, but barely looking. Dave knew it was fruitless, her gas mask could be right under her nose, she wasn’t going to see it in the state she was in.

‘Leave it Lauren, we’ve been told to report to HQ, get in the car, quickly!’ With that she stood up wincing, Dave ran to the driver’s side as Lauren used the patrol car for support to get to the passenger side, pulling the door closed, she used the heel of her palm to slam the lock down, feeling a little more secure for it, then she remembered the shattered rear passenger window

‘We’re not gonna go to HQ are we?’ Dave looked at her, her eyes were beautiful, he’d never noticed that before.

‘Some c**t, let a load of test subjects out of a government run facility, god knows what they were messing with down there, god knows what’s loose now, you heard the guns, getting to HQ could mean our lives, and for what? To serve and protect the f*****g public, ain’t gonna happen. Something’s not right, my wife is alone at home and…’ his voice broke ‘s**t!’ he pressed the ridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger squeezing hard, trying his best to allay the tears.

‘Dave? What? What’s wrong?’

‘She’s pregnant Lauren, we’ve got to get to her!’

She let him compose himself. A summer breeze rocked the foliage near to the car, she looked up towards the clear blue sky some distance from them now, and realised they were surrounded by the smoke from the facility. Nothing made any sense this was a day for bike rides and strawberry picking. For laying in the grass and holding the hands of lovers or reading books on a blanket in the middle of University Park. This was not a day for crazy activists to break into government facilities and set off bombs, to release potentially lethal test subjects into the general public, or for chemical clouds to hang obscenely over a peaceful scenic landscape. She tried to make sense of it in her addled mind, she wondered what it was, what they had let out in their stupidity. But did she really want to know? Did she want to know what was coming for them, what they had breathed in? No she didn’t, she realised that ignorance is bliss.

Author's Note

There may be gramamtical errors within this, please point them out, but I am more interested in what you think about the storyline, whether the characters feel real. Does the dialogue flow, is there too much or too little. Does the descriptive narrative conjur adequte images.

Thank you in anticipation.