Chapter fourteen

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Sorry about the long wait, I'm aware this chapter is pretty crap but stick with it and the action will be all, woah. Baha, thankyou, comments and votes appreciated massively. <3
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Chapter fourteen

The guitar strings felt wonderful against my fingers, the pressure reminding me enough of my life that I could smile with ease, humming the tune to ‘Fast car’ as I played, only stumbling once despite the time I’d been without my trusty acoustic.
‘When you said you could play, I didn’t realise you meant you could play’ Keith smiled cheekily, nodding his head to the tune.
‘I dunno why there was an acoustic in B&Q anyway’ I smiled, not looking up, ‘Never seen one in any hardware store I’ve been in’.
‘In Asda..’
‘You don’t work in Asda’ I cut in, laughing loudly. He looked up at me and laughed, becoming quieter only as Lucas and Percy walked into the isle we were sat in, perched on two large pieces of wood.
‘More are gathering outside the doors’ Lucas stated, ‘We should probably get going’.
‘Right’ Keith agreed, clearing his throat, ‘I’ll rummage around the shop, see if there’s anything useful’.
‘You shouldn’t go alone, I’ll come with you. Percy and Harley can stay put here’.
‘Percy and Harley can speak for themselves’ I stuck my tongue out at him, ducking away as he ruffled his hair and Keith laughed fondly.
‘Stay sharp, yell if you need us’.


Doctor William Tennille
Not long now. Not long till every one of my samples is obliterated, all these days of work go to waste. What do we have to show for it? Nothing. We’ve spent hour after hour rotting away in this lab, achieving nothing. This will be our last chance to find some truth in this catastrophe, find the truth so idiots don’t blame an act of god or Christians blame sinners and others blame fate. No, this is science and I will find out the answers if it kills me.
‘You have the fresh samples?’ Santos asks me, flicking his wet hair out of his face.
‘Next to the sink’ I reply, squinting towards my latest test tube. A deep red liquid bubbles inside the glass but it’s just for show, it’s telling us nothing.


‘Any luck with the blood samples?’ I’m asking but I’m not entirely sure why, he would have staggered through the door with an excited cry if he’d found anything.
‘Nothing, no immunities yet but there are still a few blood types I haven’t tested’.
‘It’s not looking great, is it?’
‘Well, no. But just because there are no immunities in the different blood types doesn’t mean there aren’t immunities in individual DNA, implausible but possible’.
‘It’s all pretty implausible’ I sigh, placing the glass tube carefully back in its holster though I’d rather smash it carelessly across the room.
‘Well this whole situation is pretty implausible. All those years we tried carefully to raise bodies from the dead with some intelligence and some rogue government lab gets there before us and cocks it all up’.
‘I know’ I mutter resentfully, ‘This never needed to happen. Amazing how they were all left to die though, eh? Amazing how we’re expected to find some kind of cure when the big shots won’t even tell us the root of the virus’.
‘Could even be said that we’re pawns in this game’.


The room fell silent as my mind ticked over, contemplating the idea. We’d been told that a helicopter would come pick us up from the roof in around three hours but the details had been sketchy. My brain buzzed as I knitted my eyebrows together, suddenly wondering why they would possibly want to save us.
‘You don’t think they’d just leave us?’ I ask, bewildered.
‘It’s a possibility we have to consider’.
‘No..’ I trail off, but then I I really think. Why do they need us, if we haven’t found a cure yet? Obviously the Prime Minister couldn’t get enough information about the virus before his scientists died so he recruited us to stay behind and test the samples in an environment most would never stay in. They had been awfully held back about the times we would be taken from the country, awfully reserved about the answers they gave us.
‘I think you might just be right’ I say eventually, moving my head down slowly till my eyes are level with my test tubes.
‘Me too, unfortunately. Do we have a plan, William?’
‘We work’ I say determinedly, already haphazardly grabbing goggles and samples from around the lab, breathing heavily, ‘Quickly, very quickly. We can do this Santos, our whole careers, our lives depend on these few hours. Get your goggles on, we’re going to save lives’.
‘Yes’ he said, breathing out of rhythm, excited, ‘We’ll be the bigshots William, us two. Forget the government, forget the rest. This is just another virus, another threat. The only thing in life I’m decent at solving, I can’t even call my wife’.
‘Your marriage can be repaired when we make sure this virus never comes back’ I nod solemnly at his words, smiling towards him genuinely, ‘Now hurry up, these samples won’t keep forever’.

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