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I had to keep going. I was running on adrenaline at this point but this was all I had left. Sarah had let me loose but I had no idea what Van Ark had put in me. I felt stiffness and there was bruising around each injection site. Of course no mad scientist had ever bothered to take a health history. I wondered what he’d been trying to do. No time to think now. Mission to do. One foot in front of the other. Back into danger.
Sam had never doubted me. Steady on, Sam. I had doubted myself. I wanted to tell him I would love to have a row about toenail clippings in a bed set up in the Natural History museum or even do up the closet in the comms shack with a Gryffindor theme and make it a Harry Potter themed hideaway to sneak into and cuddle with a jar of marmite...no time to think of that now. Van Ark might have taken all of those chances away.
Sarah - I couldn’t think of Sarah right now. She had her own battle to fight. She’d killed the major. I’d been numb, running the perimeter. I’d been just as numb as when I reached through the fence and stabbed the one zombie through the eye after I locked the gate. Then when it had all gone wrong.... one foot in front of the other...I had turned automatically towards danger. I couldn’t help it, even with Sam asking me to get out.
Then...best not to think about that. Running on the treadmill. One foot in front of the other. I had gone deep into my own head. Van Ark...the injections. I was used to pain. I’d concentrated on keeping the same speed. Marching tunes, then strangely a dance club song is danced to with Evan when we’d been hopeful that the spray would work. That strange Haddaway song from the 90s, everyone in the rec room laughing at me doing my terrible dance moves, then Sam almost falling over himself to break into Evan’s place. His falling into me halfway through trying to do some sort of strange version of the hustle from the seventies his grandmother had taught him. It had felt amazing, 36 standing in the corner whispering something to Maxine and the two of them smirking. The song with synthesized beat and “Baby don’t hurt me” repeating over and over. I just tried to keep going, one foot in front of the other. Van Ark, saying that they would poison everyone. I was cuffed to the machine, I couldn’t let that happen. Who was the traitor? I would stop this, I would run until my heart burst to keep my home safe. Sam, yes, but Jack and Eugene and 36, Maxine and Ed and Molly, even Jamie and those loud children at the station. We’d all lost enough. Then Sarah giving me the headset, telling me to run...
What was in my veins? Best not to think. Just run. One foot in front of the other. Left. Right. Left. Right. I always thought Simon was a bit of a narcissistic gym rat but I hadn’t thought he’d turn traitor. You don’t take a child to that monster. And...Archie. Jamie had his gruff moments but we understood each other. He had never quite told me why he needed to take care of those kids but we understood each other. Somewhere, sometime, something had happened and he wasn’t going to let things happen again. It may have been losing a child as a rookie fireman or it may have been a younger sibling but he’d lost someone just like I had, long before zed day.
The arms cache. I remembered Evan showing me. My initial smile when he’d showed me, how I’d raised an eyebrow wondering if I would get to wear a cape and have a secret identity, or perhaps if I’d accidentally wandered into the boondocks saints back room. Evan telling me about his soft spot for Boadicaea...ah, there was a bit of rope. Rope was always handy. And...well, I didn’t know if it would work but it was worth a try. I didn’t have my pack but I did my best with a tactical vest lying there. I still needed to be able to move. I emerged and Sam caught sight of me on the cameras. “Man, that’s quite an arsenal you’ve got there, Five...”. I felt pain as something banged against an injection site. I kept running. One foot in front of the other. Time to get Carena. I stumbled a bit as I ran. Adrenaline could do a lot, but I was hurt and exhausted. Sam told me a signal was coming through from Sara. “Keep running, Five.”
Simon and I had some business to take care of. I’d thought of him as a stupid gym rat. Janine had been taken with him of late, and 36 had even toyed with him for a bit before deciding he was too high maintenance. That was a laugh in and of itself but she’d confided that a man who spent longer on his hair than she did was just too much for her to handle.