Survival Of The Fittest by Catherine Holland (novel24 .TXT) 📖

"-is where they used to live, this circle here-," she pointed to the circle on the left-hand side of the map, "-is where I used to live, for me, the infected attacks started almost seven months ago.

"If I can figure out, fromt his timeline, where and when the attacks started, I can try and figure out a place to start my search, I'm looking for any kind of facility that could house a very large laboratory. I have a feeling that this whole infected situation, was done accidently, if so, then maybe I can find some kind of notations, or clues, on how to reverse it."

Daryl pointed to a third circle, on the right-hand side of the map, just above the first two circles, "Who's area is that?" Gabby looked to where Daryl was pointing, and said, "When we reached the docks, we were met by soldiers, I had a short conversation with one of them, and he'd said the attacks were within a few days of them arriving.

"Now do you see why the date, or even a rough guess of the date, is important?" Daryl nodded, and looked at Danni, "When did you send those messages to us?" She thought for a few moments, then walked back to the front of the office, and fired up one of the computers, she did something with it, then looked at Gabby, "I sent the messages on the fifteenth of September, so nearly a month ago." She then turned the computer off, and looked longingly at Angel, who was sleeping in Gabby's arms.

Gabby saw the wistful look on Danni's face, and smiled, she walked over to where Danni was sat, then gently passed her over, Angel stirred, and Danni pressed the babe closer to her chest, the movement overly protective. Danni looked up, and saw Gabby watching her, "What is it?" Gabby shrugged, and replied, "You're really good with Angel, that's all."

Danni looked at the sleeping babe, and said, "She reminds me of the one I lost, he was eight months old, when he caught a mutated strain of flu, the doctors gave him what they thought, was the right medication, but instead of making him better, he got worse, and by the time the hospital figured out what it was, it was already too late, and my son died in my arms."

Gabby gently touched Danni's shoulder, "I'm sorry, for the loss of your son, Angel needs us more than ever, especially as everything is so uncertain, keep hold of her, for as long as you need, and you might be surprised that by forming a bond, you'll heal each other." Danni nodded, and just as Gabby was walking away, she said, "Heath, my son's name, was Heath."

Gabby glanced back at Danni, who was staring at Angel, with a mixture of love and grief on her face. In the kitchen, Gabby wrote the date inside the circle, then stared at the map for a few minutes, looking at the timeline fir the attacks, and where they seemed to be gathering the most.

Daryl handed her a mug of coffee, and remined standing behind her, after a few moments, he said, "Where's the rest of the map? I can only see one section, when the entire thing is obviously bigger." Gabby partially turned to look at him, "Yes, the map is bigger, I had the South-East, and South-West Coasts of the UK printed, and then blown up."

Gabby then unfolded the next two segments of the map from the left-hand side, revealing more circles, with dates that stretched back almost eighteen months, Gabby pointed to them, and said, "During my travels, the few survivors I've seen, and spoken to, told me they came from each of the circled areas."

Daryl replied, "So, where are they all?" Gabby sighed heavily, "Depending on what they wanted from me, or what they tried to take, I either shot them on-site, and got the information from other survivors, or we spoke for a few brief moments. The next time I saw them, I put a bullet in their heads." Daryl squeezed her shoulder, and then left her to her thoughts, and staring at the map. Just before night fell, Gabby hooked one of her cameras up to the outside of the office, and then switched her laptop on, and started to record the footage.

Gabby placed the laptop on the small table that was in the kitchen, and plugged the charger in, then grabbed a pastry slice and a cold coffee, before settling in for the night. Within an hour, Gabby was sandwiched between Dominic and Daryl, and staring at the small laptop screen, at first, only a few of the infected arrived, but as the night wore on, more and more started to arrive.

They seemed to not be able to see the office, whether it was because the wooden board was up, or maybe because no interior lights were showing, wichever it was, Gabby was grateful. The infected soon noticed the pile of dead bodies, and made their way over to them, thankfully, there was no sound on her cameras, watching them tear into the dead flesh was bad enough.

As the morning drew closer, Gabby moved away from her laptop, and returned to where she'd placed the map, she was still trying to figure out where the infection had started from. Just before dawn broke, Dominic crouched down beside her, and pointed to a large space, Gabby followed the movement of his fingers, and said, "What is it?"

Dominic replied, "Judging from the first few areas of the infected attacks, they must have originated somewhere around here." He then drew a large circle with his finger, around the enormous, and only area, that hadn't suffered any infeted attacks. Gabby picked up a red marker pen, and drew a large circle around the area that Dominic had pointed out.

She looked at the area, and said, "Well, it's a starting point, which is something I didn't have before." Dominic looked at her strangely, "You keep saying 'I,' when three other adults, and the baby are going with you." Gabby grimaced, "Sorry, force of habit. We have a starting point." Dominic nodded, then looked at his watch, and said, "The sun's up."

Gabby nodded, then stood up, she stretched to get the kinks out, then went into the side office, to check on both Angel and Danni. They were both asleep, Gabby checked on Angel's nappy status, and quickly changed her without waking her, she then grabbed two guns, with extra clips, before drinking a cold coffee.

Ten minutes later, Gabby was unlocking the front door to the office, she opened the door and raised her gun, the street outside was deserted, apart from the piles of the infected that had turned up during the night. Gabby put a bullet into the heads of each new infected, when she was done, she looked over her shoulder, to see Danni, Daryl, and Dominic, stood in the doorway.

She walked over to them, and said, "So, now that we know the infected can't see the lights in the office after dark, we can make out way towards the location on the map." The three of them headed towards Gabby's Jeep, where Danni secured Angel in the back, and climbed in next to her, Gabby got in the driver's side, closed her door, buckled up and started her engine, in her rear view mirror, she could see Daryl and Dominic climbing into the estate car.

Within a few minutes, the two vehicles were driving down the motorway, they didn't look back, only forwards, driving towards an uncertain future.

 To Be Continued. . .

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Publication Date: 05-23-2013

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