Pet From Hell (Infected Series Book 1) Read online

  I stood outside of the lab with my hands on my knees breathing hard and feeling like I had grown another three inches from being pulled up by my hair. The next problem was that I had to get out of the building without being spotted by the remaining guard. It was then that I realised, I had left the radio in the lab with the guard and he wasn’t knocked out I would soon have everyone in the building looking for me. I ran down the hallway to the stairwell door and placed my ear to it listening out for any noise on the other side. Not hearing anything I swept the card over the reader and opened the door to come face to face with Dr Williams. I grabbed her arm and pushed her into the stairwell and under the stairs.

  Clamping my hand over her mouth I said “Look I have never hurt a woman in my life but if you make any noise above a whisper I will knock you out and leave you here in this stairwell. Do you understand?”

  With wide eyes she nodded from behind my hand.

  “Now I am going to move my hand but be warned if you scream or yell the next thing you will feel is my fist hitting your pretty little face.” With that said I took my hand away.

  “How did you get out?” She whispered rubbing her arm where I had grabbed her.

  “Let’s just say skill and luck, more luck than anything else but there you go.” I replied.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you get out Mr Jenks. They have been watching me since I said this was wrong.”

  Now it was my turn to feel like a Grade a dick.

  “Look if you want to make up for it try and help me get out of the building. I know that there is a fire door not far from here in the far right hand corner. If I can get there and open it could you have my car waiting for me there?”

  “I can try and get there how long would you need to get there?”

  “It should only take me about ten minutes but I have one more favour to ask. Is there any way you might be able to pull off some kind of diversion so I can get there?”

  “I can go to the lab then go upstairs and cause a stink about how you are being treated…..”

  “Err….Doc there might be a little problem with that. There’s a knocked out guard in the lab, that’s how I managed to get out.”

  “I sort of wondered how you managed it. Ok I’ll go up there now screaming that you’re not there and the guard is knocked out. Whilst I go to the security room you head for the fire door and when you hear the alarm slip out the door and hide. I bring your car round and we can get away. Looks like my job working for these pricks is over.” She said with a smile.

  Working our way to the top of the stairs she looked out and saw that my coast was clear and I gave her my car keys and quickly slipped into the corridor and made my way to the fire door. I had just reached the corner of the building when the alarm started to sound I pushed the bar and moved outside. The bright daylight hit my eyes and I blinked a few times before looking for somewhere to hide. There were some large bins to hide behind so pulling a couple together to make a V shape I ducked down behind them.

  A short while later I heard a car pull up beside the bins and I looked through a gap to see my beat-up Polo. Moving as quickly as I could at a crouch I ran to the passenger door pulled it open and dived inside. Looking up to see Dr Williams smiling down at me she pulled away and slowly sat up to watch my prison fall behind in the mirror.

  “Ok now that we are clear what are we going to do?” Dr Williams asked.

  “Well first off I need to get out of my uniform and into some plain clothes. I doubt I’ll be able to go home and get some so I suppose I’m going to have to buy some and hope they haven’t closed my accounts yet. Is there anywhere you want to be dropped off at?” I said.

  “What do you mean get dropped off at? Since I helped you get out there is no way I’ll be able to go back to work.”

  “Of course you’ll be able to go back to work.”

  “You do know that the CCTV will have shown me getting into your car in the parking lot and not mine?”

  You know I hadn’t even thought of that; I had just been fixed on getting out. So much so that I hadn’t thought of how things might have looked for her.

  “Right sorry never thought of that and thank you for helping me get out. So what do you think we should do about all this then?” I asked.

  “To be honest I don’t know. They are pretty powerful when it came to making everything the other night go away. Well everything apart from you and the cat, which they still haven’t found anywhere in the building. I suppose we could go to my place and get me some clothes and stuff.” She said.

  “Hold on since when did we decide that you were coming with me on the run so to speak?”

  She pulled into a shopping centre car park turned off the engine and looked at me before saying “Well let me put it this way if they can make you disappear then they can easily do the same for me. So what I would suggest is that we get you some new clothes and then head to my flat. After that we find somewhere to hide out and then come up with a plan as to what we do next.”

  “Ok.” Was all that I said before opening the car and climbing out? I swear I heard her say ‘Men’ in the pissed off term that all women use when they have lost a discussion in one way or another. Walking into the clothes shop on the corner and headed for the jeans and t-shirts. Picking up a pair of blue jeans and a pair of black as well as a couple of t-shirts I headed for the cash desk. I pulled my wallet out and handed the clerk my debit card it wasn’t till the card was out of my hand did I realise that they could have cancelled my cards somehow well it was too late now. I stood there trying to look all calm and probably failing at it but the card went through and I picked up the bag with my new clothes and headed back to the car. As I got closer I noticed that there was nobody inside and nobody near it. Where the fuck had she gone? I didn’t think I was lucky enough for her to have run out on me. I was just starting to think of what I should do next when I saw her come out of the clothes shop with four bags of shopping.

  “Where did you get off to?” I asked.

  “Well you got some new clothes so I thought I would get myself something while I waited. Ok so what are we going to do now?” She said.

  “Look you don’t have to stay with me. You could just tell them that I forced you into helping me escape.” I said.

  “That won’t work if they look at the CCTV they will be able to tell that I left the building without you and I could have escaped then. So they are going to know by now that I have helped you get away.”

  “Well it was a good idea till you shot holes in it.”

  “Ok now that we have got your sense of honour out of the way. We need to think of somewhere to hide till we can speak to someone we can trust. My parents have a cottage in North Yorkshire near to Thirsk. They haven’t got any neighbours within about two miles and they have not used it yet this year. We might have to buy some food and toiletry stuff but the heating and water should be turned on.”

  “Ok as long as we can get there by tonight.” I said feeling a little put out.

  “Good that’s settled then. You go and get changed in your car and I will go get some food and stuff from the supermarket.” And with that said she handed me the keys and walked off to the supermarket.

  Turning back to the car I climbed into the back and struggled into the new clothes that I had bought. After getting changed I sat and waited for the Doc to get back from her shopping trip all the while I was looking at everyone and thinking that they were from the company and were out to get me. I was getting myself more and more worked up when I saw the Doc leave the shop carrying three plastic bags all bulging with food and other stuff. She walked to the back of the car and opened the boot before putting the shopping in and closing it. I climbed in between the front seats and onto the driver’s seat and waited for the Doc to climb in. Opening the passenger door she climbed in and smoothed her clothes down.

  “Ok I know where Thirsk is but when we get there you are going to have to direct me to your parents place from there.” I said
starting the engine.

  “That’s fine it’s a little out of the way but we should get there in the next two hours or so.” She said looking at me.

  I drove out of the car park and headed toward the main road taking my time and sticking to the speed limit. The last thing we needed would be for me to be pulled over for speeding. Making good time we got to the A167 and headed south I knew that this road would take us all the way to Thirsk. The only problem we would have was when we had to travel through Darlington town centre. As we drove I turned on the car radio and we listened to one of the local radio stations for the next half hour not saying a word to each other.

  Chapter Seven

  Just as we approached the outskirts of Darlington the news started.

  “Hello this the news at 1 p.m. from Metro Radio the North Easts favourite radio station. The top news this hour is the strange deaths of eight people from near Benton’s Pharmaceuticals research facility. There has been no information released by the police as to who or what may have caused the deaths. An undisclosed source has said that each of the dead sustained quiet substantial injuries before dying. A spokesperson for the police had said that they would like the public to be aware of anything suspicious and if in doubt to contact them straight away. On other news Miss Jessic…..” I flicked the off switch to silence the radio.

  “Oh fuck it has to be that cat and if those bodies end up like Tony then we are in deep shit.” I said with my voice getting higher toward the end.

  “Look if it was the cat and I am not saying that it was. There is very little we can do now. You have to remember that according to all records you died the other night and we are now of the run from some very bad people.” Doc said looking at me as I drove.

  I took a deep breath and thought about what she had said and I agreed with her that it would look very strange me informing the police about what happened when I was supposed to be dead. Watching the traffic and taking my time driving through the town centre helped me to forget about the cat and poor Tony. We managed to make it through the town without any blue and red flashing lights and I increased the speed of the car as we entered the country lanes leading to Thirsk. But I still kept the speed under the national speed limit for those roads. The last thing we needed was to come tear-arsed round a corner straight into a tractor or other car. We carried on for another half an hour before turning on to a short drive that brought us to Docs parents which was a small two storey house with a carport on the right hand side.

  I pulled into the carport at the side of the house and we climbed out. We picked up our bags and walked to the front door. Doc pulled her keys out and opened the door and we stepped into a small lobby with the stairs in front and a short corridor leading to the back of the house with two doors leading off of it. The first door took us into a small lounge with a single chair and a couch. The room had a small wood burning stove and a small TV stood on a chest in the corner.

  “Come on there is three bedrooms upstairs. Let’s get our gear dropped off in one of them.” Doc said walking up the stairs.

  I followed her up the stairs and stood on the landing at the top. Looking at the corridor there were four doors.

  “The first door is my parents’ room when they come to stay. If it’s ok with you we shouldn’t use that one.” Doc said.

  “Yeah that’s fine so that leaves the other doors so which one is mine?” I asked

  “Well the next one is the bathroom and the next one is the bedroom I usually have. The last bedroom you can have. It’s the box room so it’s not very big sorry.”

  “Don’t worry it should be ok.” I said walking to the last door and opening it.

  Inside was a single bed and that was all. There was no cupboard or draws to put my things in so I just dropped my plastic bags in the corner nearest the bed and sat down to look at the pain cream walls. There was a small window which looked outside over the carport down the drive to the main road.

  “Marc are you ok up there?” Doc shouted upstairs.

  “Yeah Doc I will be down in a minute I am just getting sorted.” I shouted back.

  “Ok!”

  I put my head in my hands and slowly rubbed my temples trying to take away the stress of the last few days. Sighing I stood up and walked downstairs and toward the noise at the back of the house. Going through the door I saw Doc moving round the room turning on items and putting the shopping away in the cupboards. Looking around I saw that the kitchen was quite large with a table and chairs at one end and the cupboards and white goods at the other. I walked over to the table and pulled one of the chair out and sat down. Watching the Doc move round the kitchen I couldn’t help but smile. Her movements were quick and precise, she never over stretched or put anything away where she could not easily reach.

  “So Doc what do we do now?” I asked.

  She turned to look at me leaning her back against the cupboards.

  “First thing is you need to start calling me Jane ok?” She said with a small smile.

  “Ok Jane.” I replied.

  “Good thank you. Well the next thing we need to do is gather any information about what happened the other night. After that we will have to decide what we are going to do with that information. I have a few friends in the science community who might listen and who might help. What I need you to do is tell me everything that happened and don’t leave out any details. The details might end up being the things that help us most.” Jane said as she walked over to sit on a chair beside me.

  To tell you the truth I didn’t want to talk about that night but it might be the only way to get me out of this mess. I started from when Tony had radioed to tell me he had heard a noise in the Labs. Jane interrupted every now and then to ask questions about things that I had seen. I finished talking about two or three hours later. Through the windows I could see it slowly beginning to grow dark.

  Jane stood and walked over to the door and flicked on the light switch. The muted glow of an energy efficient blub lit the kitchen.

  “Ok so you now know everything that happened. Care to shed any light on what might have happened that night?” I asked feeling drained.

  “To be honest Marc it sounds like the animal testing was looking for something but I don’t know what it could be. My section had been looking into a strange plant from South America that had the ability to heal its self from any damage. The genetic structure was very similar to a mammals but it was still a plant. We couldn’t understand it but Dr Jackson was very excited about it and was saying that if we could find out how the plant was able to heal then we may be able to transfer that trait to us humans. The others on the team thought that it would be impossible to do that but Dr Jackson would not be swayed about it. It seems that he had limited success with his research.” Jane said.

  “So you don’t know really what happened to the cat then?”

  “Like I said that side of the research wasn’t part of my job so yes I don’t know.” She said looking deflated.

  Watching her I could tell that all we had been through in the last twenty four hours had put a strain on her.

  “Look Jane I think we should get some sleep and come at this with fresh eyes and a rested brain.” I said.

  She pinched the bridge of her nose and said “You’re right the rest would help me put things straight.” She said.

  I walked back up stairs to the bedroom I was using and lay down on the bed closing my eyes.

  Chapter Eight

  Thomas Jones had finished work and was walking back to his boarding house on the outskirts of Durham. He had been studying Law at Durham University for the last year and a half and was enjoying it. Working as a bartender in one of the cities pubs was great and the perks where great. That being said the perks where the girls that came in at the weekend looking for more than just alcohol. His route from work to his rooms took him past a small park and even though there had been muggings in the park he had never had any trouble. Roughly half way through the park the path narrowed
the bushes on either side of it spilled over the sides making it just wide enough for one person to walk through.

  A rustling of one of the bushes reached his ears and though the park was well lit the area where he stood was dark with shadows. He stopped and looked round trying to see if there was anyone else in the area. Not seeing anyone he continued on his way when a small cat shape pushed through the bushes to stand in front of him on the path. Thomas’ family had cats from since he was a young toddler. So he stopped and bent down reaching out with his hand.

  “Hey there buddy you lost?” He said.

  The cat never made a sound and neither did it move to leave so it wasn’t scared of Thomas. Stepping forward Thomas bent and held his hand out again.

  “Come on little guy.”

  This time there was a low rumble coming from the cat that Thomas mistook for purring so he moved closer again. This time he stretched his hand out toward the cat and he got his hand to within twelve inches of it when the cat struck out with one of its paws a dug a furrow on the back of his hand. Thomas stumbled back hissing with pain from the scratch when the cat launched itself at him. Lashing out with his arm he caught the cat and launched it into the bushes beside the path. Thomas ran down the path away from the cat and continued his way home exiting the park about five minutes later.

  Coming to a stop under a street light outside of the park he looked at the damage the cat had made to his hand. There was a good three inch cut from his wrist to his knuckles it was ragged and bleeding. It was red along the edges and felt like it was burning slightly. Mind you he had been scratched before by his own family cats but this cut was deeper than any he had ever had in the past.

  “Fucking wild cats they need putting down.” He said out loud.

  Walking the rest of the way home took him another half hour along the way Thomas started to feel warm and a little lightheaded. Fumbling the keys into the lock and pushed open the door to see Jamie one of the people sharing his boarding house come out of the living room.