Cape Zero- the Fall by Nicholas Woode-Smith

Author:Nicholas Woode-Smith
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-10-07T04:00:00+00:00

8. Scavenging

Bruno was glaring at him again, as he always had since he had arrived at the Grove three weeks ago. The ex-Porter had continued to grow even more and more suspicious and angry of Peter and so Peter reciprocated the sentiment. After being fired from his job, he has been assigned to scouting crews. A dangerous but dull job, if that was possible.

Peter didn’t know why, but he had an awful feeling that Scouting wasn’t an appropriate position for the now vengeful man.

The queue that Bruno had been standing in grew shorter, forcing him to move forward. The glare was broken, but Peter was still unnerved, as he always was after the unkempt man stared at him for long enough.

Peter rubbed his hands, nervously; Andrew noticed and gave a re-assuring smile. ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be clean.’

Peter nodded in reply. Andrew was talking about the weekly tests for the virus. He had been clean three weeks in a row, so he doubted that it would be any different today. He left his true grievance unuttered, however. Andrew was friendly enough, but he still didn’t feel any sort of relations with any of the people within the holdout.

He saw David as a mentor, Smith as a boss and the rest as colleagues. None he had allocated as a friend. This, of course, didn’t change anything. An anti-social atmosphere was rife in many parts of the holdout, as many people still grieved or just felt an innate distrust of those around them.

He stood in front of the nurse. It was now his turn. She offered a small platter and left the rest unsaid. He spat into the platter and handed it back to her. She nodded, labelled the platter with his name and then handed it to the doctor at the back. The test results would take about a day. They would, of course, come sooner if they took a blood sample, but they didn’t want to risk having to break skin with a virus like Iraevirum on the loose.

Iraevirum – anger virus. It was an appropriate name, but Peter couldn’t help but feel that it was a simplification. Granted, they were very angry, but there was something else under that behaviour. True anger would result in the killing of other infected; this was more…co-ordinated. The Infected seemed to have a goal, even if it was just slaughter.

Peter was walking towards the staging area now. This was the daily routine. He would wake up; have his breakfast rations and then move onto the staging area where he would receive orders. As a Squire, he was either trained or sent on tasks relating to his abilities. On occasion, he had been sent to guide those from the south who didn’t know the area of Cavendish that well. These excursions had not been as bad as he had first thought. It gave him a sense of solitude, even with company. Seldom did the scavengers speak, and this resulted in a pleasant silence. The infected

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