Chapter Forty Nine
Inside the fitness centre, the first thing that greeted a client was the reception area. Once through the doors of the reception, there was a huge floor space full of treadmills and other cardio machines. The bottom gym area was in the middle of the establishment, and surrounded by treadmills was the open swimming pool, where a sauna and spa sat at the end of the pool. A lot of newcomers had reservations about the design, as a lot of unfit swimmers, especially the obese and the elderly who attended pool lessons, didn't like the idea of being glared at by gym goers who were on their treadmills and elliptical trainers. But they were assured that the cardio fanatics were either more interested in the TV screen in front of their eyes, or the music that was being injected into their ears from their iPhones, or the sounds coming from the speakers that were situated around the area.
As soon as a client walked into the gym area, to the left, there was a couple of offices for the managers, and further on was a modest looking canteen. Turning right would lead to numerous rooms such as the changing rooms/shower rooms, the first aid, a staff room for breaks and two others for training purposes such as first aid training, and fitness updates. There were also two sets of stairs on the gym area, one on either side of the pool. This led to a second floor where there was a weights area for hardcore weightlifters such as benches and free weights, rather than the cardio and weight machines that were situated on the ground floor. At the end of the weights room was a door, which led to a dance studio, which was used for fitness classes.
Jade Greatrix had woken up and took a look at the huge clock on the wall of the staff room—not that time mattered these days to the twenty-five-year-old, and stretched hard and felt her chest crack. She checked her breath, and walked over to the vending machine she had smashed days ago. She helped herself to a diet coke and wandered around the vacant office on the ground floor.
She took a peep in the many mirrors that the place had to offer and checked her appearance. Her hair was a little floppier than it usually was, as she normally had it in a messy side parting to her right, using hair products. Her short, brown hair still looked reasonably clean, which was thanks to a bottle of shampoo—not her usual product—that had been left by a client in the female changing rooms. It had been two days since the electricity went down and Jade relied on the huge glass skylights above for light, which lit the huge area adequately on a good sunny day.
It was nearly after six, and she could see above her, through one of the many skylights, that darkness was only hours away. She was thankful that it was June; she felt that if it was winter, it would have been dark by four o'clock, and she would have been spending her evening snuggled in the office, scared for her life, despite being confident the place was reasonably secure.
Her diet had consisted of crisps, chocolate and juice in the last couple of days, but was thankful that she had any food to eat at all.
When the news officially broke out on the screens that were being beamed throughout the establishment and through the numerous TVs that were available, customers made no hesitation in leaving at eight o'clock on the Sunday morning, with some leaving their gym bags behind and leaving in their sports attire. Numerous sports hydration bottles were left on treadmills and by machines, which Jade had decided to consume before attacking the vending machines and water coolers.
It was a weird situation once the news had broke out. She had only started her shift at six, and two hours later, the place was empty. Two of the staff members decided to leave, but the deputy manger, Ian Wilkes, was convinced that the news was either wrong, or some kind of ridiculous hoax, and told everyone that if they left, they would be fired. Everyone else stayed behind, but the more the news filtered through and the more FOX and CNN were screening the footage of people being attacked, the members of staff asked Ian Wilkes that at least for peace of mind, now that there was no customers, could he at least secure the place, including locking the entrance gates. She remembered him laughing, trying to hide his anger, but did so anyway, otherwise there would be a mutiny on his hands. Once the 'hoax' was over, Ian was certain that the customers would come back within a few hours.
The gates were locked by two senior gym instructors called Chris James and Steve Round, while the rest were phoning home. Ian Wilkes waited at the reception area for their return so he could secure the building. The receptionist herself, Adrienne Marlington, was one of the staff that had decided to leave for home. Once the senior gym instructors returned, they told Wilkes that a lone outsider who appeared to me in a drunken state had attacked Steve Round. Ian Wilkes and Chris James helped to lift Steve to the first aid area on the ground floor. Ian instructed Jade to lock up now that he was somewhat distracted, and she did so by locking the main doors, checking the fire exits and making sure all windows were closed. Despite Ian Wilkes finding the news of the outbreak hilarious, she was a little disturbed by the news and believed it. Why would they make up such a story? What were they to gain?
She looked around and could see the rest of the staff—ten of them, excluding the three in the first aid room—including gym instructors and two freelance personal trainers, conversing in a circle around the gym area. Some were texting; some were calling to see what really was going on. Jade did the same and couldn't get through to her mum and dad at first; she could only get through to her brother's voicemail, but finally managed to get through to her best friend, who spent three minutes hysterically explaining to Jade Greatrix what was happening outside her house.
That was the last time she had used her phone.
At the time, a fight broke out in the circle between two of the gym instructors. Jade, a gym instructor herself, went over to see what was amiss, and it appeared that some had changed their mind and wanted to get back home to their families, whilst a loyal handful were sticking with Ian Wilkes and told the panicky instructors that the gates were closed anyway, and if they wanted to leave, they would have to leave by foot and climb the entrance gates and pick their car up at a later date. Two of the most irate individuals were taken to the floor and escorted to the canteen area to calm down.
Then an hour later, all hell broke loose.
Ian Wilkes and Chris James went to the first aid room to see how Steve Round was getting on. Round attacked Wilkes and James in the first aid room. James was eaten before Wilkes' scared eyes and in panic, he left and closed the door. He ran out into the gym area, holding his bitten arm, and told the group exactly what had happened, and that the news was correct in what it was broadcasting.
They all bolted for the main doors to escape but Wilkes had a set of keys and tried to calm the irate group down, and pointed outside where eleven of the creatures could be seen on CCTV, and were shambling around the gates and the perimeter of the fence. Once Wilkes had convinced the group that they could be out there in their hundreds and that the army should clear things up in a matter of hours or days, they decided to lock themselves in the dance studio on the first floor until help came along in case they broke into the centre—they didn't know at the time that these things were unable to climb.
Jade was so incensed by Chris James being abandoned, she ran to the first aid room to see how he was.
Wilkes told Jade he was dead and threatened her that if she didn't hurry back, she was on her own. She ignored his threat and went to see how Chris and Steve were. When she arrived at the first aid room, she peered through the rectangle glass spy hole and felt sick to see an infected Steve Round devouring Chris; his stomach was ripped apart and the room was a bloodied mess.
*
Jade Greatrix had stopped thinking about what had happened over a week ago and brought herself to an unwanted reality. She looked at the vending machine she had smashed and saw that she had finally emptied the thing. There was another three around the establishment and she always thought it was weird that a fitness place sold products that were counterproductive to one's health.
The canteen had a fair bit of food left as the last delivery was on the Saturday morning, almost a day before the outbreak was officially announced. The place had the usual bread, rolls, tubs of margarine, salad—which Jade had binned, as the lettuce had gone brown—eggs, bacon. It seemed a lot, but in a normal working week most of the food would be devoured by clients and staff alike.
She lived on toast for the first few days, before she decided to use the ovens, as she was unsure how long the gas and electricity would continue. Once the ovens died, there was still some food left in the canteen, but that was when she decided to raid the vending machine that were no longer producing cold drinks because of the power failure. She was convinced she had put on some serious weight over the last week or so, but she couldn't find the energy from anywhere to participate in any kind of exercise.
Jade snapped out of her self-hypnosis that she had drifted into again, and she could have sworn she could hear voices. Then she heard it again.
She heard banging coming from the reception area. She sat up from her daze and although she was startled, she was sure that that kind of banging could only come from humans. She knew she couldn't hide, because whoever was banging on the doors could see that she was in there through the glass. If she tried to hide, the desperate people would probably smash their way in, leaving them
all
vulnerable.
She took out her keys and headed for the door. She could see three men, two women and a child. How could she turn her back on them? With there being no power, the doors were no longer secured electronically, but they were still locked by lock and key. Jade went behind the back of reception, and searched for the key on the chain and began to open the lock manually.
Chapter Fifty
The people spilled into the reception area once it was opened; Jade could see that the big, tough-looking man had sprays of blood on his shirt and she was convinced that this group had seen action. She had been locked up for over a week, and had no clue what was going on out there. As far as she knew, it could have been over, but she was too terrified even to go outside into the secured car park.
The big muscular man introduced himself as Harry, but most people called him Pickle. Then he continued to introduce the rest of the group. Paul, Jack, Kerry, Karen, Thomas—she was never going to remember all those names at first.
Pickle was straight with Jade, and the first thing that came out of his mouth was the words: "It's hell out there."
"How bad?" Jade had to ask. For the first few days, she had only seen the repeated news reports.
"Worse than you could ever imagine," Kerry answered. "We need to clean up, where's the showers?"
"The electricity is down," Jade pointed to the dusky gym area, "as you can see."
"Oh, I just thought you turned the lights off not to attract attention."
Jade sadly shook her head. If only that were true.
"Well, even if we can't clean up," Pickle said, "at least we're somewhere where it's secure. It is secure, isn't it?"
Jade nodded. "The power is down, but the doors are manually locked and all fire exits are shut." She shifted uncomfortably. There was information that Jade was holding back.
"What about the canteen?" Paul queried. "Some of us will be hungry, eventually."
Jade nodded again. "Just take what you need. There's three water coolers situated around the gym area, obviously not that cool anymore now the power's out. And there's another eight in the storage room."
"Good," Jack spoke. "As long as we have water, that's a good start, until we can find somewhere where there's food
and
water."
"And how we gonna do that?" Paul snapped; it was clear that the group were tired and agitated.
"We'll just have to go outside when the time's right, see if we can get into the van. Or we could starve to death in here. I have a feeling that what's left in the canteen might not be enough to last us a week."
Jade stood back at the new group and decided not to intervene with their bickering. She winked at the small boy that held onto his mother's thigh; he looked pasty. Probably just malnourished, Jade thought.
"Mummy," the little boy spoke at last, with tiredness in his words. "I don't feel too well."
The boy's eyes rolled and he fell back a little, forcing his mother to catch him and Jack Slade to fuss over him.
"He's probably dehydrated!" Pickle snapped. "Get him into a room; give him a drink and lie him down. Where can we put him?" He turned to Jade. Jade pointed behind her to Ian Wilkes' office.
"Oh, great," Paul wandered around the gym and saw the swimming pool in the middle of the area.
"I wouldn't bother," Jade warned.
"Why not?"
Jade said, "It hasn't been cleaned in over a week. Plus, now the electricity is down, the filter is not cleaning and the old water is stagnant with algae and bacteria."
Pickle walked up behind Paul and patted him on the shoulder. "I think one virus is enough without yer picking up another, don't yer think?"
Jade felt a little invaded by the groups' presence as none of the group had hardly spoken to her in the five minutes that they had been there. But she understood that the group had probably had had a rough time, so she refrained from
showing
any kind of anger for their lack of appreciation. Her bad feeling evaporated once Pickle approached her.
Pickle turned from the group and walked over to Jade and rubbed his stubbly chin. "How yer doin'? We appreciate yer letting us in, y'know."
Jade smiled and said, "Listen, some of our clients were in a rush to get back home once the outbreak was announced, so there's fresh…well, kinda fresh clothes in the changing rooms if you need them. They've left deodorants and stuff; in the men's room there are razors as well. Obviously the showers aren't working—"
"The electricity," Pickle interrupted. "I know."
There was an uncomfortable silence between the pair of them and Jade announced, "You want me to show you guys round, give you a tour of the place?" She didn’t really know what else to do or what else to say.
Pickle turned to his exhausted group; he could see they were dead on their feet now and some were shocked after seeing Lee and Oliver being attacked. There was no adrenaline to keep them going, and he saw that they were all sitting down on the treadmills that stood behind the wall that separated the gym and the pool. They sat with plastic cups of water they had got from the water cooler nearby. He looked back at Jade, and she laughed nervously, knowing that the group had no energy left for anything else, never mind a tour.
"We just lost a couple o' people," he explained and then produced a wide beam. "Why don't yer show
me
around."
"Okay." Jade began to walk with Pickle by her side; nobody looked up to see what was going on, as the two individuals walked towards the left and went through the two wooden double doors.
"This is the canteen," Jade announced. "There's still food left; the ovens aren't working, but I suppose you could take the rest of the chickens and steaks and make a fire outside or something if they're still edible."
Pickle looked outside the canteen window and saw that the place was at the back of the centre, and the eight-foot fence that he could see had no creatures around this particular area at the back. He saw an outside pool in the garden area and nodded his head; he was impressed. Jade took him out of the canteen and back out of the gym along an open corridor. She went through a door and showed him the four sets of indoor tennis courts as well as a couple of rooms, like the staff room and the spin room that had un-wheeled bikes in there for classes. Then it came to her, and she stopped in her tracks and looked at Pickle.
"There's something I need to show you."
She continued to glare at her visitor with wide eyes. She wasn't sure she wanted to see this scene herself, but she felt that if her guests were planning on staying a while, she was aware that keeping this from them was not in her or their best interests.
Pickle never verbally asked Jade a question. He simply nodded and walked with her and she showed him the door to the first aid room. He peered in the room through the glass rectangle spy hole and could see one of them wandering around.
"The door has no keyhole so it isn't locked, but I'm pretty sure this…
thing
doesn't know how, and hasn't even tried, to use the door handle. His name is...was, Steve Round." Jade spoke from behind him. "He went out to lock the gates and was attacked. He was brought back in, but this was when we didn't know that it could spread through bites. I only saw that hours after, on the TV screens."
Apart from the being, Pickle could also see the walls smeared in blood and noticed in the corner, an assortment of limbs and a decapitated head lying on the floor. He had seen it all before, but this time he could feel the contents of his stomach rising. He took a heavy gulp to get rid of the feeling, and it amazingly worked, temporarily.
To Jade, Pickle looked unruffled by the scene, which confirmed to her that he might have seen this kind of thing before, unlike her, who had locked herself away for over a week.
They both walked away from the first aid room, and she showed him both changing rooms that led out to the small sauna and spa area by the pool that was surrounded by the gym. They walked alongside the unkempt pool; the dying sun, through the skylight, shone down on the blue water causing it to sparkle. They stepped over the small wall to get back into the gym area and Pickle followed Jade upstairs to the first floor. He walked to the edge of the thirty-foot drop and looked down on the pool and the gym that surrounded it. He then turned around and followed Jade who was at the opposite part of the open-plan area.
She stood by another set of double wooden doors. "This is the dance studio room," she began to speak. "This one
is
locked."
Pickle nodded and went to walk away.
"No." Jade spoke with a tremor in her voice.
Pickle stopped in his tracks and turned to face the young woman. "What is it?"
"This is something else that you need to see, something else you need to know about." Jade nodded towards the small rectangle glass panel of the doors, urging Pickle to go and take a gander.
Pickle braced himself at what he was about to see. He knew it wasn't going to be pretty, he could tell by the expression scrawled on Jade's face. He walked over and peered through the glass and gulped hard to see nearly a dozen of the things stumbling around in what used to be the fitness centre's dance studio. He looked on in astonishment and then glared at Jade for answers.
He sighed, "What's the story with them?"
"The guy...the
thing
in the suit...used to be the deputy manager of this place, Ian Wilkes." Jade gulped and tried to control her emotions. "The rest used to be instructors and personal trainers."
Pickle could see that most had the same attire on apart from the defunct Wilkes, and two beings that wore black sweaters with
Personal Trainer
on their back.
Jade added, "Wilkes wouldn't let any of us leave when it first broke out. He thought it was some kind of hoax. We persuaded him at least to close the gates, which he sent two instructors out to do exactly that. Steve Round came back bitten; he's the...the...
thing
in the first aid room. Wilkes was then attacked himself; he panicked and left the two instructors inside the first aid room."
Jade cleared her throat and added, "Wilkes then told everyone to get into the dance studio and stay there until help arrived, because they weren't sure whether it was an airborne virus. We also didn’t really know if these things could climb the fence and if they were strong enough to break in, but I refused. I told them that I needed to see Chris and Steve, but Wilkes screamed at me that I could be infected if I went anywhere near them and I could bring it back to the studio. He said that if I went, I wouldn't be aloud in the dance studio. I couldn't just leave Chris and Steve in there on their own. So I went back and saw the carnage.
"When I realised there was nothing I could do, I then ran up to the dance studio and hammered on the door to be let in, but they all, in unison, refused to let me in, just in case I had picked up a bug or something. I didn't realise at the time, but that refusal had saved my life. It was a long day, and I decided to go for a sleep, surprisingly, considering what was going on. I slept for an hour in the office, paranoid that the defunct Steve Round could open the door and get out of the first aid room. I then wandered around the gym and watched the TVs. I then heard some screaming from the dance studio and ran up to see everyone had been infected; the only one left was a man called Richard, who was being attacked by Wilkes and his cronies."
"So Wilkes was bitten," Pickle began, "and infected the rest o' them. Yer a lucky lady." He shook his head and released a long whistle, sounding similar to a released bomb from a Spitfire.
They both returned back to the group and Pickle announced to the group what he had seen in the dance studio, and that they should go and look for themselves if they felt like it. He then turned to Karen and told her that there was also a Snatcher in the first aid room.
"I want you to get rid of it," Pickle instructed. "The dance studio is locked, so we're safe from them, but the first aid room isn't. We can't all fit in the office, so if that thing gets out during the night, while we're all sleeping…"
"Okay."
"Dump it outside through the fire exit."
"Sure thing. I only have a few bullets left."
"I know. We're gonna have to leave the dance studio alone. Try and just use the one bullet."
Karen released an exhausted and negative sigh.
"What's up?" Pickle smiled warmly and touched the top of her hair.
Karen said, "I was just thinking."
"Careful."
Ignoring Pickle's attempt at mild humour, she continued, "Maybe it would have been better to kill Bonser."
Pickle shook his head. "Nah. We're not cold-blooded killers."
"Even you?"
"Look, back in the days of my…empire, shall we say, most of the time that violence had to be used, it was slashings, shootings and knee cappings. I only had two people murdered, and even though that was done on my order, I never killed anyone directly." He added, "As for killing him; those things would have come eventually. All in all, it's probably better we're away from the house. Can you imagine spending more than two days with seven of us in one house? With no electricity, water—"
"Probably would have killed one another eventually."
"Exactly." He sighed, "We just seem to be running from one place to the next."
Karen patted Pickle on the knee and strolled down the corridor, leaving Pickle to explain to the group that they will be hearing a gunshot within the minute.