Free Designated (Book 2): Designated Quarantined by Ricky Cooper

alone at the intersection.
 
    ****
     
    Janet's head swivelled as she heard the hushed rattle of automatic gunfire roll through the silent corridors of the hospital. She shivered as she heard the guttural bellowing of dozens of Infected as they streamed past the door.
 
    The children clung to her sides, their heads buried into her slim form as they tried to blot out the unearthly howls beyond their hidden bastion. Kevin shot an agonised look at the door as several Infected bounced off the panel of reinforced glass; he physically winced as stars of glistening red blood shot over the rippled surface of the meshed glass.
 
    His gaze travelled to Janet's as she cradled the two children against her. Maria, swaddled in her woollen blankets, lay blissfully unaware in the impromptu cot. A soft burble of incomprehensible words drifted out her as she clutched at the edge of her blanket, small, toothless gums smacking gently together as she shifted in her slumber.
 
    Janet stared at her child as she moved, a silent prayer drifting over the slumbering babe, begging her to stay quiet as the march of the damned continued outside their door.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
    Broadhead Barracks
    Officers' Housing
     
    Baker paced, his fists clenching and unclenching as he growled out his fear—fear at his inability to help his wife and child, fear that he was finally starting to lose his edge, fear at the world outside his door and the turmoil writhing through it; and above it all, fear at losing not just his life, but all he ever held dear.
 
    He stopped in the centre of the room, his mind a whirling maelstrom of loathing and anger. His hands balled again as he resumed pacing. Turning, he stormed across the room, his fists smacking at the sides of his head as he bellowed in rage. He snatched his rig from the cot in his office, crashed through the door, and sprinted down the corridor, his eyes wild with fury.
     
    Susan stepped into the corridor, her arms a mass of neatly typed and stacked papers. She grumbled to herself as she turned, staring into the onrushing path of a man possessed; in a whirl of fluttering paper and indignant squeals, she crashed into the wall as Baker charged through her, the clacking of quick-release buckles echoing in his wake.
 
    Dazed and confused, Susan began her arduous task of collating and collecting her fallen paperwork, the pages rasping through her fingers as she plucked them one by one from the floor. Colinson watched with consternation mingled with acceptance and anger as Baker sprinted past his office door. Stepping forwards, Colinson walked briskly to his door and knelt, scooping up scattered sheets of paper. Susan looked round; Colinson's charcoal grey-clad form filled her vision as she reached out, her eyes avoiding his as she lifted the papers from his grip.
    David smiled as he watched the worry etch itself through the corners of her eyes. A soft shimmer of hopefulness wormed its way through her as David began to speak. 'He will be fine, Susan; don't worry about a thing.'
 
    The air was crisp and bitter as Derek jumped through the open door of his Jeep; his chest rig thumped and bounced against him as he viciously twisted the key and shoved the vehicle into gear. In a hot squeal of burnt rubber and a burst of smoke, he flew from the motor pool and out the gate. He drove as if Satan himself had come to collect, weaving through the backcountry roads as he made his way towards central London.

Central Middlesex Hospital
    Exterior: Main Entrance
     
    Bodies lay strewn in the carpark as Derek slid to a halt, the wheels of his Jeep squealing as he tried to meld the brake with the vehicle's floor. A heavy clunk rolled up from below him as it rolled over the shredded head of a dead nurse. Her skull collapsed, sending shattered pieces of skull and shredded flesh splashing ahead of him in a glistening halo of shimmering blood and cranial matter.
 
    He stepped out of the Jeep, his feet sliding in