Daniel Åberg - Virus - Stockholm - S2

But for now, all Dano can do is wait. The grass is soft and he feels tired. Cautiously, he sits up and rests against the barn wall. He pulls his arms inside his t-shirt. It feels nice as he’s cold and the thin t-shirt is damp from the dewy grass. Slowly, some warmth comes back to him, but as the cold disappears so the fatigue increases. Apart from the nap in the bed store, he will soon have been awake for twenty-four hours, and he can’t remember the last time he slept for a whole night. Even before the outbreak, sleep was always a rare commodity.

Dano twitches. His head lurches up and almost hits the wall. Did he fall asleep? Couldn’t he stay awake, despite everything? And what made him wake up?

He scans the edge of the forest. Because he has Iris’s mobile phone, she has his, and the plan is that if anyone approaches the barn from the house she’ll give him the double flash signal that he had to give them just now. In daylight, hopefully the flash signal should only be visible if your gaze is directed at exactly the right spot – left of the rock, directly down on the ground. To confirm he has seen the signal he has to return a simple ‘yes’ flash.

Something makes a scraping noise on the other side of the wall right by him. Could it be a chair someone’s sitting on that’s being moved a couple of centimetres? It’s followed by a brief clearing of the throat.

Dano’s heart starts racing again. There really is someone in there! A person who will be dead in a few hours – dead because of Dano. His bodily reflex is to hyperventilate but he refuses to cave into panic, forces his body to…

Then another noise can be heard. It’s low but insistent, almost like a hum, and it’s slowly getting louder. Where is it coming from?

After perhaps thirty seconds, he hears the scraping noise again, but more decisively this time, followed by a little creaking. Has the guard stood up? If the person on the other side looks out of the window, will they see Dano? No, he’s sitting about a metre from the corner – not a chance. But the noise – it’s getting louder - where is it com…

Then he sees the car headlights. At first, they’re just short flashes between the tree trunks but then a grey jeep with its roof covered rolls out from the forest onto the road the guard is posted to monitor.

Despite its low speed, the vehicle brakes suddenly.

Dano is quick enough to realise the driver’s seen him.

In that moment, the driver door opens and a man armed with an automatic rifle rushes out. Before Dano has even had time to pull his arms back through his t-shirt sleeves, the first bullet hits the barn wall, just centimetres from his head.

Amanda can feel Iris’s hand on her shoulder as the jeep emerges from the forest. She clutches it so hard, Amanda would normally have screamed, but right now she’s not even thinking about the pain.

It takes just a couple of seconds for a man dressed in black trousers and a green military polo neck to jump out of the car and position himself in the field with his weapon pointed in Dano’s direction. He shoots immediately – BANG! – wooden splinters fly from the wall of the barn right next to Dano, who dazedly gets to his feet and starts running down the side of the building. BANG! Again, and again only hitting the wall, a little higher this time, judging by the rain of splinters, and Amanda can’t help but wonder why Dano looks like he’s wearing a straitjacket as he runs down the long side of the barn.

“Da…”, Amanda starts to shout, but Iris moves her hand from Amanda’s shoulder and silences her.

“But what the fuck, we have to…”

“Wait, look over there”, says Iris quietly as she points her finger.

They see movement inside the barn for the first time. Something flashes and in the next second, a man armed with a rifle sticks the upper half of his body through the window gap and fires two shots in rapid succession. But Dano isn’t the target – it’s the man in the polo neck. The first shot misses but the next one is a hit, and a red puff of blood explodes in the left side of the man’s chest.

Jesus, thinks Amanda. The look-out must think the guy in the jeep attacked him!

The man in the field gets down on his knees. He’s lost his grip on his gun and is losing his balance, throwing his hands down to stop himself crashing on to the short grass. But he doesn’t entirely succeed in stopping his fall and cries out in pain as his torso hits the ground.

While Amanda and Iris are watching Dano run for his life down towards the water’s edge, the guard jumps out of the window and hurries, crouching towards the wounded man. Amanda notes he’s wearing a gas mask. So their assumption was wrong – the plan wouldn’t have worked anyway.

The guard shouts something at the guy lying on the floor. It’s difficult to hear – could he be saying the word ‘Password!’? The phrase is repeated twice – far more desperately the second time, but instead of replying – at least, Amanda can’t hear a reply – the man on the ground twists to the side and raises one arm in the direction of the water. At first, the guard won’t take his eyes off the man, but as he roars in rage and waves one arm, the guard momentarily looks in that direction and just manages to catch a glimpse of Dano’s head before it disappears behind a row of brushwood.

There’s a brief, agitated exchange between the two men in the field before the guard runs after Dano.

“Now!” hisses Iris. “Quick – over to the guy in the field!”

“But, what – shouldn’t we…” Amanda starts to say, but Iris is already on her feet and rushing forwards along the edge of the forest.

Amanda follows her in confusion, unsure what Iris is planning. A number of things hurtle through her mind:

What they experienced last night in the car park at Sickla was no exception – their opponents are very goal-orientated and disciplined. She suddenly remembers Linda’s last seconds of life: how she made a thumbs down to the sniper in the helicopter to signal she’d been exposed to the virus and how he then instantly put two bullets in her head.

Iris and Amanda crouch down when they see the guard who has started hunting Dano pause at the edge of the field and scan every direction before he puts something to his mouth. A shrill sound cuts the air all around them. There are three short whistles repeated twice within a few seconds of each other. Then he leaves the field and disappears from sight.

Amanda and Iris rush towards the jeep. Iris glances hastily towards the main buildings – still no movement – and then points to the open driver’s door.

“Check if the keys are in the ignition”, she says, advancing towards the wounded man.

Amanda heaves herself into the car – yes, the keys are there – and quickly gets out again.

Iris leans over the man. He’s seen her but is too badly wounded to turn over and grab his gun. Iris snatches the automatic rifle and takes a couple of steps backwards. When Amanda arrives, she hands over the weapon. Amanda checks the rifle is cocked and points it at the man.

“She’ll shoot you on the spot if you move”, hisses Iris. “And don’t think she can’t do it – she’s the one who took down your colleague Linda in Sickla last night, although, unlike your bitch of a friend, she was unarmed.”

The man’s chest is heaving jerkily and with every breath, blood pours out of his bullet wound.

He’ll die if the bleeding isn’t stopped soon, thinks Amanda, and in that same moment, the man coughs. Through the mask, it sounds more like gurgling. Jesus, it’s even worse, she thinks. He’s going to drown in his own blood.

“Is the little girl you kidnapped in Sickla still alive?”

Despite her anger, Amanda can clearly hear the fear in Iris’s words. If he gives the wrong answer, the life of the woman next to her will be utterly devastated.