Daniel Åberg - Virus - Stockholm - S2

“No, carry on for as long as they don’t seem to be taking any notice of you. Look out for the helicopter – they can’t have…”

A shot is fired, and another two, in quick succession. From her position on the floor, it’s hard for Iris to hear where they are coming from but it sounds distant – probably from the direction in which Dano was running. Shit.

“We have to…”, Amanda starts saying, but Iris interrupts her.

“We don’t ‘have to’ anything! Think about it. We can do nothing to help him. Even if we get out and distract them, he’s still just as big of a threat to them. They’ll chase him until they’re sure he’s dead or gone. It doesn’t matter what we do.”

She goes quiet and the car slowly rolls on. Iris knows that what she’s said is right but at the same time she hates herself for being so cold. But she has no choice. Somehow, Dano has still chosen to be with them of his own free will and he is aware of the risks. He could have chosen to leave them, and it seemed almost like he was going to do that last night after Sigrid disappeared.

But the same isn’t true of her daughter. She is completely dependent on their doing all they can to save her.

“Where did those new military people come from?” she asks.

“Difficult to say”, Amanda replies. “I don’t see a back entrance to the wing building, so probably not there but…yes, between the wing and the main manor house there’s a smaller building and it has a door. Perhaps from there?

Iris wants to stick her head up to see the surroundings with her own eyes but doesn’t dare.

“What else d’you see?”

“A windowless barn to the right, and further ahead to the left there’s a larger building, er, there are flowers in the window there – it might be accommodation or offices. There are a number of cars – a jeep like ours and three ordinary cars. And then there’s a kind of garden further ahead to the right, with very high bushes and stuff and then…”

“Could I jump out and hide there? I’d be able to try and get there myself or find somewhere I can access to infect someone. Plus, it’s easier if we look for Sigrid in diff…”

“No, wait. Stop!” exclaims Amanda. “Don’t move – there’s someone in one of the windows – the one with flowers in it. A woman I think, not wearing a gas mask. She’s looking at us. I…” She falls silent.

Please, don’t let that woman suspect anything, Iris prays silently to herself.

“Damn it”, says Amanda. “I might have screwed up now – I waved at her – you know, just casually – but she didn’t wave back, or at least I didn’t see anything, anyway.” She is silent for a moment, then continues, thoughtfully. . “But…no, I don’t know, she didn’t appear to react so perhaps there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Did she just stand there?”

“I can’t see anymore, we’ve driven too far away, but…I think so. Shall I park here or…is it better that we carry on?”

“I don’t know, you decide.”

Amanda sighs deeply.

“ There’s a bit of forest over to the left – more like a small patch of woodland – and a road directly to the right that leads to some large farm buildings. They look more modern. The buildings we’ve driven past are more olde worlde. And then… wait! The helicopter! It’s over there! Parked in a field next to the barns!”

She brakes, and Iris can’t contain herself any longer and glances up. But she can’t see much from the angle she’s lying in – just a house with a grey foundation, red planks and some bushes. She’s itching to get out, infect them, obliterate them and find her daughter.

“Just park somewhere”, Iris says in a stressed tone. “Park up by the other jeeps. I think we’ll draw less attention to ourselves if we’re stationary.”

Amanda brakes, puts the jeep into reverse, turns and drives slowly back a few metres and stops. Iris looks up again. They’ve parked between two cars and there’s a glimpse of a jeep on the other side of one of them. Amanda switches off the engine.

Why is it so quiet? thinks Iris. The silence around them makes her nervous.

“Why aren’t any more people coming out? Aren’t there as many as we thought?”

“I think they’re scared”, says Amanda in a low voice. “Scared and unsure. I got the feeling even yesterday that they don’t have that many walkie-talkies – they couldn’t contact the helicopter, for example, and the guard back there was only blowing a whistle when Dano fled. Perhaps the people here don’t know how they’ve been attacked, so they’re keeping inside until the envoys can report back.”

Iris glances up again. She can see enough through the car windows to the left to guess that the helicopter is far off. She reacts much more strongly than she thought she would. Something freezes in her chest and she is reminded of the dull ache in her broken arm.

“We can’t just sit here”, she says. “It’s too weird. The real driver of this car has somewhere he’s expected to be – they’ll soon start to wonder. We have to get out, start looking for her, even if Dano has the phone. Can I get out of the car without being seen?”

“It’s only a few metres to the wall”, says Amanda. If I get out first, I can check if anyone’s looking at us from the windows. If it’s all clear you can crawl out after me and crouch down between the cars up to the wall and then sneak around the corner facing the field.. If it stays all clear, I’ll follow you.”

Not wanting the car to sway and rock, Iris tries to get back into the front passenger seat as gently as she can. Once there, she curls up and sees Amanda take a deep, wheezy breath and open the door.

The few seconds that Amanda takes to stand outside the car and try to read her surroundings seem like forever. And then very briefly and almost undetectably, she gives a thumbs up through the window, and Iris quickly crawls over the driver’s seat and almost falls down onto the gravel. Amanda moves closer to the red house but still has one hand resting casually on the outside of the driver-side door. When Iris is fully out, Amanda carefully but decisively shuts the car door.

“I think it’s all clear”, she whispers. “At least I can’t see anyone.” She takes a step towards the blue car parked next to theirs so that Iris can sneak past down on the ground.

Iris crawls forward on the gravel, reaching the back wheel of the jeep, and is just about to take the short leap to the wall when a door opens.

“Daddy?”, enquires a bright but slightly uncertain voice. Iris hears small feet patter down some stairs and reach the gravel. “Ouch, it’s sharp”, says the voice. There are more gravel crunching noises, closer now.

“Daddy? Mummy saw you come with the car. I couldn’t sleep. Did it go okay out there?” The crunching stops. Iris can’t move. It’s not possible. It mustn’t be…

“But… you’re not Daddy. Why are you wearing his jacket?”

Iris hears a loud wheezy breath and feels Amanda clutching at her shoulder, trying to pull her backwards. No, thinks Iris, they mustn’t have any…

She forces her gaze up from the gravel. Standing just half a metre away from her is a boy of about four years old, dressed in Lightning McQueen themed pyjamas. His tiny feet are bare on the gravel. No, thinks Iris, it wasn’t supposed to be like this…go away little boy…

“Where’s Daddy? And who are you?” The boy’s large eyes stare at her.

Don’t breathe, thinks Iris. I mustn’t breathe…

Just as Iris is raising her hand to cover her nose and mouth, she hears, as if in a fog, the door of the house opening again and a woman’s voice shouting:

“Tim? You’re not allowed out by yourself – not even to meet Daddy, you know that. Tim?”