The Harewood Barracks Army Reserves Centre was not far from Jack’s block of flats, just past the housing estate to the east and over the main road. There, behind several rows of warehouses, was the rectangular compound made up of red brick buildings.

For years it had been home to the army cadets and reserves, as well as renting out its large hall for conferences, exhibitions and lectures. The buildings formed a secure border around a parking area for twenty vehicles.

It had been some time since it had seen so many at one time, but with the crisis engulfing the city, the Army had taken it over as a primary command and control centre for the area. As such, it practically overflowed with people and equipment.

Supplies were being trucked in almost hourly and those same trucks would then be used to take infected civilians to the locations that had been set up to deal with them. In charge of that particular area was one Lieutenant, Michael Avery.

A man of good standing, he was fifth-generation army and proud to be so. Clean-shaven, with his hair, kept short and neat, he had always considered himself to be capable and competent. The current crisis had soon robbed him of any illusion that he was either.

Overwhelmed and reeling from the orders he had received, he sat in his dark office that smelt of stale tobacco and old coffee, staring into space and contemplating how things had reached that point. It was all becoming too much.

“Sir?” Corporal Macintosh said, her voice over loud in the still silence.

“W-what?”

Lieutenant Avery hadn’t even noticed her entering his office and a glance at his watch was enough for him to know he had been locked away for the better part of the day.

“Yes, corporal, what can I do for you?”

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Corporal Macintosh had been with the Lieutenant for several years and knew him well enough to know when she could be familiar with him. Something told her that this was not that time.

“Sir, I need your signature for these orders.” She held out a sheath of papers and the lieutenant recoiled from them as though they were some venomous reptile. “Sir?”

“No, not now, corporal. I have important work to be about.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but these need your authorisation.”

They needed someone to give the command, to absolve the soldiers who carried out those orders. He understood that urge, it was why he had spent several hours trying to speak to anyone with the authority to tell him why they had to be done.

The orders had come directly from the government or, so he’d been told, and they were to be put into effect immediately, no matter his personal feelings.

In his time of service, he had been to several countries and fought in three. He was no stranger to combat and the danger it brought. He had faced the enemy and traded shots more than once. Several of those enemies had been left in the dust as he moved on, not giving their passing another thought.

But to do what he had been ordered to do was something beyond that. Something he couldn’t quite wrap his mind around. It went against everything he believed in and made a mockery of his years of service to the country he loved.

When all was said and done though, he was a man of honour and he had been given an order. No matter his personal thoughts, no matter what he now knew about what was really happening out in the world, he would do his duty.

Lieutenant Michael Avery took the papers from the corporal and signed each of them as required. Once done he passed them back to the corporal who saluted briskly and left the small office.

He put the lid back on his pen and laid it down neatly on the desk before him. He reached out steady hands and pulled free his sidearm. He stared straight ahead, back straight, as he raised that gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

The sound echoed throughout the building and when his staff members came running, they found him slumped over his desk with blood slowly dripping to the floor. They stared in horror for several long seconds before shouting for help.

It was too late though, and the papers were signed. The orders had been given and while he could not live with what he had ordered, with what he knew, those orders would be completed.

Within an hour, the first load of armed soldiers headed to the containment centre where the infected were being held. Their weapons were loaded, and their faces were grim. They knew what they had to do and like their lieutenant, they were men of honour and none could say they did not do their duty.