From Despair to Where

by Oliver Smith

  Plans were put in place, but they made public announcements too late. Containing the infection was no longer a viable option so all other choices other than to go public were off the table. They put out messages online, on television and radio. The official statement read:

  Public State of Emergency:

  We are facing an emergency on a national scale. There is an outbreak of infection that is spreading rapidly across the world. The infection has a very high rate of mortality. It is spread through the bloodstream with most cases of infection being as a result of a bite.

  We stress that an infected person will ultimately die, but their corpse will reanimate. They will come back to life. When this happens, that person will no longer be capable of reason; they will try to bite anyone who is uninfected. Once bitten, you are infected and hope of survival is bleak.

  Avoid contact with anybody acting strangely, this includes family members and friends. Stay indoors and barricade yourself in. Do not let anybody into your place of shelter who has been bitten or is acting strangely. Conserve your food and fill up containers with water. We cannot guarantee continued utilities.

  If you are approached by someone who is infected, you will need to either avoid contact or fight them off. Someone who is infected will feel no pain, the only way to stop them is by damaging their brain so you will need to attack the head in the event of a confrontation. Please note that the best possible action is to flee and get yourself to safety.

  We will be issuing updates when we have them and will advise you on the next steps.

  Remember:

  1) Do not approach the infected

  2) Stay indoors and barricade any windows

  3) Do not let anybody who is infected or bitten into your home, even if they are friends or family

  4) In the event of confrontation, the only way to destroy the infected is to attack the head.

  5) Avoid contact with the DEAD.

  The statement lacked the usual clarity and tone of Government communications. None of the senior press officers within the Government had been seen for days and the office junior had painstakingly tried to write a statement that covered everything in a language and urgency that would resonate with the public. The office junior could not get an authorised sign off on the statement as ministers were either missing or focusing on other more pressing matters so released the statement anyway.

  The office junior would be left high and dry come the Government’s relocation to their classified and secure location. The office junior would attempt to retreat home to his parents. The office junior would only last a short while before being torn limb from limb still fully conscious as teeth and hands clawed at him, slowly taking his life painfully away.

  The Government plan was simple. Release a statement to tell people to stay indoors and sit out the pandemic. There were not enough resources to go into every city and fight off the infected, they had tried and failed in this approach. They would concentrate on securing utilities. They knew that if the power failed or water stopped people would leave their houses in greater numbers and ultimately perish. Power stations and waterworks were all secure workplaces and required only military guard to increase their security. The workers were briefed of their duties to their country and small specialised military units were sent out on missions to bring the worker’s families to the power plants and waterworks. Not ideal living conditions, but the value of the worker’s expertise meant that all stops were pulled to keep them powering and watering the country.

  This was why the power and water lasted as long as it did. Whilst the streets were awash with the dead, hundreds of thousands of people waited inside with their provisions and water; waiting on word from their Government. Not often lauded, the powers that be had saved many lives and had avoided doing what the United States had done: bombing major population centres and sacrificing the survivors in a bid to contain the dead. Unsuccessfully.

  Several smaller military units were stationed in remote bases all over the UK as part of the Government’s survival plan. The thought behind the web of stationed troops was to be in position when the timing was right to suffocate the infection and bring it down from all directions. Before any fight however, the Government and military were to wait for the worst of the infection to die down and the opportunity to become apparent to begin the eradication of the dead.

  After years of mollycoddling the General Public, the Government had put in place a plan that would truly empower them, giving total freedom to their destinies. The plan relied on resourceful and good people surviving and building small communities. When the time was right, the Government would come out of hiding and work with the small communities to rebuild the country and defeat the remaining dead.

  Like most Governments, the UK’s was out of touch with the people, the statistics and simulations could not accurately predict how people would react to total anarchy. The regime had proven their incompetence at understanding the population, Brexit, years of underfunding the NHS, and the general discord with austerity all proved the disconnect. Could people go from a rule driven existence to a life of need and action? Could people forgive a Government that had left them to fend for themselves? If humanity ever dug itself out of its current mess, the powers that be would need all their best PR spin doctors to work with a rabid society. Would the living become more dangerous than the dead?

  Chapter 13 - Gangs

  Manchester has been associated with gangs for over 140 years. Dating back to Victorian Manchester, in 1870, The Scuttlers, a neighbourhood gang from working class areas of Manchester and Salford, were running around with a furious love of fighting; horrifying civilised society. Fast forward 140 years and the gangs have remained the same, society however, was certainly not so civilised.

  One appeal of gang membership was the bond between members, a group looking out for each other, normally in a lawless pursuit of their wants. Cut off and ostracised by society for generations, a typical gangster’s contempt for outsiders was high and empathy towards others non-existent. The breakdown of society was positive for many gangs. Normally accustomed to hiding in the shadows and away from police, gangs were organised, strong and quick. Other gangs would still be a threat, but the police were no longer there to keep law and order so, other than the hordes of dead, life was a little less complicated.

  Of course, gang members weren’t superheroes, many were bitten and turned, or simply eaten, but the fact that these groups, mainly young men, were resourceful, meant they had a far superior survival rate compared to ‘civilised society’. Gangs had secure hideouts, were generally armed with at least a knife, and were in top physical condition. They had years of experience sneaking around, and of course, were adept with violence and fighting.

  Lucy was unaware of Manchester’s gang history as she slowly made her way south. She had been in a state of zen, pure concentration on the streets ahead, looking for gaps to squeeze the increasingly scratched and dented Range Rover through. She’d had a few run-ins with large crowds of dead whilst trying to vacate the city centre, managing to find the four-wheel-drive setting to test the car’s horsepower as it pushed its way slowly through a concentrated mass of bodies all scrambling towards the prize inside the car.

  Lucy’s route south, out of Manchester, avoided the problematic roads that were always congested in the days of the living, such as Rusholme, and used the wide streets of suburbia. She was approaching South Manchester; an area Lucy knew well. It was a nice part of Manchester and she’d often bike there to visit the few friends she’d made since moving to Manchester. The plan was to zigzag her way through Fallowfield, Withington and Didsbury, using the back streets to bring her to the M56 which led out of the city and into Cheshire; where she was planning on finding a place to crash for a night or two.

  Lucy’s plan was working. The car had so far stood up to the challenge and navigating the roads had become less and less concerning the further she got from the city centre. Arriving in Didsbury, turning down Par
k Field Road South and over a bridge crossing a tram line, the corner turned right, a blind corner. Travelling speedily, Lucy stepped on the car’s breaks as a hooded man with his hand outstretched came into view. Instinct told her in the blink of an eye that the man was alive which, luckily for the hooded figure, stopped her careening into him. Pulling the car to a stop, Lucy looked around and could see a few figures appear, emerging from crouched positions behind parked cars. They were all hooded and armed with bats and knives. Lucy was cautious but reasoned that these people were surviving in the suburbs of the City, so needed to be prepared for action. She wound down her window a crack.

  The man in front of the car said with a thick Mancunian accent, “Alright. Nice wheels.”

  Lucy was anxious to be off, she responded, “Can I help you?”

  The man pulled down his hood. It wasn’t a man, but a boy. He must have been 17 or 18, lean and tall, almost whippet like. He said, “We can help you. We have a safe place and we’re helping people survive. It’s not far from here.”

  “That’s nice of you. Thank you. I don’t want to stay in the city though so I’m getting out of here.” Lucy said as she relaxed a little.

  “It’s blocked love. The Parkway is blocked. Too many cars, too many of the dead. We’re your best bet. We’ll protect you.” The man smiled, but the smile didn’t look sincere.

  Lucy then heard one of the men at the side of the road sneer to his companion, “Dibs on this one first. That posh MILF would love the taste of my cock.”

  The man in front of the car shot a look of death at the person who had spoken and rapidly made his way to Lucy’s side of the car. Lucy had seen and heard enough. These people did not seem the charitable type and she feared being raped more than walking into the embrace of the dead.

  The boy tried to open the door, but it was locked. Lucy fumbled for the window up button, but the man grabbed the partially open window with his fingers to bring it down. He snarled, “You’re fucking coming with us and we’ll have your Ranger too.”

  The window shattered as the man pulled it towards him. Lucy, let go of the break and stepped on the accelerator. The boy stepped aside as the car lurched away, through the rear-view mirror, Lucy could see the gang scrambling to get into cars. They were up for the chase.

  Disregarding her cautious approach, Lucy sped around a corner and careened head on into two of the dead. They crunched with force into the car’s radiator and bonnet, blood smearing the windscreen. She found the wipers and spread the blood, limiting her view, but ploughed on regardless. A warning light flashed on the dashboard. The car was damaged. Please not now.

  The car continued on. It was leaking fluid from the engine and would eventually overheat and grind to a stop, but it continued forward like a brave injured steed, valiantly carrying its master to safety.

  Lucy turned onto Barlow Moor Road and headed for the Princess Parkway, which turned into the M56, her hopeful escape. Behind, she saw three cars turn onto the road in pursuit, she had a few hundred feet head start. Barlow Moor Road was chaos, cars were upturned, dead roamed and the passage was frustratingly slow and painful for the car as it haemorrhaged more fluid with each collision. The Princess Parkway intersection was in sight and Lucy, heart racing, could see lots of the dead and what looked like a tangle of vehicles. No! He was telling the truth. The road is blocked. Desperation hit her, but she had no choice but to continue forwards.

  She reached the intersection and had to stop. In a split-second decision, Lucy bolted out of the door with only her bat. The dead were scattered around her, too many to count, but there was space to dart. She remembered the youths outside her apartment window and the speed at which they moved. Were they the same gang as my current pursuers? The only option was to stick to the plan. Head south. The Princess Parkway was unpassable to cars, but she could scramble over the wreckage. Several vans, cars and trucks had attempted to squeeze through with no space to do so and had created a vehicle bottle stop for the road.

  Running left and right, ducking grasps and using all her senses, Lucy made her way towards the roadblock as the first of the chasing cars pulled up. Four youths got out and immediately started bringing down the dead with efficiency. The crowd had grown denser on Lucy’s arrival, so she had gained some distance to the gang of four fighting their way through the crowd, still in pursuit.

  Scrambling over cars and around taller vehicles, Lucy broke through the roadblock into a clearing of about 100 metres, the other side of the clearing was also blocked; a truck had tried to plough through the stationary traffic causing devastation. She could see about 50 of the dead crowding around the doorway to the Adventure Island store, they were occupied so she continued to run. She loved to run in her previous life. She could run for miles and did it as much as a form of meditation and reflection than for fitness. It was her personal therapy. Running through the dead and away from the gang was a different type of running, her mind on overdrive and her senses alert, Lucy made for the wreckage on the other side of the clearing to scramble over.

  She didn’t know that one of the gang had broken away from the others and had closed in on her. He grabbed her shoulder as they both ran. In an instinctive swing, she turned, with the bat in both hands and caught the man in the ribs. He recoiled and fell to the floor struggling to catch his breath. Still in motion, Lucy stumbled to a stop.

  A cold hand grabbed Lucy’s wrist and caught her off guard, she uncharacteristically let out a scream.

  Chapter 14 - Awkward Silence

  The commotion outside had drawn the dead away from the entrance of Adventure Island. Peering through the now cleared window, through the tangle of slowly moving uncoordinated bodies, Jack could see a woman was being attacked by one of the dead, as more approached her.

  The woman had snatched her arm out of the grasp of the creature and stepped backwards away from it. Jack could also see a man slowly getting to his feet, feeling his ribs as he pulled a long blade from his belt. The man was alive too. He made his way towards the woman and, to Jack’s astonishment, started to grapple with her. She managed to pull up her baseball bat and with the butt end caught her attacker square in the face, breaking his nose. She ran behind the monster that had held her arm and pushed it towards her assailant, before continuing her sprint towards the wreckage at the far end of the clearing.

  Jack, perplexed at the situation unfolding, exited the shop and went in pursuit of the woman in a bid to aid her escape. She’d drawn the dead away from the door and had their focus, so Jack slipped out to the left of the shop to cross the barrier of crumpled traffic from the opposite side to the woman.

  They both crossed the vehicle remains at the same time, the curve and height of the crash hid the two from each other. Jack came through without trouble into a clearing. The woman did not. She jumped over a grasping hand and landed face to face with four of the dead blocking her path. It was time to fight.

  Jack ran to where the woman was holding her own, outnumbered, he knocked one of the dead around the side of the head, but not with enough power, it went down, but was getting back up again. The three others pushed the woman back to the wreckage. Jack approached the closest of the dead and brought the hammer down hard on the top of its unguarded head. With a crunch and smattering of blood, it fell to the floor. The woman responded to the help by smashing a skull on the side of the head with full power. Its neck breaking and skull shattering as the aluminium bat shattered the neural network powering the dead being. Jack finished the third with a similar blow to his first as it dithered about which of the living to attack. The woman then finished the last one as it struggled to its feet. She brought the bat high above her head with both hands and hammered it home, turning the dead creature’s head concave.

  The woman then turned and swung wildly at Jack. He ducked backwards and stumbled over onto his backside. She approached him with her bat extended, pointing at him.

  Jack stuttered, “You’re Lucy, aren’t you?”

  “How do
you know my name?” Lucy shouted back, stepping closer with bat extended.

  “I watched some of your videos. I was just in Adventure Island when I heard your scream. You got them away from the door, so I was able to escape to try and help you. My name’s Jack” Jack managed to spit out as he began to worry that Lucy had lost all senses since he saw her on Twitter. Is she going to kill me?

  Lucy softened and lowered the bat to her side and said, “I am Lucy. I’m being chased, I need to get going. Thanks for your help. I guess I was screwed.”

  “I’ve got a car just over the other side of the road. It’s ready to go. I can drive you out of here and drop you off somewhere safer.” Jack said, he knew immediately that he wanted to invite her back home but thought this was probably a bit of a taboo subject, having just met the woman. It was as if he was star struck having watched her videos and already built up a mental persona for her.

  Staring as if in deep thought, Lucy considered the offer; she looked Jack up and down for the first time and decided he didn’t look like the gang did and, although he seemed to have an unusual amount of clothes on, seemed fairly normal.

  She said, “Sure, I was planning on heading that way and finding a place to lay low until I figure out what to do next.”

  Jack smiled and suggested they made their way to the car, he added, “I’ve got a place in Westerlyn that’s fairly safe at the moment, you’re welcome to come with me to figure out your next steps.”

  Lucy didn’t answer as they worked their way through debris and the outstretched arms of the dead, who were ambling over in growing quantities, to the car. Jack unlocked the car remotely and they both got in.