Human Nature (Book 4): Human Nature IV

by Borthwick, Finlay

  “Twenty at the very least, sir. I think it’s safe to safe there were at least twenty people down at the riverbank.” Loveknot nodded, sufficed with his estimation.

  “And if we are to assume that were people in these houses of which you speak,” Corporal Ulysses continued to write as he made a mental calculation, “Then we can likely triple that figure at the very least… Sixty residents.” Although this number was not quite accurate, it was enough for him to have reached a decision.

  “So, what do you want us to do, corporal?” Loveknot asked.

  Corporal Ulysses grunted, “I’ll take it from here. Leo squadron, you are dismissed.” He signed the bottom of the report as he rested his pen down on his desk and looked up, waiting for Leo squadron to depart from his presence.

  “Yes sir, thank you sir.” Loveknot rose from his seat as he led his pilots out of the office, closing the door behind them as they left.

  As soon as his door had been closed, Corporal Ulysses reached for the old-fashioned telephone on his desk and spun the numbers into the dial…

  The young lad had been told to wait in the barracks all day for a call from his commanding officer; he was the only one in his platoon who was fluent in both English and Polish, and as such, was perfect for the task.

  Finally, the phone rang out. It was vintage and hooked up with a wire, just like it was straight out of the 1950s.

  The lad wiped his palms down his trousers and then hesitantly picked the phone up. “Hello?”

  On the wall in front of his desk there was a large wooden board. The sheet of paper pinned to the centre of the board read ‘PROJECT ZODIAC’. Above this sign, there was a photo of space station with several portraits of its’ crew members around it; the station was labelled as ‘GEMINI’.

  There were other projects on either side of the board as well, labelled as ‘AQUARIUS’, ‘CAPRICORN’ and ‘LIBRA’.

  “Yes sir, I understand…” The lad complied with ease, as his eyes drew up to the bottom of the wooden board in front of him to a photo of a stealth bomber aircraft. “Operation Libra is greenlit…”

  SEVERAL DAYS LATER…

  Just as piece had come over the riverside town, there was a deep booming and whirring echoing out from across the horizon.

  “What’s that?” Tia asked, her eyebrows dipped in curiosity.

  Gradually, all of the residents came crawling out of the buildings they were in, as their attention was directed towards the sun.

  “Look!” A woman called out, covering her eyes with one hand, and pointing outwards with the other.

  Erica turned around to see what everyone was looking at, “…I don’t believe it.” She was completely awestruck by what she was witnessing.

  “That… That’s a plane!” Adela proclaimed.

  And indeed, it was. As the plane came closer, it blocked out the sun’s rays and provided artificial cover.

  “The hell kind of a plane even is that?!” A panicked resident asked in distress, upon noticing the craft’s rather triangular shape.

  “Oh no…” Erica mumbled, having realised that she had seen this craft before. “It’s a stealth bomber.” She asserted.

  “Bomber?!” Adela panicked, as did most of the other survivors.

  “Erica,” the same man who first noticed the craft’s shape now addressed his de-facto leader, “What do we do?”

  Erica hesitated for a moment upon noticing four turrets descending from the bomber’s wings, “…Run… Everybody, run!” She ordered them in a panic as she ran for her life, followed by all of the others.

  As the aircraft came inbound, Erica’s assumption turned out to be correct. She kept glancing back at it every couple of seconds.

  “Wait!” A man cried out, stopping dead in his tracks. “What’s that coming off of it?” He pointed to several objects falling from the craft’s wings, prompting Erica to stop and glance back as well.

  Erica’s eyes widened into sheer horror, “Oh my God! Fucking hell, go! Everyone, keep going and don’t stop!” She had never been in a more dire situation in her life; and that said quite a lot.

  As the bomber passed over the town, the objects falling from it reached the ground with great speed.

  From the outskirts, Erica looked back.

  ‘BOOM! BAM! BOOM!’

  The explosions were so bright and intense that they were reflected off of Erica’s pupils.

  “Fuck…” She cursed to herself as the fallout came speeding towards her and the panicked survivors who were still pointlessly running…

  “Corporal Ulysses,” the pilot of the bomber radioed, “Operation Libra was a success; the town has been destroyed.” As the woman declared this, she was actually smiling.

  “Excellent news, Naomi.” Corporal Ulysses congratulated her. “Return to base immediately. I’ve got a little present for you.”

  “With pleasure, sir.” Naomi declared as she tuned out of the frequency, still smiling at the fact that she had just obliterated a town which was home to countless innocent men, women, and children; the thought didn’t even cross her mind that Worm would be turning in his grave if he could see what his old friend had become…

  Chapter 25: Mayday

  LONDON, NOVEMBER 2034

  EIGHT YEARS INTO THE GLOBAL APOCALYPSE…

  32-year-old Elliot was lying down his bed, looking up at the ceiling of his hotel room. Though due to his impaired vision, he was trapped within his thoughts, rather than freed by the pretty patterns on the ceilings.

  Being back in London after so long was taking its’ toll on him; this much was undeniable. But in all the quiet and the downtime, mixed with the fact that he was unable to make any new memories, Elliot was stuck reliving the past every time he stopped to catch so much as a breather…

  LONDON, AUGUST 2018

  EIGHT YEARS BEFORE THE GLOBAL APOCALYPSE…

  16-year-old Elliot was riding in the back of a taxi with his best friend, Lucy, whom he not-so-secretly had a crushed on, and Olivia, who was Lucy’s best friend.

  It was a rather special day, for it was Lucy’s sweet sixteenth. As such, Elliot and Olivia had agreed in secret to give Lucy a shared experience for her birthday.

  “You’re not just gonna tie me up and leave on the side of the road, are you?” Lucy asked jokingly; she had a great sense of humour about her.

  “Of course not!” Elliot rebutted, “That’s for your seventeenth.” In his younger years, his sense of humour was slightly dark, to say the least.

  Olivia was looking at her friend with an enthusiastic smirk.

  “Okay, I give in, what is it?” Lucy asked upon noticing just how hard Olivia was trying to contain her excitement.

  “Wait and see!” Olivia foxed her.

  Lucy looked back over at Elliot, who was also smiling at her, though he was simply appreciating the moment as it happened.

  “I won’t lie,” Lucy professed, “I’m actually expecting the Crown Jewels now… If it’s anything less, I’ll be severely disappointed.” Once again, she was only kidding.

  Upon arriving at their destination, Elliot paid the taxi driver as Olivia covered Lucy’s eyes with her hand.

  “Cheers mate.” Elliot thanked the driver as he joined Olivia at Lucy’s side.

  “You ready?” Olivia asked her.

  “Oh, what the hell, might as well be!” Lucy jovially declared.

  Smirking at each other, Elliot and Olivia guided Lucy onwards towards her present.

  “And three, two, one!” Elliot quickly counted down, prompting Olivia to remove her hand from Lucy’s eyes as he reached zero.

  “Oh, no way!” Lucy gasped, covering her mouth in awe as she did so.

  “You told me you wanted to stand on top of the world and look down at it,” Elliot harkened back to a deep conversation that the two had recently had, “Well, I know it’s not quite the same thing, but I hope it’s good enough.”

  “Good enough? Elliot, this is amazing!” She proclaimed heartfully, embracing her �
��best friend’ as she did so.

  And there, in the middle of the small field which the three friends were stood in, there was a helicopter. The pilot cockily leant against the front passenger’s door with sunglasses on, seemingly in an attempt to impress the youngsters.

  “The pilot’s agreed to give us a tour over the whole of London,” Olivia revealed, “It should take about an hour to get there, go round, and get back in total.”

  Lucy nodded with a happy tear in her eye; never before in her life had she had friends who pulled out all the stops for her quite like this.

  After performing all of the safety checks, the pilot prepared to lift the chopper off of the ground. He was in full control of the aircraft, as there was no co-pilot on this tour.

  As part of her birthday treat, Lucy had been allowed to sit in the co-pilot’s seat in order to get the best view.

  Elliot and Olivia sat at the far left and the far right, respectively, in the back of the chopper.

  Somehow, the chopper ascended both rather quickly yet also rather slowly.

  “Stay strapped in folks! The weather’s on our side, but just in case of any unexpected winds, it’s best to remain firmly in your seats at all times!” Although the pilot had already stated this, he felt the need to reiterate once more as he took off from the ground.

  Due to how close they were to the city, the helicopter had reached the outskirts of London within less than fifteen minutes.

  Lucy was like an excitable child in a sweet shop. She darted her eyes all around as a feeling of pure bliss coursed through her veins; at last, she both literally and figuratively, felt on top of everything. Even the sight of a derelict council estate from above had her in absolute astoundment.

  “Okay folks!” The pilot addressed his guests, “If you look down to your right, you’ll see the London Stadium down on the ground below.”

  Olivia looked out the window in pure amazement, as Elliot stretched out over her to get a better look.

  “With a capacity of eighty-thousand, this stadium was originally built over a three-year period between 2008 and 2011 for when the Olympics came to England.” The pilot told them a fact which all three of them already knew.

  “I saw the Paralympics down there,” Elliot revealed, “Always preferred those ones… Pretty sure that’s just because their mascot looked cooler though, to be honest.”

  As they ventured further towards the centre of the city, the pilot pointed out more rather iconic structures.

  “Down there, next to the River Thames, is the O2 Stadium.” The pilot nodded to his left this time.

  “I’ve been there for a few concerts in my time!” Elliot too was stating unnecessary facts.

  Olivia politely nudged him, indicating for him to stop blabbing.

  Lucy meanwhile was still too caught up in looking down on the world beneath in order for her to acknowledge anything that was being said around her.

  “And if you look ahead, ladies and gentlemen, you’ll see—”

  “Canary Wharf!” Elliot burst out in excitement.

  Olivia shook her head dismayingly at Elliot.

  “Uh… Yes, yes, it is.” The pilot was slightly thrown off by Elliot doing his job for him. “Anyway, Canary Wharf is one of the biggest and most important financial districts in the whole of the United Kingdom. It is also home to the third-tallest building in the nation.”

  “Oh, oh!” Elliot raised his hand, much like Lucy, he also had regressed into an overexcited child, “It’s One Canada Square, right?”

  The pilot sighed, “Yes, it’s One Canada Square.”

  The helicopter continued with its’ tour around the city, though the pilot was already regretting having ever taken Elliot and Olivia up on their offer, for the former was starting to annoy him.

  Later that afternoon, the helicopter had done a full circle of London. With the tour now complete, the pilot flew his guests back towards the field.

  “So, Lucy,” Elliot addressed her over the headsets, “How did you enjoy being on top of the world for a little while?”

  She turned around in her seat to face him, “I loved it, Elliot—I honestly… I just don’t know what to say. Nobody puts a smile on my face quite like you do.”

  Olivia watched the naïve admirers gaze into each other’s eyes with great joy.

  But then, the helicopter suddenly bobbed up and down for a few moments.

  “Uh, pilot?” Olivia questioned.

  “It’s alright, it’s alright,” He reassured his passengers with a hand gesture, “It’s just a little bit of turbulence. It happens all the time.”

  But as Lucy looked across the dashboard, she noticed there was a blinking red light, “So what’s that about?” She pointed it out to the pilot.

  “It’s um—It’s nothing.” The pilot fobbed her off. “Don’t worry, we—”

  The helicopter bobbed up and down again, only this time, with more intensity.

  Olivia screamed.

  “Lucy!” Elliot cried out.

  “Elliot!” She cried back to him, holding onto the sidebar on the door for dear life.

  “It’s gonna be alright Lucy, just hold on!” He tried desperately to reassure her.

  Then, the helicopter suddenly jerked onto its’ side as it spiralled out of control.

  Now, everybody inside was screaming.

  “Mayday, mayday!” The pilot sent out a distress call. “This is LWD-235! We’re going down!”

  Upon declaring this, sheer panic and desperation destroyed all hope within the helicopter.

  “Lucy! Lucy, can you still here me?” Elliot desperately called out to her, but she did not respond. “Kenneth!” Elliot used the pilot’s real name due to how dire the situation was, “How is she?! How’s Lucy?!”

  Kenneth clenched his teeth as he desperately tried to keep the helicopter under control, but to no avail. He gave one quick glance over at Lucy, which was enough for him to confirm, “She’s passed out, kid!”

  “What? No!” As Elliot went to unbuckle his seatbelt to wake Lucy up, Olivia grabbed his arm.

  “Don’t!” She tried to keep him in place as she became nauseous from the spinning motion of the chopper.

  “I have to help her!” Elliot refuted as he desperately clawed at his seatbelt, but the friction was overpowering his control over his arms.

  “She’ll be alright, Elliot!” Olivia was struggling to use her arms as well, though turning her willpower into strength, she was able to stop Elliot from unbuckling himself. “You just need to stay in your seat! You know that’s what she would—”

  ‘CRASH!’

  The next thing that Elliot knew, it was night-time. He found himself at the top of a small grassy slope with a blanket wrapped around him as he watched on as the emergency response team laid out two bodies on stretchers.

  “Elliot…” Olivia addressed him sombrely as she sat down next to him on the grass. She had a long streak of blood down the side of her face and in the ends of her hair as well.

  Elliot was too distraught, the sound of the crash still ringing out in his ears, to respond to her.

  One of the nurses performed CPR on the first body. As Elliot’s eyes adjusted, he soon realised that this was Kenneth, the pilot.

  Out of pure instinct, Olivia clenched Elliot’s hand tightly as she too watched the nurse press and depress Kenneth’s chest.

  Then, tragically, she looked up at her fellow paramedic and remorsefully shook her head.

  Olivia gasped, “Oh—My God.” She was in utter dismay at the sight of someone being pronounced dead, for never had she seen anything like it.

  Elliot was completely emotionless still, however. Then, his phone vibrated in his pocket.

  Noticing that Elliot wasn’t reacting to it, Olivia took the liberty of reaching into his pocket and answering it for him, “Ryan… Yes, we’re alright… Elliot’s fine. He’s here, he’s just not talking… Well, not everybody. The pilot didn’t make it… Oh, uh, Lucy is—”

  As Ol
ivia turned away from Elliot and looked back over at the wreckage, she saw that Kenneth’s body had been carted away on the first stretcher, giving her a clear view of the second body; it was Lucy, though she had already deduced as much.

  The nurse desperately pressed and depressed on Lucy’s chest now instead.

  “Come on, come on, please!” Olivia desperately mumbled to herself, praying to every deity that she knew of in her mind.

  Then, in the most tragic sight that Elliot and Olivia had both witnessed until that point, they watched as the nurse shook her head, and cautiously pulled the blanket over the late Lucy’s face.

  “No—No! No!” Olivia was absolutely distraught as she burst out into tears.

  The sheer grief was too much for Elliot to handle. With all of his emotions ravaging him from the inside, the only external feeling that he displayed was the formation of a minute tear in his left eye.

  LONDON, NOVEMBER 2034

  SIXTEEN YEARS AFTER LUCY’S DEATH…

  “I’m—I’m so sorry, Lucy.” Elliot was tearful and was grieving about Lucy for the first time in a great many years. He had never truly come to terms with what had happened on that day, and as such, had only buried his grief rather than moved on from it.

  What Elliot thought to be even more tragic was how all the people that he knew back then were now very much long gone; Ryan gave up his life not long after Lucy had lost hers’, Steven was killed by The Bandits during their first attack on London, and Olivia was killed during a conflict within Camp Hackley.

  Elliot, truly was, the last one left…

  About the Author

  Finlay Borthwick grew up in a small village in South-East England. His entire life he has had a sweet spot for writing and storytelling from a very young age. Whenever it came to writing stories in primary school, Finlay always obtained the highest marks in his class. Even through his teenage years, this carried on, achieving some of the highest grades in his secondary school English classes as well.