by D. P. Sloan
Her mum smiled, “You’re not the only one honey. Anyway, is Gregg coming to pick you up?”
Katy nodded, “As normal.”
Her mum smiled, “Well make sure you take care out there, it’s extremely bad out there. I saw Mrs Cunningham’s green bin literally fly up into the air and fly across the road! It’s now flapping about in Mr Kirk’s front garden in his Grandkids trampoline! So, I think maybe your plans will be off this weekend because apparently this storm is to last well into next week! What were your plans anyway?”
“Bowling,” Katy smiled, “I told Gregg I’ll whip his butt at that too!”
Her mum laughed. She loved her laugh. So cheery, so happy and so much fun. But that’s just her mum. Katy finished up her breakfast and headed back up the stairs to get her school uniform on.
She finished getting her school uniform on and stood in front of her full-length mirror and brushed her hair when she heard coughing and wheezing coming from her parents’ bedroom. She put the brush down on her dressing table and headed along the hall to her parents’ bedroom, she knocked on the door and slowly opened it. Her dad was sitting up in bed coughing and wheezing badly. She went over to him.
“Dad are you okay?” Katy asked.
He looked up at her, his eyes bloodshot, his face puffy, and his skin sweaty. After a few minutes of more coughing and wheezing he nodded his head, “Just a little bug honey nothing to worry about. I was standing out in the pouring rain at 2AM this morning so possibly just caught the cold.”
Katy was a bit concerned; you see her dad rarely took the flu. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time that he had the flu. “Can I get you anything before I head to school dad?”
He coughed again before shaking his head, “No I’m fine darling. I’ll just rest for a bit before heading to work again.”
Katy looked at him with concern, “Dad maybe you shouldn’t go back into work. Maybe you should just rest today plus it’s mental out there apparently, I mean I’ve got a feeling that school will be cancelled but me and Gregg are going to go up anyway.”
He looked up at me and smiled, “You are getting so big now. So tall and mature. But you are still my daughter and right now it’s time for school missy so don’t you worry about me – I’ll be fine.”
He cracked a smile that made her smile, “Okay dad as long as you are okay?”
“Of course, I am sweetheart,” he smiled, “I’ll see you soon.”
He lay back down and she left the room. Katy walked back down the stairs and just as she got to the bottom, the doorbell rang. She smiled as her man was right on time as normal. She opened the door and greeted Gregg with a morning kiss and a cuddle, he was freezing. It was freezing outside, “Morning babe.”
“Morning sexy,” he managed to say through the wind and rain.
She went into the kitchen grabbed her bag and said bye to her mum. Then both herself and Gregg left her house and tried heading to school.
Katy stayed at the other end of Kinfauns Drive in Drumchapel near Tallant Road. Gregg on the other hand stayed just past St Mark’s church. He walked the full length of Kinfauns Drive to meet her every day for school or even when they were going out somewhere. That’s why she loved him, a kind and caring person. They walked hand in hand up Tallant Road battling the wind and rain. They then went down through Kinclaven Avenue. It was bitter outside but still no snow, just a really, really cold fierce wind and the rain was notorious. They walked up Linkwood drive and then along Barnkirk before entering the school. They noticed not a lot of students were there. Obviously, parents decided it was best to keep them off.
Drumchapel High School was a brand new secondary school built after the last one was demolished. The old one stood for years after amalgamating all secondary schools in Drumchapel – Kings Ridge, Waverly and St Pius. All three were merged into a new high school using St Pius’s school as the new one. But then years later it was time for a new, ’super,’ school to be built as agreed between the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council. So old Drumchapel High school was demolished and the new Drumchapel High was built. They both stood about the main hall waiting on the bell before heading to class. It felt weird, there were only about twenty, maybe thirty pupils in the main hall, this place was usually crammed full of pupils. So obviously their parents decided against sending them to school today.
“French first,” Katy groaned and rolled her eyes.
Gregg laughed, “Oh please French,” he began, “try bloody German!”
She laughed.
“Don’t even laugh babe,” Gregg smiled, “I can’t even talk a single word of German and still Mr Brown thinks I’ll achieve great success and the German language will help me when I leave school. I’ve told him countless times I am going to become a police officer but nooooooo does he listen does he Hell!”
“Babe calm down,” Katy laughed leaning in and planting a kiss on his lips, “Remember you don’t have to take that subject when in fifth year so just suffer it for now.” She ran her fingers through his hair and he smiled back before planting a long lingering kiss on her lips in return.
“See you back here at break?” he asked her.
She nodded, “As always.” She gave him a last kiss before heading down the corridor. He in return headed the other way.
CHAPTER 4
DECEMBER 8TH 2011 – LATER ON
“Steve maybe you shouldn’t go to work!”
“Listen Nancy I’m fine,” Steve replied, “it’s just a cold. My own fault for being in the rain without a jacket. Look don’t worry about me, Marty will be there with me, and if I become worse then I’ll get checked out at the A&E okay?”
Nancy wasn’t so sure but nodded anyway, she gave her husband a hug then kissed him on the forehead. She stepped back and smiled at him. Steve smiled back before sneezing, covering his wife in snot.
“Awk Steve!” Nancy began, wiping mucus off her face, “you could have at least covered your mouth and nose!”
“Sorry,” Steve replied, “listen I won’t be late tonight okay. I’ll go in a few hours and be back home say around 7PM.”
Nancy nodded again then saw her husband leave the house. She closed the front door and went back into the living room to watch the remainder of her programmes on her SKY planner. She sat down after making a fresh cup of tea.
CHAPTER 5
DECEMBER 8TH 2011
THE TAKEOVER
Steve pulled into the Southern General Hospital car park and turned the engine of his car off. He sat at the wheel, coughing and spluttering, feeling like crap before he climbed out of the drivers’ seat. Zipped up his heavy coat and put his hood up then walked up to the labs in the old building.
He swiped his ID pass and entered the corridor that led to his lab. On entering the lab, he saw that Marty was nowhere to be seen. Puzzled, he turned and left the lab bumping into a nurse in the corridor.
“Nurse have you seen Marty at all today?” Steve asked the small slim brunette.
The nurse shook her head, “No but I heard he phoned in sick this morning.”
“Was there a reason?” Steve questioned.
“Janice at the reception desk put on the notice board that he had the flu,” the nurse answered.
Steve nodded before turning and walking back into the lab.
From behind he heard the nurse shout, “Steve you don’t look so hot yourself!”
“I’m fine,” he called back before closing the door. He walked over to where the labs phone was situated and called Marty’s house.
The phone rang and rang but nobody picked up. Steve reached for his mobile and began to text his workmate before sneezing and coughing uncontrollably for a good few minutes. He sent the text and waited for the reply. He waited a good fifteen minutes but still no reply. He kept thinking that maybe he was in bed just sleeping off the cold – the same cold that he had at this very moment. He kept coughing and sneezing and felt rather sweaty. He went over to the chair in the corner and sat dow
n, rather shakily.
After a few minutes he stood back up and walked to the mirror on the wall. He looked at his face in the mirror, and noticed the blood shot eyes, the dark circles below the eyes, the greyness of his skin tone. He went over to the sink area and turned on the cold-water tap, splashing water over his face to try and cool his hot, hot skin down.
He was very restless, he moved back over to phone and tried Marty again, but it just continued to ring out. He coughed and sneezed and pain shot through his stomach and up into his chest. He licked his dry lips and felt his stomach grumble. He was hungry.
He sat for a bit longer before deciding to go and get Marty, he had to make sure his friend and colleague was fine. But deep down he felt something was wrong.
His stomach rumbled again and he thought to himself, ‘food first then Marty.’ Just then the lab door was knocked and Janice from the reception desk stepped in, a thirty-three-year-old ex-wife, long legs, slim waist went by the name of Kenzie.
“Hi Steve sorry to interrupt you,” Kenzie said as she walked into the lab.
Steve had his head bowed down and was breathing rather rapidly, sweat dripped from his forehead, down his cheeks and into his dry mouth. He looked up at Kenzie and noticed she was staring at him weirdly.
“Steve are you okay?” Kenzie asked a bit worried about her hospital colleague.
Steve stood up and raised his head, drool and spit formed at the corners of his mouth.
Kenzie looked at him, “Steve are you okay?”
Steve just glared at her and moved towards her. Steve felt the pain in his stomach, he was getting very hungry and he could smell meat, it lingered in the air, fresh meat, uncooked meat, his lips became dry again and he licked them trying to make them wet with his saliva, but for some reason there was no saliva in his mouth. His throat was becoming dry and he let out a small groan.
“Steve can I get you anything?” Kenzie asked moving towards him.
Steve shuffled forward, “fffffoooooddddddddd,” he stuttered.
“You want food?” Kenzie replied. She took another step forward and was literally a foot or two away from her colleague. “What….what would you like?”
Just then Steve stopped, let out a low groan and within a matter of seconds he was on top of her, biting her, clawing her. He bit into her right ear and ripped it clean off. He sat up into a kneeling position and chewed thoroughly on the nurses’ ear. Wolfing it down before looking back down at her to decide what he wanted next.
Rain pounded the windows all around him and the wind was getting ferocious outside. Lights in the hospital flickered on and off.
Steve turned back to the nurse lying below him and opened his mouth to speak to her but all that came out was a loud groan. Kenzie screamed loud before Steve delved into her mouth with his right hand and pulled and tugged at her tongue, pulled with all his might until the nurses’ tongue ripped away from her mouth and was now in his hands. Steve looked down at the blood splattered face of Kenzie before raising the tongue and tearing into it with his teeth. Chewing it and swallowing it. After finishing the tongue, he raised his head and looked at the ceiling, and with his two arms stretched out he screamed before ripping into Kenzie’s’ mid-area.
CHAPTER 6
DECEMBER 8TH 2011
DRUMCHAPEL
“Marty please, please just stay there!” Jessica Summers pleaded to her husband. She saw him, ‘change,’ from the caring loving husband and father into a crazed lunatic in a matter of hours, after he got home from work in the early hours of the morning. He screamed and groaned and thrashed about in the bed as his wife Jessica looked on. It was a little after 9AM when it all started, at 7.45AM he told Jessica to call in sick for him as this flu had taken hold of him. But Jessica knew it wasn’t a flu like bug as she had never seen anything like this.
Now she was locked in the bathroom and couldn’t escape – well she could open the bathroom window and jump out, but being three floors up, she wasn’t willing (and wanting) to break her neck, legs and back.
“Please Marty just go away!” Jessica screamed. She knew she was safe for now, but it wouldn’t be long until Marty torn the door down and got to her.
Then the door stopped banging.
“Jeeeeesssssssiiiiiiccccccccaaaaaa,” it was Marty dragging her name out, “Jessica open the door please.”
“What do you want?” Jessica responded through teary eyes.
“I want to taste you,” Marty groaned, I can smell your meat, your fresh meat, uncooked meat, I need to taste you. I need to EAT YOU!!!! Open this door!”
He started banging and kicking the door again all the while he heard the rain and wind howl outside. He stopped kicking and punching the door and walked slowly down the hallway and into the kitchen. He looked about and saw a kitchen knife lying on the sink drainer. He walked over and picked it up. Then looking out the window, he watched as the rain and wind battered the window. Hurricane Friedhelm was coming in fast, Marty stopped what he doing and placed one hand on the window, he then muttered the words, “Virus. Rain. Dead.”
He forced a smile then turned around and began walking/stumbling/shambling up the hallway to his terrified wife again with the knife in his hand. He faced the bathroom door and went to say her name again but only a groan came out. A loud animal like groan. Then he raised the knife and started ripping and tearing into the door. Within a matter of minutes, he had torn through the door and shambled into the bathroom, groaning and moaning and winging the knife about only to discover that his wife was nowhere to be found. Then he craned his head up and looked at the window – it was wide open. He let out an almighty screech, then with what little speed he had left – raced to the window, pounced up onto the toilet and flew out the window.
Down, down, down he fell out the window passed the second floor, passed the first floor, passed the ground floor windows and landed hard on the back-court grass.
He lay there in amongst the mud and grass staring up at the dark grey clouds as the beginning of the storm took hold of the town of Drumchapel, the rain poured down, bouncing off the ground. Bouncing off of him.
Something inside his brain clicked, something that made the human that he once was remember, remember about the virus that was released into the atmosphere. A smile came across his now dead face then he saw hanging above him three floors up, clinging to the drainpipe – his wife Jessica.
Jessica looked down at her once loveable husband and wondered what had happened, and then she watched as he simply sat back up, screeched into the air, snarled up at her and began walking away. Jessica climbed back in through the window and clambered down off the ledge onto the toilet. She checked out the damage and then ran into the living room, grabbing her mobile phone. She dialled 999 and waited for an answer from the operator, but all that came was:
‘Please bear with us all our emergency services are busy at the moment.’
What was going on?
What had happened to Marty?
Jessica then called her son and waited and waited for him to pick up. Hoping and praying he wasn’t in class at that very moment.
CHAPTER 7
DECEMBER 8TH 2011
Katy looked out the window of the classroom as the wind and rain picked up heavily. Her teacher Mrs Smith announced to the class that as a security and health and safety caution, the school was on lockdown until the bad part of the storm was over. Various pupils moaned that it would be just as easy getting sent home, even getting their parents to pick them up. But Mrs Smith informed the class that the weather forecast had deemed the storm a red weather warning. This basically meant they were stuck in school until it passed.
She pulled out her phone and called her mum, “Hi mum just to let you know…..” she trailed off as her mum finished her sentence.
“It’s okay Katy your headmaster phoned and informed me. It’s actually safer to stay indoors at the moment and best place is where you are. There have been reports of trees uprooting and crushing cars, buses
overturning, that wee weatherman on STV says the winds are to hit over 80 miles per hour! It’s a hurricane honey so unless the school isn’t safe then stay put until all is clear to come home, plus that rain out there it’s like a hot rain a bit like a tropical rain storm so to speak.”
Katy shifted her phone to her other ear, “Were you out in it mum?”
“I had to pick up the plant pots out in the garden and then try and tie down the garden shed it was about to take off into the air!” her mum replied.
“Jeezo!” Katy began, “Anyway how’s dad? Is he much better?”
“Well he went into work and I’ve not heard from him since he left,” my mum answered, “to me your dad shouldn’t have gone in but hey he can be stubborn sometimes as we know!”
“True but you got to love him!” Katy laughed.
“Yip you sure do!” her mum laughed back, “Oh my God Mr McGibbons, you know the old man from down the street he’s out there struggling against the wind. It’s like watching a stunt from Mission Impossible!”
“Mum!” Katy rolled my eyes, “Open the window tell him to go home before he dies of the cold. He’s like what 92 years old!”
“Ha-ha,” her mum laughed, “he’s 68 cheeky!”
“Hey Katy come see this video on YouTube. It’s a trampoline rolling down the street someone has added Limp Bizkit’s song, ‘Rollin,’ to it!” one of her pals shouted across the class.
“Mum I’m going to go I have to see this,” she said to her trying to hold in the laughter.
“Okay sweetheart,” her mum began, “Listen honey do as you’re told by your teachers. Listen to them at all costs this weather doesn’t look like it’s letting up anytime soon.”
“Don’t worry I will mum,” Katy assured her, “I’ll see you soon, if you hear from dad let him know I’m fine please.”
“I will honey see you soon,” her mum said before hanging up.
