No, he couldn't think like that, he was his family's protector and he wasn't about to let anything like this happen to them, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself.
He outside of the wreckage gulping in the fresh air, thankful he and his son had made it out alive. He was covered from head to toe in the blood of his own and of others, exhaustion had taken its toll and after all this drama, he wanted nothing more than a cold shower and a serious counselling session.
News helicopters hovered overhead and the wreckage had drawn quite the crowd of shocked and curious onlookers, some taking photos of the covered corpses on the ground with their phones.
Did no one have a shred of common decency anymore? Why would you take a photo of something like that? Terry shot them a scorning look, not that it mattered, people were going to do what they wanted and he would just have to accept that this was a generation of looking at everything through lenses and on small screens.
He spotted his boy being held back by an officer and approached them.
"Daddy!" George called out to him.
"Your son?" The officer asked.
"Yeah, he's mine”, Terry replied, running to and embracing him. He glanced up at the officer. “Didn't you hear us calling for an ambulance?"
"Didn’t you hear my colleague inform you that no one could attend? Priority is on containment and so it will remain until further notice”.
“Who is giving out your orders? We could have died in there! People did die!”
“Your driver disregarded a clear barricade, which in turn sent you careening off the road. Given the potential threat this posed during a time such as this, you are only too fortunate we didn't shoot. We could have just as easily assumed you to be terrorists or co-conspirators, so consider yourself lucky penguins. If you have a problem with the way this was handled, I suggest you take it up with your driver first".
“He's dead".
“Well then, I guess that cuts down the number of people willing to listen to your complaints by a whopping one hundred percent, what are the odds of that?”
“There's no reason to be so rude. Since you couldn't help us in there, do you at least know what is happening or where we can get a lift?”
"First of all, if I knew that I wouldn't be standing here, secondly, did I give you the impression I was a taxi service?”
“I need to get to my daughter".
“Not my problem, now move along, I have a job to do".
“A little bit of authority and you guys turn into raging asshats!”
The remark was ignored as the police officer stepped past him.
Terry sighed and returned his attention to George.
“What are we going to do now, dad?”
"We are going to find some way to pick up your sister", Terry said, checking George for any missed injuries.
"What are we going to do when we get her?"
"I'll figure that out when we find her".
“Excuse me, I couldn't help but overhear the conversation you had with that rather unhelpful officer", came a female voice. Terry and George looked up to find a woman standing before them with a beaming smile on her face.
She wore a long yellow dress, silk scarf and knee high, heeled, brown leather boots. Her curly brown hair dropped to her shoulders. She reminded Terry of an ever so slightly older Nora Heymond, that American actress from a vampire hunting TV series he'd been watching quite a bit of recently.
Terry stood up to face her.
“I parked my car nearby, I could give you a lift to wherever it is you need to go”.
“That's far too kind, thank you, are you sure? You don't need to go this far out of your way for us".
“Well I heard that you were trying to reach your daughter, so I wanted to help in any way. Do you know where she is?”
“Clapham Junction, were you headed that way?”
“Err, no, not exactly”.
“Well I couldn't ask you to deviate from your journey, it's okay, we'll figure something out".
“No, no, it's okay, I insist. Besides, I was heading to east London and stupidly decided to cross town to get there, but that doesn't look as though it's happening any time soon this way, so it looks as though I'll be heading south first anywho”.
“Are you sure it's no hassle?”
“No, not at all", she laughed.
“Okay, well words alone couldn't begin to show my appreciation right now, Ms...”
“Charlotte Andrews and the pleasure is all mine".
“Thanks again, Charlotte. My name is Terry Burnham and this is my lad, George, we were trying to reach my daughter, Ria”.
“It's really nice to meet you, George". She shook his hand and he smiled meekly. “What do you say we shoot?”
Terry turned to George.
"Want to climb on my back?"
"I can walk, I'm not a little kid, dad". Terry chuckled somewhat nervously. George was putting on a brave face in front of him, but Terry could tell he was shaken up, his son couldn't even look him in the eye. Nothing would remove the horrors of what was seen today from his poor little mind. Terry himself was just about clinging on to sanity after the death and destruction he had already witnessed, so one could only imagine what his boy was going through.
She led them back to her car, a small black hatchback Aradin.
"Hop in", she instructed, unlocking the doors.
Terry ensured George was all safely buckled up, before hopping in himself, but before he even had the time to get comfortable, there were a series of screams. Terry turned to see people scattering like sweets from a bag.
"What on Earth could be going on now?" The woman asked.
“Probably best we don't wait around to find out", Terry replied, to which she agreed wholeheartedly, revving the engine and swerving out of there.
Cars weaved in and out of intersections, ignoring traffic lights and very narrowly missing each other, it was only a matter of time before there was one or more accidents similar or worse than the one he experienced today, a memory that simply would not leave his mind, along with all the other horrific events that had taken place today. Hazard after hazard seemingly awaited them at every turn, all the while, helicopters, police cars, riot vans, fire trucks among others, raced past them directly towards the chaos and it wasn't until the road was a little safer was Charlotte able to cough up the words she had been choking on since she slammed her foot on the peddle.
"What the hell was that back there?" She asked, glancing in Terry's direction.
"No idea, but I can take a lucky guess that it wasn't in our best interests to find out”, it was probably best to avoid trying to explain the horrors of what he had already witnessed to her, what with his son in the car. It was bad enough confronting the reality of it himself, far less putting his son through it.
"You both certainly look as though you've seen your fair share", Charlotte noted, interrupting Terry's trail of thought, referencing their wounds, blood and dust covered clothes and pale faced expressions.
"It's... .been an ordeal", Terry replied.
"I’m sorry to hear that. Anything else I can do to help?”
“No, you've done more than enough and besides, I don't think anything will help undo what has already been done".
Charlotte silently glanced at him.
“I can tell it's eating at you, I won't probe, but can you at least let me drive you to a hospital after we collect your daughter. No arguments now, I couldn't live myself knowing something happened to you because I didn't want to do that little bit extra”.
Terry didn't argue back, instead he accepted her offer with a smile. He couldn’t help but feel guilty having exposed his son to that massacre and mayhem. He knew he had done all he could to protect his boy, but what his son was going through mentally after seeing all that was beyond all that Terry could imagine.
“How are you holding up back there, kiddo?” Terry asked, looking around at his son.
“I’m okay”.
“Glad to hear it”.
“If you don’t mind me asking, how'd you end up in that accident?”
“Erm, well, we were on the train to South Kensington, had to get off because something was happening, took a bus, had to flee that bus when people started running and behaving erratically, jumped onto that bus you saw, the driver panicked, drove into that road block and here we are".
“Behaving erratically, you say?”
“Yeah, like... they were afflicted with something, madness maybe”.
“Probably hysteria”.
“Probably". He doubted that, but it sounded more digestible than the truth.
“Do you have anyone you need to call, like your daughter for example?”
“I did earlier, before the bus crashed, that was a while ago though. I’m sure I heard my mobile ringing in the bus wreckage, but I had no success finding it”.
“Here, take mine”, she insisted, rummaging through her purse as she drove and handing him her mobile, after tapping in her password.
“Do you remember her phone number?”
“Dammit, I don’t”.
“I do!” George declared and recited it for Terry to dial.
The phone rang for a while before Ria picked up.
“Hello? Who is this?” She asked.
“It’s me, dad. I’m borrowing a phone”.
“Terry? Where are you? I’ve been waiting here for ages!”
“Sorry, Ria, something came up”.
“What could be so important that you aren’t here on time... again?”
“I’m on my way, Ria. We ran into a little trouble”.
“It’s always the same thing with you isn’t it”.
“Never mind that, have you spoken to your mother at all?”
“Yes, and she isn’t happy, just so you know”.
“That’s expected, we’ll be there shortly”.
“How short is shortly?”
“Don’t be cheeky, we will be there shortly, that’s all that matters”. She sighed.
“Fine... I’m waiting”.
CHAPTER 9 - RIA: 1:32pm - 1 Hour, 47 Minutes since outbreak
Ria hung up the phone on Terry.
He always did this and here he was doing it again, late as usual. He wasn’t even dependable during a crisis like this!
Containing her irritation was going to be a trial, but at least she was in the town and towns meant shopping.
Despite the belief that it would take a while to calm down, one look at a dress in a shop window and she was back to her usual self. It was a very pretty dress and she was almost certain it would go well with that summery hat she had back at home and the necklace her mother bought her for her birthday.
Maybe this wasn't the right time to be thinking of clothes, not after the ordeal she had been through.
She checked her mobile and spotted quite a few topics trending on Chirper, all of which related to London. So, it was that the world had already heard about the terrorist attacks it would seem. None of these tags were related to terrorism however, in fact, they were all quite alarmingly different to anything she would have ever thought up.
The top five trends were purely dedicated to the events occurring in London and looking at the pictures, mostly overhead views, it was clear to see that what was happening here was probably even more than just a terrorist attack. It looked like a riot, a violent one at that.
A thought suddenly popped to mind, what if she shared her ordeal, it would surely be a tale to tell amongst her friends later, right?
With that, she video recorded herself talking about what she had seen and experienced thus far and uploaded it to her Vyou, for fun, tagging it #riasinlondon.
Within moments, a few of her friends had liked the video as well as her previous chirps and were re-chirping them. It wasn't much, but it was a start.
She stopped before a crowd of people amassed outside of a tech store. It didn’t take long to work out what they were all gawping at, there in the windows were those new super sharp televisions showcasing in pristine quality the horrors of the events occurring in London.
An INBC helicopter hovered over the scene of chaos in South Kensington and Ellie Branning, the designated reporter as shown at the bottom of the screen, tried to explain what was being seen at the scene taking place on the ground, whilst the cameraman zoomed in for a better view. On the ground were panicked people fleeing for their lives and chased by... other people.
There was a series of gasps from the crowd, as a man was slammed up against a car and mauled. Men, women, children, pets and even the elderly, no one was excluded from the violence.
The cameraperson remained focused on that one man and his assailants until they could do so no more, the man had been ripped to shreds and the scene too grisly even for the news.
The camera panned away to other fleeing people being chased and doing the chasing.
"I can't believe this is happening", Ellie said and her words were echoed by the crowd gathered around the TV screens.
The reality of the situation had finally hit Ria and with all the impact of a meteor. After seeing those scenes, she was genuinely terrified. What if she had been caught in that? Ripped apart like that man? She sure hoped this anarchy was contained before it reached her or anyone else.
She moved away from the screen, away from the crowds, away from the morbid scenes unfolding before her and tried to calm herself down again.
Where was her father already? This was ridiculous, already six minutes had passed since he last called and he remained nowhere in sight. She pulled out her phone and checked the battery, it was already down to 98% and a full hour hadn't even passed yet.
Lacey messaged her and it was evident that she too had seen the news, for her message read of hysteria and complete irrationality.
Ria suggested she calm down, that the police would handle it and reminded her that the media had a habit of blowing things out of proportion, though it was difficult to determine who she was trying to convince here, Lacey... or herself.
Still, Lacey was at least home safe, watching this all on TV a few roads away from where Ria used to live in West London, she was far out of the danger radius, which was more than could be said for herself.
She sat down on a bus stop seat and waited there for Terry, hoping he wouldn't be much longer.
She didn't have to wait very long, for eight minutes later her father's edited clown face appeared on her vibrating phone.
Giving him directions to where she stood, it took him a further two minutes to reach her and when he finally did, he pulled up in a car she did not recognise.
Had he not stepped out of the car, she wouldn’t have known it him at all.
"Ria, get in the car", he ordered and proceeded to open the back door of the little hatchback. Ria stared blankly at it for a moment.
"Whose car is this?" She asked.
"A woman offered us a lift, I'll explain when you get in". Ria reluctantly obliged.
"What the hell happened to you, Terry? You totally look like shit". He did look like shit, he was covered in grime and blood, it looked as though he had been through a death-defying obstacle course.
"Mind your mouth and like I said, I'll explain in the car", he replied. She climbed into the car to find her little brother George who also looked like shit.
"George!" She cried, refusing to hug him if only because of the state he was in. She couldn't deny her delight to see him after the morning she had had, but he too looked as though he had experienced some serious shit and with all those cuts and bruises covering his body, she was willing to bet it was worse.
"Ria!'" He yelped with glee and embraced her as though it were the last time he would ever see her again.
That was when an unfamiliar woman at the wheel turned to her and waved.
"You must be Ria, hello, I'm Charlotte".
After awkward introductions, they were well on their way to God only knows where.
"Where are we going
and what happened to you two?" Ria asked.
"Hospital to make sure we didn't sustain any internal injuries we don't know about, but where do I even begin?" Terry replied with a sigh.
With that, Ria knew she was in for a rollercoaster of a story and boy was it indeed. By the time Terry had ended, Ria was well and truly exhausted, but had a newfound respect for him, less confidence in her theory that this was NOMA or even terrorism related for that matter, apparently an altogether new concern she never once thought she would ever have and a story she wanted to share with the world, which of course she immediately proceeded to do.
Her last video had picked up steam with her peers, it was already among her most favourited and shared chirps. This would surely make her talk of the classroom when this whole thing settled down before end of term, it had to settle down after all, right? With that many police and helicopters, they'd control this, surely.
"Where were you going before all of this?" The woman, Charlotte asked.
She was very pretty and Ria instantly disliked her, or at least something about her, though she couldn't quite put her finger on what that was. Maybe it was the way her father was so casual with her as though he and she were already on a friendly basis, the last thing he needed was more distractions.
Ria kept a sharp unmoving eye on her whilst she documented her father and brother's ordeal on social media.
"We were spending some quality time together, we were on our way to the museums in South Kensington, the science and natural history museum, we haven't been there since Ria was six and she loved it, so I thought it would be nice to go again, nostalgia I guess, though it was a surprise", Terry replied.
"That sounds nice", Charlotte replied with a smile. Ria couldn't have been more aghast with that revelation if she tried, a great big wave of disappointment washed over her face and showed in her expression.
"Seriously, dad? That's as lame as it gets. I'm sixteen, not six, that was ten years ago. What made you think I'd enjoy something I enjoyed when I was six? See, this is how out of touch you are. We should've just stayed home, at least then we wouldn't be in this mess and George wouldn’t have been hurt", Ria grumbled.
Cryptophobia (Book 1): Outbreak [Fear The Unknown] Page 8
