"Righto!" Charlotte replied and wasting no time, she put the pedal to the metal, jerking them all backwards and having Ria clinging to her seat.
They were blasting down the roads eastwards, cutting in and out of traffic as they made their way to the nearest open bridge.
“How about we head for the Rotherhithe Tunnel? Do you think that that is far enough east to still be open?” Charlotte asked.
“Couldn't hurt to try", Terry replied, “Doesn't look as though our options are overflowing.
Ria feared for the wellbeing of her mother, her father had explained little to them in the way of informing them what exactly was happening to her, it was all left up to interpretation, but from the sounds of the conversation they had had, her mother was in something of a worrisome predicament.
Just as her thoughts had returned to her mother, Terry suddenly turned to her.
"Ria, call your mother, check to see she is still alright, tell her we are coming through Rotherhithe Tunnel".
"Okay", Ria replied and attempted to call her mother.
The first few attempts to reach her resulted in the frustrating sound of her mother's voice recorded for voicemail and Ria's heart sank a little further with each failure, as the possibility of her mother in peril and worst-case dead, only sent her mind aflutter with panic.
"Can't you get through to her?" Terry asked.
"I'm trying", Ria replied.
"God, I hope she's okay. Keep trying".
"That's what I'm doing".
She tried repeatedly until finally a reassuring click of her call being received.
"Mum?"
"Ria? Ria is that you?"
"Mum, thank god you're alright, what's happening? Are you okay?"
"It's bad, really bad. Hannah is... Hannah attacked us, she's not thinking straight and Lizzy... Lizzy is dead... I...” Her mother replied, sounding panicked and flustered over the phone.
"Mum, calm down, we are coming, we are almost at Rotherhithe Tunnel and we'll be over on the north side soon".
"What's happening? Is she okay?" Terry nagged from the front.
"Hold on, I can't speak to both of you at the same time, I'm finding out", Ria snapped back, "Mum, where are you now?"
"We locked ourselves in the meeting room, there's six of us, there is five of them".
"Them?"
"Our colleagues... no... not anymore, they've become what Hannah became now".
"Just stay there, mum, don't move and don't let them in".
"We are doing our best, but I don't know how long we can keep them out for".
"Okay, we will be there soon".
"Don't come here! Those infected people are surrounding the building, you'll never get in!"
"We are not just going to leave you there, mum".
"Get out of the city!"
"No mum, we are coming".
"Shit! They've shut down the tunnel, the barriers are down", Charlotte interjected, "What now?"
"Go straight through", Terry ordered. So much for not wanting to break the law earlier.
"Now you're speaking my language", Charlotte replied, "Hold on guys, we are going through".
Ria didn't have the chance to hear her mother's pleas for them to leave the city, for the car tore down the centre of the road, bypassing traffic and sending people on the road leaping to safety as Charlotte hammered at the horn.
Ria closed her eyes as they smashed through the barriers and the security guards jumped out of the way.
When she reopened them again, the windscreen was cracked, but everyone was okay. They raced through the empty Rotherhithe Tunnel as the reception to the phone call cut, putting an abrupt end to the line.
Ria hung on for dear life as the car skidded around bends a hairpin away from crashing. Upon reaching the other end of the tunnel, they smashed through yet another barrier and swerved onto Commercial Road, making their way up to Algate East Station.
Ria explained the situation as best she could to her father, which only served to make him all the more anxious to get there.
The streets were anarchy ridden as looters and opportunists broke into shops, car jacked and fought with innocent people to steal from them the little they had to hand. Even without the state London was currently in, it didn't take much to send the general populace into hysteria induced depravity.
"Drop me off at Old Street, I'll take it from there", Terry insisted.
"And the kids?" Charlotte asked.
"Get them out of London".
"What about you? If you manage to escape, do you not want me to meet you somewhere?"
"No, I don't want to take that chance. Even without the infected crazed to contend with, there are the everyday crazy folk, London just isn't safe. Don't worry about us, we'll find a way out. So long as the kids are safe, I can think straight".
Ria was pleasantly surprised, that was probably the fatherliest thing he had said in a long while. George wasn't happy with the arrangement however, suddenly bursting into tears.
"Daddy, don't leave us! Please stay with us, we'll come with you".
Terry turned to him.
"Little man, I'm not going to put your life at risk. You'll be safer with Charlotte outside of the city. You've seen enough danger for one day and I've been terribly irresponsible. You can't come where I'm going, it'll be incredibly dangerous and I'd be a bad father if I took you with me". Seems as though this chaos had awoken something in Terry, these fatherly words were flowing from his mouth like water.
"No! I don't wanna go without you!"
"Then who will look after the ladies? You're the next big man after me, it's our responsibility to take care of the girls. You're a man, right?" Ria almost felt inclined to laugh at the prospect of the shrimp protecting her, but she could understand what Terry was trying to do.
George sobbed and eventually nodded.
"You two need to be brave and stay with Charlotte".
"How are we meant to contact you?" Ria asked.
"No biggie", Charlotte replied, handing him her own, "seems we are having a little phone issue today. I don't have much battery power left, I think it's at twenty-five percent, so you'll want to preserve it as much as you can. I switched it to power saving mode nonetheless".
"Thank you, Charlotte", Terry replied, taking it from her, "Are you sure you're going to be okay, kiddo?" He asked George.
George nodded reluctantly, but said no more.
"Ria, call me the moment something happens, don't take any unnecessary risks".
"Will do", Ria replied as they made their way onto the last traffic crammed road.
"Shit, we are not going to get any further than this", Charlotte informed.
"That's fine, any closer to the place and I'll be putting your lives at risk, I'll take it from here", Terry replied. He undid his seatbelt and opened the door.
Watching him leave made Ria feel uneasy. He had his ways and he was far from the picture-perfect father, but... he was still her dad and she only ever had one dad. This was probably the last time she would ever see the big loser and the thought hurt her.
"Okay, I'm gone. Get to safety and stay away from the city. Bye kids, I love you both", he proclaimed. He opened the back door and George wasted no time in clambering over her to cuddle him.
"I'll miss you", he wept.
"Me too, kiddo, me too. Take care of yourself and be brave okay? I'm putting my faith in you". Soon enough they parted and he turned to Ria. The hug despite the situation was short and awkward, but before he could close the door on them, Ria stopped him short.
"Dad...” She said, looking down at her lap, it had been a while since she called him that.
"Ria?"
"Bring mum back safely, I'll never forgive you if you let her die".
"I'll do my best".
"And dad...”
"Yes?"
"Don't die either, come back to us". She glanced up at him after a moment of silence to see an annoying smile on his face.
; "I'll do what I can", he replied and shut the door. Ria's heart suddenly sank faster than a brick in an ocean, her idiot father, the man who could piss her off beyond all measure, but would always have a place in her heart, was about to embark on a journey that could potentially claim his life, as well as her mother's.
The three watched Terry disappear amongst the cars and people, before Charlotte reversed the car and turned around.
"We better get out of here. I guess we'll head over to my boyfriend's house first and make our way out of London from there. Ria, could you do me a favour and text him, tell him what happened and that I'll talk to him via you", she instructed and begun to recite the number.
Ria sent him a text and left it at that. Her phone was still buzzing endlessly with notifications. She replied to Lacey, sending her a few photos and videos she had accumulated from the scenes around her.
Lacey and her family were already well on their way out of the city by now, sending across her condolences upon news of Terry's decision.
'He's not as bad as you made him out to be really :)’, Lacey stated.
'I guess... ' Ria replied.
'I hope they both get back to you okay, really sorry to hear that :(. You guys can come with us if you want, we're heading down to Canterbury until this all blows over, my nan lives there'.
'We'll see, have to get outta this shit hole before we decide what to do next'.
'Who is with you?'
'Lil bro and that Charlotte woman, she's driving'.
'She's still with you?! :o'
'Yeah, she's not bad either, pretty cool actually. Dunno what we would have done without her'.
'Is she pretty?'
'Why? There's nothing going on between her and my dad if that's what you're implying'.
'No way. Just curious. You gonna update your Chirper and Myface? People will think you're dead again'.
'Yeah, doing it now'.
Ria switched over to Chirper and uploaded a few of the pictures with an update of her father's departure and their escape out of the city. Her followers, re-chirps and favourites were stacking up ridiculously by the second.
She was midway into her update on Myface when the three heard a loud scream and before Ria could even look up to see what it was, they hit something or more likely someone, widening the crack on the windscreen across the entire expanse, it was a miracle it hadn't shattered.
"Shit!" Charlotte yelped as she lost control of the car and careened off the road onto the sidewalk, hitting more pedestrians before smashing into a shop, after their screams, all went quiet and black.
Ria roused to the sounds of frantic shouting and a ticking sound, she was disorientated and the dust and darkness wasn't helping matters.
Shaken up, her hands would not stop trembling, that was the single most terrifying experience of her life, she was almost certain she would die.
Sluggishly, she gave herself the once over, a few bruises, very superficial. The car itself had taken quite the abuse, with dents and shattered glass absolutely everywhere. It was only as she tried to ease the ringing in her head with gentle massages did she suddenly remember her brother, but as she looked over towards his seat, she found it empty with the door besides it ajar, that alone was enough to spruce her up.
"George! George! Where are you?" She called out to him, her eyes and head darting to and fro, with hopes of spotting him somewhere nearby, but she couldn't see him and her calls for him received no answer.
She grabbed her phone and attempted to clamber out on his side, her door obstructed, suddenly remembering Charlotte as she did so.
"Charlotte!" She poked her head around to the front, only to gasp and drop back, covering her mouth with her trembling hands in horror at the sight of Charlotte lying motionless on the steering wheel.
The danger of these old vehicles and probably the exact reason Aradin as a car manufacturer was always in the fire pit, the airbag hadn't ejected.
Once she was able to pluck up the courage, fearing that a real dead person now lay just in front of her, Ria stretched forward and grabbed Charlotte's shoulder to lightly shake her, but she didn't respond.
Was she dead or just unconscious? Ria prayed the latter was the case. Charlotte's legs were wedged between the wreckage, so there was no telling what condition she was in.
Ria didn't really want an answer to question of Charlotte’s condition, for fear of having to confront the harsh reality of mortality, so as heartless as it may have seemed, she prioritised her brother, she would ask someone else to help Charlotte.
She stepped out of the car on her brother's side and glanced around. They were in what looked to be a DIY store and at the front was the gaping hole their crash had created, surrounded by curious spectators clearly too stupid or cowardice to help instead of just stand there and stare.
George was nowhere in sight. Had he left the store?
"Help me!" Ria cried. "There’s a woman in that car that needs your help and did you see a little boy leave here?"
A man nodded and pointed her in his direction, adding that he and others would do what they could to help Charlotte. With assurance that Charlotte would be okay in their care, she went in pursuit of her brother.
CHAPTER 14 - DANIEL: 4:53pm - 5 Hours, 8 Minutes since outbreak
God only knew how, but somehow Daniel had made it out of that car alive, a combination of very quick thinking and sharp reflexes kept him alive as psychopaths with some kind of death wish, lunged in at him through the car windows.
It had taken nothing short of the fight of his life to get out of that situation alive and here he was, still running as fast as his legs could carry him, if the drooling mindless didn't get him, those gunners in the helicopters certainty would.
This had gone past the point of being classified as mere chaos, this was literally hell on Earth. Every direction he looked in was the same scene of death and destruction, shattered glass, flames engulfing cars and erupting from shop windows, the ground littered with the things fleeing people had left behind, blood trails leading to corpses and the cannibalistic psychopaths responsible for murdering them.
Daniel passed a man pleading for his help. He dragged himself across the ground, leaving behind a long blood trail from where one of his legs had once previously been.
Whilst he felt compelled to help the man, even if he could carry him on his back, the poor lad wouldn't last long with that much blood loss, or so Daniel told himself to justify his actions. It was a dog eat dog or human eat human world in this case and he was determined to keep all of his limbs intact.
Only a minute later he was confronted with yet another conundrum, a crying boy turned away from him who looked no more than about six or seven. He stood alone, crying and calling out for his mother.
Contrary to Daniel’s thinking a mere moment ago, he stopped to help the boy, it was just a kid, everything was different.
"Mummy! Where is mummy?" He wailed.
"Kid, I can help, when did you last see her?" Daniel asked, but with the boy facing away from him, it was possible he didn't hear the question, since he didn't respond accordingly.
"I can't find her, I can't find mummy".
"Hey", Daniel called and placed his hand on the boy's shoulder.
The boy turned to him and lunged at him, biting into the finger of the hand he used to defend himself. The pain was indescribable and Daniel reacted by punching the little boy square in the face with the ferocity of as though he were facing a fully-grown adult in a bar brawl, but he didn't even have the time to feel ashamed at himself for striking a child, since the boy barely reacted to it, impossible! This little fucker didn't even flinch, in fact, he just bit even harder as though his teeth were locked down on Daniel’s finger.
Daniel yelped in agony, panicking as the sheer bloodlust in this boy's eyes intensified. He struck the boy continuously, until he was almost certain he had done enough to break or at the very least fracture the boy's skull, yet still he did not flinch, but he did retract
, his face covered in blood that didn't all belong to Daniel, but taking Daniel's finger along with him, right from the bone.
Daniel wailed in agony and clutched his injured hand as the boy stood there staring at him smugly and chewing on his finger, before swallowing.
"I just remembered what happened to mummy", he said with a menacing grin, "I ate her all up... and now I'll eat you". He lunged at Daniel again, but this time Daniel was prepared and ducked.
He took off, sprinting away from the boy, bobbing and weaving between cars in an attempt to lose the little bastard, but the boy leapt from car to car like a fucking chimp, keeping up with him.
Daniel dived between two cars, wedging himself slightly beneath them to squeeze his way through. Just then, Daniel noticed a smashed shop window with a crowbar resting next to it, didn't take a genius to work out what had transpired here.
The boy grabbed his leg, but Daniel kicked at him, freeing himself and scrambling to the other side.
“Are you playing hide and go seek? I like that game!” The boy screeched and hopped up onto the car, jumping down just behind him. Almost as though toying with him, the boy stopped and turned away.
“I’ll count to ten and you can go and hide”.
Was he fucking serious? Did he think this was a fucking game? Daniel suddenly felt stupid, fleeing from a fucking child, but if this was any ordinary child, we would never have even been in this pitiful position.
Wasting no more time, Daniel made a mad dash for the crowbar, grabbed it from the ground, dived into the shop and took hiding behind the counter. He clutched the crowbar tightly in his hands and braced himself, complacency would be the death of him.
“Nine... ten! I’m coming to find you!” The boy shouted and spun around to look for Daniel. He wandered about aimlessly, clearly looking for him, they were abnormally strong these psychopaths, what's to say they didn't possess superhuman senses too? Daniel could only pray that that wasn't the case, but who could blame him for thinking that way.
He glanced around once more and lost all sight of the boy, he could hear not a whimper from him either.
Daniel remained where he was for another minute or two, before deciding it safe to leave his hiding spot. Had the boy left? Was he in the clear? He couldn’t justify hiding here for much longer if that was the case, it wouldn't be much longer before he was overwhelmed with more of them.
Cryptophobia (Book 1): Outbreak [Fear The Unknown] Page 13
