8/11/2027 - Time 22:08
This morning, I lay in my blankets trying to seek out any remaining warmth, Roy had been making disconcerting noises all night, and had clearly been struggling. I had done as much as I could for him yesterday, his chances were now in the hands of the gods. As the darkness was replaced with grey, I got up and checked my clothes, that had been hung out to dry. They were dry enough to wear, so I got dressed. I needed to get a fire going, so I set one up as close to Roy as safely possible, using a pile of sticks and lighter fluid. The snow melted off the branches as the fire climbed up in search of oxygen, within a few minutes I could feel the warmth filling up our makeshift tent, I opened up my rucksack and rifled through the tins, settling on some soup. I opened the tin and searched for the pan, but I couldn’t find it, then realising we must have lost Roy’s rucksack, and with it half our food. Roy was asleep so I went out and searched for it, walking to the edge of the open water, I looked for any sign of colour, but there was none, everything was white or grey with stains of black. I walked over the embankment, backtracking towards the hole in the ice that Roy had fallen through, all the time searching, but found nothing. The hole had iced over, but was still visible, the water still rushing past below. Walking back towards Roy, I picked up a branch with a U shape that will hold a tin, as I approached our camp I noticed smoke coming off the fire, drifting upwards. Roy was awake but he didn’t look well, he was shivering, sweat pouring off his head as he mumbled incoherently. I removed the lid from the tin, placed it over the fire with the branch and tended to him. His blankets were soaked with sweat, I had nothing else to put him in, his clothes were still damp and his bag was gone. I removed his wet blankets, cleaned him as much as possible, wrapped him in my blankets and tried to feed him some soup. I have to be honest, I gave some serious thought about what to do next, it more than crossed my mind to leave him, it would have been the easiest decision to make, but it would have condemned him to certain death. In the end I couldn’t do it, I had to give him the best chance I could, I emptied my rucksack into our makeshift tent, to make some room, I needed to go and find some medication, and another set of dry blankets. We had past a large house and estate a few miles back, set back from the river. It looked like it would have been worth a couple of million in a previous life, now worth no more than its roof and walls. The approach to the building was beautiful, through open gardens and trees. The house was still showing its grandeur, a beautiful stone building with huge bay windows overlooking the courtyard. Some of the windows were still intact, something I hadn’t seen for some time. I walked up the stone steps to the entrance, the big wooden door wavered slightly ajar, it creaked as I pushed it open, just enough to fit through. It was deadly silent inside, I stood in the hallway, with huge ceilings and white walls. I slowly crept through to the foot of the stairs, which swept around the room ending on the floor above, behind me. I could see in the kitchen and the dining room from my position, everything looked untouched. The long dining table was still set at either end, expensive looking cutlery and crockery still sat in their places untouched. I walked into the kitchen to check for food, all the cupboards and draws were open with any food gone. It did appear to have been searched, but maybe only by a conscientious owner. I tried the taps, which made a house rattling noise, so I quickly turned them off. Heading up the stairs I noticed many family photos adorning the walls, the centre of each was a proud elderly couple, photographed with their family, and alone. As I came around the corner a smell filled my nostrils, and it wasn’t pleasant. Finding the source wasn’t difficult, as I approached the master bedroom, it got worse. It was rank, taking my breath away. The couple were laid on their bed, together, arm in arm, dressed in their best, the skin rotting off their bones, bottles of pills by their bed. I couldn’t stay in the same room for any length of time, choosing instead to search the other bedrooms. I needed dry blankets and a change of clothes for Roy, which I found in the first room. I packed as many towels and blankets into my rucksack as possible, before moving rooms. In the bathroom I searched through the cupboards for any medication that would help him through his fever, bottles clattered into the sink. The only thing left was cold and flu tablets, which I stashed. On the walk back the rain came, the last thing we needed. I ran back but by the time I got there, everything, including me, was drenched. The fire was out with little chance of another, Roy was shivering in his blankets, his body contorting, but at least he had been undercover. He was speaking though, which seemed like a positive, I got some water and cleaned the sweat from his body and wrapped him in the clean, dry towels. I gave him two tablets, a drink of water and let him sleep. I then stripped off my wet clothes, hanging them up to dry and wrapped myself in dry towels. I woke Roy up after four hours sleep to give him another dose of medicine, that was three hours ago, I’ll wake him again in an hour for another dose, and then try and get some sleep myself. As I write this, the wind and rain are battering the plastic tent, I had to add extra stones to keep it in place, I hope it moves over by morning, we cannot risk walking in it, and we need to make some time up.
9/11/2027 - Time 11:00
When I woke this morning, Roy was sat up in his blankets, he looked pale, his hair matted with sweat, but still better than yesterday. When he saw me awake he started telling me a story, his voice breaking as he spoke.‘When I was a boy, I remember having night terrors, they haunted my youth, I suffered with them for years. I don’t know why I got them, I remember lying in bed, crippled with fear, unable to move. My sweat would wet the bed all around me, which was freezing cold, I would be pinned to the spot unable to move. For hours I would lie there, not wanting to wake my parents. It was the darkness that got me, as soon as the light came I knew everything would be all right. Just before it did the birds would start singing, and it was this that would calm me down, a signal. I would just lie there listening to them, no noise had ever sounded more beautiful, calmness would flood over me. When I woke this morning, I was overcome with that same fear that would grip me as a child. For the first time in thirty years, I was panicking. The worst thing about it was, I knew however long I waited, those birds would not start singing, and the light was not coming.’ I don’t know if Roy had a restless night or not, I was exhausted and had slept straight through. I cannot honestly say what I would have done today if he was no better, the only motivation I have left is to reach my daughter. We will have to take it easy though, and start walking after dinner. The wind has died down, with just the odd raindrop landing on the plastic sheeting. The downpour last night had drenched everything, creating a kind of muddy black sludge. Looking at the map, we conclude the river we must have fallen upon was the Eden. It moves parallel with the M6, if we follow it, we will meet back up with the motorway around Carlisle. Much of the ice had broken away from the river after the rainstorm, most of it floating on the top, I’m sure in the darkness I’ve seen the glint of some fish, moving around in the depths. We might end up relying on them for food, with only a couple of days of food left and still around one hundred miles to walk.
9/11/2027 - Time 22:47
By ten forty a.m. we had everything packed and were ready to move out, I re-filled my rucksack and Roy took the dry towels and wrapped them in the plastic sheets, tying them with rope. We set off at a steady pace but it soon became an arduous slog, the mixture of ash and mud created a sludge that at best stained everything it touched, at worst sucked our feet to the floor. The rain had created a marble effect upon the landscape, blacks, whites and greys like long expressive brush strokes. After a couple of hours walking, the snow and ice had all but washed away. There was a noticeable temperature increase as we moved, possibly due to our proximity to the coast and distance from any impact zones, it was still very cold, but not as bitter. The biggest danger to us from the weather now lies with the rain, I think Roy had put a brave face on today, he struggled more than he let on. We followed the river for around seven hours arriving on the outskirts of Carlisle be
fore camping down, only detouring from the river once, but rejoining as it came back around on itself. About an hour before stopping, we saw strange lights in the sky, they were a good few miles away, further up the river. There was a dark shape with five multicoloured lights coming off the underside, it moved strangely through the dark sky, hovering in the same spot for long periods. We watched it while we walked for about thirty minutes. Something seemed to be falling out from its undercarriage, dark shadows blended into the sky. We stopped at an abandoned café on the side of the river, probably once a profitable business with walkers and cyclists. It was a good opportunity to do some night fishing, with the line and hooks I had brought in my rucksack. I banged the already wet ground with a hand size stone for a few minutes, then dug with my hands until I found some worms. I put them into a rusty can I found in long grass by the waters edge, while I searched for something to use as a rod. I found a wooden handle from an old broom in the kitchen of the café and tied the fishing line to the end, after adding some weights and hooking the worm, I dropped the line in the river. I pulled a splinter around an inch long off the wooden broom and proceeded to dig the dirt out of my fingernails as I sat looking out over the water. It brought back memories of my childhood, our farm afforded my parents little recreation time, so any we did get was very important to me. My father would take me fishing every Sunday morning, five a.m. sharp. I would look forward to it all week, it felt special, I thought getting up when the rest of the world must still be asleep was the most exciting thing ever. He would appear in my room through the darkness, his hand on my shoulder. ‘Nathan, wake up. It’s time to go.’ I would get dressed as quickly as possible, trying not to wake my mum, creep down the stairs and out of the farmhouse. On the far left corner of our land was a small lake surrounded by trees, it would take around twenty minutes for me to walk there, a bit longer if the weather was nasty, we would sit and talk as the sun came up. Dad would share his flask of coffee, I would pretend I liked the taste of it, it was only a couple of hours a week but those moments were very important to me. That night, we would feast on the fish we caught that morning, or so my dad claimed, but I saw the fish we brought out of the lake, and there was nothing that big. I always promised to take Emma fishing, but since Jane died I haven’t found the time, or didn’t make it. I hadn’t found time to do half the things I had promised Emma, I just hope I’m given the opportunity to make it up to her. I always felt lucky having my parents, particularly with Jane’s disowning her. I could tell there was something missing from her life, and theirs I presume. I cannot imagine feeling that strongly about a decision my child makes that I would disown them, having grandchildren you’ve never met, I couldn’t let that happen. Roy said he and Nancy had also had a problem within their families, his and Nancy’s parents had a long standing argument that stopped them ever spending any time together, family parties were particularly stressful. ‘I only found out after Nancy’s mum died what had happened’ he said, sat on the plastic sheets while we fished. ‘On her death bed, she basically told me she never liked me, Nancy was too good for me and that I had destroyed her relationship with her daughter. At her funeral, her family wouldn’t speak to me, blaming me for what had happened, she had died from heartbreak.’ It’s no longer something he needs to worry himself about. Shortly after finishing his story, Roy went back to the café to sleep, today’s journey had taken its toll on him, his eyes were bloodshot and his face pale. I fished for about two hours, catching a couple of fish. I put them in a bucket of river water until morning, we can have them for breakfast. I then sat down with my torch light to write this diary entry, before I settle down for some sleep myself.
Chapter FIVE
10/11/2027 - Time 11:10
When I woke this morning, I thought I was still dreaming. Light was streaming through the glass-less window into the café, the room was aglow. I woke Roy and we went outside to investigate, for around thirty seconds the sun was visible through a break the carpet of ash covering the sky. Shafts of light shone down on our dying planet, it felt almost spiritual. The light was picking out any remaining colour, as I reached the river I noticed a faint red trail had appeared overnight, flowing down river, the sunlight was highlighting it. Within a few seconds, the light had gone, replaced by the drab grey we had grown accustomed too, but the ruby red colour was still visible in the river. We searched the café for something to help us make breakfast, in the kitchen I found a sharp knife and a frying pan, Roy made a fire by the river as I prepared the fish. I picked up a large piece of slate from the floor that must have come down with the storm, I placed it next to the bucket of fish, and pulled out the first one. It jerked around in my hand like a robotic toy, as I placed it on the slate. Its skin was cold like metal, its eye watched me as I raised the knife and took its head off in one strike. Its body was still twitching as I pulled the second fish out, I skinned and boned them both and gave them to Roy, who had the frying pan heating on the fire. From our position, the M6 motorway towered over us like a Roman Colosseum, its old decaying walls in desperate need of repair. We were planning on picking up the motorway again from here, but something told us we should investigate the contamination in the river. It would mean walking further into Carlisle, a more built up area, which would be dangerous, but we had questions that needed answering. After we had eaten breakfast, I searched the café for anything of use, as Roy packed his rucksack. It had been searched previously with not much of use remaining, a few pieces of cutlery and the frying pan will come in useful. I also grabbed a couple of mugs and some stray tea bags, a possible treat to warm us up on the cold journey ahead. Above the café was an apartment, a dark damp stairwell took me up to a door, with black paint peeling off the wood. I tried the handle but it was locked, it took three smashes from my shoulder before the door frame splintered and the door swung open. Inside the one room flat, someone had left in a hurry, there was a plate of mouldy food on the table in front of the TV, magazines and newspapers were scattered around the coffee table. The small kitchen in the corner of the room had been emptied of food, behind the dining table, up against the back wall was a dresser, which took my interest. I opened its double doors unveiling a collection of almost empty bottles, as I closed them, my eyes picked out an unopened bottle at the back. I reached in and pulled it out, removing the dust with my fingers it read ‘Johnnie Walkers black label whisky.’ This might help keep us warm I thought, or at least convince us it was doing. I put it in my rucksack and headed downstairs, stopping at the coffee table. I remember my dad telling me stories of when his grandad fought through the terrible winters during world war two. They were ill prepared for the conditions, and resorted to stuffing newspaper’s down every hole they could, he swore by it. ‘Newspapers down your pants, newspapers up your shirt and on your back’ he would say. ‘Newspapers in your boots, in fact, newspapers everywhere you can stuff them.’ I collected them together, hesitating for a brief moment at one headline declaring world war three was imminent, I then packed them into the only remaining space in my rucksack and we moved out.
11/11/2027 - Time 10:05
I am going to recount yesterday’s events as we followed the river to find the source of the contamination. After our breakfast of fried fish and tinned vegetables, we started walking along the path next to the river, but it was soon overwhelmed by a mixture of mud and ash, becoming part of the field. The deserted city loomed over us as we neared the source of the red, which had now become an obvious contamination, taking up a quarter of the river. If this was blood, something big has died. We happened upon a body on the path, frozen solid in a ball. It was a man, he looked like he had given up, crawling his final few steps unable to carry on. He must have died recently, with virtually no decomposition on his body, he was frozen solid his skin grey and hard, like plastic. It was a gentle reminder, if we get caught in one of these snow storms, this is what could happen. His body was frozen in position and we couldn’t move him to search for anything useful,
we could get into his bag though, which we did, obtaining some bars of chocolate, frozen fruit, and a couple of towels. As we followed the river, now more contaminated with blood, we saw some lights flickering in the sky to the north east. At first we thought it might be related to the lights we observed in the sky last night, but it quickly became obvious it was a storm. The rain had come in force, slowing our progress and causing us to seek cover under the plastic sheets as we trudged alongside the river, soon our legs were soaked, and the dampness started to creep upwards. The river was an incredible sight, a rich vibrant red, splitting the grey landscape. Through the torrential rain ahead, I was sure I could see a chimney with smoke pumping out of it, some kind of factory or mill. The last time I had counted, the lightning was around eight miles away, as the black clouds ahead were lit up by a fork of lightning, I counted to ten before the thunder crashed around our ears. The storm was just a couple of miles away and approaching fast, we needed to find cover, maybe the building ahead would do. As we got closer to it, I noticed the river beyond the factory was clean, whatever was causing the contamination was coming from here. I looked up at the building, from the outside it looked inconspicuous, there was a huge bank on the riverside running up to a rusty barbed wire fence at the top. Beyond that was the property, but from our position we couldn’t see any further than the fence, it was too high and the rain was battering us. As I started to climb up the embankment, I noticed the mud seemed to be oozing blood, trickling down the banking into the river. I couldn’t get any kind of foothold, sliding back down into Roy, who was finding it equally difficult behind me. A wave of fear came over me, I cannot put it into words eloquently enough, it was the atmosphere. I had a sudden feeling something terrible had happened here, something sinister. Our hands and legs were covered in mud and blood as we tried in vain to climb, it was like an army assault course, by the time we reached the top our whole bodies were covered. When I looked out over the scene in front of me, my eyes took some time to focus, blinded by the intense red and pounding rain, it took a few seconds for me to work out what I was looking at. For as far as my eyes could see, there was dead body after dead body. I turned to my left and then to my right, but wherever I looked there were corpses, piled on top of each other, steam was rising from them, reacting with the cold and rain. Everything was a blur, I kept blinking half expecting the next time I opened my eyes, I would be looking at something else. I started to realise the horror of what was in front of me, the bodies were all female, all ages and all sizes, nobody had been spared. It was a gory mess, their bodies ripped open, with body parts everywhere. The blood was soaking into the ground, everywhere I looked was red, I fell onto my knees, unable to process what I was looking at. Roy appeared by the side of me, trying to lift me to my feet. The bodies started just metres away, in front of me was the naked body of a girl, no older than my daughter. I couldn’t stop looking at her face, her eyes still open, a look of despair on her face, the last thing she knew was unspeakable pain, the rain was pounding her face, this shouldn’t be happening. It could have been Emma, it was someone’s daughter. The smell of death was everywhere, flies and insects infesting everything. Roy helped me to my feet, just as the sound of engines filled the air, on the other side of the building, a big dark shape appeared, slowly, hovering over the factory. It had lights on its underside lighting up the rotting flesh all around, a crack of lightning lit the vehicle from above, showing us its true size, it must have been as big as a football pitch. Roy and I took shelter behind a black tree and watched as the aircraft positioned itself over the dumping site, rain was cascading down its sides, pouring onto the floor. A door underneath the aircraft, almost the size of the entire vehicle, started to open. Then the bodies started to drop out, just a few at first, but as the doors reached their limit, the numbers increased. Like sacks of potatoes, they fell out, crashing to the ground, blood and guts spraying everywhere, body parts and bones. The smell was atrocious, we couldn’t get away from it, when the aircraft had finished delivering its load, it shut its door and disappeared through the charcoal smoke still pumping through the chimney. The lightning crashed through the grey clouds above, I could see men working in the torrential rain, shovelling bodies onto carts. We watched as they pushed the cart over the bodies to get to an opening in the side of the building, other men were shovelling something onto the bodies, maybe soil or salt. In hindsight, I think they were probably burning the bodies inside the factory, that’s what the smoke was coming from. My memory from this point on is hazy, I started to lose my eyesight, stumbling down the embanking towards the river. It was as though someone had pulled down a white blind, hiding me from the horror I had just witnessed, I had seen enough and couldn’t deal with any more Falling face down in the mud, Roy helped me to the bridge we are now sheltering under. When he asked me about my eyesight, I explained how it had happened the first time, when I was a child at secondary school. I was standing in a queue after receiving my exam results, waiting to speak to my year leader about my options, I had needed to get a certain set of results to attend my choice of college and I hadn’t got them. My eyesight went while standing there, returning sometime later, I still to this day don’t know who I spoke to in the queue. Everyone reacts to shock in a different way, but mine is particularly debilitating. This morning, Roy told me how we had stumbled through the rain for ten minutes, away from the factory. He found shelter for us under the first bridge the river past under, he certainly pulled me through yesterday, I owe him, he has certainly justified my decision to let him come. We got very wet yesterday but thankfully the cold didn’t get at us too much, and Roy made sure we were dry before we slept. Our towels are damp and grubby though, we will need to pick some more up as we continue our journey after breakfast.
Aftermath: The complete collection Page 8
