“Not bad, I was in the middle of listening to the lieutenant. What's that all about then, you think this stuff is real?” I asked.
“Must be, if they call us up. It's not some joke,” she made a face. I laughed a little and sniggered.
“Well, it's good to see you again.”
“Yeah, you too,” she told me.
“I’m gonna get in the gym,” I pointed away to the entrance with a nervous laugh and walked over to my friends, Jake, Thomas, Jacob and Mason. Not being the loudest of them, I just knew inside, something bad was coming, I could feel it, a sixth sense perhaps. Something awful I knew lurking in the shadows.
If Thomas was right and they were recalling troops from abroad, things were certainly worse than the news have led on. It reminded me of the fall of Rome. The dawn of the dark ages, when Rome recalled her legions and left Britannia to fend for herself, and when Rome collapsed, so did the world.
The Outbreak Begins - Day 5 - Jess
“The army is being deployed to various cities in response to the growing pandemic of Savi-17,” buzzed Gareth's radio. I looked to the sky, I hated waiting around for something to happen. A mild autumn evening lay ahead of me, as the sky shone orange and yellow, I thought of my brother who I loved, annoying that he was, before looking back to Susie and Gareth. Both of them were lounging on the park bench with the shadowy woods at their backs, stretching all the way for miles. College had been cancelled in the wake of this mysterious disease.
I looked to the green shrubbery and black dead trees, a certain morbid beauty was about them and the wider world truth be told. This was where I came to get away from it all, but it didn't have that feeling of safety it once did. Nothing felt safe, not after the accident.
Not after that tragedy, where the faces of those children were etched into my mind, I couldn't think straight. Dad had begged me not to go out after the incident, especially now since lockdown had been announced, but I couldn’t do nothing for another day, it wasn’t right.
“Jess, you can’t go out, you have an injury!” They said, I didn't care, I needed to come here to my special place in the woods. All the while ordinary people were dropping like flies everywhere. Savi-17 they called it, as it originated in South Africa, and the year was 2017.
“The end is fucking nigh,” the red graffiti on the railway bridge ahead of us read. To me, this place was fucking heaven. Not a soul in sight, aside from my friends, they were those that understood me, who understand what it's like to suffer from my affliction. An affliction everyone around me denies. I always said they should take my mental health more seriously, if they did, I’d have gotten the treatment I needed to move on, but now all this stuff might drive me over the edge. I needed my friends now more than ever.
As we passed through the woods, we soon noticed we could all smell something gross in the air, this disgusting, grotesque. It was a decaying smell I recognised from all the roadkill we had seen on the road crossing the airport.
“What the fuck is that?” Gareth muffled through his bumper coat as he held it to his mouth. I trod over thick branches and brushes, finally finding a steep ditch running onto a small flowing stream, only it wasn't what you’d normally think. The river was red, and what I saw next horrified me beyond anything I’d ever seen in my life so far.
It was a deer with its antlers ripped off, its skin peeled back, revealing its ravaged rib cage, where large overbearing pieces of flesh had been torn and ripped off; laying in the river like debris from a crashed airplane.
“Don't look!” Shouted Susie as she ran over and covered my eyes, holding me back. The darkness of her orange coat was comforting for a brief moment. I gazed into its fabric, and saw the silhouette of the deer, etched into my mind just like that family before the crash.
Gareth stared at it, his mouth agape, taking it all in. We didn't speak a word, or asked about its nature. But we all thought the same thing. What could have done this?
I looked at Susie’s brown eyes as they flashed back to the rotten corpse, then away to the boy in jeans by the broken branches.
“Come,” she whispered, taking my hand. “Gareth, we're going!” She affirmatively called, then we meandered away like wounded gazelles pretending we hadn’t just seen what we’d seen.
The evening was turning to night fast. I looked above past the dark and withering treetops. Then I heard sounds like thunder in the distance, followed by the sound of a passing train. Home was close, I knew it, but not too close.
“You all right Jess?” Asked Gareth as he caught up to us. His fascination with death was curious, but I overlooked it in light of his caring nature.
“Yeah,” I replied, still in shock. “I needed to be in today to finish all my assignments,” I said, of college.
“That's the least you have to be worrying about now,” scoffed Susie. “I think I can walk on my own now,” I told her, gently pushing her caring arms away.
“I'm glad its closed,” Gareth spoke in a rough sort of way while kicking a stone across the beaten path. It spun and dented a nearby car in the parking lot of the park, bringing concerned looks from me and Susie, but Gareth remained annoyed in ignorance.
I exhaled and looked to the grey clouds in the distance, then glanced to the airport and the coming of a passenger plane to the runway out of sight behind the houses of Cross Lane, so close to home. From here I wondered how these people closest slept at night, being so close to the terminals, traffic and trains.
All of a sudden as we reached the residential area, what sounded like a firework went off. A crack in the sky and a blitz of light, but it sounded like gunshots.
“Who the hell is popping fireworks off at this time?” Gareth questioned at the cold dust sky. His apple protruded from his neck as he gazed straight up.
“They shouldn't be able to, the police would stop them,” I said.
“The police can't do anything, it's if they are outside they get arrested. They can do anything in their gardens,” Susie told us. She’d watched the news so many times, followed the procedures to the letter until now. I forced her out of the curfew because being inside all day yesterday was hell.
We continued on. My footsteps went cold. Wet. Sloshing about in the autumn leaves. They looked yellow with the torch light of our phones. More booms and loud bangs seemed to follow us.
“This is the satanic cult, blowing off fireworks because they think the worlds ending. We’ll be fine though; viruses don't kill us all. A few will die, but that's it. I've seen it online,” Gareth tried to reassure us.
“I hope you're right,” said Susie. But something wasn't right. As we continued, the booms became clearer and more sporadic, like in bursts.
“Those aren't fireworks,” I told them. A whizzing wheeze of wind blew past us, as the leaves strewn ahead of us cleared and revealed the path to home. Another boom. That sounds like a fire work.
Maybe it's just our imagination getting the better of us. The wind was so cold. What we’d just seen had shook us off. The lamp lights faded as we approached the bridge that had since fallen into ruin, its bricks crumbled and its sidewalks impeded by trees, or was it the sidewalk impeding the trees? Either way, it was a decaying world, and we were at the centre of it.
I heard the crunch of the pebbles and the leaves under my boot. Then they fell silent, and the world seemed to stop as an eerie groan escaped from the mouth of the airport.
Strangely enough, music from the nearby houses rekindled the calmness I had lost since seeing that deer, while the sparse street lamps lighted our way and the tracks of the trains came into viewing above the bridge, I blew a kiss to Gareth as he blew one back to me.
A bright orange light lay ahead, it was a signal stopper for the trains. Then the boom of an airplane engine roared from about a mile away, and the sky was filled with the loudest of noises.
“Those poor animals with their fireworks. Bastards,” muttered Susie as we heard them pop off again.
“I wonder if something is happen
ing?” I asked them. Then what sounded like a bomb went off in the distance. It was a loud bang. A violent, shaking thump; and again, as the street lamps dimmed and recovered lighting the trees and autumn leaves again from across the sidewalk.
“Perhaps the army's training. Your brother left, didn't he?” Asked Gareth.
“I don't. I don't think he works at night,” I told him, but I was probably wrong, it was the army and they did stuff all the time, day and night.
“They wouldn't do drills at night you mean?” Asked Susie.
“Yeah. I think. He's stationed in Wolverhampton, I hope he’s ok” I told them.
“Yeah, me too,” said Gareth with a dejected tone. He didn't get on well with Blake, so it was not a surprise to hear him say it with such duplicity.
“There's a range in Sheldon. Literally over the airport,” he then informed us, as another train passed. The blaring engine of a jumbo ripped up the air.
“I don't know anything about what my brother does, he's always kept to himself.”
At the end of the street Packington Drive, I parted ways with them. Susie lamented to me the time it took her to get home. She lived on a large residential area on the other side of town, while Gareth lived in the town centre in a small apartment with his friends, a temporary arrangement from his house in. I wondered if I’d ever see them again.
“Are you sure you don't want me going with you?” He asked me.
“No, I’ll go the rest of the way myself.”
It was quiet heading home, too quiet. The government had announced that all non-essential travel had to be cancelled just two days ago, but there were many cars on the road, hundreds. At the crossing at Manor Way, I could go two ways, down an alleyway and through the farmers field, right to my house, or down a slip road to the housing estate where we lived, which would take longer. I chose the quicker option, the alleyway, and immediately regretted my decision.
Seconds after I walked down the path, with the pale moon in my sight, the silhouette of two men stood behind some bushes, backing into the garages of some houses I’d passed. They were fighting, or at least one of them was. The first man punched the other over and over again. I saw the blood spill from his mouth and onto his attacker. My first thought was I had to do something, but then, more revealed themselves, rising from the darkness, with hoods and many bikes. I ran, instinctively, who wouldn't in that situation. I ran and ran and ran, then hid in some bushes and waited for them to pass. I couldn't outrun them.
I don't know how long I waited, my head in the dirt and my neck pulsing with fear; it was a long wait. They passed once or twice on their bikes, then scrammed when a police car pulled up in the nearby garages flashing its lights. The police officer stepped out of his car and turned on his flashlight, almost blinding me. But he didn’t see me at first, I was too well hidden in the shrubbery. I breathed a sigh of relief, and watched with lightened breath the poor victim crawl across the paved floor to the flashing lights of the cop’s car. His face illuminating the blood on his mouth as he called for help.
I went to stand but fell back down at the sight of the police officer pulling out a firearm. A firearm? It was a pistol. Police don't have guns in the UK? He extended his arm and shot the victim point blank.
I fell on my back and stared up to the night sky. Then I heard his footsteps close to me, then he went back to his car. He opened the car door and grabbed something.
“I found him, he was coming at me, teeth and claws, there’s blood everywhere I’m gonna need a clean-up.”
The radio buzzed and clicked; I couldn't make out what the other person was saying. “So, what do you want me to do, leave it here?” He asked. The radio made its quiet noises again.
“There were others, on bikes,” he then said.
More buzzes and jitters came. “I’m pack it in the squad car.” The radio blew up in noise. “Ok, fine, I’ll leave it.”
I watched him stroll over to the body and unlike a hitman, lift it up clumsily and place it in the boot of his car. Before he left, he picked up his torch and surveyed the area again; staring right at me. Then he started walking towards me. He’d found me.
A Sons Warning - Day 5 - Sarah
It was night now, my son was gone, my daughter was missing. The news told us to stay inside. Rich was being sarcastic as usual. It was a nightmare. The light in my bedroom was dim, the street lamp dimmer and flashing in distress almost, right outside my window. I’d had the news on for hours now, they kept repeating the same things over and over. The last real news dripped in hours ago, since then it’s just been talk of disruption and chaos.
“There are measures in effect to remove virus patients from non-virus patients in wards. Conspiracy theories are damaging to the wellbeing of the public according to the Prime Minister, he said that the makeshift facilities in London are not as what is being reported online as concentration camps, but rather hospitals, and he said the spread of more fake news is now more than ever, dangerous to the public...”
I turned the volume down and called my cousin in London, he didn't reply, it went straight to voicemail. On social media the phrase free our country was trending, like freeing the roads up again will help stem the flow of infection.
“No more than a handful of European representatives were present at the UN council today, World Health Organisation Leader Farse Edmarie says the new reality facing countries is that there will be more fatalities ahead, no matter what they do.”
A gunshot blasted in my ears, tearing the safety of my home apart. I immediately fell down and thought of small Lily in the other room.
“Lily!” I shouted, loudly, in a panicked voice, but not too loud. I walked to her room and found her in her bed, the cat curled on her lap. Lily looked to be on the brink of crying.
“Come on sweetie, it's ok, I'm here.” I spoke. The only people in the house were me, Lily and my mother.
The gunshot we heard wasn't far away, worst case scenario it must have been down the street, best case scenario on the main road a bit away from us. I went back into the main bedroom and looked out to the street. I saw nothing, everyone was inside, no car lights in sight. It was scary, it was surreal. The howl of the wind on the windows was freakish, but what followed, the eerie silence, as if the dead had breathed out for the last time before the great plunge.
My heart skipped a beat as I heard the front door slam shut. I ran fast to the top of the stairs.
“Rich? Jess? Mom?” I called in hurried whispers.
“It's me,” Rich shouted firmly up. “Can't find Jess, Margret's not picking up,” he said, of our neighbour. I was more concerned at our own daughter.
“You tried Ian?” I heard Lily's grandmother and my mother, Linda ask him from the kitchen. My father Ian had decided to travel to my brother in Essex, who’d been estranged from us for donkeys’ years. It had gotten bad there, like really bad apparently.
“Yeah,” Rich said with a deep defeated breath as I walked down the stairs. “Ok just. Just stay here,” he then said to me.
“Are you going out there again?” I asked.
He moved to the door with a sweat on his brow. “Keep Lily safe.”
“What?! You're not going out there!” I screamed, I didn’t want him to go as well.
“Moms right,” I heard a voice from the top of the stairs sound, it was little Lily with her teddy bear hanging from her hand weakly.
“Hell yes I am darling,” I spoke to her with a smile, before turning back to her father sternly. “You’re not going anywhere, there's too many people I love too far away from me,” I told him stupidly. It was a moment of weakness, showing I still had some sort of feelings for him. I spoke in the heat of the moment again.
“Listen. Guys. It's gonna be ok. I'm just gonna walk down the street. Ok. Anything happens I’ll shout,” he promised us. I rummaged through his tools in the kitchen.
“Take a flashlight,” I said, handing him one of the heavy battery lights.
“Thanks,” he
took it from me and we locked eyes, he wanted to say something, something warm and heartfelt, but one look was enough to remind him that whatever he said could not heal the past fifteen years of our marriage. He left.
The front door to the house slammed shut moments later, the sound of his key locking it left me feeling so alone. But I was with Lily and Mum, a frightened child and a sarcastic elderly woman. Blake was gone, Jess was missing, Rich had just left, gunshots were sounding even now outside, forget the fireworks, I know what gunshots sounded like. The news to my right kept reporting horrible unspeakable things, happening even on our very doorstep in Birmingham.
Through my breakdown the phone rang and Linda in the kitchen picked it up. I held my face with my hands as I heard her speak to whoever it was on the other end, asking for help or assistance they weren't going to get.
“Gran. Gran. Is that you?” A man's voice I heard. A familiar one at that.
“Yes, yes honey. When are you coming home?” Mum asked. She wasn't possibly speaking to Blake? Was she?
“I don't know. Gran. They're deploying us. To the cities. They're deploying us to the cities tomorrow. Listen. You need to get Dad. Jess and Lily. Get Mom to take them. To the countryside. Ok listen to me. It's not safe there. It's safe at home.”
“Is that Blake?” I asked her in shock. She ignored me and waved me away with her frail hands, as if to say, you've said your goodbye, now's my chance.
“I don't understand. I don't understand. Blake,” she said, trying to keep a calm facade.
“You've seen the news haven't you?” He said to her, as static built up around his voice.
“Yes I've seen. I’m watching it right now darling,” she said glancing to the TV.
“It's not just a hoax. It's not the floo. Ok it's really bad. Worse than what they're saying… Are those gunshots?” He asked right as another slew of shots blew off in the distance, frightening us again.
World Down: A Zombie Novel Page 7
