Chapter 3: Chapter two

CHAPTER TWO

As the car juddered unsteadily into a crowded parking lot, the feeling of unease within me returned once again as we circled the lot several times to find a space, which was offered when a couple hurriedly jumped into their Ferrari and sped off into the early afternoon. The roads had gradually become unbearably crowded despite the fact we were allowed to leave early, which meant the journey had taken hours longer than it was supposed to. Police and traffic wardens lined the motorways and small off roads, and each time the car drove past one, Lucas sent me a knowing look.

By the second, it was looking more and more as though he was right, as much as I tried to ignore it.

‘Alright kids, how about you run up to the front door of that bed and breakfast and see if theres a queue, we’ll meet you in there when we find the parking meter’ our father said, gesturing towards an old looking cottage building.

‘Chris!’ Mum cried, rolling her eyes, ‘We’re not leaving the kids by themselves, where have you been the past few hours?’

‘Oh come on’ he sighed, Lucas is an adult, Harley is the most mature seventeen year old I’ve ever known and Joel is in good hands’.

‘Yes but th-‘

‘No buts. Lucas, take the lead’ Dad nodded to him, sending a wink. In reply, my mother pouted and cursed childishly which brought a chuckle bubbling from my chest.

‘You’re still my babies’ she spoke to us as we wandered towards the building, ‘Be careful!’

‘Yes mother’ Lucas and I called in unison as I gripped onto Joel’s hand, his unusual quietness unnerving me just a little. I didn’t want to force him to chat, so I took in the scene around me as we walked; the car smoke in the air thick on my tongue. There were winding roads leading from the car park to various streets, tall buildings clear from where we were standing. It was hard to take in the view though; several people were stood around the streets in small huddles, gossiping together. Some were frantic, some were laughing, but the atmosphere stayed the same.

I wasn’t sure why I’d been initially shocked by the agitated and angry people on the streets as we drove past, the drive to Sunderland had been manic; the roads filled with coaches and army print trucks - very few cars made it onto the actual roads, many were stuck in driveways. I dreaded to think what it would have been like if we’d been in the same boat as everyone else, stuck in traffic full of townspeople as well – we were lucky it’d only taken the hours it had to get here and I knew that. It was incredibly unnerving, I’d never seen an army truck in the flesh but now they littered the roads, all with an agenda.

‘Precautionary’ I decided instantly, wondering how I’d managed to miss all the vans when Bird flu broke out. Now though, the coaches were obviously well on their way, in the same boat we were: we’d managed to miss the awful traffic by only minutes.

Despite this, I felt no more at ease or grateful of the atmosphere; it was impossible to describe, but it just wasn’t right.

‘Harley?’ Joel mumbled quietly, his big blue eyes staring into my own almost identical ones, ‘Is something bad going to happen?’

With his question, came my smiled reply of ‘no’ which I spoke before scooping him into my arms, causing him to laugh hysterically and beg to be lifted higher. All I could think though, was that I knew what it felt like to tell the truth and subconsciously, I had lied.

‘Holy shit’ Lucas breathed, stopping dead in his tracks, almost sending me careering into him.

‘What?’

‘Look’ he gestured towards the bed and breakfast which had a line of angry people filing out the door into the street. Somehow, I figured we wouldn’t be staying there later.

‘We could walk a little further up?’ I suggested, still holding onto Joel who’d once again become quiet. Before I got a reply though, our parents jogged over to us, their shoes slapping heavily against the gravel. Lucas opened his mouth to speak but Mum got there just a second before him.

‘We just spoke to a couple by the car; they live in the town next to us’ she panted, still a little out of breath, ‘They upped and left like we did, except they heard stories’. Before I knew what was happening, Joel was being taken out of my arms and my mother was walking into the distance with him, sending my father a nod.

‘People have died, fairly local to us’ he sighed, rubbing his hand across his neck like he always did when he was stressed, ‘Apparently, new cases are cropping up over different towns down south, just a small cluster but no-one can get past any of the police barricades to actually find out what’s happening. My shift at the hospital starts tomorrow so I’m more out of the loop than I should be’.

‘There are still barricades up?’ Lucas asked in disbelief.

‘Streets are being quarantined, they’re putting up sheets to hide whatever’s going on. The woman we were speaking to, one of her old college friends’ house was sectioned and they wouldn’t let her anywhere near’.

I could feel tears welling up in my eyes and a feeling of dread residing in my stomach. I had an absolutely awful feeling, the kind you get when everything is out of your control and there is nothing you can do. At this point, I was starting to believe in ‘precautionary’ less and less. I didn’t even need to ask if this was serious, my gut feeling said yes.

‘Is it like a flu?’ I asked quietly, my voice almost being carried away with the wind.

‘I don’t think so’ my father muttered, narrowing his eyes, ‘the woman was saying it’s a type of virus and that’s all they were told. I don’t see how it could spread very far though, the areas are being evacuated at the moment and they’re pulling out all the stops. I should’ve tried harder to find out what was going on at the time but the police herded us out of town and I still can’t get hold of anyone from the hospital’ he frowned, glancing up at the light sky.

‘Wow’ I mumbled, my heart wrenching uncomfortably. I definitely had a bad feeling, the kind that niggles at you and doesn’t leave.

‘I think I was right’ Lucas started, ‘I wish I wasn’t’.

‘Right about what, son?’

‘I think this could be the start of something bad’.

We’d been walking for about forty five minutes and it was already around three o clock. We’d had no luck, every hotel, B&B and hostel was crammed full of irate people bidding to book rooms. The demands were high, and the facilities low. Clearly everybody had the same bright idea to move to a town up south fairly close to the water, which meant that many people walked away from the B&B we were now at, defeated and wiped out.

‘I’m tired’ Joel mumbled sadly into my arm after another restless twenty minutes of walking. Once again, I found myself scooping him into my arms and attempting to make him laugh as we walked, whispering jokes into his ear until he eventually began to shake with laughter, gripping me in a hug. Joel was just about the sweetest six year old I knew – obviously there were times I wanted to  lock myself in a different room to him but for the most part, he took after Lucas and my father in the fact he was pretty serene for his age. Because of this, I deemed it safe to carry him around Sunderland town, without the risk of being beaten by a child. I laughed quietly at the thought, tugging him closer to my chest, full well knowing that six years old was a little too old to be carried but not really caring.

‘What’s funny, chook?’ My mother asked, looking like she wanted something to laugh at.

‘Nothing important’ I smiled back, despite the ache in my legs, ‘But I’ll start crying instead if we don’t find somewhere soon’ my smile turned into a frown, the idea of walking round for another hour seeming all too daunting. We’d gotten nowhere, my shoes were already becoming worn down and we’d achieved nothing.

‘Why don’t we crash in the car?’ Lucas suggested, ‘It sounds stupid but I’d rather do that than walk around for another thousand hours’.

‘Drama queen’ our father muttered eventually, a small smile tugging at his lips. ‘It’ll be our last resort, we can try and join up with the next group we see and find out if they have any internet access, I left my iPhone in the car’.

‘I did say we should’ve driven’ my mother cut in, winking at my father.

‘Bloody woman, have you seen the traffic? We’d be driving for years’ he muttered with a roll of the eyes which almost caused me to laugh again.

‘There are people’ I quickly pointed towards a small group of men and women only around twenty feet from us, much like the many other groups we’d seen on our pointless journey. Within seconds we were by their side, my mother politely coughing and smiling towards them before realising they were gathered around a sobbing woman, black hair cascading round her shoulders.

‘O-oh sorry’ my mother stuttered, sending me a terrified look and beginning to back away before another woman spoke.

‘Wait!’ she called to our retreating figures, ‘Do you have a working phone, please?’

‘I think I do’ my father rummaged around in his pockets before handing his pre-historic emergency phone over, concern in his eyes. I had no idea what to do, so I simply stood awkwardly, trying not to make eye contact with the woman who was now a little more composed and trying to stifle her sobs. After a few seconds of prodding the phone, she sighed and handed it back with a small smile.

‘No service, like mine’ she muttered.

‘I haven’t had reception for a long time’ my own mother frowned, still darting glances towards the crying woman, ‘I’m sorry to hang around, but we have no information on what’s going on down South, we live down there and decided to leave because my friend Valeri-‘

‘She doesn’t want to hear your life story, Diane’ my father sighed, picking up where he cut her off. ‘I have no access to any television or internet, I just wonder if you have any information?’ There was a short silence before anyone answered, and to my surprise, the voice came from the crying woman.

‘They’re all liars’ she mumbled, wiping mascara stains from beneath her eyes, ‘They’ve been saying they can contain it but they can’t. They haven’t’.

‘May I ask what you mean?’ My mother asked delicately, trying not to provoke her in any way. She seemed incredibly breakable and sighed quietly at my mothers’ question.

‘I saw it, I was there. My husband woke up, he was so quiet at first’ a silent tear rolled down her cheek and Joel began to squirm uncomfortably in my arms. I knew I should take him away but the curiosity was too much – I wanted to hear her story.

‘He wasn’t himself, he’d been ill, I kept him in bed’ she continued with a deep breath, one of the women giving her shoulder a reassuring squeeze, ‘I have no idea what happened but I touched him and he.. flipped. He was screeching, trying to pin me down and his eyes..’ she trailed off, tears welling up behind her eyelids again. ‘At first I thought he’d woken from a bad dream, he used to do that a lot, but he was bleeding and screaming, I almost swear he was trying to bite me too. It seemed like hours I was fending him off when my neighbour came in’ now she began to sob once again, choked gasps coming from her mouth. One of the men stood next to her stepped forward, nodding his head before he carried on speaking on her behalf.

‘The guy tried to fight off her husband but he started biting him until he collapsed on the floor; then from what Hannah told us, a bunch of people wearing face masks broke in and shot him down. They tried to restrain her too but she managed to slip out a window and get to my house. We drove up here and now, we’re absolutely stuck’.

For a few moments we were rendered speechless; I was frozen with horror as even my heart seemed to stand still in my chest. A heated debate within my mind raged; I couldn’t understand why she would lie or even twist the facts – it was so absurd by my god, how could she possible be telling the truth? Despite this, there was something about the tears rolling down this woman’s cheeks and the solemn expression on the man’s face that told me otherwise though, that maybe I should push my screaming doubts aside and try to believe their words. The scenario seemed absurd, I’d never heard of any normal person, ill or not, flipping out and being attacked by men in masks. I tried to ignore the rest of the conversation, squeezing my eyes shut until I became dizzy and nearly lost my balance, reluctantly opening them again when my father spoke.

‘Was he ill with this infection?’ he asked quietly, his face a mask, ‘The virus people are talking about?’

‘That’s what the people were screaming when they broke into my house’ The crying woman, Hannah, shivered, her eyes dead and devoid of any light, ‘‘He’s got the virus’ they kept screaming, I didn’t understand, I still don’t understand’.

Again we all stood silently, unsure of what they right thing to say, or even think was. What the hell kind of illness was this, which would push a person into attacking someone he loves? Was she exaggerating, had they been fighting? Was that what she meant? Could a virus even do that to somebody?

‘I can’t get my head around this, is it spreading, how would it even spread?’ Mum was trying to stay calm for Joel who was still quiet in my arms but her voice kept catching unconvincingly.

‘We really don’t know’ the man shook his head, ‘Apparently all the information is leaking onto the internet and news at the moment but I’m only getting a few seconds access at a time. We’re gonna try and get across the sea to France tomorrow morning, this shit sounds like rabies or something’.

‘Rabies?’ my mother breathed, ‘is that even possible? I mean, was that man lashing out or was it some kind of seizure?’

‘Come on’ my father began to tug her away from the group and Lucas and I followed slowly as though our feet were stuck in quicksand. I dared not to catch his eye – his façade was usually convincing but I could guess without a shadow of doubt that he was as scared as me right then. I figured Joel hadn’t really understood, he was acting more as my security blanket, wrapped up within my arms.

I had no idea what was going on, but now I had a horrible feeling not that it was going to be huge, but that it already was.

Dominick Neville

The mood was electric, exhilarating like nothing I’d felt in all my years.

Cars sped past us so quickly that frequent gusts of wind blew my hair out of place until Aimee from make up completely gave up, angrily shoving a hairbrush and blusher back into her bag. I was relieved, no middle aged man wants to stand in front of a camera with make-up all over his face, unless he is a transvestite or of questionable sexuality.

‘Three minutes, get in position Dom!’ Barry called to me, setting up the microphones as he eyed up the scene behind me warily. He wanted to be here as much as I did, easy to tell by the clenched jaw and deep frown lines carved into his forehead.

In a dark grey suit I stood silently on the, narrow pavement, adjacent to the road running through central Letchworth. The road itself wasn’t usually too busy when I drove past with the family but now crowds of people elbowed us out the way without the grudging respect we usually received when we were set up with all the equipment on show. Cars sped past, people yelled, people cried, ran.

Humankind in a frenzy, the sight my career had always depended on.

I knew the score, I knew we didn’t have long before the infected caught up with us, caught up with everyone. We’d film this, it’d make it to one of only two channels which would remain in only hours and then we’d leave, go. My wife sat in a car park minutes away with my two girls, how I’d rather be there than here but I had a job to do and goddammit, I’d do it.  It would be somebody elses problem after that, some other news reporter could sell their soul and their life to be the last on TV.

As the camera team continued to argue over angles, I let my mind wander to the meeting earlier; the supervisor calling us all into the cramped meeting room. He’d paced, sighed, groaned and rolled his eyes as we waited, hungry and dehydrated, anticipating good or bad news. We knew more than most, we had to. The facts had been given, the ‘emergency script’ shoved into our desk drawers, the briefing short.

‘If you live, there will be a job waiting’ he’d said when the pacing stopped. We stayed silent, none of us having the heart to judge him badly. We were awful people ourselves, hiding all of this from the public, the people who I knew deserved to know. The prime minister knew, the world leaders knew, a selection of the indispensable celebrities knew what was to come but not the people it would affect the most.

So I would do my part, tell the people, then quit this sinking ship of a job.

‘Live in in 4, 3, 2, 1..’

And with a deep breath, I started the speech I’d rehearsed many, many times since earlier. This was not one to get wrong – it was the first time the people would be able to see what was happening outside their bubble, the real effects of the virus which had begun so quickly that even the people who were informed struggled to keep up with it. I didn’t know how it started, only a very select few did – I didn’t want to know, I never did. My instructions were simple, do not give too much away, do not incriminate the news station or the government and make sure to state that the virus is centred around the area you based are in. Tell them it won’t spread, tell them anything, just not the truth; ‘Because obviously that would cause much needed panic‘ I thought bitterly.

I wouldn’t play by their rules, I was quitting anyway.

May as well go out with a bang.

Good day, Britain’ I boomed, stepping closer to the camera like I’d been told to, ‘I’m here today in the heart of Letchworth where the majority of the town are fleeing for their lives, most of them unsuccessfully’ I narrowed my eyes, ignoring the wild gestures of Barry who by now was realising that I would not stick to the script, ‘The chances are you do not know what is happening and that is exactly what they all want, for you to be ignorant until the very last moment’.

The funny thing was, nobody would even try and cut my live stream to TV, nobody would dare. The only person who had the authority to do so was already on a plane out of the country. The cameramen were the only ones who could really ruin my moment but they all seemed content.

‘This virus is as serious as it gets, Britain, do not be fooled. See these people behind me?’ I gestured to the backdrop of screaming people, gesturing for a lone woman to come towards me. She did, slowly, looking frantically around her.

‘Have you seen my son?’ She asked, sobbing uncontrollably. My heart wrenched for her but it was what people needed to see, for now, she was my muse.

‘Why are you worried?’ I pressed her, glancing around for what I assumed to be a young boy.

‘They’re coming!’ she cried, sobbing harder, ‘They’ll take him, they’ll take him!’

‘Who will?’

‘The monsters, they’re coming!’

‘Monsters?’

‘People, they’ve gone crazy, the people have gone crazy’ She was hyperventilating now as a screeching sounded in the distance. I knew it was time to move but I was rooted to the spot determined to carry on.

‘Britain’ I began again, glancing behind me, ‘These people are dangerous, they are no longer themselves. They will attack without being provoked, I repeat, they will attack. This virus is unlike any other, it can be identified by th-‘

I never got to finish my sentence though, as my eyes were drawn to Barry, his mouth in a perfect ‘O’ shape.  I already knew though, as a horrific wail sounded behind me and the most almighty pain screamed into my neck. It all happened in slow motion, Lillian dropped the camera and began to run as my pain amplified, blood, blood and more blood pouring from the open wound. My hand reached up to mask the bleeding but they were all over me, the infected, biting, clawing, grabbing.

I had been too late, too late to get to my family, too late to kiss my children goodbye.

It was with that thought I collapsed to the ground, the most immense frenzy of pain and heartbreak washing over me. Only the relief saved me in my final moments, relief of what I had done; showed humanity what would soon be chasing them. Before I closed my eyes for the very last time, the little red dot on the camera caught my eyes, flashing, flashing.

It was all on tape.

The world had seen everything, they still could.

And so among the chaos, I choked my very last words.

‘Dominic Neville, reporting from Letchworth. I love you, Maria, kiss my babies goodnight.  Good luck, world’. Then with the best smile I could bring to my lips, I kissed my life goodbye.