Endurance (3 page)

Smoke and
flames smothered the street. Tom walked along, staring wide-eyed at
the damage. The flames were scorching, as he walked through it felt
as if his face was being cooked. He limped to the spot he thought
Anna had been hit, then to where he thought she had landed. He
knelt, using his bloody hands to dig through the rubble trying to
find her body. He had no luck, and his hands were getting carved up
by the debris. He lay down and closed his eyes. The desperation to
find Anna surpassed the pain of his injuries.

The
uncomfortable surface dug into his back, but Tom couldn’t think of
anything except Anna, her beautiful features, her soft glossy hair
and her sweet laugh.

An image of
her dead body came into his mind. The thought wouldn’t leave. She
stared at him, her eyes full of anger and hurt. Her blood-shot eyes
had less brown and more red in them. Her body was tangled and
twisted. Suddenly, her body began to straighten with loud cracking
sounds. Her bones unknotted, the cracking of the bones continued to
echo in Tom’s ears. Tom forced himself to wake from this
nightmare.
‘I must have fallen asleep.’ Tom said.

I’ve got to
try to find out what’s happened and what caused this. I’ve got to
find her body, I just need to know. I need to find Stewart, Lucy
and Dan, see if they’re okay.

Each street
looked identical; the buildings obliterated; no sign of life at
all, flames suffocated each street.

Tom arrived
at Anna’s flat; or at least where her flat once was. Her flat was
gone. The greenery was just mud, smoke and a partially burnt tree
stump.

The smoke
hovered above the ground all the way through London. Tom made his
way to what used to be Jubilee Gardens, and was now full of debris,
with parts of what used to be the London eye covering the area. The
tree trunks were burnt with no greenery in sight. He stared across
the Thames; there was nothing but empty land.

Tom limped to
the main road and saw some cars burnt to dust and others flipped
upside down. The walk bridge that led to Waterloo station was
collapsed in the middle of the road, crushing cars, and probably
people as well.

Tom’s hope
for survival was crushed.

How am I ever
going to do this by myself? There’s no one around; there’s no such
thing as the police anymore, probably not even the army. What am I
going to do?

Something
wriggled under the collapsed footbridge, snagging Tom’s.
Momentarily forgetting the pain in his leg, Tom ran toward it.
Someone was trapped under the bridge. Her bloodstained hair covered
her face.

Tom jumped
and skidded along the tarmac and knelt next to the young girl; she
couldn’t have been much older than twelve.

‘
Hello? Speak
to me. Are you okay?’

The girl
moved her mouth, but no words came out. She exhaled slowly. There
was a long pause, as Tom waited and waited for her chest to rise
again.

‘
No, no, stay
with me please. What’s your name?’

The girl
didn’t react. Tom tried to turn her over, but she was wedged under
the bridge. He grabbed her arms and yanked. As he pulled, he
something tear; she’d lost her legs. He pulled her torso away from
the rubble. He released his grip, jumped back in horror and fell
onto the tarmac. His brain seemed to have switched off as he stared
at this lifeless and legless young girl.

Full of fear,
Tom stared at the torso for what seemed like a lifetime. As he
tried to stand, he couldn’t seem to get off his back. He eventually
climbed off the ground and limped away, looking back at the girl
over his shoulder.

Tom staggered
into the middle of the road, looked up into the sky, and tried to
block everything out around him. He began to scream, digging his
fingernails into his hand, drawing blood. His screams echoed
through the shattered streets, bouncing off each corner, brick, and
car, and returned to him like a boomerang. The screams stopped and
the silence returned.

What could
have done this?

Tom limped
through the streets of London. Alone.

Why has this
happened? What is it, a world war? An alien invasion?

Tom’s
thoughts were interrupted by screams. Standing still, he tried to
identify from which direction the screams were coming. The screams
sounded as if they were to his left, just around what used to be a
corner, where a partially constructed building was. Tom began to
jog, but slowed due to the pain in his leg.

I’ve got to
ignore this pain; I’ll find somewhere to hide out to treat
it.

Continuing to
jog, with a slight limp, he got closer and closer to the screams.
The screams turned from an echo to a solid sound. Soon, Tom saw the
screaming woman. She was crawling with one arm and no legs; her
face was covered in blood and looked as if it’d been scraped along
the concrete-strewn ground. Her screams rang through Tom’s ears.
The sight made him queasy. He ran toward her.

‘
Shit. What
happened here? Do you know anything? Did you see anything?’ Tom
sounded desperate.

‘
I saw
everything, please can you just…’ Her weak voice was overpowered by
Tom’s shouts.

‘
Tell me what
you saw.’ Tom said fearfully.

‘
I saw lights
in the sky…’ the woman’s voice petered in and out as she struggled
to speak, losing her breath. ‘…then something came from out of the
sky and started shooting everything and everyone… put me out of
this pain, please?’

Tom stood and
looked down at the woman.

‘
What do you
mean?’

‘
Kill me.’
She whispered.

She has no
chance of surviving. I don’t feel capable of killing this innocent
woman. She is in pain but how do I do it? Only thing I’ve ever
killed is an irritating fly entering my house.

Tom
aggressively pulled the metal rod out his of leg, his skin and
pieces of flesh stuck to it. He held the rod above the woman’s
head. As he aimed it into the centre of her forehead, he threw it
aside forcefully.

‘I can’t do
it.’ Tom sobbed, ‘I’m sorry.’

‘
No, please.
Please I’m begging you.’

Tom stared at
her torso, arm and then her face.

I feel worse
letting her suffer like this.

Tom found the
rod, knelt beside her head and he stabbed her in the throat. Blood
spurted onto Tom’s face; he ignored it and continued to violently
stab the woman until there was no movement. He stared at her body
and felt ashamed to have killed this innocent person. He stood over
her, staring down at the ground around her, not daring to look into
her eyes. They were still open. He looked toward the empty skies in
disbelief.

I’m now a
killer; I’ve probably killed a mother, a daughter and a
wife.

He tried to
erase this act of senseless violence from his memory but could not.
This wasn’t the time or the situation to have good
morals.

This is about
life and death now
.

This all
seems so unreal. It’s like a nightmare that you just can’t awaken
from. The way the woman was describing it made it sound like an
alien attack. It could be possible; no one has ever said aliens
don’t exist and there have been some sightings of such
things.

Ken Williams,
Tom’s dad, never believed in aliens but he never completely
disbelieved either. ‘You can’t ever be sure of something that you
can’t prove to be unreal,’ he used to tell Tom. ‘Approach life with
an open mind,’ he also said. Today, Tom was approaching life with
an open mind; he had killed a woman, held two dead bodies, and was
considering this to be an alien attack.

Tom sat down
behind a car. He took off his tie and tied it around his leg over
the wound; he pulled it tightly to stop the bleeding.

Tom moved
away from the car to turn around and pull himself up using the side
mirror. As he stood looking over the roof of the car, a light
shined on him, immediately followed by shots that hit the car and
the tarmac behind him. Flinching away from the shots, there was an
explosion behind him. Tom and the car were launched into the air,
flipped and tossed onto the ground. Tom jumped up immediately, not
even stopping to assess his injuries, and ran away at full speed.
Whatever it was followed him and continued to shoot, hitting the
tarmac behind his feet. Occasionally, the bullets hit over his
head, piercing buildings and shattering the tarmac ahead of
him.

He attempted
to see what it was by looking over his right shoulder; a glaring
white light shone into the corner of his eye. He ran into a
building and up the stairs. The bullets pierced the walls and
travelled all the way through the building to the other wall and
pierced it as well. Tom dove to the ground, skidding across the
wooden floor, picking up numerous splinters in his hands and knees.
He gasped in pain. A bullet skimmed his shoulder, knocking him
facedown into the floor. His shaking hand cupped his shoulder, as
he pulled his hand away; he saw that his hand was covered in blood.
His shoulder had a massive bloody gouge in it.

Tom stayed on
the ground, quivering from exhaustion. The bullets stopped, as did
the jet-like sound. He groaned as he tried to stand, his wounds
felt more painful with every movement.

Holding his
breath, Tom silently got to his feet. He tried to sneak through the
room on tiptoes, undetected. Every step he took was silent, until a
floor board creaked. He paused and looked around. He peered through
the shattered window. The light was not in sight. He jumped over
furniture and rubble, trying to silence his progress by landing on
his toes.

He found a
staircase leading straight into darkness.

Should I go
down there? There might be an exit, but there might also be
whatever is driving that hovercraft down there waiting for
me.

Tom’s
thoughts were interrupted as he was suddenly forced off his feet by
an explosion behind him that propelled him down the stairs. After a
few seconds, he landed sprawled on the filthy ground.

The world
paused. Tom listened to the machine outside, circling the building.
It sounded like a hovercraft with an engine noise like a train
coming to a stop.

Tom looked
around the room from his vantage point on the floor, searching for
a window to try to identify what was shooting at him. There was no
window in sight. He wondered if the shooting machine had left him.
Listening carefully, Tom limped up the stairs. The room he had fled
across only moments ago was blown away in the explosion. He looked
all around for the hovercraft, but it was gone for the moment. As
he turned to go back down the stairs, there was another
explosion.

The building
began to shake. Tom searched for an exit; but couldn’t see one in
the dreary light. Finally, he spotted an opening about seven yards
away. He darted toward it, the door seemed to be moving away until
he dove into the exit, reaching out to it, hoping, just hoping, to
fly out of the building.

He landed on
his stomach on the dirty ground. He hopped up, hastily, using his
good arm and leg, and continued to run. Looking over his shoulder,
he saw the building he was just in begin to collapse. As it hit the
ground, dust and rubble smothered the air.

Tom looked
back to see the light in the air circling the rubble. Tom landed in
a hiding spot where the ground raised into something of a hillock;
just enough for him to lie behind it. He watched the light
disappear into thin air.

He warily
stood, only to then see the building he had been in completely
blown to smithereens.

Why are they
after me? What have I done to deserve this? What did Anna do to
deserve to be killed? When I find out who’s responsible, I will
make them suffer.

Tom felt
aggression build. Tears gathered beneath his eyelids, a hard blink
forced the tears to slide down his cheeks. His fists clenched. He
remembered having to kill one woman out of mercy and another woman
– a mere child – had died in his hands as her body was ripped apart
by the violence that had occurred all around them. He didn’t fear
the thought of death or killing.

Tom decided
it was time to find shelter and a hideout, time to plan what to do
next and to try mend his wounds.

6

Tom walked
around London for hours.

There was no
method of proper communication, thus he couldn’t determine if the
problem occurred only in England or if it was worldwide. All Tom
could do was continue to move and search for a safe hideout. He
couldn’t go home because there wasn’t a home for him to return to.
His home and his father’s belongings were ash. Stewart, Lucy, Dan,
and most of the human population were all most likely
dead.

Tom sat down
to rest and think for a moment. He felt weak and his body felt
heavy. Emotionally, he was numb; and the mental pain and exhaustion
had taken their toll. Anna’s body haunted him – showing itself to
him repeatedly in his mind. Her bloodshot eyes stared at him; her
bloody neck and face marred her beauty, her body curved and bent in
ways unimaginable. The cracking of her bones in his nightmare rang
through his head nonstop while her threatening red eyes stared him
down and made him fearful and uncomfortable. He tried to erase
these thoughts of Anna, but he couldn’t remember any other memories
of her; instead, her dead body haunted him, over and over
again.