Endurance (6 page)

Tom led while
Danni and Graham followed, all of them on guard against any of the
infected.

8

They reached
the street where Tom’s house once was. Now there was nothing but
open land with rocks and debris strewn all around. They walked down
what was once the middle of the road, gazing at the remains of the
houses. Tom tried to remember how things once looked. They
continued onward until they reached Tom’s old house. Tom stood
where the pavement and his pathway to the door once were. He
mentally compared what once was to this wasteland. He sighed and
began worrying about how best to organize his search. The
downstairs was visible. They could see where the sitting room led
to the dining room, as well as the corridor that led to the kitchen
and the back garden. The upstairs was completely obliterated. Tom
stared hopelessly at the wreckage.

‘
I don’t
think we’re gonna find the cassette player. We need to leave.’
Graham said grouchily.

Tom ignored
him and continued to stare at his former home. Graham looked at
Danni forcefully. She moved to Tom to try to console him, but he
gently pushed her away. He ran into the ruins.

‘
Tom!’ Graham
shouted, but Danni hushed him softly. They kept guard while Tom
searched. First, he walked into the remains of the sitting room.
Turning and shuffling in a circle, he searched the area. At first
sight he saw only piled up rubble, but after relaxing his eyes, he
began to make out some personal possessions, such as picture
frames, Lucy’s hairdryer, and Stewart’s CD collection.

Tom spotted
the box he kept in the attic filled with his father’s belongings.
He stumbled across the mounds of debris to get to the box; it was
empty and badly burnt.

He continued
to search through the remains of his home. He knelt down next to
the box to see part of a newspaper clipping about his father’s
death. Part of the headline was still visible, reading ‘Murder.’ He
looked to the right of the clipping and was astonished to see what
he had found. He can’t believe his luck; it was the cassette
player. Even though it was covered in trash and debris, and was
badly scratched and slightly burnt, he had found it.

‘
I’ve got
it,’ Tom shouted.

‘
Really?’
said Graham, shocked.

Tom brushed
the dust and rubble off the top of it.

‘
We need
power to work it Tom.’ Danni approached Tom. ‘And there isn’t
any.’

‘
No there is!
The underground had lights on and the corner shop I went to had
some electricity.’

Tom picked up
the cassette player and walked around holding it in between his
arms and his thighs, giving him a hunchbacked appearance. He
searched for an outlet. He looked in the dining room and spotted
one in part of a wall left standing; it was the corner of the
dining room. Part of the creamy wallpaper was still
visible.

With joy and
excitement, Tom ran as well as he could while clumsily holding the
recorder to the plug socket. He set the cassette player down
gently. He plugged it into the wall and hoped for the best. Nothing
happened. He stared at the lifeless player. Graham and Danni began
to sympathize with him until the screen sprang to life. He picked
up the microphone attached to the side and began to search the
frequencies.

For a few
minutes, Tom pressed buttons and looked obsessed with finding
somebody, anybody. Graham and Danni waited in
anticipation.

After five
minutes, Danni and Graham began to lose hope.

‘
Danni, you
know as well as I do. This is a worldwide thing. No one is going to
answer. If it wasn’t, people would have come and helped us.’ Graham
looked stubborn. ‘Come on, let’s go, we’re in danger standing in
the open like this.’

‘
No, Dad, we
can’t leave Tom here.’

‘
You don’t
even know the guy. He’s wasting our time. Let’s go.’ Graham reached
out to grab Danni’s hand. Danni pulled her hand away and moved
slightly to her right.

‘
Let’s go
now!’ Graham barked.

Graham
grabbed her arm tightly and squeezed. Danni screamed in
pain.

‘
Get off me,
you idiot.’ She slapped and punched him on the arm. Graham grabbed
her by the neck and pushed her to the ground. Danni got back up and
tried to run, but Graham stamped on her ankle and she fell to the
ground in agony. He then grabbed her hair, punched her in the face
and tossed her to the ground. She grabbed a brick and hit Graham on
the head but it didn’t even faze him. He snatched the brick from
Danni and casually tossed it aside. He bent over, clutched Danni by
the neck and squeezed. Tom looked around to see Graham strangling
Danni. Danni felt herself passing out, her throat tightened, no
airflow able to get through, she saw black spots. Her vision was
receding. She tried to get air but it was impossible. Tom calmly
placed the headphones on top of the cassette player and threw
himself at Graham. He launched into Graham’s waist in a rugby style
tackle and continued to run. The force of his blow knocked Graham
off his feet. Graham released Danni from his grip. She fell on her
side and gasped for air. Graham was on his back.

‘
This isn’t
the fucking time to turn on each other.’

Tom stared at
Graham’s face. There were now red veins on his face. His skin was
grey and his teeth yellow. The inside of his mouth was a nasty
black; his lips were covered in blood. Graham didn’t speak; instead
he snarled loudly and shoved Tom off him. Graham stood. Tom charged
at Graham, but Graham shifted to his side, turning his AK47 and
hitting Tom in the face with the butt of the rifle. Tom hit the
ground hard, fighting unconsciousness. Tom was able to quickly
force himself onto his back; he kicked Graham as hard as he could
in the kneecap. Graham’s kneecap snapped under the force, the sound
echoing through the air. Graham screamed in pain and fell onto the
dusty ground, creating a cloud of dust around him. He clutched his
shattered knee cap, moaning. Tom got off the ground and stood over
Graham. Graham had changed dramatically; even his facial
expressions had changed. He clearly was now a man after revenge.
Tom pulled the gun from his trousers and aimed at Graham’s head.
Tom was stunned when he heard Danni pump a round into the chamber
of her shotgun. He paused and looked at Danni. In shock, he was
forced to look straight down the shotgun barrel.

‘
What are you
doing Danni? He’s changed. We need to kill him now before he kills
us.’

‘
That’s my
dad. He hasn’t changed, if he had changed he wouldn’t be in pain
now with his knee, You lose feeling.’ Danni continued to point the
gun at Tom, her finger hovered above the trigger. She slowly moved
her finger onto the trigger and pondered the shot.

‘
Danni, don’t
do this. Look at him. He’s changed, his skin, his teeth, he’s
aggressive. He just beat you up; he might have even killed you if
it weren’t for me.’

Graham
appeared to be in less pain by the second. He laughed and pushed
himself off the ground.

‘
Move,’ Danni
yelled at Tom.

Danni knocked
Tom out of the way and shot Graham in the head. Blood spurted
behind him and down his body. The blood hit Danni and even reached
Tom. Danni continued to aim at Graham. Her shotgun began shaking
wildly. Her eyes filled with tears, and she sobbed even as she
continued to aim the shotgun. Tom pushed the shotgun down and
pulled her to him in a tight hug. She dropped the weapon so she
could hug him back. Tom moved his hands onto Danni’s bruised cheeks
and stared into her eyes; they looked bloodshot and full of tears,
making her eyes shiny. Tom could see himself reflected in her eyes.
Danni stared back at Tom’s swollen, black and blue eyes. His eyes
were also bloodshot, but less so than Danni’s.

‘
That was so
brave, Danni; I know that wasn’t easy for you.’

Danni began
to sob and cry in agony. Tom moved his hand behind her head and
moved her head to rest on his shoulder and felt water, not just
from her tears, but also from the sky as it began to
rain.

It rained
heavily while Tom and Danni stood in the open. Danni tried to
regain her composure. She let go of Tom and tried to walk
away.

‘
I’ll leave
you to it for a while.’ Tom let go of Danni and she wandered away
slowly.

Tom went back
to the cassette player and, to his shock, he heard a muffled voice
through the speaker.

‘
Hello is
anyone there? What is your location?’

Tom rushed to
the cassette player, held the microphone to his mouth and exhaled
slowly. ‘This is Thomas Williams. I am currently located in London.
London is unrecognizable; there has been a massive crisis. I’m in
need of support.’

‘
Hi Williams.
We are aware of the problem in London and it will be sorted in no
time.’

‘
What do you
mean? Are you aware of this alien invasion?’

The line went
quiet for what felt a lifetime for Tom.

‘
I don’t know
who you are, but all that has happened is the government has
stopped people entering London because of the refurbishment that
will be happening throughout the city. The whole area is being
cleaned and refurbished.’

Tom paused in
astonishment.

Do people
really believe that? This can’t be an alien attack. The government
is involved in this.

‘
People have
died. You seriously believe they would close London to do some
refurbishment and clean it up a bit. I have nearly been killed a
number of times by some floating machine…’

Tom was
interrupted, ‘Sir you need to calm down. They said that there is a
pandemic only in the London area. The media suggested a disease
came from infected rats or a maybe some kind of terrorist attack.
So they have to shut off the whole of London with work transferred
across the United Kingdom. They said it’s for people’s safety. They
apologized for the noise disruptions for locals living near the
London area.’

I cannot
believe that people have fallen for that, such an unrealistic
reason for London to be closed. Humans are pathetic.

‘
Look I’m
losing my fucking patience here.’ The line cut off and so did the
power. Tom threw the microphone down and kicked the cassette player
until it smashed into pieces. He was livid, distraught and fresh
out of ideas.

Tom made his
way to Danni. He walked past Graham’s body, stepping carefully past
the blood and bits of gore that hadn’t yet washed away. She was
sitting on what was once a car. Somehow part of the interior, a
leather seat, remained intact; Danni sat there, elbows on her
knees, her back slouched, with her hands supporting her head,
staring at the ground. Tom joined her, but sat next to her legs,
and stared at the ground. He saw miniature rivers forming on the
concrete, washing away the dust and the blood.
He could no longer smell, taste or feel anything. Danni’s breathing
sounded blocked as if she had a cold, and she was becoming paler by
the second.

‘
What now?’
Danni asked, choking.

‘
Well, it’s
not a worldwide problem; it’s only here in London. The government
is involved. How are we ever going to stop this?’

‘
I don’t
know.’

Tom stared at
the ground and thought for a moment.

How can
people be that stupid? What can I do now? How long have I got to
live as a human before I turn into an aggressive lunatic? Will I
even turn into one? Should I just shoot Danni and then
myself?

Tom grabbed
his gun and stared at it. He pulled it up and aimed at his face.
His hands shook, the veins on his hands looked more and more
enflamed and seemed to have a shade of blackness to them. Tom
pulled the gun down and set it on the waterlogged floor next to
him. His thoughts were interrupted as a machine floated up from the
wreckage. As it rose, mud fell off the sides of the hovercraft. The
rain fell stronger and harder. The hovercraft reached its peak. It
shone its light on Tom and Danni. Neither of them reacted; they sat
there waiting for death. They were soon surrounded by two more
hovercraft. Danni and Tom both stood, looking up into the
rain-drenched sky.

I can’t quite
believe this is the government’s doing. Why are they doing
this?

Then, two
rigid-bodied, armored vehicles approached from either side of Tom
and Danni and parked beside them, effectively blocking any escape
attempt. The top opened and two uniformed soldiers jumped from each
vehicle. They wore gas masks and pointed their guns at Tom and
Danni.

‘
Freeze, drop
your weapons, now!’ a muffled voice shouted from under a gas
mask.

Danni dropped
her shotgun and Tom put his hands up. There was a moment of silence
with no movement; Danni was suddenly shot and knocked off her feet.
Tom stood still. He slowly turned his head and looked down to see
Danni on the ground. Her clothes were skin tight from the rain; the
lining of her bra visible through her thin shirt.