Dark Secrets

by Doug Pountain

  With that the television now played marshal music with the same message repeated every five minutes. Graham sat quietly with his tea reflecting on the information and trying to make some kind of sense of it all. The money he had in his bank account was of no concern now, he realised that it was now only a matter of time before the group would be discovered, he knew that you cannot hide from an organisation that had total control over all information.

  A couple of hours later everyone finally started to appear from their beds and Graham turned on the television again and showed the others the repeating message which took the wind out of everyone’s sails.

  “I think we should make a dash back to Leicester, we have weapons and ammunition there”. Said Carol.

  “Yes your right, but the weapons are of no use against a force such as this. Don’t forget, Aslinov wants his money and he also wants us dead and he will now also be fully aware that we have returned home, also bear in mind that he knows where we live, I think this house at present is our only hope of some kind of safety for the moment”. Said Graham.

  “Grahams right, when that small supermarket opens in a few hours I think we should stock up with what we can get and take our time to decide exactly what to do and not rush into something we might later regret”. Said David.

  The hours passed by so slowly as they waited for the shop to open, and now that the intent of this New World Order was clear to all the world, Graham realised that there would also be widespread panic regardless of the threat posed to people’s safety, this panic would also include the buying of food and other supplies. This New Order would also control all energy supplies and all communications, the country would be blind with the only information supplied by the controlling force, and they were ruthless. At 8am the group left the house and made the short journey to the shop, but it was all in vain, overnight it had been looted of everything, windows smashed, shelves pulled down and in the middle of an isle lay the body of the shop owner.

  “Walk away very quickly and let’s get back indoors, it’s not safe anymore outside, the only law now is the law of the jungle”. Said Carl.

  Suddenly as the group got some distance away from the shop they heard the sound of sirens getting very close. They turned and watched as a military jeep pulled up in front of the shop and 4 soldiers jumped out and sprayed the area with automatic weapon fire, killing at least a dozen bystanders including women and several children who were inside stealing clothes. The soldiers watched and laughed as everyone else ran in different directions to avoid the gun fire, as others who had been injured tried to crawl away, the soldiers now casually walked up to them and shot them in the head at point blank range.

  The natural instinct of the group especially the girls was to run and help, but it was too late for that, they would have joined the others lying on the wet pavement in pools of blood. The tears were streaming down the faces of Carol and Joyce as they arrived back at the house, now everyone knew exactly what they were dealing with, the men tried as best they could to console them, but with very little success.

  “Well fortunately we do have some food in the freezer, so all we can do at the moment is to sit tight and play it by ear”. Said Carl as he tried to move the situation on to a different subject and divert the women’s attention from what they had just witnessed.

  Graham made his way upstairs to observe as best he could what was occurring outside, he could see the shop in the distance and he watched as the soldiers callously got back into their jeep and drove away leaving the bodies were they lay on the pavement. So this was to be the future, a future of no hope, no freedoms and no compassion for life. Graham had seen atrocities before in other parts of the world with other despots who were hungry for power, and he realised that this event must have been years in the planning and it must also have involved elected governments, now he knew that democracy was truly dead. Suddenly Graham was startled as his phone bleeped to indicate a text message.

  “I would like to come and visit you at your holiday home for a short break, are you still there? Text Y or N then turn off the phone immediately. Uncle Richard”.

  Graham swiftly replied in the positive and then very quickly switched off his phone. He ran downstairs and told every to turn off their mobiles immediately.

  “I have just received a message from Sir Richard. I have no idea what’s happening but apparently he is trying to get here, it’s obviously not safe in London anymore, but I have no idea how he will travel”.

  The problem now though was not knowing anything, what to think, what to plan, this group were normally decisive people who were used to having a purpose, some kind of end to aim for, but the events of a little time ago at the shop had thrown their normally very focused minds into overdrive. David again turned on the television but this time it was a live broadcast and not the repeated announcement as earlier.

  “The N.W.O has issued an order with immediate effect, all citizens are to return to their homes at once, you have four hours to do so. Any person found on the streets after this time will be shot on site, any person questioning this order will be shot on site, you have been warned”.

  “Good God, what is going on? This has all the makings of George Orwell’s 1984, big brother is watching you, and I will check the radio just in case there is some other news or information”. Said Roger.

  But there was nothing, just the message, “Keep tuned for further orders from the New World Order”.

  There was no more that could be done but to sit and wait, but in the distance they could hear the unmistakable sound of gunfire and sirens.

  “It just might be that Richard will use this total confusion of people being forced to return home immediately to make his way here, I wonder if the underground is still running, if it is it just might be the safest option for him. Richard has no family whatsoever, he always lived for his work, in fact I think we are the closest thing he has to a family. There is very obviously nothing more he can do by staying in the city, he would just be another death regardless of what he has done for his country over the years, come on Richard, at least you will be here with friends”. Said Graham.

  With their minds now full of doubt and not knowing, the time passed very slowly, they kept the curtains drawn and spoke to each other very quietly about everything and nothing. It is very hard to hold a conversation when you have nothing of any interest to speak of, the unknown and negatives are not a very good subject. It was over fours later when there was a loud bang on the back gate, Carl rushed out and opened it to find Richard dressed as a workman and looking very tired and dishevelled.

  “Thank God you are safe Richard, what the fuck is happening”.

  “Let’s get inside, there is a great deal to tell”. Said Richard.

  He was greeted very warmly by everyone, but he did look extremely worried and appeared much older.

  “I hope you don’t mind me coming to you, don’t take this the wrong way but I had nowhere else to go”.

  “Richard you are more than welcome, but we have not got a clue about what is happening, apart from something that occurred this morning at the local store”.

  And Graham explained what he knew and Richard was visibly upset.

  “Yes, I saw the bodies as I came from the underground station, they are still out there on the street. But there have been many more deaths apart from those. I stayed with the American Ambassador overnight, and then early this morning some Russian soldiers just turned up and dragged him and his family outside where they raped his wife and daughter while he was forced to watch. The girl was only 14 but she was raped several times before she and her Mother finally had their throats cut, the Ambassador was then beaten and stripped before being tied to the railings where he had his balls cut off. They just left him there to bleed to death while they entered the embassy and slaughtered everyone who was in there. I was in the kitchen at the time and I escaped through the back door during all the confusion”.

  “But there is much more to tell. In
the states there have been mass executions and also some major cities have been completely wiped out with poison gas attacks. This new order does not take prisoners, any show of discontent is immediately and brutally put down, they have even used tanks on university students who were protesting, and they just ran them down. As you already know Iran is no more and all the Gulf States have also now been occupied, Israel has also moved into Gaza and they are just wiping out anything that gets in the way, and most of Europe is also now occupied by the Russians. They have left Africa alone at the moment as they see the region as no real threat, nor that of the southern hemisphere. At the moment here the situation is just blood lust, I fear we are at the mercy of a world tyrant with no compassion. But the problem is that if this so called New World Order start to fall out with each other, then the whole thing could turn nuclear very quickly and that would be the end of us all”.

  Everyone sat there in total disbelief at Richard’s news, all they had worked for, all of their personal dreams and ambitions for the future gone in a flash, this New Order now controlled all the means of production for this one world state and Graham’s team were in the firing line if they were ever discovered.

  “There are thousands dead in London alone, but they are searching for one person in particular, the scientist I told you about, Peter Blackman. He is the one from Porton Down research laboratory, and they are all very scared. I met him once a few years ago and I wanted him removed from the research programme he was working on due to what I thought was possibly insanity, but I was overruled, if he is as crazy as I think he is, then things may just get a little out of hand. The biggest problem is that the Russians and the Chinese haven’t really appreciated the danger of Blackmans virus yet, they think the British were building it up to be bigger than it actually is, like a game of one-upmanship. But they could be in for a very big shock if Blackman feels threatened, having said all that I think we should all be worried, my own opinion is that he will release the virus and put two fingers up to humanity”.

  The group spent the rest of the day very quietly, there was nothing they could do, and there were too many unknowns to chance making a dash for their home in Leicester. Occasionally one of the men would go out of the back door and take a short walk to try and get a handle on exactly what was happening locally, but there were so few people around, everyone was more concerned with staying alive until they knew more. Occasionally they would turn on the television, but it was still the same broadcast, the problem with this group was that they were not use to such inaction, and frustration was now starting to set in.

  “I am going to walk to the underground station in Stanmore, it’s the end of the line so I may just be able to speak to someone coming from London”. Said Carl.

  “Alright, but be very careful, there will be soldiers everywhere and they are very trigger happy”. Said Graham.

  Carl slipped out of the back door and took a detour around the area, but it was now totally deserted, there was no sign of life anywhere. He eventually arrived at the underground station and walked down the stairs and onto the platform, and the sight that greeted him took his breath away. There were bodies everywhere, the gunfire that the group had heard previously must have come from here. Men, Women and even children lay all around, some girls in their early teens lay to one side of the platform devoid of any clothes, but they had been shot in the head after men had taken whatever they wanted of their young bodies, how could men carry out such atrocities, this was the basic human instinct at its worst?

  The sight and smell of death turned his stomach. He had seen dead many times before, but not since his time working in Africa during the years of apartheid had he witnessed such barbarity of innocent people. But this was England, a democracy, a country of values where a person could express opinions without fear of reprisals, but obviously not any longer, it was indeed blood lust, a primeval animal instinct to kill.

  He looked along the track, and in the distance of this very grey and dark day he could see people stumbling along, and as he watched he observed several people who were exhausted fall onto the live rail and die in a large blue flash with smoke exuding from their bodies, heaven only knows what they had witnessed in the city. Carl spoke to one man as he finally walked onto the platform from the rails, but he appeared to be in a complete daze and just staring in all directions. Even though he was smartly dressed in a suit and obviously a business man, he was very dirty from his journey and sweating profusely. Suddenly the man vomited and fell to the ground dead, Carl checked the man’s body but there were no signs of injury, no clue as to his sudden death, apart from his lips which appeared to have a slight blue tint to them. There was no more to be done here, he looked around once more at this scene of mass murder and depravity, small children still in their Mothers arms, boys and girls in their school uniforms still holding their lunch boxes. “So this was the New World Order”. He thought as he left the station and made his way back to the others.

  As he walked along the deserted streets he heard the unmistakable sounds of more gunfire very close, and so he quickly climbed into a rubbish skip that was parked on someone’s drive and he hid there under the rubble as he heard vehicles passing by. He then became aware that one of the vehicles had stopped just a few yards away, and Carl recognised the language being spoken as Russian, but it was over an hour before he heard the vehicle drive away again. Very slowly he stood up and looked around the deserted street again before he climbed out of the skip and swiftly made his return to the house and told everyone of what he had seen which caused them all great concern. With the curtains closed the group only had a small table light on just in case the light could be seen from the street, but then suddenly to add to the confusion the light went off as the electricity failed.

  Graham felt his way along the furniture and walls into the kitchen and returned with some candles. It had now been about an hour since Carl had returned from the station and he sat very quietly on the sofa. Joyce remarked how quiet he was and asked him. “If the cat had got his tongue”. But there was no reply, in fun she prodded him gently, but he just fell forwards. Graham went over to him and held the candle close to his face, but it was of no use, there was no sign of life. His face now had a bluish tint to it, it was exactly the same as the man at the station. Richard’s worst fear had come true, he was now certain that the scientist, Blackman had indeed carried out his threat and released his virus and it appeared that it was much more virulent than even he had predicted. Richard turned and looked at everyone and realised that this could be the end of mankind, and although he had given his every waking moment to protecting his country, Richard finally knew there was no more he could do, it was now only a matter of time for the world to end as they knew it.

  “I am so sorry that I could do nothing to protect you all, I have been betrayed by people I have known for many years, people I trusted to always do their best for their country. But it is now very obvious they have sold their souls to this New World Order for their own gain, and now it looks like the whole world is going to have to pay the price. I now truly believe that mankind, even with only one week to go will not see Christmas”. Said Richard.

  By the dim lights of the few burning candles they looked at their dead friend and realised that they too must now also be infected with the virus and there was nothing they could do. There was simply nowhere to run and nowhere to hide from this “Satan Bug”, a virus that had been developed by a man as a weapon to supposedly protect his country, but that had now come back to bite him and the world with the death of humanity. Death takes on a new meaning when you know that you have only hours to live. Here in this darkened room lit only by the flickering light of candles, everyone held hands and said a prayer for Carl and shed a small tear. He had been a very good friend who would have given his life for them without a second thought under different circumstances. Joyce realised that she had only known these people for such a short time, but in that short time they had now become her family, and even
with her own death imminent she and the others showed no great emotion or fear, they just accepted their fate for what it was. But all had regrets about things they would have liked to have done but will now never have the opportunity.

  “My biggest regret is that I never got to shoot that bastard husband of mine or his sister, maybe I will get him in the next life”. Thought Joyce.

  Carol went to make tea, but found there was now no water flowing from the taps, this added pressure now brought a swift response from her.

  “Am I to die thirsty without a cup of tea, curse you all you fucking bastards of the New World Order, may you perish in pain and agony, but I suppose you will just fade away as everyone else? At least we didn’t die as a result of a nuclear attack with all that radioactive fallout, that would have been a slow lingering death, but our friend Carl is now gone and we should all make preparations”.

  She was right, it was now time for some kind of rational thinking, and even in these circumstances preparations must be made. The enormity of the situation was now apparent to everyone and they realised that there was no way out, death had come to call.

  “Let’s take Carls body through to the other room, it’s not good to sit here with the dead. We also need to remember that eventually one of us will be the last to die and that will be an enormous burden to carry, but then again we have all been close to death in the past, and who knows one of us one of us may just be in that low percentage that will survive”. Said David.

  The men laid Carl gently down on the floor in the other room, but as they did so Graham remarked how hot he himself was suddenly feeling, Carol helped him back into the darkened lounge and sat him down in a large leather chair.