Dark Secrets

by Doug Pountain

  “Open the curtains, if I am to die then I am not doing it in the dark”.

  Now with the daylight came the distinct sign of a blue tinge to Grahams face, and also Roger and Richard now said how warm they too were feeling. The two girls and David looked at each other before accepting that they were about to lose three more of their friends and one of those was also a husband.

  For the first time Carol now started to cry at the thought of losing the only man she had ever loved, they had shared the life and the death of friends before, but this was her husband. They had nothing when they first started out together, but over time they had built a thriving business based on trust. No members of this group could ever be considered as normal people, they had special skills that they had used many times to protect their own and many other countries and financial institutions, these people were world class hackers that were paid when required to operate above the law and live on their wits, but now here they were dying one by one without any recognition for what they had achieved, they were dying for someone’s wet dream of world domination. But at least that would now never happen thanks to some crackpot scientist, how ironic this situation had become, the world killed by the invention of one man, this crazed man had created his own army, an army that could not be seen or heard and yet it was deadly. But then again, if it had not been today then there would always be another day for mankind to kill the planet with his own inventions and greed.

  The girls sat with Graham, Roger and Richard as they slowly drifted away into a coma and within minutes they were dead. Carol held Graham very tightly as the tears flowed down her face, not just for the loss of her man, but also for the loss of these three very good men. David held Joyce’s hands as they too shed tears for their friends, but he also now realised that he too would lose a woman who in such a short time he had grown to respect, admire and love. David, Carol and Joyce moved the three bodies to the other room, they now realised that their own life’s end must surely be very close. It was Joyce who about an hour later said she was feeling very hot, and David held her tightly in his arms as never before.

  “I am a little scared David, please don’t let go of me, I have only just met you and yet I must die here, but if that is the case then I want you to know that you gave me something that I haven’t had for many years, you gave me back my self-respect, Maybe we could have gone on to greater things, I don’t know, but I would have liked that very much, but now that cannot be. I want you to know that you saved me, you are a real man and I love y….” And Joyce slipped silently into a coma without any pain or suffering. Even though her life was slipping away she could still hear the sound of David and Carol’s voices as if in a dream, but now they were getting further and further away until they were no more.

  With all the knowledge and sophistication that man had available to him from the experience of thousands of years of existence, all he had learned during that time was how to create death, whether it be by war or lack of respect for his environment, man had now had his time. He would go the way of the Dinosaur, although that creature hadn’t been the cause of its own demise. But man with his constant tinkering with nature for his own gratification and desire to control the lives of others and the planet was now going to go the same way. Maybe that was the way of things in nature, you have your time, and you fuck it up and then die out, the true circle of life.

  CHAPTER 13

  Slowly Joyce became slightly aware, she realised that her brain was functioning slightly, not that she knew exactly what was happening or even where she was, but she felt able to move her little finger up and down. Gradually thoughts started to enter her head, was she in Heaven or in Hell, was this what it was like to be dead. She tried to move but found herself unable to do so, but her lack of movement had not affected her sense of smell. The sickly aroma of death filled her nostrils, and this terrible aroma prompted her to muster as much strength as she could. She recited her three times table in her head over and over again to try and get her brain to function, and slowly but surely she found her mobility increase enough to raise her head and then finally her upper body.

  But Joyce was to greeted with a vision of hell, to her side was Carol, and on the floor was the corpse of David. She sat up further and looked at the man who had shown her what life was really about, not just work, but the fun times a person can share with someone they love. But now reality had sunken in and she finally realised that she was all alone, Joyce must have been in that one percent that Richard had described as possibly being able to survive this deadly virus. She finally stood up still not completely in charge of her faculties and looked at the last two people she had seen before slipping into a coma. With deep sadness and regret in her heart at the loss of her friends, Joyce, a little unsteady on her feet made her way into the kitchen where she found a small opened bottle of mineral water, and even though it was a strange colour and slightly tepid she had to drink the liquid, she had to quench her thirst.

  She made her way out of the back door of the house and into the street, but there was no one, no sounds, not even animals. She checked a few of the other houses close by only to find everyone dead, surely she wasn’t to be the only person who had managed to survive the virus. In some of the houses she looked in she found bottled water and a few chocolate bars that were edible and they were quickly consumed. Joyce eventually returned to the house now fully revived and she cried for the loss of her friends and also for the love that may have been. But she also noticed that while the men’s bodies were now decomposing rapidly, Carol’s body had not. She checked for any signs of life, Carol did not appear to be breathing or showing any signs of life and she was stone cold, but Joyce poured water onto a handkerchief from her pocket and bathed Carol’s forehead. It may have been Joyce’s search for companionship in this world of the dead that drove her on, and after about ten minutes Carol finally made a sound.

  Joyce quickly realised that this was not the place for anyone to wake from a coma, not surrounded by the decomposing bodies of her husband and her friends, and so with grim determination even though she felt very weak herself, Joyce grabbed Carol’s arms and slowly dragged her into the kitchen before then going upstairs to get several duvets to place on the floor and also cover Carol. She continued to bathe Carol’s face and neck as minute by minute she slowly regained a slight consciousness.

  “Thank God you are alive, quickly have some water, it helped me a lot. I thought I was to be the only person on earth”. Said Joyce.

  “How long were we unconscious”? Asked Carol.

  “I have no idea, I don’t even know what day it is”.

  Joyce looked at her watch to check the date. “You not going to believe this, but it is Christmas Eve, according to that we were unconscious for about six days, can you remember what happened Carol”?

  Even though she was still very weak and unsure of things, Carol thought back to a time that now seemed so long ago and yet was only a few days, but the memories that were in her mind were ones that she would sooner forget, but she realised that she had survived even though she had lost all of the important things in her life that she loved and valued, this would be the start of a very different kind of existence.

  “After you went into the coma, David held you close and sobbed his heart out and I think he just lost the will to live, and then in a very short time he too was dead. By this time I was very weak and fading quickly myself and as far as I remember very soon after I too went into a coma and the next thing I saw was your face, you saved me, Oh Joyce what are we going to do”?

  “We are going to fucking survive, that’s what we are going to do. As far as I can see there is no one else alive in the area, and so we are going to return to our own house in Leicester. We will raid any store we find for whatever we need to survive, we are going to live, now let’s get the fuck out of here”.

  Even though it wasn’t pleasant, Joyce had to reach into Graham’s trouser pocket and retrieved the keys to the Range Rover and also his phon
e, on it was the only picture of the group together alive that was taken in New York, this was priceless, this was worth everything. She went to the car and checked the fuel. “Thank fuck for that, it’s half full, that should be enough to get us home”. She thought. Joyce returned to Carol who was by now finally sitting up eating a chocolate bar.

  “Come on let’s get out of here, there is no more we can do for the men apart from thanking them for their love and trust, this world now really could use such good men as these”.

  Joyce helped Carol to the car and then opened the driveway gates, but as before, there was no sign of any life.

  “Joyce we cannot just leave the others to the mercy of nature, burn the fucking house down and give our men a hero’s funeral”.

  Joyce started the car and reversed off the drive and then she and Carol went back inside the house and broke up some of the furniture, they found some turps in one of the kitchen cupboards and spread it over the wood. Even though the world appeared to be ending these girls had not lost their faith in God. This event was man’s doing, not some Devine intervention, and as such they said a short prayer for the loss of their loved ones and friends and took one last look around before they both lit matches and set the wood alight, and with turps on the wood it quickly caught fire. The girls swiftly withdrew to the safe distance of the car and watched as the house was very quickly engulfed in flames. The day was damp and miserable, but as the flames spread throughout the house they lit the dark sky, it was time to leave.

  They drove away with deep regret and sadness in their hearts for the ones they had left behind, but there was no more they could do here. The dead have no regrets, they are just dead and their time had been and gone. The girls didn’t really know if they were going in the right direction or not, but it didn’t seem to matter that much, but then after a few miles they found a sign for the M1 Motorway. The whole situation was all very surreal, no people alive, many cars that had crashed and many corpses lying where they fell on succumbing to the virus or the previous blood lust that had taken place, but there were rats. The rodents now had no shortage of food and they were quite happily gnawing away on the flesh dead, and they had more than enough to sustain them for a very long time, rats will always survive.

  Now on the motorway heading north Joyce had to drive very cautiously as again there were many vehicles strewn everywhere, she came upon a military truck that had turned over with the bodies of the soldiers laying across the road where they had been thrown. Joyce stopped the car and she and Carol checked the contents of the truck, it contained tinned food and bottled water and better still, it contained weapons.

  “We don’t know just how many others have survived and we cannot be certain that if we meet someone that they will be friendly, let’s take what we can”. Said Carol.

  The girls took automatic rifles, several hand guns, grenades and many rounds of ammunition. With the car now fully loaded they set off again, trying to reach home before nightfall. In certain places cars were blocking the road and Joyce had to slowly push the vehicles out of the way, and in other places she had no option but to drive over the dead. Nearing Leicester Carol was nodding slightly until she was quickly brought back to full consciousness by the car breaking violently and coming to a sudden stop.

  “What’s wrong Joyce”.

  “Look in front of you”. Replied Joyce.

  Sat there in front of them in the outside lane by a car was a little girl about six years old, and beside her lay the body of a woman presumably the girl’s Mother. Carol and Joyce got out of the car and walked over to the little girl.

  “Hello, what.is your name”?

  “My name is Lizzie”.

  “Have you been ill Lizzie”?

  “I think so, my mummy said she was taking me to the hospital, we got in the car and then I fell asleep for a long time. Is my mummy going to be alright”? This was such a pitiful sight and yet just another reminder of the folly of man and his own vulnerability.

  “Your mummy has also been very ill and I think she would like you to come with us”.

  Lizzie cried at the thought of leaving her mother which in turn caused Carol and Joyce to cry with her, but trying to explain what is happening to a six year old girl that her mother is dead is a task that no person would ever want to undertake. Eventually after about thirty minutes it started to rain heavily and Lizzie eventually agreed to go with them, she sat in the front seat with Carol and looked back as they drove away leaving Lizzies Mother where she fell, you can’t help the dead, they are just dead.

  Less than an hour later they pulled up in front of the gates to their house. It was now dark as Carol got out and unlocked the padlock securing the gates and opened them fully. Joyce drove through and parked the car out of sight. Both girls carried pistols as they entered the house to check all was well before carrying Lizzie from the car.

  “You get the log burner going and warm the house up and I will go into the garage and get the picnic stove and get some warm food inside us. At least we have the solar panels and the wind turbine for some electricity and also the well, I believe that tomorrow is going to be the start of a very different life for all of us”. Said Carol.

  When they originally left this house there were several dead assassins by the pool and in the kitchen, but that had all been taken care of by the specialists, even the bullet holes in the walls were gone. With the log fire burning away the house was now a little warmer, and with hot soup inside them, they decided it was time for bed, Carol looked at her king sized bed and it brought a few tears to her eyes, but she realised that she and Joyce were now responsible for a little girl and tears were not what she would want to see. Lizzie had already seen things that no child should ever witness and tears would only make matters worse. They decided that for tonight they would all share the same bed for warmth and reassurance and during the night Lizzie turned to cuddle Carol and Joyce in turn, but truthfully they got very little sleep that night.

  The next morning they awoke to find bright sunshine but this world was now very different. They walked outside and looked around, there were no sounds, Carol had always been able to hear the cows on the neighbouring farms, but not today, today was to be day one of a very new life, a new existence with many unknowns. They realised that others too must have survived and Carol and Joyce knew they could be at the mercy of these people, they would have no way of telling what they were like until it may be too late to protect themselves and also little Lizzie, she was also now a large part of the equation.

  They all got into the car and drove to the village about ten minutes away, but the scene was exactly the same, Joyce parked in front of the small shop and kept sounding the horn but all to no avail, everyone was dead. With guns drawn Carol entered the shop while Joyce stayed with Lizzie, Carol now beckoned that it was safe and they loaded the car with whatever they could carry, these supplies would sustain them for a time but now they would need to grow their own food to survive.

  They took one last look at this beautiful village and they decided that there was no point in searching for survivors, it was too dangerous, and so they returned to the house and unloaded the car. Joyce went over to the barn and looked around, Lizzie held her hand as they went upstairs and Joyce looked at the shower and the bed where not so very long ago she and David had shared and made love, and for the first time the reality set in and she missed David so much, he had become her man and she missed him totally. She picked up Lizzie and cuddled her deeply, nothing was going to hurt this little girl, Lizzie would now be their life and Carol and Joyce would kill to protect her.

  The months went by and eventually spring came and they became very self-sufficient, Lizzie started to laugh again and life went on, admittedly very differently, but they were alive. Lizzie learned how to ride a bike, she would go up and down the lane ringing her bell. For Carol and Joyce life was very different, nothing could replace the contact of other human beings. Humans are by nature sociable animals and they need the com
pany of others, but at the present time as before they felt it would not be safe to seek out others who may have survived and had their own agenda for life. That was until one day.

  Early one evening Joyce locked the gates as she always did, but then in the distance she saw the unmistakeable shape of another person coming down the lane. She quickly shouted Carol who came out armed to the teeth. She told Lizzie to go in the bathroom and lock the door. The two girls watched as the figure got closer, it was a man, and suddenly he started to run towards them.

  “You fucking bitch, I will show you who the boss is, I bet your man’s fucking dead and rotting somewhere. You thought you would never see me again didn’t you? I found out were you were when I broke into your old workplace and got your other bitches address, but then I got ill, but I survived and now I am going to kill you, open these fucking gates”.

  Joyce thought that her husband would be dead, he fully deserved to be, but he had managed to survive. All the fear of her previous life came back to her and she started to tremble. Suddenly she became that same frightened little girl from Leicester, she even slightly wet herself with fear, and for a second she felt her legs wobble, how could a bastard such as this be allowed to live when her true love had died. Carol looked at her before putting a pistol in Joyce’s back pocket. Joyce looked at this pathetic excuse for a man and she then remembered what David had taught her. ”You are in charge not any man, it is your life”. Suddenly she felt the strength return, she thought of David and her friends and what they had taught her and that was enough. She reached round her back and pulled the pistol from her pocket and pointed it at her husband.

  “You haven’t got the bollock’s to use that you fucking useless bitch, now open the gates”.