by CT Grey
“It’s spreading,” Bee said. He started bashing his keyboard furiously, while I turned around to see Jaq looking at me questioningly. It was as if she was stunned to hear something like that was going on in the neighbourhood where her lover worked. There was no need to voice it, as we both understood what we had just witnessed was somehow connected. Maybe an attack against the government, and if so, we didn’t need to ask 101 questions to realise it wouldn’t take long before we’d be slap in the middle of it.
I stood up and said, “I’ll go and get dressed.”
“And I’ll call Ali,” Jaq raised her mobile to her ear and watched me as I left the study and ran down the stairs to my basement apartment, trying to figure out what would be best to wear. I couldn’t just appear on the streets wearing the black kit I’d stolen earlier, no matter how tempting it felt, to use its extra protection.
By the time I heard footsteps coming down the stairs I was standing in a pile of discarded clothes, pulling skin-tight combat leathers on. I saw Jaq hanging her head, looking absolutely miserable. “What is it?” I asked. “What’s the problem?”
“I still can’t get hold of her. No matter how many times I’ve tried she’s not answering her mobile. And now it’s going straight to her voicemail.”
“Well,” I grabbed a black hockey-striped babydoll from the pile and pulled it over my head, before I turned to choose suitable footwear. “It’s not like she’s out there on the street, is it?”
“No.” She sighed as I picked up steel-toed combat boots. “But she’s out there, alone, and I’m here, doing nothing!”
“Look.” I sat on the bed and gestured her to sit by my side. “I know there’s not much we can do at the moment. But if we go out there and drive the van around aimlessly we might end up in a place we don’t want to be. And I don’t need to remind you that the curfew will come into place in a couple of hours. Go up and get your gear ready, so that when the call comes in we can roll out at a moment’s notice.”
“What if it doesn’t?”
“If that’s the case, then I want you to know we’re going out there any—”
Suddenly the light went and I found myself impenetrable darkness, listening to Bee’s battery backup starting to beep like crazy.
“Actually, darling, you’re right. We should head out right now.”
*** Henrik ***
I frowned for a moment, thinking about their situation as I realised her townhouse might have been the safest place in whole neighbourhood when the blackout spread across the London. It might have offered as much protection, not only to her but her neighbour as well, if she’d chosen to stay in it and waited for that call. At least, that was what I would have done in her shoes. “Why did you made that decision, when a reasonable human being would stayed indoors, knowing the curfew was only few hours away. Besides, Westminster was under assault by the type threes—”
“Type threes?”
I rolled my eyes and said: “The Screamers. They are vicious, cunning and totally—”
“Why do you have to keep saying that they’re type three as if you’re some sort of scientist trying to throw me off the track? Why can’t you simply start calling them Screamers? That’s what they do, scream.”
I looked down on my notes and singled the classification page from rest of the data. “I suppose you’re right. It’s just…”
“Look darling,” Jane said. She reached over the table and slapped her hand over the file. “You can call them whatever you want, but to me, I understand them through their behaviour. And to be honest, we don’t always call vampires by their classification, but by their first names. But even then that’s not proper, as often they tend to pick up another name after they’ve turned.”
I looked at her glaring at me and said, “I guess you’re right. We should call them Screamers but, to be honest, it’s kind of difficult when we have been using the type manifestation language over the street slang.”
Jane smiled. “Henrik, darling, don’t worry about it. Freud was exactly like you. He couldn’t choose one thing over another.”
“You met him?”
“Yes, I did,” she answered. “But that was in another lifetime.”
“Ah.” I pushed up my glasses and looked down at the notes as she withdrew her hand, and I noticed something I’d annotated a while ago. “You mentioned earlier that you’ve been actively trying to hide the vampire population from our civilisation. So…”
Jane rolled her eyes and snapped. “Not just them, but all of the Damned. All of them.”
I turned a fresh page on the classification sheet as my mind started wondering what sort of monsters they would create if and when the zombification virus got into their bloodstream. “There are more of them?”
“Yes,” she said, “But I don’t think we are here to talk about them, are we?”
Just as what I was about let her know that it was vitally important for us to know more about all the species that encompassed the Damned title, I saw << Let it go >> floating across my vision. And I found that strange, considering it was my job to get as much information as possible from the people who sat on the opposite side of the table. It was as if my superiors didn’t want to know; or maybe they already knew, but hadn’t bothered informing me about anything above my security clearance. But knowing neither parties wasn’t, I closed the file and picked up the transcript notes as I said, “No, we are not. At least, not at this point, but I can’t rule out the fact that we may need to come back to it. But for now, we’ll let it rest, if that is okay with you?”
Jane sighed and turned to look at Red as if she wanted something.
“Is that okay Mrs McGriffin?” I repeated the question.
She turned around, picked up the cigarette case and sighed deeply as she popped it open. Then she turned her eyes to me and said, “Okay.”
I clicked the pen and asked, “Can we get on with it, then?”
Jane frowned at me. “Get on with what?”
“With what happened next? Did you go out or did you stay indoors like any sensible person would have done, knowing that there were a lot walkers wandering the streets?”
*** Jane ***
The moment we got upstairs, the lights turned back on and Bee’s battery backups silenced themselves as if nothing has happened. Everything was back as it had been and I peeked through steel shutters, and saw the street was back to normal. Something was seriously wrong.
“Your phone.” I waved my hand at Jaq. “Does it work?”
Jaq looked the screen and nodded. “Yeah, it has full bars across the board.”
“Call her.” I moved into the study and leaned down to see what was happening on the little screen. The power-grid was lit up like a Christmas tree. There was not even a trace of evidence of a blackout. Not even a log mark. Suddenly, the BBC’s news appeared on the big screen.
“We are so sorry about that,” a surprised-looking female news anchor announced. “Don’t know what that was about. But as soon as we have an update we’ll let you know. So stay tuned and don’t go away.”
“Bee…”
“Yes Jane,” Bee said. “You want to know what caused it?”
“How did you know?”
Bee shrugged his shoulders and took a bite from a chocolate bar before he turned back towards his computers. “I guess I’ve been with you long enough to know how you think.”
“Is that so?” I said. “Bee, while you’re on that, can you also see—”
“If I can locate Alison?” Bee finished my sentence, while he grabbed a sticky note and wrote something on it. “Consider it done. But Jane…”
“Yes Bee,” I said softly. “What is it?”
“Are you really thinking about going out there to get her?”
I said nothing, because I thought he already knew the answer. It was not as if we had a choice to stay in the house and hope she was going open that front door any minute, and tell us what a terrible day she’d had in the office. It just wasn’t
going to happen. Jaq walked in looking absolutely miserable. And that really concerned me, as I knew Alison wouldn’t have turned her phone off when screamers were crawling out of tunnels under Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
“Jaq, Bee’s going to locate her in a minute, okay?”
“Okay,” Jaq said miserably.
At that point I heard the news anchor saying: “We have breaking news from the Westminster.”
“Turn that up.” I waved my hand at the television when they switched from the studio to live coverage on the field. On it, a female journalist in her fashionable three-piece suit, looking very uncomfortable, raised her microphone and spoke.
“Just few minute ago we experienced a London wide-blackout, and when the lights came back on we saw this screaming bunch of hooligans running down Abingdon Street. The police…” The camera shifted from her face to show an iconic Westminster Abbey basking in the red sunset. But the darkened foot of the Abbey was lit up occasionally by flashes of weapons as the Armed Response Teams were trying to take down fast-moving targets tearing through a group of people. “…as you can see, are already on top of the situation.”
“Top of the situation,” Jaq shouted. “That’s a fucking lie.”
“Shut up,” I snapped at her.
“What can you tell us about these so-called hooligans?” the news anchor asked.
“Well,” the reporter said, turning nervously as the camera zoomed closer to show one of the Screamers running towards a police officer who was firing his submachine gun on full auto. “From what we’ve seen, they look like us, but they behave as if they’ve gone absolutely crazy.”
“So what are you saying?” the news anchor said, just as the Screamer jumped in the air and landed on top of the police officer, who screamed as the Screamer sank his teeth in officer’s exposed neck.
“These screamers seem to be some type of new breed of undead,” the reporter said, her voice on the edge of panic. “We’re pulling back, but we’ll try and keep you updated on the situation as it evolves.”
The reporter ran out of shot, and the picture shifted back into the studio. We saw the visible shock on the news anchor’s face. Yet, despite her obvious feelings, she quickly composed herself. “That is unbelievable. Do you have any idea how far they have spread?”
“We have no idea,” came the voice of the reporter, who sounded like she was running. “But what we’re hearing is the police are considering closing down the whole central London area.”
“No!” Jaq screamed. She ran out of the study and went into the hallway, frantically opening the security locks. I pointed my finger at Bee and shouted, “Get Ali’s location now.”
“Already on it,” Bee shouted back at me just as I saw Jaq running across the sidewalk, heading straight towards her van across the street. But there was nothing I could do, even if the shadows the houses cast on the street were long, they weren’t long enough for me to reach the van. I screamed “Wait!” just as Jaq threw open the driver’s door.
“Are you coming or not?” Jaq popped her head over the roof.
I looked up and down the street to see the shadows growing even longer. The evening was here and if I could just wait for ten, fifteen minutes, I would be more than ready to go, but now, seeing Jaq impatiently revving the engine I realised I’d no other choice but to grab my go-bag and slam shut the door behind me. I almost reached the van, but a long patch of waning sunlight stopped me a meter from the passenger door. It was a meter too long. A meter that was so short, but yet so long.
“Come on,” Jaq screamed. “What are you waiting for?”
“I can’t.” I stretched out my hands.
“You’re such a wuss,” Jaq rolled her eyes. She threw the van into reverse, pressed the pedal down and backed straight into the car behind her. While its burglar alarm started blaring as if the world was coming to end, she shifted gears again and pressed down the pedal as the van curved into the street and drove the van straight towards me. I jumped to one side as she hit the brakes.
“There you go,” Jaq shouted from inside. “Problem solved.”
I hopped into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut as she sped off, leaving our irate neighbour shouting at us from behind. If that was the worst thing that happened to him, he should count himself lucky. And then a second blackout hit the area, and every light went out. Housing blocks, shops, businesses all snuffed out by the blackout died so suddenly. It was almost as if the death itself had slashed out those places from the books of the living, and only spared the cars and a few people in the streets. And it didn’t take long before drivers started dictating their own rules as the traffic lights all failed.
If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed how easily fear fuelled the chaos when cars started pushing onto the pavements creating impassable traffic jams that prevented emergency vehicles from reaching their destinations. And in the middle of all that, I was sitting with Jaq, who had regained her composure now she was able to take some action.
“Fucking idiots.” She honked the horn at a car that had managed to block two lanes. “It’s not as if those imbeciles can’t see where they’re going, they’ve got headlights. Get out of the way!” she shouted, honking the horn again, waving her arm. “Someone needs to direct this lot, or we’ll be stuck here forever.”
“Maybe that’s what we need to do,” I suggested carefully even though I knew that every minute we spent unmoving death was going creep closer to Alison. “Or maybe…”
“Or maybe what?
“We could leave the van here and continue on foot.”
“Have you lost your mind?” Jaq threw me a look that said everything. She was nowhere near ready to abandon the van and start walking. Maybe she even though the traffic was going to clear itself, when a couple of minutes later, power flowed back into the city. And as soon as the lights flickered on, the radio started blasting about citywide traffic jams just as the DJ’s began reminding people about the curfew laws.
“Fucking curfew.” Jaq turned off the radio. “Believe it or not, that thing hasn’t been working since they introduced it.”
“What thing?”
“The curfew,” Jaq said. She slotted the mobile on a socket on the dashboard and tapped its screen to see if she call Alison. “The fucking government forced it on us as if was going to protect people, but in practice so far—”
“It hasn’t worked,” I finished. There was no point in allowing Jaq to continue ranting and getting so worked up she’d start raging behind the wheel. We both knew the law wasn’t working as it intended. I had seen it first hand, and she probably had experienced similar things. But I couldn’t stop myself wondering - when I looked outside and saw the number of houses getting ready obey the law – how many of those places were ticking time-bombs ready to explode their hidden horrors on the street?
“Where are you?” Jaq bashed the redial button, when the first call ended unanswered.
“Let me give Bee a ring,” I said. “He might know by now.”
Jaq shot me an angry glare as a car behind us started beeping the horn like a maniac. “You do that.” She chucked the mobile into my lap just as the lines of traffic started moving onto Battersea Bridge. “I need to concentrate on this.”
Concentrate on that, I thought as I picked the phone. Ali is probably in grave danger and Bee’s our best chance to find her. I didn’t say anything because I knew she’d dump me onto the middle of the bridge without giving it a second thought. I dialled Bee’s number as I saw a helicopter coming down the river towards us. He said into my ear, “Finally, what took you so long time?”
“Nothing,” I said. “Talk to me.”
“Right,” Bee sighed in relief as he realised I was on the other end of the line. “I got a fix on Alison’s location and I’m afraid … she’s still in Thames House.”
“Okay,” I said quietly. “Can you update me on what’s happening at the river?”
“What river?” Bee
asked, and then before I could reply he said. “Oh, Thames, yeah, of course I can. Just give me a sec…”
That second was longer than I’d anticipated as a third blackout swept over the metropolis and plunged it back into the darkness. I saw blue flashes from transformer explosions lighting up the sky and sensed it would take a while before the power came back on. Maybe those two low flying fighters banking over the river added up to that feeling, especially when I saw flashes under their wings and saw a swarm of missiles speeding towards the Albert Bridge.
“What that hell…” Jaq gasped as the flashes from explosions lit up our cabin.
“Dear Lord help us…” I said. The shock waves rattled our windows as fireballs engulfed the whole structure.
“Jesus Christ,” Jaq screamed just as someone crashed into the back of the van. She shifted into neutral just as another pair of jets flew over us. Then without thinking, she opened the door to jump on the street.
“What are you doing?” I grabbed her jacket and pulled her back in.
She glared at me so angrily that for a fraction of a second I thought she was going to reach into the glove box and take out a stake. She realised maybe it was an extremely bad idea to start a row while we sitting slap in the middle of a massive military target. And maybe the driver behind had the same idea, as he crashed into the rear again, trying to push us aside.
“Fucking wanker!” Jaq shouted. She shifted the gear into first and pushed the pedal to the metal. The van’s engine roared like an angry lion as it sped forward and slammed into the car in front of us. The chain reaction went on as the drivers in front of us decide to follow the trend. But we didn’t get far. A whomping sound pierced the air as the helicopter on the river moved above us.