by Frank Tayell
That was when the battery finally ran out.
The British suit, the one who took off his mask, him I recognised. It was Sir Michael Quigley our Foreign Secretary, the man who took over the country after the PM was ousted.
The super-vaccine that was promised to our evacuees never existed because it was the vaccine itself which started this plague. Our leadership knew this. I had wondered why we were never invaded, why no foreign Special Forces units were sent in to raid the factories where our vaccine was being made. Of course they knew the truth. So too did the Foreign Secretary, our leader in those last days before the collapse.
Having seen that footage, I now feel that all my life had been a lie. All that time I was just another pawn in someone else’s game, not the king-maker I’d always seen myself as.
I have not been able to view the other files, not yet. Without power, I’ve no way of recharging the computer, but there is one in particular I want to look at. It’s titled ‘Lenham Hill Trials’. I knew I’d seen the name somewhere. I must have read the name when I downloaded the files. I don’t know what I expect to see, nor what I will get out of viewing them. Closure? Hardly.
Perhaps all I am looking for is to understand how this could have happened. Perhaps if I can understand the mistakes of the past then, in some small way, I can prevent them from being repeated. Perhaps not, but after discovering my, albeit unwitting, involvement in the genocide that was the evacuation, I feel a responsibility to the other survivors.
I am sure they are out there, and sure that I will meet them. If we know the truth of the past then we not-so-meek who have inherited this diseased Earth can build something better upon it. Perhaps.
The end.
The story continues in Book 2: Wasteland, and the prequel Zombies vs The Living Dead…
I hope you’ve enjoyed this book. If you’ve a few minutes to spare, I’d be grateful if you’d consider leaving a review.
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Other novels:
Surviving The Evacuation
The outbreak began in New York. Within days it spread throughout the world. Nowhere is safe from the undead. Books 1-3 are the journals of Bill Wright, a political operative trapped in London after the city is evacuated. Books 4-7 tell of Nilda, a mother searching the wasteland for her son.
1. London 2. Wasteland (Zombies vs The Living Dead - a short story introducing characters that appear in Book 3) 3. Family 4. Unsafe Haven 5. Reunion 6. Harvest 7. Home
Strike a Match
In 2019, the AIs went to war. Millions died before a nuclear holocaust brought an end to their brief reign of terror. Billions more succumbed to radiation poisoning, disease, and the chaotic violence of that apocalypse. Some survived. They rebuilt.
Twenty years later, civilisation is a dim shadow of its former self. Crime is on the rise, aided by a shadowy conspiracy. It is down to Detectives Mitchell, Riley, and Deering of the Serious Crimes Unit to unmask the conspirators and save their fragile democracy.
1. Serious Crimes
2. Counterfeit Conspiracy
Work Rest Repeat
Sixty years after The Great War, the last survivors of humanity have taken shelter in giant towered cities. The colony ships that will allow them to leave the diseased Earth are nearing completion when two murders are discovered. For our species to survive, the criminals must be caught, and the launch must go ahead.
Thanks for reading.