by T. J. Blake
‘Mollz they’re too loud and bullets won’t kill these guys; they rejuvenate too fast to have any impact. We need to take them out using force. The best way to kill them will be to remove their heads, there’s no coming back from that.’ Lee gulped as he looked down the tunnel. ‘Don’t step on the tracks. I want two on the left of the tracks behind me, and three behind Mollz. Let’s go.’
They disappeared into the darkness. Sarah looked around the group. The mothers clutched their children to their chests whilst the men walked around uneasily.
The hovercrafts dominated the skies, camouflaged in the night as they followed the patrolling army and elite groups below them.
The army patrol wore their dark camouflage colours and the suited elite humans wore their all black suits and gas mask type masks.
The patrol line moved down Belvedere Road, their guns in front of their faces, focussing on any movement in front of them.
A little girl ran out into the road in front of the patrol.
‘Freeze!’ two men shouted from the patrol.
‘Help!’ she shrieked, running backwards, pointing at the door she had just come from.
As some of the patrol looked to the door, a group of the infected stumbled out of the door, running at the patrol. Bullets penetrated the skin of the infected, knocking them to the ground. As they stumbled to the ground they continued to move, clawing at the ground and launching themselves at some of the men in the patrol.
The elite humans holstered their guns and fought the infected in hand to hand combat, breaking their necks and throwing them to the ground.
‘They’re right outside.’ Jerome whimpered.
‘They are baby, but they don’t know we’re here.’ Sadie was crying but didn’t want Jerome to see.
‘You’re safe little man don’t worry,’ Flynn said.
‘Are we though?’ Carl said, and he stood up. ‘We don’t know if they’re going to come in here. We don’t know anything, we’re fucking vulnerable here. We need to leave London.’ Carl shouted.
‘Shut ya mouth right now!’ Flynn said.
‘No I won’t, come on Sadie we’re leaving.’
‘Are you fucking serious?’ Danni said.
Carl brushed past Danni and he walked back towards their room.
As Carl clutched the door handle, Enzo moved over to him in a blur and grabbed him by his shoulder, pinning him against the wall.
‘Don’t hurt him!’ Sadie shouted.
Enzo dropped Carl back onto his feet and then punched him across the chin. Carl’s head thumped against the wall and he collapsed onto the floor.
‘I had to. He may have given away our position, I’ll go and check.’ Enzo said and he walked into the room.
Enzo snuck into the room and walked over to the window. He watched the patrol as they fought the infected. There were only a few left.
He saw the little girl hiding next to one of the abandoned cars. As he watched her, he looked around considering whether to go and save her.
‘I can’t. Not without being seen,’ he mumbled.
One last infected remained. One of the elite dug his fingers into the ribs of the infected; then the elite jerked his arms wide open, still gripping the ribs of the infected.
The patrol continued to move, stepping on the dead bodies beneath their feet.
One of the elite men strolled up to the little girl and patted her head. He pulled out his handgun discretely.
‘The instructions were to stay inside,’ he said to her as he pointed the gun to her head.
Enzo looked away and shut his eyes as he heard the gunshot. Even after the shot was heard, Enzo kept them shut. He fell to the ground. ‘NO… NO…’ He whispered over and over.
As the group got closer to the ball of light in the tunnel, they halted and knelt down on the ground.
‘Ready.’ Lee whispered.
‘Ready.’ Molly whispered back.
The light shone onto them; the two men holding the light stopped moving. As they did, Molly and Lee charged at them with their knives out.
One of the elite men tossed Molly into the wall knocking her unconscious. The other swung for Lee as Lee dropped to the ground. He slid along the gravel; he sliced the ligament behind the kneecap and the elite’s Achilles tendon, making him stumble.
‘Get him.’ Lee shouted.
The men behind Lee jumped on the elite and stabbed him.
Lee turned to the other elite who had knocked Molly out and saw he’d also killed one of the men behind her. The elite gripped the other man by his neck and lifted him off the ground. With his feet dangling, the man was helpless. The elite smashed the man’s head against the wall, completely crushing it until it was nothing more than a bloody mess.
Lee charged forwards and the elite simply tossed him to the ground. Lee stood back up to see a man in a dark suit charging at him. He grabbed Lee and launched him into the wall. Lee swung his knife at the elite and stabbed him through his hand. The elite man looked down at his hand and yanked out the knife, launching it at Lee. It missed his head by millimetres.
As the elite wandered over to Lee, the other two men in his group jumped on Lee’s attacker and stabbed the elite. He attempted to shake the men off but he stumbled to the ground. The elite elbowed one in the stomach and then broke the other’s neck. The elite stood up and then walked over to Lee.
‘You’ve made a big mistake sir,’ the elite said.
He stood above him and jerked Lee up onto his feet. As he did, he swung at Lee, hitting him on the side of his head, knocking him to the ground. The elite then stood above Lee and punched him in the head. Lee put up his guard as best he could under the onslaught of the elite’s punches. The elite’s hands felt like iron as they battered Lee’s arms, ribs and stomach. Lee took the devastating punishment without being able to fight back. Then blood spattered onto Lee’s face. The pounding ended and the elite’s body thudded to the ground. Lee wearily pushed himself up off the ground. He looked in front of himself but could see nothing in the dark.
‘Hello?’ Lee said as he reached for the dead elite’s torch.
He shone it in front of himself to see Molly holding a bloody blade in her hand. She looked up to Lee revealing her broken nose and bloody face.
Lee stood up and shone the torch onto each of the men around them.
‘Fuck, they’re all dead.’ Lee said. ‘We need to get back, come on.’
Lee pulled Molly’s arm over his shoulder, and they both limped back through the tunnel.
‘I want to introduce you to my youngest elite human yet. He’s magnificent, you’ll love his power.’ Miller said as he opened the metal door that led into a room.
Jonny stepped in on the deep-pile carpet; it was deep blue with white specks and lines across it. Jonny looked to the walls, they were decorated to depict an empty sandy beach, and the ceiling was the sky with not a single cloud.
‘This is amazing.’
‘It is isn’t it? Jonny I would like you to meet Daniel.’
‘Hi Daniel.’
‘Hi Jonny. Are you an elite?’
‘Yes, I think I am.’
‘What can you do?’
‘I… I don’t really know yet. What can you do?’
‘Well, I don’t really know, I’m just a lot cleverer now.’ Daniel said and he pulled a fake smile. Although the smile showed his baby teeth, he had dark shadows under his eyes and looked older because of them.
‘Daniel’s power is quite incredible. When the virus went into him it didn’t react the same as it did with everybody else. It mutated his brain; well, it did on his left side.’
‘Why?’ Jonny asked.
‘I’m not sure. Daniel was part of my replica. I put Daniel in the replica to see how he would cope. He was alone but his aim was to find his mother. I will show you the footage of Daniel in a moment; it’s quite amazing how a seven year old child did not fear the replica.’
‘I knew it was a replica; it was obvious.’ The boy r
eplied.
‘Only to you Daniel, only because you’re so clever.’ Miller said with a smirk. ‘The left side of the brain controls speech and intelligence. So for Daniel this meant his brain has been enhanced. It cured his stutter. His language, logic, critical thinking and mathematics also improved dramatically; which is why when he awoke in the replica, he did not fear it. He could identify that his own home and other buildings were not the correct size. They were millimetres off, meaning he was in the replica. He also recognised that the colour of everything around him was too new.’
‘Wow. Did you not worry then at all Daniel?’ Jonny asked him.
‘I did at first, I was scared ’cause I didn’t know where mummy was, but after I could see everything was different, I knew I was safe. I thought I was dreaming at first.’
‘Daniel’s senses improved as well as his memory. If you made Daniel sniff a shoe and then you put it miles away from him, he would be able to find it. He’s an integral part of the elites.’
‘My memory enhancing isn’t good.’ Daniel said.
‘What do you mean, Daniel?’ Jonny asked.
‘Although my memory has enhanced, I now use sixty percent more of my brain than I did before; that lets me trick myself to believe a different memory.’
‘Why would you need to do that?’ Jonny asked.
‘I do it to some of my bad memories. Like when I watched my father being killed and when my mum was taken away.’
‘Daniel, I think my power may be that I am able to see the past and future.’ Jonny held his hands out in front of Daniel’s head. ‘Can I try?’
‘Yeah,’ Daniel said.
Jonny placed his hands on Daniel’s head.
As he closed his eyes, he heard a woman’s screams ring through his mind. Jonny’s mind seemed to vibrate as he saw many visions of flowers, buildings and classrooms, until he suddenly entered the body and viewpoint from Daniel’s perspective.
‘Son stay here.’ A bearded man said to Daniel as he stroked his head.
He flung the door open and stepped out of the room but was blasted back in as he was shot with a shotgun. Daniel screamed and ran over to his dad’s body. As blood gushed from the man’s stomach, Daniel placed his small hands over the wound. The blood seeped through Daniel’s fingers and created a pool of blood behind his dad.
Daniel was tugged away from the body, even as he reached out to him.
‘Daddy!’ Daniel screamed as he was dragged out of the room, still reaching for his dad.
Jonny opened his eyes and stared at Daniel’s smiling face.
‘I’m so sorry.’ Jonny said with a tear in his eye.
‘That’s okay; I like you.’ Daniel said and he hugged Jonny.
‘Right come on.’ Miller snapped and pulled at Jonny’s arm. ‘Good to see you Daniel.’
Jonny shrugged Miller’s strong grip off and continued to speak to Daniel. ‘How did you do this room?’
‘I painted it. Do you like it?’
‘You drew all this? That’s incredible Daniel; I thought it was a picture.’
‘No, it’s a beach I used to go to with mum and dad. It helps me relax.’ Daniel said with a sigh.
‘Right Daniel we will let you rest now. See you soon.’ Miller said as he opened the door.
‘Bye, nice to meet you Jonny.’ Daniel said.
‘It was good to meet you too Daniel.’
Miller led Jonny out of the room and they entered the room next door.
Inside was a TV with a number of DVD players underneath it; there were also four big filing cabinets, one in each corner of the narrow room.
‘You won’t know this Jonny, but these DVDs and files are from the replica. Many people had to die in my London replica but…’
‘Why did they die?’ Jonny interrupted.
‘Because of the virus. The replica gave us, the government, the opportunity to test new scientific developments and technology. We documented the entire experiment. We had some key participants.’
Miller placed a DVD into a player and switched on the TV. ‘Here you can see the names of people. Tom Williams, Danni Taint and so on, and look, Daniel Gregor.’ Miller used the remote to highlight Daniel’s name and he pressed select. He watched the CCTV footage. ‘Any moment now you’ll see Daniel, although he didn’t look too good.’
As Jonny moved his head closer to the screen, he lunged backwards as Daniel appeared from nowhere and stared into the camera.
His eyes were completely black; bloodstains marked his face where blood had dribbled from his eyes, nose and mouth. The colour of his skin was the colour of an eggshell and his veins looked like black ink flowed through them, across his face.
‘That’s what the virus did to him appearance wise, though I was able to help him with that. This is his video. He did not move from that spot. He stood like this for forty-five minutes. We had to get into the replica and take him out of it. He was brought to a secret facility where I knew no one would find him.’
Jonny stared into Daniel’s eyes on the screen until Miller took the DVD out of the player. The TV turned a grey and black grainy colour, making Jonny jump from his stare.
‘Time to make an announcement, a request for people with a cure to come forward to help me.’ Miller laughed as he walked back onto the underground station.
‘Do you want to cure London?’ Jonny asked.
‘London cannot be cured. We elites are the future, people just do not realise this.’
‘What if someone did have a cure?’
‘They won’t, it would need to be a huge amount of the cure because this virus is worldwide. This is happening everywhere. The world has gone into panic mode. Once everyone accepts we’re the future then we can return to a more normal life.’
‘I want to know who I was before.’ Jonny said.
‘In good time.’
‘I want to know now.’ Jonny said.
‘Your old life wasn’t good, Jonny trust me.’
‘My name is Jon!’ Jonny shouted swinging his fist at the tiled wall next to him, breaking three tiles that crumbled and crashed to the ground.
‘I’m withholding information for your own sake. Everyone you loved died except for one. The one person you did love killed you. The person you loved was the person I’m looking for; Danni Taint. She killed you! I want to find her, kill her and give you a new life.’ Miller smirked as he walked through the underground. Jonny sighed as he followed Miller.
‘Why would she kill me if we were in love?’ Jonny asked.
‘Because she’s an evil bitch.’
10
‘I think that’s the end of it.’ Danni said.
Enzo walked out of the room still trembling and breathing fast.
‘Enzo are you okay?’
Enzo looked to Danni and shook his head. ‘They killed a little girl, she wasn’t infected; she went to the patrol for help and…’ Enzo knelt down and leaned against the wall. ‘I should have saved her.’
The corridor was silent.
‘We can all go back to our rooms now. I’ll come with you Enzo if that’s ok?’ Danni asked.
Enzo stared at the ground, eventually replying to Danni, ‘Yes.’
Everyone returned to their rooms. Danni walked into Enzo’s room. Enzo followed her with his shoulders slouched and head hanging down.
‘Come on.’ Danni said softly, guiding him to the end of his bed.
They let themselves drop onto the bed, falling backwards and lying side by side.
‘Enzo, the little girl dying is not your fault. You could have launched yourself at them and killed them all, but the fact is, we would have been found; you could have been killed and she still would have died.’ Danni paused and Enzo stared at the ceiling. ‘Well anything could have happened; I’m just glad you’re okay and still here with me.’ Danni said and smiled.
‘Thanks Danni, I just can’t stop thinking of her.’
‘I completely understand Enzo, we’ll just talk about something el
se; I’m here for you.’ Danni said and she took hold of Enzo’s hand. ‘Bloody hell, your hand is so hot.’
‘Must be the drugs.’ Enzo said with a sigh.
‘Must be.’ Danni hesitated for a moment as she stared into the dark. ‘So what were you doing before this all happened?’
‘Was in hospital; but before that, I was in a dead end job which isn’t even worth talkin’ about. I wanted to go in the force but my parents were against it; they encouraged me to go to university.’
Danni smiled to herself for a moment and then asked, ‘How old are you?’
‘Why’d ya ask that?’ Enzo said and chuckled.
‘Well, they wanted you to go to uni?’
‘As a mature student, I’m twenty six.’
‘I see; that makes sense now, but did you live with your parents then?’
‘Well yeah, but I was never at home; we just didn’t really get on. Me and Dad would clash and fight, Mum would try to intervene and get hurt, it was that kind of relationship.’ Enzo paused and then took a deep breath. ‘But I haven’t seen them for months and since all this has happened, I just wonder if they’re ok.’
‘Well all we can do is hope they are. We can look for them once London isn’t so dangerous.’
‘I’d like that.’ Enzo smiled as he tapped Danni’s hand on his. ‘So what about you?’
‘Pfft well mine is pretty dismal as well, so if you want cheering up, I won’t bother telling you.’
Enzo laughed and said, ‘These sad stories bring people closer together so it makes me happier.’ Enzo’s eyes lit up as he spoke.
‘I suppose they do. Well then prepare yourself; this will make you real happy.’
‘You don’t have to if you don’t want to,’ Enzo said as he patted Danni’s hand.
‘No it’s fine, I will.’ Danni took a deep breath and began. ‘Well before all this, I was in the replica with Dad and it didn’t end too well. There was a small group of us; we came up with a theory about the infection. Eventually it was just me and Dad left to fight for survival, until I saved a guy called Tom Williams from an infected tramp.’