by T. J. Blake
Danni smiled and she closed her eyes. ‘Tom joined us and he was so determined to find his girlfriend. I remember wishing for a boyfriend like him. Anyway, eventually it all ended. Unfortunately I lost Dad and Tom lost Anna, but I kind of felt like my life was getting back to a normal kind of life. I lived with Tom in London and it was great. My family loved Tom and you know, I felt a connection with Tom, until…’
Danni paused as a tear dropped from her eye. ‘Until… until I came home from work to find him hanging in the living room.’ Danni wiped her cheeks. ‘Ahh sorry Enzo, I’ve never spoken about it to anyone.’
‘Well I’m glad you have now Danni. You can talk to me about anything you want.’ Enzo said and smiled.
‘Can I tell you that I had to kill my dad?’
‘You… you killed your dad?’
‘No one knows that either, except Tom. I had to kill him because he had changed and started attacking me and Tom, so I had to kill him.’
‘That must have taken a lot of guts.’
Danni opened her mouth but instead, she just nodded in agreement.
‘I best get back, thanks for this chat Enzo; it really helped.’
‘Anytime Danni, and thank you for listening.’
Danni smiled as she sat up on the end of the bed.
‘See you tomorrow.’ Danni said as she walked out the door.
11
2 days later
We’ve been under each other’s noses for a couple of days in this hotel. We’ve heard announcements from Miller, asking for a cure and for assistance. He wants the cure but contradicts his own beliefs by creating these elite humans. Surely we can’t be the only ones to see it that way?
We’ve been waiting for the right time to go to Waterloo to attack.
I am honestly scared. Not for my life, but for Mum’s, Sadie’s and Jerome’s because if any harm comes to them, I’ll feel as if I have to take the blame. I can fight but not well enough to take on the elite humans. Flynn is the same. The only one who could is Enzo.
Anyway we’ve been listening to the clean up. The patrol marches throughout London, killing the infected and civilians who stand in their way.
We have food but not much, after breakfast we won’t have anything left except snack type food.
Let’s hope this isn’t my last diary entry. Will write more tomorrow.
‘What have you got there?’ Lynne asked Danni.
Danni looked up to Lynne standing above her and smiled. ‘A diary, I’ve been writing in it on and off for a couple of years. I thought I would write about all this and you know; if someone finds it then they will know all about Miller and Sarah.’
‘I was thinking about this Sarah. Do you think she’s working with Miller?’
‘Yes, I saw her on the underground, they tried to kill me.’
Lynne nodded and smiled.
‘You don’t think she is, do you?’
‘I just think that maybe… maybe something has happened. They fell out, or he’s done something to her.’
‘I have a feeling she’s working with him. She’s broken a promise she made to her son, when I finally see her, I’ll kill her.’
‘Ok darling.’ Lynne said as she stroked Danni’s arm.
Lee and Molly lay next to each other.
‘Morning,’ Lee said to Molly as her squinting eyes looked at him.
‘Oh my god,’ Molly gasped clutching her ribs as she sat upright. ‘I’m so sore.’
‘Same,’ Lee chuckled.
‘How are you two?’ Sarah said as she walked over to them.
‘I’ve been better,’ Lee said.
Sarah smiled as she looked around at the group. ‘Did you just leave all the bodies where they were?’ Sarah whispered.
Lee and Molly both nodded.
‘Okay well, I sent one of the guys to go through the tunnel to find the bodies and there weren’t any. But it’s been two days since that skirmish and no one has come to find us, so I don’t know what’s happened there. However, this means we haven’t needed to attack as early as we first thought, but today is the day. When the patrol goes out at one o’clock, that’s when we’ll have our eyes above to radio down to us when to detonate each bomb. Once we’ve detonated them all, we’ll make our way through the tunnel. We have a great force behind us. We’re the minority down here. We have army officers on our side against Miller too; they’re up above. Will you two be able to fight with us?’
‘Yes, I mean we’re a bit sore but we will fight.’ Lee said.
‘Thank you.’ Sarah said. She briefly rested her hands on Lee and Molly’s shoulders and then turned to the group. ‘Right everybody; today is the day we attack. We’re ending this today and no later. London has been completely under Miller’s thumb for far too long. We have our spies above who will communicate to us and we will destroy the patrols. We have a couple of hours to get ready. Let’s go!’
‘I am Dr Leanna Haetel, I have a compound which would give us the opportunity to cure the entire world of this infection.’
‘You have a cure… that works?’ Miller sat forward on his chair on the stage at Waterloo.
‘It works, for some people it will cure, for others it will kill.’ Dr Haetel said as she brushed her grey-flecked brown hair behind her ears and shoulders. Her small brown eyes squinted at Miller.
‘Well I am intrigued, let’s hear this.’ Miller said as he stood.
‘Ok well this is a mist which carries the chemical. When it is inhaled, it neutralises the body. It can have either one of two effects. It can make you feel drowsy and weak for a couple of minutes or it can send you into a coma. After this stage, it either cures the patient or they do not wake up. If the patient does not enter the coma stage, they can still die, but it is a very painful death.’
‘This sounds brilliant.’ Miller said as he hopped off stage and wandered towards the hunched up woman. ‘What’s the success rate?’
‘Well it’s around fifty five percent.’
‘Okay, even so, this is brilliant.’
‘It would be good to use across London, through the sewage pipeline and up through the streets. You can store and spread the mist in any way you like.’
‘It’s a great idea. Follow me so we can talk.’
Dr Haetel nodded and followed Miller down towards the underground escalator.
As they reached the bottom, he led her into a room.
‘Just stay here for a while.’ Miller said as he slammed and locked the door.
Dr Haetel lightly tapped on the door as Miller walked away. As he got further away, he heard her whisper of a voice call out his name.
‘Just stay here for a moment Dr Haetel, I liked the cure but at the moment I am in control of London and I would like to keep it that way. There are people all around you, in the rooms surrounding you, make some friends,’ Miller said as he walked away.
Miller reached the top floor and walked over to the stage where Jonny stood with his arms crossed.
‘Where’s Dr Haetel?’ Jonny asked.
‘Oh she’s working downstairs. Right, today we’re going to use Daniel.’
‘Use?’ Jonny asked.
‘We will use Daniel to track down a friend of mine, well actually friends of mine.’
Jonny stared at Miller for a moment and then tilted his head a little.
‘Daniel has enhanced senses, I will use him to track a perfume that someone is wearing and they will lead us to those friends of mine.’
‘Friend or foe?’ Jonny asked.
‘Both.’ Miller said with a snarl.
Enzo took a radio from his drawer and walked to the rooms where everyone else was staying in the abandoned hotel. As he entered, he saw them all sitting together except Carl, who stared out of the window.
‘What’s that for?’ Danni asked Enzo, pointing at his radio.
‘It’s a walkie-talkie to communicate with someone.’
Flynn turned to Enzo and stood up. ‘You mean you’ve had that the entire tim
e and you didn’t say anything?’
‘That’s right, I can’t trust you. It is so I can communicate with the people I’m working with.’
‘Communicate what?’ Danni asked.
‘Where the patrol is at a certain time,’ Enzo said as he sat next to Danni. ‘It will be revenge for what that man did to that little girl.’ Enzo whispered to Danni with the glint of a smile.
‘Were we expecting any company?’ Carl mumbled as he stared out of the window.
Danni, Enzo and Flynn charged to the window and looked out. Carl pointed to the end of the road; they saw a bald man and child looking down the street. The man took a photo on a phone and then they both disappeared around the corner.
‘Did you get their location?’ Miller asked Jonny and Daniel as they returned to Waterloo.
‘Yes.’ Daniel said. ‘Jonny took a photo of the abandoned building they’re in.’
Jonny pulled the phone out of his pocket and handed it to Miller.
‘Brilliant, well you two can go now, we’ll let the patrol deal with this one.’ Miller said.
‘We need to prepare ourselves, the patrol has begun and we have our contacts above to tell us when to detonate the bombs that are located under the roads throughout London. I need everyone to stand on the tracks away from the platform, there’s a risk that when the explosions happen, the ceiling above could collapse and cave in. After all are detonated, we will move through the tunnel and attack. Clear?’
The group murmured an affirmation.
‘Good, let’s get ready. Move into position, I’m staying up here to cross off on this map where all the bombs are going off.’ Sarah pointed to her London map and the red areas of where the bombs were.
Sarah opened her laptop up, and began to type, as she did, her radio sounded out. A rough voice said, ‘Detonate position twenty five.’ Sarah nodded to the group and then looked back to her laptop. As she pressed “Enter” on her keyboard, they heard the echo of an explosion travel through the tunnels.
Black smoke rose up into the sky over London. After each explosion came the plume of black smoke and the screams of men.
At each explosion were the burning tanks and crawling, scorched bodies.
Enzo stared out through the window and watched the patrol. He saw the elite who shot the young girl and smiled at him.
‘This is it. Everyone get away, leave this room and move to the other side of the hotel.
No questions were asked; everybody left the room and ran across the corridor to stand outside Enzo’s door.
‘Detonate position fourteen.’ Enzo said as he ran towards the door. As he ran, the booming explosions shattered the windows and walls and blasted Enzo’s diving body part-way across the corridor. Everybody else covered their ears as they heard the muted screams of the men below in the street.
Enzo looked back to the room they had been in; it barely existed. The black smoke dominated the room and outside, the surrounding buildings and the road were completely obliterated. Enzo walked back into the room and looked outside. The wall was gone.
Some scorched bodies crawled, others were just a puddle of blood and guts and others were just dismembered torsos. The abandoned cars outside the hotel were mostly overturned and alight, creating yet more smoke.
As he looked to the end of the road, he saw a few elite humans running down towards the building. Enzo watched them enter beneath him.
‘They’ve found us.’ Enzo shouted to the group.
‘Who?’ Danni shouted back as she stood upright.
‘Miller’s men; my traps in the stairs will kill most, but not all, there’s a lot of them.’ As Enzo finished his sentence they heard shouting and screaming below them. ‘Do not take the stairs, I will but that’s because I know where my traps are. You guys stay here and guard the lift, if anyone comes up, kill them. Danni, get your mum, Sadie and Jerome into a room where they won’t be found. Flynn, follow me.’
‘Good luck,’ Danni said and she hugged Enzo and Flynn. ‘Come on quick,’ Danni said to Lynne, Sadie and Jerome, leading them away. She approached the room next to Enzo’s. Kicking the door, it eventually swung open.
‘Right, stay here and do not move.’ Danni said, handing a gun each to Lynne and Sadie.
‘Be careful darling.’ Lynne sobbed.
Danni hugged them both. Jerome clung to her, crying.
‘Baby it’s okay, auntie Danni will come back for you.’ Sadie said.
‘Yeah I will. You’ve been a brave boy, Jerome. Help mummy and nanny by being good and brave ok?’ Danni smiled as she stroked the back of his head.
Danni pulled out a gun and tossed it towards Carl. ‘Guard their door. No one goes in.’ Danni said sternly.
Carl barged past Danni and stood in front of the door to the room they were in. Danni stood in front of the lift and saw it was on the move, coming up.
Danni plucked a grenade from her belt. She strained to open the lift doors and looked down to see the elevator approaching slowly. She pulled the pin and dropped the grenade onto the lift.
She stepped away from the doors and heard the explosion. Smoke poured up to their floor, making her choke and all of a sudden there was a deep bass sound vibrating throughout the building.
‘Get down!’ she shouted over to Carl but it was too late.
Bullets penetrated the hotel, tearing the walls apart, destroying the furniture and the facade of the hotel.
She heard Jerome screaming and Sadie shouting, ‘Get off! Help!’
Danni crawled along the floor, army cadet style, as the bullets continued to fire into the building. She shouted to Carl to charge into the room to help, but he was on the ground, arms and legs outstretched, his gun out of reach.
The bullets stopped blasting through the hotel. The sounds of gunshots and explosions below must have meant that Enzo and Flynn were alive and fighting.
Danni stood and ran to the room where she left her mum and sister. As she swung the door open, she saw an elite standing in the room. Danni pulled out her gun and shot at him. The elite charged at her, the bullets deflecting off his black mask and armour. He pushed her through the wall, back into the corridor. As she landed on the other side, she heard Jerome screaming as the hovercraft revved. Danni stood up and looked through the hole in the wall that her body had created, in time to see the elite jump out of the building onto the hovercraft. Danni ran back into the room and charged at the hovercraft, shooting at it. She stopped when she noticed Jerome, Sadie and Lynne had all been taken hostage onto a hovercraft with the muzzle of a gun held to their heads. As the hovercrafts glided away, the masked elite pulled out his gun and pulled the trigger, knocking Danni to the floor.
12
‘Everyone’s ok?’ Sarah bellowed as she heard people choking on the floating dust. ‘Everyone remain calm, we’re safe down here. We’re way below the surface, around seventy feet below ground.’
‘So this won’t collapse?’ Molly asked.
‘No it shouldn’t do. I mean some stops are closer to ground level above but this one isn’t so we should be safe.’
‘How many people would have been killed by this, Sarah?’ an elderly lady asked.
‘Hopefully the whole patrol; people have been told to stay inside, I’m hoping they listened to orders and if they did, they won’t be harmed.’
The group stared at Sarah in silence, until Lee intervened. ‘Right everybody let’s do this, let’s make our way through the…’
A scream echoed through the tunnel; a young girl shouted, ‘Help! Run!’
Everybody stared at the tunnel as a girl missing an arm ran into the station and collapsed on the ground. As her face hit the ground, a large animal jumped on her, sinking its teeth into her neck and detaching her head.
Sarah stepped back, letting out a shriek as she twisted her ankle. She winced as she fell to the ground. The dog-sized rat looked up, away from the dead girl and its gaze fixed on Sarah. Its beady eyes narrowed as it slowly moved towards the group. Sarah
was revolted, its nose was scabby, and the rat’s coat was patchy and bald in places; other areas were covered by strands of dingy grey hairs, the bald areas of the rat were pink, with thick, engorged veins. It looked diseased; it curled its top lip back, revealing its enlarged and jagged yellow teeth. It snarled as another large rat exited the tunnel.
The group stumbled backwards, most cowering to the ground. Some pulled out their guns and shot at the rats, aggravating them.
All of a sudden, an oversized and muscular Rottweiler charged from the opposite tunnel and into the rats. The dog knocked both rodents off their feet and then ripped one of the rats’ heads off. The other rat backed off into the darkness as it moved out of sight, its claws could be heard scurrying back down the tunnel.
The dog looked back to the group who shrieked as the Rottweiler growled.
‘That’s enough Missy baby.’ A man shouted from the tunnel.
The Rottweiler ran back to him, flopping to the ground and lying down in front of the grey-headed man. Missy stuck her tongue out as the man pulled out a slab of meat and tossed it up, she caught it.
‘You guys ok?’
‘Yeah. Thank you.’ Lee said as he helped Sarah to her feet.’
‘Don’t thank me, Missy smelt a rat and came charging through.’
Missy looked back to the group, her eyes were dark and weeping but her tongue lolled out.
‘Good girl.’ The man said.
‘Missy… Kinda doesn’t suit her if I’m honest.’ Molly said with a smirk.
‘Aww it does, she’s my Missy baby.’ The man said as Missy rolled onto her back for a belly rub.
‘How has she not killed you?’ Sarah asked. ‘I mean she’s infected.’