Now I knew why he looked so happy.
“OK, I’ll take a pack of two hundred and fifty,” I said, producing the shotgun certificate from my inside pocket.
As the owner went into the storage area that we had passed through, John and I had a quick look around the shop. There was a rack of shotguns behind the counter, a few of them similar to the Hatsans we had purchased. Behind us were a number over-and-under shotguns hanging on the wall and to our left a rack of rimfire and centrefire rifles.
“Dad, have you seen this hundred-and-ten round magazine for the Ruger? It’s made in Germany,” said John, looking at the glass-fronted counter in which various other shooting items were displayed
“That looks interesting, how much is it?”
“Eighty pounds,” said John.
From my experience the Germans did tend to make things that usually worked well, if not always eye-catching. The owner returned from the storeroom, holding the appropriate boxes of cartridges.
“We’ll also take this hundred-and-ten shot magazine for the Ruger,” I said. He looked pleased.
I put my credit card into the machine and paid for our purchases. As we started to leave the shop, the owner said, “’Bye, and come back soon”.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said, thinking that this might be sooner rather than later, given the crisis we seemed to be in.
As we walked back to the truck, John turned to me and said, “We need to get some diesel next”.
“OK,” I replied, completely forgetting what our plan had been.
We put our purchases in the rear footwell and got into the truck. We pulled out of the cul-de-sac, turning left towards the main Boreham Road. As we passed over the A12, I had a quick look at the traffic, which was now starting to move, but still very slowly. John filled the truck up with diesel at a BP station and went to pay for it in the small shop, and as I was waiting I rang Mary on my mobile.
“It’s your hubby. How are you getting on with the shopping?”
“It looks like everybody has the same idea. Sainsbury’s is packed, and we’re not going to be home by two-fifteen,” Mary replied. If the wife had said they would be back on time, I would have been worried.
I realised that the garage was next door to a fast-food place.
“Oh, we are at the BP garage – would you like a McDonald’s? Check with Josephine.”
“Yes, that’s fine, we’ll each have a Big Mac and a hot chocolate,” Mary replied after a few moments.
John climbed into the driver’s seat.
“It looks like we are getting a Big Mac,” I said
“OK,” he replied, starting the engine.
We went into the drive-thru, the McDonald’s staff served us with their usual efficiency, and we were soon on our way back to the house. The traffic on the A12 was now moving at its usual speed, around 70 mph, and within five minutes John was pulling up outside our front door. We unloaded our purchases and laid them out on the sofa. I collected our Big Macs and took them through to the kitchen, with Sheba in hot pursuit hoping get something. John moved the truck to the top of our close and when he returned we both decided to wait for the ladies so that we could eat our food together. I made us a cup of tea each and we sat in the armchairs and started to inspect our purchases. John turned on the television and switched to the BBC News channel. It was nearly 2.20 pm, so we should get the headlines at 2.30.
“OK, we need to take this one gun at a time,” I said. “The Supreme Max would probably be the easiest one to work out.”
“OK, I’ve got the manual,” said John. After playing with the butt spacers to adjust the length of pull (which depends on how long your arms are) and the shims to adjust the drop at the comb (how long your neck is), we decided to fit the full choke tube to the muzzle, which would keep the shot pattern tight. (Shotgun choke is the constriction at the muzzle end of the gun that tightens the pattern of pellets. The other four chokes – a three-quarters choke down to true cylinder – would give you a much wider spread.)
While we were checking the shotgun, we were listening to the news. The infection had now spread from London out as far as Epping, sort of following the Central Line, and Ingatestone along the A12 and as far as Basildon along the A127 and A13 main roads. It was also spreading further south and west, but I did not take much notice of these places as they were far away. What mattered was that the infection was slowly surrounding us.
John and I finished checking the Supreme Max, cleaning the action and barrel and adding a tiny amount of oil.
“I’ll give Josephine another ring,” said John, opening the flap on his mobile.
“Let me listen to what they say,” I said, and he put the phone on speaker.
“Hello, where are you?” he said, starting to sound a bit concerned, I thought.
“We are putting the shopping in the car now,” Josephine answered. We could hear the trolley wheels rattling along on the pavement, then stop, and then a click as the hatch popped open.
“You’d better hurry – this infection is spreading rapidly,” said John.
Then a piercing scream and a shout came over the mobile.
“What’s happening?” asked John, now getting desperate. Then silence. “You OK?”
“Right, the shopping is in the car, and we’re on our way,” announced Josephine at last. We heard the hatch slam shut, and there was another scream, but this time it sounded much closer.
Then Mary’s voice.
“Oh, my God!”
Then Josephine shouted “Go, go, go!” and we heard the sound of squealing tyres.
“Watch out, watch!” exclaimed Josephine. There was a thud, as if something had hit the car.
Then Josephine again.
“Keep going, keep going!”
“My God! We’ve left Sainsbury’s car park and are on our way,” said Josephine, speaking more normally now and mainly directed at John.
The mobile then went dead. Within five minutes, Mary and Josephine pulled into the car port, and John and I ran out to the car.
“Are you all right?” asked John urgently.
“Yes, just,” replied Mary, visibly shaken.
“What happened?” I asked, in my most concerned voice.
“I’ll tell you when we get inside – you can help us to bring in the shopping,” said Mary as she popped the hatch open, then opened the rear door. Josephine opened the other back door at the same time. They had managed to fill the back seat of the car as well as the load space with supplies.
We took the shopping through the side gate and into the kitchen, and stacked it on the floor.
The women then started to put the supplies away in cupboards and the refrigerator.
“So, what happened then?” I asked again. John had started to warm up the Big Macs in the microwave.
“Well, everything was fine until we left the store and started to head back to the car,” began Mary. “As we were about to cross the road that leads to all the car parks, we had to step back as a car came in driving rather irrationally – instead of turning left to follow the signs, it went straight on and hit another vehicle coming from the sheltered parking spaces. Both drivers got out of their cars and moved towards each other, the driver that had been hit through no fault of his own looking really mad. The driver who had caused the accident had his back to us, so we couldn’t see his face, but suddenly the other driver stopped in his tracks and took a step backwards. The offending driver seemed to jump on him and bite his neck, and the other man fell to the ground, probably in shock. Josephine and I were frozen to the spot for a few seconds, trying to take in the spectacle.
“Then the offending driver stood up. The other man’s wife had got out of her side of their car and started screaming at the offending driver, ‘What do you think you are doing?’ She moved round the back of their car towards her husba
nd, who was still lying on the ground, and at the same time the man who caused the accident went for her and she let out a scream. That snapped us out of our frozen state, and we started heading as fast as we could for my car, pushing the two trolleys. We were just getting near the car when you rang. The offending driver was continuing to attack people at random, and we had just finished putting our shopping in the car, when we noticed this maniac heading for us. As I was pulling out of the car park, he appeared in front of us. I have never seen such scary eyes – red with black dots is the only way I can describe them. In a bit of a panic I just ran him over – well, knocked him out of the way. The strange thing was that when I looked in the rear-view mirror he was actually getting up off the ground and seemed to be looking for his next victim.”
Josephine was nodding in approval at Mary’s account, as John walked into the living room holding the warmed-up McDonald’s.
He said, “Shit happens,” being his usual laid-back self.
“And what is all this on the sofa? You two going to start a war?” quipped Mary as she started to clear a space so she could sit down. “How are we going to pay for all this?”
John and I looked at each other but said nothing.
We all started to eat our Big Macs, while Sheba sat in front of me, hoping for a chip.
The three o’clock news was just starting.
“I’ve got to see this,” I said, and the room then went very quiet.
The TV screen went blank for a few seconds. Then, in large white letters, a message appeared: “This is an emergency broadcast”. The newsreader appeared and spoke the same words as earlier, before continuing, “The emergency services are having major difficulties controlling the current situation. In addition to the regular armed forces, the Territorial Army is now being called up. The infection is now out of control and has spread to most major cities and towns. I have the government consultant with me, who can explain why the infection is spreading so rapidly.”
He turned to his left, and a balding man of about 50 appeared on the screen.
“Can you tell us why this disease has spread so quickly?” the presenter asked.
The government man spoke calmly. “There are two main causes. First of all, the disease itself. Once a person has been infected, usually by a bite, it can take as little as 30 minutes to take effect, and in many cases considerably less. The infected person then has a strong desire to infect other, non-infected people.
“The second cause is slow recognition of symptoms. It appears most people in London set off for work as normal today, but by the time they reached their destinations most of the city had become infected. By midday people were being advised to return home, but this was a fatal mistake, as a number of people that had been infected but were not yet showing any symptoms boarded trains and buses along with uninfected people. By the time they reached their destination, everyone in the carriage or bus was infected. The infected people would then disembark from the train or bus the next time it stopped, and infection of the surrounding area would begin.”
“What advice can you give to people so they can protect themselves?” the newsreader asked.
“Lock your doors and windows and do not go outside. If you do have to let people into your house, for example relations, make sure they have no bite marks before you open the door. If you are unsure, please wait at least thirty minutes before you let them in. This may be very hard, but remember you are risking the lives of everybody in the house if you don’t.”
“Thank you for your advice.”
The newsreader then turned back to the camera.
“We have just received this CCTV footage from Chelmsford railway station in Essex.”
The screen showed the northbound platform, the one with services to Colchester and Ipswich. The video had no sound, but we could see about 200 people waiting on the platform. We watched as a train started to pull into the station, slowly coming to a halt. The doors slid open, and at first everything looked normal as the usual city gentlemen disembarked carrying their briefcases and headed towards the exit. But at first we could see no movement from one of the carriages, then suddenly people were spilling out onto the platform, falling over each other. When they recovered, they started to attack other passengers. One lady went down with a man attached to her back, apparently biting her neck. As he climbed back to his feet another passenger came to the woman’s rescue, swinging his briefcase and hitting the infected man on the side of the head. But this appeared to have no effect, as the infected man lunged forward, grabbing the other round the neck and biting him in the throat – blood squirted everywhere, so he must have bitten into the jugular vein.
Three young men then came into view, presumably having exited from the rear of the train. The largest of them was wielding a rather large Bowie knife. Two of the infected were moving quickly towards them, and the youth started to wave the knife in a threatening manner, obviously trying to deter his would-be attacker, but to no effect. The infected person just kept coming, and as he made a lunge for the young man, the latter stuck his knife into the infected person’s stomach. At the same time, the second, rather stocky youth punched the other infected in the face, which made him stagger backwards. Even though the first infected man now had a big knife sticking into his stomach, he was still trying to bite the first youth, but at that point the latter pulled him forward and the infected person fell to the ground with the knife still in him. The youth made a gesture to his mates and all three started to run back along the platform, disappearing out of camera shot with their two attackers in hot pursuit.
By now there was complete mayhem all around the exit, through which a number of the infected were disappearing, while some as yet uninfected passengers who had been attacked were lying on the floor, most of them appearing to be in complete shock. Others seemed to be looking for somewhere to hide, and one middle-aged woman with blood coming from her arm was hitting her attacker with an umbrella, but he took no notice and headed for the exit.
The screen then went blank. The newsreader came back on, looking as if he was in shock, but after a few seconds he seemed to recover.
“Please keep tuned to the BBC as we will give you the latest updates as they come in. For now, this is what happened on the outskirts of Romford earlier today.”
The screen then showed a repeat of the pictures run live at midday.
“My God!” Mary exclaimed.
“What are we going to do?” asked Josephine, looking directly at John.
“We start blocking the windows and doors,” John answered.
“What about putting these guns away first?” Mary queried.
“We still need to check them over, so leave them where they are for the moment,” I replied. “John and I will sort out some timber and start to block up the front window and the kitchen door before we do anything else.” Mary did not look very happy, as she liked to keep the house tidy.
John and I went into the garden to see what we could find. Fortunately, I had a fair amount of timber in the shed and two empty pallets in the garden, which could be taken apart if needed, plus a long fibreglass shelf left over from when John had fitted our new windows a couple of years before. Then we inspected the garden fences and decided it would be a good idea to put another bolt on the side gate, which led out to the car port. We also decided to seal the back gate that led out to the A12.
We collected the required tools from the shed and brought them into the kitchen, together with the fibreglass shelf, which appeared to be the right length to go across the front window. When Mary realised what we were about to do, she was not impressed.
“What do you two think you are doing?” said Mary.
“Putting a frame over the front window,” I replied.
“But you’re going to drill holes in the wall.”
“There’s no other way of doing it,” I said.
Then Jo
hn came to my rescue.
“Mum, if we mess around we are going to end up like those infected people. Don’t forget that was Chelmsford station we were looking at on the news – that’s only three miles away and we have no idea when the video was taken. I estimate they could be on our doorstep in a couple of hours, maybe less.” John never did mince his words.
“Oh,” was all Mary could say.
“Does anybody want a cup of tea?” asked Josephine, defusing the situation.
We all replied yes except Mary, who wanted her usual decaf coffee. John and I started to build the frame to block up the front window, drinking our tea as we worked. By 4.00 pm we had finished and were just about to start the back door when the TV news came on again.
The disease was still spreading and, more importantly for us, it had spread all over the Chelmsford area. At the end of the programme the presenter said, “The next news will be at 5.00 pm”. Then the channel then went dead.
John and I managed to block up the back door by using some brackets and 3x2 pieces of timber. People would find it very difficult to get in even if they broke the glass, but we could still get out. We fitted an extra bolt to the bottom of the side gate and blocked the back gate out to the A12 using more of the 3x2 pieces of wood and some very large nails.
We eventually finished at 5.00 pm.
“Perhaps we should speak to the neighbours and see what they are doing,” John suggested.
“Good idea,” I said. “It might be good to try to block off the cul-de-sac with the cars.”
“Yes – we can ask them about that too.”
John and I went back into the house, where Mary and Josephine had just finished tidying up.
“John and I are going to speak to the neighbours to see what precautions they are taking. See you in about half an hour. Oh, and could you make something to eat and a cup of tea?”
“OK, we’ll make some sandwiches,” said Mary grudgingly. Well, she was never going to cook – she hated cooking.
John and I started at number 29 at the top of the close to our right, where Mark and Lindsey lived. They had lived there for a couple of years but I had never spoken to them before as they always seemed to be out. They had no children and seemed to be quite a young couple. But as usual they were out, probably not home from work yet, so we continued to number 31. Steve and Lucy had lived there for the past 15 years, and had two children, a boy and a girl. Steve answered the door.
Infected- The Beginning Page 4