Dystopia

by Jason Chapman

  Tyler nodded.

  Chapter 12

  London Paddington – 11:59am

  Simon Wood closed his eyes desperately trying to shake off the sensation that started to overwhelm him. The armed officer of five years looked at his watch. He noticed his hand shaking. Another armed officer stood several yards away scanning the crowded train station. He looked across at Wood.

  ‘Hey, Wood are you ok.’

  Wood massaged his forehead that was sweating. ‘I don’t feel right.’

  ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘I don’t know, I feel strange.’

  The station clock began its midday chime.

  Wood began to panic, but it was too late. A white haze descended over his vision.

  ‘What the fuck is up with your eyes?’ His colleague gasped.

  Wood didn’t respond. He lifted his weapon and fired directly at the armed officer who was flung backwards in a crimson mist.

  Screams filled the air as people ran for cover. Wood pointed his gun and started to fire into a crowd of terrified commuters.

  London Evening Examiner – Fleet Street – 12:13pm

  Tony Mirren sat patiently as Alan relayed the story to him.

  ‘What do you think, should we run with this?’

  ‘I’m not sure publishing a story about a zombie vampire attacking the London Stock Exchange would go down well with our readers Alan.’

  ‘I know it’s a little farfetched but that’s what my source described. He said that this Stephens, a London trader started to eat people.’

  ‘You’re going to have to word it better than that.’

  ‘Ok but we don’t have much to go on. This is the third attack in twelve hours. No other paper has this information.’

  Mirren eventually nodded. ‘Ok, write the interview, but don’t sensationalize it. You work for the Examiner not the Sun or the Mirror. The last thing we want is our owner Nathan Barnes storming in here and kicking off.’

  ‘What about publishing the name of the attacker.’

  ‘Mirren shook his head. ‘If we use his name we could find ourselves being sued. We’ll withhold his name for now.’

  A woman walked briskly into the office with a look of shock on her face.

  ‘What’s the matter Sue?’ Mirren asked.

  She pointed towards the large flat screen TV on the wall of the pressroom. ‘There’s another attack happening at Paddington.’

  Mirren and Alan got to their feet and walked into the pressroom. People stood around the TV watching the News.

  BBC News Channel – BREAKING NEWS – 12:24pm

  ‘You are joining us live from Paddington station where in the last few minutes another attack has occurred. Early witness reports state that a gunman has opened fire on the packed terminal. There are apparently dozens of people injured inside the station. We can confirm that two people have been pronounced dead at the scene. As you can see behind me the station has been completely sealed off. From what little we know gunshots were heard coming from the station at precisely midday. Dozens of armed police are patrolling the outside of the station. Emergency services are loading the injured into ambulances. In all my years as a journalist I have never seen anything like this. There are people covered in blood walking aimlessly around waiting to be treated. The only way I can describe this is it resembles a war zone.’

  The sound of emergency vehicles drowned out the voice of the journalist.

  The picture on the TV screen suddenly cut away to a shocked looking newsreader. The words BREAKING NEWS scrolled horizontally across the bottom of the TV screen.

  ‘You are watching the BBC news Channel. In the past few minutes we have just learnt that more attacks have occurred in two more train stations in the central London area. We understand that an attack has occurred in Liverpool Street station, and London Euston. Details are still unclear at this moment. This brings the number of attacks on London to a total of six. Six attacks have occurred in just over a twelve hour period. Emergency services have been despatched to all the stations where the attacks have happened.’

  ‘The whole city will be paralyzed by rush hour tonight. No one will be able to get in or out of London.’ Alan speculated.

  Mirren clapped his hands loudly. ‘Ok everybody listen up. I don’t want anyone going out that door is that clear.’

  ‘We need to get out there Tony.’ Alan argued. ‘We need to gather as much information as possible.’

  ‘No!’ Mirren shouted. ‘I will not put any of my staff at risk.’ He looked at a man in a white shirt. ‘John, start asking people what they want to eat. We will order takeaway food. No one leaves this building until this whole thing blows over.’

  ‘And what if it doesn’t.’ Alan said.

  Mirren looked at him. ‘Sooner or later these attacks will stop. I don’t care how well organised these bastards are. No one can sustain an attack like this forever. We sit tight and wait this whole thing out.’

  ‘I wish I had your confidence.’ Alan said.

  Mirren turned and headed back to his office. He closed the door behind him and sat down at his desk. For a few moments he listened to the sounds of the city outside of the window. Emergency vehicle sirens was the only thing he could hear. Mirren picked up a telephone and started to dial. A short time later someone picked up. ‘It’s me.’ Mirren said. ‘We need to talk, the group needs to meet.’

  The person on the other end said something.

  ‘Ok, ten o’clock tonight.’ Mirren glanced out of the window at Alan who was talking to a young woman.

  The voice on the other end of the phone continued to speak.

  ‘No, he’s not aware of anything just yet. This is just the beginning.’ Mirren said still looking at Alan.

  The person on the other end hung up.

  Chapter 13

  Chequers – Buckinghamshire – 1:15pm

  Mayflower stared at the TV screen. Tears streaked down her face as she watched the news headlines. A man walked into the room carrying a briefcase. Five other men sat around a large conference table with Mayflower.

  The man placed his briefcase down on the table and opened it.

  ‘How bad is it?’ The Prime Minister asked in a broken voice.

  The man composed himself. ‘We can now confirm one hundred and fifteen civilians have lost their lives in this latest spate of attacks. Two died on the way to the hospital. Our experts are expecting more people to lose their lives in the next few hours. Some of the injuries sustained by casualties are life threatening.’

  ‘Have we any idea who was behind the attack in Paddington?’ Mayflower asked.

  The man stared at her. ‘It was one of our own officers who carried out the attack.’

  ‘Jesus Christ.’ Mayflower gasped. ‘So you’re saying that one of our own has turned against us.’

  ‘It looks that way ma’am.’ The man replied. ‘He killed another armed officer.’

  ‘We have to make some sort of statement to the press. This cannot be kept from them.’

  ‘That might incite panic in the city Prime Minister. If people knew that it was a police officer that shot civilians the public will turn against the police.’

  ‘I think we can assume that it is only a matter of time before the press discover that it was a police officer who turned rogue. What about the other two stations attacked?’

  ‘Information is still filtering out. We believe that they are similar to three other attacks. Civilians suddenly attacking other civilians. One person is confirmed to have died at Liverpool street. Because of the number of armed officers we have patrolling the stations they were able to deal with the incidents swiftly.’

  What’s the next step?’

  ‘We wait this out until whatever this is blows over.’

  ‘It could already be over.’ Fuller suggested.

  Mayflower looked at him. ‘What makes you think that?’

  ‘They’ve attacked the three main stations in London. No one is going to be able
to get in or out over the next few days. London will be in total lockdown. This will be their main agenda, to cut off all rail transportation into London.’

  ‘Have any groups come forward and taken responsibility for any of these attacks?’ Mayflower asked.

  The man with the briefcase shook his head.

  ‘What about Middle Eastern groups. There must be someone out there who is celebrating this attack.’

  ‘Our intelligence networks have been working overtime. GCHQ has called in its entire staff to monitor all forms of electronic chatter. But they haven’t found anything out of the usual.’

  ‘Then we’re blind.’ Mayflower said.

  A silence enveloped the room.

  ‘We have a specialist flying in from the US tomorrow to sort through the information we have so far. Our teams are at the suspects’ house going through laptops, phones, tablets, anything that will give us an edge.’ The man looked down at a piece of paper. ‘We have the name of the woman who carried out the attack on the tube last night, Michelle Rogers, a fitness instructor from south London.’

  ‘So far we have had two city workers, a fitness instructor two civilians and one of our own police officers who carried out these attacks.’ Fuller said. ‘There has to be something connecting these people with each other. A facebook page, website or blog. Something is bound to turn up sooner or later.’

  ‘In the meantime I have to sit here and cower, while London plunges into chaos.’ Mayflower complained.

  ‘You are priority ma’am we have to keep you at arm’s length. If one of our own police officers has turned against us, then there’s no telling who could turn next.’

  ‘Do you think this could be some sort of disease?’ Mayflower speculated.

  ‘It’s one of the options we have on the table.’ The man said. ‘We have the bodies of the suspects at one of London’s top hospitals. Later we will be able to get hold of a toxicology report, which may shed some light on this.’

  ‘If this is a disease then what do we do?’

  ‘Boscombe Down will assess the situation to determine whether the disease is a threat to the general population before implementing emergency procedures.’

  The door to the meeting room opened and one of the Prime Minister’s aides appeared with two men. ‘Sorry to bother you ma’am. This is William Jakeman and David Berkeley. They represent both Facebook and YouTube regarding legal matters.’

  ‘Good.’ Mayflower said standing. ‘Perhaps you can explain to me why you have not taken that video off your websites.’

  Both men glanced at each other. ‘I’m afraid that won’t be possible at this moment Prime Minister.’ Jakeman said.

  ‘Don’t you dare give me that freedom of speech bullshit!’ Mayflower shouted. ‘Have you seen what’s happening on the streets of London? People are dying and your sites are ignoring the victims families by parading that video on your bloody sites.’

  ‘What my colleague is trying to say Prime Minister is that we are unable to take the videos down.’ Berkeley revealed.

  ‘Explain.’

  ‘Last night both Facebook and YouTube suffered an brute force hack.’

  ‘We are already aware of what happened gentlemen. What I want to know is why you haven’t taken action to suspend your websites.’

  ‘We have tried that, however the nature of the hack is far more advanced than anything we have encountered. People have tried to hack our sites in the past with a certain degree of success. However, last night’s hack was unprecedented. We have had a team of analysts both in the US and over here trying to take both sites offline.’ Berkeley hesitated. ‘So far we have had no luck in taking down the sites. We are completely in the dark over this.’

  Mayflower nodded. ‘Why haven’t you issued a statement to the press?’

  ‘Both Facebook and YouTube generate millions in revenue everyday. Our experts were confident that they could restore the hacks and gain control.’

  ‘I take it they haven’t had much luck.’ Fuller added.

  Berkeley shook his head. ‘Last night both sites received an encrypted message that we were able to decipher.’ Berkeley produced a smartphone and tapped the screen.

  Mayflower and the others watched as a message played on the screen. A figure in a black hoodie with their face blacked out sat at a non-descriptive desk. ‘We control your propaganda machine. We will use this power as we please. Any attempt to gain back control will be futile. Your best experts cannot break us. We will use your social media platforms to spread the word. Be warned London is about to be targeted.’ The screen blacked out.

  ‘This is all connected.’ Fuller speculated.

  ‘That’s our initial belief.’ Jakeman answered.

  ‘What time were your sites hacked?’

  ‘We put the hack around eleven forty five last night.’

  Fuller looked at Mayflower. ‘Just before the first attack in the nightclub.’

  Mayflower looked at the man with the briefcase. ‘Any ideas who is doing this.’

  The man shook his head. ‘No, we have been going through our hacker records to see if it’s someone who is on our database, but so far we have found nothing.’

  Mayflower paused for thought. ‘Another day another new enemy at our doorstep.’ She looked at Jakeman and Berkeley. ‘What do you need?’

  ‘We are handing all data over to your experts in the hope that you can help us crack these people.’

  ‘A bit late in the day isn’t it.’ Fuller barked. ‘Why didn’t you come to us with this sooner?’

  ‘We were hopeful our team of experts could gain control again.’

  Mayflower glanced at the man with the briefcase. ‘Any idea what these hackers want?’

  ‘They could be anarchists, it’s anyone’s guess at the moment ma’am.’

  ‘They’re obviously behind the attacks in London.’ Fuller said. ‘Be warned London is about to be targeted. That’s what the hoodie on that video said.’

  ‘If these people are able to hack your websites and turn people into living weapons then what else could they be planning?’ Mayflower asked.

  ’What do they want?’ Fuller questioned. ‘Money?’

  ‘We don’t think they are after money?’ Jakeman said. ‘This hack is meant to send a message to the CEOs of our sites. Google state that they are doing everything in their power to take that video down. The head of Facebook is working with a team of experts to assess the damage that’s been done. At this moment both sites seem to be functioning normally. People are chatting and uploading videos as normal. It’s just we are unable to take the video of the attack in the nightclub offline. The video has embedded itself into everyone’s social media feed. We’ve been getting reports globally that anyone who attempts to delete this video from their newsfeeds has their account deleted.’

  ‘Deleted?’ Mayflower said.

  Jakeman nodded. ‘Millions of accounts have already been wiped out.’

  ‘You must have a failsafe should this kind of event occur.’ Fuller said.

  ‘We do.’ Berkeley replied. ‘All social media sites have a kill switch in the event of a brute force hack. However this attack last night disabled our failsafe.’

  ‘You mean you can’t take the sites down.’ Fuller added.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Shit!’ The Deputy Prime Minister cursed.

  Mayflower looked at the man with the briefcase. ‘Could they be trying to blind us?’

  ‘Yes.’ He replied looking at Jakeman and Berkeley. ‘Perhaps ma’am it’s better if we discussed this more privately.’

  Mayflower sensed what he was talking about. ‘That will be all for now gentlemen.’

  Jakeman placed his briefcase down on the table and opened it. ‘Here is all the information we have so far.’ He placed a tablet on the table.

  ‘Thank you.’ Mayflower said. ‘I want both Facebook and YouTube to make a statement. You need to assure people that you are working to resolve this problem.’

&nb
sp; The two men nodded before leaving the room.

  ‘Our security services are always monitoring social media platforms.’ The man with the briefcase began. ‘It’s standard procedure in the event of an attack. YouTube and Facebook claim that they do not take extremist videos down because it’s a breach of civil liberties and free speech.’

  ‘In the meantime anyone is free to watch whatever they want, turning to extremism.’ Fuller said.

  ‘Yes.’ Mayflower sighed.

  ‘What about Anonymous.’ Fuller suggested.

  The man shook his head. ‘They wouldn’t take it to this level. Anonymous have been useful in the past. Hacking Isis accounts and draining them. They have never used violence to get their point across.’

  ‘In the meantime we’re all scratching about stuck at square one trying to figure who these people are and what they want.’

  There was a loud knock on the door of the conference room before the door opened. Assistant Commissioner Jack Bishop entered the room.

  Mayflower noted the look on his pale face. ‘Please tell me there have not been more attacks.’

  Bishop stared back at the Prime Minister for a few seconds before nodding. ‘I’m afraid there has ma’am.’

  ‘Where?’ She gasped.

  ‘We have had reports from Cardiff Central, Manchester Piccadilly, Liverpool Lime Street and Crewe ma’am.’

  ‘My god it’s spreading.’ Fuller said.

  ‘Early reports state that the attacks are similar to the ones which occurred in the capital last night.’

  ‘They’re trying to cripple us.’ Mayflower said. ‘Attacking the main transport arteries up and down the country.’

  ‘It looks that way ma’am.’ Bishop replied.

  ‘We have to do something.’ Fuller stated. ‘We can’t just sit here and let them carry on. There’s no telling where they may strike next.’

  ‘What’s the fallout likely to be?’ Mayflower looked at the man with the briefcase.

  ‘Devastating. As Mr Fuller says is true then this group could bring the country to a standstill. Ma’am I think at this point we should consider postponing the final round of Brexit talks with Europe.’