Crows circled the countless corpses that
littered the London Streets below. Debris, rubbish and a foul smell polluted
the atmosphere that was almost impossible to withstand. Silence, nothing but
silence- weeks before the catastrophic events the streets were brilliantly busy
with people going about their everyday lives, unaware of how things would
change.
Nobody expected how quickly the virus would
spread. Now only a few survivors have been left to pick their way through what
was left of society, and it wasn’t just Britain- it was the world.
One woman staggered through the streets,
her face painting a picture for the devastation that surrounded her. She
surveyed the corpses, each a uncomfortable shade of blue, the woman moved her
hand to reveal a gaping wound in her side. Falling to the floor the crimson
blood spilled out of the woman at an alarming rate. Another death. But that was
just normality now.
A Storm was brewing overhead, dark clouds
overcame what was left of a blue sky and made thunderous noises from above. The
rotting flesh below was met with rainfall a few seconds later. As the rain
pelted down on the remains of London a car alarm could be heard in the near
distance. Peter Greyson had smashed a car window to retrieve the tins of canned
food that were inside, stuffing them into a large grey rucksack. Peter strode
back toward an old building, its windows boarded up and its brickwork decaying
with the weather. Like most places, it was surrounded with a somewhat moat of
corpses though was a safe haven for three survivors, an unimaginable light in
this new dark world, for now at least. Peter’s expression resembled that of a
hurt man, he was small and young; his greasy brown hair was tied back neatly
into a ponytail though his appearance other than that was- messy. A large brown
raincoat that was tattered and torn was slung over his skeleton like frame over
a collection of other fabrics that showed their age. After spritely jogging up
a set of stairs he made his way into a large room where a blonde woman stood
hunched over, as if she had the worries of what was left of the world on her
shoulders.
‘All I could
find’ announced Peter as he slung his bag with the few cans of food in onto the
cold and dirty floor. Andrea sighed and grabbed the nearest can to her; she
quickly opened it.
‘We don’t know
when we’ll find more of those, we should save them’ Peter continued as Andrea
finished off the can and threw it to the floor, she collapsed to the floor
herself against a wall. Peter slowly walked toward her and sat beside her.
Andrea hid her head from him cautiously; desperate to not reveal the single
tear that had escaped from her beautifully brown eyes. Peter gradually placed
his hand on Andrea’s shoulder, ‘It’ll be okay, I promise- Mark will be back
soon- we’ll find somewhere better’ he said slowly before carefully rising to
his feet and looking out of the window at the devastation outside.
Mark would never get used to seeing the
corpses, it always felt wrong. These people had been alive; they were people he
could have met in his day to day life- now they were empty and rotting. He’d
always wondered why he hadn’t been affected by the virus, so few people had
survived, in the whole of London he’d only met two others and nobody else. Mark
slung another decaying body to the side and made his way through the corridors
that hopefully lead to a food storage container. Inside the container Mark
found even for decomposing bodies among the aisles of perishing food, this was
certainly a find though- up to now they’d only been finding a few cans of food
here and there- he’d hit the jackpot! His sudden burst of excitement was cut
short by the discovery of more putrefying corpses among the cans that were
being feasted upon by a few rats, Mark moved away quickly. Now armed with a
broom he had found and a scarf around his mouth he prepared himself to knock
the corpse off the shelf. It fell to the ground eventually with a large thud
and the rats scattered away with haste. Mark eventually brought himself to fill
his bag up with the cans, though many were still covered in the red stuff and
he hadn’t the stomach to bother cleaning them- instead he threw them to the
side.
The rain seemed endless. Clouds above had
formed and weren’t leaving anytime soon, to the few Survivors it seemed a
faraway dream that they’d see sunny and happy day again. Along the side of the
road among the corpses was a crashed car that had smashed into a shops window,
it wasn’t just the virus that was killing people. In the last few days people
turned to murder as well, avenging past conflicts and taking advantage of a
decaying society. Amongst the carnage the army had attempted to protect the
citizens from infection, but they soon succumbed to the sickly symptoms
themselves.
‘This will last
us awhile’ announced Mark as he stood proudly above his morning’s work, around
a dozen cans of food; Andrea’s expression remained unimpressed. Peter smiled
and gave Mark a condescending pat on the back before moving to a seat.
‘Did you get any closer to the Estate
today?’ Questioned Andrea who rose from her seat on the floor, her hand tightened
around a picture of an elderly woman in a heart shaped pendant that she held
away from her friends.
‘No, the
devastation around that part is too built up, I tried Andrea’ said Mark as he
turned away from his friend.
‘We have to find
her, she was the only person I had, we know your mother died. Just let me find
closure myself!’ Andrea sighed and stumbled over, clutching her head, she
tumbled to the ground so suddenly.
‘Are you okay?’
spoke Mark as he knelt down to feel Andrea’s forehead, she was burning up. Mark
steadily rose to his feet and quickly backed away from Andrea who was now
coughing violently. ‘Andrea, I think you have the virus’ continued Mark.
‘I can’t have, I
mean I’ve been in contact with those who had it, it didn’t affect me then- why
now?’ Andrea pushed him away from her. Peter took a more cautious approach and
sat nearer to his friend.
‘Peter, get away
from her- what are you doing?’ Bellowed Mark who pulled Peter’s arm to draw him
away from the ailing Andrea who attempted to rise to her feet though fell to
the floor suddenly. Peter grabbed Andrea’s hand and then looked toward Mark.
‘We can’t just
leave her here.’ Peter was now holding
Andrea’s hand tight.
‘We can, do you
want to get the virus Peter?’ Shouted an angry Mark.
‘No, she’s our
friend Mark! Go without me, I’m staying here’ protested Peter, he strode toward
the table and stuffed Mark’s bag with a few cans of food before signalling him
to leave.
The rain had stopped, the death had as
well. Andrea gazed out of the building’s window with a new found hope; she had
overcome an illness suspected to be the virus yet again. Peter called for her
from outside the window, he had loaded up a car and the pair were preparing to
head out into the city to Andrea’s childhood home. Thoughts of her family had
flooded Andrea’s head since the outbreak begun, though she was not especially
close with her mother she still cared for her. Mark had left a month ago when
Andrea had fallen ill- Peter hoped that he was okay, he seemed the sort that
could cope by himself. Peter’s thoughts were halted by Andrea’s arrival in the
car and they set off in search of their past, Andrea smiled at the idea of
being reunited with her mother.
Sunshine beamed down on the remains of
London revealing the full extent of the epidemic that had occurred not long
ago. Shattered glass littered the streets like the lives that had been ruined
in such a short time. Silence. It seemed peaceful in a way.
Barbed wire fences had been erected outside
the vicinity of the Survivors camp. Security lined the gates all hours of the
day, complete safety. It was amazing for those entering, what seemed like a
world cut off from the devastation outside, a new beginning. An Old woman sat
alone in her apartment block, looking out at what was London. In her hand she
clutched a heart shaped pendant, holding the image inside of Andrea. Her eyes
glistened in the sunlight as she held tightly onto a bottle of water and a can
of food, attempting to ignore the loud gunshots that could be heard from
outside. She tried her best to ignore the loud noises that had overtaken the
silence. This was what the world was like now.
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