Lee Kerr - Welcome to the Apocalypse

After all, this isn’t the first time she did this today, and it is starting to become something of a new routine.

Mike and Luke nod at each other as they hear the quarantine order come through.

Luke’s heart is pumping wildly now, as the realisation hits him that this has just become real for them. He thinks about how many officers must be standing ready, as he is, just looking and waiting until that call comes through. And now that whatever is happening is hitting his world, he knows that fate has turned up to see just what he does.

‘Mike, Luke, stand ready, please,’ Dave says through their earpieces. ‘We’re on route to you, sixty seconds out.’

‘Acknowledged,’ Mike says, looking over at Luke, staring at him with burning intensity, as if he is now the target. He has a panicked look, as though he’s all alone in this. ‘Get your fucking safeties off and stand ready!’

Luke jolts backwards then obeys, a battle raging in his mind between remembering his training and following Mike’s lead. He thinks about keeping it real, staying in the moment and always thinking about what is happening around you. Everything is moving too fast to take it all in, and the only thing he can truly rely on is his partner. Mike moves forward and so does Luke. He looks briefly behind him to see the two officers from earlier.

‘Armed police!’ Mike shouts, pulling Luke’s attention back to what’s in front of him.

He tries to take everything in, but what he can sees battles against the flurry of information in his earpiece, as he tries to figure out what is most important right now.

‘Subjects are showing signs of infection,’ a voice says. ‘All units please be aware that the quarantine must be maintained.’

‘Armed police! Stop where you are!’ Mike shouts again, towards the front of the store.

‘I got your back,’ Luke says to Mike, suddenly glad of his experience, and that he is confident enough to do what he needs to do.

‘We give this kid one more chance,’ is all Mike says in return, never looking away from his eye-piece.

‘Stop now or we will fire!’ Luke shouts, announcing himself.

‘Officers behind you,’ someone calls out. Luke quickly turns to look.

The interval between him calling out that he is armed and turning around seems to last forever, and when he turns back he sees some kid kneeling down a few yards ahead of them, begging not to be shot. He looks scared but harmless, rational and in control; showing none of the symptoms of the virus that they had been told about.

But then someone else runs out of the building, her eyes wild and her skin covered in what looks like rashes and boils. Her arms are swinging everywhere as she makes her way straight towards the boy, her frenzied screams echoing across the big, open space. Luke is clear that this lad has now become a potential victim and obviously needs protection.

Mike is shouting the standard warnings, as Luke trails his crosshair on her. He hears the sirens in the distance, he hears the repeated warnings over the radio to maintain quarantine and he knows that Dave is coming. But he also knows that his boss will be too late. By all means protect innocent civilians, Dave had said, but don’t you dare break that thin wall of invisible protection for anything or anyone.

She doesn’t listen to any of the warnings like a rational human being would. In both Luke and Mike’s minds she is clearly possessed, which makes her fair game in this new, chaotic world. Shooting is a last resort, any officer will tell you that, but set against the backdrop of only what they know, the stakes soon rise and those quick decisions matter more than ever.

It’s the boy who helps make up their mind, as he turns around to see just how close she is getting. He’s in between her and the police, making a shot to the leg all but impossible. But when he shouts ‘she’s crazy!’ and ‘she’s got it in her blood!’ there really isn’t much else that can be said.

The deafening sounds of bullets travelling from the barrels of two guns, and the screams of one crazy woman are quickly met with silence in just seconds. Her frantic cries are replaced by instructions from the officers to stay down. The boy turns around, ever so slowly, not wanting to provoke the same reaction from them. He looks over to the thing lying on the floor, the pool of blood trickling out of its head, and he knows that he wasn’t lying when he said he has always known she was crazy, way before today ever arrived.

He doesn’t really have any other thoughts about her, or what has happened, even when he sees the blank eyes of his dead mother looking at him. But at that moment something makes him look up to a window in the store, where he sees the silhouette of a man looking down, and he realises he does have one more thought.

‘Best shopping trip ever,’ he whispers, watching the shadow as it slowly disappears.

Sunday 14 thAugust – London

He looks at me with that stupid grin and I know what’s coming next. I know he will silence me with a kiss on the lips and then tell me how great everything is going to be. And sure enough, just before the lift stops he leans towards me. I let him plant his soppy, wet lips onto mine. I’ve given up telling him that we’re not 16 anymore.

The lift doors open and I see another couple standing in front of us, waiting to get in. They don’t look as embarrassed as I would have expected and Stan probably hoped; in fact they look like a potential copy of us, just a lot younger and healthier. Age is the last thing on my mind and since I have nothing to say on the matter I prepare to exchange places.

It’s Stan who has to make a scene, has to make something out of nothing. ‘Oh, I’m so sorry you had to witness that. It’s like our honeymoon all over again!’

He’s still babbling away as I get out of the lift and the other couple get in. They still say nothing, but their facial expressions say it all. One of them presses the button repeatedly, and I grab our suitcase, pulling it along the corridor, knowing that eventually Stan will follow.

‘Well, they didn’t seem very happy to be here,’ he says. ‘One of the best hotels in London and they still can’t even break into a smile.’ He takes the suitcase from me and starts making his way down the corridor, but after only a few short paces he turns around. ‘I bet they are so used to places like this that it simply bores them. Can you ever imagine us being like that? There was once a time we could only dream.’

‘Yes, Stan,’ I say, pushing him forward. ‘We could only dream.’

I follow behind him as we walk along the corridor. He looks at every door, checking each room number to make sure that it isn’t ours, that we don’t miss it – that we don’t miss a thing. I watch him constantly cross-check each door with our room card, his anxiety so obvious, so out of place for somewhere like this. I suddenly notice that his jeans are too ill-fitting, his shirt is too tight around his increasingly unpleasant girth, and his blazer is obviously oversized. It’s the only remotely posh thing he owns these days, and in even a few short hours he has managed to coat the top of it with a thick line of dandruff.

When we reach our room he holds up the key card like he’s presenting it to God. ‘We’ve made it, Gloria! We’re finally here! I never thought it would happen but now it has. I am literally opening the door to our new world!’

I nod and sigh. ‘Well, Stan, you can get that door open whenever you like.’

He lunges towards me and kisses me again, first just a simple peck on the lips, but then his mouth gapes open. My lips don’t move, forcing him to suck my face like he’s some desperate fish fighting the side of its tank, desperate to be noticed. I’d always hoped that after thirty-something years of marriage I would still want to suck the face off my man, but the reality is that the appeal disappeared somewhere in the ‘80s.