Shaun Harbinger - Storm

A double door at the top was open and two soldiers stood guarding it, facing away from us. Tanya and Sam rushed up the steps and swung their weapons before the soldiers knew what was happening. They crumpled to the hallway floor.

As I reached the top of the stairs, Sam tossed me an assault rifle. I caught it reflexively, being careful to point the barrel at the floor. I recognised the gun as an L85 rifle but my knowledge of weapons came from video games, not from real life. “I’ve never fired a gun before,” I said.

Jax, holding the other L85 and looking like she could grace the cover of Soldier of Fortune magazine, said, “It’s easy. Just point it and pull the trigger.”

“Come on,” Tanya said, stepping over the bodies in the doorway.

We followed her along the corridor. I kept the gun pointed down and my finger well away from the trigger. The weapon felt heavy in my hand and I had to carry my baseball bat tucked under one arm. The bat hit my leg as I ran. Jax carried her bat in one hand and the rifle in the other. I considered doing the same but I was worried I wouldn’t be able to aim one-handed.

We reached a windowless door at the end of the corridor and Sam opened it. We stepped through into a production studio. The room was dimly lit but an electric glow came from banks of audio machines and computer screens. A plump woman with long blonde hair and wearing glasses, headphones, jeans and a Robert Plant T-shirt looked up from the computer as we entered.

“What the hell?” she asked as she pulled her headphones down to her neck.

“We’re not going to hurt you,” Tanya said quickly, raising her hands in a placating motion. “We just want to get into the broadcast studio.”

A large window above the banks of machines showed the next room where a slim black man in his thirties with dreadlocks and wearing a Jim Morrison T-shirt sat at a desk and spoke into a large microphone. He was surrounded by papers, computers and machines with dials and sliders. He wore headphones and seemed oblivious to our presence as he spoke into the microphone.

“We’re broadcasting,” the woman said, pointing to a red light above a door that was marked “On Air”.

“What’s your name?” Tanya asked her.

“Cheryl. Cheryl Ginsburg.”

“Cheryl, we’re going to put out a message on the radio. Jax here is going to stay with you while the boys and I go in there and meet… Johnny Drake, I presume?”

Cheryl nodded.

“We’re not going to hurt anyone,” Tanya said. “But we have to make sure our message goes out to the people. So you can just relax and don’t touch anything.”

Cheryl raised her hands and wheeled her chair away from the computer. Jax levelled her gun in Cheryl’s general direction but the woman didn’t seem to be a threat at all.

Sam opened the door to the next room and we stepped through beneath the “On Air” light.

Johnny Drake looked up as we entered and his eyes went wide. He ripped off his headphones. “What the hell?” He reached for a dial on his desk but I pointed my gun at him.

Tanya stepped up to the desk. “No, Johnny,” she said. “Don’t touch that dial.”

Johnny raised his hands in surrender. “Okay, guys, no need to do anything we’ll all regret.” It was strange to hear the familiar rich tones of his mid-Atlantic accent in real life when I had heard them on the radio for so long. All the time I had been listening to his show, I hadn’t thought about meeting Johnny Drake in person and I certainly hadn’t envisioned holding him at gunpoint.

Tanya went around to the desk and looked at the controls and dials. “Get me on air,” she said to Johnny.

He nodded. “Okay. Here, let me get this…” Leaning forward, he reached for the control panel.

Tanya grabbed his wrist and looked into his eyes. “Just remember, if you try anything, we’ve got your friend Cheryl at gunpoint in there.” She nodded towards the window. Johnny looked into the production studio where Cheryl sat, arms raised, as Jax stood over her with the L85.

“There’s no problem here,” Johnny said. “I’ll patch you right in and you’ll be on every radio that’s turned on.”

“Do it,” Tanya said.

He reached for a switch then hesitated. “You have to realise,” he said, finger poised over the switch, “that the army listen to Survivor Radio all the time. It plays in all the Survivors Camps. As soon as they hear your voice, they’ll know exactly where you are. There’s a whole platoon stationed outside this building. They have tanks and huge guns and the road is totally blocked with razor wire. You won’t be able to escape.”

“Let me worry about that,” she said, flicking the switch.

Johnny leaned back in his chair with a resigned look that said, “It’s your funeral,” on his face.

“This is a message to all the survivors,” Tanya said into the microphone. “Everything you have been told is a lie. The virus has not infected the world, only Britain. The authorities have told you there is no escape so they can control you and put you in camps. They are covering up their own mistake… a mistake that has killed millions of people and means those in charge are mass murderers.

“You have to refuse to be confined by liars. There are options other than sitting in a Survivors Camp waiting to die. The army are attempting to control ports and marinas but they have a problem on their hands right now. There is a hybrid version of the virus that is affecting vaccinated soldiers. Yes, that’s right, the soldiers have been vaccinated. Have you? No, they are not going to vaccinate you. Only themselves.

“The hybrids are weakening the military. We saw it ourselves at Falmouth Harbour. All the soldiers there had become hybrids. I won’t lie to you, the chances of survival are slim but you can take boats and sail to Europe. Tell them what is happening here. Once the rest of the world knows our plight, they will send help.

“This country has been plummeted into hell by the people in charge and they have told you there is nothing you can do about it because the rest of the world is in the same hell. That isn’t true. You can escape. But first you need to escape the camps. Head for the coast. Tell the world what has happened here.”

She flicked the switch and stood back from the control panel.

Johnny Drake looked at her. “Is that true?”

“You should know, you’re part of their system.”

He shook his head. “No, that isn’t true. Cheryl and I are prisoners here. We’ve been kept in this building since the outbreak. We don’t know what’s happening outside, only what they tell us and what we see through the windows.”

We heard tires screeching outside in the parking lot.

“They’re here,” Sam said. “We need to leave.”

“Wait,” I said, leaning forward to the microphone and flicking the switch. “Lucy, it’s Alex. I don’t know where you are or what happened at the marina. Meet me at…” I tried to think of a place I could mention on the radio without alerting the army to where I was going. “…At the place Mike and Elena died. In three days’ time.” I added, “Joe, if you can hear this, I’m going to find you somehow.”

I turned to Johnny. “Did that message go out?”

He nodded.

“We’re leaving,” Tanya said.

“Take us with you,” Johnny said, looking suddenly desperate. “Please.”

She hesitated for half a second before saying, “We’re going to have to fight our way out of here.”

“That’s fine. I can’t stay locked up in this building any longer.”

“Let’s go,” Tanya shouted.

We left the studio and ran back down the hallway with Johnny Drake and Cheryl Ginsburg in tow. The two soldiers Tanya and Sam had dealt with still lay in the same positions. I didn’t know if they were unconscious or dead.