Endurance: Apocalypse (The Endurance Series Book 2) Read online

  ‘No.’ he said as he shut his eyes.

  ‘Why did Miller send you?’ Danni asked.

  ‘He wants you dead.’ The man mumbled. His voice had returned to normal.

  ‘Why are you working for him?’

  ‘Cause he made us stronger.’

  ‘Us?’

  ‘Yes, us.’

  ‘Who’s us?’

  ‘We were special but now we’re gifted.’

  Danni frowned at him and continued to ask questions.

  ‘What did you mean earlier?’

  The figure looked at her confused.

  ‘You said Miller’s law and there would be a court or something at Waterloo station?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Well Waterloo station is very big and it’s a train station, it’s not a court.’

  ‘It is now.’

  ‘It’s not a court, I was there today.’

  ‘It’s Miller’s court now. Miller has stopped all trains from coming into London to prevent further threat to us. Like you.’

  ‘Like me?’ Danni asked.

  ‘A threat like you.’

  ‘Why am I a threat?’

  ‘You are one of the names, you’re on the list. You are a threat to Doctor Miller’s life.’

  ‘How is Sarah Williams involved in all of this?’

  ‘She is a threat also. She lost the debate and the power to cure the virus outbreak.’

  ‘She’s working with Miller though?’

  The figure didn’t respond. Blood dribbled from the inner corners of his eyes. His bloodshot eyes overflowed with blood. Danni felt his pulse. Nothing.

  ‘Sadie, give me the blade.’ Sadie handed Danni the blade and then she ran to the corner of the basement and threw up; vomit spattered against the wall.

  Danni grabbed the partially-bald head of the man and sawed his neck until his head came off.

  Danni placed his head in his lap and looked back to Lynne.

  ‘It’s the best way to know that they’re dead and they won’t be coming back. We’ve got to move right now, before it gets dark.’

  Danni went over to Carl; he was still curled up on the floor holding his stomach.

  ‘Come on get up.’ Danni said and she put her hand out to him. She pulled him up and he ran over to Jerome.

  ‘What’s going on Daddy?’ Jerome asked.

  ‘Nothing buddy, just don’t look at the evil man who came down.’

  ‘Is he dead?’ Jerome said.

  Carl looked into Jerome’s eyes, nodded and then put Jerome’s head onto his shoulder.

  ‘Come on let’s go.’ Danni laid her hand gently on Sadie’s back as she continued to vomit.

  3

  Miller slouched on a wooden stage under the Waterloo station clock. His feet faced inwards, his suit was covered in blood. His eyes were bloodshot and the pupils were pitch-black.

  He went down the steps at the side of the stage and walked past the people who were boarding up the exits and underground services below.

  ‘Doctor Miller.’ A voice shouted.

  Miller turned around to a young boy in an oversized suit. ‘Yes.’ Miller snarled.

  The boy hesitated as he stared into Miller’s eyes. ‘So the plan for Waterloo is to board up all the escalators going down to the underground services and up to here. You also want the underground lines to be boarded up in a way to create a number of rooms… science facilities?’

  ‘Yes.’ Miller snarled again.

  ‘So you are converting Waterloo station into a… like a… Like one big laboratory?’

  ‘How old are you John?’ Miller said.

  ‘Twenty one Sir; and I’m Aaron, why?’

  ‘Do you have an education?’

  ‘Yes I went to university to study…’

  ‘I don’t care. Yes I am converting this place into a courtroom, a body disposal area to prevent the spread of disease and areas in which to experiment. Is that okay?’

  ‘Yes sir, I was just checking that’s what…’

  ‘If it wasn’t okay, I wouldn’t have spent my time drawing out the plan would I?’

  ‘No sir.’

  ‘Good.’ Miller said as he turned away.

  ‘Sir?’ Aaron said with reluctance.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Congratulations on beating Sarah Williams for full virus control of London.’

  Miller turned to Aaron, nodded and walked away.

  Miller went across to the boarded up entrances and opened the door that lead to the steps and escalators down into the underground.

  Miller followed the signs through the underground to the Northern Line stop. As he got to a sign for Northbound and Southbound, he looked to his left and right to see no trains, just boarded areas making separate rooms.

  A fake wall separated the platform for the stop; from the platform side he could see into the separate rooms. Each room had a moveable bed in the middle.

  Miller opened one of the doors and pulled out a black briefcase from under the bed.

  There was a lump under the bedding, the obvious shape of a body.

  Miller opened the briefcase, revealing a number of syringes, tubes and pipes. He then walked over to the bed, pulled off the cover to reveal the body of a male whose throat had a deep cut across it and bloodstains all over the neck and down the chest.

  Miller injected the green syrup in the syringe into his arm, and used a small pipe to connect the man’s arm to his own. Miller pressed record on his phone’s camera and spoke. ‘I have injected virus 034, the most vicious virus I have created so far. I am now mixing that with human blood which is in the early stages of a new infection: infection number 002. The effect it has will be different. The mutated DNA in 002 has not affected the brain, meaning the human was perfectly normal and free of the side effects of the virus. Of course, a human can only survive the virus scale of 050. A dog’s scale is 022, as experimented. This human is carrying 002, which is an infection that does not advance anything in the body. In time, when it would have reached 020, this man would have changed. The scale has to be above 017 to have any effect.’

  Miller paused as he started the flow and the man’s blood flowed into his vein.

  Miller pulled the tube out of his arm and let the blood splatter onto the floor along with the tube.

  ‘I feel my brain changing. The side effect of my body is a feeling that it is bloated and my muscles feel as if they are about to pop. The constant headache has disappeared.’

  Miller screamed and fell onto the floor.

  ‘My eyes!’ Miller shouted. ‘My eyes!’ Miller screamed again but all of a sudden the pain ceased and he stopped screaming.

  ‘I feel no pain.’ Miller looked down to his legs. ‘My legs have readjusted into a normal position. I feel healthier than I ever have before. I can hear the scurrying of rats below me. I can hear the movement of my people above me on the upper floor. It seems my senses are still advanced.’

  Miller punched the wall; his hand went straight through. ‘I have all my strengths still.’

  Miller pulled out a pocket-knife and stabbed himself. ‘No pain.’ He pulled out the knife and wiped the blood off. He lifted his shirt up to see that the hole has scabbed over already.

  ‘This is incredible.’ Miller rubbed his hands together excitedly. ‘I have a dead body to experiment on. This drug and this mixed DNA could bring the dead back to life and make the infected stronger. The subject that my men bought to me will be perfect for this experiment. Subject 1 could potentially be bought back from afterlife.’

  Miller stopped the recording and rushed out of the room.

  4

  Danni and the group left the basement and started their trek to Flynn’s house. Flynn was Danni’s friend and she thought they would get extra protection there, not to mention his help to stop Miller and Sarah.

  They had been walking through what used to be people’s back gardens. The homes were completely destroyed, the fences had collapsed or burned, the lawns had gapi
ng holes and the houses were non existent.

  They walked with Danni at the front, Lynne, Sadie and Jerome in the middle and Carl at the back.

  As they reached the end of the gardens, they crossed the road and walked through more obliterated gardens.

  ‘Do you know where we’re going Danni?’ Carl asked.

  ‘Yeah of course I do. We aren’t far now.’ Danni snapped.

  ‘You’ve never spoken about this guy Flynn before, Danni.’ Lynne said.

  ‘I know but I know he’ll help us out; he owes me. Now stop talking, we don’t want us to be heard.’

  They continued to walk and the scenery began to change. Danni stopped walking. She whispered to the group, ‘Right, we’re close to Waterloo and they haven’t destroyed all of these buildings, so I know Flynn will be alive. He rents a flat on Belvedere Road, about a five-minute walk from the station. We’ve got to keep quiet now, so just follow my lead.’

  Danni turned and walked at a fast pace; the rest tried to match her speed.

  As they entered the territory of a more built up London, Danni became twitchy; she reacted to every rustle and sound.

  ‘Danni try to stay calm.’ Carl said.

  Danni ignored him and stopped.

  ‘Can you hear that?’ Danni whispered.

  ‘No,’ Carl said.

  As Danni listened, a deep chattering sound in the distance vibrated the ground. Danni looked up to see the large choppers in the sky. Dangling from them was a long, bulky object. As the group spotted the cluster of four helicopters, another four appeared in the sky just behind the first cluster.

  ‘What’s that?’ Carl asked.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Danni said.

  ‘It looks like they might be building a kind of divider…’ As another cluster of four helicopters flew over, Lynne spoke again, having to shout, ‘Probably to protect London from more danger.’

  ‘Or it’s an excuse for Miller to try and create the replica again. It’s so nobody can escape. We’re trapped.’ Danni said.

  ‘But surely the Prime Minster would have more control than Miller, why hasn’t he sent the army out to help us?’ Carl asked.

  ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if there was no longer a Prime Minister. Come on, we have to keep moving.’ Danni said.

  After walking for five minutes, they reached Jubilee Gardens which had erupted into chaos. It looked like it was humans versus the infected. The humans had crowbars, police riot bats and baseball bats, but the infected were incapable of feeling pain and use their strength to throw people around like dolls.

  ‘We can’t get involved in that. We have to keep moving and remain undetected.’ Danni said.

  ‘We can’t leave them, they need help.’ Carl shouted.

  ‘If you want to help, be my guest.’

  Danni walked alongside the river, and the group followed, even Carl.

  An infected person charged up to Danni and attempted to punch her; she ducked under the punch, pulled out her machete and sliced it across his stomach. She then flipped him into the river and continued to run.

  ‘Belvedere Road is just over there, let’s go!’

  Danni ran across the road away from the London Eye, running through the riot and past the smashed up, flaming police cars. Danni turned to see Sadie clutching Jerome to her shoulder and Lynne far back, struggling to breathe.

  ‘Carl get to Belvedere Road and hide, I’ve got to get mum.’

  Carl and Sadie ran on past Danni as she ran back to Lynne. She was pushed to the ground by something. She slid along the concrete, scratching her arm and face.

  Danni looked at the cubes of shattered glass on the concrete. She turned onto her back and something launched itself onto her chest. As Danni’s sight regained contrast, she looked into a dog’s mouth; its fangs in her face. With every bark, spittle flew into her face. Danni realised it was once a smaller dog but it had mutated to the size of a Labrador.

  She lifted her forearm and pushed on the dog’s bloody neck to hold it away from her face. The dog bucked and turned, trying to bite her face. Danni saw her dropped machete, an arm’s length away. It was close but still fingertips away from her. Danni reached for it, but she couldn’t quite reach it. She moved her forearm, allowing the dog’s mouth to get closer to her face. She lifted her knee up into the dog and flicked it over her head and onto the ground. Danni stood up and the dog charged her again. She grabbed its saggy back fur, grabbed its head and sat on its back. As she sat on it, she looked into its eyes; they were red and bloodshot. She looked at its teeth; the gums were sore and the teeth jagged and sharp. The edge of its mouth had a light pink, scabby and chewed look.

  Danni gripped the dog’s head and turned it until its neck clicked. She tossed it to the ground.

  Danni looked up to where Lynne had been but she was no longer there. Danni ran over to her machete, and clutched it to her side as she scoured the area.

  As she searched through the riot area, many of the infected charged up to her, swinging their arms towards her and snarling. Danni swung her machete into their throats, flipping them off their feet as the swing cut off their heads; blood splattered on Danni and the ground.

  Danni paused though as she saw a woman lying on the ground. Danni rushed over to her. As she approached, she could see black hair and black skin.

  As Danni got closer, her legs felt wobbly and unbalanced. Her chest filled with fluttering butterflies that move from the depths of her stomach up to the top of her chest. Her throat tightened and her eyes began to water.

  ‘Mum!’ Danni shouted.

  As she got closer, Danni was knocked over by one of the infected. As she fell, she hit the back of her head on the ground.

  For a moment, she couldn’t fight; she lay down, a foot away from her mum. She began to cry whilst trying to push the infected away. The infected man stood and started kicking and punching Danni. She wrapped her arms over her head and stared at her mum’s body between the tips of her elbows. She looked at her mum’s body from head to toe and back up. All of a sudden, the punching and kicking stopped.

  Danni turned onto her back to see a large, heavily built man punching the infected attacker. He kicked the infected man’s legs and then stamped on his head cracking the skull; blood spurted out of the wound onto the ground, up into his face and across the man’s boot.

  ‘Come on Danni we’ve got to go!’ he shouted.

  He ran over to Danni, as he approached, she looked at his shaven head and brown eyes.

  Danni recognised the man; her friend Flynn, but she didn’t say a word.

  As Flynn lifted her off the ground, she looked back to her mum’s body.

  Flynn carried her away from the fighting and put her down on the ground.

  ‘You’re okay Danni, I knew you’d be coming.’

  ‘Danni!’ Sadie shouted.

  Danni couldn’t look at anybody; instead she had that image of her mother’s body in her mind.

  ‘It’s my fault.’ Danni said. ‘I left her alone, I should have protected her but I let her die.’

  ‘That wasn’t Lynne, she’s here.’ Flynn said.

  Danni looked up and saw Lynne standing next to Flynn.

  ‘Hi darling,’ she said.

  ‘Oh Mum!’ Danni said and she ran up to Lynne and hugged her tightly.

  ‘I thought… I thought I’d lost…’

  ‘It would take more than some infected man to kill me. I survived your dad all those years.’ Lynne laughed.

  ‘I love you so much Mum.’

  ‘I love you too darling.’

  ‘We’ve got to keep moving, what’s the plan?’ Flynn said.

  Danni let go of Lynne and smiled at her.

  ‘We need to go to Waterloo and kill Miller.’ Danni said

  ‘Well that’ll be a hell of a job.’ Flynn said.

  ‘Why’s that?’

  ‘The army are guarding Waterloo. They’ve surrounded the station. I had one of my old radio transmitters in my house and I homed
in to their frequency, I heard a load’a stuff.’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Even before any of this happened, I heard their command from that Miller guy. They were ordered to destroy any access in or outta London. Later on, they destroyed a motorway to stop anyone gettin’ inta’ London and they’ve stopped all trains. We’re in deep shit; we’re stuck ‘ere. No one’s coming in or going out.’

  ‘It’s the replica all over again. He’s using hovercrafts to see all of London and to destroy whatever he likes. It’s even worse now that he has full control of everything to do with the virus. He’s control of everything, more control than the Prime Minister, if he’s still alive of course.’

  The group was silent.

  ‘We need to go somewhere, we can’t stay out here much longer; we need somewhere where it’s safe to plan what to do.’ Flynn said.

  ‘Okay let’s go up here.’ Danni said.

  Danni and Flynn walked ahead; Carl held Jerome and Sadie and Lynne walked next to each other, holding hands.

  As the group walked further down the road, they saw abandoned cars ahead of them leading onto another road.

  ‘We’re really close to Waterloo.’ Danni said.

  ‘Yeah, it’s behind those buildings ova’ there.’ Flynn said, his London accent was strong and sometimes it was difficult to understand exactly what he meant.

  Danni and Flynn began to jog; Danni turned to the others and said, ‘Come on, we’ve got to get out of sight.’

  They all followed. As they weaved between the abandoned cars they were shot at. The bullets hit a car in front of them, piercing the metal and cracking the concrete it stood on.

  ‘Shit! Get down.’ Danni shouted back to the others.

  Carl, Sadie and Lynne ran behind a car and lay down on the ground. Carl passed Jerome to Sadie, who cupped him in her arms.

  ‘We’ll be okay Jerome, don’t panic.’ Carl whispered to him as he pulled out his gun.

  Danni and Flynn looked up at the top of the buildings but couldn’t see anybody. As they looked, they heard another shot, it pierced another car. Danni and Flynn ducked down behind two different cars.