Endurance Read online

  ‘People have died. You seriously believe they would close London to do some refurbishment and clean it up a bit. I have nearly been killed a number of times by some floating machine…’

  Tom was interrupted, ‘Sir you need to calm down. They said that there is a pandemic only in the London area. The media suggested a disease came from infected rats or a maybe some kind of terrorist attack. So they have to shut off the whole of London with work transferred across the United Kingdom. They said it’s for people’s safety. They apologized for the noise disruptions for locals living near the London area.’

  I cannot believe that people have fallen for that, such an unrealistic reason for London to be closed. Humans are pathetic.

  ‘Look I’m losing my fucking patience here.’ The line cut off and so did the power. Tom threw the microphone down and kicked the cassette player until it smashed into pieces. He was livid, distraught and fresh out of ideas.

  Tom made his way to Danni. He walked past Graham’s body, stepping carefully past the blood and bits of gore that hadn’t yet washed away. She was sitting on what was once a car. Somehow part of the interior, a leather seat, remained intact; Danni sat there, elbows on her knees, her back slouched, with her hands supporting her head, staring at the ground. Tom joined her, but sat next to her legs, and stared at the ground. He saw miniature rivers forming on the concrete, washing away the dust and the blood.

  He could no longer smell, taste or feel anything. Danni’s breathing sounded blocked as if she had a cold, and she was becoming paler by the second.

  ‘What now?’ Danni asked, choking.

  ‘Well, it’s not a worldwide problem; it’s only here in London. The government is involved. How are we ever going to stop this?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  Tom stared at the ground and thought for a moment.

  How can people be that stupid? What can I do now? How long have I got to live as a human before I turn into an aggressive lunatic? Will I even turn into one? Should I just shoot Danni and then myself?

  Tom grabbed his gun and stared at it. He pulled it up and aimed at his face. His hands shook, the veins on his hands looked more and more enflamed and seemed to have a shade of blackness to them. Tom pulled the gun down and set it on the waterlogged floor next to him. His thoughts were interrupted as a machine floated up from the wreckage. As it rose, mud fell off the sides of the hovercraft. The rain fell stronger and harder. The hovercraft reached its peak. It shone its light on Tom and Danni. Neither of them reacted; they sat there waiting for death. They were soon surrounded by two more hovercraft. Danni and Tom both stood, looking up into the rain-drenched sky.

  I can’t quite believe this is the government’s doing. Why are they doing this?

  Then, two rigid-bodied, armored vehicles approached from either side of Tom and Danni and parked beside them, effectively blocking any escape attempt. The top opened and two uniformed soldiers jumped from each vehicle. They wore gas masks and pointed their guns at Tom and Danni.

  ‘Freeze, drop your weapons, now!’ a muffled voice shouted from under a gas mask.

  Danni dropped her shotgun and Tom put his hands up. There was a moment of silence with no movement; Danni was suddenly shot and knocked off her feet. Tom stood still. He slowly turned his head and looked down to see Danni on the ground. Her clothes were skin tight from the rain; the lining of her bra visible through her thin shirt.

  Tom was forced off his feet by a sharp pain in his chest. He landed on his back and faced the sky.

  For a moment, Anna entered his mind, possibly for the last time. She looked happy. The flashback was of her smiling in Jubilee gardens in the sunshine, the sun bright and reflected off her sunglasses. The grass looked better than ever before. Anna’s skin looked peachier, her lips luscious, and her eyes astounding in the sunshine. Tom focused on the grey skies and lost consciousness.

  9

  Tom awakened in dimness; the only light source was the night sky that shone through the window, the only window in the room. As he regained his senses, he smelled a musky, damp stench. Staring into the dark, he identified the objects around him by their shapes. To his right, he saw some machinery; saws and other sharp objects hung on the wall. Straight ahead of him were four long bars. The bars led to a circular shape at the top with cables knotted and scattered across the floor below them. To his left seemed to be four pigs hanging upside down from the ceiling, swaying slightly. Below them, a little closer to Tom were two plastic boxes on a table with animals inside. He could hear the animals moving around in the boxes. Also on the table was a stand with three tubes with liquid inside. Hung on the chair next to the table was a long coat.

  Horrified, Tom tried to stand; he was tied to a chair with his hands behind his back. Still soaked from the rain, water dribbled down his face.

  ‘Hello?’ Tom bellowed.

  It echoed back to him at least seven times. He shouted over and over again until all the lights turned on so brightly that he couldn’t see directly in front of him. He looked to the side, toward the hanging pigs, and realised they were naked corpses hanging upside down from their ankles. Their arms flopped loosely. A young woman, man, a child and an elderly lady hung there. As he continued to stare, he looked at the face of the young woman. Her face was covered in dark mould and loose skin with patches of green. Her hair looked wiry and as dry as hay. Tom’s eyes welled up, his fists clenched, his arms gained strength to try and break free. As he clenched his fists, his nails dug into his splinter-filled hands forcing the splinters to dig further into his hands and bleed. The pain was excruciating but his adrenalin and rage blocked the pain. He began to scream as he stared at the face of the young woman, Anna. Her entire body was caped in white and grey mould; enlarged red veins have covered her entire body. Her ankles bled while she hung there and stained her body as it dripped down. She had plastic tubes going into her arms, legs and mouth. The tubes were linked with red and green liquid in vials that pumped through the tubes into her.

  Next to her was Stewart, he looked like Anna, but was missing an arm. To Tom’s horror, he saw a young girl next to Stewart, no older than ten. There was also an elderly woman. All four of them had tubes with liquid pumping into them.

  Tom looked back to Anna’s red and green patched face. She was barely recognizable.

  A man stood in front of the light. The man’s outline was visible but his front was blacked out from the bright light.

  ‘Hello.’

  Tom recognized the voice, but he couldn’t quite identify the person it belonged to.

  ‘Who are you?’

  ‘That would be telling.’

  ‘Well, what’s going on? Surely I’m allowed to know that before you kill me?’

  The figure laughed, then fell silent. Tom tried to focus on the figure but the light was too bright. It burned his eyes as he tried to focus.

  ‘Well. I’m not going to kill you, quite the opposite actually. I’ve cured you.’ The figure folded his arms together. ‘I spoke to your friend, Danni, and she told me what her doc friend told her and, give him credit. He was right about people being infected…’

  ‘Where is she?’ Tom interrupted abruptly.

  ‘I’m sorry to tell you, I couldn’t cure her. She had to be executed.’

  ‘How could you do this? How can you hang those bodies up and how dare you do this to…’ Tom was interrupted by the man’s unsympathetic voice.

  ‘Look, I’m doing this for the people who aren’t infected. This wasn’t my fault, I’m trying to fix it and this is the best way to do it, Tom.’

  ‘How the fuck do you know my name?’

  The man began to walk to Tom’s left and disappeared from sight. It was deathly silent again. The man began speaking from directly behind Tom. ‘Do you want the whole story?’

  ‘Yes. I want to know why my girlfriend was killed and my friends and everyone in London; and what gives you the right to use my girlfriend like an animal?’

  ‘Well, I am so
rry for your losses. But it wasn’t my fault. Now, to explain what has been happening. I will tell you as simply as I can. Where to begin…’ The man began to walk around Tom. His shoes scraped the concrete with each step. ‘We scientists have planned and worked on this project for a very long time. The project’s aim was to create a cure for cancer. But to do so, we had to create a sort of test cancer which, unfortunately, didn’t end well. The cure was created by Lukas Vidolski and the cancer by Kenneth Williams.’

  ‘Wait. What?’ Tom paused in amazement.

  Was this why Dad was killed? For creating something that was obviously threatening to humans? Or did what he create kill him?

  ‘I said Lukas Vidolski created a cure and Kenneth Williams created a cancer. But the cancer he created wasn’t actually a cancer, somehow he accidently discovered a virus that mutates rapidly. The liquid he created, if inhaled or digested, affects the brain.’

  ‘How would it affect the brain, what did he set out to do with this?’

  ‘Ken’s plan was to create this and test it against the cure. The cure never worked. It couldn’t cure a rat or dog, not even a pig. Since the virus had already been inhaled by some, Ken became desperate. He decided to experiment on himself since humans are so very different from most animals. He changed the liquid slightly and tested a reaction with his own blood to see the effects. It thickened his blood but at a slow rate. We tested it on him fully and he had slight changes. The liquid affected him with the symptoms you had, the eyes, veins, cough, and aggressiveness. The cure worked for Ken. We don’t know why. The liquid he made didn’t affect him badly. But when we tested someone else, he reacted quickly. It took only a single day for someone to turn into a raging lunatic. People react to the virus at different speeds and it depends on how much you inhale or digest and how much of its original strength it has retained as it’s travelled through the air. Now, you must be wondering how it got into the open?’

  Tom sat there in silence, ashamed of his father.

  ‘Well, Vidolski was working in the lab. He was trying to alter both the liquid and the cure to counteract each other. But of course he also wanted the cure to counteract any kind of disease similar to cancer. He worked until he was interrupted by some armed forces. We do not know who they were but they obviously knew what we were doing. They simply came into the lab and shot Vidolski dead. Unaware of what they were doing, they decided to have some fun and they smashed the lab up. To their stupidity, they smashed the cure and the virus. So the virus went on the floor and, like I said, it’s deadly to inhale. My assistant pressed the alarm and evacuated the whole building, which was a bad idea. He should have sealed the building, keeping the dangerous fumes inside. Instead, the chemicals were released into the building’s air conditioning. It was released into the air from open windows and open doors, but also people’s clothing. People already infected carried the disease out with them to infect everyone.’ There was another moment of silence. The man continued to pace behind Tom, from left to right and back. He then continued with his narrative, ‘I had to alert the governing bodies. I told them what happened and they didn’t know what to do. So I told them, they had to shut London down and kill everyone who was infected, everyone in the London zone. This allowed them to use new high-tech armory such as their hovercraft, new guns and the new tank cars for the army. I presented a survival presentation and gave them tips. They then decided it would be best to destroy half of London and block anyone outside of London trying to come in. Of course, it can’t spread worldwide, it would be used up just from the population in London. The greater risk was people leaving London who were infected. And to stop that from happening, everyone had to die.’

  ‘Do you think you made the right decision?’ Tom awaited the answer but didn’t get one. ‘If you do, then you are a fucking moron. You’re happy with it…’

  ‘Don’t you dare tell me how I feel. You have no idea what I’ve been through.’ The man lost control and began to shout.

  ‘I know you’re a self-centered man with no morals. Reveal yourself.’

  The figure walked in front of the light. Tom tried to see his face, yet the man still hugged the shadows.

  ‘Reveal yourself!’ Tom bellowed.

  The lights went off. Tom was encased in darkness and greeted with silence. The silence became eerie and unbearable.

  He tried again to break out of his bonds. From what he could tell, his hands were bound together with plastic of some sort. As he tried to break free, the plastic cut cruelly into his wrists.

  The lights came back on; the figure was standing in front of him.

  ‘You wanted me to reveal myself?’

  The lights in front of Tom turned off and light from behind Tom turned on. Tom looked at the man’s face. He had a black beard with some grey hair. The hairs on his head are the same texture and color as his facial hair. He had dark eyes and black roughed up hair, he wore a shirt and tie, a long white jacket, grey trousers and black shoes. It took Tom a few seconds to realize the man was his father, Ken Williams. As he realised this, he let out a gasp and spat at him. He felt both ashamed and enraged.

  It all became clear. Tom didn’t react quickly to the chemicals because Ken had the same blood; they were related. That was why Tom and Ken have been cured easily.

  ‘How could you? You are fucking scum. I hate you. Why couldn’t you just be dead?’ Tom’s rage clearly frightened Ken.

  ‘Tom. I only did this project to help cure your Mum. That’s how long this has been going on. But by the time I got something together. She died. Imagine how that made me feel.’ Ken began to cry. ‘My life was over. I wanted to try to help people, not for all this to happen.’

  ‘You killed Anna! You killed everyone. This is your entire fault. I’m going to end this right here right now.’ Tom tried to break loose but it’s impossible. Tom screamed in pain and fury at his father.

  ‘I didn’t decide to pulse the whole of London with a blast of electromagnetic energy. That wasn’t me; that was the government’s doing. I found Anna and brought her here to try and…’

  ‘You had time to pick up Anna’s body to experiment on, but not to look for your son?’ Tom interrupted and stared at him in disgust.

  ‘I tried to help but realised she died from being hit by a car and not from the chemical.’

  ‘So your instinct was to bring Anna back here and experiment on her and not to look for your son.’

  ‘No, Tom. I couldn’t find you. They started blowing everything up. I tried to look for you but I nearly got killed trying to find you.’

  ‘What a hero you are.’ Tom said sarcastically.

  ‘Please, Tom. Don’t hate me. I brought Anna back to see if I could bring her back to life with the liquid. It’s a magical creation; she came back to life a few times but obviously was a little aggressive.’

  ‘How fucking dare you.’ Tom began to shake and screamed at Ken in his seat. Tears fell from his eyes. Ken ignored his cries and tried to carry on with the story.

  ‘I had to fake my own death because I needed to find this cure. It may not make sense to you but people were aware of what I was doing. I had to stay away from you to protect you from the media.’

  ‘Well that worked, didn’t it Dad. Your death was everywhere.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘No, you’re not. Get me out of this.’ Tom said forcefully.

  ‘I can’t do that.’

  ‘Let me out now.’ Tom shouted.

  Ken grabbed a pair of scissors and cut the cable tie. Tom’s hands felt numb. He had been able to feel the difference since he was cured, he could feel the injury on his leg and shoulder once again. Tom walked across the room to get used to standing and walking again. He smelled the dusky room and walked back towards Ken.

  Tom swung his right hand towards Ken’s face. His knuckles struck the left side of Ken’s jaw, forcing him to the floor. Tom knelt beside Ken and gripped his collar, punching him again. After the second punch to Ken’s shrunken fa
ce, Tom stood up and turned his back on Ken.

  ‘I guess I deserved that.’ Ken wearily said.

  ‘We are going to finish this together, me and you Dad. Blow this place up… is that possible?’

  Ken breathed heavily while pushing himself off the filthy ground. He stood upright. His shaking, withered hand felt his bloody mouth and nose.

  ‘Well, yes, but we wouldn’t make it out in time. It’s not much of a countdown. It erases files and then releases the chemicals created and then the building explodes.’

  Tom searched the room for a desk of some sort. He looked to his right and saw a desk with televisions and buttons. He walked toward it. Ken followed in his tracks.

  ‘Tom, what are you doing?’ Ken asked in desperation.

  ‘Finishing all this.’

  Tom reached the desk. The screens were showing CCTV footage. The building was completely empty. He looked through all the images; one stood out. The black and white footage showed a chamber, with Danni, chained to a wall. She didn’t look healthy. She was trying to break out of the chains. Some of her hair had fallen out, showing her scabby bald head in places. Her skin looked sweaty and bloody.

  ‘You said she was dead.’

  ‘I didn’t want to worry or stress you out Tom.’

  Tom chuckled to himself at the irony of his Dad suddenly caring about his feelings. He moved his hand over a pair of scissors that were on the desk and secretly slid them up his sleeve. Ken continued to speak.

  ‘She is pretty much dead anyway isn’t she? Like us, we’re dead, how are we ever going to survive this? That’s why I don’t want to waste my work. All these years, I’ve worked on this and now you want me to waste all those years and all the risks I’ve taken by blowing this place up?’ Ken began to sound hysterical.