Aftermath: The complete collection Read online

  ‘I’m sorry’ he muttered.

  ‘What are you fucking doing Lee?’ Shouted Simon, stepping towards his gun. Steve put his arm across Simon as the four guns behind us pricked up like dogs ears.

  ‘What do you want?’ Shouted Roy.

  ‘The girl, she comes with us’ said the voice from behind us, as one of the men ahead started walking towards us.

  ‘I’m sorry, I cannot let you...’ A rifle butt smashed into Roy’s face ending his sentence and sent him crashing to the floor, dust sticking to the blood around his nose and mouth as he lay motionless. Two men behind us grabbed Nancy, who was screaming, as they pushed her towards the truck. She was trying to resist, her feet dragging through the ash leaving a trail, she tried to fight the men off but they were too strong for her. Steve had to hold Simon back, his face was angry and distorted. The four men boarded the vehicle and pushed her to the floor, with one holding her by the neck. ‘She’s fucking pregnant’ shouted Simon. ‘What are you going to do with her?’ The other two men walked backwards with their guns trained on us, only turning when they needed to climb aboard. ‘Why are you doing this Lee?’ Simon shouted, Steve still holding him back. ‘We trusted you, I thought you were our friend.’ Lee never turned around, he walked towards the truck, with his gun still aimed at us. ‘I’m sorry’ he said, turning to board the truck. ‘I told you not to trust anyone.’ He put his foot on the dirty step, as one of the men aboard stood up and faced him, Lee looked up at him, as the man raised his weapon towards Lee’s chest. There was a loud bang, as his body hit the ground and the truck sped away.

  Chapter Two

  16/8/2027 - Time 21:27

  My name is Nathan Driver, I have started this diary on the outbreak of a nuclear world war. I do not know the full extent of the battle, only what had happened before communication went down. I believe keeping detailed information of what happened will be paramount for the future of humanity to learn and recover. The threat of nuclear war was no greater today than yesterday, last week or last year, but I knew it would happen one day, and I was prepared. I will try and recall the events that lead our planet to this position, however they could be slightly inaccurate. The world had been on heightened alert for around sixteen months after hostilities between North Korea and Japan reached an untenable level. In early two thousand and twenty six a small battle took place on the Korean peninsula when South Korean and Japanese soldiers moved in. On August the seventh, Japan lost contact with a secret task force whose job it was to keep track of North Korea’s nuclear programme, four days later a warning was issued to Tokyo that in the event of war, it would be North Koreans first target. This morning, I was on my way to Manchester to start a new weeks work on the councils sewer pipeline, I am currently employed by CCTP, to update the sewer pipes in the north west of England, currently Manchester. They are around two hundred years old and in desperate need of repair. Built by the Victorians in around eighteen thirty, the sewers are a mixture of open sewerage and decaying pipe work from the nineteen thirties modernisation. We use a special carbon impregnated plastic mold that we thread through the existing pipe, and then expand it onto the old decaying one. This can be done without effecting water flow, causing less hassle, it also saved the UK government around five hundred million pounds. On contract, I work the week, staying at b&b’s around Manchester at night. Then head back home, near Edinburgh, to spend the weekend with my daughter, Emma. It’s a life I have lived for the past four years.

  I left home at five am, it had been taking me around four hours to make the journey to Manchester in Monday morning traffic, but I hit massive traffic jams around Ramsbottom, twenty miles from Manchester. It was this traffic jam that probably saved my life, without it I would have been hitting the outskirts of Manchester as the main bomb exploded. I spent the next two hours crawling towards my destination, only moving a few miles. By nine a.m. I was still twelve miles away from Manchester so I rang up work to tell them I would be late, I spoke to my Site Manager, who told me no one had turned up yet. Horrible to think, this might have been his final conversation. It was one of the sunniest days of the year, we had just enjoyed the hottest July for forty years. I opened my car windows to let a cool draft in, the air-con wasn’t working, these new electric cars are not as reliable as the old petrol/diesel cars, the new technology is still somewhat temperamental. Steam was rising off car bonnets and out of manholes, high street shoppers were up early to get their shopping done so they could enjoy the sunny day. I looked at other passengers in the traffic jam, there seemed to be a positive atmosphere around the place, it’s amazing what a bit of sun can do for your well being, even patriotism, flags were flying down all the streets. Most of the cars had turned off their engines, we hadn’t moved for thirty minutes. The children in the car in front were making faces at me. It’s a long time for children to be sat in a hot car, two girls, I showed them the ‘evil dad’ face that always freaks Emma out. They pushed their faces onto the window, squashing their noses and sticking their tongues out, creating long wet smudges. I wiped the sweat off my forehead, then left it on my hand, grateful for the cold. I turned the radio on and tried to find some music, settling on Lancashire’s local station. It was fifty years since Elvis Presley died, and the DJ was chatting with the UK fan club owner about his legacy. It’s amazing how history has played out, the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, the day humans attempted to destroy each other. The DJ begins playing ‘Burning love’ but thirty seconds in...

  ‘We interrupt this record with breaking news of an explosion in Tokyo City, Japan. Early indications suggest it might be a gas explosion with many casualties, we will give you further information as we receive it.’ I looked at the other passengers, and shoppers walking along the high street. The news hadn’t caused a ripple of interest, but it set alarm bells ringing with me. When I researched what would happen should humans fight a war with nuclear weapons, I remember it said it would start all of a sudden, without warning. The planet could be destroyed within an hour should all nuclear states take part, I might have been paranoid about it, but I was right to be. I got out of my car and opened the boot, the baking hot sun was on the back of my neck, so I pulled my T-shirt up to cover my bare skin. For the last year, I’ve had a ready prepared bag for the outbreak of war, with tinned food and bottled water to last four months, and other essentials including a wind-up torch, duct tape, wet wipes, a map, plastic bags, scissors, tin opener, plastic sheets, lighter fluid, a packed of cigarette lighters and a first aid kit. I carried my bag and crowbar to the front of the car, and put it on the passengers seat, when the song finished the news came through that confirmed my fears. ‘A nuclear weapon has exploded over Tokyo City. The number of dead is unknown, but it could be as many as thirty million. No one has claimed responsibility for detonating the bomb, but the international community is blaming North Korea, please bare with us as more information comes through...We are now receiving reports of an explosion roughly ten miles north west of Pyongyang, North Korea, this is a massive explosion, we have no further information than that at the moment, communication with Asia is presently down.’

  The news of these explosions started to appear on the faces of people all around me, it spread like wild fire, desperation was starting to take hold as people started running. I slapped the steering wheel in frustration, not knowing why the fuck we weren’t moving. People were running around, from vehicle to vehicle, I could see blind panic on their faces. Cars were trying to turn around but there was no room, metal scraped against metal, men were shouting abuse at each other, fights were breaking out, children crying. I then caught something on the radio about Washington, I turned it up, what did it say? Repeat it you idiot, repeat it, panic was spreading through my body.

  ‘...We have further reports of explosions in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, Washington was hit ten minutes ago by a massive explosion. There are unconfirmed reports of explosions in China
, Russia, France and Germany. The government are advising us not to panic, there is no evidence Great Britain is at risk, stay calm and...’

  The radio went dead, an electrical surge took out all communications and played havoc with my cars electronics, alarms and horns were blaring out everywhere. People were now visibly distressed, running from doorway to doorway, trying to find some cover, the children in the car in front were crying. I had prepared mentally for this moment, just as Jane, my wife and I readied ourselves for the birth of Emma, bag packed and ready to go at a moments notice, but like then, when the moment came adrenaline took over, mixed with fear. I tried ringing Emma to warn her, the buttons on my phone seemed to have shrunk, I kept hitting the wrong ones. Using the phones voice recognition I found Emma’s number, it started ringing. There was no answer, where was she? It moved over to the answer machine: ‘Emma, if you get this message get underground, take grandma and granddad to the shelter and stay there until I can get back to you.’

  As I looked in my rear view mirror I noticed what can only be described as a wall of wind beating a path towards me, people were being blown off their feet, trees and bushes shaken like a dog with a bone. I could see a noticeable line as it moved along causing mayhem. I opened the car door and looked skywards as a huge passenger plane thundered over the top of me and I was hit by its downward pressure, knocking me to the floor. I got up and watched as it continued its path, seemingly following the road, I’ve never seen a plane anything like as low as that, it was at a guess sixty yards off the ground heading towards Manchester airport, but it wasn’t going to make it. I picked myself up and made an instant decision on where to go, collecting my bag and crowbar, I climbed out of my car glancing at the vehicle ahead. The family were banging on the windows, with a look of terror in their eyes. I realised they couldn’t get out, the electronic burst seemed to have malfunctioned the vehicles security systems, the doors were all locked and the security lights were flashing. They were clearly panicking, so I knocked on the window and told them to calm down pointing to the back of the car. The mum and dad got into the back with their two girls, who were decidedly more upset than the girls I had made faces at earlier. When they had moved, I hit the front window screen with my crowbar, a small white mark appeared, I hit it again and again until it became a hole. After a few short sharp smashes, it started to come away, breaking into small cubes netted together. I put the crowbar through the hole and pulled out the remaining glass. A huge explosion startled me, I looked down the main street in the direction of Manchester and a large fireball was visible, dancing into the blue sky. I cannot say for sure what had caused the explosion, but my assumption was the plane. Once the windscreen was removed the family climbed out, the dad thanked me for my help and they ran off in the direction of the fireball, I shouted to them to go the other way but they didn’t listen, or couldn’t hear me. The blue sky had now been polluted by the bellowing smoke from the explosion. I put my rucksack on my back, picked up my crowbar and ran in the opposite direction to the explosion, all hell had broken loose, everyone was trying to get as far away as they could. I couldn’t find an unrestricted manhole, or one I could open, cars were knocking people over, children were being dragged by the hand of petrified parents towards a fate nobody knew. Avoiding vehicles and retreating shoppers, I finally found a manhole I could open, just as a second huge explosion ripped into the Manchester skyline. Beetham tower, the highest landmark in Manchester, visible from miles away, was engulfed, the blade that sits atop sliced through the orange and red flames. The floor was vibrating up through my feet like an earthquake, windows were smashing all around. It felt like it was building towards a crescendo, and I didn’t want to be around when that arrived. I had to move fast, I didn’t know when the next attack would come, or from where. The man hole was slightly off the main road, I jammed my crowbar into the edge, a couple of heaves later and it was off, I threw the crowbar down the shaft, causing a cascade of noise. I made a final attempt to ring Emma but the call went straight through to her answer machine, cursing, I lifted the manhole cover back in place, taking a final look at the mayhem around me. There were people running for cover, two huge funnels of black smoke and fires burning out of control. How many of these people would survive the next thirty minutes? Would I survive? Dripping with sweat I arrived at the bottom of the ladder, I picked up my crowbar and peered into the sewer. I have grown accustomed to the foul smell of human waste having worked in it for four years, so it doesn’t bother me that much. I got the torch out of my bag and shone it down the tunnel, the old black stone walls were dripping with a violent stench, the glistening stonework highlighted by my torchlight. The lights were out so I used the torch to see where I was stepping. These tunnels where originally built in the Victorian era, and had stood the test of time, still in use one hundred and fifty years later, with only minor rebuilds. For one of these rebuilds after the second world war, they added an electrical box every two miles of line. Although the boxes are no longer used for the electrics, they still exist, and most still have the thick metal door put on during the rebuild. I have come across them many times in my profession, I know they are just about big enough for a man to fit in, as on many occasions I have been in one, when larking about with the lads. My plan was to use one of these to hold up in, and let the worst of the battle and fallout decline. I ran through the sewer, away from the direction of Manchester, the cold wet sludge splashed against my legs. As I past under a manhole I heard the faint sounds of screaming, I continued for around three minutes until a huge explosion rattled the tunnel. I stumbled through the dust and debris falling from the ceiling, brushing it off myself before continuing. The light of my torch picked up the reflection of a metal door, I knew what it was as soon as I saw it. There was an old rusty chain and padlock protecting it from any unwanted attention, my crowbar made light work of it, after which I smashed out the wooden shelves and climbed in. Inside there was just enough room for one man and his bag, I closed the door, feeling sure this was my best chance of survival should Manchester be targeted, seven feet underground and about eight miles away. I tried my phone one last time, but there was no reception down here, so I turned it off to preserve the battery life.

  I sat in the darkness for an age, reliving the last thirty minutes in my head, did I do everything I could? Should I have tried to save more people? That family, should I have made them follow me? I was annoyed with myself for leaving my Welrod under the tyre in my boot. I wasn’t sure if that last explosion was a nuke or if the bombing had even finished, it was hard to tell from where I was, I couldn’t hear anything from outside. But there was no mistaking the nuke when it did explode, the sound was incredible, like nothing I have ever heard. The initial explosion sounded like a shotgun, that’s the way I would describe it, an incredibly loud shotgun blast, followed by the sounds of thunder. I counted twenty six seconds before I felt the shock wave rumble over the top of me, the thunderous sounds got louder as it approached, followed by what felt like an earthquake. It shook so violently in my little box, it felt like I was rolling down a hill. The world seemed to sway from side to side, I was convinced I was going to die. For the first time in four years I said a prayer, for me and my family, in particular Emma. No child should have to go through what this generation has done to its children, should humanity survive, it will impact them like those who suffered after world war two. The worlds governments should be ashamed for allowing it to get to this point, tonight, darkness descends on more suffering than humanity has ever afflicted upon itself before. That’s where I am now, bar a few loud earth groans, the attack seems to be over. I have heard other faint explosions from undetermined locations, and I fear for our planet. It’s ten twenty six p.m. and I have survived the initial blast, now I must hold up underground until the radiation fallout has subsided. I have enough food and water to last four months at a push, it’s advisable to stay underground for two months with the fallout given off by these new super-tonne bombs, but
I aim to stay under for three, just to be safe. My family have enough food and water to last six months, as long as they got underground. The farm will be protected from any attack on Edinburgh by the Pentland Hills to the north west to some degree, but the farm is around thirteen miles from the centre of Edinburgh, just on the edge of the blast radius.

  23/8/2027 - Time 21:00

  I have spent my first week underground trying to make myself as much at home as possible, in a space four foot by three foot. I have organised one corner for food and drink, tins placed on top of each other, almost to the ceiling. There’s enough room to stretch my legs out, while sat with my back pushed up against the wall, my bag is hanging above my head on an old rusty nail last used to hold the shelves up. I seem to have spent most of the week staring into the darkness above my head, my bag hovering inches from my face, counting bombs in my head as they drop one by one. It took some time to grow accustomed to the darkness, I only use my torch now and then, mainly to help find something or to write my diary. Most of my day is spent drifting in and out of sleep. I haven’t heard a noise from the surface since the attack, the only noise I hear is the wind, and rats scurrying around in the water trying to find food. I have never suffered from claustrophobia and plan to use this time to plan a route back to my daughter and family, I hope there are some remnants of a government, whose disaster response team has started the clean up, the dead in this country alone will be in the tens of millions, but the amount injured or homeless will be triple that.