X: Omnibus by Saunders C.M

Author:Saunders, C.M. [Saunders, C.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

‘ Til Death do us Part

He was going to have to eat Margaret soon. That much was obvious. There was no food left, the cupboards were bare. Husband and wife means nothing when your very survival is at stake.

Of course, everyone likes to think that they would sacrifice themselves, lay themselves down to give a loved one the gift of life. But would they really?

Would you?

He would kill her quickly. He owed her that much. Hit her over the head with something hard and heavy, or smother her with a pillow as she slept. She was so frail these days it probably wouldn't take much. Death would be a blessed relief from the ongoing agony of what their lives had become, and it was only going to get worse now that the food was gone and the darkness was all around them.

Ronald remembered how the story had broke. He and Margaret had just returned home from doing the weekly shop. Since retirement they had taken to doing their shopping on a Tuesday morning to avoid the crowds, and if they had known that would be the last time they would ever see the inside of a supermarket they would surely have stocked up on some more tinned food and biscuits.

That morning they turned on the television to watch the end of Richard and Judy and instead saw a newsflash. People were rioting in London and Birmingham, the Territorial Army had been mobilized, and shots had been fired to restore order.

It hadn't worked.

Instead of being quashed, soon the rioting spread to other cities; Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Nottingham, Liverpool, Cardiff. By dinner time it seemed like all the isolated pockets of violence had joined up and the whole country was being consumed. Shaky camera footage taken by news crews or sent in by people who had captured events on mobile phones showed buildings being set alight, shops looted, and people being shot, stabbed and beaten to death in the streets. One memorable news byte showed blood running down a storm drain like dirty rain water.

Ronald and Margaret watched the drama unfold on their television set. At first it seemed about as real as a Hollywood movie. The wave of violence was what was happening to other people in other places, not them in their little council flat just outside Romsey in the south of England.

But sometime on Wednesday afternoon, they heard the first commotion outside. A man was screaming, pleading with someone to stop and leave him alone. Then the screams were abruptly cut short. That brought everything home with sickening clarity, and Ronald and Margaret barricaded the front door shut and drew the heavy brown curtains against the outside world.

At that time, they were thankful they lived on the top floor of the tower block. It seemed to segregate them from those below, wallowing in 21 st century filth and depravation. Up here they were safe, protected.

Every television channel was now completely devoted to the sudden surge of violence sweeping the country.

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