Big Dog [ONC 2022]

13

"With the short lull in the storm, NHS statisticians were better able to calculate the true scope and cost of the Omega variant of the virus and the results are far worse than anyone could have imagined.

With infection rates in excess of four times any previous variant and a mortality rate with an even greater increase, concerns are mounting that the Omega variant may very well cause the deaths of over two billion people, worldwide.

In response, the Prime Minister has ordered a month-long total lockdown to come into effect in one week. Shops and supermarkets have been ordered to allow sales of no more than two of each item, per customer, until the lockdown comes into force. After that, if anyone other than emergency services are found outside their own homes, they will face arrest and quarantine until the end of the lockdown."

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13

McAreavey refused to leave them alone after the three men left on the tiny boat. He stood watch at the upstairs window, his shotgun in his hands. He only moved to accept a hot mug of tea, though he didn't even glance at Runa when she handed it to him. He, obviously, felt as concerned about those three men as Runa.

Almost as soon as the boat left the little dock, the storm smashed against the island once more. Runa couldn't say she had become used to it, but she no longer flinched at the lightning strikes, nor trembled at the constant rumble of thunder that rattled the windows, or shiver at the wind that seemed to find the tiniest gaps with which to rush through, making piercing whistles throughout the cottage as it did so.

As she had passed the mug to Alf, she had noticed the strangest thing, however. The boat had only moved a few hundred feet from the shore and there it stayed. The storm passed the boat by, leaving it in a tiny circle of becalmed waters, undisturbed, unmoving. The figures of the three men clearly facing back towards the island. It felt as though they stared right back at Runa.

"Aye. You feel it too." With the shotgun cradled over one arm, Alf took a drink, holding the mug in the other hand. "That there isn't natural. I don't know how, or what's happening here, but something is very wrong, Doctor ... ah, Runa. What are your thoughts?"

"If I told you what I thought, you'd think me mad." He gave a little shrug at her words, but didn't ridicule her. Yet. "What do you know of the Norse gods? Of Ragnarök?"

He took another sip of his tea, appearing to consider the questions. He remained silent for the longest time and, at one point, leaned forward to catch sight of those two, huge black birds circling above the cottage, neither seeming to find any difficulty flying within the throes of the storm.

"Nothing much. Time was there were a few communities, up here on the islands, that followed those old gods. Not my kind of thing, mind, but I was never one to think less of folk for their beliefs." His eyes returned to the unmoving boat, out on the sea. "They had books like that one you had downstairs. A long time since I've seen its like. Of course, all those old communities are long gone, now. Died, or moved away."