Luke's Diary: An Unlucky Man In A Zombie Apocalypse. Entries 757 to 956

Entry 770: Monday 5th November 2018

Entry 770
Monday 5th November 2018

I saw Harold today, and to say it was a tense meeting would be an understatement, and I found out more about what went on when I was frozen.

I met Blade at his place, and in his impressive Land Rover with GRID logos all over it, he gave me a lift to the prison, which was situated right opposite St Mary's Hospital. "Here we are," said Blade, "HMP Isle of Wight. Opened in April 2009 and made up of three former prisons, Parkhurst, Albany and Camp Hill, holding back in the day of course, approximately 1100 prisoners." "Wow, I'm impressed with how much you know." I said. "Don't be," said Blade, "I Googled it all before the World went to sh*t and made a note on my pad. Come on then, let's go see this psychopath."

I followed Blade up to a barrier that was letting cars in and out of the grounds. He gave the armed GRID guard on duty an authoritative nod and walked straight past him. I followed. Blade led me up to some large overbearing gates; very stereotypical of a prison. The gates were slowly opened to reveal part of a large yard containing lots of other buildings. I followed Blade into the side door of an ugly looking brick building. The pair of us walked down a long, cold, clinical looking corridor and I was eventually led into some sort of an interview room. It was just like the sort of thing you see in the movies; a small room with a glass screen separating one half of the room from the other. In the half of the room that Blade and I were in was a door. Blade told me that he'd radioed through and told his guards that we were here, and that Harold would be entering under armed guard through the door in the other half of the room. I started pacing up and down the room, feeling anxious as I awaited Harold's arrival. "I hope you get what you came here for," said Blade, "But I don't think you will. I wouldn't trust a single word that comes out of that guy's mouth."

A few moments later Harold arrived in cuffs with an armed GRID guard behind him. He looked rather dishevelled; a bit like he had been dragged through a hedge backwards. His hair was longer and scragglier than usual and he had stubble and bags under his eyes. He looked over at me and gave a surprising look, followed by a sinister smile. "Well, I didn't expect to see you," said Harold, as he walked up to the glass screen separating us, "So you're out of the cryogenics then. Shame you picked the one that was faulty. How long have you been out?" "About two weeks." I said. "So, you were frozen for about five weeks," said Harold, "Lucky. It could have been five years. So, have you come here to try and kill me? Roz and Trudy have already tried." "I'm tempted." I bluntly said. "Of course, you are," said Harold, "You probably blame me for a lot of what's happened. Mind you, after Roz's and Trudy's attempt at murdering me, Blade and his cute little GRID underlings put this lovely little glass wall up to keep me safe. Nice to know they're so concerned about my safety. Anyway, how are you settling in on the Island?" "Fine." I bluntly said. "Where are you living?" asked Harold. "Don't tell him anything." said a firm sounding Blade. "Oh, I'm sorry," said a sarcastic Harold, "I'm not meant to ask any probing questions, am I? Naughty Harold. Mr Blade won't be happy, will he?" "Luke, just get to the point!" Blade firmly said. "I need to know about Tara," I firmly said, giving Harold a serious look. "What do you mean?" asked Harold. "Well, a lot went on before we all got into the freeze chambers." I said. "I know," said Harold, "I was there." "No, I'm not talking about the bit where you went all mental and tried to kill yourself and your own pregnant daughter." I said. "How is Mia?" Harold asked, interrupting me. "Err... OK, I think?" I answered. "What do you mean, you think?" asked Harold. "Well, she tends to keep herself to herself." I replied. "What does that mean?" asked Harold, sounding urgently intrigued, "Have You seen her?" "I saw her yesterday." I said. "How is she?" asked Harold. "Well, to be honest, I'm a bit worried about her." I said. "What do you mean?" asked Harold, sounding increasingly concerned. "Well, I went around to her flat with Trudy but she wouldn't let us in," I said, "She kept the chain on and said she wasn't feeling well and wanted to be on her own. It was like she was avoiding us." "You've got to speak to her!" Harold firmly said. "I've tried," I said, "Look, I'm not really here to speak about Mia. I need to talk to you about Tara." "Later." said a firm Harold. "No, not later!" I snapped, "Now! I've got questions and you're going to answer them." "I'm not answering anything until you've told me about Mia," Harold aggressively said. I rolled my eyes feeling impatient, "OK," I said, "She's living..." "DO NOT SAY ANOTHER WORD!" Blade loudly said, "Endo cannot know the locations of the remaining members of the ACROBAT seven." "He's locked up," I said to Blade, "What harm can it do?" "Oh, I'm locked up right now," said Harold with a mischievous smile on his face, "But he knows how intelligent I am. He knows I can get out of here. This place won't hold me forever. That's why he doesn't want you to tell me where Mia and the others are." "Ok, well, yeah," I said, "She's acting weirdly – more weirdly than usual. I'm worried about her." "Look they won't let me out to see her," said Harold, "So you have to go around and see her again. Make sure her and the baby are OK. Break the door down if you have too." "I'm going to go back and see her anyway," I said. "Tell her I love her and that once I get out of here, I'll be able to look after her." Harold quickly responded.  "She doesn't you want you looking after her." I bluntly said. "Luke, just tell her!" Harold loudly said, "Tell her. Just promise me you'll look after her and I'll tell you anything you want to know about Tara." I rolled my eyes and gave a depressing sigh. "I was going to go back to her flat anyway." I said. "But you'll tell her I love her?" Harold urgently asked, "You'll tell her that I'm going to look after her. Yeah?" "Yeah, yeah OK," I said, "Now I need you to answer my questions about Tara." "Fine," said Harold, "What do you want to know?" "Well," I said, "According to Mike, Tara came back to The Base. Now I know Mike could be lying but..." "Mike's not lying," said Harold, interrupting me, "Tara did come back to The Base. I froze for a second and took in what Harold was saying to me. From the looks on Blades face it was clearly the first time he'd heard this too. "You saw her?" I asked. "Yes," said Harold, "She managed to come down into my secret little underground lair. She was the only other person that knew about it. I knew it was a mistake telling her. Earlier in the day we were both in my little lair and talking about the current situation. That's when she stole a vial of the E-Virus, or what she THOUGHT was the E-Virus." "What do you mean?" I asked. "Yes, what do you mean?" asked Blade. "Well I never fully trusted Tara," said Harold, "In fact there were quite a few of my staff I didn't trust. I knew there was a chance some of them would try to get their hands on the virus. That's why I decided to take some precautions. I made some fake vials of the virus and kept a few of them lying around. It meant I had the real virus in safe keeping, and if any of the fakes went missing it'd be possible for me to track whoever stole it and finding out who I can't trust. When I took Trudy down to my lair, I discovered that one of the fake vials had gone. Tara was the only other person that had been in that room and after what you told me about her flying off in the helicopter, I knew that she had stolen the vial believing it was the real virus. When I was in my lair, I wanted to go back up to get Primark out of the freezers so I could do experiments on him and Trudy together as well as separately, and I eventually managed to go back up and get him, but before I did, Tara turned up. I'd drugged Trudy, so she was out of it, but when I started to prepare my experiments, I turned around to see Tara there with that kid of yours." "Kyle!" I exclaimed, "So she did kidnap him!? Mike was telling the truth. Was he OK?" "No," said Harold, bluntly, "It looked like he'd been shot in the arm. He didn't look like he was in a good way." Oh my God," I said. "Ignore him." said Blade, "This will all be lies." "No, it matches what Mike said," I exclaimed, "Mike must have been telling the truth. Well, what happened? Was Kyle OK?" "He looked very pale," said Harold, "He'd obviously lost a lot of blood. To be honest my attention was on Tara; she was pointing a gun at me. She said she stole a vial of the virus was she was in my lair earlier. I told her that I knew I couldn't trust her and that she'd actually stolen a fake version of the virus that was meaningless and worth nothing. She told me that she'd figured out the virus was fake which is why she came back. She pointed her gun at me and said if I didn't give her the real virus, she'd shoot me. Bear in mind, all this was going on when we were waiting for the Base to detonate and the world to blow up." "What did you do?" I asked. "Well, what could I do?" said Harold, "I gave her the virus; the real virus. I didn't want to be killed. I had Mia and my unborn grandchild to think about. Besides, I didn't just make copies of the fake virus, I made copies of the real one and they are scattered in places that only I know. That's why these GRID Gorillas are still keeping me alive. They're hoping I tell them where the other copies of the virus are." "Look, I just want to know about Kyle!" I said. "I told you," said Harold, "He'd been shot. Tara dragged him off when I gave her the virus." "Why did she take him?" I snapped, "Why didn't she leave him with you? Why would she want him?" "I don't know Luke," said Harold, "I'm telling you all I know." "You haven't told me any of this," said Blade, "Where was Tara Kate going and who was she planning on selling the virus to?" "I'm not answering anymore of your questions," Harold said to Blade, "Or anymore of yours for that matter," Harold said, looking at me. "Please," I said, practically begging Harold, "Have you any idea where she could have taken him?" "No," said Harold. "I don't believe you!" I snapped. "That's your problem, not mine." said Harold. "But I need to go and look for him," I said, "Can you just give me an idea of where in England I should start looking?" Harold frowned with confusion and then started laughing. This p*ssed me off. "What the f*ck are you laughing at?" I snapped, "Do you think it's funny when a father and his child are separated? You, more than anyone should know how horrible that is." "Oh no," said Harold, trying to control his laughing, "I just think it's funny that you think Tara's flown back to the mainland in England? What on Earth makes you think she's gone there?" "What do you mean?" I asked, feeling confused. "If Tara wants to sell the virus, she's probably gone to somewhere like America or China. I guess she could have gone to somewhere in England, but I doubt it. She probably ditched Kyle and flew somewhere to sell the virus." "What do you mean DITCHED him?" I asked. "Killed him," Harold, casually said. I gasped in fear. "No!" I loudly said, "He can't be dead!" "Well I suppose there's a chance he's still alive," said Harold, "Although I don't know why Tara would bother keeping him alive. Even if he is actually alive, he could be anywhere in the World. Sorry Luke, but if I were you, I'd accept that you've lost him, grieve and move on with your life." "F*ck off!" I angrily snapped, "Like I'm going to take parental advice from you, you F*cking bat sh*t crazy psycho. All of this is your fault." "I beg your pardon"? said Harold. "This!" I loudly snapped, "This whole mess. You and your f*cking virus. It's all your fault!" "Luke, I created the virus to save my daughter's life and improve the world." "Improve the world!?" I loudly exclaimed, "Well that's a f*cking laugh isn't it? I've been sh*tting in a bucket for the best part of three years, does that sound like an improved world to you!?" "Luke, I didn't shoot your Son and I didn't take him," said Harold, "I have done nothing wrong." "Nothing wrong!?" I exclaimed, "You're delusional. You created a virus that destroyed the world and turned everyone into flesh eating monsters." "I may have made the virus but I did not release it," said Harold, "I am not responsible for the outbreak." "That does indeed seem to be a question that remains unanswered," said Blade, "We suspect he knows how the outbreak occurred and how the virus got out but he isn't telling." "All you do is lie," I snapped at Harold, "You and Tara turning up on that bus and lying about who you were. Why couldn't you just be honest with us all? Why did you pretend to be Donald Hero? You knew about us all being part of the ACROBAT seven; why didn't you just tell us and be honest?" "You know why," Harold said, "We've been through this, and yes maybe I do lie sometimes but right now I'm telling you the truth. You said it yourself, my story matches with what Mike says. If you lot had just stayed at the hospital then Geoff would have gotten you all to The Base months ago. Me, your Mum, Ash, Dave and the others went to great lengths to get you to the sexual health clinic so we could get you to The Base. If Goyle had have had his way that wouldn't have happened. You lot messed everything up. Why couldn't you just stay where you were." "Oh, I'm ever so f*cking sorry!" I loudly exclaimed, "But how the Hell were any of us supposed to know that we were part of some secret undercover sh*t to get us through an apocalypse and safe to sanctuary, via some sort of train under a sexual health clinic. I was just going to get checked out for a dose of the clap not to take part in some Jason Bourne, Resident Evil b*llocks! You should have just been straight up with us. We went through hell out there. People have died; Alex, Esther, Courtney, DeShawn. They're dead." "I didn't kill them, Luke." said Harold. I took a step closer to the glass screen, frowned and gritted my teeth with anger. "Yes. You. Did!" I aggressively said, "You killed every one of them. You might not have pulled the trigger but you certainly loaded the gun." A moment of tense silence lingered. "I need you to give Mia a very specific message." said Harold. "No!" Blade, loudly interrupted, "No messages!" Blade stepped forward and urgently moved me away from Harold. "The spider sits and waits within," said Harold. "THE SPIDER SITS AND WAITS WITHIN!" He shouted again. "Do NOT listen to him," Blade firmly said, as he tried to pull me away. "It's alright Jon," I said, "I'll do what I said I'll do, but I'm certainly not giving Mia any cryptic messages." "I think you will." said Harold. "Think what you want," I said, "You're stuck in here and we're safe out there." Harold gave a slightly chuckle. "Safe?" said Harold, "You think you're safe." "Course we are," I said, "There's no infected on the Island." "Harold once again chuckled, causing me to feel frustrated and confused. "What!?" I angrily snapped. "Oh Luke," said Harold in a patronising tone, "You're not safe here. This Island isn't what you think." "What do you mean?" I asked. "Right that's it," said a firm Blade, "I'm ending this meeting right now." "Oh, he doesn't want you to know the truth." said Harold. "No, it's OK," I said to Jon, "I'm not letting that loony f*ck with my head." I walked back up to the glass screen. "I hope you rot in this place!" I sniped. "I won't rot in here," said Harold, "I'll be out of here at some point." "You what?!" I exclaimed. "Mia's going to come here and let me out." Harold calmly said. "You what?" I said, frowning with confusion and disbelief. "Mia's going to come back here, open the door and let me out." Harold said, again with calm tone. I laughed, "My God, you really are off your head," I chuckled, "Mia hates you! She wants nothing to do with you." I turned to Blade and told him I was ready to go. As I walked away from Harold and towards the door, I stopped, turned around and looked back at him. "One more question," I said, "What did you do to Trudy and Primark?"  Harold stared at me and gave me a menacing smile. "Goodbye Luke," he said. Knowing I wasn't going to get an answer I walked away. "REMEMBER TO GO SEE MIA!" he shouted, "AND IT'S GOT TO BE TOMORROW! YOU'VE GOT TO SEE HER TOMORROW!"