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

Entry 791: Monday 26th November 2018

Entry 791
Monday 26th November 2018

I've just come home from the social gathering at Cowes Conservative Club. Oh my God! What an evening! I ended up looking like an absolute bell end but the focus wasn't on my humiliation for long, as there was a rather surprising revelation!

I arrived at the Cowes Conservative Club with Ash and Mia around 7pm. It was the sort of thing you'd expect; outdated furniture, lots of wooden furniture and a stage looking over a dance floor that was hardly ever used. Ash, Mia and I were the some of the first few there. When we arrived, there was hardly anyone else there; a couple of men at the bar and a few people sat at the tables talking. "Well this looks like a swinging party," Ash glumly said with a hint of sarcasm. "Well it's still early," I said, trying to be optimistic, "Give it time." 'House of Fun' by Madness was playing over the speaker system. "House of fun?" said Ash, "More like, Club of Gloom."

Ignoring Ash, I walked over to the buffet where Blade was talking to a woman in her mid-thirties and Trudy. "Ah, Luke," said Blade, "Good to see you. This is Helen Harvey. She's GRID's head scientist and has been working hard on trying to develop a cure for the E-Virus." Helen had shoulder length brown hair and greeted me with a warm smile as I shook her hand. "Oh," I said, "So you're the one who's been taking Trudy's blood?" "That's me," said Helen, "Trudy is a very special lady." "I don't think I've ever heard anyone calling her a lady," I said. "Oi, Nana, watch it," snapped Trudy, "I'm special." "I can honestly say you are unique." I said to Trudy. "If we can do something with Trudy's blood then we'll be able to wipe out this virus once and for all," said Helen. "That's right," said Trudy, "My blood could save the world. Helen's had a sh*t load of my blood. I'm telling you; I've had more pricks than a second hand dart board." "In more ways than one," I quietly said, under my breath." "My team and I are working as hard as we can," said Helen, "We're doing everything we can to find a cure and eradicate this virus." "Well, I don't think Harold will be too happy about that," I said. "Harold Endo's opinion is irrelevant," said a firm Blade, "He has no staff, no power and no influence. He's locked up in the Isle of Wight Prison and that's where he'll spend the rest of his sorry life. He's to blame for the mess the world's in. He was all about enhancing humanity. We don't need to enhance humanity, we just ned to protect the humanity we've got. The humanity that he has f*cked up with his virus." I've never seen Blade that angry. He wasn't kicking off or anything but he's usually so calm. "Well," said Helen, changing the subject, "I have taken quite a lot of Trudy's blood but I haven't been able to do anything with it, or find anything that could help us develop a cure. I guess I just have to keep trying." Helen poured herself a drink from a decanter of Rum that was on the buffet table. "Is that rum?" I asked. "It is indeed," said Helen, "When you've spent most of the day surrounded by blood, there's nothing like a good glass of rum. No offence, but please don't ask me if you can have some. I have very little rules since the end of the world happened, and I lost my gorgeous little eight-year old daughter Eleanor, but one rule I do have is that I don't share my rum." I gave Helen a sympathetic smile. "I lost my Son," I said, "It's weird really. One minute I didn't even know he existed and then the next, he's gone. He might still be alive out there somewhere, but I doubt it." "Christ," said Trudy, "Talk about the party atmosphere. I think I want to slit my wrists. It's meant to be a social gathering not a f*cking wake. I'm gutted that Aldi's not here but I'm not wallowing in it." "I'm not sure you can compare a budget supermarket to the loss of a child," said Blade. "Aldi was the name of Trudy's Son who sadly died," I said. "Yeah," said Trudy, "Luke's bird ate him." "Esther wasn't my bird," I snapped. "Well you've clearly all been through a lot," said Helen. "I thought your Son who died was called Hulk?" said Blade. "That's TJ being a c*ck," said Trudy, "His name was Aldi." My sympathy for Helen was suddenly replaced with confusion as I reflected upon what she'd said. "Hang on," I said, looking at Blade with bewilderment, "I thought you said there's never been any infected on the Island?" "Well there were a few when the outbreak first occurred," said Blade, "Helen's daughter was one of them. So was my partner Kayleigh." "But you said there's NEVER been any infected on the island," I said. "Well maybe one or two," said Blade, "But what matters is that there's no infected here now." "Sorry," I said, frowning with confusion, "How did your partner and Helen's daughter end up on this island, infected? I thought you and your GRID lot came here in response to the outbreak." "We did," said Blade, "But I brought my partner and Helene brought her daughter. Many of us brought our families. Not long after arriving, we sadly had our own little outbreak and my partner Kayleigh, and Helen's daughter Eleanor, were amongst the few who became infected." I suddenly felt really angry. Blade had told me that there had never been any infected on the island and now he was back-tracking and telling me something different. I didn't think I could say anything because he was talking about his dead partner, but I still felt angry that this was the first time I was hearing about this. I changed the subject and told Blade that Katie was looking into my Mum's disappearance and that she'd also found out that Keith, Jez and Baz had also gone missing. Thankfully Blade took me seriously. He said that me alerting him to this recent development made him feel even more concerned and that he'd be taking action. He said he would speak to Katie and ask her to print something in the paper asking islanders to keep an eye out for the missing people. He also told me to be cautious about trusting Katie, because she was still a journalist at the end of the day. I'm just glad he's starting to take my concerns seriously.