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

Entry 856: Wednesday 30th January 2019

Entry 856
Wednesday 30th January 2019

I'm out of quarantine but I still haven't seen Kyle. I've been told that after yesterday the island is in chaos.

I woke up in quarantine. Sci-Fi Cyn wasn't there but another GRID person told me that all the results of my tests had come back fine (obviously), and I was then marched into an interview (under armed GRID guard!) to endure a barrage of questions fired at me by Blade and Helen Harvey.

"OK Luke," said Blade, "What happened yesterday?" I told Helen and Blade what happened from start to finish, and I made sure I didn't miss out any detail. "So," said Blade, "What you're telling me is that your 15-year-old son killed two GRID soldiers and four civilians, one of whom was an eight-year-old girl, in front of a large crowd of people." "Well yeah," I said, "But it's not as black and white as that is it?" "Isn't it?" asked a blunt Helen. "No," I snapped, "Come on, you know it's not. What did you want Kyle to do? Just stand by and let people get attacked and infected?" "He is not responsible for the safety and security of the residents on this island," said Blade, "Me and my team are." "Well I'm sorry," I bluntly said, "But two of your team members were busy getting attacked and eaten by that fat infected man, and it took a while for you lot to arrive? What did you want us to do? Just sit and wait? Ask the newly infected to hold on for a minute until you lot arrived? I mean come on, what did you actually want us to do differently?" "Luke, I don't have too much of a problem with your son dealing with David Crowe, Caitlin Power, the infected man or my soldiers," said Blade, "They were bitten in the neck, we don't have a cure and they were going to turn. I can understand why he did what he did, but that little eight year old girl is a different matter entirely." "What do you mean?" I asked, "She got infected. Her Auntie bit her finger off. She'd had it." "Luke, you and I both know it's not as simple as that," said Blade, "People heard you talking about chopping her hand off in order to try and save her life, so by your own admission, removing her limb could have stopped the infection spreading and that little girl's life could have been saved." "Yeah but Kyle didn't know that," I said, "He's been out there on his own remember. He thought that killing Ella was the right thing to do." "She was bitten on her hand not her neck Luke," said Helen, "That's a big difference. You thought about removing the infected limb. Why didn't Kyle?" "Look," I firmly said, "When there's chaos all around you, you don't always have the ability or the luxury to think as logically as you've demonstrated." "You did," said Blade. "Yeah well I'm older than Kyle," I said, "He's just a kid and I've got experience of being there when someone has their limb hacked off to stop the infection. Kyle hasn't." "Whenever there is an incident involving infected, you always seem to be involved," said Blade, "This appears to be becoming a pattern. I can overlook you getting yourself involved in all the inappropriate situations you've gotten yourself in. I can even turn a blind eye to you defecating all over a load of primary school children, but I cannot and will not ignore what happened yesterday; the brutal murder of an eight year old girl whose life could have been saved, who was previously defecated on and vomited on by the father of the boy who killed her. I also heard reports of you telling her that her parents were dead when she had no idea." "Yeah, OK," I said, "I put my foot in it, and the whole pooing on kids and being sick on Ella was awful, of course it was, but they were just a terrible series of unfortunate events, but as for yesterday you need to think about the context. Kyle didn't just go up to some random kid and kill her. He went up to a kid who'd been bitten, and he killed her because he understandably thought she was infected. Which obviously she was." "Yes, but she hadn't turned," said Helen. "Yeah but she was obviously going to," I said. "Yes," said Helen, "But as we've already said, there was a chance that she might not have done. An eight-year-old with one hand or one arm is better than a dead eight-year-old." "This is all just a misunderstanding," I said, "I told Kyle I wanted the knife to chop off Ella's hand, but he must have thought I wanted it to kill Ella." "Kyle's attitude also concerns us," said Helen, "We've taken statements, and people commented that Kyle didn't care that he'd just killed an eight-year-old girl. In fact, he's been descried as cold. A few people said they saw him shrugging his shoulders." "He's been through a lot," I said, "Think about what he had to do to survive on the mainland." "Is that your way of saying he's unstable?" asked Helen. "Well... I... Err... Oh look, I don't know," I said, "Just let him come home and he'll be OK." "I am not so sure about that," said Blade, "He's successfully passed the quarantine phase and all of the associated tests, but I will be keeping him in the Isle of Wight prison for a little longer." "What!?" I loudly snapped, "You can't do that. He's done nothing wrong." "He pointed a loaded machine gun at a crowd of scared people," said Helen, "He might have shot and killed Mike if the troops hadn't have turned up." "If you'd have had more GRID soldiers around this wouldn't have happened in the first place," I snapped, "And if those GRID soldiers didn't get killed by that infected pensioner, they'd have killed Ella, just like Kyle did." "You're wrong," said Blade, "They'd have removed her and amputated her arm as a soon as possible." "I don't believe that," I said, "They'd have seen the bite and shot her." "No," said Blade, "All of my team know that if someone has been bitten on a limb, there is a chance their life can be saved if the infected limb is quickly removed." "And you think your lot would act quick enough?" I said. "My team are trained and experienced," said Blade. "Well the training and experience didn't do those two any good yesterday," I said, "And that was two young, fit adults against one infected pensioner. Maybe you should have told all the islanders that if someone gets infected in one of their limbs that they have to quickly chop the limb off. You haven't told any of the residents that. You're expecting everyone to know what your soldiers know without telling them. Yeah, OK, I was going to chop off Ella's hand, but if I'd have been too late and she'd have turned, I would have done exactly the same thing Kyle did. You know that's the right thing to do. Come on!" There was a short silence. Helen and Blade exchanged awkward looks. "It's just interesting to see that you seem to be involved in many of the dramas that occur," said Helen "The drama with Catherine, the drama in the garage, the drama in Southampton and now this. Perhaps we should keep you in quarantine permanently?" "Oh p*ss off you rum swigging old lush," I snapped, "You're just p*ssed of with me cos I don't fancy you." "Luke, that is enough," snapped Blade, "The other incidents Helen has mentioned happened out of sight; in Catherine's flat, in Tam's garage and on the mainland. Islanders didn't see anything, but they heard about what happened and it caused a lot of fear and panic. Remember, I had to gather all islanders at Seaclose Park? Everyone was panicking, well now, thanks to your son, we have an even bigger problem. Your son has caused a lot of trouble." "Really?" I said, "Because I think he stopped the infection spreading." "Yes, perhaps he did," said Blade, "But he killed a child that perhaps did not need to be killed, and he did it in front of dozens and dozens of people. This island is now in a state of panic. People are refusing to leave their rooms. They're refusing to go to work. They're using all their credits to buy toilet rolls and tinned goods. The supermarket shelves are empty. This island is in chaos and it's all your son's fault." "No!" I loudly snapped, "You can't blame all this on Kyle. It all started when that fat pensioner attacked David Crowe." "That fat pensioner as you call him was called Leon Redfield," said Helen, "He had a heart attack inside Sainsbury's and died. He turned and before there was chance to respond he attacked David Crowe." "This sort of thing is going to keep happening," I said, "You lot need to do something. Giving each household a walkie talkie and doing all this mandatory reporting stuff isn't enough. People can still die; they can still have heart attacks and other things that can kill them. Keeping Kyle locked up isn't going to be enough to stop that." "Luke there is another reason that we are keeping Kyle locked up; for his own safety," said Blade, "The news has spread and islanders are demanding that Kyle stays locked up. He killed a little girl, Luke. He didn't even care. He showed no remorse. Everyone saw it. People are angry. In less than 24 hours people have started campaigning for the child killer to be removed from the island. I've heard that someone's setting up a campaign group, and saying that infected people should permanently be quarantined and not killed at all because one day there could be a cure! They're saying infected people have rights and should be treated with kindness." "What?" I exclaimed. "The public killing of a child can cause a huge outcry and result in people taking action on mass," said Helen. "The actions of your son have changed this island," said Blade. "Stop saying that," I said, "If you had better safety measures this wouldn't have happened. Think about what you're saying. Whether Kyle was there or not, this Leon fella would have died. He'd have turned and killed David and your GRID soldiers, and Caitlin and Ella would have ended up being bitten. The only way things would have turned out differently is if another GRID soldier had been there, who'd have acted quickly and hacked off Ella's arm." "If your son hadn't been there, then that little girl might still be alive," said Helen. "And she might not have been," I said, "You can't keep him locked up just-in-case. He stopped the infection spreading; better than your guys did, and if you don't want people killing infected, and wanted them to chop off their limbs instead, then you need to f*cking tell them. We're not psychic." "My team and I are having regular meetings," said Blade, "And we will be introducing new security measures. We will sadly have to stop looking for Seth; all soldiers will be needed to implement new security measures. I have to break the news to Naomi. I'm prepared to overlook your concealment of secret weapons." "I should bl**dy think so too," I exclaimed, "If I hadn't have had that knife on me what the Hell would we have done. You could have had more deaths. It's time to get real. We all need to have weapons, and we all need to be shown how to use them. I've said this before. There's more civilians than there are GRID soldiers and as yesterday showed, the ones you have aren't always quick on their feet." "Thank you, Luke, but I don't think I need advice from you," said Blade. "I think you do," I firmly said, "You're blaming Kyle for everything that happened yesterday. Maybe you should look a bit closer to home." There was a short silence and both Blade and Helen gave me a stern look. "Anyway," I said, "Kyle said something about GRID not being able to be trusted; that you lot didn't stop the world from being nuked." "I don't know what he's talking about," said Blade, "Probably more lies fed to him during his time with Tara Kate. The problem is that his comment about the nukes has scared people. When we thought the world was going to get blown up, we evacuated the entire island to the underground safety shelters. Everyone was scared then and now thanks to your son they're even more scared now. They don't trust us. Many people are locking themselves in their homes, they're panic buying, they're acting like the world could be nuked at any time, they think that anyone could be infected and that they could turn at any time. People are terrified. Your son and his big mouth has caused mass fear and panic, but I guess me and my team will deal with the mess that's he's created." "I want to see him," I said. "I'm afraid you can't," said Blade, "Not yet anyway. We're very busy at the moment so perhaps you can see him in a couple of days." "A couple of days!?" I exclaimed, "He shouldn't even be in there." "Listen to me, Luke," said a firm Blade, "Your son is responsible for the chaos that's been going on out there, which means I have the absolute right to keep him locked up for as long as I deem necessary. He killed a little girl without showing any remorse. In fact, some are saying he enjoyed it. He told everyone that we didn't prevent the world from being nuked, and let's not forget that he waved a machine gun at a crowd of innocent people. People want me to throw him off this island, and the way I'm feeling right now I'm seriously considering it, so shut up, keep your head down, stay out of my way, and leave the running of this island to me or, if I do evict your son from this island I'll evict you with him. Now get out of my sight."