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

Entry 868: Monday 11th February 2019

Entry 868
Monday 11th February 2019

Blade made an announcement to the island today about Kyle. We were all sat at home in the living room listening to what Blade had to say. I think we all felt a bit anxious at what Blade had to say – especially me, Roz and Kyle, but I guess we will have to wait and see what happens.

Blade gave the usual intro to his announcement; about who he was, who he worked for, what his role was and all that cr*p – as if we don't know by this point! He then got to business. "The following announcement, concerns 15-year-old Kyle Warm," he announced, "Who, on the 29th January murdered two GRID soldiers and four civilians, one of which included an eight-year-old girl, when an outbreak occurred in the centre of Cowes after pensioner Leon Redfield died of a heart attack. I am sure we are all aware that this incident resulted in fear, panic buying and residents locking themselves in their houses. It also resulted in increased armed GRID presence in highly populated areas, the authorisation of residents to carry weapons, and the segregation of elderly residents and those with underlying health conditions in our newly quarantined area of Newport. As you may know, teenager Kyle Warm was imprisoned within the Isle of Wight Prison. I'm addressing you all today to inform you that Kyle Warm has been released. Currently, all of the prisoners inside HMP Isle of Wight were already residents of the prison before the outbreak occurred, excluding Professor Harold Endo. At GRID we do not want to lock up a teenage boy who was doing what he thought was best. By killing those who became infected, Kyle Warm stopped the spread of the virus and we should all be grateful to him for that. He may have threatened members of the public with a gun, which is something I take very seriously, but I have spoken to Kyle at length about this and he has assured me that this behaviour will not be repeated. I believe him and I ask that all other island residents do too. Whilst there is much speculation about whether or not Kyle needed to kill eight-year-old Ella Jones or amputate her arm to stop the infection taking hold, we must accept we will never know. At this point we will never know how fast the infection made its way through Ella's body, meaning we will sadly never know if amputating her arm would have saved her life or not. We must also remember that being in the middle of such a traumatic incident affects our ability to think logically and clearly. I would also like you all to know the following; Prior to my team locating Kyle Warm he had experienced significant trauma. His mother was murdered by an ACROBAT operative who then kidnapped Kyle. He was shot, abandoned on the mainland and left to look after himself for a number of weeks, during which he was forced to do unimaginable things to stay alive. I think we should all consider this information before we judge Kyle Warm too harshly. I have also spoken with Kyle about his comments regarding the nuclear explosion of Earth. I know this is a rather anxiety provoking topic, but rest assured Kyle is now fully aware that he has been lied to by the ACROBAT operative that kidnapped him. GRID are responsible for preventing the nuclear strike and Kyle now accepts this. Kyle currently lives with his Father, Step-Mother and baby brother in Cowes and he will soon be mixing into general population. I hope that you will all welcome Kyle back and have some empathy for him. Thank you."

Once Blade's speech was over, I gave a large sigh of relief which also had some anxiety in it. "So that's it then is it?" asked Mum, "Can Kyle go outside now?" "I think we should wait until tomorrow," said Roz, "Give everyone a chance to digest what they've just heard." "Why did he tell them Kyle lived here in Cowes?" asked Richard, "He might as well of given everyone our address. I hope people don't turn up with knives and pitch forks." "Oh, Richard shut up," I said, "It's not a witch hunt." "No, but he's got a point," said Ash, "What are we going to do if people turn up here? If people aren't happy that Kyle's out of prison, they could come round here looking for him and wanting to cause trouble." "Ash, shut up," said Roz, "Are you trying to scare him or something?" "I'm just trying to be realistic," said Ash, "We've got to face facts. People aren't going to be happy." "Look, I can look after myself," said Kyle, "I'm not scared. I killed loads of people when I was on the mainland." "You're not on the mainland anymore, Kyle," said Ash. "The point I'm making is that if I can deal with all the sh*t that went on, on the mainland, I can deal with a few moaning old gits here." "I think you need to sort your attitude out," said Ash, "You're going to have A LOT more than A FEW moaning gits to deal with, and the last time you were faced with trouble the way you dealt with it caused lots of trouble." "Ash, don't get on at him," I said. "He needs telling, Luke," said Ash. "You're not the one to tell him," said a firm Roz. "He lives here with me," snapped Ash, "I'm affected. We all are." "Maybe we should just see how things turn out?" said Mum, "If we wake up in the morning and the house hasn't been set on fire, Kyle can go out. If we wake up in the middle of the night with a mob of people trying to hound us out of our house, then we know we're in trouble and we need to come up with a plan." "Will you take this seriously please?" I said to Mum. "I am taking it seriously," said Mum, "But I think you're worrying unnecessarily. We've got a one year old in this house. People won't want to cause trouble." "I hope you're right," said Richard, "I don't like being around too many people." "Don't worry Richard," I bluntly said, "If a violent mob turns up, we won't expect you to deal with them." "Good," said Richard, "I mean, I don't like being around people the best of times so if they turn up all at once with burning torches, I really won't like it. I don't like fire that much either. There's nothing good about fire." "What are you on about?" said Mum, "It keeps you warm." "I don't like to be too warm," said Richard. "Without fire we can't cook food," said Ash. "I don't like cooking," said Richard, "And there's a lot of food I don't like. Curry smells, bread is hard to swallow, beans give me wind and bacon gets stuck in my teeth." "It was weird when he said Kyle live with his Dad and Step-Mum," said Ash, "It made Luke and Roz sound like a couple."  Roz and I exchanged awkward looks of equal amounts of disgust. Ugh! The very idea!

As we all went to bed, I think we were all feeling slightly apprehensive about what tomorrow may bring. Kyle told me that Blade is full of sh*t and that when he implied Kyle wasn't thinking straight, he said it wasn't true. "He made out I wasn't thinking straight," said Kyle, "But I was. When I was on my own on the mainland I had to adapt. No time to get all sad and emotional. You had to kill to stay alive." "Yeah but Kyle," I said, "Most of the people on this island haven't seen what we've seen, or been through what we've been through. You need to remember that." "Maybe people on this island shouldn't be so f*cking naive," said Kyle. "Maybe," I said. "I don't regret it you know?" said Kyle, "I don't regret killing that little girl. I know it's tragic and all that but it's the world we live in. It's sad that she was a little girl but she was infected. We sometimes have to do things that we don't really want to do. We've all done it." "Kyle, please don't start talking like that around other people," I said. Kyle gave a depressing and annoying sigh. "Fine," he said, "I suppose I need to focus on spending time with Leo rather than worrying about the naive idiots on this island."

I can see where Kyle is coming from, but I hope he keeps his mouth shut. We don't want any more trouble. I just hope we can go out tomorrow and not be faced with too much – or any, trouble.