Victus Mortuus
Chapter I
Just another day.
'Beep Beep Beep'. The Sunlight creeps into my room intertwined with the sound of the alarm, slowly reaching its crescendo.
The light started to shine through the empty spaces in the curtain which slowly illuminated the darkness 'BEEP BEEP BEE-' As usual my hand follows my blurry vision to turn the phone to snooze, like clockwork it has for the past year now.
"Just ten more minutes.." The thoughts of the extra ten minutes sleep I was promised are interrupted by the sounds of Helicopter rotors flying across my roof, followed by a few faded police or ambulance sirens in the distance.
The sound is deafening as the Helicopter flies over my street. The sound fades... I look at my mobile phone to see how long is left until I have to work.
"8 minutes, fuck it. May as well get up" I reach to the three quarter empty glass of water next to my wooden bed which I slowly begin to drink. The loud sirens race past my home quickly, something that is very familiar in my home town of Liverpool.
Usually the emergency services are only heard when something happens in the town centre which is only a mile or two away. "Probably some drunken idiots again" I say under my breathe as I try to read the news on my phone. "Oh not again!" I go to check my internet router as the connection to my phone is down. Seeing the internet is working I come to the conclusion that my phone is a piece of shit. "Same old shit, different day" I think to myself as I finally get out of my comfy pine wood bed and towards to the door.
The floor outside my room is freezing cold which makes me step back before heading downstairs for some breakfast and television. "At least it's Friday. Xbox and Beers tonight." I smile to myself as the thought of another week ending brightens the day ever so slightly. Unlatching the door to the living room another deafening siren heads right past my window.
A part of me thinks it's kind of unusual that three sirens and a Helicopter have gone past my home. The other part of me however forgets that in an instant as my eyes see the half eaten Pizza slice left in the box from the previous night. "Should I eat it?" I thought to myself as I picked up the freezing cold Chicken Pizza which lays next to the remote control for the television. Sitting back I bite into the ice cold Pizza and switch on the television.
To my surprise all of the television channels are showing a yellow breaking news bar which reads 'Please switch to Channel 601 or 602 for further information on the crisis'. After reading the headline I read it again trying to make sense of it to try and almost kick start my tired brain, as it was still early morning after all.
The news coverage on channel 601 was showing a female news presenter who looked like she had just also risen out of bed: no makeup, her hair only slightly brushed despite lacking the usual make up, the women still looked extremely good looking. This struck me as very unusual as all presenters are always very well dressed and presented perfectly to the eyes of the public. Her lips then began to say what can only be described as pure insanity.
With a quiver of her lip, she read the piece of paper in front of her. "What can only be named as a crisis as of now. We urge all citizens of the United Kingdom to stay indoors, do not attempt to reach loved ones. Board up your homes and ration your food, do not open your door to anybody under any circumstances."
Sitting up, my mind starts to race.
The thoughts of what the news presenter just said still lingering in my ears. "Stay indoors!. Boarder up your home!" As I'm about to go and get a Hammer and Nails the presenter seems extremely shocked and disturbed as she put her finger to her ear presumably listening to her producer. "Eating them?" She murmurs under her breathe which her microphone attached to her shirt picks up clearly. The confusion grows in my mind as all the information that has been fed to me via the news has made little to no sense.
The presenter stutters as she speaks to the country. "We have just received a which my producer has told me is 'extremely shocking', Maybe… if you have any small children take them out of the room as what we are about to show you will disturb you."
The news channel instantly switches to a shaky camera in a part of London I'm not familiar with. Voices start to scream and panic ensues. A voice shouts "Go! they're coming, they're fucking eating people!". The hairs on my neck stand up as the man shouting these words has fresh blood covering his arm and chest, he runs with a fear in his eyes that I've never witnessed before.
Slowly the camera zooms to the corner of a street where I can only describe it as a mass of people running, with the same level of fear as the bloody panicked man moments before. One man in the crowd seemed to look lost as the camera zoomed into his face. The crowd are trying to stay away from him as they run. His eyes are glazed over with a diluted milky quality to his pupils and iris, everything seems to be so unreal as the hordes of people sprint from around the corner.
The milky eyed man is wearing a smart blue and white striped business suit but there are rips in the sleeves as if from the struggle of a vicious fight. His short dark hair is clean cut which matches the beard on his face. A dark crusted resin stains his upper lip and nose area as he starts to shuffle and lazily grab out at the panicked mass of people rushing past next to him.
He grabs one unlucky blonde haired women dressed in a delicate white summer dress. She tries to fight off the businessman, putting her hand across his face covering his crusted blooded nose "No! get off me, get the fuck of me you bastard!" she struggles and fights with the well dressed man whilst nobody tries to help her in the panic. With the look of absolute insanity and evil on the milky eyed man's face, he bites the blonde women's hand, as she tries to pull away from the aggressive man her fingers come apart from her left hand, her face full of anguish she beats on the man's chest which does nothing to the aggression and power of the business man as he forcefully pushes her into the ground, teeth setting into the women's arm tearing the flesh seam by seam as they fall.
The camera zooms out to the crowd running closer to the reporter and her camera man. "We've got to go, we need to get out of here, why are they eating people, what the fuck is going on, Alan" The voice is from the reporter who is in her mid twenties with long dark hair and small framed glasses. The sound of panting as the panicked people run past is heard loudly on the television as people mutter obscenities under their breathe as they go past. "Fuck fuck, fuck, my son, my fucking son" a frail older man with short balding grey hair runs past, struggling to keep a pace with the crowd talking to himself with blood draped across his waist and a bite mark under his ripped shirt.
The Camera turns to look down the street were the aggressive crowd is running. "oh..no.." A voice is heard next to the camera. The voice is from the female reporter who can now see the hundreds of shambling shadowy figures stumbling down the street from where the mass of manic people are heading. "We've got to get out of here, we need to find some safety! Come on!" Her voice quivers as she says these words to her camera man Alan. "Ok, Let's go Abigail!". The camera begins to shake and only shows the floor as the pair run for safety.
Spine chilling moans and people panicking are the only sounds heard over Alan the cameraman's panting as he and Abigail run down the street of the city of London. The camera falls and faces the direction of the business man who was tearing and ripping the blonde women's fingers and arm. "Leave it Alan! We don't need it, come on we need to get out of here.
Abigail's voice is heard in the distance as the camera is left recording. The man shambling away covered in the women's blood, his mouth and chest soaking in the red liquid of the lady he has just bitten. To the right of the camera the bitten women whose dress is now covered in the same blood of the tattered business man's begins to move her hands and head in a slow and sloth like manner. she raises herself up with her blood covered arms and starts to stand up.
My mouth open and eyes dry from lack of blinking the news channel switches back to the female news presenter who shares the same facial expressions as me. She repeats what she said earlier but this time more urgent and in a stuttering voice "We urge all citizens of the United Kingdom to Stay indoors!, do not attempt to reach loved ones!. Boarder up your homes and ration your food!, do not open your door to anybody under any circumstances." As her final word is said, the sound of moaning similar to that of the recent video can be heard outside my home. My eyes blink for the first time in a few minutes as the situation hits home. Hard.