Chapter Three

Day 3

Wednesday 14th September 2022

7:02pm

Outside Southend Radio HQ, Southend Seafront

The sun's rays scattered unevenly across the gently rippling River Thames, reflecting faint orange rays of light across and above the long road that viewed it, lighting up the carnage that was engulfing the ailing seaside resort. At one end, a large crowd of maniacal aggressors was ambushing those not fast enough to escape their murderous grasp. Further down, however, where things were seemingly more peaceful, a man remained locked in heated battle with one of the 'rioters'.

Chris' fist made repeated contact with the bloated man's round head, his knuckles becoming bloodied as the detective made repeated attempts to deter the crazed lunatic, but served only to enrage him further. The blue-fleeced man screamed as his jaws snapped at Chris' face, specks of sickly-smelling saliva spattering across his victim's face.

"Hit the bloody bastard!" He screamed out to Joshua, who looked panicked at the sight unfolding before him, taking a few seconds to register the events before he sprung to action, doing the first thing that came into his mind. Sporting a good weight of his own, the primary school teacher threw his own body into the capped man assaulting his friend, sending all three men rolling in a tangled heap on the tarmac. The crazed man didn't seem aware of his broken fingers as he continued to scrabble about the ground, his arms flailing wildly as he reached out for Joshua's leg, causing him to grunt in retaliation.

Although dazed, Chris rolled closer to the struggling pair, and grasped the discoloured head of the man between his hands and began to lift it up and bring it down repeatedly upon the hard surface, although it seemed to have no effect upon him as he continued to bear his teeth and scrape at Joshua's legs.

"Give it a goddamn rest!" Chris continued to shout, now pummelling the oversized head, unaware of Daniel rapidly approaching from the Radio HQ.

"Move!" He called, holding the Yankees bat high above his head, clasped firmly in his long hands as he ran full speed to the warring trio. "Now!" Both Christopher and Josh complied, managing to jolt themselves away from the intended target quickly enough to see their friend swing the wooden baseball bat down upon the man's bald head, his baseball cap missing. Coupled with the deep crunching sound of crushing bones came one last dying groan and slump as the man finally stopped scrambling, his limbs still and blood running from his nose and cracked head.

Daniel stood there, holding the base of his snapped bat, splinters in place of the shaft that had been above the handle, and blood speckled across his still tightly clenched fingers. He looked bemusedly at the wooden stump, momentarily more fixated with the fact it was amongst the last few in existence, before dropping it in realisation he had killed two human beings in the space of an hour. He began to tremble as words escaped his cold lips. "Oh my god…"

Panting and heaving as he sat on the cold surface of the road, Chris stared at the body lying dead next to him, sickened by the smell and look of the creature. His eyes had been an empty white, and his skin a mottled grey, with torn flesh and sick encrusted on his fleece. If he hadn't been trying to murder him just seconds ago, Chris would have wagered he'd been dead, or at least close to death, for quite some time. He glanced down at his right hand, noting the amount of blood seeping from around his knuckles, urging him to get up and help Josh get up.

"Thank you," was the simple reply his friend gave, fixated upon the body, also. His face had gone white, and he, too, was shaking at the joints. "Ma-maybe we should go inside?" Chris nodded, bringing his arm around Josh's, and then Daniel's, back, ushering them back into the radio station. He gave one more look to the crumpled body that was seeping thick, black blood that was practically coagulated before they got inside, with both Josh and Dan setting themselves down on the long waiting chair in the entrance.

"What the fuck was that all about?" Chris shouted rhetorically as he glared out of the glass doors back to the fight scene, sickened still by the sight.

"I killed a man." Daniel spoke glumly and slowly, his head in his hands. "And I killed a woman."

"If you hadn't done that, he was gonna bloody kill us, mate – that's self-defence, Dan." The inspector continued staring until he finally brought himself round to face the DJ and the increasingly paler Joshua. "Hang on… you killed a woman, too?" Daniel nodded. "Where? Was that what all that scuffling was on the radio?" He nodded again, and pointed upwards. "Did you call the police?"

"No I didn't bloody call the police!" Daniel screamed, his mood suddenly jumping up into the police officer's face. "I was a bit busy trying not to get myself clawed to shit by that crazy bitch!"

"Back the fuck down!" Chris retaliated, pushing Dan back by the shoulders. "Take me up there." His attention turned to Josh, who seemed distant enough to not even be there. "Coming?" Christopher stepped towards him, outstretching his bloodied hand to help him before recoiling as Joshua threw up over the cheap blue carpet. Chris grimaced before continuing to help him up. "Go into the bathroom. Have a drink of water, or something. We'll be down in a minute, and give the police a call. Find out what the fuck that was about.

The DJ was already trudging up the stairs when Chris turned around to join him, but stopped them both short when he halted at the top, and began twitching slightly. It was then that the sickly smell struck them both, reminiscent, if not as strong, of the man outside. Inside the recording studio, Julie's slumped lifeless body could be seen strewn across the floor, along with general mess from the incident that had taken place in there not too long before the new arrivals. Chris slid past Daniel and approached the room, and was tempted to try and illicit a response from the woman before noticing the significant head trauma, as well as the other marks down her body. He grimaced at the sight and its familiarity. Over the past couple of days, there had been several incidents of violent attacks, resulting in some missing suspects, or suspects claiming self-defence. Before today, Chris had dismissed it as usual unruly behaviour, taking advantage of the lack of police presence due to the sickness currently being spread about Britain.

Daniel looked up as Chris returned from his inspection, closing the door behind him, as he looked his friend in the eyes. "It was self-defence, Daniel – like the bloke outside; there's nothing you could have done." A strained smile spread across his face, rather unconvincingly. "We need to call the police. Was there anyone else around at the time?"

"Matt was here, but I didn't see him." Dan pulled himself to the top of the stairs and onto the landing with Chris, nodding towards the end of the corridor. "He's normally working in there, but he must have shot off. I didn't see him after Julie… attacked me."

"I'll take a look, then. Go see if Josh is all right. Call the police and tell them two people have died." Daniel was already headed down the stairs. "We'll get this sorted."

What a wonderful evening, Chris mused sarcastically to himself as he stepped in the direction Dan had indicated, a violent assault and two dead bodies. Being off-duty is about as much fun as being on the bleeding job. The door was slightly ajar, he noticed, as he reached out to push it open. Inside were various pieces of radio equipment thrown about, with CDs, computer chips and headphones lodged here and there, showing clear signs of a struggle. What gave this away more so, however, was the heavily breathing unconscious man rested up against the back wall.

Blood was running from his face, its origin unknown in the mess that had been made of it, and scratch marks could be seen down his arms, as well as what appeared to be red fingernail extensions lodged in his neck, where dark blood was slowly being pumped out. It hadn't hit anything major, but it was certainly taking a toll on the man, whose t-shirt had been ripped, and his incredibly pale body bruised and beaten. Above his collarbone, even, a large chunk of flesh had been torn, presumably through biting, and what looked like froth was seeping from the wound. Although he wasn't already dead, he soon would be at this rate.

Chris knelt down and felt Matt's pulse. It was slowing by the second, and his breathing was getting less and less, and the police officer deduced to disturb him now would only upset his last moments. Suddenly, as he prepared to resign himself to returning downstairs, the man's pulse increased exponentially, and his hand began to twitch. His breathing grew faster and faster, and his body began to reverberate further. A milky-white froth began to erupt from Matt's mouth, alongside small grunts growing from his chest, leading onto the even greater shaking of his whole body, forcing Chris to take a large step back as he observed the horrific sight unfolding before him, when as quickly as it started, the convulsions stopped, and Matt slumped over once more.

The observer knew all-too-well this had been detailed in the current list of symptoms for the current influenza outbreak, but had never been unlucky enough to observe it for himself. "Are you all right, Matt? I'm a police officer, I can hel-" Matt's eyes shot open, revealing green eyes that had dulled to a milky-mossy colour, and they focused completely on Chris, Matt's whole head jolting to face him. Chris went cold inside as he stepped backwards. "You stay here, and I'll, uhh, I'll jus-" The man pushed himself up using the wall, a deep hissing noise escaping from his throat, his shoulders twitching here and there. "I'm going to leave now." The roar that came next was ear-splitting from this distance, as Matt threw his whole body, hands outstretched in Chris' direction, crazed eyes fixated on their prey.

Daniel thumped the phone receiver back down on its mantle as he heard the slam from upstairs, and promptly moved to the base of the stairwell, where he saw Chris quickly returning back down the ground floor.

"What happened up there?"

"I, uhh," Chris spoke quickly, eyes flitting nervously around the room, "I think that whatever Julie and that big guy had has, uhh, well, spread to your friend Matt. He was lying there… dying, and, well, he suddenly changed. His eyes went… like the others, and he lunged at me, screaming and kicking." He paused momentarily so that the thumps and crashing could be heard. "So I locked him in there before he could take a chunk out of me."

"Matt went shizo, as well?" Daniel's look was undeniably that of a frightened child. "Grey eyes, dodgy skin and screaming?"

"Hang on," Joshua, with some colour having returned to his skin, stepped over to the pair, waving one finger in the air matter-of-factly, "aren't those some of the symptoms of this virus going about?"

"I thought it was just sneezing and coughing," Chris was calming down as he continued, "although there have been reports of violence like this."

"I know I was told not to report a lot of the news that was being sent in to us, so that we don't cause panic." Daniel said. "I wasn't even allowed to report that they shut down Facebook – they just did it."

"Some of the kids from North Street were actually taken kicking and screaming after there was a lot of biting, of all things, going on in the playground – even in some of the classes." Josh turned back to the window, squinting to look into the distance. "That's a pretty bad strain of flu, if you ask me."

"More like…" Chris stopped himself before he said the next one before actually stating it, aware of the connotations it would have "…rabies." Daniel simply glared at him for the remark before Josh spoke up.

"Oh God… Guys, I think it's time we left." He turned to the pair, a look of urgency on his face as he pointed to the large mob of screaming men, women and children charging from the Adventure Island fairground towards Southend Radio, chasing one individual that they quickly crushed and smashed beneath their combined force. "Now."