Chapter 1

: Watch the doorway:

: On it: Suzy watched the doorway as they leapfrogged past it. Shots smashed into a car nearby and Suzy hastily took cover in its mangled shade. : Shooter!:

: Where?:

Suzy scanned the surrounding buildings looking for the tell-tale flash. : There! fifth window up, third across, on the art deco piece of shit:

: Got it!:

There was a loud ‘whoosh!’ as the rocket propelled grenade shot past her head and into the window. Flame and debris jetted forth and the firing stopped. : Good shot:

:Thanks:

According to the map, their target was close. They made their way further down the abandoned street. It ended in a courtyard that held their target.

: Target seen, cover me Rob:

Rob took cover in a corner behind some crates and swapped the RPG for his preferred SMG. Suzy ran for the target and started the countdown, looking around nervously. Shots rang out, answered quickly by Rob, and the figure that burst from the doorway keeled over, dead. Suzy nodded towards Rob. : Thanks:

: No probs:

The flag in front of Suzy changed colour.

: Good job Su-Ro: The voice of their team commander came over the headset : I’m sending back up and air cover. Hold on:

: Holding on: Suzy acknowledged, deploying a sentry gun in a corner.

“Suzy! Your tea’s out!”

: Shit: The sound of their commander laughing come over coms. : You heard?: Suzy asked, a bit pointlessly.

: I think it’s safe to say, we all heard:

: Damn: Rob threw down a spawn point. Suzy waited till it had anchored. : Sorry team, we got to go:

: Roger that:

The rest of the fire team acknowledged and Suzy logged off. “Shit timing!” Suzy muttered as she left her bedroom.

“Aye, It could have been better, but equally, it could have been worse.” Rob answered as he left his own bedroom.

“True.”

They made their way into their small kitchen and sat down with their mom and dad “Surprised you could drag yourselves away from your controllers...” Their father said, looking up from his paper.

“Gee dad! Would you rather have Rob stabbing someone in a gang fight somewhere and me giving blow jobs in the stairwell for coke?”

“Suzy!” Warned their mother. “I’ll not have that talk or language at the dinner table!”

“Sorry mom.” Suzy said, not sorry at all, sharing a smirk with her brother.

“I’ll confiscate your controller, from both of you.” Their mother continued, not mollified in the slightest.

“I said I was sorry mum!”

“Hmmpft.”

Suzy met her father’s eye and rolled her eyes.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me young lady.” Her mother warned.

“Yes, MOMMA...”

“Another match?” Suzy asked her brother as she took the freshly washed plate from him, dried it, and put it away in the cupboard.

“Maybe later. I have homework I have to do.”

“You not done it yet!!”

He smiled woefully “No.”

“Lazy twat. And no, you’re not copying mine”

“Wouldn’t dream of it. Besides, you are normally wrong...” He pointed out.

“True. I’ll give you that.” They shared a laugh.

“Well, If you spent more time studying and less time giving blowjobs in stairwells...”

“Oh hah, fucking hah. Jeesh! You get caught one time...” She punched him on the shoulder.

Back in her room, she logged onto the Clan’s Facebook page. Unsurprisingly, the match had ended, their Clan winning the game, so that wasn’t so bad. Suzy talked to the team members that were still online, discussing tactics and upcoming matches over the group chat. The plan was to keep things as they were. After all, why change a system that worked. Two new clan members had stepped up to take over Suzy and Robs place. They had done an adequate job, managing to avoid committing any stupid moves that could have lost the Clan the match. Their next opponents were scheduled for tomorrow at a later time. Which should suit Suzy and Rob, or ‘Su-Ro’ as they were affectionately known as in their Clan because they tended to partner together and worked well together as a team. Because of that, the rest of the Clan tended to treat them as one. It had started out originally as a joke, but like that sort of thing often did, the name had stuck.

There was a ‘ping’ and a chat box appeared at the bottom of the screen. The icon informing her that the messenger was doing so via their phone. It was her cousin down on the coast. Suzy opened it up and shaky phone footage appeared on a her screen of another girl’s bedroom.

“What’s up cous?” Suzy asked. The image on the screen shook dizzily as the phone was moved about before Iona’s face eventually appeared. She looked worried. “What’s up?” Suzy repeated.”You haven’t missed a period have you? You said you were using a condom?”

“What?! Yes, we are, but no, I’m not pregnant, touch fucking wood.” Replied her cousin, somewhat distractedly.

“Well, as long as you just stick to touching wood, you should be fine...”

“Oh ha-ha. Remind me again, who it was that got caught in school with a mouth full?”

“I’m never going to live that down. Am I?”

“No. Some right mad shit’s going on outside.”

“You’re in Cornwall, you’re all fucking mad. And inbred.”

It was a indication to Suzy of her cousins current mental state that she didn’t bite straight back like she normally would have done. The phone view turned away from Iona to the street outside. People were standing in doorways and leaning out of windows.

“What’s going on cous?” Suzy asked.

“I don’t know. I’m scared.”

Outside in the street, two police vans sped down the street sirens and lights on. The riot grills were down over the windows. Iona lived in a quiet coastal town popular with retirees. The closest they normally got to disruptive crowds, was when the bingo halls closed for the night and disgorged pumped up octogenarians into the fresh evening air.

The camera phone’s microphone picked up harsh staccato chatter. “Is that fucking gunfire?” Suzy asked incredulously.

“I think so. It’s been going on for about half an hour already. It’s getting louder.” There sounded a lot of gunfire to Suzy’s ears, if that was what it actually was, which being England, was pretty doubtful. If by some really slim chance it was, the fact that she could hear it over the phone, implied that it really wasn’t that far away from her cousin.

“I’m sure it’s nothing, but get away from the window, you know, just in case.”

“Why?”

“Stray rounds and shit like that.”

“Oh.” The phone and the holder quickly moved away from the window. “Should I get mum and dad to lock the doors?”

“It wouldn’t do any harm...”

“Yeah I’ll do that...” The connection disconnected.

“Iona? Hello? Well don’t say good bye then bitch.” Suzy tried ringing back but the phone wouldn’t connect. Not even a ring tone. She threw the phone onto her bed and opened up Facebook on her computer. She quickly typed in Iona’s town and looked for local Facebook groups. She clicked on a likely candidate and scrolled through the latest posts.

“Hollee shite.” There were lots of posts with pictures and video clips of police vehicles speeding through the town and queues of ambulances at the local hospital.

There seemed to be a lot of injured at the hospital. So much so, a triage centre had been set up outside. People were screaming and shouting as medical personnel tried to instil a modicum of order in the chaos.

“What the fuck...” Suzy looked through the post trying to work out the cause. No one seemed to know. Which Suzy didn’t believe in this age of smartphones. There was another picture of a row of what looked like inhabited body bags on the grass outside the front of a hospital. There was twenty laid out at least. Suzy opened up a new tab and typed ‘BBC News’ into the address bar. She navigated the BBC news site to the pages for the South and South Western region areas as there was nothing on the main page. Just some politician who had been caught having an affair with his seventeen year old nanny ... She was pleading ignorance, of course, but Suzy doubted that, she knew fine what she had been doing and had probably instigated the whole affair with this in mind. Had probably decided the money from the tabloids for the story was worth it. It probably was.

Nothing, just some articles about an increase in drug use, the increase in illegal immigrants coming ashore from France and some feel good local pieces. No mention of whatever was going on, and something was definitely going on. She tried Googling the town, but again, nothing out of the ordinary came up. She saw that her brother was on Facebook, so she typed out a quick message and sent it to him, along with the links to the local pages. A minute later there was a knock at her door. “Yeah?”

Rob stuck his head in “You okay?”

“No.”

“Have you heard from Iona?”

“It doesn’t connect.” Suzy picked up her phone, tried ringing Iona again and listened to the automatic message informing her that the number she had dialled could not be reached. “Still not connecting.”

“Click on that link.”

“That’s an advert for a chip shop?” Suzy pointed out.

“Just click on it, will you.”

Suzy clicked on it and the page for a local chip shop came up. “How does that help us?”

Rob pulled out his phone “Shhh.” He rang the number on the screen. Suzy heard the automated message start on his phone. “Try that one! He pointed to the link for what looked like a local petrol station. She opened it up. “Look for a number.” Suzy navigated the page till she found a phone number. Rob tried it. The same automated response that the number couldn’t be reached. “The phone system must be down there.” His fingers tapped on his screen and Suzy heard a dial tone and seconds later her phone rang. She looked at the caller ID. It was her brother. He hung up.” It must just be local.”

It was a little relief to her, not much, but it was something.

“She’ll probably get back in touch when the network gets back up.” Rob said as he tried to calm her. She nodded her head dumbly. “She’ll be fine. It’s probably a train crash or something major like that.”

“I was on the phone to her. I swear I could hear gunfire. Automatic gunfire.”

“In England? It was probably some boy racer’s car back-firing.”

Suzy shook her head. “No this was gunfire. Lots of it!”

“Come on Suzy. This is England, not America, we don’t do mass shootings here, certainly nothing with automatic weapons. It’s only the military that has them. Anything on the news?”

Suzy tried the BBC, Sky, even ITV. Nothing.

“Okay, go back to those local groups.” Rob suggested. Suzy tried to, but kept being faced with ‘sorry, this content is not available at this moment. Please try again later.’ Screens. “Look it’s probably some hoax that’s got out of hand. Give it an hour or two and it will all get sorted out.”

Suzy wasn’t so sure.

She shovelled the Weetabix into her mouth as Rob sat down opposite her. “Any word from Iona?” Suzy shook her head “What about the news?” Suzy shook her head again “It’s probably nothing, you can’t keep anything quiet these days. It’s on Facebook and Twitter within minutes of it happening.”

Suzy thought back to her stairwell ‘indiscretion’ with George. It certainly was, she could personally attest to that. She had tried ringing Iona, but her calls still weren’t being connected.

Suzy caught up with her brother in school at lunchtime and showed him her phone. He watched the footage of army trucks recorded going through towns on peoples phones. “Where’s this?” He asked.

“South coast.”

“Anything on the news?”

“Still nothing. It’s as if they are on a blackout.” She replied.

“That’s a little bit conspiracle isn’t it?”

“Conspiricale? Is that even a word!”

“You know, like paranoid.”

“Fuck knows. Is it?”

Suzy kept an eye on the news pages via her phone for the rest of the afternoon, but there was nothing. She tried ringing her cousin, but the call was still terminated by the provider. An internet search for phone issues in the area, revealed a short comment by BT that an ‘incident involving a car and a local exchange was ‘temporarily’ affecting connections in the area.’ Something just wasn’t sitting right, but no-one else seemed bothered. Her brother just shrugged off her worries and the teachers she had brought her concerns too, had simply ignored her.

Back at home, she had tried to drown out her unsettled feelings with some competitive squad battles, but the internet connection was so slow tonight, that when she finally did connect, the lag was so bad as to make the game unplayable. She gave up and did her homework. It wasn’t the best work she had ever completed, far from it as she could barely concentrate, but it would do. She packed it back away in her school bag and logged back onto the internet. Still nothing on the news sites, but something was going on in the local Facebook groups. Lots of posts about police congregating into convoys of police vehicles heading south, strangely enough, out of town. She pointed it out to her brother.

He shrugged “Probably a training exercise. Though with that amount deployed, I wouldn’t be surprised if crime goes through the roof tonight.”

Half an hour later, he seemed to be proved right. Some lads turned the roads around their flats into a very public race track, caring not a jot about other road users, speed limits or even the traffic lights. The lack of any police intervention quickly escalated the situation from a few cars to dozens. A large crowd of youths congregating to watch and admire the souped up hot hatches that weren’t currently screaming around the improvised race track. Suzy and Rob watched it all from Suzy’s bedroom window.

Suzy found it fascinating how quickly it all descended into chaos. One minute it was all good natured car appreciation and few donuts in the car park, then several things seemed to happen at the same time. A fight broke out in the corner of the car park, a car that had been revving its engine loudly for several minutes, went ‘Bang’ very loudly, then silent as smoke then flame started to appear from the bonnet area. One of the cars that had been racing around the flats, ploughed into another innocent road user. The more sensible, or at least, the drivers with the most to hide, quickly departed the scene, leaving behind a large crowd of suddenly bored bystanders. “Why have the police not arrived already?” Her breath misted the window in front of her face and she wiped it clear again with her sleeve.

“Here they come now.” Rob pointed out, as strobing blue lights could be seen in the distance.

Though even that turned out to be an anti-climax as the blue lights revealed themselves to be a solitary ambulance, the paramedics trying to do their best under an onslaught of verbal abuse and thrown empty beer cans. Things were starting to look ugly when individuals in the mob realised that a police presence wasn’t on the way anytime soon, and decided to relieve the nearby off licence of its liquid contents. The door proved too restrictive for the thirsty raiders, so the front window was smashed and youths piled in. Like a cloud of locusts, or a shoal of piranhas, the store was quickly stripped of goods within minutes. The ambulance, windscreen and side windows smashed, had retreated. The mob bolstered by a lack of police and free booze, congealed and headed towards the more retail oriented area of their part of the city.

Rob jumped from the bed. “Come on, grab your coat.”

“What!? Where are you going?”

“Five fingered discount. Come on.”

“You’re insane.” But Suzy grabbed her coat anyway.

They ran down the street. “Where are we going?” Suzy asked.

“I was thinking of the computer shop, Game. Pick up some new games and a stack of Steam cards.”

“Not going to work.”

“How not? No one is going to bother with Steam cards. They will be after the consoles and booze.”

“And the reason they will be after booze and consoles, is because booze does not need to be activated at a till that no-one has access too...”

Rob slowed to a walk “Ahh. Shit. I didn’t think about that.”

“I gathered that.”

“Okay smart arse, what say you then.”

“Hmm, places no-one thinks of. Definitely avoid the high value establishments, like off licences and jewellers. Everyone will head there. Boots the chemist and any pharmacy will be full of druggies, so avoid them like the plague. Unless you want stabbed. Do you want stabbed by some coked up fuck-head?”

Rob gave it a consideration for all of two seconds. “I’ll give that a miss. Mobile phone shops?”

“Bricked as soon as you turn them on when they get logged as stolen.”

“TV shop.”

“I’m no’ carrying a fuckin 50 inch flat-screen, have you not seen the length of my arms. Get real!”

“Well, what then?”

“Clothes, handbags, shoes. Top of the range shit, not your TK Max shite.”

“I should have expected that answer from a girl...”

The sound of jubilant voices and smashing windows gained in crescendo as they drew closer to the high street and all its attendant shops. They stopped at the exit of the side street and surveyed the uncontrolled riot that was the main high-street. Cars and a few shops were alight and a full scale brawl was in progress, in the middle of which, at least five figures lay motionless.

Suzy took Robs arm. “I’ve changed my mind. Fuck this.”

There was an ear piercing scream as a girl was dragged away by three boys. None of the other rioters, who were almost all male, seemed the slightest bit interested in the plight of the unfortunate girl, who was being stripped as she was being dragged.

Rob agreed silently with his sister as they furtively slipped away. A little bit of ‘wealth redistribution’ was one thing, but rape, murder? Nothing that he wanted to be party to. He looked up at the windows of the flats above the alley-way as they retreated. Pale faces peeked out from behind curtains, darting out of sight when they saw Rob looking back.

“Where the fuck are the police? Girls are getting raped and no one is doing fuck all about it!” Rob couldn’t tell if it was anger, fear or a mixture of both in his sisters voice. Something detonated behind them and they both flinched. “What the fuck was that?!”

“Probably the tyres on one of the burning cars exploding.” He tried not to think about his complicitness by not going to the girl’s aid. Nor had his sister for that matter. Rob looked behind. Orange light fairly danced and flickered above the rooftops.

The sound of another street fight in front, made them change their route home.

“Hospitals are going to busy tonight.” Rob remarked as they walked across a Tesco car park, which was unsurprisingly quiet.

The supermarket was 24 hours, but it looked as though staff were bunking down at home as almost all the lights were off. Two men ran past, pushing a trolley each, stacked high with toilet roll. They had even used packing tape to help keep the towering and wobbling stacks in their trolleys.

Suzy stopped and watched them trot past. “What the hell! Covid was, what, four fucking years ago? And still people panic buy bog roll.”

“I don’t think they bought it.” Rob pointed out, as he noticed a mid-forty something male exiting the store through a previously unnoticed smashed window, his arms filled with chocolate bars and biscuits.

“I could go a Mars bar.” Suzy admitted. They made their way to the entrance, occasionally someone would rush out with a trolley full of goods. It seemed like a good idea, so they grabbed a trolley each.

“Rob?”

“What?”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“We’re minors. Even if they do identify us off CCTV. They won’t charge us...”

“I don’t mean about taking stuff. I mean about this. Something isn’t right Something is going on. Are we being invaded?”

“Who the fuck by? Europe is in civil war because of our exit from the block, Scotland won their independence referendum, China is a hairsbreadth away from war with India and can’t afford to start another front with someone else. Russia is still trying to work out who assassinated Putin, whilst various factions and oil Oligarchs fight to fill the power vacuum and the Yanks are still dealing with Trump and his supporters. Besides. If we were being invaded, the sky would be full of planes and we would be dodging bombs not rapists.”

“I suppose.” They pushed their trolleys over the crackling and crunching remnants of the sliding doors. “Rob?”

“Hmm?”

“Don’t grab perishable’s like frozen or chilled. Go for pasta, long life milk, tinned stuff, shit like that.”

“You need to ease up on the survival horror games.” He remarked dryly.

“I’ve got a...””

“Bad feeling about this. yeah, yeah, I get you.”

Suzy pulled her phone out. “No Network.” She said. Rob pulled his out, a partly pointless exercise, since they were on the same network.

: No network found. Please check Sim card:

“So, how do you wish to play this Suzy? Split up and meet back at the entrance in fifteen minutes?”

Suzy couldn’t stop her mind drifting back to the look of terror on the girl’s face as she had been dragged off to somewhere quieter, and how no-one had made any effort to help her, least of all her or her brother. She didn’t want to suffer that violation, or the desperate pleading to those who purposely avoided her gaze as she was dragged off to be raped and possibly worse. “No. Fuck that. Isn’t that how they always die in the films. They always split up.”

“Yeah and check out strange noises in the creepy basement in the middle of the night when the power goes out and they could have simply waited till morning.”

“Aye, the fuck-wits.”

They moved down the aisles, Suzy putting tins in their trolleys. Most of the expensive produce had already gone. The chilled cabinets empty of steak and meat products, with the exception of the vegetarian bays. Which were almost still fully stocked.

The store was also starting to become busier. Suzy picked up her pace. Soon the stronger would prey on the weaker, taking their pilfered goods. The law of the jungle urbanised. She guided them down the health and beauty section of the store.

“What are we doing here? Is lippy and deodorant really essential?” Rob asked.

Deodorant-shit, she hadn’t thought about that. Good shout. “I was after multivitamins and first aid kits. But deodorant is good. You stink at the best of times.”

“Oh hah-ha.”

They piled in some cans of deodorant, multivitamins, bandages, surgical tape and some bottles of antiseptic. They also managed to grab most of the pasta and tins of soup. A fight had broken out in the alcohol aisles. It was time to go. Suzy looked at their full trolleys. They were a horribly tempting target for the more sensible pillager. This could be a problem. They needed to disguise their trolleys somehow, make them look less appealing. Her panicking view wandered across the still barely touched clothing section. If you are going to hide, then do so in plain sight. Her frantic brain re-ran the scene of countless films, where the damsel in distress tries to run from whatever the plot was, in high heels and a mini-skirt. Only to fall over within touching distance of safety when the heel of her totally impractical footwear breaks off, or her shoe itself falls off just as she is negotiating the glass covered floor.

“Rob. Grab clothes that fit you. Warm clothes, waterproof jacket, thick socks, stout footwear.”

“‘Stout footwear’? Who are you? What have you done with my sister?”

“Stop fooling around and just fucking do it.” Suzy followed her own advice. Grabbing a couple of winter jackets and stuffing them down either side of the trolley, hiding the contents from view. Some robust trousers went down the front and back along with some fleece jumpers and some sports bra’s. Two pairs of hiking boots went on top of the pile for good measure. No broken stiletto heels for her.

She went looking for her brother. She found him locked in indecision between two jackets. “For fucks sake Rob! Do they fit?”

“Err yes...”

“Then fucking take both! Stuff them down the sides like I have. Rob was a bit slow to start but he quickly caught on after a quick look at Suzy’s apparent trolley’s worth of clothes. “Nice lacy undies on top there.” Rob joked.

“I picked them up for you, now hurry the fuck up!” Once they had got the contents of Rob’s trolley hidden from view to Suzy’s satisfaction, she quickly led them to the doorway. A man was crawling on the floor through the checkout, crying and begging for help. He was leaving a wide red smear behind as he crawled. Whether the injuries were from a knife or broken bottle-the red trail he was leaving behind led to the alcohol aisle- Suzy was not prepared to find out. There were a couple of others with loaded trolleys in front of them, hands trying to push and steady precarious loads at the same time.

A group of cars pulled up in front of the supermarket doors and men holding a mixture of
joinery hammers, baseball and cricket bats, piled out. A couple of them moved towards Suzy, her brother and the ones in front, who hadn’t quite caught on to the precariousness of their position.

The men gave the trolleys of Suzy and Rob the once of over and decided to focus on the other pillager’s instead. Rob and Suzy kept their head down as they ran as quickly from the confrontation as their trolleys, would allow. There was raised voices behind them followed by the thud of something solid hitting flesh. The argument stopped.

“Fuck that was close.” Rob muttered. Suzy was too terrified to reply, half a mind to abandon her trolley. Some things just weren’t worth the risk. They were rapidly approaching the little metal chicane that separate the Tesco path from the street pavement, when Rob called at a hasty halt. “Stop!”

“What?”

“Through the bushes.”

“Huh? Why?”

Rob let go of his trolley and grabbed the front of Suzy’s and started to drag it through the bushes.

“Well push then!” He urged.

“Why not use that nice smooth pavement that’s free of mud and green shit?”

“And go over that ‘nice’ metal anti-theft grid that automatically locks up the wheels of trolleys so they can’t be pushed?”

“Oh.” They dragged Suzy’s trolley past the grid and back onto the pavement, and went back for Robs. The mud clad wheels, didn’t work well for the first few meters but eventually sorted themselves out, though they had developed a loud and surprisingly annoying squeak.

Exhausted, hot and sweaty, Suzy pulled up at the entrance to their block of flats. She opened the door and dragged the front of her trolley into the gap before the door could shut. Rob rammed his trolley into the back of hers and pushed both through. Safely in the foyer, they let the fire door swing closed on its strong return spring.

“Stairs or lift?” Suzy wasn’t sure if they should use the lift. “What if the power goes out?”

“Fuck carrying that load up the stairs. We’ll take our chances. The power isn’t fluctuating.”

They pushed the trolleys in and Rob hit the button for their floor, but the doors didn’t shut. Suzy pointed to the illuminated sign denoting excess weight.

“For fuck’s sake.” Rob stepped out and Suzy tried their floor again and the doors started to shut.

“Run forest Run!” she called out to him as the doors shut. Suzy watched the number on the display climb along with the floors. The lift came to a shuddering noisy halt and she waited impatiently for the doors to open. Breathing with difficulty and bright red in the face, Rob was waiting for her.

“Check you out! Mr Energetic.” She pushed her trolley forward only for the front two wheels to get stuck in the gap between the lift and their floor.

“Gimme. A minute. To get. My breath. Back”

The doors started to shut and Suzy stabbed the ‘Hold’ button. “Give me a hand, you idiot. You can die later.”

Rob lifted the front wheels out of the gap and they manoeuvred their stolen trolleys out of the lift. Suzy pulled her flat key out and unlocked and opened the door as Rob pushed her trolley in and dragged his in after.

“Watch the paint work, idiot. Mum will go ballistic if you scratch it.” Rob shut the door, engaging the lock.

“I’ll be annoyed why?” Asked their mom as she turned away from the TV and caught Suzy pushing the trolley past the open doorway. “What the fuck!?”

“Err, long story mom...” Suzy pushed her pilfered goods into the kitchen.

Rob smiled at his mum as he squeaked and rattled passed the doorway. “Hi mum!” He said with a wide bright smile.

“Seriously!? What the fuck have you pair been up to!” She rose from her chair and followed her two children in the kitchen. It turned out that one shopping trolley took up a heck of a lot of room in the kitchen. Two was really taking the piss. Their mother stared at the two trolleys bemused. “This is going to be a classic, even for you pair. I feel it in my water.”