Chapter 9: Atishoo, atishoo, we all fall down

13:41, 2 August

Sky News continued to report on the rising death toll, thousands became tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and then millions. The scale was simply to big for the brother and sister to fully get their heads around. The deaths were also kind of meaningless to them - they were numb, still in shock and the deaths that really mattered had happened here on the farm.

Jamie found himself humming a school playground song from his early years.

"Ring, a ring o'roses
A pocket full of posies
Atishoo. Atishoo, we all fall down."

The song was about the Black Death or plague that had swept from Asia to Europe and Britain in the fourteenth century, also killing millions of people. He stopped humming as he realised what the tune was and what it signified.

Eventually the news reports stopped, and only public service broadcasts were shown. These seemed to be running in a continuous loop and Jamie and Laura guessed that there was no one left alive to man the TV studio. It was a frightening thought for the two teens that all of the adults could be dead and they were now on their own.

They basically just existed for three days after their father had taken his own life, moving round the house almost in a trance as their grief and fear consumed them. It was Jamie who at last tried to break the depression they had slipped into, deciding it was time to take his father's advice and just get on with it.

"Sis, I'm gonna take the Range Rover and drive a little way into town to scout things out. We're going to have to venture out at some point. Remember what dad told us, we need to be brave and carry on. That means finding food, finding somewhere safer to live and eventually meeting up with other survivors."

Laura's face took on an anxious look at the thought of Jamie going out. She had lost everything in a crushing; shocking few days and her biggest fear now was that she would lose him too. His words reminded her of the discussion they had had with their father however, and she knew they would need to face the world, or what was left of it, sometime. She squared her shoulders bravely and nodded to him.

"I'll get a coat and come with you," she said.

Jamie knew she needed to remain close to him right now. He wasn't happy about taking her on his first scouting trip, would rather have an opportunity to ensure there was no immediate danger before exposing her to any risks. Her response, her look and her body language made it clear that leaving her behind wasn't an option.

"It might even help her start to function properly again," he thought.

He suddenly had an idea.

"Sis? Sis?" he called for her.

"What is it Jamie?" she asked as she returned to the room.

"Look, how about if we compromise? I'm worried about taking a risk with you coming along. No, wait," he said, as Laura started to argue immediately. "I'll go up in dad's helicopter and take a quick look round, then if it's safe we can drive in and have a closer look?"

Laura could see this was probably a wise move and she would be able to see the helicopter the whole time Jamie was up in the air so she relaxed a little and agreed he should do it.

It took Jamie half an hour to prepare the helicopter and perform all of the checks his father had schooled him in. He started the engine and heard the twin rotors whine and engage. The helicopter was small, a two-seater Robinson R22, which had cost his father £60,000 second hand. Minutes later he was lifting off and gaining altitude.

He had already decided he would only go up a few hundred feet to make sure he had a good view of what was below him on the ground. His biggest worry at that height was electricity pylons and he kept his eyes peeled as he piloted the helicopter south and east so he could sweep the streets in the immediate area.

He flew a pattern over the streets and houses for ten minutes, but saw nothing out of the ordinary, nothing was moving. He didn't want to stay up longer than necessary, as he knew Laura would be worried so he headed back to the farm and set the helicopter down gently.

Laura ran to hug him once he had shut the helicopter down and secured it. He told her that everything looked quiet, eerily quiet and that he felt it was safe to drive into town for a closer look.

Jamie fetched the shotgun and made sure it was loaded and that he had spare shells in his pocket. When Laura returned from grabbing her jacket and saw what he was doing, she was reminded once more that their world had changed out of all recognition. Only a few days ago it would have been unthinkable to drive into town with a loaded shotgun on the passenger seat.

Laura got in the back seat of the Range Rover and Jamie in the front with the shotgun beside him. He started the engine and checked the fuel gauge automatically before putting the Rover in gear and easing it away from the front of the farmhouse. He drove smoothly down the narrow lane that led out to the main road and even indicated to show he was turning left towards Glasgow.

Jamie's eyes were everywhere looking for possible danger. Both the teens were surprised the road was so clear and that there weren't more bodies lying around in the streets.

"Why are there not more bodies Jamie?" Laura asked eventually.

"Well, think about it sis. If you're suffering from flu you're more likely to be in your bed than walking about. If everyone knew they were going to die they probably wanted to be where they felt most comfortable and safe."

This kind of made sense to Laura and she accepted it.

Jamie remained cautious and drove slowly round the local area looking for any signs of life. Other than three dead bodies they saw nothing. At last he decided to drive to the local Wal-Mart store to see whether it was still stocked. The car park was deserted and he pulled the Rover close up to the front doors of the store.

Jamie opened his door and picked up the shotgun before jumping down onto the ground. Laura joined him and together they walked towards the entrance. Although it was something they had seen hundreds of times before when visiting this supermarket, it was still a surprise when the automatic doors swished open in front of them.

"Well it looks like the electricity is still on. That's handy as we probably wouldn't be able to see anything if the store lights weren't on," Jamie said, "grab a coupe of trolleys sis, we might as well stock up on stuff while we're here."

He pulled two trolleys from the long line in the trolley park for himself and they entered the store.

"We should only take canned and dried goods and nothing too exotic, stick to staples," he suggested.

It was spooky to be walking round such a large supermarket with no one else there. Normally this store would be bustling with shoppers, but now the aisles were deserted. Jamie walked up and down choosing what he wanted carefully. He soon had one trolley filled to the brim and he wheeled it over to the exit in preparation for their departure. He then relented on his own advice to Laura and picked up some frozen steaks and tossed them into his second trolley.

Laura meanwhile was in her element. She had gravitated to the clothing section of the store and was browsing through the lingerie, indulging in that therapy used by women the world over - retail therapy. Picking out some white silk underwear sets, she placed them in the bottom of her first trolley and moved on to see what else she could find.

Jamie made his way to the hardware section and picked up a couple of heavy torches and plenty of batteries that would fit them. He carried on until he came across a display of laptop computers and a selection of software. These items sparked an idea in the boy's head and he loaded two laptops and several software packages into his trolley.

Once she was happy with her clothing selections, Laura began to cover them up with groceries so Jamie wouldn't see them. She piled tins of salmon and tuna into the trolley and then packets of rice, pasta and instant potato. When she had filled her trolley she made her way to the exit and made a start packing what they had into the Range Rover. In the process she managed to hide her clothing stash in the back seat where Jamie wouldn't see it.

Returning to the store, Laura picked up a copy of each of the top twenty DVDs, figuring there would be no TV to watch so a film might be a welcome diversion. Showing her practical side, she also stocked up with a number of large bottles of disinfectant. The threat of infection arising from decaying corpses would probably make this useful.

They had been in the store for just under an hour and Jamie felt they had stocked up enough for now. Laura had packed everything into the Rover and it was sitting noticeably lower with the weight of the goods now crammed inside. They got into the vehicle, Laura once more in the back seat, but now surrounded by tins and bags of food. Jamie drove cautiously back the way they had come, but once more their journey was uneventful.

Once the adults were all just about gone, Shafiq felt the threat against her teams was also gone. Now, as the only coordinated, trained and armed force, she was well placed to have her run of the country. To her amazement the mobile phone networks had continued to work and she wasted little time in contacting each of the teams around the UK and explained what steps they were to take now. She gave the same instructions to each team and also shared the contact numbers between them all now. The need for keeping tight security was now past and it was more important that the teams worked together and didn't blunder into each other.

"Remember, the vast majority of the survivors are teenagers so we have a massive advantage. Our duty is to round up as many of them as we can and convert them to Islam. Their stupid Prime Minister was half right when he said rebuilding was going to be important, but we will rebuild this country as an Islamic state. All survivors must accept the Islamic way," she told the various teams.

Shafiq's view was that they should round up the survivors as a priority. Their conversion to Islam needed to begin immediately and she was determined that there would be no opportunity for groups of kids to band together to form any kind of organised resistance to her plans. The best way to avoid that was to indoctrinate them as quickly as possible. Non-believers would not be tolerated as they could cause problems later.

She was also thinking about what her other priorities should be as part of the rebuilding efforts. Food production would be important, as would health. There was probably enough stockpiled fuel to last them for a long time yet. Another priority would be to train some of their new converts to establish a larger security force

In other countries around the world, some attempts were being made to quarantine those confirmed as having bird flu in an effort to stop its progress. Government advisors knew it would be a losing battle, but in those nations where preparations were better - Japan for example - anti-retroviral drugs were being given to as many of the population as possible. Of course, the country needed to have stockpiled the drugs in anticipation of such a disaster for there to be enough to go round, and not many had had such foresight.

Other problems awaited those who managed to avoid catching the virus. The absence of bird life meant that insects were thriving. Illnesses that were spread by insects were destined for a dramatic increase in the near future.

Throughout the Middle East the race was on to see which country could find and slaughter the highest number of Al Qaeda operatives. The main prizes at stake were of course Osama Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri. The net was closing and it seemed likely that the organisation would be completely wiped out before the virus managed to dispose of those that were hunting them.

Following Shafiq's phone calls, Assam and the Glasgow cell had made contact with their counterparts based in Edinburgh, a team they hadn't even been aware existed before. Assam had called a meeting of his own people and they began to plan how they would carry out their task of rounding up the surviving teens and what they would do with them when they had them.

It was agreed the large mosque on the south side of the River Clyde would be an ideal centre for indoctrinating the young men and women into the ways of Islam. Assam also ordered his team to begin to stockpile weapons and ammunition for the future as they began their sweeps looking for survivors. A map of Glasgow and the surrounding area was laid out and they worked on marking zones and agreeing who would search which area.

Assam decided it would be best to start searching the further out areas first and move in towards the city centre. Two pairs would go out, one to the west of the city and one to the east.

Jamie and Laura had emptied the Range Rover and piled the foodstuff in the spare bedroom on the ground floor of the farmhouse. The steaks had gone straight into the large chest freezer. Laura managed to sneak her clothing into the house and upstairs to her bedroom without Jamie noticing. When she returned downstairs she saw Jamie lugging two large boxes into the sitting room.