The Leftover

6 months before: 21st August 2015 (09:25 Eastern Time) 3 weeks before Judgement Day.

"To the people of America and anyone who can hear this. I, the president of the United States of America, declare the Ebola purifico virus to be extinct. In the early hours of this morning, our armed forces spread the cure to the virus through the last areas where Ebola was thought to reside. Danger code red is off. No more curfews and our armed forces will be removed in the foreseeable future. That is all."

4 months before: 30th August 2015 (13:45 Eastern Time) 2 weeks before Judgement Day.

"This is a message to the people of the United States of America. Following our eradication of Ebola purifico, we are creating a new policy to ensure that the virus does not re-establish itself in people who used to have the disease. We hereby order all peoples who had contracted the Ebola purifico virus to come forward to their nearest police station form where they will be taken to health clinics specifically made for treating those who were infected. Only one item of luggage will be allowed to be taken, weighing no more 5kg. Anyone who fails to meet the luggage requirement will have their possessions confiscated. Loved ones will be told of your whereabouts shortly and letters will be sent on a weekly basis. Thank you for your assistance"

3 months before 24th September 2015 (no clock available, it's dark though) 3 days after Judgement Day.

Another scream split the night apart. The awful reality came back to Adam in a burst of agony. The dreadful wailing and shrieking was all around him and was unavoidable, no matter how tight you squeezed shut your eyes and wished yourself away. Marigold Camp as the authorities called it was full of despair and loneliness. The crude iron beds had been removed due to the events of the previous day, the marks still clear in the now reinforced metal door of where they had used a bed to ram it open. The foul stench of blood invaded his nostrils and went down his throat, making him gag and nearly vomit. A man lay groaning next to him, the blood shining on his sweating head, bright white shiny blood in the dark of the dormitory. The smashed jars of excrement lay broken around the door, the throwers had been taken outside earlier that day and had not yet returned. A single barred slit let the only light into the small whitewashed room with rectangular walls.

The man beside him started twitching horribly. Scraping his body across the floor in sudden jolts of pain accompanied with snappy utterances of pain. Adam willed himself to be calm. These last few days had seen more horror than anyone ever should in a life time. The nurses in their clean white coats and their syringes had been exchanged for soldiers with machine guns. They had been put into dark trains with no windows and taken far away, days without water or food. When finally they had been let out of the stifling carriages their anger had been quelled by machine gun fire. At gun point they had been herded into small rectangular huts with beds in them and left there. Food being brought once every day; if you could call it food. With a sudden jolt the man beside Adam hunched and finally lay still. Adam wept.

2 days before: 30th December 2015 (no clock available - sometime in the morning) 2 months after Judgement Day.

The bodies lay glistening in the snow, naked toes blue and black with frostbite, deep purple blood spilling out from the corner of mouths and noses, lost in an eternal gasp of pure torment. Eyes that had flashed with the ecstasy of violence, some only hours before, now were filled with the unendingness of the void, staring to the sky above as if in failed pursuit of their spirits. The fight the night before had been a great success, the prisoners in the huts were now free. The soldiers who had inflicted so much wrong onto them had been destroyed in the confusion of the night by the pure malevolent rage of the prisoners. After the last soldiers had been mauled beaten clubbed and clawed to a paste, people rain into the night in every direction, taking weapons and ammunition from the sunken bodies.