Luke's Diary: An Unlucky Man In A Zombie Apocalypse. Entries 957 - 1157

Entry 1137: Thursday 7th November 2019

Entry 1137
Thursday 7th November 2019

We're all on the GRID cargo ship on our way back to The Isle of Wight... or trying to...

We all woke up and gathered in the staff room... I say 'all', there was now only five of us. me, Naomi, Mia, Harold, and Michael. "OK," said Naomi, "I suppose we need to decide what we're going to do." "Well, I'll certainly tell you what we're NOT going to do," said Harold, "And that's stay here in this dump. Blade is insane if he thinks I can develop a cure on my own stuck in an abandoned chemist." "No offence Professor nut job," said Michael, "But you're in no position to have a go at people for being insane." "Is that so?" said Harold, "And what qualified you to comment?" "Knock it off," said Naomi, "Arguing isn't going to help." "Not with this idiot it isn't," said Harold, "Look, what we need to do is stop wasting time and get on that cargo ship and get back to the island." "The first thing we need to do is bury Joan and Seth," said Mia, looking tired with an exhausted look on her face. "Bury them?" said Harold. "Yeah," said Mia, "We can't leave them, upstairs, can we?" We all exchanged awkward looks as an uncomfortable silence lingered. "What?" asked Mia, "What is it? Why are you all looking like that?" "Mia, doll," said Michael, "I want to bury Joan and Seth too but..." "But what?" asked Mia firmly, "What?" Again, we all exchanged awkward looks. "What?" snapped Mia, "What is it? You're not saying we should just leave them upstairs." "Mia," I gently said. "No!" Mia angrily snapped, "No! We can't just leave them there to... to... to... to rot." "Mia, doll," said Michael, "I want to bury Joan. I want to bury Seth, but where around here can we bury them? We're in a town centre, full of concrete and cement. There's nowhere we can bury them." "If we're going to get on this cargo ship, then we can take them both with us and... Well... Put them in the sea," said Mia. "Mia, we can't do that," I gently said, "We've got to try and get from here to the harbour. Blade has taken the jeep. We don't have a vehicle. It's going to be difficult enough to get from here to the harbour without a car but if we take Joan and Seth with us..." "Luke's right, Mia," said Naomi, "If we could bury Joan and Seth then I'd be helping you to do that right now, but I'm sorry Mia, we can't. We need to get back to the island. If we had a car, then maybe we could take Joan and Seth with us but we can't. I'm sorry." "Think about your baby, sweetheart," said Harold, "Every minute you're sitting here is a minute you're away from your daughter." "So, you all agree with each other, yeah?" said Mia, "You all think we should just leave Seth and Joan up there." Again, Michael, Naomi, Harold, and I exchanged awkward looks. This obviously spoke volumes to Mia because should stormed out of the room in a huff. I was about to follow her, but Harold stopped me. "Leave her," he said, "She needs to say goodbye to Seth, and we need to talk about what we're doing. Now listen up pea brains, this is what's going to happen." "Do you think you could talk to us without talking to us like we're stupid?" I asked Harold. "No," Harold bluntly said, "Now listen. Blade gave us the keys to his little cargo ship that's moored in the harbour. I've looked out of the window on the top floor, and it looks like the harbour is about ten-minute walk away. I suggest we pack a few things, take some supplies, and get the Hell out of here. I've done a bit of maths and I think it will take us about two days to sail round to The Isle of Wight." "Then what?" asked Naomi, "We just get off the ship and go back to normal life? What about Blade? What about the baby? What about Tinsley!?" "Calm down," said Harold, "I have thought of all that. As I told Luke last night, we are all going to be quarantined and questioned when we arrive back. We just need to tell the truth. I will be telling the charming Commander Tinsley that Blade is hiding somewhere on the island, and I expect that he'll send his GRID gorillas out to comb the island and find Blade and the baby." "Yeah," said Naomi, "And he'll kill Blade and then kill the baby." "Well, if he does kill Blade, that really is no loss," said Harold, "And as for Tinsley killing the baby, I think that is very unlikely. As I said to Luke last night, this is the first infected baby ever born, and I saw something interesting yesterday that Tinsley will be very interested in. "What are you on about?" asked Naomi. "You were there," said Harold, "Seth got infected but there were a few moments when he just stopped. He didn't attack anyone. He just stood there and looked over at his daughter... What if babies who are born infected are still recognised by their mother or father who later become infected?" "So, what if they are?" asked Naomi, "How is that going to help?" Harold gave a patronising sigh and rolled his eyes. "It means, you brain dead dunce, that the chances of developing a cure could be increased," said Harold, "And that the chances of developing something that can help us manage the infected can be increased." "And you'd volunteer all this information to Tinsley out of the goodness of your heart, would you?" Naomi sarcastically asked. "I will tell Commander Tinsley that if the baby is kept is alive, she, along with Trudy's blood could be the key to developing a cure or possibly creating some sort of vaccine that might help control the behaviour of the infected," said Harold, "I will of course tell the lovely Commander Tinsley that I will help the GRID scientists in trying to synthesize a cure and vaccine in exchange for my freedom. What he does with Blade is of no concern to me. He knows his days are numbered. That's why he gave us the big noticeable cargo ship whilst he returns to the island in more concealed manner. He doesn't want to be seen." Hang on," said Naomi, "Even if what you're saying is true, which I find hard to believe, Tinsley doesn't need you to help develop a cure. GRID HQ has got Helen Harvey and loads other scientists. They won't need you to help them to come up with cure or a vaccine." "Yes, they will," said Harold with a big smug grin on his face, "First all, Helen Harvey isn't exactly in the best frame of mind right now after what happened, and second, their efforts of coming up with a cure haven't exactly been fruitful so far have they? All of that may change with my intellect, knowldge and experience. Besides, they might know about the E-Virus, but I know a lot more about than they do, and I know considerably more than they do about the E7 Virus. Tinsley and GRID will need me and I'm going to let them know it. This time next week I think I'll be living in a nice little through terrace in Cowes." "Sorry," said Michael, "I'm getting confused." "Why am I not surprised," said Harold. "If you can come up with a cure," said Michael, "Then that's great, but if you can't then you're going to try to come up with a vaccine or something to control the behaviour of the infected. Well, how's that going to work? I mean I saw what happened yesterday with Seth, but what are you saying? You need to get a load of women to give birth to infected babies and then kill the dads to see what happens? I can't see people queuing up for that." "When you have finished scraping your knuckles along the ground, perhaps you could take a moment to rest from your rather rigid narrow way of thinking and consider alternative methods that may contribute towards the production of effective results," said Harold, "But of course... What am I thinking? How silly of me? I keep forgetting. You're stupid." Michael stood up and started squaring up to Harold. "I'm going to knock this guy out,'" said Michael, "I swear to God." "No one is knocking anyone out," said Naomi, "Let's just calm down. "Let me do the thinking," Harold said to Michael, "I doubt you could grasp basic biology so I very much doubt that your tiny mind could comprehend advanced neurobiology and other concepts." "Harold, will you shut up," snapped Naomi, "You're not helping!" "Look," said Harold, "I will get us back to The Isle of Wight, and when we get back there all you need to do is tell the truth. No lies. No mystery. Just tell the truth." "There's too much uncertainty in what you're suggesting," said Michael, "What if this Tinsley bloke just chucks you in prison? What if he kills you? What if these GRID people can't find Blade? What if they do and they just kill Blade and the baby?" "What if, what if, what if," said Harold, "You worry about all these what ifs, if you want, but to me that sounds like you're leaving things to chance. I don't do that. I make things happen. I'm telling you, Tinsley will have me helping GRID scientists, he will NOT kill the baby, and he WILL find Blade, especially with this." Harold pulled a test tube from his pocket with some sort of weird looking liquid in it. "What's that?" I asked. "It's s test tube full of water that I put a bit of colouring in," said Harold, "I came up with it using stuff that I found on the shopfloor, last night." "And what are you going to do with that?" I asked. "I'M not going to do anything with it," said Harold, "But you're going to use it and convince Blade that it's a cure. That should bring him out of hiding and then Tinsley's men have got him." "That sounds really risky," I said. "What's risky about it?" asked Harold, "Blade wants a cure. You give him this and tell him it's a cure. Simple." "Simple?" I exclaimed, "It's anything but simple. How is this going to happen? When is it going to happen? Where is it going to happen? Tinsley might not let it happen." "Luke," said Harold, "Blade said he would find you. When he does just show him this and tell him that you'll give it to him in exchange for the baby. Don't worry about when and where. Blade said he'd find you remember, and as for Tinsley. I'll deal with him." I wasn't convinced that Harold's thinking was useful, but I didn't want to get into an argument with him when we had a ship to get on.