Breaking Britain (Completed)

Chapter 59

  59
Sunday 6th January 2030
08:15

           Ricard had expected to see the army littering the streets, everywhere he looked the streets were empty, no enforcement agency, no people. This contradicted what he had heard and seen on the television before he had left.

           It was a Sunday and even though it was morning, it was both dark and cold. There was a fog that lingered high above his head and although the smell of the overnight rain tingled his nose, there was something further and it took him a few seconds to understand what it was. It was the scent of smoke.

          He stopped by his car and looked around, in the distance he could see the source of the fog, or smoke, that rose from different locations. He wondered how bad it had got the previous night and how come he had been lucky enough to be oblivious to the savagery taken place in his surroundings.

           He got into the car and pulled away from the curb. The streets were clear, he could have counted on his two hands how many vehicles he had passed. Of which, two were ambulances and one was a police car.

           The silence was airy. He drove on heading towards the hospital. He was a mile away, when he came across a police blockage. It was only manned by two police officers, who sat in their car, which was parked behind a police tape that stretched across the road over a series of orange cones.

              Richard turned the car round and headed to some of the smaller roads. He knew the streets well, he had jogged most of them. Road after road, was blocked. Eventually, he parked up and decided to go by foot. He ducked under he yellow tape and walked on, he had managed one hundred yards, when a female PCSO approached him.

              'Excuse me Sir, no one is allowed past the barricade', she said approaching him.

              'Why?'

              'It's orders. Where are you trying to get to?'

              'The hospital'

              'I'm sorry Sir, no one is allowed in or out of the hospital at this time'

              'My wife is there', he lied, leaving out the "ex"

              'I'm sure she's fine, Sir. They have lots of police protecting the people in there. Go home and call her'

              Richard nodded, turned himself round and headed back to the tape. He stopped after a couple of steps and turned back to the PCSO. 'Incidentally, what happens if someone needs medical attention?'

              'Are you hurt, Sir'

              'No. Just curious'

              'Well, if its an emergency, they'll send an ambulance out for you. However, they're inundated with calls. Your best bet would be to call your GP's emergency service'.

               'Okay. Thank you'

                He headed back past the barrier. Instead, of going back to his car, he turned right, walked fifty yards, until he came to an alley. If he was right the alley should by-pass the barrier. He paused, looking down it. He had run down this alley many times, but that morning the alley possessed a menacing look, that made him shiver. He saw no signs of the police and saw no signs of an ambush.

                 He silently walked through, keeping his pace slow, to allow time for his eyes to adapt to the dimming light ahead. It was the smell that first hit him as being strange. He couldn't place it, whatever it was triggered a memory, of sometime when living with Carla and Junior. Soon as he felt his trainers tacking to the ground, he remembered where that memory was from. It was the smell of blood, the memory of him carrying in his son, who had fallen off his bicycle and cut up his arm and leg. Richard had shouted for help from Carla, who came running to him, to tend for a seven year old Junior, who didn't so much as whimper about the pain.