Luke's Diary: An Unlucky Man in a Zombie Apocalypse. Days 201-400

Day 225: Saturday 8th April 2017 23:39

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Day 225
Saturday 8th April 2017 23:39

It's been quite a sad day, laced with suspicion.

It all started when I'd finished work and Dump made a public announcement over the Tannoy, saying that all residents needed to report to Triton's for 6pm. We were all very curious. The last time he made an announcement like this was when he told everyone Mike's body had been found near the fishing lake.

As I stood in Triton's I noticed that we were all giving each other awkward and suspicious looks. TJ and I were giving Benjamin and Troy weird looks; Tina and I were exchanging unpleasant looks, and Esther and I were swapping unhappy and uncomfortable looks. Naomi noticed this. "OK, what's going on?" she asked me. "What do you mean?" I asked. "I mean all these weird looks that you're throwing at each other," said Naomi, "My eyes work you know?" "No one's giving anyone any weird looks," I said, lying through my teeth, "What are you talking about?" "Luke, I'm not thick and I'm not blind," said Naomi, "I've seen you giving everyone those awkward looks." "What awkward looks?" I asked, "And what do you mean, everyone?" "Troy, Benjamin, Tina, Esther," said Naomi, "Is something going on I don't know about? Has it got something to do with you shagging that water bottle?" I turned round, looked Naomi in the eye and told her to shush. "Fine," said Naomi, "I'll keep my mouth shut, but I'm not stupid. It's obvious something's going on around here."

Adrian then came on to the stage and introduced Dump. It wasn't a short introduction. He went on for ages. I was half expecting the bl**dy Queen to appear on stage from the fuss he was making. "Get on with it you ginger pr*ck!" Trudy shouted from the crowds. Naomi told Trudy to shut up and eventually Dump came on to the stage. "My fellow Dumpvillians," he announced. "Dump – what?" Trudy quietly asked me. "Whilst we are contained with our safe and sturdy walls," continued Dump, "It is my sad and solemn duty to remind you that the world outside those walls is indeed cruel and hard. Before the apocalypse we had dark terrorists trying to blow us all up; we had foreign criminals trying to break through our borders and steal our women and our jobs; we had the perverts who tried to poison our world with their immoral ways, and now, the world is different. Yes, the world is very different but behind those walls there is still danger – a new kind of danger. A kind of danger that most of us inside the walls have not encountered and hopefully never will." "F*cking Hell," Trudy whispered, "He goes on a bit doesn't he? I wish he'd get to the point." "It is my sad duty," continued Dump, "To inform you that a previous resident who decided to leave Dumpville was recently found ten miles away from here." A tense silence followed. I was desperate to know if he was talking about Millie. "My men returned from a supply run this afternoon," said Dump, "And they reported to me that they found Millie Burgoyne wandering at the side of the road. Sadly, she had become infected and so my men did the only humane thing they could and disposed of her." "What does that mean?" whispered Mia, "Does it mean they put her in the bin?" "Mia, shut up," I said, "You know what that means, it means they killed her."

I looked over at Benjamin and Tina who knew Millie a lot better than the rest of us. Tina started crying and was immediately comforted by Troy. Benjamin lowered his head and adopted a sad expression. Naomi put her hand on my shoulder and asked if I was OK. I nodded and carried on listening to Dump. "There will be a memorial service for Millie, here in Triton's, for her close friends, tomorrow after her funeral," he said, "I am terribly sorry to be the bearer of such sad and distressing news but I would like to take this opportunity to remind you all of two things; one, here within these walls, you are safe, you are secure and you are protected from infected. Please think very carefully before asking for access outside the walls, and two . . . the kid's monster fancy dress costume competition takes place at the kid's club tomorrow afternoon. We're all looking forward to seeing what our younger residents have dressed up as and I am looking forward to judging. It's not all doom and gloom. Thank you." Dump left the stage and I was left reeling. "Well I didn't expect him to say that," said Trudy. "Yeah, I know, right?" I said in outrage. "It was a bit thoughtless," said Trudy. "I totally agree," I said. "He didn't even tell us the time the competition starts," said Trudy. I turned and looked at Trudy, giving her a despairing look. "I'm talking about him using the announcement of Millie's death to publicise a kid's competition you dozy cow," I said, "That man is unbelievable." "He does do a lot for the kids," said Mary. "So did Michael Jackson and Gary Glitter," I said. Mary told me that was a terrible thing to say. As she was moaning on and telling me off for implying Dump was a paedophile, it suddenly dawned on me that Millie might not actually be dead.

I walked away from Mary, completely disregarding her, grabbed hold of TJ, who was about to go chasing after Destiny, and dragged him outside. "For God's sake!" moaned TJ, "What now?!" "Millie might not be dead," I said with excitement. "What?" asked TJ sounding annoyed and confused. "This is Mike all over again," I said, "He left and the next thing we're being told is that he's dead and then Millie left and now we're being told she's dead. Don't you see a pattern?" "Listen gay boy," said TJ, "The only pattern I see is that every time I get a chance of diving into Destiny's downstairs dump, you grab hold of me, take me away and talk to me about some drama." "TJ," I said, "Open your eyes. This is proof that something weird is going on." "No, it's not," said TJ, "It's proof that you're paranoid and that it's all a coincidence." "No," I said, enthusiastically, "Don't you get it? None of us can leave. They don't want anyone to leave and those that do manage to leave, get killed." "Of course they do," said TJ, "There's millions of infected outside those walls. Anyone who leaves is probably going to get killed." "What's wrong with you?" I said, "You've changed your tune. Don't you care about what's going on around here?" "What IS going on around here?" asked an impatient TJ. "They're lying to us!" I loudly said, "You know all this, we've talked about it before, what's gotten into you?" "Right now all I care about is what's not getting into Destiny's knickers, and I'm going to try and do something about that," said TJ as he started to walk off. "That's right," I ranted, "You just follow your d*ck like you always do. Turn a blind eye to everything's that going on around here. You weren't saying this when they said your brother was dead. Mike, remember him? Or have you forgotten all about him now Destiny's fanny's calling?" TJ turned round and walked back up to me with a casual look on his face. "Luke," he said, "Just let it go. Mike's gone and Millie's gone and whether they're dead or alive, they're not coming back. Yeah, maybe something a bit dodgy is going on around here, but so what? Just suck it up. You heard what Ronnie said; we're safe, we're secure and we're protected from the infected. We shouldn't take that lightly. You might be happy going out there running away from those gory flesh eaters, eating cold beans out if a tin and sleeping on floors but I prefer it here." There was a moment of silence. "Now if you don't mind," said TJ, "I'm going to go back inside because there's a bit of minge with my name on it." TJ left, leaving me feeling really disappointed. He's a cocky, big headed, sex mad bullsh*tter but I thought we'd been working well as a team recently. Now it seems he's joined the other crowd of people who are prepared to turn a blind eye to the dodgy and suspicious goings on around here.

As I sit here in bed writing my diary I'm wondering if I could ask to see Millie's body before the funeral tomorrow. Mind you they wouldn't let TJ see Mike's body so there's no way they'd let me see Millie's. The funeral's going to be weird. I'm not sure if I can feel sad or get upset because I'm not totally convinced that Millie is actually dead.