Luke's Diary: An unlucky man in a zombie apocalypse. Days 601 - 756

Day 651: Friday 8th June 2018

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Day 651
Friday 8th June 2018

I am out of the room and no longer underground. I suppose I should have felt relieved about it but I just felt weak – really weak. My numbness lasted for quite a while but it came to a sudden end when I was reunited with someone I didn't think I'd be seeing again.

The whole thing started in the afternoon when I was laid on my mattress. I was looking up at the ceiling, counting the cracks when I heard footsteps coming from outside. The weird thing is that I know I heard the footsteps but they didn't fully register. It was like I was in some altered state of awareness. I then heard the jingling of some keys echoing out in the corridor and a few seconds later I heard a key enter the lock, a clunking sound was heard and the door to my personal hell hole was opened. I didn't move. The numb feeling remained as I stayed laid on the mattress. "Oooooh, what a whiffy smell," a chipper voice said, "The last time I smelt a stench like that, I went to the fish market and to cut a long story short, my muff got covered in finny haddock." I slowly turned my head and looked to my left. Parrissa was stood in the door way with that naïve, dopey look on her face. I could hear footsteps and muffled voices in the corridor. I guess I should have felt excited at the prospect of getting out, but I just felt . . . well . . . nothing. Just nothing. Thankfully I wasn't wearing my clown costume, I was just in my pants and t-shirt.

A moment later Tara appeared. She barged passed Parrissa, approached me with urgency and knelt down beside my mattress. Her hair was longer, she looked rather grubby and had a few faded bruises on her face and arms; apart from looking a little underweight she looked relatively healthy and seemed eager to get us out from the underground Hell Hole. "Oh my God, Luke," she said, "What the Hell have they done to you?" I didn't respond. "Luke?" said Tara with an increased level of urgency in her voice, "What is it? What's wrong? Speak to me." "He was like that when I walked in," said Parrissa, "Bit rude. I mean, you find a set of keys, free people from this underground prison and you don't even get a thank you very much." Parrissa started jangling the keys she was referring to. "Oh don't they make a funny noise," she said, "It's like Santa Claus and his jingle bells. Jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle."

As Tara was checking my injuries, Mike appeared in the door way. Beneath his scraggly hair, overgrown beard and undernourished appearance it was obvious he'd also taken a beating from the thugs that had locked us down here. He ran over to me with a sad and distressed look on his face. "Luke!" he loudly cried. Just as he was about to scoop me up and give me a hug, Tara stopped him. "No, don't touch him," she said, "He's in shock." "What have they done to him?" said Mike. "Well he looks like he's had a good beating," said Tara, "He's got a broken nose and a badly broken leg." "What does it say on his head?" Parrissa asked in a chipper tone, as she leaned forward, squinting, "Cosy? Is that what it says? Doesn't look very cosy to me." "It doesn't say Cosy," said Tara. "Well it's all smudged," said Parrissa. "Loser," Tara, firmly said. "Alright, I'm only asking," said Parrissa, "No need to get personal. Ooooh, he stinks an' all. Methinks a squirt of Nivea for Men may be required." "Luke," said Mike, as he leaned closer to me, "It's me, Mike. Can you hear me? Please, just tell me you can hear me." Mike turned to Tara and looked very upset. "Why isn't he speaking?" he asked in a distressed tone, "What have they done to him?" Mike stood up and replaced his distress with anger. "I'm going to kill them," Mike said as he clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, "They've hurt my Luke. I'm going to go up there and kill every last one of them." "You'll have a job," said Parrissa, "There's no one up there alive. It's abandoned. Not even the infected wanted to hang around." "What do you mean?" said Mike, "Are you saying there's no one up top at all?" "Top?" asked a bewildered Parrissa. "Yeah," said Mike. "As in the opposite of bottom?" asked Parrissa. "Yeah," said Mike. "A different place to this one?" asked a confused Parrissa. Tara rolled her eyes at Parrissa and shook her head in dismay. "I've asked her this already," said Tara, "There's no one up top. No people, no infected, no one. There was some sort of explosion and I think anyone who didn't get away is dead. Look, we need to get out of here."