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

Day 729: Saturday 25th August 2018

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Day 729
Saturday 25th August 2018

I had another weird dream last night. I don't remember all of it but I remember being sat at a table talking with this man. I wasn't very happy and the man was talking to me in a patronising tone but I don't remember much else. 

When I woke up this morning and entered the living room Caroline and Kyle were having an argument. "What's going on?" I said. "Your sons attitude is what's going on," said a firm Caroline, waving a piece of paper at me, "This is a letter from his school. When the kids get into fights at school, this little sod has been taking bets on who wins. He's been running a bookie." I took the letter off Caroline and read it. "It says we've got to go to a meeting tomorrow," Caroline said. "She can cook and read," said Kyle, "Clever isn't she?" "Shut up," snapped Caroline, "I'm going to have to take time off work. It's a good job Rick's understanding. We don't need this right now Kyle, what with your Dad being ill." I am NOT ill," I firmly said. "It's Miss Fitch," said Kyle, "We all call her Fitch the bitch. She's got it in for me. Dad, can you go and sort her out. Tell her you'll do one of your citizen arrest things?" "Kyle be quiet," Caroline firmly said, "You're in enough trouble. I'll phone the school and tell Miss Fitch that we'll be there tomorrow to sort all this out." "Hang on," I said, "There's too much going on right now. My head's all over the place. I can't go to some school and speak to some teacher." "Luke, I don't care what's going on," said Caroline, "This is our son we're talking about. We are both going tomorrow and we're going to sort this out." I rubbed my head, wondering how I'd gone from searching for my baby son in an apocalypse to living in suburbia and talking about meetings with teachers. "I'm going out," I said. "Where are you going?" asked Caroline. "Out," I firmly said. Feeling stressed I stormed out of the house and walked down the street, approached the bus stop and waited for a bus.

When the bus arrived, I boarded and was met with the same sarcastic bus driver I met the other day. "Well look who it is," the driver said, "How many questions do you want to ask me today before actually getting on and sitting down?" "None," I said, feeling slightly embarrassed. "You sure?" the driver sarcastically asked, "You don't want to know when my birthday is? What I had for breakfast? The brand of cream I use on my piles?" "I'm fine," I bluntly said. I showed the driver my level one travel card. "Well do enjoy your journey," the driver sarcastically said, "Speaking to you has been one of life's true pleasures." Giving the annoying bus driver a stern stare, I took a seat and the bus drove off.

When I arrived in the town centre I suddenly realised that I had no idea why I'd come into town. The bus driver had to make some parting comment as I alighted the bus. "Make sure you enjoy the rest of your day mate," he said, "And if you get a burning urge to ask someone a load of annoying questions, there's a pharmacist who works in Superdrug who can talk for England and doesn't seem to be too busy most days; go and have an exciting Q&A session with her."

As I alighted the bus my mobile phone beeped. It was a text message from Mia. "We're in town at Starbucks if you're free and fancy a cuppa?" I looked up and the saw the Starbucks in the distance across the town square.  Right then, I thought to myself, let's see if Mia can shine some light on this situation.

I walked over to the coffee shop, entered the building and I saw Mia sat at a table at the back in front of a laptop, waving and smiling at me. I decided to play it cool. Walking over to her and talking about an apocalypse, if she believed it had never happened, wasn't going to be a good idea. I sat down at the table, opposite Mia and waited to see what she was going to say. "Are you OK?" she asked me, as she reached over and rubbed my hand in an affectionate manner, "Caroline texted and said you'd banged your head and that you were saying all this weird stuff?" "What were we doing a few days ago?" I bluntly asked. "A few days ago?" said Mia, "I can't remember. Why?" "Just tell me," I firmly said, "When was the last time I saw you?" "Well it was last week when you and Caroline came round to ours for dinner," said Mia. "Really?" I said, "What did we have to eat?" "We cooked spaghetti bolognese," said Mia. This was strange, Mia was speaking with slightly more confidence than usual. It was as if she was less ditzy and more intelligent. I looked at her with confusion. "How do you know me?" I asked. Mia frowned with confusion. "What do you mean?" she asked. "How do you know me?" I plainly repeated, "How did we meet?" "We met a couple of years ago when I started working as an admin assistant at centre security," said Mia. There was a short pause. I felt annoyed. I desperately wanted Mia to tell me how we REALLY met - at the sexual health clinic. "Have you forgotten how we met?" asked Mia. "If I asked you who Leo was, what would you say?" I asked. "Leo?" said Mia, "I don't know anyone called Leo. It's a good name though. I could call one of the characters in my new book Leo." "New book?" I said. Mia turned the laptop round and showed me the screen. It displayed the image of a book cover with the title 'Clones 2.' "Clones 2?" I said, sounding intensely intrigued. "Yeah," said Mia with a smile, "The first book sold so well that I've decided to write a sequel." "You've written a book?" I exclaimed. "Yeah," said Mia frowning with confusion and suspicion, "You were there at the launch last year." "You had a book launch!?" I exclaimed, "You couldn't launch a sh*t." "What are you talking about?" said Mia, "I'm an author. You know that." "You just said you were an admin worker," I said. "Yeah, I'm a part time admin worker," said Mia, "I help you out and do all the town centre security admin but I'm a published author too. Luke, are you seriously telling me you've forgotten everything about me?" Feeling stressed I started rubbing my forehead. I then noticed Mia's injured ear, which as far as I was concerned, she sustained when we crashed the car just before we met Parrissa in the log cabin. "Tell me how you hurt your ear," I said. "You know how I hurt my ear," said Mia, "It was when me and you were driving out to the country and we hit that tree. I went flying my through the windscreen." "Just before we stayed in that log cabin?" I said, sounding excited, believing Mia was remembering what REALLY happened. "Yeah that's right," said Mia, "So you remember some things then. Do you remember the log cabin? It was gorgeous wasn't it? We always said we'd go back there." "It wasn't gorgeous, it was a sh*t hole," I said, "We had to stay there because we were surrounded by infected." "Infected?" said Mia, "What are you talking about?" "Something is seriously wrong here," I said, "Everything's mixed up. Why are you writing about clones? Why not write about the sort of stuff you're usually interested in? Fairies, pixies, unicorns, that sort of sh*t. Why clones?" "Luke I'm not interested in all that pink girlie stuff," said Mia, "I might be young but I'm a serious author." But WHY clones?" I loudly said. "Luke, please don't raise your voice to me," said an assertive Mia, "You might have authority over me in work but out of work we're supposed to be friends." "Just tell me why you're so interested in clones," I said. "I don't know," said Mia, "I always have been. I find the concept fascinating. Anyway, the first book sold really well so it made sense to write a sequel. Luke, I can see why Caroline's worried about you. I'll get my Dad to look at you." "Your Dad?" I said, widening me eyes and feeling slightly anxious. "I know he's a scientist and not a doctor but he might be able to help," said Mia. All of a sudden Harold Endo appeared and approached the table. "Here he is," said Mia, "He's just been to the loo."  I looked at Harold with an angry expression on my face. Feeling tense, annoyed and anxious I slyly reached for a nearby sharp knife and slid it closer to me. "Hello Luke," said Harold with a cheery smile, "How's things? I heard you banged your head." "What the Hell is he doing here?" I firmly asked Mia. "I know," said Mia with a smile, "He's just got back from Scotland. I thought he'd be there for at least another week. Dad, Luke can't remember things. He knows who I am but there's other stuff he's forgotten. Can you do anything to help?" "Well I'm not sure," said Harold, "Why don't you tell me a bit more about it, Luke?" I stared at Harold with a furious look on my face in silence. "Mia, why don't you get us all a chocolate eclair and I'll have a chat with Luke," said Harold. "Ooooh chocolate eclairs," said Mia, "Yummy. I need to phone Rick anyway. I won't be a tick." Mia stood up and walked over to the counter leaving me with Harold. I felt so angry. "It all makes sense now," I angrily said, "You're behind this aren't you?" "Behind what?" asked a confused Harold. "You know what," I firmly said, "Come on, she's gone now. You can stop pretending." "Pretending?" said Harold, "Pretending about what?" I lowered my eyes drawing Harold's attention to the fact I had my hand over the knife. "I could take this knife, shove it into your eye and push it through to your brain, right now," I said in an intimidating tone. "What?" said Harold trying to cover his surprise with nervous laughter, "What are you talking about? Why would you want to do that?" "Because you still work for ACROBAT don't you?" I snapped. "Yes," said Harold. This surprised me. I was expecting him to come out with a load of lies. "You admit it?" I exclaimed. "Luke, I've worked for ACROBAT Pharmaceuticals ever since I left university," said Harold. "F*ck off," I snapped, "They're not a f*cking pharmaceutical company and you know it. They make biological weapons. They're the ones who have been hunting us down and trying to kidnap us." "What?" said Harold in outrage? "Don't play the innocent with me," I said, "You're the person who created this virus. You're the one responsible for the end of the world and you're the one who made clones of your own daughter. This set up. It's all to do with you isn't it?" Harold sat in silence as he looked at me with absolute shock plastered across his face. "Luke, I think that whatever has happened to you is more serious than you realise," said Harold, "You're delusional. You need proper help. I can phone a friend of mine who works at the hospital. I'm sure he'll be able to help." Harold produced his mobile phone from his pocket, causing me to quickly grip the knife, but in a manner which didn't arouse suspicion. "If you start dialling I'll start stabbing," I firmly said, "Don't think I won't do because I've done it before and I'll do it again. I've been dying to jam something in your eye ever since I found out who you really are."