Katherin Hassan-Clarke and Esther Quinn, young lovers living on the coast of Riga, Latvia, face the terrifying realisation that their home is no longer safe when a deadly zombie pathogen ravages Eastern Europe. Fleeing their home before they are for...
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ATTENTION.
ATTENTION.
This is the Emergency Broadcast System. Take shelter immediately. Do not leave your home. This is not a drill.
Repeat: This is not a drill. A government facility has been breached. Take shelter immediately and stay connected to this frequency for further instructions.
The message was repeated three times. Then total radio silence.
Mass panic erupted across the nation. People ran from their workplaces; taking shelter in the comfort of their homes. Some called their children and cried when they received no answer.
Twelve hundred missed calls later and a sinking feeling in their gut. Generation Z would never leave their phone unattended. Especially not in a time like this. Not unless they were dead.
Weeks passed. The government didn't return. Rumours circulated over social media. Ships containing important political personnel had left the docks. The military bases were abandoned.
Power was slowly shutting down with no one to keep them running. Water was no longer pulsing through the tap. Citizens across the globe were starving. Meals of rice only sustained them for so long. There wasn't any wood for them to light a fire, now that they couldn't light their stovetop. They'd have to go outside for that. But still, they stayed put. The internet had told them everything there was to know. Do not go outside. Board your windows and lock the doors. It was better to starve to death than face the grim scene that awaited them outside.
Some people grew anxious. They paced in their homes. Should they go outside? Their children still hadn't returned home, and it had been four days since they had last heard from them. Besides, there was no food in the fridge. They hadn't bothered to go grocery shopping on Monday morning. It was much easier to go on Tuesday night. Petrol was cheaper then. They would get groceries and refuel on the trip home.
But now? They were hungry. Two days of canned vegetable soup had left them with their stomach growling. Surely, whatever was outside wasn't as bad as it seemed.
The government had said that a facility had been breached. At worst, it would be the prisons outside of town. They'd just need to avoid the criminals. The military would be patrolling the streets if that were the case. They hadn't heard any military vehicles. Come to think of it, they hadn't heard anything at all. It was probably a false alarm.
Someone would be at the local grocery store. If not, then they wouldn't mind if they took some food and left money at the counter. The manager was always so nice. The security cameras would show that they were being honest. They would understand. Not everyone had enough food to last them for several days. Most people did their groceries on Tuesday.
