1:19pm - 6 hours, 32 minutes since outbreak in London.
9 minutes since outbreak aboard MS Hoots.
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Rachel crawled through her social network feeds in a fruitless attempt to find out more about the cause and effect of the chaos in London. She had grown obsessed with looking at videos and hearing people's personal accounts, as the drama continued to unfold back in her home city, by which point even Lori had reached emotional and mental fatigue, too worn out to witness any more suffering and violence.
“Terri and her boyfriend are okay, she said they're getting the fuck outta dodge, but apparently no public services are running and naturally the streets are fucking rammed. Jeremy hasn’t replied to me and it’s making me really worried. I really hope neither he or anyone else I know were at ground zero”, Rachel informed.
“Most of my family are okay, but my uncle and auntie went into town today and haven't responded to messages and calls either, so I'm worried”.
Rachel looked up at her.
“I hope they are okay”.
“I hope Jeremy is too”.
Rachel returned to her phone and a minute or two later she broke the silence again.
“Some young girl named Ria has gotten famous on Chirper in just a few hours for documenting everything going on since this morning. The creepy thing is that six hours ago her messages were days apart, but since then they've been getting more and more frequent. She was in a car crash, she saw people attacking people, she’s lost her brother somewhere, her mother is stuck in an office that got attacked and now she's in some car with a bunch of strange guys who offered her a lift out of the city, which frankly sounds dodgy to me”.
“That does. It would be the perfect opportunity for opportunists to take advantage of the chaos by kidnapping people and stealing stuff. She shouldn’t trust them”.
“Right? I told her to make a break for it”.
“What are they calling it? Whatever is happening? Just crazy people crazying?”
“Sounds appropriate. What else can you call them? They're fucking lunatics”.
“Do you think they escaped from an asylum or something?”
“That many? And didn't you see some of them all dressed up? No. I thought it might have been something like that at first, but this is more like a zombie movie”.
“Are you seriously saying that these crazy people are… zombies?”
“Well… maybe not zombies, they don’t exist and now it sounds ridiculous having come out of my mouth, but would it be far reaching to think it spreads like an infection, similar to the whole zombie premise?”
“You think it’s spreading?”
“I say that because every video I’ve seen just shows more and more people who look dressed completely ordinarily attacking one another and behaving erratic, violent, possessed. Where else could they be coming from? The only thing that seems to make any sense is that it’s spreading. Think about it, if someone were infected with something, like say a disease or virus, it would only need to start off with one person and then they bite someone like you saw that woman do to that guy in the video and the ball just keeps rolling from there”.
“Like rabies or Ebola or something?”
“Maybe. I know how crazy that sounds, but when you take into account the pandemics the world has faced before, this isn’t that far from the mark… only worse, much worse. That would explain why police officers were shooting indiscriminately, they’ve lost track of who is and isn’t infected. It’s just a theory, but I really hope above all that I’m wrong, because if I’m right, London… no, the world has to brace itself and I don’t want to know what the outcome of this will be. I just want it all to end. These videos are terrifying and my stomach feels tight, my mind is literally buzzing with a million thoughts. I feel like I’m going to crash”.
Rachel stood up and began pacing back and forth across the cabin anxiously.
“You’re scaring me. I’m already worried sick about everyone back home. They told people to stay indoors. They should be okay if they listen, right?”
“But you saw those crazed people throwing themselves through windows without a care in the world, can just staying indoors really be safe enough?”
“Stop, I can’t”.
“I don’t mean to… I’m just… all over the place at the moment, I don’t know what to think or feel anymore”.
“I just hope you’re wrong”.
“I hope I am too”.
1:21pm - 6 hours, 34 minutes since outbreak in London.
11 minutes since outbreak aboard MS HotS.
Wilson was a wealthy successful man, he made his millions in automotive and electronic parts trading and had amassed quite a network of suppliers who could provide what he needed for suitable prices. The gift of the gab was a particularly useful thing to have in his line of work, in fact it was useful just about anywhere. There was always something to be said about a man with the divine ability to sway minds with his whipping charm, such a man was born to be something great, for simply possessing such a talent bestowed him with an upper-hand not many could claim to have. This gift wasn't limited to business, it extended to all aspects of life, friends, access to exclusive events, women, daily bargains and extended trips on-board this truly majestic and grand cruise liner.
There wasn't many things this man couldn't get with his gift, which was just the way his compass of luck pointed. Others were more than welcome to call his attitude towards life arrogant and conceited, but his success, happiness and achievements had all been attained because of those attitudes, in fact, all that he had attained because of his gift and attitudes spoke for themselves.
