Hamish poured the whisky into the glass, the ice cubes popped and cracked at its touch. Outside the weather beat relentlessly against the old house in the night and the wind howled under the front door. Inside though the open fire crackled comfortingly, Hamish sat at a chair in front of it and sipped his liquor. He reached over to the wireless that sat on a table beside him and turned the dial, static whistled and screeched through the speakers until a clear voice was audible. Hamish turned up the volume, sat back in his chair and lit his pipe.
"New reports coming in", said the radio journalist, "News agencies in America have reported that a second nuclear device has been detonated by order of the President, this second nuclear explosion happened over New York City which had been reported lost to the undead some three months ago"
Hamish shook his head and took another sip at his whisky. The ambience created by the warm fire was broken when Chuck appeared at the bathroom door; he wore just shorts and a vest and dried his hair with a towel. He poured himself a drink at the cabinet and sat on a chair next to Hamish in front of the fire. The report continued.
"And now for news closer to home, the Prime Minister has spoken out condemning the riots taking place in most cities across Britain, speaking live to BBC World Service from a government bunker the Prime Minister said the chaos created by the rioters is affecting the sufficient level of corpse control needed to stay on top of the re-animation crisis. He stressed the importance of the quick disposal of newly deceased corpses and said that Britain needed to deal with the problem at hand or face the same fate as America"
Chuck lit a cigarette and sat back in his chair, he stretched out his legs towards the fire and stared at its glowing embers. He found it hard to listen to the destruction of his home country, a sick feeling would come over him every time his mind entertained memories of old friends and good times. Hamish sensed Chuck's uneasiness and rose from his seat, he took Chucks empty glass out of his hand and patted his shoulder. Hamish took the two empty glasses and rested them on the drinks cabinet and began to pour the whisky. Chuck increased the volume on the radio.
"London was reported to be lost to the undead population by a government broadcast early this morning. The volume of the London community and close housing conditions are being blamed for the loss of England's capital. Survivors in other parts of the country are being urged to make their way immediately to their closest Rescue Station, details on active Rescue Stations are released every hour on this wavelength."
Hamish came back with the two glasses and handed one to Chuck. Chuck smiled thankfully and Hamish acknowledged him with a nod before sitting down. The radio fuzzed and hissed making the voice incoherent, Hamish leant over from his chair and adjusted the radio's aerial slightly bringing the voice back clearly again.
"… as war continues across the Middle East', the World Crisis Council told countries to fight the phenomena in their own land. Head of the World Crises Council Asif Mahir said that people worldwide must continue to think rationally or realise that at the rate the phenomena is spreading, complete world infection would be complete in as little as six months."
"Jesus", said Chuck softly staring into the glass at his lap. "What's gonna happen then? What's gonna be left?"
Hamish sat forward and regarded Chuck with a stern face. Hamish was a big strong man even though he was getting old, his hard face told stories of hard work and harsh Highland weather.
"What can we do?" replied Hamish in a matter of fact tone. "The world is not our problem now lad, our problem is our own survival and we've done all we can to ensure that. All we got to do is wait it out, these scientists reckon that the creatures cannae live no longer than twelve years. That's all we got to do, wait it out lad."
"That's all we're going to do?" asked Chuck.
"Its all we can do lad. We're safe here and we've got enough supplies to last that long. Someone has to survive, because when these creatures finally die someone has to start again."
Chuck knew Hamish was right. All they could do was survive and out in the Scottish Highlands they had a better chance than most. The house was hours away from a proper road never mind a village, and it was hidden by the surrounding hills making it near impossible to find. Indeed Hamish stated than in his sixty-five years living at the cottage he never had one visitor until he met Chuck.
This chance meeting happened four months earlier. During the initial outbreak in America Chuck was a pilot stationed in a US airbase in the north of England. On a training mission in the Scottish Highlands Chuck's plane developed major faults leaving Chuck no option but to eject to safety and abandon the plane. Hamish who had been cutting up logs behind his house saw the parachutist crash into the hills and immediately set off on foot to find him. After hours of searching Hamish found Chuck, he was unconscious and blue from the cold; it became evident that he had also broken his leg. Hamish carried Chuck over his shoulder all the way home over extremely rough terrain (a testament to the old man's strength and gritty determination) and tended to Chuck's injuries. Chuck remained mostly unconscious for a couple of weeks and was also suffering from hypothermia, during this time Hamish did all he could to contact the Air Force and inform them of the whereabouts of their pilot. Due to the remoteness of his home Hamish failed to contact the authorities and decided after a couple of weeks to wait until Chuck was better before driving him back to a city. However, as Chuck slowly recovered, the reanimated dead phenomena was quickly spreading worldwide, America especially suffered and seemed to succumb to the undead in the space of a month. Hamish told Chuck it would be unwise for him to try and get into a nearby city or go back to America and offered him a place to live. Chuck who didn't really have any other option agreed. The very next week the two men drew up plans for their survival. They figured that all they could do was wait, and all they needed was supplies. The two men took Hamish's truck on the four-hour drive to the closest village and found it to be completely deserted apart from a lone zombie that greeted them at the local shop. Hamish shot the thing in the head and insisted on giving it a proper burial before the pair started looting. With the zombie buried the pair filled Hamish's truck and another that Chuck hotwired to their maximum capacities. They completely emptied the village shop and the abandoned houses of anything edible and set off back for the old cottage. It took two days to sort out the supplies into ration boxes to last twelve years, and then the boxes were stored in order inside the outhouse besides the cottage.
So now like Hamish said, all they could do was wait, but Chuck felt uneasy about it. He felt guilty that he would be safe whilst the rest of the world suffered, he wished he shared the old mans acceptance of waiting.
Chuck turned to Hamish to speak again but Hamish stopped him with his hand, he pointed to the radio as a sign to listen. The radio reporter spoke again.
"…And crossing over live now we bring you the President of America addressing the press and citizens from a bunker in Washington." There was a lot of hushed noise in the bunker but it quickly ceased as the president began to speak. "Citizens of America and citizens of the world. As you may or may not know today I ordered the destruction of New York. This was a hard decision and not one that was made lightly. It should be pointed out that no radio contact had been made with anybody in New York for about three months, and our satellite pictures of the city showed millions of the undead walking through the streets. Our hearts go out to the people of the city. But sadly it must be realised that we will continue to bomb parts of our home country, it is essential to know that even when this crisis ends our country will be riddled with various diseases due to the millions of corpses, walking or otherwise, and it will make the country uninhabitable. By bombing large areas the survivors in years to come will have somewhere to rebuild relatively free from disease. My scientists have assured me that the disease responsible for reactivation carries on attacking the brain long after the corpse has risen again, eventually this disease will destroy the brain completely leaving the corpse dead for good. This process however, will take around ten or twelve years. We feel that all other efforts have been exhausted; all we can do is wait. And when the crisis is over the survivors will rise again and lift this great nation from the ashes. God bless America, God bless us all."
That was the end of the transmission. Chuck drained the last of his whisky from his glass and stood up slowly.
"I'm gonna hit the sack now Hamish."
"Aye lad, goodnight"
Chuck went to his room and shut the door behind him. Once in bed he wondered about the next twelve years stuck in the house, the thoughts of being bored and lonely struggled against the thoughts of security and safety. Like Hamish said there was nothing he could do but wait, but the statement filled him with anxiety. It was not staying with Hamish that bothered him; they got on fine even though Hamish shied from conversation if he had not had a drink. No, it was a feeling of guilt and laziness that bothered Chuck, he wanted to help the world but he couldn't, he felt useless. Chuck drifted into an uneasy sleep.
And slowly, very slowly, twelve years passed.
Chuck sat in the chair with a near empty bottle of whisky in his hand and a shotgun by his side. He was slouched back in his seat and his chin lay on his chest. The small fire crackled in front of him and the wireless blew empty static out of its speaker. It had been twelve years, twelve years to the day that his President had told him to wait. Well Chuck had had enough of waiting, he wanted a reason to live and he waited twelve years for that reason, if it didn't come tonight Chuck would end it all.
He had become increasingly lonely; Hamish fell ill in the seventh year of the wait, his health decreased rapidly in the space of a few weeks leaving him bed ridden and dying. For a couple of weeks Hamish begged Chuck to kill him, he was in a lot of pain and worried about reanimating again once he died. Chuck couldn't do it though, it didn't just feel like he was losing his only friend but losing the last person on the planet second to him. One morning as Chuck was in bed Hamish dragged himself outside and shot himself in the head. After burying Hamish it became apparent that Chuck had not only lost his companion but he had lost his sanity too. From then on Chuck contemplated suicide many times, he felt as though he was the last man alive and couldn't bare the loneliness and silence. He had not spoken to anybody since Hamish's death, even radio reports had decreased in number to a point that hearing one was a major event, the last one Chuck heard was ten months ago. He was all alone and certain he didn't want to be the last man alive.
As the old grandfather clock struck midnight, Chuck got out of his seat and stood upright the best he could. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he put the barrel of the shotgun under his chin. Then he pulled the trigger.
As the clock struck one the body of Chuck laid still in front of the fire, his blood soaked the wooden floor and the light from the fire made it shine bright crimson. And then the radio blurted into life.
"Citizens of the world this is the BBC World Service. We apologise for the lack of broadcasts this last year, it has taken us a long time to fix difficulties with damaged transmitters and the broken electric supply here. Today is a day that will be remembered in history. For the first time in four years we have received transmissions from America, the survivors there state that the undead walk no more and lie rotting in the streets, reports similar to this have been coming in for the last five months from all over the world as well as cities in England. More recent reports are claiming that newly deceased people are not reanimating but remaining dead. It looks as though this is the new beginning, God bless us all. Please stand by your radio for further announcements…"
- THE END -