When everything went to hell,mum told me to take my sister and head to our grandparents' house on the Isle of Mizenthorpe, right up near the Hebrides. We didn't even know we had grandparents, let alone that they lived right at the furthest point of the UK.
So we left them behind and headed north, headed away from the burning towns and smouldering cities, using unnamed roads and scavenging for food in the farms that were abandoned amidst all the chaos. While the world was collapsing in on itself, there we were-two children and a solar-powered bike with a sidecar attached.
Every time we came near toa body,my sister would try and get me to go over and help them. She was too young to understand what death was and what the world was coming to so I just said they were sleeping and told her to be quiet and let them rest.
I didn't want to try and explain that waking them from their fever-induced coma would set off the second stage of the plague. I was too busy trying to figure out how we'd get to the other islands and exactly which one was Mizenthorpe. Our best bet was hoping one of the ferries was still running its route and hadn't been commandeered, broken or sunk.
I should have spent more time teaching my sister about the new reality we faced and that being silent and staying cold was for the best. She was forever complaining that she wanted to be warmer and one day I just snapped and told her to go get the plague and burn up.
She ran away crying and that was the last time I saw her alive. Five days of searching the area and I found her, well, what was left of her at least. Her head looked like she was sleeping, like she'd gone to bed and been brutally murdered before she even realised what was going on.
It was a mercy, really it was. It's better that she went to join our parents and didn't live long enough to realise that we were lied to. I found maps in an old petrol station and - surprise, surprise - Mizenthorpe doesn't and never has existed.
I'm glad my sister never found this out. She was looking forward to meeting the rest of our family and now I guess she is. I'm still alive and heading for the outermost isles in the hopes that somebody - anybody-has survived.
Wish me luck.
So we left them behind and headed north, headed away from the burning towns and smouldering cities, using unnamed roads and scavenging for food in the farms that were abandoned amidst all the chaos. While the world was collapsing in on itself, there we were-two children and a solar-powered bike with a sidecar attached.
Every time we came near toa body,my sister would try and get me to go over and help them. She was too young to understand what death was and what the world was coming to so I just said they were sleeping and told her to be quiet and let them rest.
I didn't want to try and explain that waking them from their fever-induced coma would set off the second stage of the plague. I was too busy trying to figure out how we'd get to the other islands and exactly which one was Mizenthorpe. Our best bet was hoping one of the ferries was still running its route and hadn't been commandeered, broken or sunk.
I should have spent more time teaching my sister about the new reality we faced and that being silent and staying cold was for the best. She was forever complaining that she wanted to be warmer and one day I just snapped and told her to go get the plague and burn up.
She ran away crying and that was the last time I saw her alive. Five days of searching the area and I found her, well, what was left of her at least. Her head looked like she was sleeping, like she'd gone to bed and been brutally murdered before she even realised what was going on.
It was a mercy, really it was. It's better that she went to join our parents and didn't live long enough to realise that we were lied to. I found maps in an old petrol station and - surprise, surprise - Mizenthorpe doesn't and never has existed.
I'm glad my sister never found this out. She was looking forward to meeting the rest of our family and now I guess she is. I'm still alive and heading for the outermost isles in the hopes that somebody - anybody-has survived.
Wish me luck.
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