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darkness.’ Tom began to sob slightly. ‘Then my
girlfriend was killed just as I was about to propose to
her.’
    ‘ Oh my god…
I’m so sorry to hear that.’ Danni sounded truly sad for him. She
walked up to Tom and held his shoulders, forcing him to wince at
the pain of her touch. ‘I’m really sorry.’ There was a moment of
silence with Tom sniffing every so often. Danni continued to speak.
‘Don’t you think it sounds like an EMP?’
     
    ‘ Electric
magnetic pulse? Like the ones on action films?’ Tom asked, and
Danni confirmed with a nod. Tom continued to speak. ‘I suppose it
could be. I never thought of that. But I was above here for a long
time and I was attacked by some hovercraft machine that was
shooting everything above ground. I can’t think what it could be, a
spaceship or an alien attack?’
     
    ‘ To be honest
Tom, I couldn’t tell you. It doesn’t sound like human activity. You
cannot trust anyone these days and if we’re dealing with an alien
invasion or some sort of attack from space. It would be best to
stay down here.’
    Tom looked
disappointed and replied.
    ‘ I had a plan
to go up there and go to my house. It might sound mad, but I have
this old cassette player that has radio frequency on it that allows
you to speak and communicate on other frequencies. I wanted to get
to it and see if I could get any contact from anyone. Then we could
try to see if we could get together with them to try to figure out
what is going on and then try and stop this thing. Tom heard
footsteps behind him and a bullet being jacked into a gun
chamber.
    ‘ Me and my
daughter are not going anywhere with you.’ The gravelly voice of a
man standing behind Tom bellowed, ‘Turn around!’ His voice echoed
through the tunnel.
    Tom turned
around slowly, with his hands up, hoping not to startle this
clearly crazy man. In front of him stood a huge, black man, holding
an AK47. He was about 6 feet tall, wearing a red jumper and black
trousers. His skin looked blotchy and his eyes were
bloodshot
    ‘ Dad. Come
on, now, he’s fine.’
    ‘ I don’t
trust anyone.’
    ‘ Tom, this is
my dad. You can call him Graham.’
    ‘ He won’t be
calling me anything.’
    ‘ Dad, we are
going above. We have a good plan that could work. He has
information about above.’
    ‘ I heard what
he said. An alien invasion? Come on Danni. I thought you were more
intelligent than that.’
    ‘ Dad, how can
you be so sure? We don’t know what’s going on. We’re going up above
now; if you want to come, then please help us.’
    Danni grabbed
Tom by the arm and dragged him along with her. They walked toward
the exit and up the steps. They reached the top and looked at the
destruction above. Danni was on Tom’s left and Graham was on his
right. Graham gave Tom a handgun.
    ‘ You’re
probably gonna need this.’
    ‘ Cheers.’ Tom
put the gun behind his back in between his trousers and belt. He
looked back at Graham. His eyes were filled with blood. Blood began
to dribble slightly out of his right eye. Graham quickly wiped it
away and began to cough.
    Tom chose to
ignore Graham’s worsening symptoms. ‘This is near Jubilee Park.
I’ve already been here. Luckily, my house wasn’t far from here;
it’s about a two minute walk. It might be quicker now that there’s
nowhere to walk around to get there.’ Tom said.
    Tom led while
Danni and Graham followed, all of them on guard against any of the
infected.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    8
     
    They reached
the street where Tom’s house once was. Now there was nothing but
open land with rocks and debris strewn all around. They walked down
what was once the middle of the road, gazing at the remains of the
houses. Tom tried to remember how things once looked. They
continued onward until they reached Tom’s old house. Tom stood
where the pavement and his pathway to the door once were. He
mentally compared what once was to this wasteland. He sighed and
began worrying about how best to