I wonder what they will say, those people yet unborn. When they look back at their history and see this time. What questions will they ask?
Will they wonder why we did nothing as things grew worse and worse? Will they ask why we did nothing. Why we ignored the danger. Why we stood aside and let things get so bad. So many questions they could ask, would ask. I can almost guess the questions because we asked those questions about peoples and cultures that came before us.
Why did they all die, why did their civilisation collapse, why did they start that war that destroyed them?
So many questions we asked without ever understanding why those ancient peoples failed and died. So many questions those future people will ask about us, without ever understanding why we failed and died.
Another siren outside, several sirens. My outside camera shows the road so I glance at it, three armoured cars of some sort, six wheels, little turrets on top. The blue and black logo of one of the private security companies. Little more than legal mercenaries really but if you can afford them they are better than the police. Too few left now, the boys in blue guard the politicians and the rich and leave the rest of us to suffer.
I started this blog to keep a record, its someone to talk to, somewhere to place my thoughts. I don’t know why. I have a feeling, it’s getting bad. I just have this feeling that I’m not going to be able to talk much longer. It’s a feeling, just a feeling.
Anyway it’s getting late, curfew in a few minutes and the power will start to drop after that. I need to turn everything off.
Another aircraft down. It’s on the news today. An Airbus, one of the older ones still used for flights around the safer areas. No one seems to know what happened, some say a bomb, others a missile. Either way its down and it looks like no survivors.
Second one this month. Just about the end of air travel even here in Europe. The flights across the Atlantic are still going but they are escorted till way out over the ocean. Too expensive for people though. Just some rich bastards or business types. The politicians fly military these days. Don’t see them travelling with the people, they would probably get killed and it wouldn’t be a terrorist.
More on the free news sites. A missile, some fanatic parked at the end of the runway and fired it from his car. Blew himself up but launched the missile just as the plane was coming in to land. Poor sods didn’t have a chance. Doesn’t look like any survivors.
No one claiming responsibility yet but it doesn’t matter who did it, so many fanatics. So many extremists, so many people who just want to destroy and kill and die. Who can tell them apart these days?
Was talking to some mates yesterday, they wanted a favour, I had tools and the skill for the job. They picked me up mid morning this morning. It was a pair of semis down by the roundabout. Run down, broken into a few times but still looking solid. Could I secure the place, they could get timber and stuff. They had someone to knock through the inner wall but needed someone to do the security stuff.
It’s going to take me a few days, not as young as I used to be but as long as I have power it’s doable. I’ll drill the downstairs walls and fit bars first. Some good steel they found, if there’s any leftover I may take it home, put a lockable grill over the stairs so I can lock myself in upstairs.
News today, headlines about some Celebrity could cheating on his wife with another bloke. Someone getting married, ten million dollar wedding. Mickey mouse money, so much it’s not real.
Oh and something about a blogger sent to prison for breaking the national digital security laws, the TV is calling him a spy and a traitor. The free news sites say he was hacking MP expenses claims.
Economy still doing poorly, slow recovery ongoing. Austerity measures needed for next decade.
Footballer breaks signing records, nine figure transfer fee.
Finished, took me four days. Nice job if I say so myself. I blocked off all but one door, grilled the downstairs windows and rebuilt the last door. It looks crap from the outside on account of all the self locking bolt heads sticking out of the plastic but they are holding onto the two inch thick wooden door inside. Handmade but nice, good hinges and bolts. Take a ram to shift it.
They let me take the scraps and put me on to a guy they knew. Got two almost new car batteries and a dynamo from him as payment. Now I need to find a lecky bloke who can rig me up something and I can have power during the blackouts.
They come in near midnight, well after the curfew. I hear some alarms go off up the street. First one then another and another. I walked to my little office in the spare bedroom where my camera monitor is. Carefully going around the furniture. Its dark, can’t risk a light that they might see from outside. It could be looters or it could be another murder gang.
Can’t see much, the street lights went off years ago, economic drive they said. But some star light and a bit of moonlight.
There.
Movement.
Three, five, eight of them. Cannot see who they are. White, black, Pakistani, Chinese. These days it could be any of them or all of them, some of the downtown gangs take in everyone and prey on everyone. The other gangs stick to their own and prey on everyone else.
One of them is coming closer. He’s at my door. Stay quite. Don’t make a sound. Where did I put my cricket bat. Its old and battered, haven’t played for a decade, wasn’t even mine. I got it from a car boot down the market.
He looks young, fit, dangerous. My breathing is getting louder, how can he not hear me panting in fear. I can maybe take him, surprise him, hit him on the head. The rest would kill me. They would kill me anyway most likely.
He kicks my door, it rattles but holds. Solid wood, it’s an old terrace where I live. Not those modern plastic shit estates where the walls fall apart after a few years. He kicks the door again. Please hold, two bolts, all the extra hinges. Please hold.
He is trying the bars over the windows now; no way can he get in there. Half inch iron bars set through the brick not screwed on.
He’s walking away, heading to next door. Others drift in to sight, following him. They are past, not going after me tonight. My breath is impossibly loud as I release it. I didn't even notice I was holding my breath. I’m safe. For tonight at least.
The scream was female, couldn't tell the age. The sound of breaking grass. A roar like hungry animals. Breaking glass again, now wood breaking. A man’s voice shouting. Then a man’s scream, pain and, and, silence.
The woman screaming again, now begging for mercy.
The begging stopped, the sobbing went on till dawn.
It was the Davison’s, husband beaten to death, wife, well lets just say it was rape and leave it at that. House wrecked and looted. The online police response line gave them an incident number. The hospital didn’t send an ambulance, none available but if she could get to the emergency room they could see her today.
The other women in the street took her into another house and stayed with her, us men stayed away.
A few people have been asking about bars and strong doors. I tell them I have no materials, what I have is for me not them.
Some of them talk, one knows a man with wood, another may have some iron bars. They walk off talking in a small group, maybe they will be back.
Had to go out today. Needed to sign on.
The streets were mostly empty, a few neighbours nodding as they hurry somewhere. A pair of fire engines, the new ones with the big metal ram plates and the steel grills on the windows, racing past, lights and sirens. Not stopping here, we were just between them and a fire they get paid to respond to.
Round here if someone catches fire we get the garden hoses out and do for ourselves. As long as its not summer and the water gets cut off. Lots of old fire extinguishers around though, probably too old to work but its all most have these days.
Made it to the high street. A bunch of rent a guards facing off with one of the teen gangs. The gangs rob shoppers and raid shops, the shops hire the guards to stop them. The police, off across town where the rich people live and shop. Don’t see them here that often and its only because it was really bad.
The job centre has a huge queue outside. That’s bad, looks like they are weapon checking everyone. Good job I got here early but am I early enough. If I’m late the bastards will stop my money, kick me off benefits, doesn't matter if it’s them that made me late by keeping me outside. They don’t care anymore, used to be some of them cared about people. Now they are burned out, too many of us, too few of them. I heard they get a bonus for kicking enough people each month.
Queue is going forward. Metal detector, mag wand and a pat down for anyone who looks like trouble. I’m not trouble. I’m old, see the grey hair. I’m tired, bent over, no trouble. Let me in, please let me in.
The guard sneers at me, taller, heavier, stronger, I’m no threat. He waves me through the metal detector.
I’m in, thanks be to whatever power is up there.
A queue inside to get to the desk, its long but that doesn't matter. I’m inside the building in time so they have to sign me. Bunch of bastards can’t argue with me being in the building on time. Not yet.
That’s it, signed off for another month. Just like the rest of the twelve odd million of us. Unified credit system to include jobseekers, disabled and the rest. So many of us they couldn't cope with weekly or bi weekly. Now it’s monthly. Dangerous though, need to be careful. It’s not much and one little bill early in the month and I could go a week or more with no money.
The rent is digital, never see that, goes to the landlord company. Not something I have to worry about, not like a live in a three bed or a semi where I could get kicked out so they can jump the rent for the next tenant. No, down on the terraces no one cares, pay the rent, don’t destroy the building. That’s it.
Finished the grill today. Its a good job. Set into the solid brick walls and it angles down over the stairwell. Two good solid bolts. I should be nice and safe unless they climb up the outside. I’ll look out for more metal for the upstairs windows.
I should move my food upstairs as well.
Caught some world news today. Some sort of monthly summery. The Iran – Saudi war seems to be petering out. Only one Iranian nuke went off, only seventy thousand casualties on the Saudi side. The Saudis fired back with a lot of stuff but don’t seem to have done that much damage. Odd, maybe they were caught off guard.
The middle east is still fighting elsewhere. What’s left of Syria is like the Somme now, lines of trenches and bunkers between shattered cities. The Caliphate is fighting the Kurds and the Iraqis and the Saudis and has just about taken over Jordan. The Jordanians still hold most of the capital but only because of Israeli airstrikes against the Caliphate forces. Though the airstrikes seem to be causing a lot of local casualties as well as caliphate soldiers.
Egypt is in the middle of its on again off again war against the Muslim brotherhood, lots of dead on both sides.
So much fighting elsewhere they no longer even bother to mention it, just the routine casualty figures.
Not a lot of news coming out of middle Africa. Some reports of panic in South Africa, the third case this year of Ebola in the country. Most of the central nations have been overrun with the disease and it was carried with refugees. We don’t see than on the news anymore. Troops machine gunning refugee groups to stop them carrying Ebola into new countries. Looks like it’s getting there anyway.
The US and china have stopped shooting at each other. Just a mistake, a Chinese destroyer sunk and two US aircraft shot down. Just a mistake, not a war, oh no, not a war.
Not a lot from the far east. Some reports about Japanese military expansion again, unconfirmed reports of Japanese troops places where they had no right to be. The new Japanese government is militant and expansionist and supporting the US against a common enemy, China. So I guess no one is going to say boo to them.
Brasil doing better. Economy on the up, poverty on the down. Though the online sites report they have simply stopped counting the poor so it looks better.
Argentina is rattling its rusty old sabre again about taking the Falkland’s. Fat chance of that. Britain has its largest overseas garrison there and those troops are outnumbered by the corporate security forces. A Trillion dollars in oil, no way anyone is going to take that away from the oil companies.
Europe. Well Germany is doing well as usual. Anti Arab riots in the north of France. Anti Jewish riots in the south of France. Anti immigrant riots over most of Europe. Greece has yet another new governor assigned by the IMF and EU, it’s hard to imagine how bad things are there as they are said to be much worse than here.
Most of the rest of Europe, same as here. Token democracies, austerity, lies, riots, poor against the rich but the rich have all the guns and soldiers and resources.
Food day today, had to go out again. It’s across town so I got out my bike and my old army backpack. Both hard used and worn but both still do the job.
The roads are more pot holes than roads, weaving around the holes, trying to avoid the bumps. My tyres are worn almost smooth, just a hint of pattern around the edges. It’s an old off road bike, only sort you still see. Those road bikes all fell apart years ago. Not worried about punctures, last year it was all punctures, couldn’t afford to fix them. Then I was pointed to a good deal. Back of a lorry, cash. I could barely afford it and didn’t have much beyond bread and tea for a week but, solid rubber bike wheels. Something for the rich types that had gotten lost. The tyres are some sort of weird honeycomb shapes inside so they are not that hard but they never go down. Plus you just put a normal rubber tyre over the top and they work just like normal.
You have no idea what it’s like to be immobile, can’t afford a taxi even if one would come out here, no buses, trains no use. But with a bike, I can go places, it gives me range to do stuff for myself.
It allows me to get to the food bank. They closed the local one down, ten, maybe eleven months ago. Couldn’t get any food, too many people.
But with my bike I can go across town to the other one, they are next to the supermarkets, they get the out of date food now. The supermarkets used to throw it, then they got torched and the managers were... Dealt with. So now they generously donate it.
The place looks like a bunker, concert blocks stopping ram raids, the windows on the ground floor covered with metal shutters. Guards on the door.
I join the queue. Its long as usual. Slow going. Step by step till I’m in the door. The shelves look half empty as usual.
I get to the desk. Hand over the form I got when I signed on to prove I’m on benefits.
The woman at the desk looks tired, worn out. But then we all look like that these days, all but the people with money and jobs.
She stamps the paperwork and I wait. The woman in front of me has two young kids, both crying and playing up. An old man comes out of the back room and hands her a pair of carrier bags. She grabs them as if someone is going to steal them and steps away. Then she looks inside and I see her face fall.
“I have children, can’t you see the children. I can’t feed them on this. Not for a month” She is suddenly close to tears. She looks at the children who are now looking at her, shocked by her voice and tears. “I can’t feed them on this.”
Something bumps my arm, the man is handing me a bag. About the same size as either of the woman’s bags. But then she’s too young, looks like she had kids out of school, never worked so the system treats her as a non payer. Me, I worked my life, well most of it, I have a drop of a pension, I’m flagged as a tax payer. So I get a bit more from the government food banks.
I look in my bag, mostly tins good for a few weeks, half a lettuce at the end of its life, some other fresh stuff.
I step over to the woman. She sees me coming closer and pulls the bags close to her chest with one arm while pulling the children close with the other.
I rummage in my bag and pull out the fresh stuff, Lettuce, tomatoes, some fresh fruit. I hand them to the children then walk away. I see her snatch them from the children as I turn away.
I’m at the door before I hear it, almost too quiet to be heard. “Thank you”. So quiet, perhaps I imagine it after all.
It was in the news today, not the major media companies; they are full of the usual crap about disasters and celebrities. No it was one of the anarchist sites. Today is exactly three years since we got them back in power. Well I say we but I didn’t vote for them, don’t know anyone that did. But between them and their lapdogs they got the coalition back in again. The other lot, lots of shouting but no one cares about them anymore, just a bunch of fools and idiots.
Three years. Time flies. But then I can’t remember that day, I’m sure it was in all the news, don’t remember it myself. Too much has happened since then.
I've been checking the news this morning; some of my sites have been blocked, found a new one that is the same bloke who was shut down last month. It’s not so bad now, the free news sites are too many and too mobile, the government may call them anarchists and radicals but it can’t shut them down. So we still get some news, some truth.
Three years since they got in, two years to the next election. But there is talk now. Emergency powers, an act of parliament. Suspending the election for the duration. Too many problems to risk major government changes.
So that’s the last shreds of democracy done for then.
Some stories getting passed around in the news today. Both the main media and the online independent free news sites. Disease outbreak in Iran. It’s been happening for at least a week but the news is only just getting out. They reckon it’s the African Ebola somehow made it to Iran. Lots of talking heads saying how bad it is.
One mentioned over a hundred thousand dead over the last few years in Africa, but that’s Africa, no one cares. The middle East, that’s more on the news, more people worried.
Seem to be busy suddenly. Some of the neighbours came back with wood, one had some quarter inch rebar, one had some metal sheets. Mostly salvage and scrap but it does the job. So I’m doing up the place security wise. Talked to the people across the back. We can secure the backs of both lines of terraces just by blocking the alley at either end. One bloke claims to be a bricky, says he can do that if everyone helps find him bricks and stuff.
I’m doing the fronts, bars on the windows and bracing the doors. I’m putting aside enough bars to do my upstairs. Payment for my work.
Had some police come round. Two cars, both old patrol cars with grills riveted onto the windows. Four cops, struggling to get out with all the body armour and webbing and stuff. Two armed, stayed by the cars, the other pair walked up to me.
What do you think you’re doing he says, what’s it bloody look like says I.
You got planning permission says he. Yep says I, now fuck off so I can work.
Got reports anarchists had moved in here, fortifying the place, casuing trouble.
Nope, we all live here, lived here for years.
So let’s see the paperwork then, planning permission from the council.
By now half the street has come out and is watching, nothing hostile, the cops are armed and we don’t want any... Acidents. Just standing and watching.
I stare at the cop, he looks around. Looks at what I’m doing, looks at the crowd. Then he looks at a few of the upstairs windows, slightly open, dark inside, could be snipers.
He walks back to his car and his buddy follows. They piss off, useless bastards. Never a response when the Davison’s were hit but try to defend yourself and you get four of em. Across the street Mickey peers out, bit of a lad is Mickey, done some time, done some violence but not in the street. As he steps away I catch a glimpse, a shotgun. Where did he get that. I guess the Davison’s made everyone worried.
News again, Hundredth case in south Africa, mass panic. News coming out of Iran getting scarce, reports of mass infection and plague. Some talking about refugees carrying it into Irag.
The Turks seem to have decided to deal with the Kurds again, this time though the Iraqi Kurds seem to have been helping them. The Turkish army got a good kicking and fell back. Now talking about a major mobilisation.
The caliphate decided the Kurds were distracted and attacked them from the west. The Kurds are busy fighting the Turkish army and called for help from what’s left of Iraq, word is they will help.
Iragi forces have attacked the caliphate and done badly, word is the capital is now under attack. Word is they are calling from help from Iran.
Iran has sent troops, between the Kurds and Iran/Iraq they are pushing back the Caliphate soldiers. Lots of suicide bombs and car bombs going off.
Reports of disease outbreak in Iraq
Rumours online. The World Health Organisation have identified the disease in the middle east. Rumour says its hemorrhagic fever but NOT African Ebola. Independent news sites are full of rumour and speculation. Major media. Not a word.
Breaking news. One site online has a story. The outbreak in the middle east was a weaponized hemorrhagic, it was a bio weapon, deliberate. The news is spreading fast as other sites pick it up.
The original site is suddenly down, cannot access it anymore.
News coming out of the middle east dropping away. Fighting between Kurds, Turkey, Caliphate, Iraq and Iran was getting more intense, now suddenly no news. Free news sites trying to contact locals but massive cut offs of internet and mobile networks in region.
Breaking. Phone footage, French gunboat firing on refugee boats coming from Africa, they sink both boats then machine gun any swimmers. Bloody murder, a police boat rams the people doing the filming and the feed stops.
Something new. Travel restrictions, not just a curfew but restriction on distance travelled. Nothing that affects me, it’s not like I cycle to the next town and I can travel around here without restrictions. Not sure what that is about, probably another security clampdown. Private security is the only growth industry these days.
Its finished at last, took weeks and I’m too old for this crap but everyone helped. We have every single house on the street secured. Bars and braced doors. The alley behind is bricked up, the bloke turned out to be a proper builder type. Twelve foot tall double bricked walls with some nice broken glass set on top.
The people behind have been talking to me, all our back doors are safe because of the walled up alley but there fronts are still at risk, would I mind helping out?
Still not sure what to do about the houses opposite me, the fronts are now safe but they back onto the old railway line. It’s a nine foot drop from their back yards down to the rails and they have wooden fences but both ends are open. Maybe some sort of barricade or fence to block them in.
We are getting a nice little we fortress here. People are coming out more, pulling together. Wonder if someone can find some really big old gates or metal grills, I could fix up the ends of the street and we could shut them at night.
I’ll ask around.
Meanwhile, time for a well earned cup of tea.
One of the wives in the street is a nurse, she was saying something about medical supplies being rationed. They were getting less at the hospital, a lot of stuff was being diverted somewhere, not bandages and stuff but drugs, antibiotics, that sort of thing.
She said some of the doctors were nervous but wouldn’t say why.
News on a few sites. A Dutch blogger had been found dead, the police were calling it a suicide. The free news sites were saying he was behind the site that had reported the WHO report on the bio weapon. Suicide says the authorities, just after his site was shut down.
Yep, seems legit to me. Politicians fucking with us as usual.
News coming in. Israel is nuking everyone around it. What the fuck, this can’t be right. Phone footage, mushroom clouds on the horizon. Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, it’s like they are burning a radioactive line round their borders. What the fuck is happening.
Internet is becoming a bit spotty, seems to be slow at times. Lots of areas now not accessible. Social media is buzzing but not seeming to get it. Free news sites are reporting most of the Middle east and Africa is off the grid. Bloggers and people in those areas offline and out of contact.
Israel is still online but no one there seems to know what is going on. They just nuked hundreds of miles of desert and everyone is screaming.
Something on TV, a film crew reporting live, an anti immigration operation checking lorries at the tunnel when suddenly a whole load of guys in white plastic suits with gas masks come into the shot, they surround a lorry some way behind the film crew but the camera man turns to film them. They pull the driver out and some of them are opening the container. Some sort of fighting, dark skinned faces, a struggle. Gunfire, figures falling.
The screen blanks then returns to the studio, a surprised looking woman says technical difficulties and goes to the sports.
A Russian blogger is reporting that Russian troops are locking down the western and southern borders. Shoot on sight orders to anyone who tries to enter Russia. The most recent Ukrainian government is complaining it’s a trick. Reports have it Russian citizens from Europe are fleeing across the border into Russia while they still can.
Something from Jerusalem, some sort of medical alert. Travel suspended across the city, hospitals closing, troops in gas masks on the streets. Mobile networks going down but internet still available.
Something on the TV. Summer flu outbreak, nothing to worry about but please don’t all rush to hospitals as antibiotics don’t work as it’s a virus, just stay at home. Nothing to worry about, just a summer flu virus.
The nurse is gone, she came home today, ran into her house and twenty minutes later came out with her husband and son. They piled cases into their little car till it was packed solid then took off, it’s nearly curfew time and they aren’t supposed to drive to far. Something going on, that’s sure.
Today there was a big online conference. A lot of the free news sites and bloggers putting everything together. It looks bad. Some of the neighbours also visit these sites and this has been advertised for days so we were all watching from our houses and a lot of the others had come round as well.
Not a lot of hard facts but a lot of stuff was reported from multiple reliable sources.
Most of Africa wasn't just off line, it was gone. They were talking about tens of millions of dead and a total breakdown. That was the Ebola outbreak.
The Middle east was the Saudi’s using a bio weapon against Iran, only it took a while to get going and then spread. Diseases don’t stop at borders, any fool knows its a bad idea but it’s a religious war, they just don’t care.
Iran, Iraq, mostly gone. The Kurds, what was left of them, were reported to be hiding in the hills and staying isolated. Egypt was reporting mass outbreaks.
Several French cities were now reporting mass outbreaks along the southern coast where refugees had arrived. Spain was the same. Italy, Greece, also reporting mass outbreaks but for them it was refugees coming from the middle east or turkey and that wasn't Ebola, that was the bio weapon.
The government had vanished, last night they packed up and left. All communication from an unknown location by phone or video link. The lorry that had just been caught on screen by the film crew, that wasn't the only one. Six cases reported in Dover this morning.
We were sitting there, looking at each other, numb. It didn't make sense. What was happening to us.
I don’t know who said it, someone did. Just a few simple words. “We need to grab food and water, while we still can.”
After curfew and it was quiet and dark. The street lights were off and so were the headlights. I was surprised by how many of us there were, and how many cars and vans we had between us. Not that many people drove, too expensive but when it came down to it we had a convoy. Most of us were nervous, this wasn't listening to a few anarchist sites, this was breaking and entering and robbery.
Had we gone that far. Hell if I knew but I was here anyway.
We split up, half to one supermarket, the rest of us to the other. They back doors were alarmed but once the door was open our electrician quickly found the right wires and silenced it. I didn't go shopping that often but this was the biggest supermarket in town, but it was two thirds empty. We cleaned out the stores and then went out to the shelves, some people went after fresh stuff but most of us went after tins and long term stuff. We filled the cars and half filed both vans.
No police, no security, nothing at all.
I stood there looking around and saw the bunker. The food bank, I pointed it out and both vans were moved over there. The door was actually stronger than the supermarkets but it came down after a few blows and we were in. Not a lot but we took everything.
I was standing there when the man who loaded the bags came in, there was a staircase in the back room and he half ran down it, barefoot, trousers over a pajama top. He tried to stop some of the men and they just pushed him aside. He saw me, maybe he recognised me.
“Please stop them, this is for everyone. Please. Stop them.”
The men had taken every box and bag, cleared out the place and were leaving. I went after them.
“Please don’t take the food. Please.” His voice is quiet. So quiet, perhaps I imagine it after all.
We have enough food for a month if we are careful, someone says to fill everything we have with water so we do. We are secure, we can feed ourselves, we have water. Power is getting a bit flaky but the phone lines and internet are still up and with my little dynamo I can still run my computer.
The TV is reporting more restrictions. Riots, trouble. Seems we got in first, looting starting. The police and security seem to have gone. The armed forces, all gone. Probably wherever the government went to. Been online all day today. One by one sites and bloggers are going dark. Forums getting empty, people worried. Lot of online friends who have never met saying their goodbyes.
It’s bad all round. We have food and water, we are fairly secure. We have even found friendships with each other. But what then. What happens next? Where do we go from here?
Why didn't we see what was happening, why didn't we stop it? Why didn't we ask question while we still could?
Will they wonder why we did nothing as things grew worse and worse? Will they ask why we did nothing. Why we ignored the danger. Why we stood aside and let things get so bad. So many questions they could ask, would ask. I can almost guess the questions because we asked those questions about peoples and cultures that came before us.
Why did they all die, why did their civilisation collapse, why did they start that war that destroyed them?
So many questions we asked without ever understanding why those ancient peoples failed and died. So many questions those future people will ask about us, without ever understanding why we failed and died.
Another siren outside, several sirens. My outside camera shows the road so I glance at it, three armoured cars of some sort, six wheels, little turrets on top. The blue and black logo of one of the private security companies. Little more than legal mercenaries really but if you can afford them they are better than the police. Too few left now, the boys in blue guard the politicians and the rich and leave the rest of us to suffer.
I started this blog to keep a record, its someone to talk to, somewhere to place my thoughts. I don’t know why. I have a feeling, it’s getting bad. I just have this feeling that I’m not going to be able to talk much longer. It’s a feeling, just a feeling.
Anyway it’s getting late, curfew in a few minutes and the power will start to drop after that. I need to turn everything off.
Another aircraft down. It’s on the news today. An Airbus, one of the older ones still used for flights around the safer areas. No one seems to know what happened, some say a bomb, others a missile. Either way its down and it looks like no survivors.
Second one this month. Just about the end of air travel even here in Europe. The flights across the Atlantic are still going but they are escorted till way out over the ocean. Too expensive for people though. Just some rich bastards or business types. The politicians fly military these days. Don’t see them travelling with the people, they would probably get killed and it wouldn’t be a terrorist.
More on the free news sites. A missile, some fanatic parked at the end of the runway and fired it from his car. Blew himself up but launched the missile just as the plane was coming in to land. Poor sods didn’t have a chance. Doesn’t look like any survivors.
No one claiming responsibility yet but it doesn’t matter who did it, so many fanatics. So many extremists, so many people who just want to destroy and kill and die. Who can tell them apart these days?
Was talking to some mates yesterday, they wanted a favour, I had tools and the skill for the job. They picked me up mid morning this morning. It was a pair of semis down by the roundabout. Run down, broken into a few times but still looking solid. Could I secure the place, they could get timber and stuff. They had someone to knock through the inner wall but needed someone to do the security stuff.
It’s going to take me a few days, not as young as I used to be but as long as I have power it’s doable. I’ll drill the downstairs walls and fit bars first. Some good steel they found, if there’s any leftover I may take it home, put a lockable grill over the stairs so I can lock myself in upstairs.
News today, headlines about some Celebrity could cheating on his wife with another bloke. Someone getting married, ten million dollar wedding. Mickey mouse money, so much it’s not real.
Oh and something about a blogger sent to prison for breaking the national digital security laws, the TV is calling him a spy and a traitor. The free news sites say he was hacking MP expenses claims.
Economy still doing poorly, slow recovery ongoing. Austerity measures needed for next decade.
Footballer breaks signing records, nine figure transfer fee.
Finished, took me four days. Nice job if I say so myself. I blocked off all but one door, grilled the downstairs windows and rebuilt the last door. It looks crap from the outside on account of all the self locking bolt heads sticking out of the plastic but they are holding onto the two inch thick wooden door inside. Handmade but nice, good hinges and bolts. Take a ram to shift it.
They let me take the scraps and put me on to a guy they knew. Got two almost new car batteries and a dynamo from him as payment. Now I need to find a lecky bloke who can rig me up something and I can have power during the blackouts.
They come in near midnight, well after the curfew. I hear some alarms go off up the street. First one then another and another. I walked to my little office in the spare bedroom where my camera monitor is. Carefully going around the furniture. Its dark, can’t risk a light that they might see from outside. It could be looters or it could be another murder gang.
Can’t see much, the street lights went off years ago, economic drive they said. But some star light and a bit of moonlight.
There.
Movement.
Three, five, eight of them. Cannot see who they are. White, black, Pakistani, Chinese. These days it could be any of them or all of them, some of the downtown gangs take in everyone and prey on everyone. The other gangs stick to their own and prey on everyone else.
One of them is coming closer. He’s at my door. Stay quite. Don’t make a sound. Where did I put my cricket bat. Its old and battered, haven’t played for a decade, wasn’t even mine. I got it from a car boot down the market.
He looks young, fit, dangerous. My breathing is getting louder, how can he not hear me panting in fear. I can maybe take him, surprise him, hit him on the head. The rest would kill me. They would kill me anyway most likely.
He kicks my door, it rattles but holds. Solid wood, it’s an old terrace where I live. Not those modern plastic shit estates where the walls fall apart after a few years. He kicks the door again. Please hold, two bolts, all the extra hinges. Please hold.
He is trying the bars over the windows now; no way can he get in there. Half inch iron bars set through the brick not screwed on.
He’s walking away, heading to next door. Others drift in to sight, following him. They are past, not going after me tonight. My breath is impossibly loud as I release it. I didn't even notice I was holding my breath. I’m safe. For tonight at least.
The scream was female, couldn't tell the age. The sound of breaking grass. A roar like hungry animals. Breaking glass again, now wood breaking. A man’s voice shouting. Then a man’s scream, pain and, and, silence.
The woman screaming again, now begging for mercy.
The begging stopped, the sobbing went on till dawn.
It was the Davison’s, husband beaten to death, wife, well lets just say it was rape and leave it at that. House wrecked and looted. The online police response line gave them an incident number. The hospital didn’t send an ambulance, none available but if she could get to the emergency room they could see her today.
The other women in the street took her into another house and stayed with her, us men stayed away.
A few people have been asking about bars and strong doors. I tell them I have no materials, what I have is for me not them.
Some of them talk, one knows a man with wood, another may have some iron bars. They walk off talking in a small group, maybe they will be back.
Had to go out today. Needed to sign on.
The streets were mostly empty, a few neighbours nodding as they hurry somewhere. A pair of fire engines, the new ones with the big metal ram plates and the steel grills on the windows, racing past, lights and sirens. Not stopping here, we were just between them and a fire they get paid to respond to.
Round here if someone catches fire we get the garden hoses out and do for ourselves. As long as its not summer and the water gets cut off. Lots of old fire extinguishers around though, probably too old to work but its all most have these days.
Made it to the high street. A bunch of rent a guards facing off with one of the teen gangs. The gangs rob shoppers and raid shops, the shops hire the guards to stop them. The police, off across town where the rich people live and shop. Don’t see them here that often and its only because it was really bad.
The job centre has a huge queue outside. That’s bad, looks like they are weapon checking everyone. Good job I got here early but am I early enough. If I’m late the bastards will stop my money, kick me off benefits, doesn't matter if it’s them that made me late by keeping me outside. They don’t care anymore, used to be some of them cared about people. Now they are burned out, too many of us, too few of them. I heard they get a bonus for kicking enough people each month.
Queue is going forward. Metal detector, mag wand and a pat down for anyone who looks like trouble. I’m not trouble. I’m old, see the grey hair. I’m tired, bent over, no trouble. Let me in, please let me in.
The guard sneers at me, taller, heavier, stronger, I’m no threat. He waves me through the metal detector.
I’m in, thanks be to whatever power is up there.
A queue inside to get to the desk, its long but that doesn't matter. I’m inside the building in time so they have to sign me. Bunch of bastards can’t argue with me being in the building on time. Not yet.
That’s it, signed off for another month. Just like the rest of the twelve odd million of us. Unified credit system to include jobseekers, disabled and the rest. So many of us they couldn't cope with weekly or bi weekly. Now it’s monthly. Dangerous though, need to be careful. It’s not much and one little bill early in the month and I could go a week or more with no money.
The rent is digital, never see that, goes to the landlord company. Not something I have to worry about, not like a live in a three bed or a semi where I could get kicked out so they can jump the rent for the next tenant. No, down on the terraces no one cares, pay the rent, don’t destroy the building. That’s it.
Finished the grill today. Its a good job. Set into the solid brick walls and it angles down over the stairwell. Two good solid bolts. I should be nice and safe unless they climb up the outside. I’ll look out for more metal for the upstairs windows.
I should move my food upstairs as well.
Caught some world news today. Some sort of monthly summery. The Iran – Saudi war seems to be petering out. Only one Iranian nuke went off, only seventy thousand casualties on the Saudi side. The Saudis fired back with a lot of stuff but don’t seem to have done that much damage. Odd, maybe they were caught off guard.
The middle east is still fighting elsewhere. What’s left of Syria is like the Somme now, lines of trenches and bunkers between shattered cities. The Caliphate is fighting the Kurds and the Iraqis and the Saudis and has just about taken over Jordan. The Jordanians still hold most of the capital but only because of Israeli airstrikes against the Caliphate forces. Though the airstrikes seem to be causing a lot of local casualties as well as caliphate soldiers.
Egypt is in the middle of its on again off again war against the Muslim brotherhood, lots of dead on both sides.
So much fighting elsewhere they no longer even bother to mention it, just the routine casualty figures.
Not a lot of news coming out of middle Africa. Some reports of panic in South Africa, the third case this year of Ebola in the country. Most of the central nations have been overrun with the disease and it was carried with refugees. We don’t see than on the news anymore. Troops machine gunning refugee groups to stop them carrying Ebola into new countries. Looks like it’s getting there anyway.
The US and china have stopped shooting at each other. Just a mistake, a Chinese destroyer sunk and two US aircraft shot down. Just a mistake, not a war, oh no, not a war.
Not a lot from the far east. Some reports about Japanese military expansion again, unconfirmed reports of Japanese troops places where they had no right to be. The new Japanese government is militant and expansionist and supporting the US against a common enemy, China. So I guess no one is going to say boo to them.
Brasil doing better. Economy on the up, poverty on the down. Though the online sites report they have simply stopped counting the poor so it looks better.
Argentina is rattling its rusty old sabre again about taking the Falkland’s. Fat chance of that. Britain has its largest overseas garrison there and those troops are outnumbered by the corporate security forces. A Trillion dollars in oil, no way anyone is going to take that away from the oil companies.
Europe. Well Germany is doing well as usual. Anti Arab riots in the north of France. Anti Jewish riots in the south of France. Anti immigrant riots over most of Europe. Greece has yet another new governor assigned by the IMF and EU, it’s hard to imagine how bad things are there as they are said to be much worse than here.
Most of the rest of Europe, same as here. Token democracies, austerity, lies, riots, poor against the rich but the rich have all the guns and soldiers and resources.
Food day today, had to go out again. It’s across town so I got out my bike and my old army backpack. Both hard used and worn but both still do the job.
The roads are more pot holes than roads, weaving around the holes, trying to avoid the bumps. My tyres are worn almost smooth, just a hint of pattern around the edges. It’s an old off road bike, only sort you still see. Those road bikes all fell apart years ago. Not worried about punctures, last year it was all punctures, couldn’t afford to fix them. Then I was pointed to a good deal. Back of a lorry, cash. I could barely afford it and didn’t have much beyond bread and tea for a week but, solid rubber bike wheels. Something for the rich types that had gotten lost. The tyres are some sort of weird honeycomb shapes inside so they are not that hard but they never go down. Plus you just put a normal rubber tyre over the top and they work just like normal.
You have no idea what it’s like to be immobile, can’t afford a taxi even if one would come out here, no buses, trains no use. But with a bike, I can go places, it gives me range to do stuff for myself.
It allows me to get to the food bank. They closed the local one down, ten, maybe eleven months ago. Couldn’t get any food, too many people.
But with my bike I can go across town to the other one, they are next to the supermarkets, they get the out of date food now. The supermarkets used to throw it, then they got torched and the managers were... Dealt with. So now they generously donate it.
The place looks like a bunker, concert blocks stopping ram raids, the windows on the ground floor covered with metal shutters. Guards on the door.
I join the queue. Its long as usual. Slow going. Step by step till I’m in the door. The shelves look half empty as usual.
I get to the desk. Hand over the form I got when I signed on to prove I’m on benefits.
The woman at the desk looks tired, worn out. But then we all look like that these days, all but the people with money and jobs.
She stamps the paperwork and I wait. The woman in front of me has two young kids, both crying and playing up. An old man comes out of the back room and hands her a pair of carrier bags. She grabs them as if someone is going to steal them and steps away. Then she looks inside and I see her face fall.
“I have children, can’t you see the children. I can’t feed them on this. Not for a month” She is suddenly close to tears. She looks at the children who are now looking at her, shocked by her voice and tears. “I can’t feed them on this.”
Something bumps my arm, the man is handing me a bag. About the same size as either of the woman’s bags. But then she’s too young, looks like she had kids out of school, never worked so the system treats her as a non payer. Me, I worked my life, well most of it, I have a drop of a pension, I’m flagged as a tax payer. So I get a bit more from the government food banks.
I look in my bag, mostly tins good for a few weeks, half a lettuce at the end of its life, some other fresh stuff.
I step over to the woman. She sees me coming closer and pulls the bags close to her chest with one arm while pulling the children close with the other.
I rummage in my bag and pull out the fresh stuff, Lettuce, tomatoes, some fresh fruit. I hand them to the children then walk away. I see her snatch them from the children as I turn away.
I’m at the door before I hear it, almost too quiet to be heard. “Thank you”. So quiet, perhaps I imagine it after all.
It was in the news today, not the major media companies; they are full of the usual crap about disasters and celebrities. No it was one of the anarchist sites. Today is exactly three years since we got them back in power. Well I say we but I didn’t vote for them, don’t know anyone that did. But between them and their lapdogs they got the coalition back in again. The other lot, lots of shouting but no one cares about them anymore, just a bunch of fools and idiots.
Three years. Time flies. But then I can’t remember that day, I’m sure it was in all the news, don’t remember it myself. Too much has happened since then.
I've been checking the news this morning; some of my sites have been blocked, found a new one that is the same bloke who was shut down last month. It’s not so bad now, the free news sites are too many and too mobile, the government may call them anarchists and radicals but it can’t shut them down. So we still get some news, some truth.
Three years since they got in, two years to the next election. But there is talk now. Emergency powers, an act of parliament. Suspending the election for the duration. Too many problems to risk major government changes.
So that’s the last shreds of democracy done for then.
Some stories getting passed around in the news today. Both the main media and the online independent free news sites. Disease outbreak in Iran. It’s been happening for at least a week but the news is only just getting out. They reckon it’s the African Ebola somehow made it to Iran. Lots of talking heads saying how bad it is.
One mentioned over a hundred thousand dead over the last few years in Africa, but that’s Africa, no one cares. The middle East, that’s more on the news, more people worried.
Seem to be busy suddenly. Some of the neighbours came back with wood, one had some quarter inch rebar, one had some metal sheets. Mostly salvage and scrap but it does the job. So I’m doing up the place security wise. Talked to the people across the back. We can secure the backs of both lines of terraces just by blocking the alley at either end. One bloke claims to be a bricky, says he can do that if everyone helps find him bricks and stuff.
I’m doing the fronts, bars on the windows and bracing the doors. I’m putting aside enough bars to do my upstairs. Payment for my work.
Had some police come round. Two cars, both old patrol cars with grills riveted onto the windows. Four cops, struggling to get out with all the body armour and webbing and stuff. Two armed, stayed by the cars, the other pair walked up to me.
What do you think you’re doing he says, what’s it bloody look like says I.
You got planning permission says he. Yep says I, now fuck off so I can work.
Got reports anarchists had moved in here, fortifying the place, casuing trouble.
Nope, we all live here, lived here for years.
So let’s see the paperwork then, planning permission from the council.
By now half the street has come out and is watching, nothing hostile, the cops are armed and we don’t want any... Acidents. Just standing and watching.
I stare at the cop, he looks around. Looks at what I’m doing, looks at the crowd. Then he looks at a few of the upstairs windows, slightly open, dark inside, could be snipers.
He walks back to his car and his buddy follows. They piss off, useless bastards. Never a response when the Davison’s were hit but try to defend yourself and you get four of em. Across the street Mickey peers out, bit of a lad is Mickey, done some time, done some violence but not in the street. As he steps away I catch a glimpse, a shotgun. Where did he get that. I guess the Davison’s made everyone worried.
News again, Hundredth case in south Africa, mass panic. News coming out of Iran getting scarce, reports of mass infection and plague. Some talking about refugees carrying it into Irag.
The Turks seem to have decided to deal with the Kurds again, this time though the Iraqi Kurds seem to have been helping them. The Turkish army got a good kicking and fell back. Now talking about a major mobilisation.
The caliphate decided the Kurds were distracted and attacked them from the west. The Kurds are busy fighting the Turkish army and called for help from what’s left of Iraq, word is they will help.
Iragi forces have attacked the caliphate and done badly, word is the capital is now under attack. Word is they are calling from help from Iran.
Iran has sent troops, between the Kurds and Iran/Iraq they are pushing back the Caliphate soldiers. Lots of suicide bombs and car bombs going off.
Reports of disease outbreak in Iraq
Rumours online. The World Health Organisation have identified the disease in the middle east. Rumour says its hemorrhagic fever but NOT African Ebola. Independent news sites are full of rumour and speculation. Major media. Not a word.
Breaking news. One site online has a story. The outbreak in the middle east was a weaponized hemorrhagic, it was a bio weapon, deliberate. The news is spreading fast as other sites pick it up.
The original site is suddenly down, cannot access it anymore.
News coming out of the middle east dropping away. Fighting between Kurds, Turkey, Caliphate, Iraq and Iran was getting more intense, now suddenly no news. Free news sites trying to contact locals but massive cut offs of internet and mobile networks in region.
Breaking. Phone footage, French gunboat firing on refugee boats coming from Africa, they sink both boats then machine gun any swimmers. Bloody murder, a police boat rams the people doing the filming and the feed stops.
Something new. Travel restrictions, not just a curfew but restriction on distance travelled. Nothing that affects me, it’s not like I cycle to the next town and I can travel around here without restrictions. Not sure what that is about, probably another security clampdown. Private security is the only growth industry these days.
Its finished at last, took weeks and I’m too old for this crap but everyone helped. We have every single house on the street secured. Bars and braced doors. The alley behind is bricked up, the bloke turned out to be a proper builder type. Twelve foot tall double bricked walls with some nice broken glass set on top.
The people behind have been talking to me, all our back doors are safe because of the walled up alley but there fronts are still at risk, would I mind helping out?
Still not sure what to do about the houses opposite me, the fronts are now safe but they back onto the old railway line. It’s a nine foot drop from their back yards down to the rails and they have wooden fences but both ends are open. Maybe some sort of barricade or fence to block them in.
We are getting a nice little we fortress here. People are coming out more, pulling together. Wonder if someone can find some really big old gates or metal grills, I could fix up the ends of the street and we could shut them at night.
I’ll ask around.
Meanwhile, time for a well earned cup of tea.
One of the wives in the street is a nurse, she was saying something about medical supplies being rationed. They were getting less at the hospital, a lot of stuff was being diverted somewhere, not bandages and stuff but drugs, antibiotics, that sort of thing.
She said some of the doctors were nervous but wouldn’t say why.
News on a few sites. A Dutch blogger had been found dead, the police were calling it a suicide. The free news sites were saying he was behind the site that had reported the WHO report on the bio weapon. Suicide says the authorities, just after his site was shut down.
Yep, seems legit to me. Politicians fucking with us as usual.
News coming in. Israel is nuking everyone around it. What the fuck, this can’t be right. Phone footage, mushroom clouds on the horizon. Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, it’s like they are burning a radioactive line round their borders. What the fuck is happening.
Internet is becoming a bit spotty, seems to be slow at times. Lots of areas now not accessible. Social media is buzzing but not seeming to get it. Free news sites are reporting most of the Middle east and Africa is off the grid. Bloggers and people in those areas offline and out of contact.
Israel is still online but no one there seems to know what is going on. They just nuked hundreds of miles of desert and everyone is screaming.
Something on TV, a film crew reporting live, an anti immigration operation checking lorries at the tunnel when suddenly a whole load of guys in white plastic suits with gas masks come into the shot, they surround a lorry some way behind the film crew but the camera man turns to film them. They pull the driver out and some of them are opening the container. Some sort of fighting, dark skinned faces, a struggle. Gunfire, figures falling.
The screen blanks then returns to the studio, a surprised looking woman says technical difficulties and goes to the sports.
A Russian blogger is reporting that Russian troops are locking down the western and southern borders. Shoot on sight orders to anyone who tries to enter Russia. The most recent Ukrainian government is complaining it’s a trick. Reports have it Russian citizens from Europe are fleeing across the border into Russia while they still can.
Something from Jerusalem, some sort of medical alert. Travel suspended across the city, hospitals closing, troops in gas masks on the streets. Mobile networks going down but internet still available.
Something on the TV. Summer flu outbreak, nothing to worry about but please don’t all rush to hospitals as antibiotics don’t work as it’s a virus, just stay at home. Nothing to worry about, just a summer flu virus.
The nurse is gone, she came home today, ran into her house and twenty minutes later came out with her husband and son. They piled cases into their little car till it was packed solid then took off, it’s nearly curfew time and they aren’t supposed to drive to far. Something going on, that’s sure.
Today there was a big online conference. A lot of the free news sites and bloggers putting everything together. It looks bad. Some of the neighbours also visit these sites and this has been advertised for days so we were all watching from our houses and a lot of the others had come round as well.
Not a lot of hard facts but a lot of stuff was reported from multiple reliable sources.
Most of Africa wasn't just off line, it was gone. They were talking about tens of millions of dead and a total breakdown. That was the Ebola outbreak.
The Middle east was the Saudi’s using a bio weapon against Iran, only it took a while to get going and then spread. Diseases don’t stop at borders, any fool knows its a bad idea but it’s a religious war, they just don’t care.
Iran, Iraq, mostly gone. The Kurds, what was left of them, were reported to be hiding in the hills and staying isolated. Egypt was reporting mass outbreaks.
Several French cities were now reporting mass outbreaks along the southern coast where refugees had arrived. Spain was the same. Italy, Greece, also reporting mass outbreaks but for them it was refugees coming from the middle east or turkey and that wasn't Ebola, that was the bio weapon.
The government had vanished, last night they packed up and left. All communication from an unknown location by phone or video link. The lorry that had just been caught on screen by the film crew, that wasn't the only one. Six cases reported in Dover this morning.
We were sitting there, looking at each other, numb. It didn't make sense. What was happening to us.
I don’t know who said it, someone did. Just a few simple words. “We need to grab food and water, while we still can.”
After curfew and it was quiet and dark. The street lights were off and so were the headlights. I was surprised by how many of us there were, and how many cars and vans we had between us. Not that many people drove, too expensive but when it came down to it we had a convoy. Most of us were nervous, this wasn't listening to a few anarchist sites, this was breaking and entering and robbery.
Had we gone that far. Hell if I knew but I was here anyway.
We split up, half to one supermarket, the rest of us to the other. They back doors were alarmed but once the door was open our electrician quickly found the right wires and silenced it. I didn't go shopping that often but this was the biggest supermarket in town, but it was two thirds empty. We cleaned out the stores and then went out to the shelves, some people went after fresh stuff but most of us went after tins and long term stuff. We filled the cars and half filed both vans.
No police, no security, nothing at all.
I stood there looking around and saw the bunker. The food bank, I pointed it out and both vans were moved over there. The door was actually stronger than the supermarkets but it came down after a few blows and we were in. Not a lot but we took everything.
I was standing there when the man who loaded the bags came in, there was a staircase in the back room and he half ran down it, barefoot, trousers over a pajama top. He tried to stop some of the men and they just pushed him aside. He saw me, maybe he recognised me.
“Please stop them, this is for everyone. Please. Stop them.”
The men had taken every box and bag, cleared out the place and were leaving. I went after them.
“Please don’t take the food. Please.” His voice is quiet. So quiet, perhaps I imagine it after all.
We have enough food for a month if we are careful, someone says to fill everything we have with water so we do. We are secure, we can feed ourselves, we have water. Power is getting a bit flaky but the phone lines and internet are still up and with my little dynamo I can still run my computer.
The TV is reporting more restrictions. Riots, trouble. Seems we got in first, looting starting. The police and security seem to have gone. The armed forces, all gone. Probably wherever the government went to. Been online all day today. One by one sites and bloggers are going dark. Forums getting empty, people worried. Lot of online friends who have never met saying their goodbyes.
It’s bad all round. We have food and water, we are fairly secure. We have even found friendships with each other. But what then. What happens next? Where do we go from here?
Why didn't we see what was happening, why didn't we stop it? Why didn't we ask question while we still could?