The Cost of Living Read Free

sinister.
    People
don’t ever stop and analyse. They either ignore what’s in front of their noses
or jump to conclusions and make assumptions without realising what they’re
doing. Why would terrorists launch an attack on our office, for Christ’s sake?
Hardly a key tactical target, was it? And would anyone really have been so
inspired by what they’d seen across the Atlantic as to want to fly a small
plane into the side of a building in Digbeth? I doubt it. People can be so
bloody stupid at times.
    Now
it’s the reverse, though. Now I think something is happening, but people
have got their heads buried in the sand because that’s easier than facing up to
what might be coming.
    This
started overseas. South Sudan had a head start on the rest of the world for
once. On the radio now there’s a report from the UN where some specially
convened meeting is discussing sudden huge rises in the rates of infection in
other parts of Africa. And my colleagues are still casually talking about the
football and who got voted off the latest shite reality TV programme last
night, because what’s happening over there , isn’t happening over here .
Not yet. Not in the same kind of numbers, anyway.
    But
if you look back at reports from those other countries, I think you can see a
pattern emerging. It all started the same way. I think it’s only a matter of
time.
     

4
    STUART
    WEDNESDAY 27 MAY – 8:35am
     
    Today’s the day
it changed. Today it stopped being something on TV I can just switch on and off
when I feel like it. What’s happening out there is serious, the implications
vast. I’ve tried to keep it from Gabby and the kids because there’s nothing
they can do. I’ll try to preserve their normality for as long as I can but, if
I’m right, in the next few days their world will inevitably begin to fall
apart. Everything will start falling apart.
    I’ve
been scouring the dark recesses of the Internet again, looking for information.
Gabby thinks I’m looking at porn, because every time she gets close I shut the
laptop case fast. I wish that was all I was doing.
    I’ve
found a link to a load of footage from South Sudan and other countries nearby.
I’ve seen whole swathes of land left desolate with just the infected left there
to roam. In one clip, it was taken live on a phone and streamed elsewhere, some
guy stumbled into a village where there were twenty or thirty of them just
drifting, looking like they were in some kind of trance, a weird malaise. But
then, when they saw the guy who was filming, they stampeded after him, racing
with each other like they all wanted to be the one to infect him. I was shaking
when I stopped watching, because I know that’s coming over here.
    It’s
not just Africa now. Parts of Russia are the same, and India and Pakistan too.
Now it’s spreading across Europe, though you wouldn’t think so if all you
watched was the mainstream media. The rise in case numbers in those regions has
been exponential, and I can’t see how anyone thinks they’ll get this situation
back under control. It’s just a question of time.
    Gabby
thinks I’ve got an off-site meeting this morning. There is one, but I’m not
going. I’ve got more important things to do. I know she’ll be out all morning.
I wait until she’s taken Nathan to school, then head out myself. Just have to
hope that the schools are open and that they’ll be okay. I’d rather we were all
at home together, but I need the space. I need to do this.
    I’m
a few steps ahead of the game. I’m still questioning myself constantly, wondering
if I’m overreacting, but I know in my heart I’m not. See, I’ve always known
this part would be key to surviving the shit that’s about to hit the fan. Most
people are still going about their day-to-day business like nothing’s changed,
and I almost envy their ignorance. There’s no avoiding it, though. Something
terrible is coming.
    I
drive to the wholesalers we use at work and start doing the