Page 4 (1/1)

Emma Mitchell

Sick, cold and tired

I felt bad I decided to skip my lecture and stay at home I had one of those fevers where I was too hot to stay in bed and too cold to get up I felt too sick to do anything but too guilty to sit still and do nothing I had tried to do soave up when I realised that I&039;d had five atteraph but had never made it past the h, my flat mate, hadn&039;t been home for almost two days She&039;d phoned so she knew I felt bad and she&039;d promised to pick up soh the kitchen cupboards for so to eat They were empty, and I was forced to accept that I&039;d have to pull

Wrapped up in my thickest coat I tripped and sniffed to the shop at the end of Maple Street feeling drained, pathetic and thoroughly sorry forme) in Mr Rashid&039;s shop I didn&039;t pay any of the witha few pence hetti sauce, when an old bloke lurched at me For the fraction of a second before he touched rabbed hold offor breath It looked like he was having an asth I was only five terms into my five years ofto hirip he had on htened I started to try and squiret free I dropped ers off my arm

There was a sudden noise behind me and I looked back over my shoulder to see that the other shopper had collapsed into a display rack, sending jars, tins and packets of food crashing to the ground He lay on his back a around in agony

I felt the grip on my arm loosen and I turned back to look at the old man Tears of inexplicable pain and fear ran freely down his weathered cheeks as he fought to catch his breath His throat was obviously blocked, but I couldn&039;t tell by what My brain slowly began to click into gear and I started thinking about loosening his collar and laying hi he opened his wide, toothless mouth and I saw that there was blood inside The thick crian to drip on the floor in front of round at my feet and I watched helplessly as his body convulsed and shook

I turned back to look at the otherhis ars desperately around him

I ran to the back of the shop to try and find Mr Rashid The shop led directly into their home By the time I found him and his wife they were both dead Mrs Rashid had fallen in the kitchen and lay next to an upturned chair The tap was still running The sink had overfilled and water was spilling down the units and collecting in a pool around the dead lady&039;s legs Mr Rashid lay in therooony He looked terrified

I ran back through to the front of the shop Both of thefor breath were dead

I walked back outside The sun was incredibly bright and I had to shield my eyes There were bodies everywhere - even through the brightness the dark shapes on the ground were unmistakable Hundreds of people seemed to have died I looked at the few closest to me Whatever it was that had killed the people inside the shop had killed everyone outside too They had all suffocated Every face I looked into was ashen white and the mouth of every body was bloodied and red

I looked up towards the junction of Maple Street and High Street Three cars had crashed in thewas still The only thing that changed was the colour of the traffic lights as they steadily worked their way through red, areen

There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of bodies aroundh the corpses as if they were just litter that had been dropped on the streets I didn&039;t allow uess I knew that I wouldn&039;t be able to find any answers I didn&039;t want to knohat had killed the rest of the world around me and I didn&039;t want to knohy I was the only one left

I let myself into the flat and locked the door behind me I went into my room, drew the curtains and clihtly as I could, until it was dark