Far away from the city Aidan was driving along a motorway. He had been doing so for quite a while now. 20 hours earlier he had left his home and started off in what would seem like the wrong direction. It certainly was a long way around, but he couldn’t exactly just drive up to the border and expect to be let through. So instead he had gone north, up to the mountains, where he could easily find a small road into the neighboring country that wasn’t guarded by the military.
From there he had turned south, back to the highway between the two capitals. He realized that this was ridiculously much longer than if he had continued on the small roads up north, but he did know the way around up there, and he did not have an atlas. But now he was driving on the highway with absolutely no traffic whatsoever, and thus he was not exactly obeying the speed limits. Actually he was driving much faster than he thought his car could go…
In that manner he soon arrived at a city that he recognized. He knew for a fact that one of his friends, Jackson, was living there. Two days before they had spoken on the internet, and when Aidan told him about his plans, Jackson had given him his address. Aidan needed to sleep, and he’d rather do that in a safe place, but the problem was that he did not really know the way.
All he had was a small note with some general directions scribbled on it. Right now Aidan was too tired to care, but a few hours ago, when he first realized he could have printed a map from Google maps he had nearly driven off the road in pure rage…
Anyway, he followed the directions on the paper, and it actually turned out pretty good. He arrived at an apartment complex that looked exactly like Jackson had described it, and went out of the car. After a few minutes of stretching he grabbed his bag and locked the car. He started walking towards the apartments and quickly realized that there was one huge flaw in the directions he was following; Jackson never told him which house he lived in!
Aidan walked around aimlessly, trying to figure out how to find the right building. The cell phone network was out of service. He had read in the newspapers that when the curfew was announced so many people had started calling their friends and family that the network just collapsed. Ironically, the only reason it hadn’t been able to handle the stress was because 95% of the people in the country used the same operator, and this in turn meant that 95% of the population was now completely sealed off from all communication.
He looked through the glass at yet another building, and then turned away towards the next. But after a second his tired brain had finished processing what he had seen. In one of the post-boxes, a WoW magazine had been sticking out. It was so close to the window that he could even see the receiver – Jackson something. Aidan did not know Jacksons last name, but he thought this was too much a coincidence to be ignored. Besides, it wasn’t like he had any better lead.
The next problem immediately presented itself, as the front door was locked, and there was no intercom – Aidan cursed his bad luck.
As he was standing there, a small girl came walking towards the door, holding a bag of food. Aidan was so busy practicing his language skills he did not even see her when she was standing right next to him.
“Hi!” She said with a smile.
Aidan nearly jumped out of his skin. As soon as he recovered from the shock he once again started cursing. This time the subject was not his bad luck, but his idiocy. He could not believe he had not noticed the girl until she was right next to him. In a time when there was a military curfew this could be very dangerous.
“Are you all right?” the girl asked.
“Yeah, I’m all right.” He said.
“You’re Aidan, right?” She asked.
Aidan was stunned.
“I’m Shae, Jackson’s girlfriend.” She said with a smile.
“Of course!” Aidan exclaimed. “Your timing is impeccable; I had no idea of how to get inside.”
“Well, you could have opened the door…” She said and did so, without using a key.
“What!?” Aidan exclaimed, and then smacked his face with his palm. He had only tired to pull the door, and apparently you were supposed to push it.
“It’s ok. Come inside.” Shae said.
They walked up the stairs and Shae rang the doorbell of one of the apartments. In a few seconds Jackson opened the door.
“Hi!” he exclaimed when he saw Aidan. “You made it!”
“Yeah, but barely. I almost got lost in the woods.” Aidan said and yawned.
“Well, it’s good to see you man.”
“You to. Hey, could I crash on the couch? I can barely keep my eyes open.”
“Of course you can. But first you should have something to eat.” Jackson said.
“No thanks, I really just want to sleep…”
“Nonsense! You’ll wake up in just a couple of hours ravening with hunger. Better to just eat something before.” Jackson interrupted him.
“Yes.” Shae agreed.
“Oh, okay then.” Aidan gave in.
17 comments:
' “Of course!” Aidan exclaimed. “Your timing is impeccable; I had no idea of how to get inside.” '
--suddenly, my image of Aidan calcified into an enormously gentlemanly Englishman. I don't know if it's just me.
It would make a lot of sense that he would speak british english and the rest american.
Where does these new people fit into your equation of survivability Rik? Admit Aiden looks like the second main character, by this.
oh dear :)
It seems like our city is a more dangerous place... Since Jocke let his girlfriend go outside alone.
I feel like our group is slightly retarded. =) I mean, we didn't notice the country- wide military curfew?! And there can't be many who cares about us either. I mean no one contacted us.
They get internet? Why do they get internet? How come we don't get internet? This is much more unfair than this wimpy "zombie-apocalypse"-thing that's going on.
I'm fully well with you, Yeonni. We haven't actually seen Jackson yet, which is of course bad news for him - offscreen characters are easily killable - but as for Aidan and Shae, they're both looking good.
We've seen parts of Aidan's thought processes, which means he automatically gains protagonist points. As for Shae, she's either in a more safe location or idiotically brave - the latter is practically a bullet-proof vest in Hollywood.
Which brings up yet another good reason why Asher, Ridley, Sasha and Mac are all toast; being idiotically brave is a good trait, but just bumbling into danger without knowing it's there - well, to quote Björn, "Have you ever seen a movie?"
Hahaha my impression of Aidan is that he is slightly stupid, that might be a bit unfair. On the other hand, my impression of myself is that I start crying and break down over everything. So don't worry Alex, I've learned not to believe in everything Kristin writes.
Oh, and another point concerning Aidan - the text mentions him driving across the border. Which means - Aidan isn't British, he's Canadian!
*gasp*
What are you talking aboot?!
lmao
I vote we leave the canadian for the zombies, for all I know he might be a spy sent in to give them valuable information about us.
Also, he had internet >_<
oh my! I suppose the internet was more important than I expected...
lols, the internet generation indeed.. no nevermind the zombies, did that guy get internet?!?
We have very strong infrastructure for crisis like this up here in.. err... Canada. The internets travel on bears (with guns).
I think the internet is attacking from the north. Take Cover!
Oh, you mean you have 56k. That's ok then.
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