Ok guys, so a few people have given me feedback. I have changed the boring bits, stopped the plot trailing off. I am now looking for some more help! Read through this new prologue, and tell me what is in need of revision.
Prologue
It is the height of summer in England. A brisk breeze throws itself upon the boats of a Cornish fishing village, where food is growing ever scarcer. The price of simple water and firewood is going up day by day since the downfall of parliament and martial law starts to take effect. The exhausted remains of the British army have called for a truce, but no one and nothing has replied. The fight for freedom seems to be turning into a never ending struggle – we feel like helpless babies – mourning for Mother Nature and begging her forgiveness.
Currency has become non-existent. Wherever the goods we need can be found, we must trade for something the other person needs. The receiving end usually wants a profit, so we end up sacrificing 100 liters of filtered water for enough firewood to see two of us through the week. Without the correct tools, how are we meant to gather firewood and food without causing ourselves serious injury? Where do our IT and Drama qualifications fit in to life now? Day to day life has turned in to a never ending struggle. Walking more than a mile is considered suicide in a group less than 5 – unless you want to be wolf food. Animals have taken back the concrete; buildings have fallen in to disrepair making the canned food unsalvageable.
The conditions we are living in have forced most of us to devolve back to our primal instincts. Work, play and relationships are no longer a focus for the human race; we are only interested in staying alive… the next meal, and shelter. We have disowned everything we falsely held dear; our technology has seized to help us. There are groups of us scattered all over Britain, we have no news of Ireland or the smaller isles, and we can only think they are in trouble too, as us. Plant life has started to die, leaving animals unable to graze and us unable to eat. Due to houses being too high maintenance and cold, we were forced to abandon our homes and build crudely camouflaged shelters in the grass – or should I say mud.
The smarter ones have found refuge in small towns and villages dotted across the UK, where the infected have not yet reached. The cities have become hunting grounds for human and infected alike; human trying to rid the UK of the over-enthusiastic infected, and the infected trying to up their numbers.
We still do not know if the royal family is dead or alive – after the invasion of Buckingham palace we can only fear the worst and look for a glimmer of hope. News has spread around that the quarantine of the United Kingdom will not be lifted until everything on the islands is dead. Our last radio transmission came through earlier today; it told us we have 5 days. 5 days until what? What could they possibly do to make us fear for our lives more so than we do already? Some people ignored this message; others heeded the warning and started preparing. People had already started to create barricades on all routes in and out of their cities – but this will not stop it coming, it always finds a way – all you can do is delay the inevitable. Our hearts are filled with hatred and our souls blackened with sin, many of us have lost kids, while some are left orphaned.
Unheard cries for help can be found across the nation – people warning us of things to come, things that have already happened and things we could never even dream of. Quite frankly, that just makes us more doubtful about current events. We didn’t know much about the government project Evanus, but rumors had it that the government where messing around with biological experiments right before the downfall and the byproduct oppression, lovingly named Merciless.
Imagine this; a beast covered from foot to waist in fur, the rest scarred and burnt flesh. An arm made of just muscle and blood – constantly dripping away. A head with no eyes, but somehow it see’s all. Legends, scriptures and religious books all foresee the power and great evil of such a beast; laying waste to any place/thing it comes across. All of this though, just speculation. There were no firsthand accounts, because there where never any survivors. The last thing you hear before you die is the dripping of blood, and a cold, deep roar.
Without vehicles and electricity we are lost. Like little children separated from our mothers… cut off from other cities and towns. If only we could keep going for a few more weeks, surely another country would come to our rescue? America won’t abandon a country that has been through Iraq and Afghanistan and came out the other side – will they?
The truth dawned on us… we are not just puppets anymore. Anything we want done, we will have to do ourselves. It is up to us to get out of here – but how can we?
[Copyright© 2009 Joel Marriott]
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