Chapter 10: Expanse

From BBC News 24, Broadcast 19/08/2011 at 7:30am:

“Following the appearance of what government sources are now acknowledging may be a destructive alien lifeform in central London, the public are being advised to evacuate the city. If you’re watching this in London and don’t own a car in which to leave the city, you are requested to pack no more than one suitcase of essentials before boarding public transport in order to avoid overloading or overcrowding of trains and busses, which would, of course, slow down the evacuation process...”

***

“Just how wide an area does Patient Zero now cover, Corporal?” General Awn asked a subordinate who had just entered his office with a folder full of statistics and strategies under his arm.

“Our last aerial sweep showed that she had expanded to fill the area between Loughborough junction and Victoria Station. Furthermore, her biology seems to have shifted to allow her to consume, well, anything. Food or the stone of London’s buildings, it seems to be all the same to her at this stage.”

“Are you telling me, Corporal, that she is eating the city?”

“Yes, Sir. I’m afraid so.”

“Then why haven’t we sent in the army?” Awn bellowed into his underling’s face with that special fury employed by those who normally feel that they are in control and are having to come to terms with the fact that they no longer have a handle on the situation.

“We did, Sir,” replied the Corporal. “Bullets are no more effective than wasp stings and she ATE our tanks.”

“Fuck,” Awn said, swaying slightly and feeling his grip on events loosen even further.

“On the plus side, she did empty the people out of them first, so she’s obviously not being deliberately hostile.”

Awn glared at his Corporal. “She’s crushing London, you fool!” he snapped. After a moment, he gathered himself together and said: “Right. We need to get out of the city, too and head for the secondary Base Unit before she expands over our exits. Once ensconced there we can come up with a better plan.”

Within minutes, the secret base under London had been reduced to just a large, empty room, its equipment packed away into boxes and its personnel carrying those away.

***

Amid all the mayhem and destruction, two men ran against the tide of civilians as they evacuated London: Raddy Sashman and, following him rather reluctantly and not really at a run, Jaff.

“I knew something like this would happen! I did, I really did!” Jaff snapped at Sashman as they shoved their way through the crowd towards the epicentre of the panic.

“Oh come on, Jaff, old friend,” Sashman returned, “I honestly don’t think you could have seen this coming! And if you did, you might have thought to mention it earlier! Aside from anything else, we could have saved a fortune on special effects!”

“How can you joke at a time like th-” began Jaff but stopped mid-sentenced because they had come to the source of London’s current problems.

Beach stopped eating and gave them that smile that had lit up cinema screens all over the UK. She lay in the rubble, propped on one elbow, her breasts crushing entire buildings and her main body filling the visible skyline.

“Hey, Sashman,” she grinned. “Any idea what these people are running away from?” she treated them to her best ‘I-know-really’ laugh, and let herself flop down fully to talk to them. “They even sent in the army! Can you believe that? Can’t a lass eat a snack anymore without someone declaring it a criminal offense?”

“Well, you are crushing the city,” Sashman said reasonably. “You might want to consider surrendering to the next batch of army men they send in, just to show that you don’t want to hurt anyone.”

Beach groaned. “They’re going to send more? I thought eating their tanks was a pretty big ‘fuck off’ message for them!”

Sashman sighed. “Where does it stop, Beach? You can’t eat everything on the planet. That’s just not cricket! Besides, you’d be in breach of copyright on your own film.”

“Well, what do you want me to do?” she asked with a shrug that caused a minor earthquake. “I just can’t help myself! I told you before... I want EVERYTHING!”

“We’ll think of something!” Sashman said. “Just try not to eat any more of London until we know what we’re going to do, alright?”

***

At the new base of operations (in an underground bunker in central Bedfordshire), Awn was awaiting a very important call. The desk at which he sat was grey but for four oval impressions where the repeated, impatient drumming of his fingers had cleared away the dust, exposing the fine mahogany of the wood beneath. This place hadn’t been used in years and while he waited for the modern equipment from the base beneath London to be re-established here, he was making do with the older, retrograde memorabilia that had been left there since its last use in the early 1970s. Consequently, the phone he was to take the call from was of old-fashioned design, with the handset being of the traditional curved shape with two bulbous ends designed in one case to send sound and in the other to receive it. It even had one of those circular dialling mechanisms that had preceded buttons. It looked every bit the part, in fact, for the call he had to take. It rang. Awn picked it up and listened for a moment. Then he left his office and announced to his staff:

“The U.N. has just released, to the British Government, the codes required for the launch of a tactical, low-yield thermonuclear device and the army are ready to fire. The final decision as to whether to use this weapon or not rests with me. I intend to order its use now, before the threat from Patient Zero becomes unmanageable. If anyone is uncomfortable with this decision, you may leave this room now and feel under no pressure to return to this work at any time in the future. I will personally ensure that your pensions will not be affected. This is a momentous decision, and must all trust your consciences as to whether you can be part of it.”

Silence echoed around the room, before five people slowly rose- a soldier, two computer technicians, a police officer on secondment from the MET and a secretary. Their footsteps echoed as they made for the door in the stillness that blanketed the base.

***

“Do you hear something?” asked Beach looking up from her tense conversation with Sashman. Then she, he and Jaff all looked upwards in earnest to see a missile of a very specific type hurtling down the street towards them.

“I don’t believe it...” said Sashman.

“They can’t do this... they’re still getting people out of London...” Jaff gaped.

Beach simply opened her mouth. There was a moment in which the atmosphere was so thick with tension it was almost suffocating, and then she swallowed.