The Day of the Triffids. IC

Nick had been passing around Angel for a bit, he seemed less frustrated with her than he had done earlier, yet she was still lying down from lack of balance. It wasn’t long before his phone buzzed and after he’d starred at it for a second came to her side, gently shaking her shoulder to make sure she was awake. Angel blinked at him groggily as he told her that he had to go for a bit to collect food and that Max was out as well. He pointed at a sandwich, for if she was hungry. She was a little surprised when he hugged her which is why by the time she had registered it, he was walking out of the room.

Angel slumped against the pillows, being alone was strange, it didn’t help that her head wouldn’t stop spinning and she mentally swore at it. Maybe food would make things better? Gingerly she slid her legs off the bed and moved to get up. She bent her head forwards, breathing deeply as her head swam and the room swayed in front of her. Sitting on the edge of the bed for a minuet she leant forwards and managed to grab the plate of sandwiches.

Feeling awful still, yet proud of her achievement, Angel took a bite before spiting it out. Who made this? She peered inside the sandwich as carefully as if it was something that might explode soon, looked disgusted and put her head against her knees again.

She heard someone coming up the stairs, well she thought it was someone yet realised that either she had passed out again or Nick had been freakishly quick. She sighed and tried to sit upright so whichever of the guys it was would at least see she was trying. As she listened she started to wonder if it even was one of the guys. There seemed to be a motion to the movement slide, pause, thump! Slide, pause, thump! Unless one of them had lost their legs or something they really shouldn’t be making that noise. Maybe one of the blind was crawling up the stairs, she moved to the door, tripping over her own feet as she did so and suddenly stopped, frozen, as she saw a triffid facing her.

She didn’t know much about the weird plants, only knew that apparently they were safe. In her eyes the ideas of a plant that could walk was freaky enough for her to keep away from them. It swayed slightly, as if wondering what its next move should be.

Angel stood routed to the spot, her eyes stuck on the triffid, what was it doing? Her feet started to move backwards while her eyes stayed still. The triffid was still swaying, as if caught by a light breeze. She came to her senses from hearing a door click downstairs and slammed the door before it could enter the room. She saw two heavy bolts and slid them across, her head was calm enough to wonder what kind of guy Max was to keep heavy locks on his bedroom door, obviously a paranoid one. She backed into the room looking for anything that could help her, but in reality she was panicking.

She heard no noise, only silence from the other side of the door.

Max took a deep breath when he saw the state of his Renault Espace. He could hardly recognise it, it looked like some wreak from the scrap yard. He only knew it was his car because he spotted the "I love.." scrapped off bumper sticker that some one night stand girl pasted. It was as if either someone drove through the road with a Monster truck. It wasn't even far-fetched, maybe it was a good time for some people to freely do what they want. Max wanted to kick the wreak but the little common sense that came through his rage told him not to do so because he was only wearing socks. He had ignored the cold while carrying Angel but the temperature seemed to have fallen even lower. He cursed and rubbed his hands together as he walked around to find for some other vehicle, possibly one with a running engine which had been left by its blind owner. By luck or fate's compensation, he found a psychedelically-painted Volkswagen T2 Microbus after 35 minutes, avoiding blind people by holding his breath when they walk by. It was not locked and a couple was inside. The couple were obviously dead because there was already a stench and Max guessed probably killed themselves with drugs or something.

" So I have to do all these kinds of things, that is the reason my sight was spare, is it?" Max complained dragging out the two dead bodies onto the streets. He tried not to look at their faces so that it would not register in his mind. The couple had left some writing which Max just crushed up and threw to the back of the vehicle. He also found a stash of jewellery, watches and branded goods on the passenger seats and a siphoning pump. He took a jacket and a pair of gloves from the stash. Max looked at the couple whose backs were facing him. " Maybe, they did not killed themselves after all,"Max thought. He laughed when he realised that the minibus was parked outside a shop called Mephisto. He went inside the shop and got a nice pair of boots.

"Will be back in ten minutes," he texted. He wondered if the teenagers would like to wear some of the things in the stash. Some of which they probably would never get to wear if not for what it is today.

"Alle warten auf das Licht, fürchtet euch fürchtet euch nicht.." Max sang quietly as he drove. There were oddly no humans on the roads but behind the display windows, lurking somewhere that the street lights do not reach, green triffids swayed to the rhythm. If Max has even turn back once, he would have seen the couple being consumed, but he did not. Just as his mind block out the children he saw on the streets, calling out for their parents or the dead bodies of those who chose to jump off buildings. Max had totally revert back. You could only be harder inside to live in a hard world.

Nick had gathered a few piles of food outside, to start with he had been such a teenager he had laughed at himself afterwards, he got piles of useless junk, crisps, coke, but he sorted his head out, canned stuff, but even that was wrong he worked out, fresh stuff, now that was a good start, the vegetables would rot in a few days, so if they didn’t eat it now it might be awhile before they got any vitamins, so vegetables and fruit first, some bread, dried meat, then cans.

Nick sat outside looking around while he got is breath back; he had moved a fair few piles of cans. His phone vibrated with a text from max, he had put it on silent to avoid attracting attention, but then he noticed the quiet, something was wrong, the blind wouldn’t have known it was dark, there were a few wandering, but far less than normal, well although normal was today only, but even so, it was odd. Nick had found a battery radio and some head phones in the shop, so he turned it on to have a listen. Nick found the dj he had heard before ‘this just in, the expert committee that we have formed, well think we have formed, well who cares, they claim to be people, we believe them, but a part from Napoleon and Attila the Hun, we have with us a power plant worker and the guy who runs the London triffid farms. They are telling me that power will be gone in the morning or possibly the afternoon, either way that’s bye bye from us to soon, we considered trying to fire up a generator, but well thinking about it who will we know if its pumping anything out, turn the lights on? Ha ha, but the triffid guy here on my right, I think, has some more depressing news, according to him, the number of triffid attacks can only mean one of the triffid farms on the edge of London has shut down, which is why ,most of the triffids are only on the south end of the city, but they are moving inwards, and for anyone who didn’t realise, which is us, these triffid farm triffids aren’t docked, not at all, that cuts down the profit they generate, so we have several thousand, undocked triffids at the south side of London, now just to add insult to injury, tomorrow when the power goes off, the electric fences keeping the triffids from wandering off the other triffid farms, well shut off, since there are triffid farms places all around the perimeter of London, we are as you might say, royal screwed, since they will walk into the city, where the food is, I would suggest run, but really, your blind, I’m blind, we are all blind, where the hell is south to avoid the triffids already out? And with that some music.’

Nick took out the headphones and turned off the radio as the first lines of All along the watch tower started to play, he had nothing against Hendrix, his problem was triffids. To say Nicks mental map of London was poor, would be an understatement, but he did know that the hotel he had stayed in was outside the center, south of the center infact, and since this area was more housing and less commercial this was probably even more south of the hotel, triffids moved at human walking speed or close enough, so 5 miles an hour, if they are in a rush, if the triffid farm shut down 4 hours ago, they could have moved 20 miles, if 8 hours then 40 miles, either way, that would put several thousand undocked triffids, near by.

Nick looked around, the street was quiet, so were triffids, he suddenly felt very under armed, he started to worry about Angel. He went back into the shop to look for a weapon, or possibly something to cover his eyes, triffids aimed for the eyes.

Max stopped the minibus near the back alley. Maybe it was because of the dwindling number of wandering blind and the taser in his hand that he did not felt like he wanted to park the vehicle some where else first. In any case, he wanted to keep his eyes on the minibus as long as possible. The indian man was already gain conciousness and was trying to free himself but with little success. " I will untie you after we are done with everything and maybe if I am feeling kind, I will get you your can opener from upstairs," Max said to Muthu. The light was still switched on in the shop so Nick was probably still inside.

Max found Nick with headphones on and the food items packed. Nick seemed to be still searching for some stuff to take along the trip. " You get what other stuff you want and the two bags of food. I will bring the others to the.... Hippie bus. Don't ask about my car. Maybe you could free the blind guy outside and give him a can-opener I don't care. I will be parking outside my store. Meet you in 10 minutes," Max took most of the food stuff and got out and place them on the minibus before driving to the main street outside his store.

He ran out of the minibus when he saw that the glass window display of his store had shattered to pieces, leaving only the frame of wood with a few sharp shards. Who the hell would break into a bookstore, are they going to eat books? Someone had also poured kerosene all over the place. Max was convinced that it was like in the movies that the people wanted to burn the books for warmth. "Shit! SHIT! SHIT!" Max yelled despite his safety or anything else. He unlocked his door, went in took the table lamp of the payment counter and smashed it on the ground. " I am going to kill you, I swear!" He threatened irrationally. Thump. Thump.

Whoever or whatever was probably upstairs. Max suddenly remembered that Angel was upstairs. He wondered if she was concious enough to defend herself. There are many things in his house that could be used as weapons, she could easily create a aerosol flamethrower. Now apart from the sound, there was the intense stink of a triffid. Before he react to the fact that a triffid was in his house, someone called him. "I was waiting for you. You don't deserve to be sighted, you should die with everyone who can't get away from the triffids!" Leonard stood outside the store's broken window with a cigarette and a vaccum cleaner. The man looked more deranged than in the morning and there were bald patches in his hair where he had tore turfs out. Leonard threw the lit cigarette he had in burnt fingers onto the kerosene covered ground.

The flames quickly spread and fed hungrily on the books and wood around. The maps section quickly disappeared in the fire and Max ran steadily towards the backdoor. He sure hope that Angel could get out of whatever predicament she was in, herself. Max snatched the family photo he had placed face down on the desk near the stairs. He looked up once with hope that Angel came down and then ran out by the backdoor.

" Angel! Jump out of the windows! The windows! The windows facing the west!" He screamed loudly. She wouldn't die from the second floor. Thick black smoke crept up the stairs.

Angel wracked her brains as she turned her back to the door and surveyed the room. What did she know about triffids….ermm that they move at walking pace and when docked the most they could do is render you unconscious. There was still silence from outside the door and it made her feel more frightened than if it had just attacked her. Almost like it knew she would be easier prey if she was frightened. Surly it was docked though, all the triffids in London were docked. She ran to the window and opened it, it wasn’t a huge drop down but it was far enough to make jumping dangerous. The likelihood of her breaking her leg was too high for the risk and she wasn’t guaranteed a doctor.

Something thumped against the door and Angel gasped, staring at the door while she struggled to breathe properly. What could she use? She knew that the guys had only been away a few minuets, she was going to have to do this on her own. She needed to either find away to get past it or get out of the window. Maybe if she was quiet she could get past it, bit of a risk though, this triffid was obviously hungry and determined to eat. It could easily render her unconscious and then she’d be in even more trouble. The window it is then. She looked uneasily out of it again thinking through how she would have to land and wondering if there was a way she could break her fall. She stared at the bed wondering at how it could help her.

Just then she heard Max downstairs yelling at someone then he yelled again telling her to jump out of the west facing windows. She grabbed her bag from the bed and stared towards the door before heading for what she hoped were the west windows. Without looking down she slide her legs through the window trying to forget what she had just been thinking about the risk to her physical being.
The triffid thumped through the door. She let herself fall to the ground.

Max was not sure that he could catch Angel falling from the 2nd floor. He probably did not have enough strenght so he took the cardboard boxes he usually threw outside and placed them near the windows that he thought Angel was going to get down from. As expected, Angel did not really care to land properly. She fell haphazardly on the cardbox boxes squashing them immediately. They did seem to have break her fall and Max could not see any visible injures.

" Are you okay? If you are, go to the minibus quickly. I have got to deal with a mad man." Max pulled Angel up on her feet before running to where Leonard was standing previously. The crazy man was still standing there, laughing.

" Guess, you miss me,"Max exclaimed. Leonard looked wildly swinging the handheld vacumm around. Max waited until Leonard could not swing anymore. Then, Max pushed Leonard roughly. The blind man fell onto the sharp window shards which pierced through his torso. Leonard screamed as the flames licked his half-blad head.

"I've light up your life once again." Max chuckled. Then, he kicked Leonard a few times and spit on the almost dead man before heading to the minibus. He looked at the family photo and wipe the dust off it. 'Time for a family visit,' he thought to himself. He took off his jacket and rolled up his long sleeves, revealing his tatoos. The fire was getting bigger and soon it will get to the other houses too.

" Come on! School trip is over! We are leaving. Where are you two from? I drive both of you back! " Max screamed.