Day one.
They said we’ve got four days, and I just started walking, moving, travelling finally, like I’d been glued to the spot all these years and suddenly my feet were free. So I’m making another change – putting pen to paper for the first time since I left school and went to work for my old man. See, I thought I’d better write things down, keep a diary, a record, just in case anyone survives and wants to know how it all went down. What really happened.
I work – worked – at Doyle’s of Leicester, managing a handful of sales guys out on the road pushing our brand of cheap and cheerful plumbing supplies. ‘Gets the bodge done’ – that’s our little inside joke. Worked from an office, enjoyed it, paid the bills, ever since I moved up from Romford five years ago. I suppose it doesn’t matter.
I’m now sat in Dubai International departures waiting for my connection. Half wondering how I managed to convince myself to get on the train to Birmingham and spend the last of my savings boarding the last flight to New Delhi; half wondering why I never convinced myself to do it before. Doing my best not to stare at the jumble of different races and cultures making their way across the airport. And we’re all in the same boat – everyone knows it’s nearly over. Doesn’t matter where you come from, the news in every language says our time is nearly up.
Flight has been called – will write in more detail when on the plane.
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Plane is nearly empty – a very strange feeling, just myself, a young family of four and a man in his sixties sitting towards the back. Flight attendants said we can sit wherever we like as long as we’re wearing seatbelts. A few hours ago, my plane from Birmingham was packed full, mainly with last-minute passengers that must have dispersed in Dubai or decided their onward trip wasn’t worth the trouble.
I made some notes about the course of events, according to some scientist on the news on one of the TV screens at the train station (not sure what this all means):
N. KOREA LEADERS THREATEN NUCLEAR STRIKE ON U.S.A. OR CHINA
N. KOREA LAUNCH BM25 NUCLEAR STRIKE ON U.S.A. & CHINA
U.S.A. WEST COAST IN STATE OF EMERGENCY
EASTERN CHINESE PROVENCES IN STATE OF EMERGENCY
U.S.A. THREATENS TO RETALLIATE
CHINA RETALLIATES
N. & S. KOREA IN STATE OF EMERGENCY
N. KOREA ALL COMMS DOWN
S. KOREA ALL COMMS DOWN
NATIONS ACROSS WORLD RECORD DAYTIME DARKNESS
TEMPERATURE RECORDED FALLING RAPIDLY AT KEY METEOROLOGICAL SITES
‘NUCLEAR WINTER’ EFFECT SUGGESTED BY LEADING SCIENTISTS IN FIELD – TEMPORARY BUT MAY LAST FOR SEVERAL WEEKS
NUCLEAR WINTER CONFIRMED – 4-5 DAYS UNTIL ‘SHUTDOWN’
So it’s finally happening, days before Christmas, and we’ve brought it upon ourselves. After a power struggle between what newsreaders have been describing as the ‘economic centres’ of the U.S.A. and China, in which North Korea was shown to be a significantly minor state with little or no effect on either country, North Korea’s leaders threatened a nuclear test, then a nuclear attack. The notes I made read like a story – an action movie where the North Koreans must be stopped. But it is really happening, and has all happened so quickly.
I woke up in Leicester yesterday morning, started making my toast like any other day, turned on the television and forgot about breakfast altogether. While we’d been sleeping on our safe little island, the rest of the world had started launching rockets towards one another and we were heading towards the end of human civilisation. And they can’t even call it what it is on Sky News and the BBC – all this talk of ‘Shutdown’ – it’s like they’re in denial. I haven’t even had time to be terrified.
The last plane was noisy, passengers panicking and a general scene of chaos. This is the complete opposite – calm, serene. Like we’re the ones who have accepted our fate. We’re on the last flight that will ever fly from Dubai to New Delhi, and the pilot isn’t even talking to us.
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writtendown 