the season

He stepped onto the train, it was the first stop and no one else was aboard. He looked at his Rolex to see that it was 5:30. The first train of the day usually pulled out within the next couple of minutes. The typical morning London fog lingered in the air. The train began to crowd as the time approached rush hour. Someone on the other end of the car was coughing uncontrollably, he paid no mind to it seeing as it was flu season. He looked up across the tracks into the trees, the vapor that was fog drifted in between them. His radio told him that the day would be full of clouds and rain; he slowly got out of bed to his gray window on his first day back to work after a holiday week spent in Africa. Here he sat an hour later at the first station on a train a few minutes before it was supposed to leave and head south into London. Just as he changed the song on his iPod his stomach began to turn, ever since he got his inoculation shots for the trip he was feeling a little sick, but today was better than during the trip. Just then the train’s motors started to hum and the lights lit up.

“This is Mill Hill East. This train terminates at Morden…Please mind the doors.”

Someone in a business suit ran to the train just as the closing doors siren started to go off, he go his arm in just in time to block the door, he leaned back on the closed doors once he made his way in. Typical starts to the morning’s rush hour the man with the iPod thought as he began to zone out and stare at the mass of trees that were passing just outside of the window. He slowly drifted off to sleep, further into the trip the train began it’s descent into the tunnels when the train came to an abrupt stop waking him.

“Attention passengers due to a sick passenger at the station in front of us we are delayed and will be bypassing Archway” announced the conductor. Minutes after standing still the train began to accelerate. It slowly made its turn into Archway station where he looked out of the window onto the platform. There were two people lying on the floor on stretchers, while another was being tackled to the ground by paramedics in hazmat suits. The man being tackled suddenly threw up onto the train’s windows; the disturbing thing was that he didn’t throw up food the red streaks of blood made their way down the plexi glass. He closed his eyes for the rest of the ride to work, something was going on in this city but he didn’t know what it was.

He got off at Euston station where he caught the 73 bus to University College London. As the double decker bus made its way past the UCL hospital he noticed that all of the ambulances were in a frantic rush. As he made his way off the bus and began to walk to his building in the college four ambulances sped past him with lights flashing and sirens blaring. He walked through the hallways while some of the students in the administration office were sitting and had their faces in buckets in preparation to vomit.

“Attention students and staff, today’s classes have been canceled until further notice. An unknown illness has affected many students and we want to ensure the safety of everyone else” read an email he read once he got to his office. Since he had no classes he would just finish some paperwork that he missed over the holiday. It was around 8:30 when there was an announcement that 34 more students had fallen ill and that all school property were being evacuated. He didn’t take this serious until now so he packed all of his belongings and quickly left the building. He stood at the bus stop and watched as the college buildings emptied out. He stood outside until 9:00 and still no bus had arrived so he decided to walk to the nearest tube station.

He walked past the UCL hospital and it was even more crowded that before. Hundreds of people were lined up outside of the emergency room and he began to shake in fear of what was happening. Just as he made it to Edgeware his mobile phone rang. It was a text from his wife who worked in an office in Canary Wharf, she was on her was home after the entire business district was closed off and evacuated. He wrote her back as he made his way to Euston station.

The northbound platform was crowded, usually it would be quite the opposite as it was rush hour, and people were making their way from London rather than towards it. A train pulled into Euston at 9:45 it was packed and the train slowly crept past the large crowd waiting at the platform by 9:50 the next train pulled in and opened the doors, this is when the fights began. The automatic “Please mind the Gap” announcements were covered by the screams and yells as people tried to push their way onto the train. By 9:57 the train had finally closed its doors with an announcement from the conductor “this train will not be making anymore stops within central London.” He sighed with relief as the train sped past the next stop as his face pressed against the door.

The train opened its doors at Finchley Central, he stepped off and a crowd of people followed behind. He walked across to the other side of the platform to wait for his shuttle train while everyone else left the station in a mad rush. Soon the train he exited had closed its doors and sped off. He stood on the platform alone and in silence. The outside platform was eerily quiet, no one was with him and no one was on the other platform back into London. “Attention passengers. Due to health concerns all central London bound trains are terminating at Finchley Central” said the computer system to no one. Minutes later the shuttle train pulled in. He walked onto the train that stayed empty another packed train pulled in but the shuttle closed its doors just in time. The shuttle train quickly left the station and rocked side to side as it made its way to its next and final stop, he sat there in silence thinking about what was going on.

The train pulled into the empty platform and he was the only one to get off. There were lines of cars waiting outside the station waiting for people to pick up; he walked home making his way past a newsstand. He read one of the headline paper boards that read “Pandemic flu hits major world cities” he began to shake again as he read that and began to rush home. There was no noise, cars weren’t playing music, kids weren’t screaming outside. The only sign of other life was the sound of a dog barking in what seemed to be like hundreds of miles away. He walked up the steps to his home and locked the door behind him; the house was silent, with the occasional fall winds whipping through the cracks.

He began to make a cup of tea for his wife when she arrived home and turned the television onto BBC. In London alone over 1,300 people were killed from the virus with hundreds more from random acts of violence and trampling on public transportation. Thousands of people were sick in New York, Mumbai, Paris, Madrid, Sao Paulo, Berlin, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Shanghai, Toronto, Los Angeles, Houston, Cairo, and almost every other major city in the world.

He sat in the living room with the television on for hours, his wife’s tea now cold. He looked at the clock it was 6:34 and she still hadn’t arrived home. He guessed she’d still be on the train as they were running without schedules and she was on the other side of London. He continued to stare at the news; reports were coming in that there were riots in South London Estates, there were three or for trains that had been discovered with hundreds of people killed from suffocation when the trains stalled in the tunnels. There were people in central London that were jumping off of skyscrapers. The airport had been clogged all afternoon and the Channel train to France was shut down in order to accommodate the thousands of people walking in them. It was 10:30 and his neighbors offered him a ride to the airport as they were leaving to the United States, he kindly refused stating that he was waiting for his wife’s arrival home, even though the trains were emptied out hours ago.

Everyone he knew had left the nation. His wife still wasn’t home, martial law was put in place in London and Manchester; anyone without clearance seen outside would be killed. Three days had passed and the death toll had reached 34,000 in London alone. Reports said that 73% of the city had evacuated and the military would begin mandatory evacuations, when he heard that the power shut off in the entire city. He walked upstairs passing his wife’s cup of tea that had been there for five days. He went to the bedroom and took out a box that contained old love letters. He stood there and read one while tears began to slide down from his face onto the beige carpet below. He walked to he counter and took out some painkillers, he took out fifteen to be exact and began to fill the bathtub.

30 minutes later his body laid face down in the tub full of water, his cell phone began to ring.

“…leave a message after the tone.”

“honey it’s carol. I hope you’re ok. I was pulled out of the tube and taken to a refugee camp. Please call me. I’d die without you…honey call me back. Bye luv”