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Inspired by a true tallent, John, aka Drummy and his fantastic ENDWORLD series … ___________________________________________________________________ We spent childhood growing up in the park that backed onto our parent’s house. The play area got vandalized on a regular basis by bored teenagers but the council kept coming back to fix it. There was nobody around to repair things now. If you couldn't fix something yourself you threw it away. Unless that thing was your brother. Then you enlisted help. He'd become infected with the Endworld virus. We’d called it a virus but nobody really knew what it was. He'd turned into a wild animal. Drugs helped him cling onto the last shred of humanity left inside, a modern day Jekyll and Hide in reverse. I'd not expected my brother to become my best companion and protector but he had. The beast in him can smell the infected a mile off, and newly infected before even they realize they're no longer safe. He’s aware enough of what’s happening to not attack the clean, which is a massive relief for the small team I have helping out. My brother got infected thanks to an accident with a needle. It was soon after the US blew itself to bits and the crap got carried around the world by the jet stream winds. He was giving blood to help the sick. The nurse was holding the cap from the syringe in her mouth, bending over him trying to get a good vein when a drop of saliva fell from her lips onto the injection site. At the time he didn't think much off it, dismissing it as nothing to worry about, but when ill and learning of her agonizing death months later two and two said hello. Having a doctor as our sister and veterinary nurse as a friend had saved him, if you could call such an existence saved. The cocktail of drugs are easy to administer, as long as he's calm, not smelling an infected. Our mother always said "It takes one to know one". The dose of Ketamine he needs to keep pain away would knock out two horses and a super model. And he's taking it all three times a day. We'd emptied the vets of drugs and had to make the long twelve day trip to the distribution centre on foot to get more as the others in the area hadn't been as well stocked as Linzi’s. Nobody had been there to prevent us taking the lot, so we were good for a few months more. My brother had carried close to four times his body weight in drugs without a single grunt of complaint. Before day zero people thought HIV and the Flu pandemic were bad. They were nothing in comparison to the thing that was taking out mankind like germs simply being wiped of a dirty kitchen worktop. If you had the right drugs you were okay if the ash wasn’t floating around. If you didn’t… things could get quite dicey. The story going around, believable or not, was that the enemy had used social engineering on a massive scale to turn elements of the US against each other and somehow create the spark that had them all throwing whatever weapons they had over their neighbours wall.. Chemical, Biological, Nuclear and anything else that would explode. If true the enemy was a bunch of stupid fucks as the shit got carried all over the planet, hopefully taking a lot of them out. Here in Kent, what used to be known as the "Garden of England", the weather is even more predictably crap. We used to bitch about it all the time and look forward to a holiday in the sun. Now we were glad for endless days of cloud and once in a while raced for cover when they parted. Just like when the ash from Eyjafjallajoekull came over for the fourth time, infrastructure started falling apart. Without crews to keep power and petrol stations running, transport and anything big that needed electricity soon ground to a halt. There were a few new homes nearby that had massive solar panels installed at build time. They’d been able to create their own power for many weeks until the clouds broke directly above. Apparently the spike in output had fried everything plugged in. News of what happened got me rummaging around the burnt out Maplin in town. Thankfully the stock room was okay and I now carried a pocket USB solar charger, keeping the last of my music alive. I’d tried to get more onto the iPhone but with iTunes offline for what would in all likelihood be eternity the laptop refused to copy any more music to it. Thanks Mr Jobs. In control to the bitter end. Like any living creature he needed his exercise, just as I did. I didn’t dare let him out on his own. I still couldn’t resist grinning every time I called “Walkies”. My brother was a bit of a nutter when he smelt the infected. We’d turned the corner of a building this afternoon and found an infected picking over the remains of what looked like an adult upper arm. He hadn’t noticed us until my brother made a low guttural growl and started a fast advanced. I’d not expected what happened next. The man took one look at him, dropped his snack and tried to run. With the cell death going on in his body the tendons ripped from his muscles, he had a sudden puzzled look and folded, collapsing to the ground like a marionette having all of its strings cut. My brother kept advancing across the tarmac, almost pulling my shoulder out. The man hadn’t been of interest, he’d smelt something else. By the far wall a busted up Audi with smashed in windows looked to have several occupants, one moving about fast, trying to get out. As we got closer I started to make out a face, looking both scared and happy to see us. I recognised the smell of a ladies perfume. I knew she longed for the old days, but could she really have been that stupid..... __________________________________________________________________ A massive thanks to John. His story and fantastic images have kept a lot of us fans coming back for more and very addicted! It’s got me interested in writing again and I’ve learnt a thing or two about editing while putting this tribute together, the GIMP is a lot more powerful than I’d given it credit. By the time you read this he will probably be posting the final chapters. If you’ve not read the story yet go check out the link at the top of the page. A massive “Thanks!” to the staff at The Pet Place, West Wickham for the loan of the lead and collar and help with the shots, and to John and Jasmine for their stock images.

By: Mark Emery Photography Copyright © All Rights Reserved

Taken: May 5, 2010
Uploaded: May 5, 2010

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