This is a short story that my husband wrote while he was off work back in February of this year. Glenn wanted to imagine a scenario in the not so distant future, told from the eye’s of a person who is riddled with paranoia and seeing the changes happening in society, from the aftermath of a pandemic. Please bear in mind, this is just a work of fiction even though the story mirrors current events in the world today…

“I wake up to the warmth of the sun on my face. It shines brightly through the cracks in my curtains making way for another new day with new stories to tell. I have no idea how long I have been asleep. I lose track of the time, especially since I can no longer go out.

At first I just want to go back to sleep, maybe wake up again in different surroundings and tell myself that it was all just a bad dream, that I simply imagined it all. It sucks having to face reality these days, especially with the state of the world today. I cannot even remember what normal life was like before the pandemic, before this mysterious sickness came about. They said it came from the east, Japan to be exact, from an isolated laboratory where they had been experimenting on monkeys. It was some toxin they had been using on the primates to study their behaviour, a toxin that made them aggressive. There was an accident and the animals escaped, and that is when it spread.

I cannot remember the name of the virus, only that it spread like a wildfire across the world and that there had been reports in different countries of people going crazy, people attacking each other in the streets. It almost looked like something out of a zombie movie. They said the virus was airborne and that it was easily contractable. The symptoms usually started off as mild migraines, cold and flu like symptoms and then insomnia. That was the big one, insomnia. People just could not go to sleep and then it escalated to aggressiveness and insanity. I saw the pictures on the news, but then again, I always questioned the validity of what I was seeing, whether it was true or not.

When the first stories and cases of infection began here in the UK, the government wasted no time in implementing lockdown. All non-essential businesses closed down. Only the essential businesses stayed open, like supermarkets. Everywhere I went, you had to wear a mask. You had to wait in line outside supermarkets. But after a while, it got a little more extreme. You could not enter the supermarket or go to work without having your temperature checked or showing the right appropriate documentation for the blood tests they were conducting across the country. They said this virus was unlike anything scientists had ever seen before, that the virus could be caught and remain dormant in anyone until they show the first signs of symptoms associated with the disease. Aggression was the main symptom to watch out for. The police were, during the first few months, arresting anyone who exhibited any aggression. But then they started carrying thermal devices to measure peoples temperature. A sharp rise in temperature during aggression was another big giveaway. I pretty much lost count of the amount of times I had been tested. Most of my test documents are in a crumpled pile next to my bedside drawer, held together by a rusty paperclip.

I can still remember the panic and hysteria, the paranoia it caused people. The panic buying in supermarkets. There were a few riots on the streets, and some members of the public took to carrying weapons like knives and baseball bat’s with them as if they were going into war against a horde of blood crazed zombies.

But, talking about the zombies that I saw on TV. It was funny, because I never saw any in my neighbourhood or city. Come to think of it, I never saw any of the military or police patrolling the streets or people in their hazamat suits wearing gas masks to cover their faces. You normally see that in a movie whenever there was an outbreak of some mysterious illness. The only thing I saw was the aggression of the general public, and boy, when the chips are really down, and panic and hysteria take over, people can lose it, and that is more frightening than any zombie movie.

Apart from this, life continued as normal, but with the restrictions of lockdown. Yes, during the hot months, places opened up again, there were few reports and cases of this illness which caused aggressive behaviour. But the government always assured us that they were taking care of it. Then, when the cold weather came about and reports began circulating of people catching the virus, we were back in lockdown. I’ve counted, since this virus came about, that I have only worked less than twelve weeks at my workplace. Being laid off time and time again was just annoying and I guess it’s right what a lot of my co-workers said, that a company cannot function every time it has to close its doors. It certainly cannot keep paying a quarter of each of its workers wages while it’s not making money, and I knew it would only be a matter of time before the inevitable happened…

My workplace folded…

Going back to my days as a furloughed worker, it was a vacation at first. The government paid three quarters of my wages and my workplace paid the rest. I thought this was heaven sent, being off work, being paid just for sitting round doing nothing. But as the months and years dragged on, from one lockdown to the next, the money that was coming in started to dwindle. I wasn’t getting as much. It was no fun though being off work as I was pretty much restricted by what I could do and not do. I could not really see any family or friends and all the bars and pubs were closed. Sure, they opened briefly when the restrictions eased, but when Winter came about, things went back the way they were; stay at home, see nobody, work from home if possible. The news itself was no help to me. They ran up what appeared to be a war-room effect as they slammed the message home about staying away from family and friends, keeping your distance when out getting supplies, wearing a mask and getting tested.

I get up from my bed, my head spinning, my eyes still heavy from my deep sleep. My room is practically a mess. Clothes strewn everywhere, empty soda cans and crisp packets. I step across the pile of rubbish to the mirror, staring hard at the person looking back at me. I hadn’t had a good shave in weeks, and my hair is overgrown. I have lost a lot of weight due to not eating much. The government had cut off any benefits I had been entitled to and I literally had no access to my bank account. I can’t go out anymore and if seen in public, I will be arrested. It’s all just because I refused to take the vaccine that was on offer.

I can remember it over a year ago when they introduced it to the public. It had been made in the space of eight months and had skipped most of the vaccine trials. But the majority of the general public lined up in their droves to take it. The media, government, scientists and doctors alike claimed this was the cure to stopping the virus. Conspiracy theories and scare stories about this vaccine cropped up everywhere on the internet. I looked into all of them to see if there was any truth, that the vaccine had some kind of nanotechnology that altered your dna and body chemistry. But it is a rabbit hole when you go down that route. I even looked at the conspiracy theories surrounding this virus, many of them stating that the virus itself never existed, that there was no evidence whatsoever that this dangerous microorganism had been isolated in a laboratory under the proper conditions. I even tried looking for evidence myself of this virus, its origins, but could find nothing. All we had to go off was the stories we heard from the mainstream news.

While vast droves of the nation began getting inoculated by this miracle vaccine, I was slipping deeper into the rabbit hole. I was only barely getting by each week with my bills, rent and food. I had some savings that I was practically living off, but only enough to scrape by. They vaccinated the elderly and vulnerable first, then slowly went through the age groups until one day, I got the letter stating it was my turn to take the vaccine. I refused and paid heavily for it. About a week later, I had a letter from the police telling me that I was confined to my house until further notice. It’s been almost three months now. Nearly the entire population of my country has been vaccinated with probably only a few of us that haven’t. But it did not stop with my house arrest. They later cut off my gas and electric supply. I still have water, and enough candles to light up at night. But the worst of it is the fact that I can no longer access my bank account or even surf the web. I cannot make calls on my house phone or mobile because the service has been cut. This is the price I had to pay for refusing to take a vaccine.

I was warned about this from my family and friends who told me that grave consequences would result with my refusal to take the vaccine, but I never realised it would get this extreme. I now live on takeaways, delivered to me by my sister. She is the only member of my family that visits to deliver my stuff, basic essentials that I need to get by. Her support has been amazing. Without her, I would have starved to death, probably gone insane or worse. She tells me that the vaccine is law now and that without it, a person can do nothing. You need a vaccine ID now to access everything, your bank account, your phone account, you gas and electric, even surf the web. You need it to travel, visit shops, pubs, bars and even work. Yes, I heard many workplaces now have new contracts with the clauses in them that you cannot work unless you have been inoculated. Without the vaccine, you are practically some outcast in society, cast aside like rubbish, waiting to be collected and disposed of. I still wonder when I would hear from the police about my house confinement being lifted. But I do think this is very unlikely. These people, pushing this vaccine, are doing everything in their power to ensure you have no choice but to take it. My sister thinks I am being paranoid and she tells me she is concerned that things could get worse for me. I can still recall the last heated conversation we had very clearly…

“Have you heard that the government is getting the police to go door to door to get those who are not vaccinated to be force injected?” she tells me.”Look, Bradley, this is getting serious now. The vaccine is not as bad as it sounds. How long are you going to keep this up? Don’t you worry that they might turn off your water supply?”

“I do,” I admit. “But my mind is made up. I’m taking no vaccine that has been rushed, never been tested and can potentially harm me.”

My sister sighs at this as she puts down my latest takeaway, a double pepperoni pizza with a bottle of Cola soda.

“You can’t keep living off pizza’s, chips, Chinese and Indian takeaways for the rest of your life!” she says sternly to me. “Does it not occur to you that you bought in to a load of bullshit on the internet? It’s ruining your life Bradley.”

“And what if the mainstream media is lying to us? The pictures we saw on the news of infected people attacking one another. That could easily be done on computer using Hollywood style effects. This whole thing could be just one gigantic lie to bring about changes to global society and the world in general. It’s all about control and mass surveillance.”

My sister shakes her head sadly. I could not expect Jenifier to see things how I see them. She’s always seen herself as a good, law abiding citizen who always wants to do her part for society. She never believed the conspiracy theories surrounding the virus or vaccine and because of her opposing views, it’s kind of driven a wedge between us.

“Don’t you even want to hear about how your wife and child are doing?” she asks me. “They are worried about you. Everyone is.”

I turn away from the mirror, not wanting to think any more about the argument with my sister that happened a few days ago. I just hope she is not too mad at me about our heated conversation. I still wonder how my wife Philippa and daughter, Larissa are doing. Things got really bad when I lost my job, then when the electricity was turned off in the house and then the gas, it was the final straw. Philippa told me she could not live with me any longer because of my stubborn insistence on standing by my beliefs. She moved to her parents house and has been there ever since. I heard news not long ago that she had the vaccine. I think all my family have had it. Even my friends and former co-workers. They all now have a vaccine number which is as unique as their social security number, only with the vaccine number, you need it everywhere you go.

I still don’t know what the outside world is like. My sister says the police now carry guns and employ drones for mass surveillance on the public. Even with the vaccine, they still wanted to be sure nobody could display any signs of aggression. The police now have the authority to shoot anyone they believe has been rein-fected.

Its exactly as the conspiracy theorists predicted, the mass militarization of the police, the explosion of mass surveillance technology, physical cash no longer exists. Everything is digital and tied to your vaccine ID. I still have money in my account but it is inaccessible without a vaccine number. I can remember talking about this numerous times when I use to be able to go online. I had a lot of contacts then. One of them warned me this was coming and told me I needed to be ready to live off-grid if I was to survive. Easy said than done.

But even if I did decide to do that, where would I go?

How would I live?

‘If you don’t run Bradley, they will force vaccinate you, the police and medical authorities. Or even worse, take you away,’ a voice in my head says. ‘Time to make a decision. ‘

I slowly put on a pair of tatty jeans and a hooded top before going downstairs. There is another pile of mail by the door, more bills and warnings of unpaid bills, money owed to companies that I can no longer pay because I don’t have access to any money. The landlord has more than once threatened to evict me even though my sister has been paying my rent. I guess I have a lot to be thankful for her. I suppose the reason my water supply has not been switched off is because she may have convinced them to keep it on and keep paying. Shes been trying her hardest to support me, even when the rest of my family and friends have turned their backs to me.

“Bradley, just get the vaccine,” were her last pleading words to me. “Take it and your problems will go away. You have no proof to back these conspiracy theories. That’s all they are, just made up theories. “

“But what if they are right and what you believe is wrong?” I remember asking her.

“And what if you are wrong?”was her reply to this. “Have you ever thought about that?”

I have thought about it a lot. I want to believe all the media stories about the virus, I want to believe what the government says, that they really want to protect us. But, somehow, I feel this nothing to do with health or protecting us from some killer virus that is turning people mad. This is about control. Control over everything on this planet, its resources and even ourselves. Some conspiracy theorist think its to do with population control.

‘Lifekill’ some theorist say. The method used by those who secretly and covertly control our planet to reduce the population. Its been known according to a lot of these so-called-experts, that our planet is overpopulated. That there is too many of us humans consuming all the natural resources, and leaving behind trails of pollution that is slowly destroying our planet. Economist say our current economic system is not working, that global debt is spiralling out of control. With the current path we are taking, according Green activists, the ones who want to save the planet, we humans are sowing the seeds to our own destruction.

I heard something online about ‘The Great Reset.’ It has been widely discussed by the World Economic Forum for the past two years, how some of the most powerful people on the planet are proposing changes to how we run the planet and use its resources. To me, its a way of taking control of the planet from us humans and putting it in the hands of a few people. The Great Reset is about taking down the old world to make way for a world with more tighter, top down control. Global debt would be erased but in this world, you would own nothing. Everything, from the clothes on your body, would be borrowed. The world would be one gigantic welfare state. Technology, the rapid advancement of AI, would consume and control our lives. Most jobs would be done by machines which would make us humans very obsolete. Every aspect of our lives would be under strict surveillance and monitoring. Its all emerging now, the changes to this world and the virus which started a little over a few years ago, was the catalyst to kick start these changes.

There is a rucksack in the hallway next to the door to my living room. I’ve packed a few basic belongings inside, some non perishable food to last me a few days and some survival equipment like a Swiss army knife. I am all ready to run, should I have to. I can sense that it will only be a matter of time before the knock at my door is heard, those heavily armed police, government personnel standing outside waiting to kick down my door if necessary, vaccinate me or take me away to who-knows-where. I try not to think about it. I’ve don’t know a thing about survival, I don’t have a plan, but I will take my chances if necessary. I can only pray that my family, my sister, my wife and child will be okay.

I head into the living room, look out of the window to the street beyond. It is quiet with not a soul in sight, but I can recall a few days ago seeing a huddle of neighbours all talking in quiet voices while looking nervously in the direction of my house. It is no surprise that I am the talk of the street and their hostility towards me is almost reminiscent to the old days when people who were thought to be witches were persecuted. Now its us people who dare to indulge in conspiracy theories or even question the mainstream narrative.

I have never felt this alone before, yet this dystopian world that I woke up in all these years ago seems so alien. It is like being in a movie like The Stepford Wives, or Invasion Of The Body Snatchers where everyone was replaced and turned into Pod People.

Am I really the only one who has not been vaccinated or are their others out there like me?

How would I find them in a world I have barely set foot in for months?

I hardly know what the future holds. But as I gaze out of my window to the world beyond, I am ready to run if I have to. Whatever God has in store for me, only time will tell…”

To be continued…

Written by Glenn Riley.