Chapter 4

{They Worked!}

Once the computer screen had loaded, a blue background with many files scattered across the screen greeted Leo. They were all labelled different thing like :

•Criminal records

•DNA samples

•Current inmates

•Court hearings

•Current employees

•List of rules

•Strange sightings

That was the one! Leo moved the mouse and clicked on the 'strange sightings' file. It took a while to open but, when it did, the first record was from January 7th 1995. Leo scrolled through all the reports but ultimately decided that there was too much information so he held down ctrl+f and a little search bar appeared at the top of the screen. In the bar, he typed the word snake. Then, on the screen, popped up a whole passage about some sort of snake like creature. The report was from October 2001. Leo figured that he and his family were in New Orleans at that point so they wouldn't have heard about something happening in London. The article read :

STRANGE SNAKE LIKE CREATURE SPOTTED IN AN INMATES CELL

October 19th 2001

A snake like creature with a hard, black outer shell. Can stand up on its tail. Sharp fangs. Can kill in one bite. Can be killed if cut in half with sharp knife.

J.Z.H

Although it was a short report, Leo gathered a lot of information from it. The description in the report matched the creature everyone had seen perfectly. He scanned the report and picked out things like the fact that it could be killed with a sharp knife. He wrote this useful information down on a small piece of paper and put it in his backpack in case he were to forget it.

Quickly looking through the other files for anything useful, he got up and cautiously checked the room making sure it was alien free. After deciding that the room was indeed alien free, he slowly unlocked the door and opened it. He poked his head out of the door and checked down the corridor for any creatures. There appeared to be none so, knife in hand, he stepped outside of the room and continued down the corridor. At the end of the walkway, Leo identified a source of light. As he approached it, he realised it was a door to outside the back of the police station. He opened the door and was immediately hit with a whirl of cold wind. He turned his head in shock and then turned his head back to see where he was going.

The gravel underneath his feet crunched as he made his way round to the front of the police station. Once he was at the front of the building, he looked out to the town he had called home for 12 years and how it had changed since he had visited New Orleans. He had only moved for 5 years but it had already changed so much. The old sweet shop he used to visit everyday after school had been shut down and replaced with a laundrette. The Lidl at the end of the road had been swapped out for a Sainsbury's. The domino's had been gotten rid of to expand the post office. Although the shops had changed, the whole town had now been abandoned which was by far the most strange thing. 'Where has everyone gone?' Leo asked himself. He had only been in the police station for a short amount of time but everyone had managed to disappear. Deciding that everyone else had escaped and there was no way for him to do so, he wondered up the road. Clutching the knife in his hand, he cautiously watched around him for anything suspicious that might kill him.

After wondering around for about 30 minutes, Leo smelt something strangely familiar. Car fumes! He ran after the smell and found that the motorway was blocked with people trying to escape the city of London. Standing on the bridge, he waved desperately trying to get the attention of someone who could possibly give his a lift and help him escape the aliens. Alas, every car just drove by not taking notice of the 17 year old boy standing on the bridge trying to get himself out of there. Leo stared in disbelief as all the cars drove past him heading who knows where. Giving up, he turned and walked down off the bridge. Walking further away from the cars, Leo thought of everything that was going on at the moment. The aliens killing his whole family, the entire city leaving, him being the only person left and how he was going to survive.

Leo eventually decided that the only one of the things he had listed that mattered was how he was going to survive. He sat down on the side of the pavement and listed off all the things he needed to survive in the back of the paper he had written the useful information down of earlier.

1• Food

2• Shelter

3• Water

4• Weapons

That was all he could think off for the moment. Leo knew he had a weapon and that he was in a whole city of abandoned buildings that were potentially safe so weapons and shelter weren't a problem. That only left food and water. Leo knew that water here was endless as it always rained. There was food in shops but, that was only a limited supply. It wouldn't be long before it all started to mould and the rest of the world heard about what had happened to London and stopped sending food. Leo decided that he would worry about where to get more food when and if he made it to that point. There was no telling how long he would survive in this alien infested city.

He continued down the road until he came to a cluster of shops. He looked inside the co-op and picked up some food. He took a lot of things with long life and lots of energy. That was the only way he was going to survive. He also took a few bottles of water. Wondering around the shop to see if there was anything else he could possibly need but he couldn't see anything. He left and thought he was done until he spotted a pharmacy and realised that he would need things from there if he wanted a chance at recovering from any perhaps fatal injuries. He took some painkillers, bandages and disinfectants. 'That should be ok' he whispered out loud to himself.

He stepped outside the shop and looked around completely stuck on what to do or where to go next. That's was until he spotted something. A snake like creature standing up on its tail. Leo just ran.

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It's taken me longer to update than normal because I was busy and it was Christmas.

If there are any songs you want me to put with my chapters let me know.

Also does anyone else just listen to their Spotify playlists as they work on their chapters?