Wipeout: Wipeout Book 1 Read online

  The two men remained frozen in place for a number of minutes, allowing their pursuers to pass by, yet to realize that the people they were chasing had vanished. They stood so close to each other that Samuel could feel Austin’s breath on his cheek, both frightened that any movement would give away their location. Samuel wasn’t willing to use the elevator after their climb down the shaft in the Trident building and knew there were windows in the stairwell. Until he was absolutely sure that they wouldn’t be spotted, he intended to stay precisely where he was.

  “I think we’re okay now,” Austin whispered some ten minutes later. They hadn’t heard anyone run past in some time and while a few shouts of confusion had carried down the street, most people seemed to have given up any hope of finding them. “What do you think?”

  Samuel stayed quiet a few seconds longer, still frightened to speak. It wasn’t Austin they were looking for, he needed to be extra careful that he wasn’t going to be caught. It was ironic that after everything Samuel had done, with his intentions always being to find out the truth and share it with the public for their benefit, that he had ended up being hated for those very actions. It was a sad trait of humanity, that they often wanted something so much, they didn’t realize how hard it was going to be when that thing was given to them. Samuel wished he’d never answered the call from Trident, or even gone looking for them again in the first place. He had been safe for a time in his apartment and he should’ve stayed there – leaving was a mistake that he didn’t plan on making twice.

  “Yeah, okay,” he replied to Austin eventually, waiting another minute before daring to open his mouth. “I’m on the third floor.”

  The two of them walked slowly up the stairs, both checking out of each window before passing by. Samuel was scared that at any moment, someone might exit their apartment and see him, landing him in danger all over again. For once his fears failed to come true and he opened his apartment door for Austin having made it there unnoticed. His apartment was just as he had left it, including the empty glass of wine knocked over beneath the coffee table, the bottle half empty just to one side.

  “Err, make yourself at home,” Samuel said as he closed the door behind them. “Sorry about the mess.”

  Austin laughed. “You should see my place, pal.”

  Being back in his apartment felt like a miracle, Samuel standing in the kitchen and just thinking for a second about everything that had happened since he was last there. It was only a matter of hours and yet the whole world had been turned upside down in that time. Samuel remembered leaving in the night and thinking that maybe they could get through this disaster, that maybe the public wouldn’t react so badly, and they would figure out a way to survive. Now that seemed an impossible dream. He had been right with his original assumption: things were going to get a lot worse before they got any better. That had been true when the crash first happened, and it was even more true now. Sinking down onto his couch once again, this time beside Austin, Samuel wondered when, if ever, it would be safe for the two of them to leave.

  Chapter 19

  The descent into madness was something Samuel had always wondered about. Did it happen slowly or all at once? Were there warning signs and symptoms you could look out for, or was it something that just happened outside of your control? As he and Austin flicked through static channel after static channel, he considered whether it was happening to him already. The cries of the city rang out from beyond his windows and the effects of the crash became apparent everywhere he looked. The world was changing and there was nothing any of them could do to stop it.

  “What are we going to do?” Samuel asked out loud, though he didn’t expect a response to the question. “What’s going to happen to us all?”

  Austin briefly looked up and shook his head. He felt sorry for Samuel and what had happened with the broadcast. It was clear that the man only had good intentions and while he often seemed to go about things in a slightly backwards manner, he only wanted to make a positive impression and be helpful to others. He was effectively harmless and didn’t deserve to have been scapegoated for this whole thing. But then at the same time, Samuel didn’t always help himself. It sounded to Austin like the man had pushed and pushed to get back into the Trident building, without really considering all the possible downsides to that. He had forced himself into a position of power and as a result, no one could have too much sympathy that the outcome hadn’t been exactly what he had hoped for. After all, in business, it rarely was.

  Figuring out their next move was paramount to Austin. His endgame was undoubtedly Poughkeepsie and his family, but he did wonder what Samuel would do next. By all accounts, the man wasn’t coping well with things. He alternated between dropping his head into his hands, glancing out of the window with a terrified expression on his face and looking longingly at an open bottle of wine.

  “Things will start to calm down in a couple of days,” Austin replied, sounding just about as confident in that statement as he felt. “I doubt anyone will remember your face in –”

  Offensive knocking on the apartment door cut Austin short, Samuel’s name also being bellowed through the woodwork at the same time. Both men froze at the sound, Samuel looking at Austin in horror as the thunderous banging continued, his name echoing through the building like a foghorn, alerting people far and wide to his location.

  “They’ve found us,” Samuel shuddered immediately, his first thought going to the angry mob that had chased them from the Trident building. Surely, they were done for now. They were cornered and there was no way of escape; he looked fleetingly to the fire escape but knew he could never bring himself to scale the rusted stairwell that hugged the side of his building. The access point might as well not be there, Samuel would rather take his chances jumping than put his faith in that old thing.

  “No way,” Austin shook his head. “It can’t be the same people. They can’t have seen us come in here.”

  “Sam!” The knocking continued, showing no indication that it was going to stop. “We know you’re in there. Come on, let us in.”

  “It’s Trent and Abi,” a women’s voice joined the calls. “Please let us inside.”

  A look of recognition mixed with relief shot across Samuel’s face as he realized it wasn’t the angry mob chasing him down, but his neighbors from the floor above. He was on friendly terms with Trent and Abi, a married couple about his age who he shared dinner plans with once every couple of months or so. They were nice people and on any normal day of the week he would’ve trusted them, but this wasn’t a normal day of the week. As a result, Samuel paused, trying to decide what to do.

  Austin gave him a questioning glance. “Shall we let them in?”

  Samuel hesitated, pros and cons for letting his neighbors into his apartment quickly running through his head. As the banging on his door continued relentlessly, he eventually stepped forward and pulled it open, frightened about the additional attention that the noise might attract.

  “Finally,” Trent barged into the room, his wife right behind him. “What took you so long? We saw you on the news, man. I can’t believe it.”

  Abi shook her head. “Are you okay? We were so worried. I can’t believe those people did that.”

  Both Samuel and Austin had been avoiding looking out in the direction of the Trident building, neither of them wanting to see the state of it now. You didn’t have to look to know it was ablaze though, the fire burning viciously through the lower levels.

  “Did everyone get out?”

  “I don’t know,” Samuel replied honestly with a shake of his head. “In fact,” he paused, “I’m pretty confident there were still some people inside.” He thought back to Sandy and how he had left the woman on the sixth floor. Even without looking at the burning building, Samuel knew the flames would’ve reached past the sixth floor by now. Sandy would’ve either been forced upwards to wait for her death, or already accosted by the fire. Once again shame tormented Samuel, the man regretting his decision
s despite knowing there was little else he could’ve done.

  “Oh no,” Abi put a hand over her mouth, “that’s awful.”

  “How did you get out? I don’t understand why it ended up being you in front of the camera? What was it like over there?”

  Trent had so many questions; it took a lot for Samuel to get his head around. He needed to stop for a minute and think. After checking that his front door was properly shut and locked again, he walked into his kitchen – part of his open plan living space – and filled a glass of water from the faucet. Trent, Abi and Austin all watched him quietly, the room sort of freezing in time while Samuel prepared himself. He felt like he had been trying to answer one question after another for over a day now and not once had he given the answer people wanted. The pressure was mounting even now, and Samuel didn’t want to shoulder the responsibility anymore.

  “Err; do either of you guys want a drink?” Austin asked as Samuel stood shakily by the sink, leaning against the counter and looking like he needed to sit down. “I’m Austin,” he held out his hand to shake both Trent’s and Abi’s. “I also worked at Trident.”

  “Oh sorry,” Abi shook Austin’s hand first, her manners most on par with Samuel’s. “Were you inside for it all? What happened?”

  Austin looked over at Samuel again and saw that he didn’t look like he would be recounting the events of their time in the Trident building any time soon. Taking the lead, he nodded and started explaining what had happened to the newcomers, sparing no details from their gruesome experience in the burning building. Unlike Samuel, he had seen it and was impressed that the structure still stood upright. The foundations were surely compromised now; those at the top of the building wouldn’t be waiting for the fire to reach them but waiting to topple to the ground in a pile of rubble and ash.

  “That’s mental,” Trent shook his head once Austin was finished with his story, explaining how he and Samuel had scaled down an elevator shaft with part of the news crew, only to have them turn them in to the angry mob moments later. “I can’t believe people are being like that.”

  “I can,” Abi scoffed, talking over her husband in a manner that would’ve been condescending had it transpired between anyone other than a married couple. Between the two of them however it was natural; there was an undeniable undertone of love that overshadowed everything else, making it entirely acceptable for Abi to talk to Trent in that manner. “People are dogs,” she declared simply. “You only have to look out of the window to see that. The streets are a mess. The city is in chaos. People have lost their humanity.”

  From the kitchen where he stood alone, Samuel laughed. That was the line that he kept telling people. The money may be lost, but they didn’t need to lose their humanity. It was ironic how Abi had reached the same conclusion, or perhaps it was expected. People’s lives were entirely hinged on their capability to pay for their next meal or afford the next big trip. Money was the be all and end all and losing that affected so much more than just their bank accounts.

  “You okay, pal?”

  “Yeah,” Samuel spoke out eventually, nodding away Austin’s concern. “Yeah, I will be. That stuff was,” he paused, glancing out of the window properly at the burning wreckage of the Trident building. “Mental.” He echoed Trent, using a word that was normally outside of his vocabulary but seemed to sum up their scenario perfectly. “Are you both okay? I’m sorry about before,” he nodded to the door apologetically. “Have you both been here the whole time?”

  “Yeah,” Trent nodded, “we obviously didn’t believe things at first. You know Abi has always been with you guys, but my money is with The Dorchester Group. It was only when they took to the news declaring how messed up everything was that we started to buy into the whole thing. Before that we assumed it was some crazy glitch. Like – money can’t just vanish like that, can it?”

  Samuel laughed, hearing the same opinion that so many others, including himself had carried up until not that long ago. “Oh, how I wish that was the case.”

  “It’s just crazy,” Abi agreed. “So yeah, at first we didn’t really believe it. But then we saw that woman from The Dorchester Group on the news and we started thinking maybe there’s some logic behind it all. Fat lot of good it did having money with them anyway, my accounts are all wiped now as well. There’s nothing left.”

  “There can’t be,” Austin shrugged. “The entire economy is done for. We tried to see if the government could bail us out, but it’s even beyond the point of that. Doesn’t matter how much money is in reserve anywhere now, it’s worthless.”

  “It’s so hard to get your head around isn’t it? How the value of money can just drop so significantly.”

  “In a way,” Samuel nodded, understanding Abi’s confusion. If he didn’t work for a global banking corporation, he would likely be in a similar boat. “But if you think about it, it’s the value of goods that matter. If we can’t put a price on something, then what is it worth? It’s all going to be about demand now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well if you think about necessities,” Samuel explained, threading his thoughts together as they came to him. “That’s what most people will need now. Food, water, shelter – the basic core pillars of survival. No one is going to care about a thousand-dollar television set or a fast car if they can’t feed themselves or keep themselves clean and safe.”

  “Oh yeah, of course,” Austin nodded. “I reckon a new form of currency will come out pretty soon. The only question is what?”

  “Well food, surely?” Trent said, the answer fairly self-explanatory in his eyes. “That’s the main thing everyone will need.”

  “It’s possible,” Samuel agreed. “Our major food suppliers are all going to be wiped out pretty quickly. If you think about how much land is used up in this country for livestock – or even for growing food for the livestock – that just won’t be sustainable anymore. I don’t really know what will happen there.”

  “It’ll most likely all go to waste,” Austin announced, much to everyone else’s surprise. “Well, there isn’t going to be anyone around to do the jobs required to keep things ticking over,” he explained simply. “If there’s no one doing the job, the basic parts will fall apart.”

  “I don’t understand why we can’t just wipe the slate clean,” Abi suggested. “It’s not like this has only happened to some people. It’s everyone. So why can’t we just say it didn’t happen and then move on? No one misses out if everyone is in the same boat.”

  “But then money would just lose all its value.”

  “Yeah, you’d be talking a couple hundred bucks for a tin of beans.”

  “More, probably.”

  “But why? I don’t understand. If everyone is on the same page so to speak, what does it matter if we just skip ahead a chapter?”

  Samuel laughed at the analogy, understanding the reasoning Abi was trying to put across but also having heard the same argument far too many times already before. “It’s just not possible,” he shook his head. “Money has a value for a reason, and we’re not the only country that has it. Why do you think when you go on holiday to Europe, everything is nearly twice as expensive? Or if you go over to Mexico everything is dirt cheap? It’s based on the economies. We’re one of the global superpowers; so many other countries depend on our economy to regulate their own. If we just wipe the slate clean like you’re suggesting, we’ll ruin more than just our country, but potentially hundreds of others too.”

  “Right,” Abi exhaled, not sure what else to say in response to Samuel’s statement. She understood it to an extent, though felt like she would never completely wrap her head around it all. Either way she realized that there was nothing they could do; Samuel had certainly tried during his time in Trident and look how that had turned out. The four of them – along with everyone else in New York, and across America – didn’t have much choice now but to adapt and see what happened. They were all about to experience a whole new world to the on
e they had become accustomed to.

  Similar thoughts carried through Samuel’s head as he chewed on his bottom lip. The more he said it out loud, the more real things became to him. It was like he needed constant reminding how serious their situation was, despite how it only took a glance out of his apartment window to see the very real effects. Through everything he hadn’t really sat down and considered the long-term effects; there had been a brief period at his parents’, but back then even he hadn’t understood the magnitude of it all. Everything was different now and there was no avoiding it.

  Trident burned in the distance and outside his apartment building people rioted in the streets. Windows were smashed with reckless abandon, stores ransacked and ruined while men and women of all ages screamed and shouted like children in a playground. The law had dissolved from a firm structure which everyone lived by, to a tattered pile of rags, burning on the ground. There was no coming back from this and it didn’t seem like anyone was even willing to try.

  Chapter 20

  Much later that night, Samuel found himself tossing and turning in his bed, unable to get any rest. Austin was on his couch in the living room, everyone having agreed that it was best for him to spend the night and see how things were in the morning before trying to go back out into the city. Trent and Abi had gone back upstairs eventually, the four of them sharing several hours of morbid conversation over what was going to happen to the country as a result of this banking crash. They’d watched every news report that was still in operation, but many were already just repeating the same coverage on a loop. Samuel knew it wouldn’t be long before all television stopped. There was no money to support life’s necessary elements now, the luxuries would certainly be among the first to end.