Wednesday 4th September 2013 - Chamberlain debriefing

Debriefing of Annabelle Chamberlain - September 4th, 2013. 10:00 CET.
Present: Annabelle Chamberlain, Lee Varley, Nicholas McLarnon, Charles Addison M.E.P., members of the Tunnel security team.

All parties present enter the meeting room, one of several corrugated metal structures strewn about the inhabited section of the Tunnel's interior.

[Begin transcript.]

Addison: "We met briefly the other day. My name's Charles Addison. I'm an M.E.P. and with the European Union Committee on UK Affairs, assigned to the Tunnel to supervise inland activities which may affect any British citizens residing for the time being within the EU."

Anna: "Yes I remember from the other day, hello again Mr. Addison."

Addison: "You're already acquainted with Lee Varley, and I'm to understand you requested the presence of Mr. McLarnon today?"

Anna: "I wanted a friendly face present."

Addison: "Okay. Well if you're comfortable shall we begin?"

Nick: "Is the tape on?"

Varley: "The light's on, it's on."

Nick: "I couldn't see it from here, sorry."

Addison: "Where are you from, Anna?"

Anna: "I'm from Birmingham, but I lived in London."

Varley: "He meant where were you before you came here. Tell him what you told me."

Anna: "..."

Addison: "What is-"

Anna: "I came from Burlington."

Addison: "Where exactly is that? I've not heard of it."

Anna: "It's in Wiltshire."

Varley: "Wiltshire, aye. Right down the M4 from London; bound to escape attack... How's Burlington lasted a year while every other place in the country was overrun, Ms. Chamberlain?"

Anna: "Because it's like here, it's under the bloody ground."

Addison: "A bunker?"

Anna: "The bunker. It was built in the '50s during the MacMillan government to squirrel away their white collar workers when the superpowers blew up the outside world."

Varley: "She's making it up, it's bollocks."

Nick: "Actually it is real. I read about it online ages ago. If you want I can pull it up for everyone later."

Varley: "Nick, come on-"

Nick: "I'm not taking the piss Varley, she's not lying about it."

Addison: "Gentlemen; if you please."

Addison: "Anna... there hasn't been any contact with known bunker defences since December last year."

Anna: "And?"

Addison: "And, so, you can understand how we're reticent to believe that at the most crucial time in the country's history such a significant resource would be operating without the outside world realising."

Anna: "..."

Varley: "Is any of Whitehall from before the attack there now?"

Anna: "...Not as such."

Varley: "What does that mean, 'not as such'?"

Anna: "There are no pre-epidemic government workers at Burlington, Mr. Varley."

Varley: "No-one at all? Not even Peter Mandelson?"

Anna: "There's no need to be facetious. It was barely manned for years before the epidemic and they'd been winding it down since the first Gulf War. The whole thing was decommissioned six years ago."

Addison: "How did you access this bunker Anna?"

Varley: "Who is there then?"

Anna: "I was taken there."

Varley: "Yeah, by who?"

Anna: "A friend."

Addison: "Anna, please-"

Varley: "If only they'd all had friends like yours Chamberlain."

Addison: "Calm down Varley you're getting animated."

Varley: "Why the hell shouldn't I be? This is bloody typical. We're left clueless, that's how this all started in the first place. This posh cow-"

Addison: "Right; out. Now."

Varley: "You can't let-"

Addison: "Get up top now and make yourself useful. I'm not fannying about; go!"

[Varley unleashes a stream of invective towards Addison before being escorted out of the meeting room.]

Nick: "Shit..."

Addison: "I'm extremely sorry you had to sit through that Ms. Chamberlain. Please be assured Mr. Varley will be reprimanded for his lack of appropriate discretion and impartiality in dealing with this matter."

Anna: "Is he normally like that?"

Nick: "Not really. He's not happy about any of this."

Anna: "I'm not either."

Nick: "Anna what's going on? Why are you here?"

Anna: "You're questioning me too now?"

Nick: "I'm asking you because I work with these people and I know they're only trying to sort things out, please give us some idea of what's going on up there. Varley doesn't hate you he just... he's very direct."

Addison: "We're only here to discuss the unusual circumstances of your arrival, Anna. We're not pointing fingers."

Anna: "..."

Anna: "My boyfriend... my boyfriend worked as a government aide. We got out of London early and went to Corsham, in Wiltshire. The bunker's under there. Matt knew people. He got us inside. "

Addison: "How long were you at the bunker, did you leave to find help or to scout out how the rest of the country was?"

Anna: "No. No, I had to leave. I was there for months. I left, I had to leave."

Nick: "Why?"

Anna: "I can't say..."

[The room goes silent. Addison pauses.]

Addison: "It's probably best if we switch off the tape now and discuss this privately."

[End of transcript.]

Tuesday 3rd September 2013 - Annabelle Chamberlain

Hello, this is Annabelle Chamberlain. Simply Anna is okay. From the posts I see Nick and Mr. Varley have been making, you may already be aware of how I recently came to find this group of survivors.

Varley's and Nick's blog entries haven't contained the most descriptive prose, you must be confused about the conditions here and just who these people are. I'll start with a short picture of myself. I'm 5' 8" tall, with dark hair, green eyes and a penchant for smiling at inappropriate moments. In the past, people were nice enough to tell me I looked a bit like Penelope Cruz... I didn't really see it then and even less so now, after months of eating whatever the hell I could find. I'd take a photo but, well, nobody around here had the good sense to pick up a webcam or digital camera for this place. Nicholas.

My hometown is/was Birmingham, which was the second most populated city in the UK. I moved from there a long time ago and lost the accent, but my family stayed. I haven't heard from anyone I know in almost a year. I was seeing someone in London, although I'd rather not talk about what happened. He should be the one here now.

As for the state of the nation, yes, everything stated in this blog so far is true. Our country is gone. After centuries of searching the globe for issues to interfere in, we've finally been consumed by the British Question. With or without the consent of Mr. Varley and the others here I hope to document what is left of us and report to you via this website. It's all I know how to do and the only thing I have left.

Tomorrow, I've volunteered to tape and transcribe for the blog my own interrogation. Oh sorry, formal debriefing. While I appreciate the rescue I do not much enjoy being held under suspicion and repeatedly cross-examined, as has been the case since I arrived here. Only a few of the Tunnel's residents have been accommodating; Dr. Blenkinsop, and in particular Nick, who has helped to calm my fears about the state of the world. For that reason I offered to go on record to explain the circumstances of my arrival. All I can say is; if surviving under the worst possible conditions is a crime then everyone here carries with them equal guilt. There may be no accepted central government at the moment but that is a poor excuse for the paltry little militia Mr. Varley and his friends are running. The Tunnel is apparently a voluntary monitoring and first response effort, but don't let that fool you. There are people here, like Varley, who are focused on some wild fantasy of reclaiming Britain. This island is finished and the only reason anyone living should still be here is to ensure it is left alone.

I certainly hope it's a good night wherever you are.

x Anna x

Monday 2nd September 2013 - Yawnz

It's N1k, I can't sleep. To paraphrase the great and presumably late Tom Jones, it's not unusual when you're part of what's left of Britain (9_9) The new chick Anna's the cause for tonight's bout of sleeplessness; she refused to believe the rest of the world hadn't been consumed by the dead until I showed her most of the frigging internet and proved her wrong. She says she was a journalist, so I suppose it must be difficult for her not to want to know the situation. Her attitude about it made me think about what things were like before, how everyone had already been cliched out about something they assumed was fictional and would never happen. I've always been a total geek so I had a zombie plan - I can't believe I'm actually typing that. It didn't work anyway... maybe I'll tell you about it sometime when I feel more in the mood to go over that stuff. Today's been weird enough as it is. Anyhoo, here's a link to a Beeb article from a few years ago -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8206280.stm

I can't believe how much of a joke this was back then. Hindsight's a harsh mistress. It's weird surfing through the BBC website now too. I'm gonna have to listen to some Maiden and destress, feel free to join me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPXa-3JggEM

Night! m(__)m

Monday 2nd September 2013

Varley here again. Nick says hello too (Heya! ~ N1k (^_^) )

It's been an interesting weekend. Sorry for dashing away so quick the other day but I'll fill you in on what happened after I left. We found something.

Not a living soul had made it to the Tunnel in almost half a year. On Friday evening, as Nick and I were making the first post on the blog, a report was passed down to us from the Cheriton Control Tower at the track entrance. Movement was spotted around the station compound.

Stray zimmers head over our way quite frequently; they're the slow-moving dead that you could mistake for some particularly arthritic old bugger off to collect their pension if you're not too close. The lads upstairs are getting pretty good at seeing them from a distance now. I tell them it's fate they ended up here because they're as bad as trainspotters, and they laugh but I know they think I'm a knob. My sense of humour's vanished lately so I've been trying to make up for it - it isn't working.

Anyway, getting back to business... the observe/report came in but it wasn't a zimmer; moving too fast. I ordered immediate weapons readiness and further discrete surveillance to try and establish what was on its way. One of the tower lads said it seemed to be zig-zagging as though trying to find cover, but the weather meant no-one could get a good look. We were hopeful at this point but I didn't issue an order to stand down. God only knows what's outside, some of the things people here saw on their journey to the coast are far worse than bog-standard zimmers.

I joined the guards and we honed in on the thing approaching with binocs and sights; it was nimbly making its way over obstacles and closing on the tunnel entrance. Some of us thought it was best to put it out of its misery while we had the chance. Instead, I went down to meet it.

The open air was bloody nippy. Wind kept slapping rain down at me as I walked to meet whatever was on its way. The rest of the guard group stayed in the tower to provide cover if I needed it. I was putting my life in my hands with some of them; if things'd kicked off they could well have shot me instead. British people aren't known for their gun use, and most of the experienced troops who were overseas during the outbreak are working on border control with the EU.

Walking over grass feels odd now, so I trod carefully but kept focused in the direction we thought the contact was coming from. It was there but hadn't noticed me yet. In my hands I held a silenced Sterling Mk. 5 submachine gun ready. On my back was my shotgun and easily reachable at my side were a small metal axe and a safety hammer. You're probably thinking that's a bit odd but they're useful for smacking glass in and you never know when you'll need a hammer. I stopped as a discernable figure approached. It seemed far too animated to be dead, and was definitely carrying a handbag over one shoulder. I could tell it was female, long dark hair tied back and dressed in some green and grey hiking gear.

It stopped suddenly when it realised I was there and backed up a bit; that wasn't normal. I shouted just enough for it to hear me over the wind. Asked it to raise its hands if it was alive and tell me what it was doing here if it was safe to talk. It complied, and called back as quietly as it could:

"Please! I'm heading for the Channel Tunnel!"

"Who are you - are you alone?"

"It's just me, my name is Anna! You have to help, something's followed me here! I'm not bitten - please don't fire!"

I looked around.

"What and where? Is it close?"

"No - I don't know! I don't know what it is! It's not one of the slow ones!"

I quickly flashed a torch towards the control tower so they knew not to fire on us.

"Go past me and keep moving towards the building I just shot that torch at. Go, now!"

The woman didn't move.

"It's safe! GO!"

She ran past and headed for the tower. I followed, looking around in case whatever was tracking her took the opportunity to move in. There seemed to be something in the distance, thin and broken looking, but to be honest it could've been the trees. Some of the guards have emptied guns at shadows before, it happens more often than it should.

Whether the thing that followed the woman was watching us or not, we made it to the tower without incident. Dave, Sol and Luke who were on duty were pretty chuffed that they hadn't ended up shooting the new arrival. I told them we were all heading back to the Tunnel and they were surprised but I said not to argue and keep their eyes peeled; they know when I'm trying to make a joke by now.

So off we scarpered. Soon as we got back to relative safety, I contacted Sangatte and relayed what happened to the EU monitoring unit while Anna was being looked after and checked out by our doctors. She's a bit malnourished, but otherwise fine. We're planning on debriefing her after a few days and I'll keep the blog up to date with what's going on. In the meantime we're upping security around the tunnel entrance and holding back. We can't risk anything getting in here.

Stay safe.

Friday 30th August 2013 - Ping

Varley ran off cos there's been a report of contact at the Cheriton Control Tower topside. Tbh he probably would've spontaneously combusted if he'd had to sit here much longer anyway. I've never known someone that eager to gun things down and I was raised on Team Fortress Classic. I'm Nick McLarnon/T3kN1k (*>v<) I admin what passes for IT in the Tunnel, installing a series of tubes inside a series of tubes. http://midimidilol.ytmnd.com/

So yeh, we're driven to living in a dark hole in the earth like Morlocks... Not even Chris Claremont Morlocks; shabby loony Wellsian ones. Varley isn't the only person who's jumpy and at least he admits to that, with him it's like BOOM HEADSHOT! That's how he deals with all this. M-m-m-monsterkill. Most of the others are barely holding themselves together. I suppose it's easier for me to cope with everything cos I focus on duct-taping our communications together and don't have to go over to the other side much. Since I got out I've been back three times and the first I barely survived. If I have to I'll go but honestly, who could be ok with any of this? 98% of the country dead in a year?

...thinking about things, now I can understand why Varley would find writing this blog difficult (u_u) We're finally licking wounds and tallying losses. Without help or a miracle we're not going to win this.

Please help us, you're our only hope (^o^)y

Friday 30th August 2013

We finally have some internet access here. I can't remember the last time I used a computer. Typing again feels strange. Before everything happened I used my phone browser most of the time anyway, but coverage dissipated pretty quickly when the country began tearing itself apart just over a year ago. To be honest I've been avoiding this for a few days now but it was my idea so I'm going to go through with it. I just don't want to get too cosy and think things are improving; they're not, and that's the reason why we've started this blog.

Sorry if I'm rambling but putting my thoughts in any order isn't something I've done in a long while. All the people here have been running on adrenaline for far too long. My name is Lee Varley. This blog is intended to show the rest of the world that, firstly, we're not all dead, and secondly, Britain isn't abandoned.

I'm writing this while sat underneath the Straight of Dover in the British side of the Channel Tunnel, one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. With me to deal with any computer difficulties that might happen is Tech Nicholas. Nick brought our internet stuff with him last week when he got back from the Sangatte Expatriate Zone. He also picked up cigarettes and some not bad French booze. It's good to know duty-free made a comeback, and no-one's bothered about the smoking ban anymore. You can't really pop outside for a fag here.

Nick's been reading news sites from America and Australia, talking about the "Undead Kingdom" as we're apparently known now. He showed me an article that said most of the planet's population hasn't seen one of them. It's hard to believe normal life's going on everywhere else. Films made people think the entire world would kick off at pretty much the same time, but after all that bollocks about 2012 it was just us. Usually we're so composed.

Apparently everyone knows about the attack on the Olympics now, that it started in London and spread outwards in days. By this time last year most of England and Wales was dead or dying and anyone left was retreating for the Highlands or heading to the safe zones on the French coast. At the end of the year there wasn't any news from the underground bunkers left over from the last century that are dotted around the country. Ireland's gone as far as anyone can tell. There's been mutterings about taking a boat there from the S.E.Z. but there's not much support for it at the moment. It's all we can do to keep the Tunnel from being shut down and permanently sealed off. Hopefully this record's going to help us get international support. God that makes the whole thing sound like Band Aid but you know what I mean.

Something's happening. I have to go.