Zombie Apocalypse or Dystopian Future Anyone?

Last week I promoted my page and a certain post over on Facebook. The advert and post boost was targeted around a large area of the country and outside of my usual friends list on Facebook.

The results are in and they reveal that the page advert reached out to 1013 people and that 15 were added to the page members list. The rest were invited to like the page. The boosted post reached out to a further to 2319 people with 67 link clicks.

This cost me £19.95 in total and I feel that it was money well spent to give me a little insight as to how using this option on social media can bring in new views to my writing activities. I will be using it again in the not too distant future.

Now, I trust that you are all keeping well at this difficult time, not only in this country but around most of the world too.

This is truly a disturbing time and as someone who works for the NHS can I encourage a bit of calm amongst the noise and claptrap going around at the moment, please?

The best advice would be to follow the advice given on the advice on the NSH 111 site (https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/urgent-and-emergency-care/nhs-111/) and try not to pay any attention to little snippets that you find on social media.

If you are advised to self-isolate, do so.

Keep washing your hands with regularity, properly. Unlike as shown by our esteemed Prime Minister on the television recently!

If you sneeze, use a paper hanky and ‘catch it, bin it and kill it’ (https://www.england.nhs.uk/south/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2017/09/catch-bin-kill.pdf), and wash your hands as soon as you can. Cough or sneeze into a hankie or in to your elbow.

This advice is freely available on the NHS website and really at this time of the year when normally there is the usual round of coughs and colds, we should be doing these things as a matter of course.

We are not entering into a dystopian zombie apocalypse, hence this weeks picture and there is no requirement for us to panic buy and hoard piles of food. Our supply chains are robust and will not run out.

We don’t need to be hoarding anti-bacterial soaps and gels, in fact, any soap will do. Hint, anti-bacterial versus a virus, I’ll let you work that one out?

My colleagues in Urgent Community Response along with all those within the health and social care community are working extremely hard at the moment. They are trying to keep people safe and to put in place contingencies for future problems.

Our Support Worker network will be severely hit if the schools are closed and as you might imagine there is a lot of work around that scenario. There is a lot of work to do all around.

The price of oil has fallen and fuel has come down in price. That’s a bonus, not that we can go anywhere!  All sport has been cancelled and there’s not much on the television anyway!

Please remember to check on family and friends and those in your street as well. If you are not self-isolating, you may be able to help others that are, in some way. #bekind

The care home where my Father is has suspended visiting for the time being unless for urgent occasions. I imagine that most such homes around the country will be taking the same line.

Sadly my writing group has taken the sensible decision to curtail meetings for the foreseeable future as we have several members of a certain age where their health makes them vulnerable. However, we will be remaining in contact and on the positive side, it will give us plenty of time to catch up with our writing.

We are continuing with our aim to publish an anthology of short stories and poems later in the year and continuing with planning of a writing/literary festival weekend for 2021.

I’m fully expecting my band and my masonic lodges to take the same decision to not meet as well, so, there will be plenty of time for writing in the evenings which I should take advantage of.

To finish off this piece can I urge you to keep well everybody. Act sensibly, #bekind to others and we will all get through this just fine.

Are there big cats on Dartmoor?

This weeks blog post is a further taster of my short story that I shared the start of back in October.

It's nearly coming to the end, approximately 5000 words. I'm hoping to get into the anthology that the writing group that I belong to, Ottery Writers, are planning this year. It might be a bit long, so, I might have to edit it back a little bit. I have a shorter ghost story ready to go and another humorous (hopefully) in the pipeline. Next week I have a few days of annual leave and my aim is to get quite a bit of writing done.

It was like something out of a Harry Potter film. A dark alley, full of little shops and hundreds of people milling about. At one end was a small coffee shop. It was so small, in fact, that it didn’t fall under the law where it had to have a toilet for the customers. They had to use the ones on the 4^th floor of the department shop on the opposite side of the street.

At the tables outside of the coffee shop sat two figures. Their look was somewhat different from the students that were mostly seen in this area. Dressed in expensive-looking suits, sharp haircuts and well-heeled shoes. They were both looking down at their smartphones only looking up when the waiter bought their coffee. Smiling, one waved his phone at the payment machine that the waiter had almost forced under his nose. The other person placed a five-pound note on to the tray that the waiter was holding in his other hand. Realising his good fortune, the waiter quickly turned tail and disappeared, secreting the five pounds into his back pocket as he went.

“ So, where have you hidden it?” putting his phone down on the table

“Bloody hell! Why are we having this conversation out here!”

“Relax fella! Look around, do you see any CCTV? Just keep your voice down. This is a perfect place, and good coffee too!”

“ I can’t believe that we’re gonna talk about £2m worth of gear; right here in the open!”

 The first one took a slug of his coffee. His face contorted in pain

“ Christ! no matter how good this shit is, you still gotta put some sugar in it.”

Pouring copious amounts of brown sugar into his coffee, he stirred it, looking up at his companion.

“So where’s it hidden?”

“It’s up on the moors, nobody will find it and keep your voice down!”

Alright, alright, don’t get shirty with me fella!

“ You don’t need to know, it’s safe enough. I’m going to get it tonight and it’ll be in Bristol in the morning.”

“You got security?”

“Plenty, and there’s an AK with a full mag buried with it, so if anybody wants to try anything they’re in for a big surprise.”

“ A surprise? Interesting. Now drink up your coffee and let’s go. We’ve been here too long”

With that, both downed their coffees and rose from the table.

“ Where too?”

“Back to my place.”

“ Oh, your such a romantic, Carter.”

“Fuck off, Bains.”

They walked off down the road, evaporating into the crowds. Just another couple of business types on a lunchtime jolly out of the office.

Walking down the road they didn’t look back. What they failed to see the figure that rose from the table next to them. She looked down the road, pressing the recall button on her phone as she noted their every step.

“Nev? It’s on for tonight. For info, he’ll be armed and there’s and AK locked and loaded in the cache and I’d be a bit careful as it may be booby-trapped as well.”

“Roger that. I’ve got two observation posts with my operators and cameras all over the place. We’ll make the place safe before he arrives. Besides, I’ve got my guest from Canada to look after and he already thinks he’s seen something on the cameras”

Before the line went dead, she heard Trump bark an order to one of his men.

“Two-three alpha, out”

The marine slowly returned his gaze to the scene below him on the moor. They’d been in this hole for nearly 24 hours and he was looking forward to being able to stretch his legs for the task just given to him over the radio by the Sargent Major.

He turned to the other two in the observation post.

“Right then, there’s an AK down there somewhere and possibly an IED. We’ve got to go and get it before the bad guy turns up. I suggest just after dark which is anytime now. Dusty, you come with me and Dinger you keep an eye on things from here. Any questions? …right, let's get on with it.”

Within five minutes, two marines were crawling out of the observation post in their ghillies suits, each carrying with a Colt Commando assault rifle. Slowly they edged their way crawling out from their exit point. They stopped after a few metres and looked down at where they were going to start their search.

The lead Marine turned to the other and signalled the start of their patrol. Using the failing light they deliberately moved towards their target, staying below the skyline so as not to expose their presence. Exploiting all the cover they could find, they made their way down towards a track.

As they careful moved, the radio crackled into life in their earpieces. Both marines stop moving and listened.

“Wacker, this is Nobby”

It was the other observation post at the head of the little valley that they were now entering.

“What now? We’re busy!”

“There’s something moving down there.”

“That’ll be us! we’re nearly on top of it. It’s blacker than a cow's guts down here”

Dusty, to the rear, gave a rye smile, hoping they hadn’t been seen as that would be a red card and they would be kicked off selection.

“Not you, can’t see you. I’ve got a good idea where you might be. There’s something else.”

“Wacker, Dinger”

This was their observation post.

“Go ahead, Dinger”

“ The Boss has just come on the command net. His guy Reid has seen something on the cameras. Thinks it’s his cat”

“Bloody hell that’s’ all we need!”