"This must be a virus or something; this looks like a zombie apocalypse!" Nicolas was running with all his might, muttering to himself! "Shit, shit, shit, we don't have enough time." In his head contingency plans were popping up.
These ideas were not very clear, but thankfully they were not new. Indeed, he already thought about what to do in this kind of situation while reading zombie apocalypse novels. But this time it was real! And between reality and dreams, there was a huge gap! The biggest one was the fear gripping him. It made his thoughts blurrier than usual and run like his ass was on fire.
Trusting his instinct, he shouted at his smartphone while running and said, "Hey Simi! Call Pierre on WhatsUp!"
Pierre was one of Nicolas's best friend in his hometown, Marseille. In this crazy situation, he was probably one of the most reliable ones to catch up with the situation instantly.
The phone started to dial, and immediately someone picked up on the other side.
"Nico! How is it going on your side?" Ask Pierre worried. He was currently checking the news about the worldwide meteorite shower.
"Listen, I don't have a lot of time the network can crash anytime, and to be honest I am running for my life! This is a fucking zombie apocalypse! I repeat this is a zombie apocalypse!"
Pierre froze, blinked many times and incredulous he blurted, "what the fuck are you bullshitting?"
"I am not bullshitting! I am dead serious! I'll send you a video to prove it. This is not the moment to waste time!
Listen to me." Nicolas made a small pause.
"Gather everyone! Our family, friends and friends' family whoever we trust and cherish. I need you to create a WhatsUp group with everybody. Put everybody admin, so others can help you add people to the group. Especially add my mum first, she has most phone numbers of my family and friends. I'll send the video in the group, so it makes things clear. I want you to organize and lead everybody to my grandparents' place! Take only the minimum and go!"
"Seriously, are you crazy or something?"
"Don't think too much, just go! Also, ask Lorris to get some firearm!"
"What the fuck with these firearms? How the hell are we supposed to be able to get firearms? First, he will never agree! And second, even if he does, it is not like they will be laying on the floor for us to pick them up like mushrooms!" Pierre was in turmoil, usually very calm and rational, facing his friend's behaviour, he started to doubt his sanity. He took a big breath and continued, "To be honest I am having a hard time to believe what you are saying. And for your information, it has been years I have not talked with Lorris; I don't even know if I still have his numbers." Pierre knew very well Nicolas and even if it was hard to believe it, he wanted to trust his long-time friend, but he needed more convincing.
"Come on! Please, trust me on this! I'll send you his number and the video." Nicolas was pleading, he knew what he was asking was crazy, so hoping his friend to blindly get into the train was a bit optimistic.
"Listen," Nicolas continued in a firm voice, "the world, as we know, will probably collapse, I bet everything I own on it. Now is not the time to debate, just believe me and go to my grandparents' place in the Pyrenees. Set Marseille meeting place at my parents' home as this is probably the best spot for you to gather before departure. This a serious apocalypse, you hear me?" Finishing his sentence, he could not help but smile at the insanity of what he was saying but he did not linger on his thoughts as he could already see his group in the distance.
Hearing someone shouting in French, Emmanuelle turned around saw Nicolas approaching "Nicolas, you're here, did you find what you were looking for," she shouted.
"Yes, and this is reeeeeaallyy bad news, worse than we can imagine, forget the MRT, we have to go to City Square Mall!" He then showed his phone "Sorry, I need to finish my call!"
He continued with Pierre, "You got it? All our friends, their family, and my family, get everyone who's willing to Saint Laurent, don't wait a minute! And bring as many weapons and food as you can!"
"Ok, ok, I'll do it, don't worry. This is a Zombie apocalypse I got it, but better send this video before I ask for firearms to Lorris!" Pierre did not want to argue, if his friend were right, then going to this village might actually be the right move!
"Yes, just get things done! I trust you!"
"You know me, it will be done."
"Good. See you" Nicolas hang up without waiting.
He started to call a few other people while keeping a few metres distance from his group.
He started with Celine, his twin cousin. She was born almost at the same time as him; she was living in a suburb of Paris and was four months pregnant. The call was brief but intense, she did not want to believe him, but at some point, she trusted him. And, of course, he promised to send the video as proof of his saying, this helped. She would be responsible for gathering most of the relatives in the north of France, and her husband would take some weapons and his dog with him as he was part of the canine police.
Nicolas then called his uncle Jean-François, his mother's brother. A former high-ranking officer in the police, he was the kind of men that could make a decision in seconds and keep his head cool in a dire situation. His uncle would be Celine's backup in the north of France. He was in charge of getting Nicolas's brother, a genius in mathematics and computer science but unreliable at everything else, and a few other people they know in Paris downtown.
Nicolas made few more calls to make sure all the most connected and reliable people of his family and friends would be warned and hopefully will have a chance to reach Saint Laurent, his grandparents' village. Among those people was Romain, his childhood friend who was on holiday with his wife in Austria, her relatives were living in the suburb of Vienna.
After all these short but intense calls Nicolas could now just hope they would take him seriously and spread the word to the rest of his friends and family.
He wanted them to go to Saint Laurent de Cerdans, a small village in the south of France, 6 km from the Spanish border. This quiet place in the middle of small mountains would hopefully be a haven in a zombie apocalypse or at least better than staying in big towns like Marseille, Paris or Singapore.
Another reason that made this place interesting was, besides being remote, most of his relative, from mother and father sides, came from this village. Basically, his family, in the large sense of the word, owned quite a lot of houses around the area and were very familiar with the region.
A few minutes later, the fleeing group was already reaching the mall. They could witness panicked people running around. The meteorite shower was not over, even if very sparse, they could still hear explosions in the distance.
"Ok guys, let's go to the second floor first. I want to go to Decathlan, the sports shop," said Nicolas.
The next second the group looked at him like he had lost his mind, should not they go toward the basement?
In Nicolas's mind, the basement or second floor, it was the same story, if a meteorite was crashing on the building they were done for anyway.
"I have my reasons, I'll tell you later, give me a few minutes to send a few messages and I'll tell you what I have in mind."
"OK, I don't know why you want to go to Decathlan, but when you're done, we go to the basement." Continued Fred. He was leading the group, his steel bar firmly held in his two hands. People were loOking at him as he was a mad man but did not bother and kept running their way.
Nobody stopped the group of five. Singapore was so used to the feeling of safety. In normal time, it was not very wrong to say that everyone was following the law consciously here, so much that, with the help of CCTV, most of the public place did not bother to hire security guards. City Square Mall was an excellent example, besides being a big shopping mall and office building, the security personnel was almost inexistent. While going to level 2, Nicolas sent the video to all his friends. He voiced with it a few messages commenting on his meteorite experiences, first the falling sky part, then the fainting part.
He also made sure to synchronize with some of his local friends in Singapore. They decided to form two groups for now. The first one will gather at City Square Mall while the other one at River Place condominiums. They will figure it out how to meet later.