Stephen Ford
Bringing out the wonder . . .
Dystopia Chillingly Close to Home
To Keep Us All Safe
A deadly Chimapox pandemic has forced the country into lockdown, enforced by zealous vigilante volunteers. Jim exiled back to England to stay with his uncle and aunt after years in Vietnam, after finding employment with the Vestral corporation and finding his own lodgings must now contend with his interfering landlady, Marjorie, who curbs his companionship with housemate Alfie. With the strict lockdown in place, Jim struggles to meet lover Lily, member of a coven of witches.
Seen by Marjorie as a ruse to break lockdown, Jim has a permit as carer for his uncle and aunt and for their allotment, which Jim finds ransacked, the produce robbed, exposing them to food shortages arising from pandemic panic buying.
Jim, evading lockdown and security guards, slips into St Christopher’s Knoll, an exclusive gated community for the super-rich including the sumptuous home of Sir Albyn Denbald, head of the Vestral corporation, observing him in a secret tryst.
Disillusioned by censorship in mainstream social media, Jim allies himself with the Truth Seekers, anti-vax conspiracy theorists characterising Denbald as an arch-villain deploying mass vaccination for world domination.
Believing Lily to be held by Denbald, Jim enlists the Truth Seekers to kidnap Denbald. Exploiting Denbald’s secret tryst, Jim dissuades him from pressing charges.
