by Ryan Casey
And she remembered the way her phone had gone hot when Bobby handed it back to her after speaking to his dad yesterday. The way it had sparked, then flown across the floor.
She knew right away that it sounded like one of the solar events that Alex obsessed so much about in his spare time.
She just never thought she’d witness the day where she actually saw one for herself.
Where her husband’s paranoia came true.
She thought about Alex as she moved on to the cows, patting Daisy on her nose. When they’d first met, she’d just taken his interest in “prepping” as a cute hobby. But it’d got annoying eventually. He’d spend all night tapping away on that iPad, looking up new ways to be self-sufficient, or to survive in the wilderness. It was all he spoke about. And even though he claimed he knew nothing, not really, he’d taught Sarah a thing or two.
And she was grateful for those lessons right now.
She thought about the disappointment in her husband’s voice when she’d last spoken to him. He was pretty certain he hadn’t got the promotion he’d been so desperate to get his hands on. He might know his stuff, but honestly, she was scared. Not for herself—she was the rock in their relationship, and she could take damned good care of herself. But she was scared for him. Because for all his knowledge, she knew that Alex had one fatal flaw. He could be self-centred and switch off from other people. And that was bound to get him into trouble if the problems of the blackout really were as widespread as she feared they were.
She had a feeling she knew where it came from. Alex hadn’t had a good upbringing. He’d been beaten by his father when he was very young. Ended up in care, where he suffered more abuse. Eventually, he ended up with a good set of adoptive parents. But they were old, and they passed away before he’d graduated university.
And it was those two that Sarah knew Alex felt the most betrayed by. Because he’d allowed himself to have faith in someone else, all over again. He’d allowed himself to believe in other people. And just when he’d started to well and truly care, they’d gone away, leaving him reluctant to bond with anyone ever again, only ever caring about himself through fear of what caring for others might do to him.
He’d cared for Sarah. He loved her. It’d taken a lot of chipping away at him to get him to that state. But then they’d had their tragedy—the loss of what would have been their second child. Sarah had struggled, but she’d found a way to fight through it. She wasn’t sure if Alex had, in all truth. He cut himself off, and she knew how dangerous that could be. How important it was to just accept emotions when you were forced into such a devastating situation. Grief was critical.
“Mum!”
She turned around and drifted out of her trance when she saw Bobby running towards her.
She narrowed her eyes. She’d told Bobby to stay in the house. She didn’t like him wandering, especially when the world was in such an unpredictable state. She thought about all the new steps she’d have to take with him—home-schooling, hunting. He was a good kid. He already knew a thing or two about looking after the animals, self-sufficiency, so he was in a good position to build from.
But he was running towards her with a look of concern on his face.
“What is it?” Sarah asked.
Bobby turned back to the house and pointed. “There’s someone here.”
Sarah’s chest tightened. She followed Bobby back to the house. Her first thought? Alex. It was Alex. He was home. He had to be home.
But then when she got to the house, reached the window, she saw them.
There was a group.
A group of five people.
All of them holding various weapons, like knives.
One of them holding a gun.
And all of them looking up at the house like it was some kind of holy grail.
She crouched down in front of the window, Bobby by her side. Her heart pounded. They lived way out in the middle of nowhere. So whoever this was, they had to know her. They had to know what kind of a house they had. They had to…
She recognised the man in the middle, then.
The delivery driver.
The guy who kept them stocked up with their animal supplies, Alex’s gadgets… Shit. Alex had been convinced this guy was snooping in his mail. It wasn’t just paranoia after all.
She saw the delivery driver—Sam—say something to the man beside him, before lifting his hand and pointing right at the window.
Sarah crouched right down. She pulled Bobby close and looked into his eyes.
“I want you to hide in the barn for me, love.”
Bobby’s eyes widened. “But—but—”
“You have to go there and you have to hide. Okay? You have to do that for me.”
She saw the sadness on her son’s face. She saw the realisation that he was in danger building in his eyes.
“I’m sorry, love. But we’ll be okay. I’ll keep you safe. Your mum will keep you safe. Okay?”
He nodded, then he wiped away some of his tears.
“Now go. Quick. Quick!”
She watched her son pace across the living room floor and out the back door towards the barn.
And as she watched him disappear, she felt her chest tear in two.
But he had to be out of the way.
He just had to.
These people outside. They knew about this place. They knew just how good a home it would be. And they were here to take it from her.
But one thing was for sure.
She wasn’t going to let these bastards take a thing.
No matter what it took.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The closer I got to home, the more the road seemed to stretch on ahead of me.
It was late afternoon and the sun was already making its increasingly rapid descent. The weather was clouding over, which I hoped wasn’t one of those ominous signs that bad things were on the horizon—the kind you read about or see on films. All we needed now were a few thunderstorms and a bit of rain and bam, the scene would be well and truly set.
I sat in the back of the motorhome opposite Suzy. I’d been riding shotgun for most of the journey, but Will had perked up and decided he wanted to sit up top. Suzy was reluctant to let him at first, but soon allowed him to, leaving me alone with her.
Suzy was mostly silent. She wasn’t one to talk unless prompted. I sensed, as I looked at her, eyes drifting in whatever memories she was carrying with her like heavy baggage, that she’d been through something that she couldn’t easily get over. She had demons that she was struggling with. I wanted to know what they were. But at the same time, I respected her right to her own demons. We all had them. I certainly had them. Probably why I’d been so reluctant to bond with people all this time.
I preferred not to think about them.
“So,” I said, attempting to break some ice regardless. “Looking forward to your first visit to sunny Preston?”
Suzy looked at me, eyes glazed. Then she smiled, as if it’d taken her a few seconds to figure out I was joking. “I guess so,” she said. “Don’t think I’ve ever been before.”
“You’ve never been to Preston? Damn. You won’t have seen such wondrous tourist attractions as the second biggest bus station in Europe. Or Britain’s first ever KFC.”
“I’ll look forward to that,” Suzy said, sounding more relaxed now. But for someone I was about to take into my home, she didn’t exactly give off warmth.
I leaned forward against the table. Looking out of the window, I saw signs that we were heading out of the countryside and towards the suburbs. Abandoned cars. People watching with loosened jaws as the motorhome passed by. I wished we could stay in the countryside. At least that’s where I was going when I got home. Far away from the inner city, far away from the suburbs, into the bliss of nature. Nature was going to protect us. As long as we cooperated with it, it would look out for us.
“We’ve all been through shit,” I said, not really knowing where I was going with my wor
ds. “I’ve no doubt we’ve all seen shit that we wish we could unsee. But we can’t. We’ve just got to remember that there’s only one way we can ever hope to move forward. And that’s by pulling together.”
Suzy looked at me. “You sound like you’re trying to convince yourself of that fact more than anything.”
I shrugged. “It’s a fact. You said it, not me.”
Suzy tilted her head and sighed. Then she leaned forward onto the table. “I used to be the rose-tinted one. It was my sister Rosie who was the cynic. ‘You see everything with a glass half-full,’ she’d say. And I guess I did. I guess that was just my way. Until I saw what happened to her on the road.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat. “What happened?”
“One second, we were walking along the street. The next… she just drops. Like, out of nowhere, just drops. And her daughter. Her beautiful daughter, Alice. She drops too. Right at the same time. Poof.”
I shook my head, thinking back to the way I’d found them at the side of the road, staggered by what they’d witnessed. “I’m sorry that had to happen to you. Were they… Was there some sort of electrical effect, or—”
“That’s the thing,” Suzy said. “They had no electronics on them.”
I frowned. “What?”
“Neither of them had anything electronic on them. They were on their feet and then they were on the road.”
I licked my dried lips, trying to get my head around it. “And you’re sure it was to do with the solar flare?”
“That’s something else,” Suzy said, glancing up at me. “When they fell. It wasn’t…”
She didn’t finish speaking.
The motorhome screeched to a halt.
I almost flew forward, right onto Suzy.
We looked at one another. Then over to the front of the motorhome.
Then both of us stood up and made our way to see what the hell was going on.
“What was that?”
I didn’t have to wait long to find out why Peter had stopped the motorhome.
Up ahead, there was a blockade.
“Army vehicles,” I said. “Shit.”
“They’re gathering supplies and trying to set up rescue centres of their own,” Peter said. “Looks like they’re dispatching of people who don’t abide by their order, too. Government’s last ditch attempt at keeping their grip on the people.”
“So what do we do?”
Peter shook his head. “Not a lot we can do. Got to turn back.”
“But my family—”
“I respect you’re trying to get back home. Really, I do. But there’s nothing we can do right now. They have this road cordoned off. They’ll have others cordoned off, too. So unless you want to try sneaking your way around it, I suggest you sit tight while we think of something else.”
I walked to the back of the motorhome, defeat filling my body. I couldn’t wait any longer to reunite with Sarah and Bobby. It’d been too long as it was. Anything could’ve happened.
But the road was blocked off.
There was no way to get through it.
I’d seen how the military was acting. I didn’t want to take any chances with them. Not again.
Suzy sat back on the seat as Peter reversed the motorhome, turning in the road and driving off in the other direction.
But the further we got away from that blockade, the more I realised the truth.
I couldn’t just walk away.
I couldn’t turn away.
Not now I was so close.
I looked up at the skylight on top of the motorhome.
Then I looked back at Suzy.
She didn’t say anything to me. She didn’t even try to stop me.
Instead, she just smiled.
And then she spoke. “You do what you have to do. For your family.”
I felt the guilt building up. After all, I’d been the one to suggest Suzy and Will join me. If I climbed out of here, I was leaving them behind.
“Do it,” she said, before I could even think of a retort.
I felt the motorhome slowing.
I knew that I had to time it right.
And I knew, deep down, it was the right thing to do.
I could do this.
I grabbed my rucksack of supplies.
Then I leaned over and hugged Suzy.
“You’re stronger than you’ll ever know,” I said.
I looked at my bug-out bag. I went to take it.
Then in the end I just took a few things from it, stuffed them in my pockets.
“Keep this,” I said.
Suzy’s eyes widened. “This is your stuff. I can’t.”
“I’m almost home,” I said. “You’ll need it more than me if you’re staying out here.”
She smiled again, then nodded. “I’ll never forget this. I promise.
I smiled back. Savoured the moment, wished it lasted longer.
Then I backed away from her, opened the skylight, and pulled myself through it.
I stood on top of it and looked at the trees moving beside me, the wind brushing through my hair. I looked at the lowering sun above. And then I saw the blockade, getting smaller and smaller the further away we got.
But I wasn’t turning away from it.
I wasn’t running from it.
Not anymore.
I looked down at the road beside the motorhome and I held my breath.
I waited for an opportunity.
Waited for a moment.
Waited for the vehicle to slow.
And when that moment came, I felt the hesitation inside once again.
Was I doing the right thing?
Was this really the best way to go about things?
Was this—
I didn’t let myself finish that final question.
Instead, I closed my eyes and I jumped.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
When I was close enough that I could see the army blockade in the distance, I knew it was time to head into the woods.
The daylight was fading. I knew I didn’t have long left. In my mind, I’d pictured reuniting with my family in the day, so if I wanted that to be the case then I’d have to get a bloody move on.
But honestly, I knew it was unlikely now. I’d left it too late. I was going to have to settle for arriving in the dark.
There was still a way to go, and I was on foot now. It wasn’t going to be easy, especially not with the army blockade up ahead.
But I was going to succeed.
Nothing was getting in my way.
I moved between the branches of the trees, jogging slowly at first, then slowing down even more to a fast walk, then to a normal walk, and eventually to a crawl. I could hear the voices of the military echoing in the distance. Some of the engines were still rumbling away, a stark reminder of their presence and just how alien it was considering their vehicles were some of the only electrically powered things to be up and running in this world.
I thought about the hope so many people must feel when they approached these vehicles. The delight that finally, after being cut off from society for so long, they were reunited with a group of authority who could look out for their best interests.
What disappointment they’d experience when they discovered that the military had their own ideas about keeping people safe. That they weren’t going to reunite them with their families, their friends, and that they were going to take them away to some “safe place” where they could maintain their control—otherwise they would face banishment… or death.
Just the thought of it made me shake my head as I moved through the woods. It was just so alien to believe. Just so abstract.
I saw the blockade getting nearer. I slowed down completely, got on all fours and started dragging myself through the leaves. I knew I couldn’t risk alerting them to my presence at all, because it would almost certainly end in my capture.
I did have something, though.
Something that I knew could come in handy.
In my pocket, I had the handgun. It was one that Stuart had been keeping back at his home. The shotgun was unwieldy and hard to carry, so I’d made the difficult decision to leave it behind.
But this handgun…
I felt my stomach turn when I grabbed it. Guns were so alien to us Brits. They are just not a part of our culture, our way of life. Even holding a toy gun feels wrong to most.
But right now I was grateful for this weapon. I knew it put me at a serious advantage over the vast majority. I didn’t know how Stuart had got hold of it or where he’d got it from. I just knew that it was going to keep me safe. It was going to keep my family safe.
But this blockade…
It wasn’t like the military was short of guns either.
And I had no doubt that they’d fire if they felt they absolutely had to.
I’d seen them do it already.
I gritted my teeth and kept on pushing on anyway. I could see the edge of the blockade, where it came to an end. It was further into the woods than I’d first thought, so I crept far away around the side of it, and I hoped that I wouldn’t bump into anyone from it while I was in here.
I heard the voices to my left. I could hear the sounds, right beside me. A twinge of relief filled my body. I was parallel with the blockade. A few more steps and I was through it. I didn’t have to worry anymore. I could keep on pressing on, keep on going.
I took a few steps and then I heard something.
My body froze.
I wasn’t sure where it came from. But there was no doubting what it was. None whatsoever.
Footsteps.
I kept myself totally still.
The footsteps kept on progressing towards me, closer and closer.
I felt chills creep up my arms. I couldn’t move. All I could do was clutch that gun tighter, knowing that if I had to use it, I would.
I kept as low as I could. I waited.
And then I saw it.
There was a tall man dressed in military gear holding a rifle.
He was to my right.
And he was walking right towards me.
My entire body felt like it caved in right at that moment.