“The end of days,” Merlin said softly, when at last the tremors finally subsided and the earth was still once more. Morgan nodded, knowing instinctively that he spoke the truth. She stood up, debating whether it really was all over. Should they make the most of these moments of peace and hurry outside? Or was it safer to stay where they were?
“Wow! That was some earthquake!” Ralph commented, ducking out from under the table.
“Terrorists.” Elaine’s voice broke as she continued, “They’ve wiped out Israel, and now they’re targeting the rest of us.”
“I think it was more than an act of terrorism, but I have no idea what …” Merlin didn’t finish his sentence before Arthur interrupted him.
“I’m afraid we were warned, but we didn’t take the warning seriously.” Arthur didn’t explain further; he’d pulled out his tab and was frantically trying to make contact with the outside world. Lance, too, had pulled out some gadget and was speaking into it. Morgan read the Virtuo logo on the side.
“Saffy!” Elspeth wailed, but Merlin was already tapping in the number. Morgan knew their daughter lived just on the outskirts of Glastonbury; with luck she and her husband might also be safe.
“I can’t get through. I’m going to look for her.” Even as he spoke the words, Merlin was on the move, snatching up his car keys as he left the room.
“I can’t raise anyone at Parliament House or in my constituency,” Arthur said finally, tossing his tab onto the table.
“And I can’t get through to Gwen, or any of my colleagues in the States,” Lance admitted, pausing briefly in his endeavors. “My God,” he added brokenly. “I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it.”
Elspeth had run to the door to look outside and assess the damage. Now she led the way back into the room with several neighbors in tow. She’d left the door open, and Morgan could hear shouts and wailing from the street outside as others poured out of their shops and homes hoping to find out what had happened.
“Whatever that was, it’s destroyed everyone’s windows, but otherwise there doesn’t seem to be too much damage,” Elspeth reported, her face betraying her anxiety for her daughter. There weren’t enough chairs to accommodate everyone, so the newcomers milled around, desperate for news but already fearing the worst. “Please, try to stay calm,” Elspeth called, raising her voice to be heard above the hubbub. “And do help yourself to tea and cakes,” she added, before hurrying off to fetch a dustpan and brush to sweep up the broken glass.
“Perhaps we should go outside, in case there are any more strikes and the house comes down?” someone suggested. But nobody moved, instead huddling closer together as if that would be enough to protect them from potential disaster.
Morgan glanced at them; some familiar faces, some not. She was momentarily amused as she heard Arthur’s thoughts about their appearance. They were an eclectic gathering, and their dress tended to reflect either their ethnicity or their spiritual beliefs.
“What did you mean when you said you were warned?” Elspeth looked up from her labors to challenge Arthur.
He gazed around the room. Morgan realized he was trying to find the right words to put a gloss on everything. Still a politician she thought cynically, as he began to speak into a growing silence. “You may have heard about the asteroid belt that was discovered in deep space some years ago,” he said. “Scientists predicted that it was hurtling towards our part of the solar system at such a frightening speed there could be a serious strike as early as next year. Not wanting to cause undue alarm, the Prime Minister of our country – along with leaders from a host of other countries – decided it would be expedient to play down the risk. They’ve been helped in this by a recent downgrading of the potential threat to our planet by NASA – but I’m wondering now if that was a fix or a genuine, if false, prediction. Because I fear that that’s what has happened, and that there might have been a massive wipe-out of life as a result.”
“Bloody government,” someone growled. “It’s all their fault.” Others took up the plaint, their opinions ranging from disbelief to fear and a vow of vengeance.
“There’s absolutely nothing the government could have done to avert this catastrophe.” Arthur spoke out over the growing chorus of anger. “It would have been impossible to predict, let alone be able to do anything in time to prevent it. Now it’s up to us to discover how widespread the damage is, and whether we are able to survive it.” He looked at Morgan. “And I owe you an apology,” he said. “Unreal and unlikely as it may seem, it would appear that what you’ve seen and what you’ve been told were warnings of what was to come. For some reason we’ve been spared. In fact, by asking us to come here, you may have saved our lives, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am. But the question remains: how much of our planet has been destroyed – and are we under threat from still more strikes?”
“And how long will we be able to live here in isolation if the rest of the world is in ruins?” Morgan said.
“I’ll see what I can find out,” Lance said. “It could be fairly localized, and that it’s only the communication networks or the satellites that have been knocked out. I’ve brought some Hawkers with me. They’re in my case outside in the car. I’ll let them loose and see what they can discover.” Without further explanation, he hurried off.
Anxious to learn the extent of the catastrophe, several people left the room, busily tapping on cell phones in the hope of making contact with loved ones. A subdued silence had fallen on those assembled. Many were tearful; some were furious, and some disbelieving as they struggled to come to terms with the magnitude of the disaster.
Morgan gave a premonitory shiver. We’re not here because of me, or Arthur, she thought. We’re here because of Morgana. This is what she set in train all those hundreds of years ago, when she rescued Marie from the Battle of Camlann and the dying days of Camelot and brought her here, into our world. All of us gathered here today owe her our lives, for she has given us the means to escape to safety, and to start anew. This is all her doing. Pray that I will not fail this last hurdle. And if we are granted a new start, pray that we are worthy.
She could sense Morgana’s presence now, and was overwhelmed with gratitude. She bowed her head. “Thank you, Morgana,” she whispered.
“Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam, rexque futurus,” Elspeth quoted softly. “I believe you’ve been brought here to lead us, Arthur; to show us the way.”
“You and Morgan, if you trust what this ancient Tarot tells us.” Merlin had returned, and now he sat down at the table once more. “Saffy and her husband are okay, although most of the houses around there are in ruins,” he told Elspeth. “They’re packing up whatever they can salvage and coming over.”
Morgan glanced around the room, noting that Lance was still absent. Curious to find out more about the Hawkers he’d mentioned, she walked outside to find him. He had what looked like a silver fish in his hand and, as she watched, he activated a switch. With a swing that would have done a test cricketer proud, he launched it into the air. Within the blink of an eye, it was gone.
“That’s a Hawker?” Morgan queried. “What is it exactly?”
Lance bent down to pick up another silver fish from the small, flat case at his feet, and showed it to her. “It’s for surveillance,” he said, keeping his face averted as he opened a flap and began to tap on some keys. She wondered if he’d been crying, and her heart went out to him.
“So it’s some sort of spy camera, like a drone?” she asked, trying to distract him with her questions.
“If you like.” Lance sounded defensive. “They’re literally ‘seeing eyes’, hence their name, but really, they’re only a more sophisticated version of what’s already available. They’re powered by nuclear energy, and they can travel incredibly fast, picking up data and taking photographs as they go. I brought some samples over to Europe and the UK in the hope of selling my invention to the countries of the West – for news gathering, or defense purposes, or whatev
er. Now I’m activating the app to suss out if there are signs of life anywhere at all. That’s also part of their function: to find people buried in rubble after an earthquake, or a terrorist attack, or an avalanche, for example. And I’ve programmed them to target every country in every continent in the world, and send us feedback.” He stopped tapping on the keys and twisted a switch before lobbing the fish into the air. Morgan handed him another.
“You talk about Otherworlds. Is that what you have in mind – to take us somewhere else, away from what’s happened here?” he asked, as he focused on programming the next silver fish.
“Yes, but I don’t know where exactly,” Morgan admitted. “All I know is what Marie told me: that the world she left behind was similar in many ways to our world. But I don’t know if I’ll succeed in taking us anywhere.” She brightened. “Maybe it won’t be necessary? I only saw London being destroyed, nowhere else.”
Lance grunted. “We should hold onto that hope.” He patted the silver fish. “These should start sending in data almost immediately.”
“How long before they reach the furthest country from here, wherever that is? The Antarctic? Although I don’t suppose there’s much there anyway – apart from all the animals and fish, of course. Oh God!” Morgan wrinkled up her nose. “It’s not just us, is it? It’s all the creatures as well. Every living thing is going to die.”
“I should have all the data in by nightfall. That’ll be crunch time, whether to go or risk staying here. But you’re right; if this is the end of our world as we know it, it marks the end of all life on this planet.” He sent the last silver fish hurtling into space, and turned to look at Morgan.
While he’d been perfectly in control of the situation, calm and matter-of-fact as he’d launched his gadgets into the air, she noted the glassy sheen of tears in his eyes and realized he wasn’t so unaffected by what had happened as he pretended.
“I’m so sorry about Gwen,” she said awkwardly. “I mean, we don’t know the worst yet, but …” A sudden thought made her freeze in horror. “Do you have any children, Lance? Are they over in the States?” She threw up her hands, hardly able to put her fear into words.
“No,” Lance hastened to reassure her. “No children, thank God.” He paused for a few moments, and then said, “I’m so sorry, Mo. I should never have married Gwen. It was a marriage of convenience, but it was a mistake from the start. Now probably isn’t the time to be telling you all this, but let me try to explain while we have some quiet moments together.”
He paused to collect his thoughts. “When I came out of Harvard I was full of bright ideas but I had no money of my own, and no backing to start implementing them. A friend introduced me to Gwen and … I’m not proud of myself, you should know that, but when she said she loved me, and her family seemed keen on the match, it seemed like an answer to all my prayers. They were wealthy, you see, and were prepared to back me when I started my company. Plus they had all the connections I might need, all the way up to the White House. We lived together for some years but Gwen wanted to make it legal, so …” He shrugged. “I went along with it.”
“You don’t have to apologize to me, Lance. Really, I am so proud of you and what you’ve achieved.” Morgan could hear the genuine regret and remorse behind his words. “Just remember,” she said, trying to cheer him up, “if you hadn’t followed the path you’ve chosen, you wouldn’t have any Hawkers with you now, and we wouldn’t have a clue what’s happening out there at all.”
“Yeah.” He drew in a breath. “Yeah. But Gwen and I – well, she accused me of thinking more about my company than I did about her, and I suspect she was right. I went along with her demands for several years, but all the entertaining and high life she so enjoyed bored me rigid, and I’m afraid I finally began to opt out of most of it. But she kept up her social life and … and I’ve now found out that I’ve shared her with several men since we first got together. So I was planning to instigate divorce proceedings when I got back to the States, but …” He shrugged and bent to pick up the empty case. “Best get back inside,” he muttered. “I can start monitoring the feedback from the Hawkers, and give everyone updates as I go.”
Morgan’s thoughts were in a whirl as she followed Lance inside. Her reaction to his presence left her in no doubt that she still loved and desired him, while his words gave her some hope that there might be a future for them after all. But she’d no sooner thought this than the crashing weight of their predicament left her fearful that it was all too late anyway because they, and the earth, were doomed.
Lance sat down at the table once more. He pulled a small, flat box from his pocket, and tapped it. A screen lit up and he studied it intently before scooting through several other screens. He put it down and looked around the table with a bleak expression. “The Hawkers aren’t picking up any signs of life at all so far, apart from this little pocket around Glastonbury,” he said.
“And a Hawker is …?” Elspeth asked.
“A recent invention, a sort of sophisticated drone.” Lance’s gaze took in those who had gathered around him: the ageing hippies in their rainbow assortment of clothing, along with those whose various styles of dress reflected their ethnicity. All wore the same concerned expression as they listened to his explanation. “I’ve programmed them to target every country in every continent in the world, but so far all I’m getting back is a big, fat zero,” he concluded. “Look.” He held up the receptor so that all could see the screen. Morgan began to shiver as she saw, once more, the gray wraiths twisting and whirling as she’d seen them in the pool. The living dead. Those who’d been obliterated in the blinding flash that heralded the collision of asteroids with the earth. She fancied she could hear their screams once more, and clapped her hands to her ears to block out a sound that wasn’t there.
“They’re still en route to their targets, most of them. There’s still hope,” Lance said, reaching over to free one of Morgan’s hands.
Morgan shook her head. “No, there isn’t,” she said softly. “I’ve seen this before. And I think we need to make plans to leave here as soon as possible, because the effects of what’s happened elsewhere will also affect Glastonbury sooner or later.”
“We could be in for an eternal winter here in our world if the damage is widespread,” Arthur said. “There’s no way we’d survive that.”
“You mean we have to leave our homes, and everything we know, Arth? You mean our parents are dead, and the world as we know it is coming to an end?” Elaine looked horrified as she drew her boys close to her once more. “But where will we go? What will we do?”
The secret path. Morgan drew a breath. Her stomach was roiling; she was afraid she was going to throw up. But there was no time for that. This was what Morgana had been working towards, either intentionally or not, and she couldn’t let her down. “There is a way,” she said, and her voice was unsteady with emotion. “The secret way through the medieval garden that may take us to another world. I don’t know how or if it will work, but I’ll do my best for you – and for anyone else who would like to take their chances with us. But you must be ready to leave tonight, by moonrise, and you can only bring with you what you can carry.”
“A secret way to another world?” an elderly woman screeched. “I’m not staying here to listen to this nonsense! There must be something else we can do, some other way to escape what’s happened.” She scraped back her chair and stormed out. After exchanging shifty looks, several others followed her.
Morgan surveyed those who were left, hearing their thoughts in a cacophony of disbelief, despair, and grief. But she thought that some of them were looking at her with trust, in the hope that they might yet be saved.
It was too much of a burden to bear. She felt almost crushed by it.
“I suggest that we all disperse now, to round up as many people as we can find.” Arthur stepped into the breach. “Explain what has happened to everyone you see, and tell them to meet us at Bride’s Mound at … what time d
oes the moon rise, Morgan?”
Morgan was glad that Arthur had taken charge. Even if he was behaving like a politician, she acknowledged that someone with leadership and organizational skills was what was needed now. He was waiting for her answer, but she heard that he was also waiting for her permission. She managed a shaky smile for his benefit, and said, “Nine o’clock.”
“Right,” he continued. “Work out what you most need to take on the journey with you, knowing that we can never come back here again.”
“Hey, are you that Arth from the United Britain Party?” someone called out, breaking the tension. There were a few nervous titters as the man said, “I voted for you at the last election.”
“And I thank you for your trust in us,” Arthur said gravely. “Now I’m asking you to trust us again – me and my sister. We’ll be traveling into the unknown; we have no idea what awaits us on the other side. But I pledge that, if you all come with good hearts and with good intentions, willing to play your part in starting afresh somewhere new, we won’t let you down. Will we, Morgan?” He took her arm and held it aloft.
Just like a political rally, Morgan thought. But in this case, she knew Arthur’s intentions were as honorable as her own even if he wasn’t sure whether or not he believed her. “No,” she said firmly. “We won’t let you down.”
*
Everyone scattered after that, gone off to warn families, friends and neighbors, and anyone they met, as well as to pack up their belongings. A friend of Merlin’s had agreed to go out to the garden to warn everyone there and ask them, in turn, to alert as many people as possible. Urged on by Arthur, Morgan tried to phone her mother but without success. Saffy arrived, along with her husband, and was greeted with tears of relief by Elspeth. Others came and went, calling in at intervals through the afternoon, eager for news from Lance’s Hawkers. But his reply was always the same. “No sign of life anywhere so far, I’m afraid.”
The Once and Future Camelot Page 30