The Spark (White Gates Adventures Book 4)

by Trevor Stubbs

  As each hour passed, a sense of panic mixed with despair was increasing in the city. Some had decided that the answer was to get to higher ground. If Trum Penta hit the sea, the resulting tsunami would be the greatest danger – they may be safe in the foothills of the mountains. But these were remote and accessed by tiny roads which were already congested almost to the perimeter of the city.

  Reports of rioting in some places were emerging. The president again appeared on TV appealing for calm – but those who were causing the disturbances had long since given up listening to him.

  It was essential to get the children out onto the island so their last few days could be ones of fun and laughter. The Smiths focused themselves on achieving this. Nothing was going to be gained by thinking about what came next.

  Jalli, however, couldn’t forget Yeka. The thought of her three-year-old being in exactly the same situation as she had been was now almost unbearable.

  Jack knew what she was thinking. “Jalli,” he said, “all we can do is trust God. Your grandma didn’t lose faith in Him despite everything. We are in His hands now. We are here because He wants us here.”

  Jalli wept. She clung to her husband. Yes, of course, he was right. “But it’s so hard, Jack.”

  “I know,” he said, as Jalli sank into his strong warmth.

  But now there was no time for many tears. The housemother was calling the children together. Jalli and Jack were pulled back into the group beside the others from Joh. The housemother looked them all in the eye. She was conscious of the sacrifice they were making.

  “You people have done so much. Maybe it is time for you to return. Your portal is not on this island and, the way things are on the streets, if you are going to leave, now might be the right time to head for the esplanade and your white gate.”

  Shaun was taken aback when Wennai was the first to respond.

  “I do not speak for everyone. But there is no way I’m going to leave these children. You will need all the help you can get.” That was indeed true. Most of the centre’s volunteers were at home with their families.

  Shaun heard himself say, “Me too… I’m staying too.” At that moment, something within him snapped. Somehow the scars in his mind had freed him up. Later he was to reflect that ever since the time when he thought his life was about to end and it hadn’t, he had been living in a different, borrowed kind of place; he had already shifted onto a new plane. It was the same with Wennai. In the midst of her bereavement and the collapse of her world, she too had moved on to that plane. For them, choosing to remain wasn’t about bravery – although many might call it that – it was simply the obvious thing to do.

  At that moment, for the first time, Shaun properly realised that he and Wennai had been given each other. Even if Wennai didn’t believe in Her like he did, the Creator wanted them to be together. If they were to die together four days from now and emerge into the Creator’s arms, she would have to concede that he had been right all along. He smiled at the thought.

  Wennai looked him. “What’s funny?”

  “I’m just proud of you. That’s all.”

  “If you think I’m running away,” Kakko was saying emphatically, “you’re living in ‘cloud cuckoo land’ as Nan would call it!”

  Tam put his arm around her shoulders and held her to him. “My parents are right. You are a bad influence. If we ever get back to Joh, don’t tell them I had a choice in this.”

  “You don’t,” said Kakko stridently. “You’ll never leave me. I never ever want you on a planet other than the one I’m on.”

  “Well,” said Jack to the housemother, “you seem to have your answer.”

  “Angels! All of you. Praise the Lord… OK, children!”

  The children were so excited they were too high to listen.

  “Children!” She held up her hands.

  “Listen! Now,” bawled Jack. Working with children for so long had given him the instinct of how to control the unruly. The children were instantly quiet. The shock of a loud voice from a stranger worked wonders.

  “Listen,” repeated Jack in a whisper. “This is very important. You don’t want to get lost. And I can’t see, so I have to listen even harder.”

  The housemother looked at him with gratitude. This exercise was going to work so much better with these people.

  Half an hour later they were speeding across the waves towards the island. The boat was stocked up with all the things they would need for four days. Zookas had been collecting everything together over the hours before the children’s return. They arrived at the tiny island jetty just as the sun was about to set.

  Zookas had sent a giant marquee. It had last been used for his son’s wedding in the grounds of his villa. From there Zookas had watched as his boat sped towards the island. He and his family were behind locked gates. They hoped they would avoid any trouble as they relaxed in the luxury of the terrace awaiting the impending disaster. He had done all he could. He smiled at the thought of the children having a great time in blissful ignorance.

  The marquee took a couple of hours to sort out but it was eventually erected. The children had been fed. Kakko told stories as the darkness closed in. None of the children had been on the island in the dark before, so huddling together in the giant tent was quite an adventure in itself.

  It would be wrong to say that that night was peaceful. Eventually the last child fell asleep at around half past two in the morning. And all were awake at first light around six o’clock. The Johians had been very tired. Entering a new world was always exhausting in itself as the brain has to get accustomed to the sudden changes – but to enter a world with a death sentence hanging over it is twice as hard. They had slept in fits and starts but now this new day had to be faced. Somehow eighty children had to be entertained for the next fifteen hours!

  The breakfast took an age. Getting everybody washed and fed was hard through the non-stop bubbling excitement of the children. Eventually it was decided that a walk around the island was the order of the day for the rest of the morning. They split the children into groups as they became ready. The older ones had got themselves sorted long before the younger ones and needed to be organised. Shaun and Wennai took the first batch, Kakko and Tam the second. Jalli and a volunteer the third. The stragglers were collected up by the housemother and a couple of other adults, leaving Jack, together with the boat’s crew, to mind the camp.

  The first group hadn’t gone too far round the island, however, when they came across a few roughly dressed people who had just disembarked from a boat. They had cans in their hands and were smoking something. Then Shaun and Wennai looked up and saw a veritable flotilla of medium and small craft approaching with unhealthy-looking people leaning dangerously over the sides. As the boats got near the beach, some of the occupants disembarked, splashing into the water. They were mostly drunk and began shouting obscenities towards the children.

  Shaun and Wennai gathered their charges and withdrew over the dunes, fearful that they would be pursued. They weren’t. But their idea of retreating to the island to keep the children from the disturbances on the mainland had failed. These people couldn’t have owned all these boats but they appeared to be the kind who would have little compunction about stealing them.

  Running into Kakko and Tam’s group, Shaun and Wennai suggested they stay together and steer away from that particular beach.

  Fortunately, they weren’t bothered by the drunkards for the rest of that day, although they could hear their bawling and brawling as the sun set. After one o’clock in the morning the noise seemed to die down. That second night the children were so tired, they slept better. So did everyone.

  ***

  It was the next morning, in the middle of the football tournament that Kakko and Shaun had arranged on some flat ground some way from the camp, that the trouble started. A loud group of half-naked young men came bounding over the dunes that overlooked the marquee. They swung pieces of driftwood over their heads and looked for a
ll the world like stereotypes of Stone-Age cave-dwellers. They stormed towards Zookas’ yacht, probably intending to raid the supplies – or whatever else they could get. They didn’t get there. The captain pulled a gun from somewhere in the wheelhouse and fired over their heads. He shouted that if they approached any nearer he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot them. The only people who stood in the way of the club-wielding mob were the captain, three crewmen and Jack and Jalli. But the group hesitated. The captain ordered them to go back the way they had come. He let off a second volley and spurts of sand erupted in front of them. The men ran back out of sight.

  The captain swore. “That’s all we need. We’ll have to have two of us keep a constant watch.”

  But the cavemen did not return. That night – the last night before the asteroid was to strike – their noise was less. The asteroid was now very clearly visible in the night sky. Jalli stared at it. It had a name – Trum Penta. It, too, was coming to an end, like it was on some kind of cosmic suicide mission.

  “You know,” she said to Jack, “if I didn’t think it was going to destroy this place, I would say that it was remarkably beautiful…”

  In the morning Jack said that he thought their unwanted island residents must have gone: he could hear nothing. Kakko volunteered herself and Tam to go out and check. She really wanted an excuse to be alone with him. They didn’t know where or when – or if – the Creator was going to provide them with a white gate for escape. This could be the last time they could be together alone in this universe.

  They mounted the dunes and, hand in hand, sauntered along talking and occasionally cuddling. Praying too. Neither felt far from the Creator and, as the strike came closer, they felt even closer to Her.

  Then between the trees they saw the cavemen’s camp. The sand was strewn with bodies. Some lay quite still, others were moving but only just. The only sounds that came from them were occasional low groans. There were both men and women, all young and all almost naked. The bodies were red with sunburn which would have been painful if they had been conscious.

  Kakko and Tam looked at one another with puzzled expressions.

  “Suicide pact?” said Kakko.

  “It would have been easier and less painful if they had merely waited for the strike,” said Tam.

  They walked over to the camp. It was clear that many were dead but a few remained alive – just.

  “What are we going to do?” asked Kakko. “We can’t just leave them.”

  “I don’t think this was deliberate,” said Tam picking up bottles and packets that contained pills of different colours. “I think they must have raided pharmacies and liquor stores and created lethal cocktails. I don’t think they had any idea of what they were doing.”

  “If some are still alive, they might survive,” said Kakko.

  “They won’t out here in the sun.”

  “Perhaps we should drag those who are alive to under those trees,” said Kakko.

  “OK. I’ll begin doing that. You run and tell the captain. Even if we can get them into the shade, they’ll need hydrating.”

  Fifteen minutes later the captain and his crew were on the beach. They found just ten with signs of life. The captain ordered them to be taken to one of the small boats that they had arrived in and they sailed it back to the yacht.

  The survivors were all taken aboard while the children watched. They had seen a lot in their short lifetimes but they had not seen people in quite this state.

  “Remember this,” said the housemother. “This is what happens when you do drink and drugs. I want you to promise me that you will never use them.”

  “We promise,” said one, and then a wave of “Promise” spread across the group.

  “This is our last day on the island so I want you all to pack your things,” said the housemother. “Do it carefully. I want you to account for everything. We need to look for Kali’s sock – it has to have got in someone else’s stuff.”

  “And my shirt,” shouted a little boy.

  “Alright, check everything you have, and if you find anything that’s not yours bring it to me. If you have lost anything then come and collect it. I don’t want anything left unclaimed.”

  Packing was quite a game but eventually everything was found that was lost. A few items of underwear remained in the housemother’s possession.

  “Remarkable,” she said. “Someone must be lacking them…” She trailed off, as on the horizon the large shape of the asteroid could now be seen. It was coming closer. No-one had bothered or wanted to try and listen in to the media, not even the yacht crew, although they had access to radio and TV on board. The news was too depressing. They had gathered that the event in the cathedral had gone off alright but around the corner a group of demonstrators had attempted to stop the president’s car as he proceeded back to his residence. Apparently, they were what the media had dubbed strike deniers, who accused the president of making it all up in order to rescue his popularity. The police managed to keep them at bay and the president’s motorcade got through.

  Some of the forces – police and army – had deserted to be with their families but, after that night, their commanders managed to convince them of the need to remain on duty until the strike. It was quite clear that, with a breakdown in law and order, no-one would have any dignity left. A sense of pride had at last kicked in. The president praised them to the utmost. He promised that they would be held in honour for as long as their civilisation persisted. He assured them he was in constant contact with the 1,000 – all the broadcasts and his many communications were being recorded for posterity.

  After that, the crew no longer tuned in to the media. There was much to do looking after ten sick young people as well as the children; and their happy faces were such a blessing in these end times. But now the sight of the asteroid rising above the horizon in the east told them that the prediction of ten minutes past three that afternoon had been accurate. Less than three hours to go.

  “Lunch,” announced the housemother. The children cheered. The crew turned their attention to laying out the food in the marquee for the final time. Zookas had managed to find the best of everything – things that he had set aside for his honoured guests were now shared among the street children. Of course, they didn’t appreciate what they were eating. But it was a feast all the same.

  The ten sick cave-dwellers knew nothing of this. They were being hydrated by drips that the crew had to hand in the well-stocked first aid locker. With a bit of luck, at ten past three some might just be fully conscious.

  At half past two the children were getting ready for a walk.

  “We have time to walk around the island for one last time before we go,” announced Kakko.

  No white gate had appeared. Perhaps a walk would reveal one. Kakko gave her mother a cuddle. She simply said, “See you on the other side,” and set off with Tam with a group of children.

  Jalli wept. “That girl, she’ll face anything down.”

  “And so will we. We brought her up. She gets it from us.”

  “Does she?”

  “Yes,” said Jack. “She does. She knows what she’s doing. She knows what she believes.”

  Shaun and Wennai were being dragged by impatient children. Jalli ran to them. Like Kakko, she said, “See you on the other side.”

  “You really do believe,” said Wennai, as she held Shaun’s hand. “I hope you’re right.”

  “I promise I’ll say, ‘I told you so’.”

  “I guess I will have to put up with that. If there is no God, I don’t get the last word. It’s not fair.”

  “I’ll be kind,” Shaun said as light-heartedly as he knew how. It helped that he was being dragged by eager children. “Whoa. We’d better go. These kids are so impatient.”

  ***

  When ten past three came, the party were down behind some trees and the asteroid was mercifully hidden from view.

  It was the light that changed first. The sky suddenly became golden with red str
eaks like flames.

  “Look, the trees are on fire,” yelled a boy. They all stood transfixed. But the trees weren’t on fire – the glow was behind them. Shaun, Wennai, Kakko and Tam held each other. They said nothing – this was no time for words, not even to God. No words were capable of expressing the myriad of thoughts that raced through their brains.

  “Wow,” said a girl. “What’s that? I never seen anything like that before.”

  “Happens sometimes,” Kakko heard herself say. “It will pass. Come on, let’s climb the hill to get a better view.” To get higher seemed to have purpose. It might just be that the tsunami was a smaller one than predicted and the top of the island would be safe.

  As they climbed, the wind began to pick up. It became suddenly stronger – gale-force with frightening gusts. Then normal nature stopped and all they could hear was the howling of the wind and its effects; the sounds of the birds and the sea on what, moments before, had been a beautiful afternoon were transformed into one huge cry of pain. The little group clung to each other to stop themselves being blown away. Some of the children were crying out in panic but their shouts were lost amongst the noisy tempest: thrashing trees, rattling stones, and the screams of the air being forced through the crevices of the cliffs below them. Shaun, Wennai, Kakko and Tam clung on to each other and as many children as they could, their faces down into the sweet-smelling grass, waiting for the end.

  Then, almost as suddenly as it had started, the wind quietened and the sky became its normal hue. Had they survived?

  They instinctively continued to lead the frightened children to higher ground – no-one expected the planet to explode instantly; now the greatest threat was the sea. As they predicted, at around half past three, great waves began breaking on the shoreline. Was this the herald of the huge tsunami that was predicted to follow the strike?