by Calum Kerr
Ah yes, said a voice in her head, but what about the fighter jets. This isn’t just an accident. Those were military planes firing rockets at something. Who says anyone’s coming? Who says there’s anyone out there to come? All bets are off, I reckon.
It was a voice best ignored, she decided. She pulled her mouth closed and took a long breath through her nose. “I have no idea,” she finally replied. “I know no more about this situation that any of you. What do you think we should do?”
The man looked back at her and said nothing. She could see that his inner voice was relaying the same information to him as hers had, and he no more wanted to appoint himself the decision maker than she did.
Nicola had a sinking feeling though. She remembered doing jury service a few years ago in Boston. The first job of the jury had been to choose a foreman, and she had determinedly not volunteered. As she might have expected, it was the most loud-mouthed and most reactionary of the group, a large guy called Bob, who wore red suspenders over a blue plaid shirt, who had asked for the job. That had been fine by her. She just hadn’t wanted to be responsible for standing up and delivering a verdict in full view of the plaintiff and the defendant.
But it hadn’t been that simple. Once they’d heard the case, a disturbing one about a man who was ‘uncle’ to a couple of mid-teen girls and was accused of behaving ‘irresponsibly’, they’d retired to the jury room to discuss it. She tried her best to just sit and listen, but the foreman kept quoting evidence incorrectly and leading people to conclusions that just weren’t borne out by the evidence. Eventually, she had started to interject, and then a little more. By the time a verdict was reached she was aware that she had managed to lead them to her conclusion, and one or two had asked her, in the breaks, why she wasn’t the foreman.
It wasn’t that she had wanted to take control, it was just that she couldn’t just sit back and let others let their stupidity or their prejudices talk for them. She just had to speak up.
She could feel that same thing creeping over her now, especially as Tony looked up from his phone and said. “Well, I think we should just stay here.”
She bit her tongue and waited. She had no desire to claim any kind of leadership role here, especially when one was already being tendered towards her.
“Something’s going on. We know that,” Tony continued. “But the fire’s on the other side of that nice wide road, and it surely can’t be too long before police and ambulances and all that turn up. After all, that’s a major road out there, blocked with our cars. I think we stay in here where it’s cool, and dark, and not on fire, and we take turns to pop back and look out for the authorities. Then, when they turn up, we can just head out to them.” He nodded and looked around. Nicola could tell from his expression that he was waiting for everyone to applaud or something.
Before she said anything she checked inside for any sense of jealousy. She didn’t want to speak up. God knows she had no desire to appoint herself as a leader of this group of people. She had enough to look after with the – now-sleeping – bundle in her arms that was Alyssa. But she couldn’t sit back and let these people listen to the cowardly crap that Tony was talking.
“No, you’re wrong.” Her voice came out as little more than a whisper, but a few heads turned to face her.
She tried again. “You’re wrong.” Her voice was louder this time and she felt it carry, turning every head towards her this time. “If we stay here, I think there’s every chance that we might just die.”
Ten
“Die? Die! What the fuck are you talking about?” Tony wasn’t sure why he was getting so agitated by Nicola, but he couldn’t stop himself from arguing. “There’s been an accident, sure. And something weird is going on. But, come on, this isn’t one of your blockbuster movies with the world coming to an end. It’ll be sorted soon and then they’ll come and help us.”
One or two people made noises of agreement, but many more were looking at him with consternation, confusion, or downright hostility on their faces. He looked around, hoping that common sense would win out, but as he saw the looks on their faces, he started to lose hope. He felt the blonde girl give his leg a reassuring squeeze.
Nicola hadn’t taken her eyes off him. She seemed to be holding back from whatever it was she wanted to say. They were facing each other across about twenty yards of forest, with thirty or so other people arrayed around and between them, but for a moment it seemed as though it was just the two of them. Finally, she broke. “Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe it’s a training exercise gone wrong and soon there will be flashing blue lights and mugs of tea. But, look at what just happened. A bunch of fighter jets just fired missiles over your head into an ordinary field. This isn’t Iraq or Afghanistan. This is England. If they’re doing that, then something is going on. And even if it’s going on here and nowhere else, it seems to me that the ‘authorities’ are far too busy to bother with us. We need to move away before the fire spreads over to this side of the road. Or before whatever they’re firing missiles at moves over here and they feel the need to fire missiles in this direction.”
Oh God, thought Tony, she’s making a bloody speech! “You said it yourself. Something’s going on here, and we don’t know what it is. But if we don’t take some control, take some responsibility for ourselves, then we have no-one to blame if anything happens to us.”
People were making more noises of agreement, and there was a lot of nodding. Tony wanted to disagree, but couldn’t find the words, just a stubborn seething.
“So, if we’re going to do something. I think we just head away from whatever’s happening over there.” She pointed back towards the road.” And we find somewhere where we can be safe. If we move far enough maybe we can find somewhere with a working phone, or at least a radio or television. Something which might tell us what to do, or what the hell’s going on.”
All faces were looking at Nicola now. Although nobody was moving, he could feel them drawing away from him. He was left sitting alone in his pool of shadow. Then Nicola turned from where she had been addressing the group, and looked straight at him. “What do you think?”
Tony was taken aback. He hadn’t expected her to throw it back at him like that. He said nothing for a moment, and then rose to his feet, looking around at the faces that were now all pointing at him.
“I’m staying,” he said. “This is not a Hollywood movie where the creeping terror is going to come and attack us. This is real life. And, this is England. Leave if you want to, and ten minutes after you’ve gone, when the accumulated weight of the emergency services arrive, I’ll make sure to tell them where you’ve gone. If you’ve not got lost in the woods, or fallen off a cliff, or whatever, I’m sure they’ll find you soon. Me, I’m going to wait, and I’d be happy to have any of you with me.”
He nodded at Nicola as if to say: your turn. He looked assured and confident but his mind was reeling. This was all happening too quickly. One minute he was driving along thinking of Susanne, the next he found himself forming a splinter group of people stranded by an accident. He wanted to say this. He wanted to admit that he was scared and didn’t know what he was doing. He wanted someone to just tell him what the fuck was going on. But instead he set his face against this woman that he didn’t know from Eve, and took his stand.
She nodded back at him. “Fine. That’s your right. But I’m going.” She didn’t make the same invitation to the others that he had, but she didn’t need to. She just started walking across the forest floor towards him. She smiled as she reached him then carried on walking, deeper into the woods. After a beat of time, most of the rest of the crowd followed her. Tony turned and watched and slowly, inexorably, they disappeared from his view.
He turned back and now there were four of them: the blonde girl who seemed to have attached herself to him, and a middle-aged couple dressed in fancy clothes which looked completely out of place amongst the trees. The woman smiled an embarrassed smile at him as he looked at her bright blue dress, larg
e matching hat, and sparkly high-heeled shoes. “We were on our way to a wedding.”
Eleven
Sam sat and watched the others walk away. She started to stand, but then they were all around her and it would feel weird to be rising to her feet surrounded by all these people, so she stayed where she was. It felt weird anyway, sitting there while they loomed over her, but her man was standing over her and she felt safe. He said nothing, just watched them walk away, but she could tell that he felt sad for them. They had chosen to listen to the panicking woman who wanted them all to run away, rather than listen to his sensible argument. Of course there would be people coming to help them. Of course the police and ambulances would be here soon. Of course they’d be okay.
The clearing emptied and she looked up at him. He was just staring after them, watching them leave. He looked around and spoke to the other sensible couple who had decided to stay. Then he looked down to her and offered his hand to help her to her feet. She rose from the ground and stood next to him, looking up at him, and waited to find out what his plan was now.
It wasn’t the first time she’d been sent to the other store to pick something up. One branch in Winchester and one in Oxford meant they were close enough to swap stock when necessary without having to use a courier company. But they were also far enough apart that it was a full afternoon’s trip. Of course, stopping for a latte and a cupcake with Sandra always made it a slightly longer journey. That was how she’d happened to be driving back from Oxford when she’d seen the truck fall out of the sky in front of her. As always she’d been leaving a sensible distance in front of her. It was, after all, her boss, Ryan’s car, and there was no way she wanted to damage it in any way. She’d pulled up about a hundred yards from the accident and watched that loud American woman rescue the man from the car. She watched them run from the burning car and then set off to leave. She was disappointed when she saw him get into the car with her. She couldn’t quite understand how they could have known each other, but she guessed it was his lucky day. Now, having seen them arguing, she guessed that they hadn’t known each other at all. She presumed that that woman had forced him into her car. She wanted to run away and needed someone to protect her, Sam guessed.
When the cars had all cut out, he’d taken his chance and run away from the crazy bitch, and Sam had followed. She was aware that the trees at the side of the road had burst into flames, but was more intent on following him.
She caught up with him in the woods, where for a moment he seemed to be crying. He explained that he was just breathing heavily from being out of shape. She could understand that, but he didn’t look out of shape to her. He looked just fine.
“I’m Sam. Samantha,” she said once she was standing again.
“Tony,” he said, his eyes already wandering away from her to look around the woods. She loved the way he was taking control of the situation. She wanted to ask him what he thought was happening. She was sure he knew but just didn’t want to show off in front of everyone else. She did know that he was making a plan, however, and didn’t want to interrupt, so she left him to his important thoughts and went over to talk to the other couple who had been sensible enough to stay.
She introduced herself to Bob and Janet. They had been on their way to Janet’s niece’s wedding. “It’s only a few miles. I said to Bob that we should take the back road, go through the nice countryside. I said that if we went onto the main road all that would happen is that there would be a traffic jam and we’d get stuck. And I was right, wasn’t I, Bob?” Bob nodded. “Not that I knew it would be anything like this. Trucks falling on us from the sky? Fighter planes bombing us? The car cutting out on us? Having to run for our lives into the woods? I mean, what on Earth is going on? And how are we going to get to Aimee’s wedding now? If our car won’t go and the road is blocked, what exactly are we meant to do? And that woman was all very well, but I said to Bob when she was talking, I said ‘Bob, it’s all very well panicking and making a fuss, but I think we should do like the nice man says and stay and wait for the police. Maybe,’ I said to Bob. ‘Maybe they’ll even give us a lift to Aimee’s wedding – what with it being a special day and everything – and if they need to take a statement, maybe we can come in and make it later.’”
Samantha smiled politely at this barrage of information. Working in a very upmarket dress shop she was used to women who would come in and talk at her without really expecting any response.
“I just hope that being here in these woods hasn’t ruined my shoes. After all it’s pretty muddy. I mean, I know the weather’s been nice and it’s been dry for the last two weeks. Bob and I have been able to eat out every evening, haven’t we, Bob?” Bob nodded again. “It’s been lovely because we only got it redone last year, and this year all the flowers have really taken off. I mean, they were nice last year, but everything was so new that it needed a year to bed in.” She paused, and for the first time as far as Sam could tell, Janet took a breath. “Anyway… It’s been so nice, and I’ve got a lovely tan, but this ground is so soft my heels are sliding in and I’m worried they’re going to be ruined for the wedding. Do you think they are going to be very much longer?”
Sam was taken surprise, not by the nature of the question, but by the fact that there was a question at all. She said nothing for a moment, except an indeterminate, ‘Erm…” and then there was a huge blast of wind and an almighty thump which shook the ground and knocked her over backwards. She slid down into the depression left by the roots of a fallen tree, and rolled over onto her face. She heard a loud crash and scrabbled round onto her knees, wiping her hair from her face even as she wiped mud onto her skin. She peered up to where she had been standing and was faced with a large, unidentifiable scramble of metal. It was streaming smoke, and seemed composed solely of sharp and charred edges.
Sam stumbled to her feet, and then screamed as she saw a very muddy, but instantly recognisable pair of shiny, blue high-heels sticking from under the wreckage. A pair of slightly thick ankles still emerged from the shoes and disappeared, amongst a spatter of blood, under the metal. Of Bob, there was no sign. She fell to her knees and screamed and screamed until Tony came over and pulled her away. She buried her head in his chest and continued to scream as he attempted to coax her into movement. In the end he gave up, scooped her into his arms, and staggered off into the forest.
Twelve
Stan looked over at Dave and raised his eyebrows. Once he had his brother’s attention, he cocked his head in the direction of the woman who had introduced herself as Nicola.
Once they had gone far enough to be out of sight of the clearing where they had left that incredibly stubborn guy and his ‘followers’ she had stopped to tell them her name and that she had no intention of being their leader, she just thought they should get away. Once they had, she told them, someone else who knew what they were doing could take over.
Even as she said it, though, Stan could feel everyone hitching their attention and their hopes to her. She may not know it, but she had something about her which made everyone want to trust and follow her. She was their leader, simply because she was, whether she wanted the job or not.
Dave looked back and nodded. He knew what Stan was thinking. The girl might be carrying a child in her arms, and this might be completely the wrong time to be thinking such things, but she was seriously hot. Stan had been the one to disagree most defiantly with the crazy guy, and also the one who had asked Nicola what she thought they should do. When she opened up with the comment about the EMP, he’d known that whatever her background, wherever she came from, her brain was still working in the midst of everyone else’s panic. If nothing else, she would keep her head and, Stan hoped, that would help him to hold onto his.
Brains and beauty. This could be Stan’s chance for a real catch. If following her and doing what she said was the way to charm her, then he was more than willing to do that.
They carried on through the woods, making decent time. He didn't know where
she was leading them, but it seemed that she just wanted to put as much distance as possible between them and the field of fire. It was not so much a case of where they were going to. The important word was ‘away’.
A rattling thump shook the ground and caused Stan to stumble. Dave caught his arm and kept him from falling on his face and then the two of them turned to each side, helping up those who hadn’t been so lucky. Small pieces of burning metal and other debris started to rain through the canopy. Some dropped onto the leafy ground, starting smouldering fires. One piece landed on Stan’s shoulder, burning straight through to his skin. He let out a yelp and brushed at it, his hand singeing in the same movement and coming away with black char marks and blood from his shoulder.
Other people cried out as smaller and larger pieces struck them, and the group broke into a ragged run, trying to outdistance this burning rain.
An older woman stumbled in front of Stan and he simply caught her round the waist like a rugby receiver as he headed past, keeping her on her feet and helping her on her way, thanking the years of ploughing his way up the sport’s field on a Sunday morning. He was aware of Dave on his other side, the two of them forming a team of assistance as they made their way through the jostling, fearful crowd.
Finally the downpour ceased and they slowed again as they realised the bombardment had stopped. People turned to one another, stranger to stranger and inspected burns and wounds. It seemed that they had escaped largely unscathed, with most injuries consisting of small burns which didn’t seem too bad. One or two people held handkerchiefs or pieces of torn clothing over larger injuries, but everyone seemed to be able to carry on.