by Phil Maxey
He pondered everything he had witnessed during the last twenty-four hours. Magic? Really? He laughed to himself and shook his head. Aliens was technology, that made sense in a strange way, but dragons and things that go bump in the night? But then he had seen what he had seen. And the girl seemed—
A high-pitched whirring echoed in the distance.
He noticed Darren looking at him, the cone of Darren's torch burning intensely in his goggles display.
“What’s that?” said Darren.
“Sounds like a smoke alarm. I thought we got all of them. I’ll check it out, if I’m not back in five minutes, wake Mills and Hunt.”
“OK.” Darren’s light bobbed up and down with his nodding.
The alarm sounded as if it was on another floor. Vic got up and walked steadily up the escalator. The temperature had already started to drop sharply and his breath was forming small puffs of mist in front of him.
He walked off the metal steps and waited, trying to ascertain just how far away the alarm was. Another level. He walked to the next escalator and scaled this one quicker. The alarm was louder. At the top a sign proudly stated that there would be luxury Christmas puddings available on this floor at noon. Vic smiled, he never cared for the rich fruit dessert, but right now he would gladly devour one. Once he killed the alarm he would find the rich-tasting cake products and bring some back. It would give the guys and girls in his platoon back at the base something to smile about, although most of them wanted to forget about the past Christmas.
He walked past gadgets in rectangular, glass cases from expensive brands he had never heard of before he could tell the siren was coming from the toy area of the store. He had seen this section briefly in the fading daylight and even in the gloom it was impressive. Seven-foot-high, wooden toy soldiers, stood proud at an entrance to an area packed with modern and more traditional toys. He couldn’t tell in the dim green glow presented to him on the screens in front of his eyes, but he could easily imagine the reds, whites and other neon Christmas colors that were around him covering the shelves and hanging from the ceiling.
He walked along an aisle of toy cars, planes, and boats each one lovingly crafted and spotted a small box on a far wall. Found it. He ran forward and pulled the box off the wall. Waving it around a few times the sound finally stopped. He then placed it on the ground.
Hmm, don’t smell any smoke up—
A noise made him look to right. A plethora of green-tinged soft animal toys looked back at him. He thought about maybe taking one with him for his boy. The lads back at the base would give him stick, but it would be worth it.
He waited for any further noise, but when none came he went to walk towards a lion cub toy and froze. There was something wrong with the roughly five-foot-high ‘toy’ that was just visible out of the corner of his eye. Slowly he turned his head to illuminate what it was.
A humanoid figure slowly wavered, but in the glow of the night goggles it was hard to see exactly what it was. Dark beady eyes looked back at him.
Slowly he begun to raise his gun. “Hello—”
The air filled with a screeching and arms and legs came flying at him. He just had time to raise his gun and the creature grabbed both the barrel and the butt. Instantly the part of the gun he was struggling to hold on to grew icy cold.
A face not quite human looked back at him just a few feet from his goggles. “Get off!” he shouted, and kicked out with his size twelve boot, but it was like kicking a tree trunk and instead Vic fell backwards into a pile of plush toys. The creature seemed to lose interest in the assault rifle and dropped it to the ground, then staggered forward looming ever closer to him as he scrambled to break free of the soft fabrics that he was buried under.
Then came a new sound. A swish and swiping noise. He watched as a blur of a blade flashed through the air slicing into the creature which still flailed at its attacker. Vic lunged forward to grab his rifle, when the creature staggered back under a barrage of slices, eventually falling limp against a display of small toys, causing it to fall over.
With his back against a shelf unit and his rifle in his hand, his head darted left and right trying to ascertain if there were more attackers and what just happened to the thing he stumbled upon.
“You can lower your rifle, soldier boy, I just saved you.”
It was a voice he recognized as the woman that kept to herself. He then saw her eyes glowing as intense beacons and had to push the goggles from his eyes. Even in the complete dark her eyes gave off a green hue which couldn’t be missed.
“What the frig was that?” He felt her hand briefly touch his shoulder and he grabbed it, pulling himself up.
A noise came from a few aisles over. It was the voices of Mills and Hunt, together with torches sweeping the area.
“Over here,” shouted Vic.
“That was a ghoul.”
“Is that what you call them?”
“I’m surprised you haven’t come across them before, there seems to be a lot in the city.”
“We have . . . that one looked different.”
“They come in all shapes and sizes—” She picked up the soft lion cub toy and handed it to him. “Like these toys.”
He just caught her smiling as she walked past the two soldiers approaching.
Vic looked at the toy then at the thing on the ground that was now turning to ashes.
CHAPTER 15
After the incident with the ghoul, Kat didn’t get much more sleep. Even with the three soldiers and Algorine standing watch. When she saw an ambient light around her she gave up fighting her still active mind and unzipped her sleeping bag and got out. She had slept with her socks and gloves on, but immediately felt the chilled air against her face. Turning over she saw Darren, his face lit by the glow from his laptop’s screen. For a moment she was worried he had frozen in the night as he was barely moving, but on seeing her looking at him, he gave a strained smile. He then gestured for her to come over to him.
Pulling her boots on, she quietly stepped around Justin and walked to Darren’s spot on the tiled floor which was covered with blankets and sat down next to him. She went to say something but then stopped when she saw on the screen what he was looking at. It was news reports from all over the UK. “Evac biggest since the war!”, “Lowest ever temperature recorded in Cumbria, northern England.” And “Thousands of Brits now saying they are going to become ex-pats!” Below the headlines were images of buried vehicles stretching for miles on motorways, and other pictures of miles and miles of tents across what looked industrial areas.
“Things went downhill pretty quick,” said Kat.
“Yeah . . .”
“The internet is still working? I tried some phones we found earlier, but none were working.”
“The internet is still there, the problem is connecting to it, but I found a Wi-Fi connection still working.”
Justin turned over in his sleeping bag. He was awake. “What’s the situation in Kent, Tunbridge Wells? Any idea about getting there?” he said, rubbing his eyes.
Darren clicked a few options on the screen and brought up travel details. “Well, obviously there’s no train services and the roads are blocked. It seems they gave up trying to keep most of the major routes clear two weeks ago. Now it’s just the military ferrying people and supplies around by plane and helicopter and through one or two main motorways.”
Kat looked at Hunt standing guard a few yards away. Mills was asleep. She hadn’t noticed, but Vic was awake and looking at her. He smiled and got out of his green padded chair.
“Your friend here is a bit of a computer wiz by the looks of it,” said the sergeant.
Darren looked up at him and frowned. “Something like that.”
“Any chance I can use that to contact my base?”
Darren hesitated in replying.
“It’s OK, Darren. Is there?”
“Er, sure yeah, I just need an URL, IP address, or phone number and I’ll connect you.”
“Well actually—”
Kat interrupted, looking at Vic. “Phone number?”
“Sure.” He then reeled off a seven-digit number, which Darren typed into a communications program and within a few seconds a young woman’s face looking bemused appeared on a webcam.
“What do you want me to say?” said Darren.
“I’m going to need to talk privately.”
Darren looked at Kat who nodded. He then handed Vic his headset and laptop, while the woman on the other end enquired who was calling her.
Vic went to walk away then stopped, turning back around. “What’s your dad’s name?” he said to Justin.
“Nathan Pendridge.”
Vic then looked at Kat. “And your mum’s?”
Kat knew there would be no way she would be found by conventional means, but then it couldn’t hurt to have any extra information. “Dawn Ambrose.”
Vic walked away into the early morning light that was slowly making visible the destruction they had wrought on the various expensive items that the store sold.
Mills started moving in her sleeping bag and opened her eyes. “Where’s the sarge going?” she said to Kat.
“We got the laptop working, he’s talking to your base.”
Mills turned over. “Good.”
Kat ignited the small stove they found in the camping department and started to boil some water.
By time the liquid had boiled Vic reappeared and handed the laptop and headset back to Darren. “Looks like we’re a taxi service after-all. I’ve got orders to take some medical supplies to the camp in Rochester. A truck and APC will be coming by within the hour.” He then looked at Justin. “I’m afraid there’s no sign of your father in the system. We’ll check out your home in Tunbridge Wells, with any luck he will be there.”
Justin nodded.
Kat poured the steaming water into a mug with the instant coffee powder.
“Good news on your mother—”
The end of Vic’s sentence she didn’t hear as she was too shocked to perceive any more words. She shook her head slightly. “Sorry what?”
“You’re mother? She’s in a camp near Bristol. Usually we wouldn’t be able to tell one surname from the other, but there’s a note on this particular Dawn’s record that she has a daughter called Katrina. Which I presume is you?”
“Hey, you’re pouring too much water—” said Darren.
Kat woke up from what she had just been told and realised she was pouring boiling water across the floor.
“I’m afraid we’re going east, not west. But if you wanted to go to your mother’s camp, I could take you back to the base and—”
“No, it’s OK. I’m going east.”
Vic shrugged his shoulders. “OK.”
“But maybe you could get her a message from me, telling her I’m OK?”
Vic nodded. “I can do that.”
* * * * *
A low rumbling signalled that the small convoy was not far-off.
Darren stood stamping his feet trying to keep warm in the early morning light, while eyeing suspiciously the other stores that loomed above the snow-caked street. “No it’s not play time!” he said to Chip who was hopping with each new stamp.
He had exchanged his modest-sized backpack for a full-on camping backpack, as had Kat and Justin and it was full to capacity with everything he felt he would need in the event of the world coming to an end. Which, apparently, it had.
Kat watched Vic and the two other soldiers patiently waiting for the armoured personal carrier to arrive, and wondered what was really said between the sergeant and his commanding officer on the laptop. She then looked at Justin, who since he found out his father was not in the system while her mum was, had gone quiet. Even quieter than he usually was. She wondered if had already made his mind up about the fate of his family.
She looked around for her Fae friend, but couldn’t see her. “You seen Algorine?” she said to Justin. He shook his head.
The constant grey cloud cover above them remained, but the heavy snow had eased off.
Icicles began to fall from window ledges as a cloud of white dust formed at the west end of the street. Soon the dust cloud took on the wedge shape of a turreted APC, it’s caterpillar tracks making short work of the snow and ice under it. Behind it was an army truck. The APC came to a stop next to the three soldiers, and the top hatch opened up, as did the rear one.
“Your ride into hell awaits!” said a man wearing a helmet and headset at the top of the turret.
“Ha, it really is the end if they put you in your charge of your own vehicle!” said Vic smiling at the grinning man.
Kat, Darren, and Justin walked closer to the large armoured vehicle.
Vic looked at the three awkward-looking individuals, then back to the man sticking out of the top of the turret. “This is Corporal Greene, who will be in charge of getting us to where we need to be.”
Kat smiled and briefly waved.
“So you lot want to go to Tunbridge Wells?”
They all nodded.
“Well it’s a bit of a detour, but I don’t see why we can’t make that happen.”
Two other soldiers approached after already greeting Mills and Hunt.
Vic slapped the larger of the two on the back. Kat recognized them as the men that were with Vic two nights before when they first met them.
A noise came from behind. She looked around. Algorine walked up to her with her own full backpack.
“I wasn’t sure you were coming,” said Kat.
Algorine smiled. “It’s not every day a girl gets to play around in a luxury department store all to herself. I see our ride is here.”
“And this is . . . Algorine,” said Vic to the APC’s commander, who looked a bit unsure at the woman who was dressed for somewhere between a medieval cosplay exhibition and a goth nightclub.
“It’s going to be a bit of a squeeze in here, unless you’re good being in the back of the truck?” Greene said to Algorine.
She started walked towards the truck. “Suits me fine.”
“Right, let’s get this started. We need to drop the supplies off to the camp by nightfall.”
“Actually I think I would like to be in the back of the truck as well, so I can see better,” said Kat.
The APC commander shrugged his shoulders. “OK, but I’d keep well wrapped up, it will get pretty cold in there.”
Kat nodded and followed Algorine. Darren and Justin looked at each other, not knowing whether to take the security of the inside of the armoured shell or the tarpaulin of the covered back of the truck.
“I’m going to go with my friend,” said Justin walking off. Darren with Chip followed.
“Guess it’s just your people in here then,” said Green, looking at Vic.
Vic looked back at the three people he was trying to make sense of and nodded to Greene. He then climbed into the back of the APC with the rest.
CHAPTER 16
Kat looked up at the three-hundred-and-twenty-foot-high clock tower looking more like a popsicle looming over a white road, which used to be the River Thames. The small convoy crossed Westminster bridge and made its way through south London, knocking cars out of the way when needed.
Hardly a word had been exchanged amongst the inhabitants in the back of the truck, when Kat’s frustration got the better of her.
“We’re going find him,” she said to Justin who was sitting opposite her.
He sheepishly raised his head. “We don’t know what we’re going to find.”
“I don’t know your dad, but if he’s anything like you, he’ll be fine.”
Justin smiled.
Darren had spent the last hour or so typing messages on his computer.
“What you working on?” said Kat.
“Recording what’s happened. Like a diary. You know if, like we don’t get through this.”
Kat gently held his arm. “We’ll find Justin’s dad, then my mum and then find somewhere that none of this can affect us.”
An hour passed and they were moving south, through northwest Kent. Rolling hills and large round trees completely encased in white passed them by, as the roads grew narrower.
As they moved over a small hill, Kat noticed something in the distance, amongst the haze.
“What is that?”
The others leaned forward to get a better look.
“Looks like there’s something on the roof of that farmhouse,” said Justin.
“It’s a sign!” said Darren looking through some binoculars.
“What’s it say?” said Kat.
“Help.”
Kat immediately turned and banged on the metal partition between them and the drivers up front. The truck slowed then stopped.
Kat unlatched the tailgate, then jumped down from the truck, Vic walked towards her.
“What’s going on?” he said.
She pointed towards where the farmhouse was, although the view was blocked by a hedgerow that lined the road. “Behind these hedges, across the field there’s a farmhouse with—”
“I saw it. It’s almost certainly abandoned; this whole area was evacuated.”
Kat felt a little embarrassed but the feeling that there was someone still in the house nagged at the back of her mind. “Can we check it out?”
Vic’s expression told Kat he wasn’t enthusiastic about the suggestion.
“Look, I’ll check it, me and my friends. You can stay—” said Kat.
Vic shook his head. “No, no that’s our job. OK, you win, we’ll check it out. Wait here.” He waved to the soldiers that were watching from the back of the APC.
“I want to come with you.”
He looked back at her. “Why?”
“I just do.”
Vic looked pensive. He couldn’t think of any reason why she should come on this short mission, but he was beginning to trust this young girl’s instincts. “Fine, but you stay close to me. No exploring by yourself, I can’t afford a few hours trying to find you if you get lost out here.”