Countdown to Extinction

by Louise Moss

  “I will live with you in your cottage.”

  June’s news that she was pregnant with Hagan’s baby was met with incredulity, which increased with the news that she and Hagan were going to live together.

  “I didn’t know he had it in him,” Emma whispered.

  “I thought they were infertile,” Christine said.

  When Richard declared that he was going to live with Michael and Susan, there at last was something they could understand. “Provided that man will let me have some transport,” Richard said. “I don’t know how to find the way there.”

  “You’re the only one who knows about farming,” Gerald said. “I don’t know how we can manage without you.”

  “I’m afraid you’re going to have to. Nothing would persuade me to stay here a moment longer than necessary.”

  Hagan was not going to like this plan. He had made it clear before that none of them should have anything to do with Michael and Susan. Hagan wanted Michael isolated from the rest of them. He had the power to stop it.

  Gerald said, “I have an idea. There is a town closer than the one Michael went to. Perhaps you could go there instead. It’s near enough to help us with the farm if we need it, or at least give us your advice from time to time.”

  “That sounds OK, but I don’t want to live there on my own.”

  Pete said, “The houses in the town will need renovating, and there’ll be other things to do like I did here.” He turned to Christine. “What do you think, old girl? Would you like to go and live in this new town as well?” He made it sound as if he were proposing a move to Milton Keynes.

  Christine nodded. “Yes, I wouldn’t mind. We would have more room.”

  “OK, I don’t want to stop you if you want to go,” Gerald said, “But that will leave just June, Derek and Janice as well as us two We’d need more help. I’ll have to go and talk to Hagan.”

  When he had gone, Richard said, “Nobody can stop me leaving,” although he wasn’t quite sure about that.

  Gerald went next door and explained the situation to Hagan.

  June said, “Please don’t insist that Richard stays here, or refuse to let him go to the town. It would cause a lot of anger and difficulty.”

  “I was wondering – perhaps we could start populating the town? Richard reckoned we could feed several hundred people.”

  Hagan said nothing and Gerald pressed on. “There are five empty cottages, not counting the recovery room. We could bring out ten people at a time. They could spend time here before going to live in the town.”

  Hagan did not like the idea of hundreds of Primitives roaming the countryside, but he could contain them as he had Michael. “That might be possible,” he said.

  “We will need more help on the farm, soon, preparing the ground, planting new crops and ensuring the animal breeding programme is successful.”

  “There are automated machines that will do the work.”

  Gerald narrowed his eyes. “Machines?”

  “Yes, the work will be done automatically.”

  Gerald’s mouth fell open. “Why haven’t you mentioned this before?”

  Hagan stifled his anger at this questioning of his decisions and had no intention of providing an explanation. It had kept them busy and reduced the contact Hagan had with them.

  “What’s changed? Why bring these machines out now?” Gerald said.

  “I am following my orders.”

  “But – “ The Leaders had been dead a long time, but perhaps they had laid out a plan well into the future before they died.

  “So, can Richard go?” he asked.

  June said, “He can’t continue living here. Please, Hagan, let him go.”

  “Christine and Pete want to go too.”

  It made no difference to Hagan; in fact the fewer Primitives he had to live among, the better. “Very well,” he said.

  Gerald held back his smile of triumph until he had left the cottage.

  “I don’t know how you do it, but you always knew how to manage him,” Christine said.

  Richard slapped Gerald on the shoulder. “That’s a relief. We’ll have to draw up a proper plan. The town is surrounded by woodland which needs to be cleared before we can plant anything out. It should be an easy job if Hagan’s got machines to do everything. We’ll have to decide what to grow and take the plants with us.”

  “Come and talk to Hagan so I don’t have to keep passing on messages.”

  “I’ll stay here,” Pete said. “Don’t want to crowd the little man. I’ll be doing up the houses anyway, I’ll leave the farming to you.”

  “You will find the ground clear when you arrive at the town,” Hagan said as they entered the cottage.

  “But –,” Christine began and Gerald gave her a warning look. It would only alienate Hagan to keep questioning him.

  Over the next few days, Richard, Christine and Pete packed up most of the things from their cottages: cooking utensils, games, tools, baby things and books. Anything they did not need was piled into one of the two cottages they used as store rooms. They dug up some of the crops to take with them and gathered together equipment to begin their own farm. It was agreed that they would take the two shire horses and the horse drawn equipment as Richard was the only one who knew how to handle them.

  The next day, they awoke to find a pod and trailer outside the cottages. When they had loaded the trailer, they hugged each other and wished each other luck. Christine and Pete rode inside the trailer while Richard followed on with the horses.

  As they watched the convoy disappearing into the distance, Emma was in tears. “I can’t bear it,” she said.

  “We’ll see them again, I’m sure,” Gerald said. “They’re not going very far.”

  “But we won’t have the horses any more, and it’s too far to walk.”

  “I’m going to make your favourite pizza,” Gerald said which brought into her mind the time she was pregnant with Aurora and had fancied a cheese and chocolate pizza. Gerald had made her some thick slices of toasted bread covered with mashed up tomatoes, onions and a dash of basil, the best he could manage at the time with their limited crops. Now, they had all learned how to make pizza dough and it was a favourite treat, although they still did not have chocolate.

  Soon, the smell of tomato, onion, kale and sweet potato drifted out of the cottage. Gerald invited Hagan and June to share the lunch, but Hagan refused. He had no wish to eat in the company of Primitives.

  25

  When Richard, Christine and Pete arrived at the town, the area surrounding the dome had been cleared. Richard went off to plant out the crops while Christine and Pete unloaded the furniture.

  They chose houses that looked out at the back onto the farmland where Richard was working. It could have been a scene from the twentieth century.

  As the drug cleared from his body, Hagan began to feel more like his old self. He had already lost interest in mating or touching and found it unpleasant when June brushed close to him or tried to hold his hand, although he did not feel the strength of revulsion that he had felt before. “You need regular doses of the drug,” June said several times, but Hagan could see no reason to take any more.

  He looked back over the past days and saw that the drug had caused a type of madness, like the time he had taken the drug developed for the Primitives. It had given him an interest in touch which had almost led to his destruction.

  The testosterone had brought the worker blood to the surface, where it had tipped him into a dangerous place. Although he had never questioned the Leaders’ decision to eliminate the Primitives from future generations, he now understood the reason for it. The madness that lived inside every Primitive man had led the Earth to the brink of destruction.

  The Leaders’ plan had been to take away the babies at birth and eliminate all trace of Primitive from them as they grew and developed. When the Primitives were no longer able to breed, they would be destroyed. Living with a Primitive was wrong; it was never part
of the plan.

  Being close to the Primitives, being influenced by them, would only draw even more of the worker out of him. His family had never stopped calling to him, wanting him to go back. It was time to end his self imposed isolation.

  He went over to the dome and stood outside, wondering whether to enter. “Please come back to us,” Helkos called.

  “But I have- .”

  “It does not matter what you have done.”

  “I regret my actions.”

  “We understand that you were ill. Come.”

  The door of the dome opened and Hagan entered, wrapping himself in the warmth of his family. “We have a new plan,” Helkos told him. When he had heard the details, he knew it was a good plan. Soon, they would have no need of the Primitives. He shook off the remains of the lethargy that had been with him the last few days and vowed not to leave the dome again.

  It was important to ensure the Primitives could not guess what they had in mind. He went to them and said, “I have considered your request to populate the town. I will allow the five hundred that you asked for.”

  Emma was counting on her fingers, and June and Gerald were still doing the sums in their head when Hagan said, “It will take just over three months to reach the target.”

  Emma said, “We’ll need to tell Christine and Pete and Richard to expect all these people. They’ll have to get the houses ready.”

  “We don’t have any way of contacting them. Perhaps we can we go and see them?” Gerald said.

  “Oh yes, do let us,” Emma said.

  “Very well.” Let them believe he was cooperating with them. It was all part of the game. “You may go immediately.”

  Hagan provided a pod. When they neared the town, they saw that part of the transparent dome roof had been removed and the panels made into long cloches, under which plants were already growing. Pete was making fences and Richard and Christine were planting in an area close to the dome.

  “It’s good to see you again,” Christine greeted them.

  Richard swept his eye over June’s swollen belly. She looked healthy, radiant almost, although there was a sadness there too. He couldn’t bring himself to ask about Hagan, but he said, “How is life back there?”

  “It’s fine, “June said, thinking how much happier she had been with Richard. She loved being pregnant, but she had been foolish to think that she and Hagan could have a normal life together.

  Emma handed over the two dozen eggs she had been clutching carefully all the way here and Gerald held out a box, saying, “We have a special delivery for you.” Inside were two dozen baby chicks.

  “I’ll make them a hen house this afternoon,” Pete said. They’ll be safe. I haven’t seen any foxes around here.”

  “It’s lovely to see you, but is there a special reason for the visit?” Christine asked.

  Gerald explained the plan to bring more people out of the vault to populate the town. “Oh, we’d given up on that,” Richard said. “We didn’t think he’d agree.”

  “By the end of a few months you’ll have five hundred people here.”

  “Me and Janice will help you clean some of the houses this afternoon,” Emma said.

  “Yes, we ought to make a start if the first ones will be here in two days’ time,” Christine said. “Oh dear, there’s so much to do! We need more stuff – beds, tables, kitchen utensils. Do you think Hagan will let us have them?”

  “I’m sure he will. It was his idea to populate the town, so he’ll have to let you have what you need.”

  After they had eaten their fill, Christine took them on a tour of the town. Some of the house had thirty-foot-long sitting rooms with window seats that overlooked the farm.

  “Is there any reason why you shouldn’t come here to live?” Christine asked. “It would be lovely to have another female to talk to.”

  Emma said. “I’d love a house like yours.”

  “We need to supervise things at our end, we can’t come yet I’m afraid.”

  Emma sighed.

  “Pete’s made the bookshelves and kitchen cupboards,” Christine said

  “It’s so smart and sleek.”

  “It’s like the one I used to have. It’s almost as if I’m back in my own home,” Janice said.

  Christine Emma and Janice spent the afternoon cleaning houses while Gerald and Derek helped weed the vegetable beds and June sat in the sun dozing and looking after Aurora and Diana.

  At the end of the day, they noticed that something was wrong as soon as they went into the Christine’s kitchen.

  “The chicks – they’ve gone!” Christine exclaimed. “The box has gone too.”

  “Did we leave the door open?” Emma asked. “I thought we shut it.”

  “There’s nobody here, they can’t have been stolen,”

  They searched the kitchen and the rest of the house but could find no trace of the chicks or the box. Christine collapsed onto a chair and wept openly.

  “Come on, old girl, don’t take on. We can get some more,” Pete said.

  “It’s not just the chicks,” Christine said. “There’s been some odd things happening lately. Sometimes when I’m walking around the town, I think I see someone but there’s no-one there. I’ve heard footsteps too.”

  “Probably just an echo,” Pete said.

  Emma moved closer to Gerald.

  “Has anything gone missing before?” Gerald asked.

  Christine shook her head. “Maybe a few crops, but we just thought it was animals.”

  “Hagan said he’d looked for survivors after the virus but he didn’t find anyone, but there could be someone out there,” Gerald said.

  “We must make sure we lock up when we go outside,” Pete said.

  They left the problem hanging in the air while they ate. After the meal, Christine got out the Monopoly. It could have been an ordinary evening in suburbia in the 21st century.

  As Pete was about to land on Mayfair, they heard a noise outside. Christine grabbed Gerald’s arm, Emma moved to where her babies slept in a cot in the corner, Derek and Janice stood up.

  “We’ll go,” Janice said, heading for the door.

  They came back a few minutes later with the news that it was only a badger.

  The tension evaporated and they went on with the game. Richard landed on Mayfair and was about to pay Emma a when he stood up and said, “I need some air. I think I’ll go for a walk.” He had heard something that nobody else had heard but he didn’t want to frighten them. It was probably nothing.

  Emma protested loudly. “At least finish your go!”

  “Finish it for me,” he said, handing over a wad of money.

  Outside, he had a clear view of one of the barns silhouetted against the sky. In one of them, there was something on the floor that had not been there before. It might have been a bundle of leaves, but it could have been an unknown creature asleep. He walked quickly and silently towards the barn wondering there was a rope or a net somewhere.

  The door creaked as he opened it. The creature jumped up and looked around wildly.

  “Hagan? Is that you? What on earth are you doing here?”

  The man disappeared in a flash and in his place was a black spider the height of the barn. Richard heard a shocked gasp and realised that others were behind him.

  Richard backed away out of the door, but before he could escape, the spider reached out with one of its legs, curling it around his body and dragging him back, cutting his face with its sharp hairs. Pete grabbed a sickle propped up on the side of the barn but before he could wield a blow, the spider turned its red eyes on him, glowing with an evil light as they bore into him like the twin beams of a motorcar, until he lay squirming on the ground, holding his stomach.

  Derek picked up an axe, but he was not quick enough. One of the spider’s legs reached out, gripping him tightly. He swung the axe and brought it down as hard as he could.

  Pete had hold of the sickle again. He swung it and sliced through one of the
legs, but his joy was short lived. The creature began to weave a new leg from razor sharp metal. When it was finished, it looked even more deadly than before. Raising the metal leg in the air, the spider aimed for Richard’s head. Gerald plunged in with a hoe, aiming for the head.

  The spider shrank and became the figure of a man, blood pouring out of his arm, with a gash on his forehead.

  “Hagan? Is that you? What are you doing here?”

  “I don’t know anyone called Hagan.”

  “You look like him.”

  “My name’s – “ Baestel hesitated, searching for a name that would be familiar. “Bernard.”

  “OK. Come with us. We need to stop that bleeding and you can explain what you were doing here and why you attacked us.”

  The man offered no resistance as they tied him up with a rope they found at the back of the barn and took him back to the town.

  Back at the house, Christine bathed and bandaged the wound. The creature was docile but jabbering quietly away in a language she did not understand. When offered food, he grabbed at it, eating ravenously and swigging it down with several pints of water.

  Emma said, “He still looks like Hagan. I think we should take him back to the cottages for Hagan to deal with.”

  The man stirred and spoke slowly. They did not understand anything he said.

  Pete shook his head. “We can’t understand you, mate.”

  The man spoke again. “Don’t send me back to him. He hates me. I didn’t mean you any harm. I was afraid. I didn’t know who you were. I was a doctor in the clinic. When the riot came, I escaped.”

  “It was you who stole our food, wasn’t it?” Christine said.

  “I’ve been living outside since the riot. I didn’t know what else to do.”

  “I don’t like this, he’s too dangerous,” Emma whispered.

  “It was probably the starvation that drove him to attack us,” Gerald said.

  They decided in the end to let him stay in the barn for the night and sent him off with a loaf of bread and the remains of the vegetable casserole.

  Baestel hated the Primitives, but he hated Hagan more. He saw an opportunity to defeat Hagan and make himself a leader.