As the Light Dies

by M. D. Woodham

  Gavin winced again wondering what the hell was going on!

  It stopped again and was followed by another heavy thump, sounding both meaty and metallic at the same time. He flinched again almost taking flight this time as the metallic, meaty sound continued. It was almost creaking, like brittle steel under heavy strain. Gavin listened tense all over desperate not to be there anymore but at the same time he was desperate to know what the hell was going on right in front of him just a fraction beyond his line of sight. Staring didn’t help, the dirty snow was like a solid wall. His mind raced, he couldn’t think what the hell was making the noise, his mind was coming up with all kinds of unlikely scenarios. Then there was a heavy shuffling thump, like something falling to the ground!

  Then he heard what sounded like air being squeezed out of something. Something big, a tractor tyre maybe! His mind raced.Or someone!

  Whatever it was- it was big. He waited, semi frozen to the spot listening for something else, anything but nothing came. He took a step forwards trying to see, trying to extend his vision but he still couldn’t see anything, so he took another step, still no good, he took another and then another, and then he saw the verge, there was a break in it just in front of him.

  He took another step and saw the outline of an old dry stone wall either side of the break in the verge.Field entrance, he thought. Another step along and he saw the outline of a farm gate, a wide one made from horizontal welded steel bars. Not wanting to get any closer he leaned forwards this time keeping his feet planted. The gate was bent badly out of shape.

  In the middle the bars were bent outwards towards him, stretched outwards like something had smashed in to it from the other side.Trying to get at me, he thought and a shiver ran down his spine. He took another step and saw thick viscous black fluid all over the deformed bars starting to run and drip to the ground!

  He followed the goo as it dripped looking down trying to think what on earth had just happened? What had just done this to the gate, and then he saw!

  “Holy shit!” he gasped behind his dust mask and his eyes opened wide.

  Half visible through the murk laying on the ground behind the gate was a huge muscular bull.

  Gavin looked at it amazed, lean muscle bulged visibly through its thin skin, its meaty shoulder was made up of a mass of tight muscular knots barely contained beneath the thin skin.

  Gavin moved his eyes along the body towards the head. The head lay on its side and one upturned bulbous black eye stared at him still glistening.WHAT!is all he could think as he stared at the eye as it slowly lost its shine as ashy snow settled on to it, the same happened to the glistening black tears that rimmed the eye, and the congealing blood that stained the short velvet like hair on its head as it wept from deep wounds across its wide bony forehead where bone was exposed in gaping tears that stretched from one side of the head to the other. The fat bulbous nose was a mangled mess of soft tissue looking like it had kissed a sledge hammer. It reminded Gavin of Sam’s dog food when he forked it out of the tin and in to the bowl. The nose ring still hung in there bloody and bent out of shape. Lightning flickered over head illuminating the scene, Gavin’s stomach turned over shaking him from his daze. He turned away starting to retch, he pulled his mask to the side and vomited.

  A few minutes passed before he barely managed to regain control and he stood bent over holding his knees trying to breathe when he heard his name being called. It was Eddy.

  “Gavin,HEYGavin, are you ok?”Gavin stood up slowly, he tried shouting back and nearly vomited again. He took a moment as Eddy called him again sounding worried, he glanced back at the mangled gate for no particular reason and heard a deep moan followed by what sounded like heavy breathing. He turned and ran back to the bus as fast as his legs would take him.

  “Hey, sorry,”he said reaching the bus panting and he told Eddy about the sign, he kept quiet about the bull, for now. Eddy’s shoulders slumped he couldn’t believe it afterbothof them being so careful watching out for the turn offs. Eddy could see that Gavin was a little spooked by something but didn’t mention it, he didn’t want to embarrass the kid thinking that the strange weather conditions had gotten to him.Easily done, he thought. He knew where they were, he’d driven down this road before when out on a Sunday drive with his wife.“Nothing we can do now,”he told Gavin,“gotta back up, there’s nothing but the odd field entrance down here and I aint trying to turn in one of them in this snow and we’re too high for the bridge.”

  With no choice in the matter they got to it as the passengers voiced their complaints blaming Eddy for not concentrating hard enough. Gavin jumped out again happily leaving Eddy to deal with them and directed him back walking along by the back of the bus and calling directions back to Eddy.

  Eddy only managed to reverse two and a half bus lengths before they bogged down.

  The passengers were not amused!

  Gavin tried scraping snow away from around the wheels with his feet but it was no good, the bus was completely stranded.“Don’t bother,”said Eddy,“you’re wasting your time. I’ll try calling the garage, they’re gonna love me.”

  Gavin was just brushing himself down before getting back on when he heard the sound of a clunky diesel engine somewhere nearby, and it sounded like it was getting closer! Minutes later a farmer appeared through the murky snow in his old tractor.

  He was out doing the rounds, checking his livestock. Eddy could not believe their luck. The farmer had some old rope in his cab and it worked a treat pulling them back up the road all the way to the turn off they’d missed which turned out to be quite far. Gavin took up directing duties again walking alongside the two vehicles calling out directions when he needed to until eventually they reached the fork and Eddy got the bus facing the right direction. Gavin unhooked the rope, looped it up and took it back to the farmer.“Thanks again bud,”said Gavin,“I thought we were totally fucked then.”The farmer chuckled,“You weretotallyfucked,”he said.“There aint gonna be any traffic out this way for a while now.”

  Gavin nodded,“Well, cheers,”he said, then as he was about to leave he said,“Oh, just before you go, I don’t know if these are your fields around here,”Gavin waved his arm in the general direction where they’d been stranded thinking about the bull.

  “Yep they’re all mine, why?”

  “Well I walked down the road a bit trying to see where we were and there were some really strange noises coming from the field, I tried to see what was going on and there was a huge bull lying on the ground and it looked all mashed up!”

  “What do you mean all mashed up?”

  “Well the gate was all banged up like the bull had been ramming it or something, you know, and it was just lying there with bad cuts on its....”

  “AH SHIT!” said the farmer,“damn things probably gone daft like my fucking sheep! They’re all actingweird!Well, the ones that aint dead at least, the same as the milking cows. Hell, even the fucking chickens are going daft! This ash will be the end of the farm, I tell ya. I’ll go and check on him though. Thanks.”

  The farmer slammed his cab door and started off down the lane in a hurry. Gavin watched as the tractor disappeared through the dirty snow belching out clouds of black diesel fumes in its wake.“Well,”said Eddy,“I’m glad you could join us. I was about to start rolling without you. Thought that might get your attention.”

  “Yea sorry I was just telling the farmer about a dead bull I saw in one of the fields.”

  “A dead bull eh! Probably the ash, it’s been all over the news about the animals dying, it’ll cripple the farmers.”

  Gavin nodded and they started moving again.

  They rolled along slowly down the narrow country lanes through blizzard conditions. There was no- one else to pick up, the eight passengers they did have on board apart from one had all come from Inverness having gone in to stock up like the news told them to and half of the bus was full with their shopping. All of them were going to the end of the line.

 
Gavin thought it was quite amusing, he told Eddy that he thought there was a crate of bottled water on one of the seats that didn’t have a ticket. Eddy only responded with,“Huh,”from his hunched position over the steering wheel peering through the windscreen at the murky abyss trying to concentrate. The passengers all seemed to know each other in one way or another.

  Probably comes with living in a small town out in the sticks, thought Gavin as he listened to them chatting to each other.

  So and so was pregnant, and so and so had a new job, oh and so and so had a new car and none of them could understand how they could afford it.

  He turned and looked out the window at the grey mess amazed by it all as it continued to darken as if someone was turning down a dimmer switch. He found it exciting even though he knew he probably shouldn’t with all the problems over in Europe but it was all just so bizarre.

  Then Eddy brought him crashing back down to earth telling him he hoped they didn’t lose power out here like the news said was happening over in Norway and wherever else affected by the power cuts.

  “If the military can’t keep their vehicles running,”he said,“then we’ve got no chance with the maintenance these buses get!”

  One of the passengers overheard him, an old plump woman that looked like she was wearing every single piece of clothing she owned and she told him to be quiet or he’d jinx them.

  Another passenger, an extremely skinny man seemed to get very anxious at the idea and started re checking his shopping with shaky hands for what seemed to Gavin like the twentieth or even thirtieth time. They continued on and after awhile the passengers ran out of things to chat about and the bus fell silent. Gavin ate a sandwich he’d bought in town waiting for Eddy and wished he had another when he finished it; he was starving after all the traipsing through the snow, he pulled out a timetable and checked it keen to see how late they were running after their hold ups.

  It was nearly three in the afternoon and they were meant to be leaving Inverness again in five minutes having already done this run and had a fifteen minute break!

  “What time do you think we’ll get finished Eddy?”he asked.“You know with us running so far behind and that?”

  “I think this will be our last run out Gavin, I can’t see us having to do another run, not with us being so late now, I’ll try calling the garage again when we reach Fort Agustus. I couldn’t get them last time I tried. I’ll see what they want us to do, either way we’ve still got to get back to Inverness eh.”

  Gavin nodded and sat back as they carried on and after a short while Gavin felt a chill beginning to crawl over him and he shivered. He asked Eddy to turn up the heat but Eddy said it was already on full!“I’m feeling the cold as well Gav,”he said,“and I’ve got the cab heaters directed right at me.

  I’ve got a bad feeling that the heaters might be packing up!”

  The old plump woman piped up again.“See”,she said,“that’s your fault, you’ve jinxed us, the heaters stopped working and next the bus will stop working. Get your foot down and get us down this road before it does.”

  “Don’t worry missus,”said Eddy,“there’s enough of you on board to push!”

  He said it playfully but Gavin could hear the tension in his voice.

  Glimpses of hedgerows and dry stone walls became fewer and further between, the snow was overpowering everything and the snow in turn was being overpowered by the ash. There were no odd white specks in the dark, almost black snow. Everything that was visible looked dirty, it looked bleak.Might as well not have windows,thought Gavin and he rummaged through his rucksack hoping to find some food. He didn’t. He had a handful of dust masks and two bottles of water, one half empty. The masks were a good find though; the previous ones he’d been using that Dean gave him were already past it, clogged up and black instead white.

  Suddenly Eddy said,“Thank God for that!”

  “What’s up?”said Gavin looking up.“We’re here, we’re in Fort Agustus. We’ll be heading for home in five.”

  The plump woman piped up,“You’re right. Thank God,”she said then she started gathering up her shopping, all twelve bags of it.

  Gavin felt Eddy slowing them down but he still couldn’t see anything outside. For all he knew they were in the middle of a field.

  The rustle of plastic shopping bags filled the bus as the passengers started getting ready eager to get home. The skinny, anxious man literally ran to the front of the bus banging his shopping off the end of the seats as he hurried down the aisle, making sure he was first in line to get off. While he waited at the front between Gavin and Eddy he didn’t say a word to either of them, he just stared straight ahead. Finally Gavin saw houses come in to view and realised where they were. They were on the High Street. The street was dark and eerie looking, all the street lamps they passed were either dim, flickering or off.

  “Looks like you guys have got problems with your street lights,”said Eddy.

  “Oh I hope it isn’t the start of them power cuts,”said the plump woman as she struggled with her last few bags.

  “Nah’they’ve probably only just come on early because of the ash confusing the censors,”said the guy they picked up at the end of the country lane.

  “Oh I hope so,”said the woman and then a guy wearing a high visibility jacket along the queue said,“I think it is you know. Look at the houses and the corner shop, not one has a light on!”

  The woman mumbled something under her breath then said,“The corner shop will be closed, they ran out of stock the day before yesterday,”

  Then Eddy stopped the bus. They’d finally made it.

  As soon as Eddy opened the door the skinny guy took off and disappeared out of sight.

  “My God I can’t see anything,”said the next person that got off and then Gavin hopped off to help an old lady down and he was taken aback by how thick and black the snow had become. He stayed there to help the others down, some didn’t want help but ended up needing it anyway as they stumbled or slipped, pulled off balance by all their shopping. The last one off was a little old man with only one shopping bag, he thanked them both and wished them both a safe journey back to Inverness and then he disappeared.

  Gavin jumped back on the bus.“Wow, its cold out there,”he said.“You gonna call the garage and see what the score is?”

  “Well I was,”said Eddy,“but my screen says no network coverage. I just checked while that lot were getting off, I’ve never had that happen down here before. Does yours have any signal?”

  Gavin pulled out his phone. He shook his head.“Totally blank,”he said,“it’s dead. I only charged it last night as well.”He fiddled with it trying to switch it on thinking that it might have turned off in his pocket as he leaned against something. Nothing happened, it stayed dead!

  Eddy handed Gavin his phone and told him to watch it for signal while he drove.

  “I bet it’s the ash playing with the signal,”said Eddy,“I’ve called work a hundred times from here, in all kinds of weather.”

  They rolled slowly through town and turned around at the end of town and pointed towards home.“Well,”said Eddy,“we’ll just head back in, it’s not like there’s anything else we can do. We’ll probably get back at roughly the same time that we’re meant to finish anyway,”he chuckled as he finished.

  As they passed back along the High Street Gavin caught sight of two little children peering out from one of the houses. They were nursing a candle between them peering out at the strange snow, there was a coal fire lighting the room unevenly behind them. Gavin smiled remembering the feeling he use to get as a kid when the snow arrived and he imagined how excited he’d be with it being so strange and alien outside being the wrong colour and the power cut got bonus points.

  “Don’t know what you’re smiling for,”said Eddy,“that candle means they’re out of power.”

  “Yea, I know,”said Gavin.

  “That means that Inverness is most likely out of power as well,”added Eddy and with
that as he turned off the High Street, all the street lights went out!

  “Whoa,”said Gavin,“I hope skinny man got home, he’ll be having a fit if not.”

  “Never mind him,”said Eddy,“I hope we get home, I’d settle for just getting back to Inverness at the moment, he’s within walking distance of his home, we aren’t!”

  Eddy sounded uptight and stressed.

  “Nah, we’ll be fine eh,”said Gavin.

  “Right now I’m not so sure,”said Eddy and he nodded at the dashboard.

  Gavin leaned over and looked down at nothing!

  It was dark, it was blank! None of the dashboard lights were on and none of the dials were working. Nothing! Gavin looked up at Eddy.“What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know,”he said,“the dials started dying on me a little while back, about the time you asked me to turn the heating up. They turned on and off for a while and then just seemed to sort themselves out for a bit, but the whole lot’s been out about ten minutes now. They might start up again in a minute, who knows? The heater’s totally fucked though, it’s stuck on full, blowing out cold fucking air, and there’s nothing I can do about it!”

  Gavin held his hand over one of the blower vents and felt the cold air rushing out.“As if it wasn’t cold enough eh,”he said and Eddy rolled his eyes.

  “Tell me about it,”he said and then right on cue the interior lights down the entire length of the bus blinked!

  “Huh!” said Gavin under his breath looking up and down the bus.“Thing’s falling apart around us!”He took up a standing position by the drivers cab and idly glanced at Eddy’s phone.

  “Your phones dead now!”he told Eddy.

  “What, how? It was fully charged this morning. You haven’t mixed them up have you?”

  “Nope. It’s your phone, and it’s totally dead. Do you think it is the ash?”

  Eddy glanced up from the windscreen.

  “Gotta be,”he said, it’s some coincidence if not. Do you wear a watch?”he asked Gavin, and Gavin shook his head,“No, do you?”