As the Light Dies

by M. D. Woodham

  He walked over to the wall and brushed his fingers over its rough surface, he tried hopping up and grabbing the top but he was a mile off. He was stumped!

  An enormous lightning bolt tore through the sky and broke up in to multiple forks.

  Collin thought it was impressive, he’d never seen lightning look so impressive, so thick and bright with so many branches, but he couldn’t enjoy it. Andy turned back to face the others and saw just how black they were with ash. Both men were smothered from head to toe in dark grey and black ashy snow. He could see the faintest hint of yellow around the edge of Collin’s cuffs and the hems of his trousers where they’d been scuffing and their dust masks were completely black, they looked fuzzy where they’d been catching the dirty particles as the men breathed. Andy held out his arms and looked at them, he was the same. He brushed one arm and just seemed to smear the mixture of ash and snow instead of brush it off, he doubted that Lara had a dust mask, or insulated jacket and gloves. Andy took a deep breath filling his lungs to bursting point and he hollered as loud and hard and for as long as he could.“LAAAARAAAAA!”

  Thom stared at Andy uneasily as another lightning bolt lit them up quickly followed by another and then thunder boomed so loud it felt like it was shaking the ground.“HEY! I heard something,”said Thom,“I’m sure I did, listen.”

  “What? What did you hear?”said Andy rushing in closer. Collin leaned in as well as his heart jumped a beat.

  “Yea just n....”

  That’s all Andy and Collin heard Thom say before thunder roared above them.

  As it tailed off Andy shouted again practically screaming,“LAAAARAAAAA, WHERE ARE YOU?”

  The three of them waited frozen to the spot listening, hoping, praying that they heard something. The steel roller door to the carwash burst in to an eruption of furious metallic bangs and rattles and shakes from the other side.

  They all jumped and Thom slipped and nearly fell.

  “THERE!” said Andy rushing up against the steel door, and Just audible above the din of the shaking and banging was a voice calling out.

  “I’m here, I’m in here, please help me. I’m stuck in here. I’m inHERE!”

  Andy dropped to his knees and started scraping the dirty snow out of the way. Thom and Collin landed beside him and together they started to clear the bottom of the roller door and started trying to pull and heave at the door trying to lift it open and Andy called through to Lara.

  “Are you ok?”

  “I think so, couple of cuts and a bruise that’s all.”

  “Ok, good, we’ll have you out in a minute ok, just hold tight Lara.”

  “Ok thank you,”she called back and all three of them pulled hard at the door trying to lift it.

  It didn’t budge.

  “It’s not gonna move,”Thom grunted.

  “Keep the pressure on,”said Andy and Collin’s hands slipped and he fell backwards landing on his arse. He scrambled back to the door in a flash, and pulled with all his might, his hands were so cold he couldn’t feel his fingers anymore, but that didn’t matter one bit right now, he was so relieved that they’d found her. They just had to get her out.

  After a few minutes of trying, Andy said,“It’s no good boys. Hold on. It’s frozen shut, just hang on a minute.”

  Thom and Collin both stood up for a moment panting and breathing on to their hands trying to warm them up again.“Swing your arms,”said Andy,“you’ll get the circulation going and warm them up quicker.”They both nodded as he tapped on the roller door.

  “Hey Lara?”he called through.

  “Yes!”

  “How did you get in there?”

  “I came in through the roller door before the power totally died, I managed to open it far enough to roll under it before it slammed back down again.”

  “Ok, hang on a minute, we’ll keep trying.”

  “Ok.”

  Andy turned to Thom and Collin still swinging their arms, and said,“It could be the dead door motor keeping the door shut. Either way, if we all pull in rhythm, you know pull then ease off then pull then ease off again I think we’ll stand a better chance of getting the door up far enough for Lara to roll out ok?”

  “Sounds like a plan,”said Thom and Collin nodded.

  They took up their positions along the base of the door. Collin’s fingertips were still numb, but he had a slightly better grip of the door this time.“Ok”, said Andy,“when I say pull,pulland when I say ease, ease, ok.”

  Collin and Thom agreed. Andy called through to Lara.“If you can hear me well enough in there Lara then try and lift in rhythm with us when I say pull or ease ok?”

  “Yea, ok, I’ll try,”she called back.

  Andy took hold of the door.“Pull,”he said, and they did. They gave it everything they had in rhythm with Andy as he called out.“Pull,” and then“Ease,” and then“pull,” again....

  Nothing happened. They were just tiring themselves out the longer they went at it.

  Andy stood up and stepped back from the door.

  “Watch out a minute,”he said to the other two, and then yelled through to Lara,“Watch out Lara. Stand back!”

  Then with one almighty thrust he kicked the door making it rattle from top to bottom and from side to side. He kicked it again and again, hitting the base of the door as hard as he could. Thom winced at the force that Andy was hitting the door, thinking it must be really hurting his feet.

  Andy worked up and down the door battering it like crazy, and then dropped down on his knees again.“Ok! Everyone back to it,”he yelled, and again they repeated the sequence and pulled and eased off over and over.

  Thom had images in his head of them having to leave her and go back to the main store for some tools to try and prise the door open.

  “Damn thing!”said Andy,“it must be the motor. My kicks should have loosened the ice.”

  Just as he finished speaking there was a loud snapping sound!

  “Keep at it guys, keep at it, we’ve got it!” he yelled and they pulled as hard as they could.

  Thom was almost struggling breathing under the tension but he could hear the ice breaking. Or at least something was cracking.

  They all felt it start to give way, and the frozen door started to move upwards one jerky rung at a time. Lara shouted through to them,“That’s far enough,I can roll under, hold it there for a second guy’s.”

  They heard her and started to inch their way apart making room for Lara. Collin and Thom moved to the right and Andy to the left, all holding on to the door as tightly as they could and Lara appeared from under the door rolling out between them and as soon she was clear they let go of the door and it slammed back down in an instant!

  Collin recognised Lara as soon as he saw her from passing her in the supermarket. She looked very young, she was tiny, probably only five foot and stick thin. Andy helped Lara up, she’d been lucky enough to find one of the bright yellow fluorescent jackets hanging in the ca wash to help keep warm, but underneath it her uniform was ripped and torn and black with ash. Her hands and forearms were cut and bleeding and there was a graze across one cheek.

  “Thank you for coming for me,”she said.“Thank you so much.I was scared those maniacs had gone over to the supermarket after wrecking this place, and I knew that if they did, no- one would be coming over to help me for a while, that is if anyone noticed I was missing. I thought I was gonna be stuck in there for, for, well I thought I was stuck in there for good.”

  “Relax, you’re safe now,”said Andy,“you’re out, and those mental cases have all gone, the place is deserted ok.”

  Lara nodded feverishly as he removed his dust masks. He had three on over the top of each other for extra protection against the ash. He took out the middle one and handed it to Lara.

  “Put this on,”he said and he tried the radios just in case, but it was no use they were both dead. They started walking. Lara was shocked at what she saw of the remains of the petrol station. She looked at the
chaos amazed until she caught a glimpse of the Range Rover and she looked away.

  They left the ruined petrol station behind them and made their way back to the supermarket pushing through the dirty snow against the relentless wind constantly trying to grind them down.

  As they walked through the car park weaving around cars and stray shopping trolleys, their view ahead cleared for a moment as a strong gust of wind timed it just right with the fiercely bright lightning and lit their way for a few seconds. They could see the darkened supermarket ahead of them.

  “Emergency generators given up,”said Andy as they all noticed how many car bonnets were up with owners hunched under them looking for whatever fault was stopping their car from starting.“Batteries have all died,”he said, and suddenly remembered the guy that had nearly run them over on their way over to the petrol station.

  Andy looked around every time the murkiness cleared enough to see much of anything and eventually he saw the abandoned jeep.

  Its bonnet was up like multiple other vehicles but the owner was nowhere to be seen.

  I hope it stays that way, he thought.

  They walked passed frantic owners aimlessly pulling and tapping at engine parts in the vain hope they’d tap or pull something and disturb it resulting in their car firing up. Andy tried to tell them as he passed by that the affects of the ash had killed their car batteries just like it was cutting off all other electrical power sources. He tried telling them that they were best off securing their cars and setting of on foot with as much as they could carry and come back for the rest at a later time. Most told him to fuck off if he couldn’t help, one guy even started shouting at him,“Are you a fucking mechanic? Well are you?ARE YOU?”

  Andy backed off after that and gave up.

  “You just can’t help some people eh!”he said to the others as they pushed on in silence.

  All of them were astonished by how many people had brought their children with them.

  The whole family had come out for the stocking up of supplies as though it was a normal day at the shops despite any of the advice on the TV or radio to stay inside at all costs.Damn idiots, thought Andy as little faces peered out at him and the others as they passed by.

  Back at the supermarket they made their way straight to the first aid room, they couldn’t help but hear the arguments going on between the customers. Andy heard old Jimmy’s voice in the mix trying to calm the situation.Great!he thought, knowing he’d have to get involved soon enough.

  Maggie saw them and rushed over to the first aid room, she was relieved they’d found Lara and that she was ok. Maggie started to clean the wounds on her hands and face while Lara told them what had happened over at the petrol station.

  “It was horrible,”she said,“it all happened so fast. To start with, I’d noticed that nearly everyone was in a bad mood, you know. They were getting worse as the day went on, almost like they were responding to the ash you know, as it kept falling, getting darker making that horrible ashy fog out there. As it got worse outside everyone seemed to be getting more agitated, more angry with each other, even aggressive!

  Anyway, people were shouting from their cars for others to hurry up at the pumps and get out of their way and whatever, that went on for a while. I didn’t bother much at first but then the customers started shouting at me. Blaming me for the pumps being slow, you know, but it wasn’t anything I could have helped, there was nothing I could have done. I carried on as best I could just trying to ignore them you know, but then the card readers on the pumps stopped working and that really stirred things up because it slowed things right down, and everyone had to come in to the kiosk to pay. So then instead of shouting at me from outside on the forecourt, they were inside shouting at me....”

  Lara felt a lump rise in her throat as she said it remembering what had happened, and her voice wavered with emotion.“It was horrible. I didn’t do anything wrong!”

  “We know you didn’t,”said Maggie patting her arm.“You did just fine. What happened next?”

  “The lights started to flicker, all of them, and that really stirred things up, especially when the forecourt started going dark. They musta gotten worried about not being able to fill up you know, especially the ones further back in the queues. They were really getting mad. Then on top of that I was worried about what would happen when the kiosk ran out of food.

  I knew that the store was empty. All that was left in there were pallets of grit salt and screen wash you know, and car air fresheners and the odd set of car floor mats. Anyway, I just tried to stay calm, trying not to stir any one up even further than they already were, you know....”

  “You’re a better woman than I am,”said Maggie cutting in.

  Lara nodded.“Well I’d tried the phone to call across to the supermarket to tell someone in case I could get some help or something you know, because people aren’t so big when there’s two of you behind the counter.”

  Everyone nodded.

  “But the phone was dead! So I had no option but to carry on, and it went on like that for ages, gradually getting worse as people got more and more aggressive until eventually two of the pumps completely stopped working. Well two at first, and then another two, and another two and then not long after that the whole lot stopped. Every last one! While the pumps were breaking down, there was a guy who was being really mouthy, shouting and swearing at everyone from his fancy Range Rover and that, you know. Well, he pulled out of the queue and drove right up to the front totally jumping ahead of everyone and he just sat there waiting for another guy to pull away from the pump banging on his horn trying to speed him up! You can imagine how that stirred everyone up. Anyway as the guy in front of Mr Range Rover started to pull out after practically getting in to a fight with Mr Range Rover for beeping his horn at him, his car stalled. And it just wouldn’t start again. That was it, that’s when all hell broke loose!”

  “Someone behind the Range Rover wanted to get out after filling up, but they couldn’t because they were blocked in, and there were others waiting for that space. It was the same all the way back down the queue. Everyone knew that the Range Rover was blocked by another car but because the guy in the Range Rover had given everyone grief on the way in, shouting and blasting his horn, and then jumping the queue. He became a target for everyone.

  People were practically screaming at him, telling him to move, you know. But the pumps had died. So I was trying to tell everyone that the pumps were all dead, that no one would be able to get any fuel, that it didn’t matter if there was a free pump or not. But no one listened, they just didn’t care, they just wanted to argue, and thenall the cars started dying!

  They just seemed to cut out, all of them, and none of them would start again, and that’s when people started getting out of their cars, and things just kinda exploded! People started fighting between the cars. The only car still running was the Range Rover, and the guy just kept on blasting his horn over and over, then he started yelling at people, telling them to move the car that was blocking him.

  That’s when everyone just seemed to turn on him all at once! But the guys in the kiosk directed their anger at me.”Leann paused for a second there, fighting to keep control of her emotions before she continued.“One guy, the closest to me, leaned right over the counter shouting at me, practically screaming right in to my face and then he just turned and walked out without paying, and then everyone else in the shop started walking out without paying. They just didn’t care.

  I didn’t know what to do, there was so many of them and they were all doing the same thing. It was really scary, so I locked the till and switched off the pumps just in case the power did come back on you know. I looked round and the Range Rover was surrounded with people banging on the windows trying to get at the guy. It was horrible.

  While the shop was empty I closed the doors, and people started banging on the window up by the till you know, and that’s when the lights inside went out, and they didn’t come back on.


  Then a couple of guys started trying to pry the doors back open.

  As they struggled to get them open, they were shouting at me, telling me to open the doors or they’d kick my head in! So I backed up towards the staff door you know.

  Then the ones banging on the window by the till grabbed one of the logs from the bundles of fire wood for sale and started bashing the window with it, saying they were gonna drag me out in to the snow and do things to me, you know.”

  Lara’s voice started to waver a little again as she forced herself to remember.

  “Then the other guys, the ones at the front doors, started ramming a gas canister at the doors, and it actually started to push them open.

  I thought one of the guys was about to squeeze through when the glass in the door frames shattered and I just lost it. I screamed like a stupid little girl!

  One of the guys at the front doors started knocking all the glass out of the frames and the other one started trying to wedge them open with the gas canister, they were still shouting at me, swearing at me, and I heard more breaking glass. I looked around and saw people up on the bonnet of the Range Rover!They were smashing through the windscreen with a fire extinguisher!

  I was totally freaking out. I didn’t know what to do!”

  “You did just fine,”said Maggie.

  “Some of the guys were making some really strange noises! I couldn’t understand them. It was so strange it wasn’t like they were talking it was more like a growl or agurgle!

  I honestly don’t know what they were trying to do or say!”

  Lara fought hard not to cry as she told the others what had happened to her, she hadn’t realised how shocked and scared she had been, it was only beginning to sink in now as she re told the story to the others.

  “Then the big window shattered, it practically exploded, I don’t know what they hit it with. It just shattered and guys started coming in to the shop grabbing whatever they could get their hands on.