by Jeff Povey
The classroom is empty.
There is just me, GG and the Ape. We’re still clinging on to our makeshift weapons but wherever we have gone there are no longer any creatures crashing in.
The door to the corridor remains open and the only sound I can hear is of my own laboured breathing.
It’s empty. The school is empty, I’m sure of it. Which means, hopefully, we’re back in the empty world.
‘You did it, Ape, you were right.’
‘It’s Dazza.’
‘Is that the first time you’ve ever known the answer in a classroom?’ quips GG. ‘Because if it is then I love you more than ever.’
‘Stop saying that!’
The Ape cranes his great thick neck as he looks around scanning the room.
‘I think we’re back,’ I tell him.
But the Ape is wary; he has ultra-keen instincts. ‘Shh,’ he says. ‘Can you hear that?’
He falls silent, listening hard.
I fall silent with him, listening as hard as I can. ‘There’s nothing.’
He raises a large slab of hand, silencing me. His near perfectly square block of head scans from left to right.
GG is holding his breath. ‘I can’t hear anything,’ he whispers.
But the Ape is convinced there is something – or someone. I can tell from the way his grip tightens on the legs of the school chair.
Seconds turn into a long breathless minute.
‘Well?’
The Ape eventually speaks. ‘I heard something.’
‘We got that part,’ GG whispers. ‘But what?’
The Ape relaxes his grip. ‘Footsteps. They’re gone now.’
‘Footsteps? It’ll be Johnson and the others!’ GG excitedly starts for the open door but the Ape puts a huge hand on GG’s delicate shoulder.
‘Stupid people die first.’
GG is yanked backwards easily by the powerful Ape.
‘Maybe I’ll just take a peek out of the window,’ GG says.
He crosses quietly to one of the tall classroom windows and takes a long look outside. Whatever he sees out there robs him of his breath.
‘Oh good Goddy.’
‘What?’ I say, bracing myself for the worst.
GG eventually finds his voice. ‘I spy with my little eye something beginning with “s”.’
‘Soldiers!’ says the Ape excitedly. ‘Is it soldiers?’
I march over to the window and look for myself.
‘S is for snow,’ says GG as the Ape joins us.
‘Snow?’ The Ape grins. ‘I love snow!’
The world outside is covered in a deep blanket of snow. But the more I look the more I realise that there are no footprints. Not anywhere. No one has walked in this snow.
‘It’s empty,’ I whisper. ‘Outside is empty.’
‘Where are we?’ GG asks. ‘Are we back?’
I haven’t a clue, but I’ve still got my charger in my pocket and I plug my phone into the nearest wall.
‘This is no time to charge your phone,’ GG says.
‘I need to make a call.’
‘I hope it’s to the council; they should be out there gritting.’ The joke is weak, but GG never misses an opportunity to lighten the mood.
My phone finally lights up after what feels like an excruciating wait and I scroll to Johnson’s number in as calm and orderly a fashion as I can. I press dial and say a silent prayer.
Please, God, please let the phone work here like last time. Please let Johnson pick up.
The phone burbles with a muffled ring. It’s connecting me. Which is something.
But no one picks up.
GG looks from me to the Ape and then back to me.
More unanswered rings echo through the classroom.
It rings and rings.
Please God.
Please.
GG slips a hand on my arm as if to say, Let it go.
The Ape studies the snow. ‘There’s no footprints.’
Always a moment behind everyone else.
‘No one home,’ he says.
I look at the phone and will Johnson to answer.
Come on.
Please.
GG’s finger hovers over the END CALL button. ‘We’re not in the right place. But there’ll be another light. We’ll wait for it, Rev.’
‘Rev?’
The calm tone that echoes out of my phone is unmistakable.
‘Johnson?’ I can barely speak because it feels like my thumping heart is rising up and filling my mouth.
‘Where have you been?’ he asks.
My knees almost buckle as I try to stay calm. ‘Long story. Where are you?’
‘In town. How are you calling me? Are you back?’ Johnson sounds as amazed as a Johnson ever could.
‘Yeah, I think so. I’m with GG and the Ape.’
‘It’s Dazza!’ the Ape bellows across the room.
Johnson takes a moment. ‘When did you get back?’
‘Just now.’ I’m so excited I can’t get a grip of my thoughts. ‘And just to check, you know, make sure . . . Is it snowing where you are?’
‘Yeah . . . Yeah it is.’
Oh. My. God. We are back in the empty world.
I can’t find any words. I open and close my mouth as the thought of seeing Johnson again renders me speechless.
‘We’re in the classroom,’ GG calls out, unable to stop smiling. ‘We went back for extra lessons.’
‘We were shifted to the wrong world, but we escaped. We’re here again,’ I tell Johnson.
‘I blame British transport. But don’t tell my dad that,’ GG adds.
‘Is it – is it really you?’ I still won’t let myself quite believe it. I don’t even know if Johnson can hear the whisper I squeeze past my numb lips.
‘Yeah. Well. Sort of.’
I don’t know what he means, but I don’t care. The sound of his voice is wrapping round me.
‘Tell me exactly where you are. We’re coming now,’ I tell him.
‘Right now?’ Johnson asks.
‘Of course.’
‘Oh.’
‘Oh?’ Something jabs at my heart.
‘I mean – about time,’ says Johnson, and it’s only now I hear the tension hidden way back in his voice. There’s something not quite right. He’s become too neutral too quickly, almost indifferent. It’s like he’s only playing at being glad to hear from me.
My heart starts to sink. ‘Is everything OK, Johnson? Has something happened? To Billie? To the Moth?’
‘Just come see us.’
I hesitate. ‘What about the others? The usses, the bad versions. Is it safe?’
‘They’ve gone.’
I immediately think of Other-Johnson. ‘All of them?’
‘Haven’t seen them.’
My spider sense tickles in my shoulders. Not dramatically, but enough to put me on edge.
‘You sure everything’s OK?’
‘I guess things have changed a little, Rev.’ His words spear into me.
‘Changed? I don’t understand.’ But I’m starting to guess, because when we left it was the end of summer and now there’s thick snow outside.
Johnson turns my fear into a reality. ‘It’s been five months since we heard from you. How can things not have changed?’
We’re outside in the thick snow, in the school car park. It’s utterly freezing.
Outside and in.
GG is shaking as the biting air swarms around us. We’ve abandoned our sunglasses, because who would wear them in the middle of winter. ‘Look at that,’ he says, pointing.
From our high vantage point we can see that most of the town is covered in snow.
‘It’s like a big Christmas card.’ GG has been jabbering away since we left the classroom and I’m pretty sure it’s to keep me sane, to ward off the horrendous thought that almost half a year has swept by in the blink of an eye. If time has passed that much here when it was only a few hours in the ‘alien�
� world, then how much time have we missed at home?
My mum will have given up hope: she could’ve held a memorial for me, or just filed me alongside my dad as another person who went missing from her life. It’ll hurt her beyond belief which makes me more determined than ever to get home.
‘I don’t understand.’ My breath is almost solid from the cold and I’m having difficulty trudging through the virgin snow. It’s deeper than I first thought and even though we are heading downhill we are making very slow progress.
‘This means I missed my birthday.’ GG blows into his cupped hands. ‘I love birthdays. I get to buy new clothes and eat cake all day long’
My insides are colder than the snow. There was something in Johnson’s voice that I didn’t recognise. And I didn’t like it.
‘Outta my way!’
The Ape bellows and when we turn he is hurtling towards us on a large wooden tray he must have pilfered from the school dining hall. He is sitting on his knees, crouched as low as he can to build up the maximum speed. We have to scramble to get out of his way and as he shoots between us he tosses a couple of trays at us.
‘Sledge!’ he yells, then on he shoots, picking up speed as his makeshift sledge bounces across the firmly packed snow.
GG quickly grabs the trays before they end up sliding after the Ape.
‘Doubt we’ll find a taxi in this weather.’ GG tosses a tray to me then climbs aboard his. ‘See you at the bottom.’
As I grab the tray I catch a glimpse of what I think are footprints leading from a side entrance to the school. There are a few concealed brick steps that lead down to a pavement then up towards a metal walkway that takes you to a music block opposite.
But these footsteps didn’t take the walkway, they turned left and headed in another direction.
Back into town.
‘GG, wait—’
‘Apeman, I’m a-coming!’ GG shoves off.
I watch GG picking up speed and he has to grip the edge of the tray as tight as he can because the hill is incredibly steep.
If there are footprints, someone else was in the school recently. The Ape was right: he did hear footsteps.
I don’t know who it could have been, but what if one of the evil world inhabitants somehow come back with us and then escaped into town?
The thought fills me with dread, but if it’s true then I need to warn the Ape and GG. They are hurtling down the hill and there’s only one way that I can reach them.
I also can’t forget that I am on a mission, that I made a promise to my non-mum, that amazing woman who took on an entire town to save us, and I will not let her down. Violent, death-dealing, footprint-leaving alien or not.
I’m already beginning to lose sight of GG and the Ape, so I take a snow-impeded run, build up as much speed as I can and throw my body flat onto the tray. I land hard but my momentum and the steepness of the hill carry me onwards. The hill is probably half a mile long and even though the cold is biting into my fingers I grip the edge of the tray tight, lying as low as I possibly can, streamlining myself so that I turn into a human bullet and shoot down the hill.
They’ve had a big head start but the Ape is larger and heavier than me and he’s also sitting upright, just as GG is, and I am already catching them because they aren’t as aerodynamic. I can also use my feet as rudders to steer better and as a tight bend looms I take it far better than either of them did. I close in on GG and he must sense me because he turns back and sees me hurtling towards him. He laughs and trails his hand in the snow so he can grab enough to make a snowball. As I close on him he starts throwing snowball after snowball at me.
‘Back! Back I say!’ he yells.
‘I saw footprints,’ I yell at him.
‘Back!’
‘No, listen—’ A snowball hits me in the mouth and I swallow half of it.
GG is appalled. ‘Rev, sorry! I’ve never snowballed a girl in my life! Where has all this violence come from?’
‘GG, listen to me,’ I shout. But GG hits another bend and loses control of his tray and tips over, going into a tumbling roll.
I shoot past him. ‘Meet me at that bottom!’ I yell. ‘Don’t do anything till we talk!’
I hope he has heard me as he sprawls face down in the snow.
I’ve got the Ape in my sights now and even though he is only a few metres from hitting the snow-covered main road that runs through the town I know I can catch him.
My makeshift sledge carries me faster and faster and for a second I think back to my dad and how I used to sit in the cradle of his lap on a sledge on snowy days like this. He’d made a wooden sledge but would only ever take me down what he called ‘safer slopes’ but I didn’t care because he was wrapped round me, cocooning me, and no matter how cold it was I never felt any of it because of him.
‘Ape!’ I yell.
He turns his massive head and sees me heading straight for him. He starts using his bear-like hands and arms to paddle himself faster, probably determined not to be beaten by a girl. But with his extra weight I know he can’t outpace me and I draw alongside him just before we hit the road.
‘I saw footprints so we need to be ultra careful!’ I yell at him.
‘What?’
‘I said there was someone at the school.’
The Ape suddenly leaps from his tray and lands on top of me. I feel his massive weight crush the breath from me and I go into a total pancake state and lose control.
‘What the hell??’
I’ve been carrying all manner of cuts and bruises, and with him on top of me every single one of them screams.
‘Get off me!’ I shriek.
The Ape laughs as we veer insanely over the road and straight into a deserted car park.
I have walked through this car park a million times and I know there are steep concrete steps awaiting us.
‘Ape, jump off!’
We’re travelling so fast we hit the steep steps and fly out over them before he can move a muscle. We dip dramatically, landing hard some three metres below. He goes one way and I roll the other. I shoot straight for the tiny frozen river that flows in front of the ancient church.
I have no way of stopping and start to tip and roll and slip towards the iced-over river.
‘Ape . . . !’ I’m hoping that the ice is really thick, that this cold snap has been here for weeks, as I am thrown out onto it.
I spin and spiral along the ice and can see the far bank rearing up in front of me. I’m going to be all right, I think, I’m going to make it across.
The ice cracks like a distant gunshot and just as I reach the bank it shatters underneath me and I am plunged into water that feels like it has to be at least a hundred degrees below freezing.
I’m sure the river isn’t usually this deep. Normally it’s little more than a metre at most. I should be able to stand up in it.
Why’s it so deep? Everything in this world is practically identical to my own, so why is something like the depth of the river different?
I can’t work it out. But I can’t seem to work anything out.
My brain is moving so slowly.
It must be the cold.
I need to do something, but I can’t remember what. Something about hitting the bottom and pushing off again.
But where’s the bottom?
Where are my feet?
I can’t feel them.
If I shout for help will anyone hear me?
It’s so cold down here.
Cold and silent.
The water fills my nose and mouth.
Numbness is crawling all over me and I’m not sure but I think my heart just shut down.
All I wanted was to see Johnson, for good or bad I wanted to lay eyes on him and have him tell me everything is OK. But the second I get within touching distance he’s snatched away from me.
God it’s cold.
So cold that I can’t even feel it.
A memory comes to me, labouring through my frozen thoughts.
I’m back in my father’s lap as we slide down a gentle slope on a sledge he built himself. Mum’s already at the bottom taking photos of us. She’s laughing, Dad’s laughing and I just feel warm all over. Dad’s here and I’m safe.
Where did you disappear to?
Where are you when I need you . . . ?
A hand grabs my hair and yanks hard.
That I do feel, because it hurts like hell, but because I can’t actually command my arms to do anything other than hang limply, I have to endure the agony.
Either the arm tugging on me is very strong or I’ve lost a lot of weight recently. I break the surface and gasp for air but even though I can breathe again, apart from my painful arm, the rest of my body is numb.
Someone lifts me clean out of the river and into their arms, mumbling something I don’t quite catch.
I try to speak but my lips and tongue are swollen with cold. The wind whips around me as I try to open my eyes but I didn’t know that if you get too cold you can’t actually see. My eyelids are frozen shut.
But I’m alive.
I’m breathing.
Reva Marsalis lives.
The person swings me up into their arms with indecent ease. ‘This isn’t a day to go swimming.’
Even through my frozen haze I recognise the voice. Johnson.
I feel a door kicked open and because we’ve only gone a few paces and the nearest building to the river is the fourteenth-century church then that’s where I’ve been taken. Though kicking the door open isn’t exactly holy behaviour.
Johnson’s saved me again. Once from burning to death, now from drowning. What’s next, a hurricane?
He lays me down on the stone floor. ‘Hold still.’
‘Johnson . . .’ My voice is barely above a whisper. ‘It’s really you . . .’
‘In a way.’
‘Thank God—’
But just when I’m starting to feel safe, I hear the now all too familiar sound of a talon released from a fingertip.
I try to move. To kick. ‘No,’ I say. ‘No!’ I lash out with my slow-moving pathetic arms. But it’s more like a weak flap. I try and kick with my leaden legs. ‘Get off me!’
Hands pin me down. Strong hands. Inhuman hands. This isn’t Johnson at all. My mind has played a trick on me.
Why did I charge blindly down here on a school tray of all things? Haven’t I learned anything?