Fighting Darkness: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Thriller (Fighting to Survive Book 2)

by Alex Knightly

  That hit him like a ton of bricks. His eyes filled with tears at the thought of it.

  “I’m sorry,” she muttered. “I’m just trying to make you see. I’m not going to give up just because I’m safe here. That’s not fair on Max.”

  “No,” he said quietly, his voice strained. “No, it’s not.” He swallowed, remembering the promise he’d made her. “I said I’d help you. And I meant it, no matter what you might think. I’m sorry I lost sight of that.”

  “So?”

  “So a lot has happened in the meantime. We almost lost Terry and we were exhausted when we got here. But that doesn’t change matters.” He blinked, trying to picture himself getting back in that car and heading down the motorway again to housing estates and gangs and endless trouble. It was the last thing he wanted. What he wanted to do was settle here and take walks in the country with Olivia. He sighed heavily. Didn’t he owe her this? They’d taken her car and made her drive them north. They had promised her. “Let’s talk about it later. We’ll make a plan. There’s no point in us going down there unprepared.”

  “Okay. As long as it’s soon.”

  “Yes,” he said, thinking about all the projects he wanted to get started on around the farm. This wasn’t something they could put off. Si wouldn’t rest until they went back and the longer they waited, the more dangerous it would be. “Tomorrow.”

  She nodded. “Tomorrow.”

  Dan

  There was something different about Si. She actually seemed interested in what they were talking about now. Maybe it was the walk; maybe it was the company. Whatever it was, Dan felt better. The idea of having these strangers at the farm was growing on him.

  Clive had already come up with lots of ideas to improve things and his interest in the river had got Dan thinking. He’d never considered the possibility of using the river for transport before.

  “Old tractors,” Si said suddenly. “Do you have one?”

  “No.” They’d talked about getting one when they first bought the farm, but it had seemed unnecessary at the time. When they moved here first, they’d been focused solely on getting the old house into a liveable state again. He’d only gotten serious about proper farming and living off the land in the last six months.

  “Maybe there’s one nearby and…” she trailed off and looked at Clive. “Probably better to think about that after.”

  “After what?”

  She ignored him. “What about other forms of power? Turning old motors into wind turbines. That sort of thing.”

  Dan’s eyes widened. “Can you do that?”

  “No, but Max is a genius when it comes to things like that.” She looked away.

  “Max?” Dan turned to Annie.

  “Her boss. Come on,” she said, linking her arm through his. “Let’s go back to the house.” She turned. “You’ve seen it all now, Clive. Not that there’s much to see. We’ll cut across here. You can see all the way to the road because it’s flatter on this side.” She squeezed Dan’s arm. “Why don’t we go back and have another coffee?”

  Si was looking at Annie with a strange expression. Dan watched her for a while but was none the wiser.

  Would he ever get used to this? Fighting their way back here had bonded his wife to these strangers in a way that he’d never experience. He glanced up at the hill as they reached the yard. He wondered what the neighbours were doing beyond it. For all the weirdness of having strangers in his home, it was worth it now that they had numbers in case anything…

  “You look deep in thought,” Annie muttered.

  He shrugged, aware that she’d probably noticed him staring in the direction of the neighbour’s house. Maybe she was right. He did have a habit of becoming a bit obsessed about things when he spent a lot of time on them. He pulled her closer, fighting back the feeling of helplessness that had been looming over him ever since that first confrontation at the river. “Nothing. Just all the work we need to do and—” he stopped, frozen.

  “Dan? What is it?” Annie cried.

  He shook his head, not even able to get the words out. “No,” he muttered.

  He threw open the gate, filling with dread but at the same time needing to know. He hoped he was seeing things, that it was nothing more than a trick of the light.

  Bile rose in his throat as he rushed across the yard to the shed.

  He’d left the fishing rods propped up against the wall.

  Now they were lying on the ground, snapped into several pieces. He stared at them in disbelief.

  “Dan what is it?” All the colour rushed out of Annie’s face as she caught up with him and saw what he was looking at. “Oh.”

  He shook his head. A headache was starting to hammer at his brain. “No. No, this is…”

  Clive and Si reached them then, both gasping when they saw the ruined rods.

  “Who did this?”

  Dan glanced back towards the house. Could it have been one of the others who came back with Annie?

  “What? No. Not them. Terry’s still out of it on painkillers and Olivia probably hasn’t ventured outside,” Annie whispered.

  “Jesus Christ,” Clive hissed in a voice that made Dan’s blood freeze in his veins. “Olivia.”

  A moment later, the policeman was racing towards the house.

  Dan took off after him when he realised why Clive was panicking. Someone had come into the yard. For all his caution, he hadn’t thought to lock the back door since there were people inside. What if the broken rods were just the beginning?

  Si

  “Olivia!” Clive cried. “Olivia!”

  Si followed him through the house, heart pounding. The fishing rods thing had been messed up, but this was something else. She’d never seen Clive so worked up.

  She clenched her fists. Olivia was so lovely, caring for them all even though she had enough issues of her own to deal with. If anything had happened to her…

  She couldn’t bear to think about it. It was horrible. Who the hell were those people in the neighbouring house? She hadn’t really been paying attention to what was going on around her. She’d been too busy trying to work out how the hell she was going to find Max. But this…

  “Oh thank goodness,” Clive gasped from somewhere up ahead.

  Si followed him into Terry’s room and was relieved to see they were safe. Terry was sitting up in bed staring at Clive, who’d crushed Olivia into his arms. She was shaking her head in confusion.

  Si hissed out a breath and turned to find Dan and Annie standing in the doorway. “It’s okay. Everyone’s fine.”

  “What is it, Clive? You’re acting funny.”

  “It’s nothing, Olivia.” His breath was still ragged.

  “Come on,” Annie whispered, taking Si’s arm. “Let’s give them some space, eh?”

  Si followed her out, turning back to look at the policeman as she did. It didn’t seem to matter that everything was fine. The look on his face told a different story. It wasn’t fear, it was pure anger.

  A horrible thought struck her then, but she tried to swallow it back. They were going to find Max tomorrow. Nothing had changed.

  “Are you alright?”

  Si looked up. Annie had stopped and was watching her closely. She shrugged. She didn’t want to say anything about her conversation with Clive earlier. Annie wasn’t going to come with them. She was focused on what was going on with Dan and Si didn’t blame her for that.

  “Yeah,” she said.

  “Good.” Annie’s eyes were still boring into hers. “Because we’ve got to stick together on this.”

  Si stared at her. What had Annie heard? This was exhausting. She was wasting time trying to work out what other people were thinking when she should have been helping Max. Part of her wanted to run to the car and take off by herself, but deep down she was too scared. The memories of what had happened on the road were still too fresh in her mind.

  “Sure. Yes, of course.”

  Annie smiled. “Okay. And you can
talk to me anytime you need. This is a weird time for all of us. Come on, let’s go see if we can find something useful in the shed. We chucked everything in there when we finished the house and I have no idea what’s in there.”

  “Sure. Yeah. Whatever.”

  “Have you ever been on a farm before?”

  “No. I’ve never really been out of Wesleygate, except a couple of times on holidays when I was little.”

  “This must be weird. I bet you’d rather be somewhere with pubs and your friends.”

  Si winced. This felt too much like small talk and she was allergic to that. “Not really. Look, you don’t have to try and make me feel better, you know. I was sleeping in a car in the scrapyard when you lot came along. And my life before that wasn’t exactly a fairytale. I’m fine.”

  “I’m sorry,” Annie said suddenly. “I know I told you I’d help you find Max, but things here aren’t what I expected. I’m really worried about Dan.”

  Si glanced over at the corner, where the broken fishing rods still lay on the ground. They’re only bloody fishing rods, she thought. “It’s alright,” she said.

  Clive.

  Clive was going to come with her.

  Wasn’t he? He seemed very shaken up by what had happened earlier.

  “Can I speak to you both for a moment?”

  Si turned. They had started clearing through the junk at the back of the shed. The physical work felt good after days of doing nothing.

  “Sure,” Annie said. “We were just pottering.”

  “Actually, I’d like to get everyone around the table. I think it’d be a good idea to discuss what happened earlier.”

  “Good idea, Clive,” Annie said, wiping her hands on her jeans. “Come on, Si.”

  Si looked at Clive as she passed him. She couldn’t read his expression, though he seemed to have calmed down since earlier, which she took as a good sign.

  Maybe he’s going to tell them all we’re leaving tomorrow.

  Even though she dreaded the journey, the thought of having Clive with her took some of that dread away. He knew what he was doing. He was like Max in that sense. Good at coming up with solutions to problems that cropped up without warning. She shivered. She’d be glad of the help. All she had was a name.

  Harry Harman.

  She’d forced the name out of one of the men as he lay dying on the forecourt of that petrol station.

  It was something, but it was nowhere near enough. Where was he? She closed her eyes as she sat at down at the kitchen table, recalling how it had taken forever for the sound of the engine to die away the day they took Max. She’d just have to check every town near Wesleygate until she found him.

  That was a big ask. Maybe Clive had some contacts in the police who could help. Yes, she thought. The police are bound to know where he is.

  When they were all seated, Clive cleared his throat.

  “We all know about the fishing rods by now.”

  There was a murmur of agreement around the table. Si stared at her hands. Yes, it was annoying that someone had broken their fishing rods, but come on, they were only fishing rods. They could probably be fixed.

  “Look,” Dan said with a grave expression on his face. “I know we’ve all had a fright. But let’s look at this as a good thing. At least now you all see that they’re capable of doing things like this. First they let the sheep out. Now the rods. What if—”

  Clive cleared his throat. “Let’s not get carried away worrying about what might happen, eh? Now. We left the house earlier without even considering the possibility that someone might come when we were gone. That suggests they’ve been watching our movements.”

  Olivia’s shudder was visible even from the other end of the table where Si was sitting.

  “I don’t say that to frighten you,” Clive said quickly. “More to explain what I’m about to say.” He tapped his palms on the table. “We’ve already discussed a rota for jobs around the farm. I suggest we put that on the back burner for a while and prioritise a continuous watch.”

  Dan nodded enthusiastically. “Yes. I started, but it was harder when I was alone.”

  “Wait,” Annie said. “A watch? What good is that going to do? We’ll exhaust ourselves and neglect the farm.”

  “We need to know what we’re up against.”

  “I say we go over there. We’ve got to speak to them. There’s no sense in just watching them. Let’s see what we’re up against first. We might decide…” she trailed off.

  Si was heartened by this. This could work. If they went over there and got rid of the neighbours, they could get it all tied up quickly and then focus on going to find Max. Even better, with the cause of Dan’s stress gone, Annie might agree to help. Yes, she thought. Yes. This could work.

  One look at Clive’s face dashed all her hopes. “Annie, I hope you’re not suggesting what I think you’re suggesting.”

  Annie shrugged. “We’ve got to do something. I’m not going to sit around worrying about what they’re doing and wasting all my energy on watching them. I say we deal with them quickly and get on with our lives.”

  “Well then let’s go speak to them. We’ll organise a watch, but we’ll also go speak to them face-to-face and see if we can iron this out.”

  Annie nodded. “Good. I’m happy with that, as long as we’re all agreed that we’ve got to sort this out within the next couple of weeks. At the very latest.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Weeks?” Si hissed before she could stop herself. “What about Max?” She looked desperately at Clive. “You’re still planning on coming with me tomorrow, aren’t you? This doesn’t change anything. It’s only a couple of fishing rods. We can get new ones on the way back.”

  She knew what he was going to say before he even opened his mouth.

  “I’m afraid it changes things quite a lot. I’m sorry, Si. The fact that they’re willing to come over here means this is a lot more serious than I’d thought. I can’t leave Livvy at a time like this, no matter how much I’d like to help you.”

  “They’re fishing rods! We can tape them together!”

  “That’s not the point.”

  Si shook her head. None of them would meet her eyes. They started talking again and she zoned out, feeling foolish for trusting anyone besides herself. She should be out there, on the way south. Who knew how long it was going to take to find him? And who knew how long it was going to take for this lot to sort out the mess with the neighbours?

  She cared, she did, it just seemed far less urgent than finding Max.

  Enough.

  You’re just afraid.

  She was. This Harry person didn’t sound like a nice guy at all. Every time she closed her eyes she saw that man’s face, the one with the bullet wound in his neck. His eyes. They weren’t normal.

  She shuddered at the memory now, even though she knew it was silly. She had no reason to fear him. He was dead. Harry would have no idea she was on her way to find Max. She’d use that to her advantage.

  “Right,” Annie was saying. “I’ll make us all something to eat. We’ll need our strength.”

  Yes, Si thought. She’d eat as much as she possibly could before gathering the things she needed.

  She’d take her time and do it right. But she knew one thing: she was leaving the second she got a chance.

  Clive

  Clive clapped his hands together. They’d paused briefly to eat the meal of rice and lentils Annie had prepared. Then they’d launched straight back into their planning. They’d been talking for hours. While it was a good sign that they were all eager to solve this problem, talking would only get them so far.

  “Right,” he said carefully, not wanting to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm. “I think we’ve talked about this enough. I propose that Annie and I go to their house and speak to them while Dan watches from the hill. Let’s see if our arrival triggers any activity on their side.”

  They all nodded. Si was still missing. She’d gotten up to go t
o the loo at some point, though he couldn’t remember how long ago that was. Just as he was about to go and look for her, she walked through the door looking as glum as he’d ever seen her.

  “What’s happening?” she asked.

  “We’re going to speak to the neighbours. Look, I’m sorry. As soon as this is all sorted out, we’ll go find Max.”

  He meant it too.

  “Yeah,” she said evenly. “I know that.”

  “It might be a few weeks. It depends on how things go today. Also on how much we can learn about them. Perhaps you can stay on the hill with Dan and keep watch.”

  “Actually I was going to try and sleep for a bit if that’s okay? I’ve got this headache that won’t go away.”

  “So do I,” Dan snapped. “It comes with the territory.”

  “Leave it, Dan. You should go get some rest, Si. Take some paracetamol. Clive, are we taking weapons?”

  He thought about this for a moment. He genuinely did want to come to an agreement with these people, but the thought of going in unarmed in these circumstances filled him with horror. Anything could happen. “Yes, I think we’d better. Handguns for the two of us and Dan should take a shotgun. Make sure you wear something that conceals it, Annie. Like I said, peace is what we’re aiming for. Also, we don’t want a fight on their turf.”

  “I get it.”

  “Si, I’m going to need you to keep watch here.”

  She frowned. “But my head is killing me.”

  “Don’t worry. I don’t expect anything’s going to happen. It’s just a precaution really. That way, Dan can keep all his attention on the neighbour’s house. You’ll watch the house and keep an eye on Dan too.”

  She nodded slowly. “Okay.”

  “Right. Let’s go.”