I jumped in the back, and by the time I had the door closed she was already off down the road, accelerator flat to the floor.
I kept low, expecting shots through the back windscreen at any moment, but none came and after a few moments I straightened.
“Are we being followed?” Emily called over the noise of the engine. I looked back over my shoulder, watching for any tell-tale lights but saw nothing.
“I think we’re ok”, I said, climbing awkwardly into the front between the seats. “Thank you”.
“For what?” She didn’t look over, too intent on keeping us on the road in the dark.
“For acting so quickly. Had it been down to me I’d probably still be standing there trying to work out what was happening”.
“You’re welcome. Good distraction by the way, that was one hell of a shot, whoever fired it”.
I nodded. “I was expecting them to blow the petrol station up”.
“What, and waste all the petrol in the tanks? Not likely”.
“So what now?”
“We head north again. Let’s see how far this heap of junk will get us, maybe find some diesel somewhere if we get too low”. She flicked the fuel gauge and I saw that it was showing about half a tank. I assumed that was good news, then I remembered how thirsty Landrovers tended to be.
“How long do you think it’ll take us to get to Manchester from here?” I asked, “can we do it in one run?”
She laughed. “We’re not on foot anymore Malc, Manchester’s only about three hours away by car”.
After days of walking, it seemed almost inconceivable that we could get halfway across the country so quickly, and I realised how much my worldview had changed in the last week.
The thought that I might have my little girl in my arms before dawn was enough to bring tears to my eyes, even though we still had to find our way back through territory that we now had to consider hostile.
I looked back over my shoulder once more, still expecting to see some sign of pursuit but nothing moved on the road except us. Perhaps, I mused, the Secretary was dead, and without him the soldiers were unsure what to do.
Emily glanced over at me and took a hand off the wheel long enough to give my arm a quick squeeze.
“You look shattered”, she said, “why don’t you try and get some sleep. I’ll wake you when it’s your turn to drive”.
I nodded and settled down in the uncomfortable seat, the after-effects of the adrenaline making me feel tired to the bone.
Despite my excitement at the thought of seeing Melody again so soon, the motion of the vehicle was soon enough to lull me into a deep sleep as the miles rolled past.
Chapter 44
It was still dark when Emily nudged me awake, although the first tendrils of pre-dawn light were mingling with the vibrant colours from the aurora, making them fade as we turned towards the sun.
She’d stopped the vehicle by the side of the motorway, her face pinched with tiredness.
“You want me to take over?” I said, stretching out a cramp in my calf.
“Please, I’m exhausted”. She left the engine running as we swapped seats, and I pulled away, almost stalling when I dumped the clutch.
I pulled back out onto the road, wondering where we were. There were a lot of abandoned vehicles dotted about, some just left where they had stopped, others where they had ploughed into other vehicles or the central reservation.
I looked over at Emily to see that she was already asleep, head tucked into one shoulder, so I kept my attention on the road and kept my speed to a steady fifty, figuring that would give me enough stopping should something unexpected loom out of the darkness.
It was almost twenty minutes before I saw a sign, telling me that we were approaching the junction of the M42. That meant we were within spitting distance of Birmingham, and I began to search the horizon for any sign of the fires that had destroyed so many of the big cities.
A few minutes later I saw the slip road and took it, curving around onto the 42 and towards the M6 toll road. Heading through the city would have been faster, but I had no idea how bad it was and I had no wish to drive into any trouble.
As the sky lightened, I saw a thick plume of smoke rising to the northeast, right above the city centre, and I knew I’d made the right choice. If anyone was left they’d be starving by now, and our vehicle would be too tempting a target for them to pass up.
We made good time on the M42, then onto the M6 toll past the now defunct electronic tagging system, the tall buildings of Birmingham’s city centre visible to our left.
I could see several different plumes of smoke now, and I couldn’t help but wonder what was still burning after so many days.
My thoughts, as they often did when I had time to myself, turned to Melody. I wondered if they were at her grandparents’ house, and if so how her mother had coped with the lack of amenities. She’d always been one for getting her hair and nails done, sometimes as often as three times a week, never daring to so much as open the door to the postman without hours of makeup being carefully applied.
Thinking of Angie made my heart sink. I had to face the very real possibility that she would be coming back with us, her sharp voice harping on at me from the back seat as if the apocalypse were somehow my fault.
And then, of course, we couldn’t just leave Angie’s parents behind, and what had been a simple grab and run mission in my head was suddenly laid out for what it really was; a nightmare in which I carted my ex-inlaws halfway back across the country to the small cottage just outside Redhill.
It was almost enough to make me stop the car, but it would be worth it, all of it, just to have Melody safe.
I kept going as the sun climbed into the sky, fluffy white clouds dotted here and there like cotton wool. It was another beautiful day, and had I not been so tired and worried I might have enjoyed it a little more. Instead, I made and discarded plans for routes that would get us back to Ralph and Harriet while avoiding the whole Oxford area, realising that we would most likely have to drive the long way around the M25.
I was so caught up in my musings that I almost didn’t see the roadblock until it was too late, assuming that it was just a pile of cars strewn across most of the road. It was only when a figure with a rifle stood on the roof of a truck and aimed his weapon at us that I realised what it was.
“Shit!” I slammed the brakes on, causing Emily to bang painfully into the dashboard.
“Ow! What the hell?”
I said nothing, but simply pointed at the two figures that approached us from the scrub at the side of the road. Neither of them were armed, but the one with the rifle pointed at the windscreen was more than enough for me to discard any thoughts of trying to drive away.
“You have got to be shitting me”, Emily muttered, easing back the slide of her stolen pistol and making sure a round was chambered. “What the hell do they want?”
The men approaching the car didn’t seem threatening, one of them even waving at us once he had our attention, but there’s something about having a gun pointed at you that makes you feel at a disadvantage, no matter how friendly someone seems.
Both men were dressed in police uniform, right down to black Kevlar vests and handcuffs sitting proud on their belts, but after the last week I knew we couldn’t take anything at face value.
The men were within a dozen feet of the vehicle when Emily rolled down her window.
“That’s close enough”, she called, “what do you want?”
One of them took a last step and shrugged.
“Just checking who you are”, he said with a smile, “we’ve not seen many working cars, and those few we have seen tend to be trouble”.
“Are you really police officers?” The question was blunt but fair, and the man nodded.
“That we are. We’re out of Stafford, a few miles up the road. We’ve managed to get a fair sized group of people together, so we’ve got men on all the major roads making sure we turn trouble away bef
ore it gets to us, if you get my drift”.
Emily nodded. “Yeah, I can understand that. Look, we’re trying to get to Manchester, my friend’s little girl is up there. Are we ok to go through?”
The man smiled again. “Well you two don’t seem like trouble. You’d be welcome to stop at the camp if you want a bite to eat to see you on your way? It’s about a mile down the road”.
My stomach rumbled at the thought of food and Emily thanked him as he waved to the man with the rifle, who promptly jumped down off the truck.
I waved as I pulled away, and Emily took the pistol from where she’d had the tip of the barrel pressed against the inside of the door.
“That was unexpected”, I said as we drove through a narrow gap in the barricade, having to steer around another car set just back from the main group of vehicles.
“You’re telling me. I automatically assumed it was an ambush, bloody good job I didn’t shoot him just to be on the safe side!”
“How close were you?”
“You don’t want to know”.
The camp was indeed only a mile or so down the road and visible from the Motorway. A shantytown had sprung up around several old farm buildings that were enough like Ralph’s cottage to make me suddenly homesick.
I pulled onto a slip road and then took another left, finding a large metal gate at the top of a dirt track with a man and a woman guarding it with shotguns.
I wound down the window as they approached, guns held loosely but ready should they need them.
“Morning”, I said with a smile, “the police let us through, said it would be ok to stop for some food”.
“Where you headed?” The woman asked, blowing on a stray lock of hair that fell across her face.
“Manchester”.
She nodded as if I’d passed some kind of test, then gestured to her companion who opened the gate and waved us through.
We bumped down the farm track and into the yard, slowing as a group of kids ran past shouting with pleasure as they chased a bright red football across the concrete.
The sound of the vehicle brought more than a few curious faces to windows and doors as I pulled up. A sea of tents had been set up just behind the main house, and more bright canvas could be seen inside a nearby barn, giving the place an almost festival air.
Half a dozen men and women came out of the house to greet us as we got out of the car, including a woman in police uniform with three pips on her shoulders and a huge man with an equally massive beard and a green wax jacket.
We introduced ourselves and were introduced in turn to the small group, but only the names of Lindsay, the Chief Inspector, and Max, the farmer whose land we were on, stuck.
“Where have you come from?” Lindsay asked as we were shown into the kitchen and sat at a table where several other people were already eating. The large room was crowded but there were still seats to spare as two men in grubby white aprons managed half a dozen pans on a stove almost identical to Harriet’s.
“I came from Brighton originally”, I said, “but we’ve been all over”.
Lindsay nodded. “We’ve had quite a few people through, going north and south, where are you headed?”
“Manchester, I’ve got a daughter up there”.
She nodded, but I caught the quick glance she threw at Max, who shrugged.
“May as well tell’em”, he said in a thick accent, “got a right to know”.
“Tell us what?” I said, suddenly worried.
Lindsay sighed and sat at the table, an old man scooting his chair over to give her room.
“Manchester was badly hit by the fires”, she said slowly, “and we’re worried about radiation as well”.
“Radiation?”
She nodded. “There was an explosion at Heysham power station. No one knows how bad it is but we have to assume the worst”.
My heart thudded in my chest as the news sank in.
“How far is that from Manchester?”
“Sixty or seventy miles, but without computers there’s no way of predicting the fallout pattern because we can’t see what the weather is doing. For all we know the radiation has gone west, but it’s equally possible that all the land between here and the power plant is already irradiated. I’m really sorry, but even if you do find your daughter alive and well, it still may be too late”.
Chapter 45
The smell of the room, sweat, frying meat, coffee, suddenly made me want to vomit as the walls closed in.
“A nuclear explosion?” I asked, the bottom dropping out my world.
Emily took my hand while Lindsay shook her head.
“No, not a nuclear explosion. A conventional explosion that affected nuclear material. Have you ever heard of a dirty bomb?”
I nodded, unable to speak for fear of bursting into tears.
“Well”, she continued gently, as if speaking to a frightened child, “it’s the same principle. It was only a small fire at first, but something caught and then most of the plant went up. The explosion would have pumped radioactive material into the atmosphere, and from then it’s a lottery as to where it goes. Your daughter might be fine”.
“But she might not”. Emily spoke for me, gripping my hand in hers as if I might run away.
Lindsay shrugged. “I’m really sorry, we just don’t know. It’s one of the reasons we decided to set up here. There’s a long series of valleys, a natural wind tunnel if you like, that brings north-westerlies straight into the town from the bay at Heysham. Even though we’re only a few miles south here, it’s about a hundred times safer”.
“You seem to know an awful lot about this”, Emily said.
“I was on the crisis planning team for any emergencies involving the plant. Everyone above the rank of inspector within a hundred miles has got a handy little ‘what to do’ card. I was one of the people who wrote it”.
One of the aproned men approached with two plates of food but Emily waved him away.
“We still have to go up there”, she said firmly, her tone brooking no argument. “We haven’t come this far just to give up now”.
Lindsay nodded as if she’d expected nothing less.
“Well I won’t try and stop you from going; in fact I have a few things that might help. The first of which is a plate of food. You both look half-starved and you’ll be no good to anyone if you drop from hunger”.
As if on cue, the man reappeared with the plates and put them in front of us, then returned with two mugs of tea.
Emily squeezed my hand hard and I looked up at her. The sympathy in her eyes almost made me cry.
“Malc”, she said quietly, leaning so close that our noses almost touched, “we will find Melody, ok? And I’m sure she’ll be fine. There’s been no strong winds and no rain for days, so there’s a very good chance that it’s only the area within a few miles of the power plant that’s been affected. Please, I know you’re worried, but I need you to keep it together if we’re going to find her”.
I nodded slowly and straightened, still feeling on the verge of tears but knowing she was right.
Removing my hand from hers, I picked up my fork and stabbed a mushroom, then placed it in my mouth and chewed as if it didn’t taste of dust and hopelessness.
I could see that Emily was unconvinced, but she turned to her own meal and began to eat as Lindsay excused herself and left the kitchen.
“It’s nice to find some people that don’t want to rob or enslave us”, Emily said around a mouthful of egg. “Makes a change”.
I nodded and continued to eat mechanically, trying valiantly to quieten my panicked thoughts. It was all I could do not to bolt out of the kitchen and jump in the Lnadrover, but some tiny, logical part of my brain knew that they were right and the time it took to eat a meal wouldn’t make any difference either way.
Emily lifted her mug and took a swig, then let out a contented sigh.
“Oh my god, I’d forgotten how much I love tea. Coffee is all well and good, but I’ve
missed this”.
I watched her as we ate, my mind unable to tear itself away from thoughts of radiation and the horrific problems it could cause. I’d spent several weeks investigating Fukushima in Japan and the still-unquantified damage that the explosion there had caused, and I knew that even a small dose of the kind of radiation that power plant accidents pumped out could be deadly.
I was saved from the effort of making conversation by the return of Lindsay. She sat across from us and placed two small boxes on the table, rectangular in shape and made from yellow plastic with a clip on the back and a small round hole on the front. The whole thing was about the size of my hand.
“PRD’s”, she said, “portable radiation detectors. That little hole on the front will turn from yellow to black if you hit serious radiation. There’s supposed to be an audible alarm as well, but there’s no test button so we don’t know if that bit is working or not. You’ll just have to keep an eye on each other, and if it does go black get the hell out of wherever you are, fast”.
I nodded my thanks, her kind gesture going a little way towards dispersing the fog that was blanketing my mind.
“Any other advice?” Emily asked, taking one of the detectors and clipping it to the front of her uniform.
“Yes, once you leave here, don’t drink any groundwater. We’re lucky in that the water here comes from the south, but about half a mile north you reach a dip in the land and everything you drink from then on will have the risk of being contaminated. We’ll give you as much bottled water as we can, but we don’t have much to spare”.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked bluntly.
“Why wouldn’t we?” Lindsay countered.
I shrugged. “Our experiences with other people recently haven’t exactly been friendly. Everyone we meet seems to have their own agenda, whether it be stealing everything we’ve got or trying to enslave us. It’s just odd, is all”.
Lindsay stared at me for a long time as if trying to decide whether or not to be offended.
“There aren’t so many people left”, she said finally, “that we can afford not to help, wouldn’t you agree?”
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