I shone the torch across the cluttered shelves that lined the walls, moving around the garage with a sinking feeling as no battery immediately made itself obvious.
Then, just as I was about to give up, I found a large, plain cardboard box and opened it to see a brand new looking battery, plastic covers still over the terminals.
Pulling them off, I took the battery in shaking hands and slotted it into the compartment under the bonnet, then attached the leads. Dropping the bonnet, I headed back round to the driver’s door, careful not to drop on the inside of the car, and turned the key.
The engine coughed and spluttered but didn’t turn over. Cursing, I tried it again but got the same thing. Worried that I might drain the battery without ever starting the car, I decided that Emily’s deft touch was needed.
Putting the gloves and bag back on without getting my skin wet was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but after several minutes of swearing and tugging I finally got myself ready and headed back out into the garden. I made a beeline for the patio doors as rain hissed and pattered off the bag, frighteningly close as I realised that the only thing between me and a potentially lethal dose of radiation was a washing bag.
I heard the door slide back as I came close, stumbling over the step and nearly falling into the lounge, the door closing behind me the second I was through.
“Well?” Emily asked as her gloved hands pulled the bag from my head.
I smiled. “Ever wanted to drive a Morris Minor?”
“You’re shitting me”.
“Nope. Looks like he completely rebuilt it. Only problem is that I couldn’t get it to turn over”.
“Did you use the choke?”
“What choke?”
“How old are you?”
“Thirty seven, why?”
She shook her head. “Never mind. So it’s working?”
“I guess. I had to put the battery in, it was on a shelf in the garage, but if you think you can get it started then we’ve got a way out of here”.
I began to peel off my outer layers but she stopped me.
“Hang on. If it’s working there’s no sense in getting changed then having to put it all back on again, we may as well go now”.
“But what about the rain?”
She shrugged. “Melody and I will have to get dressed up too, then we’ll all go out and get in the car”.
“But what if it doesn’t start?”
“What else do you suggest?”
I was about to recommend staying put until the rain stopped, but then my eyes dropped to the detector that Emily still wore, the black circle stopping the words before they came out.
“Fine, let’s get it done then”.
Emily called Melody back into the lounge and she came bouncing in, stopping short when I warned her not to touch me.
She and Emily helped to dress each other in what was left on the pile while I looked on, pleased that Melody was coming back out of her shell so quickly despite the seriousness of our situation.
It only took them a few minutes, and when they were done they stood in front of me in a bizarre mishmash of clothing and household goods that reminded me of a bad pantomime, but hopefully it would be enough to keep them safe and dry.
With our bag still in the Landrover, there was nothing else for us to take apart from what we had on us, with the exception of Melody’s diary which she insisted on slipping into an inside pocket.
“Right, are we ready?” I said, and got nods from both of them.
Lowering the bag back over my head, I pulled the door open and stepped back out into the rain, hurrying to the door and pulling it open so that they could slip inside.
I pulled it closed once they were through, then we all stripped off our contaminated clothing and threw it in the far corner.
Once free of her outer clothing, Emily made a soft noise in her throat and began running her hands over the car as one might a lover.
“You like the car then?” I said, slightly bemused.
“Oh, this isn’t just a car”, she breathed with a look of reverence. “This is a 1968 Morris Traveller. We had one of these when I was a kid, we used to pack it full of stuff and take trips to the seaside”.
She turned and looked at me with a beatific smile on her face.
“Some of my happiest memories are being in a car like this. Your father in law had good taste”.
“Shame it wasn’t genetic”, I muttered, but she had already turned away, sitting in the driver’s seat and pulling out a small knob in the centre while she gently pressed the accelerator.
She turned the key and the engine started immediately, the clanking whirr of its old but rebuilt engine filling the small space as it came to life.
“It sounds perfect!” She called over the noise, “Open the door and let’s get out of here”.
Melody climbed into the back while I tugged at the large garage door, the sliders squealing loud enough to wake the dead as it finally slid up into the roof.
Rain still pelted down outside, deadly puddles forming in the gutters, and I prayed that the car was well-built enough that it wouldn’t leak.
Climbing into the back with Melody and wrapping my arms around her, I watched through the windows as we pulled away, leaving the bungalow and its dark memories behind.
Chapter 50
We jolted and swayed in the back seat, Melody tucked under my arm and sleeping despite the noise and movement. I watched her face as she slept, having to stop myself from waking her by covering it with kisses.
Her eyes kept scrunching up, her hands balling into fists as she muttered incomprehensible words, and again I worried that what she’d been through might take years to heal. Added to that, I realised, would be more months or possibly years of hardship while we waited for the sun to stop hurting our world, and grief, worry and joy mingled until they were almost one emotion, taking me to the crest of the wave one second only to drop me into the trough a moment later.
I rested my cheek against the top of her head and tried to stop thinking, just taking pleasure in the feel of having my little girl back in my arms. It was an intoxicating feeling, and with it came the towering need to protect her from everything this new world might throw at her, while at the same time knowing that she would have to become tough to survive.
I raised my eyes to the back of Emily’s head, realising that here was the perfect role-model for Melody. Tough but honest, caring yet uncompromising, she was exactly what someone needed to be to survive, and I knew that I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for her.
As if she could feel me watching her, Emily glanced at me in the mirror.
“We’ve got a full tank of petrol, do you want to try and head straight back home?”
I shook my head gently, scared of waking Melody.
“No, we need to go back to the farm first, warn them that it’s not safe up here”.
She nodded and turned her attention back to the road, flashing me a quick smile as if I’d made the right decision. That smile gave me a warm glow inside, not dissimilar to the way I felt with Melody in my arms, and that made me realise something.
I wasn’t quite sure when, exactly, I’d fallen in love with Emily, but sometime in the last week I had. Not the head over heels, crazy intensity that I’d felt when Angie and I had met, but we’d been little more than kids then, both too wrapped up in our own little bubble to see that we were a disaster waiting to happen.
No, this was the long, slow burn of loving someone that I knew was too good for me, a person I’d come to rely on so completely that I couldn’t imagine waking up and her not being there.
Of course knowing how I felt and acting on it were two very different things. What woman wouldn’t run a mile if you told her you loved her after little more than a week in each other’s company? Even in my heyday I’d been bad with things like that anyway, and just the thought of trying to tell her how I felt made my stomach turn inside out.
Melody stirred next to m
e and I pulled away to see her eyes crack open, flaring wide in a moment of panic before she realised where she was.
“Hey, it’s ok”, I said, brushing the top of her head with my hand. “I’m right here”.
She yawned and then pulled a face. “I need to clean my teeth”.
I nodded. “We all do. When we get home we’ll make sure we all get properly clean. You smell”. I poked her in the ribs and she giggled, then her face grew serious.
“Dad, what if those men find us again?”
“They won’t”.
“But what if they do?”
I sighed, not knowing what to say to make her feel better. I finally settled on the truth.
“I’m never going to let anyone hurt you ever again”, I said seriously, “and if we see those men then Emily has a gun and she’ll shoot them. She’s a soldier, you know”.
Her eyes grew wide. “Really?”
I nodded. “Really. And she’s a really good shot”.
Melody leaned forwards. “Are you?”
Emily glanced back in the mirror and smiled.
“I am. Better than your dad, anyway. Perhaps, if your dad thinks it’s ok, me and my dad can teach you how to shoot when we get back to the farm. How does that sound?”
Melody turned to me hopefully.
“Can I dad? Please?”
I shrugged. “I don’t see why not, if you really want to”.
She nodded. “I do, because if I can shoot then I can stop anyone from hurting me if you’re not there”.
“But I’ll always be there”.
She turned away, looking down at her hands.
“I thought mum would be too, but she went away”. She glanced up at me out of the corner of her eye. “You don’t know what’s going to happen, do you?”
I opened my mouth to reassure her, then realised I was falling into old habits, so instead I took one of her hands and kissed it, regardless of the filth that caked her skin.
“All the time I’m alive, I will keep you safe. If I ever have to go away for any reason, then you’ll be with Emily, or Ralph or Harriet. You’re right, I can’t promise that I’ll always be there, but all the time I am I won’t let anything happen to you. Do you believe me?”
She nodded and took her hand back, hiding it in her lap as if embarrassed.
“I’m hungry”.
“So am I, but we’re going to a place that has food, and nice people. It’s run by a woman who was a chief inspector in the police, her name’s Lindsay and she’s really nice”.
“Will we be there soon?”
I glanced at the empty space on my wrist, my watch most likely still sitting next to my bed in Hove, if the house was still standing.
“Uh, not too long”. I leaned forward and saw that we were going about fifty miles an hour. The speedo didn’t go much higher and from the shaking and rattling, neither would the car.
“Maybe an hour or two. Why don’t you try and get some more sleep?”
She nodded and curled up, head on my chest and feet tucked under her legs. In a few moments she was breathing deeply, eyes closed as she drifted off into dreams that I prayed were pleasant ones.
Chapter 51
I came to with a start as the car pulled up, jerking awake and almost knocking Melody into the footwell.
Emily wound her window down and leaned out to wave at someone. I blinked a few times and realised that we were outside the gate to the farm near Stafford.
The man nearby was unfamiliar, but the woman with him was the same one who’d let us through earlier. It was hard to believe it was the same day, and that only hours before we’d been here eating breakfast.
After a brief check and a smile for Melody, the woman opened the gate and let us through. We bumped down the track and pulled into the yard, having to squeeze past an army Landrover parked there.
I thought that odd and glanced down at the registration. My blood went cold as I recognised it.
“Emily”, I said, pointing, “recognise the vehicle?”
She nodded, reaching for the pistol and pulling it into her lap, then put the car in reverse and was about to pull away when Lindsay came out and waved to us.
Emily glanced at me.
“What do we do?”
“Let’s see what she has to say. Maybe they found it abandoned”.
Stopping the engine, Emily wound down the window again as Lindsay walked over, pushing through the crowd that was beginning to form.
“You’re alive!” She said with obvious relief. “Thank god”.
“Why wouldn’t we be?” Emily asked, one hand still on the pistol that was now tucked between the door and the seat, out of sight.
Lindsay pointed at the Landrover. “One of our patrols came across two men driving your car, and they said they’d found it next to two bodies so they took it. They got brought here for some food so we could find out what happened but they kept changing their stories so we locked them up in the feed shed”.
“You’ve got them?” I asked, glancing at Melody to see if she was following the conversation. I could see by her expression that she was.
Lindsay nodded. “We have. The latest story is that you attacked them for no reason and they managed to get away by stealing the car and driving off, then they came looking for help. What happened?”
I put a hand on Melody’s shoulder.
“Lindsay, this is my daughter Melody. Those two arseholes broke into her grandparents’ house, killed her grandma and then kidnapped Melody. When we tried to get her back they put a knife to her throat, and we gave them the vehicle in exchange for Melody”.
Lindsay’s face, already drawn, darkened as her brows drew together.
“They did what?” She spat through gritted teeth, and I suddenly remembered that she was, or had been, a police officer.
I nodded. “When we got there, they were…” I stopped, suddenly very aware that I’d been avoiding asking Melody certain questions. Some my mind shied away from, unable to find a way to ask, but I didn’t even know what they’d been making her do when they took her away from the house.
I turned to Melody. “What were they doing?” I asked, “of course you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to”. I gabbled the last bit, suddenly, horribly out of my depth. Part of my brain was screaming the question, did those bastards touch you? but the rest of it refused to even think about it.
Melody looked everywhere but at Lindsay.
“Um, they, er, they were stealing things, and they made me knock on doors and say I was lost. I didn’t want to do it, they made me!”
Lindsay shook her head. “It’s not your fault, dear, but I think you and I should have a little talk, maybe without your dad. Perhaps your friend Emily might come along?”
We all looked at each other uncomfortably. Emily and Melody hardly knew each other, but I knew that Melody would never speak in front of me if something darker had happened.
“Would you mind?” I asked Emily.
She frowned but nodded. “Sure, if Melody is ok with that?”
Melody shrugged, eyes still downcast, and fresh worry bloomed in my chest.
I opened the door and got out of the car, then helped Melody out as Emily came to stand next to us.
Lindsay came over and put a hand on my shoulder.
“Sorry to do this to you Malcolm, but we need to decide what to do with these men quickly, before word gets out and they get lynched. Before we make that decision, we need the full facts”.
“Yeah, sure, just be gentle, ok? She’s been through a lot”.
She squeezed my shoulder and held out a hand to Melody, who took it with a glance back at me before the three of them headed off into the farm building.
Left to my own devices and suddenly unsure what to do, I headed to the kitchen and found the evening meal being prepared.
One of the chefs recognised me and waved a spatula in my direction.
“You came back then? Find your little girl?”
; I nodded.
“Good. No food yet, but I can make you a cuppa if you like?”
“That would be wonderful”, I said, forcing a smile. What I really felt like was going to find the men in the feed shed and tearing them limb from limb, but I’d let those shackles slip once and I vowed never to do it again. I could still remember the feel of another man’s blood on my face as my knife punctured his lung again and again, and I shuddered at the thought. No matter how tough I had to be to survive, the man I’d become that day scared me.
I sat with both hands wrapped around my mug, thinking these and other dark thoughts while I waited for Melody and Emily to return.
It seemed to take forever, but my tea was still warm when they came back through the door hand in hand, Emily with a relieved smile on her face.
She gave me a thumbs up with her free hand, and some of the ice around my heart melted. Melody came over and sat on my lap, subdued but not upset, and I looked over her head at Emily as she found herself a chair and sat.
“How did it go?”
Emily looked at Melody. “Sweetie, do you want to go and play with the other kids outside? I bet they can show you the animals”.
Melody shrugged and looked up at me.
“Do you want me to, dad?”
I stroked her hair. “Only if you want to, love. We’ll be right in here, just make sure you stay in the yard, ok?”
She nodded and slipped off my lap, walking to the door slowly. She stopped and turned by the door.
“Those men can’t hurt me, can they?”
I thought about that for a second. Lindsay didn’t seem like the type of person not to have them well under lock and key.
“You’ll be fine sweetheart, but I can go and check if you want?”
She considered this for a second, then shook her head.
“No, I believe you”.
She walked out into the yard and I looked at Emily, who had been served her own mug of tea.
“Well?”
She shrugged. “They were using her to get people to open their doors so they could rob them, but they didn’t touch her. One of them wanted to, but the other one wouldn’t let him, apparently”.
I released a breath I hadn’t realised I was holding.
“Thank god for that. Do you think she’ll be ok?”
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