“I promise.”
“I’m just waiting for him to be done…you know?” Sue pulled a tissue from her pocket and blew her nose. “That moment where he says: chop this arm off!”
Luke gave her a warm smile. “Sarah suggested that we go to the hospital in Braintree. We could be there within two hours and who knows, maybe we’ll find a doctor.”
Sue shook her head slowly. “Bob said that the hospital had been boarded up.”
Muffled moans came from the house.
“We have to do something,” Anna said. “We can’t just wait for the arm to fall off.”
Sue chuckled dryly. “No. We can’t. Let me get some sleep and then…” She inhaled deeply.” And then we’ll tie him to the bed if we have to.”
Anna turned to Sarah. “My watch starts at sunset; I’ll sit with Bob until then. Let me know if you need help with anything.” She walked past Sue and gave her a small nod. “Sleep well.”
Oreo picked up his bone and followed her. Anna paused to scratch him behind his ear. “Stay with Sarah.”
The sound of footsteps followed her, and she paused to turn her head.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you,” Luke said, his cheeks pink.
Oh no. Not now.
Anna nodded politely and continued towards the patio. Luke cleared his throat as if gathering up the courage to say more and she quickly rushed inside, heading towards the stairs.
“Anna?”
Her steps faltered.
“Graham said—”
At the mention of Graham’s name, Anna quickened her pace, taking two steps at a time as a swarm of butterflies exploded in her stomach. She sprinted up the last few steps, darting into the master bedroom and pretended not to have noticed Luke following her.
She couldn’t deal with that right now.
No matter what Graham had said to him.
Anna glanced at Bob’s pale face and quickly walked to the window where she tapped a knuckle against the wooden windowsill, her back turned to the bed. Her ears were burning, and she was sure that her face had gone bright red. “We said we’d look after you so Sue could get some sleep.”
Bob’s sunken eyes haunted her, and she gritted her teeth.
“We basically had to force her,” Luke said, entering the bedroom. Anna could hear the confusion lingering in his warm voice. It sent a jolt to her stomach, and she squeezed her eyes shut.
Bollocks!
She’d been single for too long, but now…now was not the time.
Rain was beginning to fall, gently pattering against the window.
What do I do?
She knew the man lying in the bed behind her looked like a ghost. Anna wasn’t sure she had the strength to face him without bursting into tears. He’d approached her and her sister with such kindness, had taken them in, and now he was suffering.
“Sue’s worried that I’ll lose my mind the moment she leaves the room,” Bob whispered. His voice cracked, and he had to clear his throat. He coughed, then immediately groaned in pain.
Anna pushed the emotions bubbling up inside her back down and braced herself before turning around to face Bob.
She’d rushed past him so fast, she hadn’t seen the extent of his pain. His exposed shoulder was an angry red and very swollen, the tendons in his throat bulging with every breath he took. Sweat was running down his forehead.
“Oh, Bob,” Anna said softly.
“Do I look that bad?” He grinned, but immediately his grin turned into a pained frown and he let out a whimper. “I’m glad there’s no mirror in here. I’d probably scare myself.”
Anna smiled, leaning against the windowsill. The pattering of the rain grew louder. Her heart skipped a beat, and she fought the tears threatening to spill from her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” Bob said.
Luke stood at the foot of the bed, his hands resting on the wooden frame. “I know you don’t want to hear it but—”
“You’re right, I don’t want to hear it. Don’t worry, though. Sue keeps telling me. So, it’s not like I haven’t heard it before.”
“Do you have a plan?” Anna asked.
“Wait for the arm to fall off?” Bob’s attempt at a joke sounded tired, his voice cracking. “Why don’t you two distract me?”
“I don’t…” Anna stammered, her heart pounding. Why had she come up here? She should have—
“Have you talked to her, Luke?” Bob’s grin didn’t reach his eyes. “Because if not…now’s the perfect time.”
It was reassuring for Anna to see that Luke’s face looked as red as hers felt. “I don’t think now’s a good moment, Bob.”
“Well, I disagree,” Bob replied.
Luke cleared his throat and blushed even harder. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you, and…” He frowned, clearly unhappy with his choice of words. “I’m not very good at this.”
Anna was about to reply when someone screamed outside. Sarah! Heart in her throat, Anna jumped up and rushed to the door, thankful for the interruption. “You stay here. You promised Sue not to leave him on his own.”
“But—”
Anna didn’t stop to listen; she ran downstairs and out the door as fast as she could. “Sarah?”
It had stopped raining. Oreo barked somewhere in the distance, and Anna followed the sound. It came from behind Luke’s house.
The chickens.
Completely forgetting about her knee, she jumped over the gate. Her foot caught on one of the iron bars, and she fell, her chin hitting the wet cobble stones as she rolled over her shoulder.
Groaning, Anna sat up. Her hand found her right knee, and she exhaled slowly.
She wasn’t hurt. Not unless her pride counted. She wiped her chin, inspected her hand. The cut stung, but it was just a scrape.
Brushing the mud off her top, she scrambled to her feet. “Sarah?”
She rushed to the chicken coop. When Anna turned the corner, Sarah was kneeling in front of the coop, her hands gripping the metal fence.
Inside the enclosure, the cockerel was lying in a small pool of blood. Three rats were nibbling at the carcass. A coppery stench hung in the air.
“Did the rats…did they kill him?” Anna asked.
Sarah blinked and turned her head to look at Anna. She pressed her hand against her mouth, her shoulders shaking. “It looks as if…” Sarah hiccupped. “It looks as if his throat has been cut.”
“A rat must have nicked one of the arteries. Isn’t that what they do? Go for the jugular?” Anna looked around. Sue was running towards them, her hair sticking out in all directions. Her eyes crusted with sleep.
Rose rushed over from the other side. Her greying head bobbing up and down as she walked as fast as she could.
They must have heard Sarah’s scream.
Seeing Anna, Sue’s steps faltered. “Is Bob alone?”
“Luke is with him.”
Sue gave her a grateful nod and squeezed Anna’s hand, then paled upon taking in the scene.
Rose took one look at the chicken coop and covered her eyes with her hand, peeking through her fingers. “I’m going to fetch Luke. I’ll stay with Bob until this is sorted. I’d just be in the way.” She briefly touched Sue’s arm to get her attention. “If that’s all right with you?”
Sue nodded absentmindedly. “What’s happened here?”
“It looks like we might be having a rat problem,” Sarah muttered. “We need to get rid of them before they kill the other chickens. Or find our food.”
“Can we use poison? Or will that hurt the chickens?”
Anna scratched her temple, looking at Oreo. “I don’t think we should be using poison, but we can lay traps.”
Graham jogged around the corner and came to an abrupt halt. “I heard a scream. Where is Rose?”
“She’s fine, Graham. She’s gone to fetch Luke and sit with Bob,” Anna said.
Noticing the rats feasting on the dead cockerel, a grunt escaped Graham’s mouth
and he took a step back.
“Now what?” Sarah asked. “Rachel and I had been hoping for fertilised eggs.”
Sue gave Graham a worried look. “Do you need to sit down? You look a bit pale.”
“I’m fine. I didn’t know that rats killed chickens,” Graham said.
Anna looked at Sarah. “Can we get another cockerel from the farm?”
“Anna!”
At the sound of her name, Anna looked up to find Luke standing in front of her. He bent forward, trying to catch his breath. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You ran off and there was a scream.”
“I know.” Anna blinked. “That’s why I came here to investigate.”
“You ran off so fast. What if something…” His voice trailed off as he lifted his hand and traced Anna’s chin with his thumb. “You’re hurt.”
“It’s just a scrape.” She felt the blood rushing to her cheeks and took a step back. “I slipped. I’m okay.”
He bit his lip, his pale blue eyes darkening. “I was worried about you.”
Sarah cocked her head. “I can see that. Is there something you two want to tell each other?”
Before either Anna or Luke could say anything, Rachel’s voice came from behind them. “I’m sorry to interrupt this—”She gestured towards Anna and Luke—“whatever this is, but there’s someone outside, carrying one of Bob’s flyers. They’re very polite. The mother looks a bit dishevelled, but the son seems like a bright and helpful boy. Said his name was Tom.”
Anna swallowed. Her stomach tightened, and it had nothing to do with Luke.
No. It couldn’t be her. That would be too much of a coincidence.
She cleared her throat. “What’s the mother’s name?”
“Christine,” Rachel said, raising an eyebrow. “Why do you ask?”
Anna shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Had Chris tracked her down? Come to take her revenge?
Don’t be silly, she told herself. It would be nothing but a coincidence if those people were indeed Chris and Tom. Chris couldn’t have known Anna and Sarah were here.
Even if she had remembered Bob’s name.
Sarah placed her hand on Anna’s arm. “Let’s go talk to them.”
Graham grunted. “We don’t have enough room for—”
“I know you don’t agree with Bob’s idea to take in more people.” Sue gave Graham a stern look. “But I won’t turn anyone away who is in need of help.” She held out her hand, and Graham gave her the gun.
Sue holstered it at her hip, then strode towards the gate.
Anna’s heart was pounding in her ears, and she blinked. She wanted to say something, stop Sue. She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
“Are you coming?” Sarah asked.
A cold feeling spread in Anna’s stomach, and she reached for Sarah’s elbow, pulled her back. “What if it’s Chris?”
Sarah shrugged. “It probably is, but we won’t know until we go outside and check. Didn’t you say she was a nurse?”
Anna nodded.
“She can help Bob.”
“Chris is dangerous,” Anna said softly.
“Bob needs help. Now. Desperately. You know that, right?”
Anna bit her lip.
“We can always ask Chris to move on afterwards.”
“We can’t just ask the woman to help Bob, then throw her out as soon as he’s better.”
“Why not?” Sarah raised an eyebrow.
“I—"
Don’t think. Act. If the woman had found her, Anna needed to make sure that Chris would leave as soon as—
Chris was a nurse.
“Fine.” Anna squeezed her eyes shut and groaned.
Chris was a nurse.
And Bob needed help.
8
Chris couldn’t fight the apprehension creeping up on her as she watched the woman—Rachel, she reminded herself—disappear behind a hedge. Twice Chris had knocked on someone’s door, and twice it had gone wrong.
“She seemed nice,” Tom said, folding the flyer and sliding it into his back pocket.
Chris forced a nod.
“Mum? Talk to me?”
As she’d floated in and out of nightmares over the summer, Chris wondered if the voices would ever leave her alone again, and now…now her mind was eerily silent.
She wrapped her arms around herself, running her hands over her exposed skin to comfort herself. “Don’t…” She didn’t know what to say. Don’t tell them I’m dangerous? Chris exhaled slowly.
He awkwardly patted her shoulder. “It’ll be okay. We’re a team. We’ll be fine.”
Chris nodded. She almost believed him. She remembered feeling overwhelmed when they’d first arrived on the farm, as though everything had been out of her control, and she’d been left at the mercy of others.
It had terrified her.
Chris turned around, taking in her surroundings. It was a cul-de-sac with six houses. Someone had built a sturdy barbed wire fence around all three properties on one side of the road. The other side—judging by the state of their front gardens—had been abandoned. Ivy was creeping up the doors and walls. Weeds were coming through the cracks in the driveways. A Range Rover was parked in front of one of the abandoned houses, its wheels and side mirrors coated in cobwebs.
“There’s plenty of room for us,” Chris noted, daring to hope.
“That’s good, isn’t it?”
She shrugged. Filled with tension, she tried calming her nerves by drawing in a few deep breaths.
Through the hedges she glimpsed a white cottage. A wooden platform had been nailed halfway up an old oak tree, looking like a treehouse that had never been completed. Further back, there was an open fire that had burned down almost to embers. Wisps of smoke curled above it.
Chris approached the hedge and peered through the gaps, noticing a wooden stool on the platform.
Pointing at the tree she said, “That’s risky.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’re exposed up there. Anyone with a rifle could—” Chris mimicked shooting a gun with her hands. At the far end of the road stood a large house. Nestled between that and the cottage was a small bungalow. Chris was craning her neck to inspect it when she heard hushed voices coming closer.
The iron gate creaked open. Chris straightened her back and smoothed down her shirt.
“Hello Chris.”
The soft voice was familiar, and Chris froze, her breath hitching in her throat. She felt her son stiffen, then a dog jumped up to greet him, giving his hand a lick.
“Oreo!” Tom exclaimed, dropping to his knees. Oreo gave an excited bark in reply, his tail wagging.
“Anna?”
Chris looked up and met Anna’s cold stare. Memories washed over her.
Anna on the night of the EMP, standing in front of Tesco’s back entrance, gripping a suitcase: “I’m trying to get supplies before everything is gone. Please?”
“Don’t ever hesitate, Chris. Act.”
Anna after a few glasses of whisky: “And when this is all over, we’ll have to find chickens, a cow, a goat…we could learn how to hunt.”
Anna watching her every move. Anna, eyes blazing with anger: “What have you done to my sister? I don’t know what to do, Chris. I don’t trust you.”
Anna trying to lace homemade oatmeal bars with rat poison. And finally, Anna tied to a chair: “I’m terrified of you.”
It was difficult to hold the woman’s stare, but Chris remained unblinking. Stiff. Like a deer in headlights. Wanting to run but incapable of doing so.
“Hello again Anna,” Tom said softly. “We…didn’t know you would be here. We found the fly—”
Anna interrupted him with a wave of her hand. “Chris? You can’t possibly think that after—”
A woman placed her hand on Anna’s shoulder, shaking her head. Her face was familiar, Chris was almost certain she’d seen her before.<
br />
She blinked. Then it dawned on her.
Sarah. Anna’s sister.
More memories: a soft knock. “Anna? It’s Sarah. Open up!”
“Anna is not here.”
“Where is she?”
She had to keep her voice from trembling. She had to sound believable. There wasn’t enough food for four people. She had to protect Tom. “Anna left to find her sister in Colchester.”
“I’m her sister.”
Oreo’s bark had given away Chris’ lie, and—
Chris averted her eyes, stared at her feet. She’d told Sarah to leave. Threatened her. Pushed her down the stairs. “Let’s go,” she said, reaching for Tom’s hand.
“Wait,” Sarah said. “You’re a nurse, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“May I know what’s going on?” a woman with thick-rimmed glasses asked, scowling at Anna and Sarah. Chris noticed the gun holstered at her hip and wrapped her hand around the spray bottle in her pocket.
Anna opened her mouth to reply, but Sarah gestured for her to wait. “We know Chris from Harlow. What a lovely surprise.” Forcing a smile, she turned to the woman. “She’s a nurse.”
Chris frowned before glancing at Tom. There was an eagerness in Anna’s eyes. A glimmer of despair on her face. And the way the woman with the glasses tilted her head, her eyes narrowed…
“Do you need my help?” Chris asked Anna. She took a step back, for the first time taking in the people in front of her. Rachel was leaning against the open gate. Two men were standing by the hedge, one had his arm protectively around a woman with dark curls. The other had his hand on the firearm tucked in his belt.
Anna blushed. “We…” She waved her hands around, appearing flustered.
“I’m Sue,” the woman with the glasses said. “And I do need help. My husband is hurt.”
Tom was on his knees, stroking Oreo’s chest. “My mum can help.”
Anna looked like she was about to protest but Sarah squeezed her arm to prevent her from doing so.
Chris swallowed. Anna would never allow them to stay. Another safe place was being snatched away from them. Was life really this unpredictably cruel?
She took a step towards Anna. “Look…I didn’t know you’d be here. Don’t worry, we won’t stay. Not if you don’t want us to, but I can help.”
Darkness Ahead of Us | Book 3 | Darkness Lifting Page 8