Vanished

by Eden Darry

  “This is it, Ellery and Loveday. The end and also the beginning.”

  Ellery thought she had a sweet voice, light and musical. “Who are you? What do you mean?” Ellery asked.

  “I’ve had many names but this time you can call me Dani. It’s the rebalancing, you see. Time for the world to make itself again.”

  “I don’t understand. What’s a rebalancing?” Loveday asked.

  Above them, clouds darkened and rain began to fall, soft at first, then hard. The wind came up.

  “We don’t have very much time, so you must listen. Find me. Find me before Rosemary Decker does, or there can’t be a rebalancing. The world will end and there will be no beginning. You must head north.”

  “Stop talking in bloody riddles!” Ellery shouted to be heard above the wind.

  “Ellery, Ellery, look.” Loveday held out her arm and pointed. Below, a great wave appeared, rushing towards the city.

  “No!” Ellery cried. “It’ll kill us all. We have to run.” She grabbed Loveday’s hand and began to pull her backward. To the girl she shouted, “Come with us. We have to go. Now.”

  The wave rose higher, almost as high as the hill they stood on. Ellery watched in horror as it came down like a giant vengeful hand and smashed through the city, obliterating everything in its path. Beside her Loveday screamed.

  * * *

  Ellery woke. She sat up and blinked slowly as the room came into focus. From the back of the sofa, Claude looked up at her, flexed his claws into the material, sighed deeply, and went back to sleep. Loveday lay stretched out on the opposite sofa, Rocky curled by her side and snoring softly, his plastered leg pointing straight out.

  The dream remained vivid, which was strange because on the rare occasions she dreamed, she had no clear memory of them when she woke up, just snatches of hazy images. She could still feel the bitter wind whip her face and hear the loud roar of the wave. She shivered. The logical part of her mind frantically searched for answers. For some way to explain what had happened and put it all into a neat little box. It wasn’t that simple, though. Something was going on in the town. The dream did mean something, and time was running out.

  Then there was the girl. Ellery had no way of knowing where she was or how to even begin to find her. Was she even real? Maybe this was all a dream and Ellery had lost her mind.

  She glanced across at Loveday who still lay sleeping with one arm thrown over her eyes. She was beautiful. Ellery sighed and lay back down. She pulled the blanket around her. She didn’t think she’d sleep again, but within minutes she was gone. This time, she didn’t dream.

  When she woke again, it was to the smell of fresh coffee. Loveday must have opened the curtains because sunlight came streaming through the window. It was a hard sun, bright and cold. A winter sun. At least it wasn’t raining. If they left today like they’d planned, it would be better to do it in sunshine. It might even be quite pleasant; they could kid themselves they were out for a hike.

  Ellery was about to go in search of the coffee when Loveday came back in the lounge, balancing two plates and two mugs in her arms. She smiled when she saw Ellery, and Ellery’s heart fluttered a little.

  “Morning, sleepyhead. Here.” She handed Ellery a plate and put the coffee down on the table.

  “This looks good.” It was beans with cheese melted over the top.

  Loveday shrugged. “It’s not cordon bleu, but it should fill a hole.”

  Ellery tucked in, ignoring the pleading eyes of Rocky who had padded in with Loveday. He seemed to have taken quite a shine to her, and Ellery was slightly put out by it, if she was honest. “How did you sleep?” She sat back on the sofa to block Rocky’s sight line to her.

  “Okay, I suppose.” Loveday put down her spoon and looked at Ellery. “Why do you ask?”

  “I had a dream last night.”

  Loveday nodded, as if she had suspected as much. “City being smashed to bits and a girl we have to save called Dani?”

  “You too?” Ellery put down her bowl, appetite gone.

  Loveday nodded at it. “You should eat that. There’ll be a lot of walking today.”

  Ellery picked the bowl back up, swirled the spoon through the beans and cheese, turning it gloopy. “Is it for real, do you think? Is something like that even possible? A shared dream and everyone vanished, gone who knows where, and a mission to save a girl we’ve never met and have no idea where she is.”

  Loveday shrugged. “I can’t even begin to try and make sense of it. I feel…I feel like it is real though. Do you know what I mean?”

  “What do you think it is? I mean, if it’s the thing that’s been watching us, do we want to do what it says?”

  “I don’t know. In the dream…it didn’t feel bad. Like the writing on the car bonnet did.”

  “It could be a trap,” Ellery said.

  Loveday nodded, tapping the spoon against the side of the bowl. “What’s the alternative? That dream, it didn’t feel like a dream. I know it sounds crazy, but I think we should head north. Find the girl. It feels…right somehow. Right in a way heading further south doesn’t. Does that make any sense at all?”

  “Yes. Yes, it does. So we head north.”

  “And find the girl. If Claude will follow.”

  “If Claude will follow. Any ideas where in the north we should head to? I mean, it’s a fairly big place.”

  “Nope. Maybe we’ll be filled in on tonight’s instalment of Fucked Up Dreams from the Apocalypse.”

  Ellery laughed. “Good game-show-host voice.”

  “Thanks. For now, I think we just head north. What’s the plan this morning?”

  Ellery finished off her beans and took a sip of coffee. It tasted good. “Romans first.”

  “The camping shop?”

  “Yes. Then the supermarket for some food to take with us. I’d like to get going soon.” Ellery gathered up the empty bowls and mugs.

  “Me too. That countdown in my head is getting louder.”

  Ellery nodded. “Me too. Can we try to get Claude to follow us? Like a test run?”

  Loveday nodded. Neither of them was holding out much hope.

  “There’s one other thing I’ve been thinking about,” Ellery said.

  “Go on.”

  “Where are all the pets?”

  “What do you mean?” Loveday asked.

  “I treat pretty much all the animals around here, and there are quite a few. When we went knocking on doors yesterday, we should have seen cats and dogs. There weren’t any in the houses we visited.”

  “Do you think they’ve vanished too?” Loveday asked.

  Ellery shrugged. “Why not? I mean, if the people have, why not their pets too?”

  “Claude and Rocky are still here,” Loveday said.

  “And us.”

  “Yes. And us.”

  “Don’t you find that strange?” Ellery asked.

  Loveday threw up her hands. “I mean, I find the whole thing strange. And I earn a living writing made-up stories.”

  Ellery had to laugh at that. It made her feel a little better.

  * * *

  Loveday smashed the window. Just like before, she was surprised when no alarm went off, though of course there was no electricity to power a system. Nor did the police come careening around the corner to arrest her. Like most people, Loveday didn’t steal as a general rule. And she most certainly didn’t break into shops. But all morning, that’s what they’d been doing, and she would have been lying if she said part of her didn’t get a thrill from it.

  She also got a kick out of taking whatever she wanted off the shelves. From Romans: a winter coat, a fleece jacket, walking boots, waterproof trousers, gloves, a hat, socks, a sleeping bag, a tent. The gear would have added up to hundreds of pounds in the real world, but she just walked out the smashed doorway with it all in her arms.

  At the supermarket they took mostly packet soups, dried instant pasta meals, and anything that wouldn’t weigh too much. Loveday sup
posed they would be able to pick up more supplies from other deserted towns, unless there was some kind of law-and-order in existence somewhere. Although she doubted it. They would have come by now.

  Their last stop was a bookshop. Ellery wanted a map. It was on the tip of Loveday’s tongue to tell her they could use the GPS on their phones. She didn’t feel as sad as she expected to when she realized she would probably never use a smartphone again.

  She watched Ellery browse the Maps/Ordinance Surveys section. Glancing around at all the books on shelves did make her sad. Would people even remember writers like Dickens and Hemingway? Stephen King? Or would these books sit here for generations to come, going mouldy and stale and unreadable? And it wouldn’t be just books. Hundreds of years of literature, plays, films, music, medicine, and science would disappear. All that knowledge, gone forever.

  Ellery looked as though she was finishing up, a stack of maps under her arm. Loveday hoped she knew how to read them because left to Loveday, they’d end up heading east or something. She wasn’t a good map reader.

  Rocky sniffed around the base of one table displaying some half-price paperback books, Reduced to clear! and cocked his leg. She noticed her own novel sitting there and almost let Rocky go about his business. She sighed. She couldn’t. “Rocky, no.” The dog looked at her guiltily, then shuffled off.

  She almost smiled as Ellery walked past the table and snagged her reduced-to-clear book. “Haven’t read this one.” She winked and carried on walking. Loveday was tempted to crack a joke, something like, You owe me two ninety-nine, then decided it was a sweet gesture and would be ruined by a joke. Instead, she let the way it made her feel settle inside her. The feeling was warm and made her smile. She should be terrified but she wasn’t. She was scared of the thing watching them, and she was scared about what would happen to them, but Ellery somehow managed to make everything seem better.

  Part of her felt like she was in one of her own novels. None of this was quite real. She supposed that was normal. How could anyone process all of this? But she wrote romance, so why did she feel like one of the characters in her books? Before she could dwell on this more, she saw Ellery had left the shop and begun walking up the road. Loveday felt a rush of fear at being left alone. She hurried to catch up.

  As they started to head back up to Ellery’s place, Loveday saw her stop, freeze. “What’s the matter?” Loveday looked around, trying to see if the thing from yesterday was about.

  “I’ve had an idea. Wait here.” Ellery handed her the stack of leaflets and dropped her other pilfered items at Loveday’s feet.

  Loveday was curious. But when she saw which shop Ellery went into, she was shocked. I did not see this coming.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Terry almost laughed out loud when the spiky head of a teenager poked around the corner. On the heels of that came sharp relief. Those nasty cold eyes were still on him, but part of Terry was waiting for some creature or other to stick its head round, not Dani the landlord’s daughter.

  “All right, love?” Terry asked, surprised at the slur in his voice. He didn’t feel close to drunk.

  “Mr. Pratt?” Dani stepped around the corner, big eyes darting about. “What are you doing in here?”

  “Well, Dani, princess, it seems like everyone’s disappeared, including my boy Terry. I thought I’d come down here and see if I could drink myself to death.” To his horror, Terry felt his eyes well up, his throat thicken and tighten. He heard his father’s voice: Don’t snivel, you little queer. It didn’t matter though; Terry couldn’t stop himself. He started bawling like a fucking baby.

  He was dimly aware of the girl standing there, probably dumbfounded. Probably wasn’t used to seeing a man like Terry weeping. Then he sensed movement. Dani had walked around to his side. “It’s okay, Mr. Pratt. My mum and dad are gone as well.”

  Terry felt Dani’s arm come around his shoulders and squeeze him gently. That sort of brought him to his senses again. He used his sleeve to wipe his eyes and the snot that had dribbled onto his lips and reached for the bottle, shaking the girl off. She stumbled backward.

  “You want one?” He offered the bottle to Dani, taking in her smooth young face. He let his eyes slide down. In the last few years she’d started to fill out. Her hips had rounded and she’d grown a decent pair of tits.

  “I’m sixteen, Mr. Pratt.”

  Terry shrugged. “So? Everyone’s gone, love. If ever there was a time for a drink, it’s now. Don’t you think?”

  Dani licked her lips, her eyes darting to the bottle. She nodded. “Okay. But not whiskey. I had it once and it made me sick.”

  “Fine. Get what you want. I don’t suppose your old man will mind.”

  Dani went back around behind the bar. Terry thought she’d be prettier without that horrible short hair, and her ears looked like pin cushions. She poured herself a pint. Terry burst out laughing.

  “What are you, a dyke?” He’d had his suspicions about the girl for a while. Would watch her walk around behind the bar, restocking the crisps and bottles. Something in the way she moved and took up space like a bloke. Confident. She didn’t speak much and looked bored when the other blokes chatted her up.

  Terry saw her flinch. Her eyes slid away from him, and she looked hurt. Disappointed. And like maybe she’d heard it before.

  “No,” was all she said.

  Terry sighed. It wasn’t much fun kicking a dog that was already broken. “Pour me another lager while you’re back there.” He pushed his empty pint glass across.

  Part II: The Journey

  Chapter Seventeen

  Loveday laughed again. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to the sight of Ellery pushing Rocky and Claude in a double pram.

  Ellery scowled at her. “If you keep laughing at me, I’ll make you push them.”

  “Oh no. Not when you’re doing such a good job. You look like a proud mummy.” Loveday giggled. Ellery looked like she was trying not to smile, but failing.

  When Ellery had first disappeared into the Little Tots shop, Loveday was shocked. The idea of Ellery being pregnant hadn’t crossed her mind. Why would it?

  She hadn’t taken long in there, and when she came back out pushing the navy blue pram, Loveday’s first thought was twins, OMG. Ellery practically fell apart with laughter when Loveday asked her if she was pregnant.

  “Yep, and all I needed was this pram. Come off it, Loveday.” She shook her head and chuckled. “It’s for the pets. If I was pregnant, this really would be a biblical situation.”

  It was a great idea. With Rocky’s dodgy leg and Claude’s possible reluctance to follow them—especially after walking for long periods of time—the pram was genius.

  Loveday looked over at Rocky who napped in one carry cot, then at Claude who lay in the other, watching the world go by, sun shield pushed down so it wouldn’t obstruct his view. She shook her head in admiration at Ellery’s resourcefulness.

  Her anxiety had receded as well, since they had been on the road and away from those watching eyes. She thought Ellery felt the same. She’d seemed less stressed since they’d left town. Even the pets looked happy to be on the road—to her great relief, Claude happily jumped into the pram, then looked at them as if to say, Come on, let’s go.

  Loveday was glad Ellery had insisted they only take essentials with them. Her pack was already heavy and her shoulder muscles ached. She could tell the small of her back would be tight and painful by tonight.

  Ellery, on the other hand, looked as fresh as when they’d first set off. Loveday knew for a fact she’d loaded more stuff into her own pack, a fact Loveday felt equal parts guilt and gratefulness for. She supposed it was another life lesson for her—stay in shape because you never know when the apocalypse is coming. She imagined it as a tagline for one of those fancy, shiny gyms which had popped up all over London and which she’d successfully avoided joining. She didn’t feel guilty about it either—there was more to life than working out.

 
“What are you grinning at? Can’t still be me pushing the pets,” Ellery asked good-naturedly.

  “No. Although it is still funny. I was just thinking that my pack is heavy, and I wish I’d done a bit more exercise to prepare for the end of the world.”

  Ellery looked confused but smiled anyway. She shook her head. “You find the damnedest things funny, Loveday.”

  “I know. It’s important to laugh in the face of disaster, though.”

  “I guess. Listen, once we hit the motorway, we’ll have a break and eat some lunch.”

  “Sounds lovely. You know, my grandparents used to have picnics by the side of the motorway when they were first married. I don’t suppose it was as busy back then—otherwise that would be awful.”

  * * *

  Ellery imagined the motorway looked very similar to how it had back in Loveday’s grandparents’ day. If you ignored the abandoned cars dotted about, that was. Some seemed to have just stopped in their lanes, while others had crashed either into each other or the guard rail running through the centre.

  Ellery checked inside a few of the cars. Empty. Not even a drop of blood in the ones that crashed. The people must have disappeared before impact, she guessed. And where did they disappear to? Were they driving along one minute, thinking about getting home in time to bath the kids, or before their favourite show started on TV? Was it quick? Or did they have time to be afraid?

  Ellery jumped when Loveday touched her shoulder. “You should come and have something to eat,” she said softly, squeezing briefly. The points where her fingers touched Ellery’s shoulder sent pleasant ripples down into her belly. She was developing a full-blown crush on Loveday Taylor.

  Ellery had packed sandwiches—with butter this time—and they sat in a sun patch to eat. Loveday filled a bowl with water for the pets and shook out some biscuits. Ellery laughed when they found each other’s tastier.

  She watched Loveday lean back on her elbows and turn her face up to the sun. She could almost imagine they were on a normal picnic. She itched to reach over and brush away the strands of hair which had fallen across Loveday’s face. Instead, she lay down in the grass warmed by the sun and closed her eyes.