Steve’s visit had forced the officer to come to a decision. He told him that he intended to try to warn as many people as possible. Steve reminded him that he had a responsibility towards everyone who had been working so hard towards the government’s cause. They had a right to know.
He explained that at some point on Friday 10 October (the very next day in fact) as the Earth spun on its axis around the sun, the entire planet was going to be hit by a massive Coronal Mass Ejection, which would spew forth from the sun.
The likely severity of the effects was still being widely debated, but the government had chosen to err on the side of caution and assume the worst: that there would be worldwide power disruptions when the grid went down.
This could potentially have an impact on the distribution of food, so a nationwide food distribution system had hastily been set up, requisitioning food in the hope that they would have sufficient to feed everyone until the power (if it went off at all) could be restored.
According to his commanding officer, a lot of senior people were very sceptical about the severity of the effects postulated in some of the reports that had been commissioned. They were therefore less than enthusiastic about ensuring that the orders were being followed. They believed that it would all be a complete waste of time, effort and resources, and that once the predicted event failed to materialise, heads were likely to roll. This would give them an opportunity to further their own careers.
Steve asked the officer what he thought about it all, having rapidly come to the conclusion that this was a man with intelligence and integrity; someone whose opinion could be relied upon. The officer thought for a moment and then told him his gut instinct was telling him that the government would not be going to this much effort unless there was no other option on the table. The amount of money expended over the past few days must now have run into hundreds of millions of pounds.
He knew the way the military and the government worked, and he was very worried.
When Steve asked him what to do, he shrugged and suggested he do what he thought best. In his opinion, as of tomorrow, when the predicted event happened, before long every supermarket and food outlet would be stripped of its contents. There would be mass panic once the public realised that food supplies were running out and were not likely to be replaced.
And despite the massive quantity of foodstuffs that had been stockpiled as part of the aid plan, as a soldier he had worked on disaster relief missions across the globe, and he knew how easily things could fall apart. Although the stockpiles were huge, once they were divided among millions of hungry civilians, they were not likely to last long at all.
At this point, his head spinning, Steve thanked the officer, left the office and climbed into his cab where he could sit in peace and decide what to do next.
He never saw the officer again.
His mind only began to clear once he’d been given his next delivery. He was told to drop the trailer he was about to hook up at another depot. Once that was done, it would be his last run of the day, and he was to await instructions for the following day.
Looking around the site, he realised that there was little left to shift. Very few lorries had arrived with new loads, and what the officer had told him began to ring true.
All the available food had been requisitioned. There was nothing left.
If this event did happen. When all the packets, tins and sacks of food had gone. Well that would be it. If you couldn’t grow it or catch it, you’d starve to death and your family would starve along with you.
Then the answer came to him and suddenly everything seemed clear.
He had a family to look after and he had a lorryload of food on his trailer. Literally thousands of tonnes of food had been moved over the past few days; no one could possibly keep track of it all. If his one insignificant little load didn’t make it to its destination, who would actually know?
The risk, he decided, was worth it. His primary concern had to be his family. To be given privileged information and not act upon it would be a crime. If the predicted event didn’t happen, he would just be a day late with his load and would make up a vaguely plausible explanation if he was missed at all.
Decision made, he called Toni as he drove.
He knew they couldn’t just park a lorry full of food outside his house. It wouldn’t take people long to find out what was in it and that would put them at unnecessary risk. They needed to hide the lorry somewhere where only they would have access to it.
It was Toni who suggested that they hide the lorry in the countryside somewhere. They often went camping as a family; it was a good way to holiday on a budget. A few years before, they had decided that, rather than blowing all their hard-earned holiday savings on two weeks in the sun, it would be better for the family to take more frequent, shorter breaks, and the best way to do that was by going camping. They’d invested in good quality camping equipment to make the experience as comfortable as possible and had enjoyed great family breaks exploring England, Wales and Scotland.
They agreed between them that Toni would get the children out of school early and start putting together all the equipment they would need, while Steve, on the drive home, would try to think of the best place for them to go.
The woods sprang immediately to mind. The year before, on one of their regular Sunday cycling trips, they had stopped there and had a picnic in the woods. It had been a hot summer’s day and he remembered the gate they had chained their bikes to and the gentle slope they had climbed to reach the woods. The lorry should have no trouble reaching them.
Some of their neighbours grumbled when he parked his lorry outside the house, but in no time at all they had loaded up everything they could think of and he and his family were on their way.
Toni had explained as much as she could to the kids about what they thought might happen and what they were planning to do. They had been excited by the prospect of an adventure and eager to help with the preparations.
He had taken the opportunity to inspect the load he was carrying once he had pulled up outside the house. He was relieved to see that it contained pallets stacked high with tins of meat, vegetables and fruit. There wasn’t much variety, and given the amount, they would probably be bored with it before long, but they certainly wouldn’t go hungry for a long time.
In view of the dry weather, and based on years of experience driving lorries in all conditions, Steve had no trouble driving the lorry up the slope and into the woods along the overgrown track. Once they arrived they spent the rest of the day, and most of the following, setting up camp and trying to conceal any traces of the lorry having climbed the slope and entered the woods.
The event, when it happened, passed by unnoticed until Logan tried to turn on his iPod in the afternoon and couldn’t get it to work. A quick check of everything else, including the lorry, confirmed it. Steve set out on his bicycle to see what was happening and encountered disorder and confusion.
The roads were full of broken-down vehicles and stranded motorists.
They knew they were incredibly lucky to have been given the chance to prepare themselves. Who knew what the next weeks or months might bring?
In the end, although they hadn’t made a conscious decision to hide, they did try to live in the woods as quietly and unobtrusively as possible. Instinctively, they knew it would be best not to advertise their presence. They also knew that it wouldn’t take long for people to start running out of food, and were only too aware of the value of the lorry’s contents.
Hopefully, the planned relief effort would help, but given what the officer had said about how long the stockpiled food was likely to last, they realised that people might become desperate. And desperate people do desperate things.
They talked long into the night, wrestling with their consciences and wondering if they should be offering people help.
In the end, they decided that if anyone discovered them they would try to give the impression that they were barely surv
iving. It would be impossible to hide the truck so they would say it had been abandoned before they’d arrived in the woods. They would share what they had on them but would not advertise the existence of their hidden bounty.
For the first week or so, everything was quiet. They settled in well, and Steve used the tools he had brought and his DIY skills to make the camp as comfortable as possible.
Gradually over time, they emptied the lorry and buried the contents in hidden stashes all over the woods.
Throughout this time, they kept a lookout for other people. Occasionally people could be seen, either on their own or as a group, in the lane below the woods.
Four weeks later, everything changed.
Steve was retrieving food from a stash at the other side of the woods, when an unnoticed group cycling along the lane spotted the smoke from the campfire rising through the trees.
They headed straight for the campsite, surprising Toni and the children, who had been busy preparing food. The group consisted of four men. One of them was carrying a shotgun.
From the outset, their behaviour was intimidating. They demanded to know who else was with them and where they were keeping their food, and made lewd comments about Toni and Sophie. Logan tried to push in front of his mother and sister in a brave attempt to protect them, and was punched in the face for his trouble.
Steve, oblivious to what was happening, was returning to camp when he heard the men’s voices. Placing the bag of food he’d been carrying on the ground, and resisting the urge to barge straight in, he approached as quietly as possible. He was still carrying the shovel he’d been using to unearth the food.
When he got to the camp, it soon became clear that they were all in serious trouble. Armed only with a shovel, there was no way he could possibly overpower all four of the men, particularly the one with the shotgun.
He thought about going for the armed man first, but there was no guarantee he would be able to grab the weapon before one of the others did. He needed to bide his time and pick his moment.
He knew that his family were aware that he was out there, but the attackers didn’t, and that was his only advantage. One wrong move could squander his only chance of success.
He watched helplessly as his son again tried to protect his mother and sister. One of the men laughed mockingly and knocked him flying, letting out a torrent of abuse as he did so.
Finally, his patience was rewarded. The man with the shotgun sent one of his companions to find the other members of their group who, it seemed, were still searching the nearby village of Tanworth in Arden.
There had been little left to steal there, so the four of them had set off in search of other victims and better pickings. After all, the leader called after him, as he walked away laughing, the others might not see their bikes and might cycle straight past this place.
Then they’d miss out on all the fun, he added, a sneering look on his face.
At this point, Steve realised he was going to have to fight them.
“Tell the boss I found her first, I get first go!”
His heart pounding, Steve knew this would be his only chance. He watched as the man walked off, noted the direction he was taking, and using his knowledge of the woods, ran hell for leather to the point where he would appear. The woods were dense and there were few paths through them. He had to head him off.
Holding his breath, he hid behind a tree as the man walked past. He closed his eyes for a split second, said a silent prayer, stepped out and swung the heavy shovel with all his might at the man’s head. There was no time for subtlety; his family was in danger.
The man dropped to the ground dead, the back of his head caved in, spraying blood all over Steve.
Steve, the blood pumping in his ears, turned and sprinted back again.
He knew he would have to end this situation soon and the only way he could do this was by overpowering the others as quickly as possible. He would have to throw caution to the wind, go for it, and hope for the best. If just one of them escaped, they’d bring all the rest of the gang back with them and there was no way he would be able to fight them all.
One man, armed only with a shovel and attitude, was about to take on three men, one of whom was armed with a shotgun.
The only thing on Steve’s side was the element of surprise. He had to get to the bloke with the gun first.
He ran full pelt into the clearing with his shovel raised. The man with the gun had his back to him.
Screaming with an almost primordial rage, he smashed the man’s skull in, spraying more blood over himself.
The other two men, staring open mouthed, and faced with the prospect of a blood-soaked madman who had come from nowhere and virtually decapitated their leader, were rooted to the ground with shock. Their shock rapidly turned to terror, when Steve turned and ran at them, still screaming and swearing like a man possessed.
One of them turned and ran into a tree, knocking himself out, but the other, who was lighter on his feet, headed for the trees, screaming for help.
In the meantime, Toni, who had never held any kind of weapon, let alone fired one before, ran forward and grabbed the gun, which was still lying beside the dead man. Holding it awkwardly, and shaking badly, she pointed it towards the last man as he ran. The single shot almost knocked her off her feet but in spite of her wild aim, some of the pellets hit him in the leg and he stumbled and fell, crying out in pain. His cries abruptly cut off as Steve, who had set off in pursuit, hit him with the shovel.
Scarcely able to believe what he’d managed to do, he dropped the shovel and fell to his knees panting. His family gathered round him, and they all embraced, crying in fear and relief.
Three men, and possibly a fourth, had just died by his hand and all he felt was relief that his family were safe.
The man who had knocked himself out was still unconscious, so they tied him up tightly and gagged him.
Toni remembered in panic that the rest of the gang would be cycling past at any minute. The men they had overpowered must have had bikes too. Where did they leave them?
They thought fast. Surely they wouldn’t have hidden them? They might still be in plain sight on the road, advertising where they’d gone to one and all.
Realising which gate they’d probably used to access the field, Steve set out at a full sprint. There was no time to lose. As he ran down the slope, he spotted four bikes leaning casually up against the gate.
As he was lifting the first bike over the gate, he thought he heard a sound and stopped, listening.
His heart missed a beat. He could hear voices in the distance. It had to be the rest of the gang approaching. Panic-stricken, he looked up the lane. They hadn’t come around the corner yet, but they couldn’t be far away.
He threw the bike he was holding over the gate and quickly followed it with the others.
Diving over the gate, he just managed to fling the bikes and himself out of sight against the hedge before the first gang member sped past on a bike. Burying his face in the ground and trying to make himself as small as possible he barely breathed, as by his estimation, twenty or so bikes sped past, their owners hollering and cussing each other, like a bunch of rowdy mates out on a leisurely Sunday afternoon ride.
He was about to stand up when a few stragglers passed, shouting and swearing at the front runners to slow down and let them catch up.
It took him a few minutes to be sure that there were no more of them, and to get his heart rate to slow down enough for him to stand up and make his way back to his family.
But there was no time to relax. They had a mess to clean up.
The bound and gagged man had died as well. Steve didn’t stop to dwell on it, but he suspected that in their panic, they had gagged him too tightly and he had suffocated. Part of him was relieved that he wouldn’t have to decide what to do with him. He didn’t want to think about it.
All he needed to decide now was where to bury them.
Exhausted though they were, th
e rest of the day was spent dragging the bodies to a clearing away from the campsite and digging a hole big enough and deep enough to accommodate them.
The rucksacks and pockets of the dead gang members had produced a few useful supplies, and tools such as knives, but by far the most valuable addition to their possessions was the shotgun and twenty cartridges.
Their only means of defence before had been to hide away and avoid drawing attention to themselves. Now that they had a shotgun, Steve felt they would have the upper hand if anyone else approached them.
It was only later that night, when the children were finally asleep, that the reality of it all caught up with him. He had killed four people. He sobbed quietly, while Toni did her best to comfort him.
He knew they had been lucky, not only to survive their recent encounter, but also to have the means to survive in this new world that seemed to be emerging. It was now patently clear that no one was coming to rescue them.
If they were going to live, it was up to them.
As the months passed, the temperatures dropped and winter set in. Now all their efforts as a family were focused on surviving.
Cutting, gathering and splitting enough dry wood to keep the fire going was a continual job for one person.
It was the only way to keep warm, sterilise water and cook the food they had. Without it they would die. The wood needed to be as dry as possible, to keep the smoke to a minimum and avoid attracting unwanted attention.
It was not possible, with only four people, to keep a lookout at all times, but at most times during daylight one of the family would walk the perimeter of the woods, keeping out of sight.
As a way of attracting someone’s attention without shouting, Steve used long lengths of wire stripped from the surrounding fences to rig up a crude but effective warning system. At various points around the perimeter, wires suspended between trees stretched back to the camp, terminating at bunches of tin cans tied together. Whichever bunch rattled, indicated what direction a potential threat might be coming from.
The care they had taken to conceal their presence in the woods had paid off. Few people were spotted passing by, and fewer still even glanced at the woods.
UK Dark Trilogy Page 42