The time we spent in each other’s company flew past in a momentary flash of brilliant light, but the hours we were apart plodded by like so many centuries of darkness. I lost my appetite for food, but felt like I could live on the love-infused air I gulped down.
Abi couldn’t understand any of it, and I felt bad for neglecting her so much. I didn't want to be one of those people who dropped their friends as soon as they got a boyfriend, but I couldn't help it. These feelings were outside my control - a need that made everything and everyone else unimportant.
Even after all this time, I still felt unimaginably nervous in his company. I was always trying to impress him with witty sarcasm, trying to be cooler than I was. I couldn't understand his interest in me. I imagined his type of girlfriend to be an edgy blonde with tattoos and piercings or a svelte raven-haired indie chick. I was a boring middle class brunette to whom nothing exciting ever happened. But he seemed to want to be with me and I couldn't believe it.
One warm evening, we sat together on the top of Smallpox Hill amongst the heather and rabbit holes, gazing out across the sun-faded countryside.
‘I like it here,’ Connor said. ‘It’s peaceful. But I miss Ripon.’
‘Is that where you’re from?’
‘Yeah.’
I wanted to ask him how long he would be staying down here, but I didn’t want him to think I was being clingy or needy.
‘When was the last time you went home?’ I asked instead. ‘And where is Ripon, anyway? I know it’s up north somewhere …’
‘Ripon’s in North Yorkshire, but I don’t go home. Not anymore.’ His mouth hardened into a thin line and he started tearing small clumps of grass out of the ground.
‘Don’t you get on with your parents then?’
‘My mum’s great. It’s my dad …’
‘Oh. Sorry.’
‘Yeah, well. I like my life now. I just work wherever. And I’m lucky I’ve got my bus. My grandad left it to me in his Will.’
‘What happened with your dad? Tell me to shut up and mind my own business if you like.’
‘Nah, you’re alright. We never got on. I was never good enough for him. All I ever felt when I was at home, was pressure. Like I was gonna suffocate.’ He sent a clod of earth spinning down the hillside and put his hands up in front of his face. I heard him grit his teeth in anger. ‘I knew nothing I did would ever make him happy, apart from maybe being a brain surgeon or winning the Nobel Peace Prize or something. So I just thought it would be easier if I did a runner.’
‘Connor, I’m so sorry.’ I put my arm around his shoulders and he gave me a closed-lipped smile.
‘It wasn’t easy for Mum though and I feel bad about leaving her. But at least she’s not walking on eggshells any more, trying to keep the peace, you know?’
I didn’t know. I realised how lucky I was to have my warm, loving family to support me. Connor was on his own.
‘But it’s not all bad, Ellie. If I hadn’t left, I wouldn’t have met you.’
His words gave me goose bumps and I smiled at him. In my eyes, he was amazing, with a strength of character I envied. I had never considered I could ever feel like this about another human being. He smiled back at me and pulled me towards him. We kissed a long deep kiss that spread throughout my body. This relationship was turning me into a new person. Someone who was ready for the world. I could do anything I wanted.
Then, one hazy summer day, everything suddenly changed to break the spell.
Chapter Fourteen
Riley
*
Luckily, Luc and I don’t see a soul on the Ringwood road. We make it safely around the town in daylight without encountering any riot of any kind. I’m actually starting to feel less worried about the journey. Luc looks tired.
‘Do you want me to drive?’ I ask.
He flicks his eyes towards me and then back onto the road. He smiles.
‘That’s okay, Riley. I’ll drive today. Maybe you could take a turn tomorrow?’ I think he can see a little apprehension in my eyes and has taken pity on me.
We talked so much back home; planning our trip and how we would track down Chambers. But out here on the open road we just speak when necessary or make odd comments about the scenery. Maybe there’s too much to think about or maybe we’re just tired and a bit spooked by the unfamiliar surroundings.
The road opens up to reveal a great lush green floodplain that must once have been rich summer grazing land, but I can see no sign of cattle or sheep. The road makes the area too exposed to farm and valuable animals would have to be kept hidden out of site.
‘That’s the River Avon,’ Luc says. ‘This road completely flooded last winter.’
I gaze around and see beauty I never imagined could exist in real life. Soft, rolling hills frame each side of us in every colour green imaginable. Dense copses of willows and poplars nod their heads along the river and fields. The clear blue sky is fading to white and the sun bleeds red and gold into the uneven horizon. It’s a tranquil rural landscape and it inspires new primitive emotions inside me.
I’ve never been so scared and so exhilarated in all my life. I’m terrified we won’t make it, that something awful I can’t even imagine will befall us. But the gentle splendour of the countryside awes me. I can’t remember ever feeling so uplifted by nature. It’s raw and incredibly freeing to be out here after the constraints of the Perimeter fence.
I suddenly wonder how late it is. ‘Should we find somewhere to stop for the night?’
‘We’ve probably got a couple of hours of daylight left,’ Luc replies. ‘Maybe we should keep going for another hour or so; get a few more miles in.’
‘Yeah I don’t mind. I suppose we should keep going while we can.’
The engine’s steady thrum is lulling me to sleep. We’ve only ever reached a maximum speed of about thirty five miles an hour and that felt fast. But the road’s pitted and scarred surface means we’re now bumping along somewhere between five and twenty miles per hour. Not very good for fuel consumption, but luckily the AV’s got deep tanks.
I’m drifting in that vague place, somewhere between awake and asleep when I hear my name being whispered.
‘Riley, Riley. What’s that?’
I come to with a start and look up. It feels like I’ve dozed for a couple of minutes at most, but when I open my eyes I see that it’s twilight already. As my eyes focus, I make out a long dark shape in the road up ahead.
‘What’s that?’ I echo stupidly.
‘I don’t know. It looks like a fallen tree.’
As we get closer I see it. It’s a tree, or more like a log, lying across the whole width of the road.
‘I don’t like the look of it,’ says Luc, as he brings the AV to a halt, squinting ahead into the fading light.
‘Don’t worry,’ I say. ‘I’m sure we can shift it. We’ve got some rope in the back. We could tie it to the AV and drag it to the side of the road.’ I make to open the door.
‘Stop, Riley!’ Luc cries, grabbing my arm and making me jump.
‘What?’
‘Look.’ He points into the hills.
‘What is it?’ I follow his line of sight to see twinkling lights. ‘What are they?’
‘It could be a raiding party.’
‘What!’
‘I didn’t want to mention it before. I hoped we wouldn’t run into any.’
‘What do we do?’
‘It might be a trap,’ he says. ‘That log didn’t fly into the middle of the road on its own. Someone wants us to get out and try to move it.’
‘But those lights are miles away.’
‘Yeah, but whoever put the log there is probably really close by and watching us.’ As he’s speaking, he flicks on the blackout mode to shield us from view.
I look out of my window and see that our ambushers could be hidden anywhere. Darkness is seconds away and there are any number of dense trees and bushes to hide behind. I shiver.
‘We could drive over it,’ Luc ventures, ‘but we might damage the underneath.’
‘I don’t want to break down here.’
‘Me neither. I don’t think we should risk it.’ Luc switches the headlights onto full beam. ‘Oh God, look closer, Riley.’
‘Look where?’
‘At the log. It’s got nails or something sticking out all over it.’
I stare and sure enough in the gloom I can make out hundreds of evil little spikes along its length, confirming Luc’s theory that this is indeed an ambush. We’re in a tough, virtually impenetrable armoured vehicle but it doesn’t stop an unwelcome fear from inching through my body.
‘Maybe … Could we shoot at it?’ I ask, feeling the tremor in my voice. I don’t really take my suggestion seriously and wait for Luc to tactfully dismiss the idea.
‘Hmm. That’s not a bad idea. If we gun a weak spot near the middle, we might be able to split it in two. It might shift out of the way as we drive into it. What a waste of bullets though - shooting at a tree.’
‘We can’t worry about that,’ I say.
‘And the run-on-flats will get us out of here if we get punctured from the spikes.’
‘Can we do it quickly?’ I ask. ‘Cos sitting here is really freaking me out.’
‘Yep,’ Luc agrees. ‘Thank God we brought shed loads of ammo.’ He reaches behind and unclips the gun case, passing me the PK and taking the heavier M60 for himself.
‘Should we both fire at it?’ I say, beginning to panic. ‘Or … I don’t want to get out though. Maybe we should open the roof and stand up.’
Luc turns to me. ‘Look,’ he says softly, realising I’m about to go to pieces. ‘I’m going to shoot at the tree and you’re going to cover me. If you see anything moving, shoot at it. If you hear any shots apart from mine, shoot in that direction.’
I nod, feeling numb.
‘I doubt they’ve got automatic weapons, but when they see ours they’re gonna start drooling. They’ll want what we’ve got. Take the binoculars, keep scanning around for trouble.’ He smiles. ‘We’ll do this, okay? It’ll be fine.’
I nod again, mute, and sling the bins around my neck as Luc opens the roof hatch.
At least I’ve had good training, as have all of us Perimeter kids. Pa taught Skye and me from the age of eight. We had advanced driving lessons, comprehensive weapons training and survival skills. At the time it had all been great fun, but I see now that Pa was equipping us for every eventuality.
It all feels like it’s happening in slow motion. There’s no time to feel scared anymore. One minute Luc and I are discussing what we should do. The next minute we’re firing off rounds into the dark, silent countryside.
They come at us from the far distance, to the left, where the sun has recently set. From what I can see, most of them are on horseback, but there are a lot on foot, swarming down from the hills. I can’t see how Luc is doing so I just spray bullets, even though my targets are way out of range. But if the raiders keep on coming, it won’t be long until I hit something … or someone.
The riders are wearing what appear to be old fashioned riot-police helmets and bullet proof vests over their clothes. They look like futuristic cowboys. Surreal and menacing. They’ve got weapons, but I can’t feel bullets anywhere close.
After what must be less than thirty seconds or so, the raiders turn tail and disappear back up the hillside. Luc stops firing and so do I. I check the fallen log. It’s been decimated, reduced to a million splinters. Luc grins at me.
‘That was quick,’ I gasp, the adrenalin still racing around my body.
‘You okay?’ he whispers in the sudden silence.
Just then, something cold presses at the side of my head. Luc swings his weapon towards me, but he’s too late.
‘I’ll shoot.’ It’s a man’s voice, steady and confident. His breath smells rank, his body odour sickening. I don’t dare turn my head to look at him. His arm slithers around my shoulders and his gun presses harder into my temple.
Luc lowers his weapon as the man relieves me of my machine gun with his left hand. I’m rigid with fear, hardly able to breathe. He must’ve crawled up the other side of the AV while we were distracted by the raiders coming down the hill. Why on earth hadn’t we anticipated something like this? We should have activated the shockplates before carrying out our hasty plan. Luc must have the same thought as me, because I see his hand snaking down inside the AV towards the shock button.
But before Luc has a chance to do anything, another man appears over the top of the AV and cracks Luc on the side of the head with his gun. Luc crumples down into his seat like a rag doll and I see thick globs of blood on the roof-opening.
‘No,’ I moan. My vision blurs and I feel like I’m about to pass out.
‘Don’t worry,’ says the man next to me. ‘He’ll just have a bit of a headache when he wakes up and I feel so much better now he’s asleep.’ He’s well-spoken and, when I glance at him, he smiles, smug and in control of the situation. I reckon he’s in his twenties; he’s clean shaven and good looking. Pity about his personal hygiene.
He slings my Kalashnikov over his body and reaches past me into the AV to pull Luc up by his hair so he’s now slumped upright in the driver’s seat. But he hasn’t done this out of any concern for Luc; he’s trying to reach Luc’s weapon which fell onto the floor when he was knocked out.
I weigh up my options and find them very limited. The revolver is still jammed against my head, my gun hangs from the man’s malodorous body and my lovely Luc is unconscious, with another raider trying to reach the M60 down in the footwell. Then things get suddenly worse.
‘Nice work, Solly.’ Another man’s face materialises over the top of the AV and my heart plummets even further. Then, from behind the rustling trees and bushes the hidden raiding party appears. There are about twenty to thirty men and women of varying ages and attire, all modestly armed and some carrying lanterns. They look almost civilised – grubby, but not too unkempt, not like the people I saw outside the Charminster Compound. I hear distant shouting and see the mounted raiders waving and cheering from the hillsides.
We’re done for. We hadn’t scared them off before, as I’d mistakenly thought. They were just waiting for Solly to do his worst. I’m paralysed with fear, surrounded by hostile strangers capable of who knows what.
Chapter Fifteen
Riley
*
Now the raiders are crawling over the AV like dirty ants. They climb up on to the roof to congratulate Solly, their hero. They’re surprisingly well-spoken and intelligent sounding. From their aggressive behaviour, I wrongly assumed they were all stupid and half-wild.
Solly removes the metal gun barrel from the side of my head and grabs me by the waist. I gasp as he lifts me out of the vehicle, about to pass me down into the waiting arms of his friend. There’s no time to think, I have to act quickly and so, with all the strength I can muster, I kick out as hard as I possibly can with my heel. Unfortunately I’m only wearing my flip flops, but I manage to hit the sweet spot I’m aiming for and he drops me back into the passenger seat. I could almost smile to see him doubling up in agony, half sliding off the roof.
‘You little bitch,’ he wheezes.
Meanwhile, his companion is leaning down into the drivers’ side, grappling past Luc’s body to reach for the elusive gun. I’ve got another surprise in store for them and, from my safe position inside the AV, I quickly flick the switch that activates the shock plates. There’s a split-second of teasing silence, followed by a highly-charged hum - a ramping up of power. Solly and his companion peer down at me in horror as it dawns on them what the low, menacing sound means. I’m too wired to savour my victory.
The raiders who’ve crawled onto the vehicle are quite literally about to receive the shock of their lives. Their hair begins to lift in slow-motion and then, suddenly and violently their bodies are thrown from the AV at the same time, like startled flies.
T
he darkness is almost absolute outside, apart from the headlights and weak lanterns. Static from the electric plates showers sparks of light which accompany the raiders on their unexpected flights. Arms and legs splayed, hair standing on end and mouths open in silent screams and yells. They fly through the air at frightening speed, upwards and outwards; a cascade of human bodies.
Has the electric current killed them? Or are they just badly stunned? I realise I’m shaking and I try to get my brain to unfreeze. I still have to get us out of here. The metal plates buzz and crackle and I thank God for old technology.
Those who were thrown are now strewn on the ground about twenty feet from the vehicle, either in the middle of the road or on the grass verges. Some collided with those standing around the vehicle and are now lying unconscious on top of them. Others are just standing slack-jawed in amazement.
But shock soon turns to anger and one idiot boy charges towards me and tries to open the passenger door. He immediately finds himself lying incapacitated with his friends, face down in the dirt.
A woman picks up my Kalashnikov from Solly’s prone body and fiddles around with it for a while, before firing it at close range on the AV. I give a short scream as bullets bounce off the windows. The vehicle shudders horribly under the impact.
Then she has a brainwave and lowers her aim to the tyres. I’m seriously freaking out now. I need to stop shaking and squealing and do something. I’m lucky - the woman’s ammunition runs out before she’s able to hamper my chances of a good getaway. She throws the gun down in disgust, the smirk, wiped from her face. There’s nothing any of them can do and they’re furious.
All my thoughts now are of getting out of here, but Luc’s still slumped unconscious in the driver’s seat.
‘Luc! Luc, wake up. Please, Luc!’ I shake him, but he doesn’t respond and there’s no way I can shift him out of the way quickly enough. I close the roof and do the only thing I can in the circumstances - I improvise.
Although I’m still in the passenger seat, I release the handbrake and stretch my right leg over Luc’s, onto the accelerator. I dip the clutch with my left leg and reach past Luc to grab the steering wheel. His face rests on my back as I lean in front of him.
The keycard clicks and I feel the engine hum. I stare at the road ahead illuminated by the yellow headlights still on full beam. The log now resembles nothing more than a jumble of broken wood, but there are also several stunned bodies sprawled in amongst it. Hearing the engine, some of the raiders run into the road to lift the injured out of the way.