As the Light Dies (16 page)

Gavin jumped back on the bus
.“
Wow, its cold out there
,”
he said
.“
You gonna call the garage and see what the score is
?
”

“
Well I was
,”
said Eddy
,“
but my screen says no network coverage. I just checked while that lot were getting off,
I’
ve never had that happen down here before. Does yours have any signal
?
”

Gavin pulled out his phone. He shook his head
.“
Totally blank
,”
he said
,“
i
t’
s dead. I only charged it last night as well
.”
He fiddled with it trying to switch it on thinking that it might have turned off in his pocket as he leaned against something. Nothing happened, it stayed dead!

Eddy handed Gavin his phone and told him to watch it for signal while he drove.

“
I bet i
t’
s the ash playing with the signal
,”
said Eddy
,“I’
ve called work a hundred times from here, in all kinds of weather
.
”

They rolled slowly through town and turned around at the end of town and pointed towards home
.“
Well
,”
said Eddy
,“
w
e’
ll just head back in, i
t’
s not like ther
e’
s anything else we can do. W
e’
ll probably get back at roughly the same time that w
e’
re meant to finish anyway
,”
he chuckled as he finished.

As they passed back along the High Street Gavin caught sight of two little children peering out from one of the houses. They were nursing a candle between them peering out at the strange snow, there was a coal fire lighting the room unevenly behind them. Gavin smiled remembering the feeling he use to get as a kid when the snow arrived and he imagined how excited h
e’
d be with it being so strange and alien outside being the wrong colour and the power cut got bonus points.

“
Do
n’
t know what yo
u’
re smiling for
,”
said Eddy
,“
that candle means the
y’
re out of power
.
”

“
Yea, I know
,”
said Gavin.

“
That means that Inverness is most likely out of power as well
,”
added Eddy and with that as he turned off the High Street, all the street lights went out!

“Whoa,
”
said Gavin
,“
I hope skinny man got home, h
e’
ll be having a fit if not
.
”

“
Never mind him
,”
said Eddy
,“
I hope we get home,
I’
d settle for just getting back to Inverness at the moment, h
e’
s within walking distance of his home, we are
n’
t
!
”

Eddy sounded uptight and stressed.

“
Nah, w
e’
ll be fine eh
,”
said Gavin.

“
Right now
I’
m not so sure
,”
said Eddy and he nodded at the dashboard.

Gavin leaned over and looked down at nothing!

It was dark, it was blank! None of the dashboard lights were on and none of the dials were working. Nothing! Gavin looked up at Eddy
.“
Wha
t’
s wrong
?
”

“
I do
n’
t know
,”
he said
,“
the dials started dying on me a little while back, about the time you asked me to turn the heating up. They turned on and off for a while and then just seemed to sort themselves out for a bit, but the whole lo
t’
s been out about ten minutes now. They might start up again in a minute, who knows? The heate
r’
s totally fucked though, i
t’
s stuck on full, blowing out cold fucking air, and ther
e’
s nothing I can do about it
!
”

Gavin held his hand over one of the blower vents and felt the cold air rushing out
.“
As if it was
n’
t cold enough eh
,”
he said and Eddy rolled his eyes.

“
Tell me about it
,”
he said and then right on cue the interior lights down the entire length of the bus blinked!

“Huh!”
said Gavin under his breath looking up and down the bus
.“
Thin
g’
s falling apart around us
!”
He took up a standing position by the drivers cab and idly glanced at Edd
y’
s phone.

“
Your phones dead now
!”
he told Eddy.

“
Wha
t
, how? It was fully charged this morning. You have
n’
t mixed them up have you
?
”

“
Nope. I
t’
s your phone, and i
t’
s totally dead. Do you think it is the ash
?
”

Eddy glanced up from the windscreen.

“
Gotta be
,”
he said, i
t’
s some coincidence if not. Do you wear a watch
?”
he asked Gavin, and Gavin shook his head
,“
No, do you
?
”

Eddy nodded
,“
I do but i
t’
s gone blank
,”
he said and sighed
.“
Looks like this ash is starting to do its thing
,”
he said as the interior lights blinked again.

“
At least w
e’
ve got a diesel to power us home
,”
he said.

Gavin looked at him puzzled!

“
As long as we do
n’
t stall w
e’
ll be ok
,”
he told Gavin seeing the worry on his face.

“
Do
n’
t worry Gav
,”
he said
,“
w
e’
ll keep moving, even if we lose all the lights and ca
n’
t see where the fuck w
e’
re going. Ha Ha. A diesel motor can run without its batteries. Once i
t’
s started it runs using its own combustion, so as long as I do
n’
t switch off or stall, w
e’
ll be ok
.
”

“
You think
?”
said Gavin.

“
I hope so, coz I aint built for walking if you know what I mean
.”
Eddy chuckled as he finished and patted his knees.

Gavin nodded and leaned against the cab as the bus dipped and bowed as Eddy guided them through the snow homeward bound. The interior lights flickered and went out. They did
n’
t come back on!

Neither men spoke, they just motored on deeper in to the mix of apocalyptic snow.

Gavin peered through the windscreen in to the darkness beyond and thought of Dean, wondering if he was up yet, what were the conditions like in town, was the power still on? Then his thoughts turned to his parents. He wondered how their mum and dad were doing, was it this bad with them
?’
were they prepared
?’
how was da
d’
s arthritis
?’
he felt ashamed that he did
n’
t have an answer to any of his questions and quietly he hoped and prayed and willed their bus along hoping it held up long enough to get him and Eddy back to the depot, or at least as close as possible. His thoughts turned to the news earlier about the mass power cuts as everything electrical gave up as the ash started to settle. He thought of Fort Agustus and the street lights, the little kids at the window looking out with that mixture of fear and excitement, and then he remembered the reports of riots and extreme violence over the radio in the tea room, reports that people were becoming sick. People were dying. Lots of them!

He thought about it and realised that it was happening here, the strange ash was falling from the sky turning everything grey and now black. Electricity was starting to show signs of failure. He had
n’
t seen any sick people yet but h
e’
d heard plenty of coughing. Then he thought about the bull!

He remembered what the farmer said about his animals dying, and that some were even turning weird whatever that meant. It was happening here alright, and like Eddy said, if the military ca
n’
t make it happen then the rest of us are in trouble. He began to realise the severity of the situation. Thoughts spun in his head over and over, he remembered the news reporter saying that some of the sick were being restrained
.
‘
Why
?’
he wondered, and then his mind wandered back to the bull.

That giant hulking bull, and although he felt stupid at the thought, he thought that the bull was trying to get him. Tha
t’
s what all the noise was, it was trying to smash its way through the steel gate regardless to the pain or the damage it was causing itself. It just wanted him!

But why
?
he wondered and a chill rushed up his spine like an electrical charge making the hair on his neck stand up on end. That bull was sick, the farmers animals were sick, and the people were sick....It all started to come together!

He did
n’
t feel excited anymore.

Dean was woken by Sa
m’
s warm wet slobbering tongue lapping at his face. He gently pushed him back laughing
.“
Ok boy, ok, wha
t’
s up? You need to go outside eh
?”
Sam shuffled backwards down the bed as Dean sat up yawning. Sam let out a curious grumble then barked, Dean knew Sam did
n’
t just need to go outside
.“
Ok boy, what is it huh
?”
Sam shuffled around agitated and barked again then hopped off the bed and went over to the window and whined looking up at the window that was covered by a thick blackout curtain
.“
I
t’
s ok boy,
I’
m coming
,”
said Dean as he slid out of bed thinking it was darker than usual for this time of day being that his alarm was set for four
o’
clock. He looked at his bedside alarm clock and was surprised to see that it was flashing four zeroes.

“Ah shit!”
he said
,“
power mus
t’
ve gone off boy
.
”

He jumped up pulling on a pair of tracksuit bottoms and an old T shirt as Sam barked again.

“
Ok, ok
,”
he said and turned and pulled back the curtain. He was blown away by what he saw!

Normally in the late afternoon or evening at this time of year when it started getting dark early Dea
n’
s view over Inverness was a mass of twinkling lights across the Highland city, especially now with the addition of Christmas lights hung all round town from every spare street light, but tha
t’
s not what he saw now. Dean looked out on to near darkness.

Since h
e’
d gone to bed something had happened!

The ash from Norway, that giant wall of angry cloud with lightning buried inside had rolled over the city, but it did
n’
t just look like it had rolled over the city. It looked like it had eaten the city!

Ash was everywhere, the snow fell practically black from mixing with the ash in the atmosphere, the ash clung to the moist snow deforming it, polluting it, making it look dirty, turning it black.

The black snow looked almost like black fog. Twisting and turning, swirling around in the wind but never really moving out of the way. It was
n’
t breaking up, not properly, never letting Dean see very far, always keeping i
t’
s consistency i
t’
s thickness keeping him blind to the world. When it did open up occasionally giving him a glance beyond, the gap closed up again in the blink of an eye.

H e saw enough to know there were no street lights on and none of the cit
y’
s Christmas lights were on either, none that he could see anyway
.“
Wha
t’
s happened boy
?”
he said and Sam half growled half moaned behind him. Looking around he caught sight of the odd house light here and there flickering on and off like crazy!

Some have powe
r
, he thought to himself.

Other houses were very dimly lit and the light flickered softly
.
Candles
,
he thought.

“
Well boy
,”
he said
,“
looks like the powe
r’
s going on holiday
.”
He turned back around and opened the top drawer of his bed side stand and rummaged around noticing that his bedside alarm clock was blank now! He searched the drawer feeling for something with his hands for a few seconds, until he laid his hand on what he was looking for
.“
First things first Sam
,”
he said turning around. He was holding his grandda
d’
s old wind up watch
.“
Whatever this ash is doing to the electrics it wo
n’
t affect this old thing
.”
He saw his alarm clock flicker on and off quickly.

“
Still some power getting through boy.
C’
mon boy
,”
he said and they headed downstairs.

Dean tried the wall lights as he went just in case.

The hall light blinked on straight away and then blew with a loud pop
!“
Great
,”
he said flinching a little. None of the others he tried worked.

They reached the lounge and Dean turned on the TV and the laptop hoping that there might be enough power still available to run the TV so he could find out what was going on.

The TV was dead, but the laptop had a tiny little bit of battery charge left.

He picked up the house phone while the laptop booted up, it was dead
.“
Shit
!”
he cursed wondering how he would get in touch with his parents and Gavin. The TV suddenly blinked on with the volume on full. Dean yelled out in shock and Sam barked! He grabbed the remote and hit the volume but it was stuck on full!

Fluctuating power must have fried something inside
,
thought Dean.

On the TV Dean was surprised to see the same blonde curly haired reporter as before, Shelly Connor, who was now wearing an orange decontamination safety suit with a full facial hood with a plastic visor surrounding her face. The picture was grainy and fuzzy but it was good enough. The scrolling bar along the bottom of the screen kept repeating itself saying that the image was coming through via emergency broadcasting channels.

“
Mass power cuts are being reported across Britain as the ash reaches further afield carried by the wind
,”
said Shelly
.“
Towns and cities are setting up rescue centres where people can find food and shelter and people in rural areas are being strongly urged to make their way to their nearest shelter as soon as possible before travel becomes too difficult, even impossible. The NHS report that hospitals are being overwhelmed with people falling ill due to the affects the ash is having on them, and sadly the death toll continues to rise.

“Jesus Christ!”
said Dean rubbing his hands over his face wiping sleep from his eyes.

Sam whined by his feet, the TV was too loud for him.

“
I know boy, but i
t’
s broken, ther
e’
s nothing I can do
.”
Sam whined and barked again.

“
I know boy but I need to hear this ok, go and wait in the hall for two minutes ok
.
”

Sam understood and he darted through to the hall.

“
The situation is causing widespread panic
,”
reported Shelly
.“
Fights are breaking out in shops where people are trying to gather supplies and...
.
”

She stopped mid sentence. She broke eye contact with the camera holding a gloved hand against the side of her head trying to hear whatever was being relayed to her over her ear piece.

She looked puzzled trying to concentrate on what was being said. The TV screen flickered then went haywire looking like it was set on fast forward. Dean was certain he was out of luck just when it seemed to calm down again. He knew he did
n’
t have long though. Watching the fuzzy picture Shelly looked back to the camera while the orange suited scientists worked away behind her. She looked sad and worried.

“I’
ve just had news that a riot has broken out in Aberdeen at one of the cit
y’
s largest supermarkets, the last one known to have any supplies left, it seems that the situation there has reached a critical level. W
e’
re going live now.

Shelly and her orange friends disappeared off screen giving way to the entrance of a battered supermarket. A big one.

“Holy shit!”
said Dean. The supermarket looked like a set piece from a war movie.

The camera was on the move as the young dark haired male reporter tried to voice his report on the situation; he had to practically shout to be heard over the ruckus behind him. Dean just could
n’
t believe what he was seeing and the noise was incredible with the volume stuck on full.

Big holes had been smashed through the plate glass windows at the front of the supermarket and people were throwing whatever they could get their hands on at the handful of riot police that were trying to calm the situation.

That battle is already los
t
, thought Dean.

People were making a run for it with trolleys and baskets so overloaded that they were overflowing. Items were dropping all over the place as people rushed off stepping through the broken windows and over the vandalised debris. Other people ran up from behind with equally overflowing trolleys and baskets and they scrambled around trying to collect up what others in front had dropped in turn dropping their own, most likely looted items.

Some people were trying to take and steal from others, literally waiting outside for people to come out of the supermarket and picking on the small ones.

Fights were breaking out everywhere.

Dean could
n’
t believe his eyes.

He saw one man bashing another over the head with a food tin.

Not far away another man repeatedly kicked another while he lay on the ground trying to fend off the blows.

A blonde woman rushed over to the man on the ground screaming at the attacker to stop, only to be turned on herself by th
e
attacker’
s
girlfriend! The kicking man spun around swinging his fist as he did and caught the screaming woman square in the face dropping her to the ground in an instant!

“
As you can see the looting is out of control here
,”
yelled the reporter
,“
people are in a state of blind panic
.
”

“
No shit
!”
said Dean.

“
The police are vastly outnumbered here as they try to diffuse the situation that started out as one fight that
I’
m told escalated very quickly in to a full blown riot! Seven supermarket staff had to be rushed to hospital, their conditions are unknown at the moment but one is thought to be critical
.
”

As the presenter continued Dea
n’
s attention was grabbed by the police as they ducked and dived trying to miss being hit by projectiles, one of the policeme
n’
s helmets was knocked off by a flying object. A policewoman fell to the ground tripping over debris, she stood back up quickly with blood pouring from her hands, glass was everywhere from the smashed windows and her hands were cut to ribbons. Before she fully recovered she looked at her wounded hands and she was pelted with food cans and even one partially full shopping basket as one looter tore it from the grasp of another and launched it! She went back down and did
n’
t get back up!

A man half carrying his daughter and half carrying an overloaded basket simply ran straight over the top of her as he made a break for it.

Dean was stunned.

“
Before things got totally out of control
,”
said the young reporter facing away from the camera watching for flying debris
,“
I was told that people were becoming increasingly hostile standing in the long queues in the supermarket and when the power started to fluctuate the tills stopped working really slowing things down and tha
t’
s when it all started to escalate. Shouting erupted and arguments flared up and apparently someone made a run for it with a shopping basket and a member of staff intervened. There was a quick fight resulting in the member of staff being knocked unconscious and beaten to the ground and then the situation quickly escalated from there. Someone even told me that a male till worker was dragged over the top of his till and set upon by several men when his till stopped working.

People are in a state of utter panic. All it took was for one person to walk out of the shop, or rather run out with unpaid for goods and that set the domino effect in motion.

The reporter jumped to the side as something hurtled passed him. He tried to continue while still on the move
.“
People are fighting in the car park trying to take things from each other, stealing whatever they can. Some are even breaking in to cars and emptying them.