As the Light Dies (18 page)

“
Good, le
t’
s go
.”
Dean shouldered his rucksack fixed his own dust masks in place under his scarf and pulled on his swimming goggles.

People will think I’ve lost it
,
he thought.

“
See boy, yo
u’
re not the only one that looks daft
!
”

Grrr WOO
F
!

Dean opened the door to an enormous unnaturally loud crash of thunder overhead that was almost immediately followed by multiple veins of lightning crisscrossing all over the sky. There were so many forks of lightning and they were so bright that the cloud looked like it had caught fire for a second. Sam flinched back through the door letting out a growl
.“C’
mon boy
,”
said Dean
,“
w
e’
ll get lots of that. I
t’
s ok
c’
mon I wo
n’
t let it get you ok
.
”

Sam whined, and then tentatively left the house.

Dean locked up and then they were on their way.

Across town Collin Right was in the changing room putting his work gear back in his locker.

He was relieved to finally be going home, twelve and a half hours of mayhem, never stopping, on his feet constantly save for his one hour lunch brea
k
,
that was cut short, and the escapades at the petrol station....He was exhausted, mentally as well as physically!

After he heard the screams from the petrol station as the power failed he rushed back in to the supermarket to tell someone. Back inside, the lights were flickering! He ran straight through to the offices where he was sure h
e’
d find one of the managers or a supervisor, but as he ran down the beige corridor with the lights blinking on and off he could
n’
t see anyone. All the offices were empty.

Worried about what was happening outside he ran faster passing more empty rooms. He reached the set of double doors that led in to the Managing Directo
r’
s office, the blind was pulled over so he could
n’
t see inside. Without stopping to knock he threw open the doors to find the room in darkness
.“
Damn
!”
He tried the next office that also had the blind pulled over, empty again, but the lights were on and flickering! Someone had been here
.
Can’t be far
,
he thought and hoped at the same time.

There was one more door to try
.
Gotta be someone in her
e
, he told himself. He flung it open, empty
!
“Shit!”
he blurted.

He stopped and thought for a second
.
I’ll try the canteen first then I’ll go out on to the shop floor
.

Just as he started to run towards the end of the corridor he saw blood on the carpet!

He remembered the truck driver.

First aid room
!
he thought.

He ran down the corridor along the worn blue carpet until he came to a T junction at the end and passed through a pair of swing doors in to the main staff corridor that fed in to the canteen, changing areas, toilets and first aid room. He ran for the first aid room, he heard laughter.

It was a horrible cackle of a laugh. Mad Maggie he thought.

Collin knocked once knowing who was on the other side but did
n’
t wait for an answer. He practically flung the door open. Mad Maggie was just finishing wrapping a bandage around the truck drive
r’
s hand. Collin was also shocked to see that Leann in the room as well. She was holding a pair of scissors and what looked like white sticky tape. All three of them jumped and looked round at him startled!

“
Aw, shi
t
!”
yelped the truck driver as Maggie pulled on his hand as she jumped.

“
Oh,
I’
m so sorry Kevin
,”
she said with an almost real look of concern on her face. Then she turned back to Collin with a look like thunder on her face
.“I’
m trying to treat this poor man to tide him over until we can get him to hospital and you just made me twist his wounded hand with your careless entry. You never
,
EVE
R
burst in to a first aid room, for the very reason that you might disturb a patient receiving treatment
.
D
O
you understand
?
”

Before he could say anything she blurted
,“
Not to mention all that ash yo
u’
re contaminating the room with, look at you, yo
u’
re absolutely filthy
.
WHAT DO YOU WANT?”

Finally she let Collin get a word in
.“I’
m sorry, but the power has gone out over at the petrol station and...
.
”

Mad Maggie cut him off
.“I’
m not surprised. The lights are flickering in here as well, in case you have
n’
t noticed
!”
She shot a glance up at the flickering light on the ceiling.

“
The emergency generator
,”
she continued and Collin cut her off with his heart in his mouth as a look of shock and anger crossed Maggi
e’
s face. No on
e
eve
r
butted in on her!

“
I heard lots of shouting, arguing, and I heard a woman screaming! She was screaming really loudly, like I mean really screaming and I heard breaking glass
!
”

Maggie looked furious that Collin had cut her off, but sh
e’
d listened and the revelation of what Collin had just said was sinking in.

“
Whoa
,”
said the driver
,“
Sounds like its getting nasty out there. You know, I saw a lot of flaring tempers when I was stuck in the traffic on my way up here, even saw a vehicle recovery guy being given hell from four or five guys at the side of the road
!
”

Maggie frowned and asked Collin
,“
Are you sure it was a scream you heard? Did
n’
t you see if the emergency lights came on
?
”

“
I did
n’
t see any lights come on, the place just disappeared, you know, with the weird snow out there. I could barely see the place when the light
s
wer
e
on. I could just about see them flickering, but then they stopped and the place disappeared and that was it. I did
n’
t see it again, maybe the ash was too thick too see through or something but then I heard the breaking glass and the woman started screaming. I thought
I’
d better come in and tell someone
.
”

Maggie said
,“
You did
n’
t think to go and check for yourself, instead of wasting time running around the shop spreading ash everywhere
.
”

Just then Leann joined the conversation
.“
Maggie
,”
she said
,“
i
t’
s probably best he did come in here. The news is saying that ther
e’
s looting going on, and bad violence in places, i
t’
s all over the place. Collin might have gotten caught up in something if h
e’
d gone out there by himself and w
e’
d be none the wiser in here
.
”

Maggie thought for a moment
.“
Yes
I
suppos
e
yo
u’
re right Leann. W
e
wouldn’
t
want Collin getting caught up in anything now woul
d
we?”

She gave Collin a look as though to say, who cares as she unclipped a small radio from her belt and spoke in to it.

“
This is Maggie calling for Thom and Andy, will you both come to the first aid room
?
”

A moment later she got a reply from Andy
.“
Yep, ok Maggie, w
e’
ll be over right away w
e’
re just finishing up with the generator
.
”

Maggie clipped her radio back on to her belt and watched as the flickering light stabilised to a steady glow, it was much dimmer than usual but it was better than being in total darkness.

“
Well Kevin
,”
said Maggie
,“
as I was saying before our visitor barged in, it looks like
I’
ll be taking you to the hospital
.
”

“
Nah, yo
u’
re ok,
I’
ll easily wait for the ambulance, looks like yo
u’
ve got your work cut out here
.
”

“
No
,”
said Maggie
,“
they said the
y’
d be at least two hours
,
maybe more
.
You ca
n’
t wait that long
.
Just look at your hand.”

She pointed to his bandaged hand
.“
I
t’
s already weeping through the bandage
!
”

Everyone looked down at the bandaged hand. Collin cringed at the sight, the fresh white bandage was turning dark red
.
S
o
dark it almost looked black in the middle.

He looked up and stole a glance at Leann feeling privileged sh
e’
d defended him.

She was looking at Kevi
n’
s hand biting her bottom lip. He liked the way she cared.

Andy and Thom arrived looking stressed. Thom ran a hand over his smooth head and said
,“
I
t’
s getting mad out there now
!
”

“
Yea
,”
added Andy. Andy reminded Collin of the typical surfer type, with his shoulder length curly blonde hair and laid back attitude.

Andy looked at Maggie and said
,“
W
e’
ve had to put Jimmy on the doors permanently...
.
”

“What
!
Why
?”
exclaimed Maggie.

“
The people are going ape shit out ther
e
”

“
They really are
,”
added Thom.

Andy nodded at what Thom said and continued
,“
W
e’
ve got two more tills out of action now after the power started playing up, and people are gettin
g
reall
y
agitated now. I
t’
s just taking so long to get them through the tills, and the others wo
n’
t be working for much longer either and they can all see the weathe
r’
s getting worse, so with our power problems and all the street lights out the
y’
re all on edge, they just wanna get out and get home. Who can blame them
?
”

Maggie was shaking her head.

“
Anyway
,”
he carried on
,“
w
e’
ve had several reports from costumers saying people are just walking out without paying
.
”

“
Are
n’
t the door alar
m’
s working
?”
snapped Maggie.

“
No. They stopped working with the power playing up. Tha
t’
s why w
e’
ve put jimmy on the doors. You know how it goes, once one person does it they all think they can do it. Especially with the mood the
y’
re all in out there, thank God w
e’
re passed our busiest
!
”

“
Ok, I see
,”
said Maggie nodding
.
“Wel
l
, it seems like w
e’
ve got another problem that needs your attention
.
”

“
Oh what now
?”
said Thom taking a deep breath, he ran a hand over his smooth head again.

“
The petrol station seems to have lost power, and it sounds like ther
e’
s a commotion going on out there
.
According to Collin at least!”

Andy looked at Collin
.“
Wha
t’
s up Coll
?
”