Trust (24 page)

        The ultimate fate of our friends, families and, most probably, our own lives had been predetermined and there was nothing that either of us could do to alter the course of events. It was now just a question of finding somewhere safe and remote to hide for as long as possible. The alien had warned that if we kept out of the way we might still have some time. And the more I thought about it, the more I realised that could be longer than I’d dared to imagine at first. We could have ten minutes left, but then again we could evade the alien hordes and live in hiding for the next seventy years. With the realisation that all might not be lost after all, something of my desire to go on slowly began to return.

        Clare remained unconvinced but as far as I was concerned there was still a faint glimmer of a chance, and no matter how slight, it was a chance that I was more than ready to take.

        My confidence was increasing. I went outside when, without warning, the overpowering and all-consuming silence had been shattered by the dull sound of hundreds of marching feet.

        Instantly recognisable as the same sound I’d heard in Thatcham earlier that morning, I stood at the end of Clare’s road and watched as yet another orderly file of emotionless figures trooped by. But this time they were walking away from the village and out towards the coast. They were gone in minutes and I ran back to the house, concerned and unnerved. `We should move,’ I said breathlessly as I let myself back in. `I think we need to get out of here.’ `Why?’ she asked. `The people I saw earlier are leaving the village.’ `So?’ `So I don’t feel safe here. What if the aliens are about to start work on the village? They might be about to demolish the whole fucking place and I don’t want to be sat here when they…’ `Where are we going to go?’ she interrupted. `Don’t know. The alien told me that we’d be safe if we kept out of the way. They’re not interested in us.’ `And where exactly is out of the way? Bloody hell, those ships are everywhere. There’s nowhere they can’t get to.’ `I know,’ I snapped, frightened and trying hard to think. `What we need,’ Clare said quietly, `is somewhere remote.

        We need a bloody island in the middle of the ocean. Somewhere where there’s nothing they could want. Nothing there for them to destroy.’

        Her train of thought was logical and it led me to an answer. `What about the Devil’s Peak?’ I said, remembering the small collection of water-worn rocks just off the coast. `If we could get out there we should be safe for a while. Joe Porter told me there’s a cove round the back where you can moor a boat. Told me he used to go there when he was a lad.’ `But is there any point?’ `Probably not. It’s worth a try though.’ `Suppose, but how are we going to get there?’ `I can think of at least three places down the coastal path where there are usually boats moored at this time of year.’ `Can you sail?’ `No but I can row. Come on, we’ve got to try, haven’t we?

        Bloody hell, if we just end up floating miles out to sea it couldn’t be any worse than sitting here and waiting for something to happen, could it? And if those bastards really do have plans for this place then…’ `Okay,’ she mumbled, sounding far from sure.

        `We’ll get a few things together and get moving. The quicker we get out of here, the better our chances are.’

        We were ready to leave in minutes. We silently worked together in the shadowy gloom of the kitchen, packing all the food and supplies we could find into two light and waterproof rucksacks and a battered sports holdall. I was distracted by the sound of sudden rain clattering against the window. I looked up and watched the clouds rush by with an ominous speed. A swirling, racing darkness only interrupted by the alien ships burning their way through the sky. `You all right?’ Clare asked, her voice little more than a tired whisper. She had noticed that I’d stopped. I nodded instinctively. `I’m okay,’ I lied. `What about you? You about ready?’ `Just about,’ she mumbled as she struggled with one of the straps on her rucksack. I stared into her face. She was a million miles away and I guessed that she was thinking about Penny and everything else that she had lost. The thought of her pain reminded me of my own. It all felt as cold, empty and hopeless as the day Mum and Dad died.

        Without warning the room was filled with brilliant blue-white light. I lifted my hand to shield my eyes and turned away from a sudden wave of heat. It faded away to almost nothing again in seconds and I stepped out into the back garden to see the disappearing engine-light of a low flying silver shuttle. The aliens seemed to be getting lower. Perhaps they were about to put in a long-overdue personal appearance on the land that they had taken from us.

        Clare came out to me. She was struggling with both the rucksacks. She handed one over. `Let’s get moving,’ she said, managing a fleeting smile.

        My legs suddenly felt weak and heavy. I didn’t want to leave the house but I knew we had little choice. `It’ll be all right,’ she whispered. `Well that’s what you keep telling me, anyway.’

        I nodded, fastened my coat and pulled the rucksack onto my shoulders. I stepped back into the house momentarily to collect the holdall and then returned to stand by Clare’s side. It was bitterly cold and already I could see that her teeth were chattering. `So which way do we go?’ she whispered.

        I wiped spitting rain from my face and looked around. The world suddenly seemed uncomfortably huge. `Straight across the fields I think,’ I replied, pointing beyond the low stone wall at the bottom of the garden. `If we keep heading that way we should hit the main coast road before long.’ `And then what?’ `Don’t know. Depends where we pick it up. We’ll just head up or down the coast until we find a boat.’ `Sure? You don’t sound it?’ `I’m not,’ I answered honestly. `But I don’t think that…’

        I stopped talking when another shuttle appeared. It flew directly across our line of vision from right to left, hugging the ground and dipping and rising with the troughs and peaks of the land. It was gone in seconds. `Let’s move,’ Clare said quietly.

        I hitched the rucksack up into a more comfortable position on my back and began to walk down the garden path. We clambered over the stone wall and then, holding one of the holdall’s handles each, we began to make our way nervously through the fields behind the house and down towards the ocean.

34

        We moved at an uncomfortably relaxed pace. Our world had been invaded and taken from us and yet we didn’t seem to be in any immediate danger. I felt as if we should have been sprinting and running for our lives but there wasn’t any apparent point or, bizarrely, anything much to run from. The aliens were still very visible in the skies over our heads for sure but, fortunately, that was where they seemed to be staying for the time being.

        Instinctively we still took care to keep ourselves hidden as much as possible. We walked in the shadows of hedges and fences as often as we could, hoping that we would soon find the winding coast road.

        The day now moving towards its end had been so long and painful that it felt as though weeks, not hours had passed by. All that had happened today seemed so ludicrous, far-fetched and unreal and yet, in a peculiar way, the lost normality of the life I’d lost seemed even stranger than the twisted present. I guess it was because I knew there was no going back. Everything I had classed as normal before was now gone forever.

        I was conscious that Clare was beginning to tire and lag behind. `You all right?’ I asked, turning round to face her. I struggled to keep my voice at a volume that was sufficiently low and yet which could still be heard over the howling wind. She nodded. `Fine,’ she grunted.

        Yet another enormous ship powered overhead. We both stopped moving instantly and pressed our bodies tight against the brittle hedgerow which ran alongside us. No matter what we had been told, instinct forced us both to try and get out of sight when the aliens were close. The massive machines were so quick, powerful and quiet that we had no way of knowing when one was nearby until we saw it like this, vast and impervious. Once it had gone I gently pushed Clare forward again. `We must be close to the road now,’ I whispered. My breath condensed in cool clouds around my mouth. My face felt battered and raw in the cold autumn air. `You’ve been saying that for the last half-hour,’ Clare hissed. `Still think we’re heading in the right direction?’

        I shrugged my shoulders and swapped the heavy holdall from my left to right hand. `Don’t know,’ I replied truthfully. `Still think we’re doing the right thing?’ `Don’t know,’ I said again. `Do you?’ `Not sure.’ `Got to have been better than just sitting there and waiting for something to happen though?’ I suggested. Who was I fooling?

        At that moment I would have given anything to have been sitting back in Clare’s dark house again. It seemed the easiest option but I knew there was no going back.

        It began to pour with rain. It had been spitting since we’d set out but this was much worse. A cold, hard downpour. Icy, relentless and showing no signs of stopping. There were low, heavy clouds all around us. `Fucking hell,’ Clare cursed. She stopped walking. `What’s the matter?’ `What do you think’s the matter?’ she snapped. `Fucking hell, Tom, I’m cold, I’m frightened and now I’m fucking wet. What in God’s name are we doing out here?’

        She wiped dribbles of water from her face and stood and stared at me. I stared back. Her body was haunched forward, and it seemed as though everything required more effort than she could muster. `Come on,’ I insisted, trying to calm and reassure her. `The road’s not far ahead now. All we need to do is…’ `Is what? What’s the point? What are we going to achieve?’

        I couldn’t argue and I couldn’t answer. I felt as dejected, empty and frightened as she obviously was. I turned my back on her and walked away. It was easier than trying to reason with her.

        `Just keep moving,’ I shouted. `The aliens aren’t interested in us. We’ll be all right.’ `But what about the others?’ she yelled back at me angrily. `What about Penny? I don’t know where my little girl is. I’m out here with you, walking through the countryside in the middle of the fucking night, and my daughter’s out there somewhere on her own. I should be with her.’

        I shook my head and kept going. `There’s no point.’ `Why not?’ `Just trust me, will you?’ `But I want to see her, Tom. I want to go back to the village and see if I can find…’

        I stopped walking and turned around to face her again. `There’s no point,’ I repeated. `But why?’ `Because…’

        At the last second I stopped myself from telling her about the cull. I couldn’t bring myself to break the news to her. She still believed that Penny was alive and I didn’t want to be the one to shatter her illusion. I was sure she knew in her heart that she wouldn’t see her little girl again, but if she admitted to herself that Penny was gone she wouldn’t have any reason to keep moving.

        Like a coward I just kept walking. I turned my back on her again and kept walking. `Tom!’ she screamed after me. `Tom! Come back you bastard!’

        I ignored her and walked, hoping that she would follow.

        Almost a minute had passed before I heard her footsteps at my side again. `Just trust me, Clare,’ I whispered, wiping drops of rain and tears of frustration from my eyes. `Please just stay with me.’

        Clare said nothing.

        The hedgerow we were following gradually grew taller and taller. I stopped for a second when something caught my eye.

        Dense and tangled for the most part, there were other parts where the hedge seemed thinner and almost passable. Crouching down on my hands and knees in the mud, I pushed my head and shoulders through at one of the thinnest points. `What is it?’ Clare asked from behind me. `The road,’ I grinned, standing up again. `Which road?’ `Haven’t got a fucking clue. But it’s a road, and that’s all that matters. I’m sure we’ll recognise it if we follow it for a while.’ `You’re completely sure?’ `Not completely sure, no. But…’ `Christ, Tom,’ she moaned. `I’m sick and tired of…’ `Listen,’ I said quickly, covering her mouth with a muddy hand and silencing her. `It doesn’t matter what fucking road this is, the point is we’ve found it. We’ve been travelling in the right direction and we’ve found a road. If this isn’t the road I was thinking of, then there’s a bloody good chance that this is the road that will take us to it. Understand?’

        I dropped my hand away to give her a chance to respond. `I just want to stop walking,’ she whined. `I’m cold and I’m tired and I’m scared. I…’ `Shh…’ I soothed, pulling her closer to me. `Let’s just get down there and see where we end up.’

        I slid the holdall over to the gap in the hedgerow and kicked it through, listening out for the heavy thump as it hit the tarmac. It sounded as if there was a drop of a few feet from the bank down to the road. I took Clare’s rucksack from her and pushed that through before doing the same with my own.

        Crouching down on my hands and knees, I shuffled backwards until my feet were through the hedge. I felt my way down the bank. `Come on,’ I whispered, looking up at Clare who stood watching me. `Follow me and keep close. There’s a bit of a drop from the field to the road but I’ll help you down once you’re through.’

        She nodded. Once I was sure that she was ready to push her way through the hedgerow after me I scrambled down onto the road. Seconds later the soles of Clare’s muddy boots followed me through. I grabbed her legs and guided her down. `Got you,’ I said quietly.

        I looked up and down the narrow, twisting lane.