M. Marshall - The End Is Nigh

“Yes of course. I will meet you there.” She hung up, and I stared blankly at the phone in my hand.

We waited for days before we were able to identify them. We did it together although Kate took charge. She handled everything, I was just in shock existing only as a silent witness. I hoped that I had brought her some comfort just by being there, but I was so trapped in my own head that I’m not sure that I did.

So seeing death and disaster wasn’t totally new to me but the scale of this was unthinkable. It was hard to imagine how the country was going to be able to pull itself back together.

From the corner of my eye, I saw in the distance. Something moving at the side of the road which brought me out of my reverie. We moved closer, and I could make out a group of people. It looked like a family. A woman and two young children. They could have been no older than eight and ten. The mother was stood waving both hands as though to flag down oncoming traffic.

I looked back at the seat behind me, and it was fairly empty except for Shadow, but he could sit in the boot. They could squeeze in with the travel cot and a few sleeping bags. After seeing so much death already today, leaving them by the side of the road wasn’t something I had in me to do. They could also be heading to the Bunker, and it would be good to have some company. Helping out a woman on her own with two kids seemed the like the right thing to do.

I lifted my foot off the accelerator and began to brake. I pulled over on to the grassy verge just a few meters before where they were. The mother ran over and I could see that they were in a bad way before I had stepped a foot out of the car.

“Thank you. Oh God thank you so much.” She gushed. “We’ve been out here for almost two days, and you’re the only person to stop.” She looked very emotional. I noticed a fresh cut over her right eye and bruising on the side of her face. She had clearly not had it easy.

“I’m happy to help, but it will be a bit cramped.” I gestured to the back of the car. “Don’t worry the dog can travel in the boot. If we do a little repacking I think I can just about fit all three of you on the back seat if you would like to come with my daughter and me?”

As I spoke, I scanned their faces. Trying to get a better look at this family. Their clothes were torn, and their faces were dirty. The woman was by far the worst. It looked as if she had suffered a heavy nosebleed or actually on closer inspection she may have had her nose broken. That would tally with the bruising in her face and arms. She caught me staring at her injuries and shot back a strange, wild glare. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Something was definitely off with this woman.

Her children, two young boys, were in a sorry state. They had mud caked all over their clothes which hung off their skinny frames. They looked like they hadn’t eaten a proper meal in two months. “Where are you trying to get to?”

“We’re on our way to Cambridge. My sister lives there.”

“Ah ok, well I can give you a lift to Essex.” Silence. “That’s as far as I’m going.”

“Oh, yeah right of course. We’ll just ride along as far as we can.”

“There’s a nuclear bunker there with supplies and a safe place to sleep. You sure you don’t want to come with us and stay a night or two?” The woman looked at her two boys who were glaring pleadingly up at her. They looked like they were in such need of food. “You could get a hot meal and cleaned up, maybe, before continuing up to Cambridge?” Still, she said nothing but kept glancing behind her into the treeline.

These two kids needed to eat and rest more than anything else. In my heart I knew that if Brighton had been bombed, then Cambridge would have also been a target. Unfortunately, it made good sense. I chose not to point that out. Instead, thinking of another way I could be helpful.

“Maybe before we set off you would like some food? I’ve got a little with me, and you all look like you could eat?”

The mother looked up at me open-mouthed. While her two children ran forward and broke the silence

“Do you have crisps?”

“Any chocolate?”

I laughed for the first time in ages as I looked down upon the two young pairs of eager shining eyes.

“Actually yes. I have a tiny bit of chocolate. It’s cooking chocolate I’m afraid. I hope that’s still alright?” They nodded so hard I thought their heads might roll off. “And unfortunately no crisps. Sorry. Hold on.” I turned back to the Land Rover and opened the front passenger door to see Rosa stretching her neck out of the car seat to see what was going on. “Hello, my little angel. Would you like some food?” I made the sign for food, and she replied.

“Nom, nom,” She could probably do with stretching her legs and something to eat anyway. There was still a long way to travel. As I leaned over to release the straps over her shoulders, I noticed the clock on the dash, which told me that it was almost 2 pm.

A journey that would usually have taken no more than two or three hours had taken us the best part of the day. I opened up the back door of the car and Shadow jumped down to the grass. He headed off towards the bushes. Toilet break.

I took out Rosa’s changing bag which contained her formula for the day as well as changing supplies. I also grabbed a small box of food, the stove we used on our camping trips and the sleeping bags from the backseat. I walked over to the family and laid out the sleeping bags on the grass inviting them to sit, the two children started raking through the box of food. I pulled Rosa out of her car seat and sat her on a sleeping bag next to me.

“There should be two tins of baked beans in there, I can warm them up if you’d like? I can pop a tin of corned beef in with it too. Sorry not very appetising I know.”

“This is very kind of you, we haven’t eaten in days.” She flashed me a smile before turning away again to look back into the trees.

“And I can’t remember the last time we ate something hot.” The taller of the boys offered. His younger brother was sitting cross-legged reading the label of a tin of baked beans almost moved to tears. This was all so crazy. A few months ago he was probably staring that way at the latest smartphone, and now here we were thanking our lucky stars for beans! It was good to help someone other than myself and Rosa for a change. It had been a long time since I had been around people.

“Do you know anything about the attacks? Where were you when the bombs hit?” I asked as I stirred the pot slowly heating up the mixture of beans and corned beef.

“We were in our basement!” said one of the boys, the two squares of cooking chocolate I had given them each had definitely worked at loosening their tongues. “We stayed down there for a whole month, didn’t we Mum?”

His mother looked up from the stirring pot of food for a brief second to give me a faint smile, then returned her gaze back to the food.

As I dished up the beans, I gave them each a portion in a plastic cup

“No spoons I’m afraid.” I had spoons for Rosa but kept them tucked away in her bag, I didn’t want to risk losing them by the roadside. Everyone ate in silence, the two young boys grew more content with each warm mouthful, it was obvious that these people had experienced a harsh life since the attack. Any noise made them startle and raise their heads to look around for… well I’m not sure what they were looking for, but they were afraid of something. That much was clear.

The family had finished theirs long before Rosa, and I had. I was helping Rosa get the last of hers in her mouth when I heard a clatter behind me. It was the sound of her car seat crashing on to the tarmac. I turned to see a man ripping things out of our car. In shock I looked back at the woman. She stood staring straight ahead, her two boys cowered one tucked behind each of her arms. They looked on.