M. Marshall - The End Is Nigh

“Thank you for looking after Rosa for me Shadow.” He licked my hand as I pulled it away from his chin. Rosa giggled.

I unfastened the car seat and picked Rosa up out of it. I took her with me over to the Volkswagen, sure enough as I had walked away with her the dog stood and followed behind me. Rosa laughed and kicked her legs wanting to be down so that she could play with her new friend. “You can play with Shadow later hunny.” When we reached the hatchback, I opened the door and shut her in the back seat leaving the dog to sit patiently watching her through the window. I started to get to work on the steering column.

There will be a section somewhere that would pop out and reveal a load of wires. I ran my hands around the plastic of the column. I needed to connect two of those wires to connect the battery and then spark the ignition wire to start the car. However, I knew there would be lots of wires, and I had no clue what colour the right wires would be, and if I got this wrong, I could end up getting electrocuted. The idea of becoming a rotting corpse slumped over the steering wheel of the car for some other person to discover made me shudder.

The casing from the steering column came off with ease. I even managed to find the bundles of wires pretty easily and pulled them down so that I could try to identify which one went to the ignition. Sticking my head in between my knees so that I could try to get a better look at what it was I doing. From this angle I could see a bundle of wires grouped together, heading up the steering column towards the ignition. Common sense told me that I should start with that. Two of them were red which I assumed meant they were the power, I needed something to strip the wire casing off the wires so that I could join the two together.

I had used one of Matt’s multitools to open the tins earlier. I ran back over to the grass verge to scan the ground and look for it. Shadow stayed by the side of the car, barking his disapproval that I had left Rosa inside. I could see him pawing at the car window trying to get into Rosa, I could hear his claws on the car paintwork from the other side of the carriageway.

Just as I was about to give up on finding the tin opener, a glint of metal caught my eye shining in the sunlight on the grass.

“Bingo!” It took less than a dozen strides until I had it safely in my hand. Right beside it was the Trangia camping stove I had thrown at the man. The memory of it made me wince. I reached up to touch my cheekbone, it felt like my eye was swollen too. I bet I looked just great. Poor Rosa, I didn’t want to scare her, but there was nothing I could do about my face right now. I would have to try to let it go.

Armed with the multi-tool, I focused on my task. I had managed to strip the red wires and somehow was able to twist the two red ones together without electrocuting myself. Now for the hard part. I had to find the right wire to start up the car. This was the part I remember seeing in films, the spark of the live wire on the battery would start the car.

My luck changed, and the car sputtered into life. Relief flooded through me as if I too was somehow connected to the energy now racing through the Volkswagen. I had been dreading the idea of having to deal with the rotting body in the other car. In less than a few minutes I had packed the car with our meagre belongings.

With a glum thought as I packed the few items we had left to our name I remembered that the bag containing Rosa’s supplies only had enough formula to last the next 2 days. The hoard I had found at the store that night had been boxed up and tucked away in the boot of the Land Rover, which was now long gone.

“Bastards!” I muttered under my breath.

During this routine Shadow sat watching me with interest. Tilting his head, he followed me as I removed Rosa from the backseat of the car and carried her around to the passenger side and installed her car seat.

Then I walked back to the driver’s side, and Shadow continued to follow behind me, the dog sat looking up into the car.

“Don’t worry we won’t leave you.” He pawed at the door and looked up at me again. I opened the door, and he jumped on to the back seat, moving to sit directly behind Rosa.

I took the handbrake off and allowed the car to crawl forwards. The car was facing in the opposite direction to where we needed to go, we were trapped on the wrong side of the carriageway. But as I wanted to find shelter before nightfall I decided that I didn’t have the time to get on to the right side and began to turn the car around. I drove off leaving that wretched place behind me. If only I could have left the memories as easily as the scene. Stopping myself from looking in the rearview mirror I forced my mind to stop dwelling on how close we had come to death and thought only about what lay ahead.

Within a few short minutes of setting off, we came to a part of the road which had been totally blocked by a truck. It had jackknifed across all three lanes. Slowing down to a stop I got out of the car to see if there was any way around it. There was a small gap just wide enough between the central barrier and the cab of the truck. I got out of the car and walked over to the side of the road. It was either try the small gap or go around the back of the truck and off the edge of the hard shoulder. The grassy verge was beginning to look like a quagmire from the traffic of passing vehicles. If I went in there, I wasn’t at all sure that I would come out again. Had we been in the Land Rover right now this wouldn’t have been an issue. But here I was. After the efforts I’d gone to in order to get us another one, getting this little car stuck in the mud was the last thing I wanted.

Turning back to get into the driver’s side I made my decision.

“Tiny gap it is.”

WE HADN’T SEEN anyone since we had been back on the road. Which was both a mercy and a torment. Where was everyone? Were we too close to London for anyone to have survived here?

The sun was getting much lower than I would have liked which made the anxiety burning in my chest begin to grow. I guessed at the time. It could be about 7 pm. Unfortunately a good portion of the car’s dashboard hadn’t connected to the electrics when I had started the car. So the clock and the radio weren’t working. It was probably another wire that would need to be connected, but I didn’t want to push my luck, and I hadn’t the time to stop and fiddle about with it anyway.

My main priority was getting us off the M25 and to Matt’s parents’ house before it got dark. However, judging how long it had taken us to get to this point, I wasn’t that hopeful that we would be making it today. I wasn’t even sure if the lights were working ok, so if it did get dark, we could continue, but the question of was it safe was another matter.

My experience so far of being outside after dark hadn’t been good ones. We still had the sleeping bags with us which had been left on the grass where we had eaten our meal, but I wasn’t sure how low the temperatures would dip after the sun went in. Glancing back over my shoulder I saw Shadow fast asleep in the back seat. Similarly, Rosa was snoring away softly beside me. I started to feel like we were finally getting somewhere when I made out a sign on the other side of the carriageway indicating the Dartford crossing was coming up. It had been damaged and was barely legible, but I recognised it from our previous journeys up to visit Matt’s parents. I had stayed on the clockwise carriageway hoping to cross over the bridge at Dartford.

Ahead I could see the traffic getting worse, it was beginning to look impossible to get anywhere near the bridge. Some careful weaving in and out of the ghostly traffic jam of abandoned cars made it possible for us to reach where the toll booths had once stood.