M. Marshall - The End Is Nigh

The hand outstretched in front of me feeling for Shadow landed on something cold and sticky. Whipping my hand back I held in a scream. The hand I was using to feel for the wall shot to my mouth.

“Sh.. Shadow.” I pleaded through clenched teeth. In my panic I had lost Shadow’s tail.

If I didn’t get control of myself, I was going to lose it in here. My hand was covered in something wet and sticky. Realising that something was on my skin, I rubbed my hand on the side of my leg.

“Shadow…” Tentatively I closed my hand into a fist and pushed it out in front of me until I felt the object in front of me. Something was wedged in between a car to my right and the wall to my left.

How had the dog gotten past it? “Shadow.” I needed to get past this thing so that I didn’t lose Shadow in here. I raised my foot and brought the knee up as high as I could then stretched out my leg until I felt the object against my foot. Holding on to the wall and the car beside me for support I pushed it away from me moving it away from me until I felt the resistance against my foot disappear and heard it drop with a thump to the ground. I shuffled forwards and felt that whatever it was now laid flat against the edge of the tunnel wall. Still holding on to the side of the car I sidled past and further on into the black nothingness ahead.

After a few steps, a wet nose touched the back of my outstretched hand, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. Not again. It took me a second to calm myself down enough to realise that it was Shadow. I fumbled down into the dark where I thought his head would be and scratched his ear, my way of thanking him. I was surprised he hadn’t left me here. He would have been out the other side already if it wasn’t for me.

My breathing began to return to a more normal rate. Although in here nothing felt normal. The reassuring, steady swish of Shadow’s tail against my hand kept me moving forward and towards the exit. As my eyes began to adjust, I was seeing small flashes of light bouncing off car bonnets and windows. Optimism stirred within me. Surely now we had reached the middle of the tunnel? This must be the moonlight shining in from the entrance on the north side of the River Thames.

We got closer, and my eyes could see the light was too small and too bright to be coming from the entrance of the tunnel. The reflections flickered orange light all around the tunnel as it seemed to ricochet off one car windscreen to then appear on the next. It reminded me of a candle. Yes, that is exactly what it was. As soon as my eyes made the connection, my brain clicked into action, and I could smell the smoke. Perhaps someone had made a campfire down here.

As the tunnel began to fill with the flickering orange light, I was able to see a small clearing had been made. I could see the fire in the distance. It was only small and appeared to be controlled, but the fact that we were surrounded by hundreds of cars filled with highly flammable fuel made me want to get out of there now.

Shadow had stopped moving forward and sat down directly at my feet. In the flickering light, I could just about make out his wet muzzle poking upwards, sniffing for something in the smoky air which was getting thicker by the second. It would only take one of these cars to be leaking fuel and for that fire to throw out a spark which would hit it. I couldn’t protect Rosa from a fire in here. We would all be dead in an instant.

In a moment of desperation, I started to back away from the light. We needed to go back but were pinned in a small space between the tunnel wall and a transit van. Shadow gave out a low growl as if protesting my decision but I ignored him. I couldn’t stay here this was too dangerous. I would take my chances crossing the river some other way. Maybe if we slept in the car tonight, we could try again tomorrow when the tunnel would be empty. I began inching my way backwards out of the small space we found ourselves in.

Gingerly stepping backwards through the small gap between the wing mirror of the van and the wall the heel of my foot moved back into something. A large hand came over my head and down to cover my mouth, and another grabbed me around the hips underneath Rosa’s sleeping body. A gruff male voice whispered close to my ear.

“Shhhhhh. Don’t scream and I won’t hurt you. See the fire over there, there are men around it. There’s a very good chance that they will kill us if they find us here.” Shadow’s growling was getting louder and more vicious as he heard the confrontation going on behind me.

“Can you shut your dog up? If they hear him, he’ll be on the menu for the next week.” I tried to turn my head to look at him but couldn’t. “I promise I don’t want to hurt you. I’m letting you go now, okay? Do not scream.” I nodded my head in agreement before he lifted his hand away from my mouth. Petrified I lent over and patted Shadow on the head bringing my finger up to my lips showing him that we needed to be quiet.

“No barking.” This was a command I had started giving to him when Rosa was sleeping. I could only pray that he understood what I meant by it now. My attempts to calm him worked, enough to stop him from growling anyway.

“We need to try and get past them, there are three men in the clearing over there right now. Usually, there’s six but three of them went off somewhere before the sunset. I’ve been watching them for the best part of a day so don’t go blowing it for me by drawing attention to yourself and we’ll make it out together.” So much information. Such a shock. I couldn’t take it all in. I nodded my head.

It was like something from a horror film. I couldn’t see him. I wasn’t even able to turn and look at him standing behind me, but I felt the warmth of his breath on the back of my neck as he spoke. I was still reeling from the fright he’d given me. “Okay now walk forward and keep as low to the ground as you can and for God’s sake keep your dog from barking, or we’re screwed.” I grabbed hold of the sleeping bag attached to Shadow’s back and let him guide me. Hoping the grip I had would be strong enough to hold him back should he want to investigate where the smoke was coming from. My other hand was placed protectively over the back of Rosa’s head. Silently we shuffled past the cars in the dim, flickering light.

It was some time before we passed the fire and the three sleeping men around it. Being careful not to make any noise at all and also moving with speed was impossible. At one point just as we had got a few metres in front of the fire Rosa stirred and let out a sleepy groan. One of the men woke ,

“You say something?”

“What?”

“I heard you say something?”

“Nah, sleeping.”

We stood like statues for the next five minutes willing them to forget about it and fall back to sleep. When we felt sure that they had, I continued to shuffle on towards the moonlight at the end of the tunnel.

We were almost at the exit on the other side of the river when Shadow broke off from us, leaving me behind to run ahead. I wondered if that was the last that we would see of him, perhaps he’d had enough of babysitting humans and figured out he was better off alone. I wouldn’t blame him, he probably was.

The first taste of fresh air hit my senses, and I felt able to breathe properly since entering the tunnel. Never in my life had I experienced anything as horrifying as that.

“I’m sorry if I scared you in there.” I had been so relieved to be back into the open air I hadn’t even turned to look behind me. “I was just worried that you hadn’t seen them in the tunnel. I didn’t know how to warn you without letting them know we were there.” Hearing his voice from much further away this time it seemed safer. Less threatening.