Alex Knightly - Sudden Darkness - A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Thriller

Pete woke up with a pain in his jaw from grinding his teeth. He wasn’t sure how long he’d even been asleep—he’d gone to bed exhausted, but hadn’t been able to sleep for thinking about Harry.

Outside, a car horn blasted and he knew straight away that it wasn’t the first time and that was what had woken him up.

He jumped out of bed and hurried to the window. His heart sank. Zane had pulled up on the footpath right outside in an old Jaguar. There was no point in hiding—he was looking right up at him.

“Come on,” Zane roared, hammering the horn again. “Don’t make me tell you twice.”

Pete scrambled into the clothes he’d been wearing the day before and threw on the first pair of trainers he found under the bed. He couldn’t believe Zane was outside his house making a scene. He was usually beyond careful, not even texting any of them directly when he had instructions. Josh's words came back to him and he couldn’t help but agree with his brother—if Harry and his crew were getting cocky it was because Pete had given them reason to be.

He hurried out the door and jumped into the passenger seat, praying none of the neighbours had seen. His mother wouldn’t appreciate having one of Harry’s men pull up right outside her house, especially after what had happened the day before.

Zane squinted at him and made no move to start the engine. “Where’s your brother?”

“My brother? I don’t know, in bed? Why?”

“Why’d you think? It’s him Harry wants.”

“He doesn’t have anything to do with you lot.”

Zane scowled. “Get him.” He started the engine and began to rev it impatiently, which sent Pete’s already erratic heart rate skyrocketing. It was a big old thing and it would have been noticeable even if traffic had been normal. Now the sound was startling in the silence. He fumbled the door open and hurried back to the house.

“Josh,” he yelled as he ran up the stairs. “Josh, wake up!”

His brother’s bedroom door opened and Josh stood there, fully dressed and looking like he’d been ready for some time. His face was a mixture of fear and anger.

Pete stopped and squirmed, caught between wanting to explain and wanting to get Zane away from there as fast as possible.

“Come on. Zane is here for us.”

“What have you done, Pete?”

“I know,” Pete muttered, resisting the very strong urge to physically drag his brother out of the house. “I know. I was stupid. But we have to go.”

“Where are we going?”

They’d been driving for several minutes. Pete had assumed they were going to the gym, but they’d passed it a few minutes ago. He looked back at his brother, but Josh was staring out the window as if it was the most fascinating view he’d ever seen.

“None of your business.” Zane looked in the rearview mirror. “Oi, you. Genius.” He whistled. “Don’t get any ideas. Just because you gave Harry the idea doesn’t make you anything special. It’s the rest of us who’ve actually made this happen. Got it?”

“Loud and clear.”

Pete could hear the sarcasm in his brother’s voice, but Zane didn’t notice.

They pulled off the road into a row of warehouses. Pete had never seen it before. He’d tried to keep track of where they were going, but he was lost now. Zane had gone down narrow streets and lanes and at times it seemed like he was doubling back on himself, but it was hard to know. The streets all looked the same in some of those estates.

He parked in front of a warehouse with roller doors all along the front wall. A rusting sign on the wall said ‘Mahon Logistics’.

“Come on, let’s go.”

They got out and walked around the corner past piles of used wooden pallets. It was some kind of a trucking depot. There were other cars parked around the place, all old. Pete looked at Josh and saw he was looking at the cars too. Harry had obviously listened to what Josh said. Pete counted four of them. From a Ford Escort that had seen better days to the mint-looking Jaguar Zane was driving.

He shook his head. What have I gotten us into?

Zane led them through a door in the side of the building. Harry was sitting on the far side of the vast warehouse on a pile of cement bags. He wasn’t alone. There were fifteen or twenty men and boys crowded around him. They sat on broken plastic garden chairs and wooden pallets. A few were stretched out on the dusty concrete floor.

“You decided to join us,” Harry said coldly.

“These two sleeping beauties wouldn’t get out of bed.”

Mo turned around and smirked at them. Pete looked away. Of course he was loving this. This wasn’t what Pete had been expecting. Why were they being picked on when they were the ones who’d told Harry what was really happening?

“Come on,” Harry barked. “We don’t have time for this. Listen up.” He looked around. “Is this it?”

One of the men at the front who Pete had seen around the gym nodded.

Harry stood. “Right then. I’ll make this quick. Me and some of the boys have been working our arses off all night while the rest of you sat around wondering what to do about your Playstation not working.”

“And we’ve done well. But this thing is big. Real big. You’ll have noticed there’s no coppers out there. That’s because they’re struggling to get a handle on this thing. Not like you and me. We’ve got it. We have four cars already. And that’s just the start.” He clapped his hands together. “You’ve all been loyal over the years and that’s about to pay off for you. There’s just a bit of heavy lifting that needs to be done first.”

“How?” someone piped up. “All the shops are shut and the power’s still off.”

“I know that,” Harry snapped. “But we’re at an advantage here. We know what’s happened, thanks to Josh there.”

Twenty heads turned to look in their direction and Pete felt very exposed. Some of them were lads he’d gone to school with. Others were older hard men he’d seen around but never spoken to.

“We’re going to take over.”

There was a murmur of confusion.

“Shut up,” Zane snapped.

“It’s okay, Zane. It took me a while to understand it too. And it doesn’t matter. I’m not paying you lot to think. Do exactly what I say and we’ll all win. Now.” He looked around the room. “The way we’ll get ahead is to have something no-one else has, including the police. So your focus is on getting as many working cars as possible. I want each and every one of you out there, rounding up your friends. It doesn’t matter how thick or useless they are as long as they’re loyal. I want as many hands as possible working on this. You’re to go and find me cars that work. You hear? Garages. Vintage showrooms. Wherever you can think of. Spread out. Zane here will coordinate you.”

They all stared at him, baffled.

“What are you waiting for? Go!” Harry looked around. “Wait. Not you, Mo. Or the Freeman boys. You stay here. I have another job for you.”

Pete’s stomach was churning now. He had the feeling that something incredibly bad was about to happen; that by running to Harry he hadn’t just fucked things up for his own family, but for far more people than that.

“The cars are only the start of it,” Harry murmured when there was only the four of them left. His voice echoed through the empty, high-ceilinged building. “You lot will get working on something equally important.”

“What’s that?” It was Josh who asked.

“Ah, eager I see. Good.” Harry smiled. “We’ll need a way of communicating, won’t we?”

Josh frowned. “Communicating? Every exposed circuit has been fried. That includes mobile networks. Nothing’s going to work anymore.”