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

“I’ll get up and take a look,” Annie said quietly. “You lot watch the bikes.” She hoisted herself up and disappeared over to the far side of the truckbed, but she wasn’t out of sight for long.

“Jesus,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s been cleaned out. The only thing left is packaging. There are empty oven cleaner boxes in there. All gone.”

She got down and they moved off again, even more disheartened than they’d been before.

“That stuff is toxic,” Annie said, after they’d passed the next motorway exit leading to places none of them had ever heard of, much less been to.

“What?”

“Oven cleaner. Why would anyone take it? It’s useless now.” She frowned. “Maybe someone took it with the intention of using it as a weapon. A spray of that in the eyes…”

Terry winced. He was uncomfortable enough as it was without thinking about something like that. Far from getting used to the bike, it was getting worse. At times he thought he was going to pass out from the discomfort.

“Look,” Annie hissed. “Up ahead. Is that a refrigerated truck? See the unit at the back of the cab?”

“Looks like it,” Clive said, speeding up towards it. They all followed.

“There aren’t any markings on the side.”

Terry shook his head. “It could be anything. They could be carrying medical specimens. Food companies usually plaster their names and colours on every available space.”

“Only one way to find out.”

Terry glanced warily at the cab. “What about the driver? I don’t fancy…”

Clive stood up on the pedals of his bike and peered in the passenger window. “No-one in there.”

For some reason, that made it even worse. “No,” Terry said, turning away. “We shouldn’t open it. If the driver didn’t even touch his cargo, why would you think it’s something we want?”

He could see the hesitation grow on their faces as they thought about it.

Then Clive got off his bike. “We can’t be choosy. Move away. I’ll see what’s inside.”

Clive disappeared around the back of the little white truck. There could be anything in there . Terry wished he’d volunteered. He felt numb; like nothing else could ever shock him.

“Got it,” Clive muttered.

No-one moved.

Terry closed his eyes.

“My goodness,” Clive said, reappearing around the side of the truck. “You’ll want to see this.”

Annie moved to the back of the truck and disappeared. A moment later, her head appeared around the side. She was smiling. He’d never seen her smile. “Cheese! Yogurt! Milk! I’ve heard of this company. They go to all the markets. Oh, there’s juice too! This is perfect! If we take as many of these juices as we can carry we’ll be able to last without water for a while longer.”

Terry hurried forward. His eye widened when he climbed into the back of the truck. All this food just laid out for them. It was good stuff too: he could tell. Even so, he couldn’t smell cheese or yogurt. The metallic smell of the gun discharging was still so strong he could taste it on his tongue. He jumped back down out of the truck, wishing there was some way he could forget.

“What do you mean you’ve got nothing? How did those blokes in World War Two do it?”

Josh shook his head. “They built the technology over time. We’re having to start from scratch.”

“I don’t want anything fancy,” Harry said, waving his hand dismissively. “I just want something that works. It can be as ugly as sin and the size of a phone box if it has to be. Well, so long as it fits into a car.”

“You’re asking me to come up with hundreds of years’ worth of technological advancements in a day,” Josh muttered.

“No I’m not. It’s already been invented, hasn’t it? You just need to figure out how to get it working again.”

Pete exchanged glances with Mo. He felt sorry for his brother. He’d been there all day the previous day and into the night as Josh tried to make sense of the university textbooks they’d taken from the library.

“I will,” Josh sighed, rubbing his forehead. “I just need time, is all.”

“Anyone could do it with enough time, brainiac,” Harry said, getting right into Josh's face. “Just remember this. You have one job. Don’t screw it up or there’ll be consequences.”

“I’m trying my best!”

“Your best? Your best ? This isn’t primary school. You don’t get points for participation. The police probably have experts on this as we speak. We need to get as many steps ahead of them as we can.” He held up his hand to silence Josh, who looked like he was about to object again. “Find someone else to do the work if you need to. I don’t care. But it’s on your head if you don’t.”

“No. I can’t.”

“Your choice.”

Josh sighed. “Even if I wanted to do that, how would I find someone to—”

“Put an ad in the paper. What do you think?”

The door burst open and Harry clicked his tongue as Kenan entered. “What is it now? Don’t tell me you lot aren’t able to follow instructions?”

“It’s not that.”

“What is it then? I don’t have time for this.”

“I need to talk to you about something.” He looked warily at Pete and the others. “In private.”

“Outside,” Harry snapped. “Now.”

Pete stared straight ahead, not trusting himself to speak. He and Mo had been friends since they were five, but given what had been happening lately he didn’t know who he could trust.

The door opened and Harry came back in. None of them paid him much attention at first, until he stood over them, glowering.

“Everything alright?” Pete asked when it became clear that no-one else was going to say anything.

“No, it’s not. Do you know what Kenan just told me?”

Pete watched Harry's face with a growing sense of dread. Harry was raging about something Kenan had said, but they’d only been outside for a minute or two. He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“The bloody army’s rolling in, aren’t they? You.” He jabbed a slender finger at Josh. “You said they were immobilised.”

Josh looked as stunned as Pete felt. It took him a few moments to get his voice back. “Not exactly, but I sure they are. Look—”

“No, you look. Do you think you can make a fool of me? Feed me a fairytale and get away with it?”

Josh shook his head dumbly. “I didn’t. I told you everything I know.”

“Well you left out this part!” Harry was still standing over them, menacing despite his slight build.

“Wait,” Josh said, holding up his hand. “Wait. What did he say exactly?”

“What does it matter? It’s the army, son. This ruins everything. We can’t move ahead now.”

Pete filled with hope for a moment. Maybe there was a way out for them. If the army was rolling in, then Harry would have no choice but to abandon this stupid crazy plan of his—the plan Pete had set in motion.

“Just listen,” Josh said, standing up and turning to face Harry. For one horrible moment, Pete thought his brother was going to grab Harry by the shoulders and shake him until he listened. Thankfully, he didn’t. “Please. Did Kenan tell you what kind of vehicles they were driving? Or any other details? We can go now, the four of us.” He shook his head. “Just because he saw soldiers doesn’t mean what I told you isn’t true.”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure you’d love to go running to the army.”

Josh shook his head. “No, not at all. You know where I live. You told me so.”

Pete shuddered. Of course. There could be no running away from Harry, not when their mother was still in that house.