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

Surely not. It couldn’t be. It was too far away to tell what make of car it was. “What colour was their car?”

“What colour do you think?” she hissed. Now her eyes were focused only on the road ahead. “Keep an eye on them. Tell me if they start to close the gap.”

Clive watched, his heart thumping. Close the gap? There was no question of it. An XJS against their little Renault… How much time did they have? Not much.

“Can this thing go any faster?”

“What do you think? We’re already pushing it.”

Terry’s eyes were closed, but he hadn’t been sleeping. In fact, he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to sleep again. Every time he closed his eyes, he pictured one of two things: the boy he’d shot and the flames whooshing around the old garage. Sometimes they morphed into one horrible image that made the hairs on his arms stand on end.

That was when they’d been driving normally. Now, all of a sudden, he was being thrown this way and that, often into Olivia beside him.

He opened his eyes and immediately he wished he hadn’t. Cars were coming at them at a frightening speed. The fact that they weren’t moving only made it seem worse.

“My God,” he muttered, feeling sick.

“It’s the men from the garage,” Clive said, without looking at him. He was staring out the back window so Terry turned to look too. “They’re following us.”

Terry frowned as he remembered everything Si had said about them. It didn’t help that he’d only been half paying attention. “How did they find us? We lost them earlier.”

“Same motorway. Could be a coincidence. Could be something else.”

“Are you sure they’re chasing us?”

Si snorted. “They have shotguns. They kidnapped Max. Let’s not give them the benefit of the doubt.”

Terry rubbed his eyes. “And I thought yesterday and this morning was the worst that could happen.”

No-one else said anything. They were all either staring ahead or behind. Terry watched the car. It was still some way behind them—it disappeared temporarily whenever there was a slight bend in the road. “How long have they been there?” He was transfixed by the other car.

“I don’t know. But they’re gaining on us.”

“Are they?” Si gasped. “I should have known. There’s no way we can outrun them in this.”

“What the hell are we going to do then?” Terry leant forward and craned his neck to look up at the sky. It had been fine earlier but it was dull again. At least it wasn’t raining: that would have made their breakneck speed even more hazardous. But he couldn’t tell what time it was or how long they’d been going.

“I don’t know. I’m going to keep my foot down; that’s all I know.”

They whizzed past a series of blue signs with white diagonal lines. It gave Terry an idea. “Why don’t we get off and try and lose them?” They were well out of London by now and the urban sprawl had given way to green hedges and rolling hills with sheep dotted around them. “There’s bound to be a barn or something we can hide in.”

Annie sighed heavily. “Okay, I’ve counted about five minutes. What do you think, Clive? How much have they gained on us?”

“It’s hard to tell,” he said. “Maybe two hundred yards? Maybe more. They’re certainly far closer than they were.”

She turned to Si. “I know none of us knows the area, but there’s no point in us trying to outrun them. They can afford to keep chasing us. They’ll get us eventually.”

“What are you saying?” Si spat. She looked tired. The intense concentration was clearly taking its toll. “That we should just give up?”

“No. I’m saying we should consider getting off the motorway and trying to lose them on smaller roads.”

“How far are we from your place?”

“Too far,” Annie said, looking out the window. “They’ll catch us long before we get there. Getting off is our only choice.”

Si shook her head. “It’s too risky. They’re only seconds behind us. One wrong turn and they’ll have us. I can’t get us away when I don’t know the roads and none of you can guide me.”

Terry was listening to all this without saying anything; thinking; taking stock. They whizzed past a service station on the other side of the road and it put an idea in his head. “What if…” he cleared his throat when it became clear none of them had heard him. “What if we don’t try and lose them. What if we trap them?”

The car fell as silent as it had ever been. Clive and Annie turned to look at him, waiting. He held his hands up, wishing he had more to give them.

“What are you thinking?”

“I don’t know. It’s just an idea that came into my head. We just passed a service station on the other side. There must be another coming up on this side. What if we pulled in there and waited.”

“They have shotguns,” Si said, almost as soon as he’d finished speaking.

“We have guns,” Terry said. He looked over at Clive expectantly, hoping the older man might jump at the idea and think of a watertight plan. As he did, he spotted a flash of green up ahead.

“Look. There’s a service station.”

“It’s about five hundred yards away,” Si said. “How much of a lead do we have on them?”

“About the same again. Five hundred yards or so.”

Terry shook his head. Maths wasn’t his strong point. But that didn’t matter. An idea had popped into his head. “They don’t know we’re armed, do they? In fact, they don’t know we’re with you.”

Si sighed “They wouldn’t. I don’t even know if they know about me. The only way is if Max told them…” her voice faltered. “And he wouldn’t have.”

“Well then.” He looked over at Clive who was watching him with interest as he clung to the side of the car to stop himself from falling on them. “For all they know, we’re a bunch of random frightened people.”

“So? They still have shotguns.”

He saw it so clearly now. He’d never thought of anything with such clarity before. The words came tumbling out and he waited for Clive to tell him it was a stupid plan; that it would never work.

But he didn’t.

Instead, he leant forward and squeezed the side of the front seat. “Did you hear that, Si? It’s risky, but it’s our only shot at getting rid of them once and for all.”

She nodded.

“Be ready.”

Everyone apart from Si was twitchy with nerves as they looked out the back window at the ever-narrowing gap between them and the car pursuing them. It was so close now that Terry could have seen it was a Jag even if he hadn’t already known.

The problem was they had already passed the first service station he’d seen and none of them had any idea when they were going to pass another.

“It shouldn’t be too long,” Clive murmured. “Those things are everywhere.”

“Let’s hope not.”

Terry stared at the windscreen of the car behind. It was still too far away to see the men inside. Who the hell were they and why were they bothering to chase down a crappy old Renault? They obviously had decent cars at their disposal.

It was the girl, he realised with a start. They were after her. She said they didn’t know about her, but they must have done. Why else would they have come back?

He turned and looked at the back of her head. Hadn’t those men done enough to her? He gritted his teeth. They were no different from the kids who’d stolen his water or the customers who’d rounded on him for trying to help a young woman in need.

And he’d had enough of that. He was starting to make sense of his shock at having shot that young man. It didn’t matter if people judged him or not. The world had changed. He’d done what he thought was right. He didn’t need to beat himself up.