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

But there were other consequences of that. Terry breathed out slowly as a new certainty washed over him. It was time to stop looking to others for approval. This was his time. There were no labels anymore. He wasn’t ‘just’ a supermarket worker or a single man in his forties or whatever.

“I’ll do it,” he muttered. This was what it was about; not sitting around in his flat watching life pass him by and feeling bitter at other people for it.

“No,” Clive said quickly. “It’s too risky.”

This time, Terry wouldn’t be convinced otherwise. It was happening. “I’m bigger,” he said with a smile that hid the nerves that had started churning in the pit of his stomach. “I can distract them; you can finish it off if need be. It’s better this way. You have a wife. The rest of you…” he pointed to Si. “Make sure she finds him, eh?”

There was silence after that. None of them tried to talk him out of it, which was just as well. His mind was made up.

“I see a service station,” Si said, knocking them all from their thoughts.

Terry sat upright and stared out the windscreen. The Jaguar was now close enough that they’d decided to go for the next exit if they didn’t come across a service station first. He took in what he was seeing. “It’s perfect. Set back from the road.” He glanced back over his shoulder and felt a wave of apprehension. “Maybe we left it too late. If they’re right behind us down the slip road, we’ll never be able to—”

“Leave it to me,” Si said.

They drove on in silence for a few more seconds, and the service area got closer and closer until Terry could read the name on the sign over the forecourt. “Now,” Terry yelped. “Get off.”

Si floored the accelerator. The old Renault juddered and shook as they bolted down the exit lane. Terry held his breath. It was hard to say whether their last-minute injection of speed was enough, but it was all they could do. There was no way the old car could have maintained that speed for longer.

He swallowed. It was almost time.

“Terry, you don’t have to do this, you know. We’ll find another—”

“No. This gives us the best shot.” He did his best to smile. “I’m well-padded. I’ll be alright.”

“Okay. If you’re sure.”

Terry’s heart hammered. He grabbed the door release with one hand and used the other to steady himself. He had to be ready to jump at the right time. His gun was shoved down the back of his jeans, ready for him to grab when he got in position. They turned a corner and he took in the layout. Yes, there it was. The carwash, over beyond a row of shop fronts and the petrol station itself.

“Go,” Clive hissed.

Terry threw open his door. Si had slammed on the brakes, but the car was still moving at considerable speed. He jumped out, crouching low and almost stumbling from the momentum of the moving car. But he kept himself upright somehow. He ran behind the first of the buildings and waited, heart thumping.

It was worse being alone. Now his thoughts swirled in his head. He’d never done anything like this before. He rubbed the back of his arm against his forehead. He was sweating.

Was it any wonder?

The roar of a second engine nearby told him the Jaguar had followed them in. He took a breath and waited.

This was it. Forty-five years of coasting and waiting for life to happen. Would he see forty-six?

Four car doors slammed in quick succession.

It was time.

Si swallowed. Hearing those doors slam shut hit harder than she’d expected because it sent her straight back to two days earlier when she’d seen Max for the last time. She blinked. It wasn’t the time to let it get to her.

She looked around at the others. They looked just as worried as she felt. “Do you think this will work?”

“I don’t know. But it was this or let them run us off the road.”

“Shh. Listen.”

It had seemed like a clever plan when he first said it, but now she couldn’t help but poke holes in it. They were depending on a lot of things to happen. Would they? She didn’t dare to look out just in case they saw her. Where were they?

She closed her eyes and inhaled. By now, Clive had moved to the other end of the car wash and left her standing with Annie. The place smelled like stagnant water and industrial strength cleaners.

Get a grip , she told herself. These are the guys you were planning to kill on your own. You can do this.

She’d never been more thankful for having been dragged anywhere against her will. What would have happened if they’d accepted her trade and left her at the scrapyard alone with a gun? She shuddered to think of it.

“Hello,” said a voice. She recognised it and it froze her to the spot with fear. “We can see you.”

She tapped Annie’s arm and nodded furiously when the woman turned to her. She didn’t trust herself to speak. It’s them. That’s them.

Annie looked over her head and something passed between her and Clive.

“Come on, now,” the man who’d paraded in front of Max said in a horrible sing-song voice that set her teeth on edge. “Come out before I have to go in there. It won’t be pretty. I just want to talk.”

Si held her breath.

Four doors. Four men.

Five of them, but only three guns. The confined space began to feel less like a stroke of genius and more like a prison cell. They had tried to convince her to stay in the car with Olivia but she couldn’t; not when there was so much at stake. She needed to be the one…

There was a loud bang from close by that made her jump in fright even though she’d been prepared for it.

“Now,” Clive hissed urgently.

He and Annie disappeared out into the forecourt leaving her alone. She wanted to peer around the corner and see what was happening, but a second gunshot made her flatten herself against the car and squeeze her eyes closed.

There was a third blast that sounded different to the others, immediately followed by a fourth. Si clamped her hands over her ears. By the time the fifth shot rang out, she was shaking uncontrollably.

No.

Something drove her out of there. It was the thought of Max. Hiding in the car wash wasn’t going to help him.

She forced one foot in front of the other and marched out of there unsteadily, as if she might fall over at any moment.

She felt woozy at the thought of what she might find. No-one was talking. There was a low moan but it was so indistinct she couldn’t say for sure whether it was male or female.

She came out of the carwash, bumping against the front of the car which she’d parked so it deliberately stuck out a foot or two.

Relief welled up inside her as she saw Annie and Clive cautiously approaching four figures on the ground. Si started to run towards them, but stopped. There was a fifth figure on the ground behind the Jaguar.

“Terry,” she croaked, stumbling forward. “He’s been hit. Oh God!”

She forgot about her immediate mission; the thing that had been driving her for the past several days. She had to get to him. He’d been the one to hold his hand up for the worst job of all. They’d all been at risk, but Terry especially. If those men had suspected that the carwash was a trap and drove around the back of the building instead, Terry would have found himself cornered with no-one to back him up.

Her heart flipped as she reached him and fell to her knees in front of him. Not that this way was a better deal.

A thick halo of almost-black blood had oozed around him. His eyes flickered, but weakly.

“Terry?”