“Oh Christ!” Emile gasped, asserting Adela’s astonishment.
On the other side of the road, across from Alek and Emile’s cottage, there were eight solar panels that had been erected by the survivors at the safe zone in recent months in order to restore power to the place.
But now, only seven of them were operational; a lightning bolt had just struck and destroyed one of the panels.
From the sparky smoke of the destroyed solar panel, a small fire began to arise. Although the rain was keeping it at bay, it quickly grew into a blaze and overcame the flurry of droplets.
Then, within less than a minute, the panel next to the destroyed one had itself caught fire from the scorching specs.
And not so much as another minute, two of the eight solar panels were now being consumed by a rapidly growing inferno.
“We have to do something!” Emile flailed.
“It’s too dangerous!” Alek, who was carrying Tia, called out as he came rushing down the stairs. “The solar farm is finished. Within minutes, the whole thing’s gonna get consumed.”
“What about the rest of the safe zone?” Adela asked in complete dismay, worried about Erica, for she was the only survivor that knew of and could help with pregnancy.
“There’s another farm in the opposite corner,” Alek noted, “As long as the lightning doesn’t strike that one as well, then at least that half of the city will retain power.” The residents had used the terms ‘city’ and ‘safe zone’ interchangeably, despite the safe zone only encompassing a very small portion of London.
“So, what do we do? Run over to the others?” Adela had misunderstood what Alek was suggesting.
“No, quite the opposite, in fact.” He declared. “We have to stay right here, as far away from the rest of the buildings as possible.” Alek, having been raised in towns that were frequently struck by adverse weather all throughout his childhood, knew exactly how to ride this situation out.
“Was England always like this or is this another crazy apocalypse thing?” Emile enquired; after all, all four of the people currently in this cottage had actually been born and lived their entire lives in Europe.
“Well,” Alek grinned at his fiancé, placing Tia down on the floor as he did so, “I had hoped we’d get something like this. English weather, babe. It was an optional extra for the honeymoon package.” He joked with his fiancé.
While Emile initially smiled at Alek’s humour, his face quickly soured again upon remembering that he could see the woman carrying his baby out of the corner of his eye.
Adela, noticing Emile’s fading expression, swallowed guilty and realised that she had to change the subject. “Another one’s just caught fire.” She nodded towards the solar farm upon noticing that three of the eight panels were now alight.
As Emile turned around to witness the blaze carry on growing, Alek bent down and covered Tia’s eyes with his hand.
“Hey!” She cried out. “Uncle Alek!”
“Maybe we should go back upstairs and finish that story, hey?” He suggested to his ‘niece.’
Adela once again nodded at Alek appreciatively; she agreed that there was no need for her little sister to see this.
“It’s quite boring down here, isn’t it?” Cora remarked, having looked around and the basement and found nothing to do it. “Well, at least we’re not being beaten by the wind I suppose.” Nevertheless, she tried to maintain an optimistic view of things.
Mac shuddered, “It’s kinda cold though, isn’t it? Is there a gap in the ceiling or something?” He looked up, expecting to find a hole in the beams above his head; there was unmistakably a draught blowing in from somewhere.
‘CLUDD!’
A large, bold, and blunt noise thudded against the basement door.
Cora and Mac looked over to each other in a panic.
“What was that?” Cora asked distressfully.
Mac scurried up the small flight of stairs and pushed against the door. Turning the handle, he tried to open it.
But it wouldn’t budge.
He pressed his shoulder right up against, and using all his strength, he tried and tried and tried but the door just would not shift from its’ closed position.
“Shit.” Mac cursed under his breath.
“What? What is it? Mac?” Cora’s eyes widened in fear and her breath became irregular.
Regretfully, Mac slowly turned around and descended back down the stairs. As he approached the bottom, he leisurely took a seat on the bottom step.
“Mac?” Cora queried once again. There were tones of both concern and fear evident in her voice.
Mac rested his head in his palms, “I’m so sorry, Cora.”
“…For what?”
“I don’t know what it is, but there’s something on the other side of that door.” Mac explained, whimpering. “Cora, it’s too heavy to be pushed from this side—We’re trapped down here. I trapped us down here.”
It quickly became clear to Cora why exactly Mac was so sorrowful. “Oh, I see.” She took a seat next to him on the step. “Well, to be honest, I’d rather be stuck down here than free in the reckless hurricane up there.” She told him with a smile; clearly, there was no bad blood between the two.
“But Cora, what if nobody finds us?” Mac raised his head from his hands and looked over at his friend.
“They will find us!” Cora told him enthusiastically, having no doubts that the two of them would be fine. “Besides, this basement is so boring that it’s not like there’s anything down here that can hurt us, is there?”
And as if she had just tempted, Cora’s ears began to fixate on a quiet yet foreboding sound.
In the same moment, Mac had heard it as well. “Listen!” He ushered her.
“I hear it too.” Cora informed him with a solemn expression on her face.
“What is that? It sounds like… Water?” Mac was confused by this trickling sound.
But Cora had noticed where it was coming from already, “You know you asked if there was a gap in the ceiling earlier?”
“Yes…?” Mac affirmed, concerned about what she was about to tell him.
“Look over there.” She pointed to the far-right corner in the ceiling of the basement; a thin stream of water was flooding into the basement.
Although it was a rather low volume of water coming in, a small puddle had already formed in the corner of the basement. If the gap were to grow any larger, the basement would quickly fill up.
“Best stay on this side of the basement. Just to be safe, you know?” Mac remarked; the light-hearted nature of this comment appeared to come from a place of anxiety, as in the back of his mind, he knew that this situation could turn dire at any moment.
The floorboards above the ceiling beams were beginning to creak, as the sound of rain hammering down above intensified.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Cora shuddered.
“We must get someone to open that door, right now. Right this minute.” Mac stated as he reached for his walkie-talkie.
“There’s no point.” Cora tried to save him time and breath; two things which they may not have had much left of. “The rain’s too thick and the wind’s too heavy for any transmission to get outside this house.”
Mac ignored Cora’s tip and held down the button on the side of his radio regardless, “Kieran! Sandra! Are either of you there? Rylie? Can anybody hear me?” He was speaking on the open-frequency so that anybody within the safe-zone would be able to pick up his transmission…
…On a day when the weather is clear, that is.
Exactly as Cora had anticipated, the weather was indeed far too adverse for Mac’s transmission to go out.
The walkie-talkie blared static back at him in response.
“Hello? Kieran, Sandra! Anybody! Please!” Mac tried again as his eyes flickered desperately between the radio in his hand the narrow water stream that was continuing to pour in through the gap in the ceiling.
The wooden beams we
re beginning to creak heavily underneath the weight of both the floorboards and the mass volume of water above.
“I don’t like the sound of that.” Cora remarked with regards to the creaky beams.
The radio was still only returning static to Mac.
“For fucks’ sake!” Mac raged into the radio, “Will somebody please just answer?!”
“Mac, leave it!” Cora tried to take the radio from him, “They can’t hear us!”
In a fit of rage, Mac threw the radio against the wall at the other side of the basement, causing it to smash and severely damaging it.
Cora gasped, “Well, that’s done it.” She flippantly remarked.
Mac sighed, “It’s alright… We’ll just—If we pull the beams away, we’ll have enough room to swim up when the water rises!” He was desperate to come up with a plan to ensure his and Cora’s survival.
“If we tear the beams away, the entire room above us will give way and then we’ll be doomed for real.” She pointed out a logical flaw in his plan.
“It’s only the kitchen above us. There’s barely anything in there!”
Again, Cora had to be the bearer of bad news, “I’m afraid there is, Mac. There’s a table, a cupboard, several fragile crates, lots of things that could pin us down here. It’s too risky to pull at the beams.”
Restlessly, Mac shook his head, “No, no! I got us into this mess, Cora, I’ll get us out of it!” He was desperate to save the pair of them, not willing to be his own ally’s cause of death.
“Mac? What are you doing?” Cora asked in alarm as she watched Mac run over to the narrow water stream.
He glanced over at her. “This!” He declared before leaping and pulling down mightily on the creakiest wooden beam, causing it to creak and squeal even more.
“Wait, Mac! No!” Cora jumped to her feet with her arms, hurrying to pull Mac away from his reckless idea.
‘CRACK! SNAP! THUMP!’
The beam was already weak, and Mac using all his bodyweight on it had successfully brought it down.
The hole had become slightly larger, though it was still not large enough that either of them would have fit through it. But this did not matter now anyway, as, exactly as Cora had once again predicted, a large wooden crate had now gotten stuck in the whole, the sharp and splintery corner of which pointing down into the basement beneath.
“No, no! Fuck!” Mac cried out dismayingly as he slammed his clenched fist against the wall.
“Mac, it’s alright—” Cora tried to grab and comfort him.
“No, Cora! It’s not alright!” He refuted and looked up at the crate shamefully; a scattered stream of water continued to leak through around the edges of the crate, and now, he effectively had indeed trapped the pair of them down in that foreboding pit…
Chapter 10: Natural Causes
Within the safe zone there were several cars scattered along the disused roads. Due to how heavy they were, none of the survivors had even attempted to shift them from the locations in which they were now rusting in.
As the thunder continued to rumble out through the dark and foreboding London sky, the wind increased in strength as well.
One of the old cars within the safe zone was a sports coupe. Back in the old days, it would have been worth a fortune. Now, it was nothing more than a heap of junk.
For a countless number of years, the passenger door had been left wide open. As time went on, and harsh weather repeatedly beat down on it, the hinges of the door had come lose.
As such, now, with an almighty hurricane ravaging the streets of London, the door stood no chance of remaining connected to its’ vehicle.
One cold, dark, and fateful afternoon, the door finally gave away as the wind snapped it clean off of its’ rusty hinges. Then, due to how light the door itself was, the fierce gale blew it an alarmingly high speed down the road which the coupe had been ditched on…
“I’m telling you! I heard a voice on the radio!” Valorie insisted to Richard.
“It was just the static, Val.” He refuted, not believing his lover in the slightest.
“Richard, somebody needs our help out there. Somebody is caught up in that!” Valorie pointed to the storm outside. With perfect timing, there was a great rumble of thunder at the exact moment that she proclaimed these words.
“I agree with her.” Petra, who had quickly bonded with these two ‘older’ survivors, defended Valorie. “People may need help. I want to help people.” Her English had not improved that greatly in the months which had passed since the attack on the Czechian town.
“And what about you two?” Richard looked over to Rubin and Nikola, who were keeping to themselves in front of the lit fireplace, warming and rubbing their hands together as they did so.
“Who, us?” Rubin asked, so caught up in his own little world that he had not even realised what the ongoing conversation was about.
Richard sighed and shook his head in dismay.
“We’re wasting time!” Valorie put her foot down. “If we waste any more time, someone could get hurt—Or worse!”
“And if you go out there and find that nobody is in danger, you risk yourself getting hurt.” Richard justified his defiant stance.
“I will go!” Using her broken English, Petra tried to assert the fact that there was nothing Richard could do to stop her; however, he was primarily concerned on keeping Valorie inside, and was nowhere near as concerned about Petra.
“Right behind you Petra!” Valorie called on after her as she looked Richard dead in the eyes.
“Val don’t go out there. Please.” Richard stepped in Valorie’s way to plead with her; he had allowed Petra to pass however, and as such, she was already putting her coat on in preparation to brave the adverse weather outside.
“So, you’ll let Petra go out there on her own?” Valorie noted the double standards in her lover’s reasoning. “How does that wash?”
Richard sighed, “If I go with her… Do you promise to stay here?” Although he did not want to go outside, he was willing to put his own life on the line if it meant Valorie would not have to do so with her own.
Valorie halted her tongue, stuck to think of an answer that would not make herself hypocritical. “How about we both go?” She suggested.
“…I won’t move out of your way until your firmly sat down on that chair.” Richard nodded to the old and torn up armchair that was riddled with rips all over it.
Realising that Richard was not going to back down, Valorie sighed. “Alright, you win.” Humbly accepting defeat, she took a seat on the armchair. Leaning over, she held her hands out in front of the fire, effectively joining Nikola and Rubin in keeping warm.
‘CRASH!’
There was a lightning strike nearby. The flash lit up the entire room, though nobody had seen where exactly it struck.
“Be safe!” Valorie shouted back to him without turning around, as if to hide her expression.
“Are you ready to go?” Petra asked him as she held the doorknob firmly in her hand, ready to twist it.
Richard took a deep breath as he listened to just how harsh the rain outside was. Then, remembering who he was doing this for, he quickly nodded. “Let’s do this—”
But before Petra could open the door, Rubin butted in, “Hold on! I should probably come as well.
“What? Why?” Nikola was the first to question this decision.
“I don’t know… I guess, it just depends on who’s out there really.” Rubin shrugged. “I’ve just been thinking about Czechia a lot lately, that’s all. I made lots of good friends there, and so did you.” He reminded Nikola. “If Dawn, Alek, Anna, or just anyone that we befriended is injured out there, we owe it to them to help them.”
“Then by that logic, I’m coming as well.” Nikola deduced.
“I’m afraid not.” Richard refused. “I need somebody to stay here and look after Valorie. Sorry Nikola, but you were the last one to step up to the mark.”
Although she wanted to
negate this, Nikola quickly noticed the expression on Petra’s face indicated that she agreed with Richard.
“Hey, we’ll be back before you know it, okay?” Rubin comforted his friend sincerely.
“You better be.” Nikola warned him, “If you die out there, it won’t get you out of admitting that I was right.” She grinned at him.
Rubin grinned back at her in kind, “I wouldn’t dream of dying without you by my side. Don’t worry.”
Despite how bittersweet the exchanges were, Petra was in a hurry to get moving, “We can not wait. People will die.”
“Yes, yes, we haven’t forgotten that, Petra.” Richard stated.
“Take care of Val.” Richard requested of Nikola whilst nodding towards his new friend.
“I think she’ll be the one taking care of me.” Nikola jested; it was evident that friendships had been made rather quickly. “Go on, we’ll be fine.”
“Now! Now!” Petra insisted as she stomped impatiently.
“Alright, alright! I’m coming.” Rubin hurried away from Nikola and to Petra’s side.
“Let’s go.” Richard gave Petra the go ahead as he toughened his arms up, preparing himself for the sheer chaos outside.
“That was… Magical.” Annabelle was left in complete awe after having just seen a lightning bolt strike a pillar directly. “Did you see all those sparks come flying off of it?”
“It’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it?” Gwen was saccharine as she watched the feeling of joy lighten up her daughter’s face.
“Annie,” Elliot spoke up using his stepsister’s real name, for the family were in private this moment in time, “Are you serious about having never seen lightning strike something?”
“Nope. Not once!” She affirmed. “I’ve seen the sky flash, but I’ve never actually seen a bolt strike a pillar before!”
“Well, aren’t you the lucky one?” Elliot quipped in reference to his condition.
“What the hell are they doing out there?” Gwen gasped as she watched Petra, Rubin and Richard all being blown around in the hurricane outside. They were stumbling all over the place and just barely missing minor debris including sticks, stones, and curious sheets of metal.
Human Nature (Book 4): Human Nature IV Page 9
