by Seth Rain
‘What should we do with him?’ Scott asked. ‘We can’t leave him here.’
Juliet stood over Noah’s body. ‘We bury him. Or burn him.’
‘Do you really believe it? The Second Coming?’ Scott asked. ‘Any of it?’
‘No.’
‘Maybe that’s why we’re still here,’ Scott said. ‘Those who believe have been taken. Those who don’t are left here.’
Juliet placed a hand on his shoulder. ‘No. I don’t believe that.’
Scott didn’t either, but he needed to hear Juliet say it. ‘We should burn him.’
Juliet nodded.
Scott broke up the kitchen table with a lump-hammer and took the broken bits out into the garden. He broke the wooden stools in the kitchen and gathered any other burnable objects he could find. Juliet rolled balls of paper and stuffed them into the spaces. Together, they carried Noah out into the garden and placed him on the pile of wood. Juliet covered Noah in a blanket. Scott lit the paper several times before it caught. It burned so fiercely that they had to stand with their backs to the wall of the house.
They watched the pyre burn: the flames wrapped around the edges of the table until it began to fall downwards into its white-hot centre. Finally, the heat and smoke forced them inside.
Juliet packed a bag, collecting everything from the house she might need. She asked Scott to take the bottles of water and cans of food to the 4x4 outside and to her car parked on the drive. In a daze, he did as she asked, walking back and forth between the house and vehicles.
When they were ready to leave, the pyre in the back garden had reduced Noah’s body and the table to smouldering remnants. Scott looked again at his tattoo. Even though the day wasn’t over, he knew it wasn’t his time. He wanted to be thankful, to feel the euphoria of survival. But there was nothing inside him that felt that way. To explain what was inside him would be impossible. But whatever it was, he was exhausted by all of it. Freya. Rebecca. Noah. Isaiah. Paul. All of them, gone.
Juliet looked back at the house before closing the door.
‘Do you remember where I’m going?’ she asked Scott.
Scott nodded. ‘Loch Tay.’
Juliet hugged him. ‘Yes. Drive through the Kenmore village, over a bridge and then find the first house on the loch itself. Goodbye, Scott.’
‘When should we meet up again?’ Scott asked.
She let him go. ‘Give me some time to set up a connection with the AI.’
Scott nodded weakly.
‘You’ll know when,’ she said. ‘Apparently…’
‘The AI said that?’ Scott asked.
‘Yes. He wants to help. I know it.’
‘I’ll see you soon,’ Scott said, and watched Juliet get into her car.
He stepped up into the 4x4 and tried to recall the last time he’d driven himself. It had been years – maybe ten. He turned the key in the ignition, checked in the rear-view mirror and reversed out of the driveway. He drove to the end of the road and looked both ways. But waiting for other people and cars was pointless. He and Juliet might be the only living souls for miles. Scott pressed his foot on the accelerator and drove into the darkness.
Forty-Two
From outside her bedroom, Scott watched Juliet smooth her duvet flat and lay her nightclothes across the pillow. Slowly, she tucked her hair behind her ears, then covered her mouth with a trembling hand.
Eve’s babbling gave away Scott’s presence.
‘We can leave,’ he said. ‘There’s no reason why—’
She raised a hand. ‘Please. Scott, don’t.’
He shifted Eve from one arm to the other. ‘I don’t understand why you’re doing this.’
She sighed and again brushed the duvet and arranged her nightclothes.
‘Are you sure you know the plan?’ she asked.
‘Yes, but I can’t leave you here.’
‘Please, Scott, we’ve talked this through already. And I don’t have the strength to go through it again.’
‘I can’t—’
Her face was stern, pitiless. ‘Yes! You can. And you will.’
Eve flinched in his arms as if she was the one being reprimanded.
‘It doesn’t have to be like this,’ he said.
‘Have you learned nothing over all this time?’ she asked, shaking her head. ‘This is exactly how it has to be and there’s nothing we can do about any of it.’
Scott went to speak but stopped.
‘This isn’t about me,’ she said. ‘And it’s not about you. It’s about her.’ She pointed to Eve. ‘Now, everything has to be about her, about the young. We have to help them survive. Those who are still alive on the other side of the horizon have a chance of living without the date of their deaths hanging over them. Freedom, Scott. Real freedom again.’
Eve peered up at Scott.
Juliet walked towards him and took Eve from him. ‘They’ll be here soon. We need to be ready.’
‘We can stop them for good.’
‘How?’ Juliet smiled at Eve. ‘They wouldn’t be coming here if their dates were the same as mine.’
He didn’t know what to say; she was right. Again, the paradox of it all twisted inside his head. They both knew and so did Mathew and the Watchers, that Juliet would die tomorrow. But it was the knowing that made it all happen the way it was supposed to. There was no getting used to the idea.
‘Stick to the plan,’ she said. ‘It’ll buy you time.’
‘I can’t.’
Juliet kissed Eve on the top of her head. ‘She doesn’t have a date. You don’t have a date. There is hope and we must make the most of it.’
Eve reached out a hand and patted Juliet’s chin. Juliet’s lips trembled and her eyes filled with tears.
‘Scott, please, do this for me. I have everything packed for you both. Take her and keep her safe.’
Scott waited.
‘Please,’ she said, her eyes open wide.
Scott nodded slowly.
‘Good,’ she said. ‘Now, get something to eat while we have some girl time.’
If he was going to do it, Scott thought, then it needed to be done properly. He collected the bags Juliet had prepared and took the revolver from his room. He secured the house so there was only one way in and out. He stood outside, facing the lake. It was dark, mist rolling down from the mountains and across the water. He could hear the faint sound of water lapping against the shore; the air was damp and cool. The clouds moved quickly and the crescent moon was milky white. Inside, Juliet laughed at Eve.
‘She’s beautiful,’ Juliet said, appearing in the doorway. ‘She really is amazing.’
‘She is,’ Scott said.
‘And she’s smiling all the time now,’ Juliet said. ‘She seems so happy.’
Scott watched her and she reached out for him.
Juliet handed her over. Her face altered the moment she let Eve go. It was purposeful, guarded.
‘Take her,’ she said.
Scott nodded. He lifted the bag filled with Eve’s things and walked out onto the porch. There he dropped the bag and took the revolver from his pocket.
‘It’s fully loaded,’ Scott said, offering Juliet the gun.
She frowned, her eyes on the gun, then shook her head. ‘I’m no killer.’
‘But they are,’ he said.
‘It’s not their time.’
‘But you can slow them down.’
She stared at the gun and shook her head.
Scott turned the revolver around in his hand. He’d never thought of a gun as foolish before.
Juliet looked past him, out over the lake. She wrapped her cardigan around her shoulders, holding it close, arms folded.
‘Stick to the plan, Scott. I know you. You’ll want to come back here. But there’ll be nothing here. And they will take both of you. Don’t let me do this for nothing.’
The surface of the lake undulated slowly. Scott thought how much he’d miss it.
‘Promise me,’ she sa
id. ‘Promise me you’ll go and not come back.’
Scott hesitated. It was no good denying it any longer. ‘I promise,’ he said finally.
She nodded. ‘Good. Now go.’
Scott walked backwards, raising a hand to say goodbye.
‘Don’t go looking for him,’ she said. ‘For Mathew. Not yet. This is not about you or him – it’s about her. Keep running. Do you hear?’
‘Yes.’
‘Run and hide,’ she said. ‘Keep her safe. Until you reach the horizon. Then you need to get to him before he gets to you.’
He nodded.
Juliet lifted a hand and smiled.
Scott smiled back.
Then she closed the door.
The 4x4 was hidden beneath the shelter at the rear of the building. He strapped Eve into her seat and covered her with blankets. He closed the door and stood, looking at the road leading away from the house. Because they were in a valley, there was only one road in and out. He’d wait for them to arrive before leaving himself, knowing full well there was every chance they would cross paths along the road. He checked the time. Midnight. They’d be there any time in the next twenty-four hours. Scott climbed up into the 4x4 and reached for his binoculars. Eve was already sleeping, her head resting against the side of her seat.
Forty-Three
It was no surprise. Juliet saw them approaching. The car motored through the valley. Its headlights rose and fell, swept from left to right, then back the other way. She checked the window at the rear of the house, from where she could only see one headlight and some of the bonnet of Scott’s 4x4. She wondered if Scott had seen the car too.
She looked for the Watcher’s car again, hoping she was mistaken, that the car had turned around and was now disappearing over the hill, its rear lights glowing red. Instead, its bright white headlights winked as the car approached. Maybe she should have taken the revolver Scott had offered her.
She waited, staring at the door.
The car pulled up outside. It was so simple – that they would drive up to the house. In the darkness, she saw two Watchers get out of the car. They paused and looked around. Perhaps this seemed too easy.
The Watchers nodded at one another before approaching the house.
Juliet stepped back from the door and walked to the fireplace. She expected them to knock, but instead, the handle turned and the door opened.
It was Nicholas, followed by a Watcher she didn’t recognise.
The shocked noise Juliet made was not entirely pretend. Nicholas, as he stooped to get through the door, was bigger, more imposing than she remembered. He looked about the room, then motioned for the other Watcher to search for Scott.
‘Good morning,’ Nicholas said to her.
‘They’re not here,’ she said, backing away from him as he walked past her.
Nicholas smiled. ‘We know they’re here.’ He stroked his chin then raised his arm to reveal a black band around his wrist. ‘Tracker,’ he said. ‘We know he’s here.’
Juliet tried her best to pretend to be surprised. She glanced out of the rear window. Scott was still there, beneath the shelter.
When she turned again to Nicholas, he was studying his revolver, checking the chamber.
Her breath stopped. She’d not thought this far, hadn’t considered how it might feel, how long it would take.
The other Watcher opened and closed doors, searching for Scott.
Nicholas spun the chamber of the revolver, closed it and let it hang loosely by his side. His expression had changed.
Juliet stared into his eyes. ‘You don’t see it, do you?’
He knitted his brow. ‘See it?’
‘What you’ve done. What you’re doing. How wrong it is.’
His frown disappeared. ‘No,’ he said. ‘It is you who doesn’t see. What we’ve done, what we’re doing, is good. We are His messengers, we are His subjects. This is a mercy. Very soon, you will understand. You will thank me.’
Juliet shook her head gently. ‘It’s wrong.’
Nicholas looked again at his revolver, then raised it. ‘The Watcher’s revolver has five bullets and one empty chamber. This empty chamber belongs to Him, to do with as he wishes.’
She stared into the barrel of the gun. It was still, and at that moment, she knew Nicholas believed what he was doing wasn’t just right: it was good.
The sound of an engine outside made Nicholas lower his revolver and run to the front door.
Gunshots. The Watchers’ car flinched like a wounded animal, its window and tyres exploding. Something was thrown into the vehicle and it erupted in a ball of flame.
Nicholas swore and backed into the house.
Through the door, Juliet watched Scott’s 4x4 kick dust into the air and vanish along the road, illuminated by the yellow flames of the Watchers’ burning car.
Nicholas regained his calm manner. ‘It takes some doing.’ he said. ‘It takes some effort to hold it all in your head at once. The paradox of all this really addles the brain.’ He pointed to his head. ‘But I’ve learned to make my peace with it all. Scott won’t get far. You had to know we’d come for you, with it being your date, and you waited for us, knowing the same. All this,’ he said pointing to the burning car, ‘is what has to happen.’
Nicholas glanced at the other Watcher, who had run back into the room on hearing the explosion.
‘You might know it happens today,’ Nicholas said to her. ‘But you don’t know when. Or how it will happen. Or what suffering you will experience. Have you spoken to the AI?’
Juliet looked from Nicholas to the other Watcher and back again.
She shook her head. ‘I won’t tell you a thing.’
Nicholas pursed his lips and raised an eyebrow.
‘I believe you,’ he said. ‘I can see it in your eyes.’
‘So do it. Get it over with.’
Nicholas’s attention was drawn to the car on fire outside. ‘Well, we’ll not get very far if we leave now, will we?’ he said, smirking at the fire.
‘Scott is going to stop you,’ Juliet said, her voice wavering. ‘He’s going to stop Mathew.’
Nicholas walked over to a chair and sat. ‘Determinism,’ he said. ‘It’s reassuring when you get your head around it.’ He rested the revolver on his leg. ‘Like now. The old Nicholas would be angry, annoyed that his car is a ball of fire, that the man he travelled seven hours to find is currently barrelling out of view. But not now. What is happening has to happen this way because … well … there’s no other way. Not in this plane of existence, anyway.’
Juliet wiped her cheek. ‘Do I have to spend my last moments listening to your tired, amateurish philosophy?’
Nicholas sighed. ‘So now you want to meet Him? Now you want me to help you?’
‘You will anyway,’ she said. ‘So do it.’
Nicholas stood again and pointed the gun at her chest. ‘Very well.’
Juliet was not expecting him to agree to her request. She took a step backwards.
‘You gave us the AI, Juliet. You have helped humanity more than you will ever know.’
Juliet let out a sob that surprised her. She covered her mouth.
Nicholas stared into her eyes. ‘The Watcher’s revolver has five bullets and one empty chamber. This empty chamber belongs to Him, to do with as he wishes.’
Even now, after everything, even knowing it was her time, she wanted – more than anything – for the chamber to be empty.
Forty-Four
The sun rose on a new world, a different world. The Rapture had happened and he was still alive. Scott saw the familiar tower at Lancaster Services up ahead and headed for it.
He pulled in and parked outside the entrance, next to several other cars. There was one articulated lorry, curtains pulled together in the front of the cab, inside which there would be a dead body.
Someone had smashed the doors to the service station. Scott peered inside, checking that whoever had broken in wasn’t still there. Broken
glass popped beneath his shoes as he walked further inside, looking for food and water.
In the centre of the building, he saw three bodies lying on the ground. He stopped and waited for them to move, now and then glancing behind at the broken, smashed doors. They must have entered before the Rapture in the night.
He crept closer to the bodies. Three young men – barely men at all. They’d fallen there, on the ground, like Noah had. Scott had no option but to leave them. He found blankets in one shop and covered their bodies. On the shelves he found a handful of sandwiches, pasties, sausage rolls and other perishable foods still in date, and filled two rucksacks with as much of the supplies and bottled water he could carry. He had no idea how long it would all last, but he would try and keep it for as long as possible.
He used the bathroom, then left through the broken doors.
When he got into the 4x4, he played with the car radio. He tried the AM wavelength. White noise. He figured out how to search manually and took his time clicking through the stations. He heard someone talking and moved back and forth close to this frequency until the voice was finally audible. It was a preacher, a man talking about God, about Jesus, about the Rapture and the Second Coming. There was no telling whether it was live or a recording. He switched the stereo to the music saved on the system itself and looked through it on the screen. He settled for the Rolling Stones: ‘Wild Horses’.
He took a long drink of water, put the 4x4 in gear and pulled away. As he sped along the road, he automatically checked his wing mirror for other cars as he merged onto the motorway. There were none. The monotony of being the only vehicle on the motorway made him sleepy. But something ahead forced him to sit up. There was something on the other side of the motorway – headed the opposite way. He took his foot off the accelerator.
Scott peered through the windscreen as the figure approached. It was a man. On a bike. He slowed down even more. The old man stopped in the middle lane, watching Scott’s 4x4 roll towards him. Scott pulled up on the outside lane and got out. The old man laid his bike on the ground.
