Safe Haven (Novella 2): Before Safe Haven [Alex]

by Artinian, Christopher

  “I’ll always love him, Alex, but things haven’t been great ever since I left home. I think he saw it as a kind of betrayal, after everything we’d been through, after everything he’d done for me.”

  “C’mon love, you did lots for him too,” replied Alex.

  Emma took another drink. “He gave up his childhood for me. What my father did to him, Alex…what he put him through... And Mike took it. He took it, because if he didn’t, he knew it would be visited on me and Mum. I don’t suppose I can really blame him for being pissed off. He sacrificed so much, and then I just got up and walked away.”

  “That’s not the case. You were both kids. Neither of you deserved that horror. And as much as I loved and still love your mum, she was the adult, she should have done something about it. When you left home, you were trying to put the badness, that awful period behind you and start afresh. It was such a brave thing to do. You had every right, and what’s more, you deserved it. You had, and have, nothing to feel guilty for.” He took a drink. “Mike is my best friend. He has a wild streak a mile wide, but he’s so giving, and so brave. He wouldn’t and couldn’t have acted any other way. Even at that tender age. All he wanted and all he wants is for you to be safe and happy.”

  “Maybe once. Now he acts like he hates me sometimes.”

  “That’s not true. When this news first broke, he wanted you to come back home straight away, remember?” She nodded. “That’s because he is scared to death of something happening to you. I do my best to control him, but if anybody ever tried to hurt you, he would literally tear them apart limb from limb. He loves you, Emma. This bad vibe that’s going on between the two of you at the moment…it will pass. You’re the sensible one, you’re the level headed one, maybe you should make the first move.” He took another drink and sat back. “I’m not telling you what to do, it’s just a suggestion.”

  “Maybe you’re right, Alex,” she said.

  “I’m your dad, of course I’m right,” he said smiling, and Emma let out a little laugh. They both looked towards the TV and watched the images of roadblocks and helicopters patrolling the skies.

  “They really have got that place locked down, haven’t they?” said Emma distantly.

  “They’ll have been planning for this eventuality for months. They’ll have contingency after contingency. Don’t worry, love, this is just a blip. They’ll get everything back on track. They’ve done pretty well so far.

  Just then, Mike walked through the door. “Nice, he said looking towards the wine. Thanks for the invite.”

  “Here,” said Emma, I’ve warmed the chair up for you, I’m going to call it a night.

  “Bloody hell, Em, you don’t have to leave the room every time I walk in,” he replied.

  “I’m not,” she said quietly. “I really am tired, and I’ve got an early start tomorrow.” She put the glass of wine in Mike’s hand, “here, don’t let it go to waste,” she said before standing on her tiptoes and kissing her brother on the cheek. “I love you, Mike,” she said and left the room.

  Mike just stood there for a moment. He looked towards the door, then turned back to Alex. “What the hell was that all about?”

  Alex shrugged his shoulders, “Don’t ask me mate, no idea.”

  chapter seven

  Day 165

  Alex heard the multiple sirens outside and rushed to his office window. Two police vans sped by followed by an ambulance. He continued his vigil until they were out of sight, then went back to his desk. He sat down and continued the memo he was typing. Just then, he heard more sirens—a lot more. He went back to the window as more police vans and police cars accelerated down the street. The last two were the land rovers he’d only seen on TV before; the type deployed in riot situations.

  “What the hell?” he muttered.

  He walked to the door and popped his head around the corner. His secretary was standing at her window.

  “Those last two were riot vehicles,” she said, to no-one in particular.

  “The internet’s out again, get the local channel on the radio, will you Christine?”

  Christine pulled herself away from the window and turned on the small FM receiver to Radio Leeds. Alex looked at his watch, it was two fifty-six, just a few minutes until the news came on. Maybe it would reveal what was going on. He stood patiently at the door, waiting, while Christine returned to the window to see if any more emergency vehicles appeared, none did, but there were plenty of sirens.

  The news came and went. It was the same news as they heard every day, not really news at all, just a rehashing of government propaganda and statistics about how the country was going from strength to strength, how the situation down in Portsmouth was being managed, and how it was likely that very soon the quarantine would be lifted.

  “Maybe it will be on the four o’clock news,” he said.

  “Maybe,” said Christine returning to her desk.

  Alex returned to his own work station. He sat in front of his monitor, focussing on the no wi-fi icon in the bottom right hand corner. He pulled his mobile phone out, but more often than not, if there was no wi-fi, there wouldn’t be any 4G either. Just another glorious aftermath of the cyber-attacks, or so they’d been told.

  He straightened up, pulled his chair back to the desk and re-read the memo he’d been working on for what seemed like ages now. He had never particularly enjoyed his job. He had begun his career as a primary school teacher, which he loved, then became a bureaucrat within the education department, which he hated, but the money was good. He had hoped to return to teaching after Sandra had passed away, but then Mike got into trouble and his legal costs wiped out any savings the family had. So, Alex stayed a bureaucrat, it was the responsible thing to do. It was the fatherly thing to do. After picking up his thread, he began typing again.

  He was immersed in his thoughts when Christine popped her head around the corner looking a little worried. “Alex, is it my imagination, or do you hear it too?”

  Alex looked at her for a moment, he had no idea what she was talking about. Then he lifted his head and listened hard. At first, he heard nothing but the ambient sounds around him. Then he did hear something. Something distant. He walked to the window and opened it, letting in a spray of cold drizzle. It was muffled, but it sounded like a loud haler. Christine came and stood next to him, she leaned out of the window as well. They looked down and noticed others coming out onto the streets. The pair looked at each other, a little confused, a little worried. The light rain clung to their faces as they looked down the street towards where the sound was coming from.

  Suddenly, the phone rang and both of them brought their heads up quickly, rapping the back of their skulls on the window frame. They let out a simultaneous “Ow,” before Alex, rubbing the back of his head, went to his desk to pick up the phone.

  “Alex Munro,” he announced.

  “Alex!” it was Emma’s voice, she sounded scared.

  “Hi, Em, what is it love?”

  “They’re sending us home. We’re being put under quarantine.”

  Alex smiled involuntarily. “Quarantine? What do you mean, Em? I don’t understand. Why are they putting you under quarantine?”

  “Not me Alex. Us, all of us. There’s been an outbreak in Leeds.”

  Alex froze with the phone still to his ear. Christine had heard the word “quarantine” and rushed into the other room, presumably to make a call of her own.

  “Alex? Alex? Alex? Are you still there?”

  His trance broke. “Sorry. Sorry, Em, love, yes I am.” He collapsed onto his chair. This was it. This was the beginning of the end.

  “I’m going to get Sammy and Jake, then I’m going straight home. They’re enforcing a curfew, Alex, come home. Don’t be long,” and she hung up the phone.

  Alex pulled the receiver from his ear and looked at it for a moment. He heard Christine next door burst out crying. Then he heard her drawer open, the jingle of car keys, and footsteps running out of the office.r />
  “Bye, Christine,” he whispered. “Good luck!”

  Alex turned off his computer, collected his personal belongings and headed out. Others passed him on the stairs. The panic and fear in the air was palpable. He stepped out of the building into the cold rain. What he wouldn’t give to have a car now. That was one of the many sacrifices he had made to pay Mike’s legal bills. He would do it again, a thousand times, but right now, he would really love to climb into a car rather than walk down the wet, cold, grey streets of Leeds.

  People rushed to their vehicles desperate to get home, desperate to see their loved ones, to prepare for what was to come. No one gave Alex so much as a passing glance on the way to their cars. He zipped up his coat and began his walk. He checked his mobile phone, still no signal. Emma was collecting the kids, he hoped to God Mike was safe, then realised, if anybody would be, he would be.

  He quickened his pace as he moved along the wet pavement. He saw fear in the faces of everyone he passed. For so many months a thin veneer of bravery, of stalwart resolutions, had covered the terror, but now it was evident. He was about to cross the road when sirens blared again. He halted in mid stride and stepped back from the curb, as more Police Land Rovers sped by him. He looked across to the other side of the road, and people who had been walking briskly to reach their destinations, suddenly quickened their pace. Men and women in business suits began to jog and run. They were no longer worried about looking scared, they were scared, and the primal animal instincts were taking over. They wanted to get to their homes, to safety, to their loved ones.

  When the vehicles had passed, Alex jogged across the road before any more came. When he reached the other side, he continued to jog down the pavement, sidestepping people doing the same in the other directions. Distant shots rang out, and he heard a scream from the opposite side of the road. A middle-aged woman was standing there, frozen to the spot. Tears were running down her face as the realisation of what was happening had become too much for her.

  There was a big part of Alex that wanted to go to her, to sit her down, to tell her it was all going to be alright. But, nothing was ever going to be alright again, and all Alex wanted to do was go home to see his family. Seeing the woman made him speed up from a jog to a run.

  He and Mike went running regularly and Alex was very fit for his age, but the combination of speed, fear and the fact he was wearing trousers, a shirt and a jacket meant that perspiration was dripping from him. He reached up and undid his tie and top two buttons. He shoved the tie into his pocket as he ran, taking a sharp bend and reaching the home straight.

  Just then he spotted Mike on the other side of the street, not running, not jogging, he was crouched down by an old woman on a bench. The woman was crying. Alex stopped, and got shoulder barged as someone behind him couldn’t change direction in time. He steadied himself and stepped off the pavement onto the grass verge.

  Mike helped the old woman to her feet, put the straps of her shopping bag over his right shoulder, and offered her his left arm. She looped her arm around his, and the pair of them began walking slowly as two people ran past them on either side. Alex checked in both directions then ran across the road to where they were.

  “Mike!” he called.

  Mike turned his head. “Hi Alex,” he replied. Seeing the confusion on his stepfather’s face, he continued. “This is Mrs. Govern. She lives in the flats just around the corner from us. I’m walking her home.”

  Alex nodded politely as the old woman looked at him through her tears. “Erm, okay, I’ll walk with you.”

  Mike looked at the sweat on Alex’s forehead. He saw how the light blue cotton shirt he was wearing had turned dark on his chest. “It’s okay, you get home to Em and the kids. I won’t be long.”

  Suddenly, a wave of embarrassment struck Alex. He had joined the fearful masses, ignoring the plight of everyone but himself. How many could he have helped if he had looked around the streets? How many could he have comforted in this most dire of times? And here was his step son, not buying into the panic like everyone else, but helping a frail old woman who was too scared and too confused to carry on her journey. “No, son, I’ll walk with you,” he said, as pride superseded his survival instinct and the need to get home to Emma, Sammy and Jake.

  They were on a side street now, and even though sirens and distant shots rang out, even though they still saw the odd person running towards safety, the terror somehow seemed less evident. By the time they had reached Mrs Govern’s flat, the tears on her face had dried. The two men had slowed to a pace much slower than what they were used to in order for her to keep up with them. She had told them about her Maurice, and how cancer had taken him two years before. She had told them about how her son and his family lived in Australia, and she hoped to God that they were alright in this mess. She had told them lots. She was a sweet, old lady who didn’t really understand the scale or the gravity of what was going on around her.

  She fumbled the key into the lock, and Mike opened the door. The three of them went in, Mike looked for the kitchen, placed the shopping down on a counter, put the kettle on and started making a cup of tea, while Alex guided Mrs. Govern to a chair. While the kettle was boiling, Mike took all the shopping out of the bag and left it on the work surface, ready for her to put it away when she was ready.

  He made the tea and put it down in front of her. Mrs. Govern went into her purse and tried to force money into Mike’s and then Alex’s hand which they both refused. They said their goodbyes and left the flat making sure the Yale lock clicked into place behind them. They stepped out into the quiet grove and resumed their journey home.

  The two of them walked in silence for a while, then Alex turned to look at his stepson. “That was an amazing thing you did.”

  Mike shook his head, a little baffled. “Hardly.”

  “It was, Mike.”

  “Helping an old lady home with her shopping? That’s hardly an amazing thing, Alex.”

  Alex laughed. “In my life, I’ve never met anyone like you. How many others did you see stopping? How many others did you see sacrificing their own needs to help someone who needed it?”

  “You did,” replied Mike.

  “Honestly, Mike, if I hadn’t seen you there, I don’t know if I would have stopped. I...I’d like to think I would, but I honestly don’t know.” Alex looked away from Mike, suddenly overwhelmed by a feeling of shame.

  “You would. I know you would.”

  chapter eight

  “Where the hell have you two been?” asked Emma as the children rushed up to greet Alex and Mike.

  “I’ll tell you later, sweetheart,” replied Alex, and pecked her on the cheek as Sammy wrapped her arms around her father’s waist in a bear hug.

  Mike knelt down, and Jake gave him a quick hug before going to his dad to do the same. When Sammy had given her dad enough of a squeeze, she moved onto Mike. The two younger siblings knew there was something wrong, they knew there was a problem in the adult world, but right now, the anxiety was gone as their father and brother were home safe. Whatever problems were outside, these were the two who could sort them all out.

  In an attempt to focus her worry and keep her brother and sister from worrying too, Emma had recruited them to help with making dinner. When the greetings were over, Sammy proudly guided her dad into the dining room. “We’ve made dinner,” she announced, showing the table she had laid out with knives and forks.

  Alex looked towards Emma. “Don’t worry, you’ve got time to get changed and stuff, it won’t be ready for a while yet, and Mike, you need to phone Gran, she’s been worried sick.”

  Mike disappeared, and the children, now thoroughly placated by the presence of the whole family, sat down on the sofa. Sammy picked up the remote and pressed play on the DVD, a few seconds later, Shrek appeared on the screen.

  Alex looked towards the two younger siblings and smiled, then guided Emma into the kitchen. “Okay, so what’s the latest?” he asked as he filled the k
ettle and put it on to boil.

  “The latest is, where the hell were you two? I was worried sick.”

  “Long story, I’ll tell you later. What are they saying on the news?”

  “I’ve only been able to catch snippets. I’ve not wanted Sammy and Jake to hear, but it’s bad. We’re not to leave our homes. We are under strict curfew. This is it, Alex. This is as bad as it can get.”

  Suddenly, it wasn’t a twenty-four year old woman who stood in front of him any longer, it was a scared little girl wanting her daddy to reassure her, to tell her there were no such things as monsters, to tell her everything was going to be okay. Alex put his arms around her and kissed her on the head. “Look love, whatever this is, whatever we’re going to have to get through, we’re together, and that’s the most important thing. Things could always be worse,” he said.

  Emma pulled away to look at his face. “Worse? How could they possibly be any worse?”

  “How about if you were still down in London? How about being trapped away from your family when all this was going on?”

  “If I was down in London, I’d be safe. London’s not just been put under quarantine, Leeds has,” she said.

  Alex laughed. “Erm, yeah, I suppose you’ve got me on that one,” he replied.

  “But you’re right,” she said. “Regardless, I’d want to be here. I’d fight through the barricades to be with my family. If this is the end, this is the only place I’d want to be.”

  “This is the only place I’d want you to be, but it’s not the end Emma, not by a long way.”

  Alex kissed her on the forehead, made his coffee and disappeared upstairs to have a shower. He washed his body looking at the showerhead, watching as the steaming water spouted from it. How long would they be able to enjoy this? How long would they be able to enjoy what people had taken for granted? Hot running water? Electricity? Gas? Two cities were under quarantine now. How long before more joined them? Resources would be spread thinner and thinner and eventually, like a worn elastic band, they would snap and all hell would break loose.