Survivors of the Sun

by Kingslie, Mia

  She leaned her forehead against the window, peering into the blackness outside but there was nothing to see. There was only the muted sounds of the river and night creatures passing by.

  She woke Lola at the arranged time and slipped back into bed, falling asleep almost immediately. It seemed only moments later that someone was shaking her.

  ‘Wake up.’ It was Lola, she realized, and her voice was ragged with fear. ‘Wake up.’

  ‘I’m awake,’ Georgia mumbled, sitting up, struggling to shake of sleep. ‘What’s happening?’

  ‘Shush,’ Lola whispered. ‘There’s someone outside.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ Georgia asked, needles of fear prickling up her back.

  ‘Yeah I am sure. I heard someone coughing a few moments ago, at first I reckoned it was a bird or something, but Millie heard it too, and she was growling, till I made her stop. I came in to check if it was one of you, and that’s when I heard the footsteps, right under this window, crunching on the gravel.’

  Georgia was wide awake now, her heart thudding. She yanked the covers aside and slid out of bed. ‘Did you see anything?’ She asked, keeping her voice low.

  ‘Nah, I was kind a scared to go close up to the window, just in case someone was right outside.’ Her voice was trembling. Then she added, ‘here you better take the shotgun.’

  Georgia could just make out the outline of the weapon in the gloom, the barrel pointing to the ceiling. She took it from Lola’s shaking hands and together they tiptoed over to the window, keeping to the side. Behind them, in the bed, they could hear Jamie mumbling in his sleep.

  Georgia peered cautiously round the edge of the window frame. Part of the view was blocked by the branches and dark shadows from a nearby willow tree. She stared into the blackness, making out humps and shapes that during the day were probably shrubs and ornamental rocks, but now they were all just sinister shadows.

  ‘I don’t know if there is anyone out there or not,’ she whispered, ‘I think those are all shrubs, but I don’t remember.’

  They stared into the darkness. The moonlight that should have been there, mostly blocked out by clouds, the palest gleam, outlining the edge of the hills far off in the distance. Georgia glanced back down beneath the tree, suddenly feeling very uncertain. Had that shadow moved? Wasn’t it a little closer than before? She gasped, for a moment she swore she could make out the shape of the head and shoulders of a man standing beneath the tree. A man wearing a hoodie. No, it couldn’t be, surely not. But if it was, then he was staring directly at them. Had she just seen a dull flash of metal?

  ‘Did you see that?’ she whispered, her voice taut with anxiety as she turned to Lola.

  ‘See what?’

  ‘That.’ She pointed as she looked back out the window. Then she wanted to scream. The shadow had gone.

  ‘There’s someone out there!’ she said, backing up from the window.

  Lola clutched her arm. ‘What do we do?’

  She nearly hissed, ‘how the hell should I know,’ but bit her words back before they could escape. Her hot temper had caused enough problems for now. But just once, just one time, it would be nice if someone else knew what needed to be done.

  She took a deep breath, trying to quell her racing heart and that all too familiar weakness in her legs. ‘Wake the kids and have them be on guard with their bows and for God’s sake, stay in here with them, I don’t want to accidently shoot you.’

  ‘What are you going to do?’

  ‘I am going outside. I am going to find out who is out there. I refuse to sit inside and be scared.’

  ‘Are you crazy,’ Lola whispered. It’s dark out there, and it could be a mad man.’

  ‘Well then I will be in good company,’ Georgia muttered as trembling with apprehension she left the bedroom, feeling her way down the unfamiliar hallway. Ahead she could just make out the door, a paler section where the stained glass window was. She felt around for the handle. Did this door creak when it was opened? She tried hard to remember.

  Hands shaking, she found the handle and moved her fingers down to the key. She carefully turned it, unlocking the door, the small click sounding frighteningly loud. Then slowly, ever so slowly she turned the handle, her legs threatening to give way completely, her heart thudding in her ears. What if the ‘somebody’, slash madman, was standing right on the other side of the door?

  The handle all the way down, she gently tugged. It stuck at first, so she tugged a little harder and the door swung open. The cool damp night air hit her face, and the gurgling rush of water suddenly much louder. No one there. She peered cautiously round the opening, staring into blackness, listening for any other sounds almost too afraid to move

  Lola was right, she was crazy. Isn’t this what happens in every horror movie? Woman hears a sound and goes outside and all the while, the viewers are cringing in their seats, wanting to shout out warnings to the hapless soon to be victim, willing them to go back indoors.

  But she was no hapless creature following a screenwriter’s script. This was different, and the difference was because she had a shotgun firmly gripped in her hands.

  She bravely stepped out onto the porch, the shotgun raised, her legs braced. ‘Who’s there?’ she shouted. ‘I am warning you I have a shotgun and I will use it.’ Her voice seemed to echo over the water, the only response, a night bird calling out high overhead. She took another step forwards, leaning forward as she peered round the side of the house, terrified of every shadow.

  She heard a slight sound behind her, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up as she steeled herself to turn and face whatever or whoever it was that was creeping up behind her. Suddenly she felt a hand touch her shoulder. Georgia cried out in terror and whirled round, shotgun at the ready, finger almost touching the trigger.

  ‘It’s only me,’ Lola said calmly.

  ‘Oh fuck,’ Georgia whispered, sinking to her knees, a sudden urge to throw up taking over. ‘I nearly shot you.’

  ‘No, you didn’t, the shotgun isn’t loaded. I just remembered that I unloaded the cartridges earlier.

  ‘You did what?’ Georgia felt the blood drain from her face.

  ‘Yeah, well you were pretty mad earlier, and I reckoned you might go all postal on us, so I thought it best to remove any risk of that.’

  Georgia stared at her, speechless. Go postal? Had Lola seriously thought she would go on a bullet spraying rampage, shooting her and Ruby and the kids?

  ‘So anyway you better have these,’ Lola said finally, holding something out in the shadows. ‘The cartridges,’ she prompted when Georgia did not immediately take them.

  All of a sudden they both heard the sound of someone running past the house, heading towards the river. This time there was no doubt in either of their minds. There was definitely someone out there.

  Lola screamed, a dreadful sound, like a banshee being strangled. In one movement Georgia bounded into the house pulling Lola back inside with her. She slammed the door firmly shut and turned the key. Then she leaned heavily against the door, wanting to be sick. She had gone outside to confront a person or persons unknown, with an unloaded shotgun. She wanted to scream at Lola, ‘are you totally fucking insane?’ But she had already done that today. Nevertheless, the temptation to grab her by her silly shoulders and shake her till that bird brain of hers rattled round in her skull was pretty overwhelming.

  Instead, she leaned against the door, trying to quell her thudding heart, amazed that she had not peed herself in all the excitement.

  Out of the darkness she heard Lola whisper, ‘I think he’s gone. He was definitely running away from the house.’

  Georgia was still unable to speak.

  ‘Are you angry with me?’ Lola asked.

  Angry? Angry wasn’t the word for it. She had just gone outside threatening to shoot someone with an unloaded weapon and…,’

  ‘I knew it,’ Lola whispered, when Georgia still had not replied. ‘You’re mad at me.’

 
; Okay, so she should have double checked it herself, but it had never occurred to her that this stupid, blonde, julep tea drinking, magnolia brained bimbo would actually do something so terrifyingly stupid.

  ‘Georgia, talk to me, please,’ Lola whispered.

  ‘It’s okay Lola, I am not mad at you, just catching my breath. But next time you do that…,’ I will rip your hair out, ‘just make sure you let me know before you hand it over to me.’ She felt proud at how steady her voice sounded, how calm.

  ‘Sure thing,’ Lola said, relief obvious in her voice, then added, ‘so we still sisters in survival?’

  ‘Yes,’ Georgia agreed, ‘sisters always,’ putting her arm across Lola’s shoulders as they made their way into the kitchen.

  ‘I’ll make you a coffee if you like, with sugar,’ Lola said, as Georgia sat down at the table. There was little point in trying to go back to sleep now. She was completely wired and wide awake.

  ‘I would like that,’ she said, watching as Lola lit the gas and placed the readied pot of water onto the blue and yellow flower of a flame. After all, it was hard to stay angry with Lola, she is who she is, and one can only but love her for that.

  It was only as dawn was breaking, and they were on their second mug of coffee that Georgia remembered the canoes. ‘Did you by any chance hide the canoes?’

  Lola stared at her, her dismayed expression answering the question.

  Without another word they both stood up, Georgia snatching up the shotgun as they hurried outside.

  ‘Oh thank God,’ Georgia exclaimed, as ahead of them, in the early grey of the morning, she spotted the vibrant yellow of the canoes, partially hidden by the dew soaked grass. Relief flooded through her.

  ‘It would have been really bad if…,’ Georgia’s words dried up as they came closer. There was only one canoe before them. The other one had gone!

  ‘Shit,’ Georgia said, and Lola echoed her words with a heartfelt, ‘Oh crap.’

  This was what came of not paying attention to the things that mattered. If Lola and the others had done, what should have been normal routine, and she had held her temper, then this could never have happened. She looked at the flattened grass where the canoe had once been, furious with herself, more so than with the others. She was the one in charge, and ultimately the full responsibility of the loss weighed on her shoulders.

  ‘I’m really sorry,’ Lola began, but Georgia cut her off.

  ‘Don’t be, this is my fault.’

  ‘So, now what do we do?’ Lola asked.

  Georgia thought for a moment, then took Lola by the arm. ‘Now, we go inside and make breakfast, I am thinking blackberry flapjacks, we don’t have all the ingredients, but we do have enough flour, and thanks to you, we have sugar.’

  ‘Oh,’ Lola said, ‘and then?’

  ‘Then we sit down and look at all our options and come up with a plan B.’

  Chapter Fifty Six

  August 20th, Day 41

  They had finally reached the top of the first hill. It had been hot going. The slope was overgrown with plants that scratched, tripped them up and tugged at clothing. All around the air was filled with the high pitch whine of insects and things that rustled and darted out of sight as they approached. High overhead a skylark sang, tumbling to earth then soaring skywards again.

  ‘Let’s take a short break,’ she panted, setting Ant’s bag on the ground, as she shrugged free from the day pack she had brought. Millie and Badger sought shade nearby, panting heavily. Jamie, Rebecca and Deedee, flushed from the heat, sat down, pulling out their water bottles. They needed no second invitation. She paused to wipe her sweaty face with the front of her t-shirt before reaching for her own water. For this trip, Lola and Ruby had been left behind.

  Earlier the maps had been pulled out and spread out over the kitchen table, the food tallied up and options weighed. They still had around 170 miles to traverse, give or take, and somehow they had to find their way to Route 42E. Going by canoe, now they only had the one was out of the question. It would mean numerous trips back and forth, multiplying the miles and the risks exponentially.

  It had quickly become obvious that hiking across country to meet up with the highway was now virtually their only option. The biggest question being how difficult was it going to be? Especially with Ruby in tow. The map book was next to useless as far as giving any indication of what sort of terrain to expect, and the more detailed wall map they had taken from River View Resort only covered the lake area. In the end, knowing it was always better to be prepared, Georgia had decided the only way to find out for certain what they would be facing was to reconnoiter the area in advance.

  Now as she sat, gazing across the valley, the house they had left earlier that morning now a mere dot in the distance, she despaired. How on earth would they get Ruby up here?

  Jamie had obviously read her mind, because he suddenly said, ‘we could always drag her up, on a, you know, on a sledge thing.’

  ‘Like on a travois?’

  ‘Yeah one of those.’

  Georgia could just imagine it. Poor old Ruby strapped down so she was immobile, being dragged up through the scraggly shrubs and wild blackberries, still clutching her handbag as they struggled and sweated and pulled. It would never work. First time it hit a rocky outcrop, or a twisted root it would flip over, and…, well it just wouldn’t be good.

  ‘I don’t think we would be able to keep a grip on it, not even if four of us were pulling it. It is just too steep, we barely managed ourselves.’

  ‘So how then?’ Rebecca asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ she said honestly as she rummaged in the pack for the dog’s water bowl. ‘We still have three and half hours before we have to turn round, might be best to keep going, if the rest of the way is fairly smooth going…,’ she paused as she filled the bowl, watching the dogs thirstily gulp at the water.

  ‘And if it is?’ Jamie prompted.

  He looked so serious, Georgia couldn’t help giving a little laugh. ‘Well, then I guess we will have to put our heads together and come up with a ‘Get Ruby up the hill’, plan.’

  ‘What if we wrapped her up in sheets, tied a rope round her ankles and dragged her up that way?’ Deedee said, then she giggled at Georgia’s horrified face.

  ‘Well she wouldn’t get scratched or bruised would she?’ she insisted when still no one said anything.

  Georgia got to her feet. ‘No, we won’t be doing that.’

  Once Georgia had put Ant back in her bag, slung the shotgun over her shoulder, and pulled on her daypack, they set off once more. As they crested the hill and headed down into the next valley she could still hear Deedee muttering to herself, ‘well I thought it was a good idea, even if no one else did.’

  The further they walked away from the Osage River area, the drier the landscape became, the vegetation sparse and unforgiving. She had thought that this area would be lush grasslands, crisscrossed with small streams and waterways, but the constant heat had changed that.

  The grass was scraggly and brittle to the touch, in parts there was no grass at all and the ground was cracked and hard. Even the trees had lost their usual green foliage. It seemed to be so much hotter here, but perhaps that was simply because of the energy they were exerting. Vultures circled high above, crossing round and round, silhouetted against the unforgiving yellow ball of the sun.

  She had of course seen vultures before, never more than one or two though, and when she pointed them out to the kids, they shrugged dismissively, calling them buzzards.

  Jamie shielded his eyes as he watched them. ‘They must have spotted something dead or dying,’ he said, then added, ‘probably something not dead yet, once it’s dead they will go down and pick the bones clean.’

  She shuddered at his words, his matter of fact manner. There were a lot more than just one or two this time though, dozens and dozens, she mused, but they were still a fair way off. A couple of miles maybe, and she couldn’t help wondering why there were so ma
ny of them.

  It was nearly mid-day and she knew they would have to stop soon, try to rig up some shade and wait for it to become marginally cooler before they continued. Then they would go a little further, and hopefully set eyes on the freeway. Lola would not be expecting them back until close to nightfall.

  They came across a car in the middle of a field, parked near a solitary Yew tree, bright red under its layer of dust and grime. Some sort of sports car, a long and sleek two seater. Leather upholstery and low to the ground. The black top was covered with leaves and bird poop. It was an odd sort of car, nearly all motor by the looks of it.

  Jamie was in raptures, running his fingers along the side, tracing the raised gills, and peering in through the dusty windows. The girls and the dogs settled in the tiny sliver of shade along the side of the vehicle.

  Even though it had been securely locked up, a rock through the side window soon fixed that. Reaching in, she unlocked the door and pulled it open. She barely had time to sweep the broken glass from the seat, when the dogs abandoned the shade and leapt in, settling on the back seat, excited that they might be going for a drive. They had obviously not forgotten those days!

  ‘It’s a spider,’ Jamie said suddenly, as she checked through the car. His voice a little muffled as she had her head down near the floor trying to look under the seat, while carefully avoiding bits of shattered glass.

  ‘Where’s a spider,’ she said, yanking her head back up, hitting it on the steering column. She rubbed the sore spot, convinced there would be a lump.

  Jamie laughed. ‘Not a spider, at least not the eight legged sort, the car is called a Spyder.

  ‘Oh,’ Georgia said, ‘odd name for a car.’

  ‘Yeah, but it’s spelt with ‘y’ instead of ‘I’, Dad took me to see one at the car show.’

  ‘Uh huh,’ Georgia said, running her fingers down between the seats. Her fingers touched something hard and square and she wriggled it free. It was a gold lighter. Surprisingly it worked. ‘The more lighters the better,’ she thought, as she slipped it into her pocket.