Commute - Camp NaNoWriMo April 2015

Chapter Thirty-Seven - Bad News (Can It Really Get Any Worse?)

Night has fallen. We've cleared away all of the debris from the tracks, and right now I feel like I'm asleep on my feet. I still have no mobile signal, nor does anyone else.

We've saved the walking - up - the - hill - to - try - and - find - some - place - that - isn't - just - grass plan until tomorrow, as everyone was flat-out exhausted when we finally got the track clear.

No trains have come by yet, but we're all still reasoning that people will come to look for us. I mean, it's kind of hard to not notice that you're missing a carriage when you draw up in Paddington. There are probably loads of people hunting down the tracks right now...

At least, that's what we're reassuring the kids with. The twins fall asleep in each others' arms, and Fat Kid lies against his mother, in a deep sleep. The rest of us sit around, whispering so we don't wake the children.

"What are we going to do?" says Tired Mum.

That's the question that we've been passing round all day like a baton. The question of what we're going to do if all we can see is hills from the top of the hill. And I'm afraid that's exactly what we're going to find.

I expect the question to be met with the usual array of shrugs, slumped shoulders and heads-in-hands. Instead, Batman stands up.

"You know what we're going to do?" he asks. "Maya and I are going to walk to the top of that hill. We're going to look as far as we can. If we can spot any villages or even just houses, we'll walk there in the morning. If not, we'll walk tomorrow until we do."

Everyone nods slowly, except Fat Kid, who is suddenly awake. "Hey! I wanna come too!" he yells, jumping up. "You can't just take boring old newspaper lady! I wanna come too!"

Tired Mum shushes him. "Hush, Harry. Go back to sleep. You've had a long day... everything will be okay in the morning."

Everything will be okay in the morning. Let's hope so.

He slumps back against his mum in a huff, and pretty soon he's fast asleep again.

"Come on," whispers Batman to me, careful not to wake the children this time. I nod without words, and get up.

We walk in silence, our path lit by the light of the moon. It's a long way to the hills, longer than I expected, and I spend it thinking about my fellow commuters. How we barely even knew each other, and now we're huddling together, trying to keep warm, and hoping for a rescue.

It's strange how things turn out, really.

We reach the top of the hill - oh darn it. It's just as I thought - more and more hills stretch out below us. There is no sign of life - just green, green, and more green, going on for miles and miles, right to the edge of our vision.

I sit down on the ground with a bump and put my head in my hands. "Oh, no," I say through my fingers.

Batman sits down beside me. "Don't worry, Maya. Tomorrow we can start walking parallel to the train tracks. We can walk all the way back to Coxbury if we have to. We'll be fine."

"We'll be fine," I repeat after him. "We'll be fine."

Then we stand up together and begin the trek back to the others, to give them the bad news.