The Shaking

Chapter Thirty One

"Come on Ryan, let's go!" urged Michelle. Buckland gave Hobbs a final withering look before turning on his heel and heading for the stairwell.

Sylvia Grant's institutional front door was identical to all of the others on the first floor; it was a heavy, wood effect veneer construction with a letter box at it's center and a narrow strip of a window down the side, something which looked more a fire door in an office than anything to do with a home. It made a solid sound when Michelle knocked on it.

"Nan, it's Shelley!" she called out. From inside a torch light approached with shuffling footsteps; there was the sound of a safety chain being attached, and then the door opened. Nan's pinched face took in the family.

"Oh 'Chelle! I knew you'd come to see I was all right! I tried to call you, but I couldn't get through. Come on! Get yourselves inside!"

With the door unchained Sylvia hustled them all through. They embraced. "Go on into the lounge all of you! I'll put the kettle on!"

"Uh, how would you do that Nan?" asked Ryan. "The power's off."

"I've got a camping gas stove." she replied conspiratorially. "Little 'itler 'obbs doesn't know about it either, he'd 'ave kittens if he did! Break 'is precious bloody Rules it would! Can you give us a hand with it love? I'll need help to get it out of the cupboard, I can't bend down too easily these days..."

"Of course!"

Ryan shucked off his pack and followed Sylvia into the kitchenette.

"Down there dear; it should be in the box at the bottom, just under those old pans... Yes that's it."

By the anaemic light of Nan's torch Buckland pulled out a strong cardboard box which was larger and heavier than he anticipated. He set it down on the worktop and opened it. Inside among other things was a blow moulded plastic case containing a hob style burner; the sort powered by a long butane cylinder lying clamped alongside it. Setting it up on the useless electric cooker top, he picked a saucepan from the rack and filled it from the tap, though despite pushing the lever all the way open only a slow stream of water trickled out of it.

"Mr Hobbs has been up on the roof tank." Sylvia explained. "He said the water pressure is bound to be affected and the supply might not be safe, so he's shut it off at the mains pipe and restricted the flow from the tank. We've got to economise as much as possible, and we're not to wash or use the lavvie unless we really have to. He was going to dig a latrine pit in the garden tomorrow for us to go in if things got really bad! As if we'd go out in the open, even with a windbreak! We'll all 'ave to use a potty and tip it in there afterwards! Some 'ope, eh? 'He also wanted us to pull the curtains and not show any lights, just in case it attracts the wrong kind of people. I reckon he was born too late; he'd 'ave made a fine Air Raid Warden!

Anyway, 's a good job I filled up the bath with water like he said before he cut the supply down; I thought these sorts of problems were going to 'appen... But I had some bottled water put by anyway; you never can be too careful..."

Ryan filled the saucepan two-thirds full and put it on the burner, then turned the piezoelectric ignition on. With a quietly satisfying whuff the gas ring lit with a corona of electric blue fire; he adjusted the control so that no flames licked wastefully around the sides of the pan, a long-forgotten boy scout lesson returning from the depths of his memory.

"Let that heat up for a while." said Buckland. "Though it's best to keep an eye on it just in case-" Even as he spoke the words there was a rattling aftershock. Some water slopped over the edge of the pan and sizzled on contact with the hot burner. Ryan made to steady the pan on the stove but before he was able to grab the handle the disturbance had passed.