Chapter 14
“I don’ quite remember how I ended up here, exactly. Not sure how long I been here either. Down here, away from the sun, you lose track of time real easy. There’s no days as such – just one long night. But I knew a time when we saw daylight regular, that’s for sure. And cars. And burgers with cheese. And chips. I remember chips.
And television…
We lived up in the valleys, when I was a boy. School was a short bus ride from home. The old yellow double-deckers would pick us up every morning; took a bus-full of us down to the school on the edge of town. We were one of the first stops, my brother and me, and always got the best seats – up front, on top. I remember those rides - rolling about all over the place - tree branches sounded just like gunshots on the metal roof. But all that stopped when I was fourteen. We hadn’t gotten close to finishing classes, but no more diesel meant no more buses, and it was too far to walk twice a day.
The next few years was my favourite. The whole family was home, all at once, see. Me and my mam, both my sisters. Even my Da was around – he couldn’t find petrol for the drive to his office, so he had to work from home on his computer. HE said the house was too small, but I liked it alright. It was cosy with us all in there together, and my friends was just up the street. We all did what we could to make money – odd jobs, mostly. Working on other peoples’ houses. In their gardens. Growing food here and there, anywhere we could find the space… Along some streets they even broke up the roads, to make room for allotments and plant a few veg. There wasn’t much spare for anyone to give away really, but we did what we could. They were good times…
I knew Mollie right from school. Her mam knew my mam and we all started hanging out a lot when the buses stopped running; she lived just a few streets away, up on the hill. She was a tidy looking girl and always treated me nice. It wasn’t too long before we moved into a place together. She fell pregnant, so we had to really. It was no good with us both under my mam’s feet all the time. And there were so many empty houses by then; it was the food and fuel that was hard to come by. Of course, we needed them much more once the baby came. But so did everyone else. There was always people arguing across the allotments, and I remember how the hills were stripped of trees for miles around...
We had a real scare when the baby come. He was breech, see; inside Molly the wrong way up. My mam and her mam Janice were both there, all shouting and screaming, running around like headless chickens. I was probably the worst of all. Then someone found Mrs Clevedon from down the hill. She used to be a nurse, and knew exactly what to do. I don’t think I’ve ever been more relieved than when little Jackson popped out. It wasn’t much fun for Mollie though. I felt terrible for her… all that pain and mess and fuss. I don’t think she ever quite recovered...
All the neighbours were brilliant after the baby was born. We didn’t have a clue, but everyone brought stuff round – out of their garages, their basements and their lofts. We had a real tidy setup for little Jackson; he never wanted for anything. He played for years up and down the street; the boy had so many aunties and uncles, we used to lose track of who had him at any one time…
It was a few years later that we was moved down to the city by the Council. A lot of people got left behind in all the commotion, mind. My ma and da – they wouldn’t come. Said it was all a conspiracy – to get them out of their house because the Council wanted the land. Things got harder for them after that, of course. No running water, no gas. Soon enough the drainage packed up. Those are the things you really took for granted back in the day. Then one morning the reception on the phone just went. No signal, it said. We never heard from them again…
We loved the city at first. It was great when things started. Everything worked, and everyone was well excited. It was all new, see. The girl had a brand new kitchen – never been used before we moved in. She was in there cooking things all the time. We all shared communal heating and electric, so no bills to pay. The boy had a school to go to, all new as well. Inside the same building as our apartment, it was. All the other kids were from the same building as ours. I thought that was a fine idea. It was a shame when they filled in the playing fields, mind. I suppose they needed the space for more homes - more people coming in all the time. So we had nowhere for football, but the boy could still ride his bike around the block. But then a few years after that, the children stopped coming. And no more kids meant no more school…
Food was the biggest problem. It kept getting more expensive, and with everyone living so close, things were bound to get out of hand, see. At first, it was arguments all the time. Everywhere you went, people were shouting at one another. But it didn’t take long before the fighting begun. Fighting in the shops, in the houses, on the roof even. Fighting all the time. Soon enough, a few troublemakers had gotten their hands on weapons – before you knew it, you couldn’t leave your house without protection of some kind or other. After news about the first few incidents got around our block, people pretty much stayed indoors...
Problem was, there was nowhere for anyone to go, see. Everyone had the same box to live in, and everyone wanted a bit more than everybody else. The city was a nice idea in a lot of ways, but it come too late. And it was a big shock for most of us; we weren’t used to living like that, all piled up on top of one another. Not in Britain...
Then all of a sudden, the weather turned real cold. Apparently it was caused by the Warming, funnily enough. The snow and the ice was all gone from the poles, just melted away in the sun, and the water got dumped in the oceans. All that cold fresh-water did something to the currents. We’ve been buried under snow ever since. The change in temperature was too much for the city. The buildings were designed for weather that was getting warmer, not colder. The heating systems couldn’t keep up. With no heat and no food, people soon ran into serious troubles…
I was about fifty when we moved underground. It’s no way to live, but at least it’s warm. It wasn’t long before there were more people underground than above ground. Safety in numbers, I suppose. But soon after, the old girl got sick. A chest thing, it was. Made her terrible weak and she just couldn’t shift it. She was ill for a long time, mind. In the end, I was glad when she went. Jackson stopped coming by soon after. There’s not much left now to stick around for now, but we keep trying...
Sometimes I wonder why I’m still here, why I’m still alive. If everyone knew how it used to be, how easy it was, they’d think that it wasn’t worth living anymore. They’d all just give up, I’m sure. Maybe I’m supposed to stay, to tell people who don’t remember how it all happened. Guide others on their way, that sort of thing. I’m too old to change myself, too set in these ways now. All I know is things can’t last like this. Someone somewhere has to start over…
Do you ever read the Bible? After Mollie passed away, I used to like to read it a lot - before my eyes went, that is. I would pretend like it was written about us, about our time, see. My favourite bit was Revelations. Do you know it? I still remember – stuck in my empty old head, it is:
‘And when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold I saw a pale horse: and his name that sat on it was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given into them over the fourth part of the Earth, to kill with swords and with hunger and with death, all the beasts of the Earth.’
The four horsemen are here, I tell you. Plague and pestilence are stalking these tunnels. Death and disease, they walk the streets above…”
Eventually, the old man falls asleep. Eve hadn’t the heart to tell him that someone had started over, but that they’d come back; that having escaped from the sickly pull of the city, the very things that made it unbearable had drawn her from their safe, green orbit inevitably back into its grasp.
While Bill snores and splutters beneath his layers of hair and soiled clothing, Eve studies Gareth discretely in the waning candlelight through heavily lidded eyes. He sits upright on the other side of the cell, watching her every move. His wiry, hard body is dark and encrusted with grime, but his eyes sparkled with attentive excitement while he listened to the old man’s stories. Now, they are still bright and alert. He has a fascinated expression on his face, as though studying something spectacularly out of the ordinary - an alien species perhaps. He smiles when he feels her gaze on him, then gets up and moves to sit by her side.
“You tried to warn me.” She posed it as a statement rather than a question.
He shrugs. Then he looks around, as if to remind her of their current predicament.
“Still, you tried. Thankyou.”
He smiles again, his teeth a flash of white against the mottled grey grime of his unwashed face.
“Did I hurt you? I’m sorry-”
He shakes his head, and gestures towards the door. Another shrug. He lightly touches one of her upper arms, visible above the blanket. A series of long red finger-shaped marks encircle it. The bruised flesh tingles under his gentle touch.
Suddenly Eve doesn’t feel well. Her belly is tied in knots and she is light-headed. Probably from hunger, she supposes. Tears welling in her eyes, she leans her head into him, and his arm creeps around her shoulders. A moment passes; her stomach heaves and she retches, twice, but nothing comes up. With a sigh, she settles back on his chest. His fingers smooth the damp hair on her forehead and the dizziness fades to black.
When she wakes, nothing has moved. The candle burns erratically at its base, throwing long lopsided shadows this way and that. The old man breathes unevenly on the other side of the small room. Her eyes flit up to Gareth’s sleeping face. His lips are dry and slightly parted, and breathe warmed air across her ear. His body feels reassuring against hers. Craning her neck, she sets her lips on his. His breath tastes stale over the top of her tongue.
With a twitch he wakes, but barely shifts against the stone wall. Slowly, his mouth moves against hers. She feels his teeth on her top lip. Her tongue runs against them, finds the line of his gums. His fingertips tentatively trace across her ribs to the band of exposed skin around her hips. Her thighs tense and her throat runs dry. A dull aching urge dispels warm surges that emanate from the base of her groin.
As quietly as she is able, she unfastens her belt. Prising the golf shoe off her heel, she then slides her left leg out of her trousers. She feels him swallow and his hands tighten their grip. Shifting her weight, she sits down across his lap. His ragged clothes feel coarse under her. Their lips still glued together, her fingertips fumble at his waistband until she feels his hands next to hers…
There is a hot pulse inside her body. Gareth whimpers, and his hips twitch and spasm under her. Eve’s arms are wrapped around his head, slick with sweat. The tips of her fingers dig into his scalp. She bites her top lip to stifle a moan. After a few seconds, the burning passes and she realises that she has been holding her breath. Very slowly, she exhales in the quiet of the cell. Across the tiny room, the old man’s erratic breathing continues.