“We have kept a long vigil here, watching the Old Ones tear apart what was left of our country. In some ways, we have been fortunate. We began with a vast depot of provisions and unlimited water … we have our own purification system. We have fuel and electricity. We are able to grow our own food both underground and on the surface. We even have books, DVDs and computer games!
“Even so, it has not been easy. You could go mad living like this … so many of us, thrown together, buried alive. But we have had a common cause. Very occasionally we have heard from the other pods. We have had to be careful as there is always the chance that our radio signals will be intercepted. But above all, we have had hope. We always knew that one day the Five would return.
“Seven years ago, once things had become a little more settled, I sent Graham Fletcher out to look for the door which I knew existed in the east of England, in the church of St Botolph’s. He had everything he needed on the Lady Jane and the river and canal system would allow him to slip unseen through the country. It was a great deal to ask of him but there was no other way. He had to find the door and wait there for one of the Five to appear and then to bring them here. He has succeeded. Although he has been separated from his friends and his brother for all these years, he has never wavered. We have much to be grateful for.”
“St Meredith’s is still standing,” Jamie said.
I was amazed how confident he was. He’d just taken all this on board but he hadn’t even blinked. I was freaking out and he was totally in control. But then this entire operation, these people, the nuclear bunker or whatever it was … all of it was only there for him. So perhaps it was natural that he should take command.
“Yes,” Miss Ashworth replied. “But there’s a difference, Jamie. The Old Ones know about it. They may have even left it intact on purpose, as a trap to draw you in. It looks abandoned but we have sent out spies and know that it is permanently surrounded. There are shape-changers in London … and worse. They were always waiting in the hope that you would emerge there from Hong Kong. And they will certainly be waiting for you now.”
“They think Jamie is dead,” the Traveller said.
“That’s true, Graham. And it may help us. Maybe they’ll relax their guard. But we still have to be very careful before we try to go in.” She turned back to Jamie. “The doors aren’t working, are they?”
“No,” Jamie admitted. “But that’s going to change.” Suddenly he was the centre of attention. It was as if Miss Ashwood had passed over her authority to him. “Matt and the others are alive,” he continued. “I’ve seen them in the dreamworld, which is a place we can go when we’re asleep. Matt is in Brazil. The last time I saw her, Scarlett was heading for Dubai. She’s with Richard Cole. Pedro is in Italy. And Scott…” He hesitated. “Scott is already in Oblivion, in Antarctica. That’s where this is all going to end, and if you have people who are ready to fight, that’s where they should be heading.”
“We could fly you there,” Will said. “Heathrow and Gatwick are both out of use but there’s a landing strip at Elstree we can use…”
“No.” Jamie shook his head. “The doors are going to open again. Matt is going to send me a signal. I have to get to St Meredith’s as soon as possible and then, when the moment comes, I’ll join him in Oblivion.”
Nobody argued. Whatever Jamie wanted, that was what was going to happen.
“Can you get me there?” he asked.
“Yes.” Miss Ashwood nodded. “But London is terribly dangerous. Parts of it are still radioactive. And there was some sort of virus we know nothing about. Conditions change daily, depending on how the wind blows. Incredibly, there are still people living there but they’re barely recognizable as human beings. You were in Little Moulsford. You’ve seen what can happen. We have a safe house near St Meredith’s but you can’t stay there more than three or four days.”
“I want to go there straight away,” Jamie said. “And I’m going to need as many people as you can spare. When the time comes, we’re going to have to fight our way inside. And I don’t know why I’m saying this but once Matt gives the signal, I don’t think we’re going to have much time.”
“All right. Graham will make all the arrangements.”
“I’m coming too,” I said. The words had come out all by themselves. Once again, I hadn’t meant to speak. I also thought that someone would try to talk me out of it, that they would make me see sense. But to my surprise, nobody did.
And that was how I came to be part of it. That was why I was there at the end.
FORTY
We left at six o’clock in the evening. I only knew it because the clocks told me. In this underground world, I wondered how anyone had any sense of time. The Traveller said that it would be safer to cross London in the dark. Despite his wound, he insisted on coming with us, but this time it would be his brother, Will Fletcher, who would be in charge. Will knew the city better – but the two of them didn’t want to spend any more time apart. There were another four men who had changed out of the grey overalls they always wore in the pod and were now in army camouflage, bristling with guns and other equipment. I felt a little safer having them around me, but then I had no idea what we were heading into. London. For years it had been a name – and one that you didn’t mention too often. It had been destroyed, along with another eight cities in the UK, and that had been enough to tip the whole country into chaos. It was as if I was about to travel into the very broken heart.
We ate another meal before we left, which suited me. Once we were in the city we would be surviving on only what we could carry. I noticed Graham and Will Fletcher sitting next to each other, deep in conversation. They obviously had a lot of catching up to do but not much time. Finally, we stood up and got ready to leave. We had all been given backpacks. I don’t know what was in mine but it weighed a ton.
I looked for Jamie and saw him perching on one of the sofas near the TV. I went over to join him, then realized that he was talking to Susan Ashwood, the blind woman who was sitting opposite him. I didn’t want to burst in on them but at the same time I was close enough to hear their conversation. He had his back to me and she, of course, couldn’t see, so neither of them was aware of me. She was saying goodbye.
“I won’t see you again, Jamie,” she was saying. “I have very little time left now.”
“You can’t know that, Miss Ashwood.”
“I do know that. The spirits have told me. But please don’t be upset on my account. There’s nothing to fear about death, once you understand it. I’ll merely be passing from one place to another … a little like you when you go to your dreamworld. But I want you to know that I am so glad to have met you. And Matt. A lot of people spend their whole lives without achieving very much but I am proud that I was able to help you a little. When this story is written, I’ll have a place in it. A few lines, anyway. That’s important to me.”
“Do you know what happens?” Jamie asked. “Do you know how it ends?”
She shook her head. “Only one person knows that and I don’t envy him. To know the future is to carry a terrible weight. But I will tell you this, Jamie. None of it is going to be easy. There will be a lot of pain and a lot of death. You’ll need all your strength.”
“What about Scott? Can you tell me anything about him?”
“Scott has a part to play. Like all of you.”
“I really miss him.”
“I’m sure. But the two of you will find each other again. In time…”
I must have moved or something because suddenly Miss Ashwood called out to me. “Holly…?”
I wondered how she could possibly have known it was me and I felt guilty about being found eavesdropping on them and moved forward hurriedly. “I came to say goodbye,” I said.
“It’s very brave of you to make the journey into London, Holly,” Miss Ashwood said. “And I have to say that I am quite jealous. You are now a companion of one of the Gatekeepers. Who knows where that will take you? Look aft
er Jamie. And yourself.”
The Traveller came over with his brother. “Time to go…” he said. He had a huge backpack strapped to his shoulders and I wondered how he could manage it with his wound.
The other four men joined us. Their names were Blake, Simon, Ryan and Amir and they were all in their mid-twenties. Sophie also came to say goodbye, holding the Traveller close to her and trying (I could tell) not to show how worried she was. I think she’d asked to come with us, but someone – Susan Ashwood perhaps – had told her she had to stay behind. And then we were off. There was another door that I hadn’t noticed, this one with a huge handle and an airtight lock, like something on a rocket or a plane. Will opened it for us and we stepped through. I heard it close behind us and that was it. We were on our own.
There were no lights here. We were carrying our own torches and straight away I saw the answer to at least one question that had been puzzling me. The Traveller had said we were ten miles from St Meredith’s, which had struck me as an awful long way to walk, but now I saw that my legs were going to be spared. There were two vehicles waiting for us; electric cars, still plugged into the wall, recharging. I sat in one with Jamie and the two brothers. The rest got into the other. Someone unplugged us and we were off, shooting down the tunnel at about twenty miles per hour, the engines whirring softly but making no other noise.
The tunnel was new. The floor was cement and the walls were tiled and I wondered if the Nexus had actually constructed it themselves. It must have cost them millions. Each of the cars had headlamps which lit the way ahead and, despite everything, I enjoyed the ride, watching the walls flash by, with the breeze – cool and musty – blowing in my hair. It had been years since I’d been in a car of any sort. The only thing with wheels that had worked in the village had been my wheelbarrow. I was sorry when, after about forty minutes, we came to a solid wall, slowed down and stopped.
“We go the rest of the way on foot,” the Traveller said.
We all climbed out. Ryan and Amir turned on their torches and I saw a small, jagged opening set in the wall. We climbed through and found ourselves in another tunnel, quite different from the one we had left. It was much older, for a start. The walls were blackened with soot and as the two men swung the beams across, I made out long lines of cable, stapled together, running into the distance.
“Take care,” Ryan said. He was softly spoken with an Irish accent, I think, and I didn’t need to be told to know that from this moment on we were always going to be close to danger. He lowered the torch to show a series of metal tracks bolted to the metal floor. “There’s no current but you can still trip over and hurt yourself. Try to stay close.”
We set off again. And with a sense of excitement I realized where we were. This was the Tube – the underground train system that had run through London. I tried to imagine commuters rushing along in the darkness from Oxford Street to Piccadilly Circus and Knightsbridge. These were just names to me. And yet here I was, following one of the tunnels; a maze of tunnels, in fact, that would eventually bring me to whichever part of the city we wanted. They’d had moving staircases too. Escalators. I remembered Miss Keyland telling me about them and that made me think of how she had died and reminded me that if I wasn’t careful, I’d end up dead too. This wasn’t a fun expedition to a forgotten city. London was dangerous.
We walked for about fifteen minutes before the tunnel suddenly opened out and I found myself in what must have once been a station. It was called Highgate. The torchlight picked out the name printed on a blue band, surrounded by a red circle. We were low down. There was a platform above us to one side and white tiles that curved over our head. On the other side, the walls were covered with advertisements. Holidays in Israel. The Financial Times newspaper. Some church group promising the secret of life. The paper was damp and tatty. And nobody was going on holiday any more, money was no use, and the church hadn’t saved anyone, so it was all a waste of time.
Something moved and we all froze. A gun appeared in Blake’s hand so quickly that he could have been a magician, performing a trick. We looked around us, expecting to see someone appear on the platform. But it was only a rat, running along the tracks. It was a fat, bloated thing with matted fur and shiny eyes and, seeing it picked out in the flashlight, I couldn’t help wondering what it had found to eat. It was probably better not to know. We continued through the station and into the tunnel at the other end. Once again, total darkness closed in on us, swallowing us up.
We walked and walked. After the comfort and speed of the electric cars, our journey into London was an ordeal. There was nothing to look at, except for the glint of light showing the rails ahead and the lines of cables which snaked along, following us all the way. I could feel the backpack dragging down on my shoulders, and my last meal and that luxurious warm shower had already become a memory. We walked through three more stations: Archway, Tufnell Park, Kentish Town. I found myself wondering about the names, about what they represented. Had there been an arch at Archway? What was so Kentish about Kentish Town? And what would I find if I climbed the escalator and exited? There might be people still living in parts of London but somehow I doubted that they’d be pleased to see us.
There was a hideous sight waiting for us at Camden Town. A train had been parked on a rail parallel to the one we were following – a huge red thing that fitted into the tunnel like toothpaste in a tube. Suddenly I was aware of a dreadful smell and someone – Amir, I think – passed me a cloth to cover my face. “Try not to look,” he said.
Of course, that only made me more curious and as we walked past I peered through the curving windows, wondering what the reflected torchlight would reveal. I wished I hadn’t. The carriages were packed with dead bodies. They must have been standing shoulder to shoulder, with no room to move, when they died. It was impossible to say what had killed them. The bodies had partly rotted away. I glimpsed empty, staring eye sockets and teeth grinning where the cheeks had once been. The corpses were dressed in rags, the remains of dresses and suits … otherwise it would have been impossible to tell the men from the women. I think the most horrible thing was that so many of them were still on their feet, with what was left of their arms and hands connected to straps that ran along the ceiling. Death must have hit them like a whirlwind, blown down the tunnel. Some were sitting. Some were on the floor. But the rest of them had been caught there, jammed against each other, and that was where, for all eternity, they would remain.
I couldn’t wait to get past it and, trying to speed up, I bumped into Jamie. I couldn’t see very much of anything. There were still only two torches lighting our way. Anyway, in my hurry, I almost tripped both of us over.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“It’s OK,” he said. And then I felt him take my hand, just for a moment. It was quite unexpected. He and I had been through so much together but we hadn’t exactly been close. Not like him and his brother. “I’m glad you came,” he said.
“Are you?”
“Yes.” He fell silent for a moment. “I wouldn’t have got this far without you, Holly,” he went on. “Back in your village … I’m so sorry about what happened. But I’m glad you were on my side.”
That was the end of it. He didn’t say anything more. But it meant a lot to me and when I think about Jamie now, about the way things might have gone between us, that’s the moment that I always remember most.
We stopped for a rest at King’s Cross (which king and why was he cross?) and had something to eat and drink – dried fruit, nuts and water. We sat on the platform, on benches facing the rails.
“It’s not much further,” Will Fletcher told us. “Maybe only half an hour. Are you two all right?”
We both nodded.
“We’ll have to move quickly when we get to the surface. It’ll still be dark but that won’t stop them watching the streets. We’ll go straight to the house and get some sleep. Try not to touch anything if you can help it. The contamination isn’t as bad as it
was but you still have to be careful.”
I wondered why he was whispering. In fact we’d been tiptoeing throughout the journey, even though we were far underground and, apart from the rats and dead people, on our own. But after King’s Cross the track sloped upwards and without any warning we emerged in the open air. I might not have even realized as there was no moon and the light, or lack of it, stayed more or less the same. But the air smelled different and I got a sense of buildings, rising up above us. There was another Tube train parked behind some girders, over on our left, but this time I was careful not to look.
And then we came to Farringdon and everything changed. There were people on the platform, alive, shuffling about, muttering to each other. Suddenly everyone had their guns out and we were moving forward in a pack, looking in every direction at once. The people didn’t seem to want to hurt us. In fact they were more scared of us than we were of them. But it was still strange to stumble upon them and all sorts of questions went through my mind. Where had they come from? How long had they been here? How could they have possibly survived?
Blake or Ryan swung a torch and I saw some of them, picked out in the beam. There was a woman and a man. They were both bald and almost completely naked. She was badly deformed. One half of her face simply wasn’t there and the other half seemed to be frozen in an expression of pure terror, the eye on that side bulging like a ping-pong ball. The man, wearing filthy boxer shorts, was enormously fat with sagging breasts and a stomach that hung almost to his knees. I think they were both probably mad because as the light hovered over them, they cowered away, making strange animal noises. There was a group of children further along the platform. They were only about seven or eight years old so they must have been born here, after London was destroyed. They were clutching each other, pressing together like monkeys in a cage. I wondered what sort of life they’d had. They had never been to school. They probably had no parents. They might not even know how to speak.