Outside - a post-apocalyptic novel

  OUTSIDE

  a post-apocalyptic novel

  Shalini Boland

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  SMASHWORDS EDITION

  Copyright © Shalini Boland 2011

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  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the author.

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  Smashwords Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

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  http://www.shaliniboland.co.uk

  Prologue

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  The woman swung the huge armoured vehicle out through the iron gates and turned left onto the poor excuse for a dirt track that ran parallel to the Perimeter. She remembered when Britain was open and free with real roads, pavements even, before all the trouble started.

  As she turned, the full glare of the dying evening sun blinded her and she flicked on the windscreen filter. She heard a muffled thud, looked to her left and saw a dark figure lying by the side of the fence. She didn’t stop, but glanced in her wing mirror and made brief eye contact with him as he lifted his head.

  ‘A man,’ she breathed out. She’d been holding her breath for quite a time and sucked in another lungful of air. She felt a lip-biting pang of concern, realising she must have hit him. But everybody knew you didn’t stop for anything outside the Perimeter. I’m sure he’ll be okay. She reasoned, convinced and then banished her conscience.

  ‘Won‘t be long now,’ she said to herself, looking ahead at the vast tract of wilderness.

  Chapter One

  Riley

  *

  Pa is a black marketeer. Nobody and everybody knows this. Pa pays people not to rock the boat. He pays the guards, he pays the neighbours and he even pays his friends. He pays off just about everyone – a litre of whisky here and a bag of sugar there, and in return we live a life of ease and comfort. Pa believes in the carrot approach just as much as the punishing stick. As long as he doesn’t draw too much attention to himself from the wrong quarters, we’re safe and free.

  Pa can get his hands on just about anything from before. If you’ve got a craving for a pot noodle he can probably magic one up from somewhere. But it’ll cost you all you’ve got and more besides. Pa isn’t swayed by threats or tears. He’ll hold fast and stare you down and if you can’t pay you might get a bullet in your head, or worse.

  This morning, my parents are standing together in the doorway of the sitting room. Behind me, the sun floods in through the windows and they edge closer to avoid squinting into the too-bright light.

  Both their faces are ghost white and Ma’s nose and eyes look pink and swollen. She shivers and her teeth chatter as though she’s chilled and it isn’t the warm July morning it appears to be.

  ‘Riley, can you sit down?’ Pa asks.

  ‘Okay,’ I say. They’re acting weird. It’s freaking me out.

  ‘Riley ...’ Pa says, running his hands through his hair. He comes over and crouches down in front of me. He takes both my hands in his and looks into my eyes. His intense expression is making me uncomfortable. I want to look away.

  ‘What? What is it?’ I ask, not sure if I want to hear his reply.

  ‘Something’s happened.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Riley, it’s your sister.’

  I shake my head. ‘Where is she? Where’s Skye?’

  ‘She’s … Oh I’m so sorry, baby, she’s dead.’

  ‘I look at Pa and then I look up at Ma. They stare at me, a look of horror on their faces. What are they talking about?

  I feel my face contort. The sound that comes out of my throat is not a cry or a scream or even a sob. But a laugh. A strangled giggle. A short staccato burst of inappropriateness. I cover my mouth with my hands.

  ‘Riley! Did you hear what I said?’ Pa stands up, shocked and angry. ‘I just told you your little sister is …’

  ‘I heard you,’ I whisper.

  ‘So why the hell are you laughing?’ His anger grows and his voice suddenly booms. ‘What can possibly be funny about …’

  ‘… I don’t know, I don’t know.’ I try to absorb what he’s telling me. ‘I don’t know why I laughed. I don’t know.’ It’s true. I have no idea where that reaction came from. Why would I do something so awful? No wonder Pa’s mad.

  I can’t process the other thing. The thing Pa told me.

  ‘You don’t know?’ He stands up. ‘She doesn’t know!’ he shouts to no one in particular.

  ‘Stop it!’ Ma says to him. ‘She’s in shock.’

  Pa turns to look at her and then turns back to me. His face suddenly loses its hardness, like melting ice cream.

  ‘Of course. She’s in shock,’ he murmurs. ‘We’re all in shock.’ And then something really horrible happens. My powerful, strong, wonderful Pa starts crying. Proper messy crying where his face twists and his voice sounds broken. I’m appalled. Pa never cries.

  ‘Pa …’

  I’m not a typical daddy’s girl. I love the bones of him, but I feel easiest around Ma. We always talk make-up, fashion, gossipy stuff and laugh a lot together. Skye belongs to Pa and Pa definitely belongs to Skye. They’re a team. I never feel excluded exactly, but I don’t have the same natural connection they do … did.

  I stare down at the patterns on the carpet. I’ve never noticed just how vivid the individual colours are. The over-all effect is of a soft warmth, but I focus on a particular strand of red that seems almost luminous, as if it’s going to jump out of the weave and hit me in the face.

  *

  I wake up in my parents’ bed. A moment of peace and then everything rushes towards me in a crash of disbelief and pain … Skye.

  Ma lies next to me on top of the quilt, humming in a scary way while she strokes the hair off my face. I must have blacked out, fainted or something after they told me Skye was ... And I had laughed. How can that be? Is there something wrong with me?

  ‘Ma.’ I speak gently, as if talking to a young child, but she carries on humming. ‘Ma!’ I pull away from her and wrench her hands from my hair. ‘What happened to Skye? Where is she? She can’t be …’

  ‘Sh, sh baby,’ she croons to me and kisses my forehead.

  ‘Ma, you’re scaring me. Are you okay?’ I can hear the tremor in my voice.

  ‘Everything will be alright’, she says in a strange new childish way. ‘Just sleep and it will be okay.’

  I throw myself out of bed, run out of the bedroom and almost fall down the stairs to find my father. He’s standing in the lounge talking to some of the guards, including Roger Brennan, the Head of Perimeter Security.

  Even though we don’t really speak to any of them, we know all the guards by name. They’ve guarded the Talbot Woods Perimeter for the past sixteen- and-a-half years since the fences first went up, just before I was born.

  This spring a new guard started - Liam. This thrilled us as we rarely get to see new people. On his first day, his watch stopped and Skye and I sneaked him a new battery out of Pa’s supplies. Since then, we’ve been friends of a sort. We’ve never proper
ly chatted, but he’s about nineteen or twenty and always has a wink and a flirty comment for us which makes us blush and think he’s wonderful.

  The only other people we see are those who live in the Perimeter and of course the delivery drivers, trades people and the army. Occasionally we get a glimpse through the wire fence at a rare passer by.

  I wait downstairs in a blur of grief and anxiety until the guards finally excuse themselves and leave Pa sitting on the sofa. I desperately need to speak to him to make sense of what he told me. I stupidly start to hope there’s some sort of reasonable explanation and Skye will come running in to ask us what we’re making such a fuss about.

  Pa stands up and holds his arms out to me. I stumble into them and breathe in his comforting smell of diesel oil and cologne. We sit next to each other on the sofa, his arm around me. He kisses my hair and strokes my cheek with his fist.

  ‘You alright?’ he asks gruffly.

  ‘No,’ I reply.

  ‘No,’ he echoes.

  ‘What happened?’ I ask in a quiet voice. ‘How can she be gone? It’s Skye. She’s my sister. She can’t not be here anymore.’

  ‘I don’t know. Luc found her this morning.’

  ‘Luc?’

  My sister thinks … thought seventeen-year-old Luc Donovan was the cat’s pyjamas. This summer especially, he’s all she talked about. Luc’s so good looking, Luc’s so amazing. She adored him. I always pretend to be disinterested when he’s around and I’m sure he thinks I’m a stuck up cow. Pa’s voice interrupts my thoughts.

  ‘Luc found her next door, in their poolhouse. It was an accident. She … she fell through the glass door …’

  ‘What? That doesn’t sound right. How can you fall through a door?’

  ‘I don’t know, Riley. But I’m bloody well going to find out. The guards have got Luc in there. I’m going down to get some answers.’

  ‘Skye …’ I say. ‘It can’t be true.’

  Pa stands up. ‘I’ll be back in a minute. I’m just going to check on your mother.’ He walks quickly from the room and I know he’s crying again. He doesn’t want me to see.

  What Pa told me doesn’t make any sense. I have to speak to someone, to find out what happened. Nothing feels real. I haven’t even cried. I open our front door and walk down the block paved driveway. Liam, the new guard, is standing outside our house. I hesitate, wanting to know every terrible detail but at the same time I can’t bear to find out.

  ‘Liam!’ I call out.

  He looks across at me with awkward pity and I can tell he’d rather be anywhere else than here with me, Skye’s sister.

  ‘Riley, I’m sorry about Skye,’ he calls over, not making any move to come towards me. ‘I can’t be talking to you about this though.’

  ‘But she’s my sister. I’ve got more right to know than you have.’ It comes out sounding angrier than I meant.

  Liam chews his lip and strides towards me. He takes hold of my arm and leads me back up the drive and around the side of the house. There’s a heat haze shimmering up off the ground … or is it my vision blurring? He takes off his guard’s hat and twirls it around nervously in his hands. A grade one buzz cut shows off a nasty scar on his forehead where you can see the stitch marks, but handsome features offset this bullet-proof exterior. I’m pretty sure he’s the coolest person I know.

  ‘Okay, I’ll tell you what I know,’ he says. ‘But I don’t want to and it’s not nice.’

  Chapter Two

  Riley

  *

  I tense, bracing myself for what Liam is about to tell me.

  ‘There was a struggle of some kind,’ he starts.

  ‘A struggle? I thought it was an accident.’

  ‘No. Not an accident.’

  I try to process this information. If it wasn’t an accident then it must have been … something else. Something worse.

  ‘A piece of glass from the door went into her throat which is what ... which is what killed her. So at first it looked like a terrible accident. The thing is, she was also partly strangled and there was some bruising which points towards ...’

  I feel like I’m listening to him from a long way away, like my ears need to pop. His words are merging together. This is beyond normality and I think I might throw up at such a graphic onslaught. Teetering on the edge of hysteria, a scream forms without a voice. My knees go soft.

  ‘Whoaaa, Riley, are you okay?’ Liam drops his hat and puts his arm around me. He sets me down on the ground. I lean back against the side wall and he crouches in front of me. ‘I'm sorry, I shouldn’t’ve said anything. I'm an idiot.’

  ‘No, Liam,’ I croak. ‘You're brave to tell me this. Please tell me the rest. I might be sick, but I need to know.’ No matter how hard it is to hear to this horror story I make myself listen to the rest.

  ‘We're holding Luc as the only possible suspect.’ He pauses and looks at me for a reaction. ‘I know it seems crazy, Luc's no more a killer than you are, but he found her and there are no other suspects.’

  ‘Luc?’ I let his words sink in. I can’t believe it. No way can Luc be involved in this, he just can’t be. ‘I knew they were questioning him but he can’t be a suspect. What about Eddie and Rita? They won't let you hold him.’

  ‘Actually, Luc's parents might be the ones who employ us, but security is paid for by everyone here. We've told the Donovans we won’t contact the army till we’re sure of what happened.’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘Riley, I feel bad telling you all this, but don't worry about Luc. You just need to think about yourself and your family.’

  I nod.

  ‘I've got to go now but I don't want to leave you like this. Are you gonna be okay? Shall I help you back inside?’

  I shake my head.

  ‘Look,’ he continues, his brow creased. ‘Please don't tell your father I've told you any of this. He told me not to say anything and I think he was right. I shouldn't have told you, I've made you even more upset.’

  ‘Liam.’ I shake my head again. I can barely speak. ‘I won't say anything. Go, before you get into trouble. Thanks for telling me. I know that must've been hard.’

  ‘I'm sorry, Riley. I'll see you soon.’ He touches my arm, retrieves his hat from the ground and walks away.

  I stay sitting here on the ground not thinking about anything, letting my mind shrink and expand, trying to keep the bloodied images from clawing their way back inside my head. Skye is gone.

  I shakily stand up and stagger towards the house. Putting my hand to my throat, I can feel pain, like someone is strangling me, choking off the air. How can Luc have anything to do with this horror? It must have been accidental. Luc is always so sensitive to Skye and her feelings. He obviously knows she had a crush on him; well it was plain for everyone to see. But he treated her affectionately like a little sister. Our families have been close since before we were born. I’ve got to see Luc, to hear what he has to say.

  *

  The doorbell rings accompanied by a sharp knock on the front door.

  ‘Mr Culpepper, Sir.’ The voice belongs to Roger Brennan, Head of Perimeter Security. I open the door and let him in. ‘I need to see your parents,’ he says.

  ‘Okay,’ I mumble.

  Ma’s still asleep upstairs. Pa gave her something strong to calm her down. I don’t want to think about it, I just have to get through each second at a time. I’m in a nightmare that won’t be over for a long time yet.

  Mr Brennan follows me into the kitchen where Pa’s been sitting in silent grief for what seems like hours. Pa looks up at him.

  ‘Okay, Riley,’ he says, dismissing me from the room with his eyes.

  ‘No, Pa. I want to stay.’

  Mr Brennan looks from me to Pa. Pa slumps his shoulders and nods in resignation. I sit next to him, drawing my knees up to my chin. He looks at the guard and gestures to another chair. Roger Brennan takes his hat off and sits down.

  ‘There’s been a development. We’ve released
Lucas and we’ve discovered a possible murderer.’

  I dig my nails into the tip of my thumb until it hurts. Pa doesn’t react.

  ‘We haven’t apprehended him yet,’ he continues, waiting for us to digest this news.

  ‘Possible murderer,’ Pa says the words slowly. ‘What does that mean exactly?’ Tears start to roll down his cheeks.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Sir.’ Roger Brennan suddenly drops his bluff guards’ manner. He bows his head for a moment. ‘I know this must be hard for you. Shall I go on?’

  ‘Please.’

  Mr Brennan squares his shoulders back. ‘His name’s Ron Chambers. He’s an electrician.’

  Pa’s head snaps up. ‘Chambers?’

  ‘Yes, Sir.’

  ‘Didn’t he work next door at Eddie’s? I’m sure he said he had a man named Chambers working there earlier this year.’

  ‘Yes, he worked at the Donovan’s for a few weeks. It seems he cut a hole in the perimeter fence in their garden.’

  ‘What?’ Shadows cross Pa’s face. ‘How?’

  ‘The hole’s hidden from view by the undergrowth and you’d never know it was there unless you looked for it. He must have made it while he worked there and then … I don’t know ... Maybe he crawled back in late last night, or maybe earlier this morning. We’re not sure of the timescales.’

  It shocks me to hear how an outsider gained such easy access to our Perimeter. But even more shocking is seeing Pa like this. It scares me, makes the ground shift beneath me.

  ‘I’m gonna kill the evil bastard,’ Pa whispers through clenched teeth, tears still sliding down his cheeks.

  ‘Look, Mr Culpepper, Sir, I can only imagine the horror you’re going through, but please know we’re doing everything we can.’