On Deadly Ground

  ‘You know I do.’

  ‘Do you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Say it please, Rick darling.’

  ‘I do. I love you.’

  ‘You’ve been a saviour to me. I’d have been dead by now without you.’

  I smiled. ‘You’d have made it.’

  ‘No, I wouldn’t.’

  I kissed her forehead.

  She continued, ‘That morning you found me in the wood. I’d found a piece of washing line. I’d made up my mind to hang myself.’

  ‘Thank God you didn’t. You’re special, you know that?’

  ‘You’re not bored of me?’

  ‘No way.’

  ‘Kate Robinson’s got a thing about you, you know?’

  ‘Who told you that? Joanne?’

  ‘No.’ Her brown eyes looked up, glistening slightly. ‘No, Kate did.’

  The conversation was gentle. We kissed as we spoke, but I felt a tension creeping in. I found myself waiting for some surprise revelation. God knows what, but I felt she was on the brink of revealing a secret or making a confession.

  She looked up into my face, her head cushioned on the heather. ‘Are you happy?’

  ‘With the world igniting beneath our backsides? Volcanoes, mass murder, the fields across there turning into cinder desert?’

  ‘People have endured famine and wars for thousands of years. Life goes on. Are you happy?’

  I felt uncomfortable. For months Caroline had done what she could to evade the present realities, now she seemed to be meeting them head on.

  ‘Rick. Are you happy?’

  ‘It sounds bizarre. Considering all the shit we’re going through. But there are times, when I’m with you, I’m the happiest. I’ve been in my life.’

  ‘Good.’ She smiled. The answer seemed important to her.

  For a moment there was a pause. It was as if each of us expected the other to say something important.

  I knew the time had come to break it to her.

  ‘Caroline, I’ve got something to tell you.’

  ‘Me too.’

  ‘You?’

  ‘Why the surprise?’ she smiled. ‘Now, let me just unzip you like this. And let me put my hand in here like so.’

  I moved sideways on my hip as she slipped her hand inside my jeans.

  ‘Oh…there’s not much room in there, Rick. Pleased to see me or what?’

  ‘Christ, am I pleased to see you.’ My heart beat faster. ‘But I thought you’d got something to tell me?’

  ‘Mmmm…’

  ‘Shoot.’

  ‘You first.’

  There was no way to break the news gently. I just came right out and said it.

  Chapter 51

  ‘I’m going to London. I’ll be away a month.’

  She stopped rubbing me. Her eyes widened with shock. ‘London?’

  ‘Howard’s located a supermarket distribution warehouse. It’s untouched. It’s packed to the rafters with food.’

  ‘But London? Isn’t there anywhere nearer?’

  ‘Not that we know of.’

  ‘But London’s underwater?’

  ‘Part of it is, along the Thames. This is out towards higher ground near Hampstead.’

  ‘But why a whole month?’

  ‘Howard’s only got the four-seater Cessna. It can’t carry much food on the return trip. So we’ll camp out there while Howard flies there and back every day. The one thing he’s not short of is fuel, so he can make maybe thirty trips…’

  My voice faded at the look on Caroline’s face. Disappointment, sadness. A sense of certainty that I’d never return, that she’d lost me forever.

  ‘I’ll soon be back, Caroline,’ I said gently. ‘Before you know it. We’ll have ample food for the winter. There’ll be no more scavenging trips for two days at a time.’ I kissed her. ‘We’ll be together.’

  ‘We will.’ She nodded.

  ‘Now. What was your news?’

  ‘Oh.’ She turned her face away. ‘Nothing important.’

  ‘Come on. If it was important enough to mention a few minutes ago it’s important enough to tell me now.’

  She looked back at me, gave a little smile. ‘It’s nothing much…I…I’m working out a new dietary plan with Sue and Stephen. The group needs a better-balanced diet to ensure we don’t suffer from vitamin deficiencies.’

  I didn’t believe that was the real news for a moment, but I didn’t push it.

  For a moment her expression was troubled, then suddenly it cleared with a smile. ‘It’s important work you’ll be doing for us. You’re right, a month will pass in no time. When do you go?’

  ‘Tomorrow.’

  ‘Oh well…that doesn’t leave us much time, does it?’

  Smiling, still keeping eye contact, she pulled her T-shirt over her head, then wriggled out of her jeans. The breeze blew cooler now. Instantly her chest goose-fleshed. The nipples contracted into hard points.

  As I sat up to pull down my jeans, she pushed me back onto the heather. ‘Let Auntie Caroline do all the work.’ Her smile turned even more vivacious. ‘Just remember me, that’s all. When you’re all cosy in your London penthouse.’

  ‘We’ll be lucky to get a tent.’

  ‘Tent, shack, whatever…now, what shall we do with this naughty thing, then?’

  She stroked my penis from head to root, then I felt those cool fingers gently cup my testicles. I let my breath out in a long, long sigh. Her fingers were so expert. They caressed, pressed gently, then gripped my penis in that exquisite grip of hers. I let out a groan and looked up at the clouds sailing through the sky.

  This was bliss.

  She took away her fingers. I felt her lips slide over the end of my penis. Her tongue caressed the head, round and round as if she licked an ice-cream cone.

  Christ…I was going to miss a month of this. Maybe I could manage to sprain my ankle or wrench a back muscle. Then I’d have this kind of attention from Caroline twenty-four hours a day.

  In sixty seconds we were both naked there on the hillside. She stood up. I watched her stretch her arms into the air, smiling all the time. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on her. Her stomach was flat, her waist incredibly narrow, her breasts so firm they were almost tight to the touch. I stroked her leg from kneecap to the tuft of pubic hair. It felt so soft and silky. I just wanted to press my face against it there and then.

  And breathe in her wonderful smell.

  ‘Are you going to miss all this?’ she asked.

  ‘God, you know I will, Caroline.’

  ‘Auntie must give her boy a special going-away present, then.’

  ‘Like?’

  ‘Like what I’m going to do now.’

  She bent down to her pile of clothes, naked skin gleaming in the sunlight, the notches of her spine showing as she curved that lithe body. She pulled out a foil wrapper.

  ‘I don’t do drugs.’ I grinned.

  ‘Love is a drug.’ She smiled back. ‘But look what Auntie has brought for you.’

  ‘Chocolate?’

  ‘I found it at the bottom of my rucksack. Now…thank Auntie.’ She pressed a square of chocolate into my mouth.

  ‘Mmmm…thank you, Auntie.’

  ‘Thank her properly. Ah, ah. Don’t swallow the chocolate. Keep it in your mouth. Now go down on me.’

  I did it.

  She sighed. ‘Oh, this is so good. I’m going to miss you, Rick.’

  I couldn’t talk.

  I listened as she murmured endearments, moaned, sighed. I felt her tangle my fingers in my hair, pull. Felt her dig her fingernails in my back. Then heard the sound of bracken snapping as she tugged convulsively at the tough plants, snapping the stalks.

  ‘Ah…marvellous. Oh, Rick, this is wonderful. Mmm…’

  She groaned.

  ‘Oh, I want to feel you inside me. Quickly.’

  I rose onto all fours over her. Her eyes shone with excitement. A fire jetted through me. My skin tingled.

>   ‘Rick…I want you in. I want you in now. I want you in hard…’

  ‘Just try and stop me.’

  ‘Harder.’

  ‘Oh, like this?’

  ‘Mmm—ahh.’

  ‘Please. Caroline, let me be gentle.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Hell.’

  ‘Do it.’

  ‘Oh, God…’

  ‘Do you like?’

  ‘Beautiful.’

  ‘Harder.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Harder.’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Uh. ‘S good?’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘Caroline?’

  ‘Yes, yes, yes! That’s good. Don’t stop.’

  I looked down on her. I sweated, like I’d never sweated before. Her eyes flashed with the sheer naked ecstasy of it all. She groaned, cried out, bucked under me, bit my arms, shoulders, throat. Still I pounded at her. I knocked the breath out of her in explosive gasps. They jetted hot against my neck.

  My sweat dripped onto her face, mingled with her sweat.

  I looked down at her breasts. Her whole chest was smeared a rich, rich brown. I licked at it.

  ‘Oh, chocolate never tasted this good before,’ I panted.

  ‘No.’

  It was as if her entire soul had clenched up deep into a tiny ball inside of her. Now it came rushing back to fill her body. Her eyes opened wide. They stared up into mine. They looked up in something close to shock.

  A blast of energy leapt from her eyes into mine. I felt myself convulse.

  ‘Oh God…Jeee-zuss!’

  ‘Rick…Ah!’

  I came in a rush of fire. For a moment it felt as if my soul itself had exploded. I felt as if I’d become a million incandescent fragments whirling outward like shrapnel across the hillside.

  Caroline bucked under me in the throes of her orgasm. She shivered from head to toe. Her face, throat and chest flushed robin-red.

  ‘Oh, Christ,’ I panted and rolled sideways. ‘Does it feel like that to be a god? Incredible…I felt as if I could do anything…Ah, ah.’ I panted. ‘I felt immortal. Hell, I’m…I’m rambling. I’m making no sense.’

  ‘You’re making sense, honey. You’re also discovering real sex.’

  ‘You’re the teacher.’

  ‘And you’re my brilliant student.’ She kissed me. ‘My spunky Yorkshire boy who’s full of sex.’

  Then, still stroking my face, she leaned over me and began licking the smeared chocolate from my chest.

  And I lay back, curling her hair around my fingers. I thought about London. I thought about the flight down there. It must be a dangerous place now. I wondered what we’d find there.

  I wondered what Caroline had planned to tell me, then changed her mind as soon as she heard I was leaving. It would only be for a month. Twenty-eight short days.

  ‘London. A dangerous place,’ Howard had kept repeating.

  But we needed to go.

  Caroline kissed me on the lips.

  And I wondered if I would ever see her again.

  Chapter 52

  ‘Are you stuck?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘It’s dangerous up there.’

  ‘I’m OK.’

  ‘Aren’t you frightened?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I’d be frightened up there.’

  ‘Then you’re a soft baby.’

  ‘Rick!’ Kate warned. ‘The branch is breaking!’

  ‘Lee, don’t stand…Christ…ouch!’

  I caught the five-year-old just a second after the branch snapped.

  ‘Ouch, bugger, damn.’ I groaned.

  ‘Where does it hurt?’ Kate asked concerned.

  ‘Uh…family jewels.’

  She giggled. ‘That’s a picturesque way of putting it. Still, at least you’ve got the makings of a farm.’

  ‘Uh?’

  ‘You’ve got your first couple of acres. Get it?’

  ‘Uh-huh.’

  ‘Acres? Couple of achers? Get it?’

  ‘I got it all right. Right in the—’

  ‘Ah, Rick. Children present.’

  It was dusk. I lay there flat on my back. Kate looked down on me with an amused smile. I’d caught Lee as she fell out of the tree, lost my balance, fell flat on my back. Lee’s bony butt bounced down hard right in…right in one of the most sensitive parts of my body. Rendered even more sensitive after the hours just spent on that hillside with Caroline.

  ‘My glasses. Are my glasses all right?’ Lee asked, anxious.

  ‘They look fine.’ Kate smiled. ‘I don’t think they need cleaning again, sweetheart.’

  ‘I think they do.’ Kate sounded serious. ‘Mum said I must keep them clean.’

  She stood up.

  I gave a sigh of relief as the pressure went.

  Kate grinned at me. ‘Everything OK down there?’

  ‘Yes…still intact.’ I found myself blushing. Kate’s grin broadened. I stood up and brushed the dry leaves from my back.

  ‘Let me,’ Kate said. I blushed again. Her hands felt so good. But, here’s the stupid part, the guilt came hard and strong. It was entirely innocent but it was almost as if I was cheating on Caroline.

  ‘Lee. Why did you climb the tree?’ Kate asked as she picked grass from my back. ‘Weren’t you comfortable in your sleeping-bag?’

  ‘Yes.’ With scrupulous care Lee cleaned the lenses of her glasses with a cloth she’d taken from the case, her tongue pushed out between her lips as she concentrated on the task.

  ‘But it’s not safe to climb trees at the best of times.’

  ‘Especially not when it’s nearly dark.’

  ‘Safer.’

  Kate glanced at me.

  ‘Safer?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did you climb a tree the night the gas came?’

  ‘No.’ She put the glasses back on her face, folded the cleaning cloth then snapped it away inside the glasses case.

  ‘No?’ I asked gently. ‘Did you walk up the hill?’

  ‘No.’ Now her eyes looked large, owlish and somehow wise behind the lenses again. ‘They did it. They must have known the gas was coming.’

  ‘Lee. You mean someone took you away from where your mum and the others were sleeping?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said matter-of-factly. ‘They’re always doing it. They did it that night my mum and everyone died under the trees.’

  A sudden enlightenment buzzed through me. ‘Is that why you climbed the tree tonight, so they couldn’t take you away from the tent?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Kate looked at me, puzzled, then turned back to Lee. ‘ Who took you away from the camp?’

  ‘Those people, of course.’ The five-year-old girl sounded as if she was explaining a fact that should be obvious. ‘They come at night. They carry me away from the tent.’ She looked at me, her eyes magnified by the lenses of her specs. ‘The grey people.’

  Chapter 53

  We were on the Apple Run because…what’s that barmy saying?

  THE BEST-LAID PLANS OF MICE AND MEN…

  Which has always made zip-all sense to me anyway. If mice make any plans they must revolve around wedges of cheese and not being eaten by next door’s cat. Then again, we seemed to be operating on a similar level to mice now. Our own plans revolved around finding enough food to eat and trying to avoid the gangs of people-eaters who wouldn’t think twice about carving a nice juicy slice of me and you.

  But already our plans were splitting apart at the seams. A couple of days ago we’d been due to fly to London where Howard had found a warehouse full of food. But our one and only plane—a four-seater Cessna—had other ideas. The wiring was on the fritz; whenever Howard fired up the motor all the fuses would blow and the cockpit would fill with a nasty stink of burning. We were grounded until he’d checked every centimetre of wiring to find the short.

  So here we were, sitting beneath a tree at the edge of a cow pasture s
ix hours’ walk from Fountains Moor. This particular plan: to make the Apple Run to an orchard we’d found earlier in the summer. Now the fruit was ripe we were methodically harvesting all the orchards we’d discovered. The plan was simple: walk to orchard. Fill backpacks and holdalls with apples. Walk back to Fountains Moor.

  Apples are good for you.

  Roughage. Vitamin C. Natural sugars.

  But Christ, were we going to be sick to death of apples by Christmas time.

  The tree’s leaves, now an autumn red, rustled in the cold wind. On the ground to my left sat Caroline. She looked good even in the mountaineer’s anorak that was three sizes too big for her. A leaf fell onto her hair; hair that was gorgeously fluffy from being washed in mountain streams for the last four months. She picked the leaf off, gave me a bright smile. She was pleased that the London trip had been postponed.

  To my right sat Dean Skilton. He wore sunglasses and a green bandana around his head. He was cleaning one of his beloved Beretta pistols with a cloth, polishing it in long loving strokes. He was talking about something he’d heard on the radio. It was broadcast on the only station transmitting in English in those days: ‘This guy was saying the Earth’s constantly going through these upheavals—volcanoes, quakes, ice ages.’

  ‘But I’ve never heard of this before,’ Caroline said, hugging her knees. ‘A hot age?’

  ‘It’s more common than you think. A whole rash of volcanic eruptions probably killed off the dinosaurs.’

  ‘But volcanoes haven’t been the main problem this time. The ground itself is actually heating up.’

  ‘If you think about it,’ I said, ‘the Earth isn’t much more than a huge blob of molten rock and iron surrounded by just a thin shell of cool, solid rock.’

  ‘Great.’ Caroline shivered. ‘Don’t you just feel this disaster has been waiting to happen?’

  ‘After all, the deepest you could drill down…’ I patted the ground with my hand.’…is about twelve kilometres. Then the steel drill bits would melt.’

  ‘Just twelve kilometres?’

  ‘Like I said, we’re walking round on what is, relatively speaking, just a very thin crust of cool earth.’

  ‘And getting thinner all the time,’ Caroline said in a small voice.

  ‘And getting thinner all the time,’ I agreed. I gave her hand a squeeze. It was meant to be reassuring but I didn’t feel reassured myself.