Autumn

Not for the first time in the last week their safety was on the line but Michael didn’t seem the slightest bit bothered. She assumed it was because they hadn’t yet found anywhere obvious to stop. If things weren’t going Michael’s way, she had noticed, he didn’t want to know.
    ‘You okay?’ she asked Carl. He nodded and smiled. ‘Arrogant sod, isn’t he?’
    Michael stopped walking when he reached the edge of the road in front of the cafe. He looked out across a lush green valley landscape and drew in several long, slow breaths of cool, refreshing air. He slowly scanned the horizon from left to right and then stopped and turned around with a broad grin plastered across his tired face. He beckoned the others to come over to where he stood. Intrigued and concerned in equal measures, Carl and Emma quickly jumped up.
    ‘What’s the matter?’ Carl asked, his heart beating anxiously in his chest.
    ‘Over there,’ he replied, pointing out into the distance. ‘Just look at that. It’s bloody perfect!’
    ‘What is?’ mumbled Emma as she struggled to see what it was that he had found.
    ‘Can’t you see it?’ he babbled excitedly.
    ‘See what?’ Carl snapped.
    Michael moved around so that he was standing between the other two. He lifted his arm and pointed right across the valley.
    ‘See that clearing over there?’
    After a couple of seconds Emma spotted it.
    ‘I see it,’ she said.
    ‘Now look slightly to the right.’
    She did as instructed.
    ‘All I can see is a house,’ she said, dejectedly.
    ‘Exactly. It’s perfect.’
    ‘So you found a house in the woods,’ sighed Carl. ‘Is that all? Bloody hell, we’ve passed a thousand houses already today. What’s so special about this one?’
    ‘Well you two had trouble seeing it, didn’t you?’
    ‘So?’
    ‘So what does that tell you? What does the location of a house like that tell you?’
    Emma and Carl looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders, sure that they were missing the point (if there was a point to be missed).
    ‘No idea,’ Emma muttered.
    ‘It’s isolated, isn’t it? It’s not easy to find. It’s going to be right off the beaten track.’
    ‘So, we’re not trying to hide are we? There doesn’t seem to be anyone left to hide from...’
    Emma still couldn’t understand what the big deal was. Carl on the other hand was beginning to get the idea.
    ‘It’s not about hiding, is it Mike?’ he said, grinning suddenly. ‘It’s the isolation. People who lived in house like that must have been pretty self-sufficient.’
    ‘That’s exactly it,’ Michael interrupted. ‘Imagine this place in the winter. Christ, a couple of inches of snow and you’re stuck where you are. And these people were farmers. They couldn’t afford to be without heat and light, could they? My guess is that whoever lived in that house would have been used to being out on a limb and would have been ready for just about anything. I’ll bet they’ve got their own power and everything.’
    Emma watched the two men who had become much more animated than they had been at any other time in the last week.
    ‘It’s going to be hard enough for us to get there,’ Carl continued. ‘And you’ve seen the state of the poor sods left wandering the streets, haven’t you? They’ll never find us.’
    ‘It’s perfect,’ Michael beamed.

16

    After fighting for survival virtually every second of the way since the disaster had begun, a slice of good luck finally came the way of Michael, Carl and Emma. It really was nothing more than an unexpected chance. A welcome fluke.
    They had been on the road again for just over an hour since leaving the cafe. Michael had certainly been right about the isolation of the house in the woods as it had proved impossible to find. It had taken them the best part of the last sixty minutes just to find the road which crossed the valley and their brief euphoria at finally seeming to have made some progress had once again quickly given way to desperation and melancholy.
    The sides of the seemingly endless, twisting roads along which they travelled were lined with tall trees which made it virtually impossible to see very far into the distance in any direction. Irritation inside the van was rapidly mounting.
    ‘This is bloody ridiculous,’ Michael sighed. ‘There must be something around here somewhere.’
    Michael was driving again with Emma sitting directly behind. She leant forward and put a reassuring hand on his