Autumn

asked.
    He stood up and brushed himself down.
    ‘I’m all right,’ he replied. ‘You?’
    She nodded. Her voice was tired and emotionless. Carl sensed that she was talking to him more out of duty than any real desire to.
    ‘Look,’ she began, ‘I know you’ve said that you’re sure about this, but have you stopped to think...’
    ‘I don’t want to hear this,’ he snapped, interrupting and silencing her words.
    ‘You don’t know what I was going to say...’
    ‘I can guess.’
    She sighed and turned away. After thinking for a second or two she turned back, determined to make her point.
    ‘Are you sure about what you’re doing?’
    ‘As sure as anyone can be about anything at the moment...’
    ‘But you’re taking such a chance. You don’t have to leave. We could stay here for a while longer and maybe go back to the city later. We could bring the others back here. There might even be more of them by then...’
    ‘I’ve got to leave. It’s not just about surviving anymore, I’ve already done that.’
    ‘So why are you going?’
    ‘Take a look around you,’ he sighed, gesturing towards the house and the barrier which surrounded it. ‘Is this enough for you? Does this give you all the protection and security you need?’
    ‘I think we’re as safe as we can be...’
    ‘I don’t. Christ, last night we were surrounded.’
    ‘Yes, but...’
    ‘Just answer me this, Emma. What would you do if those things got through the barricade and got into the house?’
    Emma struggled to answer.
    ‘What would happen? As far as I can see you wouldn’t have many choices. You could lock yourself into a room and sit tight or you could try and get to one of your vans and try and get away that way. Or you could just run for it.’
    ‘You’d have no chance on foot.’
    ‘That’s exactly my point. This house is surrounded by miles and miles of absolutely fucking nothing. There’s nowhere to run to.’
    ‘But we don’t need to run...’ Emma protested, raising her voice.
    ‘But you might. Back in the city there are a hundred places to hide on every street. I don’t want to spend the rest of my time locked away in this bloody house.’
    Emma sat down on the steps in front of the house, dejected and frustrated. Michael was busy working to unload the supplies from the back of the van. He already seemed to be doing his level best to ignore Carl.
    ‘I’m worried about you, that’s all,’ Emma said quietly. ‘I just hope you realise that if anything happens to you on your own, that’s it.’
    ‘I know that.’
    ‘And you’re still willing to take the chance?’
    ‘Yes,’ he said, simply and definitely.
    Carl leant against the bike and looked deep into Emma’s face. It was the first time for days that the two of them had made anything resembling real, purposeful contact with each other. Looking into his dull, tired eyes, Emma felt her earlier anger mellowing and mutating into something that resembled pity. The man standing in front of her was nothing more than a shell. He was less than half the man he had been when they’d first met. He had lost everything including, it seemed, all direction and reason. She knew that he wasn’t bothered about surviving anymore. All his talk of finding shelter and of reaching the survivors was bullshit. She knew in her heart that all he wanted to do was go home.

34

    ‘Planning on leaving tonight then?’ Michael asked.
    An hour after returning from Pennmyre and Carl was still outside, getting ready to go and refuelling the bike and loading his few belongings. He looked up and nodded at Michael.
    ‘Might as well,’ he quietly replied.
    ‘Sure you want to take the risk?’
    He shrugged his shoulders.
    ‘We’re all taking risks whatever we do,’ he answered. ‘I don’t think it matters anymore.’
    ‘Well I think you’re asking for trouble. You should at least wait until the morning when it’s...’
    ‘I’ll be all right,’ he insisted.
    ‘Fine.’
    Michael sat down on the damp ground near to the bike. He looked around the yard, first quickly checking that the barrier round the house seemed secure and then looking up high, staring into the trees surrounding, listening to drops of water from the earlier heavy rainfall dripping down from leaf to leaf to leaf before falling to the ground.
    ‘Look,’ he said, sensing that he had a duty to again try and persuade the other man not to leave, ‘are you sure you know what you’re doing?’
    Carl