The Power of Five Oblivion

world. The villagers looked friendly enough. They were all smiling at us and were dressed as smartly as possible, with neatly cut hair. They also seemed well fed … something I noticed immediately because in my village everyone had always been waiting for the next proper meal.
    “Have you got your guns?” the Traveller muttered.
    I didn’t really know what he was worried about. These people looked harmless enough. I was actually quite excited to see them – to discover that my village wasn’t the only community that had managed to survive for ten years. But I did have my gun with me, tucked into my waistband. It was an uncomfortable feeling, having it pressing into my flesh. Part of me was afraid that it would go off and shoot me in the thigh but the Traveller had shown me how to put the safety catch on and had assured me the gun couldn’t fire until it was released.
    Jamie nodded.
    “I’ve got mine,” I said.
    “Let’s see what these people want. Don’t trust anyone. Don’t do anything unless I say so.”
    We stopped in front of the first lock. The people were standing over us, looking down. A smart, military-looking man in his fifties stepped forward. He seemed to be their leader. He had short grey hair and a moustache. There was a woman standing next to him, exactly the same height, with curly hair. She was wearing a flower-patterned dress and carrying a handbag, and even had a string of pearls and earrings. I had never seen anyone wearing jewellery, except in pictures.
    “Good day to you,” the man said. “My name is Michael Higham. Major Michael Higham, as a matter of fact, although heaven knows we don’t stand on ceremony. And may I present my wife, Dorothy? Welcome to Little Moulsford!”
    “Thank you,” the Traveller replied.
    “It’s not very often we see a boat come this way,” he went on. “The last one was a couple of years ago.”
    “It was more like three,” his wife corrected him. She seemed to polish every word before she spoke it. “It was called The Horizon . A very nice boat – on the way to London. Of course, we advised them not to continue.”
    “They never came back,” the major added, nodding his head in agreement. He ran his eye over the Lady Jane . “A fine vessel. Forty foot?”
    “Forty-five.”
    “I can’t believe you managed to find any fuel for her. Where have you come from?”
    The Traveller looked back down the canal. “We were in a village about forty miles away. Unfortunately, the water supply failed so we thought we’d try our luck further south.” I realized he was being deliberately vague and he wasn’t telling them the whole truth.
    “I wouldn’t go much further south if I were you,” the major said. “The land’s contaminated. As far as we know, we’re the last community between here and the city. But you must join us for supper – you and your two young friends. We’re fortunate. We have our own reservoir for water and our food supplies are holding up pretty well. We see so few people these days! You’ll be very welcome.”
    “That’s very kind of you.” I could see that the Traveller didn’t want to accept the invitation, but at the same time there was something about the crowd of people looking down at us that told us that they might turn nasty if we refused. I don’t know what made me think that. There was just something in the air. “We’ll make our way through the locks and moor up on the other side.” He made it sound casual, as if it didn’t really matter very much. “Maybe you can help us with the gates?”
    From the way that the Traveller looked at me, out of the corner of his eye, I knew that the only reason he wanted to climb the locks now was so that he could make a quick getaway if needed – not that you could move particularly quickly on a canal boat. But at least if push came to shove, we wouldn’t be too exposed – which is to say, we wouldn’t be up there with our backs turned, pushing and shoving the gate. The major and his wife didn’t seem to mind. Indeed, they took our lock key and handed it to a ten-year-old boy, who ran off and did all the work for us. There was something quite unnerving about the boy – and the way he looked at us with large eyes staring out of a colourless face. He was friendly enough but I got the feeling there was something he knew that we didn’t. After he had opened the gates he took a bone out of his pocket and gnawed it as we motored through.
    Twenty minutes later, we