The Power of Five Oblivion

be the start of a better future, a new life. Let’s hope so.” She kissed me very briefly. “Go back through the forest. The telephone box used to be on a road and if you continue north, you’ll find it. If you can’t see it, feel it under your feet. Whatever you do, don’t stop. Don’t come back.”
    “But what about you?”
    “There’s nothing you can do for us.”
    “I’m sorry,” Jamie said, miserably. They were the only two words he’d spoken.
    “Don’t be sorry. Be strong. And take care of Holly. That’s all we ask.”
    Jamie nodded. We hurried out of the room and the last I saw of Rita and John was the two of them standing together. John had gone over to her and she had laid her head on his shoulder. It was more affection than she had ever shown in the whole time I had been with them.
    As we left the house, the church bell began to ring – three peals, then a pause, then three more, then three again. About a minute later, something extraordinary happened. The village lit up. Of course there had always been lighting – street lights and arc lamps and bulbs hanging in porches – but I had never seen them all working at the same time and had assumed they were simply left overs that no one could be bothered to take away. But someone had started up the generator and thrown a switch and they had immediately flickered into life, casting a harsh white glow that made the church, the town hall and all the other buildings seem to leap out of the ground, and scattering the pathways with the deepest black shadows.
    “What’s happening?” I whispered or maybe I just thought it, but either way there was no time to stop and find out, no time to take in the marvel of what the world had once been like. We ran the other way, leaving the village square behind us, retracing the steps we had taken just a few minutes ago. Even the houses at the edge of the village were partly illuminated and I was aware of people hurrying out, pulling jerseys over their heads as they went. Perhaps if I had been allowed to attend meetings of the Council, I would have known about these emergency plans. Everyone was coming together. The guards at the perimeter would have heard the church bells too. Perhaps they would have been told to defend themselves to the last bullet. Maybe they would fall back and help the village. I just hoped somebody would know what to do.
    We passed the broken-down bus, with the forest very black, a seemingly impassable barrier, ahead of us. We ran into the trees, Jamie still not speaking. And me…? I wanted to get away. But even more, I wanted to see George. Perhaps I could have persuaded him to come with us. At the same time, I wished I could find Miss Keyland and confront her with what she had done. I wondered if we might not find somewhere to hide after all and come back in an hour or so when everything had quietened down. I looked over my shoulder and saw the church steeple silhouetted against a white glow that spread out like a fan in the sky. This was the village. This was my whole life. I couldn’t just abandon it, could I?
    “Holly…”
    “What?”
    Jamie had grabbed my arm, stumbling to a halt. He had heard something. What was it? It was a thudding sound, in the sky above us. I looked up and saw what I thought were three stars – two green ones and a red one – moving across the darkness, incredibly fast. Then I felt a gust of wind across my cheek and knew that I was looking at some sort of flying machine. That was incredible. It was impossible. A helicopter or something had come out of nowhere. It was very low and it was heading for the village.
    It made my skin crawl. I had seen planes before – maybe four or five times. I knew there were people who still flew. But the planes had always been tiny specks above the horizon, barely more than a glint of silver in the otherwise empty sky, soundless, belonging to that other world. This … helicopter … was landing right here. It was invading us.
    It also reminded me, if I needed reminding, that time was running out. The police had already arrived. We had to get away. With a new sense of urgency we plunged into the forest, letting it devour us, separating us from the village.
    But we hadn’t gone very far before Jamie stopped me again and this time I didn’t need to ask him why.
    There were specks of white light, electric again, moving towards us in a long line that curved all the way round the darkness in front of us so that no matter