The Power of Five Oblivion

returned and the occasional penguins that appeared, jetting across the water. But when he returned to the ship, he was completely mystified and spent much of the journey home trying to make us tell him more.
    As for me, I was dead to the world and if any high-level conversations took place, I didn’t hear them. I was given a cabin and a bunk bed and, as far as I remember, I slept flat out for the next twenty-four hours while the Duc d’Orléans headed back to Europe. It must have been difficult for the captain because although he was the most senior officer, in charge of the ship, he had actually deserted the French navy, heading off under his own steam to take on the Old Ones – so he wasn’t sure where to go next. A lot of his men had died and he felt responsible for them. I did talk to him a few times and he seemed a nice enough man. I hope he didn’t get into trouble for what he had done but I doubt that he did. Anyone who had fought against the Old Ones was greeted as a hero … even Commander David Cain of the US Polar Star . He actually became Vice President of the New United States of America. People were willing to forgive the fact that he had been completely useless.
    I didn’t want to talk about Oblivion – and certainly not with the captain. My cabin was next door to Matt’s friend, Richard Cole, and we had an adjoining door, so in a way we were thrown together and on the journey home we became friends. He never told me exactly what had happened in the fortress but I often heard him crying out in his sleep and I know it gave him nightmares. To be honest, Lohan made me nervous and I saw much less of him. He struck me in some ways as being quite sinister, and I was glad when we docked at Brest and he announced that he wouldn’t be coming with us to England. He would head east … to find his family and friends back in Hong Kong. I don’t think Richard was too sorry to see him go either, although the two of them parted amicably enough.
    Lohan had a long way to go and I can’t tell you if he arrived because I never heard from him again. I bet he did, though. He was a major criminal who would cheerfully kill whoever stood in his way. If anyone was able to look after themselves, it was him.
    So many more adventures. Our time in Brest, our journey across northern France, crossing the Channel back to England and then finally the return to London and contact with the Nexus. But that will have to wait for another time.
    We managed to find our way back to the underground survival pod but by the time we got there, the medium, Miss Ashwood, was dead. She’d warned us that she was ill and apparently she’d died peacefully in her sleep shortly after we’d left. But everyone else was there and they couldn’t believe we’d made it back. Richard and I were both treated like heroes, although I felt guilty because whatever Matt might have said, I hadn’t actually done very much at all. And there was more good news. I was amazed to discover that Graham Fletcher and his brother, Will, had both survived St Meredith’s. It was interesting that once Jamie and I had gone through the door and the ginger-haired woman had been shot in the head, the other policemen lost interest in it all. I suppose there was nothing left to fight about.
    We spent a month at the pod but in the end it was too claustrophobic, hiding out all the time, and anyway, there was less danger now that the Old Ones had gone. Of course, it was going to take the country years and years to recover. Pollution scales in London were off the map and the dogs, the rats and the gangs still hadn’t gone away. Finally, there was a meeting and a whole group of us decided to leave together, following the canal out of London, heading back exactly the way we had come. This time we had to go on foot so it took a lot longer, but fortunately we didn’t run into any marauding cannibals or anything like that along the way.
    My own village had been destroyed, but Graham Fletcher had discovered another when he had been the Traveller, one not so far away. It still had buildings standing and fields ready for planting, and there was nobody living there so that was where we settled. And there you have it. I had been chased the whole length of the country. I had crossed the world through a mysterious door. And now I was back almost exactly where I’d started. Funny how it goes.
    It was difficult at first. I know that Richard badly missed Matt. And I was surprised how