Nuclear Midnight (9 page)

The others nodded grimly.

‘You know where to find the Land Rover?’ Roy asked.

‘Yes, it's down one of the streets we walk by, on the way back from work.’

‘The military have hotwired it, since we stole the keys a few days ago.’ Cliff said. ‘All you have to do is jump in and connect the wires under the dashboard.’

‘Are you sure it'll be there?’

Cliff and Roy glanced at each other. ‘We hope so,’ Cliff continued. ‘While we were working on a building in the area, a Colonel Kirton used to park it there about six in the afternoon, every Monday and Tuesday, while he attended some type of area coordination meeting with other high-ranking military brass. We think the meeting must go on for some time, although we've no way of knowing for sure.’

Alex nodded. ‘All right, so I'll just have to reach it as quickly as possible.’

Tina handed him a packet. ‘Here's a razor and some soap to shave with,’ she said. ‘I found the razor in the toilets yesterday. Don't slit your throat now,’ she smiled.

Alex managed a small grin as he pocketed the precious items. ‘It should take me about fifteen minutes to shave and put on the uniform. Maybe another twenty minutes to find the Land Rover and start back towards the camp. Will there be any guards near the vehicle?’

‘No, but a patrol passes by every quarter of an hour. Wait for one to pass before you attempt anything,’ Cliff replied.

‘When you reach the gate,’ Roy continued, ‘you must say you have a dispatch from Colonel Bradshaw of the Bristol prison camp. This Colonel Bradshaw seems to send dispatches regularly to the camp. We saw a dispatch driver arrive this morning. He only said a few words at the gate and showed no identification. As long as you look the part, they don't seem to worry about confirming your identity.’

‘I’ll get as much food as I can from the kitchen and meet Cliff and Roy near the front gate,’ Tina said.

‘I have one last comment,’ Alex put in. ‘As soon as you see me drive through the gate, start running. I won't have time to stop. I must get up enough speed to smash through the gate and get away before they have time to shoot at us. If I manage to seize a rifle, someone can use it to cover our rear as we escape.’

‘I'll do that,’ Roy volunteered.

‘Good,’ said Cliff. ‘Now all we need to do is set the day.’

Alex leaned back in his chair and studied each of their faces. There were deepening shadows of exhaustion around their eyes, a tightening of the skin around their cheekbones and a paleness that made their features look almost ghostly in the lantern light. They were all much weaker than when they arrived, and every day that they remained, they risked exposure to one of the many fast spreading diseases that afflicted the camp. ‘Tomorrow,’ he said firmly.

That night there were fresh rumours of an epidemic and talk of more than forty deaths in the past three days. The next morning the weather closed in, bringing strong winds and blizzard conditions. The Major called a rest day, promising extra rations and medical supplies and denying the wilder stories. The parade broke up with audible sighs of relief.

Alex wandered round the camp grounds in a tense mood. The more he thought about it, the more flaws he detected in the plan. What if the Land Rover wasn't there, or they couldn't overpower the guards? Before the war, only five short weeks ago, he would never have dreamed of taking a risk like this. The whole idea was more suited to Jason’s swashbuckling style.

His wandering eventually led him to the sick bay where he watched a burial detail, harnessed like pack animals, pulling a cart loaded with bodies towards the camp entrance. Apparently the number of men employed full time to haul and bury the bodies had risen to twelve. It was considered the most hazardous job in the camp, with a life expectancy of only a few weeks. The sick bay, he noticed, had overflowed again. An adjoining classroom had now been taken over, as well as the store room. The symptoms he had heard mentioned suggested an influenza epidemic. He had once taken a course at university on contagious diseases. Influenza had rated as one of the most infectious and lethal killers, especially in crowded conditions. It had killed millions in World War 1. The previous night people coughing and sneezing had kept him and Tina awake. There had also been many complaints of sore throats and headaches; all possible symptoms of influenza. Time could well be running out, he thought, as he turned sharply around and started walking back to the fire for some warmth.

To his right he passed the military quarters, a long drab sandstone structure which had served as the staff recreation block before the war. A place where battle fatigued teachers in the old days could retreat to enjoy lunch or tea without hordes of kids pestering them. A large wooden sign outside the front entrance read: ‘Students are strictly forbidden in this area without the permission of a teacher.’

As Alex strolled past, a door opened and a small figure laden with packages staggered out. Alex's heart missed a beat. The figure, hurrying and kicking up flurries of snow, as it went, was unmistakable.

‘Tina!’ he shouted.

The figure didn't respond at first; rather, it quickened its pace, only turning around when he trotted up behind.

‘Hello,’ she said, ‘I didn’t expect to see you here.’

Her face he thought looked flushed.

‘I was just taking a walk to clear my head,’ he explained.

‘I’m running an errand for one of the guards in the kitchen,’ she said quickly, as though to forestall some question of his. ‘Often they tell you to get something they have forgotten.’

Alex noticed that the food packets she was carrying were the same type she had said she had taken from the kitchen. At that moment, the door she had emerged from suddenly opened and a man came out, tucking in his shirt tails and doing up his trousers. Alex turned sharply back to Tina. She glanced up at him guiltily, then strode forward again so that he had to exert himself to keep up with her.

‘Tina, how have you been getting your food?’ he demanded.

She gave him a fierce look. ‘You know,’ she said, pushing past him.

He caught up with her again and gripped her tightly by the arm, spinning her round, sending the food packets flying. ‘Sleeping with the guards, eh?’ he accused, totally incensed and only half believing what he saw.

She met his gaze squarely, the picture of stubborn defiance.

‘Answer me!’ he almost screamed at her. ‘Have you been sleeping with the guards?’

‘What I have been doing is no business of yours,’ she blurted, her face now showing just as much anger as his.

‘You bloody whore!’ He felt the sudden urge to slap her face. ‘Haven't you any sense of morality?’

‘Morality,’ she echoed mockingly. ‘Now there's an obsolete word. Haven't you noticed there's no such thing anymore? Survival is the only reality now and survive is what I intend to do, no matter what it takes.’

Alex shook his head in disbelief. ‘You sell your body like a piece of meat for extra morsels of food. Don't you have any respect for yourself as a person?’

‘Look around you, Alex,’ she said bitterly. ‘People's hair dropping out, their faces scarred from burns and ulcers, their skin blotched, their bodies withering in front of their very eyes. The mirrors in the toilets were smashed long ago because people couldn't bear to see what they were becoming. We all look like hideous monsters, that's the reality. The only advantage I have is that my hair hasn't fallen out yet and my skin and face aren't scarred yet. If I can use that to help me survive, then I will.’

Alex’s expression had not changed. His fists were still clenched at his sides, his eyes still glared wildly at her.

But Tina had grown frighteningly calm. ‘Tell me,’ she said, ‘are you going to stop eating my rations because you found out how I got them?’

He ignored that thrust. ‘You're not doing this again!’ he bellowed.

‘Don't order me around! I'll do exactly what I want to do! Besides, if we break out tomorrow I won't have to,’ she added. She paused and her expression softened. ‘Oh, Alex,’ she went on, ‘do you think I like doing it? A number of us were propositioned. If I hadn't done it someone else would have, then I wouldn't have been able to get this food. If it keeps us alive, then nothing else matters.’

But it did matter to Alex, it hurt him deeply. He felt betrayed. What she had done would have been unthinkable to him. He was looking at a person he thought he knew, but he had been wrong.

‘I won't do it again,’ she said, seeing the struggle going on within him. She took a step towards him and tried to put her arm around him.

Alex stepped back quickly. ‘You can't dismiss what's happened, as if I had caught you stealing a bag of sweets,’ he spat.

‘I did it for you, Alex. I did it because I wanted you to survive!’

He opened his mouth to speak, then changed his mind. Turning away abruptly, he marched off, leaving her staring after him in the snow.

Alex slept only fitfully that night, his mind jerking forward constantly to the demands of the coming day, when so much would depend on his judgement and courage. Much of what he was thinking he normally would have discussed with Tina, and he knew she was awake hoping he would talk to her, but a gulf existed between them now. They had lost their intimacy. Their whole relationship had been corrupted, bruised, stained by what had happened.

He dressed early, even before the screeching alarm had gone off. Tina pretended to be asleep beside him.

‘I'll see you at the gate tonight,’ he whispered.

But he was gone before she could raise her head to answer him.

Alex found most of the work party round the fires after breakfast. He went over the details of the escape with them, making sure that everyone knew exactly what was happening. Then they shuffled off to assemble for parade. The previous day's snow had been replaced by a thick, choking smog, which reduced visibility to less than thirty metres; if this persisted, Alex thought, it could be useful.

The sergeant greeted them with his usual smirk, crunching around the detail like a growling wolf around a pack of sheep. ‘Well, after your little holiday I expect you all to work extra hard!’ he shouted. ‘And if any of you thieving bastards gives me any trouble I'll have him doing burial detail after dinner at the sick bay. You'd enjoy that, wouldn't you? Now, left turn! By the left, hup, two, three, four; hup, two, three, four.’

They reached the ruins where they had been working before, and the sergeant announced that it would be their last day on that site. Nearly a metre of fresh snow had fallen, choking what they had cleared before, and adding to the burden of their labours.

At lunch, Alex sat next to Dougan, whose once powerful frame had wasted under the demands of the heavy work, leaving only the framework, the skeletal shell of the former man. A black swollen bruise still scarred one side of his face from the beating he had received a few days previously. One black eye, half closed and bloodshot, winked unnervingly at Alex while he talked.

‘Are you clear on everything?’ Alex asked.

Dougan nodded grimly. ‘I can't wait,’ he said.

‘Remember,’ Alex warned, ‘only attack when I give the word. If we bungle this, we'll be slaughtered.’

‘I'll remember.’

‘Where are you planning to go afterwards?’ Alex asked, deciding to change the subject.

The man shrugged. ‘West probably. Yes…that's what I'll do. How about you?’

Alex hesitated. He had not told Dougan about the Land Rover and he didn't intend to now, in case he might want to come with him. ‘I'll try and reach Wales somehow,’ he said.

‘Wales!’ Dougan looked surprised. ‘How are you going to get across the water?’

‘I’ll find a boat, hopefully.’

Dougan pulled a face. ‘Seems like a lot of effort to me, when you can head west on foot.’

‘What about the others?’ Alex asked.

‘Pretty much scattering in all directions, from what I gather. Some are for going east, hoping that the government is handing out food, but most are heading west. Maybe one or two will try for Wales.’

‘Lunch is over!’ the sergeant suddenly bellowed. ‘Let's get cracking. Remember, I want this site cleared today.’

Dougan gave Alex a quick smile before collecting his shovel and resuming work.

At six the long march back to the camp started. As the detail proceeded through the centre of town, Alex peered down the street where he had previously seen the Land Rover. It was there! He breathed a sigh of relief so far, so good.

When the first houses started appearing the guards took up their usual positions. With the sergeant striding well ahead of the rest, Alex had positioned himself at the back of the two columns of men, and Dougan was third from the front. As soon as they had got clear of the last military patrol, Dougan started limping and the detail slowed down to keep pace with him. The sergeant dropped back and drew alongside Dougan.

‘Sore leg, is it, Dougan?’

‘No, I always walk with a limp.’

‘Any cheek from you and I'll halve your dinner rations,’ the sergeant replied coldly.

‘Yeah, that's exactly what I'd expect from a piece of shit like you.’

The sergeant looked genuinely shocked. ‘What did you just call me?’ he asked, daring Dougan to repeat his words.