The Last Sunset (5 page)

“Give me a break, I’m telling yuh, these guys
just materialized in front of us.”

“Yeah… Who d’you think they were?”

“Oh, hell, you could see quite clearly who they
were,” said Sam. “They were Confederate soldiers.”

“Waaw… That musta been so scary.”

“Well, y’know, that was the really weird thing;
it wasn’t scary at all. It was like they belonged there as much as me and
Ralphie.”

She digested the image for a moment. “Go on.
What happened next?”

“Well, y’know, I’d love to say we witnessed some
scene from the battle. Like Pickett’s charge, or something. But that was it.
These two soldiers just sat at that campfire. You could see them talking to
each other. We couldn’t hear anything. But the weird thing was, they looked as
if they were also carrying on a conversation with me and Ralphie.”

“Jeez. I take it your friend was seeing all this
as well…?”

“Oh sure. We didn’t say a word to each other,
but I could tell from Ralphie’s face he was seeing everything I was seeing.”

“How long did the whole thing last?”

“Thirty, forty minutes. As the light from the
fire died down, they just sorta died down with it. It was the weirdest thing,
and yet at the time it all seemed natural, somehow.”

“God, you are so lucky,” she breathed.

“I guess. Y’know, until this moment, I’d never
spoken of it to a living soul. Ralphie and I never discussed it. We didn’t even
tell Tommy about it. Poor guy, it woulda broken his heart if he ever knew what
he missed out on…”

“My God, Sam, how could you even begin to
explain something like that?”

Sam was enjoying the novel sensation of having
Shawnee eating out of the palm of his hand.

“Well, y’know, I thought about it afterwards,
and I don’t believe those soldiers were ghosts, or spirits; or whatever you
wanna call them. I reckon they were in their own time. They weren’t seeing
Ralphie and me, they were seeing, maybe, another two Confederates occupying the
space that me and Ralphie were occupying.”

“Right. So you were seeing a fragment of the
past?”

“Well, yeah, kinda. But I think we experienced
what we did because we interacted with it. We were part of… how can I say this?
A coincidence between two time spans…”

“…A coincidence between what?”

“Okay. Right. Take this area, for instance. You
said this place is haunted. Yeah?”

“Big time; that’s the main reason the survivors
abandoned the place; couldn’t bear to live on in the glen. One of my relatives
was even found dead up here. They reckoned he died of fright.”

“Not the kinda place you’d wanna be after dark,
then.”

She smiled. “I don’t think we’re likely to see
anything today. It only ever happens in the mist…” Her eyes opened in sudden
comprehension. “Oh, my God, is that what you mean?”

Sam nodded. “If you wanted to see something from
that time, you’d know you’d have a better chance if the conditions were similar
to what they were that day. Funny thing is; we all intuitively know this
already. We all know if you create a link with that other time period—”

“Like being there on the anniversary…”

His eyes widened momentarily. “Yeah, exactly.
See, we don’t just witness these things, we help to create them. Given the
right coincidences, different time periods can come together. Maybe time isn’t
as sequential as we like to believe.”

Shawnee nodded. “I remember once, Dad and I came
upon this old cabin in the woods. You could tell it hadn’t been lived in for
years. Even the fireplace was blocked up. Anyhow, we stopped over. During the
night I woke up to the smell of burning wood.”

“You mean, as though the cabin was on fire?”

“No, I don’t think so. It was that distinctive
scent you get when you burn birch logs.”

“So, you were smelling a fire in the blocked up
fireplace?”

“Yeah. Totally weird or what? And yet it’s just
the kinda thing you’re talking about. I wonder why it doesn’t happen more
often.”

“Yeah, I wondered about that too. I reckon some
remote places remain undisturbed; y’know; left in their original condition. I guess
there’d be a better chance of making a connection somewhere like that. Maybe it
only happens in certain places.” He smiled at Shawnee. “Y’know, before that
camping trip I was just a regular college hard-ass. But that whole experience
was like one of those defining periods in a guy’s life. It’s like; you come
back not the same person, but you’re not quite sure in what way you’re
different. D’you know what I mean?”

“Yes, I do,” she said softly.

~*~

They sat together in comfortable silence,
watching the idyllic scene below. From this distance little could be seen of
the ancient ruins, or the waterless burn. It was a while before they became
aware of the changes taking place above them. The time was barely 4 pm, but
already the colours of sunset had begun to appear in the west. Before long a
wide, nebulous halo materialised around the sun, its yellow-white glare turning
a soft bronze, as if a saffron veil had been drawn across it.

As they watched, spellbound, a dull copper glow
began to spread unevenly across the sky. Below them the vegetation appeared to
wither in the reddening light, plunging the hillsides into ever-deepening
shadows.

Sam said nothing to Shawnee. If he refused to
acknowledge the phenomenon, it might seem less real. But even the meanest
inhabitants of the glen sensed something was wrong. Not even the buzz of
insects disturbed the deathly quiet.

The blue of the sky was now almost completely
transformed into the colour of desert sands; the sun and its halo now a dull
glowing red.

“This is not good,” Sam murmured at last,
“something has most definitely hit the fan somewhere.”

Shawnee made no reply. She seemed mesmerised by
the spectacle.

Sam retrieved his cell phone. The anxiety that
had been gnawing at the back of his mind had now returned with a vengeance. For
the third time that day he tried to establish a link with the outside world.
Almost immediately he encountered the excited voice of an English newsreader:

“
…spokesperson for the Chinese military
government has stated that this action was taken as the only means of
demonstrating to the United States government, and to the world at large, the
seriousness of China’s resolve, and should not be interpreted as a declaration
of hostilities between their two countries…
”

“Aw, Jesus H Christ, what the hell is going on
now?” Sam groaned. “We seem to go from one crisis to the next.”

Shawnee tore her eyes away from the glowing
inferno that was now the afternoon sky. “Whatever mess they’ve made of things
can surely keep ’til we’re outta here.”

“Yeah, I guess….”

“
…As yet there has been no official reaction
either from the White House or from Downing Street. A statement due to be made
by the Prime Minister was cancelled a few minutes ago. Earlier reports of major
explosions in the vicinity of Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai remain unconfirmed.
The time is now 8 am, and we go over to our…
”

At that point the broadcast erupted into a
ferocious howl of static. Sam and Shawnee gaped blankly at each other. Moments
later the voice of the newsreader blared from the phone:

“
…The official Chinese news agency has
confirmed the detonation of a nuclear warhead in what they describe as a thinly
populated area of the United States of America. The attack took place at six
o’clock this morning, Greenwich Mean Time. A spokesperson for the Chinese
military government has stated that this action was taken as the only means of
demonstrating to the United States government, and to the world at large, the
seriousness of China’s resolve, and should not be interpreted as a declaration
of hostilities between their two countries…
”

“Oh, Sweet Jesus,” said Sam. “What’ve they
done…?”

“
As yet there has been no official reaction,
either from the White House or from Downing Street. A statement due to be made
by the Prime Minister was cancelled a few minutes ago. Earlier reports of major
explosions in the vicinity of Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai remain unconfirmed.
The time is now 8 am and we go over to our…
”

Once again the broadcast was drowned in a shriek
of static. And once again after a few moments the newsreader’s voice returned.
Sam and Shawnee listened in horrified silence as the broadcast was repeated
over and over, like a message being mechanically transmitted from the grave.
Finally Sam sent the cell phone spinning into the distance.

For a long time both stood in shocked silence,
beneath a sky that now appeared to be reflecting the fires of hell. Sam put his
arms protectively around Shawnee.

“Don’t suppose that was Orson Welles…?” he
growled, in a wretched attempt at humour. His mind was filled with images of
places… people… Los Angeles… San Francisco… Boiling clouds…

“How could we let it come to this…?” said
Shawnee in an agonised whisper. “That up there. That’s... That’s what he was
talking about, isn’t it…?”

“It may not be as bad as it looks. It may just
be some kinda localized—”

“Don’t patronize me, Sam!” she yelled, pulling
away from him. “I need to know how bad this is, and I don’t want any fairy
stories!”

“Okay, kid, you’re right,” Sam relented. “Look,
I dunno, this stuff… It looks like it could be in the upper atmosphere. The way
I figure… it’s been carried from a long way off …” He sighed miserably,
reluctant to continue.

“Go on.”

“Aw hell, I dunno. I could be wrong, but I think
this has been carried here on the jet stream from North America… I don’t see
how this could be the result of a single strike in a thinly populated area.”

A moan of anguish left Shawnee’s lips. She stood
in tortured contemplation for a while, before suddenly pulling on her backpack.

“What’re you doing?”

“What d’you think I’m doing?” she said calmly.
“There’s no point us standing here like hogs in a slaughterhouse. We need to
get back to the car. We can decide our next move from there.”

Without waiting for a reply she turned on her
heel and strode off in the direction of the cottage. Sam lost no time in
following her. There was no question now of stopping to savour the bittersweet
draught of times past. They stumbled through a sinister and alien landscape,
over which the gods appeared to be waging one last great war with each other.

After little more than an hour they were a mile
from Inverlaragain Cottage. At this point Sam called a halt. Something was
wrong. In a world that had been plunged into Armageddon
everything
was
wrong. But this was different. Something was now
very
wrong. He barely
had time to register this fact before his eyes were drawn to
Meall Banabhie
,
the hill to the south of Glen Laragain, above which an enormous cauldron of
smoke and flame was rising. It looked as if the hills of Lochaber had erupted
in one colossal volcanic eruption. As the boiling inferno climbed higher and
higher into the sky, comprehension seeped into Sam’s paralysed mind. What had
been abstract interpretation was now terrifying reality. The angels of the
apocalypse had revealed themselves to the world this day. Now it was their turn
to bear witness.

He thought of that little Highland town they’d
passed through only the day before, which now lay beneath that biblical
holocaust. Then his thoughts were of Shawnee… She was at his side now, her hand
in his. He could see the searing cauldron of fire reflected in her eyes.

Meall Banabhie
had absorbed the initial explosion, but as the gigantic fireball spread
throughout the bowl formed by the Lochaber hills it found an outlet at the top
of Glen Laragain. They watched as a huge fiery arm was channelled towards the
upper pass, and then, by some perverse trick of gravity, forced down the glen,
like a grotesque parody of a wall of mist, towards where Sam and Shawnee stood.

Sam’s mind finally detached itself from reality.
He turned to the tiny individual beside him. Devoid of all hope, her death only
seconds away, her courage remained intact as she faced the onrushing wall of
fire.

~*~

As Sam and Shawnee steeled themselves for their
final moments, neither noticed a second colossal explosion lighting up the sky
above Loch Ness, to the east. At the very moment the pyroclastic flow from Glen
Laragain was about to engulf them, the shock wave from the second explosion
blasted them both into oblivion.

Glen Laragain — 1746

Achnacon stood on the grass-covered summit
of
Meall Banabhie
, his red tartan plaid a defiant blaze of colour
against the drab vegetation of early spring. Four miles to the west, where the
Great Glen emerges from the salt swell of Loch Linnhe, his failing eyes
searched out the star-shaped outline of
An Gearasdan
; the garrison of
Fort William. Like a thorn in the flesh of the Highlands, the fort was manned
by two regiments of King George of Hanover’s hated redcoated soldiers.