“Oh.”
“Yes, oh. Now, come on. We’re better off sticking together and it’ll get easier as you get used to the bike. I know you’re dwelling on what happened yesterday, but try not to. It’ll get easier.” His face fell. “There’s something else I need to tell you both.”
“What?”
Clive shook his head. “The diazepam. I only have enough pills for six days. If it takes us any longer—which seems likely… We need to find a pharmacy.”
Olivia looked haunted. “He’s right.”
“We need medicine anyway,” Annie said quietly. “If any of us had been stabbed…”
Clive cleared his throat. “Well then. We’d best leave. We need to get as far north as we can and also find water and medicine. We have a long day ahead.”
Terry stared at his feet. All he wanted to do was curl into a ball and forget this nightmare. He couldn’t get that boy’s face out of his mind and the smell of hot metal still clung to him like a permanent reminder that would never go away.
He couldn’t think straight. What would he do if they left?
He needed them. He hated to admit it, but it was true.
“I’m coming.”
“Okay, let’s keep an eye out for a supermarket truck. We didn’t stop yesterday because the ones we passed had already been looted, but we’re not in a position to be fussy now. We need whatever food we can find.”
Terry shrugged. He was struggling to cycle in a straight line.
“And keep watching the signs above the exits. If we can’t find what we need on the motorway, we might have to get off and find a town.” Clive sighed. “But only if one of us has been there before, understand? I’m not leaving anything to chance.”
Terry gritted his teeth. It took every ounce of effort he had to stop his eyes from tearing up. Would this ever end?
He noticed a bright orange truck up ahead and he could tell from the way the others sat up straight on their bikes that they’d noticed too.
Their optimism soon vanished when they got closer and realised the siding had been torn clean off.
“Who did this?” he muttered. “There’s no-one around.”
No-one answered. Once they reached the truck, they all stopped and got off their bikes.
The truck bed was a mess. Pallets and boxes had been thrown around, with some of them tossed around the road.
“I’ll get up and take a look,” Annie said quietly. “You lot watch the bikes.” She hoisted herself up and disappeared over to the far side of the truckbed, but she wasn’t out of sight for long.
“Jesus,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s been cleaned out. The only thing left is packaging. There are empty oven cleaner boxes in there. All gone.”
She got down and they moved off again, even more disheartened than they’d been before.
“That stuff is toxic,” Annie said, after they’d passed the next motorway exit leading to places none of them had ever heard of, much less been to.
“What?”
“Oven cleaner. Why would anyone take it? It’s useless now.” She frowned. “Maybe someone took it with the intention of using it as a weapon. A spray of that in the eyes…”
Terry winced. He was uncomfortable enough as it was without thinking about something like that. Far from getting used to the bike, it was getting worse. At times he thought he was going to pass out from the discomfort.
“Look,” Annie hissed. “Up ahead. Is that a refrigerated truck? See the unit at the back of the cab?”
“Looks like it,” Clive said, speeding up towards it. They all followed.
“There aren’t any markings on the side.”
Terry shook his head. “It could be anything. They could be carrying medical specimens. Food companies usually plaster their names and colours on every available space.”
“Only one way to find out.”
Terry glanced warily at the cab. “What about the driver? I don’t fancy…”
Clive stood up on the pedals of his bike and peered in the passenger window. “No-one in there.”
For some reason, that made it even worse. “No,” Terry said, turning away. “We shouldn’t open it. If the driver didn’t even touch his cargo, why would you think it’s something we want?”
He could see the hesitation grow on their faces as they thought about it.
Then Clive got off his bike. “We can’t be choosy. Move away. I’ll see what’s inside.”
Clive disappeared around the back of the little white truck. There could be anything in there. Terry wished he’d volunteered. He felt numb; like nothing else could ever shock him.
“Got it,” Clive muttered.
No-one moved.
Terry closed his eyes.
“My goodness,” Clive said, reappearing around the side of the truck. “You’ll want to see this.”
Annie moved to the back of the truck and disappeared. A moment later, her head appeared around the side. She was smiling. He’d never seen her smile. “Cheese! Yogurt! Milk! I’ve heard of this company. They go to all the markets. Oh, there’s juice too! This is perfect! If we take as many of these juices as we can carry we’ll be able to last without water for a while longer.”
Terry hurried forward. His eye widened when he climbed into the back of the truck. All this food just laid out for them. It was good stuff too: he could tell. Even so, he couldn’t smell cheese or yogurt. The metallic smell of the gun discharging was still so strong he could taste it on his tongue. He jumped back down out of the truck, wishing there was some way he could forget.
29. Pete
“What do you mean you’ve got nothing? How did those blokes in World War Two do it?”
Josh shook his head. “They built the technology over time. We’re having to start from scratch.”
“I don’t want anything fancy,” Harry said, waving his hand dismissively. “I just want something that works. It can be as ugly as sin and the size of a phone box if it has to be. Well, so long as it fits into a car.”
“You’re asking me to come up with hundreds of years’ worth of technological advancements in a day,” Josh muttered.
“No I’m not. It’s already been invented, hasn’t it? You just need to figure out how to get it working again.”
Pete exchanged glances with Mo. He felt sorry for his brother. He’d been there all day the previous day and into the night as Josh tried to make sense of the university textbooks they’d taken from the library.
“I will,” Josh sighed, rubbing his forehead. “I just need time, is all.”
“Anyone could do it with enough time, brainiac,” Harry said, getting right into Josh's face. “Just remember this. You have one job. Don’t screw it up or there’ll be consequences.”
“I’m trying my best!”
“Your best? Your best? This isn’t primary school. You don’t get points for participation. The police probably have experts on this as we speak. We need to get as many steps ahead of them as we can.” He held up his hand to silence Josh, who looked like he was about to object again. “Find someone else to do the work if you need to. I don’t care. But it’s on your head if you don’t.”
“No. I can’t.”
“Your choice.”
Josh sighed. “Even if I wanted to do that, how would I find someone to—”
“Put an ad in the paper. What do you think?”
The door burst open and Harry clicked his tongue as Kenan entered. “What is it now? Don’t tell me you lot aren’t able to follow instructions?”
“It’s not that.”
“What is it then? I don’t have time for this.”