In The End Box Set | Books 1-3 Stevens, GJ (story books to read TXT) 📖

“It’s a large island,” I added when he still hadn’t spoken.

A map sprung into my head in his silence; we had to travel from the crook where the peninsula of Devon and Cornwall met the rest of England, a hundred and fifty miles away from the small island off the coast of Southampton.

A few weeks ago, the distance would have been three hours in rush hour to get to Southampton at least. An hour on the ferry across the Solent. We knew the military were all over this and I feared the ferries wouldn’t be running and the Royal Navy would be in charge of a major quarantine operation. We didn’t even have a car and when we did, we couldn’t keep it on the road long enough to make much progress.

People had taken whatever transport they could to get away. We’d seen so few signs of any others making their escape. Apart from the Toyota garage and a few other lucky finds, anything left over had so far been junk and there were eight of us, including Shadow.

My thoughts paused at a low mechanical sound in the distance. Turning first to my left, I saw Gibson had also heard.

I followed his look back down the road, watching as Thompson huffed a command for each of us to stop at the sight of a tall dark car leaning heavy to the side and racing around a corner, heading towards us with its windscreen wipers rushing back and forth.

66

“Move,” came Thompson’s command and without question each of us separated, clearing the road to the left and right whist staring to the car over-correcting and lurching this way and that as it tried to straighten.

Racing closer in our view, I marvelled at the dent-covered four by four, the blue bonnet bent up in the middle. Glimpsing the driver behind the wheel, I focused on the whites of her wide eyes. For a moment I thought the impossible, until she blinked.

I looked at Thompson at my side, then to Jess, fearful of how she would react, but when she hadn’t moved, I looked to the soldiers, each with their rifles pointed to the ground.

Ready to watch the car drive between us and off into the distance, it was easy to understand the compulsion to get away as fast as they could, so I waved. I raised my hand and gave the driver a signal as if we knew each other before the world ended.

Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Alex and Jess looking at each other, Alex saying something under her breath and the others in view took a further step back, despite the car slowing as it came closer, stopping only a few lengths past our group.

The tall BMW X5, according to the letters on the back, sat unmoving just along the road. With its side panels as dented as the front, but not covered in blood, guts or other gore, I wondered how long they’d been like that. The thought cut off as the driver’s window lowered.

None of us moved until after a few seconds I stepped up, stooping with a wide, cautious smile to take my first proper look at the driver. A round-faced woman stared back, her light brown skin blotched with the red of effort, but with the start of a smile easy to catch. A bolt of silver pierced her left eyebrow and for a moment I thought of shrapnel until I spotted the silver stud in her nose. With dark hair pulled back in a bun, she wore a woollen dress and when she spoke I realised I hadn’t said a word.

“Are you just going to stare at me all day?” she asked in a thick Scouse accent.

“Sorry,” I said, then realised the stupidity of the apology, forcing myself not to look back to the group.

“You shouldn’t really be standing around here,” she said. “Have you seen what’s happening?”

“Ah, yeah. Of course. We’re trying to get away,” I said, looking behind her to the empty back seats. “Where are you headed?”

She looked along the road, then turned her head, eyeing me with caution as she spoke. “Anywhere away from here.”

I turned back to Thompson and watched his nod in my direction.

“Sir,” Sherlock said, and Thompson turned around to look at him.

“We should stay outside where we can keep a better eye on it,” he said in low voice.

“We need to get moving,” Thompson replied, turning away before he could see the scowl on Sherlock’s face.

The voice from the car pulled my attention back her way.

“So are you getting in or do you want to stand around in the open all day?”

I nodded, stunned by her words. “Thank you,” I replied.

“Well, get in then. It’s going to be a squeeze.”

Flicking a control on the dashboard, she smiled as the windscreen wipers stopped scraping the glass.

Still dumbfounded by her directness, I turned to the others.

“Come on, guys. What are you waiting for?” I asked, then heard her snort as I pulled open the passenger rear door and motioned with my hands for the rest to come over.

Moving around the front and climbing in the passenger seat, I ushered Shadow to squeeze in the footwell and I twisted, looking to Cassie to make sure she’d moved towards the car.

With Thompson’s nod of approval, the soldiers jogged at the sound of a distant howl, Carr running over and pulling the boot lid high, before yanking out the parcel shelf and frowning when he saw the size of the space but climbed in any way. The three women piled in the back seats as the other two soldiers squeezed in beside Carr to the sound of much huffing, somehow squeezing their rucksacks in too.

With no chance Thompson was fitting