Aggy and the Dinos

Chapter 9

The Dinos had made a wasteland of the South. Dean found the silent world difficult to accept; cars were abandoned, picked clean skeletons lay strewn about, and everywhere the devastating silence. Or was it? Birds were singing, for sure, amid the distressed calls of cattle and horses that had not yet fallen foul of the new world order, but it was the lack of human noise that impacted most. The skies were clear of planes.

"They stay pretty quiet during the day." Said the driver. "We probably won't see much of them until maybe four. We'll pick up some petrol before then – you've got to boot it to get ahead of them if they catch you slacking."

"Do you have any weapons?" Asked Aggy, not at all enamoured with the thought of having to stop the vehicle for petrol – which prompted a thought. "Where do you get petrol from?"

"Garages!" Said the driver. "Those pumps are still full of fuel, mostly. We'll have a hell of a fine if they ever get them working again, HA!"

"Where are we going?" Shouted Dean over the free jazz torturing the speakers.

"West Midlands. There's another Madam's type establishment - nowhere near the same quality, mind, but the intent is the same."

"Is the Midlands...normal?" Asked Aggy.

"No sweet. Nowhere is. This is your normal now."

It took a long time to get out of the city, as most of the roads were blocked.The conversation on the way was light and good humoured, which didn't seem nearly as odd as it should have done. The boys in the band were Seph, whom Aggy thought of as 'her' musician, Adam, Eddie and Nick. Adam was a small, fast talking man who reminded Dean of a kid on a sugar high, even in spite of the amount of dope that he smoked. Nick was pleasant but a bit slow. Eddie said nothing at all. They parked up that night in a field just outside Guildford. There was a gentle mist rising from the ground – the earth breathing, Aggy's mother used to call it – drifting up into the trees. Aggy and Geezer had been given the berth in the luton. She lay on her front, looking out of the little window. The signs of humanity were still evident – field shelters, fencing, gates not yet beginning to rust. How quickly we will be obliterated, she thought, here in the south, with our temporary everything. How long will the stones walls of the north stand? 1,000 years? What eyes will mark our passing? Her cigarette smoke wafted out of the window to join the evening mist. Then all the lights in the lorry went out.

"Time to put the fag out sweetheart." Came a voice from below. "It's witching hour."

She stubbed the cigarette and huddled down on the mattress for the scant safety it offered her. Being inside was tantamount to being trapped. Being outside was tantamount to being dead. Zugzwang.

The humans settled down to being quiet – as if trying to slow down their biorhythms into invisibility. The temperature dropped. As the last of the day faded from view, and the cold blanket of night descended, the first call came. It was away in the trees, but still the rising note ran up every spine, tickled every hair, twisted every gut.

"Let no man move." Said Seph. He himself began to slide along the floor until he had made it to the cab. There was a periscope rigged up, and he raised his sunglasses momentarily to look.

"They're about," he said.

"How many?" Whispered Adam.

"I can see four. They aren't paying us any mind yet."

"Let's go." Said Aggy.

"Not that easy, princess." Seph replied. "If they hear us start up, and they get their claws into our tyres, then we are fucked."

"What do we do?"

"Nessun dorma." Said Adam. Nobody sleeps.

They lay ready all that night. Geezer shivered miserably in Aggy's arms, while below the men kept a grip on their weapons.