Lily stared blankly at the lights illuminating the end of the tunnel, the distant echoing of footsteps and voices making their way over to her and the crowd of sleeping people.
A man next to her whispered into her ear, "you okay kid?"
Lily nodded, "yeah... I guess."
"Did you know anyone on the train?"
"Yeah. All my friends."
"I'm sorry... hey, have you been able to get in touch with anyone outside?"
She shook her head weakly, "nope. Nothing new..." she looked at him, "do you think the volcano thing is real? Like did that actually happen? Is that why we're stranded here?"
He looked at his phone, "I don't know... I had a bar earlier, checked google. Just saying they think a volcano erupted in... I think Indonesia? Or it might have been Hawaii."
A woman sat next to him, "David, honey, you okay?"
David nodded, "yeah... just asking around if there's anybody who has service."
The woman held a hand out to Lily, "I'm Catherine."
Lily gave a measly smile, shaking her hand, "I'm Lily."
Catherine spoke calmly, "you can't be very old... how old are you?"
"Sixteen."
David sighed, "Jesus... are you down here alone now?"
"No, some of my friends managed to get off earlier."
Catherine whispered, "hey, those lights... do you think that's the military or something?"
David nodded, "yeah. I'd guess so."
Catherine turned back to Lily, "I take it this is a school trip?"
"Yeah. We were coming back from France and... yeah."
She sighed, "I'm so sorry. That's awful. Hopefully they can help you get home from the terminal... where are you from anyhow?"
Lily paused for a moment, "Brighton."
Catherine glanced at David, "we're from London."
David looked in his pockets, "no wallet... nothing. I left everything in our car."
Catherine looked through her bag, "I have my purse. I only have sixty something pound."
Lily glanced around, "it'll be fine when we get out of here. We can all just go home and they'll pay back what we lost..."
David scoffed, "they better, that Ford costed over thirty thousand pound."
"Thirty thousand pounds of rubble now," Catherine looked away with a sigh, "Jesus, this really sucks."
The lights and faint voices continued their approach.
A man called out in French, "âllo? Est-ce sûr?"
Lily glanced at them, "is that French?"
Amber perked up, rubbing her eyes, "huh?"
Everybody began to sit up, looking towards the man now visible down the tunnel.
A small group accompanied him.
A woman, rather tall with dark skin and large, curly black hair spoke too, "nous sommes de France."
Another voice called out, "âllo? Tu Anglais?"
A man next to Orla stood up, walking cautiously towards the people, "ça baigne?"
A woman from the group replied, "merde."
"Millions de personnes... morte."
The man next to Orla muttered, "sans déc."
Orla whispered to him, "what are they saying?"
The man turned to them, "they're saying the same thing. Millions of people are dead... apparently."
Amber slid over to Lily, her voice shaky, "Jesus... Lily, it-it isn't a joke. This is real. This is... this is really real."
Paisley began to cry, "holy shit. What is happening out there?"
The French group approached the man, they began to mutter to each other incoherently.
They all fell silent.
Everybody stared blankly at the bilingual man. He turned back to the English speaking group, "they're saying something major happened outside... people all over Asia are dead. Nothing is left apparently. They're saying people— p-people have been dying in- in military bases and bunkers... subway stations, apparently the entire city of Tokyo was confirmed dead about two hours ago."
Orla stood up and approached the group, "what the fuck do you mean dead? Dead from what? Is- is it a gas attack? A volcano? A virus? What?"
The bilingual man muttered to the French people.
The bilingual man turned back to everyone else with a dazed expression, "r-... radiation. Some kind of radiation."
David spoke out, "radiation from what?"
The bilingual man turned around, "euh, radiation? D'où?"
A French speaking woman scoffed, "c'est la même question que je me pose. Les scientifiques ne savent pas."
A man spoke, "la planète entière est dans le chaos."
A woman nodded, "oui. La police, le gouvernement, l'armée... tous partis."
The French group began to mutter again.
The bilingual man faced the English speakers again, "they've got down here after the president called for evacuations, they don't know what's actually happening outside either. Apparently- apparently there's a car pile-up on the French side."
A French man nodded, "Oui. Kilomètres de voitures."
One of the women muttered, "j'espère que le président ment."
A loud yelling prompted everybody to turn the other way, "hello?!"
A soft voice called out, "is it safe down here?! The- the prime minister said to hide!"
The French people looked confused.
The English-speaking group approached.
A woman spoke, "have any of you gotten any updates? I- I haven't had phone service for hours. Does anybody know if it's safe on the surface yet?"
Lily whispered, "why would it not be safe? Is- is it actually spreading?"
A man called out from the British group, "not spreading. Moving. Apparently it hit California first... people have been going into the cities. They're all still alive. Whatever it is, it's circling around the planet."
Amber spoke, "so where is it now?"
The same woman from the British group shrugged, "last I heard... it was about to... hit India, South Africa, Russia? I don't know what's happening now though."
A man shook his head, "none of us do. We came down here cause it's chaos outside."
Another man agreed, "yeah. The government... they fucking abandoned us. They're leaving everybody in the dark. We tried to go through the main tunnel, but... there's a bunch of smoke. Where's the train?"
David spoke, "what do you think caused the smoke?"
The British group fell silent.
Orla sat back down on the floor, "so now what? I- I mean... we can't go back to England, we can't go back to France. Do we just... wait until it passes?"
Amber sighed, "we don't even know if it's gonna pass. We don't know what's happening outside..."
Another loud crash echoed.
YOU ARE READING
Hiraeth: Cities To Embers
Science Fiction'It came from outer space' or 'it was a bioweapon gone awry' The day a commercial airliner departs from London and a group of school students return from a trip to Paris, is also the day a disaster of biblical proportions begins to wipe out both hum...
