The Pole Shift

John

“Mad I suppose, who wouldn’t be? We are quite possibly mad as well.” Mr Knowles paused for a moment, now that there was immediate hope, he had revived. He went on, “Mad or no though, times have changed, we can’t afford to think of him as a friend, and he can’t count on us being friendly either.”

        They moved the pod to the side of the island where once a house stood. It was dangerously populated with the carnage of the Pole Shift now, and the jagged edges of the island itself, but the pod was built to withstand incredible ordeal, and although the group of six winced when they ground against hazards, they did not panic. Mr. Knowles had outlined a plan.

       “Mr Jobling and John will conduct a reconnaissance just before it gets dark, with four objectives.” The old teacher went on to state they they must discover if the man and his dog were alone, if he had weaponry, fortification and food. “Once we know what we are dealing with we will have a better idea how to overcome him. " John bit his lip and said:

“So we don’t want to make friends then?”

“You saw what happened at school John, they turned on us, we can’t trust anyone.” 

“I thought we turned on them?” Said John, confused. There was a grave silence, the others looked at John for what seemed an age. Finally Mr.Knowles said:

“John, when history is written again, do you want to be seen as good or bad?”

“Good?”

“Yes, we are good, and if we are forced to do bad things to be good, then well, we forget the bad. Understood?”

“I think so.”

“Good lad!” John looked at the remaining teachers, Mr Jobling was edgy, the youngest of the adults. He was the Physics teacher and whilst John had no personal experience of the man, word in the school yard was he was ‘weird’. He didn’t want to go on a reconnaissance or what ever that was with him. He looked over to Jodie, she was a couple of years older than John, and he looked to her as if she should be fielding all interaction with the teachers, but Jodie hadn’t said a word since the Pole Shift had hit, she just stared out of the window, crying.  She was vaguely being comforted by the only female teacher, Mrs Dancy twho taught English. John was concerned to see how both of them seemed to be crying and looking out the window. John felt like he was alone. With a jolt he found he had a plan . He didn’t want to be with any of them, he wanted to get away.

“I’ll do a good job Mr. Knowles.” Mr Knowles’s eyes lingered on him for longer than usual, and John thought back to the game of British Bulldogs which had led to war. How he wished he had stayed loyal to Jimmy, or managed to get on the third pod, being here was hell, and he felt like a prisoner. He hoped the man on the island was tough, he was going to try and make friends and get on his side by warning him.