Darkness Comes to Woodford Bridge Ch. 01

Downstairs the tiles below the front door held no mail, which was annoying as I'd been expecting an invoice from a slow-paying company for the last few days, and after a agitated call yesterday I'd been assured that I would have it for the morning. Post was always early, usually before seven, so it looked as if I'd be calling again later in the day.

The kitchen was hot and stale, and I pulled the blinds and opened the windows wide. Freak heat continuing yet again, the weather was almost getting dull now with it's constant regularity. I found the juice from the fridge and poured a generous glassful, and leant with my back against the sink and looked up at the framed photograph of myself and my Father, a picture that had been taken the previous summer on a fishing trip. My Dad was grinning and holding a large fish up for the camera; I couldn't even tell you what breed it was. I was smiling too, not because I love fishing, which is something I couldn't really care less about, not that I'd tell that to my Father. I was smiling because I was spending time with him, which is something that we rarely got to do these days. For three days we ate barbecue, drank a few beers, slept under canvas and caught up on each other's lives. Catching the fish was just a bonus. Not that I actually caught any, I just held the net. We were due to go again in a month and I was looking forward to it.

But thinking about time made my thoughts inevitably turn to Natalie. I'd thought my dreams would have been filled with her during the night but if they were I remembered nothing. I couldn't believe I'd woken up feeling like hell when I was due to meet the first girl I'd gotten close to in a long time. I needed to get on if I was going to make breakfast at half-eight. The stereo I'd bought in from outside the night before sat on the shelf and I grabbed it to take to the bathroom with me, hear the news while I was in the shower. I snapped the on button and was met with nothing but a burst of static.

I stopped in the doorway to the living room and twisted the tuning dial. It was possible that the weather had interfered with the reception. I worked the dial watched as the needle moved slowly up through the FM bandwidth, but all I heard was raw, harsh static occasionally interspersed with a crackle or a squelch. It was possible that the batteries were running low, but when I started the tape and heard a wailing guitar solo I knew that wasn't the case. Anyway, I'd only just bought new ones. I went back to the radio but still nothing. Nothing intelligible of any kind.

I dropped the radio on the worktop and went into the front, found the remote for the television and turned on. Nothing. After a couple of attempts I threw the remote onto the couch and tried the manual control on the side of the set, and nothing happened to the twenty-five inches of blackness infront of me. The box was dead.

A thought struck me, and I returned to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. Inside remained in gray shadow as I swung the door wide, no light came on to flood the contents. Indeed, the only thing that was flooding was a small pool of water at the base of the fridge, a couple of small onions lying uselessly in the pool. I could already smell some of the foodstuffs starting to perish, and I closed the door quickly to keep heat out and any remaining cold in. I hadn't noticed it before, but then there was no reason that I would. Opening the fridge door was an action that I performed on autopilot.

As if to confirm what I already knew I moved to the light switch and flipped it up and down several times and watched disappointedly as the bulbs failed to illuminate. So, the power was obviously off, but what about the radio. The thing was battery powered, and I couldn't work out why I wasn't getting a reception, especially as there was a decent sweep of local stations around us that broadcast clear as crystal. Even in the worse depths of winter I can get a good signal, and although the weather was unnaturally hot I had never heard of radio waves being upset by heat. I turned the set on again and was greeted with the static, then pushed the volume as high as possible, the kitchen filling with white noise as I listened for even the faintest signal. Again, nothing.

It was only when I had returned the room to silence that I noticed it. I hadn't picked up on it at first, probably because I'm so used to my early morning peace. But this wasn't early morning, my watch said 8.10am. Even when I stood by the open window, hot air baking my face, it still wasn't there. I leant against the frame and strained my ears, but try as I might I couldn't hear.

Outside, there wasn't a sound.

I opened the backdoor and stepped out into the yard, slabs warm against the souls of my feet. The sky was the colour of blue neon used in a barsign, there was the usual lack of cloud cover, and the sun blazed it's path of brilliant destruction high and proud on the horizon. This was the same view that had greeted me and everyone else for the past few weeks. Except on this morning something was different.

There really was no sound, and I mean it was real silence, not just that it was quiet. I couldn't hear any distant traffic, or a farm vehicle in a far-off field, or the humming of an aircraft in that relentless sky. There wasn't a wind, so no rustling of branches or leaves, but I couldn't hear any birds, or even the barking of the dog I'd heard a couple of times last night. And I couldn't hear people, even though at this time of day folks were heading off for work, or taking the kids to school. Woodford was a gentle place, and as I've said it was quiet at the best of times, but silent? No. There wasn't one single sound in the air.

I walked quickly to the end of my garden, past the pines and the willows to the same spot where I'd stood with Natalie last night, overlooking the fields. I looked towards the main road that was away across the valley, I road which I struggled to hear but could see clearly, especially on clear mornings. It's a highway that connects two of the larger towns which span my small community. At any time the road remains busy, but in the morning it's heavy with commuters and truck-drivers. I get a good view of it from my office window and I can look out and always see a vehicle on it of some kind. But although I stood for longer than a minute, my hands gripping the fence and my eyes unblinking, I never saw anything move on the road at all.

Just then a sharp and unwanted stab of panic hit me in the gut and I returned quickly back towards the house in a half-jog, picked up pace as I went through the kitchen and living room and almost burst through my front door. Everything seemed to be in order. My motorcycle was parked at the top of the driveway and the front lawn was a deep green rectangle surrounded with bushes. The front wall, carefully built from reconditioned bricks that I had paid a good sum of money for stood separating my garden from the sidewalk and the street. A street in which no traffic passed and no one moved.

I ran down the drive and into the middle of the street, sweating now and not just from the heat, my sweatpants sticky against my legs. I shielded my eyes from the glare and looked left and right along the main road that ran through Woodford Bridge. I looked at the other houses that stood just like my own; neat, tidy, an almost perfect picture of suburban calm that I occasionally felt out of place in but that you can see in small towns and villages across the entire country. Everything was in place, except that I could neither see nor hear anyone.

It was only as I was knocking sharply on the front door of the Edgecome house that I realized I was half-naked and frankly looked like shit, but I didn't care. I just needed to see that Natalie was okay, and then I could wake up from this confusing and scary dream and have a good day with her. There was no reply, and I twisted the doorhandle but it was locked. Of course it was, Natalie was in a strange place and a strange house, and a girl from New York City knew better than to leave her doors open. They had double locks on everything back there.

Doing my best to keep calm I walked quickly around the house, sharp gravel digging into my feet, and tried the back door. That too was locked, and there wasn't any sign of her when I looked through the windows into the kitchen. The room was neat, there were some dry groceries on the table that I guessed she must have bought, and some wildflowers in a vase on the windowsill that probably came from the garden. The house hadn't been lived in for a long time, and now it had signs of life. That confirmed that at least I hadn't imagined a beautiful actress moving in next door to me and kissing me on my couch last night. Except where the hell was she now? She'd said breakfast at 8.30, at that time was fast approaching. She'd at least be up, and probably in the kitchen. But it seemed that just like everyone else in the idyllic place where I lived she had disappeared, Everyone was gone, except for me. What the in the name of God was going on?

I returned to the main street, which was still silent. If a dozen or so of my neighbours were to suddenly look up I was going to feel like the world's biggest fool, but I didn't care anymore. If I had to move from embarrassment I would, but I had to do it. The panic had now risen to my throat and a headache was pounding in my temples. So I shouted, loudly, and my voice sounded hollow and dead in the silence and the stillness of the air.

I waited for a reply. Nothing. Still I waited, holding my breath and feeling the blood pound in my veins. I opened my mouth to shout again.

'David!'

My breath shot out of me in a strangled cry as I jumped at the voice to the right of me, a voice that sounded as scared as mine but one I still recognized. 'Holy Christ,' I gasped.

Natalie threw herself into my arms and I swear that I have never been so glad to see anyone in my entire life. She gripped me tightly as we hugged and a trail of sweat ran down into my eyes. Her hands were hot against the bare skin on my back. 'I'm glad to see you,' I said, shocked at how my voice trembled so badly as I spoke.

'You are?' She said against my chest, and then looked up at me. I could see the fear in her eyes and that scared me too. Up until that moment I would have been able to convince myself that this was a dream, but seeing Natalie confirmed that this was really happening. At least I wasn't alone anymore.

'Where have you been?' she said 'I came to your house to find you, and when you weren't there I was so worried.'

'I've been there. Just in the backyard and then I was looking for you at your place. When did you come around?'

'About an hour ago. I banged on your door, even shouted your name a few times.' She reached up and kissed me softly. 'I thought I was going out of my mind.'

I frowned. 'I was in bed, I overslept. Can't believe you didn't wake me up.'

'I thought you'd gone, just like everyone else.' She moved out of our embrace but still held tightly to my hand. I could feel her fingers trembling slightly, and my heart went out to her as I realized just how scared she must have been.

'No, I'm right here,' I said. This morning she now wore jeans and a white vest-shirt, and even though she looked angry and confused she was still gorgeous. 'It's going to be okay.'

'The phone is dead in the house,' she said, 'and there's no signal or connection on my cellphone.'

I hadn't thought to check the phone but I could guess the situation. 'The power is down as well. I haven't got a clue what's going on, Natalie. Something is very wrong.'

She laughed, nervous and without humour. 'No shit. It's not everyday I wake up thinking I'm the last person on Earth.' She looked along the length of the deserted street. 'I'm scared, Dave. Really scared.'

'I know, so am I. This was not the kind of morning I was expecting to have.'

We both wandered out into the middle of the road. An avenue of trees lined the hot blacktop to the right, leading away and into the centre of the village. To the left the houses on either side filtered out as Woodford came to an end, and the road disappeared around a long, sweeping curve. We strained our eyes in the direction of the village, and although I saw the same houses and parked cars as I always did, I saw no sign of life.

'I've taken a walk up there, and there's nothing,' Natalie said. 'I went as far as the store and then turned around and came back, and that's when I found you.'

'And you saw no-one, no life at all?'

She shook her head. 'There's nothing there,' she answered, her voice sounding very small. 'So what do we do now?'

'I don't know. I feel like we're on one of those home video shows. You know, the kind where a trick is played on someone and just as they're losing their temper someone leaps from behind a tree to surprise them.'

'Great, let someone leap,' she said, 'and as soon as I see them I'm gonna punch them in the mouth.'

I stared at her for a second, and she smiled at me. 'Sorry, I'm not usually overcome with violent intentions. It's just that I'm hot and confused and scared and I want to know what's going on.'

'It's all right,' I said, and kissed her forehead. 'Believe me, I'm feeling the same way.'

We both stood silently for a few moments and I continued to look around, peering at houses to see if a face would appear at a window, a dog would run across the street, even a bird land on a tree branch. I saw nothing, only a regular street that happened to be completely deserted except for me and Natalie.

'We just can't be the only two people here,' I whispered. 'It's impossible.'

'Is it? There's no-one down there.' She pointed to the street. 'No adults, children, nothing. It's quarter to Nine. This place should be alive with people now, shouldn't it? And it's not just people you live with. Have you seen a paperboy? Or even a single car passing through on it's way to-'

'Okay, I get it,' I snapped, panic rising once again. This time it took longer to control. I swallowed, feeling a lump in my throat like a pebble in a shoe. 'I'm sorry, honey. It's just I'm the kind of person that needs logical answers to logical questions, and right now I can't come up with anything.'

'So what now?'

'Well, if you've been down to the store then you've walked pretty much the whole length of this place,' I said. 'So if no-one will come to us we'll just have to go to someone.'

I led her by the hand up my drive towards the house. 'Just let me get something better on and we'll take a trip along the road until we find something. The nearest town is Shelby, and it's only five miles away.'

I ran inside the house and upstairs, and found jeans and a shirt plus a pair of oilskin boots. Within a minute I was closing the front door behind me and walking back towards Natalie, where she stood looking small and beautiful against my Bike. 'You don't mind riding pillion?' I said.

She shook her head. 'No. I've been on a motorcycle a couple of times. In the desert out in Israel.'

'Sounds like good fun.'

She shook her head slightly, as if to clear her thoughts, and looked at me. 'It is. More fun than I'm having at the moment.'

'I'm sure there's some logical explanation,' I said gently, 'and after we've found it I'm going to bring you back here and cook you the best breakfast you've ever had.'

She kissed me, her mouth open and her tongue between my lips. 'When we get back here I'm taking your shirt back off and I'm getting naked with you for the rest of the day,' she whispered. 'You can forget breakfast.'

I eased my leg across the Harley and slid into the warm leather of the seat. The motor rumbled into life on the first turn of the key, the deep throb of valves and cylinders making a noise that was comforting. It was something I was used to, and the way things had been shaping up since I'd been awake I needed all the normality I could get.

'Get on,' I motioned with a nod, 'and let's go find some answers.'

Natalie straddled the bike behind me and settled into the seat. Her thighs gripped against me and her chest pushed into my back, her hands slid around my waist. She kissed the back of my neck, and the thought of us making love later that day was a thought I needed to hang on to. I took a deep breath and kicked the bike off the stand, balanced the weight and slotted the machine into first gear. I eased out of the drive onto the deserted street and turned left, headed East as we had agreed, out of the village into the open countryside that separated Woodford Bridge from Shelby. We'd find something this way, it was inevitable.

We did find something. And to this day I still can't really believe it.

To be continued next month...

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