As the Light Dies (9 page)

When he finally crossed over the bridge and started traipsing along the snow bound towpath he tried a quick look up, but it was useless, the blizzard was too thick for him to see any further than his outstretched hand. He carried o
n
slowly
,
he did
n’
t want to wander too close to the edge of the bank, he knew the canal was frozen over, had been for two weeks now and it was hard to make out where the bank ended and the canal started with the snow covering everything.

After a while of traipsing along, he felt like his cheeks were about to crack so he turned his back in to the wind taking a brief break. He risked a look up hoping that with the wind behind him h
e’
d see a little better than before. He was awestruck and understood in an instant what Brian had meant.

The entire eastern skyline was dark grey, practically black!

Angry dark swirls moved around within the vast cloud!

“Holy shit!”
Dean said out loud barely believing his eyes.

The news was right, it is coming for u
s
, he thought. Then his view closed in again and a gust of icy wind slapped his face forcing him to bury his face deep in to his scarf again. He pushed on again but after a few steps he tried looking up again out of curiosity, he could
n’
t help it now that h
e’
d seen what was coming.

Shielding his eyes from the wind he could just see the cloud, the edge between the darkness of the ash and the early morning winter sun looked like an enormous cloud of bonfire smoke closing in over the top of the city or night catching up with day.

Bizarre
,
he thought before he had to bury his face again, as the wind whipped his face and dried his eyes. He started walking again thinking it best to get home as soon as he could.

He carried on constantly buffeted and chilled by the wind hating every step, he could
n’
t bear the wind, he never had liked it, cold and hot were ok but cooler was better and he loved the rain, but the wind. He detested it.

Then after walking for another ten minutes or so determined not to stop again, he was stopped in his tracks by a fallen branch as thick as his waist that was lying across the towpath. He looked it up and down before attempting to step over and saw that the end of the branch with all its tiny offshoots had broken through the ice over the canal.

He pushed the branch with his foot and watched broken slabs of ice bob up and down around the sunken end as he rocked it. The ice was so thick that it made Dean think of ice breakers at work in the Arctic biting their way through ice sheets miles across.

A gust of wind buffeted him hard from the side while he was standing on one leg knocking him off balance. He tried to counteract the wind by leaning in to it but he put himself further off balance and his other leg slipped out from under him and he fell!

He reached out blindly with both hands as he belly flopped on to the ground winding himself and he started to slide....he was sliding down the bank!

“Shi
t
!”
he yelped as he reached out clawing at the snow franticly trying to stop himself sliding towards the shattered canal. Images of him sliding in to the canal and disappearing under the broken ice filled his mind fuelling his panic, then he caught on to something with his left hand, it was part of the branch, he grabbed hold as tight as he could but he was still moving. The branch was moving with him, sliding further in to the canal!

Dean kicked his legs trying to dig the toes of his boots in to the snow but it was having no effect, he was sure he was speeding up. He was certain his feet were starting to get wet, he was sure of it! His mind raced showing him images of his feet disappearing below the icy water...
.
“
SHIT, SHIT, SHIT.”
he cursed kicking his feet and scratching at the snow still holding on to the branch too scared to let go. The branch ground to a halt giving him hope.

He latched on to it with both hands and pulled himself up as fast as he could struggling against the snow and the branch became unhitched again.

“Fuck!”
he cursed through gritted teeth as he pulled as hard and as fast as he could. Frantically trying to work faster than the sliding branch.

It was working. He was making ground. He was sure he was. He was sure he could feel the ground starting to level out beneath him!

He pulled and tugged and kicked and scraped his way back up the bank, then certain he was level enough he took his chance and let go of the branch and rolled away.

He was
n’
t sliding anymore, he was safe. Lying on his side gasping for breath with adrenalin rushing through him he looked back and at the thick branch and watched it slide down in to the frozen canal and lodge itself under the still solid ice around the break.

He lay there for a minute getting his breathing back under control still recovering from hitting the ground before getting back up cursing himself for getting in to a panic. He knew that was the worst thing to do in any situation, but then again if he had
n’
t worked fast he might be swimming right now he told himself. He brushed himself down and checked his feet. They were still dry.

He carried on, and by the time he reached the narrow path between the fenced in Academy football and rugby playing fields it felt like h
e’
d walked twice, or even three times the usual distance.

The path took him up a long gradual incline passed the Academy and a small cluster of shops at the top that were still in darkness including the corner shop that opened at six.

Someone’s late for wor
k
, he thought as ha carried on.

He passed under the road through the short subway coming out on Kinmylies way which his house backed on to from the other side.

Nearly there
,
he thought eager to get home and start thawing out.

He walked along the houses to the small access lane he passed through noticing how many of the houses were in darkness.

Normally at this hour they were all lit up as people went through their morning routines getting ready for work. He passed between them down the narrow access lane that lead on to a pathway that in turn lead on to the next cul-de-sac and his back gate.

The gate in to the back garden was a bad idea. There was a mound of snow, probably nearly two feet deep drifted up against it and Dean knew the gate was too weak to try and force open.

The perks of buying a cheap hous
e
, he thought.

The fact that it had been cheap meant that Dean was constantly broke, fixing this and replacing that. But the views over Inverness were amazing and were the sole reason h
e’
d taken a gamble with it.

He left the gate well alone and trotted round to the front of the street.

He saw neighbours trying to clear snow from their doorsteps and driveways and clearing snow from their buried cars and the thought of a warm bed felt more enticing than ever.

Dean reached for the front door handle and the door swung open.

Gavin stood there smiling through a mouthful of toast and before Dean could even get in he was eagerly met by Sam, his five year old German Shepherd who jumped up and tried to lick his face off like he had
n’
t seen him for weeks. Laughing Dean patted Sam and pushed his way inside.

“
Morning
,”
said Gavin through a mouthful of toast as Dean shed his hat and jacket.

“
Yo
u’
re pretty late eh, it hard going
?”
his brother asked as he pulled off the rest of his gear while making a fuss of Sam
.“
I
t’
s only hard if you make it hard
.
”

“
Yo
u’
re just making excuses for being a slowcoach
,”
Gavin quipped.

“
Nah Brian was late in. I ca
n’
t leave without handing over, yo
u
kno
w
that
.
”

“
Yea, yea whatever
.
”

“
Yea
,
and I nearly fell in to the damn canal
,”
said Dean moving to the kitchen to burn some toast of his own.

“
Really?
”
asked Gavin
.
“How? What happened?”

“
Yea, I slid stepping over a fallen branch. The wind knocked me off balance so be careful along the towpath ok
?
”

“
Yea, damn right I will be
,”
said Gavin nodding. Dean could hear the TV on in the lounge and to his surprise it sounded like Gavin had the news on
.
Wonders will never cease
,
he thought.

Gavin was a bit of a black sheep of the family, constantly having to be retold, re-shown or reminded about things constantly, even things that he already knew.

He had
n’
t held a job for more than two years, not that h
e’
d been sacked or anything and he was
n’
t a slacker, he just got bored or found anothe
r
nex
t
big thing to hanker after and moved on, then ended up getting laid off when the work dried up, then h
e’
d struggle for weeks, sometimes even months before finding another job. Currently he was training to be a bus driver having just left a job at the leisure centre on the night shift cleaning crew that Dean managed and helped him in to.

Gavin had only been there five months before moving on to go and drive buses two weeks ago. Before any of that h
e’
d tried his hand working down south labouring on various building sites until the market fell through and he found himself at a loose end unable to find a job and unable to pay the high rent. Big brother Dean had come to the rescue, putting in a good word for him at work and giving him the spare room for a while.

Dean was just about to ask Gavin if h
e’
d seen the ash cloud when Gavin called through from the lounge
.
“Hey Dean. You hear this?”

Dean wandered through to the lounge where Gavin was sat on the old brown leather sofa with a pile of badly hand written route notes and directions spread out on the floor in front of him watching the newly wall mounted TV that had been bought mostly to shut Gavin up with his constant complaining about the old TV being too small.

A blonde curly haired woman filled the left side of the screen, the bar along the bottom of the screen said her name was Shelly Connor. To Shell
y’
s right, behind her were a group of men in orange boiler suits busy moving big steel tables about the place and setting them down in some kind of order. They all seemed to be inside a giant corrugated shed of some kind.

“
Hello
I’
m coming to you live from a disused air hangar in St Tarves on the east coast of Scotland
,”
she said
,“
where as you can see behind me scientists are currently setting up a research lab in preparation to start researching fallout from the Norwegian ash cloud tha
t’
s entered our air space. The ash cloud has continued to grow in size as the eruption site continues to spew thousands of tonnes of ash and debris in to the atmosphere since the sudden unexpected eruption three days ago. The ash has caused absolute pandemonium across much of Europe causing mass power outages and sadly many fatalities. The loss of power has all but stopped the crucial aid programme put in place to set up rescue centres and help with the evacuation process, and of course supply the desperately needed food, water and medical supplies. The break down in aid and the rising fatality rate is known to be causing widespread panic resulting in mass looting and in cases extreme violence. The cause of the power outages is still as yet unclear. Some are saying that it is directly linked to the ash having
a
bizarre effec
t
on all electrical currents as it settles but this theory has not yet been proven. Scientists here think that i
t’
s most likely a case of so much ash settling on power lines that the sheer weight is bringing them down and thereby restricting power supply to the affected areas, although this does not explain the loss of power to the military and supply vehicles
.”
Shelly turned as an orange boiler suit filled the right of the screen blotting out the men in the background. The man wearing it had hair to match.