Fallen by Martin Hyde

Author:Martin Hyde [Hyde, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-31T22:00:00+00:00

MAC

He swam out of sleep to face only more darkness.

He reached for Charlotte, but the bed was empty. With a numb shot of panic, he fumbled for the bedside lamp.

There was no sign in the bland hotel-like room that Charlotte and Luke had ever inhabited it. For all he knew, he had woken in limbo.

He checked his watch: half-past-nine. In the morning, he assumed, but without a window, he had no way of knowing. Surely, if he’d slept through the whole day, he wouldn’t feel so fucking exhausted.

He found Charlotte and Luke on the living room sofa. She was cradling him and humming a tune.

‘Hey,’ he said.

‘Hey, how are you feeling?’

‘Knackered, but better. You?’

She nodded unconvincingly. ‘Okay.’

‘What about you, mate?’ Mac asked Luke, falling into the armchair.

Luke shrugged.

Charlotte held his eye a moment, conveying concern. ‘I told him we’d get some breakfast when you were up. They serve until half-ten.’

‘Sounds good. I’m starving. You ready to go now?’

Luke buried his face in Charlotte’s shoulder.

‘Come on, love,’ she said. ‘We’ll get you some nice food, and then after, we can look around this library, see if they have any good films to watch.’

Luke nodded in acquiescence and Charlotte helped him to his feet.

Mac frowned deliberately as she guided him towards the door. Charlotte pointed to her mouth and shook her head: Luke didn’t want to speak. Come to think of it, Mac couldn’t recall Luke saying anything last night either. It was the shock still setting in, surely. There was no natural reaction to all of this. If Luke had been chatting away about Star Wars or video games like nothing had happened, Mac would have been more worried.

‘Do we need to put our shoes on?’ Charlotte asked in the hallway.

‘I… I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I guess we should.’

He laced his own work shoes, thinking he might have to wear them for the rest of his life, or until the soles wore away to nothing, unless Charlotte had packed some trainers for him.

He led the way through the teal corridors, following signs for the dining hall.

The sedating smell of fried food hit him like a wall as he pushed through the double doors. Hunger swelled in his stomach.

The dining hall was populated by a couple of dozen people talking animatedly: the strangers who would become their extended family. The room was buzzing with an energy he could not put his finger on.

They joined the end of the service line and filled their plates from the buffet. Mac piled his with a full English, and added a side plate of toast, orange juice, and coffee to the tray.

He wondered how many sausages and bacon rashers were stockpiled in the Ark, how many cartons of orange juice. They’d have stored enough food to last them years, probably even decades, but everything was limited. Everything had an expiration date.

Mac led them to a table at the back of the room, near Grant and his daughter, Lucy. Mac shot him a smile, and looked around for Andrew and his family.

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