The End of the World Running Club by Adrian J. Walker

Author:Adrian J. Walker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2017-06-30T04:00:00+00:00

London’s Shored

We stuffed the noodles in our packs and refilled our rehydration bladders with the water that Grimes and Richard had found. After Bryce’s find earlier, we decided to take a look inside the cabs of the other trucks in the pileup. We found a first aid kit, another flashlight (empty of batteries), a bar of chocolate, a lighter, a map of the UK, and a cricket bat. Bryce claimed the last of these and stuffed it in the webbing of his pack.

“Foxes,” he said.

There may have been more to take, but nobody wanted to spend too much time inside the cabs.

We shared the chocolate and left, clambering through the wreckage until we found the road. Then we began our first twenty-mile stretch. We walked for an hour, then began to run. I knew I had to keep my eyes on the treacherous road in front of me, but they kept drifting upward, hypnotized by the sun, still visible and peering glumly through the clouds at the bare earth beneath, stripped of the life it had once ignited from dust.

Eventually, it disappeared again, but my eyes still sought it out in the dark sky.

We were now running through Carlisle on what had once been the M6 highway. The “backbone of Britain” as my father would have said, chin raised proudly as if he were talking about a war hero and not a bleak strip of pollution-carrying asphalt. This backbone—broken now—would be our trail south until we hit the Midlands. We planned a rough route using the map from the truck, our first aim to hit Penrith before nightfall. Penrith was twenty-one miles away. I had never run more than three in my life.

Harvey ran at the front, with Richard and Grimes behind and Bryce and me at the rear. My pack felt heavy, even though it only contained noodles and water. My legs strained too, my boots like lead. A few steps in, and my body began to tell me how little it wanted to do with this. Whatever this was I thought I was doing, I should stop right now—give up while I had the chance.

I didn’t give up; something kept me going, but whatever watery breed of will it was that got me through those first steps, those first miles, I knew then it wasn’t going to be enough. It already seemed hopeless to continue, and yet I had barely broken my stride.

A strange, broken rhythm appeared between my breathing, my heartbeat, and my boots on the asphalt. This seemed to occupy me for a while, before Bryce interrupted my painful trance. I became aware of his great head leaning toward mine.

“You don’t believe that shite, do you?” he said.

“What shite?” I breathed.

He nodded at Harvey. “That shite. Running across Australia.” I looked up at Harvey, springing on his heels ahead of us. “Old man’s lost a few up here, don’t you think?” said Bryce, tapping his temple.

“I don’t know,” I said. Every word was a gulp. “He seems pretty good…at running.

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