Flare

Chapter 4

The city went dark below us, whole streets winking out into darkness in a split second until not a single electric light shone anywhere that I could see.

At the same time, the electrical charges struck in too many places to count. For a few seconds I thought that they had all grounded safely, losing their charge before doing any damage, but then a roiling explosion lit the night sky, a huge gout of flame and dirty smoke shooting up into the air somewhere in the heart of Brighton.

Other, smaller fires began to follow, and I watched, helpless, as flames began to spread. The rolling boom of the first explosion hit us, but other than that it was eerily silent up on the hill, nothing but the wind blowing in gently from the sea, bringing with it the tang of salt air even up here on the downs.

I kept expecting to see blue lights, maybe hear the faint echo of sirens as the fire service and ambulances raced to save lives in the carnage below, but the streets stayed quiet and dark, not counting the hundred or so small fires that dotted the landscape from one side of the city to the other.

I turned and looked at Jerry, his face a mask of horror that mirrored my own.

“Jerry, how could this happen?” I asked, still not quite believing my own eyes.

Another explosion lit the night, this one much closer, somewhere in Shoreham. The sound hit us much faster this time, a sharp retort that echoed around the hills before fading into silence once more.

“I told you, Malc, I tried to tell everyone but no one would listen.”

There were tears in his eyes, I could see them glistening in the faint light from the moon.

“But it’s night time,” I continued, as if using logic would turn back the clock and stop it all from happening, “how can a flare hit at night?”

“You’re thinking of it as a beam, like a laser,” he said, reaching into his rucksack and rooting around for something within. “Think of it more like water or a cloud of gas. If you spray water at a ball bearing, or pump gas at it, it doesn’t just hit one side. Sure, the worst of it will hit the surface facing the spray, but it envelops the ball bearing. And it’s not just energy from the flare. There was a coronal mass ejection too, what we call a CME, superheated plasma spat out from the sun. If you think this is bad, try and imagine what it’s like on the other side of the world. It could be that the only reason we’re still alive is because we’re on the opposite side to the sun.”

I turned back to the city, unable to look away as the flames began to spread. The fires, small pinpricks of wavering light from this distance, were too many to count, and I shuddered as I thought of the hundreds of unsuspecting people waking from their beds to find their world reduced to flame, fear and darkness.

“There must be something we can do, we have to help,” I said, but my feet didn’t move. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the scene below.

“What, exactly?” Jerry asked savagely. “Maybe if someone had listened to me then everyone could have been evacuated from the cities, or they could have shut the power off in their houses. All we can do now is stay out of the way and wait for the fires to go out.”

I shook my head. “No, I can’t just stand by and not do anything.”

Shoreham was burning now, the town below us glowing brighter as more and more fires spread with no one to douse the flames. The wind picked up, bringing with it a faint scream and the sound of shattering glass.

The noise galvanized me into action, unsticking my feet and pushing me towards the car.

“I can’t just stand here, Jerry,” I said as I began to run, “I’m going to do what I can.”

I didn’t wait for an answer, but jumped in the car and turned the key in the ignition.

Nothing happened. I turned it again, but not so much as a flicker came from the engine or any of the other systems.

“It won’t work,” Jerry’s voice came from just outside the car, making me jump. “It’s less than a year old so it’s full of computers and they’ll all be fried. Come on, we’ll use mine.”

I got out of the car and pocketed the keys without thinking, then followed Jerry to his old banger. He opened the rear door and loaded some of the equipment I’d seen in the field into the back seat.

“What made you change your mind?” I asked as he made his way to the front of the car.

“You’re right,” he said over his shoulder as he levered up the bonnet, “I can’t just stand up here and watch.”

Turning to one side so that I could see what he was doing, he held up the battery leads and reconnected them to the battery before closing the bonnet and waving me into the passenger seat.

He turned the key in the ignition and the car sputtered into life.

“One of the joys of being skint,” he said as he turned on the headlights and made his way carefully down the rutted track towards the town, “my car is old enough that the only electronics are the ignition and the radio, and the ignition has no live parts to speak of.”

I didn’t reply, too dazed by what was happening to be able to make small-talk. My mind’s eye kept replaying the moment the electrical surge had hit the city, seeing first the large explosion, then the dozens of smaller fires that had sprung up in its wake.

Then there was Melody. Getting to her had seemed risky but doable when I’d thought about driving up, but without a working car it would take me days, maybe even weeks to reach her.

“Jerry,” I said, breaking the silence, “what are you planning to do now?”

He glanced over at me. “Well, like you said, there are people down there who need help.”

I shook my head. “No, not right this second now, I mean after.”

He shrugged uncertainly. “I didn’t really think that far ahead, not properly. The boot is loaded up with supplies, camping gear and the like. I was intending to find somewhere out of the way and ride out the worst of it in the hills, I guess.”

I paused for a second, wanting to ask but dreading the answer if he said no.

“My daughter is in Manchester,” I began, then forged on as I saw him shake his head, “and her mother is probably the worst person to be looking after her in a crisis. Please Jerry, can you drive me up there? Please?”

My eyes searched his face as he drove, looking for anything that might give away what he was thinking as he sucked his teeth and shook his head.

“I don’t know, it’s a long way Malc. I’ve got a spare can of diesel in the back but I don’t know if it’ll be enough to get us all the way up there, and the petrol stations won’t be pumping anymore, those that didn’t go up in flames.”

“Then we can syphon some on the way,” I said eagerly. “Think about it Jerry, there’ll be thousands of cars as new as mine that won’t work, just sitting there useless. I’m sure the owners won’t mind if we trade something for the fuel.”

Jerry finally looked at me, his expression somewhere between sympathy and anger.

“And what have you got to trade, Malc? Everything in the car is mine, and money won’t be much good, will it?”

He was right, but my concern for Melody was overriding my usual habit of trying to avoid confrontation.

“I promise you Jerry, I’ll pay you back somehow. Even if it takes me the rest of my life. This is my daughter we’re talking about, my flesh and blood. I’ll walk if I have to but the longer it takes me to get to her the more chance there is of…”

I couldn’t finish past the lump in my throat. Just the thought of anything happening to Melody was enough to reduce me to tears. I looked out of the passenger window as we pulled out onto the tarmac road at the bottom of the hill and fought to compose myself.

“Ok Malc, ok,” Jerry said quietly, “I’ll take you as far as I can. I suppose one place is as good as another to camp after I’ve dropped you off.”

I squeezed his shoulder, feeling on the verge of tears again, this time of gratitude as the gut clenching fear faded to a quiet, unsettling murmur.

“Thank you Jerry, I don’t know what I would have done if you’d said no.”

Jerry didn’t answer, instead slowing the car and peering out through the windscreen with wide eyes.

I looked up, only now realising that the light had been gradually increasing as we approached the town. In my mind, I think I’d dismissed the glow as approaching streetlights, only there weren’t any streetlights left working.

Pulling the car to a halt, Jerry opened his door and got out. I followed suit, and the moment I stepped out of the vehicle I could hear the roar and crackle of flames, mixed with the shouts, screams and cries of people trapped in their homes or standing outside them watching their lives burn.

I could smell the fires now, the sharp acrid stink of burning wood, plastic and rubber catching in the back of my throat as the flames leapt and writhed, turning the scene into a hellish contrast of light and shadow.

In front of us, a whole row of houses was aflame, while fewer than a dozen people stood watching, most of them in night clothes with bemused expressions on their faces, many gripping their now-useless mobile phones as if they would suddenly start working again.

“What should we do?” Jerry asked uncertainly, “there’s no water, no way of getting help and the back seats of the car are full of kit so we can’t take anyone with us.”

He turned to me with an anguished expression.

“How do we help them?”

I ducked instinctively as the upper windows of a nearby house exploded outwards, filthy black smoke rolling out in clouds as the fire raged out of control.

“You were right,” I said quietly, seeing the futility but hating myself for what I was about to say, “we can’t help anyone. Except ourselves, anyway. Let’s go, there’s nothing we can do.”

We stood there for a few moments longer, perhaps hoping that inspiration would strike and we’d see a way to help, but eventually we climbed back in the car and Jerry started the engine, pulling away without another word.

I’m not sure what was eating me more as we left the ravaged city behind, the fact that we hadn’t even tried to risk ourselves to help anyone, or my secret relief that we didn’t have to.