‘Wwwwhat…?’ Jeanie mumbled, sleepily.

‘It’s a ’plane, look!’

I pointed and Nicola pointed, Ben stayed asleep–lazy hound.

‘Oooh, oooh, follow it, Alex!’

The Green Fog
By


Susan Brown

---

 
Chapter 4
 

Previously…

We carried on up the road, avoiding blocked roads and heading ever northward, I wanted to put as many miles on the clock as possible and then find somewhere safe for the night. Jeanie and I agreed that we should all put our masks on prior to sleeping, just in case the fog returned.

We were going along a fairly straight stretch of road, thankfully reasonably free of cars. Jeanie was having forty winks in the back with Ben, half across her, doing the same. Nicola was alternating between talking to her teddy and looking out of the window.

‘Oooh goody,’ squealed Nicola, sitting up and looking out of the window to the side.

‘What, honey?’ I asked, thinking that she might have seen a horse or sheep, perhaps.

‘There’s a ’plane over there. I always wanted to go in a ’plane, Daddy said we would before–’

I skidded to a stop, waking Jeanie and Ben up in the process and looked in the direction that Nicola was pointing.

High in the sky a small aeroplane was heading north, the same as us!

And now the story continues…

Bourton

‘Wwwwhat…?’ Jeanie mumbled, sleepily.

‘It’s a ’plane, look!’

I pointed and Nicola pointed, Ben stayed asleep–lazy hound.

‘Oooh, oooh, follow it, Alex!’

‘How can I? It’s going much too quickly.’

‘Well, try to keep up and we might see it land somewhere. We have to try.’

‘All right,’ I said, revving the engine and then, with shrieking tyres, we hared off down the road in the pursuit of the impossible. The aeroplane was already small in the distance and I had to manoeuvre around lots of cars that were strewn across the road as we made a headlong dash to keep up with the small object in the sky.

It must have been going fairly slowly because, unbelievably, we were keeping pace with it. I think it helped that the road was fairly straight and the pilot appeared to be following the road ahead of us.

Looking at the speedometer, I was doing something like sixty miles an hour on the bits of road that were relatively free of cars. The others were getting quite excited and were making a hell of a racket, not helped by Ben finally waking up and barking like mad!

‘Pipe down, you lot!’ I shouted, and, miraculously, things did get slightly quieter.

Being a novice driver I was concerned that I might lose control or something and it was all I could do to keep the Land Rover on the road and not turn it over. The suspension was quite hard and our teeth rattled a fair amount as we went over the sometimes bumpy road.

‘Look, it’s turning left,’ Jeanie shouted, excitedly, bouncing up and down in her seat.

My heart sank at that and then, in the distance I saw the road began to bend to the left too, so it must be that he or she was following the road. If only the pilot could see us, perhaps the ’plane could land so we could find each other.

I carried on at the same speed and didn’t really slow down as I went around the gradual bend. I was watching the ’plane which was now going more or less straight and I wasn’t looking where I ought––

‘Alex. Watch out!’

My eyes snapped back to the road and my heart leapt into my mouth because just about fifty feet ahead was a car in the middle of the road and someone lying on the ground. I slammed on the brakes, hauled the steering wheel to the left, grazed the side of the parked car, felt a sickening thump as the Land Rover ran over the person in the road and then almost lost it as there was another car ahead and I had to turn right sharply to avoid crashing into it.

Somehow, we didn’t crash or turn over and we continued on our mad rush to keep up with the aircraft which had got even further away from us.

Glancing in the rear-view mirror, the others in the back were very quiet and hugging each other. Ben had disappeared into the rear foot-well, cowering like a brave dog should.

I tried not to think of that sickening thump, but hoped that I wasn’t becoming callous to things like that. We had seen so much death; it was getting normal now–much too normal.

We continued for about a quarter of an hour and I was more careful about looking at what was on the road as well as in the sky. I had learned my lesson.

We sped through a village where there were no people in the road or cars stopped in awkward places. It all looked normal except for the complete absence of inhabitants. I think I saw a fox though disappearing into the undergrowth with something in its mouth.

‘Jeanie, I wonder if the fog hit everywhere at the same time or whether some places got hit later, perhaps at night?’

‘I don’t know; but it looks like it must have arrived here at night maybe when everyone was in bed.’

‘I don’t want the horrid fog to come back,’ Nicola said, her voice quavering.

‘We hope it won’t, sweetie,’ said Jeanie, soothingly, ‘but you’re with us and we’ll keep you safe.’

We were back out in the country now on the A4260 heading towards Deddington and the north. The road was getting bendy and I couldn’t keep up the speed any more. The aeroplane, not having that problem just flew fairly straight, and soon it was getting smaller and smaller and, finally, disappeared into the distance.

We had lost it.

I pulled over to the side of the road and just stared into the sky, hoping against hope that it would come back–but it didn’t.

‘It’s gone,’ I said, stating the obvious.

‘Never mind, sis,’ Jeanie replied, trying to sound upbeat, ‘at least we know that other folk are alive and we might see the aeroplane again if the pilot starts to search for survivors. Let’s have a proper meal. It’s nice here and I’m getting jolly hungry. Are you hungry, Nicola?’

‘My tummy’s rumbling a bit.’

‘I thought it was Ben growling,’ Jeannie giggled. ‘How about you, Alex?’

‘I could eat a horse,’ I said, trying to sound cheerful–even if I wasn’t.

Ben barked, indicating, I think, that he was hungry too. Bright boy, that dog!

I dug out the primus stove and we had some hot soup and water biscuits, followed by a cup of tea and some sweet biscuits from the tin. I wondered how soon we would be able to eat fresh food again, but not knowing what was safe to eat after the fog, we would have to stick to tins and stuff like that. As long as we didn’t go hungry or thirsty, we would manage.

Nicola went off with Ben, but within our eyesight, so that Ben could do his business. She had more or less taken charge of Ben and it made us smile at how bossy she was with him!

I was dunking a Lincoln biscuit in my tea when Jeanie remarked, ‘I think the fog only comes in the late afternoon or evening.’

‘Why d’you say that?’ I asked.

‘Well, both times it’s happened so far, that’s been the case. I might be wrong, but there is no sign of fog anywhere when we have been travelling during the daytime.’

‘You may well be right, but we daren’t take any chances,’ I replied.

‘No, we won’t, but I think that we should try to start finding somewhere to stay other than the Landy, not later than the early afternoon. Then we can hole up somewhere and prepare ourselves just in case.’

‘I’ll dig out the map,’ I said.

In next to no time we were poring over the map and it did not take long to work out exactly where we were.

‘Okay, we are here,’ I said, pointing my finger on the Oxford Road just short of Adderbury. ‘The next biggish place is Banbury, but I don’t think we want to stop there. We could drive through and carry on a bit further. If we make tracks soon, we should be able to reach Bourton just off the A423 and have a look there for somewhere to stop–a house or something. What d’you think?’

‘I agree, we don’t want to get caught out again with the fog chasing us.’

‘Do you think it was chasing us?’

‘I don’t know, but it’s rather queer that it seemed to speed up when we went faster.’

‘That means that it might be intelligent.’

‘Oh my God, I hope not. It may have just been that the wind picked up or something.’ I hadn’t told Jeanie about the man in the hospital and his description of fingers of fog searching him out.

‘We’d better get going,’ said Jeanie, ‘Nicola, Ben, come on, time to go.’

~ §~

As soon as we were on our way again, I asked the others to keep a look out for aeroplanes–just in case, while I concentrated on driving. Jeanie was sitting with me at the front and Nicola was sharing the back seat with Ben.

There were now very few cars on the road that looked as if they had stopped suddenly or crashed ; which sort of confirmed our suspicion that the fog had hit this area late at night, when everyone–or most people anyway–were in bed. Although I did see one man in a ditch, his bicycle by his side. This led me to wonder why there were no warnings. As far as I could make out, the fog hit the school in the late afternoon or early evening. Surely it must have been noticed by the authorities somewhere that a green fog was enveloping the country? Then I remembered that the ’phones didn’t work and the radio was silent and even on the short wave set at the police station, all I could get on it was someone foreign and she faded out pretty quickly.

I shook my head. There was so much we didn’t know about and we would have to be jolly careful not to assume anything about the deadly fog.

Eventually we entered the market town of Banbury; we didn’t stop but there were more signs of people and vehicles in the streets. Several places had burned down, including the Town Hall, which had been reduced to a heap of bricks and rubble. We passed a bus that had ploughed into a wall and it wasn’t a pretty sight. I will spare the graphic details, but not all the dead were in one piece and there were birds, dogs and cats that seemed to be eating…

Luckily, Nicola was asleep and didn’t wake up until we were the other side of the town and so was spared from seeing the ghastly sights. Ahead, I spotted a petrol station at the side of the road. Checking the petrol gauge, it seemed that we had nearly two thirds of a tank left, but I didn’t want to take any chances with running out of fuel.

‘Shall we get some more petrol?’ I asked.

‘Well, we don’t want to run out, so we ought to top up whenever we can.’ Jeanie said as we coasted to a stop by one of the pumps.

Nicola woke up a bit but was content to stay in the back, clutching her teddy, whispering to it and leaning against the horizontal form of Ben.

Jeanie and I got out and, after putting the fuel hose in the tank, I hand-cranked petrol pump. It was hard going as I seemed to have lost some of my strength since I had been transformed into a girl and in the end Jeanie and I took turns until we had filled the tank to the brim.

Then we had look around the petrol station and in the garage were some cars that were there for repair but more importantly, several large jerry cans. Our space was now a bit limited, but we managed to fill three and find space for them in the back of the “Landy”.

As we drove away from the filling station, I noticed that dark clouds were building up from the south west and it looked as though it might rain at any moment. Also the wind had risen and the leafless trees were beginning to sway. I wanted to get to our destination–which was only about four miles up the road–before the heavens opened; therefore I cracked on.

We turned right off the A423 into Chapel Lane; this led into the small village of Little Bourton. We looked out for likely places to stay, but they were all tiny wee cottages. We really wanted a sizeable house in which we could sleep and maybe feel a bit safer. I had visions of another knife-wielding man, knocking at a flimsy door or something so we gave the small village the thumbs down and carried on, turning left into Spring Lane and then left again at the signpost for Great Bourton, which we hoped might have a decent place where we could stay overnight.

It was getting quite dark now, not because it was particularly late–it was only just after one o’clock–but because the heavy dark clouds above were hiding what sunlight there was.

About a mile up the road, we entered Great Bourton, where we spotted several larger houses for us to choose from. Eventually, we pulled up outside a house called The Friars, it had two stories and looked quite substantial, not quite a mansion, but as big as it got around there.

‘Wait here,’ I told the others while I got out and did a recce of the place.

I walked up the path to the house and–for some strange reason–knocked on the door. Of course there was no answer so I tried to open it. It was locked. I followed a path round to the back and found the back door. I turned the handle and it was locked too. I stopped and thought for a moment, not wanting to break a window; I looked around under some flower pots and struck lucky when I found a key under the last one I looked at!

I fitted the key in the door and the lock turned easily. Once inside, I had a look around. I was in the kitchen which was sizeable and quite well maintained. I opened the door opposite and found myself in a small hall with several doors leading off it. Somehow I sensed that nobody was home–dead or alive. There was an absence of that smell that I had experienced all too often of late–the horrible smell of death.

Just to make sure though, I checked the sitting room, dining room and a few other downstairs rooms, which included a study full of books; making my way upstairs I had a look in the four bedrooms and bathroom. I was right, the place was empty, but lived in as I could see sheets and pillows on beds, clothes in wardrobes and other signs of a house that was normally occupied.

Looking out of a bedroom window, I saw the Land Rover down below with Jeanie and Nicola peering at the house. I waved to them but they weren’t looking up at my window. I noticed a few spots of rain on the glass and hurried downstairs, out of the kitchen door, and along the path to the car.

‘It’s okay,’ I told them, ‘we can stay here tonight. Let’s get the things we need out of the car and make ourselves comfortable.’

~ §~

We were only just in time, because as soon as we had carried the last bundle into the kitchen the heavens opened and we could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. We had brought in all the food and bottled water and a few other essentials, the main ones being three oxygen tanks and masks. We were determined not to be caught out by that sneaky fog!

We made ourselves comfortable in the large sitting room, in deeply cushioned chairs. Having found some chopped firewood outside and with the help of some newspapers, we soon had a cheerful fire going. Outside it was quite stormy, with rain lashing on the windows and the noise of wind going through the trees and bushes outside. The thunder was getting nearer and it looked like we were in for a rough night. I was quite glad that we would not have to spend a night in the Land Rover.

I was pretty sure that no fog would get to us in this weather and felt we were as safe and secure as we had ever been since this “adventure” began.

Before long we were all thoroughly warmed up and rather sleepy. Ben was lying in front of the fire, stretched out and fast asleep. Jeanie was gazing out of the window but her eyes were drooping. Nicola had already fallen asleep, with her ever-present teddy clutched under one arm. I didn’t want to sleep, so I just got up and had a better look around.

I returned to the kitchen and had a peek in some of the cupboards. There were plenty of tins and such we could use to replenish our stocks and I made a mental note to tell Jeanie about that. I also found some candles and matches and took them with me so that when it got really dark, we could use them.

Glancing around, I noticed a wall calendar and went to look at it; several dates had been filled in with events and reminders.

The date four days ago was written “Visiting Auntie Mary for the week.” That explained why the house was empty. I felt rather sad that the person who wrote the entry and all of their family were, more than likely, dead now.

Out in the hall, was a telephone; I picked up the receiver and listened–nothing–completely dead.

Remembering the study, I went into the book-lined room and had a look around. The books were mainly boring stuff as it appeared that the man or lady was a solicitor. Then I saw a certificate on the wall declaring that Jonathan Makepeace to be a barrister and that answered one of my questions about who used this room. On his large oak desk was a big blotter, several fountain pens, a bottle of ink and office equipment like a stapling machine and hole punch.

I sat in the leather chair and wondered what he and his family were like. At the back of the desk was a small photograph in a silver frame. In it was, I assumed his family–his pretty wife, two girls, one about my age the other I would say six or seven, and a boy who looked about fourteen wearing a school uniform. They all looked so happy to be posing for the picture and my eyes welled up with tears, hoping against hope that they might have survived somehow but knowing in my bones that they probably hadn’t.

I went out into the hall and peeped in at the others; they were all asleep. That didn’t surprise me considering all that we had been through. I went upstairs and checked the bedrooms: the main bedroom was quite large with an ornate fireplace. The furniture including the double bed, wardrobe, easy chair and dressing table, all looked expensive and well made.

The other three rooms were obviously the children’s rooms. The boy’s room was typically boyish, with a cricket bat propped up against the wall, model cars and planes on shelves and some Eagle, Beano and Dandy comics in a pile on a chair. There were several adventure story books on the small bookshelf over the chest of drawers in the corner. Looking out of the window, I could see no respite in the weather, which if anything, was getting more violent, although the thunder hadn’t got any nearer, which was nice.

Continuing my exploration, I felt sure that no green fog could possibly arrive in weather like this–well I hoped not, anyway.

The next bedroom belonged to a girl; it was pink and the bed covers had a frilly look to them. The dressing table held brushes, combs, some ribbons, hair pins and some scent in a small bottle. On the bedside table was a Mallory Towers book by Enid Blyton. I recognised it as one that Jeanie had read a while back. Opening the wardrobe, I saw it was stuffed full of clothes. All sorts of things from uniforms to formal dresses were hanging there. On an impulse, I pulled one of the dresses out, a cotton one, with white flowers and a Peter Pan collar, and held it up against myself and discovered that it was my size.

I went to the bed and sat down, feeling a bit like a peeping Tom, rummaging through the private things of other people. I was on the verge of tears again. I realised that now I inhabited a girl’s body, my emotions were rarely far beneath the surface.

Glancing around the room, I could almost see the girl, living, sleeping and playing here. It was all too depressing for words. Then I took a grip on myself. I had to be strong, for the others and myself. I might be a girl now, but I wasn’t going to be of those that can’t manage to think for themselves and swoon at the least thing.

I left the dress on the bed and went into the corridor. The next room was the bathroom, which was a fair size and had a nice bath in it. I went over to the washbasin and turned on the hot tap. After a few seconds the water was running hot. Presumably it was being heated by a back boiler behind the fire. I had an idea, but wanted to make sure of a few things first.

After turning off the water, I left the bathroom and crossed the corridor to the next room. It was the young girl’s roo, with a white bed with pink covers and pillow cases, white wardrobe and dressing table, and a dolly lying on the bed.

The wardrobe contained dresses, skirts, blouses, a few coats, woollies and in the bottom, several pairs of shoes and some Wellingtons.

The chest of drawers held socks, knickers and night clothes, together with some more tops and some girls’ shorts.

A toy box in the corner contained lots of cuddly animals and in pride of place was a wonderful doll's house, complete with miniature furniture.

I went to the window and looked outside again. It was beginning to get darker there and the rain and wind showed no sign of letting up. In the distance, flashes of lightning lit up the scene and on the skyline I noticed a steeple or tower briefly illuminated before darkness returned once again. I could just about see that the road where the Land Rover was parked. It looked quite wet, and as it was on a slight hill, water was gushing down the road in rivulets.

I returned downstairs to the others: Jeanie woke up and smiled as I walked in, Ben hadn’t moved from his position in front of the fire and must have been dreaming because his legs were twitching and he was making gentle bark-like noises. Nicola was still fast asleep and looked very cute, sucking her thumb.

I gestured for Jeanie to come with me and she followed me into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes. ‘Gosh, I didn’t realise I was so tired,’ she yawned.

‘We’ve been through a lot,’ I replied.

‘You must be tired, Alex?’

‘I am a bit, but I can’t sleep yet. Look I have an idea. We’ve got hot water because of the fire. I think we should all have a bath and then a proper dinner in the dining room. I also think that we should get changed for dinner and make ourselves look nice. It will make us feel a lot better. There are lots of clothes upstairs…’ I explained to Jeanie the results of my exploration.

‘That sounds like a good idea. Will you wear a frock?’

I looked down at my slightly grubby uniform and grimaced. ‘Yes, I think so; I really need to change and so do you. You look dirtier than me and the few clothes we brought with us won’t go far and Nicola has fewer still, although I don’t know how she’ll react to wearing girls’ things.’

‘Good point–I don’t think that she’s fully come to terms with being a girl and I don’t want to push it.’

‘Let’s play it by ear, get her bathed and let her decide what she wants to wear.’

‘Good idea, let’s get cracking!’

We went upstairs and I showed her the bedrooms and bathroom. We agreed that night we would all sleep in the main bedroom on the big double bed. Jeanie and I would take turns keeping watch in case the weather got better and the fog returned.

Jeanie was as upset as I was about the fact that we were using other people’s clothes and facilities, but she was more no-nonsense than me and soon pulled herself together.

We drew the first bath and Jeanie took a dressing gown and had first dibs.

In the mean time, I decided to wear the dress I had tried up against myself, so brought it from the girl’s bedroom and carefully placed it on the bed together with some cotton knickers and short white socks.

Jeanie was soon finished and returned from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her head. I had a bath while Jeanie went downstairs to get Nicola ready for hers.

It was only a quick dip in a shallow bath since we had no idea how much hot water was available. I washed my long hair and tried to do as Jeanie did with the towel but only made a mess of it. I pulled on a dressing gown and returned to the bedroom. Jeanie was there, helping Nicola undress.

‘Jeanie, can you help me with my hair?’

‘In a minute, let me get Nikki in the bath and then I’ll help.’

Jeanie helped Nicola out of her track suit and underthings and then, wrapping a towel around her led the giggling girl into the bathroom.

Nicola’s clothes were as bad as ours and she would have to change into something clean. What she would agree to wear though was another matter.

I decided to get dressed and then Nicola would see that I didn’t mind wearing girls’ clothes. That made me stop and think for a moment. Did I mind wearing girls’ clothes? After a short space of time, I had got used to wearing a blouse and skirt–in fact I hadn’t thought anything about it at all, what with everything else happening around us. I suppose I had accepted the truth, that I was a girl now and felt more comfortable wearing female clothing than I would have as a boy.

I shrugged and went to the bed where the dress that I had chosen was lying. Once again I looked outside to see what was happening. It was getting darker now but it looked like the bad weather was settling in for the night. Thunder was rumbling all around and lightning flashed in the sky. We appeared to be in the centre of the storm and we were as snug as a bug in a rug and I was rather pleased at that.

I lit a few candles and using the melted wax, fixed them on the mantelpiece. Then I lit the fire which already had some logs in the grate. Soon the scene was cheerful and warm. We wouldn’t be cold in bed tonight!

I sat on the bed and decided to towel dry my hair. This I did and although it was still a bit damp, I thought that it would soon dry. I brushed it out a bit and the hair felt strangely heavy on my head and shoulders. I slipped on the knickers and socks and then the dress. I had the devil of a job doing up the buttons which were at the back, but by a series of almost acrobatic contortions, I managed somehow. Then I brushed my hair again close to the warmth of the fire, parting it in the middle, leaving a slight fringe at the front. It soon was almost dry.

I stepped back and looked at myself in the wardrobe mirror. The reflection showed me the exact image of Jeanie in a pretty dress.

I liked what I saw, but with reservations. I know that sounds strange. What I mean is; I was kind of pleased that I looked pretty. Let’s face it; if you are going to be a girl, it is nice to be pretty and not ugly. But I wasn’t happy that Alexander was no more–on the outside anyway. It left me feeling rather sad. But I had to be strong and cheerful for the others but compared to what had happened to most if nearly all of the rest of the population; I had been let off lightly.

I went into the little girl’s bedroom and looked for some things for Nicola to wear. I wanted to give her a choice. I found a girls t shirt and track suit similar to the one she had just been wearing, but it was a lemon colour. I also picked out a dress, rather pretty pink with lace at the collar and cuffs. After picking out some plain white knickers and socks, I took them back to the main bedroom and placed them on the bed.

Jeanie and Nicola returned from the bathroom giggling. Nicola–whose hair was not as long as ours but long enough–had hers up in a turban like Jeanie.

She looked at me and smiled. ‘You look pretty, Alex.’

‘Thanks, Nikki. Did you have a nice bath?’

‘Yes, it is nice to be clean and not smelly!’

We all laughed. Then Nicola spotted the clothes on the bed and just stared at them. I tried to discover from her expression, what was going through her head, but couldn’t work it out.

She looked at me and then the clothes again. Then she glanced at Jeanie who had already chosen the dress she wanted to wear and was holding it up against herself.

‘Alex,’ whispered Nicola as she came close to me.

‘Yes, honey?’

‘You don’t mind wearing a dress then?’

‘Of course not.’

‘But you are a boy.’

‘Not any more, sweetie. I am a girl now, and anyway, I think I look pretty and you said I did, too.’

She seemed to mull things over.

‘You choose what you would like to wear, Nicola.’

She looked from the track suit to the dress and back again. Jeanie was doing her best to look normal, ignoring Nicola’s dilemma. I could see the indecision on the little girl’s face and I ached to just give her a hug and help her out but both Jeanie and I had agreed that we would let Nicola decide for herself.

She looked at me her eyes wide, a worried frown on her face. ‘C…can I try that on and if I look silly I’ll wear the track suit?’

‘Of course, honey.’ I said and then Jeanie gave Nicola a big hug and helped her change.

While that was going on, I tidied up a bit. I didn’t know if we would have time to wash our clothes out, so I went to find a bag for our laundry. At some point we would have to have do some clothes washing or we would soon run out of things to wear.

I glanced at Nicola; she was wearing the dress and looking at herself in the mirror. Her hair had been brushed, and although still damp, it touched her shoulders and was slightly wavy.

Jeanie was standing by Nicola with her hand resting gently on the younger girl’s arm.

‘Do I look all right?’ asked Nicola in a small voice, full of doubt.

‘You look lovely, darling.’

‘I am a girl now, aren’t I?’

‘Yes, sweetheart,’ said Jeanie, giving her a big hug, ‘and a very pretty one.’

‘I—if I go to heaven, will Mummy and Daddy know it’s me?’

Both Jeanie and I looked at each other, tears started to well up in our eyes as I joined them in a group hug.

‘Mummy and Daddy know who you are, honey,’ I said, my voice cracking, ‘but you have a long, long time to go before you go to heaven.’

Eventually, we got ourselves back together again and Nicola began giggling as Jeanie put a pink ribbon in her hair–Alice style–and fussed about with her hair a bit more.

We were soon ready and trouped down to the kitchen. Obviously Ben’s radar was working, as at the sound of pots and pans, he came in and sat by us, looking expectantly for food.

After digging out the dog biscuits, we left him to fill his tummy while we prepared a meal.

We didn’t have much, but we had tins we could open. We all put pinnies on–we found a small one for Nicola with the others–and we finally decided on spam fritters, fried in the pan, and baked beans, and as we found some potatoes in a cupboard, we took a chance that they were okay and after peeling and cutting them, we fried some chips. We boiled some water and each had a mug of tea to wash it all down.

It was strange being all dressed up and eating our tea by the light of candles, but it was nice and felt more normal than we had been used to lately.

Ben was at our feet waiting for any stray food that might land on the floor and we found out quite soon that he loved chips.

We also found a jam Swiss roll, still sealed in its packet in the larder, and that was very nice as afters.

We didn’t talk much about our troubles while we were eating. I suppose we were fed up with being on a constant alert for bad things to happen. I do know that by the time we had finished, I felt more relaxed than at any time since the start of this affair.

After clearing up the tea things, we got ready for bed. It wasn’t late, but we wanted to get going early the following morning and get some miles under our belts.

We gave Nicola the choice of a cotton nightie or brushed cotton pyjamas and she surprised us by choosing the nightie. We tucked her up in bed and she lay there with her teddy and Ben lying on the floor next to her and just behind the oxygen tank with the mask close by–just in case.

Because Jeanie had slept a bit earlier, she was to do the first shift as lookout. She was to wake me up in two hours. She found the Mallory Towers book and after slipping on a nightie, she sat by the window with a candle for some light, wrapped in a blanket.

I joined the now sleeping Nicola in the double bed similarly attired in a long cotton nightie and soon felt toasty warm.

It seemed like moments later that I was wakened by Jeanie to do my shift of two hours. Jeanie hopped into the warm bed as I got out.

I went over and looked out of the window, noticing that the rain had lessened a bit but not the wind, which was howling around the house and shaking the trees up. The thunder and lightning had receded into the distance and I could only see the occasional flash from the north, once again illuminating the church tower. The candle was low, so I lit another and wrapping myself in the blanket, began to read the book Jeanie had left on the side.

The two hours seemed to take ages to pass but eventually it did. Then, realising that I wasn’t a bit sleepy, I decided to let Jeanie lie in a bit longer and not waken her unless I got tired. I never needed much sleep as a boy and I assumed that that had carried over to my female life. I had nearly finished the book as the sky grew gradually lighter. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the story of Darrell, Alicia and horrid Gwendoline Mary Lacey.

My eyes must have drooped a bit and then I heard a tap, tap, tap against a window somewhere that alerted me and made me wonder what was causing it. I stood up, put on the dressing gown and, after lighting another candle, padded over to the door. Opening it, I stood there for a moment, wondering where the noise was coming from. At appeared to be coming from the little girl’s room. I went out, closing the door quietly. It was colder here and I shivered slightly as I padded down the hall in my thin nightdress and dressing gown.

I stopped outside the bedroom door and listened.

Tap, tap, tap.

With my heart in my mouth, I slowly opened the door. In my mind’s eye, I could see that poor demented man with a knife and his mad eyes–

The hand holding the candle shook as I peeped my head around the door. The room was empty but over the other side, a branch was banging up against the window.

With relief, I put the candle down, went over to the window, opened it quickly and broke the branch off. My hair flew about my face as I shut the window again and shivered–a combination of the cold and my fright, I supposed.

Back in the warmth of the bedroom, the others were still asleep, but Ben had managed to get on the bed and was lying close up against Nicola, who, as before, was sucking her thumb in her sleep.

I smiled at the peaceful scene and then wrapping myself in the blanket again, I drew the chair closer to the fire and settled down for what remained of the night. I could see dawn was coming ever faster and knew that all too soon we would have to get up and be on our way.

It was light when I got up and stared out of the window for the umpteenth time. The rain had stopped completely and the wind was no more than a gentle breeze. There had been no sign of green fog and I hoped against hope that we would never see it again, but I had a feeling that we would and that we must never let our guard down.

I went to the bathroom and after using the loo, had a wash. When I came back in, Ben was standing there wagging his tail. I think he wanted to use the toilet so, after putting on a dressing gown; I took him downstairs and let him out of the kitchen door.

By the time he came back in, I had to rub him down with a towel as he had somehow managed to roll in some mud. I gave him some breakfast and left him to wolf it down and went back upstairs. The others were just waking up.

‘Ally, you didn’t wake me.’

‘Sorry, Jeanie, I wasn’t tired so I thought that I’d let you lie in.’

‘Well you shouldn’t have. You have a lot of driving to do today and you’ll be tired later.’

‘If I get tired, we could always stop somewhere and have a nap or something.’

‘I suppose,’ she sniffed.

We had some breakfast; it was only more spam and a few of the potatoes, fried together but it filled us and that was the main thing.

We used some of the clothes that we found in the house and filled a couple of suitcases with them. Nicola in particular needed some more clothes and now that she had started to dress like a proper girl, she sort of went overboard and only wanted to wear really girlie things. I wondered at that. I felt at ease with myself as a girl and now, it seemed that Nicola was too. Was that yet another effect of the fog? Did it affect our minds as well as our bodies?

She finally decided on a pink gingham frock and a cardie and then she asked if she could have her hair in plats, and Jeanie was happy to oblige.

I wore a white long sleeved blouse and knee length brown skirt. Jeanie chose a green floral dress. We were so lucky that the clothes all fitted us nicely and I could see that Nicola was taking to girlhood like a duck to water.

An hour later, I shut the front door of the house that had given us refuge overnight. I silently thanked the absent owners and prayed with all my heart that somehow they had been saved from the catastrophe.

The Land Rover started at the second attempt and I crunched the gears as we set off, but not too badly.

We passed through the rest of the village, through the main street that comprised of a few shops and a pub. Ahead I could see the tower of the church. According to the map of the village I saw on the wall of the study, it was All Saints Church. I looked to the left as we approached the church and saw that the high tower was separate from the main church building.

We were just going past when suddenly, two people rushed out from the churchyard and stood in the road immediately in front of us, waving their arms.

Slamming on the brakes, we all shot forward in our seats, Ben yelped and the two girls in the back, shouted with alarm.

Looking at the strangers I had visions of the man with the knife, but then saw that it was a vicar and a lady whom I assumed was his wife. They didn’t look mad; just overjoyed at seeing us. They came forward as soon as we had stopped.

After I opened the window, the vicar approached and smiled at us.

‘Thank The Lord,’ he said; ‘you have been saved–just like us!!’

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To be continued…
 

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My thanks go to the brilliant and lovely Gabi for editing, help with the plot-lines and pulling the story into shape.