Autumn The City Page 0,96
cheek. Still no response.
He wasn't ignoring her, he simply had far too much on his mind for him to be able to react towards her in the way he normally would have done. If he was honest with himself he wanted nothing more than to be open and unrestrained and tell her exactly how much she meant to him, but now wasn't the time. They had been out in the open for too long. They needed something which resembled stability and order back in their lives before they could move on. The bottom line was that they both needed more than they presently had, and Michael hoped and prayed that the soldiers they had seen would bring them the relative security and comfort they desired. 'I hate it when you're this quiet,' Emma said, her face still close to his. 'Are you all right?' 'I'm okay,' he replied, subdued. Much as he wanted her close, he also wished she'd leave him alone to think.
'What we need to do,' she continued, 'is find...' 'Shh...' he snapped, interrupting.170 'What?' 'Listen.' Emma did as she was told. She pushed herself away from Michael and sat on the edge of her seat and listened carefully. She could hear the sound of an engine approaching. 'This is it,' said Michael as he turned the key in the ignition, causing the cumbersome motorhome's engine to rumble into life. He sat motionless in his seat and watched the road behind through the large wing mirror to his side. Although the stone wall obscured much of his view he was able to see the point where the track snaked away into the distance and disappeared. The soldiers in their transport eventually appeared over the brow of a low hill, their vehicle's bright headlights burning brilliantly in the gloom of the late afternoon. He watched as they drove closer and closer until his line of vision was blocked by the wall. A few seconds later and he saw them pass, the dark green roof of the transport just visible over the top of the grey stones.
He began to cautiously nudge the motorhome forward. 'Don't follow too close behind,' Emma said nervously. 'They don't know who we are. They might turn on us and...' Michael wasn't listening. He inched out of the field, driving just far enough forward to enable him to see the transport working its way down the track. When it was almost out of sight he accelerated. Travelling without his headlamps on (hoping to avoid being noticed) Michael followed the bright brake lights of the vehicle in front. Keeping a sensible distance between them the survivors watched as the transport drove around to the right and then to the left.
Two hundred meters further down and the track narrowed and became even more rough and uneven. The sides of the road became steep banks, leaving Michael with no option but to keep moving forward and temporarily blocking their view of the soldiers ahead. The motorhome was not made for travelling over such harsh terrain. One of the front wheels sank down into a muddy pothole causing the vehicle to lurch to one side and its chassis to scrape along the ground momentarily. 'Christ,' Emma moaned. 'This isn't a good idea. As soon as we can we should get off this track and...' 'We're fine,' Michael snapped, annoyed and trying hard to concentrate. 'It doesn't matter what happens to this thing. It's not like we've got garage bills to pay or anything. As soon as we find where these soldiers are hiding out we can clear our stuff out and ditch it.'
'I know but we don't know how far away they are...' Emma let her words trail away. The banks on either side of the track quickly dropped down again as they drove through an area of woodland. Brittle branched trees suddenly surrounded the motorhome and the military transport ahead, reducing still further the already low light levels. The track curved and twisted in apparently random and unexpected directions.
Still not prepared to use his headlamps, Michael was forced to slow down to almost walking pace. A random body smashed against the side of the motorhome. 'Jesus Christ,' cursed Emma as she stared at the figure in the side mirror. She watched as, in silhouette, it turned and stumbled after them. The transport disappeared from view momentarily. With relief Michael caught sight of it again as they emerged from the small forested area. He steered