water bottles with green algae-tinted water, selected several caravans close together, and went to sleep.
The next day they found a storeroom behind the camp shop in which several dozen hire bicycles were chained up. They worked on the padlocks with a hacksaw. All of them needed their tyres pumping, and a couple needed an inner tube replacing. But by midday they were off the motorway, and coasting along the A-road heading north towards Thetford. On foot it would have taken them ten days or more. On bicycles, another two or three days at most.
Mid-afternoon she suddenly stopped pedalling and applied her squeaky brakes.
‘What’s up?’ asked Adam.
She swung her leg over the bar and laid the bike down on the road. ‘Yes! It’s right there,’ she said to no one in particular. ‘I wasn’t sure if I was going to spot it.’
‘Spot what?’
‘Raymond’s enviro-dome!’
Walfield sat back in his saddle, wiping droplets of sweat from his forehead with the back of a hairy forearm. He looked at Adam. ‘Raymond’s dome?’
Adam shrugged. ‘No idea what she’s talking about.’
‘Someone we came across on the way down,’ she replied. ‘He lives down that track. I’m going to go in and say hello. He might let us stay tonight. But I should ask first.’
Adam looked where she’d pointed. ‘Track?’
She stepped across the road into tall grass and then rooted around in some bushes until she found the hidden trellis. She pulled it aside. ‘This track.’
He climbed off his bike and laid it down, joining her in the long grass and looking down at the twin muddy ruts leading into the dark forest. He slung the rifle off his shoulder.
‘No,’ she said. ‘It’s probably best if I go up there alone. He knows me. If he sees you and the gun he’ll panic and shoot. I’ll be all right, he knows my face. And it’s just down there. Not far.’
He held out the SA80. ‘At least take the gun.’
She shrugged and took it from him. ‘A few minutes and I’ll be back.’
She stepped into the opening and out of the sunlight, down the track which was almost as dark as a man-made tunnel. The branches above her were busy with the endless conversation of birds and the gentle hiss of shifting leaves.
She wondered how Helen was faring here. If this really was everything she’d wanted or whether she was now pining to come home. The girl could be so fickle.
Leona caught a glimpse of pale perspex reflecting bright sunlight in the glade ahead. A moment later she emerged into the clearing, the dome before her. To the right were several small turbines spinning excitedly in the breeze with a whup, whup, whup.
Raymond’s truck was parked in front.
They’re in.
She knocked heavily on one of the dome’s perspex panels and called out their names. Neither answered. Gingerly she pushed her head through the plastic slats and immediately felt the warm, humid tropical air envelope her face. All seemed well; the palm trees either side of the walkway, the exotic chirruping of insects and birds, the seductive sound of pumped water trickling down through waxen leaves.
Still a going concern, then.
‘Hello?’ she called out again. Her voice was caught by the dome and bounced around. ‘Helen? Raymond? Anyone home?’
There was no reply.
Feeling like an unwelcome trespasser she made her way along the walkway until she reached the cluster of cabins. And she smiled. There were signs of Helen’s feminine touch dotted around; flowers in pots, her clothes on a washing line alongside his, music CDs splayed untidily in a way that she imagined Raymond would find annoying. A thousand other little signs that all was well, and that if anyone needed rescuing, it was probably Raymond, from Helen.
‘Raymond? Helen? Anyone home?’
No answer. They might be in the woods, foraging for chestnuts, mushrooms, berries. Raymond had said Thetford Forest was a larder of free food if you knew what to look for.
She studied the cabins, all with their doors open, apart from the one Raymond used to sleep in. She stepped lightly across the wooden decking and rapped her knuckles gently against the door.
‘Guys? It’s Leona.’
Still no answer.
She really didn’t want to walk in on something she’d rather not see. So she knocked again, waited another few seconds, then slowly opened the door. It was dark inside the cabin. The diffused light that filtered down through the opaque plastic roof was blocked by a drape drawn across the cabin’s window.
‘Hello?’ she said softly.
She could hear music playing and saw the pale square