and water, and some power in areas. More people survived for much longer . . . a year, two years. All this time, they are finding food in damaged shops and warehouses, but not making new food. So, you know, eventually, we have too many people coming in, our emergency plans collapsed too. But by this time too many people had been picking for food and it is now all gone.’
Mum had said something along the same lines once, that in a way it had been a good thing that the die-off in Britain had been so incredibly rapid. It meant there’d been much more left behind to be foraged; it had given those who’d survived a better chance of keeping going whilst they prepared to feed themselves on what they could grow.
‘What about those men who chased you?’ asked Nathan. ‘What was their place like?’
Valérie shook his head. ‘Scavengers mostly. Just a few of them, maybe twenty. They were growing a few things, but not growing them very well.’
‘Surely there were others you came across?’
‘I just saw some signs of other people. The horse droppings . . . I saw a horse-drawn cart far away, I think. I saw a woman on a bicycle on a motorway bridge. She did not stop to talk to me.’
‘But you never saw any lights on at night?’
Valérie nodded. ‘Once or twice, you know, perhaps candlelight, a campfire maybe.’
‘But no electric lights?’
Valérie hesitated. It was long enough that both Nathan and Jacob sensed he was holding something back from them.
‘Hang on,’ said Nathan, quickly ducking down to sit on the step. ‘You saw something, right?’
‘Did you see street lights?’ asked Jacob.
Valérie’s jaw set, reluctant to say any more. ‘It is nothing. Your mother is right. This is the best place to—’
‘Come on, what did you see?’ urged Nathan.
‘Please,’ said Jacob. ‘We need to know.’
Valérie studied their faces with a long considered silence. ‘Very well. I think . . . I maybe saw electric lights . . . once. Perhaps.’
Both boys’ eyes widened. ‘Where?’
‘It was very faint. Very far.’
‘Where?’
Valérie bit his lip. ‘Your mother would not be happy with me. It is still a very dangerous place on the land. I know she does not want—’
‘Where?’ asked Jacob. He leaned closer. ‘Please!’
Valérie looked up at the party going on across the deck. Some of them were dancing in a circle, singing along and clapping to the accompaniment of the guitar and fiddle. The babble of merry voices, the incessant rumble of the sea below, more than enough going on that nobody but the two boys sitting beside him would hear their conversation.
‘I was crossing the River Thames at a place near your Big Ben. I saw a glow of lights in the east.’
‘Shit!’ uttered Nathan, ‘you mean the City of London, don’t you? East? That’s the Bank and trading bit.’
‘Yes. That part.’
Jacob slapped his hands together. ‘Shit! I knew it.’
‘Government, like,’ said Nathan. ‘Westminster and stuff.’
Jacob nodded. ‘Keeping it quiet. I fucking well knew it would start there!’
Valérie reached out and grabbed Jacob’s arm. ‘It was just lights. That is all. It could mean nothing.’
‘But you saw it from far off?’ asked Nathan.
‘I only saw some light shining up on the clouds,’ he said warily. ‘That is all.’
‘Shit!’ Jacob’s eyes widened. ‘Really?’
The young men looked at each other. ‘That could be like a floodlight? ’
Nathan nodded. ‘It would need to be powerful, right? To bounce off the clouds.’
Valérie looked uncomfortable at their growing excitement. ‘I should not have told you this! Your mother will throw me off!’
Nathan patted his arm, his face widening with a grin. ‘We won’t tell, Mr Latoc.’
Valérie looked at them both, his mouth drawn with worry. ‘It is still very dangerous ashore. You are better to stay here where it is safe. Look, I have made a mistake to tell—’
Jacob shook his head. ‘No. We needed to know. My mum shouldn’t keep this kind of thing from us. It’s only fair that—’
‘Please,’ begged Valérie. ‘Forget that I told you this. The lights . . . perhaps I—’
Nathan rested a hand on the man’s arm. ‘You didn’t tell us nothing, all right? Nothing we didn’t already suspect. S’right innit, Jay?’
Jacob nodded. ‘S’right.’
‘It’s been ten years,’ said Nathan. ‘Never believed we’d be the first to make some ‘lectric again.’
‘We won’t tell Mum, Mr Latoc, okay?’
Valérie looked at them both. ‘You are planning to leave here, aren’t you?’
Nathan and Jacob shared a glance.
‘I see it, you are. You should know it is very