you know, shared our food?’
Raymond’s eyes darted from one to the other, warily returning to the gun dangling from her hands.
‘Sure . . . uh . . . sure you’re not going to rob me or something?’
‘Would it help if I promised you we won’t?’
He shrugged and wrinkled his nose. ‘Okay,’ he answered. ‘Why not?’
Chapter 30
10 years AC
Thetford Forest, Norfolk
Without any warning Raymond swung the pick-up truck off the road onto a gravel lay-by and put the brakes on.
‘Why’ve we stopped? asked Jacob.
‘You’ll see,’ Raymond replied, climbing out of the truck and stepping across the gravel towards an overgrown cluster of blackberry bushes spilling out beneath the shadow of a mature oak tree.
‘Maybe he needs a pee?’ said Helen.
They watched him approach the brambles and fumble amongst the foliage. He stepped back and the bushes appeared to come with him.
‘Uh?’ gasped Helen.
‘Oh, that’s cool,’ said Nathan. ‘A disguised entrance.’
Raymond moved aside a six-foot panel of trellis through which the bushes had eagerly grown, twisting through the cross-hatches of plywood. Through the newly made gap they could see a faint track of twin ruts, running deep into the woods, dark beneath the thick summer-laden canopy of oak branches.
He rejoined them in the truck.
‘Props, man,’ grinned Nathan. ‘Like the secret entrance to Batman’s cave.’
Raymond smiled. ‘Yup. Just like that.’
He drove the truck through the gap and got out to replace the trellis, sealing the entrance behind them. Back behind the wheel, they rolled down the track, bouncing uncomfortably where the ruts ran deep and puddles splashed muddy water in their wake.
Leona warily studied the shadowy trail ahead. The farmhouse they’d lived in for several years after the crash had been a bit like this, lost deep in the woods where one hoped never to be found. But, of course, they had been.
‘How much further?’ she asked.
‘Just up here,’ he replied.
She noticed a sliver of sky ahead, a break in the canopy, appearing, disappearing, appearing amidst the thick veil of leaves. Then, rounding a bend, dipping down through deep ruts, splashing droplets of muddy water on the side windows, she saw it.
Oh, God.
‘Home,’ he said casually as he rolled the truck up beside the service entrance to what appeared to be an enormous inflated geodesic dome.
It’s so beautiful.
‘Wow!’ gasped Jacob, with wide-eyed amazement. ‘It’s like a space station!’
Raymond switched off the engine and they sat in silence, looking up at a web of triangular panels of semi-opaque plastic curving above them as the engine softly ticked.
‘My humble castle,’ announced Raymond with a casual twang that had more to do with a faint Scottish burr than any sense of arrogance. ‘It’s called The Emerald Oasis.’
Leona opened the door and stepped out of the truck, marvelling at the domed structure. Through the panels she could see tall dark forms inside.
‘What’s in there?’
He grinned. ‘Paradise.’
He reached into the back of the truck for the Bose speakers he’d foraged from PC World and led the way in, pushing through the side entrance, a row of thick plastic flaps that slapped noisily to one side. ‘Come in,’ he beckoned to Leona, holding open a gap for her.
She led the way and immediately felt the warm moist air on her face. It reminded her of childhood holidays abroad - stepping out of the cool air-conditioned interior of a plane into the warmth of some simmering hot holiday location. Then her eyes registered the tall fronds of a host of exotic plants.
‘My God, it’s like a . . . like a rainforest in here,’ she gasped.
‘Well, actually, that’s exactly what it is.’
The others entered behind her and the calming sound of chirruping insects, the gentle trickle of flowing water, the tap, tap, tap of moisture dripping from one broad waxy leaf down onto another was disturbed by a chorus of their muted voices, respectfully hushed to awed whispers.
‘This place,’ he said, leading them along a wood-chipped walkway, ‘is, or I should say, was,’ he corrected himself, ‘an exclusive holiday spa.’
They passed a cluster of purple gourds above which several brightly coloured butterflies fluttered.
‘Emerald Oasis. It’s a temperature- and humidity-controlled one-acre bubble of tropical rainforest.’ He stopped and turned towards them. ‘Basically it was a bloody expensive version of Center Parcs.’
Leona looked at the others, they were grinning like simpletons. She supposed she would have been as well if, at the back of her mind, she hadn’t also been wishing Hannah could be with them to see this too.
‘It wasn’t quite ready when the crash hit us that summer.’ Raymond shrugged.