Straight to You Page 0,96

to tell them how I would make her last hours as painless and easy as possible but again the words would not come. Instead we turned and left.

As I unlocked the front door to get outside, Sam tore herself from me and ran back to where her parents waited. The three of them held each other tightly and cried like they never had before. Having already intruded more than enough, I opened the door and quietly went outside.

I stood alone in the hot darkness of the night and waited for Samantha to return to my side. Although little more than a minute could have passed, each second without her felt like a painful eternity and I wondered for one terrible, heart-stopping moment if she had changed her mind and had decided to stay with her family. Before I could take any action to find out, she appeared at my side again, smiling despite the tears that still ran freely from her eyes. We walked to the end of the drive and looked out along the road towards the village.

For a few relaxing moments we held each other tightly in the darkness and kissed. I wiped the tears from her face and smiled.

'Are you sure you want to come with me?' I asked although the last thing I wanted to do was dissuade her from leaving.

'Of course I do,' she replied. 'I love my family but I want to spend the rest of the night with you.'

I ran my hand through her long, blond hair and looked deep into her pretty, moist eyes. In spite of the pressures of the moment, she appeared calm and her face looked untroubled by any of the turmoil and confusion. I leant down and kissed her soft lips. She pulled me tightly to her and I buried my face in her chest, never wanting to move again. When she next lifted her head I saw that she was smiling broadly and that signal managed to blow away the last few of the nagging doubts and worries that had troubled me since I had arrived in the village.

'Where are we going to go?' she asked.

I shrugged my shoulders - I hadn't the faintest idea what we were going to do or where we were going to do it.

'I don't really care,' I said honestly. 'It doesn't matter to me where we go as long as you're there with me.'

Still holding each other close, we walked towards the village, ignorant to the plethora of dangers that we might face there. It was cliched but it was true; having Sam next to me made me feel invincible. For a moment, she stopped walking and turned back to take one last look at the little house and at the family that she was leaving behind. I thought for a second that I could see her parents watching from the shadows but I was quickly distracted as Sam carried on walking towards the village.

Chapter Thirty-Three

We walked quickly in the moonlight along and back towards the centre of the little village. Although neither of us knew why we headed in that direction or what we would do once we got there, it seemed not to make the slightest difference. As long as we stayed together, nothing else mattered. Finally having Samantha at my side had alleviated some of the fears and doubt I had felt but, at the same time, the removal of one set of worries had left me exposed to attack from other, more serious troubles. After having achieved what I had originally set out to do - to reach Samantha - the next event which loomed ominously on the horizon would ultimately be the end of the planet. Having had something to think about other than the destruction of the world had deflected and absorbed some of the seriousness of the situation but now, with nothing to do but wait for it to happen, the fear hung heavy over my head like a black, rain-filled storm cloud.

As we approached the centre of the village, screams of confusion, panic and terror sliced through the hot air and compounded the feelings of unease and worry which were already running wild through my mind. With little thought for the safety of either of us, we kept our course towards the middle of the village, unsure and, surprisingly, unworried about what might greet us there.

It had seemed a quiet, empty and peaceful place when I had first arrived there earlier in