MORNING SERIAL
SHE lifts a black bag out and takes it to the worktop. It is a first-aid kit, bandages and tape, scissors that could cut through denim or leather. There are packets of painkillers and medicines, a bottle of TCP. She looks at the medicine, sees her own name and doctor’s surgery on the label. Another has her mam’s details. She drops them back in.
There is a plastic box with ‘Worst Case Scenario’ written in permanent marker on the top. Jennifer feels sick, the contents of the car already too much to process. She opens it. Inside there are syringes, each in a sealed plastic bag. Labelled H, and J. The fluid inside is golden brown. Jennifer opens one of the bags, sniffs carefully. Detects the faintest vinegary scent and seals it away again.
She slams the boot closed. The sound seems to echo around the hollow barn. This is anxiety, she thinks. This is the problem.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
HELEN sees the shape of a building in the vegetation just as dusk smudges the forest into shades of evening. Gives Anton’s arm an encouraging squeeze. His breathing is wheezy, but he hasn’t complained once.
As they approach, she can tell that the house is useless. The roof is sagging, the corner buckled. She can’t even see the front door; there are thick brambles like razor wire woven around it, threading through the trees and shrubs to form a straitjacket around all access points.
‘Come on, if there’s one, there are more.’ She takes Anton’s hand and tugs him onwards, searching in the half-light for another structure amongst the undergrowth. Bats flit overhead, swooping low to snatch the insects drawn out by the day’s warmth. Her knee aches.
The buildings get closer together as they reach the heart of the village. For a moment she dares to hope that there will be one or two houses still occupied, that she can knock on a door and present Anton, stooping but able to speak the right language, as their passport to warmth and food and a door that will close behind them, bolted.
> The Half Life of Snails by Philippa Holloway is published by Parthian at £15
CONTINUES TOMORROW