I began to peel off my outer layers but she stopped me.
“Hang on. If it’s working there’s no sense in getting changed then having to put it all back on again, we may as well go now.”
“But what about the rain?”
She shrugged. “Melody and I will have to get dressed up too, then we’ll all go out and get in the car.”
“But what if it doesn’t start?”
“What else do you suggest?”
I was about to recommend staying put until the rain stopped, but then my eyes dropped to the detector that Emily still wore, the black circle stopping the words before they came out.
“Fine, let’s get it done then.”
Emily called Melody back into the lounge and she came bouncing in, stopping short when I warned her not to touch me.
She and Emily helped to dress each other in what was left on the pile while I looked on, pleased that Melody was coming back out of her shell so quickly despite the seriousness of our situation.
It only took them a few minutes, and when they were done they stood in front of me in a bizarre mishmash of clothing and household goods that reminded me of a bad pantomime, but hopefully it would be enough to keep them safe and dry.
With our bag still in the Landrover, there was nothing else for us to take apart from what we had on us, with the exception of Melody’s diary which she insisted on slipping into an inside pocket.
“Right, are we ready?” I said, and got nods from both of them.
Lowering the bag back over my head, I pulled the door open and stepped back out into the rain, hurrying to the door and pulling it open so that they could slip inside.
I pulled it closed once they were through, then we all stripped off our contaminated clothing and threw it in the far corner.
Once free of her outer clothing, Emily made a soft noise in her throat and began running her hands over the car as one might a lover.
“You like the car then?” I said, slightly bemused.
“Oh, this isn’t just a car,” she breathed with a look of reverence. “This is a 1968 Morris Traveller. We had one of these when I was a kid, we used to pack it full of stuff and take trips to the seaside.”
She turned and looked at me with a beatific smile on her face.
“Some of my happiest memories are being in a car like this. Your father in law had good taste.”
“Shame it wasn’t genetic,” I muttered, but she had already turned away, sitting in the driver’s seat and pulling out a small knob in the centre while she gently pressed the accelerator.
She turned the key and the engine started immediately, the clanking whirr of its old but rebuilt engine filling the small space as it came to life.
“It sounds perfect!” She called over the noise, “Open the door and let’s get out of here.”
Melody climbed into the back while I tugged at the large garage door, the sliders squealing loud enough to wake the dead as it finally slid up into the roof.
Rain still pelted down outside, deadly puddles forming in the gutters, and I prayed that the car was well-built enough that it wouldn’t leak.
Climbing into the back with Melody and wrapping my arms around her, I watched through the windows as we pulled away, leaving the bungalow and its dark memories behind.
Chapter 50
We jolted and swayed in the back seat, Melody tucked under my arm and sleeping despite the noise and movement. I watched her face as she slept, having to stop myself from waking her by covering it with kisses.
Her eyes kept scrunching up, her hands balling into fists as she muttered incomprehensible words, and again I worried that what she’d been through might take years to heal. Added to that, I realised, would be more months or possibly years of hardship while we waited for the sun to stop hurting our world, and grief, worry and joy mingled until they were almost one emotion, taking me to the crest of the wave one second only to drop me into the trough a moment later.
I rested my cheek against the top of her head and tried to stop thinking, just taking pleasure in the feel of having my little girl back in my arms. It was an intoxicating feeling, and with it came the towering need to protect her from everything this new world might throw at her, while at the same time knowing that she would have to become tough to survive.
I raised my eyes to the back of Emily’s head, realising that here was the perfect role-model for Melody. Tough but honest, caring yet uncompromising, she was exactly what someone needed to be to survive, and I knew that I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for her.
As if she could feel me watching her, Emily glanced at me in the mirror.
“We’ve got a full tank of petrol, do you want to try and head straight back home?”
I shook my head gently, scared of waking Melody.
“No, we need to go back to the farm first, warn them that it’s not safe up here.”
She nodded and turned her attention back to the road, flashing me a quick smile as if I’d made the right decision. That smile gave me a warm glow inside, not dissimilar to the way I felt with Melody in my arms, and that made me realise something.
I wasn’t quite sure when, exactly, I’d fallen in love with Emily, but sometime in the last week I had. Not the head over heels, crazy intensity that I’d felt when Angie and I had met, but we’d been little more than kids then, both too wrapped up in our own little bubble to see that we were a disaster waiting to happen.
No, this was the long, slow burn of loving someone that I knew was too good for me, a person I’d come to rely on so completely that I couldn’t imagine waking up and her not being there.
Of course knowing how I felt and acting on it were two very different things. What woman wouldn’t run a mile if you told her you loved her after little more than a week in each other’s company? Even in my heyday I’d been bad with things like that anyway, and just the thought of trying to tell her how I felt made my stomach turn inside out.
Melody stirred next to me and I pulled away to see her eyes crack open, flaring wide in a moment of panic before she realised where she was.
“Hey, it’s ok,” I said, brushing the top of her head with my hand. “I’m right here.”
She yawned and then pulled a face. “I need to clean my teeth.”
I nodded. “We all do. When we get home we’ll make sure we all get properly clean. You smell.” I poked her in the ribs and she giggled, then her face grew serious.
“Dad, what if those men find us again?”
“They won’t.”
“But what if they do?”
I sighed, not knowing what to say to make her feel better. I finally settled on the truth.
“I’m never going to let anyone hurt you ever again,” I said seriously, “and if we see those men then Emily has a gun and she’ll shoot them. She’s a soldier, you know.”
Her eyes grew wide. “Really?”
I nodded. “Really. And she’s a really good shot.”
Melody leaned forwards. “Are you?”
Emily glanced back in the mirror and smiled.
“I am. Better than your dad, anyway. Perhaps, if your dad thinks it’s ok, me and my dad can teach you how to shoot when we get back to the farm. How does that sound?”
Melody turned to me hopefully.
“Can I dad? Please?”
I shrugged. “I don’t see why not, if you really want to.”
She nodded. “I do, because if I can shoot then I can stop anyone from hurting me if you’re not there.”
“But I’ll always be there.”
She turned away, looking down at her hands.
“I thought mum would be too, but she went away.” She glanced up at me out of the corner of her eye. “You don’t know what’s going to happen, do you?”