“Why? Too busy staring at yourself in the mirror and pretending you’re going to take over the world?” Where did Josh get off? Anyone would think he was someone half important. He was only a junior something or other.
“No, as it happens. Jesus Christ, what did I do to get stuck with you as a brother? The wannabe gangster swaggering around like he’s a hard man?”
“Josh!” their mother yelled. “Stop it!”
“But it’s true.” He turned to Pete. “You think no-one knows what you do?” He frowned. “Anyway, I need to talk to you.”
“What,” Pete snorted. “After that attack? No fucking way.”
Their mother let out an exaggerated sigh. “Don’t use that language in my house.”
“It’s important, Pete.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Well say it then. What’s so important?”
Josh said nothing.
“Right then. I’d best get to work.” With his phone dead and the power off, he didn’t have time to hang around all day to listen to Josh's bullshit. He’d find Zane and make it clear he was serious; he’d show them he could use his initiative.
“Wait.”
“Yeah, wait,” their mother croaked.
Pete winced. He hated the effect those things had on her. She’d had bronchitis on and off for months and even that wasn’t enough to make her quit them. “What? I said I’ve got to go.”
“Just wait a minute. Mrs Ritesh said that John Cooper can’t get his oxygen tank working and Susan can’t get the car started to take him to the doctor.”
“Tell him to take the train.”
“That’s not funny, Peter. You know the poor lad has trouble with his health. If he got stuck on the train in one of those tunnels it might be the end of him. Will you just go help them? Come on.”
“What do you want me to do? Give him mouth-to-mouth?”
He’d smiled as he said it and she was smiling now too. He was the youngest and her favourite. He knew it. And she knew he knew.
“Ah, Peter. You can’t say things like that.”
“Sorry, Mum,” he said, hanging his head as if he regretted it. “Fine. I’ll go see if I can help them with the car.”
“Go have a shower first, love. It looks like you haven’t washed your hair in days.”
He rolled his eyes. “It’s gel. This is how it’s supposed to look.” But he got up and walked to the stairs as he said it. It was easier than arguing. He could use a shower to wash the sleep off him anyway. They’d gone to the pub around noon the day before and even though he’d been home in bed by nine, he was hungover to bits. A shower was about the only thing that’d make him feel right. He knew the real reason she was telling him to shower was that she could smell the stale booze off him.
He ran up the stairs as quickly as his throbbing head would allow and slammed the bathroom door.
“It’s not going to work,” Josh said from outside the door before Pete had even taken his t-shirt off.
“What? What the hell?” he snapped, frowning at his reflection in the mirror. “Did you just follow me up here? Fuck’s sake, you get weirder by the minute.”
“You’ll see.”
“You’ll see,” he mouthed to his angry mirror image. He much preferred Josh when he was at work. Or asleep. Anywhere except talking to him.
His mood got worse when he stepped into the bath and turned on the taps. Nothing happened. Groaning, he turned both taps as far as they’d go and jiggled the little pin that sent the water to the shower hose. Still nothing.
“For fuck’s sake,” he growled. “How’m I supposed to have a shower?”
“I told you, didn’t I?”
He’d never wanted to punch his brother so badly. Why did he have to be so smug? The truth was, Pete could handle it if Josh was a nerd. When they were kids he’d been proud of his brother for being so clever, even if it did seem to be the reason Josh got his head kicked in on a weekly basis by the other kids on the estate. But not this. Not the way he talked down to Pete all the time and nagged their mother to make him get a job stacking shelves or pulling pints. He was only a year older, but he sometimes talked like he was Pete’s dad.
“Shut up, Josh,” he snapped, stepping out of the bath again. Their mum hated it when her two boys fought, so he tried to hold back for her sake. Josh never made that easy.
He threw back on his boxers and stormed out of the bathroom to find his way blocked by his brother.
“Are you serious?”
“Just listen to me for a sec, will you?”
Pete rolled his eyes. There was an unmistakable London twang to his brother’s words; one he hadn’t noticed before. He smirked. “Do your work colleagues,” he said in a put-on posh accent, “know you live in a council estate?”
Josh's face fell a little. Not much, but enough to notice. Pete pushed past him.
“Wait!”
“Why? I’m in a hurry.”
“Just listen! A guy I work with’s been banging on about this theory of his, alright, so a few months ago I gave in and went for a pint with him. I still thought he was crazy, mind, but now I’m not so sure. He said there were weapons capable of wiping out everything. Not just the power, but cars and laptops and medical equipment. Everything we know, basically. The trains weren’t running this morning, that’s why I couldn’t get to work.”
“So? The trains from here are rubbish. Everyone knows that.”
“But that’s not the only thing. Think about it. The power’s out. And my mobile’s not working either. I always keep it charged.”
Pete stopped with one hand on his bedroom door. It was weird that Josh's phone had stopped working at the same time as his own, especially since he’d only had it a few months.
“We’ve got to stock up, Pete, do you hear me? We’re in real trouble here. We’ve got to bunker down with everything we need for several months. I’ve already brought home as much tinned food as I could carry but it’s not enough. Are you even listening to me? The only advantage we have is we’re ahead of everyone who doesn’t know what’s going on.”
Pete was half-listening, staring into space as he tried to think up a simple explanation.
“Okay, look, maybe you don’t understand. I’ll put it another way…”
Pete snapped out of his daze. “Fuck off you patronising twat.” He slammed the door before his brother could answer.
He dressed quickly and stormed out of the house, completely ignoring Josh, who followed him down the stairs muttering about electromagnetic rays and who knew what else.
“Get back to your computer games, mate, and leave the rest of us to the real world,” he said, slamming the front door behind him.
Now Pete wasn’t so sure. It was one thing having the power go off. It was another… well, that was the thing. He couldn’t quite figure out what it was, but something was wrong.
He zipped up his jacket and shoved his hands in his pockets. It was cold. The street was busier than usual. People were always loitering around during the day, but this was something else. All the old women were out, hanging around their gates.
He walked about twenty feet and turned onto the tiled pathway that led to number twenty-seven. His skin prickled. He felt uneasy, but couldn’t explain why. He’d grown up on that street. He’d never felt uncomfortable there before.
He got about halfway between the gate and the Cooper’s bright red front door when he stopped. He’d just tell his mum that he’d called in to help. She didn’t have to know.
He turned around and walked back to the street. That was when it struck him. Crosby Road was the only street that ran right the way through the estate. It was narrow and filled with speed bumps, but that hadn’t stopped drivers using it as a shortcut because it was still faster to drive through than around. Instead of complaining about the noise of cars flying past, his mother and the other women on the road now complained about brakes squealing and cars accelerating at all hours of the day and night.