David Harris had not seen a patient since the new family had arrived and he had found it hard to recall the time before that, but he had guessed about a week, the population of Underwood was dwindling, probably less than 250 now he guessed, and not one of them seem to get ill, he knew everyone was destined to die in Underwood, and when they had all gone it would be floating about in its own little world, a town that nobody wants, and maybe those three monsters would kill themselves and that thing in the woods, he just hoped he wouldn’t be the last man standing, he couldn’t cope with that, he was sat looking at Tony Griffiths in his office, he had not made an appointment, not that it mattered, it wasn’t as if he would struggle to fit him in, what was puzzling the doctor was that Tony Griffiths looked a picture of health, in fact he thought he had never seen him looking so good.
They sat staring for a while, trying to suss each other out, Tony wondering whether to trust this guy, The doctor just wanting the whole fucking world to end, it was Tony who spoke first, though he wasn’t sure why he chose the words that he did,
‘How’s life doc’
The doctor took his gaze away from Tony, now he was sure this was no medical problem, they had known each other for decades, they had never been close friends but had a mutual respect, they had both seen the demise of Tony’s wife, both watched her fade away, truth was the doctor suspected Tony had eventually killed his wife, he only wished he had the guts to do it himself, he admired him for it, it took courage.
‘Life’s shit, now what do you want?’ the doctor said, he wanted to add ‘stop wasting my time’ but that’s all he had left was ‘time’.
Tony grinned he liked the doctors style, he knew he had done all he could for his wife, he could not have done anymore, and he thought of all the jobs in Underwood the doctor had one of the worse.
‘If I wanted to kill an animal, could you supply the poison’, Tony had said it now, put his trust in the doctor, there was no going back, if the doctor was going to turn him in then Tony would have to end the doctors life, he somehow thought the doctor wouldn’t worry to much about that’, it certainly wasn’t the question the doctor was expecting, but it didn’t matter, he knew the answer and his response was quick.
‘I have nothing to cure people, but enough to kill them in a 100 different way’s, now who are we killing?’
The “we” threw tony a little,
‘An animal’ was the simple response, then Tony took him in complete confidence and told him about the idea that he had run by Peter Ford, the doctor listened intensively, taking in every word that Tony spoke,
‘So if we take out the thing that feeds them, it’s curtains for those three’ Tony finished.
‘How do we know what’s in the woods and if we can kill it’ asked the doctor,
‘We won’t until we try’
‘What if we do take them out, how do we get back to the real world?’
Tony got up from his chair and paced the doctor’s office, he looked pensive, but the doctor could see the look of hope in his eyes, he turned sharp to face the doctor, he spoke enthusiastically, he wasn’t going to tell him of his theory, not yet.
‘Even if we can’t get out, having those dead at least we can stop all the madness, but don’t forget doc, Peter and his family got in, there has to be a way out’,
‘I’ll get you the poison you need ‘said the doctor, he was never not going to.
Tony thanked him and left the doctors, he took a slow walk towards the old army huts and when he reached the converted maternity unit, he stopped and looked at it, he thought of all the young kids been brought there to have the children they didn’t want, he prayed for all the male babies who had been taken to the woods, he looked up to the skies, hoped his wife was looking down on him,
‘They’ll be no more fucking babies’ he told her.
Chapter 12
It was 1976, it was June and the summer was gloriously hot, one of the hottest summers for decades and today was carnival day, one of the biggest days of the calendar year at Underwood Estate.
The estate had been completed, the biggest steelworks in the world, just out of sight behind the trees up and running, plumes of smoke drifting into the sky, sometimes obscuring the sun, sometimes dirtying the washing that hung on clothes lines, but the 3 mile long works kept turning out the iron, making the steel and Underwood, the council estate built in the middle of nowhere, with one road in and the same road out was thriving, the beer pumps in the social club were forever being pulled, the supermarket and the butchers tills were always ringing, the post office and the paper shop churning out sweets for the kids and cashing in the family allowance, and the best stocked chemist for tens of miles were always there to take care of peoples ills, and if you didn’t fancy cooking, then there was always the chip shop, and the hairdressers always made sure you looked good for that special night out, everyone knew everyone and if you didn’t work at the steelworks, you had a family member or friend who did, it was a council estate success, one of the very few.
The red and white flags were hung from almost every house, some displaying the welsh dragon as people watched in the streets at the procession of lorry’s that went past, some full of ancient warriors, some full of fairies and angels, Disney characters and comic villains, all cheered on by proud parents, hoping this year that it will be their daughter that will be announced as carnival queen.
The field next to the centre was awash with activities and games to play for the children, while some parents chose to rest and drink in the centre bar, some had already made it to the social club where the festivities would go on well into the night, when the fairy’s and warriors would be sleeping and the newly crowned beauty queen getting her deserved beauty sleep, yes nearly everyone was there, it was felt that more than likely those who weren’t attending were the ones whose shift it was at the steel works, perhaps it would be they who could explain what happened.
By the time Underwood changed nearly everyone was merry or asleep, the teenagers were at the old army huts, playing in the huts and the dens that they had made, the pretty girls of underwood sharing a kiss with the boy of their dreams, the sun was almost setting on this warm night, if it had set completely then perhaps no one would have noticed it happen.
As the orange cloud drifted from the steel works over the town of Underwood, no one thought much of it, other than it being just another dirty cloud created by the steelworks, only this one didn’t float over it hovered above the town,
People will recall it coming down slowly and purposely, blocking out the fading sunlight, some would say it was a UFO, those who survived would never be able to speak of it again.
Those who walked the streets or those in bed who may not have seen it, felt it first, for the noise would have surely woken them as the trees around Underwood started to turn, slowly at first, as if they were just swaying in the wind, but then they seem to come alive as the orange dust empowered them, and as people watched and screamed at the spinning trees, the ground beneath them shook and those still down at the centre fields and those near the woods edge were sucked into the vacuum as the trees spun and gathered momentum taking the bodies of those closest and tossing them into the air, where there bodies would spin with the trees until it was laid fractured on the ground, hundreds and hundreds of them.
The power was shut off, the phone lines were out of order, those from inside the club and those at home came running out into the streets, some being sucked into the air straight away, for others it would take longer, some survived the ordeal but not many, those in the centre of the town were the best protected, those who stayed indoors were the sensible ones, as long as their windows were closed, but the night was warm and sticky and many perished being sucked up through the open windows, into the void, as they watched or died the new Underwood was being born.