Time - Short Story

Stephen ran out of the office doors into the street, the road in front of him already a chaotic mess of cars and people, all rushing to get away from here, horns sounded and people argued. The sound of a hundred car radios, all repeating the same message echoed, time was short.

He pushed his way through the crowds, running towards the end of the road, he knew going back to his car was not going to work, the road was jammed but he had 2 feet and could push past people. Normally a foot trip to Stephens home would take 20 minutes from here, maybe a little more, today more due to the pure volume of traffic in his way, but he also knew time was scarce.

Running between cars which were gridlocked into place he set off over the road, the chaos continued to build around him for 4 maybe 5 minutes at a decent running pace, until the people started to thin and he was able to push on.

As the pavements quietened, he became aware of the silence and began to think. He’d heard the news for weeks, building tensions between the country and several others, accusations had flown, but everyone had expected it to blow over. However it hadn’t. The office had turned silent when the news came across every TV and Radio they had, tensions had turned into threats and threats had turned into action. The news had said reports indicated there had been a launch of some kind, what? Not sure. At where? Not sure, but every major city went into panic mode within seconds.

He felt a pain in his chest as he ran, he’d never been much of an athlete and although adrenaline had pushed him this far, his body was now saying to stop. He pulled up and started trying to catch his breath against the brick wall, he had reached houses and must’ve been going for more than 10 minutes now. He reached for his phone and dialled home, but it was no good, tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of calls were clogging up the network, he wasn’t going to get through. He knew another 5 minutes at good pace and he’d be home. The road to the side of him was already full and slowing down, but the pavement was only being shared with a few people, he picked himself up and pressed on as best he could.

He had no idea how long he’d have until anything happened, even if it was going to happen at all. The houses he was rushing past were in varying states of panic, doors were left open, suitcases lay in gardens, belongings were scattered around as people had hurried to cars and tried to get away. Looking at the road again he deduced unless they were the first ones away, those panicked families, were maybe only a few hundred yards up the road, stuck in the cars, struggling to get anywhere.

He reached for his phone again but the display was blank, no calls, no messages. He reached back to his pocket, but felt a pain to his stomach. He fell to the floor and a man stood over him.

“Your phone, I need it, give it to me.” Stephen looked up to see a well-dressed, but clearly tired and emotional man, he was brandishing  a stick that used to be part of a fence, possibly his fence. Stephen had been struck with it hard in the abdomen.

“It’s no good,” Stephen protested, “The networks are dead.”

The well-dressed man took another swing and caught Stephen in his arm, he dropped the phone into the road and the man scampered after it. Stephen, wanted the handset back, but equally didn’t want to waste time fighting for it, especially hundreds of yards from his front door. He took the man’s distraction as a chance to pick himself up and press on. Winded, yes, but so close, he could make it. Within 2 minutes of getting up, he rounded the wall outside his home and ran up the path. The door was open, but the car was still on the drive. He ran inside and began shouting,

“Rebecca? Ruby?” No answer at first until he saw a figure come through a door leading to the living room. The small figure of Ruby, his daughter, ran to him, clutching round his leg.

“Daddy!” She exclaimed and he held her close to him.

Rebecca came down the stairs with a back pack over her back.

“You made it, thank god, but we need to get going, anywhere out of the city.” Stephen nodded agreement and scooping Ruby up they made it out of the door.

“Car’s no good, every road is jam packed.” Stephen said, “foot would be faster”. Rebecca acknowledged this and they began making their way out and down the road.

The number of people to have made it out this far was now far greater. The three joined a procession of people making their way further from the centre any what they thought was potential targets. Another half hour passed, maybe an hour from the panic had ensued and nothing. They had made ground, maybe a couple of miles but still would have seen, if not felt any blast that had hit the buildings not getting small in the distance.

The three caught up to a group with a small radio and slowed down to listen.

“The national stations are dead, but we can get signal from the more local ones. But even then… no news for about 15 minutes.” Volunteered one of the group, a young girl, possibly no more than 17 or 18 years old.

“What was the last?”

“London was hit, targeted the centre… badly damaged. The coast also took some hits. They say there may be more, but they haven’t said what it was hit by.”

Stephen put his hand to his face and shook his head, “Nothing is worth this nothing!”

The crowds carried on, pushing northwards. They had found a main road, clogged so badly by cars they had been abandoned and the people that brought them swelled the numbers walking. The people were walking towards a village that was a few miles outside the city, it couldn’t hope to cope with this many people but it was somewhere to go.

People around started to speculate, they pondered, have we done anything back, have we returned fire? Where was next, would there even be anything else aimed at the country.

A voice came from a little further back in the crowd, “There’s more coming!” it shouted. Suddenly 100s of people felt the ground beneath them tremble slightly and a deafening sound from behind them. People span round and gazed back to see a bright light and smoke emerge from the distance, from where they had been just hours before.

Stephen gripped Rebecca and Ruby tightly to him. It was seconds before the heat hit them and they remembered it for even less, the last thing he could do was whisper, “I love you” to his wife and daughter before everything melted away. His hands left limp and lost the grip on his family and the world slipped away.

Nothing was worth this.