In Absentia

That morning Alex awoke to find an aeroplane in her parent’s back field.

It was balanced nose to tail, fuselage crumpled, the only thing keeping it upright an old cowshed it had landed on top of. It reminded her of a giant cigarette stubbed out on the grass. One of its wings had broken off and was embedded in a nearby tree. Alex looked up and pictured it losing control, going into a nosedive, crashing through the thin layer of clouds above and on to their property.

Alex couldn’t imagine what it would’ve been like to have been a passenger. Only there wasn’t any. There weren’t any pilots either. The aeroplane was completely empty.

And that wasn’t even the strangest thing.

Her parents were missing too. The house had been empty when Alex got up. The lack of conversation mingled with The Archers on Radio 4 making its way up through the bedroom floor was strange. There was no cup of tea waiting for her when she made it downstairs and no breakfast.

‘Ok, guys,’ she’d said. ‘What's going on? You think it's ok to play hide and seek? I mean, who’s the parent here?’

It hadn’t been enough for her to worry at the time, but now that had all changed. Her mother’s mobile phone was on the kitchen table where she’d left it the night before and their car was outside on the drive. It was as if they’d just walked out of the family home … out of their lives, leaving everything behind, including her. No note, no nothing and there was no explanation as to why there was a plane crashed landed on their property.

A plane with no one inside.

She’d texted her brother, Charlie, soon after the discovery.

“OMG! I’m outside my house. There’s a plane in our field, not a 747 or anything, and it’s empty. It’s a tragedy. I can’t find our folks either. What the hell’s going on?”

That had been an hour ago and Alex was still waiting for a reply. She felt the overwhelming desire to be with him. Growing up, they hadn’t always got on, but when he moved away to Plymouth for uni she realised how much she would miss him. Not as much as she missed him right now though. She tried calling him, but it rang out. Alex had an idea to try everyone else in her address book.

I’ve got to speak to someone ... anyone.

Alex tried everyone she knew would pick the phone up to her, but no one did. Her mood was quickly deteriorating. The shock was wearing off and she was feeling alone. An idea occurred to her and she ran back inside the house. Her mother’s phone was where she’d left it. She knew her passcode and when she was in, Alex went through her contacts too, including aunts, uncles, friends, work colleagues, but no one answered their phones.

Ok, now I’m officially freaked out. Where the hell is everyone?

Alex sat down, worry punching her hard in the gut. She turned the TV on, in case that might give her the answers she was so desperately in need of, but there was nothing. It was just pre-recorded shows on a loop, there was nothing current. No news, in this case, was not good news. There was nothing and nobody who could tell her what was going on.

The not knowing’s killing me.

Alex was wracked by indecision. She couldn’t just sit there and hope they came home. The relational part of her thought that they’d probably gone for a ramble or something. Maybe they were at the Royal George Hotel in nearby Birdlip, but that didn’t explain the aircraft in their field. Her stomach rumbled. She felt guilty for it, but new she had to eat. Alex got up and made herself a sandwich. On her way back to her chair, she saw the car keys on the kitchen counter.

The seed of an idea was sown.

Alex stood up and went upstairs. She had a shower, hoping that the routine would replace her feelings of guilt at not being awake when her parents disappeared. It didn’t. She just felt more guilty. Getting dressed, she went back downstairs. She took the keys and locked the house behind her. She got in the car. Alex had had only a handful of lessons from a family friend, certainly nothing approaching a test, but it was either attempt to drive or walk. If she was stopped by the police at least it would give her someone to talk to.

Alex looked back at her family home, Hill Farm, and the aeroplane next to it, and and started up the car. Without thinking about, she turned on the radio. She tried to find a station broadcasting news, but there wasn’t any. Even Radio 1 was just static. Alex was about to turn it off in frustration when she heard it.

A voice.

“Is there anyone out there?”

A man’s gravelly tones filled the inside of the car. Alex felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. It wasn’t normally so unusual to hear another person speak, but she was so grateful for it she almost cried.

I’m not alone.

The man on the radio continued to speak.

“I don’t know if anyone is listening to this, but I’m on my own. I’ve searched everywhere, but I can’t find anyone. If you are out there, I could really do with someone to talk to …”

Alex knew she had no way of making herself known on the radio, but then he gave out his mobile phone and it became so much easier. She added him to her list of contacts, but, because he hadn’t given out his name, she called him … Survivor 2. She smiled. It had a ring to it. Alex considered ringing him, but she thought that that might have been a bit too keen. She texted him instead.

“I heard you. My name is Alex …”

She wasn’t sure what else to else to put. An essay might put him off. He texted back almost immediately.

“Oh, you don’t know how good it is to hear from you, Alex. Is that short for Alexandra? My name’s Tom.’

Now she knew his name, Alex was disappointed. She preferred Survivor 2.

“It’s good to know I’m not alone. What the hell’s going on?”

There was barely any time between his replies. Almost if he knew what she was going to type before she did.

“I was about to ask you the same question. It’s bloody weird. My girlfriend, my parents, my next-door neighbours … all gone. Same for you?”

‘Exactly the same.’

Girlfriend? Survivor 2 had a partner … or had done. Alex wasn’t sure what she expected. Had it taken her to the end of the world to realise what was missing in her life? Apart from the rest of humanity that is.

Jeez, this isn’t end of the world dating … unless he’s good looking of course.

“Where are you?”

The question lingered in her mind. Should she tell him? He might be the only other person in the world, but he was still a relative stranger.

“I’m not far.”

“Good. I’ll see you soon. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be able to meet you.”

There was barely a heartbeat between her message and his reply. He was keen and he didn’t care if he showed it.

We might be the only people left in England … in the world.

Her first port of call was to check for her parents in Birdlip. If they weren’t there, then they really were missing. Gone. The road to it was quiet, the streets empty when she arrived. The Royal George Hotel was where they liked to drink and Alex arrived to find a full car park and the building all lit up, there was no one there. It was empty. Her parents hadn’t disappeared that morning … it was the night before.

Before last orders.

Alex left the pub and was about to get back in the car when she remembered the woods nearby. They could’ve gone out for a walk and left the keys and the mobile phone behind. Her mum wasn’t one for taking her mobile with her. Alex wouldn’t go that far, but she had taken many life lessons from her parents. She was green just like them, but right then she’d have gone against everything she believed in just to see them again.

Once she was satisfied that they weren’t there, she made her way back to the car. Alex hadn’t looked at her phone in that time, but when she did she saw a new message from Tom.

 “Find your parents?”

Alex paused for a minute as the message washed over her. A tear sprung from her eye. She hadn’t stopped to think that she might not see them again. It wasn’t just that though. There was something else amiss, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Alex shook herself from her reverie and typed a reply.

“No.”

“I’m sorry. Look, I’m sure they’ll turn up … maybe they’re here.”

“In Cheltenham? Without their car, their keys, their mobile phone? I don’t think so.”

“Ok, well, I can come to you and we could look together.”

This seemed like a bad idea and she told him so. Not in so many words, but he got the picture. Alex got in her car and, despite her misgivings about meeting a perfect stranger, she drove to Cheltenham. It was on the outskirts that she saw it. The array of crashed cars, motorbikes and buses. No one them to be injured or killed. Alex found herself worried not just for her parents, but everyone else too. The house was deathly quiet.

Wrong choice of words.

Alex was about to text Tom for directions when she received a message with exactly that information on it. She didn’t have time to consider how weird that might have otherwise seemed. Instead, she put the address into the sat nav and started the car. The street was deserted when she arrived. The world had changed immeasurably in the space of a morning.

“Where are you?”

A message pinged on her phone.

“There’s an alley to your right? Do you see it?”

Alex found it and hurried over. She did give thought to what she was doing meeting someone in an alley, but the fact that they might be the last people in the world swayed her.

‘This is seriously weird,’ she muttered to herself, disconcerted.

Turning around with a shriek, Alex came face to face with them. Only it wasn't a person. It was an animal. A fox. She hadn’t seen its lips move, but there was nobody else around. I'm crazy. Animals don't talk. Flicking its tail, the fox strode purposefully towards him.

‘Don't we?’ it asked.

Other creatures stepped out of the shadows behind it. A hedgehog, a rabbit, two squirrels and an Adder.

‘What about them?’

Is this a joke?

The fox shook its head. It made it seem almost human and threatening at the same time.

‘What the hell are you?’ Alex asked. ‘And what’s going on?’

‘You were expecting someone taller, perhaps a bit more human?’

‘Tom … that was you?’

The creatures answered in unison.

“We are Mother Nature.’

A rustle above caused Alex to glance upwards. There was all manner of different birds sitting on the branches of trees above her head. Blackbirds, Blue Tits, Chaffinches, Pigeons, Seagulls, several buzzards and even a large, rather graceful-looking Barn Owl. They were strange bedfellows, but it was an increasingly bizarre situation.

‘What do you want with me?’

‘I understand it’s a bit of a weird situation. It isn't every day you bump into a bunch of talking animals …’

There was a polite cough from up above and the fox looked up. Alex followed his gaze and saw the owl in the tree above.

‘… birds too,’ it added, before nodding at the snake nearby. ‘And our sole representative from the reptilian world. You’re probably wondering about how we can speak. We’ve always been able to, but you humans have lost the ability to listen.’

Until now that is.’

‘So, there really is no Tom?’

A cat moved sleepily between her legs, its tail tickling her hand. Alex looked down and shook her head.

‘I should’ve have known,’ she said, before a thought occurred to her. ‘But wouldn’t have been easier to meet me in the forest near mine rather than dragging me here. Forests are where most of you live.’

‘Not anymore,’ the fox replied. ‘These streets, your houses, will become ours if we can’t convince you to help us stage an intervention. We need a human who understands our needs. The needs of the whole planet. Humanity has been on a collision course with mother nature for some time now.’

With the motion of its tail something unexpected happen. The alley they were in disappeared, the houses next to them melting away. One moment Alex was surrounded by brickwork and the next she was stood in a barren wasteland. No grass, no plants … nothing. It was extremely hot with no protection from the sun.

This is what the end of the world must look like.

‘The end of your world…’

Alex continued to stare out at the ruined horizon.

‘This is what will happen if we let things stay the same,’ the fox said. ‘The world is hurting.’

‘It can’t go on as it is,’ the owl added. ‘And we picked you because your parents brought you up to respect the environment and you know all about the impact of climate change.’

‘But I’m just one person, what can I possibly achieve alone.’

‘You are not alone,’ the fox replied, ‘there are likeminded individuals all over the world who have been chosen to share the burden with you and you will find them in the contacts list of your mobile device.’

‘Ok, but who will I tell?’ Alex said. ‘I don’t know if you noticed, but there’s no one else around.’

‘If you’ll help us with this task, then it’ll change and things will be back to way they were before, but we need you to promise.’

‘And if I go back on it?’

‘I think you already know the answer to that.’

‘Ok, well I promise to do what I can,’ Alex said, ‘I don’t think things could’ve carried on as they were anyway …’

When there wasn’t a reply Alex turned away from the Mad Max scenery to see they weren't there anymore. The animals were gone, birds too. The dirt and sand on which she was stood shimmered and then vanished altogether. Alex was amazed to see Hill Farm materialise in front of her. She heard voices were coming from within. Alex opened the front door and went inside. Her family were outside her bedroom. They turned as the floorboard beneath her feet creaked.

‘There you are,’ her mum said.

‘Boy, am I glad to see you,’ Alex replied.

‘You only went to the toilet,’ she said. ‘Think you were sleepwalking.’

Alex could hear the flush of the cistern behind her and, when she brought her hands up to her face, she could smell the citrus fruit hand soap they used. She was even wearing her pyjamas. Alex looked out of the nearest window at the backyard and was pleased to see the aeroplane was gone too. She smiled.

Who said animals aren’t clever?

‘You must have had some good dreams,’ her dad said, ‘because it’s nearly lunchtime and you never normally sleep in this long.’

‘Well, it wasn't exactly a dream,’ Alex replied, wrinkling her nose as a familiar smell wafted over from below. ‘How about I tell you over some breakfast and you can fill me in on what’s been happening in The Archers?’