Prologue

Rain lashed down on the windscreen as Traffic Officer Joe Harding sat in the driver’s seat of his police car, bored out of his mind, and waiting for the point that he could leave the empty road and head on home.

Night had long since arrived and on this road, with no streetlights to speak of, and trees overhanging the tarmac, made what should have been the simple and peaceful job of keeping control of what few cars came down this way, into something a lot more sinister.

The only company was the radio which occasionally came on with news of a car chase. But out here, there was no point in Joe responding, he was simply too far out, and would not arrive in time.

The reason for him being here, was that this particular road was often used by, ‘those delinquent youths’ as his Father would often call them, to race. The road was pretty much an arrow straight, and with the lack of any other traffic, it was more than ideal for that.

Joe checked his watch, still half seven. He swore that it had been that time for close to two hours already. But checking his phone confirmed that his watch was correct.

Picking up a can of Coke, Joe drank it down almost in one.

He regretted that the second he chucked the empty can onto the passenger seat, as his blander was now full to bursting.

Joe quickly exited the car, the one advantage to this road, was that he was effectively in the country’s biggest public toilet.

Finding a tree a few meters away from the road, just in case somebody happened to come down and look into the cluster of trees.

Checking one more time to make sure that nobody was there, Joe relieved himself onto the tree.

Once done, he made his way back to his police car, with the sole intent of running down the clock until eight when his shift was over.

However, that was not whatever creator was clearly out there, had in store for him. As he lumbered himself back into his car, and checked his mirrors. Joe saw something come over the flying hill in the road.

Two silhouettes, barely visible in the darkness, were walking side by side along the side of the road. In fact, stumbling was a more apt word, as from the way that both were sluggishly trudging along indicated that they had been walking for some time.

“Finally, something interesting.” Joe said to himself, turning on the engine and driving over to the two walkers. Little did he know what madhouse world he was about to stumble into. And how much he’d regret not taking his time with the piss.

Coming to a stop, Joe saw that the two walkers were kids, brothers by the looks of it. One was in his mid-teens, and the other was a few years younger, maybe eleven. Both though, looked like they’d been through hell.

Both boys were covered in mud, dust, grime, and, in the case of the older one, a dark reddish substance that Joe didn’t need to be told was blood.

Joe got out of his police car, and stood across the boy’s path. He thought given the way they seemed to be stumbling along, that they would simply continue, oblivious to him as they were clearly oblivious to everything else. He didn’t need to worry though, as both stopped, although the younger one taking longer to do so.

“Can I help you two boys?” Joe asked looking at the two of them.

He had expected some bullshit excuse, some story, some reasoning why two children were out on a cold winter’s evening looking like they’d just gotten out of downtown Kabul. What he got instead was silence stares.

That scared Joe a lot more than their appearances. The blankness of the stares, the way that they were looking at him with no emotion, just a blank, zombie like state.

Joe’s mind began to work. Not runaways, at least not in the usual sense of kids running away from their parents because they’d grounded them and taken away their phones for the week. There had been no alerts of kidnappings in the area, though he couldn’t rule that out until he’d done a proper search. And given the fact their country was not in the middle of an active war, that ruled out refugee.

“You lost?” Joe asked, a lot calmer than he was feeling.

No response.

“What are your names.”

No response.

“Where have you come from?”

No response. They didn’t even look at each other, just blankly into the distance.

“Where are you going too?”

No response.

“Wait? Have you been abused?”

Joe had expected the same response, nothing. But he was mistaken, as the older boy nodded, wheezing slightly as he did so, though the younger one shook his head.

‘At least they aren’t deaf.’ Joe thought, he scratched his stubble, trying to think what to do.

“You’re not in trouble.” Joe said as he walked over to his car, and opened the back door. “But I’m going to have to insist that we continue this conversation down at the station.”

Joe had expected to face resistance. But whatever had stupefied the ability to speak out of the two boys, had clearly done the same thing to their fight, as neither offered any objection to the open door.

“Right then.” Joe said as he got in and turned on the engine. “It’s about a fifteen-minute trip to the station.”

“Cornwall.” The younger boy suddenly said. His face was still pale, and his eyes bloodshot.

“I’m sorry?” Joe asked, startled by the noise.

“Cornwall. That’s where we’re going.” The younger boy reiterated.

Joe stared for a moment, then looked at the older boy. Though whilst he remained silent, he did nothing to contradict the statement.

“Alright then? Cornwall?” Joe said, looking between them now. They were in the northeast of England. And given their age, he guessed they knew that they were about as far away from their destination as physically possible. “That’s. That’s a long way to be walking too.”

“We’ve got family there. They’ll look after us.” The older boy said, chiming in and handing Joe a piece of paper. Written on it was a phone number. “It’s our aunt’s. We lived there for a few months before. She’ll take us back though.”

Slowly, Joe took the paper, and stared. What the hell had he gotten himself into?

“Alright then.” Joe said as he flicked on his indicator, keeping both of his passengers in his rear-view mirror. He’d take them to the station first. And then figure out why they were trying to get to the other side of the country, and what they were running from, later.