Kira was utterly oblivious to the open-mouthed expressions on her parent’s faces. She didn’t notice the stunned silence that followed her pronouncement but carried on with an excited explanation.

  “I found it in my magic book! There are things called Arcanics. Which I’m not totally sure, but sound like different kinds of magical spells. It’s called…Adorni…Adono…” She paused, getting a feel for the word. “…Adornomancy?”

  She dove back into the pages again. “Adornomancy is the creation of icon…og…raphy, decoration or other indicators of arcanic expression, which are subsequently attached to prepared objects to take on some or all of the properties of that expression.”

  She looked up proudly, then noticed her parents’ disbelieving looks.

  “What?”

  Matt took a few seconds to reorient his thoughts, trying to process the factual content they had just been read. His mind completely failed to make any progress in assimilating the information.

  “Can I take a look please Kira?”

  “Sure!” She replied, bouncing up from her feline backrest and putting the book onto her lap. Patting the bed next to her, she waited for Matt to sit down. “Here, it’s all right here! See?” She pointed down at the page.

  Matt looked over at the page, but to his surprise, the book which had been gathering dust on a shelf for years, now appeared to contain nothing even vaguely resembling the English language. There were diagrams and text, but they were more reminiscent of pictographs or hieroglyphics than modern written language. Even more confusing, the content seemed to change once his eyes left it. It made him feel nauseous, and he looked away after a few more seconds.

  “I can’t make anything out Kira, are you sure that’s what it says? It looks like total gobbledigook to me.”

  “Huh? What’s that?”

  Matt blinked. “Ah, of course, language older than 10 minutes.” He ruffled her hair affectionately, smirking. “It means nonsense, rubbish, meaningless drivel. You know, the sort of thing you watch on YouTube the whole time.”

  “Daaaad. Just because you’re old, doesn’t mean we all have to be. It’s plain English, same as always. Why can’t you read it?” Her face took on a confused look, as if not even he could possibly be this clueless.

  Matt took the familiar ribbing in stride. “It might be something to do with the weirdness – maybe only you can read the book now? Arlee – did you make anything out in it earlier?”

  His wife looked up from her novel. “No, it made me feel a bit sick, lots of unrecognisable symbols squirming around on the page.”

  “Yup, same for me.” Matt replied thoughtfully. “Kira, what else does it say about… what was it?”

  “Adornomancy?”

  “Yeah, that.”

  She looked down again, took a breath and continued reading.

  “Practiti… Practitioners of Adornomancy imbue the essence of materials, creatures, locations and events into suitably prepared foci, which can then be connected to objects to imbue these objects with the gathered essence.”

  “The effect of the imbued essence is determined primarily by the components used in its creation, combined with the intent of the creator. The magnitude of the imbued essence is determined by the degree of power the creator has achieved through connections to significant loci.”

  Kira looked up at her parents with a thoughtful look on her face. “You know, I’ve seen that word ‘intent’ in a few different places now. I wonder if I can look that up in here as well. Maybe it….”

  “Hold up youngster, stay on course here. What else does it say about my fabulous magical powers, and how the heck did you find that specific reference in a book that thick?”

  She looked confused for a second, then an epiphany seemed to strike. “Maybe it’s that ‘intent’ again! That means ‘to mean something’ doesn’t it? I’ve been flicking through the pages mostly and reading some truly weird stuff… oh, like this cool thing I saw about….”

  Matt put on his best X-Wing pilot voice. “Stay on target, stay on target…”

  “Yeah, no, I mean, I’ve just been finding random things, but then I thought back to your glowing shorts, and the way Uncle Alan joked about you being a wizard, and I really wanted to find out if that was true, and the next page I turned to had this Adornomancy on!”

  “It makes sense, doesn’t it? I mean you made a… a… a badge and put it on your shorts – a badge is like a decoration, isn’t it? I don’t know what an…” She looked down at the page again, still working on the same breath. “…’indicator of arcanic expression’ is, but it sounds right, doesn’t it?”

  Kira finally ran out of breath, and Matt took the opportunity to jump in before the onslaught of information and supposition began again.

  “That’s really good work Kira – and yes – it does fit what I was able to do with the patch I made on the loom. I need to think about how we might be able to use this information to help us out now.”

  “It sounds really cool! Except all that stuff about foci, imbue, essence, loci – you know, most of it all really – I have no idea what that is all about.” Kira was coming down from the discovery high, as the ugly realisation struck her that just because the world seemed to have fundamentally changed overnight, homework was looking increasingly likely to continue.

  Matt thought about what his daughter had read out, thinking back to many of the games played and books read over the years. He had been a voracious reader of all things fantasy and sci-fi, and human inspiration offered some parallels to the concepts they were learning about.

  “The foci – that’s plural for focus, or something that is being concentrated on – is probably the patch. When I made that patch, there were rays of sunlight coming in through the window, and I remember that the light seemed to move around my fingers as I was finishing off the patch. Maybe that is what caused the patch to glow – it had the essence of sunlight imbued into it. That’s…. that’s….”

  His voice trailed off, in shocked amazement. Could that really be it? By all measures, it was unfeasible, impossible and fantastical to even dream about, but the evidence was right there in front of them, on a bloodstained and slightly tatty pair of old boxer shorts.

  He looked over at Arlee, who had remained silent while listening intently. She was just as mystified as he. Kira though, looked as if spontaneous combustion through excitement was a distinct possibility.

  “We’ve got to get back and try this out Dad! Think of all the stuff you could make. You could make a badge with paint that might change something’s colour! Or make a badge with… with a… with a feather and make it really light!”

  Matt took her by the hands and tried to settle her down. “First things first youngster. We have to make sure we’re safe, and have enough to eat, and can protect ourselves in case any of those things come back again.”

  Kira bounced up onto her feet. “I can’t wait to tell La about this! Wait, she’s supposed to be coming over today, I can tell her then. She’s going to be so excited! She will have lots of great ideas for badges to make.”

  Her face took on a scared expression as a dark thought crossed her mind and she turned to Arlee. “She is OK, isn’t she Mum? Will she still be able to come over? You don’t think that those thi….”

  Horror crossed her features like a sudden cloud. “What if those things were at her house as well? We have to make sure she’s okay! We have to go and find her! Can we go to her place Dad, now?”

  Matt folded her in a tight hug. “I’m sure she is fine Kira, she and her family are smart and have a good strong house. We can’t go now, because we have to get things sorted out here, but once we’re ready, if we can do it safely, we can go and check on them.”

  Over the top of his daughter’s head, he looked over at Arlee. The concern on her face mirrored his own. Kira’s best friend Lara lived on the other side of the village, with her parents and brother. She and Kira had been best friends from their first meeting, and were almost inseparable when not forced apart by such inconveniences as school timetables, holidays and the need to sleep. The family’s house backed onto an area of woodland, and their back garden was a regular Mecca for all the wildlife of the area. Dug up flower beds, scratched fences and poo in all shapes, sizes and smells that the British fauna could deliver, were regular topics of amused and frustrated conversation.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  The parents shared a look as they considered the potential for disaster if their nocturnal visitors were more akin to the rats, than something more amiable.

  “Grub’s up!” Alan’s voice boomed from downstairs, causing two sets of feline ears to flinch, and paws with scarily large claws to stretch out. Lion and Oli uncurled themselves from the bed and padded swiftly out of the room and downstairs.

  The family followed on, Kira still looking worried, but an audible rumble emerged from Matt’s stomach, and his wife and daughter dissolved into giggles at the sound. They moved downstairs and were waved into the living room by Carry, joining Alan already sat on the sofa, a large plate of sandwiches set on a table to be shared.

  “Thanks Carry, this looks lovely.” Arlee said gratefully as she filled a plate with sandwiches and chopped vegetables. “We really should take stock of the food we have and how long it will last us. What are we going to do when that runs out?”

  “I’ve been thinking about that.” Alan piped up. “With electronics out, if all the post-apocalypse movies are right, society goes right out the window. Communication, records, transport, shops – nothing is going to work the same anymore, if it even works at all.”

  He paused to take a giant bite of his sandwich, chewing slowly in thought, as the others digested his words.

  “I reckon we’ve got a few things to do first, to make sure that last night doesn’t repeat itself. We’re a bit tight on space to have all of us in one of our houses, so first thing is to make sure that both places are as secure as we can make them. We can get by on the food in cupboards and fridges for a week or so, but….”

  “The food in freezers will need to be used today.” Arlee interjected. “Otherwise, it will spoil, and I don’t think we want to risk getting ill at the moment. Fridges might keep a few things fresh until tomorrow – but after that they are basically useless…unless we figure out some way to get a steady supply of ice – without a supermarket.”

  Alan swallowed and started back in. “That’s the key point isn’t it. No more visits to the supermarket for whatever we need, we will probably need to be self-sufficient until the government gets its act together and starts functioning in any meaningful way.”

  “That was a stretch before this all kicked in.” Matt said with a smile, before going back to his sandwich with gusto.

  “You know it.” Alan replied. “Are you ready to hear my masterplan for the ongoing survival of the Tapper and Brand households?” The others nodded.

  “The garden centre.”

  There was a thoughtful pause, as this was digested. Along with the sandwiches.

  “Think about it. It’s got everything we need right now. Seeds and fertiliser to start growing food. Fence panels and posts to secure the houses with. There are tools we could repurpose into weapons if needed. Water barrels to catch rain….”

  “The crafts shop on site has lots of thread for Dad’s badges as well.” Kira helpfully added in.

  “Yeah, that’s ri…. wait, what?” Alan responded, concentration totally thrown. “I love the input kiddo, but why do we need that?”

  “You were right before Uncle Al, Dad’s a wizard. An Adornomancer in fact. It means he makes badges with his weaving and they have magical powers when you put them on other things. I’ve got loads of cool ideas for things we could do with them, but he can’t make them if he runs out of thread, can he?”

  “High five Kira, that’s a great catch.” He said, leaning over and receiving the mandatory palm slap. “I’ve got a fair amount left at home, but if this can be as helpful as it sounds, then we definitely want a ready supply on hand.”

  “Okay Harry Potter, we’ll add that to the list.” Alan said with a smirk, getting back on track. “Without the van, we’re not going to be able to carry everything, but I’ve got the trailer which we can pull pretty easily, maybe even connect it to your bike Matt?”

  Matt scratched an itch thoughtfully. “That might work, yeah. Maybe a push to get it started, then it might be possible to keep it going with the offroad tyres my bike has.”

  Alan swallowed the remains of lunch and flushed it down with a can of cola. Smothering a small burp, he got up and stretched.

  “So who’s coming?”

  This sparked some spirited discussion for the next fifteen minutes about unnecessary risks, potential dangers and the inevitability of getting distracted at just the wrong time. Carry bowed out of the running early, as an old knee injury prevented her from moving fast. Kira was almost in tears at being told she would be staying with Carry, but Matt found a perfect way to mollify her.

  “I know you want to go Kira, but I have something more important for you to do. I need you to copy out everything that the book says about Adornomancy onto some paper for me, then do the same for the other things that it mentioned – foci, loci, essence – as well as anything else that is related to those things. I can’t start making these things until I know what I’m doing, can I? I need you for that.”

  Kira’s look of disappointment faded slightly, though it was only a downgrade to “a bit miffed”, and she nodded reluctantly.

  “Okay, fine.” She said, biting off the words. “I’ll get on with my homework. But I’m going with you to see La tomorrow then. Deal?” She held out a pinky finger to seal the unbreakable promise.

  Matt took her hand in both of his. “I won’t make that promise Kira. We need to see what it is like out there, and we are not taking risks that we don’t have to. Let’s see how this trip works out first, then we’ll see, alright?”

  She huffed, but eventually nodded.

  Arlee had been a school champion cross country runner, and still ran frequently, though not competitively. Initially sceptical about leaving Kira, the sight of her snuggled in the middle of a ring of feline fur made it clear that she was probably the safest of the whole group.

  Carry joined Arlee, placed a hand on her shoulder and looked down fondly at the girl, who had become something of a surrogate daughter.

  “You know Arl, we got the kittens after… after my miscarriage last year.” She said sadly, reminded of the awful sorrow that both families had felt at the time. “It was an impulse decision to make up for the emptiness, but I never regretted it. I didn’t realise at the time that I was just looking after them until they were ready to become Kira’s bodyguards.”

  The two ladies shared a smile and embraced.

  “Make sure that Alan doesn’t do anything too silly while I’m not around, please?” Carry’s voice broke as she released Arlee from her arms. They both recognised the danger that the group could be going into.

  “I’ll keep them both on a short leash Carry. You know they need a woman around to do the organising; we’ll be back before you know it.”

  The weather outside was bright, but cool, as the morning chill had evaporated quickly in the late-Winter sun. There was a light breeze ruffling the treetops. As the trio left the house and towed the trailer out into the road, they looked back to see Carry and Kira in the bedroom window, looking down, hands raised in silent goodbye. They waved back and made their way over the road to the Tappers’ house.

  Carefully moving through the house to the back yard, they stood watchfully as Matt extracted his mountain bike from the inevitable tangle of tool handles, bag straps and foldable garden chairs in their shed. The sturdy black bicycle was well used, and well cared for, and there was a handy coil of thin rope on one wall which would serve to connect to the trailer.

  Out in the road, Alan took charge of securing the trailer to the main column of the cycle. There were a few false starts, but with the help of some pushing, Matt eventually had the trailer moving, as the others jogged alongside at a comfortable pace.

  In the trailer were bungy cords, an assortment of bags, as well as some tools which might be needed for cutting bindings or locks. Alan’s staff was close at hand by his side of the trailer, but Matt had opted instead for a sledgehammer that he kept in the shed for fitness workouts. It had been an off-the-wall suggestion from a personal trainer friend in order to do more upper body conditioning, and Matt found the repetitive motion curiously satisfying, hammering away at an old tyre. He was more familiar with that than the old staff Alan had lent him earlier in the day.

  Arlee had rejected the idea of carrying a weapon at all, but had her shoulder pack slung over her shoulders, for any more breakable items they might pick up.

  They moved steadily for a few minutes, out of the housing area and onto the main village road, leading out to the nearby A4. This was the primary non-motorway running East to West across the country and was usually busy with traffic at all hours of the day. Even from a mile away though, the group could tell that this traffic was a thing of the past, an eerie silence hanging over the area, as if the land was holding its breath to see what happened next. Reminders of the old normal were scattered around – a jacket looped over a garden gate, a football sitting in the gutter.

  Looking nervously at the sky, remembering the terrifying sound of the unseen winged thing that they had hidden from, Alan directed Matt to steer to the edge of the tree-lined road.

  “Let’s stay close under those trees, less chance of being seen from above, y’know.”

  Matt nodded and began the delicate process of steering the ungainly load he was towing. Going in a straight line was working well, but any manoeuvring was an uncertain process. They had had to stop and begin the process a couple of times already, including extracting Matt from a hedge, when the bicycle’s brakes were woefully inadequate in stopping the trailer’s momentum before one turning.

  All the while, the trio kept looking around nervously for any movement, as well as for any other signs of survivors. The now-familiar scenes were repeated in many of the houses they passed – smashed and splintered doors and windows, bloodstains and silence. A few times one of the group thought they saw movement between drawn curtains, but didn’t want to risk stopping. The mood was grim as they moved on.

  Ten minutes later, they came to the junction on the A4 main road. The silence so unusual for the location was pervasive, and there were no signs of life. Moving along the treeline, they stopped and surveyed the area.

  Along the road in both directions there were vehicles showing signs of damage – some serious. In the distance, whisps of smoke rose from a burned-out wreck, locked in twisted death with two other vehicles. They realised that when the effect had hit them the previous day, a huge number of people would have been driving, losing control as they were crushed into their seats. Cars careering off the road, ploughing headlong into oncoming traffic, their drivers helpless and unconscious behind the wheel.

  Large plumes of smoke rose into the sky in three places, far to the East and West. With a sickening jolt, Matt realised another thing that was missing – the regular commercial aircraft going overhead. Heathrow Airport – one of the largest, busiest in the world – was 30 miles away, on the edge of London. Flights to and from there went over their home throughout the day, and hundreds would have been in the air when their pilots were knocked out. He could only hope that the passengers had been blessedly unknowing of their fate as their planes plummeted out of the sky.

  Offset to their left, another smaller road led from the A4 down into the village of Wargrave. Much of the surrounding area was farmland, obscured by thick hedgerows, with occasional houses dotted amongst the trees. As they crouched in the cover of the treeline, preparing to move over the road, they became gradually aware of a background sound, getting louder. It was regular, though slow, and sounded like a large chunk of stone being lifted and dropped down onto a hard surface. Over and over in a regular cadence it repeated, eventually fading away again and out of hearing. It was unlike any machinery they knew, but almost like… footfalls?

  The group looked at each other with worried expressions. The sound was coming from within the high fence surrounding the garden centre. They would not be alone when they entered, and whatever had caused the noise, it didn’t sound human.