Resurgence Read Online Free PDF

as something hard bounces off the lorry door, the echo clanging around our enclosed space and making us
all cover our ears.
    We are so cramped that when I push myself into a sitting position, I have to apologise to Jela for standing on her hand and Evan for kicking him in the shoulder. There is no glass in the space
where there would once have been a windscreen but I wedge myself into a position so I can see where our camp was.
    In the couple of minutes it took us to get away, the cliff face of washing machines, tumble dryers and fridges have collapsed across what was once the clearing, the three cars we had been
sheltering under flattened and buried under mounds of metal. Everything is in the shadow of a plane, which is directly overhead. The roar is so loud that I can feel it more than I can hear it.
    Slowly the drone quietens as the plane passes. It has been at least a minute since it dropped a bomb. ‘Do you think that’s it?’ I say to Evan, but his shrug says it all.
    For a few minutes, I allow myself to think that we are safe but then the steady whine of the engine slowly begins to increase again: it is on its way back.
    As I try to get a better view, Evan calls from the other side of the cabin. ‘Can you hear it?’
    ‘The plane?’
    ‘Listen to the engine.’
    I’m not sure what he means at first but then I hear it – a click and a whirr before the rumble begins again. I can’t hear what he shouts as he calls to me a second time, but I
read his lips: ‘It’s running out of fuel.’
    I have no idea how many bombs a plane like this could carry but it will likely dispatch anything it has left before the fuel is gone.
    I nudge myself higher up the side of the cabin until everyone can see me. The plane is getting louder, so I have to shout. ‘I’ve got to head south. Anyone who wants to come is
welcome but we have to go now!’
    Everyone rearranges themselves and the cabin is a mass of apologies as we all stand on each other. I clamber across until I am next to my mother by the door. She wants to ask where I’m
going and what I have planned but there is no time. I hug her so tightly that she has to stop talking and then cut in before she has a chance to begin again. ‘I don’t know if I’ll
be coming back.’
    Her fingers cup my face as she swallows a sob. ‘You’ve already made me so proud.’
    ‘There are so many places you can set up around here, even after things have collapsed. That might even make it easier to find somewhere better hidden.’
    Opie, Jela, Hart and Pietra are fixing bags to each other’s backs. Evan is tying a blanket around his waist and mouths ‘I’m coming’ when he sees me.
    Given Opie’s father was one of the people most opposed to my presence, not to mention the fact he has been a staunch nationalist the entire time I have known him, it is quite a surprise.
I’m not sure if I want someone so much older with us, but I have no time to argue.
    I look back to my mum. ‘Samuel’s good at hunting and it’s easy to collect water. You can set up a proper community here. If Kingsmen come, there are enough spaces to hide. Let
Imp guide you – he’ll know the hidey-holes and caves better than anyone. Try not to go out into the open unless you have to. If they’re bombing Martindale, this place will be far
safer.’
    She nods, understanding.
    ‘Put something bright on,’ I shout to the others as Mum helps me pull a red blanket out of my bag. I tie it around my shoulders, letting it flap like a cape, and then say quick
farewells to Samuel and Iris, before leaning underneath and waving goodbye to Imp, Colt and the others.
    When the rest have clambered out of the cabin, the sound of the plane becomes so loud that no one would be able to hear my voice, so I set off running across the newly created sea of carnage.
The sharp corners of the battered pieces of machinery are relatively easy to see but still provide a few awkward moments as I climb, run and balance my way