The Dust: Book Two - Pursuit Read Online Free PDF Page A

the old dust sheet up to Amber’s neck. ‘You stay here and get some more sleep.’ She went to get up but she knew she needed to warn her granddaughter. If she didn’t and something happened she wouldn’t be able to live with herself. ‘Please stay away from the loft hatch and don’t try and talk to grandad, he’s still very ill.’ Joyce then stood up,
    ‘Okay Grandma, don’t be long I’m hungry.’ Amber whispered.
    Tears welled in her eyes as she looked down at the bundle of rags that he granddaughter lay under, she really didn’t want to leave her but she had no choice. Swallowing hard to keep her emotions in check she turned and pulled herself up and out of the loft window.
    Joyce was quite impressed in how nimble she was, not bad for a sixty two year old. Crouched on the roof tiles and gripping the outside of the hatch she looked around, it was a great view and she could see for miles. In the distance she could see the second Severn crossing but it was the sound of smashing glass that caught her attention. This had become a regular and discomforting noise, the streets had been hauntingly quiet but every now and again glass would smash. Looters? Robbers? Joyce’s mind had been in overdrive.
    She needed to slide in a controlled manner to the guttering and then using the drainpipe she could climb down onto the conservatory roof. It was made with toughened glass so she knew it would take her weight not that she weighed that much as it was. Using her hands Joyce shimmied down to the white plastic guttering with ease, again she was impressed how agile she was. Perched on the edge of the roof she was about to climb down onto the cast iron drain pipe when something caught her eye, she could have sworn she had seen a man by her garden fence, she looked again but there was nothing. Stupid cats.
    Joyce threw her legs around the pipe and began to move slowly down towards the glass roof. Christ , she thought to herself, it was a long time since she had climbed up or down a drain pipe. She remembered Jimmy Knight and the summer evening where they had gone back to his house to ‘kiss and cuddle’, that seemed like two lifetimes ago. Her heart still fluttered when she recalled the front door of his terrace house slamming shut and his mother calling up the stairs. Joyce even began to blush when she remembered she had to quickly pull her bra back down and hastily button her blouse back up. She even smiled when she recollected Jimmy’s panic stricken face as his mother started to climb the stairs. That had been the last time she had shinnied down a drain pipe, after that little episode Joyce had decided to concentrate on her exams instead. They were only sixteen and school sweethearts but those were the days when innocence and purity were at the forefront of every respectable working class family when really the reality was quite different.
    Joyce held her breath as one foot touched the hard glass, it squeaked as she put her weight on it but still held onto the drain pipe as though her life depended on it. Her next foot felt around precariously before resting and Joyce loosened her grip slightly, the glass creaked but seemed to hold. Looking around she worked out that she needed to lower herself as slowly and as carefully as she possibly could and then shuffle to the edge. There Joyce could turn around and ease her way over the gutter and onto the wall that lay between the patio and the garden.
    She let one hand go of the drain pipe and then another and using the brick wall as a support she inched her way down until her bottom touched the glass, it was cold. Again something caught her eye by the garden fence, she thought it moved. Joyce stayed breathlessly still, she could feel her heart pumping through her chest. Was it cats? It was too late to go back up now anyway and she needed to get help or at the very least something for them both to drink. Using the palms of hands as suckers she gently slid herself down the pane of