The Watchers Read Online Free PDF Page B

floor towards the door, she said, “For your information, I’m going to a little place called Glastonbury. Not that you care.” She turned and gave Tom a charming smile. “Tom, it’s been a pleasure.” She took one more glance at Jay draining his coffee cup. “Ta, ta!” she sang, and then she left, slamming the door behind her.

Chapter 6
    South-West England
     
    Mia looked to the sky . It was ink black, dotted with a zillion stars. She was alone now, apart from Charlie, sitting at her feet with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. He was panting, but he couldn’t be thirsty since he had a bowl of water in front of him.
    Suzi had abandoned her hours ago, jumping into that old double towed car with the boys. Two other cars had been hitched behind the first, legally required now for anyone just cruising, since the price of fuel had rocketed. The kids around the country had made the concept cool (what choice did they have?) It was ‘tow another car behind you or stay off the road', so the kids met up at parking lots and joined up, adapting their pre-2019 vehicles into car trains to do the circuit.
    Mia had been glad to see them go, but now, as the hours had passed and night had fallen, she couldn’t help wondering what fun they would all be having, whilst she and Charlie sat alone in the dark at the side of a deserted main road.
    The petitioners at the front gate had long gone. They had abandoned their position on the front line, throwing their placards into the trunks of their vehicles and driving away; leaving only a few stragglers to keep the fire alight. On the site, a single porta cabin was illuminated by the solar power panels dotted around the area. A truck started up and drove out through the manned gates, heading to wherever it was destined to go.
    In the centre of the complex at the top of the rig, a spotlight rotated like a lighthouse beacon. She could easily hear the drill screeching its way through the layers of earth and when Mia pictured its progress, she felt a chill in her bones, as she contemplated the earth being torn apart.
    There was no sign of the Watchers. She’d been wrong about that. Honestly, how could someone like her predict the actions of those celestial beings. It had felt good to get Tom’s approval, but come on, who the hell was she in the scheme of things? If it was that easy, everyone would be doing it, wouldn’t they? No, there was nothing to see there. It was time to go home.
    Before she had the chance to put the crocks back on her feet, out of nowhere, an unfamiliar feeling made the hairs on the back of her neck prickle her skin. She rubbed her hand beneath her dark hair as Charlie growled. "Something's happening, Charl'," she whispered. Yes, she could feel something. .. like a storm was about to be unleashed; an unnatural stillness and the lack of a breeze, like the earth was about to receive a deluge of something … She waited a little longer, listening for a noise. Then, as her dog continued growling with his face between his paws, not even thinking about it and charged by the desire to investigate, she stepped back three paces and took a run at the fence. She hit it only halfway up, but her hands grasped it in the right place, giving her enough leverage to lift herself higher. She flung one leg over the horizontal bar at the top and for a split second she seemed to totter there, like a knife balancing on the side of a table. Straining her chest against the hardness of the metal and holding on until she could manoeuvre properly, she pulled her leg over and let her body fall to the other side.
    “Charlie,” she whispered, “Stay there and keep watch. Good boy. Back in a minute. Stay. Good boy.” Mia ran swiftly across the untended prickly grass, past trees reaching to the stars. She hid behind a sturdy elm, fearing being caught and thrown out for trespassing. Holding her breath, she waited for that feeling to return, a feeling that the Watchers were about to