Chapters (50)
By the time Hamza and the Doctor were seated in the back of the truck, it was dark. Rain had begun to move in sheets, sideways across the base. Their backs and shoulders were soaked through. Hamza closed his eyes against the pain and leant the back of his head against the side of the truck. The Doctor rolled up his wet jacket, pushed it against Hamza’s ribs for protection. Hamza opened his eyes. The Doctor coming in and out of focus as he rummaged for a handkerchief from his pocket to dry his face. He was breathing heavily. Both of them were. Then, when the Doctor was sure that Hamza was as comfortable as he could be, he banged on the side of the truck with his fist until they heard the engine ignite. The Doctor watched Hamza’s face as they drove over speed bumps at the checkpoints to the base. It was dark again in the back of the truck save for the square of orangey light that penetrated from the window between the back and the cab. Dark figures in the front. Adley, his feet already up on the dashboard, the driver next to him. Paperwork. Permissions. Radioed instructions and the metallic scrape of the electric gate opening. The wind was putting pressure on the side of the truck, the driver sometimes over-correcting. And then, the surge of the engine as they found the coast road.
The winds screamed around the cottage. Nefyn watched as her specimens shifted in the cabinets. Clustering. Diverging. Some shelves had come loose, glass squares shattering as they fell on to the shelf below, scattering objects everywhere. Her mind, her head, was full to bursting and for the first time in years, she felt dangerously alive.
She walked towards the wooden door and let it open without bracing against it. She gasped as the storm came to meet her, embraced her. She moved along the side of the cottage wall as the gale seemed to replace her breath with its own. Breathing her in. She stood for a moment, preparing herself. Her back against the cottage. She could feel its walls trembling. Could feel the ground beneath her shifting. Then, she turned the corner and stepped to face the full force of the wind and the rain. She allowed the wind to hold her on the precipice of the cliff. The dark waves down below thundering around the cove. She closed her eyes. Her hair whipping, the wind pulling at her dress. The waves were higher than she’d ever seen them, dark and surging, rolling violently.
Nefyn stood still as, five miles along the coast, the cliffside gave way. The road crumbled, tipping a truck sideways, throwing Hamza and the Doctor into each other’s arms. The sound of a landslide. Glass breaking. The world falling. The plunge into water. The whites of eyes, terrified. Then, the profound silence as the icy cold engulfed them.