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  Meanwhile the other countdown, my countdown, had begun and I waited.

  The days passed agonizingly slow. We tried to be brave; we tried to look after each other, to uplift one another. We tried as best as we could. Every one of us put up a brave show for the other’s sake. Even Alice tried. So sweet of her! Only when we were in bed, did the stress she was under shine through. Then she needed me for support, needed the close contact and wouldn’t be able to fall asleep without me holding her in my arms, murmuring soothing words.

  As day eighteen started, I felt like an athlete focussing on a shortly starting race. I had to remind myself several times during this day to act normal, not to let the others see any of the tension and nervousness building up inside of me. But my whole body felt like homing in on a target. Every now and then my heart pounded in my chest and my hands turned sweaty. I was glad that we still had no news from Josh. It would have been unbearable to hear from him now.

  As we went to bed that night, I knew everything was ready. I would act tomorrow and then we’d see. I was certainly ready for the show-down with Steve.

  Chapter 8 – a necessary betrayal

  Monday, 4th April 2072

  Despite just a few hours of sleep, I willed myself to wake up early, dressed quickly in jeans and a warm shirt and pullover. I tied my hair into a loos knot at the base of my neck.

  This done, I volunteered to prepare breakfast. Alice liked hot chocolate, Yuki and I tea, and Nin preferred coffee. Fortunately he liked his coffee with milk and a lot of sugar. It meant he didn’t taste a thing; and half an hour after breakfast, he was snoring on the sofa, totally passed out.

  Yuki was livid and, amazingly perceptive of her, immediately turned to me for answers. “What have you done, Lia? Why is Ninian sleeping like this again, he was wide awake just before! What have you done?”

  She tried in vain to shake him awake.

  I quickly interceded, grabbing her by both arms and forcing her to look at me.

  “Yuki, listen, I don’t have much time, so listen up!”

  She twisted her body violently to free herself and Alice was looking on wide-eyed, not understanding what was going on at all.

  “Listen Yuki, please! I haven’t got a lot of time! Nin will be awake within half an hour and I need to be gone by then.”

  She finally stood still, pierced me with her blazing eyes and demanded. “Gone! What! What do you mean? Why on earth would you do that?”

  “Steve! Because of Steve!” I hurried to explain. “Remember when we were at the book shop the other day. One of his cronies works there. He approached me and passed a threat on from Steve. That he and Steve are members of Nemesis! And that he and his people would come for us! And soon.”

  I paused, quickly glancing at Alice to see how she was taking this all. She looked shocked and bewildered, afraid. I extended a hand to her but continued talking to Yuki.

  “That’s why I wanted Nin to check whether there was a car tracking device on our car. Why I made us go to Grindelwald. I wanted to lead him and his cronies on a false trail; making him think, we would go to Grindelwald to hide from this catastrophe. Steve knows about that house in Grindelwald! But he doesn’t know about the sub-basement here. I must bring him to believe that we are hiding out in Grindelwald. I’ve got a plan and it will work! It has to!”

  Yuki just looked at me as if I had gone mad.

  “I haven’t got the time to explain it all to you, Yuki. Just briefly: I am leaving you now. I have to go and lead Steve on that false trail for good. You have to lock the door to the sub-basement after me. I will close the door to the bomb shelter from outside to make it look like we’d left the house. I will take the car and drive toward Grindelwald, but get out from the highway way before. I’ll hide the car in the woods at a place which is just perfect for it and hike it back here from there. I’ll take me 2-3 days to complete that journey. But I will not be able to come back straight here. I will have to stick it out around the house for some days, to make sure Steve doesn’t come back. Do you understand?”

  “No, Lia, you can’t leave us! You must not leave me! You promised!” This was Alice, wailing and throwing herself into my arms.

  I knelt down, pulled her off myself and stood her in front of me.

  “Alice, I love you! More than you know and I won’t let anyone, least of all that prick Steve, hurt you. But I must do this! For your sake, as well as Yuki’s and Nin’s! Do you understand! I can’t let him just come here and try to break into the house, the bomb shelter. He might find out about the sub-basement. And this must not happen!”

  She covered her ears, as if she didn’t want to hear anything and cried.

  I looked up to Yuki, for help. “Yuki, say something. You have to see that I must act. I and no one else! Nin will have to take care of you, your baby, and Alice. I am dependable. Not that I intend not to come back. I certainly will. But still, there’s a risk involved here, and it is for me to take it, no-one else. Should the worst happen, you will make it without me but not without Nin. You’ll have to explain him everything, please. And finally tell him about the baby.”

  Yuki sat down beside Alice, put her arms around her and drew her in. She looked sad, incredibly sad. But she nodded at me, tears in her eyes, she nodded her approval.

  “Good! Thank you! I owe you! Now let me go; there’s no time to lose.”

  I stood up, quickly embraced and kissed them both, then I started for the door.

  “But wait! How can you just go like that? You need things – weapons, equipment!” Yuki sounded totally bewildered.

  “I’ve got everything I’ll need upstairs in the bomb shelter. I have been planning for this for quite some time and I set aside everything. So, don’t you worry about me. Just let me out and lock the door securely behind me. I’ll be all right.”

  I lied, knowing full well that this might end badly.

  “Oh, I need everybody’s mobile phones, though.”

  When they looked at me as if I had gone mad, I added. “Steve knows our numbers and they might try to locate us through our mobiles. If I get rid of our mobiles they will not be able to track us this way.”

  Yuki looked at me dubiously but reached in the pockets of her jeans and handed me her phone. She went to Nin and retrieved his two phones while Alice went to fetch hers. I took them all in one hand and turned to walk up the stairs to the door.

  “And Josh? What should I tell Josh?” Yuki suddenly asked.

  “Nothing! Why should you tell Josh anything?” I replied angrily. Why did she have to bring this up now, it was difficult enough for me as it was.

  “What if the worst happens? What am I to tell him then?” Yuki insisted. “You know that he likes you! And I know that you care for him too!”

  I slowly turned around. She was smiling sadly at me. I hesitated just briefly. “Should the worst happen, tell him that I loved him. But please, explain that I had no other choice. Tell him that I am sorry.”

  Then, refusing to see it all too gloomily, I mustered a smile. “Really, you don’t have to worry. This will work! I know Steve. He is a conceited little shit-head. So full of himself that he can’t for the life of him imagine that I could best him. But I will! You’ll see. Everything will turn out just fine and I’ll be back safely in a few days. I love you all! Don’t you ever forget that!”

  I quickly ran down the stairs again, hugged Alice very tight, gave Yuki a squeeze, then headed up the stairs and opened the door.

  “One more thing, though. I think that it will take at least two weeks until it will be safe for me to return down here. I’ll stick around the house, monitoring the situation for at least ten days. Just in case Steve should return. Once it’ll be safe, I’ll come down and for you to know that it’s me I’ll tap this little cadence on the door.” I showed them. “And I’ll repeat it four times so that you’ll know it’s me. Then, and only then, will you please open the door for me. Okay?”

  I looked at them one final time, smiling, “No
w, Alice, my little darling, never forget that I love you! More than anything! Be safe and help Yuki convince Nin! Look after each other well! I will see you soon!”

  I would never forget the way Alice looked at me. She felt betrayed by me! She didn’t really understand. She just saw that I, who had assured her throughout that I would always be there for her, was now leaving. It tormented me, that look! But I had to go!

  And so I closed the door behind me and a few seconds later I heard the key turn.

  I stood alone in the dark of the bomb shelter and listened hard for a while without moving. But hard as I tried there was only my own breathing I could hear. It took me several minutes before I could brace up the courage to move through the darkness toward the door.

  By the door, hidden in a cardboard box were the little backpack, the flash light, my warm winter jacket and some sturdy boots I had prepared earlier. I found the box, no problem. I put the flash light on, put on the shoes and jacket and took the backpack. I stuffed the cell-phones in it. Then I put on a protective mask, just in case.

  It wasn’t difficult to open the bomb shelter door. But it scared me to hell to think of what might be waiting for me on the other side. Would Steve or one of his men be waiting for me? I had lied to Yuki. I had no weapon. I hadn’t bothered with that, because I felt uneasy with guns and I wanted no such confrontation; the risks it carried were just too great.

  Heart pounding, I finally stepped out of the bomb shelter. I was still in the cellar and the feeling of being alone, exposed and defenceless was suddenly very intense. I stopped and listened hard. But nothing. I tried to discern whether something was different than before. Had someone been here? But I couldn’t detect anything suspicious and finally moved toward the door of the cellar. On the other side of it was the corridor which led to the studio and up into the house and on the other end to the garage.

  Should I go upstairs and check whether someone had been in the house? Better not!

  I entered the corridor and quickly headed for the door to the garage. Still, nothing!

  In the garage, too, everything seemed normal, unchanged. Quickly, I got over to the car, opened the doors and got in. My hands were sweating now. This was the moment! What would I find outside? I pressed the button to open the garage door and simultaneously started the car, my heart pounding in my throat.

  Get a grip on yourself, sissy!

  I scolded myself, but it didn’t work. I felt like panicking. So, I forced myself to think of Alice, Yuki and Nin, and yes, Josh. That made me cope. I couldn’t let them down! I had to do this!

  The garage door opened. The street outside looked eerily normal. I pressed the gas and slowly drove out of the garage and turned into the small road leading away from our house. Still nothing! No cars, no people, nothing. The sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The vegetation was much further ahead than it had been two weeks ago. Spring had arrived. Amazing! I had kind of expected something different, gloomier. And everything was so green! Last time we’d been out, it had still been pre-spring, vegetation wise, I mean, but now everything was in full bloom and gorgeously green. This just didn’t chime with the horror of what had happened all around here in the last two weeks.

  I reached the main road, the round-about and finally the highway. Still Nothing! I drove south toward the mountains. I’d about forty kilometres to go and I wanted to get there fast. I pressed the gas and the car sped along the empty highway at high speed.

  I was totally alone! There was no-one to be seen anywhere, even though I passed houses, some little villages. I couldn’t see anyone. It was eerie; frightening. Was it possible that everyone had been killed? Everyone except us? Could it be that we were totally alone here? Could it be that Steve and his lot had died, too? Could we be that lucky?

  As if on cue my phone that I had put on the passenger seat rang!

  Iiih!!

  I almost careered off the road!

  What the …!

  I grabbed the phone and saw Steve’s number on the display. I let the phone ring five times before I answered it.

  “Lia! Is that you, sweetie?” His voice sounded so off it was beyond anything.

  I said nothing.

  “I know you are there, Lia. I have been waiting for you to come out of your hole! Are they all there with you – your brother, your little sister and that girlfriend of Nin?”

  He sounded pleased.

  “I know where you are heading to, you know! We are following right behind you.”

  I frantically checked in the rear mirror, but there was no car anywhere. I was on a straight stretch of the highway and could see four, maybe five kilometres ahead. I pressed the gas and the car sped forward at full speed. I’d never driven a car at that speed. As the needle approached, then surpassed the 200km/hour mark, I clung onto the steering wheel, terrified. My heart was pounding and I kept checking the rear mirror every now and then. But nothing. Yet.

  All the while Steve had been ranting on, laughing hard. A callous, disgusting laugh.

  “We’ll get you, Lia. And soon. So, don’t even try anything. You’d better just give up and wait for us to get to you. But then again, I like a good chase! So, just try as hard as you can to escape. Oh, it should be fun getting you!”

  “Why are you doing this, Steve?” It slipped out before I knew what I was saying.

  “Why? Why! You ask me WHY!!”He was suddenly yelling, his voice full of uncontrolled anger. “You and your conceited family! Your father who thinks he knows everything better! I wasn’t good enough for you or him! Wasn’t I? But now I’ll show you! Just you wait and see! I’ll be the winner now. The survivor. While you will all die! Ha! And I will document it all, you know. For your father to see what happened to his precious children, who were too good for anyone. Just wait and see. Are you there, too, Nin? I’ll take you out first. You’ll never know what happens to your girlfriend or the others! Just wait till I get there!!”

  He almost screeched these last words out. It was scary, he sounded as if he’d gone mad.

  I couldn’t take it any longer and switched to phone off.

  Almost instantly I got a text message: ‘Nice try – C u soon!’

  I was trembling now, trembling with fear and somehow also with relief.

  After all, I had been right! He had been waiting there for us. He had contacted me, just as I had thought he would. I had read him right! He was too conceited to let a chance to humiliate me, as he saw it, slip. Good! The Steve I knew would never think me or us capable of out-witting him. He probably thought we were scared out of our wits now.

  It seemed my plan would work. An exhilarating thought.

  I had by now covered almost twenty kilometres and was fast approaching the town of Thun which the highway bypassed in the West. To go to Grindelwald, as Steve suspected us to go, I would have had to stay on the highway all along the Lake of Thun and exit it in Interlaken. Then one would follow smaller roads into the mountains and to Grindelwald.

  But this was not where I was going. I planned to leave the highway soon after Thun.

  I drove as fast as I dared, desperate to put as big a distance between Steve as was possible. After all, I would have to stop the car soon for a short moment. In another fifteen kilometres or so. That I wasn’t looking forward to.

  As I was on a straight stretch of the highway now, I reached over to the backpack on the passenger seat and got out all the mobile phones, as well as a small plastic bag into which I stuffed them all. Ready! A quick check in the rear mirror told me that I was still all alone. Good.

  The highway crossed over the river Aare now, the same river that passed near our house. I would soon follow it downstream on foot, if everything went well.

  Then came the tunnel that passed under the western outskirts of Thun and soon afterwards, I could see the highway disappear in a gentle curve in the forest. Just another kilometre or so to go.

  And still no pursuing car visible in the back mirror.

  My h
ands were all sweaty and my breath was racing.

  There! I saw the bridge now. The bridge where the highway passed over a gorge and a river that cuts through the hills here and flows into the Lake of Thun just a couple of kilometres further downstream. I kept on driving fast, not wanting to loose precious time, and only slowed the car down when I saw the bridge ahead. I didn’t stop the car entirely, but just slowed it down and opened the passenger window. Then, when I drove across that bridge, I grabbed the bag with the mobile phones, and flung it out, as far as I could. The bag disappeared right down into the gorge.

  Good! Mission accomplished. Pressing the gas down hard, I accelerated to 180 km/hour and then frantically checked in the rear mirror. But I was lucky. Still nothing.

  I had managed! Wow!

  Try to locate us now, Steve! Try and see if you can!

  I had debated this move with myself a lot when I had planned everything. Whether it was clever to disappear from his radar so early on? Whether I shouldn’t have tried another way? But I had to get rid of the mobiles and this gorge was the perfect place. It was deep and totally inaccessible. Also, it was just a few minutes away from where I had to exit the highway.

  If all went as I had planned, Steve and his lot wouldn’t notice anything and keep on driving toward Grindelwald, totally oblivious that I wasn’t going in that direction at all. Once they’d reach Grindelwald and realize their mistake, they might try to trace our mobiles, if they still had the satellite technology needed for that functioning and in operation. It would take them a while to locate the phones, if they could at all. And even if they could, they wouldn’t be able to deduce anything about our whereabouts from their place of disposal. At least that’s what I was banking on. And keeping my fingers crossed that it would work.