We all looked at each other and couldn’t help smiling. It was the way he–or rather she–said it, as it was pretty obvious to everyone, probably including Ben, that Adam was a girl...

 

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Chapter 6

Previously…

‘Are you called Adam?’ Nicola asked.

‘Yes, that’s me,’ he replied.

‘Well,’ said Jeanie, ‘you’re safe now.’

‘What about my parents?’

‘I don’t know, they may have survived.’

‘I must find out; they’re only at my aunt’s house at Farnborough.’

‘All right,’ I said, ‘we can go that way. We've got a Land Rover and there's room for another if you want to come with us.’

‘That would be great,’ he said smiling and shakily getting up.

‘Just one thing,’ I said.

‘What?’

‘This might be a strange question, but are you a boy or a girl?’

‘Boy of course!’

‘Erm, this is going to sound weird, but erm, have…have you got a–erm–willy?’

‘What, are you mad like those two over there–? Of course I have…’

His hand had automatically went between his rather damp legs and he felt there. His eyes widened and then he stared in horror at all three of us.

‘Excuse me,’ he said with a strangled voice and hurried back into the room where he had been held prisoner. A few seconds later we heard a strangled voice.

‘Oh, HELL––!’

And now the story continues…

Farnborough

We all looked at each other and couldn’t help smiling. It was the way he–or rather she–said it, as it was pretty obvious to everyone, probably including Ben, that Adam was a girl. How we could smile and giggle like that with two corpses lying a few yards away shows how hardened we were now getting at the close proximity of death.

‘Erm… what do I do?’ said a rather timid sounding voice coming from the small room.

‘What do you mean, Adam?’ I asked.

‘I…I…erm need clean clothes; these are yuckie .’

‘Come on out,’ said Jeanie. ‘we’ve seen a lot worse than the sight of you!’

A few seconds later, a somewhat sheepish-looking Adam came out, walking rather gingerly. She didn’t look at all happy. I didn’t think that it would be a good move to tell her how pretty she was.

‘This is a bit much,’ she said, ‘I’m a bloke not a stupid girl,’

‘Girls are NOT stupid!’ Jeanie exploded, her fiery Scots blood rising.

‘No–sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. But look. What’s happened? Why am I a flaming girl now and look at my hair; my mum would go mad if she saw my hair this long? Last time I checked I was a fully functioning boy with a willy. Now I just have a—a—well, you know–’

‘–A slit?’ I finished the sentence she seemed too embarrassed to end herself. ‘Look, we can’t stay up here. It’s cold and we need to sort ourselves out. Let’s see if there are any clothes that fit you.’

‘What’s wrong with the clothes that I brought with me when I came to stay with the Rev. Farthing and his wife? Oh, let’s go down, this place gives me the willies!’

That set all of us giggling–except Adam who just glared and shot off downstairs.

Back in the vicarage, we all felt a bit guilty about Adam. He had dashed upstairs and was heard making a lot of banging noises. We stayed where we were. I glanced at Jeanie and she raised her eyebrows. We would be very surprised if anything of Adam’s would fit very well if her experience was anything like the one I had after my transformation.

A few minutes later, I had made cups of tea for Jeanie and myself whilst Nicola had some orange squash. We had all pricked up our ears as it had gone very quiet upstairs. Then we heard steps coming down the stairs and Adam came in wearing a dressing gown. She looked like she had been crying as her eyes were red and puffy and her face had signs of dried tears.

‘It’s not fair!’ she wailed.

‘What isn’t,’ Jeanie asked.

‘I only brought enough clothes for a few nights and none of them fit right. I seem to have shrunk a bit and my body has changed as well.’

‘Well, Alex had similar problems. She found it easier to wear girls things anyway.’

‘But I’m not a girl––’

‘–Have you looked in the mirror lately?’ I asked.

‘Yes, but I play rugger and cricket!’ she protested.

‘So do I play cricket,’ Jeanie said, gritting her teeth, her voice losing some of its humour, ‘and Alex plays rugger.’

‘Yea, but with girls, you know; it’s more like rounders than real cricket.’

‘Girls, please let’s not argue.’ I said putting my hands up, as I thought that Jeanie was going to brain the new girl.

‘I–AM–NOT–A–GIRL!’

‘You are,’ I replied, ‘look, do you think I wanted this?’ I waved my hands up and down, ‘I was as much a boy as you were. I was changed by the fog and now I’m a girl. Nicola’s the same, she was changed and she’s not bleating about it. Jeanie’s the only one of us who was born a girl and she’s managed to live through it without any problems. Get a grip of yourself.’

‘Want a fight?’

‘Don’t be stupid, girls don’t fight.’ I said.

‘They do so,’ protested Jeanie, ‘ I had a fight with Julia Farns-Barnes once when she was being really-really catty. I pulled her hair and she pinched me. It was horrible. Some of the girls fought like boys and gave other girls black eyes and things.’

‘Look this isn’t getting us anywhere. Adam, don’t you think we ought to change your name––?’

‘–Adam’s fine,’ came the reply.

‘All right, Adam it is,’ I continued, ‘but we can’t stay here all day, especially if you want to go and see if your parents are alive. Jeanie, can you go up and help Adam to find some clothes out of the things we brought with us? I’ll start packing the car. Come on, Nicola, you can help–’

~ §~

We put everything we could in the car while Jeanie sorted out Adam. All the time I kept an eye on the surrounding area for any sign of the fog, but it had gone and as there was a bit of a breeze I was hoping that it was blowing away from, rather than towards us. We still weren’t too sure about what brought it and why, but the pattern appeared to be that it came just before dusk on a gentle breeze. It didn’t like rough weather… Here was I thinking that it had some sort of brain. It made me wonder what the heck it actually was. It seemed to be intelligent, the way it acted and reacted to us, but that was just an impression. My Dad always says that you must have all the facts before drawing any conclusions, so I would have to wait until we had more evidence before getting a possible answer to what the fog was.

I was picking up the last water bottle, when I heard some steps coming down the stairs.

Turning around I saw Jeanie with a smug smile on her face. As she reached the bottom, she turned and looked up to the top of the stairs.

‘Adam, come on we have to go soon.’

Nicola stopped what she was doing. Ben looked up and panted slightly and my jaw dropped as Adam came slowly downstairs. She was wearing a neat navy-blue pleated skirt and three quarter sleeve white blouse. She was holding a navy cardigan and wore black block-heeled shoes with thick black cotton lisle stockings. The long white socks I was wearing weren’t as warm looking as that and I made a mental note to ask Jeanie if she had any more.

Adam looked very pretty and extremely feminine, I hoped that she would soon accept as I did that we were all girls now and needed to move on.

I just said, ‘You look nice,’ and carried the bottle of water out towards the car.

I winced though, as I heard Nicola put her foot in it right up to the neck when she remarked, ‘I don’t know about nice; I think you’re a very pretty girl.’

‘I AM NOT A GIRL!’

Bravely, I beat a hasty retreat and busied myself making sure that everything was stashed away. I was wondering if the Land Rover was going to be too small because, after cramming everything in, we had to accommodate an additional body–wrong word choice, I meant girl.

After checking the oil and water and kicking the tyres–I had seen Dad do that once and I assumed that it was to check if the pressures were right–we all piled in, put our coats in the back–it was uncomfortable to wear long coats in the car–then with a final glance back at the vicarage, we drove of to find Adam’s aunt’s house at Farnborough. Adam was sitting in front with me. As she got in, I was going to say something witty, but one look at her face made me hold my tongue. The others sat in the back with a rather slobbery Ben in between. I know he was slobbery because he kept on licking my ear and it was very slobbery.

‘Ben, get off me!’

~ §~

I pulled out of the lane and had to stop sharply as a fox ran across the road carrying a dead cat. That was a nice start to our drive and I hoped that things might get better!

I reached the end of the lane and turned into the main road–Southam Road. There were few cars parked or stopped confirming that the original deadly fog attack had arrived here at night. We were able to make good time and soon we passed Mollington and were just a few miles from Farnborough.

‘I need to go wee-wee,’ said Nicola anxiously clutching her skirt expressively.

‘Why didn’t you go in the vicarage?’ Asked Jeanie.

‘Didn’t want to go then. I need to go now or I’ll wet my knickers.’

‘I’ll pull over by those bushes.’ I said.

There was a sort of lay-by and I parked there as Nicola jumped out and ran behind the nearest bush. Ben, her shadow, followed and Jeanie went too because there was no way we would let Nicola go by herself, even to spare her blushes.

As we waited I looked over to a rather quiet Adam. ‘How are you?’ I asked, gently.

She gazed at me with a tear in the corner of her eye. ‘This isn’t right. What is this fog? Why did it change me? Why didn’t I die like the others?’

‘I don’t know. We have to find out all we can about it. Then we can make plans.’

‘So what plans have you got?’ she asked.

‘We are going to Scotland––’

‘–Scotland!’

‘Yes, our parents are there: I explained that they were at an experimental place that was cut off from everything and that we hoped that they might still be alive.

‘I hope my mum and dad are alive,’ she sniffed. ‘All I can think of is them.’

‘I know, we feel the same about our parents.’

‘So Nicola, is she your sister?’

‘No, her dad worked for the school.’

‘So her parents––?’

‘Dead, and her baby brother.’

‘Oh hell, it’s awful isn’t it?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Alex?’

‘What?’

‘I—I—don’t look like a bloke in a dress, do I?’

I looked at her delicate features. She was so pretty, she would be a cracker when she grew up, and I was quite jealous for some reason. ‘No, you look like a girl. If you are going to be a girl. It’s nice to be pretty.’

‘You’re pretty.’

‘Am I? I don’t know about that––’

Just then the others returned noisily and we set off again towards Farnborough.

We turned off the main road at the signpost for Farnborough and found ourselves on the Dasset Road.

Adam pointed the way as we sped along the silent road. I could see out of the corner of my eye that she was wringing a lacy handkerchief in her hand and wondered if Jeanie had given it to her. She was obviously very worried about her parents and aunt. I couldn’t help feeling that if they were alive, they would have come looking for Adam by now. I didn’t say anything though as it would have been unkind.

We approached the village slowly. It was small, with just a single post office-cum-shop and a pub. It was pretty, but as deserted as any other place we had seen on our travels apart from two dogs lying on the green, apparently asleep.

‘Turn right here and then the next left into Forge Lane,’ said Adam.

As we drove up the lane, there were cottages on either side; it was pretty, rural and showed no sign of anything nasty behind the closed doors. Adam pointed to an ivy covered cottage at the end of the lane and I stopped outside the gate. She took a deep breath, looked at me and then got out. I followed her.

‘Wait here,’ I said to the others.

‘You don’t have to,’ said Adam as she saw me, her voice quivering slightly.

‘You aren’t going in there by yourself. Are you sure you don’t want me to have a look first?’

‘No, I have to do it, they’re m—my parents.’

I followed her up to the front door. The door had a strange knocker, the head of an elephant and in it’s trunk, a log. You pulled on the log and then banged the door plate with the trunk. As she knocked on the door and we both jumped slightly as it was very loud and seemed to echo all around us.

They was no answer. We tried the handle. The door was locked. After that we followed the gravel path around to the back of the cottage and that led to the kitchen door. The door was open. We were just about to go in when a large Alsatian dog rushed out.

‘That’s Sam, my aunt’s dog. Sam, come here boy!’

The dog stopped looked around and looked slightly puzzled and then barring his teeth, he barked and then growled, looked as if he was going to come at us and then just turned and ran off through some bushes.

‘Sam’s never like that normally, he’s a good boy. What’s up with him?’

‘I’ve seen a few dogs like that. Maybe he’s scared.’

‘He’s not the only one then.’ She took a deep breath and then turned back and went into the cottage.

As soon as we walked in we could smell it. The awful stench that had grown worse as the days since the first fog attack had occurred. There was no one in the kitchen or the small living room. The smell appeared to be worse as we approached the stairs.

I held on to Adam’s arm.

‘No, Adam, let me, please.’

‘No, you’re just a gir–– oh, God.’

It was hitting her now that she had changed. I led her to a chair. She was a wreck. I think that if she had gone upstairs and seen the one thing she didn’t want to see, it would have broken her. In addition, I didn’t like the look of that dog. We had seen what dogs could do recently and if he had––even I didn’t want to think about that.

‘Stay here.’ I said in my most commanding voice.

I went upstairs before she could say anything else. At the top was a small landing with three doors, all closed. I gulped then opened the first–it was a bathroom and empty. The second one must be a bedroom. As I opened the door, I knew instantly by the smell that somebody was in there. On a single bed, arm trailing over the side was a woman in a pale lilac nightdress. She was about thirty, I would say, with her features distorted and bloated by death. Her eyes were closed and she looked as if she had not woken up when death had crept upon her. I didn’t stay and quietly left the room and went to the next one. The smell was quite strong here and I knew before I even opened the door that death had called here also. The door creaked open and I remembered thinking stupidly that they really aught to oil the hinges–

They were in bed, the man in his striped pyjamas and the woman in a pink Winceyette nightgown. They were hugging each other but were very dead. The man must have been handsome and the lady rather pretty, but now that was all in the past. The only good thing was that the dog had not got to them. By the bedside table were some rings. It appeared that Adam’s mother removed her rings before she went to bed. I picked them up and then went round the other side and picked up his father’s watch and then left the room, shutting the door quietly as if to bang it would waken them.

Slowly I went downstairs. Adam was sitting on an overstuffed couch, her head in her hands.

She glanced up as I approached.

‘Are they?’

I nodded.

‘I must go and see them,’ she said as she rose to her feet.

‘No, you mustn’t. Look, sit here for a minute and let me talk, and afterwards if you want to see them, then all right, you can.’

She sat down again and gazed at me. It was hard to put the words together. I was only twelve. I shouldn’t be here, doing this. I should be with my friends back at school. I was in line for a place in the rugger junior fifteen and now everything was wrong and bad. I took a deep breath.

‘Your aunt and your mum and dad are all dead. I’m sure you realised that as soon as you came in. You probably knew it when they didn’t come back for you at the vicarage. They’re all in bed and they died in their sleep. The doors were shut, so the dog didn’t get them. If you see them as they are now, you will remember them as they are now, not in the way you remember them before. They wouldn’t want you to see them like this, so come away. We must get as far as we can quickly so we don’t have to sleep in the car tonight. Please come.’

She didn’t say anything, but just got up rather unsteadily and moved towards the stairs. I gripped her arm as she almost started up them, and then steered her away and out into the kitchen. She seemed in shock, and very docile–if that’s the right word. We went out into the bright winter sunshine and I held her arm as we ambled along the path, and through the gate to the car. Nicola, got out and let Adam slip into her seat. Then Nicola climbed into the passenger seat as I got into the driver’s. Jeanie was hugging Adam, whose face was expressionless. Ben just curled up in the corner and looked at everyone with doleful eyes.

I had Adam’s mother’s rings in my skirt pocket together with her father’s watch. I would wait until some of the pain had passed before giving them to her.

I squeezed Nicola’s hand, and smiled at her; she looked worried and on the verge of tears herself. She was clutching her teddy and looked every inch her six years. It was so sad that young people like us who hadn’t really had a life yet, had to go through things such as we were experiencing. It made me angry and want to hit out at something, anything, but I couldn’t. I had to be strong and sensible and adult about things even though I wasn’t an adult and did not want to be one before my time.

I started the engine and drove off. I could hear sobbing from the back as Adam finally let go and had a good cry.

~ §~

As we left the village, I saw a signpost that said Farnborough Hall, On a whim, I drove up the road and after a few minutes, saw in the distance on a slight hill, a large rather impressive building. It was a honey-coloured two-storey stone house which, according to Adam, was the seat of the Holbech family–the local gentry–and had been for the past three hundred years. There was a large lake and gardens and it all looked very grand. As we reached the gates, which were locked, I got out and approached them. Nicola came with me.

‘This looks nice. It’s a bit like our school,’ Nicola said, holding my hand.

‘Mmm, it’s the same coloured stone and a similar shape. I wonder if we could get in and have a look––’

Both of us flinched at the sound of a gunshot and some dust that spurted up just in front of me. I nearly pulled Nicola off her feet and we rushed back to the car. I almost threw her in and then starting the car quickly, I crashed the gears into reverse and, looking over my shoulder, reversed to get out of range of whoever was shooting at us. Just then I heard a terrific bang as a bullet hit the wing of the car, nearly making me lose control. Then another shot smashed the windscreen and somehow exited the rear window without actually touching anyone.

There were screams including, I am ashamed to say, my own. Jeanie and Adam were clutching one another looking on in horror and Ben was barking like mad as we careered backwards along the road until we screeched round a bend that hid the both the Hall and the deadly gunfire from us. The road was wider here and I wasted no time in turning the Land Rover round and getting as much distance as I could from Farnborough Hall and whoever it was that tried to kill us.

Reaching the main road, I pulled over and let my head flop on the steering wheel. The others were all talking at once and it took a few moments for things to quieten down slightly.

‘Quiet!’ I shouted after my heart had stopped thudding and I had stopped shaking.

Then a little voice said, ‘I’ve wet myself.’ Nicola looked ashamed and I gave her big hug.

‘If that’s all, sweetheart, I wouldn’t worry about it. At least we’re alive. Anyway, I feel a bit damp down there myself so it looks like a change of knickers all round would help!’

We all laughed and it relieved the near hysterical tension caused by the nut-case who had come close to killing us–and we never even saw who shot at us.

~ §~

I wanted to put as much distance between us and Farnborough Hall as possible. We had no idea if we might be followed, so I drove down the lane and out on to the Dasset Road again, heading towards a place signposted as Fenny Compton. Jeanie had said that we really did need to take a break and sort out our clothes and I had to think about changing vehicles. We couldn’t use the Land Rover like this, with the windscreen smashed and the back window too. We would die of exposure in this cold.

I went slowly, and that was bad enough. We had to stop and put our coats on before continuing very far. We reached Fenny Compton almost frozen solid after about forty minutes. We were now in Warwickshire and I was pleased despite everything, because every county we passed through meant we were that much closer to our parents in Scotland. I knew we still had an awfully long way to go, but we were making some progress.

I pulled up outside a general Stores. Jeanie got out and had a quick look around to see if there was anything unfriendly lurking anywhere near us. She gave us the all clear and we piled out of the car. The shop was locked, so we just broke the glass, and went in, trying to avoid the shards left in the frame. The shop wasn’t very large but was one of those that did a bit of everything from food to ironmongery. There was no one there, it was lockup shop–so no nasty smells, as the owners were probably at home and past caring if anyone broke in or not.

There was a paraffin heater over in the corner and Adam lit it and then we all stood over it until we had warmed up. It was now that I really wished I was wearing some trousers rather than a skirt!

‘Jeanie, have you got anymore of those stockings?’

‘Yes, I’ll dig them out of the bag in a minute. We all need to change our clothes anyway.’

There was a kitchen-cum-store room in the back and after warming up, we brought the cases in and then had a quick change of clothes. We were soon warm and dry again. I was pleased, as apart from my brown skirt and polo-neck jumper, I was wearing some black stockings that felt very much warmer than the thin socks I had been wearing.

Being twins, Jeanie and I were dressed alike, and that made Nicola giggle as she was having great difficulty telling us apart. Anything to keep our peckers up, I thought.

Adam was still having issues with wearing a skirt and top, but she said nothing, no doubt still upset about her parents and aunt. She was very quiet, and Jeanie had whispered to me that we needed to keep a close eye on her.

Nicola was wearing a pink top and knee-length skirt. She was getting really girlie now, and pink was definitely her colour.

We brewed up some tea in a pot that we found in the kitchen. There was some milk but it had gone off, so we used powdered instead–well at least it was wet and warm.

We raided the shelves and found some Lincoln and shortcake biscuits which were highly dunkable and enjoyed by everybody. Dragging up some chairs, we sat around the rather smelly heater as we discussed what to do next.

‘I vote that we find a place near here and stay for the night,’ said Jeanie. ‘we don’t want to be caught napping with the fog.’

‘You think it might come again?’ asked Adam, showing a bit more interest.

‘I don’t know; I can’t find a pattern to its behaviour yet, can you?’

We all shook our heads except Nicola who was busy giving biscuits to Ben while she thought we weren’t looking.

‘Look, ‘ I said, ‘let’s find a place in the village–hopefully without people in it–and then we can plan our next move, which has to include a new vehicle, preferably bigger as there are more of us now.’

Adam looked up. ‘So I can come with you, can’t I?’

‘Of course.’

‘But I thought that you were going to find your parents.’

‘Is that a problem?’ Jeanie asked.

‘No, I don’t blame you. I just hope you don’t find them–well, you know––’

Thinking back, I realised that we hadn’t discussed what Adam was going to do after finding his parents.

‘Look Adam, we aren’t forcing you. If you want to go off by yourself, that’s fair enough, but I think that safety in numbers is a good thing. I said this to Nicola and now I’m saying it to you. With the world the way it is, there’s only going to be a few people around it seems to me that if we can, we should all stick together, as a sort of family.’

‘That’s right,’ said Jeanie. ‘Nicola is our sister now and we want you to be our sister too.’

‘But I’m a b–’ She stopped for a moment and looked down at herself. Her breasts were just buds like Jeanie’s and mine, but they were noticeable. She was wearing girls’ clothes and she had to keep brushing her now longer hair away from her eyes.

She looked at us and grimaced. ‘I am a girl, aren’t I?’

We all nodded,’

‘’Course you are, silly,’ said Nicola in a matter of fact way. ‘You can’t be Adam any more. I went to Sunday school, last week and Miss Tranter told us about Adam and Eve. You look more like an Eve than an Adam.’

‘Very clever for six, aren’t you?’ said Adam, ruefully.

‘I am six and nearly three quarters and that’s very nearly seven and Miss Tranter said I was pre—preco–’ she paused, frowning while she thought–‘precotus–that means clever.’

We all smiled but didn’t laugh at, or try to correct her.

‘I suppose Eve is as good a name as any, but as soon as I can I’m going to be a boy again.’

‘Yes, Eve,’ we replied in unison. Well, we had to humour her, didn’t we––?

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To be continued…
 

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My thanks go to the brilliant and lovely Gabi for editing, help with the plot-lines and pulling the story into shape.