Chương 4: [Edge of the Map]

The walk away from the square was quiet. They headed up the main road, the noise from the crowd at the Civic dropping off behind them. The afternoon sun was still high, and the heat radiated off the pavement. They passed the old red-brick church on the left. Its doors were shut and the windows were dark. Further up, they passed the row of small shops—the newsagents, the hardware store, and the barbers. All of them were shuttered.

In one of the terraced houses, a ginger cat sat on a window sill in the sun, watching them pass.

"Anything changed on yours yet?" Phil asked, nodding at the air in front of Leo.

"Nah," Leo said.

"Still the same. Initialized screen, grayed-out tab at the top."

"Same here," Phil muttered. They reached the junction and turned onto Murray Street. The road drifted off-angle to the right, a slightly skewed stretch that eventually straightened out to point directly North toward where the cemetery should be. Wheely bins were still out on the kerbside. A takeaway box sat in the middle of the road. The rows of parked cars sat still. Even with the sun out, there was no movement in any of the houses. They kept walking toward the end of the road.

"Wait," Luka said, slowing down as the road straightened.

"Where's the SPAR?" They kept walking until they were past the slight angle in the road. As the view ahead opened up into a straight line, they all stopped. The houses continued for another thirty yards and then just ended. The road didn't curve again or narrow down. The tarmac ran straight for a few more meters and then stopped in a hard, clean line. Beyond that line was a patch of cracked gravel, then raw dirt, and then grass.

The local SPAR, the Lotus Garden Chinese, and the rest of the houses leading to the North Cemetery were gone. There was no rubble or twisted pipes. The infrastructure had just ceased to exist. Leo walked to the edge of the tarmac. He looked down. One of his trainers was on the road; the other was on a patch of thick green grass. Beyond the dirt, the land rolled away in soft hills under the afternoon sun. There were no street signs or telephone poles. To the right, a fair distance away, the sea sat flat and blue.

They could see the edge of the marina, but the docks and the town further up the coast were missing. Ahead of them, a massive treeline stretched from the coast, running East to West across the northern horizon. It arced away in a South-West direction until it ran deep along the West side of the town, keeping a fair distance from the last of the houses.

"It's all just gone," Phil said. Leo stood at the edge. He'd stood on this corner last week waiting for the bus into town. Now the bus stop was gone.

"My kids were meant to call tonight. They're with my mum in York," Leo said.

"Jake was going to ring after his tea."

"I was only hanging round for another hour," Parmo said. He was looking back at the houses that were still standing.

"Was going to get a taxi home. My brother's with the girls. They'll be wondering where I am by now." He put his phone back in his jacket.

"He'll keep them calm. He's good like that." Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"My dogs are home," Phil said. He looked at the treeline.

"Mum's got a key. She'll notice eventually. I just hope it's not too long before she checks."

"My family... they'll probably just think I'm busy for now," Luka added. He looked at the empty horizon where the bypass used to be.

"Until they see the news. This has to be all over the news already. Everyone must be thinking the worst."

"Yeah," Phil said. Sam stood with his hands in his pockets, his eyes tracking the line where the road stopped.

"Right. So obviously this is all real. Everything this side of town has disappeared. It's likely like this in the other direction as well." Leo looked back over his shoulder, toward the south of town.

"Which means there's no way south to York from here. No way anywhere." Luka looked at the others, his voice tight.

"There's got to be something outside of here. A road, a signal, something. We can't be stranded here, wherever here actually is." Phil stared at the treeline, then down at his feet. He didn't speak; he just crouched and picked up a loose bit of concrete from the edge of the tarmac. He tossed it underarm. It thudded into the grass and rolled a little, then stopped. The grass sat there in the sunlight. The wind moved across it, and that was all.

"We should get back," Sam said, breaking the silence.

"Mike's going to want to know." They turned away from the edge and started walking back toward the square. They walked faster than they had on the way up. They passed the church again and the house with the cat, but nobody paid it any attention. When they stepped back into the square, the people turned toward them. Mike Ellis stepped forward.

"Well?"

"Road's gone," Phil said.

"Ends in gravel. After that, it's just grass. Sea is still there to the right, but there's trees everywhere else. Big treeline north and west."

"No buildings?" someone called out. Leo shook his head.

"Nothing. You get to where the SPAR usually is and it's all just gone. No shops or houses, no cemetery. Nothing. The town just ends."

"You sure you didn't take a wrong turn?" a man asked.

"We know the street," Luka said.

"It's just not there anymore." The crowd started to murmur. Mike looked at the people who had stepped up earlier—the café worker, the gym lad, the salon owner. He gave a nod and turned to the crowd.

"Right then. Town's cut off. That means this isn't a storm or a tech outage. We need to start acting like it. Start counting what we've got. Food, water, meds. If it can spoil, it gets used first. We figure out shelter. No one sleeps rough. We check the electric—we've got the solar, so we need to know what's running and what isn't. And we need a count of people. How many of us are here? Let's get to it people." The crowd started moving toward the Civic. Leo stood back, watching.

He glanced at Parmo, who was staring at his phone. Phil and Sam weren't talking. Luka had crouched down, elbows on his knees. Then the UI flickered. The initialising text was gone. In its place, blue-white lines formed a message. All is not lost. Those beyond the veil remain. Grow strong. Strike forward. The path to them lies ahead. Seek power. Seek understanding. The world reshapes around will. Phil let out a breath.

"Well. That's new. What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Parmo straightened up.

"You think that means they're alive?" Leo read it again.

"Yeah, but I think it's more us that are at risk of that changing any time soon. Unless this has happened elsewhere, that more or less confirms everyone else back home is still good..." Luka stood up.

"Jake and Olly are with your mum, Leo. And your brother's got the girls, Parmo. They're safe. They're with people who'll look after them." He looked at Phil and Sam.

"And whatever this is, it's telling us there's a way back. So we need to figure out what that means. It feels a little like a quest or something."

"I mean, I'm not going to treat our situation like a game or anything, but you're right," Sam agreed. The square was a mess of movement now, but the five of them stayed still for a moment, eyes locked on the glowing text. Then the UI pulsed. A small icon appeared in the corner of the screen—a small tab. It flashed once, then stayed. Leo narrowed his eyes at it.

"That there before?" Phil said.

"No," Sam said.

"That's new."