“Hannah!”
There was no movement from behind Hannah's bedroom curtains.
“HANNAH!” Jess repeated, frowning up at the window.
There was still no movement.
Jess, tired of standing on the pavement waiting for her friend, picked up a brick from the ground and threw it with all her might. There was a dull thud as it hit the window, then an ominous twanging sound as the brick bounced off the double glazing and flew back towards Jess. “Crap on a crumpet!” she exclaimed, diving out of the way. The brick collided with the pavement in a cloud of red dust just as Jess rolled into the road and into safety.
Hannah, awoken by the brick rebounding off her window, appeared through the curtains and opened the window. “Jess? What are you doing in the middle of the road?”
Jess, covered in gravel and mud, scowled up at Hannah and swore.

“Hello!!” said Hannah airily as she came out of her front door and shut it behind her. She stopped abruptly when she saw that Jess was covered in red brick dust. “What happened to you?!”
“Jess growled, purposefully ignoring the question she ordered more than suggested, “Let's go shop.”

On the bus, Hannah was writing in the condensation on the window whilst Jess stared forward and said nothing. “You ok?”
Jess nodded slowly.
“Bad day?”
Jess nodded quickly.
“Well...I tell you what, we can go to 'Waterstone's' if you'd like...I guess.” Hannah bargained with Jess' happiness.
“Good!” Jess smiled. “So how's your PlayStation 2?”
“Aww...not too bad...” Hannah patted her bag.
“Jesus! You carry it around with you?!” Jess exclaimed.
Hannah nodded her head and looked down at it. “They say if you neglect it, it malfunctions. But I'm not gonna neglect you my little diddums!!” Hannah tickled the black box and shut the bag once more.
“You know, some people might think you have some sort of perversion. I wouldn't do that in public.”
Hannah shrugged and adjusted the large pink bow tied around the top of her bag.
The bus bounced over the uneven country roads, sending the girls flying in the air. They landed with a bump.
“Ow!” Hannah moaned, shuffling uncomfortably.
“I hope you didn't bump the PS2,” Jess said sarcastically. “It might go crazy and get you.”
Hannah began to look worried. “Oh, God, DID I bump it?” she asked, looking at her bag and stroking it. “I didn't hurt my ickle-wickle-”
“What's all that smoke?” Jess interrupted suddenly.
Hannah looked up and saw that Jess was right - the bus was surrounded by thick, grey smoke. She couldn't see anything out of the window.
The driver put his fog lights on and put his foot on the brake. The bus screeched to a hault, throwing Jess and Hannah forward. They were the only people on the bus apart from an old lady sitting at the back.
“Well, well! It's finally happened! Normality is dead! Smoke will take over the world!” She cackled evilly and then coughed as smoke entered the bus after Jess and Hannah had opened the door. “They're from hell! Entering every organ in my body! Damn you smoke! DAMN YOU!” The old woman's insanity was carried off by the bus as it left Hannah and Jess standing by the side of the road.
“Where are you?” Jess called for Hannah through the smoke, even though she was standing next to her. She reached forwards and knocked something hard.
“Watch my baby!” Hannah screeched, grabbing Jess' hand and walking off through the smoke. Hannah miraculously managed to avoid all obstacles in her path, but Jess made up for this by tripping over every microbe they passed.
“Where are we going?” Jess asked, stumbling over an ant.
“Oxford.”
“But it's...smokey!”
“I know - I want to see where the smoke is coming from.”
There was a silence.
“Are we nearly there yet?”
The sound of Hannah slapping Jess rang out through the smoke.

The smoke seemed to get thicker as they approached Oxford. Hannah had let go of Jess' hand and was now dragging her by the throat. It saved them time and kept her quiet at the same time. Suddenly as they took a few more steps forward, the smoke cleared and the horrific picture slowly faded into view - it was a crater.
“Where's Oxford?” asked Jess, standing up after being dropped by Hannah who was in a state of shock.
“It's...it's gone!” Hannah gasped.
“Even 'Waterstone's'?!” Jess exclaimed.
“Even 'Waterstone's',” Hannah concluded.
“I don't believe it!” cried Jess. She looked in the crater - there was nothing left, only one solitary lamppost, straight in the centre of the bowl-shaped hole in the ground.
“Do you think it was an asteroid?”
“I don't know...” Jess said, gazing into the massive crator at a point where she suspected 'Waterstone's' had been. Oh dear.
“Well...let's go check out the rubble,” said Hannah, optimistically.

Random pieces of debris fell from what was left of the buildings as Jess and Hannah picked their way around the remains of the city.
“What could have happened...what would have done all this?” asked Jess in awe.
“I don't know...” said Hannah, kicking at what looked like a roasted corpse of a pigeon. Suddenly she stopped as she saw what was in front of her and gasped... “MY H.M.V.!!” She wailed loudly, so loudly infact that it echoed around the crater.
“There, there,” Jess said coldly, patting Hannah on the back. Then she turned to see a 'W' lying face down on the ground and a 'STONES' sticking up from the dirt. “Oh dear God!” Jess broke down in tears and fell to her knees, lifting her head and arms to the sky. “WHY? OH GOD WHY?!”

They had been walking for five minutes and had found nothing.
“Oh look...” Hannah pointed ahead of them. “...It's the lamppost!” Sure enough, there it was, standing proud and tall.
Suddenly both girls heard a swooping noise and turned around to see around 20 helicopters flying towards them.
“ARGH!” Jess screamed, throwing herself to the floor. “Giant Eagles!”
Hannah kicked her and watched as the helicopters lowered to the ground nearby. The wind from their propellors blew the debris of destroyed Oxford past them. Jess' 'W' blew away, and she tried to run after it but Hannah caught her arm. The propellors finally slowed and two men in pink catsuits leapt out of the nearest helicopter.
“Excuse me,” the nearest man asked. “Are you Jess and Hannah?”
“If you want an autograph you can get lost,” said Jess, eyeing the man's suit suspiciously.
“Ugh...no,” stumbled the man, thrown slightly. “Actually, we need...er, no...want Jimmy.”
“P*ss off,” said Hannah.
“Fair 'nough,” said one of the men turning to leave.
“Wrong book mate,” Jess called after him.
The men in pink catsuits now with cheeks to match ran back into their helicopters and slammed the door shut.
“Tourists,” tutted Jess once they'd flown off.
“Ahem.”
Jess and Hannah turned to see a tall man in an army uniform. Hannah fainted.
“Sergent J. Hartnett.” Stated the man saluting at the girls.
“Josh?” Jess peered at him closely.
“Erm...no. I'm Jack. I live in Cowley.”
“Sh*te,” Hannah muttered.
“Did you see what happened here?” he asked.
“Damn.” Jack snapped his fingers in defeat. “Well...why are you here?”
“We wanted to see what had happened,” said Hannah.
“So do I,” said Jack.
“Yes, of course you do. You're an army officer.”
There was a silence.
“This is crap,” Jess declared, sitting on an overturned 'M' from the 'HMV' sign. “No shops.”
“And hundreds of years of History...gone!” Jack exclaimed.
“And no shops,” added Hannah.
“Priceless collections of ancient texts and books in the university…destroyed!” Jack sighed.
“And no shops!” Jess cried.
“Yes…well, the army,” Jack signified to the black helicopters behind him which had men clad in army gear jumping out of them, “is here to pick up any survivors…” He stared around. “Looks like you two are the only survivors. How did you survive?”
“Err, well actually we didn't survive, we only just arr…” Jess started, but could go no further because Hannah poked her in the ribs.
“We did survive!” Hannah exclaimed to a confused looking Jack.
“What?!” Jess cried with pain as Hannah stamped on her foot to keep her quiet.
“Sorry, she's a bit disallusional!” laughed Hannah.
Jack stared at them both. “So how exactly did you survive?”
Hannah looked around for ideas. “We hung onto that lamppost.”
Jess smacked her hand to her head.
“Yep, that trusty lamppost,” reassured Hannah.
“Right, well it looks like you two are going to be famous considering you're the only two survivors. But we could sure use strong people like you on the spy force.”
Jess looked at Hannah who was nodding excitedly at her.
“I'm up for it,” said Hannah, grinning at Jack.
“And you?” Jack asked, turning to Jess.
Hannah grabbed Jess' bottom jaw bone and pulled it in time to her words as she said, “Yes please, Jack, I'd love to join the spy force.” She let go of Jess' jaw and smiled at Jack.
He could see there was clearly no point in arguing with this eccentric girl. “Right. Get in the 'copter and we'll go to HQ.”

<< back to Book 2.1

� Jess and Hannah 2002