This Green Earth

 

Chapter 1 – The Cat’s Whiskers 

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A few weeks into the meltdown she had missed the TV and radio, they had given her company, but after them not being there anymore, it was like they had never existed at all. A long time ago she and her husband had made a Crystal Set. It seemed like a magical device at the time as it was able to receive and transmit signals as the radio did, but needed no batteries or mains power. It had cost next to nothing to build as most of it was made of bits and pieces of wood and wire that had been lying around. Now with nothing else available, it had come to the fore, she used it every day to pick up messages and broadcasts. It passed the time and of course it regularly reminded her of him. The seemingly distant voices and music it produced were distorted and surreal and when they came through the air they were ghost like. He had called it 'The Cat's Whiskers' for some reason, it must have been what he had learnt as a lad. Just recently there had been more regular announcements from a source claiming to be the ‘Central Government’, whatever that meant. They spoke of restoring order and rebuilding the vital infrastructure, of forging the former civilisation and bringing back peace and normality. She didn’t know whether to believe them or not and as she sat in the black gloom of the kitchen, warming her feet by the small fire, with the rain hammering on the corrugated roof like a marching band, the world and all its troubles were drowned out.

 

 

By the sights of her rifle with intricate silver inlay, three men now lay dead at the bottom of the field and they would soon be joining the others that had met a similar fate in the big ditch by the woods.