Sunshine

They left Delphine and Emma back at the house. 

‘You two stay here and get some rest.’ 

Silently giving thanks for the obedience programmed into the clones, Kim tucked them into cocoons of quilts and blankets on the sofas, while Joe quickly tipped ice into a plastic bag and threw it into the picnic box. 

‘Please don’t answer the phone or open the door to anyone, will you? Hopefully we won’t be too long.’

* * *

In the car, Xavier kept his temperature a little raised, enough to shorten his breath and produce a dewy sweat on his forehead. He spent the journey calculating exactly how high a level of infrasound would be required for his purposes, computing more than 100 dB would be required. Not audible to the human ear, it would do its work effectively. When researching dB earlier, he had become distracted by several mentions of Dragon Ball Z before he realised the abbreviation also referred to a Japanese fantasy manga cartoon. There were parallels between the two in terms of the effects recorded and it took him longer than it should have, to differentiate between human reality and online fiction. The ability to recognise such distinctions was another skill he needed to add to the clones’ repertoire - and quickly.

‘How are you feeling now? Do you want some ice?’

Kim’s solicitous inquiry interrupted his calculations and he shook his head vaguely. 

‘How much farther Joe?’

‘Couple of miles,’ he said, peering at the map. ‘We turn left there.’ He pointed. ‘There-’

Kim swore under her breath as she overshot the turning. 

‘This would be a lot easier in daylight. The feeble street lights round here are no substitute for sunshine.’  She reversed the car cautiously, worrying about other traffic on the narrow lane, but in truth, they hadn’t seen any other vehicles for the last ten miles or so. The gloom was stygian.