Power Sabotaged : A New Life For Sheila : Part 2 : Heavengate

Power Sabotaged : A New Life For Sheila
Part 2 : Heavengate

A tired and dishevelled looking middle aged woman was walking towards her, burdened with a couple of bagfulls of groceries, she assumed. Their eyes met and Sheila was about to look away out of politeness, when the woman’s gaze locked onto her own. “Are you going to the Heavengate shopping centre?” asked the woman.

“Yes,” replied Sheila, wondering how she knew. Of course everyone was going there, looking for food, like herself. It was not difficult to guess.

“I wouldn’t bother if I were you,” said the woman, lowering her bags, thankful for a reason to place them on the ground for a moment or more.

“Why not?”

“There’s no food left there now.”

“Really? That can’t be.”

“All the food was sold up this morning. They’ve been selling it to traders who’ve been offering a good price to the supermarkets. Someone bought up the last of the tinned meats. The refrigerators stopped working when the power cut began. They rigged up the generators but there’s not much fuel for them to use, so they haven’t been able to keep the frozen food frozen the last couple of days.”

“Hell!” Sheila swore. “I need some food.” It was unlike her. She was normally a polite woman, but the severity of the situation was beginning to sink in. Thankfully she still had some food at home but not enough to last for very long. All her frozen food was going off and there was no gas either now. She couldn’t cook anyway.

“You’ve got some food, I see,” said Sheila. “Where did you get yours from?”

“I bought some groceries from some of the traders who’ve set up in the car parks. They’re selling rice from the back of cars, and other stocks of food. They’re charging high prices for everything, and getting higher by the hour. It won’t be long before these traders will be out of stock.”

“But what’s the point buying rice if we can’t cook it?” asked Sheila.

“Some people can still cook, if they’ve got their own generators or gas canisters, or barbecue charcoal. Some people have been burning wood.”

“Did you have to pay much for the food?”

“Oh yes. They’re really ripping people off,” said the woman.

“I’ve got some money,” said Sheila.

“I should hope you have. You’ll need it!”

“I had better get down there while stocks last then!” said Sheila.

“You had better.”

As soon as the woman had gone the thought crossed her mind that she should have offered to buy some items off the woman. She would not have sold, Sheila was convinced. The woman wanted it for her own purposes, needed it as much as she did. Later it occurred to her that she should have pleaded with the woman to let her have some food, otherwise she would be in great difficulty.

Sheila went into the shopping centre. Before the power cut Heavengate had been a shoppers paradise. It was one of Sheila’s favourite places. She had spent much time here over the years, with friends and sometimes alone, exercising her consumer rights to shop for fun. Shopping for nice things had always made her feel better, if she was bored and just wanting something constructive to do, or depressed, or feeling lonely. Luckily she earned enough in her office job to live comfortably and afford occasional small shopping binges.

The lights were off now, during the day, conserving the precious energy of the generators. There were large crowds of people here, milling about, scavenging for food, like herself, whole families together, so they might carry more food if they found it. There were also many loners, people on their own, scavenging or just giving themselves something to do now the TV was off.

She passed a computer games shop and was surprised to see young boys from an early age up to teenage, pressed up against the glass. There must have been at least twenty of them. The doors were shut and locked, but the shutters had not been brought down. She had to wonder, at first, what these kids were doing, mesmerised and intent on nothing but the games boxes and game consoles displayed in the window, the latest releases. They were not interested in looking for food or necessities. They were here because the electricity shutdown had deprived them of their meaning in life. They had been starved of computers, and games consoles, for a few days now, and they did not know what to do with themselves.

She realised just how badly socialised some of these kids were. They were interested in nothing else than the objects within the shop window and the worlds of cerebral action which the mere spark of electricity could bring to life. Without that spark they were themselves lifeless, like zombies. They were interested in nothing else. The other kids did not interest them, unless they were to talk about computer games perhaps. But the kids here did not seem to be talking to each other at all. Where were their parents? Doubtless they were shopping, or looking for food.

Sheila saw for herself the emptied supermarket. As the older lady had said the stocks of staple food items had already been sold off to customers and to traders who apparently were out in the car park.

All stocks were long gone, virtually, her journey wasted. What would she do? What would the others who congregated at the shopping arcade do now? She could never have thought it just five days ago, or at any time in her life, but there was a real possibility of starvation, for all of them. Her rational mind knew this, but her emotional mind was not ready to accept the possibility. They had all been brought up in a land of plenty. Food shortages were something only Africans experienced, from time to time, or malnourishment among poor communities in some parts of the world.

Where was the government? What were they doing in this crisis? For the only time she could ever remember electricity was completely off. That meant there was no TV or radio! There was no information, no communication, no media at all! The last 50 years at least, or 70, maybe more, appeared to have been wiped out!

Bearing the little food she had found Sheila returned over the hill towards her own home. She was aware that she must return while it was still daylight. Knowing that there would be a real dark tonight again she feared it. Without electricity to see by she was not even sure she would be able to find her way home.
A body lay beside the path, plastic bags strewn around the person. Alarm filled her. Had no one reported this to the police? Was this because whatever had occurred had only just happened? Was she in danger herself?

Sheila came closer to look. Hadn’t she got problems enough of her own, she exclaimed to herself. However her sense of civilised duty was strong and overcame her selfishness. The cardigan and skirt, in which the body was dressed, looked familiar. It was evidently a woman. Concern for the unfortunate woman became stronger now she had become involved. She hoped the poor woman was alright.

“Are you okay? What’s happened here?” She called out as she came to the woman. The woman was lying on her side, bare legs apart, skirt riding up her legs. The hair was dark, and long enough to cover the face. The body gave no response to Sheila’s call. Without delay Sheila’s fingers pulled the hair away from the face. Sheila was struck by surprise and shock. The face was familiar. This was no stranger. The gradual creases of age and the gentle feminine features revealed this to be the face of the middle aged woman she had met on the way to Heavengate, not so far from this point, earlier in the afternoon. What could have happened to her? Was she even alive? She felt connected to the woman now. Sheila touched the face. She was relieved to find it warm. Yes there was a pulse.

“Are you alright? What has happened?” she repeated. “Can you hear me?” She felt the woman’s body through her clothes and looked for injury. Could the woman have had a heart attack or seizure of some sort? She realised that, as her shopping bags had been taken, the woman was likely to have been mugged. Her food bags had surely been stolen.

There was movement. The woman’s arm and leg moved, reacting probably to Sheila’s touch. Sheila was relieved to see the woman’s eyes flicker open.

“Are you okay?” she repeated. “What happened to you?”

When the woman had come round a bit more she explained, “There was a group of men, and a woman as well. They asked me to sell the food, mainly rice, to them, for the old price. I refused, naturally. I said the food was worth a lot more than that at the moment. I said I had paid a lot more than that for it, because I needed it. They said they needed it for their families, and were only prepared to give me the old price. I said it wasn’t for sale at any price. I needed it for my family. I wouldn’t sell it at any price.

“I could see they were becoming threatening and I was worried. They demanded that I give them the food for the old price or they would take it. I said there was no way I was going to give them my food, they would have to find someone willing to sell. Then they got really nasty and all ganged up on me, except the woman. She stayed in the background, while the men came forward and started to pull my bags away from me. I wouldn’t let go, so they pushed me over. That is the last I remember. I must have been knocked out.”

“Perhaps you banged your head on the pavement?”

“I do feel sore up here.” She felt her head, parting her hair, and Sheila bent to look.

“Yeah, its been bleeding,” declared Sheila. “There is a scab forming. Hopefully it doesn’t look bad.”

“They might have hit me with something, but maybe it was me when I was pushed over. They were getting violent, although I think they only wanted my food.”

“What is the world coming to?” said Sheila, “When grown adults are prepared to take food off a middle aged woman.”

The woman looked thoughtful, thinking before she spoke. “This food shortage is getting serious. If the government doesn’t get its act together there will be a lot more of this lawlessness.”

“I suppose people are bound to steal rather than go hungry,” agreed Sheila, pessimistically. “If they can do this only a few days after the power went off, I hate to think what might happen if they can’t restore it soon.”

“Surely it can’t be long before they restore the electricity, and now the gas too. It is a nightmare, but they can’t let a bunch of middle eastern terrorists do this to us. Surely they can restore the power.”

Sheila helped the woman to stand after resting for a time, and walked with her part of the way down the hill, back to her house, which was not far away. The woman was fine now and seemed to be able to put the attack behind her. She was very grateful for Sheila’s support.

“Here. Have some food with me,” said the woman. “You deserve it, for all you’ve done for me.”

“Are you sure you have enough? You lost all the rice and all of your other foods.”

“You need food too. I know you failed to get much!” Indeed Sheila had purchased a bit of food in the car park too, some rice, at an extortionate price which she would never have paid in normal times. “They robbed me of most of today’s shopping, but miraculously they have overlooked one of my food bags. They must have felt so guilty at leaving me unconscious that they ran away without stopping to check they had it all. I do have some stocks at home also. So stay for some food. I can see you need some and you’re getting desperate!”

“I do, its true. I have very little at home. Okay I’ll stay for a while, but I must be home by dark,” agreed Sheila.

( To be continued )