‘Global warming, what a laugh, melted the ice didn’t it, pushed the Gulf Stream southwards and the northern hemisphere truly became the frozen north. It didn’t happen overnight. The winters gradually became longer and the weak sunshine in summer failed to melt the snow, which built layer on layer, until everything was buried beneath it. Thousands died and those that survived the arctic conditions joined the long trek to the south.
‘We – your Dad and me – were children, I was nine and your Dad ten; we came from the same part of the country, a place that was then called, South Tyneside, your Dad from a town called Felling and me from a place known as Jarrow… What’s that sweetheart?.. Don’t worry about it, you don’t need to know, towns and even countries don’t exist anymore. Now there’s only The Outside, where we live, and The Federation, beyond the Great Wall.
‘Where was I? Ah, yes, we joined a gang of other people to travel south; my Father, Grandpa Joe, said we had too, for protection against the other gangs… Yes, I know we’re in the Nissan Gang, dear, but back then, living in a gang for protection was new to us, we had always lived in a small family unit with our mum and dad… Yes of course darling, you live in a family unit too, and you’re a very lucky girl, because you’ve got another twenty mums and dads besides us.
‘Anyway, before we set off south we had go north to Newcastle and forage for supplies. Newcastle, unlike the Metro Centre hadn’t suffered much in the way of flooding. It was buried under snow, not ice, this meant that it was possible to enter the buildings at a higher level, make your way to the bottom and tunnel from there into Eldon Square and the other shops in the city centre.
‘The problem was that lots of others had the same idea as us and the city was like a war zone, gangs were fighting gangs for possession of the buildings and tunnels, while others were ambushing anyone who tried to leave the city with supplies.
‘Will told us all about it before we even reach the city… No, Sugarpie not Will Johnston, he wasn’t even born then; Grandpa Will, he was the leader of a gang from, Felling, then… Yes, good girl, that’s right, the gang Dad was in.
‘We had just reached Gateshead side of the river when we came under fire from a sniper on top of the Tyne Bridge and had take cover behind the tops of some buildings. The cover was already occupied by Will’s gang and after Grandpa Joe and he had talked, they decided that by combining the two gangs we would have enough manpower to protect a building and tunnel for supplies. But to get the supplies we had to get into the city, Grandpa Joe and two men went upriver to check out the other bridges, but they were all barricaded and manned by gunmen and we didn’t have enough guns to launch an attack.
‘Due to the river having flooded and then frozen, we hadn’t needed to cross via one of the bridges and had only made for the Tyne Bridge because it was the easiest route into the city. Now that we knew the bridges were guarded, the decision was made to cross on the ice, but it would have been dangerous to do so within rifle range the bridges and grandpa Will suggest we wait for dark.
‘We made our way down river, broke into the Baltic – we were the first and possibly the only ones to do so, after all, we had no need for any kind of art – and waited until it was dark to crossed over, further down river. We made our way into the city and managed to find an unoccupied building in Fenkle Street, Grandpa Joe had picked it out because he knew there was a small gun repair business in the basement, besides we could get the supplies we needed from the smaller shops in Clayton Street.
‘It took three days to get all the supplies we needed, then we left, as we came, in the dark and the next morning we began our long trek southwards… And there, my little sleepy head, we must leave the story, because it’s long past your bedtime… Yes I promise, I’ll tell you more tomorrow.’
