“How can you live in a city where a child stabs another child to death every couple of weeks and not see the sword? How can you live in a city where one child in five is going out to school without having had and breakfast and not see famine? How can you live in a city where foxes steal babies from their beds and the politicians fuck pigs and not see the wild beasts? Plague is the last horseman. It’s not like you weren’t fucking warned.”
Are you paying attention to what is going on around you? Most aren’t. Perhaps they are distracted by endless tales of wars being fought elsewhere, made to believe their rage can be channelled into changing how leaders behave through protest. Perhaps they are distracted by stories of incompetence, malpractice or the sheer callousness of those with money and power. Perhaps they have accepted the idea that their comfortable lives are under threat from others, especially those who have arrived in their vicinity recently. Perhaps they are simply distracted by the latest fad offered up on their phones.
Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night tells the story of what society could sleepwalk into and how all of the above distractions are, ultimately, not as globally or even personally important as we are encouraged to believe. A plague has swept through the world, killing the vast majority of the population. The sheer scale of what has happened has led to a breakdown of all that was previously taken for granted. There is no electricity, no tap water, no delivery of foodstuffs or anything else. Those still living are surviving on what supplies still exist. They enter houses no longer occupied and take from store cupboards, break into supermarkets and take what is left on shelves. Clearly this is not sustainable, but there are no longer any means of wider communication so no knowledge if anyone can do anything to bring back the infrastructure few have the knowledge to know how to recreate, especially at scale and without materials from elsewhere.
This apocalyptic situation did not happen overnight but there was a general lack of comprehension about how bad it would get – what societal and infrastructure collapse would mean. When people started dying many of the population fled or retreated in an attempt to stay safe. When the lights went out and the taps ran dry they assumed this would be fixed. With no power and few people no news could be disseminated. Fear kept people from exploring beyond their neighbourhoods until it was that or death from starvation.
An explosion in a street in London drives six people from the supposed safety of their homes. Turns out they were the only ones left alive in their vicinity. One has keys to a secure hideout, a row of enclosed Arches, so they go there to decide what to do next. Their journey is narrated by Audaz, told from the future of how she got to where she now is. In the Arches she is joined by: a retired midwife, Sarah; an Irish Rastafarian, Pressure Drop; Adi who cannot comprehend that life will never now return to what he considers normal; Joy and Trevor, a couple whose mindset has yet to adapt but who believe they can still control this new reality.
Sarah has a plan. She knows of people in the south of France who have land and could offer sanctuary. She believes that this restructured new world will need her skills, that women will still have babies and require help. She sees in Audaz a potential apprentice. She invites the disparate group to join her. Not all accept the invitation.
The story, then, is of a journey – across land but also through the physical and mental challenges to be faced. There are stories within stories. Although narrated in the now, threads wind around how it was before and the aftermath, including why the apocalypse happened.
There is tension aplenty, a seeding of fear of what is to come as events unfold and details are shared. The reader will at times be reading as though peeking through fingers, dreading what is about to be revealed. It is all too plausible – the lack of knowledge, the heroism but also selfish brutality as some seek control of others with their power grabs. The reasoning is a wakeup call for those too comfortably blind to accept what they are doing to our world, our life support system.
Dystopian fiction then but brilliantly written. Essential reading for our times. When the breakdown happens – and it will – do not claim you weren’t warned.
Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night is published by Tramp Press.
