An innocent hike turned into a nightmare beyond imagining, but it wasn’t simply this fact that subsequently attracted reporters and researchers from all over the world. Rather, it was the British Government’s ham-fisted attempts to cover the whole thing up that particularly excited interest.
I won’t waste time speculating on the precise nature of the relationship of the three hikers. There are those who claim that Anna was previously dating Simon, but they had split up and she was now dating Joe. These facts are unverifiable and, in my view, irrelevant to the story.
Some biographical details, however, are perhaps in order. All three were medical students. Simon was perhaps the most imaginative of the three and enjoyed playing classical guitar in his spare time. Joe has been described as down-to-earth, brooking no nonsense, and the son of an electrician. Some of his friends have noted that he had a temper and could be unexpectedly provoked to flashes of anger on occasion, particularly when he felt things weren’t going his way, but this alleged propensity plays little part in our story. Anna was known for her calm demeanour and was an avid tennis player, in addition to her love of hiking.
While none of them were serious mountaineers, all three were in the process of gradually tackling more and more challenging climbs, graduating slowly from simple hillwalking to hikes involving fixing ropes and scrabbling up and down steep slopes.
This largely explains how they were able to stumble upon the village, in spite of all precautions taken by the British government to render it unreachable.
The established fact is that they began by climbing Ben Nevis, but were disappointed to find the top covered in ice. It was Simon who then proposed they trek further west, in the hope of finding mountains that were less icy but also represented a greater technical challenge than the long walk up Scotland’s highest mountain.
All three of the trio were English, and almost entirely ignorant of the geography of Scotland, aside from having seen a few towns and cities, and having some vague ideas about the Isles of Skye and Mull. In the event, as far as I’ve been able to determine from available sources, and in spite of the recalcitrance of the survivors on certain topics, they likely headed north-east toward Loch Hourn.
They had been hiking three days, admiring the snow-capped peaks and broad sweeping moors covered in heather, when they encountered the village of Fruitley. Their route seems to have been anything but a straight line, so it’s really impossible to use this information to determine the location of the village.
Anna was immediately intrigued by the village’s unusual name, and Simon and Joe fascinated by the high fence that surrounded the village.
“It’s an abandoned village.” said Simon, in astonishment.
The signpost, bearing only the name “Fruitley”, was covered in grime and might easily have struck them as sinister had they been properly on their guard, but they had no reason to fear the place, and only charming old stone houses were visible beyond the fence.
“But why is it abandoned?” said Joe.
“Probably just depopulation.” said Simon. “People aren’t having children anymore and immigrants don’t want to come to the middle of nowhere.”
“Why the fence?” said Anna, posing the obvious question.
“Just to stop looters I would think.” said Simon.
They skirted around the edge and apparently found a point where the fence had been cut open. Many commentators—including the few politicians who were willing to speak with me—have argued they must have cut the fence themselves, but it’s certainly not impossible that they were not the first to stumble upon the village. It’s also possible that the hole was cut not to get in, but by someone who wanted to get out. There is simply no way to know. If cut by someone escaping from the village, the most likely outcome is that this individual or individuals died somewhere on the surrounding moors and hills.
They slipped through the hole and made their way into a charming network of old cottages.
“There’s literally no-one here.” said Simon, amazed.
“Let’s leave our stuff here while we have a look.” said Joe, and they removed their rucksacks, leaning them against the fence.
From the available descriptions, we might estimate that Fruitley was home, at its peak—whenever that was—to somewhere between a thousand and fifteen hundred individuals.
The settlement wasn’t large, but it wasn’t insignificant.
“Have you ever seen anything like this before?” said Anna, gazing in wonder at the beautiful quaint houses, most of them without even so much as a broken window.
“I don’t know if we ought to be here.” said Joe.
“What do you mean?” said Simon.
“What if it’s like that island they deliberately infected with anthrax? Some kind of experimental place. We might be in danger.”
“Don’t be so soft.” said Simon. “There’d be notices up if there was any danger.”
“They wouldn’t infect a place on the mainland.” said Anna. “Might be a problem with subsidence or something.”
“Nothing we can’t cope with.” said Simon.
They explored the village, tentatively at first, but growing bolder as they realised the entire place really was empty. Soon they were exploring gardens and back yards, and it was perhaps inevitable that one of them should soon suggest entering one of the abandoned houses.
It’s unclear exactly whose this idea was, but Anna protested.
“We can’t do that!”
“Why not?” said Simon. “They’re all abandoned.”
“I’m not breaking in anywhere.” said Joe. “If we can find an open door, then I don’t see a problem.”
They began to try front doors, to see if any were open, and soon they found one that was unlocked.
Inside, the house was full of flies.
“Disgusting.” said Anna, brushing them off her face.
“Looks like they left in a hurry.” said Joe.
On the table was a bowl that might once have contained cereal and milk. It was half-empty and had a spoon stuck in it. Now, it was nothing but a huge mass of furry mould. A glass of what might once have been orange juice stood next to it, mould flowing out over the side of the glass.
As they explored further, they found disquieting signs that the occupant or occupants may not have left entirely voluntarily.
Here and there, household objects smashed on the floor provided evidence of some kind of a struggle.
“You know what I think?” said Joe. “I think there was some kind of disaster, like an earthquake, and not all of them left voluntarily.”
“If there was an earthquake, why haven’t the houses fallen down?” said Simon.
“I’m not saying an earthquake. I’m saying something like an earthquake.”
“What’s like an earthquake but not an earthquake?”
“Maybe there was an outbreak of plague.” said Anna.
“There’s been no plague in Britain since 1666 or something.” said Simon.
“Let’s get out of here.” said Anna.
They went outside into the deserted street. Weeds were growing up between ancient cobblestones, as if the village had been deserted for some months, but not longer. As Joe pointed out, if the place had been abandoned for longer than a few months, they’d be seeing trees sprouting up through cracks in the road.
Simon had fallen unusually quiet, seemingly brooding about something.
“Maybe we should leave.” said Joe glumly. “Whatever happened here, I feel like we’re best off not knowing about it.
“We may as well explore the whole place while we’re here.” said Simon. “It’s only a small village. Five minutes and we’re at the other side.”
“We’ll just walk across it, then we’ll leave.” said Joe.
“Let’s just go back the way we came.” said Anna.
“Simon’s right.” said Joe. “Might as well see the whole thing. Anyway, I’ll admit I’m curious. There’s a mystery about this place. Maybe we can make a video about it.”
Joe began to take photos with his phone. While he was engaged in doing that, with the other two waiting patiently, a scuffling sound further down the winding lane caught their attention.
“What was that?” said Anna. She was already nervous, and the noise made her jump.
“Probably a dog.” said Simon.
“No, I saw something. It was big.”
“What did you see?” Joe asked.
“I don’t know. I think it was a person.”
“I knew it.” said Simon. “There are people here.”
“Bloody hell.” said Joe. “Let’s leave before some freak attacks us or we get into trouble.”
“We can’t leave!” Simon protested. “They might need help!”
“Anyone who wanted to could just leave the way we came in.” said Anna.
“They might be ill.” said Simon.
“Or insane.” said Joe.
Simon began to walk further down the lane, and the others followed him, half-reluctantly.
Soon they came to a large grassy field surrounded by a high fence topped with coils of barbed wire. The field was filled with grass that looked like it had once been kept mown but had passed several months untended. The field and the fence around it were striking in themselves, but even more striking was a squat white building in the middle of it, two stories high. A gate at the front of the field stood half open, and weeds were growing up around it.
“That’s it, I’m leaving.” said Anna.
“Hang on a minute.” said Simon. “The solution to whatever happened to this village is almost definitely in there.”
“I don’t care.” said Anna. “Whatever it was, I don’t want it to happen to me.”
She began to walk off back down the lane.
“She’s right.” said Joe. “Sorry Simon. This is one mystery we’re better off not solving.”
He turned to follow her.
Simon began to argue, but then stopped.
At the end of the visible part of the lane, something truly grotesque shuffled into view. It appeared to be a human being, wearing rags, but its skin was nothing but a mass of scabs and weeping green pus. A few wispy strands of hair sprouted from its head and its eyes were red with blood.
It began to stagger slowly towards them, with a stooped posture curiously reminiscent of a gorilla. Instinctively, they backed away, towards the open gate.
“What is that?” said Anna.
“It’s human.” said Joe.
“We have to help.” said Simon. “It needs medical help.”
The thing, whatever it was, suddenly emitted a scream of rage and began lolloping rapidly towards them, occasionally half-falling on its hands.
“Run!” shouted Anna, and all three of them, even Simon, scrambled feverishly through the open gate.
Joe tried to shut the gate behind them but it was too overgrown with weeds and he couldn’t manage it.
“Leave it, Joe!” shouted Anna.
The creatures was approaching fast, making odd growling noises. They ran towards the squat modern building.
They were halfway across the overgrown field when the creature passed through the gate, scraping itself uncaringly against the edges of the gate and the fence as it did so.
When they reached the building, Simon tried to open a side-door but found it locked.
They ran around its perimeter, and soon discovered a gravel driveway leading off from an open front door.
Anna began to run off down the path, but Joe shouted, “Anna, look! There’s a locked gate at the end!”
Anna stopped in her tracks. Joe was right. In the distance, at the end of the driveway, stood a gate with padlocked chains wrapped around it.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the glass door at the front of the building turned out to be unlocked.
They ran into the building and Joe shut the door behind them, turning a lock.
“That’ll keep it out.” he said.
“Will it, though?” said Anna, frantically. “It looked pretty angry!”
They stood there almost paralysed with fear, wondering what to do, peering anxiously through the glass, which was blurry with accumulated filth.
Suddenly the horrible figure leapt in front of the glass and they turned and fled, terrified, into the dark interior of the building. Automatic lights blinked on in the dark corridor. As they ran, they could hear the creature flinging itself against the glass behind them.
“It’s OK, he can’t get in.” said Simon, when they eventually slowed down, panting.
“He could smash through it!” said Anna. “We need to find something we can use to defend ourselves.”
“Those doors are made of reinforced glass.” said Joe. “He probably can’t get through them.”
“I’ve seen people smashing through glass doors in videos.” said Anna.
“Yeah, in Hollywood films.” said Simon.
“She’s right, though.” said Joe. “We should arm ourselves. Then get the hell out of here.”
“What is this place?” said Anna.
The building gave them few clues as to its purpose. Here and there were photographs on the walls of people who seemed to be scientists, sometimes receiving awards, and there was little else to go on.
“Probably agricultural or climate research.” said Simon. “Let’s look around. Maybe there’s a coffee machine. Or even showers.”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Simon,” said Joe dryly, “but there’s a hideously deformed maniac outside who seems like he wants to eat us.”
“We can’t do anything about it at the moment. We’ll have to wait till he goes away. Meanwhile maybe we can clean ourselves up.”
“I want a weapon.” said Anna. “You can sit in a shower drinking lattes for all I care.”
“Fair enough.” said Simon.
As they explored the building, it gradually became apparent that the place had some kind of industrial purpose, rather than pure research. They found hangers with chemical-resistant suits, gas masks, industrial equipment for handling large quantities of chemicals, and other industrial paraphernalia.
From somewhere below they thought they could hear the faint whirring of a generator, and many but not all of the lights still worked, as though power had been cut but then partially restored by a backup system.
In places water dripped down from the ceiling, demonstrating that the building was not being maintained well.
Towards the centre of the building, the corridors were caved in. Some were cordoned off, and in others, a collapsed ceiling blocked the way.
“Like a bomb hit it.” said Joe.
“Maybe something went wrong.” said Simon. “There was an explosion and toxic gasses flooded the village, so they evacuated.”
“And we’re breathing it all in.” said Anna.
“Must have dispersed.” said Simon. “Otherwise we’d be dead.”
Their greatest find was a small kitchen, including a working electric kettle and a cache of instant noodle pots. There was also instant coffee and powdered milk. They were cold and hungry, and they set to work preparing a meal.
“Someone’s living here.” said Joe, as they glumly ate the noodles.
“How do you know?” said Simon. “Looks abandoned.”
“The generator.” Joe replied. “And all this food.”
“That noise could be anything. And the food could have been left behind.”
Joe shook his head.
“Most of whoever worked here have obviously left. But not all of them. There’s too much stuff that’s still working.”
“Joe’s right.” said Anna. “There’s someone here somewhere. Or else they’ll turn up later. They can help us get out of here.”
“Maybe that monstrosity outside works here.” said Joe, laughing.
“Yeah, I don’t think so.” said Anna. “Someone sane is keeping these lights on.”
“We’d better try to find him then.” said Simon. “He might give us a lift to the nearest town.”
“There’s no way in or out of the village except the way we came, as far as I can see.” said Joe. “A car’s not getting up that.”
“You can’t have a village without a way of getting in and out.” said Anna.
“Maybe there was a bridge once.” said Joe. “Or else a road, but they blasted it. Seems like the authorities don’t want anyone finding this village. What worries me is, there must be a reason for that. Whatever happened to that thing out there, I don’t want it happening to us.”
Anna shuddered.
“Poor thing.” she said.
After they’d finished eating they began to explore with renewed enthusiasm.
The building, although comparatively small on the outside, had multiple levels to it. There were two levels above the ground, and staircases descended to an unknown number of levels below. There were also large lifts, which weren’t working. They began to gradually descend into the bowels of the structure via staircases.
“How deep does it go?” said Anna, when they reached the third level below ground.
“Surely can’t be more than another one or two floors.” said Simon.
But the staircases seemed to go on and on, and with each level they descended, the building became stranger.
Five levels down they found what appeared to be a small hospital, in complete disarray. The floor was strewn with smashed glass, and the beds heavily stained with blood and other bodily fluids. The bedsheets had dried out, but there was still a strongly unpleasant foetid odour in the air.
“You see.” said Simon. “Nothing really bad happened here. This wasn’t designed to treat more than a few people. Most of the villagers must have just left, even if there was some kind of disaster.”
Joe looked at Simon in surprise, and then surveyed the sickening, disturbing mess again.
“Or the scale of it was unexpected.” said Joe. “Look at the state of this place.”
Anna plucked a patient chart from the end of a filthy bed and flipped through it.
“She lasted four days.” she said. “Nothing after that.”
They began to look at other discarded charts.
“It’s as if the staff suddenly gave up and left.” said Joe.
“Could have been evacuated.” said Simon.
“They all died.” said Anna. “Where are the corpses?”
“Must have taken them with them.” said Joe.
They left the hospital highly unsettled, and again Anna reiterated her desire to leave, but again Simon persuaded them that finding whoever was working in the building was their best hope of getting out of the village.
It was when they descended to the sixth level below ground that things began to get really serious.
The sixth level was clearly the present centre of activity. They found abundant evidence that someone was working and probably living down there: discarded coffee cups in bins, still wet with coffee; water splattered on the toilet sinks, muddy footprints that looked fresh.
“We’re close.” said Joe. “Let’s just find whoever works here and get them to call us a helicopter or something.”
Somewhere on that floor they came across a cupboard with a thick steel door, which Joe suggested might be a gun cupboard. It was unlocked, and Simon opened it to find an array of metal pipes, neatly stacked in a rack.
“What are they for?” asked Anna.
“Don’t know but one of these’ll make a good weapon.” said Simon, and he pulled out one of the metal rods. “Are you two taking one?”
“I don’t know what they are.” said Joe.
“Doesn’t matter.” said Simon. “It’s a great weapon.”
He swished the rod from side to side through the air dramatically.
“I’ll pass.” said Anna.
“Let’s go then.” said Simon, and he went out into the corridor, swinging the rod around himself. They followed him, still unarmed.
The corridor led towards the ruined centre of the building, but this time they were able to get further than in their previous attempts.
“The explosion must have happened somewhere above.” said Joe. “This level seems less affected.”
They arrived at a pair of white closed doors, bearing the text, “AREA 1”.
“Someone’s inside!” said Anna. “Listen!”
They listened, and indeed they could hear someone shifting things around beyond the doors and walking back and forth.
Joe took a deep breath.
“Are we going in?” he said.
“If it’s another half-human abomination I’ll get it with this.” said Simon, and he banged the pipe against the wall.
The footsteps inside abruptly stopped. He had unthinkingly alerted whoever was inside to their presence.
“Let’s do it, then.” said Joe, and he pushed the doors open.
Standing facing them was a man wearing a filthy blood-stained lab coat and black-rimmed spectacles with cracked lenses. All of his exposed skin was covered in bruises and scabs, and most of his hair had fallen out, leaving only wisps.
“What are you doing here?” he said. “This is a restricted area.”
Behind him stood a railed-off pit with thin white metal columns emerging from it. Both the railings and the columns bore evidence of disaster; they were twisted, warped and partially-melted.
“We’re looking for help.” said Anna. “We were hiking and some kind of animal chased us in here.”
“Might have been a person.” said Joe. “We’re not completely sure.”
“That would be my son, David.” said the man. “I expect he was simply trying to expel you from a highly-restricted facility.”
The man limped a few paces towards them. The entire room reeked of decay, and as the man approached, they realised the smell was probably coming from him.
“What kind of facility is this?” said Anna.
The man stopped and looked at each of them in turn.
“Hikers, you say?”
“That’s right.” said Joe.
“I suppose you may as well know.” said the man. His voice was raspy and hoarse. “This is an experimental nuclear facility. The British government believes small nuclear reactors may be the solution to the country’s energy problems. They’ve invested heavily in wind turbines but unfortunately there’s no easy way to store what little energy they produce, and gas has become a political hot potato.
“I’m Dr. Allsop. I’m the director here. This facility is largely my work. Unfortunately there was an incident and, regrettably, the entire village was blasted with neutrons.”
He shook his head sadly, a piece of dead skin falling off his face as he did so.
“So much death and suffering. All hushed up, of course. We had to protect the wider public. The only fortunate aspect of the affair is that I have turned out to be unusually immune to radiation; a genetic quirk, doubtless, which my son has also inherited. I stayed behind to try to stabilise the reactor.”
“Can you help us?” said Joe, his voice shaking.
“You’ll have absorbed significant radiation by now.” Allsop rasped. “I can’t do anything for you but if you leave now, you might make it out. After that I suggest you find a hospital. Tell them you have Fruitley Disease. It’s sort of a codename. They’ll know what to do with you.”
The man noticed the pipe Simon was carrying.
“What is that?” he said. “My eyesight has been badly damaged by the radiation.”
“We thought we might have to fight off your son.” said Simon quietly.
Simon was staring at the man curiously as the man limped towards him. Joe and Anna instinctively moved away to the side. Apart from anything else, the odour emitted by the man was powerfully nauseating.
Simon, in contrast, slowly approached Dr. Allsop. Finally they stopped, facing each other.
“Simon?” said the man in amazement.
“Uncle?” said Simon.
“You shouldn’t have come here.”
“He’s your uncle?” said Joe incredulously.
“He went missing.” said Simon. “I wanted to know what happened to you, Uncle Alan. Mum’s been really upset.”
“You led us directly into a disaster zone!” cried Anna. “You lied to us! We thought we were just looking for mountains!”
“If I’d told you the truth you wouldn’t have come!” Simon protested.
“Simon, that’s a control rod.” said Allsop. “You’re holding a spare control rod. It’s been in the reactor.”
Simon threw the rod off to the side, where it clattered loudly against the floor and rolled off till it hit the wall.
“What will happen to me?” he said, paling.
“You may have absorbed a fatal dose.” said Allsop sadly. “I’m sorry, Simon. You shouldn’t have come here.”
Simon looked at his hand, which had already turned reddish and was beginning to swell.
“Can’t you get a helicopter for us?” said Anna desperately.
“The entire village is sealed off.” said Allsop. “Officially, it doesn’t exist. No-one’s going to rescue you. You must depend on yourselves.”
“Can you at least call your son off us?” said Anna.
Anna felt as though she had been plunged into a nightmare. The room seemed almost to swirl about her.
“He’s quite harmless.” said Allsop. “You’ve no need to fear him. He would simply be trying to help you, or warn you off. Unfortunately the radiation has affected his mind, but I assure you, he won’t hurt you.”
“Let’s go.” said Joe. “We need to find a hospital. We might get to one in under a day if we’re lucky.”
Joe and Anna retreated through the white doors. Simon seemed confused.
“Wait for me!” he said, suddenly snapping to his senses and running after them.
They made their way swiftly to the staircase and began the long ascent to ground level.
“I’m sorry I deceived you!” said Simon, in an attempt to break the wall of frost that now existed between himself and his two friends. “Can’t you understand, my uncle disappeared and we were terribly worried about him.”
Joe was leading the way, with Anna close behind him. Simon, who had turned a deathly shade of pale, was doing his best to keep up.
“Now we’re probably going to die because of you.” said Joe. “Thanks a bunch.”
“I just wanted to find my uncle!” Simon protested. “Don’t be angry with me!”
He laid a hand on Anna’s arm, in an attempt to get her to stop and talk to him.
“Your hand’s contaminated!” she said, hitting it away.
Simon looked at his swelling hand again.
“Oh God!” he sobbed. “What have I done?”
When they reached the second level below ground, Simon began to vomit. Anna and Joe waited impatiently until he’d stopped.
“We need to hurry up.” said Joe curtly, as Simon was wiping vomit from his mouth with the back of his swollen red hand.
“I’m OK now.” said Simon.
They resumed their ascent.
As they finally approached the outer glass doors, they saw that it was dark outside.
“What if he’s still there?” said Anna apprehensively.
“I’ll deal with it.” said Joe grimly.
They opened the glass doors and made their way cautiously outside, Simon lurking fearfully behind them in the dark corridor with its flickering lights.
“I think it’s gone.” said Joe, but at that very moment, Allsop’s son ran out of the gloom rapidly towards them, screeching horribly. They ran back to the doors but Simon pulled them shut and locked them.
“Simon!” Anna screamed. “Open the doors!”
Simon only watched them, grim and pale as death, a faint deranged smile on his face.
David fell upon Joe, snarling and screeching like a wild animal. Joe gave David a mighty push, and when David came at him again, he landed his fist on David’s chin. David fell backwards onto the ground groaning.
Meanwhile, Anna was staring at Simon in horror. Vomit and blood was pouring out of Simon’s mouth.
“Open the doors, Simon!” she shouted again, banging on the glass with the flat of her hand.
As they watched, Simon fell down in a faint and his limbs began jerking and thrashing convulsively. While they stood there, banging on the glass doors and shouting, Simon’s convulsions gradually slowed and then ceased.
“I think he’s stopped breathing.” said Joe.
Anna only stared in shock at Simon’s body.
Behind them, David was scrabbling around on the grass in the dark, dizzy but attempting to rise to his feet.
“We need to get out of here, Anna.” said Joe gently, and he put his arm around her shoulders and led her dazedly away over the field, towards the open gate at the side.
Behind them, David began to make horrible screeching sounds, but he seemed confused and only turned around in circles.
“Poor Simon!” said Anna.
“I know.” said Joe. “I know.”
After walking through the half-open gate, they turned around to look at the experimental reactor building. Above it shone a column of irridescent light, shining all the colours of the rainbow.
“It’s beautiful.” said Anna.
“Radiation ionising the air.” said Joe. “We’re definitely going to need medical attention.”
He turned and walked back down the winding path, Anna following closely behind him, the gravel and dirt soon turning into cobbles.
At the edge of the village they retrieved their rucksacks, leaving Simon’s behind just in case he was somehow still alive, and used ropes to climb back up the rocky slope that had led them to the village. Soon they were on open moorland. In the distance, the eerie column of radiation was still visible above the village. They stood at the top of a short rise, catching their breath, watching it.
“I feel sick.” said Anna.
“Me too.” said Joe.
From the village came an enormous boom, reminiscent of thunder, and the column of light abruptly blinked out, as though turned off by a switch.
“What the hell was that?” said Joe.
Then another crack sounded out accompanied by a visible flash of bright light, the sound rumbling across the hilltops.
“I guess he didn’t succeed in fixing the reactor.” said Joe.
The sun was rising above the horizon by the time they stumbled into a village. By then both of them were periodically stopping to vomit. They knocked at a door repeatedly until an irate villager answered, and they begged him to call an ambulance.
“Doesn’t look like there’s much wrong with you.” he said suspiciously, but he acceded to their request.
When they ambulance came, they told the paramedics they had Fruitley Disease. The paramedics positively turned pale and loaded them hastily into the ambulance, putting oxygen masks on their faces.
“Is it serious, then?” asked the villager.
“Extremely.” said one of the paramedics, as he guided Joe into the ambublance with Anna.
The ambulance took them to a small hospital on the outskirts of a town they didn’t know. They were placed together in a room.
“We’re just going to keep you here temporarily.” said a doctor, smiling. “They’ll take you to the treatment centre in Aberdeen.”
“Will we be OK?” asked Anna nervously.
“They’ll be able to assess you properly at Aberdeen.” said the doctor, and she left the room, following which came the sound of a key turning in the lock.
“Joe, she’s locked us in!” said Anna.
Joe swore and got up to bang at the door.
“Look!” said Anna.
From the high narrow window, on a level with their eyes, they could see military personnel, carrying guns, emerging from two armoured vehicles.
“They’re going to kill us!” wailed Anna.
“This is nuts.” said Joe.
The military personnel marched over towards the front entrance and disappeared out of view.
Joe took a chair and swung it at the window, smashing it.
“We need to get out pronto.” he said.
Even though they were both feeling sick, leaving seemed preferable to being taken away by the men in uniforms, so they covered the jagged lower edge of the broken window with a doubled-up sheet and Joe helped Anna up to the window. She dropped down on the other side, then Joe began to wriggle through it.
Then the door to their room unlocked and opened.
“Run!” shouted Joe frantically.
Anna watched helplessly as Joe was dragged back into the room. Unable to do anything to help him, she turned and ran.
She had got onto a road leading past the clinic when two men burst out of the front door and yelled at her to come back.
“We just want to help you!” they shouted.
They were both carrying guns.
Anna ran across the road and into woodlands on the other side.
For the best part of a day, an exhausted Anna played cat-and-mouse with the men. They searched for her with a helicopter, the searchlight shining down into the trees, and later on she heard the sound of dogs yapping in pursuit of her scent.
Eventually she managed to flag down a car on a quiet road, and, from a nearby town, in the early hours of the following morning, she phoned her parents. They drove all the way from England to collect her while she waited nervously, first hiding in an alleyway, dodging street sweepers, and then in a bookshop, when it opened for the day.
She told everyone what had happened, and her parents hid her at a holiday cottage in case more people came looking for her. Her nausea slowly improved and she recovered without other symptoms.
Two months later, Joe was still missing, but all their efforts to interest reporters in Joe’s story drew a blank, and Joe’s own parents found the police strangely uninterested in the case. The mysterious hand of some higher authority was clearly at work, keeping the entire business secret.
Two young men were missing, one of them having been taken somewhere against his will and possibly murdered, and yet the police only stated that Joe and Simon had a right to be missing if they wanted to be.
Then, one day in early September, something very unexpected occurred. Joe turned up, unharmed. Two men in grey suits dropped him off at his parent’s house.
“They kept me in some kind of facility and gave me medical treatment.” he told Anna, at a cafe. “It was bad. I got pneumonia from the radiation. I nearly died. Now I’m fine, I think.”
The Fruitley Incident, as it was later known, remained a secret for two more years, until the quantity of unexplained illness across western Scotland became too great to conceal any longer. Then, finally, the incident drew national and international attention, and Anna and Joe were only too happy to tell people about their bizarre experiences.
By then the secret nuclear facility had been dismantled, but the fate of Simon and his uncle, and his uncle’s son, remains unknown. Even stranger is the fact that the exact location of Fruitley has never been established or disclosed, even though the government now admits that an experimental reactor was operated somewhere in the north-west of Scotland.
But for the coverup, the incident might have been dealt with in an entirely less sensational fashion. Accidents happen, after all.
Only when it was discovered that Dr. Allsop had spent a substantial amount of time in a facility for the criminally insane, were questions were raised about his fitness to design and run an experimental reactor.
