Friday
Phil’s sleep had been troubled, he hadn’t taken the sleeping pill, and he regretted it. Images of Armageddon had marched through his tossing and turning dreams, comic book devils and demons bringing hell and holocaust to the city streets, with fire and flame. He got up early and sat in the kitchen, waiting. His Dad was very surprised to find him up before eight.
“You alrait Phil?” He asked him.
“Bad night.” Phil admitted.
“Yeah.” His Dad sighed. “Going t’school today?”
Phil shook his head, that would be so pointless, but he didn’t want an argument.
“Don’t think I can face it.” He said instead.
His Dad accepted the lie with a nod and got his own breakfast. Just before leaving he looked at Phil as he sat at the table, he wanted to say something comforting.
“Take care Phil, sithee.”
“Aye.”
His Mum appeared a little later but she looked unhappy and wasn’t her normal busy self.
“Wass up Mum?” Phil enquired.
“Clares not eatin’ an’ you’re so….” She stopped and just sobbed.
“Hey.” Phil said in a sympathetic voice as he got up and gave his Mum a hug. “S’alrait Mum.”
She looked at him through tearful eyes, she could see he was lying but she forgave him that, he was trying to help her. She nodded and dried her tears before kissing him lightly and then getting on with breakfast.
The doorbell went at a little after half eight and his Mum went to answer it as Phil was watching a news item on how TV reception seemed to be awry in many places, transmitters weren’t producing their normal power output. High tech breakdowns.
“There’s a Dr Lester at t’door asking for thee.” His Mum said as she came back.
“Oh, rait. I’m away Mum.” He said in a rush, but he stopped beside her and gave her a kiss. “Back later.”

“Hi.” Karl said wanly. “Sorry about the phone bit, the mobile networks down.”
Phil looked at his phone, no signal.
“The process of decay is accelerating, more and more stuff will breakdown.” Karl said as he led the way towards a very battered looking old Land Rover.
“Yours?” Phil asked as he got in.
“Yep. University lecturers don’t get as much money as most people think, besides I can fix this with a hammer and a screw driver, try that on the latest BMW.”
The engine cranked over with a noise like a bucket of bolts being shaken before the diesel coughed into life and Karl pulled out into the traffic.
“In fact I’ve passed a lot of new cars with their bonnets up already.”
He suddenly hit the brakes then the accelerator again.
“Sorry, I keep seeing phantoms.”
Phil looked at him, phantoms.
“Ghosts?”
“Phantom cars.” Karl replied. “As this universe becomes more unstable we’re seeing the original in little flashes, cars where there aren’t any in this universe, I think people are seeing your ghosts in the same way.”
Phil shrank down into the hard seat a little more, it was all falling apart, just as Al had predicted.
“I want to try to establish if you are the epicentre or if there is some kind of portal, for want of a better word.” Karl was saying.
“Huh?”
“Today, I want to see if there is still a connection between the original and this universe.”
“How?”
“Your sunglasses.”
“Eh?”
“It came to me last night, I saw double through the glasses. I think that they show us both universes, if we can measure the difference between the two it should get smaller as we get closer to any epicentre.”

Phil couldn’t wrap his brain around what Karl was proposing until they actually started making the measurements, with nothing more sophisticated than a ruler. Phil looked through his sunglasses at the ruler that Karl held against buildings and other immobile landmarks, then read off the lateral and vertical difference. It was a painstaking process of driving through the ever more chaotic traffic around the city in a series of decreasing circles centring on the university. By mid afternoon they had columns of figures and it all needed to be plotted on a large scale map back in Karl’s office.
The untidy mess on his desk had been consigned to the floor so that they could work, Karl assigning a coloured dot to the figures that they had collected and Phil identifying the location of the reading using the A to Z and then finding the position on the OS map. For once he appreciated something of his school lessons, he had covered map reading in geography, why couldn’t the rest be as relevant? He shrugged to himself, none of it would matter soon if he didn’t escape back to his own universe.
The map had all the points marked and again there was a clear pattern where the variation was reduced, it was somewhere near Phil’s house.
“There.” Karl said placing his finger on the map and drawing an imaginary circle with it.
“Somewhere in there is the point of maximum congruence.”
“What?”
“The point where this universe and your universe are pretty much identical, and if I’m correct, that’s where we’ll find the portal.”
Phil stared at the few streets, his way out, but where? And what was he looking for?
“Wass t’portal look like?” He asked Karl eagerly.
The academics face was sombre.
“I have no idea Phil, even looking through your glasses might not help because you wouldn’t be able to detect any difference smaller than a millimetre, sorry.”
Phil sat down in the chair heavily, all that work and they were no closer to finding the escape route.
“It could be obvious in another way.” Karl suggested hopefully. “We should go down there and take a look.”

The traffic had thinned out considerably, many cars just weren’t starting anymore and the breakdown services were in as much need of rescuing as their hapless customers. The battered old Landrover fired at the first turnover and they joined the few other old diesel vehicles that were still mobile on the city streets. But the streets were far from quiet. There were people everywhere, looking for a bus or a taxi or just plodding along miserably, most trying to get home. A good few went into the nearest pub or bar and sank into an alcoholic haze. Some had already spent much of the day in such desultory behaviour and were not in a forgiving mood when they learnt that there was no transport home. They lashed out at anybody who got in their way and the already tense atmosphere began to tear apart in acts of group violence.
Karl swerved around brawls that spilled into the road, he cursed softly but did not lean on his horn, as that would invite a response. They saw what happened to one unfortunate who blew his horn at a scuffling set of youths who had caused him to brake sharply. They rounded on the vehicle, smashed it up then turned it over and as the dazed driver crawled out threw a match inside it. Thick black smoke began to pour out of the shattered windows and the man took to his heels while the youths now danced about the wreck like demented sprites around some unclean Sabbath bonfire.
They had almost reached the designated area when a police road block stopped them.
“What’s happened ahead officer?” Karl enquired politely of the harassed looking man.
“Owls fans have cum down, layin’ into Blades fans. It’s a riot. Best find another way.”
“Thanks.”
Karl turned the Rover around and drove slowly away.
“Any road I should take?” He asked Phil.
“Next rait.”
Despite Phil’s local knowledge the fighting was on such a scale that they couldn’t get within a block of where they wanted to search for the portal.
“Hopeless.” Karl sighed and rubbed his eyes.
It was getting dark and the lurid red flames that leapt towards the encroaching darkness were a vivid signal of the scale of violence that was still surging savagely back and forth along the terraced streets around the ground.

Phil craned to see where a bright gout of flame had just erupted from; the certainty that settled in his gut was like a hot brand, they had torched Bramall Lane!
“Bastards!” He said, then shouted it out. “Bastards!”
He was grabbing for the door handle but couldn’t find it in this ancient Rover.
“Hey!” Karl shouted as Phil began to batter the door with his hands.
“What’s with you?”
“Lemme owt! Bastards have torched t’ground.” Phil yelled back at him and turned back to the door.
A heavy hand clamped down on his shoulder and spun him about, where a second hand grabbed his arm to immobilise him, face to face with Karl.
“Listen to me.” Karl hissed into his face.
“Lemme…” Phil began to bawl again.
Karl’s right hand snapped up from arm to face, paralysing his outburst as his fingers dug into Phil’s cheeks and painfully forced his mouth into stillness.
“You go out there Phil and its over.” Karl told him angrily. “If you join that mob you will be on your own. If you’re lucky you’ll wake up in hospital just in time to see everything go down, or the last thing you see is a gutter with someone’s boot in your face.”
The previously calm face of the academic was twisted with fury and the eyes carried the message clearly, wise up or bug out.
“Your choice Phil. Join the rabble and their stupid fight or keep it together and just maybe you’ll escape.”
The face softened slightly and Karl released his hard grip and his hand fell away.
“Your choice.” He repeated coldly and turned away to grip the steering wheel once more.
Phil wanted to punch him for that painful episode, wanted to get out there and give hell to the scumbags that had dared to defile his place, his football ground! His hand found the door handle at last and he wrenched it back to throw the door open. He was halfway out when the half brick caught him painfully on the shoulder and he turned angrily to see who had thrown it.
The mob were wearing red and white, Blades fans, and they weren’t taking prisoners. Bottles and stones rained down on the Rover, banging and bashing the already dented metal and bouncing off the slightly misty Perspex windows. They were Blades fans and they didn’t recognise him because he wasn’t wearing a replica shirt. The howl of bloodlust that they let out as they surged down the road towards the Rover doused his own anger in cold sharp fear.

“Go!” He screamed at Karl as he hauled the door shut with a bang.
The battered vehicle leapt forward with a roar and quickly outpaced the mob. Deprived of their sport they turned on the nearest vehicle and began to smash it up, regardless of the faded little sticker in the rear window that proclaimed Little Blade On Board.
“We can’t do anymore tonight.” Karl said as they found an empty road and he could slow their headlong flight. “Its too dangerous.”
Phil looked up at him, tomorrow was Saturday, the end of everything.
“We got to….” He urged Karl.
“No!”
Karl pulled up and glared at him.
“You saw what they were like. Its mob mentality. They will kill anyone who crosses their path not wearing Blades strip. Wise up Phil!”
Phil massaged his shoulder.
“Okay.” He muttered. “Go left, me ‘ouse is two roads o’er.”
Karl gave a grim nod and set the Rover moving again, pulling up outside the familiar terraced house a few minutes later to allow Phil to get out. At least here they seemed to be far away enough from the ground to have escaped the rampaging mobs.
“I’ll….” Karl started to say.
Abruptly all the streetlights went out and all the houses were plunged into darkness.
“Wass happenin’?” Phil quailed fearfully.
The sky immediately overhead was lit with a red glow, the normal sickly orange penumbra on the clouds had vanished.
“Black out. The power stations must be going down.” Karl surmised. “It was only a matter of time.”
He fished a big torch out from behind his seat and turned the engine off.
“Come on, I’ll see you to the door.”
The pool of light was welcome in the dark street, everything familiar had become alien and threatening in the absence of the orange of the street lights. Phil inserted his key in the door and turned it but the door did not open.
“Wass this?” He grumbled and reached for the doorbell, useless, no power.
He slapped on the door with his hand.
“Who’s there?” A deep voice called out.
“S’Phil Dad, lemme in.”
“Phil.” The voice sounded very relieved and the bolts were shot back.
A pale face peered around the edge of the door with a hammer held tightly in hand.
“Who’s that with thee?” His Dad demanded raising the hammer.
“S’ Dr Lester, I bin helpin’ ‘im.”
“Phil!” His Mum’s voice was with shrill with anxiety.
She pulled the door open fully and grabbed her son to pull him inside leaving Karl on the doorstep.
“Get in!” Phil’s Dad growled. “Tha’s not safe owt.”

Karl stepped inside the hall and the door was quickly shut and barred behind him. They retreated to the kitchen where Clare was hunched up in a chair, her drawn face lit up for a few moments as she saw her brother come in but then she withdrew again, staring at the table top.
“Where’s thee been?” Phil’s Mum was demanding softly. “Been worried sick wi all t’fightin’.”
“Bin helpin’ Dr Lester.” Phil said as he stroked his Mum’s back.
“Phil has been a great help.” Karl volunteered into the silence.
“Shine that o’er here.” Phil’s Dad requested. “Got sum candles laid by.”
There was a bit of rummaging in the cupboard and then a small laugh of triumph.
“There.”
With the candles lit they sat around the table, eyes watching each other expectantly, waiting for someone to speak.
“What’s tha been doin’?” His Dad asked him.
Phil opened his mouth, how could he even begin to explain this? The world was coming to an end, but he couldn’t say that!
“We have been making measurements around the city.” Karl said leaning forward on his arms. “I guess you have heard of global warming?”
There were mute nods.
“Well, I believe we are going through a tipping point, a time when the climate undergoes a radical change.”
As if to highlight this piece of fiction there was a bright blue flash and then a distant growl of thunder, but no rain was falling.
“There are a lot of things changing very rapidly, air pressure for instance, it’s leading to problems around the world.”
“T’lectrics.” Phil’s Dad ventured.
“I think so, a violent storm could have brought power lines down.”
“There’s bin nowt on’t news.” Phil’s Mum said a little sceptically.
“TV’s not workin’” Clare said solemnly. “Radio’s iffy.”
“Probably high levels of ionisation in the atmosphere.” Karl posited with the right degree of authority that the family accepted it without further questioning.
“Hungry luv?” His Mum asked next.
Phil realised that he hadn’t had anything to eat since a sandwich for lunch, he nodded.
“Aye.”
“What about Dr Lester?”
“I don’t want to put you to any trouble, I’d best be off.”
“Fam’ly waitin’?” Phil’s Dad enquired.
“No, no family.” Karl admitted.
“Then best stay put, s’ not safe owt.”
More flashes of lightning were illuminating the kitchen as he spoke and ever louder crashes of thunder rattling the windows before a savage blast of hailstones battered the glass and made everyone jump.
“Stay put.” Phil’s Dad repeated meaningfully.
“Thanks, It doesn’t sound too good out there.” Karl replied looking at the window as more hail clattered down.
Phil’s Mum busied herself with making a bed up for Karl on the sofa and with the storm still booming and crashing around them they all tried to get a little sleep.