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Recharge

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Chapter 1

The rain battered the windscreen harder now than at any previous point in the journey, each drop sounding like a tiny hammer striking glass. Oddly, he felt a little more at ease. As they ascended to higher elevations, the rain transformed into sleet, teetering on the edge of becoming full-blown snow, but not quite. The temperature gauge hovered at exactly zero degrees Celsius, placing them in that unpredictable weather zone where almost anything could happen. The last thing he wanted was to get trapped in a snowstorm—not with only 12 miles of charge remaining. The motorway traffic had thinned; they hadn't seen another car for miles, making it feel like they were the only souls braving the desolate road. It was 3 a.m., high above the Lakes, in the dead of winter... He began to question his decision to embark on this journey, especially in this car.

“Why did I ever choose this car?” he muttered under his breath, his words swallowed by the relentless drumming of sleet on the roof. He glanced over at the Sleeping Beauty beside him. She looked so peaceful, nestled beneath her thick woollen cardigan pulled up to her neck, her dark hair cascading over the seat. She wasn't going to be happy when she woke up.

“Kate,” he whispered softly, attempting to rouse her.

She didn't stir. He hesitated, watching the gentle rise and fall of her chest beneath the cardigan—the familiar rhythm she had when in deep sleep. It always felt cruel to disturb her, especially when she looked so serene, oblivious to the mounting troubles outside.

He gently touched her arm. “Kate, love, we need to stop again.”

As he expected, she stirred, her face contorting into that familiar annoyed expression she always wore when disturbed from sleep. She was a kind-hearted soul—except when awakened against her will. As she began to grasp her surroundings, she raised her head, first gazing out of her side window at the swirling darkness, then through the windscreen at the empty road ahead.

“We haven't made it off the motorway?” she asked, her voice tinged with grogginess.

“No,” he replied softly. “We're still north of the Lakes.”

“Steven, why did you wake me?” she asked, a hint of accusation in her tone.

He turned to her and offered a faint smile. “We need to stop again—to recharge the car.”

She looked confused, pushing the cardigan down to her knees and sitting more upright. “I thought we had enough charge to make it home?”

He grimaced. “Yeah, so did I. It looks like the predicted range was a bit optimistic. It's the cold... the dark... and the relentless rain and sleet. We've been burning through those electrons excessively quickly.”

“Remind me again why we bought an electric car?” she said, rolling her eyes.

He sighed, loudly. “Again, it's a lease deal, so we haven't actually bought it. And like I've said every day this entire holiday, it seemed like a good deal, and electric is supposed to be the future.” His irritation at this familiar argument was clear. “How was I supposed to know that the stated range only applied on a sunny day, traveling downhill, with a strong tailwind?”

She tutted. She was rarely annoyed and almost never took it out on him, but ever since he had swapped his diesel estate car for the electric SUV, it had been a continual cross for him to bear. “How far have we actually gotten? Go on, surprise me.”

When he turned to look at her, he was relieved to see she was smiling. Clearly, this was going to be light ribbing rather than a demand that he 'get rid of it and get a proper car,' which had been the peak of their arguments on holiday. They'd found themselves in the Highlands, almost out of battery, no onboard data signal to use the system to locate a fast charger, both their phones firmly stuck in a calls only mode, and him having forgotten to pack the booklet with the number to call for roadside assistance if they completely ran out of charge. What followed was an hour of stress, searching for a charger, a moment of relief when they found one at a supermarket in Fort William, and then over six hours of waiting to charge to just 60% on what turned out to be a rather low-power charger commissioned in the early 2010’s. This was the first and last electric car he would be leasing!

“Estimated range when we left the services just north of Glasgow was 265 miles—more than enough to get home. We've travelled 142 miles, and it's now saying we have 12 miles of range left and that we should stop and recharge immediately. Just 10 miles ago, it suggested we had 50 miles of range, so I've got no idea what our actual range is now.”

“So, a little more than half, then?” she grumbled.

“Well, closer to two-thirds, but yeah, not exactly as advertised, is it! We'll need another 30-minute charge, possibly more if we can't find one of the ultra-fast chargers. I guess up to an hour to be on the safe side.”

“An hour,” she complained. “Your old car could go all day on a single tank of diesel. Refuelling took five minutes. If this is the future...” She didn't finish the sentence. She didn't need to. He was thinking the exact same thing.

“The good news is there are services in just a few miles. We can get out and stretch our legs. I could do with a coffee.”

“They never mention the amount of money you end up spending on coffee and snacks in the brochure, do they? Our entire holiday has been punctuated with hours of coffee and fast food at expensive roadside services. But at least it's far cheaper than the diesel!” she said, rolling her eyes again.

When they had added up all the charging costs for the holiday, it had worked out significantly more expensive than what he would have spent on diesel in his old car. The fact that the car also drove like a tank due to the weight of the batteries meant there really wasn't much to love about the thing. Unable to come up with anything insightful to say, he just stared ahead into the murky darkness, searching for the sign for the services. The road seemed to stretch endlessly into the night, shadows dancing at the edges of his vision.

He was relieved to find that the services were directly on the motorway rather than miles off the beaten track. This would cut down the time they needed to spend there, and that was as good news as he could hope for. The sat-nav indicated another 98 miles until they got home—a distance that felt insurmountable at this point. He figured that anything above a 75% charge should be enough, regardless of the weather.

As they pulled into an empty bay, he noticed something odd. Several cars were parked in other charging bays, but none were connected to the chargers. The vehicles sat there, silent and dark, like abandoned shells. It was strange; drivers could get fined for parking in these bays without charging, and the rest of the car park was near empty. The bad weather had kept most people off the roads, so why were these cars here?

“You stay warm, love. I'll get us connected,” he said, grabbing his rain jacket from the back seat and opening his door into the cold and wet. As he quickly put on the jacket, he thought again about how charging stations were always open to the elements, whereas when he filled his old diesel, the forecourt was always under cover. Yet another vast improvement over the future of motoring.

The wind whipped around him, cold needles of rain stinging his face as he retrieved the heavy cable from the charger and plugged it into the car. He returned to the charger to read the instructions; fingers numb from the cold. At least this charger accepted either a credit card as well as the company's app. He was so tired of the myriad apps cluttering his phone, each demanding his credit card information. Just being able to pay with his card felt like a small mercy. He retrieved his credit card and pressed the button for card payment. The screen blanked, then a single word appeared: 'Waiting.' He waited, the cold seeping into his bones. A couple of minutes later, he was still waiting. He looked back at her peering out at him through the windscreen. She rolled her eyes, and he heard her shout, “Really... Again!”

Five minutes crawled by, and still no update on the screen. She had given up watching him, settling back into her seat and pulling the cardigan tight around her. He stood there, shivering, the cold and wet seeping through his jacket. Could he feel any more miserable? Just as he was about to hit the screen in frustration, the charger emitted a loud beep. The message changed: 'Card Payment Not Available.' It then returned to the initial screen, offering the same, now futile option of Card Payment, or Pay by App.

He swore under his breath, climbed back into the car, and slammed the door shut against the howling wind. The warmth was a welcome relief. He grabbed his phone from the centre console. There was a small feeling of relief when he realised that he did at least already have this companies’ app installed. Opening it, he groaned; it had updated and now required him to re-enter all his details, including his credit card information. His fingers were numb, making the process even more tedious. Fifteen minutes crawled by, punctuated by occasional tutting from the seat next to him.

“Finally,” he exclaimed, causing her to jolt upright. “Now I just need the code off the side of the charger, and we should be good to go.”

She sighed. “No, we won't be going anywhere. This is just the queue to start waiting. You know we would be home by now in the old car.”

He didn't respond. She was right; they would be home by now, warm and comfortable, not stranded at some desolate service station in the middle of nowhere. He got out, slamming the door harder than necessary. The wind seemed to have picked up, whipping around him as he stormed to the charger. He read the code from the side, his eyes straining in the dim light, and entered it into the app. The app responded with a single word: 'Waiting.' “Ah, for fuck's sake,” he yelled into the empty night.

He paced up and down, the rain soaking through his shoes, his frustration mounting. After what felt like an eternity, his phone beeped with an update. “Finally,” he muttered, looking at the screen. But instead of the usual green light and charging information, the message simply read, “Charger is currently out of service.”

He pressed his hand against his forehead, resisting the urge to scream into the abyss. Looking around at the other cars parked silently in the charging bays, an unsettling thought crossed his mind. That's why none of them were plugged in. They must have all experienced the same issue. But where were the drivers? Resigned to his fate, he realized there wasn't much more he could do until the chargers became operational again.

Opening his door, he leaned in—not wanting this conversation but knowing it was about to happen anyway, so there was no point in putting it off. “The chargers are out of order.”

“You are kidding me?” she shot back, furious.

“Nope. Nearly half an hour in the cold and the pissing rain, to be told that the chargers are not currently available. So, we either go inside for a coffee and wait for them to come back online, or we sit in the car and use whatever's left in the battery to keep the heater going.”

She let out a short, sharp laugh. “Who knew that a car could completely ruin an entire holiday? Oh well, I guess it's time for a coffee then!”

She proceeded to grab her jacket from the back seat and spent the next couple of minutes putting it on while still in the car. He watched through the window as she struggled to get her arms in. It would be a ten-second job outside the car, but then she'd be getting wet while she put it on. There was logic in that, although it was hard for him to award any medals for the ingenuity when he was standing there in the cold and the rain, simply watching this reverse escapology act in the passenger seat of his disappointing car.

As she opened the door, a gust of icy wind rushed in. “Oh my God, it's freezing,” she exclaimed, grabbing her handbag and storming past him toward the main building of the services. He stood there for a moment, a strange unease settling over him. In all the time he'd been wrestling with the charger, he hadn't seen another soul—no cars arriving, no one leaving the building. The other vehicles sat motionless; their interiors dark. That was odd. Very odd, in fact. Shaking off the uneasy feeling, he hurried to catch up with her.