Surviving the Evacuation, Book 17
Page 31
“Where shall I put her?” Andy asked.
“You’re injured?” Napatchie asked. “Andy, take her through the gate. Chrissie, you help them. Get her to the hospital.”
“Zombies are following us,” Nilda said.
“And she wasn’t the one who screamed,” Chester added. “Where’s Jonas and Sholto?”
“I don’t know,” Napatchie said. “Kaitlin and I only managed four hundred metres before we found Christina heading towards— There!”
The first of the following undead had reached them.
“There were seven,” Chester said, eyeing the trees while moving away from the others, giving himself room to swing. “Plus one in the trees.”
“Two, I think,” Nilda said.
This zombie wore luminescent strips on its coat, stitched in a neat cross Chester thought he remembered from the group that had been following them. He raised the mace. “Next Christmas, we’ll skip the pre-lunch constitutional,” he said, just as feathers bloomed from the zombie’s brow.
Chester looked around and up. A pair of archers stood on a walkway at the top of the wall. The reinforcements had arrived at the same time as the undead.
As quickly as the zombies lumbered through the treeline, arrows sprouted from their necks, shoulders, and heads. One by one they fell until, after twelve lay motionless on the once pristine snow, no more appeared. A voice called out instead.
“We’re alive. Three of us. Coming out!” It was Jonas. With him were Sholto, and… it took Chester a moment to realise the muck-stained woman was the third missing Christina.
“What happened to you?” Napatchie asked.
“She fell into a pit of dead zombies,” Jonas said.
“Sorry,” Christina said.
“And she was the one who screamed,” Jonas said. “Where’s the other two?”
“Here,” Napatchie said. “Chrissie K is injured, but she’ll recover. Andy sneaked through the wall. They went after him. I still don’t know why.”
“Because we didn’t want him to get into trouble with Jimmy, or Jimmy to—” Christina began, but Napatchie held up her hand, cutting her off. “We can discuss it all later, and inside. Go on.”
She waited until Christina had retreated through the gate.
“You saw a pit full of dead zombies?” Napatchie asked.
“There were thousands,” Jonas said.
“I’d like to hear more about that,” Napatchie said.
“We can do you one better,” Sholto said. “We can show you the photographs.”
Half an hour later, Chester and Nilda were in a corner of the grocery store, huddled over an electric heater, watching the eight newly arrived reservists gather around the checkouts.
“Looks like spears are on offer today,” Chester said.
“The arrows are flying off the shelves,” Nilda said. “That woman brought a crossbow but… no, I can’t see a rifle on any of them, but quite a few are giving your Colt a covetous glance.”
“They’re free to covet all they like,” Chester said. “Just as long as that’s as far as it goes. Ah, is that Kaitlin?”
The soldier came out of the doors leading to the surveillance room, a map in hand.
“Gear up,” she said. It wasn’t a shout, but a clear order, and from the way everyone began picking up packs and tightening belts, it was the order they’d been waiting for.
“More trouble?” Chester asked.
“I hope not,” Kaitlin said. “I checked the CCTV, but there’s no movement on any of the screens. Annapolis reports the same. I was going to find those bodies, those zombies, you think might have recently been alive. Can you show me roughly where you think it was?”
“Somewhere around here, I think,” Nilda said, pointing at the map. “What do you think, Chester?”
“Looks about right,” he said. “And you’ve got our footprints to follow.”
“Until the next snowstorm obliterates them,” she said. “And we think it’s only a few hours out. We’ll speak later.”
“I’m glad she didn’t ask us to go with her,” Nilda said as the soldier took her patrol outside. “If she had, we’d have had to say yes, but I think that’s nearly enough excitement for one day.”
“Nearly?” Chester asked.
But now it was the arrival of Napatchie and Sholto which cut short their conversation.
“How’s Christina?” Nilda asked.
“Alive. She should keep the foot,” Napatchie said. “I was hoping your doctor might look at it?”
“Of course,” Nilda said.
“Our medics aren’t used to those kinds of injuries,” Napatchie said. “We had doctors who were, but they left. We’re a little short of general surgeons, while we’re overstaffed with midwives and specialists.”
“What about Andy?” Chester asked. “What was he doing out there?”
“Getting a present for his brother,” Napatchie said. “There’s a house three kilometres away that has a free-standing stove. Jimmy is short of one. They’d noticed it earlier in the year, and there’s a very long story associated with it that he can tell you himself. Andy misunderstood what people were saying about the zombies, about the news you brought from Newfoundland. He thought all the zombies were gone and the world was back to normal.”
“Understandable, I guess,” Chester said.
“Did you copy the pictures you took?” Nilda asked.
“And kept a copy for ourselves,” Sholto said. “Looks like well over a thousand in a pit beneath the sawmill. Maybe two thousand dead there in total. Could be even more than that. Christina fell right into the pit, right on top of the zombies. That was the scream we heard.”
“But they’re dead?” Chester asked. “All of them?”
“It’s the same as Newfoundland,” Sholto said.
“Which just leaves those we fought, and those that followed us back to the wall,” Nilda said.
“Kaitlin is taking a team out to photograph the dead before dark,” Napatchie said.
“She told us,” Nilda said. “Do you think they might have come from here?”
“Not recently,” Napatchie said. “But we can discuss it over dinner.”
“Actually, no,” Nilda said. “If you don’t mind, I think it’s better if we leave before dark. If we drive back to East Ferry, we can be away from land before nightfall, and so continue sailing overnight.”
“You want to leave?” Napatchie asked, not nearly as surprised as Chester.
“To go south, like we were discussing earlier,” Nilda said. “Nothing’s really changed, and nothing would change between now and tomorrow except that we’d have had a big meal and a better night’s sleep. Believe me, I’d like both, but that’s not enough reason to stay. We should leave now.”
“For the U.S.?” Sholto asked.
“For New England, maybe further,” Nilda said. “As far as the snow hasn’t reached. Maybe we can find confirmation that what’s happened in Newfoundland has happened somewhere else, and so it really has also happened here.”
“Last chance before we depart,” Nilda said. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay behind, too?”
“So much has happened, I could do with a few days to process it all,” Sholto said. “Besides, Jay isn’t the only one who wants to plant a few footprints on the United States.”
“Then I’ll leave you to take us south, while I go change,” Nilda said.
“I’ll haul anchor and unfurl the sails, cap’n,” Sholto said.
Leaving Sholto on the bridge with his good humour for company, Chester followed his wife off the bridge and down the broad stairs to Lisa Kempton’s old cabin.
“At least Thaddeus is happy,” Chester said, collapsing into his favourite of the four chairs, deep backed and low armed.
“Aren’t you?” Nilda asked.
“I’m still frozen,” Chester said.
“Speaking of that, you should change, too,” she said. “We’re only borrowing this furniture, remember?�
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“I don’t think Lisa Kempton will be coming back for it,” he said. “Not now. That’s the truth of it. She must have died soon after telling Jonas about Annapolis, or she’d have sent more people up there.”
“I think so, too,” Nilda said. “I feel sorry for Sorcha. The news will be hard on her. But I mean someone else will be captaining this ship soon. Very soon. Probably as soon as we return to Port-Aux-Basques to refuel.”
“You don’t want to stay on as captain?” Chester asked. “I don’t think anyone would object.”
“They would,” Nilda said, rummaging through the cabinet for cleaner clothes. “Remember, I only got this gig because no one worried I’d disappear off into the sunset with the ship. But no, I don’t think a sailor’s life is for me. We’ll have a house next to Jonas and Martha, I think. The midwife successfully delivered her twenty-third baby of the year yesterday. Admittedly that’s only her thirtieth delivery in a two-year career, but there’s another fifty due between now and the summer. Oh, sure, we’ve the admiral and her doctors, but for this, I’d prefer a civilian to a military doctor. Speaking of people’s areas of expertise, can you check on Jay once you’re changed?”
“Down in the galley? I don’t think he could muck up bread and jam.”
“But he can be over-generous with the portions,” Nilda said. “Even with the doctor and two of the mechanics staying in Digby, we need to be careful about stores. You can’t have missed that it’s colder than the forest in here, and the chief stayed with the ship rather than taking the chance to tinker with a tidal barrage. There’s a good chance we’ll break down. If that happens, we might end up waiting weeks for the Amundsen or the Courageous.”
“I’ll have a word with Jay,” Chester said. “But in a moment.” He stretched out his legs. “What a day.”
“What a Christmas,” Nilda said. “And I think I can, with absolute certainty, say it’s the weirdest one I’ve ever had.”
“What’s the weirdest bit, do you think?” he asked.
“Lisa Kempton looking for Thaddeus.”
“You reckon?”
“I don’t mean weird as in odd. It’s that we know, from Sorcha, that Kempton planned for everything. For her, in the end, after the bombs had fallen, to come looking for the help of a man who was trying to expose her, to stop her, it says she was desperate. And then she told this entire village of people to go to Annapolis on the off chance that they might… oh.”
“What?”
“Oh, that’s sad.”
“What is?” he asked.
“I think I just understood what Kempton was doing. She’d been betrayed, hadn’t she? So she knew her redoubts were worthless. The reason no one who arrived in Annapolis mentioned her is that she must have told different groups to go to different places. She wanted to preserve humanity, didn’t she? That’s what Sorcha said it was all about. So she sent this group across the bay to the nearest place where she thought they might have a chance. I bet she did the same with other groups, wherever she found them. Sending them to mountaintops or remote valleys, to peninsulas or islands.”
“Then maybe we’ll find them,” Chester said. “I’d say that’s optimistic, not sad.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Nilda said, but in a tone that suggested she disagreed. “Anyway, we’ll find out what’s happened in America when we get there. In the meantime, here. Happy Christmas. It’s not much, but it’s my own fault for leaving my shopping too late. I swear, the shelves get emptier earlier each year.”
He took the small parcel wrapped in faded newspaper. “A book,” he said, opening the package. “Charge! Ten Cavalry Charges That Changed History. That’s perfect, because I’ve got something for you, too,” he said. He took out a small gold case.
“I knew it was jewellery,” she said.
“Nah. I found the box first, then hunted around for something suitable to go in it, but then I thought, we’ve got the crown jewels, so how could anything else compete? Take a look.”
So she did, carefully undoing the ribbon before opening the box and taking out a…
“It’s a screw,” she said, a little confused.
“Made of brass, not gold, sorry about that. It’s for our bookcase, for when we have a house. I mean, it’s symbolic of the entire house, all that’s in it, and our life together.”
“No, I get it. It’s perfect,” she said.
Day 288, 26th December
Chapter 29 - America, Unboxed
The U.S. Atlantic Seaboard
“Morning. Did I miss anything?” Chester asked, when he arrived on the bridge the following morning.
“Breakfast,” Jay said. He was standing by the broad windows, while the cat was curled up on the captain’s chair. “And you missed America.”
“That’s the United States, is it? I wouldn’t say I’ve missed it. Where’s Norm?”
“Asleep,” Jay said. “It’s just me and Tabitha, watching for icebergs alone, at least until Thaddeus gets back. He’s calling the admiral.”
“Why?”
“Because he couldn’t get through to her earlier,” Jay said. “The signal was really bad. It’s something to do with where over the Atlantic the satellite is, and the angle the signal has to travel.”
The sky above was almost entirely clear. A bank of cloud hovered over the sea to the east, while a dark band squatted over the not-too-distant shore, but above and ahead was crystal blue.
“Doesn’t look half bad at all,” Chester said. “You know what I’m going to ask next?”
“Where exactly we are,” Jay said.
“Nope,” Chester said. “What’s the temperature, and how serious were you about icebergs?”
“Not that serious,” Jay said. “The chief said it’s spring and summer you get icebergs, not winter, and not really around here because Newfoundland and Canada are in the way.”
“Good to know,” Chester said. “And the temperature?”
“It’s still glove and hat weather, but a few degrees short of an extra pair of socks.”
“You’ve come up with your own temperature scale?”
“It makes as much sense as Fahrenheit,” Jay said. “But it’s eight centigrade.”
“Really? It feels colder. Well, that’s not bad at all. So where are we? Rather, where’s that, out there?”
“Maine, Thaddeus says,” Jay said.
“We’re not near Crossfields Landing, are we?”
“No, that’s further north,” Jay said. “We’ll reach the New Hampshire border soon. Maybe hit Cape Cod before nightfall. Well, not hit it, but, you know, get near.”
“Fair enough,” Chester said. He walked back to the window, picked up the binoculars, and surveyed the coast. It looked no different to any other stretch of any other shoreline he’d seen in recent weeks. “What did you think of Nova Scotia?”
“Oh, it was all right, I guess,” Jay said.
“I see you’ve got yourself a new coat. That’s a maple leaf on the back, isn’t it? You got it in Canada?”
“Oh, yeah, Tapessa gave it to me.”
“Tapessa? She was one of the girls who took you sightseeing? That was nice of her.”
“And she helped load supplies on the ship. Yeah, she’s all right.”
There might not be icebergs in the water, but Chester could sense them looming in the conversation. Saving him from saying the exact wrong thing, the door opened, and Sholto returned to the bridge.
“Good news?” Chester asked.
“News, certainly,” Sholto said. “Sergeant Toussaint is trapped.”
“Trapped?” Jay said, horrified. “We have to turn around.”
“Not that kind of trapped,” Sholto said, walking over to the captain’s chair. One baleful glare from the ship’s cat, and he retreated to the seat by the radar screen. “The Marines are snowed in, just outside St John’s.”
“We should still turn around,” Jay said.
“The admiral has sent the Courageous to rescue them,
” Sholto said. “The ship left Ireland last night, around three a.m. They’ll arrive long before we could.”
“You told the admiral to pass on the warning about St John’s harbour entrance being narrow?” Chester asked.
“I did,” Sholto said. “And Ms Ashoona has found some Newfoundlanders who can give some more detailed navigational tips. She told Dr Harabi, and she’s told the admiral who’s told Captain Fielding.”
“Sergeant Toussaint is okay, then?” Jay asked.
“They’ve taken shelter in a conference hotel,” Sholto said. “It sounds like it was set up as a refugee centre after the outbreak, and was stocked with enough supplies for a few weeks, but was abandoned after a couple of days. They’ve clothing, bedding, and plenty to burn for heat. He’s got enough food for a week, and the Courageous will be there in half that. Which is sooner than us if we turned around. He’s safe.”
“What about the undead?” Chester asked.
“None sighted, but he did see two deer,” Sholto said.
“Cool,” Jay said. “And he saw no zombies at all?”
“Nope,” Sholto said. “Not since Gander. But there’s a blizzard now blanketing Newfoundland. We won’t be preparing any fields there anytime soon.”
“Everyone is aboard the Courageous?” Chester asked. “No one’s been left behind?”
“No one,” Sholto said. “The Vehement has been sunk.”
“Huh.” Chester walked back to the windows, this time, looking east. “Farewell Ireland, then, I suppose.” More softly, he added, “Farewell England. Farewell Europe. Farewell Scott, Salman, Amber, and Starwind. Maybe one day… one day.”
“What was that?” Jay asked.
“Oh, nothing. Did the admiral say anything else, Thaddeus?”
“Only that we’ve got a destination,” Sholto said. “Boston.”
“The admiral wants us to go there?” Chester asked. “Why?”
“She didn’t say, but she was insistent,” Sholto said. “And we can reach it easily enough.”
“Did it have universities?” Jay asked, opening the drawer beneath the map table, and sorting through their varied collection of charts and maps.
“Universities?” Sholto asked. “Are you thinking of applying?”