by Wood, J N
‘Yes go on,’ she said as she sat down.
They quickly got to their feet and ran to Charles to receive their gifts.
‘What do you say?’ Sandra asked them after Charles had bent forward to hand the chocolate out.
In unison the three boys thanked Charles.
I wish I could get offered some chocolate.
Charles sat himself down on one of the chairs. ‘Okay, let’s get this over and done with please,’ he said. ‘The sooner I can get back to bed, the better. What time do you want to set off?’
I hadn’t even thought about it.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Roy’s chin slip off his hand, nearly recreating his head slam from last night.
It was Ali that spoke up. ‘How long will it take to sail down to Birch Bay?’
‘One hour, maybe an hour and a half.’
‘So if we set off at five,’ Ali said, glancing at us all. ‘We’ll have enough daylight left to find somewhere else if Birch Bay isn’t viable.’
‘Five is fine with me,’ Charles said.
‘Are you okay to sit offshore for an hour if Birch Bay is clear?’ Ali asked him. ‘Just until it’s dark enough? Will you be able to sail back here in the dark?’
I’m glad Ali has thought about all this.
‘That’s fine,’ Charles said. ‘But you’re right to ask, if it’s too dark, I’ll come back in the morning.’
‘That’s settled then,’ Sandra said. ‘Five o’clock.’
‘Meet me here at four thirty,’ Charles said. ‘I’ll stock you up with some food and bottled water, to keep you going for a while.’
‘That’s very kind of you Charles,’ Sandra said. ‘On top of everything else you’re doing.’
‘Yeah, we can’t pay you back for all of this,’ I said to him.
‘Don’t worry about that. I’ve always liked helping people, but I never did it enough. I liked helping myself too much.’ With a groan, he rose to his feet. ‘Now, I don’t wish to be rude, but could you please leave me alone so I can retire back to my bed. Don’t worry, all arrangements have been made. We just need to turn up at the Mariette. Everything will be ready.’
‘Mariette?’ Ali asked him.
‘The name of my yacht. Don’t know the origins. She was already called that when I acquired her.’
We thanked Charles again, left the pub and started back to the house.
‘Let’s try and get as much sleep as we can,’ Ali said. ‘We’re going to have to turn nocturnal again.’
‘Sleeping today is not gonna be a problem,’ I said.
Jack and Roy both grunted in agreement.
‘I feel fine,’ Theo said. ‘I’m not sure what’s wrong with you three?’
‘Very funny Theo,’ Jack said.
Roy suddenly ran off to our right, nearly knocking someone over and disappearing between two market stalls.
‘Wait a minute everyone,’ I said. ‘I think Roy’s gone to be sick.’
We all stopped to wait for him.
Thirty seconds later he reappeared, wiping his mouth with his sleeve and waving us on. ‘I’m fine, carry on. I’m fine.’
With great difficulty, we forced our way through the crowds of people, eventually getting back to the house. I’d barely had the energy to heave myself up onto the top bunk.
The afternoon’s sleep had been constantly disturbed by people coming and going. The bed rest had still helped me get rid of most of my hangover though, so by the time I was woken up by Jack at four o’clock, I felt much better.
We collected what little belongings we still had, and walked back through the crowds to Pea’s Place.
Now that the day had actually arrived, the nerves were very much kicking in at the prospect of leaving. Even though I’d always wanted to get out of here, the short break away from dead creatures trying to eat me all the time had been very pleasant. Even with that break being interrupted by the needless fight with the zombies. We were now going back outside the camp, to live under the constant threat of dying in an excruciatingly painful way.
You don’t have to think too hard to realise that is a fucking stupid thing to do, voluntarily. No choice though, I need to get back to my wife, and this refugee camp’s days are definitely numbered.
Chapter 23: Flashing Lights
On arrival at the pub, Jack had gone in to get Charles. They walked back out a couple of minutes later, Andruis and Matis following them.
Charles looked at us with a big grin. ‘Hello travellers. I hope you’ve all got your sea legs on today. I do not allow any vomiting on my yacht.’
‘Are you feeling better?’ I asked him.
‘Yes, much better thank you. All ready then?’
‘Ready as we’ll ever be,’ Sandra replied.
Charles looked directly at Jack. ‘Seriously though, please don’t be sick.’
Jack looked back at him wide eyed. ‘What? Why me?’ He pointed at Roy, saying, ‘He’s been sick. I haven’t.’
Roy glared back at Jack and raised his hands. Shaking his head, he simply asked, ‘Why?’
‘Okay, follow me,’ Charles said, and started walking in the direction of the harbour.
Considering Michael had been told a lot of the fishing boats had disappeared, the harbour looked full. All I could see were fishing boats.
The Mariette turned out to be very impressive and modern looking, to my eyes at least. I’d been expecting something with a sail, but this one looked more like the yachts people hired to go sport fishing. It was hidden away amongst the many fishing boats that hadn’t yet been used to escape this dying country.
Matis stayed on the dock, shaking all our hands as we passed him. Andruis was going with us, apparently to help Charles on the way back.
‘You can go down into the cabin, or stay up here on deck,’ Charles said. ‘It’s up to you.’
I had a quick glance down into the cabin. Two large boxes sat on the floor down there. They were full of bottled water, different kinds of snacks, some packets of jerky, and what looked like sandwiches. The bread looked similar to the loaves we’d eaten the night before.
I turned to look at Charles. He was stood behind the very small wheel, looking at something on the dashboard in front of him.
I’d also envisioned a large pirate ship sized wheel to go with the sails.
‘This is brilliant Charles,’ I said to him. ‘We won’t have any issues getting out of here will we?’
‘Yes, she’s a beauty isn’t she? And no, there’s nobody to stop us. Not unless we venture too close to Canadian waters. Then I imagine we will be torpedoed by the Canadians.’
I assumed he was joking about the torpedoes. But we would probably be shot at until we turned around.
‘Make sure you only go south then,’ Jack said.
We all stayed up on the large deck area, which was situated behind the wheel.
The water was calm within Blaine’s harbour. I hoped it would stay that way after we left the cove.
Charles pushed two levers into position, and switched on the ignition, the engine instantly roaring to life. ‘Matis came down here earlier to check her out,’ he called back to us. ‘Just to make sure she was shipshape and Bristol fashion.’
Ali shot me a questioning look. I smiled back and shrugged.
He manoeuvred the boat out from between the two fishing boats alongside us, and then turned left. We sailed past rows and rows of boats. The smell of fresh fish had been strong on the dock, but had increased tenfold after getting underway.
I turned to Jack. ‘Is it still called sailing if you don’t have any sails?’
Jack continued to stare at all the different kinds of fishing trawlers as we passed them. He shook his head, saying, ‘I don’t know.’
As soon as we were clear, the yacht took a right turn, and the strong breeze hit us, making me wish I’d been wearing another layer.
My face was really starting to sting from the biting wind, so I spun around to watch our wake i
n the water. I noticed Jack and Ali also turn.
‘The salt,’ Ali called out.
‘What?’ I asked.
She pointed to her face. ‘The salt in the air will be getting into the scratches.’
Charles shouted back to us, ‘It’ll be colder once we get out of this cove.’
I turned into the painful wind. Charles was pointing to the gap between the harbour and the bit of land known as Semiahmoo. I pulled my t-shirt up so the neckline was just under my eyes.
‘You might want to get inside once we’re out in the open,’ he continued. ‘Especially the children.’
Sandra hadn’t wanted to wait, very sensibly taking the three boys down into the cabin straight away.
I’m pretty sure I’ll be sick if I go down there. Best to be cold and be sick over the side.
As we left the cove, Charles pointed out two grey ships in the distance. ‘That’s two of Canada’s coastal defence vessels. It was probably them that forced us to dock at Blaine.’
‘Why didn’t you just go around them?’ Theo asked.
‘Because they’re faster than us, and they’re armed with all kinds of deterrents,’ Charles replied. ‘Also, there are four more of them out here somewhere. They’d have blown us out of the water if we tried getting past them.’
‘Has anybody ever tried to swim from the camp to Canada?’ Pete asked him.
‘I’m sure they have, but I wouldn’t want to try it. I’d maybe consider it in the summer.’
Once out of the cove, Charles was forced to slow the yacht down. The choppy waters had made it feel like we were bouncing completely out of the water every time we hit a wave. Once we were travelling along at a more sedate pace, and he’d moved us closer to the shore slightly, we didn’t rise out of the water half as much.
My stomach was very thankful to him. It had felt like it was being turned inside out at times.
Eventually, one by one, everyone went down into the cabin. I pulled my jacket up around my head, and stayed up top. I sat at the back, and watched Canada get further and further away from us.
The thought of travelling through zombie infested land again was terrifying, especially without Michael, Shannon and Gee.
The three boys were worrying me. When it was just me, or even when it was me and Jack, it was so much easier. Just jump in a car and drive. Granted, we fucked up a lot, and very nearly died every half an hour, but we didn’t have three kids to worry about. There are a lot fewer people to protect those boys now, compared to when we first met up with them outside that Costco.
So when we finally made it the waters next to Birch Bay, and Charles had dropped the anchor, I would have been more than happy to stay on the yacht forever.
‘It looks clear,’ Andruis said, holding binoculars up to his eyes.
‘Excellent,’ Charles said. ‘So we’ll wait here until it gets darker. Then if it still looks okay, I’ll kick you out over by the dock over there.’ He was pointing to our left, where the water fed into the dock area.
The sun had been nearing the horizon when we started moving again. Birch Bay had been quiet the entire time we’d been waiting. We hadn’t spotted any movement at all.
As we entered the mouth of the dock, Andruis offered me the binoculars. ‘Here, may come in handy.’
‘Thank you very much,’ I said, gladly taking them from him.
I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with all this generosity.
‘We have another on the yacht,’ he told me. ‘So no big deal.’
While Andruis was tying us up to the dock, Charles walked up to the deck from the cabin. He was carrying one of the boxes of water and food. Theo followed him, carrying the other.
I took the one Charles was holding. ‘We really do appreciate this,’ I said to him.
‘Honestly, don’t worry about it. We have more than enough. You’ll have to find some bags to carry it all. You don’t want to be walking around carrying boxes.’
‘We have flashlights as well,’ Andruis said, handing one to Ali, Jack, and then Sandra. ‘Sorry, that’s all we have.’
We said our farewells to Charles and Andruis, thanking them again for everything they’d given us, and for the vast amount of beer we’d drunk.
We briefly stopped to watch them sailing back out towards Birch Bay’s cove.
‘We need to get going before it gets too dark,’ Ali said. ‘Me, Jack, Chris and Beth try to find two vehicles. The rest stay here, and keep hidden.’
Beth raised her hand into the air. ‘I can’t drive.’
‘Okay, you stay here,’ Ali said. ‘Roy can take your place.’
Ali and Roy went left, Jack and I went right.
There were a few vehicles in the car park adjacent to the dock. We checked every one. They were all locked. There were a lot of houses close by, so we rushed over to them to check for cars.
Jack stepped alongside me. ‘We knocked up a little plan while we were in the cabin on the yacht. Do you want to hear it?’
‘Yep, can do.’
‘Get two vehicles. Drive to an outdoorsy shop. Pick up clothes and everything we’ll need to break into another country. Drive along the border until we find a part we can cross, but stay far enough away from the border to avoid getting killed by zombies.’
I stopped outside a house with a car on the drive. ‘Sounds like a good plan. Car?’
Jack paused to look at the sports car, and simply said, ‘No.’
We continued down the street, looking for something more suitable, eventually stopping outside a large house with two identical looking Fords parked in front of it.
‘Yep, these look perfect,’ Jack said.
‘What are they?’ I asked him.
‘Fords.’
‘Yeah thanks twat,’ I said.
Jack started walking up the drive towards them. ‘I don’t know what they are, they’re cars.’
As expected, they were both locked. Now we just had to break into the house to find the keys. Jack walked up to the front door and lifted his axe. He was all set to swing it into one of the six glass panels that ran up the side of the door.
‘Wait,’ I quickly said. ‘Try the door, it might not be locked. We don’t want to set off an alarm.’
‘They don’t have electricity around here,’ Jack said.
‘Oh yeah. Try the door anyway.’
Jack grasped the handle and twisted, it didn’t budge.
‘Okay, smash the glass quietly,’ I told him.
He used the handle of his axe, easily putting it through the glass. It shattered and some of it fell to the floor by his feet. It was much louder than I’d hoped it would be. We both stood still, listening for the sound of hissing. I held my breath and counted to thirty.
‘Nope, nothing,’ I said. ‘Knock the rest of the glass out so you don’t cut yourself.’
Jack managed to push the rest of the glass through into the house, so it made less noise. He then reached in and tried to unlock the door.
‘Right, got it,’ he said. He pulled his hand back out and tried the handle again. The bottom of the door moved inwards slightly, but the top wouldn’t move.
‘Fucking hell,’ Jack said. ‘There is a lock at the top. I can’t reach that. I’ll break another window.’ He started to raise his axe above his head.
‘Wait a minute,’ I said, thinking I could use his axe as a battering ram. ‘Can I borrow your axe for two seconds?’
‘Why, what are you going to do?’
‘Just give me it. We’d already be in there and have the keys in the time it’d take us to argue over it.’
‘I’m definitely not going to give it to you now. Why would we have to argue over whatever you want to do?’
‘Just give me the fucking axe.’ I reached out for it, Jack instantly pulling it away. ‘Oh for fuck’s sake,’ I said.
‘Just tell me what you want to do, and I’ll see if it’s a good idea.’
I pointed to the two Fords behind us. ‘We’d be sat in
those two cars by now if you’d have just given me the axe.’
‘I’d have broken the window and unlocked it by now it if you hadn’t stopped me.’
The sound of engines made us both snap our heads around. We walked down to the end of the drive as two SUVs turned the corner, and started moving down the street towards us.
The first SUV, a maroon coloured Chevrolet, pulled up next to us. The driver’s side window rolled down, revealing a smiling Roy.
‘Hello,’ he said.
Beth appeared from behind him, after she’d bent forwards in the passenger seat. ‘You’re in with us. Get in the back.’
Jack looked at the Chevrolet, and then down to the grey Honda behind. ‘Ours would have been better,’ he said to me. ‘Ours matched.’
I opened the back door. Theo was sat in the middle. ‘Hi Theo,’ I said, climbing in to sit next to him. Jack sat on the other side.
‘Where we headed?’ I asked. ‘The town centre?’
‘Yep,’ Roy replied. ‘We think it’s just down here.’
Birch Bay didn’t have any of the kind of shops we required. It was more of a seaside tourist place.
Both of our vehicles were parked up on the main road, side by side, and with the windows down.
Ali was in the driver’s seat of the other car, leaning out of her window. ‘On the way to Blaine, we passed an outdoor mall. I can’t remember what stores it had, but there might be something there.’
‘There isn’t anything around here so we might as well,’ Beth said.
‘What about guns?’ I asked. ‘Search through houses or wait until we see a gun shop?’
‘Houses would be sensible I suppose,’ Ali said. ‘We might need guns before we drive by a store.’
Sandra popped her head out of the back window. ‘It might take us a while to find guns. They’ll be locked away in people’s homes. There will be a gun store in or around the mall.’
‘I think that’s risking it,’ Ali said.
‘I don’t like it around here,’ Sandra said. ‘It’s too quiet with all these houses.’
‘I’m easy,’ I said.
