by J N Wood
‘You’re honestly more than welcome Roy,’ I replied, the smile stretching even further across my face.
Beth shot a grateful smile towards Roy.
‘What about the Rodriguez’s?’ I asked. My mood was definitely lifted after Roy’s offer to join me. ‘What are your plans?’
‘First of all,’ Sandra said. ‘There should be a town just south of Cultus Lake.’ She looked down at the Mount Baker visitor’s map. ‘It’s really not very far from here. It doesn’t say what it’s called though. This map really is terrible Chris.’
‘We’re in Canada now,’ I told her. ‘It’s not going to have that much detail for another country.’
She flipped the map around to face me. ‘It doesn’t have much detail for the American side.’
‘Yes okay,’ I said. ‘It’s a rubbish map.’
‘Anyway, after we’ve been to the nameless town, we need to go to Milk River. We have to meet up with two very special people. It’s just on the other side of the border.’ She looked down to the three boys, all munching away on strips of jerky, before looking back up to Ali. ‘After that, not sure.’
Ali returned her gaze. ‘Vancouver is nice, but too close to the States. Alaska maybe?’
‘That’s maybe a bit too far,’ Pete said.
‘We’ll try and work our way north,’ Sandra said. ‘British Columbia is very nice, and a very big state. We’ll stop when we find somewhere we like.’ She smiled at both of her cousins.
‘Michael and Shannon said they were planning on living in Alaska,’ Jack said. ‘In Anchorage I think.’ He looked down at the energy bar in his hand, smiling to himself, thinking about happy memories maybe.
‘Better get to this town with no name then,’ I said, standing up.
We started moving again, soon coming across a road in the middle of the woods. We stood on the edge of the trees, looking down at the empty road.
‘We should probably stay off the roads,’ Jack said. ‘Just in case any army vehicles drive by. We should avoid anyone official looking until we’re much further away from our border crossing spot.’
‘Yeah you’re right,’ Ali agreed.
‘This road should lead to the nameless town,’ Sandra said. ‘So should we maybe try and follow it from a distance?’
We agreed and kept the road within eyeshot.
Ten minutes later, we saw a sign for Lindell Beach.
‘Do you think it will have a beach?’ Beth mused. ‘On the lake maybe?’
‘It’s a bit cold for the beach,’ I said.
‘I hope there is a beach,’ Beth said, more to herself than anyone else.
Not long after seeing the town’s sign, there had been a residential street off to the right. We decided to risk it, and climbed down the steep embankment to walk on the road.
It was very quiet. We were all nervously glancing at our surroundings. Every little sound made our heads snap towards it.
The occasional bird calls were startling us. The wind was blowing litter across the road. A coke can skittered away from us along the road, making Sandra clutch Seth closer to her body.
‘Sheriff McCallany and my wife did say parts of Canada might have been evacuated,’ I told everyone. ‘It would make sense to move everyone away from the border.’
We walked past more and more houses, nothing stirred in the windows or down on the streets. Some homes still had cars parked on the drive, or out the front. There were no people at all.
‘I’m guessing the rules on car theft change when the car’s owners are still alive?’ Roy asked.
‘I never finished law school,’ Sandra said. ‘But I think it’s still illegal if the owners are dead.’
We were in no doubt the town of Lindell Beach had been evacuated. We carried on regardless, eventually finding ourselves near the lake.
Sandra, Roy, and the three kids were looking into Lindell Beach General Store’s front window, trying to see if there was anything edible inside.
Something brushed against my shins. I looked down to see a black cat weaving in and out of my legs.
‘Hello cat,’ I said, crouching down to stroke him. He leaned into my hand as I scratched the side of his head. ‘How come you haven’t been evacuated?’
Beth crouched down alongside me. She stroked her hand down the full length of the cat’s back. ‘He doesn’t look hungry. He’s just after some attention. Aren’t you? You beautiful little boy,’ she said to the cat.
The sound of paper being blown around behind us was getting louder and louder. Just as I turned to look for what was creating the sound, a newspaper hit Beth on the back of the head. It stayed wrapped around her, flapping in the wind.
I laughed, and peeled the sheets away from her hair.
Beth was feeling the back of her head. ‘It hasn’t left anything disgusting in my hair has it?’ she asked.
I glanced at her hair. ‘Nah, I think you’re alright.’
Despite the wind trying to rip the paper out of my hand, I managed to fold it back over and look at the front page.
In big red bold type, the headline read, KILLER VIRUS CONFIRMED IN EUROPE.
I quickly read the first few lines of the story below.
The number of victims has not yet been confirmed, but the south east of England and northern France today reported their first cases of the Florida Virus.
It hit me like a slap in the face. The words on the page began to blur, and I was suddenly unsteady on my feet.
‘No, no, no,’ I said. ‘Fucking no!’
‘What is it?’ Jack asked me. ‘What’s the matter?’
Everyone started to crowd around me, trying to read the newspaper in my trembling hands.
‘Oh no,’ Roy exclaimed. ‘What date was it published?’
I looked up to the top of the page, just about managing to read the date. ‘It’s from two weeks ago.’
BOOK THREE : FARM
DAY TWENTY THREE
Continued
Chapter 1: Not the Same
I paced back and forth in the middle of the road. ‘I need to go now,’ I told them. ‘I can’t afford to wait. They’ve had this shit for two weeks back home. Fuck knows what’s happening over there? It’s probably the same as America by now.’ I stopped pacing and desperately looked around at the buildings surrounding us, not really knowing what I was trying to find.
This nightmare is getting worse. What the fuck am I going to do?
‘I understand,’ Sandra said, and pointed to her three boys, sat huddled together on a curb. ‘But we need to rest. It’s getting late. It’s already dark.’
Looking up to rapidly darkening sky, I whispered, ‘I’m not asking anyone to come with me.’
‘Lights,’ Ali hissed, pointing down the road. ‘Flashlights coming this way. Everyone hide.’ She stepped towards the kids, scooping one of them up as Sandra and Pete also reached them.
Several beams of lights flashed across the backs of Ali and Sandra. I turned around to catch one flashing across my face, and lifted my hand to shield my eyes.
‘Don’t move,’ a man’s voice shouted. ‘Stay exactly where you are.’
Fuck’s sake. That didn’t take long. I don’t have time for this.
‘Keep your hands where we can see them,’ a woman called out. ‘If anyone reaches for a weapon, we will shoot you.’
The silhouettes of four people slowly walked towards us, all holding rifles and shining their torches in our faces. The bright lights made it difficult to get a good look at them.
‘Who are you?’ the woman asked. ‘Where did you come from?’
‘We’re from here,’ Ali answered, before hesitating. ‘From…’
‘Lindell Beach,’ Sandra whispered.
‘Yeah, we’re from Lindell Beach,’ Ali said, stumbling over her words. She leaned slightly to her right, pointing behind the four people. ‘Our houses are just down there. We’ve come back to pick up some of our stuff.’
‘Bullshit,’ one of the newcomers said,
now directing his torchlight to the road at our feet. ‘They ain’t letting people come back here yet.’
He wasn’t wearing army fatigues or anything official looking, just a heavy coat and jeans. I could see the other three people more clearly now, two women and a man, all wearing thick winter clothing.
‘How long you been here?’ one of the women asked.
‘We live here. We’re Canadian,’ Roy insisted, trying on the accent and failing badly.
The woman stared at him, slowly shaking her head, before saying, ‘We came over the border about a week ago. When did you come over?’
Roy glanced over to us, before returning his attention back to the woman. ‘This morning,’ he reluctantly told her.
The woman stepped back to speak quietly with the other three, too quiet to make out what was being said.
She eventually nodded and turned back to us. ‘The house we’ve been living in for a few days isn’t far from here. It’s on the very edge of town, backing onto the woods.’ She pointed at Jonah, being held protectively by Sandra. ‘Those kids could do with getting wrapped up for the night. It gets real cold. Come back with us.’
None of us said a word, we just exchanged questioning glances.
‘Don’t worry,’ the woman said, noticing our apprehension. ‘It’s safe, safer than spending the night out here.’ She took one step towards us and smiled. ‘I’m Beverley.’ She turned towards her three companions. Pointing at them in turn, she said, ‘This is Emma, Rohan and Jago at the back.’
After being introduced, they one by one lowered their rifles and nodded, or in Emma’s case, said ‘Hi,’ and waved.
‘We do need to get the kids inside somewhere,’ Sandra said, looking at Ali.
‘Sandra’s right,’ Ali agreed. ‘We could do with the help, and some information.’
‘We can tell you everything we know,’ Rohan said.
‘For one night only though,’ Jago added. ‘It’s not safe to be running around with this many people.’
Ali raised one hand, still carrying Seth with the other. ‘We’ll leave first thing in the morning.’
‘I’ve got to get going,’ I said to Jack.
‘You need to sleep Chris,’ Beth said. ‘You can’t just keep going non-stop.’
‘Like Ali just said,’ Jack agreed. ‘We’ll set off first thing in the morning.’
Everybody was now looking at me. Beverley pointed up the street to my left and shrugged her shoulders. Ali was nodding her head.
‘Yeah we’ll come with you,’ Jack answered for me. ‘Thanks for the help.’
‘No problem. Follow us,’ Beverley said, turning and walking away.
Fuck’s sake. Can I do this on my own? Probably not.
‘Come on Chris,’ Jack told me.
I grudgingly nodded my head.
We followed the four newcomers, all of us walking down the middle of the road. Pete, Sandra and Ali still carried the kids, who seemed fast asleep. Their heads were buried into their respective carrier’s chests.
I’d guess Beverley and Rohan are in their early forties, Jago and Emma in their late twenties. I couldn’t place any of their accents, just American. I couldn’t imagine the two couples being friends before this, if they were indeed couples.
The lake came into view every time we passed a road on our right, the moonlight glinting on the ripples in the almost black water.
‘Why are you still here if you came over a week ago?’ Ali asked as we walked.
‘In an evacuated town?’ Rohan replied.
‘Yeah,’ Ali said. ‘There’s nobody here.’
‘That’s precisely why we’re here,’ Jago said. ‘It’s not easy surviving in Canada. Not without the right identification.’
‘Jago and Emma managed to sneak into Canada not long after we first crossed over,’ Rohan explained. ‘They came back two days later.’
‘Is there another border or something?’ Jack asked.
‘Yes,’ Emma replied. ‘It’s just a fence. They’re not building a wall, not yet anyway.’
‘Fuck’s sake,’ I muttered. ‘This shit is never ending.’
‘Martial law has been declared over there,’ Jago told us. ‘They have a strict stop and search policy, and they use it constantly. We were lucky we saw them doing it before they saw us. We managed to keep out of the authority’s way and stay hidden the entire time we were over there. If you don’t have a Canadian passport, you need some kind of papers proving you’re allowed to be in the country.’
‘There are two internment camps near here,’ Beverley said. ‘We’ve been watching them to see if it’s worth handing ourselves in. That way we can get the correct papers and hopefully live normal lives.’ She stopped at the end of the road and pointed towards a large house, half hidden by overhanging trees. ‘This is us,’ she said.
We followed her up the short drive to the front door, which was unlocked. Beverley opened it and walked in.
‘Whose house is this?’ Beth asked.
‘The Fraser’s house,’ Jago replied, picking up a letter from just inside the front door and handing it to Beth.
She took the letter and turned it over to look at the addressee. ‘So you don’t know them?’ she asked.
‘No, of course not,’ Rohan replied as he walked past her. ‘They will have been evacuated along with everyone else. They just happened to live in the most ideally situated house.’
‘The living room is just down there,’ Beverley said, pointing down the corridor. ‘Make yourselves at home. Grab some blankets from the cupboard on your left when you pass it. Don’t turn the lights on. Flashlights only please, but keep them to a bare minimum. We don’t want any unwanted visitors in the middle of the night.’
While we were all finding somewhere to sit in the living room, Jack asked, ‘Do you know how long they’re kept in the internment camps?’
‘No, not yet,’ Beverley replied. ‘There is a large army presence around both camps, so it’s difficult to get too close. We don’t watch them all the time, but we haven’t actually seen anyone leave yet. Apart from soldiers and people in yellow suits.’
‘But they must leave if there are people in Canada with the right papers,’ Ali suggested.
‘Yeah that’s what we think,’ Beverley said. ‘We were in Refugee Camp 32 before we snuck over the border. Hundreds of people were sent over every week, or so we were told. The internment camps can’t keep receiving people forever. There must be some kind of quarantine period before they are released into the general population. Any of you got a cell? We haven’t been able to find a computer or phone that didn’t have a password. We really could do with the internet.’
‘Mine just needs charging,’ Jack said.
‘Excellent,’ she said. ‘Just plug it in.’
‘Do the army come through here much?’ Ali asked.
‘Yes, a few times a day,’ Rohan answered. ‘We think they’re patrolling the whole of the restricted area.’
I looked to Jago and Emma. ‘When you were over in Canada, did you hear or read anything about the rest of the world?’
‘I take it from the accent you’re a Brit?’ Emma asked me.
I nodded and she continued. ‘They lost contact with Europe a week ago. The rest of the world went silent at the same time. From the sounds of it, the virus is almost worldwide. I think Australia and Japan are okay, probably some other places as well. Canada is okay, obviously.’
‘The whole world is fucked,’ Jago said.
‘Jay,’ Emma scolded him. ‘No cursing in front of the children.’
‘It’s okay,’ Sandra said. ‘They’re fast asleep. It’s been an eventful day.’
My head was spinning. Everyone was too close to me. I had to get out of there.
I stood up and walked towards the door.
‘You okay?’ Beth asked me.
‘Fine,’ I lied, and left the room.
Picking up my baseball bat from just inside the front door, I walked out of the hou
se and down onto the street. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs but knew I couldn’t, not with the army looking to capture people like us.
I sat down on the curb behind me and placed my head in my hands.
I’m trapped in another fucking no-man’s land.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. I left Joanne alone to fend for herself. I wasn’t there when she needed me the most.
‘You all right?’ Jack asked, sitting down next to me.
I dropped my hands and sat up. ‘Yeah fucking brilliant.’
‘Beth was worried about you. She sent me out here to make sure you weren’t running into the night.’
‘Is that a song? Sounds like it should be.’
‘What? Running into the night? No idea.’
‘I’m still here,’ I said. ‘Still fucking well here.’
‘They had more time,’ Jack said. ‘England that is. They knew what was coming. America didn’t have any notice. That’s why it collapsed so quickly. Canada had more warning and seems to have survived.’
‘Um-hum,’ I grunted.
‘Come back in the house,’ Jack said. ‘It’s freezing out here.’
‘I’ll follow you in,’ I replied. ‘Just give me five minutes.’
Jack got to his feet and walked back up the drive.
If she’s dead, I’ll never forgive myself. I just need to get back to her. Even if I drop dead on the doorstop of our house, I’m getting home, no matter what stands in my way.
Ali and Sandra were arguing with each other as I walked down the corridor towards the living room.
‘Everything here belongs to people,’ Sandra was saying. ‘It’s not like back home, where it was more than likely the owners of those cars were dead.’
‘We can’t walk to Milk River,’ Ali said. ‘It’s seven hundred miles away.’
I walked into the living room. ‘Dunno about you, but I’ve got no problem with stealing a car,’ I told them. ‘I’m gonna do whatever it takes.’
‘Why are you still carrying your bat?’ Jack asked. ‘Are you trying to look menacing?’
I glanced down to The Smasher in my hand. I’d completely forgotten I was still carrying it. ‘Yeah, obviously,’ I said, rolling my eyes. I squeezed back into the gap I’d left on the sofa.
