by Tim Flanagan
They all moved out of Coldred's office, taking the hold-alls with them. Beth showed them where she had been during the night the creatures attacked. The monitoring chamber was a sterile room with cages of small animals stacked along one wall, as well as pens for cattle along the other. It was a sealed room with no windows, lit by the daylight that bounced down the reflective tubes from the roof. At the far end was a simple room with a bed, small table and a kettle. This had been her home for the last six nights. On the floor were cardboard boxes each with holes in the front. Packets of peanuts, crisps and chocolate bars spilled out from the holes across the cold vinyl floor.
'This has been my diet since being here,' said Beth indicating the empty wrappers in the litter bin.
'What about the animals?' asked Georgia.
'There's a supply of animal feed in the store room.' Beth opened another door showing them the supply of food that was stacked on thick wooden shelving.
'Let's bring some supplies from the cars in here,' Tracker said to Steven. 'It's a secure place to stay while we think about what to do next.'
31. A New Hope
During the afternoon, Steven and Tracker managed to clear out a corner of the animal room and bring in blankets from the car to create a makeshift bedroom. Steven took the thick cushions from the reception sofa and created a temporary bed, whilst Tracker had gone back to the guards' house and found a narrow camp bed as well as other supplies he was sure would come in handy at some point.
Georgia went to lie down in the small room off the main animal observation room, exhaustion finally catching up with her. Steven followed her in and began to remove the bandage from her arm. The tissue still looked healthy, but he could see that she was still in pain.
'What are we going to do?' Georgia asked Steven.
'What do you mean?' he replied.
'About our future - do we live alongside the creatures, or do we try and remove them from the planet altogether?'
'I don't know if it's possible to remove them altogether,' said Steven doubtfully.
'So if the only option is to live side by side, we need to have more protection from them than just the antibiotics we have. There aren’t enough to keep us going for long.'
‘I know. I’ve been thinking the same.’
‘The remains of the human race need to have that vaccine, otherwise we will become extinct. Every other animal that has survived also needs some form of protection. Without them the whole ecosystem could collapse.'
‘If we can get the vaccine, we could try to collect two of every animal we found and vaccinate them hoping that their children, when they are born, would also be protected from the creatures. But, we can’t collect every animal. We don't have Noah’s Ark,’ said Steven.
‘We will have to trust in nature. It has an amazing way of surviving, even in the hardest of conditions.’
'I’ve noticed that the creatures don't seem to affect plants.'
'No. If we survive, I think we will have to live off the vegetation more. Foraging and bush skills will become far more important. A trip to get the groceries will mean walking into the forest and picking fruit and digging for roots,’ Georgia laughed.
‘That doesn’t seem so bad. A simple life is quite appealing,' replied Steven. 'However, plants could also become a problem given enough time. They will grow wild and without the constraints of roads and concrete buildings, their roots will reclaim the land, burrowing into the soft crumbling mortar of brickwork and pulling it down. We may be forced to live underground or in caves, wherever there is protection, not just from the creatures, but from the weather and rival survivors.'
‘Like Coldred?' asked Georgia.
‘Yes. But also from groups like the one we met from Bewerley Young Offenders Prison. Armed and dangerous groups like Coker and his boys will get more and more desperate. Their instinct is to survive at any cost, and that also means at the cost of other survivors. I don’t think they will hesitate. The human race has been thrown backwards 2000 years, long before electricity and transport, back to where our ancestors were so very long ago. Our primal instincts and animalistic behaviour may become stronger in all of us. Thrust into this new world we will all be in competition with each other.’
They both stopped talking whilst Steven strapped a new bandage over her wound and injected morphine into her thigh to help numb the pain.
‘Whatever happens, I want to stay with you,’ said Georgia.
‘I’m glad,’ replied Steven with a smile on his face. ‘I wouldn’t want a future without you in it either.’
Georgia smiled back.
'We could stay here and build our own community,’ said Steven. ‘We have shelter for now and some supplies. We could plant things inside the woodland and grow our own food. I have some knowledge of which plants are safe to eat, I'm sure there must be some garden centres around that we could collect seeds and plants from. If we act quickly we should be able to be self-sufficient within months. We could even generate our own power here too.'
'How? Generators wouldn't last long before more oil or petrol was needed.'
‘We may have lost all of our modern day comforts and gadgets, but the natural resources of this planet are still here. The sun, the earth, the wind and water. If we use the earth and water to grow plants, we use the sun and wind to generate electricity. We can use solar power or wind turbines. We have a secure compound here with fences all the way around for protection as well as all the other units to house more survivors.'
'It's a great idea, but what about Annie and the others?' said Georgia.
There was silence in the room. Steven had become so carried away with the idea of self-sufficiency that he had forgotten the girl they had rescued from Parsley Bottom.
‘I’m sorry,' he said. 'I forgot about Annie. We will get her back, I promise. But, it makes sense to build a community of survivors here before we go to the Isle of Wight. There could be many other survivors that need rescuing, apart from her. We know there are others hiding wherever they can. We have the facilities here as well as bacteria samples and Beth’s scientific knowledge to possibly develop a vaccine. If we can make a self-sufficient community, we can save many people. Then we can go looking for Annie and the others. For now at least we know she is being fed and kept safe from the creatures. They are better off staying where they are until we can provide food and shelter of our own.'
Georgia knew it made sense but was still reluctant to admit it. A small tear welled in the corner of her eye and tumbled down her cheek. Steven wiped it away with the side of his finger.
'I know what it feels like to be a child who is suddenly left alone without any parents,’ he said. ‘I won’t let her down. I will find her and bring her back.’
Georgia gave him a nod.
‘Thank you,’ she said, then curled up on the bed.
Steven left Georgia to rest.
He found Tracker looking through the store cupboard, checking things off against a piece of paper.
‘I found this inventory in the office,’ Tracker said. ‘A stock take was performed two days before the creatures attacked. Although the stock is lower than on here, there are two boxes in particular that are listed as ‘End Products’ that are missing.’
‘They must have been the stock of vaccine that had been tested. Coldred must have known it was working before he removed them.’
‘There’s a good supply of food for the animals in here.’
‘What about in the rest of the building?’ Steven asked.
‘Beth’s already taken what food she could find from the snack dispensers, but there may be more. Some of the doors to the rest of the building are electronically locked so she hasn’t been able to access the rooms beyond them.’
‘Why don’t we take Beth’s ID card, get the battery from the car and rewire the panels to access those areas and see what else we can find?' replied Steven. 'But, we better go prepared. You never know what might be in there.’
Tracker put the
sheet of paper on the shelf inside the cupboard and closed the door. They began walking away from the animal monitoring room when Beth stumbled down the corridor towards them.
‘I’ve been sorting through the paperwork in the filing cabinet in the office you were in,’ she said breathlessly. ‘I think I’ve found the research notes for Tuttle4. I will need some power, but I should be able to follow them.’
‘You mean a vaccine could actually be possible?' replied Steven.
Beth nodded with a smile on her face.
32. Contact
The snuffling noise of the animals in their cages mixed with the deep grunts of Tuttle4, helped to disguise the sound of the creatures outside. They made sure the unit was secure before going to sleep with weapons reassuringly beside them. For the first time in a week, they slept comfortably.
By the morning, as the sun was beginning to come out, Steven could still see the creatures flying in the sky then diving to the ground when prey had been spotted. They were quite openly hunting during the early morning sun. The fear and despair their presence created was no longer confined to darkness, but now extended into limited daylight. After an hour the shadows which had dashed across the white clouds gradually disappeared from sight.
The humans inside unit A12 swallowed their daily dose of antibiotics. Beth dissolved some of the antibiotics in sterile water and decanted it into spray bottles. They had decided to use some of the antibiotics as a deterrent spray in case they came into contact with a creature. It would act like a deodorant, hopefully repelling creatures.
Georgia and Beth took some weapons and got into one of the Range Rovers. They had a shopping list of essential equipment to acquire and were heading to the nearest garden centre and DIY store.
Meanwhile, Steven and Tracker took the other Range Rover towards the nearest collection of houses, slowly driving along the first street they came to. Steven wound his window down and lifted a loud speaker they had found in the guards' building to his lips.
‘If there are any survivors,’ he shouted through the speaker. ‘Please show yourselves now. We have weapons against the creatures and can provide you with food and safety.’
Steven's voice hung in the air, bouncing off the sides of the buildings until it disappeared into the distance.
The car rolled slowly forward.
They watched the houses for any sign of movement, but saw none. Then, from a second floor window in one of the houses, Steven thought he saw something before realising it was just the breeze blowing through a broken window and moving a curtain.
They made another pass up the road in the opposite direction repeating the announcement as they went.
They continued in this fashion along each road, but the result was always the same - silence.
After an hour of driving around they came across a house with solar panels on its roof. Tracker stopped the car and they both removed some equipment from the back. Using a ladder, Tracker made his way onto the roof and began unscrewing the solar unit from its mount. Steven followed closely behind and began looping a rope around the square panel ready to gently lower it to the ground. When the last bracket had been removed, the panel slid down the roof, its weight dragging it towards the ground. Steven pulled back on the rope, but lost his footing and fell backwards so that he was sitting on the roof. Tracker leapt over and grabbed the rope too.
‘I hadn’t realised it would be so heavy,’ said Tracker.
They both leant back against the roof so that their body weight counterbalanced the weight of the solar panel. Slowly they released a bit of the rope at a time, allowing the panel to make its way towards the ground. They could hear the rope scrape against the edge of the roof but could no longer see the panel below them. Then they heard a voice.
‘We’ve got it,’ a man said.
From where they were on the roof, Steven and Tracker couldn’t see who was talking to them. There were other voices too. Some were high pitched, whilst others were more childlike. Steven and Tracker glanced at each other, realising that their announcement had been heard. They now began releasing the rope at a faster rate, feeling the weight taken out of it by the people below. Once they were sure the panel was on the ground, they made their way to the edge of the roof and looked down. Looking straight back at them, with just as much curiosity was a small crowd of people, young and old, men and women. The feeling it created in them was overwhelming. A warm feeling welled inside Steven making him so happy that he could not stop himself from smiling. They were not alone - other humans had survived.
Steven and Tracker made their way down the ladder. A middle-aged man with an unkempt beard, walked towards them. He wore a red chequered lumberjack shirt with a green waxed jacket that hung loosely over his shoulders. He held out his hand in greeting. Behind him the others watched with a certain amount of wariness.
‘Jack Webster,’ he introduced himself. Steven took his hand.
They exchanged stories about how they had managed to survive. Some had used cellars and disused Anderson shelters to hide in at night, eating what food they had in their houses by day. One old couple had even survived by locking themselves inside a cupboard under the stairs, but, many of their neighbours had not been so lucky. Wherever the creatures saw signs of life, a night light or small movement, they investigated until the prey was found. The humans that had been silent and kept out of sight had managed to remain unharmed. But, they had also noticed the creatures came out earlier and earlier every day. If they began hunting in the day, the survivors realised they would not last for much longer.
Jack Webster was a biologist who had worked at Fort Halstead until he had retired eight years ago. He had been one of the first to knock on his neighbours' doors looking for survivors. Day by day the number of people that slept inside his cellar had grown. They had moved every mattress they could find, into the cellar to insulate the walls, not only from the cold, but also to prevent sound escaping.
‘We are setting up camp inside Fort Halstead,’ explained Steven. ‘We have food and medicine, but we also need power. If we work together we can dismantle these solar panels from this roof and get them onto the lab roof. We are looking for other survivors to become part of this community. Everyone remains free, but together we can grow our own food and help rebuild the human race.’
‘What about those creatures?' asked one of the ladies standing behind Jack.
‘We have antibiotics which prevent you from getting sick. One of our party was attacked by a creature, but the antibiotics in her blood stream made the creature sick. They know, through scent or instinct, that to attack and eat us would not be good for them. But, we also have a scientist who is trying to develop a vaccine, so, when the antibiotics run out, we will still be protected. We will also be able to use the vaccine on livestock.’
There were positive mutterings of agreement coming from the group.
'We cannot stay in the cellar for much longer. It's getting dirty and overcrowded,' said Jack as he addressed his neighbours. 'Moving to Fort Halstead makes sense.'
They divided the group into two. One section helped dismantle the rest of the solar panels and load them into the back of the Range Rover, whilst the second group went back to the houses to gather as much non-perishable food as possible, as well as bedding and clothes.
Steven drove the car back to Unit A12 accompanied by two of the other survivors who seemed to have some knowledge of electrics. Each solar panel was carefully laid out on the grass beside the unit ready for reinstallation on the roof of the lab. Steven left the two men and took the Range Rover back to transport more supplies to the unit.
As he approached the house where they had removed the panels, he noticed a large truck was now parked across the road. The back doors of the truck were pulled open and the survivors were passing objects into the truck in an orderly chain of people. Everything was going in; mattresses, blankets, boxes of tins, bottles of water, garden equipment, books, pots and pans. In fact, everything and anything they
thought was going to be usable and practical went inside the truck.
'Where's the truck from?' Steven asked Tracker.
‘One of the neighbours was a haulage driver,’ explained Tracker. ‘Apparently he leaves his truck overnight down by one of the business offices, so he went to get it. It will save a lot of time if we don’t have to transport everything to the Fort in the cars.’
Steven smiled to himself. He was amazed by the strength of human nature and the stubborn spirit to survive that he was witnessing amongst the survivors.
33. The First Shoots of Life
After three days they had found and moved twenty-six survivors to the Fort. It quickly became obvious that they would not be able to house everyone inside Unit A12, so they had cleared out the equipment from the four neighbouring units and converted them into living accommodation. They kept A12 as a laboratory for Beth to work in, who was now assisted by Jack, as well as another survivor who had been studying microbiology at university before the attack. Between them they were making good progress on reproducing the vaccine by following the notes made by one of the other scientists, Professor Ratzberg. But, with limited power it was going to be some time before they had recreated the vaccine and had enough of it to vaccinate everyone, as well as stockpile it for the future. With more people in the community, the supply of antibiotics was quickly running out.
Solar panels now covered nearly half of the roof space above A12 and could generate enough electricity to run the equipment for limited amounts of time.
The creatures still hunted at night, a few had even been spotted at midday, but on the whole they left the small community at Fort Halstead alone. The survivors took their antibiotics and sprayed themselves with Beth's repellent, whenever they went outside. Every day Beth counted the number of tablets they had in storage, and every day the pressure to develop the vaccine became greater and greater.
