by Frank Tayell
“Smart. Except someone’s come in and cleared up.”
She bent down and ripped up the carpet. It came away easily. The tacks had been removed.
“Here. Help me,” she said as she bent and levered at one of the floorboards, then found she didn’t need his help. The nails were loose.
“The food’s still here, then,” Chester said, looking at the array of cans.
“Not all of it,” she said, as she knelt down. “There was more. A lot more. This is about half. Here, help me get up some more of the…” She stopped. She’d noticed an empty plastic bottle lying in the gap where one of the tins of ham had been. She’d remembered placing the ham there, remembered thinking that they’d keep it for Jay’s birthday. But the tin was gone. Instead there was a bottle, and as she leaned forward to pick it up she saw it wasn’t empty. Inside was a piece of paper. Her hands shaking, she fumbled with the cap until she had the bottle open. She took out the note. She read it. She collapsed.
Chester caught her. He lowered her to the floor. He saw she was breathing, and then he saw the note in her hand. He took it, carefully and read;
“Hi Mum. I know you’ll find this. I know you’ll come looking for me. We can’t stay here any longer. There’s no water left. Me and Tuck went back to the school, and then we went to the bus depot, but you’d gone. I don’t know where you went. So we came back here and waited, but the water’s running out, and each day there’s more of the undead. We’ve got to go. Tuck thinks the cities are going to be safer because of the evacuation. We’ll find somewhere safe. You remember that place, the one where you first met Dad. We’ll leave a note there. Maybe you won’t ever read this, but if you do, then that’s where we’ve gone. I’ll see you soon. I love you. Jay.”
Underneath was written another, though briefer, note.
“I will keep him safe. Don’t worry. Tuck.”
It was half an hour before Nilda woke up, and another hour after that before she was calm enough to talk.
“Alright,” Chester said. “So where’s this place he was talking about?”
“London,” she said.
“Right. And who’s Tuck?”
“She’s a soldier. Former soldier. I didn’t get her story, not properly.”
“A soldier. That’s good. Your lad’s in good hands then. Well, come on. There’s at least four hours of daylight left. We should get going.”
“This, uh… should we take some of the food?”
“No. The MRE’s are lighter, and we don’t want any extra weight if we’re going to cross the country. Now, I reckon we should cut down to Hull first. While you were… resting, I was on the sat-phone. I called Anglesey. They got some satellite images of Hull and I—”
“No. I’m going straight to London.”
“Yes, so am I, but my way’ll be quicker. Look at how long it’s taken us to get from Whitehaven to here. We go to Hull, then find a boat and follow the coast and come in up the Thames Estuary.”
She looked at him sceptically for a moment, but then nodded her agreement. They left the house, and headed south.
Epilogue: Silent Companions
M25, North of London
18th July
“OK, so that’s the sign for ‘attack’. And this is the sign for ‘retreat’, right?” Jay asked.
Tuck rolled her eyes, shook her head, and with as much patience as she could, showed him again.
“Yeah. OK. I’m getting it. I was never good at languages,” he muttered.
She didn’t reply. Taking out a knife, she knelt by the body of the dead zombie and cut out the crossbow bolt from its eye. Then she began working on the two bolts in its chest. She still wasn’t convinced that the bow was much use, but she preferred the familiar comfort of a long distance weapon. Only when she was finished did she join Jay at the edge of the bridge overlooking the motorway.
“If we follow this road,” Jay said, “we’ll be in central London by nightfall.”
Gritting her teeth in frustration, and as gently as she could considering it was for the thousandth time since they’d left Cumbria, she gripped his shoulder and turned him to face her.
“Sorry,” he said. “I was thinking, if we follow this road, we can get to Westminster by nightfall.”
“No. We’ll go around,” she signed slowly, mouthing the words clearly in the hope it might help him learn. “Find the river. Find a boat. Follow it into London. That’s safer.”
“Safer?” he signed back.
She nodded, restraining herself from clapping sarcastically. It had been a long journey down from Cumbria.
“And then where?” he asked. “I mean where in London do you think will be safe?”
“I’m not sure,” she signed. “But I knew a Major who owned a house in Richmond. There were fruit bushes in the back garden.”
“Richmond? Where’s that?”
“On the Thames.” She tried to think of landmarks he might be familiar with “Near Kew.”
“Kew?”
She sighed.
“Kew is where the botanical gardens are,” she laboriously explained. “And there must be some fruit trees and vegetables growing there.”
“Must there?” he asked.
In truth she didn’t know. She had only visited the house once, but they had taken a walk down to Kew. It wasn’t long after she had been released from hospital. They hadn’t spent long in the gardens. Despite what the Major said to the contrary, she was sure everyone was staring at her scars.
“Yes. There must. At the very least it’s worth looking. You can’t tell me you don’t want some fresh fruit. I’m getting sick of all this dog food. Anyway, you know what they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Then we can follow the river to Westminster. That should be far safer than wandering through the streets.”
He stared at her, clearly not understanding at all.
She sighed, took out a pen, and wrote it down.
“Okay. Cool. Kew first, and then we go to Westminster. And then…” he didn’t finish. He didn’t know what would happen then. All he knew was that if his mother was alive, she would be looking for him, and since she hadn’t been at home, he couldn’t think of anywhere else in the world she might be.
“And then we’ll see,” Tuck finished, kindly. “Today we’re alive. In a century we’ll be dead, so let’s let tomorrow take care of itself.”
She looked at his blank expression, sighed and, once again, took out the notepad and pen.
To be continued…
Other titles:
Work. Rest. Repeat.
A Detective Novel set in Post-Apocalyptic Britain
Surviving The Evacuation:
Book 0.5 Zombies vs The Living Dead (now free)
Book 1: London
Book 2: Wasteland
Book 3: Family
Book 4: Unsafe Haven
Undead Britain - In the charity anthology ‘At Hell’s Gate’
Coming Soon
Book 5: Reunion
www.franktayell.com
www.facebook.com/TheEvacuation
twitter.com/FrankTayell
Table of Contents
Prologue: Fugitive
Part 1 - Outbreak
Part 2 - Fortification
Part 3 - The Island
Interlude - Sam
Part 4 - Raft
Part 5 - Justice
Epilogue: Silent Companions
