‘How long till we get to Bournemouth? Can we stop soon mum?’ Kay asked. ‘We have been driving for hours.’
‘And I need a wee,’ Sammy added, fidgeting around on the back seat. Both girls were in the back. This had caused an argument as usual, but Beth had explained to them that she needed a clear view both ways while she drove. Both of them being in the back also had the benefit of forestalling the inevitable argument each time as to which one of them sat in the front.
‘I don’t want to stop until we get to the services because it’s not safe.’ She looked through the side window of one of the cars as they passed by it and suppressed a shudder. A dead and rotting face was staring back at her, but they had seen worse on their journey so far. ‘It won’t be long now. Another mile and we’re at the services. See the sign?’ she said, pointing. ‘We might even find some extra food and other stuff as well,’ she added hopefully.
‘Do you think we’ll be safe at the services then?’ Kay asked.
‘We haven’t seen any people at all since we left,’ Sammy stated. ‘We’ll probably be safe anywhere.’
‘Can’t count on it!’ Kay said seriously.
‘Can’t count on it? Of course we can’t count on it!’ Sammy was getting annoyed at her older sister again. ‘Why do you always have to say obvious stuff like that?’ She made her eyes all big “Can’t count on it,” she repeated, copying her sister’s way of speaking.
‘You said we’d be safe anywhere. I was just saying you can’t count on it.’
‘God, I give up. I was just saying that we haven’t seen any people yet.’
‘Ok!’ Beth raised her voice. ‘That’s enough! There’s the slip road for the services. When we get there we all stay in the car until I’ve had a good look around.’
‘Oh but mum!’ This was from Sammy in the back.
‘No but’s. I mean it! Remember the drill? If it’s safe we can all get out.’
Sammy stayed quiet for once as the car started to go down the slip road into the service station and as she started to think about the dangers that could be waiting there.
Morning was usually Nick’s favourite time of the day. It was when he could really appreciate the freedom of living alone in the wild. No alarm clock would have dragged him awake and his body would have taken all the rest it had needed. His day would be ahead of him, full of the promise of freedom and the lack of stress. He would wake slow and relaxed, warm and snug inside the shelters that he had made with his own hands. He would eventually unzip his sleeping bag and then roll out to start lighting a fire and making tea.
When he woke this morning though, he immediately remembered the boy. He had relented and let him stay yesterday. After feeding him, Nick had spent the rest of the afternoon trying to teach him some tips about finding food, and keeping himself safe. He had also forced him take a wash in the small stream nearby.
In the evening he had cooked up some more tins of food and shared them with him. Surprising himself, Nick had actually enjoyed the company. He looked over to where the boy lay in his sleeping bag and shook his head. The boy’s bag was covered with dew. It would have to be carefully dried out now before being rolled up. He unzipped and rolled out of his, and for the first time in a while he was not looking forward to the new day. As he was tying the laces on his boots the boy woke up with a jerk.
‘Shush boy,’ Nick told him quietly. ‘Keep quiet. Don’t speak.’
‘Why?’ Dan whispered back, sitting up and unzipping his sleeping bag. ‘Is there someone out there?’ He stood up out of his bag, looking around.
‘Maybe,’ Nick told him, shaking his head. ‘I don’t know.’ He finished lacing his boots and then he also stood up, stamping them in. ‘I just really don’t want to hear you speak, I’m not used to company, especially in the morning.’
‘Oh.’ The boy dropped his sleeping bag back onto the damp ground. ‘Can we light the fire?’
‘Just sit back down boy, and don’t move. I’ll light the fire. Oh! And if you say another word before I tell you to, I’m going to cut out your tongue.’ Nick pulled out his large hunting knife. He held it up and as Dan sat back down quickly Nick bent down and took out his fire rod. He then tried to ignore the boy as he started to prepare the fire.
With the fire going and the water boiling over it nick’s mood began to improve a little. At least the boy did as he was told. The dew was starting to dry off with the morning sun filtering down through the trees and the day was beginning to warm up.
‘I hope you have a mug in your rucksack?’ Nick had pulled out a box from under his shelter. From it he took out a tin mug and a tea bag. ‘I don’t suppose you have any tea bags?’ he then asked. ‘This is my last one. I need to go on a foraging trip today.’ He dropped the tea bag into the mug and lifted the boiling water off the tripod with a stick.
‘Oh, yeah,’ Dan spoke hesitantly, glancing at the large hunting knife. It was now back in its sheath on Nick’s belt, but he was still a bit worried about having his tongue cut off.
‘Well get them out then boy!’
Dan quickly rummaged around in his bag and came up with a tin mug similar to Nick’s one. He also pulled out a small box of Tesco tea bags.
Nick smiled. ‘Yes! Nice one. A whole box! Things are starting to look up.’ Nick gestured with a hand. ‘Come over to the fire boy.’
With their tea made and the small fire burning nicely the two of them sat there for a while sipping before Nick broke the silence.
‘I don’t really like people very much anymore boy!’ he said suddenly. ‘It’s nothing personal. I just like being on my own.’
Dan hesitated for a second then asked, ‘is it ok to speak now?’
‘Yeah-yeah, sorry, I wasn’t really going to cut out your tongue you know.’
‘Really? It looked like you meant it’ Dan hesitated again then said, ‘you can look really scary sometimes. You look normal now, but you keep getting this look, like, I dunno-like this.’ Dan made a wild stare, with his eyes bulging.
‘Haha!’ Nick laughed. ‘Well that scared the shit out of me alright.’ He thought for a second then sighed. ‘Listen,’ he then said. ‘I’m sure I’m going to regret this.’ He looked off into the woods as he said, ‘you can come out with me today ok? We’ll hide your kit and go foraging. I need some bits and pieces, and we’ll see if we can find some extra stuff for you. Then you can stay one more night, but that’s it.’ Nick looked back at him. ‘Tomorrow you go on your way, and so do I. It’s time for me to move on. That’s one of my rules. I have to keep moving.’
Chapter four
Nick kept low as he approached the edge of the wood that circled the car-park of the service station. He moved silently, stopping regularly to look, listen and smell. Dan sat waiting a few yards back on an old fallen tree. As far as Nick could tell the place looked empty. He had purposely let the morning run on for a few hours so that if there was anyone asleep in the services they would most likely be awake by now and making some noise. He checked his watch. It was a few minutes after eleven. He put his back to a tree and listened for a while, taking in all the regular sounds of the morning. Once he had the flow of sound in his mind he began listening for variations. There were none that he could detect. He walked back to where Dan was sitting.
‘The place seems empty.’
‘Are we going in?’
‘Yes, stay a few yards back from me. I’m going to move from cover to cover. Do you understand?’
‘Yeah, I understand,’ Dan said, smiling. ‘Like cops on the telly.’
‘That’s right Danny boy. Just like cops on the telly. ‘You follow me. When I run from a spot, you run to the spot that I leave. Ok?
‘Ok.’
They made it to the broken doors of the services with no trouble. Inside it was a complete wreck and there were rotting skeletons scattered about. Nick had been here when he had first arrived in the area, though. So he was not surprised.
‘It looks like everything’s gone,’ D
an said disappointedly, and very loudly.
‘For God’s sake boy!’ Nick whispered as he quickly glanced around. ‘It’s no wonder you get beaten up. Come on.’ He jogged across to where the Costco Coffee booth had been tipped over and sat down behind it. Dan copied him. Nick put his finger to his lips and then listened again. He waited a full ten minutes. Long enough for anyone in there who had heard the boy to get bored, but there was nothing. He was pretty sure now that the place was empty.
‘Right!’ Nick slapped his hands together. ‘Let’s go shopping.’
At first glance it looked as if the place had been picked clean. Even at second and third glances it still looked as if the place had been picked clean. But Nick knew that there was always something that people missed. When looting in these types of places, people took all the usual stuff, unspoilt food, water, clothing, camping equipment, toys etc. They even took money and electronic equipment. Most people took what they would have taken as if they were robbing the place. But Nick knew that those people still hadn’t really caught up with what had happened and they nearly always left some of the really useful stuff behind.
He moved to the front of the coffee booth.
‘Give me a lift then!’
With Dan’s help, Nick was able to move some of the heavier items, such as the overturned coffee booth. Under which he found a very nice cooking knife and best of all, some tea bags. There were coffee beans there as well but Nick had experimented with crushing them up and filtering the grounds, he liked coffee, but not that much and so he didn’t bother with that. They had been scavenging for half hour or so and they had found a few rolls of string, a couple of small cooking knifes, and best of all a large stainless steel cooking pot. Nick had just decided that they should be getting out of there, when he suddenly lifted his head to listen. A car was coming.
‘You hear that?’ he asked the boy.
Dan cocked his head. ‘It’s a car!’ He looked about frantically. ‘I’m going to hide somewhere. You should to. It might be them men.’
‘You’re right there. No need to walk into trouble.’ Nick went over to the glass front and crouched down. ‘Come over here Dan and keep low. Let’s just see who is coming first.’
‘But they will come right in here. We need to hide somewhere better than this and sneak out the back, then we can go round in the woods and go back to your camp.’
‘Let’s see who it is first.’
‘It might be some more men from that gang though.’
‘I know it might but we’ll have time to get out the back way if it is,’ Nick told him while keeping his eyes on the large 4 by 4 that was making its way slowly down the slip road into the car park.
As Beth drove slowly down the slip road she was thinking hard. Amongst other things, like food and water, she was hoping that they would be able to find a smaller car with a good tank full of fuel. She didn’t like big cars but this was all they could find when they’d had to swap and it was nearly out of petrol. Having the air conditioning on hadn’t helped with that she supposed but it was so hot today.
Beth kept looking all around for any sign of movement as she drove into the car park but the services looked abandoned. When they’d left the safety of the house early yesterday morning she had been terrified at the thought of the journey ahead of them. She’d kept thinking that they would run into roving gangs of crazed maniacs. It still really surprised her that they hadn’t even seen a single person yet. But as Kay had quite appropriately stated earlier, you couldn’t count on it. So she drove slowly while looking about carefully for any sign of other people. Although it had looked like it so far, she knew that it would be absurd to believe that out of the whole world only her and her two girls had survived. There were definitely other people out here somewhere. They would probably be desperate, hungry and angry people and she would rather not meet any of them just yet. A woman and two young girls would make a nice easy target.
‘Before we stop I’m going to drive around the car-park a bit,’ she told the girls.
‘I need a wee, like urgently mum,’ Sammy reminded her.
‘Yes I know.’
‘So do I,’ Kay piped up.
‘Ok! A wee. God. I’ll pull over somewhere soon.’ Beth paused. ‘You do know that we can’t use the toilets in the services, don’t you?’
‘Oh!’ Sammy scowled. ‘Do you think we’ll ever be able to use real toilets again mum?’
‘Probably not,’ Kay told her quite happily.
‘I was asking mum!’
‘Please just be quiet and let me listen!’ Beth said through gritted teeth. ‘In fact I’m going to open all the windows.’
She couldn’t remember where she’d learnt it. From a zombie film probably, but she remembered that people could be very good at hiding. Hiding was easy, there could be a hundred people hiding in the services. All they had to do was stay out of sight, but people found it very hard to be quiet. Someone always whispered something, or coughed, or dropped something. Well they did in the films anyway. She pushed the buttons, and slowly wound down the car windows, one by one.
The girls had mercifully gone quiet and they were sitting still. The hot air drifted into the car along with the pleasant smell of the summer trees that bordered the car park. A very slight breeze was blowing and she could hear birds twittering, but that was all. She pulled the car over close to the trees and after another look and listen, she turned off the car. Apart from the birds there was complete silence now and Beth relaxed a little.
‘Ok girls, remember the drill?’ she asked, leaning back and stretching the tense muscles in her lower back.
‘Yes mum,’ Sammy answered. ‘You stay in the car with the doors open. One of us wee’s while the other one watches for people.’ They had been through the drill quite a few times by now. ‘Bagzee I wee first. I’m busting!’ With that she threw open the car door and jumped out.
Although Dan had desperately wanted to hide, he was also curious to see who was coming. His curiosity had won out. It was aided by his memory of the easy way that Nick had dealt with the other men yesterday. So he had crouched down alongside him to wait.
‘What are they doing?’ he asked after a few minutes. ‘They’re going so slow.’
‘They’re being careful.’ Nick answered thoughtfully. Whoever was in the car, they were not very confident. Nick guessed from that fact alone that it was unlikely they would be any threat, then the car pulled over and two young girls jumped out. They ran off into the trees, and he was sure.
‘It’s girls!’ Dan suddenly jumped up and shouted excitedly. ‘Girls hah!’ He was probably going to shout out to the whole world once again in his excitement but Nick shook his head and grabbed the back of his jeans. He gave a sharp tug and Dan was pulled down hard onto his backside.
‘You definitely must be the luckiest twit still alive,’ Nick told him, shaking his head.
Beth’s head jerked hard right and she winced as her neck cracked painfully. The sound of the shout still echoed across the car park, cutting off the peaceful sound of the birds. A few took flight at the sound of the shout and they circled over the car park. She ignored the sharp pain in her neck and immediately turned the ignition key. The big engine roared to life. She then pressed the button to pull the windows up.
The girls had also heard the shout and they came scrambling into the back, pulling the doors shut. Beth looked all around trying to see where the shout had come from as the girls frantically sorted themselves out. Kay’s leggings were still twisted and Sammy was frantic, but they pulled on their seat belts as they followed the practised drill. Beth couldn’t see anything moving at all but her instincts were screaming at her to run as adrenalin coursed through her body. She pressed the clutch with a trembling leg and pushed the car into gear. She looked around again. Nothing! She could see no one. She took a deep breath and let it out as she slowly tried to calm herself and then she pulled slowly away from the verge.
‘Go mum! Just go!’ Sammy plead
ed. ‘Someone’s here.’
‘Ok Sammy, don’t panic. I can’t see anyone and I don’t know what’s happening.’ Beth took in another deep breath. This was the first time that they had come across any sign that there were other people still left alive. She stopped the car and took it out of gear and then slowly released the clutch. Her leg had finally stopped trembling and her breathing had started to even out. She kept looking around as she thought about what she had heard. Just the one word. “Girls!”
‘Please mum. Can we just go? I’m scared. I don’t like it. We need to go.’
‘I didn’t finish my wee!’ Kay said.
‘Wait! Just let me think for a second. I can’t see anyone and nobody can get close to us without us seeing them. If we do see anyone we can drive off really fast before they get anywhere near us.’ Beth took a couple more deep breaths as Sammy quietened down in the back seat. ‘What did you hear?’ she then asked quietly.
‘A shout,’ Kay answered. ‘A loud shout.’
‘Obviously!’ Sammy glanced at her sister. ‘Oh mum, it could be dangerous. I want to go.’
‘But what was the word Sammy? What was the word that was shouted? Did you hear it?’
Sammy paused for a second, thinking. ‘It was, “girls,” she said thoughtfully. ‘It sounded like a boy shouting, “girls.’”
‘That’s what I heard too.’
‘Maybe he was just calling to us. He might be on his own,’ Kay put in. ‘He might need our help.’
‘Yeah! And he might be shouting to his mates that a bunch of girls just turned up in their car park!’ Sammy shouted. ‘And now they’re all getting together, ready to rape and kill us and steal all our stuff!’
‘Well done you idiot!’ Nick had watched the quite organised panic as the two girls had jumped back into the car and he was impressed. They had an emergency plan. Not many people thought that far ahead. He had also seen the long blonde hair of the driver flick out of the car side window for a second. So it looked like the third person was a woman. Either that or it was a small man with very long blonde hair.
New World: Nick Smith Book one (Nick Smith Series 1) Page 3
