The Bitter End

by James Loscombe

  "Of course, you're always welcome. You know that."

  He left the Village Hall and walked around to the hospital where he found his mum hauling planks of wood.

  "Hi mum," he said as he walked towards her. She looked old now, he thought, not like his mum at all. Her hair was white, short and thinning. Her face verging on gaunt. She wasn't old, not really, not quite sixty in fact, but the last few years had been hard, especially since his father had passed away.

  "Ben," she smiled, standing up slowly but not able to make it all the way.

  He dropped his rabbits and hurried over to help her, he put his arm under her shoulder and walked her across to an old chair that was on the pile to be carried inside. "You should't be doing this," he said.

  "Somebody needs to. It's not going to get inside by itself."

  "Yeah but what about Mary or Libby? Can't they do it?"

  "They're busy."

  "And your back's bad."

  She smiled at him and suddenly he was eleven years old again, back on the boat thinking this was all a big game. He'd thought that it would end when he'd had enough but it hadn't. They'd come here and they'd stayed here and he didn't think they would ever leave.

  He stood and fussed over his mother for a while, made sure she was looking after herself and telling her that she should let him know if she needed anything. She dismissed his concerns in much the same way he had dismissed hers when he was a child.

  "Hannah are you busy?"

  He turned to the hospital where Mary Stoker was standing. He smiled at her and she walked out to join them.

  "Hi Ben," she said sweetly. "I didn't know you were back."

  "Got in this morning," he said.

  "Have you got plans for tonight yet?"

  "Clipper wants to see me."

  "Maybe tomorrow night then?"

  "Maybe."

  She stood there looking at him for a moment longer as if she expected him to say something else. When he didn't she turned back to his mum. "Can you come in and give us a hand Hannah? Some of the Raeborn kids turned over an old oil drum and they're covered in the stuff."

  His mum smiled and said she'd be right in. When Mary had gone she turned to him. "Don't you like her?"

  "Mum!" He was thirty one but he still didn't want to talk to his mum about his love life."

  His mum seemed unaware of his discomfort, or maybe she just didn't care. "If you're not interested you need to let her know. Mary's a nice girl and she deserves to settle down."

  He sighed. "I've got to go," he said. He helped her out of the chair and watched until she disappeared inside the hospital.

  It wasn't that he didn't like Mary, he thought as he rowed back towards his long boat, he just wasn't sure he wanted to settle down. Settling down was what Cora had done and he thought that it had left a part of her dead. The wild side. Or maybe that was just who she had settled down with.

  2

  "So tell us Ben, what did you find on your latest expedition?"

  He was at Nicholas and Cora's home. A boat so lavishly decorated that by rights it shouldn't have been able to float. One whole long boat had been converted into a dining room, a long narrow table took up so much space that they sat with their backs against the walls and the food had to be lowered in from above. Nicholas sat at the tiller end as was his right as the man of the boat. Cora sat opposite him at the far end of the table. Ben sat next to his mother who had lived with them for the last twelve months.

  "Is there anything we should be worried about?" added Nicholas with a laugh. Coming from anyone else Ben would have laughed. It was well known that Sanctuary was the safest place they could be. Twenty years and no attacks. Somehow, coming from Nicholas it sounded like inappropriate casualness, as if he didn't consider the vamps a threat at all.

  Ben shook his head.

  "Ah well, another gala year then."

  He supposed it probably would be, although what he said about there being no danger wasn't entirely true. It just wasn't something he felt like mentioning to Nicholas, even though he knew that he should; he was the General after all. The trouble was he would just laugh at it and Ben wouldn't be able to blame him. It wasn't so much that he had seen danger as felt it and how did you explain a feeling to someone like him?

  So he said nothing and enjoyed the food and the wine that was generously offered. Nicholas came from a wealthy family, although that sort of wealth didn't really mean anything anymore. For a long time Ben had wondered how someone could go from being rich in the old world to rich in the new one. There didn't seem to be any justice in it.

  It wasn't until he was an adult that he realised that the sort of wealth Nicholas possessed had nothing to do with money. It was down to an ingrained habit, a willingness to take things, to feel like you deserved them somehow. Nicholas was rich now for the same reason his ancestors had been rich: he'd taken what he thought should be his all along.

  Ben nodded and smiled and made small talk through the rest of the dinner. When it was time to leave he kissed his mum and Cora and shook Richards hand. He was glad to get into his little boat and row back home.

  The village was lit by dozens of candles that floated in metal trays on the river which reflected and multiplied their light. He had no trouble navigating the short journey back to his boat, he had done it so many times now that he could have made it without any light at all, but, even so, he didn't see the boat tied up outside him home until he was almost on top of it.

  He recognised it as Mary's but he couldn't see her. With some reluctance he tied up his raft and went to look for her. It really wasn't that he didn't like Mary, because he did. He just wasn't ready for the whole family thing which he knew she wanted.

  Back in the old world, not settling down in your early thirties wouldn't have been considered anything unusual. In fact quite the opposite. But in this new world the human race was dying out and people were settling down and starting families while they were still in their teens. Granted, not many of those families actually lasted, but the offspring did. Ben had spent enough time living in the old world to still feel its effects but Mary was a few years younger than him. He knew from a logical position that starting a family with her was the right thing to do but he couldn't push himself to take that step.

  He found her on the open porch at the back of the boat as it was parked - what would have been the front if it was moving - reclining on the bench. He looked at her for a long time. She was wrapped in a blanket and he could see her bear shoulders and legs. He was left with the impression that she was probably naked beneath the sheet.

  "When you're done staring come and join me," she said.

  Ben hadn't thought she knew he was there and now felt embarrassed about being caught. He climbed down from the side of the boat and sat down opposite her.

  "Care for a drink?" she said.

  There were two plastic cups on the table, one half-full, the other empty. "Sure," he said with a sigh.

  She reached over the side and pulled a bottle out of the water. It was an old trick they had discovered as teenagers to keep things cold and hidden from their parents. She filled his glass with champagne. Even now, twenty years after the old world had ended, its alcohol was still readily available. The vamps had no interest in it.

  "How was your evening?" she said.

  Mary had straight dark hair down to her shoulders. Full lips, big brown eyes and a narrow nose that was slightly turned up at the end. "It was alright," he said.

  She smiled at him. "Want it to get better than 'alright'?"

  He didn't know what she meant for a moment but then she stood up and the blanket dropped to the floor. As he had guessed she was naked.

  Ben took in the site of her. Mary was a curvy girl but as far from fat as he could imagine - no one was really fat anymore. Her stomach was flat but soft, her hips flared out in a way he found exciting.

  "What do you think?" she said.

  While Ben didn't feel ready for the commitment of a re
lationship and the pressure to start a family he was still a man He took a step towards her and she made up the rest of the distance. Then they were kissing.

  Ben woke hours later, while it was still dark, and looked at Mary, asleep beside him in the moonlight. He watched her chest rise and fall with each breath that she took. The memory of her still fresh and exciting. Suddenly the idea of giving up his wandering ways and starting a family no longer seemed so terrible.

  1

  Ben climbed off the raft. The island thudded beneath his boots. He ignored the messenger that Nicholas had sent for him and walked directly to the Village Hall.

  He found Nicholas and his advisors sitting down to breakfast. To his credit Nicholas did not seem alarmed by his arrival. He stood up and dismissed the other men with a nod. They left through a back door and he walked around to greet Ben.

  "I'm so sorry for your loss."

  Ben ignored the hand being offered. He felt like punching something but he held his temper. "Where is she?"

  "I don't think you should..."

  He grabbed the General by the collar, choking off his words. "Tell me where she is."

  Nicholas nodded and removed himself from Ben's grip. "Of course," he said, quickly recovering his composure. "I will find someone to take you."

  "You take me," he said. He wanted to see Nicholas's reaction.

  "I don't have time to..."

  "You take me," he said again.

  Nicholas nodded as if he understood why Ben wanted him there but if he did, thought Ben, there was no chance he would have agreed to it.

  "Very well," said Nicholas. "Lets get on with it."

  They left the Village Hall and walked around to the Hospital. The messenger was still waiting by his boat and several of the advisors were talking beside the Market. Mary was standing outside the hospital with Libby. As they approached she rushed over to him.

  "Ben are you okay?"

  He nodded, glad to hear her voice and feel her take his hand. But it weakened his resolve and he pushed her away.

  The Hospital now had two floors. The second reached by a step ladder while the stair case was being built. He walked to the back of the building. It was quiet, whispering voices buzzed around like insects but it was white noise and he ignored it all.

  At the back of the hospital there was a wooden door. It led to an annex that had been added two years earlier. Ben opened it and led Nicholas inside.

  There was a narrow corridor of bare wood and several doors leading off it. In the silence Ben's boots clunked heavily on the floor boards. He walked to the end of the corridor and through a door which really should have been locked. Behind him Nicholas crossed himself in the old way and then followed him in.

  Cora lay on the wooden table. Her skin was so white it was almost translucent. Her lips were red and moist. The nurses had folded her hands across her chest to hide the wooden spike that must have been driven through her heart. Her neck was red and starting to peal around the bite mark.

  "Tell me what happened," said Ben, turning away from his sister so he could watch Nicholas's reaction. The door was still open behind him but no one would disturb them.

  "She went mushroom picking this morning."

  "And that's all you know?"

  Nicholas shook his head. Ben could see tears in his eyes but he would not, could not feel sympathy for this man.

  "She went to the Back Field. You know there has never been a sighting of a vamp there. I wouldn't have let her go if..."

  "Who found her?"

  "She was with March and Flora Hinckley. They saw it all."

  "But it didn't get them?"

  Nicholas shook his head. "They ran."

  It wasn't possible to outrun a mature vamp but a mature vamp wouldn't have been out after sunrise anyway. Their strength and photo sensitivity seemed to increase as they matured. "A juvenile then," he said.

  Nicholas nodded although it had not been a question.

  "Has my mother been told?"

  "We thought it might be better coming from you."

  "I'll speak to her."

  They stood in silence. The room only had a single small window that didn't let in much light. There hadn't been much space to build the bite ward and they had needed as many room as they could.

  He found his mum on the Lawrence's boat having tea with Mrs Lawrence. She was about the same age as his mum but looked years younger. The Lawrence's had come to Sanctuary aboard a converted river cruise ship along with a dozen other families. They had been in Liverpool where they lived well but precariously. They had left the boat yards and the docks behind to find somewhere safer, which until six months ago had been Sanctuary.

  His mum looked tired and frail. She had turned sixty five year looked closer to eighty. She had started to forget things and he had begun to worry she was suffering from a brain illness. In the old world there would have been medicine to help her and, while that still existed somewhere beyond the river, the knowledge of what she should be given had been lost forever.

  "Hi Ben," she said as he climbed down off the jetty onto the long boat that had been given to the Lawrence's. Although they had arrived ten years ago he still thought of them as newcomers, as he did all of those that had come after his parents in the first wave.

  "Can we talk?" he said.

  Mrs Lawrence could evidently tell by his expression that something was wrong. "I'm just going to see what Vic's up to back there," she said and then disappeared inside.

  "Is something wrong?" said his mum. "Are the twins okay?"

  "The twins are fine," he said. "I've just been at the Hospital."

  "Oh how is everyone?" she said. It had been a year since she'd worked there. She still hadn't drawn the connection between the Hospital and death. It was unsurprising, until six months ago only the old and infirm had died there.

  "Mum, it's Cora."

  "Cora?"

  For a moment he didn't think she knew who he was talking about.

  "Is she alright?" Her voice was neutral, unsure.

  Ben shook his head and realised he was crying. Tears rolled down his cheeks and he couldn't bring himself to look up. Then he felt his mothers arms around him, holding him tightly.

  "Tell me what happened," she said.

  Between sobs Ben told her everything he knew.

  "Will there be a funeral?" she said when he was done.

  He hadn't thought about it but he supposed he would have to organise something. He nodded and when he looked up he saw the tears in her eyes. He knew then that she would cry when he was gone, that she had never gotten over the need to be strong for her children.

  2

  On the morning of the funeral Ben found himself in the Back Field. As more people had arrived at Sanctuary it had expanded until it began to encroach on surrounding land. There had been a lot of discussion about whether they should close the doors before it reached that point but they hadn't.

  They had always used the fields for hunting and in all that time no one had seen a vamp. So they assumed it must be safe, but they had assumed wrong.

  He couldn't remember deciding to go to the field and, now that he was there, he had no idea what he wanted to do. He decided that it was some need to see where it had happened, where his little sister had been killed. He walked towards the forest where it must have been.

  He kicked at the long grass as he walked, revealing little clusters of mushrooms. The patches became denser and denser as he entered the darkness of the forest.

  The birds twittered away in the branches above but otherwise it was quiet and still. He could hear his own breathing and for some unknown reason his heart was hammering in his chest. The place was tranquil yet he couldn't seem to get over the fact that Cora had died there. A vamp that they hadn't managed to catch had found its way there. Most probably was still there somewhere.

  He walked on, saw mushrooms climbing up the moist tree trunks. He couldn't believe she was gone. Cora and he had been close, at least until
her marriage but even that he sort of understood: with their father gone she had needed someone to look after her, and their mum. She just hadn't considered Ben up to the task.

  Not that he could blame her. After their father had died he had taken over his job with gusto, roaming the waterways further than either his father or Frank before him. Looking for salvage and people.

  He had spent little enough time walking on land over the last twenty years that the stillness of it felt strange to him. Without the rise and fall of the tide it felt fragile. He knew that for the first ten years of his life he had lived in a block of flats, the river only visible in the distance on a good clear day. The thought of that terrified him.

  The forest wasn't deep and soon enough he was on the other side of it. A feast of wild rabbits frolicked on the dew licked grass. The vamps weren't interested in anything other than human flesh so wild animals had flourished. He reached to his side automatically and then remembered the funeral. He didn’t want to turn up in blood stained clothes.

  He walked a little further through the new field but there was nothing much to see. It rolled into the distance, an infinite carpet of green. There were no vamps here and a part of him had known that would be the case.

  The walk back to his boat seemed to take longer. He found he was in no great hurry to get back and attend Cora's funeral. It would be a simple affair, a few words spoken by people that knew her before her body was placed on a raft and sent down the river in flames. If it was anyone else's funeral he would have been tempted to skip it but she was his sister and he owed her that much, little though it was.

  3

  He watched the fire float languidly down the river. It was towed by a larger boat, somewhere out of sight, in order to prevent it drifting into a home and setting that on fire. His mum stood to his right, her hand in his seeking comfort, Mary to his left offering it.

  They watched until they could no longer see the fire. The smoke drifted on the gentle breeze, into the sky, spreading her body across the water.