Before Safe Haven (Book 4): Jules

by Artinian, Christopher

  “Fuck you, old man,” Jules replied, turning back towards Maggie. “I’ve never been someone not to roll my sleeves up and take risks the same as everyone else; it’s not in my nature.”

  “I know that. Everybody knows that. The chances are you’ll have to do that again at some point, but after yesterday and after announcing that we’re stepping up the scavenger missions, George and I think having you here more will be better for everybody.”

  “So this is what the pair of you decided without even thinking to ask me?”

  George folded up the map then sat down on the serving counter. “You asked me for help to organise all this, so I’m organising.”

  “Yeah but—”

  “But nothing. This is what is best for everybody. Now, if you want to sort it all out yourself, feel free, but I spoke to each person who’s due to go out there today, and they’re all fine with what they’re being asked to do. You being here is the best thing for everyone.”

  Jules studied him for a moment then looked towards Maggie, who had the same steadfast expression on her face. “Well, that fuckin’ told me, didn’t it?” she said, breaking out into a smile.

  After breakfast, three groups of ten set out. There were five in each vehicle, two vehicles in each group. Their mission was simple, get as much as they could as fast as they could; help the group prepare for the journey north and the building of a new life. A heavy atmosphere continued to hang in the air of the Home and Garden Depot all day. People went about their daily tasks as normal, but the events of the previous day had unnerved them all.

  Jules spent all her time on the shop floor with Maggie and George, making sure she was visible. Andy, Rob and Jon had appointed themselves members of the Home Guard. Each had one of the SA80s gleaned from the raid on the barracks and, despite Jules’s misgivings, they were doing a good job, keeping watch and taking it in turns to check all the doors.

  When the first of the scavenger groups returned, the mood lifted dramatically. All ten of them were in one piece. They had come back with vehicles laden with everything from food to camping equipment, including sleeping bags and airbeds for every man, woman and child at the Depot. Up until this point, only the odd few had sleeping bags and they were envied by the others. Most slept like street people on broken-down cardboard boxes, covering themselves with anything from dust sheets, the kind that decorators used, to canvas tarpaulins. Sleeping bags, though, they were a real luxury.

  Jules, George and Maggie stood back and watched as the booty was brought in from the loading bay. The joy on people’s faces was the last thing Jules expected to see after the previous day’s events, but a knowing smile swept across her face and she looked towards George.

  “What?” he said innocently.

  “This was your call, wasn’t it? You knew what this would do, what effect it would have.”

  George shrugged his shoulders. “I knew there was that big Blacks camping superstore on the trading estate just on the other side of town. Once I figured out a route that didn’t involve heading through what we know to be dangerous areas, I thought it might be worth a visit,” he said, bringing out his tobacco. He stopped and looked at Maggie.

  “Go on, you old codger, I think you deserve it after this, don’t you?” He smiled and proceeded to fill the chamber of his pipe and light it, taking a deep suck on the mouthpiece.

  Josh walked up to the three of them, smiling. “It’s good to see happy faces again.”

  “You didn’t run into any trouble?” Jules asked.

  “There were a few streets that we had to speed down, those things are everywhere, but as we got out of town, it got quieter. I’d like to head back out there tomorrow.”

  “Why?” Jules asked, unable to drag her eyes away from all the happy faces as they collected their new bedding.

  “Jules, there is so much there that we could make use of. I mean we loaded what we could, things like dynamo lanterns, camping stoves, that kind of thing, but I’d like to go back with the other two groups and clear the place out. It’s like a one-stop-shop for the apocalypse. They’ve got solar panels, all sorts of clothes and footwear. I mean, come winter, we’re going to need thick jackets; we’re going to need to stay warm. I’m telling you, that place could set us up.”

  Josh’s enthusiasm was infectious. “What do you think?” she asked, turning towards George and Maggie.

  “I think Josh makes an excellent point,” George replied.

  “Okay. Tomorrow, head back out there. Take the other two groups with you, but the same order stands. You get as much as a whiff of trouble and you get out of there pronto.”

  “Don’t worry, Jules, I’m no hero. If I so much as sniff an infected, I’m out of there,” he said, smiling.

  “Good. How did the other thing go?”

  Josh suddenly looked sombre. “We did the best we could. There was a small park near the trading estate. We didn’t take any risks; we watched it for a while before we moved. Then we laid him underneath a thick growth of bushes. It was a nice park … quiet. I—” he broke off, a little embarrassed.

  “I said the Lord’s Prayer for him. I don’t really know much else, but I think he deserved a few words at least.”

  Jules reached across and took Josh’s hand. “Scotty would have appreciated that darlin’, thank you.”

  “Seemed like the least I could do.”

  “No, the least you could do is nothing. That was something.”

  There was a clatter, and all their heads turned at the same time.

  Ben was the first to walk through the doors from the loading bay, and the rest of his team followed. He marched straight up to where Jules, George, Maggie and Josh were standing. “Well, if nothing else, we’ve got the biggest supply of chocolate bars and snacks in Scotland now,” he said, looking at George, still struggling to make eye contact with Jules.

  “And fuel?” George asked.

  “We did as you said, but the tanks were dry. Rog mentioned something the other night about the army requisitioning all available fuel in the area before the withdrawal to London. I thought that might have meant from petrol plants, not bloody petrol stations. We got plenty of empty jerricans; we must have hit every fuel station in a ten-mile radius. We managed to siphon a bit of diesel from a truck but not much.”

  “Oh well, you did your best.”

  “Sorry it’s not better news.”

  “I’d like you to go out with Josh tomorrow,” Jules said, glaring towards Ben.

  “No worries,” he said, turning and walking back to the rest of his group as they handed out sweets and chocolate to the children who thought Christmas had come early.

  Within half an hour, Kyle’s group arrived back at the Home and Garden Depot too. Jules, George and Maggie walked out onto the loading dock to meet them.

  Kyle climbed down from the cab of the box van and walked across to them. “Err … there was a bit of a wrinkle in the plan,” he said as he approached them.

  “What kind of a wrinkle?” Jules asked.

  The rear doors to the box van opened, and a procession of hungry, ragged-looking people began to climb down. “This kind.”

  “Jesus! They don’t look like they’ve had a bite to eat since this thing started,” Jules said.

  “Yeah, I think that’s actually the case with some of them.” He turned to look at George. “All the fuel stations we could get to in the outlying areas were bone dry, but there was some good news.”

  “And what would that be?” Jules asked.

  “We found a water truck.”

  “What kind of a water truck?”

  “The kind that delivers those big bottles to offices for the chilled dispensers.”

  “So that’s what the transit’s full of anyway.”

  “Well, that’s something. Josh had a good haul too. I want you to go out with him tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, sure, whatever you need,” Kyle said and disappeared inside the building.

  Jules, George and Maggie wat
ched as the hungry and sad-looking faces filed past them. More mouths to feed, more bodies to transport north, but if they didn’t help them, who would? The three of them looked at each other, all sharing the same thoughts and all hating themselves at the same time.

  The apocalypse had taken virtually everything they had. How long would it be before it took the last vestiges of their humanity as well?

  CHAPTER 13

  Jules pulled the curtain across her cubicle and looked at her newly acquired airbed and sleeping bag in the glow of her dynamo lantern. It was amazing what the gift of three simple things had done for the morale of everyone in the place. Josh had brought a bulk stock of everything, knowing full well more people would be joining their ranks, so even the new arrivals were able to bed down in comfort, although Jules was fairly certain that most of them would have happily slept on beds of nails in exchange for a few morsels of food.

  She peeled off her T-shirt, boots, jeans and socks before climbing into bed; she could see the glow of lantern lights up and down the row, and it made her smile. They had lived in the dark for so long that now they had them, people just kept them on for comfort, a symbol of some kind of civilisation at least. The front windows had all been doused with thick paint on the first day, barring one lookout window, which had a thick tarpaulin secured over it. This was peeled back during the day, but the majority of illumination came from the numerous skylights in the corrugated steel roof.

  Jules flicked her own lantern off and snuggled into her sleeping bag, which was now a few inches off the cold floor thanks to the airbed. Before tonight, she had just a piece of cardboard to lie on and a thin curtain to cover herself with, refusing to have any luxury that the rest of them did not share. A smile crept across her face. It had been some time since she had closed her eyes in such comfort. It did not take long for weariness to pull her into the first stages of sleep, and she was about to drift off when, suddenly, she felt a presence.

  She opened her eyes and could see the silhouette of a figure crouched down over her bed. She quickly reached for the lantern and turned it on.

  “Ben?” she whispered. “What are you doing here?”

  His eyes seemed dazzled by the light, and when he opened his mouth to speak, she could smell booze on his breath and his slurring words suggested he had consumed plenty.

  “I wanted to…” He started too loudly and, despite his drunkenness, had the good sense to lower his voice. “I wanted to apologise to you.”

  “At eleven-thirty at night, while you’re pissed?”

  “I should have come sooner.”

  “Do you think?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Look, go to bed, you already apologised to me yesterday. We can talk about this tomorrow.”

  He looked at her, his head nodding back and forth like one of those toy dogs on a car dashboard. He was struggling to focus, and Jules had no idea with the state he was in how he had even managed to find her cubicle, but there was a glint of understanding in his eyes. “Okay, but I need you to know I am sorry.”

  “Alright. Goodnight,” she said.

  He slowly stumbled to his feet, pulled back the tarpaulin covering Jules’s cubicle, and disappeared as quickly as he had arrived. Jules lay there awake, looking at the underside of the orange metal shelving above her. She had liked Ben, even though she knew nothing serious could ever come of it she had liked him, but now when she saw him, he was like a stranger. She did not hate him; she just felt indifference towards him.

  The light of the lantern gradually began to fade and her eyes started to close once again.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  When she woke the next morning, a thin smile adorned her face. Her back and neck were not stiff, and the rest of her body did not feel like it had spent the night in a meat locker. She unzipped the sleeping bag and climbed out of bed, immediately putting on her clothes before drawing the sheeting back and stepping out to face a new day.

  To her surprise, there were a lot of people already up. George and Maggie were down at the front of the store, but Jules could hear clattering at the far end of the building as breakfast was being prepared. Everyone had their own duties at the Depot and there was one group who did nothing but inventory the food and prepare it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. At some stage, Jules knew that they would have to start rationing in earnest, but for the time being, while the scavenger trips were bringing in fresh supplies all the time and while so many newcomers had been surviving on little if any food, they decided to stick to two meals a day with lunch thrown in for the children.

  Breakfast usually consisted of a choice of tinned fruit, crispbreads with jam, or breakfast cereal with long-life or powdered milk.

  Jules walked down to the front of the store to join George and Maggie. “We thought we might have to send in a handsome prince to wake you up, Sleeping Beauty,” Maggie said, smiling.

  “Why? What time is it?”

  George looked at his watch. “It’s just gone eight-fifteen.”

  “Jesus! I can’t remember the last time I slept past six. Why didn’t one of you wake me up?”

  “Thought you could do with the rest,” Maggie replied.

  “Well, yeah. That was the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a long time.” George and Maggie smiled at one another. “What? What’s that look about?”

  “Nothing, it’s just we must have seen a dozen people already today who’ve said exactly the same thing. It’s amazing what a few creature comforts can do,” George said.

  Jules looked around the giant showroom as more people began to rise and make their way over to the breakfast area. “I’m guessing our scavengers are chowing down?”

  “No, our scavengers are already well on their way. They set off at about seven-thirty. Before they headed to Blacks, they were going to check out the council yard where they keep all the snowploughs and other vehicles,” George said.

  Jules’s brow furrowed. “What have you got them going there for?”

  “Well, chances are they’ll have their own fuel store and, even if they don’t, those vehicles have big tanks, you’d think there’d be plenty of diesel to siphon off.”

  “So you’ve organised everything for me? Then why the fuck did I get out of bed? I could have had a proper lie-in.”

  “Come on,” Maggie said, “let’s all go get a bite to eat.”

  As they walked along, they spotted Rob, with a rifle slung over his shoulder, checking to make sure one of the emergency exits was secure. “Oh God, he thinks he’s Rambo or something.”

  “Hey, stop being such a bitch. All three of your brothers have stepped up. They’re taking the security of this place seriously, which isn’t a bad thing. They were the last ones to turn in, and Rob was the first one to get up this morning. They’ve worked out a rota, so every day somebody’s up with the larks checking all the doors. One of them sleeps in the food store to make sure nobody does a runner with any of the supplies. They’re doing a great job, so leave them alone,” Maggie said.

  “My brothers are doing all that?”

  “Yes.”

  “Jesus. I never thought the day would come when they’d get off their useless arses and actually contribute.”

  “Yeah, well, they have, so leave them alone.”

  “I’m with Maggie on this one. They’ve really tried, all three of them, and I’ll tell you something else, if it wasn’t me that landed a punch on Ben yesterday, I’m pretty certain Andy would have.”

  “The point is they’re trying. They’re not always going to get everything right, but they’re doing their best. Not for us, for you. They see how hard you work to do the right thing, to make things better for people, and they want to help you. A few kind words wouldn’t go amiss every now and then.”

  “Jesus! Alright, alright, I get it. I’ve been officially told off.”

  “Good then!”

  “It’s like getting a bollocking from my ma.”

  “No need for language like that, young lady,
” Maggie quipped.

  They arrived at the end aisle where all the food was laid out on a line of pasting tables. Jules, Maggie and George watched the newcomers as some of them just stood there in wonderment. One woman, who somehow looked familiar to Jules, began to cry as she stood back and held her daughter’s hand just looking towards the tables in disbelief. Jules went across to them and crouched down. The girl was no more than five or six years old.

  “Hello, wee darlin’, and what’s your name?” Jules asked.

  “Florence,” the girl replied, looking wide-eyed at Jules.

  “Well, Florence,” she said, taking the girl’s other hand, “I’m guessing you’re a Coco Pops girl. Am I right?”

  Florence nodded her head twice. “I thought so. Y’see, I’m a Coco Pops girl too and I can usually spot another a mile off. How about your ma? Does she like Coco Pops?”

  “Cheerios.”

  A broad smile broke onto Jules’s face. “So, your ma likes Cheerios. Come on then, let’s go see what we can find.” Jules led the little girl by the hand, who in turn led her mother. They walked along the row of tables until they reached the breakfast cereals. Jules grabbed three bowls, filled two with Coco Pops and a third with Cheerios, and then poured milk into all of them. She collected spoons, handed the girl and her mother their respective bowls, and then guided them over to one of the many sets of white garden chairs and tables that had been assembled for people to eat the communal breakfast in comfort.

  Jules sat down with Florence and her mother at one of the vacant tables. “Th-thank you,” stuttered the woman, eventually.

  “You’re welcome. Get used to this, we do this every morning.”

  “I’m sorry,” said the woman, wiping her tears away. “What must you think of me?”

  “You’d be amazed how many people have your reaction the first time they see this. But you’re here with us now and you’ll need to get used to it. Everybody here gets given a job, everybody contributes, and so everybody deserves to have food in their bellies.”