‘That’s the end of the boat.’
He looked at Fran.
‘There must be a vehicle somewhere that is still up and running. See if we can find a set of keys in here.’
Ellis opened a drawer behind the counter. She held up a fob with two keys attached.
‘What about these?’ she said.
‘Great,’ said John. ‘Now let’s get out of here.’
We left the office. I looked at the lifeboat. All I could see was viros. The boat was covered in them. They were eating something. The dirty water was also full of them. I couldn’t see the men. I knew what had happened to them.
Ellis was next to me.
‘Come on,’ she said, tugging my sleeve. ‘We’ve got to get out of here. The others are waiting.’
After Abe’s shouting I wasn’t sure how to behave. Abe was right. I did like Ellis. I did want to be more than a friend. But I could never tell her. She wouldn’t feel the same about me. Why would she?
Everyone was waiting.
Abe was staring.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ I said.
I went over to the others. I left Ellis behind.
‘Wait for me, Jake,’ she said.
There was a green van. There was a white pickup truck. John pointed the keys at them. The lights on the white truck flashed. There was only room for the driver and one passenger in the front.
John looked at us.
‘Sorry, guys but you’ll have to sit in the back.’
No one cared. All we wanted was to get to Dungeness.
‘That’s fine,’ said Vinnie.
He climbed over the side.
‘Anything is better than walking.’
John and Fran got in the front. The engine started.
‘Hold tight,’ John said. ‘Here we go.’
We followed the small road between the hills. The truck struggled up the road. We came to a junction. John stopped to see if anything was coming. He turned right on to the marsh road.
It was bumpy and noisy. I didn’t speak. No one did. We were so pleased to be away from the harbour. I looked around. The sun was weak. It put a pale light on the wet grass everywhere. The sea was in the distance.
We were going past flat fields with wooden fences. I sometimes saw a house. I didn’t want to think about the people inside.
I saw low hills on the other side. There were more boring fields. There was a deep canal. We were driving right next to it. There was a small fence. It looked weak.
The trip was getting boring. There was nothing to do. I stopped looking around. I felt tired. Everyone looked the same. I lay down. It wasn’t comfortable. My arm was my pillow. I shut my eyes. I tried to stop my brain thinking.
I heard Fran scream.
‘That’s too fast, John!’
There was a big crack.
The truck bumped in the air.
Water
My head came out the water. I gasped. It was freezing. My arms and legs were numb. I felt dizzy.
The water moved fast. I saw the bank. I tried to get there. My wet clothes were really heavy. It was so hard to move. I pushed and pushed. My hands reached the edge. I jumped up. I nearly fell back in. My arms hurt. I crawled up. My legs felt stuck. I pushed again. I was out the water. I lay down.
I look for the others.
Abe and Amber were struggling. The water was strong. Amber had Abe’s collar. She was dragging him. Ellis was with them. She looked terrified. I wanted to help but couldn’t move. Ellis saw me. She kept going. She reached up. I grabbed her hand. Ellis lay next to me. Abe and Amber on the other side.
Baxter climbed out. He shook his fur really hard.
The truck was in the canal. The back was in the air. The front was underwater. Vinnie was trying to open the door. He pulled and pulled. He ducked under. He came up coughing.
‘I can’t open it. The door is jammed.’
Vinnie went around the van. He ducked under again. He came back up.
‘Dammit,’ he said. ‘This door is jammed as well.’
He ducked under again. He was underwater for a long time. He came back up. He was breathing really hard. Vinnie was frightened.
‘They’re not moving. I can’t see them moving.’
Vinnie shivered. The water was freezing. He had to get out. He would be in trouble.
Ellis saw her brother. I tried to stop her. She went back in the water. She struggled over to Vinnie.
‘Vinnie, we’ve got to get out of the water. It’s too dangerous.’
Vinnie ignored her. He ducked under the water again. He came up spluttering.
‘I can’t open the bloody door. They’re going to drown.’
Ellis pulled her brother.
‘Come on, Vinnie. We’ve got to get out the water.’
Vinnie looked at Ellis. I thought he would ignore her. He nodded instead.
‘Come on,’ he said, pulling Ellis to the side of the canal. We helped them out the water. She shivered on the bank. Vinnie cried.
‘I couldn’t save them. I just couldn’t save them.’
Ellis grabbed her brother. She cried too.
‘No one could have saved them. You tried your best but you could have died trying to save them and they wouldn’t have wanted that to happen.’
The sun went away. Blackness fell on all of us. It started to really rain hard.
Amber stood up.
‘Guys, we need to find shelter straightaway. Otherwise, we’re going to die.’
She pointed at the hills.
‘There’s some sort of building the other side of that field. Let’s shelter there.’
There was a small bridge. It let us cross the canal. We walked across a muddy field. It was slippy. The rain was still hard. I kept treading in big puddles. I hated mud. I thought about old war photographs I had seen at school. Mr. Buckle had taught us about the first big war. All the soldiers looked miserable. Surrounded by mud and death. I felt like them now.
The field led to a stone track. We walked until we saw two broken old farm buildings. I stopped. The old stone barn had no roof. The shed had a broken door. Amber kept going.
‘In here,’ she said.
She pushed open the broken door.
‘This will have to do.’
Fire
It was an old cowshed. I saw animal beds at the back. It stank. There was three shelves. Amber got organized. She told us what to do.
‘Ellis and Vinnie, gather as much straw as you can from the stalls.’
She looked at me and Abe.
‘You two help them. I’ll look for something to start a fire with.’
The straw was rotten. It smelled really bad. But it was dry. I got a big armful. I dumped it in the middle of the shed. Everyone did the same as me.
Amber checked the shelves. She found a lantern and some matches.
‘You never know what you’re going to find until you look,’ she said.
Amber pointed at the pile of straw.
‘We are going to need something to keep the fire going once it is started.’
Amber saw a broken gate. It was leaning against a wall.
‘That’ll do,’ she said. ‘Let’s break that up.’
We sat around the blazing fire. The flames were bright. They threw huge shadows everywhere. It was eerie.
‘Won’t the fire make people find us?’ I said.
‘It might,’ said Amber, ‘but what choice do we have? We desperately needed to get out of these wet clothes and warm up. Otherwise we won’t last the night.’
I didn’t say anything else. I took off my overalls. I was awkward. I put them near the fire to dry. My boxer shorts were wet as well. I wasn’t going to take them off. I couldn’t. No way.
I stared at the fire.
Everyone else got undressed. I tried not to look. It wasn’t easy. I didn’t want to move. I felt stuck. Baxter lay next to me. I stroked his head.
Vinnie wedged the door. He used a thick piece of gate.
‘No one is getting through that in a hurry,’ he said. ‘We should be safe for the night.’
We sat in silence. I wanted to tell Vinnie he was brave. He had tried all he could do to save Fran and John. I couldn’t think of the words. I didn’t know if Vinnie wanted me to speak like that.
I didn’t speak to Abe. I didn’t want to. He was so mean earlier. He still made me angry.
I couldn’t speak to Ellis and Amber. I couldn’t look at them. How could I? They were in their underwear.
I thought about the viro I had killed with the screwdriver.
Was it like killing a real person?
Was I now a murderer?
Was I protecting myself?
Did Abe make me so angry that I lost control?
I didn’t have a bad temper. I sometimes got upset with Mum if she said no to me. That was normal for a kid my age. I was never angry enough to kill.
Had I saved Abe’s life? Or was I aiming at him?
All these questions were silly.
I had killed someone. I felt terrible. What would Mum say? What about Ellis when Abe tells the truth? They might all hate me. No one would my friend anymore.
I would understand. I wasn’t a friend of angry people. I wasn’t a friend of murderers. No way. I hated violence. I hated violent people.
Mum had a man friend for a little while. We had a barbecue. He drank lots of wine. He started shouting. He waved his fists. He said he would punch Mum.
Mum was brave. She shouted back. I was small. I stood in front of her. I helped to stop him hitting her.
Then he left.
I couldn’t sleep. I thought he would come back.
He never did.
Direction
The fire burned for ages. Our clothes got dried. I put my overalls back on. We had no food or drink. I was starving. I was exhausted. Finally, I fell asleep.
I woke up once. Baxter had growled. Vinnie was by the door. There was screaming.
‘Go back to sleep, Jake,’ he said. ‘Baxter heard the foxes outside.’
‘Is there danger?’
I meant the screaming. Vinnie shook his head.
‘It’s what foxes do. No big deal.’
I shrugged.
It was light when I woke. I was stiff. My arm felt numb. I had used it as a pillow. Abe was sitting cross-legged next to Amber. I nodded. He just looked at me. Vinnie was still by the door. He smiled.
‘You’re awake then?’ he said. ‘It stopped raining earlier this morning.’
He looked at the sleeping girls.
‘We should get ourselves together and head off. The army base can’t be far from here.’
‘Which way will we go?’ I said.
‘I reckon if we start to walk with the sea on our right then we should be heading in the right direction.’
Ellis and Amber woke up. We went outside. We only had our clothes now.
We started walking. I hated it. All we did was walk from disaster to disaster. There was no fun ever again. No one was happy. The sun tried to shine. It couldn’t.
We followed a path. There was a small stream next to it. The water was blocked with leaves. It didn’t move.
The walking made me angry inside. I hated everything. We were so miserable. It wasn’t fair. Everywhere we went people died. Other people tried to kill us.
I knew about the viros. I knew we had no choice. But I thought about Fran and John. I remembered the soldiers in the park. What about Tim and Kevin?
They weren’t viros.
They were all nice people.
The world was wrong now. It was bad and broken. I didn’t understand. I didn’t like anything. All I wanted was history. But that was gone now. I only had the special pictures in my head.
Ellis and Vinnie were in front of me. I could hear them talking.
‘You did everything you could,’ Ellis said. ‘You couldn’t have done any more.’
‘I could have got them both out the pickup. That’s what I could have done. In fact, that’s what I should have done.’
Vinnie sniffed.
‘But, I didn’t do anything other than let them both drown.’
‘That’s not true,’ said Ellis. ‘You couldn’t have done any more. The crash must have knocked them both out. The doors were wedged shut. If you had stayed in the water any longer you would have died as well.’
Ellis put her arms around her brother.
‘You have been strong for so long. Don’t give up now. I need you. We all need you.’
Vinnie wiped his eyes with his sleeves.
Abe walked up alongside me. He looked nasty.
‘Are you spying on Ellis?’ he said. ‘Listening to her private conversations?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘Just minding my business.’
Abe snorted.
‘That’s a good one, Jake!’
Abe pulled my arm.
‘I’ve got my eye on you. Don’t think you’re going to get away with anything.’
Amber appeared. She looked at Abe.
‘What the hell are you doing? Leave Jake alone or you’ll have me to answer to.’
Abe didn’t speak. He walked off.
Reverend
The marshes were dull. We walked all morning. It felt like we were getting nowhere. Everything was flat and wet. It was misty. I couldn’t see far.
Baxter ran ahead. He was a strong dog. He could run really well. He ran into some trees. I couldn’t see him. We heard Baxter barking. It was really loud.
‘Trouble,’ said Vinnie. He started running.
Baxter’s bark was easy to follow. We ran through the woods. We were in a small graveyard. There was grass everywhere and broken tombstones all bent. Baxter was barking at a small old man who was holding a shovel.
‘Is this your dog?’ said the old man. ‘If so, please call him off.’
The old man wore a torn black suit and a white collar. He looked worried.
‘Baxter,’ I said. ‘Come here.’
Baxter stopped barking.
Amber stepped forward.
‘Who are you? What are you doing here?’
The old man leant on the shovel. He wasn’t worried now.
‘I am the Reverend Timothy Hooper and this is what’s left of my parish. For the last few days I have taken it upon myself to bury the many dead people I keep finding in the area.’
The Reverend smiled.
‘Sadly, however, the dead now don’t take so kindly to a proper burial and keep coming back to life.’
The Reverend looked at his feet. There was a new hole. It had a dead body in it. The head was all smashed.
‘I was just administering the last rites here when your dog came upon me. If you would just let me finish what I have started, I’ll bring you all back to the vicarage. You look like you could do with something to eat.’
The old man worked quickly. He put the earth on top of the body. He was very strong. He patted the earth with his shovel. He put his tools in a wheelbarrow.
‘We’re just the other side of that copse.’
There was a small stone church around the trees. It had a little cottage next to it. It looked like a picture book. Or a jigsaw puzzle.
‘Welcome to the parish of St. Ethelbert’s,’ he said. ‘The first stone was laid in 1250 AD.’
The old man opened the yellow front door. He stepped inside. He held the door open for us. He had real manners.
‘Make yourselves at home while I put the kettle on.’
I sat in a chair next to the fireplace. It felt good to be indoors. I was tired and cold. Everyone else sat at the kitchen table. The Reverend opened a cupboard. He took out some bread.
‘I’ve no milk, I’m afraid, but I do have plenty of homemade jam. One of our most devoted parishioners, Mrs. Heseltine, always made sure that I had enough to last the winter.’
Amber gave me a jam sandwich. I chewed slowly. The bread was hard but the jam was fruity. It was lovely and sweet. I had another. The jam fell on
my chin. I saw Ellis smiling at me.
‘Good, isn’t it?’ she said. Her mouth was full.
I nodded. We shared something. I liked the feeling. But I was nervous as well. I didn’t want Abe to see us talking. He might get angry again. I checked. He was too busy eating. I felt alright for the moment.
The kettle whistled. The Reverend got an old teapot off the sink.
‘If you don’t fancy black tea,’ he said, ‘then there is plenty of water in the tap, as my mother used to say.’
Stories
‘I truly believe that this is the end of the world,’ the Reverend said. He sipped his tea. He sounded clever.
‘The Bible warned us to expect plague and pestilence and it was certainly true to its word.’
‘Do you really believe that?’ said Vinnie. ‘Do you really believe that all of this was forecast by people writing stories thousands of years ago?’
The Reverend smiled.
‘I have spent years wrestling with my conscience, wondering whether I was fit to be a priest because I had too many questions and not enough answers.’
The Reverend took another sip.
‘I have probably been the most unsuccessful priest that this world has ever seen.’
‘Why?’ said Vinnie.
‘Because in order to truly believe in the Bible you have to stop asking so many questions and just accept what you are told. And I have always found that hard to do. The world created in seven days? Immaculate conception? I never knew what I was supposed to say so I tried to avoid any discussion of these matters.’
I knew most of what he was saying. We had heard about it at school. But I had never been to church. Mum never took me. I didn’t want to ask anything. I was happy to listen.
‘That’s why I took up this post’ the Reverend said. ‘A tiny handful of elderly parishioners and all they wanted me to do was lead them in the same old hymns and read out the right prayers at the right time. There was always time for pleasantries after the service but no one wanted any kind of intellectual discussion which suited me fine because I didn’t either.’
The Reverend poured himself another cup of tea.
‘Now, however, I suddenly find myself living with the most fascinating of ecclesiastical contradictions; the end of the world has finally come to pass and it has been the most stunning form of natural evolution that has made it happen. After all these years of questions whispered in my head I now have nothing left to doubt. For the first time in my life I have a reason to live.’
Viro (Book 2): Viro Page 3
