by Lee Wade
The forth and larger building was an observatory with small café area and toilets. Again it had long since been abandoned. It had started to become a mystery as to where the rest of the visitors and residents were.
The path way started to incline towards the main light house which was situated in the centre of the island and at its highest point. A small building stood next to it which held a generator and had solar panels on its roof. It would have provided the power for the light house and other buildings on the island. Paul had said that it hadn’t been running for quite some time.
The light house had been unlocked and open to the public, there were boards documenting the history of the light house and the island. The living quarters were very similar to that of Inchkeith light house. There were a few human skeletal remains in the visitor area, but other than that there was no sign of people or rotters again.
We headed off to the last building marked on the map, the older, Low light house. Our adrenalin started to kick in big style as we’d walked down the hill towards it, the rest of the visitors must have been there, it was the only place left for them. The low light house was unlocked too and as every other building on the island was totally abandoned and had been for some time as well.
It had been a complete mystery, where had they gone, maybe there had been another boat and they’d managed to escape the island after all. It had been early on in the outbreak that they’d come to the island, so someone might have come looking for them when they hadn’t returned from their day trip.
We had decided to have a walk around the coast to make sure that there wasn’t something that we’d missed that wasn’t on the tourist map. The second landing area was clear of both boats and people and so we had continued on around the coast.
When we reached the south of the island we had come across a third, much older light house which was now a ruin. Not far from there was an area named Lady’s Bed. There appeared to have been a land slide where the path way just ended and the cliff edge had fallen away. There were two small rock islands named the Maiden Rocks that could be seen from the cliff edge. The rocks appeared to be where the grey seals basked and kept their young. They were making a hell of a lot of noise along with all the sea birds that shared the rocks and cliff face with them.
I’ve found them, Becky had shouted, down there. Sure enough, at the bottom of the cliff was a horrifying site, dozens of bodies laid strewn amongst the rocks below. They had been picked of any flesh by the thousands of birds over time, so all that remained was their bones.
The noise of the seals must have attracted them all to the cliff face, where no doubt they stayed, not having any reason to leave as this must have been the loudest place on the island and if they could see, they’d have seen the seals below. At some point, the cliff face must have given way under their constant weight, providing a feast for thousands of migrating birds. I wondered at what point they died. How much of their brain would have to have been consumed before they no longer functioned, maybe there were even still some under the rocks, trapped and slowly decomposing and being eaten by all sorts of sea creatures.
Chapter Fifty Six
We scanned the rest of the island, but found nothing else that had concerned us. We radioed the guys back on Inchkeith and told them what we’d found. It was agreed that Sandie and Becky would spend the rest of that day and night on the island to clear away any visible remains we’d found and start to make the main light house liveable. It was fully furnished unlike the one back on Inchkeith with enough beds for everyone.
Paul, Lia and I had set off almost immediately in the Hope back to Inchkeith. The plan had been to be back that evening and spend the rest of the day loading up the hold areas on the Saltwind and Hope with supplies and anything else that we could salvage from Inchkeith island that we might need on May. Paul, David, Sophie and Maddison would then return to May the following morning, drop off the supplies and then Paul and David would return to collect the rest of us. If everything went as planned, we’d all be sitting around the table having our evening meal on the Isle of May the following evening.
There had been nothing to stop us making further return trips to Inchkeith should we ever require anything further.
The return journey went as planned and we spent the rest of that day loading up the boats as planned. We weren’t taking the Gamebird with us, but wanted to keep it available should we require it again. So Paul had secured and moth balled it for future use.
It was strange that night thinking about Sandie and Becky alone on May. We had managed to speak to them on the radio and they had managed to get a fire going and were looking forward to spending a night in a comfy bed.
The guys set of early the next morning leaving us to gather any remaining resources we thought might be of use. I think that must have been the longest day of my life so far, like waiting in an airport to go on holiday when your planes been delayed. I’d always been in the forefront of things and found it difficult to let the others take charge of things. But I had wanted to stay with my family and make the journey with them. I was wanting to spend as much time as possible with them because I was planning something in my head that would have meant I was going to have to leave them. More than just a supply run, but something that was going to be far more dangerous and involve being away from them for a few days at least. It wasn’t something I could get the other guys to do either.
Chapter Fifty Seven
David and Paul returned for us as planned at lunch time that day. The rest of us loaded up the boats with the rest of the supplies and ourselves, whilst Margaret fed and watered the two guys. We did our best to secure the light house for future use, the island was a good stepping stone should we ever need to return to the main cities, hopefully we wouldn’t need to, but who knew, maybe one day the rotters would have rotted away and it may be safe to return there.
The journey to May had gone without any problems, despite the weather, but the boats were made for worse things. It had been great to finally get the family to their home and settled into our new room. Despite the low light house having accommodation for six people, we all wanted to stay together for now, we felt safer together and the low light house would give us somewhere to grow into, who knew, maybe our young couple Becky and Anthony might want to set up home there one day.
The main light house was plenty large enough for the twenty of us. The light house was designed to cater for three light keepers families. So we had a large double room with another connected room for Emily and Luke. The rest of the guys all had their own or family rooms similar to ours.
Becky and Sandie had been busy making the place homely by getting rid of all the tourist boards and stuff and creating another living area away from the one in the keeper’s quarters.
Chapter Fifty Eight
We spent the following day exploring the island and making our rooms more homely. Paul had managed to get the solar generator up and running, so we had hot water and electric for the first time in a while. David and Sandie went out fishing and dropping pots again and Becky could be heard hunting the local wild life! We managed to raid the coke machine in the visitor centre, which went down a treat with both adults and kids alike!
With the supplies we’d bought with us and what was available on the island we still didn’t think that we’d have enough to see us through a bad winter. We had electric heaters, which was great as long as we could power them all winter. But one thing the island was lacking was trees, there had been none, and so we were going to have to go on a supply run before winter had set in.
I broached the subject at evening meal when we all sat down together to eat. Margaret had took on the role of chef and mother to us all, a role that you could she thrived on. Her and Ken had had a son of their own, around my own age and two grandchildren. She didn’t know what had become of them as they’d been on holiday at the same site as us at the outbreak, so hadn’t had any contact with home either.
I wondered about the rest of
the guys, we’d all stuck together up to now, but at some point would the pull of home and not knowing about what had happened to their family’s tare them away? I had been planning on speaking to Babs later that night about what I had planned, but had needed to speak to a couple of the other guys first.
We’d had a lovely meal of fresh mackerel caught by David and Sandie that day, the advantages of being able to sea fish again. After we had finished I had managed to have a quiet word with David, Sandie and Becky. They were up for what I had planned, I just needed to get Babs on board with it too.
I had spoken to Babs that night and told her what I wanted to do. She was naturally upset, but understood my reasons. I wanted to take the Hope with Sandie, David and Becky and sail along the coast to Amble, from there we would need to find transport that could get us the few miles to Togston, it would be possible to walk from Amble to Togston in a few hours, but would be quicker and safer if we could find some sort of vehicle to help us.
I wanted to find out what had become of mine and Bab’s families and leave the note that I’d promised my brother back on the Somerset, so that he could come and join us. I guess Babs wanted to find her family too.
The journey would take us two days each way on the Hope and I planned to stick as close to the coast as we could. We would rest the first night at the Farne Islands. An Island I knew was uninhabited as was another wild life sanctuary. I wasn’t planning on leaving the Hope, but just using the island as a safe place to drop anchor for the night.
The journey wouldn’t just be a selfish mission for me. I knew the area and knew where we’d be able to find supplies and the quickest and safest ways in. So it made sense from that prospective too. I’d been on many a fishing trip with Bab’s Grandad Billy, The rabbit catcher, so I knew the waters quite well too and I knew where they moored their boats and kept their fuel supplies.
The rest of the guys were as worried as Babs had been, but agreed that we needed supplies to see us through the winter and if that meant at least a few of us could get closure about what had happened to their families, then that was a bonus too.
Chapter Fifty Nine
The guys had agreed, the sooner we left the better, we needed the supplies before winter set in. So we had spent the following day preparing the Hope and making sure the rest of the guys on the island had everything they needed too. I spent a lot of time with Emily and Luke that day, explaining that Daddy was going on a trip to get us food for the winter. I didn’t mention that I was hoping to get home as I didn’t want to give them any false hopes in case I hadn’t liked what I’d found when I got there.
The rest of the guys kept coming to us the rest of that day with requests. It had been quite amusing, you’d think we were planning a trip to the supermarket or something. I remember Margret wanting herbs, flour and some sort of special smelly soap. The kid’s all wanted sweets. Lia had wanted disposable nappies for Michael. Paul had been after tools and parts, anything he could work with. For Hayley it had been toys as Christmas hadn’t been far away. Anthony wanted an X Box! John and Amy, sweets and chocolate. Maddison wanted us to bring some hot young men back with us! Babs just wants us all back safe. I was hoping to bring her back more than that. Hopefully good news from home.
Chapter Sixty
We set off the following morning. It had been an emotional good bye and one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do in my life, but I’d promised that any sign of danger that we couldn’t handle, that we’d turn around and return straight away. We had thought about taking the May Princess as it was no doubt faster and sturdier than the Hope and we would get far more supplies on board, but it had been untested at that point, so we would have been delayed a few more days, time we didn’t have. Paul was going to spend the time that we were away working on it. It would be a great back up should we ever need to leave the island together again.
We stuck as close to the coast as we safely could as planned. It made navigation a lot easier. The journey that first day had been fairly uneventful, Sandie and David had took turns sailing the boat. Becky and myself had just kept look out, we’d been traveling as fast as the Hope could go, about fifteen MPH, so we weren’t able to do any fishing. It was forty five miles to the Farne islands. We’d radioed the guys regularly until we got to Berwick when we lost the signal altogether. We’d made great time that morning and had reached the Farne islands around eleven AM, so we decided to just keep going, it had only been a further twenty miles to Amble, se we’d just gone for it. The less time we were away from May, the less the guys would to worry.
Chapter Sixty One
We passed Alnmouth just before one PM. I told the guys about Coquet Island. It is a tiny island near the mouth of the river Coquet which leads into Amble harbour. We were going to have to enter Amble harbour at high tide as we didn’t have a skip to allow us to anchor in the middle of the channel and row in. At high tide we’d have been able to tie up against the harbour walls, a much safer option.
There is only one way onto Coquet Island, I’d fished around it many a time with Billy and even canoed there as a teenager. There is a small beach where you can moor a boat of the Hope’s size and it offered a little bit of protection from the weather and the North Sea swells. The only thing on the Island is another light house with small living quarters, long since automated as all the other ones.
We could probably have made it to Togston that day, but we would only have a few hours of day light by the time we got there and that was provided we didn’t encounter any problems along the way. So we had decided to make sure Coquet Island was safe to stay the night.
When we had arrived at the island, it had been clear that it had been used or was possibly still in use as a safe haven by others. After all, it is only a few miles from Amble and you could get there in a canoe.
There were a few small boats that had been tied up on the beach. They weren’t water logged and had no covers, so were clearly still in use, which meant people and not rotters. They would have seen us coming from miles away. No doubt they were just locals, but they might have had knowledge that would be of use to us. I had remembered what I had told Babs back on May, but this was a risk that could help us in the long run, so we moored and landed on the island.
It was only a short walk up to the light house. There had been no sign of anything else on the island other than the boats we’d seen on the beach. We made a point of having our guns visible, but just resting at our sides. We hadn’t wanted to look menacing, but at the same time, wanted them to know they couldn’t mess with us. The door was bolted shut from the inside, so we banged on it with the butts of our guns. No one had answered, they were probably terrified if they’d had the same kind of encounters we’d had with other people. We had shouted so they’d hear us. We’re just wanting to moor here for the night and we’ll be on our way in the morning. We are going to make a meal soon, you’re welcome to join us. With that we had walked away.
We threw a few lines in the water in the hope of a few mackerel to go with our tinned beans and rice we’d bought with us. We had got lucky and dragged a few into the boat.
Chapter Sixty Two
It must have been the smell of our meal cooking that had bought them out. But the light house door had opened and a man walked out with his hands in the air. He was followed by two teenage boys. They walked down towards the Hope. I had put my gun down and told the guys to cover me discreetly. I put my hands in the air too and walked towards them. When we met, I offered my hand and he shook it. All three of them had looked in bad shape, almost skin and bone.
I repeated what I’d said earlier, that we just needed somewhere safe to spend the night and we’d be on our way. I indicated to the guys on the Hope to drop their weapons too. The man then waved at the light house and a woman about the same age as him and a young girl of about ten came out.
He had introduced himself as Simon and his wife Lorna along with their daughter Lucy and teenage twins Daniel and Scott. We asked if they wanted
to join us for something to eat and they thanked us. Lorna had asked if we wanted to take it inside the light house to eat. I guess a camping stove on the back of the Hope wasn’t the best place for nine people to enjoy a meal, although I imagined those guys would have eaten off the floor by the state they were in. So we had thanked her for the offer and moved everything inside.
The boy’s eyes almost popped out their heads when we handed around the bottles of coke to accompany their meals. David produced a bottle of whiskey, which Lorna got glasses for. It had been awkward at first, but the whisky helped to loosen people up a bit.
It turned out they’d been living on the island for over a year now, surviving on birds and fish that they’d caught mostly, but the seas had been too bad at the time for them to take their small boats out. They were a local family that had travelled down the Coquet from Walkworth in their small boats when the village church that they’d been hiding out in with other survivors had been compromised by rotters and those that could had fled. They hadn’t seen or heard from any other people in almost a year now. There had been a few supplies in the light house and some fishing gear, but basically they were starving and had been too afraid to go into Amble to look for supplies.
I was pleased that we’d been able to give them a hot meal that night. I hadn’t let on where we’d come from, just that we were on our way home to look for survivors. I asked if they knew of any other groups as I didn’t recognise any of the names of the people who’d been in the church with them at Walkworth. They’d said that they’d heard of a group of survivors at Broomhill at about the same time they had been staying in the church.
