by Terry Tyler
I reach the gate; I haven't been back since. I thought I wouldn't be able to bear it, but when I open the door I know it's the only place I might feel any peace at all. I go to our bedroom, and the pain cuts through me; I clutch at the door and cry out. The bed is rumpled and unmade, as we left it last time, because we were in a hurry—we'd spent too long there, because we couldn't break away from each other. The sun shines through the gauze curtains; the impressions our bodies left on the sheets are still there, the pillows skewed, the under-sheet coming untucked at the bed head. I yell. I can't stand it, can't bear the pain of knowing I'll never see him again.
On his side of the bed is a can of fizzy drink, half empty. The silver scorpion he used to wear around his neck; he took it off because it kept catching in my hair. Jax wondered where it was when we found his body, but I knew. We left in such a rush that day. I pick it up and kiss it, put it around my neck, though I know I can't wear it all the time because Dex will see it. I should give it to Jax, and I will, but I want to keep it for a while.
I fall onto the bed and bury my face in the sheets, soaking them with the flood of pain from my eyes. I hold his pillow to my face, but it doesn't smell of him any more, just the musty cold of an unused house.
I hug the pillow to me, wrap myself up in the quilt, bury my face in the mattress, but I can't find him.
I love you. Come back to me.
I can't bear it, I've done so well plodding along and being dead, and I cry so hard that my eyes are sore, my rib cage hurts with the heaving, I wind myself up in our covers and call his name, but the room is silent. I'm alone.
I lie back, shut my eyes and imagine opening them to see his face smiling down at me. I reach out and imagine touching his skin. I take out the half bottle of brandy from my bag and drink from it, too much of it, but the blurred edges help.
I sleep; I dream.
The dream is similar to one I had before. I was walking along a beach and saw Dex turning to smile at me, but when I woke I wasn't sure if the person I'd dreamed of was Dex or Heath. Now, in this dream, it's all Heath. This time, there's a boat bobbing on the water, nearby.
I wake, and shove my face into the pillow.
I think the significance of dreams is not what happened, but how you felt about what happened.
I shut my eyes tight, trying so hard to stay in the dream, remembering his smile, the life in his eyes. I'm clutching at it, playing it over and over, so it doesn't fade away like dreams do.
It's not the boat, it's how I feel about the boat.
Heath and I smile when we look at it.
I'm going to be on that boat. I don't know when or where it is, but I will be. I won't be going to Heath, because Heath is gone, and I'm not ready to be with him yet, but something else has to happen. There has to be more.
I cuddle the pillow to me and pretend it's him. It doesn't work.
Maybe I've lost my mind. But the boat meant something, I know it did. It's not over yet.
There's more. There has to be more.
I touch the scorpion around my neck, then I get up, tuck it into my jumper, and say goodbye to our room.
I'll come again. It's somewhere I can be, when I can't face anything else.
I turn into Greenfield Road and see Travis coming out of the hotel with a bag of supplies. He stops and just looks for a moment, then walks towards me, drops the bag and puts his arms around me.
He's big and strong, and it feels good.
"I'm so sorry," he says. "Heath. It must be terrible for you."
I pull away from him, study his face.
"You knew?"
"I saw you come out of that house, you and him, when I was out walking." He smiles. "And Aria tried to get me back. So I knew it was over between them."
"You must hate him. He took her from you."
He releases his hold on me. "He didn't take her. I see it now. She was never mine. And he was never hers." He touches my arm. "Was he yours?"
He has kind eyes.
"Yes. Completely."
"D'you want to go for a walk over the dunes? We could talk about our bruised hearts."
I look down, and feel the tears welling up. "Mine isn't bruised. It's broken."
"I know. But it'll mend. It will." He picks up his bag, smiles. "I have chocolate in here. It's good for the soul."
"Okay." I manage to smile back. "Let's walk."
I put my arm through his, and wander off up the road with my new friend.
Epilogue
Eight Months Later
King Edward Bay
December 2026
Late on a mild, sunny, winter morning, a thirty-eight foot long, old Danish fishing boat drops anchor in an inlet on the coast of the once fine, but now deserted town of Tynemouth. A woman alights from the vessel and looks around the beautiful, sheltered nook that has seen no visitors since the outbreak of the virus, twenty-nine months before. The only indication of human life is an ancient, dented, Cherry Coke can, its shiny burgundy now faded by two and a half years of sun and salt into a faded, pink-tinged grey.
Her long, straw-coloured hair whips around her face, and she pulls it into a knot on the back of her head, securing it with a covered elastic band. She turns and calls to the man heaving two dirt bikes from the boat; like her, he is dressed in a one-piece leather suit, ready to take bikes across the beach, up the slopes and steps to the road, and further on, up the country.
Seren is half Welsh, half Danish. Five years before, she chose to reject the London rat race in which she'd lived and worked for eleven years. Hawk comes from a small town in Georgia, in the United States, and has lived in many places, all over the world.
The boat secure, the bikes ready to go, their backpacks waiting, Hawk passes Seren a protein bar and a bottle of water.
"I still don't like leaving it here."
She drinks, chews off half the bar and tucks the rest into a pocket. "It's safe. And it wouldn't be a complete tragedy if anything happened; we'd just find something else, when the time comes."
He looks back. "I know, but I love that boat."
"It'll be okay." She raises her face to the breeze. "Come on, time to go."
He nods, and hands her a crash helmet. "Time to go."
"I hope it hasn't changed too much."
"Be prepared to be disappointed. Nothing is ever the same as you remember it. They could all be long gone, or—"
"I know, I know. I'm just nervous, now we're here." She laughs. "You know, I don't want to get it wrong. After Axel—"
"We'll get it right this time, don't worry. Take it slowly, not jump in."
Seren nods. "Let's go, then." They hook backpacks onto their shoulders, link helmets over their arms.
"You lead," says Hawk, and they walk the bikes up the beach, up the slope and out onto the road. Seren looks around her and out to sea once more, puts on her helmet, gives Hawk a thumbs up, and sets out northwards, to Lindisfarne.
To Be Continued.....
The third part of the Project Renova series will be published in 2018. A collection of 'outtake' short stories is also in progress; Patient Zero features backstories and continuations for characters who have made brief appearances in Tipping Point and Lindisfarne. This should be available around Christmas time, 2017.
Author's Note
I hope you enjoyed this second book in the Project Renova series. If you've got this far, I'd really appreciate a short review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. Thanks for your time!
The Story So Far
Tipping Point: Project Renova Book One
Year 2024. Vicky Keating lives in the small Norfolk seaside town of Shipden with teenage daughter, Lottie, and boyfriend of six years, Dex. Dex is involved in underground whistle-blower group Unicorn; Vicky labels them 'conspiracy theorists', and considers some of their ideas far-fetched.
Disaster strikes. A mysterious, deadly virus is discovered in Africa, and news reports claim it is heading for the UK. An emergency vaccination programme for the whol
e country is established, but Unicorn believes there is little truth in the official statements about the disease.
Dex and his group obtain vaccinations for themselves and their families.
An 'isolated case' of the virus is discovered in Shipden, and military quarantine is immediate. Dex is in Northumberland on Unicorn business, unable to return home, so Vicky and Lottie are left to cope on their own as their friends die and the town dissolves into chaos. Two days later, with the majority of the population yet to receive the vaccine, the virus escapes in London. Within a week, it spreads out of control.
All basic services and utilities falter, then disappear.
The army introduces enforced evacuation to refugee camps. Vicky and Lottie escape and make their way to Unicorn's safe house in Tyneside, only to discover that Dex is not there.
Vicky and Lottie settle into the house with Unicorn members Kara and Phil, survivor Heath, and his son, Jackson (Jax). Over the next few months the disease rages through the country and the entire infrastructure of society breaks down, while those left adjust to life in a harsh, post-apocalyptic world.
The whereabouts of Unicorn members Dex, Naomi, Scott and Jeff are unknown, and Vicky is heartbroken when Kara tells her that Dex was romantically involved with Naomi. She grows closer to Heath, but is confused by her conflicting feelings for both him and Dex. Two more survivors are taken in: Rowan and Ozzy.
In December, Scott arrives at the house, and reveals that he was abducted and held at a psychiatric hospital taken over by a Major Charles Ridgeway and used as a base for the army's control of the North. On Scott's release, a drunken Ridgeway admitted that Unicorn's suspicions were well-founded: targeted depopulation was initiated by those in the seats of power in the US, using the UK as a pilot to test how the vaccination programme, quarantine situation and release of the virus would play out.
Only certain groups of the population had been chosen for vaccination: those with useful skills, and the 'worker bees': law-abiding citizens who obey authority without question.
Vicky's group comes to terms with the new reality, and they discuss how they might establish a sustainable future. Scott suggests they move to Lindisfarne, an island off the Northumberland coast, based on Dex's theory that this would be the best place to establish a community in the case of a nationwide collapse. He believes this is where Dex might be—and he also reveals that Naomi is pregnant with Dex's child.
The group prepares to leave. Vicky is aware that she might come face to face with Dex, but accepts that their relationship is over and submits to her feelings for Heath.
Others are heading for Lindisfarne: Travis worked for a government agency, analysing social media information to categorise the population for the vaccination programme. He and Aria escape from the bunker they shared with their colleagues, and take up residence in Travis's deserted family home. Travis falls deeply in love with Aria and wants to stay put, but she is eager to find others with whom to establish a community.
Biker club president Alan Wedgebrow, known as Wedge, breaks out of prison only to discover that his girlfriend, Bette, has decamped with his second-in-command. They have left Newcastle for Lindisfarne, along with other members of the Hadrian club. Wedge sets off to reclaim Bette, and his rightful place at the helm.
Names of the roads, buildings and houses of Lindisfarne have been changed for the purpose of this novel.
Other books by Terry Tyler
Full length novels
Tipping Point (Project Renova #1)
The Devil You Know
The House of York
Kings and Queens
Last Child
What It Takes
Dream On
Full Circle
The Other Side
Nobody's Fault
You Wish
Novellas
Best Seller
Round and Round
Short Stories
Nine Lives
