by Wood, J N
‘Morning Jacqueline. Any luck?’
‘Yes Christopher. Beth is in the garden with everyone else.’
‘What? That’s fucking brilliant.’ I stepped forwards and hugged him.
He patted me on the back. ‘Yes I know, but get off me. I came here to have a piss, not just to tell you the good news.’
I quickly released him and he grabbed his crotch, before shuffling into the bathroom. ‘Nearly pissed myself then,’ he said, closing the door behind him with his arse.
I walked to the back door and stepped out into the garden. It was still cold out. A little shiver ran through me as I walked. The sun was out but my breath was visible.
It must start getting warmer soon.
Beth was talking to Shannon and Michael. I thought she might have had a bit of a baby bump, but she wasn’t showing at all. I’d forgotten that she wasn’t actually that far along. A few feet behind her stood a tall man, about six foot three or four. He was slim, with only a little bit of stubble on his face. His hair was short and scruffy. He looked awkward.
Beth’s attention was on Shannon, but then she noticed me walking towards her. ‘Chris,’ she said, tears filling her eyes. She walked towards me, her arms outstretched.
We met half way and embraced. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘Jack told me everything.’
I released her and took a step back. ‘Thanks? For what? What did he tell you?’
‘Thank you for getting Jack here. What else?’
‘Nah, I didn’t do anything. Shannon, Michael and Gee did more for him than I did.’
‘You saved his life,’ she said.
‘He threw me in a fucking bin and left me,’ Jack said, as he walked towards us from the house, a smile on his face.
I stuck two fingers up in his direction.
‘Jack,’ Beth scolded him. ‘Chris carried you to safety while you were unconscious. I bet you haven’t even thanked him, have you?’
‘It’s okay,’ I said. ‘I don’t want him to thank me. It’d be weird.’
‘No it’s not okay.’ She looked Jack straight in the eyes. ‘You should thank Chris.’
Jack rolled his eyes and groaned.
‘Seriously, it’s fine,’ I said. ‘This is already weird and uncomfortable.’
‘See, he doesn’t want me to thank him,’ Jack said.
‘Jack,’ Beth said, giving him her most disappointed look.
‘Oh for fu…’ Jack started, and then turned to me. ‘Thank you for carrying me away from the zombies and leaving me in a bin.’
‘No problem at all,’ I replied. ‘I’d happily dump you in a bin anytime.’
Jack turned back to his wife, his arms out and palms up.
‘It’ll do for now I suppose,’ she said. ‘Chris, come and meet Roy.’ She turned and beckoned the tall bespectacled man over.
Jack took the opportunity to lean in closer to me, whispering in my ear, ‘Sarah is dead.’
Fuck me. He left that until the last second. Would have been pretty bad if I’d opened with, how’s the wife? Speaking of which, has Jack figured out why Beth put Roy’s surname on the list yet?
‘Roy, this is Chris,’ Beth said.
I shook his hand. ‘Hi Roy, really good to finally meet you.’
‘You too. Beth told me all about you. I’m really glad you and Jack made it up here.’
Do I mention his wife? Better not. Let him start that topic of conversation.
‘Where have you been staying?’ I asked, gesturing behind me with my thumb. ‘I hope it’s nicer than our place?’
Roy let out a little chuckle. ‘It’s on the other side of the camp. It’s not much better than this house.’
‘How long have you two been here?’ Shannon asked.
‘Seven days, or is it six? It’s easy to lose track of the days.’
Jack and Beth slipped away and headed towards the house.
‘What jobs were you both given?’ Michael asked him.
‘Beth works in the food tent near our house,’ Roy hesitated, suddenly looking uncomfortable. He scratched his head and shifted his weight from his left to his right foot. ‘The house we live in I mean. That we share with other people. It’s over by the harbour. I work on the docks, unloading the fishing boats. Not exactly where I imagined myself working.’
Michael nodded, before excusing himself and wandering off towards the house.
Ask about the name thing or not? Fuck it.
‘Why did Beth put your–?’
‘What was your job before all this Roy?’ Ali quickly asked, cutting me off mid question.
What the fuck?
Roy’s eyes nervously darted between me and Ali. ‘Erm…I was a Data Science Manager.’
‘Oh, okay,’ Ali replied.
Roy’s eyes settled on Ali. ‘It was looking at data and finding interesting patterns and shit. I was in the Sea Cadets until I was sixteen, so I wouldn’t have minded working on the fishing boats.’
Ali just smiled politely and nodded her head.
‘When we were looking through the list of names…’ I paused to glance at Ali rolling her eyes. ‘Beth had your second name,’ I continued.
‘Yes.’ Roy put his clenched fist in front of his mouth and cleared his throat. ‘We travelled up here with another group. They were very…let’s just say friendly with Beth. She was worried they might try something, so we pretended to be married. They were still with us when we gave the sheriff our names.’
I looked to Ali. ‘There you go. A simple explanation. That wasn’t hard was it?’
She scowled back at me.
Roy leaned in closer and lowered his voice. ‘Jack seems a bit off with me. He should know that nothing untoward happened between Beth and me. It was all just for show. What with Sarah…and everything, we just helped each other through all of this.’
‘He’ll be fine,’ I said. ‘He’s just been worried about everything. Emotions running high and all that.’
Michael reappeared and handed Roy a cup of something, steam rising up and out of the cup. ‘So Roy, what happened in California?’ Michael asked. ‘We were there at your house after you’d left.’
I shot a glance towards the kitchen window.
Do we have tea and coffee in this shithole?
‘I don’t suppose the house was still standing was it?’ Roy asked.
‘No sorry,’ Michael said. ‘It was a pile of rubble.’
‘Thought it would be,’ he sighed. ‘When we realised it was going to be bad, Sarah, my wife, called Beth and told her to come to our place. She knew that Jack was away, and that Beth was alone. We bunkered down for the first few days in our house. We started smelling the smoke on day five or six. It just got thicker and thicker, eventually it was so black we could barely see anything outside. It was so dark it was like night all the time. We didn’t want the house to burn down around us, so we decided to get out and try and come here. Or to Canada anyway. We went via Beth and Jack’s apartment so she could leave him a note. It was a good job we left when we did. When we got out of the city we could see the fires taking over everything. It wasn’t long after we got outside the city, that Sarah…’ He broke off and stared at the ground for a long moment.
The moment carried on for a while longer. Ali and I exchanged glances. I shrugged and nodded in Roy’s direction.
‘What?’ she mouthed to me.
‘I don’t know?’ I mouthed back.
‘Sorry everyone,’ Roy finally said. ‘It’s just so hard. You know?’
‘Don’t worry,’ Michael said. ‘You don’t have to talk about it.’
I need a way out of this conversation.
‘I’m gonna go and make a drink. Does anyone else want one?’ I asked.
‘That was the last one,’ Michael said, pointing at the cup in Roy’s hand.
‘I’m gonna get some water then, does anyone want one?’
Nobody wanted anything, so I headed to my shared bedroom. I remembered sitting on a bottle of water tha
t morning when trying to climb off my bunk.
After a brief search through my bedding, and pushing aside my Brooklyn Smasher, I managed to retrieve the bottle.
Maybe I shouldn’t sleep with a blood covered baseball bat.
I turned to head back to the corridor, stopping when I heard angry whispering from just outside the bedroom door. I crept a bit closer to listen in.
‘Stop shouting at me,’ Beth hissed.
‘I’m not fucking shouting,’ Jack replied. ‘I’m obviously not shouting because I’m whispering.’
‘Well, stop using a shouting tone.’
‘What the fuck does that mean?’ Jack whispered, sounding exasperated.
‘It means you’re being very aggressive Jack.’
‘What do you expect when you’ve been shacked up with another man for the last three weeks?’
‘I haven’t been shacked up with anyone Jack. Roy’s wife and my friend died. She died in front of us.’
What the fuck do I do here? I can’t walk out now. They’ll know I’ve been listening to them. Please don’t come into the bedroom.
‘I’m obviously very sorry about that,’ Jack said. ‘But that doesn’t mean you had to start sleeping with him. I wasn’t dead. Was I?’
‘I wasn’t sleeping with him. We shared a bedroom, but he slept on the floor. His wife has literally just died.’
‘Sleeping on the floor, a likely story–.’ Jack suddenly broke off for some reason.
‘Jack,’ Gee said. ‘This is Beth?’
Where had Gee been? Probably off drinking vodka with Andruis and Matis.
Shite. Don’t come in here Gee.
‘Yes, this is my wife. Beth, this is Gee.’
'Very nice to meet you,’ Beth said. ‘Jack has told me how much you’ve helped him. Thanks for getting him here.’
Shit, what do I do? Hide under a bed? Get in my bed?
‘No problem,’ Gee said, and then walked into the bedroom.
My finger was pressed against my lips, but it didn’t make any difference. As soon as Gee saw me, he said, ‘Chris, what you doing here? Hiding?’
Gee, you fucking twat.
I waived the bottle of water in my hand. ‘Just getting this,’ I said brightly.
I walked out into the corridor. Jack and Beth both shot me identical glowering looks.
I gave them both a big smile. ‘Morning, see you outside.’ I stepped between them and quickstepped down the corridor, towards the back door.
Back outside, Roy was back to talking about how he and Beth had bumped into a group of five guys, also heading north. He said they were hesitant at first, but both agreed it would be safer to join them.
‘They never did, or really said anything, but we were both a bit wary, Beth especially. I said we should maybe pretend to be married. Just to put Beth’s mind at ease.’
Fuck. Definitely don’t tell Jack it was Roy’s idea.
The back door swung open and Beth and Jack stepped into the garden.
‘Right okay,’ Beth said to us all. ‘I’m going back to our place to get my stuff.’ She looked at Jack. ‘My husband is going to stay here and wait for me.’
‘Why not just keep your own bedroom,’ I asked. ‘We could squeeze Roy in here.’
‘That might be an issue,’ Roy said. ‘We share the house with the guys we came in with. They think me and Beth are married.’
‘Roy, you’re moving here as well,’ Beth told him.
Roy looked awkwardly to Beth, and then to Jack, and back to Beth again. ‘Oh, erm, okay.’
Jack just stood there, a look of glum resignation on his face.
Beth pointed at Roy, saying, ‘Come on then. We’ll be back soon. We don’t have much stuff.’ She kissed Jack on the cheek, and then walked towards the side gate, Roy following behind her.
Once they were out of sight, I said, ‘Fairy tale reunion then?’
Jack was still looking at the gate. ‘No, not exactly.’
‘I think you should be grateful to Roy,’ Michael said. ‘He did help Beth get up here. Although by the looks of it, Beth probably helped him more than he helped her.’
‘Yes, you might be being a bit hard on him,’ Shannon added.
‘Alright,’ Jack said. ‘Let’s not turn this into a group discussion. I’ll handle it thank you.’
‘Okay, let’s change the subject,’ Shannon said. ‘Michael and I have been talking.’ She exchanged glances with her husband. ‘We’re thinking about moving on from here.’
Ali looked at me and raised her eyebrows.
‘What does that mean?’ Jack asked.
Michael grasped his wife’s hand. ‘Shannon and I have been talking to a few people, and after giving this place the once over, we don’t think it’s going to be safe for much longer.’
Sandra must have overheard the conversation. She stepped into the circle that had been formed. ‘And go where exactly?’ she asked.
‘A couple of guys that live here in our house, Robert and Bob,’ Shannon said. ‘They’ve been told the wall isn’t complete. You only have to go a few hundred miles, and it’s still under construction.’
‘I’ve heard the same thing,’ I agreed, before looking at Ali. ‘Well, we did, last night. Elliot from the container told us about it.’ I directed my attention back to Michael and Shannon. ‘He told us the same thing the two Bobs told you. Although Pea told us it’d only be between fifty and one hundred miles. Whatever the distance though, I’ve been thinking exactly the same thing as you. I can’t wait here for eighteen months.’
‘Who is Pea?’ Jack asked me.
‘The guy from Pea’s Place. I’ll tell you about it later. He’s an Ipswich fan.’
Sandra stepped forward slightly and lowered her voice. ‘I can’t leave here with the children. This place might not be ideal, but I can’t risk their lives out there again. I wish you the best of luck, but count us out.’
Ali looked disappointed. ‘Okay. I’m staying with my sister.’ She forced a smile, looking to Sandra. ‘Whatever you decide Sis.’
‘Pete, Theo,’ Sandra said. ‘Come over here. What do you want to do?’
The brothers left the three kids to play amongst themselves, and wandered over.
‘Did you hear all that?’ Sandra asked them.
‘Yeah we heard,’ Pete replied. ‘We’ll obviously stay with you and the kids Sand.’
Sandra smiled. ‘Thanks Pete. Theo, that okay with you?’
‘Whatever Pete says.’
‘You’re old enough to make your own mind up now Theo,’ Sandra said to him.
Theo looked at his remaining family members. ‘I’m not going to leave you all here am I?’
‘Chris, could I have a word with you in the house please?’ Jack asked me.
‘Yeah, if you want.’
‘Excuse us for just a moment please,’ Jack said to everyone.
As we walked towards the house, Shannon said, ‘Where is Gee? He keeps disappearing.’
‘He’ll be drinking with his Lithuanian friends,’ Michael replied.
Once inside the house, Jack stopped and turned to me. ‘I can’t take Beth out of here. Like Sandra says, it’s too risky.’
‘I understand, but maybe ask Beth what she wants. Do you really want your baby born in this camp? We don’t even know what medical facilities they have.’
‘I want the baby to be born, simple as that. If we have to go back out there and fight through the zombies, even before trying to illegally cross a border, there is an extremely high chance the baby, along with all of us, will die.’
‘You do understand I have to go, don’t you? The rest of the world is in the middle of a new cold war. Russia and China are just about to attack everyone else.’
‘Yes I know. Beth and Roy told me about some of the rumours going around the camp.’
‘Rumours or not, I have to go.’
Jack sighed, ‘Yes I know.’
‘So you’re not telling anyone about the pregnancy? Does Bet
h know I know?’
‘No and no. She doesn’t want anyone to know. She thinks people will treat her differently.’
‘Fair enough. Let’s get back outside and find out when Shannon and Mikey Boy are planning on leaving.’
Fuck. I wanted Jack and Beth to come with me. Is it bad that I’m relieved Sandra and the kids are staying?
Probably.
She’s right though. It’s too risky to take them outside the fences. Also, they’d really slow us down. Just me, Michael and Shannon then. I’ve no idea what Gee will do. Not now he’s found some of his fellow countrymen to hang around with. I suppose a smaller group will have more chance of sneaking into Canada.
‘In a few days I think,’ Shannon said. ‘We could do with getting some supplies together. If we leave the same way, we could pick up our stuff from the bus. Unless it hasn’t already been ransacked by the Container Brothers, or by the actual Scavengers.’
Shite. I hoped we could avoid going in the tunnel again. That being said, my passport is in the bus.
The side gate swung open, crashing into the fence with a loud bang. Gee strode into the garden, holding a large cardboard box in front of him.
‘Gee,’ Shannon hissed. ‘You have to be careful. No noise.’
‘Yes, sorry. I have things,’ he said, placing the box down on the floor in front of us.
The box was full of clothes. Sandra, Michael and Ali almost dived in to it.
‘Where did you get this Gee?’ Shannon questioned him.
Gee smiled and waved his hand. ‘You do not need to worry about it.’
Shannon leaned over to look in the box. ‘Did you trade something for it?’
‘Hmmm…no, not exactly,’ he replied.
‘Did you steal it?’ I asked him.
He looked at me and continued to grin. ‘You do not need to worry about it.’
‘Yep, he stole it,’ I said.
We all got a new set of clean clothes out of Gee’s thieving, so none of us really cared how he’d acquired the box. Nothing quite fitted right, but new socks, pants, combat trousers and a t-shirt were exactly what I needed.
Using the soap, and our bare hands to scrub, we took turns in washing our dirty clothes in the bathroom and kitchen. Michael offered to do my washing, but I had to turn him down. There was no way I was gonna make anybody go near my underwear.
