The End of Everything | Book 9 | The End of Everything

by Artinian, Christopher

  “Well, on that basis, I’m sure these people will be the town’s saviours.”

  “You can be a real bitch sometimes, y’know that.”

  “I just want you to think about this, that’s all. They’ve already admitted that they can’t fight for God’s sake.”

  “Yeah, but we’ve got soldiers. We’ve got people who can train them. There’s an arms cache in Safe Haven that you wouldn’t believe. It’s just waiting there to be used.”

  “The ones your pirates brought in?” Mila asked.

  “That’s right. There’s enough for a hundred battles. I told you, the only prerequisite for living in Safe Haven is pulling your weight.”

  “You always start using big words when you get on your high horse about something,” Robyn said with a smirk.

  “Not always, Bobbi. I’m thinking of two now that are pretty short.”

  The smile broadened on Robyn’s face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to belittle your friend.”

  “Y’know, he could be a right pain in the arse sometimes, but he was a lovely man … an intelligent man, and our town brought out the best in him.”

  “It sounds like an amazing place,” Josh said.

  “It is.”

  “Well, you’ve obviously already made your mind up, so we may as well go ask them,” Robyn said.

  “The other thing is we can be back in Safe Haven tomorrow afternoon instead of two and a bit days from now.”

  “How?”

  “Weren’t you listening, Bobbi?”

  “Believe it not, I don’t get my thrills by eavesdropping on your conversations. I was watching the others, making sure nobody got any ideas.”

  “I wish you’d have told me; I’d have felt so much safer.”

  “Funny bitch. Anyway, you were saying.”

  “They’ve got vehicles. Two Luton vans. The only thing is they’re at a school a few miles away from here with about twenty infected keeping watch over them.”

  Robyn raised her left eyebrow. “Two vans?”

  “With food too.”

  “Twenty?”

  “Yeah.”

  “We can handle twenty,” Robyn said, turning to look at Mila who nodded enthusiastically. “But why tomorrow? Why not go now?”

  “It’s already mid-afternoon. If anything goes wrong, we don’t want to get stuck out there at night.”

  “I suppose. First things first, though. You’d better find out if your new pals are up for it.”

  Wren left her sister and the others and walked back to where Emmy and her father were standing. “I’ve got a proposition for you,” she said.

  Larry and Emmy looked at each other and smiled. “How old are you, exactly, Wren?” Larry asked.

  “Sixteen, why?”

  “You just seem a lot more mature than your years.”

  Wren smiled. “Yeah, I get that a lot. Listen, we can get you your vans back.”

  “Impossible,” Larry replied. “It’s far too dangerous.”

  “Trust me; we’ve done this kind of thing before and more besides. We can get the vans.”

  “Okay, say you can. What will it cost us?” Emmy asked.

  “A lift.” Wren felt a presence at her side and looked across to see Josh standing there with the same impressed look on his face that Larry and Emmy now wore. “I come from a town on the west coast. That’s where we’re heading. We’d get there a lot quicker if we had a ride.”

  “That’s it? That’s all we’d need to do to get our vans back?”

  “Not quite. There’s another condition.”

  Emmy and Larry looked towards each other. “What would that be?” Larry asked.

  “I’d like you to stay with us a while. I won’t lie to you. We ran into some trouble a couple of days back, so you won’t see it at its best to begin with, but we’ve got a hospital, a library, a school and a village hall with a stage.”

  “A stage?” Larry said with excitement in his eyes.

  “Look. Safe Haven isn’t perfect, but every day we work to make it better. Nobody goes hungry. Everybody has a roof over their head. Everything that happens there is for the benefit of the community.”

  “When something sounds too good to be true, it usually is,” Emmy said.

  “Yeah. I thought that as well when I first went there, but it’s got defences. We’ve got trained soldiers and a militia. The sea is to the front of us, hills and mountains to the back. We’ve got forests where we can forage, and we’ve set up trade routes with some of the outlying islands.” Wren spoke with pride and genuine excitement in her voice.

  “Outlying islands?” Josh said.

  “Yes. We’ve got a boat that regularly visits the islands around the Inner Hebrides. Oh … and we’ve got a pub.”

  “A pub?” Larry said.

  “Yeah, and we make our own beer,” she said, smiling. “So, what do you say?”

  “I don’t understand why you’d want us there,” Emmy said. “It sounds like paradise. What could we possibly add?”

  “It’s not paradise, not by a long way. But it brings out the best in people, and the best in people is what gets us through the tough times. I’m sure you’ve all got knowledge and talents that we can use in Safe Haven. I’m sure there are things you can learn from us, and we can learn from you. I’m not asking you to make a firm commitment to leave everything behind and join us; I’m asking you to come and see for yourselves at least.” Wren looked around the encampment. “It will be a long winter out here, and I’d hate for you to have come this far only to be defeated by the cold. Please, just think about it.”

  “We’ll need to speak to our people,” Larry said.

  “I’ll give you some privacy,” Wren replied, returning with Wolf and Josh to the rest of the group.

  “Gather round, gather round,” Emmy said, clapping her hands, and the ragtag theatre group huddled in a circle as if they were having a pep talk before the launch of a new production.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “I’m surprised they haven’t been eaten alive by now,” Robyn said, looking over Wren’s shoulder. “I’m guessing they’re putting your suggestion to the committee.

  “You should have seen her,” Josh said. “She was amazing.”

  Wren blushed. “Hardly. I was just telling them about Safe Haven, that’s all.”

  “Yeah, well, if there’s anyone who can sell the merits of a war-torn hellhole, it’s my sister,” Robyn replied, smiling.

  “Was it true … all that stuff you were saying?” Josh asked with an excited smile on his face.

  “Yeah, and more besides.”

  “So, whether they agree or not, those vans are just waiting there in that village. We should go there tomorrow regardless, ja?” Mila said.

  “I’m not going to steal their vans,” Wren said.

  “Tell me how we would be stealing. They are not going to go back to get them without us, so they would just be left there to rust, no?”

  “I … I suppose.”

  “In which case, we should take them. There is no logical reason why we should not.”

  “I should have warned you; Mila has this whole Dr Spock thing going on. She’s big on logic,” Robyn said, rolling her eyes.

  “I think you mean Mr Spock,” Mila replied. “Dr Spock was a renowned paediatrician. Mr Spock was the Vulcan with a penchant for logic, yes?”

  “Please God, take me now,” Robyn said as Wren and Josh started giggling.

  “Eugene Wesley Roddenberry, born nineteenth of August nineteen twenty-one, died twenty-fourth of October ninety ninety-one. Created the television series Star Trek, which to this day is one of the most enduring science-fiction franchises. In nineteen eighty-seven Star Trek the Next Generation first aired—”

  “Okay, Tommy, okay. How about we get you another bag of crisps?” Ruby said, looking towards Wren pleadingly.

  “Need to pee. Need to pee now,” Tommy replied before Wren could reach into her bag for anything.

  “Okay, Tommy.
Let’s find you somewhere to pee.”

  “Nobody can watch.”

  “No, don’t worry; nobody will be watching.”

  “Very personal. It’s a very personal thing.”

  “That’s right. It’s very personal,” she said, guiding her brother away to a quiet corner.

  “We are agreed then. Whether they choose to come with us or not, we will go get the vans?” Mila said.

  “I suppose, but you’re forgetting one thing.”

  “And what is this thing?”

  “We don’t know where they are. They told us it was about five miles away, but five miles in which direction?” Wren replied.

  “Ja, I already thought of this. I will ask them. There is no reason for them not to tell us. I will just appeal to their good sense.”

  “Err … second thoughts, maybe you should let Wren do all the talking,” Robyn said.

  “Maybe you are right. Wren has already developed a relationship with them in a short time. They may be more willing to give the information to her.”

  “Maybe doesn’t come into it. Don’t get me wrong; you’re my friend, and I love you, but you can be a bit…”

  “A bit what?”

  “A bit of a c—”

  “I think what Bobbi’s saying is the personal approach as opposed to the logical approach might work better in this situation.”

  “Ja, ja, ja. You are right. I sometimes forget the cultural differences between us. What means nothing to one is offensive to another.”

  “Look, hopefully it won’t even come to that.”

  “However, there is another matter,” Mila said.

  “And what’s that?” Robyn replied.

  “Who should go?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You, me and Wren work well together. We fight well together. We are in tune. Having more people does not necessarily make us safer.”

  “So, what are you saying?”

  “I think maybe just the three of us should go.”

  “Hey, look, I can fight too. I’ve got the shotgun, and I’m pretty certain I can find something else around here to use as a weapon. I don’t like the idea of you three heading out there by yourselves,” Josh said.

  “The knight in shining armour syndrome. This is not an indictment of your masculinity, merely a matter of fact. The three of us work well as a unit; more hands don’t necessarily make the housework less.”

  “Eh?”

  “Maybe Josh should come,” Wren said. “He could cover us and if things got really bad then maybe he could step in too. At the very least, he could drive one of the vans.”

  Robyn smiled. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” she said, giving her sister a little wink.

  “Don’t worry, I can look after myself. I managed to get out of a few scrapes back in Embo,” he said, smiling.

  “Embo?” Mila asked. “You said you came from Golspie.”

  There was a split-second pause before he answered. “I do … I did. Err … Embo was one of our neighbours. They eventually fell to the infection, but there was a lot of food and a lot of stuff there that we could use, so we used to go up there occasionally.”

  Mila’s eyes lingered on him a moment longer. “And how did—”

  “Sorry to interrupt,” Emmy said, joining them, and suddenly all eyes turned to her.

  “It’s okay, we were just killing time waiting for you,” Wren replied.

  “We’ve spoken to everyone, and we’d like to take you up on your offer. We’d like to go back with you to Safe Haven.”

  CHAPTER 11

  The wind gradually died down to nothing and the skies cleared for a while at least as afternoon gave way to evening. The communal meal was the main event of the day at the camp. It was what everyone looked forward to, and they would all sit in a circle. Sometimes the conversations just involved a couple of people, sometimes one person held court and everyone else listened.

  On this particular evening, the circle was bigger than usual. Chuck, the construction manager, had cobbled together an extra bench for the new arrivals, and everyone waited in eager anticipation as the smells from the giant pot made their mouths water.

  Wren looked towards the stove and saw that the stream of smoke almost dissipated completely before breaking through the canopy of the trees. “Have you had many problems with the infected out here?” she asked.

  By design, Emmy and Larry were perched at the end of the neighbouring bench, a couple of friendly faces in a small sea of strangers. “Since we set up camp, we’ve had one. It got caught in the barbed wire and Chuck here sorted it out for us,” Emmy replied, placing a friendly hand on the thigh of the burly construction manager sitting beside her.

  Chuck leaned forward and nodded. “Alright?” he said in a gruff voice. He had dirty-blond frizzy hair and an unkempt beard. A vast array of tattoos decorated both arms, and as he smiled Wren could see that one of his incisors was chipped.

  “Hi,” she said, doing her best not to stare.

  “Chuck’s our muscle around here,” Emmy said. “In fact, he’s most things around here. I can safely say we wouldn’t have this camp if it wasn’t for him.”

  “There’s something I don’t understand though,” Wren said.

  “What’s that?”

  “The van.”

  “What van?”

  “The van on the road. It looked like somebody had their throats cut in there. You don’t seem like the throat-cutting types.”

  Emmy, Larry, Chuck and the others all laughed. “Considering half the troupe are vegetarian and go weak at the very sight of blood, you’re bang on the money there,” Emmy replied, causing another ripple of laughter to go around.

  “So, what happened?”

  The van was there when we got here. The thing is, if you’re driving along the road and you see it, it makes you stop, doesn’t it? It might even give someone the impression that someone lives around here. The last thing we wanted was attention, so Sondra, our costume designer-cum-make-up artist-cum-special effects supervisor came up with the idea of turning it into a Halloween attraction. Most people would see that and get the hell out as fast as they could.”

  Wren and the others nodded appreciatively. “So, you have lookouts as well? That’s how you saw us coming?”

  “No, that was pure chance. You’re actually the first people who have ever found us. We’d have all been getting on with our daily chores if it wasn’t for the sound of that model aeroplane or whatever it was. We heard it pass over us a couple of times and we went looking for it.”

  “It wasn’t an aeroplane, it was a drone.”

  “Do you know who it belonged to?”

  “Unfortunately,” Wren replied, “there’s an army that’s taken over lots of towns on the west and north coasts.”

  “An army?” It was Larry who spoke this time, and the attention of the others assembled diverted from the huge pan simmering away on the stove, and everyone looked towards Wren.

  “Josh was being held by them. He got away, but it looks like they haven’t given up on the notion of catching him yet.”

  “Oh God, that’s terrible,” Emmy said.

  “I was lucky. There are lots of people who weren’t,” Josh added.

  A mournful atmosphere lingered around the camp for a few minutes until one of the men who were tending the stove shouted, “Grub’s up!”

  All the camp dwellers knew the routine. They gathered their bowls and went to stand in line. Emmy had found spare bowls and utensils for the visitors and even managed to procure a dish for Wolf. “I hope your dog likes vegetables as much as he likes human flesh,” Larry said with a smile.

  “I’m sorry about that. How is your arm?” Wren asked.

  “It’s fine if I don’t move it … or think about it.”

  “Oh God, I’m so sorry.”

  “Ignore him,” Emmy said. “My father is the ultimate drama queen.”

  “Pish tosh, insolent child. I knew it was a mistake to k
eep you. We should have left you with those nuns. I told your mother, but she wouldn’t have any of it.”

  Wren and everyone else in earshot started to giggle.

  “Oh yes, it worked out so much better for me this way didn’t it?” Emmy said, gesturing around her. “I wish you’d left me with the bloody nuns too, but no such luck.”

  “Ungrateful little wretch. You were treated like a princess.”

  “FYI, casting me as Goneril from King Lear is not the same as treating me like a princess.” The laughter became infectious, and the rest of the group was chortling as well now. Larry and Emmy knew they had an audience, and they were revelling in making people forget their problems for a few minutes at least.

  “If I’d have let you find your own way in this world, you’d have been nothing more than a common-as-muck flower girl in Covent Garden.”

  “I was a common-as-muck flower girl in Covent Garden. You must have cast me as Eliza Doolittle a dozen times at least.”

  “Well, they say practice makes perfect. That’s what they say anyway, I never saw any evidence of it.”

  “Shove it, old man. The only reason you’re mouthing off like this is you know all the old people’s homes have shut down now and I can’t leave you in one like I promised I would.”

  “Do you see what I have to put up with, Wren? You do your best for your child and have it thrown back in your face like this.”

  “You two are funny,” Wren said, still laughing. “I wish I could have seen you perform.”

  “Ah, my dear, you just have. All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.”

  “That’s really nice,” Robyn said. “Did you come up with that?”

  “Every word, my dear girl.”

  “You are so full of crap,” Emmy replied. “I apologise for my windbag of a father, Robyn. He was quoting Shakespeare, As You Like It.”

  “As a matter of fact I likes it a lot,” Larry said, finally cracking a huge smile and kissing his daughter on the cheek. “Come on, what’s the holdup? We’re starving here,” he shouted as the queue continued to edge forward.