Surviving the Evacuation, Book 16

by Frank Tayell

  “We’ll have to put it to the admiral,” Kim said. “But does anyone think it’s a bad idea? No? Then I suppose it’s decided.”

  Chapter 25 - Lights Out

  The North Sea

  “Do you understand that cartoon?” Nilda asked as she pinned the heavy sheet to the porthole window.

  While the children were in the mess watching Annette’s cartoon on a projector, she and Chester were covering all of the portholes in their cabins. Other adults were similarly shielding the windows on the other decks. Across the dark water, the same work was being done on the Courageous. While it was unlikely that Cavalie and her tanks would have followed them north, it wasn’t impossible. Each ship would spend the night watching the other, making sure no light was shown. Come dawn, they would continue north.

  “From what I gather,” Chester said, “the vampires were at school in Switzerland, and they’ve got to stop the demons from the underworld from taking over the Earth. After everything we’ve been through the last few months, that part seems plausible enough. What I can’t figure, and what Annette couldn’t explain, was what happened to the vampires’ parents. Are they vampires, too? Presumably someone is paying the school fees.”

  “What did Annette say?”

  “That I was missing the point,” Chester said. “The kids seem to like it, though. And after everything that’s happened, I don’t suppose we need to worry about it not being age-appropriate.”

  “You do realise the children like it because of you,” Nilda said.

  “I thought it was because Annette likes it, and they’ve all acquired a big sister. Rather, that they’ve already pinned Jay as their big brother, so that’s the gap into which she fits.”

  “It’s because of that girl you met in France, Starwind. She likes it. Annette likes it. Thus it has become culturally important.”

  “I’d say Starwind didn’t like it so much as she was obsessed by it,” Chester said. “There. Not a bad job.”

  “Three more windows to cover,” Nilda said, “and then we’ll be done. I can see this cartoon becoming part of our mythology. You saw it in the Tower with the Crown Jewels, and with the stories of princes and princesses they were telling each other. How old tales were mixed with recent stories and new games. This cartoon links France and Anglesey, so it will assume an oversized significance.”

  “Better than creating myths about Quigley and his ilk,” Chester said.

  “Yes, but didn’t you say Starwind and her people started dressing up like the characters in that cartoon? It was bad enough back in London when Janine wore the crown and called herself queen.”

  “It’s a better problem to worry about than most,” Chester said.

  “Agreed. And it’s keeping the kids from stampeding around the ship chasing that cat.”

  He rubbed at a stain beneath a bulkhead bolt. “Speaking of problems, this looks like rust. We need to give the ship a clean and a paint.”

  They headed to the next of the cabins that had been given over to the children.

  “Based on what you saw of her,” Nilda said, “do you think Cavalie will forget about us now, or will she give chase?”

  Chester chewed that over as he ran his hand over another rust patch close to the porthole. “She’ll look for us. She has to. She knows the horde is trampling across Europe. Creil’s been abandoned, and they’ll have taken their stores with them. She’s lost the Courageous, and the Ocean Queen. She’s lost people, ammo, and her base in Calais. All Cavalie has left, to hold her people together, is the idea of revenge, and that wherever we came from, we’ve got supplies. Think of them as pirates. It’s more or less what they are. But if they look for us, it’ll be in England.”

  “You think?”

  “Sure,” he said. “It’s across the water, so it represents safety from the horde. Maybe they know where there are boats, maybe they don’t, but they have fuel. They have tanks. They don’t know how to maintain those machines, but someone knew how to get them onto the road. Repairing a few of those rusting motorboats on the beaches around Dunkirk won’t be beyond them. They might make it to Kent.”

  “Hmm, and that’s a worry in itself,” Nilda said. “If the Thames is navigable again, they might end up in the Tower. We left weapons there. I don’t think we left anything behind to say there were more stores in Whitehall, but one of the children might have left a clue in a picture, story, or diary. I thought I was leaving those supplies for Jay, an insurance policy for him if, in some distant decade, he had to go to war. But that war’s found us sooner than I was dreading.”

  “There’s probably so many zombies in Kent, in London, and in the Thames, they won’t even get close,” Chester said.

  “Hold that sheet higher. Thanks. And what does it say that I’m actually hoping London is infested with the undead? There. Done. Well, even if Cavalie did follow us north, I don’t think we’re close enough for anyone to see a light from the shore. Two more, and I’ll properly relax.”

  Chester stepped back, then sprang around as, near his feet, the cat hissed. “Sorry,” he said. “Didn’t hear you there.”

  The cat glowered, then jumped onto one of the empty bunks.

  “I won’t relax until we know what’s going on with Faroe,” Chester said. “This business with the locals, having to wait until they decide whether we can shelter there, it’s another delay, another day waiting.”

  “Not you, too? Am I the only one who isn’t judging the Faroese people?” Nilda said. “If I’d gone straight to Penrith when looking for Jay, and so not to Anglesey before going to London, and then that boat of George’s had turned up, I’d have been suspicious myself.”

  “They might not give us electricity,” Chester said.

  “But they probably will,” Nilda said. “And even if they don’t, so what? We can still use the harbour, still take the diesel.”

  “But as a stopover on our way to America,” Chester said. “We’ll be leaving the Pyrenees behind.”

  “One more window,” Nilda said. “I don’t think we will. Rather, I don’t think we’ll go straight to America. Haderslev will come first.”

  “You think?”

  “I think the admiral will approve it tomorrow morning because she has no choice.”

  “Because Kim and Mary will take us there anyway?”

  “Kim is taking charge, isn’t she?” Nilda said. She glanced up and down the corridor. “I think it’s because Bill’s bed-bound, and this ship is hardly wheelchair-friendly. Everyone thinks Kim’s consulting with them, that she’s a conduit. And I suppose she is talking to them, but you’ve seen what Bill’s like. Sour, grumpy, and in continuous pain. Or was he always like that?”

  “Not so much,” Chester said. “Well, maybe a bit.”

  “Really? Well, anyway, no, the reason I don’t think the admiral has a choice is that, regardless of what message these survivors on Faroe give Sholto tomorrow, there’s a lot of uncertainty over those islands. If they say no, will we try to persuade them otherwise? If they say yes, how long before we truly trust them? Either way, we’ve got to wait for the Ocean Queen to reach Dundalk. Thus, us going on to Haderslev gives everyone something else to think about.”

  “So it’s just another distraction,” Chester said. “Though it does firm up one thing. We can’t use radio for a while, not if we’re worried about the people in Faroe listening in as well as Cavalie.”

  “It’s a small thing, and it makes me glad that Kim seems to be in charge, her and the admiral and not Leon or Flora. I think those two would have us hunting Europe for Cavalie, regardless of the tanks. As it is, we can start thinking of the future. Last one, and we’re… done,” she said, pinning it in place. “And we’ll have to speak to the children about keeping their cabins tidy. You can do that, I think.”

  “Me?”

  “Oh, yes,” she said. “If we’re thinking of the future, it’s time you took on some parental responsibilities.”

  “I’d have thought they’d be more like
ly to listen to Giselle or Pierre.”

  Nilda stepped back out into the corridor, again checking there was no one there. She lowered her voice. “Speaking of which, you’ve noticed it too? How the Duponts have inserted themselves into the children’s lives as… proxy grandparents, I suppose.”

  “I did, but I didn’t think it was a problem. Mary and George have done the same.”

  “They’ve slotted into the role of head teachers,” Nilda said.

  “And you think the Duponts are a problem?”

  “No, not as such. And it’s not them I’m worried about. The children like them, and the Duponts are willing to get stuck in. It’s Tuck I was thinking about. Back in the Tower, after she was shot, she took on the role of parent to them all. Now, they’re watching cartoons with Annette. Tuck’s lost her place as their primary protector now we’ve so many other soldiers. And you can’t have missed how everyone is pairing off. We’re getting married.” She laid a hand on her waist. “And we’re having a child. Tuck remains alone, and outside.”

  “I can’t see there’s much we can do about that,” Chester said.

  “No, but I do worry.”

  “Speaking of worrying,” Chester began.

  “No,” Nilda said. “I told you, no discussion. But the children are distracted, and if the Duponts want to play the grandparents, they can make sure they get to bed. We could do with some time just to ourselves.”

  Day 264, 2nd December

  Chapter 26 - Birdstrike

  The North Sea

  Chester was woken by a change in the ever-present background hum of the ship’s engines. As full wakefulness returned, the hum diminished, joining the other sounds making up the living orchestra that was the near-packed ship. Nilda was still asleep, and so he eased himself up, and out, quickly dressing, leaving her to sleep while he wandered the decks. Almost immediately, he wished he’d taken his torch.

  With the portholes covered, only the narrow emergency lighting on the deck showed him the way, but it hardly counted as illumination. The end of the lights marked the end of the corridor and a bulkhead door, which he opened to find whiteness outside. He shielded his eyes as they adjusted slowly to the bright new day.

  It was bright. And clear. Nearly cloudless. And nearly still. The wind had dropped. The sun was still low on the horizon, but there was warmth in its rays. Disconcerting didn’t come close to it.

  “You’ve got so used to worrying, you’re looking for bad news,” he said to himself.

  He made his way along the shifting deck. The sea might be calmer, but it still rose and fell far more than when they’d been closer to shore. The Courageous was to the east, its armour their shield from the distant land. So distant it had to be beyond a tank’s extreme range. So distant that, even tilting his glasses this way and that, he couldn’t see the shore, though the bank of clouds suggested where it might be.

  He found his feet taking him towards the glass-sided observation room, but as he neared, he saw that Tuck and Sorcha were inside, and engaged in a lesson in sign language. They were both laughing. He’d barely seen Tuck smile in the few days since he’d first reached Belgium, and it hadn’t been a common sight back in London. As for Sorcha, it was rarer still.

  He backed away, leaving them to each other’s company, and found his feet taking him to the cavernous dining hall. It was empty, though the attached galley was already buzzing, overly full with volunteers who’d decided the quickest way to get breakfast was to cook it themselves. Aisha was bringing order to the chaos. Chester gave her a brief nod, but decided he wasn’t so hungry for the same variation on the fishy theme they’d had the night before that he couldn’t wait.

  He picked a bench near the wall. Bolted to the floor like the table, it wasn’t comfortable, but the mess was quiet, even if the galley wasn’t. The ship bucked, and something drifted across the deck, hitting his boot. He bent down, and picked up a paperback: a biography of Mary Wollstonecraft. He read a random paragraph, and then three, and then returned to the beginning. He’d just reached the end of the introduction when Jay entered, a book of his own under his arm.

  He slumped onto the bench opposite Chester. “Hey,” he said wearily.

  “You all right, mate?”

  “Knackered,” Jay said. “I was up half the night with Tarquin. He got it into his head that there were vampires coming to eat him. I told Annette he shouldn’t see that anime. He’s too young.”

  “Welcome to adulthood,” Chester said. “It’s not nearly as much fun as advertised. I thought you’d read that book?”

  “Oh, yeah,” he said. “It’s for Annette. I thought she might like it. It’s not vampires, but it’s interesting. What are you reading?”

  “Something someone left here. It’s not bad. About this woman, Mary Wollstonecraft. Bit of a thinker, she was. And she was Mary Shelley’s mum.”

  “Who wrote Frankenstein?”

  “Interesting life, and some interesting ideas. You know what we need, though? A library. Maybe that’s something you could organise.”

  “When is there time?” Jay asked.

  “We’ve a couple of weeks, it sounds like,” Chester said, doing his best not to smile. “Speak to Aisha. She knows a little about cruises, but aren’t there meant to be lectures and talks? If we had a library, we could set up a bit of a book club.”

  “You need more than one copy of a book for a club,” Jay said.

  “There you are, you’re working out the details already. It’s settled then. You’ll take over the role of ship’s entertainment officer.”

  “Officer?” Jay asked, brightening slightly.

  “Why not? I’m sure we can make you a hat if you like.” Trays clattered onto the narrow counter. “Looks like breakfast is served. First come gets the biggest portion, so I’ll let you have that if you get me mine.”

  “Cool.” And Jay was halfway to the counter before he worked out precisely what Chester had meant.

  The portions were nearly identical in size, and utterly identical in flavour and consistency to the gruel they’d had the night before. It was fish, fresh caught, filleted, and boiled with a just-add-water grain mix that had been among the rations brought from London. The only difference being that, the previous night, they’d had a slab of fried fish to go with it.

  “Tastes a bit different from yesterday,” Jay said. “Sweeter without actually being sweet.”

  “Nutmeg, I think,” Chester said. “No coffee?”

  “Just water,” Jay said. “Didn’t we bring back some tea and coffee from Nieuwpoort?”

  “Can’t be enough to go around,” Chester said. “Did you ask Aisha?”

  “She seemed busy,” Jay said. “She’s got Dundalkers helping her.”

  “Dundalkers? Does that make us Londoners?”

  “I guess.”

  “What about the people who are currently in Dundalk, are they Dundalkers too?”

  “Belfastians,” Jay said.

  “I think we need some new names,” Chester said. “Perhaps just one name. ‘People’ would be my preference, but I doubt I’ll get my way.”

  As they ate, the hall began to fill up, though Nilda was one of the last to arrive. She joined them.

  “Your breakfast looks different, Mum,” Jay said.

  “It does, doesn’t it?” Nilda said looking at her own bowl and the remains of his.

  “I don’t think there’s any fish in there at all,” Jay said. “I’ll go tell Aisha.”

  “No, it’s okay. There’s plenty of calories. Must have been the scraping at the bottom of the pan.” She glanced back towards the serving hatch, but there was no sign of Aisha. She looked over at Chester, met his eyes, and gave a shrug. “Oh, and there was a message for you, Chester. Felicity is putting on a Pilates class this morning.”

  “Isn’t that a type of rice? We’re having cooking lessons?”

  “I’m engaged to a cave-man,” she said. “Pilates, Chester, not pilau. Like yoga. And don’t make a joke about
yoghurt.”

  “Exercise, you mean? I think I get enough of that,” he said.

  “You have plans, do you?” Nilda said.

  “I thought I’d do a bit of reading,” he said.

  “That can wait,” she said. “You’re going, and you’re going to stand at the front.”

  “I am?”

  “If the younger men see you taking part, they’ll be less reluctant about joining in,” she said. “We need to stay fit, stay alert, and we need to start getting people to come together, to become one group, one people.”

  “Chester just said something like that to me,” Jay said.

  “Then he’s no excuse not to join in with some exercise,” Nilda said.

  After breakfast was finished, Nilda and Chester left the dining hall together.

  “Aisha knows,” Nilda said quietly. “I suppose she was bound to guess. I’ll have to speak to her later. I’m not ready to have the conversation with Jay just yet. Not until after I’ve spoken with the admiral.”

  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  “Fine. Now, you promised you wouldn’t ask me, and I promised I’d let you know if I’m not. And where is everyone?”

  Except for a pair of seagulls perched on the rail, and the ship’s cat watching them from inside the glass-windowed observation room, the deck was empty.

  “I’ll open the door, let the cat out,” Chester said.

  “I don’t think she wants to,” Nilda said. “Odd little thing. I don’t think she likes being at sea.”

  “Are we meant to warm up?” Chester asked. “Speaking of which, shouldn’t I be wearing some type of special gear? Maybe I should change.”

  “Change into what?” she said, grabbing his arm. “No sneaking off.”

  Before he could make another attempt, Felicity arrived, but so did three more birds, landing on the rail next to the other two. Jay, Kevin, Aisha, Tuck, and Locke appeared together. Slowly, more people began drifting onto the deck. None looked particularly enthusiastic, but what else did they have to do?