Surviving The Ravenous

by King, Christine

  Ali came out with Adam; Mark explained what we were deciding. She was her usual silent self but walked over to Mark and encouraged Adam to speak with a gesture. Adam looked a little awkward, but he cleared his throat and said, “I think mum wants to say that we are staying, a camp might be fun but not without you guys.” I felt tears sting my eyes as he spoke and moved to embrace Ali and Lara. We hugged briefly and then looked over at Tessa; I could sense she was torn. Her children needed medical care. Heading to the camp would mean access to equipment and medicines that could help them. I faced her with a sad smile.

  “It’s ok Tessa,” I said taking her hand. “Take the children to the camp, get the help you all need.” Tessa nodded and began to turn away but Geeta spoke up, “I ant to stay here with Adan and Lala,” she said carefully, her blisters made her a little hard to understand and she slurred her words a bit “Na why we oin? My burns on’t hurt, I swear” I wanted to smile at her statement as I could see she was lying from the way she grimaced with each word. Tessa bent down by her daughter, “We need to get you well and Siam’s arm may never be the same,” Siam bent down too, showing his arm to Geeta and Tessa, “It’s true my arm may never recover, thanks to that witch, but they can’t do much more for me at a camp with no proper medical staff and limited supplies, we have pain killers here and it is beginning to heal.”

  Tessa looked at her son’s blackened arm without much conviction, “Take Geeta if you like mum, but I’m staying to help. After all, they helped us when we needed it.” Tessa seemed conflicted, but she stood up and walked over to us, holding her daughter’s hand tightly. Siam followed, smiling down at his little sister. I took Siam’s good hand and said, “You don’t have to stay, we would understand, and I don’t want to see you in any pain.”

  Siam nodded slowly and thoughtfully. “Thank you, but if you will let us, we would like to stay.”

  I almost gapped at him; how could he think we might not want them to stay? I went to speak but Lara got in first, “Of course you can stay, my goodness your part of the family.”

  I felt I couldn’t have expressed it better and looked boldly back at the General. “Well,” he said slowly. “I can’t say I approve of the decision, but you all have some serious balls.”

  We all smiled a little uncertainly. “Then you will let us stay here in the castle,” Tessa asked.

  The General scratched his head and shrugged his shoulders, “I am not gonna drag you from here, kicking and screaming, if that’s what you mean little lady.” he said sounding a little exasperated. I stepped forward and held out my hand; General Grey shook it, a little bemused. “Ok, well I better get my soldiers moving, first they can clear the bodies, and a few can clear the moat. Then we’re off”

  The General was as good as his word; we made masses of soup and Ali’s homemade bread for the soldiers and the other survivors. As the soldiers helped Jason and Mark to clear away the bodies of the ravenous, I got to know a few of the people who had been picked up by this convoy. There was a young couple in their teens, I recognised them from the drugged-up kids in the cottage but they had not been aggressors and looked so lost now; I didn’t say anything about the run-in we had had with them and I felt sick when they spoke of the ravenous over running their little cottage and devouring all their friends; they had escaped through fields and hedges and lived off of berries and puddle water.

  There were a couple of children that seemed to belong to an older man, the children were fascinated with the puppies and begged the older gentleman to get them one. I couldn’t figure out his relationship to the children as they called him “Compa.” He introduced himself as David and the children as Sam and Jenny but didn’t speak of being their father or uncle. Sam and Jenny played tag with Adam and Geeta and they seemed to be happy and healthy, they talked constantly and seemed full of energy. David seemed rather unwilling to talk, so we left him alone. The last survivor was another older man called Zeek. He was quite a large fellow with bulging muscles, and he confided in us that he used to compete in muscle man competitions. He and Jason hit it off straight away, and Zeek seemed entranced by Tessa. I wondered if he might stay with us, in fact, I wondered if they all might want to stay. As it got dark the soldiers set up camp under General Grey’s instruction and we shared food and stories. They had had lots of encounters with ravenous and even with their heavy arsenal and training, they had still sustained casualties. A young-looking cadet was showing Lara how to use his large machine gun, and she seemed enthralled. I sat on the floor in our living room leaning back against Jason and listening to the stories, I must have fallen asleep because I woke up in bed upstairs. Jason was next to me lying on top of the covers, I sat up looking around the room and down at the clothes I was still wearing. Jason woke at my movement and after rubbing his eyes he looked at me a little shamefaced and said. “Sorry I’m in here, I just didn’t trust those army guys.”

  I smiled at him and kissed his nose. “Bless you, you’re so protective.”

  I teased and cuddled him for a little bit, enjoying the warmth and the sunshine streaming in a gap in the curtains. Finally, we got up and headed down to the forecourt where the soldiers were packing up and getting ready to leave. Smoke in the distance showed what they had done with the bodies of the ravenous and the rubbish from our moat. General Grey shook all our hands promising to send any food or such like that could be spared and the young soldier that had been talking with Lara seemed to be finding as many reasons as possible to stick around a little longer. Zeek decided to stay, which didn’t surprise me at all, and we welcomed him with open arms. David and his children promised to visit, and the youngsters cried as they hugged the puppy’s goodbye, Mark promised them the pick of our first litter, and they squealed with delight. As they left, we all stood on the battlements and waved farewell, the tank, and the jeeps disappeared behind the hill and we looked at each other realising we were now all alone. Zeek asked for a tour and as Mark volunteered, he looked a little crestfallen as I think he had hoped Tessa would offer. They headed off, and I laughed out loud as Lara pulled a huge gun from under her bulky jacket, Jason said “Woe” appreciatively and ran his hands over the metal. “It has quite a lot of bullets, I stashed them under the sofa in the living room,” Lara confided this while caressing the gun’s casing. “Jamie gave it to me.” I smiled at Jason.

  “Is that the young army guy’s name?” I asked raising my eyebrows, Lara blushed and nodded “He said he will find out about Germany and my Father.” My smile widened, “That’s brilliant.” I encouraged.

  “He is going to make them send him along when they send us some supplies.” She said this a little sheepishly, and I smiled warmly at her, but I couldn’t resist a little teasing. “Then we shall have to keep an eye out for lovesick soldiers heading our way, laden with flowers and chocolates.”

  Lara looked up a little surprised but said nothing. She hung the gun over her shoulder on its strap and shuffled her feet. “Why don’t you head down and change Siam’s bandages,” I said, trying to change the subject. Lara nodded and began to leave with Siam in tow. But as she went, I could see her caressing the new gun with great affection.

  Tessa, Ali, and the kids followed them all, asking questions about the supplies and the army guy. I stepped into Jason’s arms and felt his breath on the top of my head as he sighed happily. “Will we be ok?” I asked. Jason hugged me tighter, “We will be just fine.” He said and as I looked out across the fields below coloured golden by the sun rising on a new day and heard Adam laughing as he teased Lara on the stairs, I felt finally at peace in a place I belonged with people I loved.

  We may have more ravenous to contend with, the chickens might never lay, and the crops may never grow, but we will stay here in this place as long as possible because it’s now our home and the start of a chapter. Will it be a future worth fighting for? Who knows but surely any future is worth fighting for, what’s the alternative?

  Smiling at the warmth on my face, I rubbed my cheek on Ja
son’s rough stubble. “Let’s go back to bed.”

  Jason looked at me with raised eyebrows. “Both of us?”

  I pulled away and walked off towards the bedrooms, his hand in mine. He followed in a daze and I knew this was what I wanted, just this, for now.

  Tomorrow? Well, we would see, all of us, together in this place. Hope.

  Other books by this author

  Please visit your favorite ebook retailer to discover other books by Christine King

  Gem master’s series

  With co-author Alexandria Brown

  A kiss in the dark

  A collection of stories from the pen of Christine King

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