by Wood, J N
Jack was looking at the cap in my hand.
‘I couldn’t get it to stay on Shannon’s head,’ I explained. ‘It kept falling off, so Roy suggested I take it off her. I forgot I put it in my pocket.’ I offered it to him. ‘Here, you keep it.’
He took it from me. ‘Won’t fit my big head,’ he very quietly said.
‘Keep it anyway, something to remember her by.’
He gently folded it in half, and put it in his pocket.
‘Yesterday,’ I said. ‘Roy really helped me out. He came with me to find you lot, outside the fence. And then after, he helped me find Michael and Shannon.’
‘Yeah I know,’ he said. ‘We talked last night. It’s fine.’
‘What did you talk about?’
‘Just shit. Don’t worry. It’s fine.’
‘I’m assuming Roy will come with us?’ I asked him.
Jack shrugged. ‘Guess so.’
The porridge was terrible, again.
‘I’m gonna go to Pea’s Place after breakfast,’ I mentioned to Jack. ‘I want to speak to Charles about getting out of here.’
‘Why him?’ Jack asked.
‘He can sail boats.’
‘Are you hoping he’s going to travel all the way across Canada, and then sail you to England?’
‘Maybe.’
‘Good luck with that,’ Beth said, stepping closer to us. ‘By the way, we’ve discussed it with Roy. He’s coming with us.’
‘Yes,’ Roy agreed, appearing at her shoulder. ‘I’m in, to get out.’
‘Good,’ I said. ‘Anybody fancy coming with me to the pub? It’s on the way to the harbour.’
Jack looked at Beth, she nodded.
‘We might as well,’ Jack said. ‘There is nothing better to do.’
‘Yes I’ll come with you,’ Roy said. ‘As of now, I’ve quit my job, since we’re leaving.’
Pete and Theo started packing up the three boys’ things, as Sandra stepped towards us. ‘We’re going to pick Ali up and take her back to the house for a while,’ she said. ‘Then Pete and Theo will take Ali to meet you down by the harbour.’
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Meet outside Pea’s Place? Ali knows where it is.’
Sandra agreed, and the Rodriguez’s slowly left the busy food tent.
‘Are you working this evening?’ Jack asked Beth.
She swallowed her last mouthful of porridge and nodded.
‘Why not quit?’ he asked her. ‘Like Roy.’
‘Because we’re still eating their food,’ she said, shaking her spoon in front of his face. ‘I’m still going to do my bit.’
We left the food tent and walked around the edge of the camp, so the other three could take a look at the fence being built. Medical tents one and two were gone, and the scaffolding frame of the fence was almost complete in the spaces that had been left. Number three was almost down. I expected Ali’s bed to be outside by the time we walked past the fourth medical tent. Luckily for her, the roof had still been up.
We had a quick look for her inside, but she must have already been picked up by Sandra.
There was a very sombre mood inside the pub. I thought it’d been quiet on my first visit. Nobody had been on the door, so we walked straight in. Charles and Andruis were sat at the bar, in the same place Gee, Ali and I had sat. Charles spun around after hearing the door close behind us, and waved us over.
‘How’s Matis doing?’ I asked Andruis.
‘He’s back with his family. Doing well thank you.’
I introduced everyone, forgetting that Jack had already met Andruis the night before.
‘I must tell you all I was very sorry to hear about Gintaras,’ Charles said. ‘Andruis told me all about it. I owe him my gratitude for what he did for Matis. Can I get you a drink?’ He called one of the bar staff over. It was a guy this morning.
‘I’ll have a gin and tonic please,’ Beth said.
Jack and I stared at her. I quickly looked away when I remembered I wasn’t supposed to know about the pregnancy.
‘What?’ she exclaimed. ‘It’s been a stressful few days.’
Jack leaned in and whispered something in her ear. Beth’s eyes widened briefly.
She smiled to the barman apologetically, and said, ‘Just a water please.’
‘What time is it?’ I asked.
Jack checked his watch. ‘Half ten.’
‘Fuck it then, it’s not that early. And I’m going to a funeral today,’ I said. ‘Whiskey and coke please. Not bothered what the whiskey is.’
Jack and Roy both ordered a beer.
‘I take it you heard about the sheriff?’ Charles asked us. ‘Dreadful news.’
The four of us exchanged confused glances.
‘Nope, what happened?’ I asked him.
‘Shot himself in the early hours of this morning. Seems he woke up on top of his office, and blew his brains out.’
‘Fuck,’ I whispered.
‘Didn’t anybody try to rescue him?’ Jack asked.
‘I believe there was talk of it,’ Charles said. ‘But he didn’t give them the chance. Let’s hope whoever he was waiting for doesn’t turn up now.’
Our drinks were placed on the bar in front of us.
I raised my glass towards Charles and Andruis. ‘Thanks for the drink, and I hope Matis makes a full recovery.’
Charles raised his glass. ‘Yes cheers. Let’s hope we don’t have too many days like yesterday.’
I took a sip of my drink. ‘Speaking of yesterday. It confirmed it for all of us. We’re getting out of here. What are you doing?’
Charles looked to Andruis, and gave him a knowing smile, before turning his attention back to me. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Do you want to leave the camp?’ I asked him.
‘No.’
‘No?’ I repeated.
‘That is correct. No. The answer is no. I do not want to leave the camp.’
‘Surely you know this place isn’t going to last much longer?’ Jack reasoned.
‘Certainly. But while it’s still here, I’m going to stay. I’ll leave when the time is right. I don’t want to go outside and live with the things that want to eat me. I’m old fashioned like that.’
‘Shite,’ I muttered. ‘I was really hoping you’d want to leave after what happened yesterday. Maybe even pop over to England.’
Charles laughed. ‘Because I can sail a yacht?’
I pointed towards him, saying, ‘Bingo,’ and then took a large mouthful of my drink.
‘I would be more than happy to take you further down the coast, and drop you off somewhere safe. But no, I’m not going to try and permanently get out of the camp just yet, and certainly not try and sail across the Atlantic. I would kill us both if I tried. Anyway, I hear Canada is lovely, lots of open spaces.’
I looked to the others and shrugged, before turning back to Charles. ‘We’ll definitely take you up on that offer.’
‘It would be my way of saying thank you to Gintaras. Talking of which.’ He looked to his large Lithuanian friend. ‘Andruis?’
Andruis had been staring at the shelves behind the bar, he turned back to us. ‘Yes, we are having a few drinks this evening, a kind of a wake. You are all more than welcome. The drinks are on Pea.’ He clapped a heavy hand on Charles’s shoulder, nearly knocking him off his seat.
Charles quickly readjusted himself on his bar stool. ‘Yes, more than welcome,’ he said with a smile.
We finished our drinks and waited outside for Ali, Pete and Theo to turn up. A few minutes later they appeared from around the bend. Ali walked slowly, with the aid of Pete on her left, and a walking stick in her right hand. Theo was a couple of paces behind.
Jack shot me a worried glance on seeing the state Ali was in. ‘That doesn’t look good Chris. Maybe we should get Gee to carry…’ He trailed off, realising his mistake. ‘Fucking hell.’
‘She’ll be fine. We won’t be leaving until tomorrow evening.’
She does l
ook in a bad way. I really hope she’s a lot more mobile by tomorrow.
‘I’m fine, just feeling a bit weak at the moment,’ she said through gritted teeth. ‘I’ll be good, no need to worry about me.’
She must have noticed our concerned looks.
Chapter 21: Not A Night
Roy had been correct. They had indeed built a funeral pyre, or four of them to be exact. They were close to the water’s edge. A lot of people were in attendance, thousands maybe, so we were quite far from the front. I was more than happy to stay as far away as possible from the soon to be burning bodies.
Roy patted me on the shoulder. ‘You alright,’ he asked.
I told him I was fine. I’d been thinking about the fact that Gee’s body wasn’t there, with all the others, and if that would have really mattered to him. I had no idea if he’d been religious, or if he’d believed in an afterlife of some sort. And not the afterlife that was trying to get to us from the other side of the fence.
Through the crowds, I could see four people leave the edge of the spectators. They each walked up to a pyre, carrying flaming torches. The one closest to us slowly walked around his, occasionally placing the torch on the scraps of wood used to construct it.
There was a very ceremonial feeling to the whole thing.
The flames spread quickly, and all four pyres were soon ablaze. The torch carriers then stepped back into the crowds. Nobody spoke, there were no prayers, nothing at all.
It was actually very peaceful.
‘The Lord has forsaken these fallen few,’ a man’s voice called out, shattering the peace.
‘Somebody shut that fucker up,’ another voice shouted.
A murmur started to ripple through the many spectators.
‘You had no right to do this,’ a man screamed. ‘You had no–.’
There was a loud thud, the sound of a fist connecting with a face.
‘Kill the fucker,’ a woman’s voice said.
The murmuring amongst the crowd increased, and people started to turn and move towards us.
Jack quickly spun around to face us. ‘Right, let’s get out of here.’
We started to move with the crowds, but Ali was slow. Pete and Theo stood on either side of her. The rest of us formed a line behind, and tried to hold back the crowds.
It wasn’t working.
‘Pete, Theo,’ I said. ‘Grab Ali under the arms. You’re carrying her out of here.’
They lifted her off the ground and we immediately doubled our speed.
‘Pub?’ Jack asked me.
‘Pub,’ I agreed.
Once we were safely back in Pea’s Place, all sat around two tables pushed together, I turned to Jack. ‘If you forget about the religious freaks, and almost getting crushed, I’d say that was a perfect funeral.’
The bouncers on the door had been two American guys that I hadn’t seen before. Once we explained who we were, and after one of them had gone inside to check, we were allowed to go in. Charles had very kindly reserved a few tables for us. He told us Matis had been very insistent on him making sure the friends of Gintaras were well taken care of.
Michael, Shannon and Gee were very noticeably missing from the group.
‘No long winded speeches,’ I added. ‘From someone who wouldn’t have even known the deceased.’
Jack nodded and drank his beer.
Charles was trying to charm Ali by the looks of it. She glanced over to me, rolling her eyes.
Beth leaned in closer to me. ‘I think you should be careful with Ali.’
‘Why, what do you mean?’ I asked.
‘I think she likes you.’
‘Nah, we’re just friends. She knows I’m married.’
‘I’ve seen the way she looks at you.’
‘Yep,’ Jack agreed. ‘I’ve seen it.’
‘Bollocks. Have you seen me lately?’ I pointed to my face. ‘I look like I got my head trapped in a bag of cats.’
‘Every now and then…’ Beth started, but then laughed. ‘Well yes, you do a bit.’ She covered her mouth with her hand. ‘I’m sorry Chris. That’s an awful thing to say.’
‘What are you on about?’ I laughed. ‘It was me that said it.’
‘There was no reason for me to agree with you,’ she said.
‘Apart from all the scratches on his face,’ Jack said, instantly receiving a punch from Beth on his arm. Jack immediately grabbed where she’d hit him. ‘Ow Beth. You know I was bitten there.’
She rubbed his arm, apologising. He playfully slapped away her hand.
Jack looked back to me. ‘I don’t understand what she sees in you,’ he said. ‘But I think Beth might be right.’
I finished my drink and caught the eye of the waiter. ‘Well, I haven’t noticed anything, so I’m gonna carry on not noticing.’
‘Just be careful, that’s all I’m saying,’ Beth said.
The waiter arrived and took our order.
‘I thought she might have been a lesbian,’ Jack said.
‘Yeah, I briefly thought about that,’ I agreed.
Jack laughed. ‘I bet you did.’
I had to laugh with him.
‘She might be bi-sexual,’ Beth suggested. ‘And so what if she is?’
‘In that case,’ I said. ‘Can I take her home to meet Joanne?’
Beth placed her bottle of water down on the table. ‘No, I don’t think Joanne would be too impressed.’
‘Okay I won’t bother then.’
‘It’d backfire anyway,’ Jack said. ‘They’d soon kick you out of the house.’
‘Yep, probably.’
Beth started talking to Pete and Roy, so I took the opportunity to speak to Jack. ‘Are you gonna tell me what happened yesterday after I left?’
‘Yep,’ he said nonchalantly. ‘I wasn’t not going to tell you. Just hasn’t been a right time. You can also tell me what the fuck you were talking about yesterday. Something about fanny farts.’
‘Oh shit yeah, forgot about that. I hope she didn’t hear me.’
‘Hear you do what?’ he asked.
‘You first. What happened after you crashed the SUV? In fact, how did you get in and drive the SUV?’
‘I broke one of the windows, and just thought to myself, I wonder if the keys are still in there? I had a look, and there they were. They did bite me a few times when I was climbing in.’ He touched the plaster on the bridge of his nose, saying, ‘I think I smashed my nose into the steering wheel when I crashed it. I couldn’t see a thing. The car was covered in them.’
‘Yeah I heard the crash, and then saw you getting out.’
‘I couldn’t climb back on top of the crashed car, so I ran off looking for something else to climb on. I saw some of the other Blue Team in the back of a truck, and ran for them. I helped them for a while, but then someone noticed Red Team looked like they were really struggling, so we grabbed whatever Blue people were left, and went to help them. Gee and his two friends turned up as we were fighting our way over. You should have seen them three. They went out in front, and we just mopped up the few that made it around them, or came at us from behind. We made it to Red Team, rescued them so to speak, and then got back in the camp using some other gates. Then we came and found you.’ Jack’s once animated face had suddenly taken on a much more dour expression.
‘We tried to save Gee, me and Andruis, but he fell. He just let go and…’ I trailed off at the end, not wanting to relive the entire thing.
‘It’s okay Chris. Tell me about the fanny farts.’
Smiling, I said, ‘That’s the first time anybody has ever said that to me.’
I told him the full story about being woken up by the fanny fart sex, trying to remember every detail.
‘And it was definitely that woman we were stood behind? Because I think she did hear you.’
‘No it’s not definitely her. It’s just a guess because she’s English. There seems to be a lot of us knocking about in the camp, so there could be another English wom
an that also lives in our house.’
‘I thought you got up early this morning to visit your girlfriend? Was this woman not sleeping in the bunk under you?’
‘There was somebody there, but I don’t go around inspecting people’s faces while they’re asleep. How fucking weird would that be if they woke up, and I’m staring back at them?’
Jack glared at me. ‘Especially with your Freddy Krueger face.’
‘And probably best to keep the hilarious girlfriend jokes down while Ali is sat just on the other side of the table.’
‘She can’t hear me,’ Jack said. ‘Did you say Charles is an Ipswich fan?’
‘Yep, so he reckons. Said he’s from Stowmarket.’
‘Do you think we can trust him to drop us off somewhere safe?’
I glanced over to Charles. ‘I don’t see why not.’
Theo seemed to have stolen Ali’s attention away from him, so Charles was staring forlornly at his drink.
‘Chaz,’ I called out.
He looked up from his beer, a smile spreading across his face. ‘Yes Christopher.’
I had a quick look behind me, found what I was looking for, and dragged over another stool. I nodded to it, saying, ‘Fancy a chat about our great escape?’
With one last glance at Ali, he stood and walked over to us, sitting on the offered stool. ‘When are you planning on leaving?’ he asked us.
‘All being well, tomorrow evening,’ Jack replied. ‘Would that be okay with you?’
Charles shifted on his stool. ‘Well, that was sooner than I was expecting, but I think it should be fine.’
‘How big is your yacht?’ I asked him. ‘Because there’s eleven of us.’
Charles leaned in. ‘Does that include Alison?’
I laughed. ‘I’m afraid so. You should come with us. You could spend a lot more time with her.’
Charles grinned. ‘No thanks. As delightful as she is, I’m still saying no to that offer.’
With hindsight, that sounded a little bit like I was trying to pimp Ali out. I bet Jack fucking tells her I said that. Note to self. Make sure Jack doesn’t tell her.
‘It’s more than big enough to fit eleven,’ Charles said. ‘And we’re not going far anyway. I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of picking you a possible place to dock. If it’s clear, I was thinking of dropping you off in Birch Bay. It’s in the next cove, just south of us. There should be plenty of vehicles there, and it’s far enough away from the camp to avoid the dead things that are piling up outside.’