From Despair to Where

by Oliver Smith

  “Wow, this place seems too good to be true, when are we going?” Lucy said almost sounding sarcastic, but genuine in her response.

  “If it’s okay with you two, I’d like to go today. The sooner we start to build our future, the better. I’m going to leave a note for my mum and dad to let them know where we’ve gone; when they get back.” Jack said, hesitating slightly.

  “And a note for my mummy and daddy.” Chloe said eagerly.

  “Of course kiddo.” Jack said.

  -

  Jack wrote two notes, one for his parents and the other for Chloe’s parents and left them with a page of the map ripped out to highlight the route in the remote chance that Chloe’s Mum and Dad were to come looking for her. They packed and were in their new home two hours later. James had a spare key from the previous owner’s neighbour, who had protested a little, but eventually resigned to the fact that Mr and Mrs Chapman weren’t coming back from Leeds.

  The house was a sturdy Yorkshire stone building with walled gardens and was tastefully decorated, they changed the bedding in two of the bedrooms and settled down. James had said he’d come around in the evening to talk about the village plans, so Lucy, Chloe and Jack relaxed and settled into their new home.

  Chapter 35 - Mixed Reception

  James and Beth arrived at about 6pm to properly introduce themselves to Lucy and Chloe, bringing a bottle of wine to toast the new arrivals. The five of them didn’t have long to get acquainted before James spoke up, “Sorry to catch you unawares, but I mentioned your arrival to Roger and he suggested a community meeting to get you acquainted with everyone. I thought it was probably the right thing to do, so you’re going to be thrown in at the deep end.”

  “Oh my. I’d have worn a suit if I’d have known we were going to be interviewed.” Jack said looking a little nervous.

  “Don’t worry, it’s just a formality. Everyone is just a little jumpy, there’s been quite a bit of lawlessness around here, so strangers are greeted with a little caution. I’ve got your back so don’t worry about these old fu-” James managed to stop himself from swearing in front of Chloe.

  “When and where?” Lucy asked.

  “Now actually, Roger’s been gathering everyone up. The meetings tend to happen in my barn. Most of them will be there now. Come on, let’s get this over with and we can get to know each other properly.” James said.

  James and Beth led Jack, Lucy and Chloe to the barn and as they approached they could hear the low rumble of voices, looking around as they approached, Jack spotted two people holding rifles looking over the fields and assumed that they were keeping watch to ensure there were no unwanted visitors stumbling into the meeting. As they turned the corner and entered the barn the noise stopped and people turned to look, it was an intimidating situation and Chloe nudged herself close in-between Jack and Lucy, while the two adults involuntarily stepped closer to each other.

  Lucy leaned into Jack and whispered, “This is a bit intense.” Jack nodded and looked worried.

  The group, numbering close to 60, parted as James led the new arrivals to the makeshift stage, made from pallets, where a smartly dressed man in his 60s stood waiting, smiling, Roger.

  Beth joined the rest of the group near the front and James moved closer to Roger and whispered something to him as Chloe, Lucy and Jack stood on the stage, feeling vulnerable, looking out to the eager faces. There was a mixture of people, mainly 50 plus, but there were a few children and some younger faces in their 20s and 30s.

  Roger raised his hands in the air and the barn fell silent, “Ladies and Gentlemen, thanks for meeting at short notice, but I thought it right to introduce you to our new guests, we have Lucy, Chloe and Jack. Jack is one of James’ oldest friends and is a local boy. They’ve made an incredible journey across the country to come back home to Yorkshire and James has invited them to stay at the Chapman’s house.”

  There was a murmur in the crowd and one haggard old woman looked angry and spoke, “They’ve only been gone a week, they could be back. It’s not right that they’re staying in the Chapman house.”

  Jack and Lucy looked at each other and grimaced.

  “Please Magda, you know as well as I do that the Chapmans aren’t coming back. It’s not what any of us would have wanted, but you know what we’re doing here, we’re building for the future, so please do not be so hostile to our new guests. We’ve offered them the Chapman house; they haven’t taken it.” Roger said with a friendly authority and the lady named Magda muttered under her breath, but didn’t speak again.

  “Anyway, both myself and James are happy to have you here and look forward to you being part of our project to build a sustainable community that can prosper in very challenging circumstances.

  “As we set out in our first meeting, we decided that if any new members were to join us, we’d do it formally and in front of everyone, to set the rules, and to remind everyone else of the rules too. We require a little order and organisation to survive and although this all seems like an awful formality.” Roger was assured and commanding and people listened willingly.

  Turning to the new arrivals, Roger continued, “I think it’s important to put a name to a face too. So, before we begin with all the formalities, I’d like you to introduce yourselves to the village.”

  Lucy and Jack both looked at each other once again, Jack whispered to Lucy, “I hate this, do you want me to go first.” She nodded eagerly.

  “Um, hello, my name is Jack and I was brought up in Eastloch and went to school at Strongborough, I was living in a place called Westerlyn, but wanted to come back here as it is less populated and I figured, we figured sorry, that we would have a better chance of survival.

  “I’m a nice guy, fairly resourceful, not afraid of hard work and a quick learner. I want to build a better future and believe you guys are on the right track for that and would love to be part of the community.”

  “Thanks, Jack, you can relax.” Roger said, patting him gently on the back.

  Lucy took a deep breath and squeezed Jack’s hand and began, “Hello, I’m Lucy and this is Chloe. Chloe is with us and we’ve taken care of her since we found her in a house we took refuge in. I’ll spare Chloe speaking in front of you all. She’s seven and is a wonderful and intelligent little girl.” She spoke with defiance and set out between the lines that Chloe was her responsibility and that no one should come between them.

  She continued her introduction with less force, “My name is Lucy and I owe a debt of gratitude to Jack. We met after the fall of civilisation and Jack took me in, rescued me from some very undesirable people and made sure myself and Chloe were safe. I was trapped in central Manchester in my apartment, but managed to barge my way through the crowds to get out of the city. I’ve seen so much and like to think I’ve helped people in my own way. I’m fit and willing and want to be part of your futures, we need you and I hope in time that you’ll see that we are of benefit to you as a group.”

  There were a few gasps from the group as they took stock of Lucy’s escape from Manchester and a sense of awe at the fact that she was stood in front of them having come so far.

  “Thank you Lucy, you three have proved yourselves quite remarkable and I think we’ll all agree that we’re lucky to have you here. Does anyone have any questions?” Roger turned to the group of faces looking up at the stage.

  “Hi, my name is Anne, I live in the house a couple of doors down from where you’re staying. It’s nice to meet you. What’s it like in Manchester? We’ve seen around here, but none of the big cities, can you let us know more?”

  Lucy stepped forward, “Hi Anne, it’s nice to meet you too.

  “I won’t sugar coat it; it was bad. I was there from the beginning trapped in my apartment on Portland Street, for those of you that don’t know, that’s very central. It spread quickly and by the time of my escape, a few days after the beginning, the streets were awash with the dead. In the beginning I could still see people fleeing from my window, but b
y the end there was nothing living left, there were hundreds and thousands of the things.

  “I watched the Army come in and start shooting, but retreat when all was futile. I heard and saw so many things I don’t really want to recall, especially in front of the children. I had the fortune to use my neighbours four-wheel drive car to escape the city and at one point I was surrounded by a crowd at least ten deep all trying to claw through the windows. I was fortunate, I know that.

  “Luckily for me, and Jack, the main arteries out of the city were blocked so many of the dead were trapped in the city when I left, but I can’t imagine they’ll be penned in for long. It was dire and I can’t imagine many people survived in the cities.”

  Anne looked extremely sad, “Gosh. Thank you Lucy.” Lucy couldn’t help but feel that Anne was holding back, she had an inkling that the woman must have had friends or family in Manchester, she hoped she was wrong.

  “Brian here, do you have anything we can use to help us?” Brian was abrupt.

  Jack turned to Lucy and whispered, “Should we tell them about the guns?”

  Hesitating in thought, Lucy whispered back, “I think so, we need to be part of this community and I’m not comfortable having them in the house with Chloe.”

  “Yes we do. We stayed at a house on the way here and it appeared that the previous owner had been a gun enthusiast. We have a selection of guns and ammunition that we’ll hand over to use to protect us against the dead.” Jack said.

  “Excellent, that’ll do nicely.” Brian said without ceremony.

  The room fell silent and Roger stepped to the front of the stage once again, “No more questions then. Okay, let’s move on and get through the formalities so we can all go about our business. First up the rules.

  “Rule number one is that we’re all equal here, there’s no jealousy, no maliciousness and we share all of our resources, that means food and water.

  “Rule number two is about noise control. We need to be as quiet as possible, that means no raucous parties or shouting in the streets, we don’t want to attract the dead here.

  “Rule number three is about light control after dark. We have no electricity, but if you’re using candles at night be sure to shut curtains.

  “Rule number four is that we have no freeloaders, everyone needs a role here so that we’re all working together, I’ll talk to Jack and Lucy separately about the different jobs.

  “Finally, the last rule is that we’re a community, be kind to one another, if you see each other, say hello and especially to Chloe, Lucy and Jack, if you see them, introduce yourself to them.

  “Right, that covers everything, thanks for coming and enjoy your evening, you’ll get a chance to introduce yourself to these three in the coming days. I’m going to commandeer them to go through the jobs this evening. See you all soon.”

  The crowd quickly dispersed, some loitering a little, but the general consensus was to get back inside as quickly as possible.

  Chapter 36 - Jobs

  Jack and Lucy entertained James, Beth, Roger, and his wife Sandra in their new living room. They didn’t know where anything was, so struggled to accommodate for glasses as they shared a couple of bottles of wine. Beth had brought some toys over for Chloe and the girl sat on the floor playing as the adults began to discuss the intricacies of the journey they were on.

  James opened the wine and poured some for everyone and sat down and said, “Roger does all of the talking to the group, he’s been here for eternity.” He smirked at the older man. “We’ve got a bit of a structure here for organisational purposes, otherwise there would be chaos, luckily we’ve got quite a talented bunch of people who have naturally fit into the different job roles and they tend to discretely lead those who volunteer for the jobs that fall under them. I obviously know and trust you Jack and from what I’ve heard about you Lucy, especially from Jack’s rosy tales about you, you seem like a remarkable woman and we’d like you both to be part of the steering committee to help drive this community forwards. Obviously, you’ll still have to work like the rest of us, but you can help us make the big decisions.”

  Jack was still blushing from his friend revealing his gushing praise of Lucy and she gave him a gentle nudge with her knee, he looked at James, Roger and Beth, “I can’t speak for Lucy, but I’d like that, it’d be nice to be able to contribute to the village. So, go on then, tell us what jobs you have.”

  Roger stood up and paced a bit and then began talking, he was more relaxed and less formal in the smaller group and with a glass of wine inside him, “We’ve split the jobs up into different groups that we thought were important. I’ll list them in no particular order as they are all imperative to the group.

  “Firstly, we have food and unsurprisingly James and a gentleman called Chris head up this operation. We have a few sheep and a couple of cows that we keep down the road away from the houses and Chris tends to these as he was, or still is I suppose, a farmer, not the arable kind. The big field you see in front of the farmyard is for crops. We’ve already started planting some vegetables and have a schedule to give us plenty of roughage throughout the year. It’s a big job as we’re not using machinery as it’s just too noisy.

  “Secondly we have utilities and facilities. We’ve got running water at the moment, but it won’t last. An engineer named Arthur is looking after this one and it’s a tough job, it’s going to take a bit of time. Firstly we’re looking into water for the long term in the form of a well or maybe water towers, then there are toilets as we need a sanitary way to dispose of waste once the water stops, the last thing we need is an outbreak of dysentery or some other ghastly disease to break our community, we’ve had enough of infections as I’m sure you can agree. Arthur is also looking into renewable energy sources to get some power into James’ barn for refrigeration and freezers to give us options for long-term food storage.”

  “I’ve got something that might help with power.” Jack said, “We stopped at a great little community in the Peak District and they had solar and wind power. The man who was keeping it running wrote down some instructions, I’ll give them to Arthur, it should help him.”

  “Fantastic. You’re already proving valuable” Roger said.

  “Back to the roles and responsibilities, we also have a section for education, and this is split into two groups as it’s important to educate everybody in the community. We have 12 children now, with Chloe included, and Mrs. Montgomery looks after the teaching of the kids. You’ll recognise her, Magda, she’s a bit of a battle axe, but her heart is in the right place and she was a head mistress in the 80s. She will be teaching the children, maths, English, and a little bit of science. We also have adult classes, this is to teach the fundamentals of survival like farming, first aid, combat, mechanics and foraging.”

  “You hear that Chloe; you can go back to school.” Lucy said smiling at the girl as Chloe pulled a face at the thought of it.

  “Our two most dangerous jobs involve acting as lookout and going on supply runs, we’re grateful to all those that volunteer for these. Your friend Scott is actively involved, he’ll be over here soon as I know he’s eager to say hello.” Jack didn’t think the ‘eager to say hello’ part sounded like Scott, but knew his friend would be involved in the dangerous role that Roger explained.

  “Scott and ten others, including James here, take it in turns to keep look out to ensure the village isn’t caught unawares and can continue about their business outside without walking into one of the dead. The group also handle supply runs and this is where it really is dangerous. We lost two good men on our first run; that was five days ago, and the subject is not really discussed in the wider community. People don’t really want to face up to the reality of what’s happening, and we don’t want to crush people’s hope. The two we lost, and it’s not much consolation, weren’t attached to anyone left in the village, but that doesn’t mean that the loss was easy to take. We have runs planned for the near future as we need equipment for our long-te
rm sustainability.” Roger was looking tired and Lucy was wondering if he had to do this for every new person that joined the community, if they were allowed to join, she wondered if Jack’s friendship with James gave them special privileges.

  With a puff of the cheeks, Roger smiled, took a gulp of wine, and continued, “I’ll run through the rest of the jobs quickly, it’s been a long day and I’m sure you’ve already got information overload. As I mentioned, we have a doctor, Dr Green, or Ed as he prefers. He worked at the Strongborough surgery. He lives in the large house in front of the green. He’s turned one of his rooms into a doctor’s surgery and he’s supported by Sue and Edith, Sue is his wife. Because of the aging population, Ed, Sue, and Edith are remarkably busy and under resourced.

  “And FINALLY, the rest of the village are helping build our walls and barriers to keep the dead out. This is a large job and we’re getting there slowly, but we need many hands to make it happen. You’ll have seen the mounds of earth when you came into the village, it’s a start, but we need something more permanent and we have plans for this, but we need time and time is a luxury none of us can afford.” Roger stood and downed the rest of his wine as he finished, he was shattered and eager to leave, “I’m going to leave now as I’m tired and need to sleep, you guys let the information sink in and James will talk you through any questions, he’s the future.” With that, Roger left as Jack and Lucy watched him slowly make his way through the door followed by his wife Sandra.

  After a second or two, Jack turned to Beth and James and asked, “Is he okay? He looked weary.”

  “He’s got cancer, he hasn’t got long.” James said looking at the carpet, raising his head he continued, “You can see we’ve got a lot of work to do, what do you reckon?”

  “It is a lot of work, but between 60 people it’s doable. I think what you’ve got here is amazing. Are people buying into it?” Jack asked.