by Wood, J N
Pete took Max from Sandra, saying, ‘You could still beat me in a fight Cuz, but I am stronger than you.’
Then we were off, running far too quickly for my liking, especially when carrying a child on your back. Thankfully we slowed when the incline got steeper, eventually down to a brisk walk.
‘Any sign of the yellow people?’ Pete asked us.
‘What are the yellow people?’ Seth asked.
‘They’re just ordinary people,’ Sandra said. ‘Nothing to worry about honey. We’re just going for a hike in the hills.’
‘I haven’t seen anything,’ I said.
‘No, me neither,’ Jack added. ‘Even better news, I think we might be reaching the top of this hill.’
‘Oh thank god,’ I exclaimed, the sweat on my back now starting to freeze and making me shiver.
‘Okay boys,’ Sandra said. ‘Time to give your horses a rest. Get off and walk a while.’
I crouched down to one knee so Jonah could slide off me to the uneven, pine cone covered ground. He patted me on the head, saying, ‘Good horse.’
I replied with a high pitched ‘Nay.’
‘Please tell me you got some water from the car?’ Pete asked.
‘We grabbed as much as we could,’ Sandra said, swinging her backpack around and unzipping it. She passed around water and chocolate bars. ‘Go easy on the water.’
‘Let’s keep moving,’ Jack said. ‘We’re not that far away from the car.’
As we walked, Pete and Sandra moved away from the group slightly, seemingly to have a heated debate about something.
I’m guessing it’s about Pete handing himself in.
After half an hour of walking through the woodland, Jack suggested we drop back down onto the dirt track, the same one we’d left the car near. ‘We can walk alongside it,’ he said. ‘As long as we stay amongst the trees we’ll be hidden, hopefully.’
We were walking along the side of a steep incline, so everyone’s ankles must have been feeling the awkward angle, mine certainly were. The pine cones underfoot definitely weren’t helping. So for that reason I agreed with Jack. Roy and Beth were hesitant about going back down so soon, but they eventually accepted it would take us too long to get anywhere up here on the side of the hill.
Once we’d made it back down to relatively level ground, our pace picked back up. We took turns in carrying the kids, and letting them walk when they wanted to.
Two hours later we were on the side of the 5A highway.
‘What do we do now?’ I asked.
‘I’m going to walk down here until I find the camp they put Theo and Alison in,’ Pete said, pointing down the road.
Sandra turned from Pete to look at us. ‘If we find this internment camp,’ she said. ‘And if Ali and Theo are okay, we’re going to hand ourselves in.’ She looked down at the three boys. ‘We’ll do the quarantine here and then go and look for Daddy and Sophia together, as a family.’
‘Six weeks,’ Jack told her. ‘I found a thing online. It said six weeks.’
‘Six weeks,’ Sandra said, slowly nodding her head. ‘Then we’ll go east to find my husband and daughter.’
‘You can carry on if you want?’ Pete said. ‘There’s no need for you to hang around here any longer than you have to.’
Jack, Beth and Roy all turned to look at me. Sandra averted her eyes, not wanting to make eye contact. Pete very briskly nodded his head at me, like he was giving me his permission to leave.
Fuck’s sake.
A few seconds of awkwardness passed, before I bounced the tip of my baseball bat off the tarmac at my feet and started walking. ‘Come on,’ I said. ‘We’ll make sure you’re safely delivered back to Ali and Theo. Then we’ll head off.’ I spun around and walked backwards, pointing my bat at Jack, Beth and Roy. ‘Is that okay with you three?’
They all instantly agreed and started walking.
‘Better keep off the road though,’ Roy suggested. ‘They have electric vehicles. We won’t hear them until it’s too late.’
‘How far is it to Alison and Theo?’ Jonah asked.
‘Not sure my sweet,’ Sandra replied. ‘Hopefully not too far.’
After two and a half hours, the road passed a lake. Jack told us it was called Corbett Lake. We’d been keeping our distance from the road and trying to stay hidden within the woodland. At the far end of the lake, we found what we’d been looking for.
Max spotted the parked up army jeeps first, stopping and excitedly pointing at them. As soon as the rest of us realised what he was so giddy about, we ducked down and backed further into the trees.
Behind a small crop of trees on the other side of the 5A, another road curved away, leading to Max’s three jeeps. They were parked in front of a wire mesh fence, with low buildings beyond.
Jack pointed up the hill behind us, indicating we should climb up there. We all made our way up as quickly as we could, eventually finding a spot where we hopefully wouldn’t be seen, but where we could see the camp.
We left the kids with Beth, and slowly crawled on our fronts across a little gap in the trees, through yellowing grass. More of the camp became visible the further we crawled.
‘We’re probably going to get ticks from this grass,’ Jack said.
‘Brilliant,’ I muttered, as I reached the edge of the gap and looked over the cliff.
The camp was huge. I couldn’t see it all because some of it was hidden by the woodland on the other side of the road, but it looked like an outer perimeter fence surrounded the whole thing. Within the outer perimeter were prefabricated buildings, behind which I could see three large, fenced off areas. Each one was about the size of a football pitch, and full of tents, reminiscent of the large food marquees in Refugee Camp 33.
‘Give me them after you,’ I said to Jack, holding my hand out for the binoculars.
Jack passed me them, saying, ‘The van that took Ali and Theo is on the right. Or at least one that looks identical to it.’
People filled each fenced off area, just sitting around on benches, or wandering about and chatting to each other. There were too many people to take a good guess at the numbers. There must have been thousands of them. More of the armed yellow people patrolled the area between the outer perimeter and the inner fenced off sections. Others milled around amongst the yellow people, going back and forth between the buildings. Some wore lab coats, and some were just in everyday clothing. Everyone wore a mask covering their mouths. It all looked brand new, like none of it was there a few weeks ago.
‘It certainly looks like an internment camp,’ I said. ‘Guards on the outside. People fenced off in the middle. I wouldn’t say the prisoners, if you could call them that, look unhappy, some people actually look very happy.’ The binoculars had just picked up a young couple walking hand in hand, their heads rocked back with huge smiles on their faces. ‘And that van does look the same as the one we saw earlier.’ I passed the binoculars to Sandra, saying, ‘Not seen them two yet though.’
‘So we just wait a while until we see them,’ Jack suggested.
‘Okay,’ Sandra and Pete said in unison.
Chapter 6: In a Rush
‘I see them,’ Sandra excitedly said. ‘I see them.’
I lifted my head up from where it’d been resting on my left arm, which was now numb, and tried to wipe the saliva from my beard. ‘What?’ I muttered. ‘What’s happening?’
‘Where are they?’ Pete asked.
What are they talking about?
‘Where’s who?’ I asked. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Ali and Theo you idiot,’ Jack said.
Everything rapidly came back to me.
Fuck. I must have been asleep.
‘Are they okay?’ I asked.
Sandra still held the binoculars. ‘They just left one of the buildings,’ she excitedly said. ‘Theo has a slight limp and Alison has a bandage around her head, but they look good. I think they’re wearing different clothes.’
I tried to fi
nd the people she'd spotted, eventually seeing two figures that resembled Ali and Theo. They were walking along the path between the outer fence and the prefabricated buildings. Two yellow people followed them, both carrying rifles.
‘They’ve turned towards one of the fenced off sections,’ Sandra said. ‘They’re opening the gates and letting them in.’ She passed the binoculars to Pete, saying, ‘They’re okay.’
Sandra started crawling backwards using her elbows. ‘I’m going back to tell the boys.’
‘What’s happening Pete?’ Jack asked.
‘Somebody is taking them somewhere,’ Pete replied. ‘A woman is just ahead of them. She keeps turning around to talk to them. Ali’s hands are all over the place. She’ll be asking all kinds of questions. I think they might be going to one of the long tents.’
Almost as soon as they entered the fenced area, I lost them in the crowds, the distance too far to distinguish individuals in amongst the masses.
‘They’ve gone inside the tent,’ Pete said. ‘That must be them accepted into the camp.’ He lowered the binoculars. ‘They’re in. Aren’t they? They won’t be sent back to the US now will they?’
‘Certainly seems like they’re in,’ I said. ‘Let’s go back and see what Sandra wants to do.’
We crawled back from the edge the same way. Once we were further back we were able to get on our hands and knees and turn around, eventually getting to our feet.
We found Sandra telling Beth the good news.
‘What are you going to do?’ Beth asked her.
Sandra locked eyes with Pete. ‘We’ll go down there and hand ourselves in,’ she said.
Pete nodded.
‘When?’ Beth asked.
‘Now,’ Sandra answered, shrugging her shoulders.
Again, Pete just nodded.
‘Now,’ Beth exclaimed, her eyes going back and forth between Pete and Sandra. ‘You can’t go right now.’
‘Why not?’ Sandra asked.
Beth opened her mouth to speak but hesitated. ‘Well,’ she eventually said, glancing down to the three kids. ‘I don’t know why really. I just don’t want you to go.’
Sandra smiled and took Beth’s hand. ‘We all want to get out of there at the same time,’ she said, and then turned to Pete. ‘So no time like the present. What do you think Cuz?’
‘Let’s go,’ Pete agreed.
‘Time to say goodbye then,’ Sandra said, and hugged Beth.
Beth wrapped her arms around Sandra and said, ‘I think it’s just because it’s so sudden. It’s all happening very quickly.’
Sandra released her hold on her and stepped towards me. She placed her hands on my shoulders, saying, ‘Goodbye and good luck. I’ll be praying you make it home.’ She put her arms around me and pulled me in for a hug.
‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘Good luck to you as well. Say goodbye to Ali and Theo for me. And tell Ali she’s an idiot for nearly killing herself.’
‘Of course I will,’ Sandra said with a big smile on her face. She left me and moved around the rest of our small group.
I grabbed Pete and hugged him. ‘Tell Theo I’m sorry for shouting at him in the car,’ I said.
Pete patted me on the back, signalling the end of the hug. Stepping back from me, he said, ‘I’m sure he deserved it.’
‘Tell him anyway,’ I said.
I crouched down in front of the three boys. ‘You look after your mother,’ I told them, and held out my closed fist. ‘Fist bump?’ I asked. All three of them held out their fists and I bumped each one. ‘Good boys, take care of each other as well.’
They looked back at me, all enthusiastically nodding their heads.
As I stood up, Sandra handed me her bag, saying, ‘They’ll probably take this off us, and you’ll need it.’
‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘We’ll watch you go in and then head off.’
‘If anything happens,’ she told me. ‘Don’t try and do anything stupid. Just go.’
‘Okay,’ I agreed.
As they made their way back down the hill, we crawled back to our spots at the cliff’s edge.
‘I hope this goes to plan,’ Jack said.
‘They’ll be fine,’ Roy said. ‘I told Sandra to make sure the kids were visible at all times. They’re not going to kill children.’
‘Do you think they might shoot at them?’ Beth asked. The fear very noticeable in her voice.
‘Don’t worry,’ Jack told her.
‘Shit,’ I said. ‘We didn’t talk about what they were gonna tell the yellow people. What do you think they’re gonna say?’
‘Best off telling the truth,’ Jack said. ‘They don’t know what Ali and Theo might have already told them.’
‘It all happened too quickly,’ Beth said. ‘We should have talked about it more. Let’s get them to come back.’
‘No,’ Jack said. ‘Beth, stop worrying. They’re going to be fine.’
Beth’s nervousness seemed to be contagious. I was beginning to fear the worst.
They appeared from the trees and stepped onto the road, near to where we’d left it, so not yet visible to the camp.
Fucking hell. This better work. We can’t just lie here and watch them get massacred.
‘What’s happening at the camp?’ I asked Jack, as he was still holding the binoculars.
‘Doesn’t look like they’ve seen them yet,’ he replied.
Distant shouts suddenly erupted from the camp, startling me. Gates near the jeeps sprung open and three armed yellow people ran out. Four more stepped out and took cover behind the jeeps. The three in the lead cautiously approached Sandra, Pete and the boys. They were shouting something at them. It was difficult to make out what was being said.
‘Here we fucking go,’ I muttered.
‘It’s going to be all right,’ Jack said. ‘If they were going to shoot them, they’d have already done it.’
Sandra and Pete were down on their knees, with their hands behind their heads. Seth, Jonah and Max clung to Sandra.
‘The boys will be so scared,’ Beth said.
‘There is no other way to do it,’ Roy said. ‘Just watch. It’s going to be okay.’
The three yellow people stopped about ten feet away from our friends. Movement from over by the jeeps drew my attention. That same van that picked up Ali and Theo was being driven along the inside of the fence, eventually leaving through the open gates. Two of the yellow people left the cover of the jeeps as the van passed them. The van slowly made its way down the road, the two yellows jogged alongside it, their rifles at the ready.
‘See,’ Roy said. ‘They’re just going to pick them up.’
The van slowed as it approached them, and then turned around so it was facing the camp. Its two escorts took up position on either side of the road, pointing their rifles into the woods.
All four of us planted our faces into the ground when the yellow guy facing us seemed to look in our direction.
‘I don’t think he was looking at us,’ Jack said into the grass. ‘It just looked like he was.’
‘Why is your face squashed into the grass then?’ Roy asked him.
‘I panicked,’ he replied, slowly lifting his face up and bringing the binoculars back up to his eyes. ‘It’s okay. I don’t think he saw us. Hopefully they can’t see our heads poking up at this angle and distance.’
I slowly peered over the edge. Sandra was following one of the boys into the back of the van. The other two must have already been in there. One of the yellow guys closed the door after Pete was securely inside. The five yellow people then surrounded the van as it made its way back to the camp.
‘There’s nothing we can do now,’ Jack said. ‘Let’s get going, in case they did see something up here and send some people to find the four heads in the grass.’
‘Where are we going?’ I asked as we crawled backwards again. ‘We don’t have a vehicle. We’re in the middle of nowhere. The closest town it seems has armed yellow people in it. We’re fucked all
over again. Not that we’re ever not fucked.’
‘I didn’t think you swore this much Chris,’ Beth said after we’d reached the trees.
‘I’m constantly stressed,’ I explained. ‘Literally every minute is fucking stressful, so I’m fucking swearing a lot. There’s no kids about now, so expect to hear a lot more fucking swearing.’
‘Let’s head back towards fucking Merritt,’ Jack suggested.
‘Don’t you start please Jack,’ Beth pleaded.
‘That’s the place I just said has the yellow people in it,’ I told him.
Jack was looking at his phone. ‘True,’ he said. ‘But you weren’t wrong when you said we’re in the middle of nowhere.’
‘I’ve been fucking thinking,’ Roy said, eliciting an exaggerated eye roll from Beth. ‘In this evacuated part of Canada, the soldiers are going to stop everyone they see. On the other side, in the proper Canada, they won’t be stopping every single person. It would be impossible to do that.’
‘What about the proof or whatever it is that you need over there?’ I asked.
‘Yes I know,’ Roy replied. ‘But I still think it will be easier than this.’ He gestured to our surroundings with both hands.
Jack was already a few steps in front of us. We started walking to catch him up, back in the direction of Merritt and away from the internment camp.
‘Do you think the cash machines will be working?’ I asked. ‘Will you three be able to get your American cash out? Will credit cards still work if they’re from a country that’s vanished?’
‘No idea Chris,’ Jack. ‘Probably not but we’ll have to find out.’
‘So what do you think to my idea?’ Roy asked.
‘Yeah fuck it,’ I said. ‘Let’s try and get into Canada, the Canada with people in it.’
‘I think it will be hard over there,’ Jack said. ‘But it’s hard here as well. Let’s go over.’
‘I agree,’ Beth said.
‘So Merritt first, and then Canada?’ I asked.
‘Merritt and then Canada,’ Roy agreed.
It took us four hours to get back to the site of Ali and Theo’s collision with the jeep. The two smashed vehicles still sat there in the middle of the road. It reminded me how lucky Ali and Theo were to walk away from the crash, with hopefully superficial injuries.