by S G Read
‘You’ll be marrying her some day I reckon.’
‘No she don’t like all that marriage business.’
‘We’ll see.’
The settlement waited patiently for Will and Jericho to return before they started the celebration. As soon as they drove through the gate, the party started. Jericho unloaded the fish into the freezer before he had a drink in case it slipped his mind and they had to be thrown away.
In London they started to party but when it grew dark and some street lights came on they really started to swing. There was very little alcohol left in London, after the clan had scavenged. What had been left in their stores were looted by the settlements who had defeated them, but then they did not need any drink to have a good time, they had music and electricity on tap!
In the morning Ray opened his eyes and closed them again, Rebecca did the same. It was not until Ray heard Ralphy complaining at Justine that he decided to get up and do his duty.
When he was dressed, Rebecca was still asleep and breathing peacefully. He remembered Miriam and her snoring; at least Rebecca did not snore!
The two of them were still arguing when he reached the radio.
‘From now on only important calls can be made on the radio.’ He declared.
‘Mine are important!’ Justine declared.
‘In what way?’ Ralphy asked.
‘I am in love.’
Ralphy pretended to be sick.
‘I agree it is important to you.’ Ray answered. ‘But from now on you will have one hour a day in two half hour sessions and you will have them when Ralphy says you can.’ He turned to Ralphy. ‘You will allow her these two sessions as she has been a good and loyal fighter but you will set a time she can talk to him and you will both stick to it.’
‘Actually she can have an hour a time if she wants Mr. King as long as I can tell her when.’ Ralphy answered.
‘But you will say I have to do it during the day.’ Justine argued.
‘No but you will have to let me talk to Wilbur from twelve to one in the morning.’
‘So I can have from eleven to twelve and from one to two?’
‘No trouble.’ Ralphy declared.
‘When do you plan to sleep?’ Barry asked from behind her.
‘When ever you tell me to daddy as long as I can talk to Hamish.’
‘Okay we’ll discuss it later Justine.’
-That was easier than I thought it was going to be- Ray thought as he walked away.
There were a few people about but no one was working and he decided it could be the next bank holiday, the turning on of the new supply holiday. He drove about talking to everyone he saw and even ventured up onto the wall to see Tom and Otis. The new wall had no protection so patrols drove round it every morning to make sure it had not been breached in anyway and he drove round it to see. He stopped and chatted to Bill from Mayfield as he went round. Bill was busily cleaning out the shop to reopen it, not as a shop but a store where things could be borrowed and then returned, a sort of free hire shop. Will was there as well with a lot of the things he had taken from the builders supply shop and the tool store.
‘We thought we’d have it all in one place where someone can come along and borrow it as long as they bring it back clean!’ Will declared.
‘We are going to open up all the rooms downstairs to give us more room.’ Bill added. ‘We were going to go upstairs but we will have to give the old owner and his wife a decent burial before we can start up there.’
‘Well I can’t smell them now.’ Ray admitted.
‘We had a spray up there and opened the windows.’ Bill replied. ‘We will move them after dinner but where do we plant them?’
‘Is there a garden?’ Ray asked.
‘Yes but Jeremy said we can’t use it as there are good plants in there which will come in useful.’ Bill answered.
‘Then plant them in next doors lawn, that can’t hurt!’
‘I’ll bring the digger over and dig the holes.’ Will declared and jumped into Brian’s car to go and get it.
Ray left them to it and completed his circuit before going back to the main house. He drove up as far as the new canteen come dance hall and was impressed that some work had been done today, the walls were now as high as the bottom of the windows and Jethro was washing our the cement mixer.
‘Got on well today considering.’ Ray said from the driver’s seat.
‘Yes, not bad. We sent a team out to find our windows as well, there should be enough ready made windows laying about for us to use, without having to steal some from houses.’ Jethro answered.
‘Is that why you stopped there so you can fit in what windows you find and build round them?’
‘Yes, it seemed a good idea.’
‘What about the kitchen?’ Ray asked.
‘I have that under way. We dug out the foundations for it yesterday and filled them up with concrete and I will start building tomorrow but now it is going to be a big kitchen in case we have more than one settlement descend on us at once again; I got a lot of grief about them having to cook it all in the main house kitchen or try to keep it warm when they carried it across from another kitchen!’
‘They will soon be able to cook for a horde if we still have enough food.’
‘There is always fish.’ Jericho said appearing from the trees.
He was arm in arm with Katrina.
‘Are you trying the direct approach?’ Ray asked.
‘She is willing to try anything to get pregnant and I am only too willing to oblige.’ Jericho answered.
They walked on and Ray and Jeremy watched them go.
‘I reckon there are going to be a lot of Jericho look-alikes about sooner rather than later.’ Jeremy said thoughtfully.
‘Well he is an asset, so I hope they will be as well.’ Ray replied. ‘I think I’ll go back and work on the Ray look-alikes!’
‘There is a lot of it going on.’ Jethro answered.
Ray smiled and drove on, heading back to the main house. He took the roundabout route and saw Nelly with her calf by the garage, he was growing quite quickly.
Back in the library he took stock of the situation, power was sorted and now that they had a surfeit of it they could do something about the water situation. He made a note to go out and look at the reservoir that fed the taps in their area to see just what they had to do to get water flowing and it needed to be drinkable without boiling it. Rebecca was helping with the cooking but as soon as she had finished and the food was in the oven, they went upstairs.
Ray took Will, Jericho and Barry out with him to look at the water situation but none of them knew anything about making the water drinkable. At the reservoir which was full to overflowing they broke into the control shed to see what was in there. An array of dials told them that they needed power to get it up and running but they needed to know where the water went before it was pumped up into the towers to feed the taps. They searched through all the paperwork in the shed and found several addresses. One was quite near so they locked the shed up with a new padlock and drove to the address to find what they assumed was a purifying system.
‘We need power to here next.’ Ray declared.
‘We also need someone who knows what they are doing.’ Will retorted. ‘Or we are likely to poison quite a few people one way or another.’
‘We could ask the other settlements if they have someone who knows about water.’ Jericho suggested.
Ray nodded. ‘Someone somewhere must know about the water works. I will send out a request and see if we can find one.’
They drove back and Ralphy came running up. Ray groaned, he thought that was all sorted.
‘Mr. King I spoke to Wilbur and they have run out of food. His dad is going into the city to get some and they haven’t met the plague properly yet. Will he bring it back and kill them all?’
‘There is a chance of that, there is also a chance that they have met it and are immune. Is this Wilbur in Australia
?’
‘Yes.’
Ray looked at the concern on Ralphy’s face. ‘It is a long way to go to give someone serum.’ He said carefully. ‘And I don’t think I can risk sending your father all that way.’
‘I could go.’ Donna said from the kitchen. ‘Justine could soon learn to fly a jet.’
Ray laughed. ‘Are you ganging up on me? You’d better ask Justine about it.’
‘I don’t mind.’ Justine insisted from the kitchen.
‘Take your father, find a plane and practice with it so that you know what you are doing. If your father thinks you can fly it alright and is willing to let you go, or go with you, then you can take Donna out there.’
‘That means we will be going out to find a jet before much longer.’ Barry said from beside him.
‘I have to finish these potatoes first.’ Justine replied.
‘What real fresh potatoes?’ Ray asked.
‘Yes. Jeremy has taken enough to use as seeds and we can cook the rest. We are having fish and chips!’
‘Just like old days then. Ralphy I need you to ask all the other settlements if they have someone who knows about water purification.’
‘Right away Mr. King.’ Ralphy hurried away, with something important to do while Ray flopped down in a chair in the television room. It was deserted as the children were all in Felicity’s class room.
Later everyone gathered for their fish and chip meal, although it still had to be done in two sittings but it was worth the wait for the second sitting, as they had more chips to make up for waiting. Later, Ray and Rebecca walked down to the new canteen, come dance hall, which now had windows. The windows were still held up by lengths of wood but they had bricks up the side of them ready for fixing. It was starting to look like a building now and the new kitchen area had a few courses of bricks on top of the foundations.
‘What comes after we have finished this building?’ Rebecca asked.
‘We need to sort out the water, we are nearly ready to give the Nomads power as soon as they tell us they have pulled all the fuses they need to and Will is going to look into sending power down to the Welsh settlement or to go down and set up their own supply from a wind farm down there. After that we have to start making ourselves self sufficient in the growing of food, that means that trades like building will have to take a back seat, until we have that under control. We will have to get a few more deep-freezes running so that we can cull a few deer for the winter meat supply but we must make sure we do not overdo it and cause them to die out or we could die out with them.’
‘A lot to think about them.’ Rebecca replied. ‘And I thought I had problems!’
‘What problems have you got then?’
‘Only one main one, I’m pregnant!’
Ray stopped in mid stride. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Oh yes I am sure, Ralph says I might have been pregnant when we got married.’
‘It took Miriam and me two years to get it right.’ Ray declared.
‘Well maybe I had most of the having babies genes or something.’
‘Any idea what it is?’
‘No idea at all.’ Rebecca answered. ‘And I don’t want to know! I want it to be a surprise so we will have to have names for either sex picked out but I think I know what we call a girl.’
Ray smiled. ‘I think she would have liked that. I wonder if nothing like this had happened and we had a girl would she have called it Rebecca.’
‘We will never know now. I wonder if we would have ever found each other in normal circumstances.’
It was late when Barry Jericho and Will drove out of the settlement with Justine to look for a jet plane suitable to take them all the way to Australia. There was no way it would land in the settlement but Justine wanted to get the feel of it, to see if it was possible for her to fly one.
Ralphy reported that the Nomads had a man who used to work for the water industry and he knew about purification. Charles had told him to come up and show them what to do as long as he was back when their power was turned on, to sort out their own water problem.
Later in the day a jet flew over the settlement and waggled its wings to anyone who was watching below.
‘If she lands it alright I reckon I will be going to oz.!’ Donna said as she watched it fly over. ‘If she don’t it is back to the drawing board.’
From then on all eyes were on the front gate but it did not open at all until dark. Tom stayed up all night watching his monitor and listening for a car approaching in the darkness but it was quite as the grave. With bleary eyes he handed over to Otis who immediately heard a car. Tom stayed to see who it was but it was Gerry from the Nomads to show them how to run the purifying works.
Hearts which had been starting to grow heavy were lifted when another jet flew over and waggled its wings.
‘If she can land one of the things.,she can land any of them!’ Donna declared but tarried to watch it fly over before going back into the hospital.
Later in the day the four returned.
‘We found a suitable jet and we can fly it alright.’ Justine reported to Ray.
‘We?’
‘Yes I can’t fly all that way myself even with an automatic pilot, I let daddy have a go and Jericho and Will. They haven’t landed it yet I still have to do that but they will learn. It is all fuelled up and ready to go.’
‘Ralphy!’ Ray called and a few moments the boy came into the library.
‘Yes Mr. King?’
‘What news is there from Australia?’
‘He has gone to get the food and will be back it three days; he took a tractor and trailer.’
‘Find out where he went so that we can find him, if he doesn’t come back.’
‘Oh, three days he might die before he gets back!’ Ralphy cried.
‘He might.’ Ray agreed. ‘You can go today.’
‘Me?’ Ralphy asked.
‘If you want to go and your father agrees, yes. Justine make sure you take some food and some spare fuel on board in case you have to land where there is none.’
‘Yes!’ Justine squealed. ‘Who’s for Australia?’
A crew for the trip appeared out of nowhere. Barry was going for one and Jericho invited himself along as a sharpshooter as Will was busy sorting out the power. It all ten people went to the airport accompanied by several from the settlement. Justine’s mother shed copious tears as both Justine and Barry were going and Ralph and his wife saw Ralphy onto the plane. The plane taxied round and built up momentum before throwing itself into the air and out of sight.
‘Well it is up to them now.’ Ray declared and everyone drove back to the settlement.
Chapter 17
Justine took off just as she had done before, pointed the nose in the right direction and flew away from the airport. Brian was there to navigate and eventually gave her the heading she had to steer. They were on their way. Brian twiddled with the radio until he picked up the continuous signal he had left running in the settlement.
‘Well we can talk to them in the settlement when the automatic beacon cuts out.’ He declared.
‘How long is that?’ Barry asked.
‘About an hour. I’ll mark it on the dial and Ralphy can talk to his friend in Australia.’ He twiddled some more and finally gave the mike to Ralphy.
‘Ralphy calling Wilbur come on.’ He did not use code as to tell Wilbur the code over the air was a waste of time but he could teach him once they were face to face.
‘Wilbur here Ralphy what’s the news?’
‘We are on our way, we have enough serum for you and a few others in case we meet anyone, do you have a fridge?’
‘We do, we are driving the generator on steam now, as we have plenty of wood but pa’s going to bring back a tanker of fuel with him, for the main generator, if he gets back.’
‘Where is the nearest airport?’
‘At least a day away, the flying doctor used to land in the field behind the house before he died.’
/> ‘Do you know he is dead then?’
‘No not really Ralphy but from what you said and what pa saw; and the fact we haven’t been able to raise him, I reckon he is.’
‘Sound thinking Wilbur we will have to do the same as he did I reckon but I won’t tell the pilot yet. We are refuelling in Singapore and then flying direct to you how long has your pa been gone?’
‘A day. He will be in the city by tomorrow and on his way back before you arrive.’
‘We will see you when we get there.’
Tom stood on the tower and heard a noise but there was no one outside the gate. When the noise was repeated he looked again. With no sign of anyone he looked on the other side to see Nelly and her calf by the gate.
‘You off then Nelly, you reckon he can fight of the dog packs now then?’ He looked at the calf. ‘You are probably right. Stand back while I open the gate.’
As soon as the gate started to open Nelly moved away from it and pulled the calf away by the tail. When it was wide enough open, they both walked through and up the road. The cars returning from the airport had to avoid her and the calf as she was walking down the middle of the road. James and Clem who were bringing up the rear stopped and gave them both an apple before driving on.
Back in the settlement anyone who was not working on the water project helped with the canteen, come dance hall. The walls moved up to full height and were ready for the roof. There was to be no second story just the dance hall with a stage, which would double as a canteen. The kitchen block also moved up to full height although it was decided to build another story on it so that anyone cooking, could live above it while there were there. A team went out with a lorry to find roofing timbers and tiles for both places.
Justine landed in Singapore and the refuelling went like clockwork. They were able to pump the jet full within an hour once they found the right fuel tank. They took off again and while Ralphy talked on the radio Barry slept. The rest talked amongst themselves while Jericho sat beside Justine talking to her, ready to take over when she needed a break.
They crossed the coast of Australia and followed Brian’s directions to the farm. Justine flew over it once just for a look.