by S G Read
What they did find was an icemaker from a pub which they carried into the hospital. They used bottled water to feed it and as it made ice it was wrapped in a towel and crushed ready to cool Wilbur. He slowly grew worse and his breathing became very shallow so Donna used drugs to knock him out and put him on a ventilator. They used the ice to cool his neck to make sure his brain did not fry; now all they could do was to wait and apply ice when it was needed.
‘What did dad say?’ Ralphy asked.
‘I wasn’t talking to your dad.’ Donna answered.
Barry looked at Jericho and a few seconds later they pointed at each other and said. ‘She was talking to Dai.’ In unison.
The next day was a nightmare; wild dogs were attacking the sheep which were running anywhere to escape. In the end Barry, Jericho and Jasper took to shooting the dogs until the rest ran away. They walked back inside past sheep that were hiding in the hospital and hunger made them shoot one. They made a fire outside and cooked it over a spit. They took food to the two women and sat talking while Wilbur’s chest rose up and down with a rhythmic consistency, which belied his condition.
His temperature went up and down and they had to put on ice then take it away again to make sure he did not get a chill on top of the plague.
The following morning his temperature was almost normal and stayed that way. Donna looked at him but did nothing, when she took off the ventilator it was life or death and she was afraid to do it.
When he was still the same the next morning Jasper and Penny nodded.
‘It is time.’ Penny said quietly.
Donna nodded and slowly took Wilbur off the ventilator. He breathed for himself and continued to do so with everyone watching closely, looking for the first sign of trouble but he just lay there breathing. Slowly Donna brought him to consciousness and it took an age for him to open his eyes.
‘Where am I?’ He said croakily. ‘My throat hurts.’
Tears flowed and not only from the women.
They waited another day and the men spent it gathering anything the new settlement might need and loading it onto lorries. Once Justine had taken off they would follow in the lorries with the supplies. Barry was going on the plane but Japer decided he was now up to driving as long as he was not alone again in case he had a relapse. They watched the Jet take off and started following.
The were going to be longer arriving than the jet but with no other traffic and no speed limits they did not hang about.
Justine landed as though she had been doing it for years and they carried Wilbur inside with him protesting that he could walk. They made a meal and settled down to wait with Penny packing suitcases with anything she did not want to leave behind.
Finally the lorries arrived and parked outside. They rested in the house for a day before the whole lot drove to the river and their new home. They met the others and chose a house to live in which had its own land to work, as well as making sure the rest knew just what they had with them in case they needed any of it.
When Wilbur was strong enough and the icemaker had supplied enough ice Donna took her blood samples and they raced back to the plane. Within ten minutes of reaching the plane there were in the air and Ralphy was talking to Wilbur on the radio.
Back in England, work started on the hospital and they used the diggers to dig the foundations, they had taken two more diggers and several people could work them now. They had large dumper trunks to take the spoil to where Jeremy or Jake had marked ready for spreading. Lorries were away collecting concrete to pour into the trenches. It was a large building and the footings were deep enough for Jethro to add extra stories when they were required. Ralph had drawn up meticulous plans so that everything he wanted was included on one floor with no need for anyone to climb any stairs when they came in. The next floor with its lift would have rooms with beds in and they would be individual rooms with ensuite bath or shower rooms. He was not expecting major epidemics but it was better to be prepared. The next floor was his lab with built in refrigerated rooms to store temperature sensitive cultures. He was also planning to have deep-freezes up there for long term storage of anything which would stand it, including embryos.
There was a team out gathering any other equipment he might need and some he had not mentioned just in case it was useful, there was no one to argue.
Ralphy called in early one morning to let them know when the plane would land and Ralph prepared a cold container to take over from the one Donna had, he went out to meet the plane for two reasons, the samples and to see his son. Trudi and Peter went with him but they had no interest in the blood, only in seeing Ralphy again. Ray went with them and James brought the people carrier to make sure they could all have room to move after such a long flight.
They watched the plane land and were impressed with Justine’s skill at such a young age. The plane taxied over to where they stood and when the engine started to die the door opened.
‘Welcome home.’ Trudi called and waved furiously, waving Peter’s arm for him as well, as she waved her own.
The travellers climbed down and stretched their legs, as they walked to where the reception committee stood. Ralph met Donna, moved the blood into his container before he turned his attention to Ralphy then he picked him up in his arms and gave a big hug.
‘I have missed you boy.’ He said tearfully. ‘They have started on my hospital.’
Over the next month the hospital started to appear, after the foundations were in, the walls could be built. They collected windows from all around and then they measured them to see where they would fit but in the end some were put into storage as they did not fit anywhere. They fitted the joists for the next floor and covered them with sheets of plywood then the walls grew up ready for the next set of joists.
The morning after they put the second joists in place they woke up to snow. Felicity let the children out to play in the snow for the morning while Jethro cursed. He had to clear away the snow before he could continue. They collected scaffold poles and erected a cover round and over the new hospital so that the same thing did not happen again.
‘How is it going?’ Ray asked when he found Jethro and his gang laying bricks. They had large heaters keeping the area warm and it was the warmest place to be apart from inside the houses.
‘We are building again Ray; do you have a reason to ask?’
‘I was just thinking that if it was completed before Christmas we could invite everyone down for a big Christmas hospital opening party.’
‘Might be ready, we have a lot of hands working now unless you want to drag anyone away to do something else?’
‘No.’ Ray answered. ‘Do you want anything?’
Jethro looked round at his band of bricklayers. ‘We will have the walls up to full height soon so we could do with the wood for the roof and we could start plastering as soon as the electricians have done their bit.’
‘So wood and plaster then.’
‘And plaster board but you might have to go some distance for some of it.’
‘We’ll get it for you.’ Ray declared and left them working.
He gathered a team of spare men and women and they left to get what was needed. They took three lorries and filled them up, before they thought of returning to the settlement. As they were loading the lorries, they could see their breath hanging on the air in front of them and knew winter was finally there. They unloaded the supplies where Jethro told the team to put them and they went out for more. Some was in danger of being ruined so they thought it was better to bring it back and store it safely but did not really think where they would store it. In the end the fact that Nelly and her calf had gone made the garage bay the perfect storage area and it was soon piled inside until it was full. The dance hall was the next place they used and it took anything they could not get into the garage.
They also brought back RSJs and lintels which were left on one of the lorries and covered with tarpaulins.
Work on the land stopped while the
snow was still on the ground and anyone not working on the hospital was given something else to do.
The winter took hold of the land for a month and then the snow and ice disappeared.
Ray walked out in early December to find it warmer than he expected. The roof was on the hospital and the walls were being plastered ready for painting or tiling. The garage had been emptied of building materials but was now piled up with boxes of tiles so that Ralph had a good selection to choose from. Ralph had made his new serum from Wilbur and Jasper’s blood and it had been tried on three babies. Every time a baby showed signs of the plague and was inoculated it quickly threw off the symptoms of the plague and Ralph made more. Jericho had been busy and Roberta was now pregnant but Katrina was not and she was still there.
With the hospital well on the way Ray thought everything was rosy but one day Ralphy came running out to find him.
‘Yes Ralphy what is it?’ Ray said from the top of a pair of steps, he was wiring lights at the time, a bit of a change from being an insurance man.
‘You know we went out and helped Wilbur in Australia?’ Ralphy said carefully.
‘Who is it this time?’ Ray asked.
‘Carter’s friend is going to have a baby.’
‘This is Carter in the states?’ Ray asked.
‘Yes but only New York.’
‘Go and see Justine and if she or one of her pupils will fly to New York and then go and see Ralph and see if he, Donna or one of his pupils will go there as well. If you can find someone willing in both camps, then you can arrange a trip.’
‘Yes!’ Ralphy cried and ran off to find Justine.
‘I wonder what New York is like with out all those people milling about?’ Barry said from the other room.
‘I wonder if Rebecca would like to see New York.’ Ray answered, without taking his eye off the wiring. ‘Have you finished the sockets?’
‘Not quite, this is definitely a come down from being a commando.’ Barry complained and carried on working. ‘I only hope Justine has the sense to say yes and I have to go as her bodyguard.’
A few minutes later he added. ‘Just how many sockets does Ralph want in this hospital?’
‘Some are just in case sockets, as in just in case he moves things around!’ Ray answered as he climbed down the steps and stretched his legs.
Ralphy found Justine writing in her room. He burst in without knocking which annoyed her but her annoyance did not last long; not when she heard what he wanted.
‘New York,’ she echoed, ‘and Ray has said yes?’
‘Yes he said it was up to you to choose who would go.’
‘I wouldn’t want to trust anyone else to fly that far, as no one has clocked up a great deal of flying time, we are conserving what fuel there is. Did you know we have driven as far as the midlands to collect tankers of the stuff?’
‘Yes. I made sure it was all right with Mr McLeish.’
‘We would have gone into Wales but the Geiger counters started acting up half way in, so they turned back.’ She continued despite Ralphy’s answer.
‘I’ll see who is going with the serum.’ Ralphy declared and ran out again.
‘Knock next time I might have been undressed!’ She called after him.
‘I was hoping you were.’ Ralphy called back, just before he clattered down the stairs.
Ray found Rebecca tiling the floor in the entrance hall.
‘How is it going?’
‘No problem; tiling is not difficult.’ She answered. ‘How is the wiring going?’
‘No real problems, there are a lot of lights to fit but then you have a few tiles to fit as well.’
‘Yes but I don’t have to lay them all myself, we have a team. I lay these today before anyone has to the use the hall and someone else will grout them tomorrow. When we finish the floor on the ground floor we will do the walls Ralph wants tiled. As a room is finished he is going to start putting things in it and start moving the hospital over to here. When the plasterers are done upstairs we will go up there and start like you will.’ She wiped the sweat from her face and made a streak of adhesive across it. ‘Was there a reason for the visit?’
‘Did you fancy going to New York?’
She stopped work and stood up. ‘Shopping in New York when you don’t have to pay? Who is going to say no to that?’ She answered and put her arms round him.
‘That was easy.’ He answered and kissed her. ‘All I have to find out is how many the jet will take and what do we have to take with us. I am sure they can’t be short of food out there but we should ask, although we have not got a lot to spare at the moment.’
‘Will we barter?’ Rebecca asked.
‘If they need anything apart from the serum, I refuse to barter for the serum everyone has a right to life and the only ones who need it at the moment are babies.’
‘They won’t need a lot of electrical equipment, so we might bring some of that back here with some music.’ Rebecca replied.
‘If it is still in the shop we won’t have to barter for it but we will work out what we can and can’t do before we do it, after all we must all be friends now, as no one can afford enemies like the clan!’
Rebecca released her hold. ‘Well I have tiles to lay so that the grouter can work while I am gone.’ She declared and dropped to her knees.
Ray walked off to find Ralph to see just who was going where. When he found him he was loading up a freezer with blocks which would keep the serum cold while they were in the air.
‘So the trip is on then?’ He asked.
‘Oh yes. No one is going to die if I can help it but this time I am going. I have several people who can do a lot of what I can do; they have even stitched up wounds just to prove I am not indispensable. Should the plane crash they do have a fighting chance of keeping everyone healthy.’
‘I thought I would go along for the ride with Rebecca just to say hello to their leader.’
‘Nothing to do with it being New York then?’ Ralph asked but it was a rhetorical question as he already knew the answer.
‘I wonder what sort of animals they have wandering the streets over there.’ Ray answered without comment about Ralph’s question.
‘I hate to think, the settlement has taken to living in a hotel but they only have a little generator to work with.’
‘Well we can’t take a generator but if we go mob handed we might be able to go and find them a bigger one.’
‘Surely they have looked?’ Ralph asked.
‘We’ll find out when we get there.’
Ralph made sure work continued on the hospital and then made arrangements for the trip. Ralphy spoke to the settlement they were going to see and asked what they wanted but it seemed they had little of anything. Teams went out farther than they had ever been for food and collected what they could spare. The idea being that they could travel about in America and collect more than they took there to bring back. They would also leave that settlement with more than enough food to keep them going.
The night before the trip Jericho spent in bed with Katrina, trying once again to make her pregnant and enjoying it.
A party saw them off at the airport and Justine flew directly to New York. No one met them at the airport, which was not odd, as it turned out that the people in the settlement, were either old or quite young, they also had a lot of girls.
They looked out of the plane carefully before lowering the ladder: Looking for either animals or humans but saw no one and nothing. Barry, Jericho and Will walked down all armed to the teeth and walked to the main building. The door was open so they walked in and closed it behind them to make sure nothing came up behind them. They used a cable tie to secure it.
‘Where now?’ Will asked quietly.
‘We walk straight through and try to find transport in the car park.’ Barry answered.
They walked on passing the odd dead person but it appeared that they had not been touched since they died.
‘Don’t see an
y animal activity.’ Jericho declared quietly.
They walked right through to the other side and looked out at the cars parked there.
‘They were obviously trying to get away but most didn’t.’ Barry noted. ‘A few cars haven’t got bodies in them so we’ll take them, got the little pump?’
‘I have it.’ Jericho answered. ‘We can take fuel from the other cars one way or the other.’
They found two cars and made sure they were full of fuel before they found their way round to where the jet was parked. The rest disembarked and the jet was locked to make sure nothing got inside and surprised them on the return journey. Ralphy had the portable radio and spoke to Carter. He had been allowed to use their radio until they were at the hotel. They were given directions until they turned into the street the hotel was in and then people stood outside waving to get their attention. They parked right in front of the hotel and unloaded the cars. The food was welcome and they soon had some of the tins open.
There were no middle aged or even young men, just old men, girls and young children. The girl who was about to give birth was no more than thirteen and very close to going into labour.
‘Where are all the other men?’ Ray asked.
‘Run away.’ One old man named Saul answered. ‘A group on another block get drunk every night and come calling for the girls but we mostly keep them out.’
‘Mostly!’ The pregnant girl, Tallulah said morosely.
‘We change location but they eventually find us again and catch the girls when they are out.’ Saul added. ‘Some don’t come back.’
‘Is it going to be the same the world over?’ Ray declared. ‘Do you know where they live?’
‘Oh yes we know where they are.’ Tallulah answered.
‘Tell Barry and Jericho.’
‘Do you want us to go and have words?’ Barry asked.
‘Just look for now. I take it they know you are here by now?’
‘Yes they know; if I wasn’t nine months gone one would have had me last night!’ Tallulah answered.