by Frank Tayell
“Did you ask her whether she was?” Chester asked.
“She won’t talk about it,” Bill said. “You know the rule here, no one will be judged on what they did before they arrived on the island because we all did things we wished we hadn’t just to survive. I am the walking precedent. The evacuation was my idea. Quigley might have turned it into a mass cull of the population, but I devised the original plan. All we really know about Sorcha Locke is that she held a senior position in Kempton’s organisation. That’s not enough to convict. It’s not enough to even come up with a charge.”
“Are you going to let her go?”
“I’d like to,” Bill said. “She arrived here on a sailing boat that Bishop took from her. We offered her a new yacht, a little bigger but small enough one person could pilot it. We offered her a gun, ammunition, and food. She didn’t want it.”
“What does she want?” Chester asked.
“She claims that there is another vault, like in Birmingham, but bigger. She won’t say where it is. In fact, she won’t say any more. Do you want to watch? I’ve an hour of video of me asking her variations on the same question and her stonewalling.” He pointed at the laptop.
“Maybe later,” Chester said. “So how can I help?”
“The doctors spoke to the children from Birmingham and learned that the kids went inside that vault during the summer. They saw the crates and boxes, so we know there were supplies there. Isabella Garcia said they had enough for five years. Spread out among all of us, that would barely last a day. Factor in the time and effort required to retrieve it, and it isn’t worth it, even if the warehouse hadn’t been utterly obliterated by the horde.”
“She won’t tell you how much is in this other vault?”
“Only that it is more than we could ever need,” Bill said.
“Do you believe her?” Chester asked.
“No,” Bill said. “She doesn’t trust us, and I think she’s bargaining for her life. She ran Kempton’s organisation in Ireland and the UK, in which case, this other vault isn’t on either island. If it were, she’d have gone there, not to Birmingham. So, if it is real, and it is somewhere outside her sphere of influence, she may never have visited. It might not even exist. When she was told about it, it might have been a deliberate lie, a way of giving hope to the last band of survivors clinging on in Ireland.”
“I’m not sure where I come into this,” Chester said.
Bill frowned. “There’s another possibility, that she’s telling the truth. There is a vault somewhere, a massive thing with enough supplies to keep ten thousand people alive for a century. In which case, she won’t be the only one of Kempton’s people who knew about it.”
“Ah. And she wants to lead us there so she can be reunited with them. At which point, they’ll learn about us, and that would bring war.”
“Not war,” Bill said. “There would be no need. They could just ask the people to vote whether to join with them or stay in Belfast where we have no electricity, little water, and barely enough food. The only proof that Kempton was involved in the conspiracy could be easily discounted. An alternative story could be provided, and when it came with a promise of safety, I think it would be believed. Locke, or Kempton, or whoever is there would win that vote. While it might guarantee our survival for the next decade, we have to keep one eye on what kind of future our species will have in a century’s time. After all we’ve been through, I don’t want it to be a dictatorship, and I can’t see a way that particular future would be anything but. From what the children told the doctors, Locke had plans to reach North America. The admiral is planning to take a ship across there as soon as Anglesey is… emptied. If the only survivors she’ll find are Kempton’s people, and if they are as bad as the one we found in Belfast, as bad as Rachel, as Quigley, as Barclay, then the admiral needs to be forewarned.”
“And if that is who’s there?” Chester asked.
“That would be the admiral’s problem,” Bill said. “And I’m glad that’s not a hard choice I have to make.”
“So you want me to speak to Locke?”
“She might open up to you,” Bill said. “We need some more information, and a better idea of whether we can trust anything she tells us.” He stood. “Do you mind?”
“You want to go now? Why not,” Chester said. “But let me call Nilda first. I was so tired yesterday I don’t really remember what she said.”
“Of course,” Bill said. “Now more than ever, we should make the time for the things that matter, for the people we love. None of us know how much time we have left.”
Chester followed Bill through to the main room. The call was placed. He waited.
“Hello?” George Tull answered.
“Hi. It’s Chester. Can you get Nilda.”
“Hang on.” There was a long wait. Chester could feel the eyes of the small group that had been watching the screens and who were now watching him.
“Chester, is that you?” Nilda asked. Her voice was muffled, indistinct, but unmistakable.
“Nilda, I just wanted to say I love you,” he said.
“Why? Is something wrong?”
“No. Nothing’s wrong. I’m safe. Eamonn’s… recovering. He’ll be fine. I just wanted to say I love you. I don’t say it enough.”
There was some muted laughter at the other end. “I love you, too, Chester. Are you coming home?”
“Soon,” he said. “I promise.”
To be continued…
I hope you’ve enjoyed this book. To be among the first to hear about new releases, join the mailing list here:
http://eepurl.com/brl1A1
For more information, or to get in touch, visit:
http://blog.franktayell.com
www.facebook.com/TheEvacuation
Other novels:
Surviving The Evacuation & Here We Stand
The outbreak began in New York. Within days, it spread throughout the world. Nowhere is safe from the undead. Books 1-3 are the journals of Bill Wright, a political operative trapped in London after the city is evacuated. Books 4-7 tell of Nilda, a mother searching the wasteland for her son, and Chester, a criminal in search of repentance. Books 8 onwards recount the last ten thousand survivors of humanity’s attempt to build a new society out of the ashes of the old world.
Here We Stand is the story of the North American survivors, and the collapse of the United States.
1: London, 2: Wasteland, Zombies vs The Living Dead, 3: Family, 4: Unsafe Haven, 5: Reunion, 6: Harvest, 7: Home, Here We Stand 1: Infected, Here We Stand 2: Divided, Book 8: Anglesey, 9: Ireland, 10: The Last Candidate, 11: Search and Rescue
Post-apocalyptic Detective novels:
Strike a Match
In 2019, the AIs went to war. Millions died before a nuclear holocaust brought an end to their brief reign of terror. Billions more succumbed to radiation poisoning, disease, and the chaotic violence of that apocalypse. Some survived. They rebuilt.
Twenty years later, civilization is a dim shadow of its former self. Crime is on the rise, aided by a shadowy conspiracy. It is down to Detectives Mitchell, Riley, and Deering of the Serious Crimes Unit to unmask the conspirators and save their fragile democracy.
1. Serious Crimes, 2. Counterfeit Conspiracy
Work Rest Repeat
Sixty years after The Great War, the last survivors of humanity have taken shelter in giant towers. The colony ships that will allow them to leave the diseased Earth are nearing completion when two murders are discovered. For our species to survive, the criminals must be caught, and the launch must go ahead.
Thanks for reading.
-o-filter: grayscale(100%); -ms-filter: grayscale(100%); filter: grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share