Dan beckoned Lexi to bring them out, and a smiling but nervous ten-year-old Lucy and fourteen-year-old Henry were introduced. Henry’s eyes rested on Leah’s left hip, but a respectable attempt at a death stare from her made him look away embarrassed. Dan reminded himself to explain to Henry that Leah wasn’t on the menu; not unless he wanted an injury or three.
Lizzie and Alice took them in for the tour and for new clothes as they were still in the white linen outfits of the organic fanatics as Lexi had named them.
As they went inside out of sight he leaned back against his vehicle and lit a smoke. Lexi and Marie did the same and he wondered that it was strange how the idea to light a cigarette was socially catching. Rich walked out to hear the debrief and stood behind Leah.
Dan explained about meeting the slightly weird loner guy, and how he led them to ‘The Haven’. The way he explained the place actually made it sound really good, so he shot their collective hopes down by making a point of it seeming like a cult.
“Lex calls them the Organic Fanatics” he said.
Lexi shrugged “It’s accurate” she added.
“Anyway, it seems to us that they have no interest in having these kids back, so unless they have a big change of heart they are ours now” nobody disagreed.
Marie went back inside to make plans for the children to be inducted properly and found living space, not only that they needed a chaperone as such to start with. Kate followed, readying for another two medical histories to be taken. Dan saw Lexi look at her watch. He knew Paul would be in the gym now, and he was feeling generous.
“I’ll go speak to Chris about the trade; take the afternoon off” he said. She lit up and walked inside to secure her kit, thanking him.
Dan called her back to take his carbine and shotgun. He walked up to the farm with Ash sniffing along the hedgerows beside him. He found Chris talking with Melissa and gave them both the run down on the hippy farm. Chris was annoyed.
“How could I have forgotten that place?!” he cursed himself. He went on to say how they used pre-machinery farming methods and described the place as the closest the area has to an Amish community. They thought the genepool swap was a great idea, and Chris asked to accompany him on the return trip.
“Of course you can” Dan agreed “You think I’m taking a bull anywhere without your help?”
Plans were made, and Melissa turned to Chris to give him her new ideas for expansion. The timing of it would allow them to get lambs out of this coming season. He bid his farewells, leaving farm manager and chief geneticist to their discussions and walked back to the house as he smoked. The realisation of a Penny legacy put a smile on his face as he had unwittingly given his friends grand titles.
He got back and was immediately collared by Leah to come and see what they had done. The large map covering one wall had been moved as they had been sorting out the office now it wasn’t part ammo store. In doing so, they had uncovered a large blackboard which must have become defunct when the prison had years ago turned to computers to manage their roll-call. It had a grid system for writing in numbers of prisoners based on where they were. There was a section for the farms, the gardens, the works party, the kitchens and others. Leah and Rich had scrubbed off some sections, and added new ones using tip-ex. The ‘total count’ section at the bottom right became their first official population counter.
“Now, when someone goes out” said Leah excitedly “We mark down how many go to what place and mark them back in. She made a point of rubbing R1 and R2 off of the section ‘Ranging’ and adding two to the count in the house. He looked at her, seeing a young girl so pleased with herself for doing something new that his heart melted a little. He really was pleased with her and proud of her work. His eyes rested on the Walther on her hip, and he was about to say something about her using a weapon she hadn’t been trained with. He decided not to; this girl had done everything and more to get his approval and to be the best she could be at everything she did. She had killed to protect her home, and he thought that he should probably give her some leeway. It was way past the point where he didn’t trust her with weapons, so he let it slide.
“Good work, I’m impressed!” he said “you two sure you can keep on top of this then? Lots of people moving in and out nowadays”
“We’ve got it under control Boss” said Rich, giving a conspiratorial wink behind Leah’s back. Dan turned to her.
“I see you’ve switched to the P99 too?” he said. She placed her left hand on the weapon, slightly self-conscious. “Yeah, I like the weight of it. It feels chunky” she said quietly, not wishing to sound childish by admitting that she wanted to carry the same gun as him.
“Me too” he said, satisfied with the flattery of imitation. He walked to the dining room to get a hot coffee.
The kids were excited about the place, not giving any indication that they thought it was a temporary arrangement. He was happy with that. Word went round those in the house quickly about the new arrivals, and he found a small huddle around them. He saw Lucy tucking into a plate of jam tarts brought out by Cara who was ever happy to see people enjoying her treats. Henry was telling them about the place where they had been, and wasn’t making it sound very welcoming. Dan noticed Eve listening intently, lapping up every word he said.
He hadn’t thought of her for a while; her or the child who spent months attached to her leg. He couldn’t see the girl now and looked around for her. He leaned closer to Nina as she walked past carrying drinks for the kids and asked her where she was.
“She’s moved into Cara’s room now.” She said, shocked that Dan didn’t know.
“Both the little ones stay with her, but the girl still doesn’t talk to anyone” he felt a little bit bad for not knowing, but then reasoned with himself that he wasn’t exactly idle and couldn’t be expected to know the social ins and outs of over seventy people. He left them to it, and went to find something constructive to do. Carrying his coffee and two jam tarts he walked out through the lounge area where Ash had curled up on one of the large settees. Smelling food, he jumped down and followed expectantly, receiving the pastry crusts to reinforce his faith in scrounging from people. They walked outside where he lit another cigarette and stood in the cold sunlight.
He suddenly felt very lonely, as if everyone else was busy but him right now. He thought of things he could do to be constructive, and settled on a visit to Pete to see how he was healing.
He found him sat up in bed with Alice reading to him. He could read just fine, but he liked the company. Not wanting to intrude he nodded his hello’s to the pair and left.
Still lost for something to do, he went to his room and took off his boots. With Ash taking up a large portion of the floor – Marie made it clear she was not sharing the bed with him too – he lay back and picked up the book he had on the table next to the bed. He’d meant to start reading it about six months ago, but until now he hadn’t had the chance.
He must have dozed off at one point, because Marie woke them both having looked everywhere for him to say dinner was ready. As they walked downstairs she said that Eve had come to talk to her. She beat around the bush a lot, but she wanted to go on the trade run to see ‘The Haven’. Dan saw no real reason to refuse her, so agreed.
ESTABLISHING TRADE
The week went quickly, and on the day their first trade caravan went out Dan met an excited Chris ready with a Land Rover and the horsebox trailer. He towed the bull with a lividly aggressive chicken in a cage sat on the back seat. Ana was driving a pickup not dissimilar to Thunderbird Two, only hers had a tin cover on and half a dozen sheep in the back instead of a huge machine gun.
Dan left Ash with Leah, which caused him more worry than giving her guns did. He was satisfied that they would be fine as he would just spend the day in Ops waiting for her to feed him.
They wove their way through the towns and villages until Dan recognised a familiar vehicle sat on an approach to the road. He pointed out to Eve, who had remaine
d annoyingly silent the whole journey. As he slowed down near Gregory’s car, allowing him to pull out and lead the way, Eve sat up.
“I’ve seen that car before” she said. Dan looked at her. “Just before you turned up, that was the car I saw the soldier in”
Dan thought for a minute. If she had stepped out and spoken to Gregory instead of hiding, then she and the girl would have probably been brought here months ago and saved him from hearing her whine.
They pulled up after bouncing along the track, and Eve’s eyes lit up. She got out of the car and walked slowly as if in a daze. Dan got out and waved the others through to the farm area, hoping to get done quickly. Zachary shook hands with Chris and, maybe Dan imagined it, flinched from the strength of his grip. They spoke briefly, then organised the loading and unloading of animals.
Dan walked to the visitors centre or whatever they called it now to find Eve sat with Scarlet and her two flanking clones. They were drinking some kind of herbal infusion, which boring people like him would probably call ‘tea’.
He had never seen Eve smile, and she was smiling now. He was invited to sit down and a cup of infused something or other was poured for him. He tried it, and found it to taste like shit. He politely swallowed and put the cup down, resisting the urge to spit it out.
“Well, ask him child” urged Scarlet with a false smile of serenity.
Eve straightened herself in her carved wood seat, then looked at him. “I want to stay” she said with a grand amount of drama.
“Ok” he said, then turned to Scarlet “They’re swapping animals now. Shall we make this a yearly thing to keep our herds healthy?”
Scarlet seemed taken back that he hadn’t made more of an issue about Eve’s big news. “Yes, that seems like a wonderful idea” she said, recovering her poise.
Eve tried again to get a reaction “I won’t need any of my things, everything I could want will be provided here” she said.
Except shampoo, conditioner, razors, toothpaste… thought Dan.
“That’s fine” he said, not bothering to be as false as the hippies and make up rubbish about how she will be missed and blah, blah, blah. Truth was, she constantly moaned, wouldn’t lift a finger to help and instead of looking after the traumatised girl who clung to her, she tried to dump her off on anyone else. She had finally succeeded and if she wanted to go and live in a tepee or whatever and dance in the mud with no shoes on then that was fine by him.
Dan got up to leave “Thanks again for your hospitality” he said to Scarlet, receiving an annoying slow nod like she was the oracle of all things. If he didn’t like her much before, then he certainly wasn’t under her spell now; Henry had overheard them talking once and it turn out she was a cleaner there and served the overly expensive tea to the visitors. He walked to the door and said over his shoulder, “In case you were wondering, the kids wanted to stay with us” and left without waiting for an answer.
He found Chris had loaded the bull without issue but the cockerel he had in exchange was even more foul-tempered than the one they had brought. It was a similar story with the young ram. Its little horns had just started to grow and looked out of place; like a teenage boy with a light fluff of a moustache. He displayed a bit of attitude to Ana until Chris picked it up bodily and slid it into the back of the pickup.
“Good to go” he said to Dan with a satisfied smile.
“Me too” he replied, smiling wider “I’ve done my own trade”
They looked puzzled, until he couldn’t contain it any longer “I’ve swapped Eve for the kids!”
They were still confused, and he explained that Eve had made a huge drama about announcing that she wanted to stay and be at one with nature. They both laughed with him, and began the journey home.
So was established Dan’s settlements first official trade route.
FISH OUT OF WATER
Emma gave up on the idea of using a vehicle after a week. She eventually found a working car on the third day of her journey, living off the remaining food and water she found in abandoned shops still hosting the desiccated remains of the former owners.
The problem was the roads; they were blocked in most places. She hadn't driven in nearly seven years since she had first learnt, having lived in university accommodation and used public transport ever since. She didn't know the city from the road perspective, and using trains was clearly no longer an option.
In the end, she had to travel over thirty miles to the south to escape the built up areas before she began to look for transport again. She travelled lightly, with only the small rucksack containing a few items. She kept the handgun and spare things of bullets - magazines she believed they were called - and kept the precious laptop safe.
Three times she had to hide when she heard the sounds of other people; she couldn't afford the delay or the inherent risk of interacting with them.
She had taken to travelling on foot during darkness; a darkness so complete as she had never seen before. The lack of light pollution made her see the skies over the city as she never had.
Eventually she found a working vehicle, having used the hill it was parked on to get the engine going.
She began her long, looping journey around the country to find her way north. She had never driven on a motorway before, and found that she had to go slowly and weave between abandoned and crashes cars, their drivers showing skeletal remains where they were exposed.
After she had escaped the city limits she took to travelling during the daylight, twice in the first day having to go back up the motorway to find an alternative route as the pile ups had blocked the lanes entirely. She made slow progress, made worse on the fourth day of driving when she struggled to siphon enough fuel to keep going. She tried the radio as she drove, finding nothing but static on every station. Not even an emergency broadcast remained and she wondered if the system had ever even been activated.
She crept northwards, sticking to the centre of the country and using the blue road signs to direct her.
NEW LIFE: OLD LIFE
On Dan's instruction the Rangers had been hunting in pairs further afield. The farms were a hive of activity, with crops being planted and animals being bred. Chris was happy and excited, claiming that the herds would be doubled within a couple of years. There was fresh meat and fresh vegetables were starting to ripen. Apple and plum trees were sprouting and every square inch of greenhouse space at the gardens was either already planted or earmarked for planting soon.
Dan was sleeping off a night shift spent awake in Ops when he woke around lunchtime to noise downstairs; more than normal noise – there was some excitement going on. He dressed in trousers and boots with a t-shirt, fitting a gun behind his back as habitually as lacing his boots. He made his lazy way into the dining room, thinking caffeine thoughts.
A woman and two men were sat at the tables surrounded by those not out at work. Three new pairs of hands were a good thing, Dan thought as he poured a coffee. He turned and rested against the long table as he sipped. Heads moved in the small crowd and he saw the profile of one of the men.
A flash of recognition hit Dan, making him feel sick to his stomach. He knew his man from his distant past.
He put down his coffee cup without taking his eyes away, and reassured himself that the gun was seated just behind his right hip before he stood.
"Kelvin Parkes" he announced in an icy tone that cut through the noise like a razor.
The room was instantly silenced. One of the inexplicable customs of their new world was that nobody ever used a surname. The man went pale and turned towards him.
"Me?" He said "that's not my name!" adding a disarming smile.
The reply gave Dan all the confirmation he needed. That wheedling voice, the slight lisp, the utterly obsequious tone.
It was him, and he absolutely had to go.
"Stand up" Dan commanded. Others started to speak, to question what he was doing. Some of them had heard that tone of voice before. Andrew watched in confu
sed fear; the last time he heard Dan speak like this he had nearly killed a man in a supermarket with his bare hands.
The man didn't move. He looked around smiling at the other faces in the room in silent appeal for help.
Dan took a step forward and drew himself up.
"Stand up. Now" he said, fighting to contain his rising anger.
"What are you doing?" Marie hissed at him.
He didn't take his eyes off the man and replied "I'll tell you in a minute"
He stepped forward, now within reach of the sitting man. "Get. Up." He growled.
The man stood, panic evident on his face, and started to speak. Dan's temper finally snapped. He grabbed the man by his jacket and dragged him from the room on his tiptoes promoting shouts and screams from others.
As he dragged the man out of the room, he threw himself on the floor, holding up his hands to fend off Dan's aggression.
He dragged him to his feet again, locking his arm behind his back with his left and using his right hand to pull the opposite shoulder. The man moved in pain, arching his back to try and relieve the agonising pressure on his right arm and shoulder.
He pleaded with Dan as he was marched out of the house and into Ops. Rich looked up in surprise as the disruption burst into his peace.
He threw the man into the room, making him stagger to remain standing.
"Rich, search him and don't let him out of your sight" Dan snarled. Rich did as he was asked.
Dan turned to see Marie stood in front of him, furious, and a small crowd gathering behind her.
“What the hell…?” she began, lost for words at his sudden violence.
Dan had no choice but to admit what he knew, exposing his history in doing so.
"Because he’s a fucking sex offender" he said loudly, silencing them all.
"I know this. He was sentenced to ten years in prison."
Society: After It Happened Book 3 Page 5