Penny insisted that everyone come inside to eat, and Dan lit a smoke as they trailed off. Lexi hung around after they had gone and raised an eyebrow to him.
“You can get your own you know, they’ve come down a lot in price recently” he joked, offering her a cigarette.
She took one with a smile and he lit it for her, conscious to keep control of this pack and lighter this time.
“He’s got guns in the back. Gamekeeper.” She said, blowing smoke up in the air.
He mused on this, the rules were that nobody would carry a weapon without being ratified by him. The man was unlikely to be a danger as the guns were for hunting, but something in Lexi’s tone made him wonder.
“What are you thinking?” he asked her
“I’m concerned he might be an alcoholic” she said carefully.
“I think you’re right, but an alcoholic and a drunk are two different things. Let’s see how this pans out, shall we? I’d be happy of some fresh meat on my plate instead of tinned everything for the next few years” he replied. She raised no objection, and he wondered where her fear stemmed from. Perhaps a family member had succumbed to the evil of drink?
“Still” he said, lifting the four gun slips from the back of the pickup. “Can’t leave these lying around”
They went inside and joined a happy group comprising of all twenty-one of them as Mike was well enough to walk the short distance to sit up. He had Kate fussing over him so that he didn’t open any wounds as he walked, and was packed off to bed as soon as the meal was finished.
Dan cleaned and stored his weapons along with Pete’s, then walked the grounds for a while as the sun fell low in the sky. He took himself off to the makeshift bathroom where he heated some water and had a strip wash, getting into a set of grey prison jogging bottoms and a vest. He padded back down to his room, carrying his dirty clothes and boots. He only had a few sets of clean trousers left, and would have to search through the new apocalyptic clothing range tomorrow.
He lay on his cot for a long time before he heard footsteps outside his door. A gentle knock, followed by another slightly louder. He wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone, so he ignored it. He heard his name being whispered loudly by Lexi and decided to definitely ignore it.
Not the time to complicate things.
THE WAY OF THINGS
The haul was unloaded the following morning. The toilets were set up in the new male and female bathrooms, the fuel was pumped into the farm tank and all the vehicles were filled up.
Dan took Pete aside after breakfast. As suspected, he had drunk quite heavily last night and was sipping from a hip flask as they walked around the grounds. The premise of the tour was to ask Pete to start a hunting and fishing program; to provide fresh meat to the group. He was impressed with the grounds, claiming that rabbits and game birds were plentiful. He had the tools and the knowledge, but Dan wanted to know if he could be trusted.
“What do you want to ask me, lad?” said Pete intuitively, saving him the need for a long preamble. Pete’s eyes flashed to his left where he had seen his dogs run into a thicket. Two sharp whistles brought them crashing back out again.
He stopped and turned to face him, producing a cigarette packet and lighter. He lit up and inhaled deeply, then said to Pete “I’m concerned about the drink”
Pete sighed. Dan saw his hand involuntarily flutter toward a pocket where he thought the hip flask was. “Would you think me a fool if I said that I wasn’t?” he asked seriously.
“Yes, I drink” he said “But I won’t be letting you lot down. I’ll play my part and I never get nasty with it. Truth is I’ve drunk myself stupid every day since I thought I was the last person left alive.”
Dan didn’t doubt Pete’s sincerity one bit, but experience told him that the drink took over sometimes and the person didn’t realise they had a choice. “I want you to stay, Pete. I really do.” he said
“But?” asked Pete, eager to get to the point. He had a feeling of sadness, sure that he would be told to take his leave of the group. He measured the man in front of him and felt a coldness in him; he didn’t want to know what it looked like to upset him. Pete was lonely. He was lonely before the world changed if he was honest with himself. He wanted to be a part of this badly.
He still had his pride, and he would not beg the man.
“But there are rules…” said Dan “Weapons will be issued when they are needed, then cleaned and locked away after they’ve been used. Not negotiable.”
Pete was surprised, having convinced himself that he was being exiled. “Sensible. No argument from me”
“The drinking MUST stay under control” He continued, pointing a finger at Pete’s chest “I don’t want to have to be an arse and lock the booze away”
“Ok” Pete said. He wanted to ask how much he was allowed, but didn’t think it would make the conversation any more comfortable.
“And you’re coming out with me in a bit.” Dan finished. Pete gave him a puzzled look.
“That truck is a shed. You’re getting a new one”
They set off in Dan’s Defender. Pete’s battered old Isuzu went under a tarpaulin by the ten tonner parked out behind the house. The dogs jumped around the back seat and boot as they drove. The journey took nearly an hour – the closer dealership was in the area he had declared out of bounds – and he went through the now familiar routine of scouting, breaking in and clearing the building. He selected a twin-cab pickup which was to Pete’s liking. The keys were found and a set of spare wheels went in the back; getting new tyres fitted would be an issue for some time yet.
He reasoned that it made more sense to use newer vehicles with common parts; less likely to break down and become a safety issue. It wasn’t just because he liked Land Rovers and wanted the group’s fleet to look nice and corporate.
Pete’s driving was fine. Dan was watching carefully in his mirror, looking for any sign of the alcohol being a problem. He saw none.
When they got back he saw that the rest had not been idle. Penny conducted a further tour of the house, showing Dan the fully stocked bedding store. He was also shown the toiletries and towels, and the very impressive clothing store. He realised that everyone was wearing new clothes, including the young girl who still hadn’t spoken or left Eve’s side. He saw that everything was separated into male and female, and laid out systematically in size order. There was a selection of boots in different sizes too. “Lots more are in the stores” Penny announced.
He saw that the bathrooms had water heaters made from the camping equipment. In the makeshift medical wing, Alice had been busy helping Kate sort and store the medicines recovered on the scavenging trips. Kate said that they had plenty of anti-biotics, which she saw as the most important as infection was more likely to kill someone nowadays. Alice had perked up significantly, but still seemed quite fragile. It turned out that she had just finished her first year of University, and her skills in IT and mathematics weren’t proving to be in demand. Mike was still confined to bed by Kate, with the exception of being allowed to walk the short distance for the evening meal.
“Thank you again” said Mike to him “You saved our lives. I can’t think of what they would have done to my Alice if…” he trailed off and Dan filled the awkward silence. He knew exactly what they would have done to her.
“You’re welcome, Mike. Both of you. Rest and get better, then we need to find you something to do” he said
“I’m an engineer” Mike said quickly “I was self-employed and doing well. Just bought an Aston Martin actually” he chuckled to himself; how quickly a life-long dream can be made to feel utterly pointless.
Dan had a thought and asked “Do you know anything about solar panels?”
“No” he replied “But you find me a book on it whilst I’m stuck in here and I can try my best”
“No problem at all” Dan said, patting him gently on the shoulder as he stood to leave. He looked to Kate to say goodbye but she was engrossed in ex
plaining something to Alice.
“There is more” said Penny with a smile “It appears your new operations coordinator is using her initiative and wants to interview the group. She is plotting scavenging sites on the map as we speak”
Dan was impressed. He walked into ‘Ops’ and Leah looked up with a grin. She launched straight into an uninvited report on supplies that could be recovered and places she was suggesting for checking.
He saw an old yellow pages on the desk next to her notebook. That was probably the most impressive of all; how a child from the Google age can adapt to using the old fashioned methods. They could all do with a lot more of that.
“I hear you want to interview the others” Dan said seriously. Leah seemed a little put out, having just questioned her plan on hearing his tone.
“I thought people might remember different shops or know about things…” Leah trailed off as he looked directly at her.
He left her in suspense for a few more seconds before he spoke “Good idea. Can you start after dinner?” She nodded, delighted at the praise.
“Let me know what you find, then we can sit down and prioritise what we need. Remember to take a break though, kid. Ok?” he said as he walked out to hide his proud smile. Leah called out after him that she would, but he doubted it. He was worried that before long she would want to be taught how to drive and shoot.
Lexi was loitering, and he thought he would probably have to have the difficult conversation soon. He though it better to do it now, and thanked Penny as he walked outside to smoke.
Lexi joined him very soon after, lighting one of her own. Dan decided to take the professional line, before she embarrassed herself.
“I heard your trip went well” he said “How comfortable are you weapons wise?” he asked.
“Fine with the rifle” she replied “Less so with the Glock. I wasn’t too sure about searching the buildings”
“And the driving?” he asked
“I could do with some pointers on everything” she said, hopefully
“Ok. With me tomorrow, you’re driving” he said as he put out his cigarette and went back inside. He thought it was very normal for this kind of thing to happen; people have been through trauma and are scared. Lonely. It’s perfectly natural for feelings to manifest, but he wanted to nip it in the bud straight away for a number of reasons.
One, he didn’t really find her attractive. Not that she was unattractive at all, just that she wasn’t his type. Two, he saw how a couple of the others looked at her and didn’t particularly want to have the group devolve into some sort of stag rutting competition. Better to stop it before it started.
After dinner, Penny announced that everyone should go to the lounge area where Leah has a few questions for them all. Everyone agreed and took part willingly to make Leah happy. She had prepared a list of questions for everyone, in her neat handwriting.
Penny called a meeting of senior members. Dan as head of Operations, Neil as head of Engineering, Jimmy as head of Logistics, Andrew as head of Supplies and Kate as head of medical. Penny was there as head of ‘home’ asked them each in turn to give a run-down of their ‘staff’ as well as needs and suggestions.
Dan started. “Lexi is performing well. I need to take her out tomorrow for some training but she’s doing ok. Leah is doing a great job – she’s got more tasks than we have people and storage space”
He finished, nodding to Neil.
“Ian’s got a lorry full of solar panels as you know. Mike reckons he can learn how to fit them. If that happens, I’ll need to borrow Adam to do some plumbing work. I’ll need logistics to empty the plumbing aisle in B&Q too” said Neil. Nods all round. “Fuel; we’ve got plenty for now but everyone should still bring back jerrycans when they see them”
He gestured to Andrew, who said “Stores are fairly well stocked. We need to future proof things in terms of growing our own food, but we have maybe three years of living on tins, jars and bottles if we have to. Any empty space on the lorries should be filled with bottled water” he spoke quietly, nervous at being involved. “Liam is doing well, he’s learning how to do the job” He shrugged, with nothing more to add.
Kate was sat next in line “I’ve got plenty of medicines, but I could do with visiting an A&E. It’s going to be messy though, hospitals were overrun and people died in the waiting rooms”
“How about waiting a couple of months?” suggested Dan “as sick as this sounds to some, it may be better to wait until the bodies have decomposed instead of trying to get in there at the worst time”
“That might be better actually, but we’re talking three months minimum I reckon” Kate said. Nobody wanted to chip in on that, so Kate continued. “I’d like an escort to the ambulance stations in the interim, so I can take the rest of the stores there. Mike is healing well, and I’d say he can move around more in a week or so; some of the cuts were deep and he should’ve had more stitches than I could put in”
“What about Alice?” asked Dan.
Kate looked up, surprised at the question as she didn’t know where he was going with it. “She seems a little traumatized, but is doing well now. No injuries”
“Do you think you can teach her basic medical skills?” he asked
Kate thought for a second, before replying “Yes. I need medical texts though”
Dan nodded, and looked to Jimmy.
“Vehicles are good, people are good – apart from Kyle who has had to be ‘encouraged’ a few times” he emphasised the word encouraged. “I could do with a few more pairs of hands but that’s it”
“Well done everyone, our progress is quite ‘encouraging’” Penny said, making light of Jimmy’s jest.
“I have taken Eve under my wing, and the child who never leaves her side. She still won’t speak to anyone. Eve is, unskilled, shall we say” she hesitated. Dan would have said ‘useless’ but Penny wasn’t unkind enough to say so.
“I have had to instruct her with cooking and cleaning, but she has some issues with food preparation. We could do with more people qualified or experienced as I am undertaking the majority of the cooking – I don’t have an issue with this you understand” she added.
They discussed further forays for supplies; Dan would take Lexi out as planned and Jimmy would deploy two lorries to collect more food and water.
Pete was going to start hunting the next day, and had been helping Ana with the farm. Maggie had suggested that seed packets be recovered for growing vegetables, and was going to go out with Cedric. Inseparable as always.
Neil planned to start sorting out the workshop on the farm and equipping it as a vehicle workshop. Ian would be helping him with that. He had found chainsaws and a log splitter for attaching to the rear of a tractor on the farm, and Jay was nominated to start stacking logs for the coming winter. He had happily agreed to this, and wanted to collect some equipment from his old work place. Jimmy offered to drop him off there to get his dropside van and tools.
The benefit of the old house was that it had chimneys in many rooms. Liam was nominated to help jay when he wasn’t needed in the stores.
“What about our security concerns?” Penny asked Dan.
“We haven’t seen any sign of hostility since we left the supermarket. Everyone knows that the area to the south is effectively out of bounds for now. I’m relaxed enough to allow scavenging without armed support, but everyone must be cautious” he said “Anything people don’t like the look of, get out of the area and let me check it out”
Meeting over, they all went with their own thoughts. Jimmy offered his and Kev’s help to wash up that night which Penny graciously accepted.
Dan considered their numbers over a solitary scotch, musing that they simply did not have enough to survive in the long run.
OLD FASHIONED BOOKS
“Time and motion, boy” Dan’s Dad had always told him. He always tried to combine his tasks to maximise efficiency. To that end, he told Lexi to drive to the nearest town centre to fin
d the public library that Leah had found in her yellow pages. She drove her Land Rover, asking for and receiving tips on her technique.
“Keep your thumbs outside the wheel” he said at one point “If you hit a big pothole or something the wheel can pull and hurt you” she nodded and folded her thumbs on the outside. She scanned as she drove, as she had seen him do.
They arrived at the town centre and drove through slowly. Dan noticed that already the rubbish swirled along and gathered against walls and kerbs. It probably wouldn’t be long before nature started taking back what people had taken first, and mused that the roads would degrade fairly quickly too – especially when the weather got bad. Another reason for choosing the best 4x4xFar.
The library was unlocked, and a pull on the door let out a nauseating smell. Dan held up a hand and went back to the Land Rover for his bag. He came back to Lexi with chewing gum and two paper masks. Lexi was puzzled at first, but followed suit and started to chew three pieces behind her mask. It worked, and the smell of rotting body was diluted by mint. As they had agreed, Dan led and Lexi watched. He moved at a slight crouch using his Sig, as Lexi would be using her Glock to do the same job. He cleared the aisles of books, nodding directions to Lexi as he went. They found two bodies, not worth checking for breathing as they were visibly starting to decompose. The systematic search continued, Lexi mirroring Dan’s movements in silence. He finally holstered the Sig on his chest and turned to her. “Questions?” he asked, trying to keep his tone professional and not encourage intimacy.
“What did you do on the corners?” she said. He drew his weapon again, still with the safety on, and talked her through it.
“Approach the corner, take a step out from the wall. Eyes and gun always point the same way. Step round slowly and the blind area will open up. Always keep scanning for any height advantage someone could have over you”
After It Happened (Book 1): Survival Page 13