Surviving The Evacuation (Book 9): Ireland

by Tayell, Frank

  Colm, Siobhan, and I discussed searching the hospitals for a saline drip, or even trying to make one ourselves. Of course, then Siobhan reminded us what had happened to the Russian pilot, Petrov. No, I don’t know what we can do to help Kallie.

  The children are happy. Or happier than they’ve been. I don’t think they realise how ill Kallie is. Perhaps they do, but they believe Kim will return with help before her condition worsens. The children have discovered a shipping container full of toys, and that’s currently distracting them. It was full of those little bricks. Boxes upon boxes of them, all with a knight and castle design. Obviously, the children are now using the bricks to build a scale model of this ship. Obviously. And by scale, they mean as close to one-to-one as they can get. Well, they’re happy. Happier.

  I don’t like the waiting. I might try to get back to the warehouse. If we’re going to search hospitals, having the ammunition would help, but it’s more than that. I was thinking about the computer in the bunker. Presumably at least one of those generators was originally down there to power the air filtration system, so it would be a simple matter to turn the computer back on. What I’m thinking about is the list that Rob took from Elysium. Not the embarkation list, but the other one, the list of numbers. I mistook Locke for Kempton, so it’s possible that I’m mistaken about the other woman in the photograph. If I’m not, and if it is someone on Anglesey, then perhaps that list of numbers was the real prize. It was that which she wanted Rob to collect for her. It seems logical that they might be passwords to something, and it is odd having a computer in a fallout shelter. Perhaps it’s not odd. Perhaps I’m just looking for an excuse to—

  16:00

  “Honestly, Bill,” Annette said as she climbed over the side of the ship. “You do make a rescue difficult. Hello, everyone. I’m Annette.”

  She didn’t come alone, but in a giant red and white icebreaker under the command of Admiral Gunderson.

  “Hey, Bill,” Kim said, sheepishly following Annette onto the deck. “They picked me up about twenty miles from here.”

  “And we’d have been here sooner if we didn’t have to rescue her,” Annette said.

  I stood on the deck and stared, confused, as Sholto climbed aboard, followed by the admiral and half a dozen sailors.

  “Where’s the patient?” the admiral asked.

  I turned to Siobhan. “This is Admiral Gunderson. She’s a doctor. A surgeon.”

  “This way,” Siobhan said.

  I turned to Kim, to Annette, to Sholto. “One minute I was writing, the next there’s a shout from Dean to say he can see a ship, and… and…” I gave up.

  “We’ve been tracking you,” Sholto said. “Ever since you left Elysium.”

  “Tracking us?” I asked.

  “Of course,” Annette said. “We’re the help that comes to others. That’s what old Mr Tull says.”

  “He’s not here as well, is he?” I asked.

  “Mrs O’Leary wouldn’t let him,” Annette said. “Neither would the admiral. I said I could smuggle him onto the ship, but he said no.”

  “And you’ve been tracking us?” I asked.

  “Looking for you might be more accurate,” Sholto said. “Will and Lilith called us every six hours with an update. When they didn’t get through, I re-tasked a satellite. There was too much cloud to see anything so when I still couldn’t reach Will or Lilith, I went to find Miguel. He took us west. About halfway there, the clouds dissipated enough for the satellites to take a clear picture. We saw your boat had sunk. We got to Elysium, and we didn’t find you.”

  “We found Rob,” Annette said.

  “You went, too?” I asked.

  “And Daisy. We weren’t going to be left behind,” Annette said.

  “I tried to stop them,” Sholto said. “But it was quicker bringing her. I mean…” He waved a hand as if to illustrate the general impossibility of getting Annette to do anything she didn’t want to. “It’s been an interesting few weeks.”

  “So what happened next?” I asked.

  “Kim told us what happened with Rob,” Sholto said. “Of course, when we found the bodies, we didn’t know. We hauled Will and Lilith’s bodies up from the sunken ship. We saw they’d been shot. We saw someone had been in that bungalow.”

  “I knew it was you,” Annette cut in. “I recognised the handwriting.”

  “What handwriting?” I asked.

  “The bits of paper you were using as chess pieces,” she said proudly.

  “After that, there was a bit of a delay,” Sholto said.

  “Why?” I asked.

  He turned around and waved at the massive icebreaker. “May I present the Amundsen. The ship’s a gift from the people of Svalbard, or an apology, or they sold it to us. Defining the nature of the transaction is complicated.”

  “The details can wait,” I said. “The ship came from Svalbard?”

  “They found it drifting through the ice to the north of the archipelago,” Sholto said. “We delayed going to the airport, and sent the Marines and Special Forces to salvage the ship.”

  “There were zombies on board!” Annette said, a tad too gleefully. “Lots of them!”

  “You went there, too?” I asked.

  “No,” she said, and sounded disappointed. “Because we were in Ireland, at that mansion. Then Sholto said we had to go back to Anglesey.”

  “Hang on, so no one’s been to the international airport yet?” I asked.

  “Not yet,” Sholto said. “We went back to Elysium, or some of the Marines did. They found Simon’s body. After that, we knew you two had to have gone north. So we looked for you.”

  “Everyone did,” Annette said proudly and loudly. “On the satellites, you know? Because you’re Bill Wright. You defeated the evil Quigley. Of course we were looking for you.”

  “Everyone?” I asked.

  “About a thousand people,” Sholto said. “We positioned all three satellites over Ireland. We took photos of every inch. Almost every inch. Long story short, we saw a raft going back and forth from this container ship. We were on our way here when we picked up Kim.”

  “Ye-ah,” Kim said. “They were on their way.” She shrugged. That said it all.

  “So, who is everyone?” Annette asked.

  I turned around. Lena, Dean, Colm, Tamara, Billy, and Charlie stood behind me, all looking as stunned as I felt.

  “That,” I said, “is a longer story.”

  Epilogue - Belfast

  14th October, Day 216

  “Did everyone really help look for us on the satellite images?” I asked.

  “No,” Sholto said. He and I were sitting on the deck, watching Annette regale Charlie, Tamara, and Billy with tales of Anglesey. Kallie had been transferred to the icebreaker for surgery, and Siobhan, Colm, Lena, and Dean had gone with her. Kim was walking a toddling Daisy around the deck. “No, not everyone. There are some who said it wasn’t worth the resources. Mrs O’Leary and I agree that it was, since it got people off their boats. Most of the thousand are now living ashore. More are moving into homes everyday.”

  “All because of Kim and I?”

  “Yeah, don’t think it’s because they were concerned about your health,” he said. “A few were, but for most it was a bit of a game. Spot the survivor.”

  “Ah. Right. I don’t suppose you did spot any?” I asked.

  “Other than you? Miguel picked up three people from Dublin two days ago.”

  “Really? That is good news. Wait, I don’t suppose one of them is called Mark?”

  “Unlikely, they were all women.”

  “Oh.”

  “But there were signs of others,” he said. “Lights at night, smoke during the day. People have been volunteering to go and investigate. We got them to come ashore, then gave them a choice: a farmhouse and some land to plough, or a place in town and a job going out into the wasteland to find other survivors. Most picked the more dangerous job. Go figure.”

  “That’s still good
news.” I watched the children. They seemed enthralled by Annette’s tale. “One thousand. That’s a tenth of the population.”

  “Yes and no. There’re others who came ashore. Others who don’t agree with resources being expended in this way. It’s the election,” he added. “You know how it is. Elections create candidates, candidates have to create policies, but it’s simpler to develop a strategy that goes against the status-quo.”

  “Election? I’d almost forgotten about that.”

  “No one else has. It’s become… problematic.”

  “You mean the people who want to stand as candidates?”

  “For mayor, specifically,” he said. “I tried persuading Mary O’Leary to stand. She still says no, and that leaves the field wide open. Markus is running. The guy who has that the pub, remember?”

  “How could I forget?”

  “Well, don’t worry about him. I’ve got a plan,” Sholto said.

  “I bet you do,” I said. “Tell me about it later. For now I want to enjoy the moment.”

  Kim and Daisy reached us. Kim sat down next to me. Daisy clambered onto my lap.

  “It’s good to have you back,” I said. “Both of you.” Daisy frowned, and nestled in closer.

  “They were on their way, Bill,” Kim said. “On their way. If we’d waited, if we’d just…” She shook her head. I felt the same mixture of shock and disbelief, but it was tempered with gratitude as well. Not only for our rescue, but that it was a rescue which came un-hoped for. We’re the help that comes to others, all of us.

  “Tomorrow, I’d like to go back to the warehouse,” I said. “Before we leave, I want to get the computer that was in the bunker.”

  “We’ll have to do it before the plane flies overhead,” Kim said. “The noise of the flight will seriously rile up the zombies.”

  A detachment of Special Forces had headed inland almost before Kallie had reached the icebreaker’s medical bay. Together with Scott Higson, the pilot, they’d reached a farmhouse five miles from the airport. We knew that because they’d called us on a sat-phone, and we’d been able to see real-time images of the farmhouse. It was strange being surrounded by so much technology, and so many people, after weeks of isolation.

  “What’s that bunker like?” Sholto asked. “Describe it again.”

  “Here,” I said, fishing in my pocket for the journal. “You can read what I wrote.”

  “Annette wants the journal,” Kim said. “The first thing she said to me was whether you’d been keeping a record of what had happened. Seriously, the first thing. No hello, no how-are-you, nothing but whether you were keeping a journal. I think she and I need to have a long talk when we get back, but that won’t stop her from wanting to print what you wrote.”

  “Ah, why not,” I said. “Though, I think we might cut a few things out this time.”

  Sholto opened the book. A few loose sheets fell out: the list of numbers, and the photograph I’d found in the bunker. He picked it up. “I know her,” he said, holding up the picture.

  “Who?” Kim asked.

  “Her.” He pointed at the woman in the corner.

  “I thought so, too,” I said. “You’ve seen her on Anglesey?”

  “No,” Sholto said. “Not there. I saw her before. Not in person. Neither did you. You remember that video of patient zero? The hospital in New York, the demonstration for the dignitaries of many different nations? She was there. She was one of the people in the room.”

  I took the picture and looked at it. I remembered now. I’d first seen that video when I’d reached Brazely Abbey, and I’d re-watched it at least a dozen times since then. My attention had usually been on Quigley, though I’d sometimes stared at the other faces in the crowd, trying to work out from which countries they’d come and what positions they’d held.

  “Who is she?” I asked.

  “Obviously someone who worked for Kempton,” Sholto said. “But specifically? I don’t know.”

  “Does it matter?” Kim asked. “Is it even unexpected? We know that Kempton supported the conspiracy, so is it any wonder that one of her staff was there when it all went so wrong? Wouldn’t it be more of a surprise if she didn’t have someone at that demonstration?”

  “I suppose,” I said.

  “So put the picture away,” Kim said. “Let’s just enjoy a night together. After the last couple of weeks, the last few months, who knows what tomorrow will bring. Right now, we’re safe. We’re together. What else matters?”

  I took one last look at the picture, and put it away. Kim’s right. It hardly matters. Tonight we are together. Tomorrow? Well, tomorrow will come. So far, it always has.

  The end…

  I hope you’ve enjoyed this book. To be among the first to hear about new releases, join the mailing list here:

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  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. 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, Book 9: Ireland

  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.