"I tell you what I think, shall I?" said Nicholas.
Neither Ben nor Aaron spoke.
"I think you knew about this before, let's say around about the time you suggested a trip to London last time. What was that, say six months ago?"
It sounded about right to Ben. It was long enough ago that an election had been held and Nicholas had been voted in for another term. Long enough ago that farmers had been recruited and work had begun on the Back Field. He nodded.
"And would you say," he said, looking at Aaron, "would you say that any significant progress has been made in that time?"
Ben turned to look at Aaron.
He hesitated and Ben wondered if he would lie. "A lot of the progress might be things we can't see," he said.
Nicholas nodded. "As I suspected." He turned to Ben: "I suppose you didn't notice the structure the last time you were out that way?"
Ben shook his head.
"So for all we know what you saw was up to two years old?"
Ben wanted to tell him he was wrong but how could he explain a 'feeling' he'd had.
Nicholas sighed. "Let's say for the sake of argument that this is the work of vamps. Incidentally it could just as easily be the work of another human settlement. But let's say its vamps: isn't it possible that they gave up on it months ago?"
"Why would they..." said Ben.
"Perhaps they didn't have the manpower, or perhaps they simply didn't know how," he said. "But doesn't that seem more likely than you stumbling on a work in progress that hasn't changed for six months?"
Ben turned to look at Aaron for help but he offered nothing. He couldn't understand how Nicholas could be so dismissive of what he saw as an obvious threat.
"Now I appreciate you gentlemen coming to me with this information," he said, "but I suspect concern for the girl and sleep deprivation have made it seem to you like a bigger deal than it actually is."
He dismissed them from his office and all of a sudden the fact he hadn't slept for more than twenty-four hours did seem like a big deal. He got onto the raft with Nicholas and weaved through the traffic approaching the Island. People called to each other across the water, some of them might have even called to him, but they seemed distant now.
They travelled along the river towards Ben's boat in silence but they didn't stop there. He glanced up at Aaron as they floated past but he could tell by the look on his face that it hadn't been a mistake. He said nothing and waited to see where he would end up.
A few minutes later Aaron steered them up to a jetty beside a burned out boat. The windows were black and the wood charred and rotten. It was on the periphery of the village, the subject of occasional complaints from neighbours who would rather have it removed. He wanted to ask Aaron what they were doing there but Aaron would know he was wondering that and had apparently decided not to tell him.
Ben climbed out of the boat and Aaron threw a dirty canvas over the top of it. From a distance it would look like another piece of debris. The wooden struts complained as they walked along the pier and climbed aboard the boat.
It smelled of smoke, tobacco and wood. He could hear muttered voices coming from inside. Aaron knocked and then pulled open the door and led Ben inside.
5
He was sitting in a broken leather armchair looking at three other men. One of them he recognised at Anthony, the other two he didn't think he had seen before. Aaron sat on a stool to his left. The boat was as battered on the inside as out; the bare floorboards were cracked and dirty, the walls stripped of colour. There was little furniture except the chairs. Black paint on the windows blocked any sunlight. The room was lit by three oil lamps burning on the floor.
No one spoke.
It was obviously some kind of secret meeting but to what end he had no idea. After a few minutes of silence he turned to look at Aaron, "what's this all..." (about?) But Aaron shook his head and he stopped talking.
A few minutes later there was a knock on the door and it opened. Two women came in, one he recognised as Sandra Wheeler and the other he didn't know.
"Sorry I'm late," said Sandra, "I couldn't get away from Louise."
Louise was Sandra's daughter. She sat down in one of the chairs opposite him, the other woman remained standing awkwardly by the door.
"This is Kris," said Sandra and they all turned to look at her. "Take a seat."
Kris sat down next to Ben. He felt increasingly uncomfortable in the confined space at the centre of attention. Aaron stood up.
"This is Anthony, Daniel and Sol," he said indicating the three men. "I'm Aaron and this is Sandra."
Ben looked at the Daniel and Sol. Daniel was a few years older than him, his blond hair starting to thin. Sol had shoulder length dark hair and didn't look older than twenty.
"Are you going to tell me what's going on now?" said Ben. He should have been at home by now, the twins would be waking up and Mary would be wondering where he was.
"We saw the dam today," said Aaron. "We spoke to the General about going to London again but he refused."
"We knew he would," said the man Daniel, his voice was gruff with a slightly northern accent that Ben couldn't place.
"But it was the right thing to do," said Aaron. "Now we have to decide what happens next."
"What's to decide?" said Daniel. "We take the boats and go, just like we planned."
There were no objections. Ben felt as if he was agreeing to go just by being there. Plans and arrangements were thrown around the room so quickly that he couldn't keep up. When he came to leave with Aaron he was tired and confused but aware that he had agreed to be ready the following morning before sunrise.
"And don't tell anyone," said Aaron as he climbed off the little raft onto the jetty outside his own home. He nodded his agreement but truthfully the only thing he was thinking about was a warm bed.
6
He slept fitfully throughout the day, waking frequently fearing that he had overslept and missed the morning. He had no idea whether they would wait for him or simply leave him behind. He did know that he wanted to go.
It would be hard leaving Mary and the twins, harder still because he couldn't tell them what he was really doing. There seemed little chance that the vamps would complete the dam in the two weeks he expected to be gone but before leaving he reminded Mary that there were weapons under the bed.
When morning came he carried his bag onto the deck and stood at the end of the pier waiting for them to come. It was still dark but he could see a few boats with lights on and hear some muttered voices.
Aaron arrived a few minutes later aboard a frequently patched rubber dingy. It made little sound as it skimmed through the water and none at all when Ben climbed in. He nodded at Aaron but they made their escape in silence.
He leaned back and watched the village slip away behind him. They would be back in two weeks, armed and ready to defend themselves but it didn't seem like that. It seemed as if he were saying goodbye for the last time and he didn't know what that meant. He would be back and the village would still be there but it wouldn't be the same.
An old narrow boat was waiting for them at the abandoned mill. When Ben had first arrived the mill had been occupied by a couple of pensioners who kept chickens and gave the village boys eggs for doing chores. As far as he knew no one had lived in it for years. The contents had been looted and the windows broken.
Ben threw his bag onto the barge and followed it across. He could hear the others talking in hushed voices, an argument about whether to bring something or other. When he walked in he found Kris by the door.
"What's that about?" he said.
Daniel, Sol, Anthony and Sandra were talking in low voices but there was no mistaking the anger in them.
"Sandra told her mum where we're going," said Kris.
"I had to," Sandra shouted across the room defensively. "I needed her to take Louise."
Ben wondered, not for the first time, whether so many people were needed. Someone was bound to notice that six
people were missing from Sanctuary, even if they didn't know where they had gone, Nicholas was bound to work it out.
"It's done now," said Aaron walking in behind them. "Are we ready to move?"
Everyone agreed that they were ready and begrudgingly left the argument to simmer. The engine was started and Aaron turned them around to face down the river.
Ben stared out the grubby little window above the sink as the sun rose and the outside chugged by at a steady ten miles an hour. Soon he saw the lands where he had hunted as a boy and later gone salvaging, first with his dad and Frank and then just his dad. A few years on and it had just been him by himself.
He tensed uncontrollably. He knew what was coming up but he didn't know how he would feel seeing it again after so many years. Ben had gone on wandering even after his fathers death but he had made a conscious choice to avoid seeing the place it had happened.
Around him the others fussed around putting things in drawers and cupboards and checking lists of supplies. No one asked him to help and if they wondered what he was doing they didn't say so. It was hardly a secret what had happened to his dad. Quite the opposite, his death had made him something of a celebrity.
The long grass parted in seeming mockery and Ben could almost hear his father screaming. He didn't think he would forget that sound if he lived to be a hundred.
It had happened on a day like any other. Father and son had taken the dug out canoe down river to a spot near the road. Ben had been fifteen years old, the only reason his mum had let him go was because his father had insisted it was safe. And it had been safe, past-tense, they had been going into the village for months and never seen so much as a hint that vamps had been there.
It hadn't been vamps that had got his dad though. They had gone into the market and they had realised too late that they weren't alone.
Ben shook his head and stepped away from the window. He didn't want to be thinking about that, not when he had work to do.
He found Aaron on deck at the tiller.
"How are we doing?" said Ben.
"We're making good time. We'll need to stop before the end of tomorrow to get more fuel," said Aaron.
"You know somewhere?"
Aaron shook his head. "You're the only one I know who's been out this far. Do you know anywhere?"
Ben thought about the days he'd spent travelling up and down the river. They called it wandering, ostensibly it was to look for salvage but there was more to it than that. It had been a time when he was alone, a time when the world felt like it was his. He loved the excitement of mooring on some foreign bank and spending the night looking at the stars from a new location. He would pitch his tent in a field but he didn't sleep. He stayed up all night with a crossbow in his lap hoping to see a vamp.
The vamps were the reason everything had changed. Because of the vamps he couldn't live a normal life, because of the vamps, indirectly his dad was dead. On those nights he prayed for a vamp to come his way so that he could kill it. But not slowly, not with any measure of mercy. A part of him wanted them to suffer, maybe just to see if they were capable of suffering, or maybe because he thought they deserved it.
He shook his head. "I always took the raft."
"You rowed all the way out here?" said Aaron, he sounded impressed.
Ben shrugged. "It's not that far really."
"I guess we’ll have to try our luck. There's some jerry cans inside, a couple of us could head into town."
Ben nodded and they carried on in silence. Most nights his prayers had gone unanswered and he spent another sleepless night waiting for vamps that never came. He began to think they were dying. It made sense; they had wiped out most of their food supply, the few humans that remained must have fled to secure communities like Sanctuary. It seemed possible and filled him with a cautious kind of hope. If the vamps were dying then they just had to wait, when they were all gone humans could return to the land.
Of course that was not the case at all as he had discovered on one of his last trips when he'd found the farm. As far as he knew it was still there. As far as he knew there were a hundred other farms across the country.
"Do you want me to take over for a bit?" he said after he'd watched Aaron yawn for the sixth time.
"I'm alright," he said. "Sol's up in an hour."
The plan was to travel non-stop. Going through the night would cut a week off their overall travel time. Aaron hadn't really elaborated on what they would do when they reached London but it would be prudent to keep as much of their armoury as possible for it.
Ben leaned against the rail at the back of the boat. The sun was at its peak and the water shinned like a mirror. There was no sound in the world except for the gently throbbing motor beneath them.
They ate a dinner of beans and sausages that Anthony cooked over the wood burner. Sol was served his on deck while the rest of them gathered in the open space that passed for a living room. There were bunks on the walls, attached by hinges to keep them out of the way when they weren't in use. During the night they would all sleep but each of them had a shift booked on deck.
Ben sat between Daniel and Kris, she sat leaning against Sandra. Anthony and Aaron sat opposite. They warmth from the stove made the room muggy and, combined with a lack of sleep, Ben found himself yawning before he got to the bottom of his tin.
"Have you been out this way before?" said Ben to Kris in the hope that conversation would keep him awake long enough to finish eating.
She shook her head. She was a woman of few words. She was slight and young and her red hair was cut short. He thought she resembled a teenage boy. "I've never been outside Sanctuary," she said.
"What? Never?" He wondered what qualified her for this journey, maybe she was an ace vamp killer.
"Her mum was pregnant with her when she arrived," said Sandra and Ben wondered if Sandra was her mother. She was just about old enough but it would be a push. "Kris was the first person born in Sanctuary."
Ben watched as Sandra put her arm around Kris and Drew her into her in a not very motherly fashion. She kissed the younger woman on the cheek and he thought he understood.
"How's Mary?" said Sandra as if she needed to make it any clearer that Kris was hers and therefore off limits to him. Not that he would ever cheat on his wife but love was funny like that, what you knew and what you feared were often two very different things.
"She's good," he said but Sandra had already turned away.
Kris mouthed 'sorry' and shrugged before turning away as well.
"Ignore them," said Daniel.
Scott turned around to see the man looking at him.
"You gonna finish that?" he said, waving his fork at Scott's tin.
Scott looked down as if he had forgotten all about his dinner. "Yeah I am," he said.
"Shame."
He looked down to scoop up another fork of beans and when he looked up again Daniel had gone. He finished his dinner and left his tin on the draining board by the sink. No one seemed to be in the mood for talking and within half an hour the bunks were being pulled down. He climbed into his own with weary pleasure, pulled his sleeping bag up high and closed his eyes.
Exhausted though he was sleep did not come quickly to Ben that night. He lay on his back with his eyes closed and let the gentle motion of the boat lull him into a doze that was not quite sleep. He imagined the dark world passing by outside and wondered what they would find in London.
7
The morning was cold. The wind seemed to cut right through his clothes and down to his bones. Ben wrapped his jacket tightly around himself and pulled down his hat. It was just about light enough to see the river ahead, to adjust the tiller and keep them away from the overgrown banks on either side. He scanned the banks continuously but saw no sign of movement there.
He supposed that they hadn't actually come that far, that any vamps in the area would have been swallowed up by the dam project. Sunrise came and went and he heard people down below walking across the bare
floorboards and creaky hinges as bunks were pushed back up against the wall. A while later the door opened and Aaron came out with a breakfast tin for him.
"Any trouble?" he said.
Ben shook his head, but there was one thing. "What do you make of that?" He pointed behind him. In the distance there was smoke rising into the air. The source of it was hidden by the trees and he couldn't tell whether it was just around the corner or far in the distance.
Aaron stared at it for a long time.
He had been able to see the smoke since first light. That was an hour ago. If it was far away then it was growing, maybe consuming a whole town.
"Someone's following us," said Aaron eventually.
Ben nodded, he'd come to the same conclusion. "What should we do?"
Aaron continued to stare at the white smoke billowing up above the tree line. "Guess it depends who it is." He looked for a few moments longer, as if he would be able to tell something from the smoke itself. "Wait here a minute."
He went back inside and Ben poured the contents of the tin into his mouth (beans and sausages, well past its use by date but still good). Shortly Aaron returned with Daniel. Ben, Aaron and Daniel stared at the smoke.
"Might be trouble," said Daniel without looking away. "I'll keep an eye on it."
Aaron grabbed Ben's arm. "Come on."
He still had another hour left before Sandra was due to relieve him but he didn't argue with Aaron. He followed him inside. The boat was dark compared to the bright morning light and it took a few moments for his eyes to adjust but by the time he had followed Aaron across the room to where the others were standing he could see again.
"What is it?" said Sandra. Ben noticed that Kris was clinging to her side.
"We don't know yet," said Aaron. "But we need to be ready. Sol?"
The boy threw a bag across the room to Aaron, something inside it clunked. He put the bag down on the floor and unzipped it. He took out hand guns and handed one to each of them. He hesitated when he got to Kris. "Have you ever used one of these?" he said.
The Bitter End Page 10