“For families,” replied one of the guards, his voice muffled behind the gas mask.
“This is my husband and father to my child,” Maria said.
“Halt!” The officer ordered.
He looked at me and then at Maria and Jesse. As he stared at us I noticed in the background that our four legged companion, Bruno, was being led over to a separate compound which had kennels.
“And this is my sister,” Maria said pulling Lizzie closer.
The IGS officer stood and stared for a few moments. Turning he waved his hand and the other officers changed direction to lead us to the Family Compound. I gazed over at Maria and she just smiled reassuringly at me.
As we walked it dawned on me that Lizzie was a Scottish national and she too would probably be led to the Government Compound along with the others if the IGS knew. I assumed that this compound was for government prisoners, it seemed shabbier and less well looked after than the rest. I could also see the people inside were less looked after, dirty clothes and unwashed. Lizzie wasn’t an enemy of the government; she was a young Scottish girl who had just lost her boyfriend. The problem was, as soon she spoke they would realise what nationality she was.
We neared the Family Compound and the gates were opened. As we stepped inside the IGS officers stopped and watched us enter. There were a row of tables which gave out blankets, pillows and a small ration pack. After being searched for a second time and given a hut number we were allowed to pass through.
We were met by a man in an IGS uniform, but unlike the rest of the officers he did not wear a mask and he smiled.
“Welcome to the family compound,” he said cheerily.
“Welcome?” I asked puzzled.
“Yes it does seem a bit extreme, doesn’t it?” He replied.
“It’s a prison camp,” I said looking around.
“Oh far from it.” He motioned towards the huts. “This is in actual fact an evacuation camp. My name is Lance and I am in charge of this compound.”
“Evacuation camp?” Maria asked.
“Yes, well things have got pretty bad these days, can’t say too much but needless to say things aren’t good.” Lance shook us all by the hand and ruffled Jesse’s hair.
Lance was a thin man, balding and did not have the same air of authority that other IGS officers had.
“You don’t seem like a typical IGS officer,” I said.
Lance stepped forward. “Thank you,” he whispered. “I am an IGS officer nonetheless but I assure you I will not be giving you a hard time, unlike those brutes outside,” he said quietly.
“And your names? He asked.
“Kaleb,” I said.
“Maria and this is my…” Maria looked at me. “Our daughter Jesse,” she corrected herself.
“And what is the name of this lovely young lady?” Lance asked looking at Lizzie.
“Her name is Lizzie.” I stared at Lance.
“Can Lizzie not speak for herself?” He asked.
“No. Ever since this madness started she hasn’t spoken,” Maria replied quickly.
“I know what a terrible state of affairs this is?” Lance tutted and shook his head. “Right then, campers. Follow me.”
Spinning on his heels he walked away. We followed slowly and I couldn’t help but notice his feminine mannerisms as he walked.
“Great!” I said.
“What’s the matter?” Maria asked.
“We get the Camp Camper,” I replied, Maria smiled. “What made you say we were a couple?” I asked.
“You saw the state of the other compound and I will not be separated from Jesse.”
I could understand that reason and I was also very grateful Maria popped up with this idea as I did not want to be in the Government Compound either.
As we walked other family groups stared at us. I could feel their depressed eyes burning into me. Before long we reached the hut and Lance showed us inside. There was nobody inside, but rows of cubicles with double beds, bunk beds and single beds. Our cubicle had a double bed and a bunk bed situated in the cubicle. Lance waved his hand and smiled brightly.
“This will be your room, unfortunately there is no room service,” he laughed at his own joke.
“Lance, what are the other compounds?” I asked.
“Well, Kaleb my little sweetheart,” he moved closer and placed his arm around my shoulder. “The evacuation compound is for individuals rather than families and the government compound…well let me tell you it’s not the sort of place a family like you want to be.”
“Prisoners?” I asked.
“If you like,” Lance smiled.
“What will happen to the other three?” I asked.
Lance removed his hand from my shoulder and gave me a serious look. “You don’t need to know about what goes on there, trust me it is better you do not know.”
Lance took Maria and Lizzie’s hand in turn, kissing the backs and again ruffled Jesse’s hair before bidding us farewell and leaving the hut.
“He’s weird,” Jesse said.
“You’re not wrong there,” I replied.
“So that’s it then, the end of the road?” Maria asked.
“I’m not sure,” I replied walking around the hut to gaze out of each window.
“Do I really have to stay silent the whole time?” Lizzie asked.
“If you don’t want to end up in that other compound you will,” I replied.
Staring out of one of the windows I wondered if my wife and daughter would be here. Could they be in this place? Another thought entering my head also.
What would happen next?
DIARY ENTRY 32
We spent the rest of the day getting used to our surroundings, a few of the other families popped into the hut, gave us a gaze and then carried on with their business.
The compound had a strange sort of atmosphere. All the family units kept themselves quiet and spoke in their own group, nobody mingled. I wasn’t surprised though, it was hard to trust anybody.
Lance popped by a few times, I wasn’t quite sure if he was being friendly or trying to dig for information. He kept asking how long we had been married and how life was before this mess. I had to give Maria a quick brief on Rebecca and Amelia so we had our stories straight. Luckily, Rebecca was the sort of person who would sit back and work people out before opening up to them, so with that in mind I told Maria in a polite way to say as little as possible. I think Jesse understood the situation. She knew that if she let the cat out of the bag then it would be off to the horrible place with the others, as she so put it in a child-like way.
Poor Lizzie, not only was she coming to terms with the loss of Ben she also had to stay quiet the whole time anybody was about. This included any of the other families because we just weren’t sure what was going on. I would gaze over at Lizzie at times as she sat with her own thoughts, the emotions she must have been going through. I hoped for my sake I didn’t have to face that problem.
Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to have a wander round the compound, if my wife and daughter were being held then I needed to find them.
It was completely obvious that not all the families from my town were inside this compound. I would say around a hundred families were there. My train of thought told me the rest were either dead or had managed to evacuate in time. If my wife and daughter were not in the compound then I hoped beyond hope they got out.
Imagine a mud filled compound, surrounded by a high fence and guards with miserable faces looking out from shabby, dirty clothing. That was what faced me as I walked round. Nobody spoke to me and I didn’t even get an acknowledgment of my presence, just stares.
As daylight started to subside I gazed at the huge wall beyond our compound fence where Duncan, Jackson and Lana were being held. I could imagine them being interrogated or tortured. Even though I felt there was something strange about the group, I would not have wished that upon anybody.
Walking over to the hut, which I now calle
d ‘home’, I saw Lance exit scratching his head. I waited and as he skipped down the three steps. He continued to look back until he saw me, a smile appearing on his face.
“Hello, enjoying the evening walk?” He asked.
“Well enjoy is a bit of a strong word,” I replied.
“Yes, quite. Your family are very quiet,” he said staring at me.
My mind started to race, had he been inside the hut and picked up on something that he felt wasn’t quite right?
“We’ve been through a lot,” I replied.
“And they made that journey with you up from London?”
“Who said we travelled up from London?” I was beginning to worry.
“Well, I would love to stand and talk to you but I really must get on,” Lance replied walking by me. “Got to get ready for the visit tomorrow morning,” he continued.
I turned and was just about to ask what he meant by visit when my attention was drawn to the activity outside the main gate.
Four trucks and two jeeps trundled across the mud and came to a stop a few feet away from the gate. I saw more IGS personnel jumping out the back of the truck and that is when I saw him, clear as day and it made my heart pound hard.
Stepping out of the jeep in a clean, crisp uniform was the IGS officer who came to visit me at the depot to enquire about Duncan. It seemed so long ago and I had blocked him from my mind with everything we had gone through. I felt fear grab me and I stared in disbelief.
Lance had made it over to the main gate and walked out of the compound to be greeted by the IGS officer who, after a small chat with Lance, looked up and stared straight at me. I froze on the spot and just stared straight back. There was nothing I could do. He smiled and walked away with Lance to the barrack houses outside the compound where the IGS personnel were stationed.
Turning slowly I walked over to the hut and with my mind racing I went inside where I saw Maria, Jesse and Lizzie all looking at me.
“What’s the matter?” Maria asked.
“What did Lance want?” I replied.
“He came in and I was unpacking. He was saying how nice and safe the camp was and how he hoped our journey from London wasn’t too dangerous. I didn’t reply.”
Lance knew. Our capture by the IGS was no coincidence they must have known we were around and decided to pick us up.
“Look, don’t worry about that now. We have a bigger problem,” I said walking over to our cubicle.
I began to explain the story of the IGS officer to Maria and Lizzie.
I told them about my initial meeting with Duncan and how the IGS officer had visited me at the depot. I saw Maria stare down at the floor, that feeling I had back on the train when I thought I wasn’t being told the whole story returned.
“Maria, there’s something you are not telling me and this really is a good time to let me know what the hell is going on?”
“I don’t understand,” Lizzie said quietly as there were other families in the room sleeping.
“Duncan managed to get me an upgrade on my movement pass and he said he needed my help in getting survivors out of London, but due to the outbreak my passes were not needed.” I said to Lizzie.
“What’s that got to do with all this?” Lizzie asked.
“The IGS were looking for Duncan. I met up with the rest of the group and since that day I’ve felt that something wasn’t quite right. Why are the IGS hell bent on finding Duncan?” I switched my stare to Maria.
“Well it’s obvious, he’s Scottish,” Lizzie whispered.
“No there’s something else,” I said still staring at Maria.
Maria got up from the bed and walked over to the bottom bunk. She pulled the blanket up over Jesse’s shoulder and turned slowly to look at me.
“Okay, there is something else.”
DIARY ENTRY 33
I sat on the bed and waited for this big explanation from Maria, hoping that finally somebody would tell me what the hell was going on. That was the hope. The reality was I had as much chance of finding gold in this camp as getting an explanation.
“I can’t tell you now,” she said.
“You’re beginning to sound like Duncan,” I replied angrily trying to keep my voice in a hushed tone.
“I think we all deserve an explanation,” Lizzie said.
“It’s for your own safety that I can’t tell you now.” Maria bowed her head.
“My safety! My safety!” I could feel a surge of fury build up inside my body. “That IGS guy knows who I am and he probably knows I came here with Duncan which I may add was the same person he questioned me about back in London before all this shit erupted!” My voice became louder and I disturbed a family on the opposite side.
“Keep your voice down,” Maria whispered.
“What the fuck is going?” I whispered aggressively.
“Look, the IGS are after Duncan. They are after all of us.”
“Oh great,” Lizzie said in despair.
“All of us?” I asked puzzled.
“Kaleb, I can’t tell you anymore.”
I felt as if a string of expletives was going to surge from my mouth. Curling my lips I spun on my heels and stormed over to the hut door. Yanking at the metal latch I marched out, slamming the door behind me. I walked down the steps onto the mud floor and continued to stride off until my pace settled and the tears began streaming down my face.
I stopped about twenty yards from the hut and looked up into the clear night sky. The stars sparkled high above as though everything was right in the world. I let out uncontrollable breaths. I stood there trying to control the tears that were streaming down my cheeks. The stars started to blur from crying and in a flash they were gone.
Closing my eyes I tried to picture my wife and daughter. Over time their faces had started to blur. When we arrived here I could imagine them clearly again, but now I couldn’t see them at all. It was as though they were being erased from my memory. I tried so hard to form them in my mind, but they just weren’t there at all. The sobbing started and I felt the strength in my body just drain away as I sank down to my knees into the mud, my head still tilted up towards the sky, my eyes closed. The emotional aching inside my body made me shake. In this godforsaken world I lost everything I had ever cared about, now I didn’t even have the memories.
I felt the hand touch my shoulder, my eyes sprung open immediately and as I turned I saw Lizzie standing next to me.
“You still have something to hold onto,” she said to me. “I saw my life’s love die, you still have the hope that your family is alive, somewhere.” Her words were soft and warming.
“There is no hope,” I muttered through the tears.
“Of course there is hope, surviving is the only hope we have left.”
For a moment my eyes cleared and I gazed at this innocent young girl. Lizzie smiled at me and gently touched my cheek but I had no words to say back to her.
I heard her footsteps squelch in the mud as she walked away, I gazed out into the distance from the space she had just vacated. I felt a tingling inside my body and slowly the aching inside my heart began to melt away. A breeze blew across the compound, the tears on my cheeks began to dry and slowly I gazed back up into the sky towards the bright stars.
“I love you,” whispered the voice of a female inside my head. “I love you, daddy,” continued the voice of the child, also inside my head.
The stars began to melt away into the dark sky, until there was complete blackness in my line of sight. I was not aware of anything else around me apart from the dark vision up above.
Gradually in my mind the faces of Rebecca and Amelia formed and for the first time since I sat in that grimy, dirty bedsit I saw them clearly smiling back at me. They were sitting on a wooden bench in a park with the sun shining down. It was as if I stood near enough to see them but far enough away that I couldn’t reach them. Rebecca got up from the bench and walked forward a few inches then stopped.
“We love you,” she said.
“I love you too,” I whispered to myself.
“We need you to stay strong,” Rebecca said with a smile.
“I don’t know if I can,” I said quietly.
“We believe in you.”
“Where are you?” I asked.
“Find us.”
“I don’t know where to begin.”
I closed my eyes and the vision started to disappear from my mind, the voices in my head became quieter and I tried to haul it back, but to no avail. The breeze across the compound stopped.
“You have it in your heart. We believe in you.” Rebecca’s voice echoed around my head.
“Please don’t leave me,” I cried in a whisper. “I love you.”
DIARY ENTRY 34
I knew what I had witnessed in the compound was just a dream, a vision if you like but it still seemed so real to me. Seeing my family in that traumatic induced dream was enough to stir me from my depressing, hopeless thoughts.
Marching into the hut I saw Maria and Lizzie spin round to look at me, probably wondering what I was going to do. Jesse was fast asleep in the bottom bunk. I paused for a moment to wipe the remnants of crying from my cheeks and nodded to both women.
“We can’t stay here,” I said in a matter of fact way.
“Well, I don’t see that we have any choice,” Maria replied.
Lizzie touched Maria on the shoulder and smiled, it was as if she believed I was going to come up with this master plan to break everybody out. To be honest I had no idea what I was going to do, but I did know that with the arrival of the IGS officer we could not stay in the compound.
“So what is the plan?” Lizzie asked.
“Let’s get some rest and we’ll think about it in the morning,” I said not trying to be cagey, I just did not have the first idea of what I was going to do.
Lizzie climbed up onto the top bunk. I gazed over at Maria who snuggled herself into the double bed. For a moment I froze on the spot. I had actually thought I was going to have the top bunk and the two women were going to share the bed, now it became apparent that it was me who would have to share a bed with a woman other than my wife and I did not like this idea.
Rogue Evacuation Page 11