Survivors of the Sun

by Kingslie, Mia

  ‘Tell me we are not staying here,’ Deedee suddenly interjected, looking really quite fierce, ‘cause if we are then...,’

  Rebecca went pale. ‘Stay here? What? Like permanently? We are not doing that are we?’ She turned to stare at Georgia, horror in her eyes.

  Georgia gave an exaggerated shudder. ‘Not a chance, unfortunately it is too late to leave tonight, but believe me, first thing in the morning we are all out of here.’

  ‘Rebecca gave a visible sigh of relief. ‘Thank heavens for that.’

  ‘What about Lola?’ Jamie asked.

  ‘To be honest I am not sure.’ Georgia began, intently rubbing at a resistant spot on one of the tumblers. ‘But it is a …,’

  ‘Who cares?’ Rebecca snapped, ‘if she is that dumb, and anyway, we managed well enough before we met her.’

  ‘I think Georgia might care,’ Jamie said, ‘and if you are honest, I think you care too.’

  ‘Well even if Becky doesn’t care, I do,’ Deedee said, ‘she’s our auntie now, and it’s already decided, we are all going to live in Bethel.’

  Georgia put down the tumbler and turned to face them. ‘Look I know it’s not easy, but Lola has to do what she feels is right for her, whether we like it or not, it is her choice.’ Though she tried to make her voice sound light and breezy, her insides were twisted in knots. The prospect of continuing on without Lola was, to put it bluntly, terrifying.

  Just then the internal door swung open and Tom and Lola, arm in arm, came back into the room. Lola was looking as pleased as a clam at high tide, then her face fell as she caught sight of them.

  ‘Damn you all look so serious, what’s up?’ Did she really not know? Georgia plastered a smile on her face,

  ‘Nothing’s up, we were just wondering where everything goes.’

  Tom came over to the sink. ‘Sorry, that’s my fault, I should have been helping out here,’ as he spoke he pulled open a drawer and fished out a fresh dishcloth. He ignored Georgia’s protests that he had made dinner, and picked up a glass and began polishing it. ‘Making dinner was my pleasure, I am happy to share my supplies with travelers.’

  ‘You are a wonderful cook, thank you,’ Georgia said, then she thought about his choice of words. He had not said, ‘share his table’, he had said ‘share his supplies’. She rinsed off another glass, feeling a little embarrassed. She should have offered some of their supplies in exchange, without having to be prompted by him. But they had so little.

  Then she thought of something. ‘Do you by any chance like anchovies? We have a few cans of those.’ She went over to the shopping caddy, now less than half full and fished out the cans, holding one up to show him as she stacked them on the sideboard.

  ‘I do indeed,’ he said, ‘if you are sure you can spare them, you don’t seem to have a lot of food.’ Maybe she had misread him? Either way, she wasn’t going to tell him that the only reason she would be parting with them, was because none of them could stomach the thought of eating them. Personally she would rather eat nettles.

  ‘It’s my pleas…,’ she began when suddenly Tom barked out, ‘what do you think you are doing?’

  At first she thought he was talking to her, then she realized it had to be one of the children. She turned to see who he was addressing. Deedee stood there, glaring at Tom, the large dish of scraps in her hands. ‘I am feeding the dogs.’

  ‘Not in here, and not in that bowl. Dogs have diseases, take them outside and feed them on the grass.’

  Mentally Georgia threw up her arms, of course they do! Everyone knows that.

  Lola hurried over. ‘Good idea, I’ll help, and you come too Rebecca.’

  ‘That’s silly, we don’t need three people to feed the dogs,’ Deedee said.

  ‘Of course we do, there are three dogs!’

  Rebecca and Deedee exchanged a look that said, ‘Lola’s really lost it this time,’ and then shrugging their shoulders, followed her outside.

  Tom however did not seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. He was talking again.

  ‘Sorry what did you say?’ Georgia asked.

  ‘Once you are done in here, I can show you where your rooms are, if you like?’

  Georgia shook her head. She had been thinking about the steel plates in the doors and the bullet proof glass. She knew the idea was to keep people out, but that worked both ways and it seemed to her that it would be all too easy to be trapped inside if things went wrong. Or heaven forbid, if someone didn’t want them to leave! Sleeping out of doors had its advantages and if there was a problem, they could always slip away into the darkness unheeded.

  ‘You know, it’s a lovely evening, I think we would be all quite happy to sleep down on the covered jetty, if it’s all the same with you, and Ruby can sleep on one of those comfy sofas.’

  Jamie who had been leaning against the counter, behind Tom, made an enthusiastic double thumbs up sign and it was everything Georgia could do to remain straight faced as Tom shrugged his shoulders.

  ‘Whatever you prefer, but if you change your mind, just let me know.’ He pulled out his pocket watch, and flipped it open. ‘It’s getting late, so I will say goodnight…,’

  ‘Oh,’ Georgia interrupted, ‘I meant to ask you earlier, what is the correct time?’ As she spoke she hurriedly dried her hands and took off her watch. ‘I forgot to wind mine and…,’

  He chuckled. ‘Happens to the best of us, well not to me, I would never forget to wind it, but that’s me, a stickler for methodology, and it’s now…,’ he paused, holding a finger up, then dropped it, ‘exactly three minutes past ten.’

  She moved over to the candles on the table, squinting at the dial as she pulled out the winder, and carefully moved the hands round. ‘Not bad, I was only twelve minutes out.’

  ‘Did you use a sun dial?’

  She looked at him feeling a little sheepish, um, no actually I just waited till it got dark. I keep a journal and most nights, if I remember, I write down when it gets dark.’

  He smiled at her. ‘Sun dial is more accurate, do you know how to set one up?’ She nodded trying to look wise. In fact she had never even seen one, let alone set one up, but she was loathe to have him explain it all to her.

  ‘I know how to set one up as well,’ Jamie said. Great, Jamie could show her sometime, if it ever became necessary.

  ‘Excellent, excellent,’ Tom said. He suddenly seemed distracted. ‘Anyway I will say goodnight now, I have things I need to attend to, feel free to come up to the house in the morning. We are early risers.’ And then, without waiting for them to reply he left the kitchen.

  Georgia and Jamie finished cleaning the kitchen, putting the last of the crockery away and wiping down the benches. Bryce returned briefly, dropping a load of wood next to the woodstove and then disappeared once more into the darkness.

  ‘Did you want to join him?’ Georgia asked.

  Jamie rolled his shoulders. ‘Not really, he is a bit odd.’

  ‘How so?’

  ‘He’s really into hunting and stuff like that.’

  Georgia puzzled at his answer. They were all ‘into’ hunting. It was a necessary part of life. ‘And?’

  ‘He enjoys it, not the hunting itself, but you know, he like, enjoys the killing part.’

  ‘Oh,’ was all Georgia could think to say. While they hunted and fished, none of them, not even Deedee, who was still too young to fully comprehend death, actually liked that part of it, they just did their best not to think too closely about it.

  When the candles began to gutter out, they gathered up most of their belongings, shook Ruby awake, and made their way down towards the Jetty. They found Lola and the girls near where they had stored the canoes, huddled together deep in conversation, the dogs sitting at their feet, bellies round. The serving dish lay on the grass, gleaming in the pale moonlight and obviously licked clean. That Deedee!

  ‘Wondered where you were,’ Georgia said as she reached them. Lola started at her words, and all three looked up,
an odd expression on their faces, almost a guilty look, she decided, or perhaps it was simply that they had not heard their approach.

  ‘What’s up?’ she asked.

  ‘Nothing,’ they chorused, and then Lola added after the briefest of pauses, ‘just talking about Tom.’

  ‘Oh okay, well Tom (she nearly said your Tom), said goodnight, said he had to do some stuff. It’s settled that we are sleeping down on the jetty. So if you can grab the last of the gear, I will get Ruby settled.’

  ‘Sure thing,’ Lola said, and as Jamie, Ruby and Georgia headed on down the path she heard Rebecca say, ‘I don’t know if we should…,’ before Deedee hissed, ‘keep your voice down, ‘we don’t want…,’ and then they were out of earshot.

  They were obviously up to something, but suddenly Georgia was too tired to care. She just hoped they would not take too long so that one of them, hopefully Lola could take the first watch.

  The dogs had followed them down, they had sense enough to understand that they needed to go where ever the packs went. Ant clamored fretfully to get into her bag, as she settled Ruby onto one of the sofas, then helped her pin in her curlers.

  By the time Rebecca and Deedee returned, carrying the last of the gear and tugging the shopping caddy behind them, Georgia had set up the sleeping bags and bolstered them with all of the spare pillows and cushions.

  ‘Where’s Lola?’

  Rebecca shrugged and Georgia barely caught the movement in the shadows. ‘She went to say goodnight to Tom.’

  ‘I bet she is doing the kissy, kissy thing,’ Deedee whispered, as Millie circled three times on the bedding then flopped down against her legs, sighing deeply. Badger was already fast asleep, snoring loudly, and Ant was curled up under Georgia’s chin, bristling with indignation at the racket Badger was making.

  ‘Who?’ Rebecca asked, clearly already half asleep.

  ‘Lola, you dummy, who else would I be talking about?’ Deedee giggled, as she made sloppy kissing sounds against the palm of her hand. ‘She’s going mwah, mwah, mwah.’

  ‘You think?’ Jamie asked.

  ‘Yeah,’ Deedee enthused, ‘she’s been making goo goo eyes at him all day.’

  Georgia imagined that is exactly what she was doing, and much more, and why not, she was single after all, and even if she hadn’t been, the world had changed. Who knew what was waiting for any of them.

  Oddly she found herself thinking not of Nathan, but of Jack. There had been an attraction between them that they had both ignored, but perhaps if they had known how it was really going to be they might have…, she stopped the thought dead in its tracks. She was a married woman.

  Irritated with herself she slipped out of the makeshift bed, leaving Ant to continue bristling amongst the covers. It had been foolish anyway, to lay down. Someone needed to stay awake and keep watch.

  Feeling her way over to the swing, she sat down, immediately regretting the absence of the cushions as the ridges of the wicker weave dug into the back of her thighs. She swatted at a bug that settled in her hair, unable to help herself from remembering that surreal afternoon she had shared with Jack; his kindness and concern, the gentleness of his hands as he showed her how to load and unload the shotgun.

  She shook her head, forcing herself to think of other things, like Tom for example. Tom and the way he had set up this place. All the thought that had gone into his survival plan and yet he seemed to ignore the basics. He had an armory full of weapons, at least that is what he had told her and yet he had nothing at hand to protect himself or the huge stores of food he had talked about. He had invited them ashore, and allowed her to remain armed, without knowing the first thing about them.

  For all his scientific knowledge, he definitely lacked street smarts and clearly did not understand that people who were starving could and would do anything to survive. As for the ridiculous idea of securing the boundaries with steel fencing yet leaving the entire front of the property open and accessible, well that was just asking for trouble. And even Ruby had worked out you only needed a ladder to get over them.

  But there were somethings she had learned. The winter gardens, dug eight feet into the ground and covered with clear plastic. That was something she would definitely consider doing once they were settled. Vegetables all year round would be a plus.

  It would have been well after two in the morning when Lola came back, silent as a shadow. Georgia had just woken Jamie and Deedee to take over the watch.

  ‘Have fun?’ Georgia whispered as they settled down to sleep.

  ‘You could say that,’ Lola said, ‘but not a book I would read twice.’

  ‘Oh?’ Georgia said, ‘so does that mean you are not staying here?’

  ‘Staying here? Whatever gave you that idea? The man is all hat and no cattle, of course I am not staying here.’

  Georgia didn’t really understand what she meant about the hat and the cattle, she would ask her in the morning, but even so she felt a warm glow of relief flood through her at Lola’s words. They would not be travelling on without her!

  ‘Good,’ Georgia said, trying to hide the pleasure in her voice, just thought you were being real flirty with him so thought…, well anyway all is good.’

  ‘Georgia girl, I reckon you need to learn that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, and not everything is as it seems. But I can assure you for now, the lid of this honeypot has been firmly sealed shut.’

  Georgia pondered this mixture of sayings and similes, trying to figure out what Lola meant, but before she could succeed she had fallen asleep.

  Chapter Fifty Three

  August 19th, Day 40

  It was not even light yet when Georgia felt a gentle touch on her shoulder. She sat up instantly awake, as Deedee’s sat back on her heels, a shadowy form in the pre-dawn gloom. ‘Tom was just here, he says we are to come up to the house, breakfast is ready.’

  Instantly alert, she sat up, running her fingers through her hair. He wasn’t kidding when he said they were early risers.

  ‘Okay then,’ she said, ‘let’s get moving.’

  While the others were getting ready, Georgia woke Ruby, and conscious that they should not let their host wait too long, she managed to persuade her that it would be perfectly fine to go up to breakfast with her hair still in curlers. They could bathe and change after they had eaten.

  Breakfast consisted of freshly baked rolls, canned butter, three kinds of fruit jelly and two soft boiled eggs each. ‘From our own chickens,’ Tom said proudly as they sat down. ‘Help yourself to coffee or tea and there is plenty of milk, though that’s not fresh unfortunately. It’s made up from powdered milk, it seemed more practical than taking on goats or a cow.’

  Rebecca made a strange choking sound and Lola and Deedee glared at her.

  ‘You okay?’ she asked.

  ‘Yeah, I just had something go down the wrong way.’

  ‘These rolls are really very good,’ Ruby said, filling the silence that had descended upon the room. ‘The chef is to be commended.’

  ‘That would be me,’ Tom said, smiling over at her.

  ‘Indeed? Then you are to be commended.’

  Georgia cracked open the top of her first egg. ‘So tell me something, how come you are not armed?’ She had to ask, the question had been going round and round in her mind.

  Tom raised his eyebrows. ‘Armed? I think that would be a little premature, I can see why you feel you need protection,’ he said, cocking his head towards her own weapon slung over the back of her chair, ‘especially in light of what you have told me about your journey, but down here there has been no real trouble.’

  Georgia was surprised. ‘So no looting, or fighting down here at all?’

  Tom looked at her for a moment, almost as though he were perplexed by the whole idea, yet he was the one who had gone to great lengths explaining how the solar flares could create havoc in the human mind, making them crazy, making them violent.

  ‘Uh no, not really.’


  ‘What about what Josie told us?’ Bryce asked.

  Tom looked at his son thoughtfully for a moment, then nodded. ‘Yes there was that. There was one spot of unrest that we know of, but that was much further north. Josie, who my son just mentioned, owns the next block, she related something her cousin had witnessed. He trekked down the beginning of last week I think it was, or was it…, well anyway…, apparently he passed a small settlement on his way down that had been attacked. A few houses were burnt down, a couple of people killed by the looks of it, food and supplies taken.’

  ‘Do they have any idea who did it?’ Lola asked?

  ‘Not a clue, nevertheless whoever was responsible, did not come from here and I just can’t imagine that it would ever happen in this district. We all get on so well with each other.’ Then he added as an afterthought, ‘we watch each other’s back and if such a thing did happen it wouldn’t take long to arm ourselves.’

  Georgia looked from Lola to Tom and back again, listening as they spoke to each other. Were these really the same two people that had flirted and teased each other yesterday? Now they spoke to each other like strangers that had just met, polite and friendly and thankfully without any obvious tension.

  ‘You seem very certain of that,’ Lola said as she poured herself another cup of coffee.

  ‘I am and as I said, that’s the only news we’ve had of any sort of violence, aside from what you have told me.’

  He smiled as he spoke, but somehow he made it sound as though he didn’t entirely believe what they had shared with him. She couldn’t help remembering how fast things had gone wrong when the mob had attacked their street, and subsequently burned down their house. The reality was, that there would have been no time to go down into the basement, unlock the gun safe, select a weapon, and find the correct ammunition.

  She looked at Tom, trying to understand his logic and suddenly she just wanted to leave. She made a show of looking at her watch. ‘Well we really must be off, long way to go today. Thank you ever so much for your hospitality.’ She spoke abruptly, but she couldn’t help herself.