After they’d eaten Jamie went out to the car with Jane to bring in the things for Bill and Emma, while they cleared the plates and cups away. Emma nudged Bill then smiled and winked at him.
‘What?’ said Bill.
‘Jane and Jamie… You know…’
‘What?’ he repeated, looking baffled.
Emma rolled her eyes and shook her head. ‘They’ve become lovers since they were last here, you idiot! It’s obvious.’
‘Is it? How d’you know?’ Bill looked bemused.
‘Because I’m a woman and women notice these things, whereas men are hopeless at it! It’s obvious; their whole body language is different- the way they look at each other and interact has changed.’
Bill smiled. ‘Well, I’ll take your word for it, love; but good for them.’
Jane came back in carrying a few boxes and asked if Bill could go out to help Jamie. Bill said ‘Yes, of course’ and went out. Jane unpacked the boxes and showed Emma what she’d got for her. Emma was touched and very appreciative; she gave Jane a hug and thanked her.
‘Also,’ Jane said, ‘I got these for Sally; I hope you don’t mind.’ She unpacked the other sanitary products aimed at younger women. ‘I didn’t know if she was old enough yet to need them, but I thought it couldn’t hurt.’
Emma brushed back a tear. ‘Oh, bless you, Jane; that was thoughtful of you. Well, she’s not there yet, but I’m sure it won’t be long.’
Bill and Jamie came back in with the last of the boxes and Bill was appreciative of the things for him and the kids, thanking them both. He showed Emma what they’d been given and she thanked them both again. Jamie had saved the shotgun until last as a surprise for Bill and took him back out to the car. He reached behind the seat, pulled out the shotgun and held it out to Bill.
‘Wow! Nice gun, Jamie. That’ll do you a treat, that will.’
‘No, it’s for you, Bill!’
‘For me?’ he said, surprised.
‘Yes. I knew you only had the one gun, so I thought this would be good for you to have as a second gun… or as a first gun, come to that!’
Bill turned it over in his hands and hefted it, a big grin on his face. He was delighted and thanked Jamie. ‘Nice balance,’ he said, putting it up to his shoulder.
‘It’s got auto-ejectors and you can select which barrel fires first, so you can have a different load in each barrel if you want,’ said Jamie. Bill commented that it might be a bit complicated for him to maintain, but Jamie smiled and said ‘I thought of that, too.’ He reached inside again and handed Bill the service manual for the gun, along with a carrying bag and ten boxes of cartridges in varying shot sizes. Bill grinned, thanking him again, and they went back inside, where he showed it to Emma.
Sally was sitting at the table with a can of soda and a packet of crisps; she thanked them both politely and they said she was very welcome. Max was lying in a warm spot by the range, gnawing on a bone that Emma had given him and then Phil and Sophie came in from working on the farm. They greeted Jane and Jamie then sat down at the table, while Emma made a huge pot of tea for them all and put out a plate of homemade biscuits and some cake. They all sat chatting for an hour or so and then Bill had a thought and asked them what guns they’d brought with them. Jamie said they had a sawn-off and an over/under.
‘Well, I was just thinking;’ Bill said, ‘if you stop off at the field down the road for some pheasant you’ll want a long gun. The sawn-off won’t be any good at distance. Trouble is; with just one gun you might only get one bird before the others scatter. If I come down with you we stand a good chance of getting at least two, maybe three birds for you to take back. It’ll be a good opportunity for me to try out the new gun, too. We could go now before it gets late.’
They thought it was a great idea and thanked him. Bill said they could drop him at the bottom of the drive afterwards to save them coming back up to the house, so they said their goodbyes in the kitchen. Emma hugged them both and thanked them again for the gifts and they promised to come back again soon. Bill swapped the two AAA cartridges in his gun for a smaller shot size and put more into his pockets.
Jamie put the back seats up again and Bill got in, with Max on his blanket beside him as the rear load area was full, then they waved to everyone and drove off down the track. They turned left onto the road and Bill directed them to the spot by the oak tree.
‘Who’s the better shot between you?’ asked Bill.
Jamie admitted that Jane was and he just nodded. They got out, closing the doors quietly, and climbed up the bank. Max was quivering with excitement but completely silent and Jane patted him and whispered Good boy! Bill held up his hand for them to wait while he went forward a couple of yards through the bushes and peered round the tree trunk.
He came back shortly and spoke quietly. ‘There are four birds about seventy yards out, roughly in a line. Jane, you take the left two and I’ll take the right. We want to fire the first shots together so we get them on the ground. The others will take off and scatter; be prepared to shift your aim straight away and we can try for them next. Aim just slightly ahead of the ones in flight. Jamie, you count us down so we shoot together.’ They both nodded.
They crept forward to the edge of the bushes by the tree, just far enough clear of the foliage so they wouldn’t snag. They knelt down, raised the guns to their shoulders and took aim, and then both said ‘Ready’. Jamie counted them down from three and they both fired together. The first two pheasants went straight down and the other two took to the air in panic. Bill’s two shots- him being an experienced shooter- were under two seconds apart and his second bird went down before it had gone a couple of yards. Jane’s second shot took a couple of seconds longer while she shifted aim and she narrowly missed the bird, but they did see a couple of tail feathers fly off and float down.
‘Go Max!’ said Jamie and Max shot off like a sprinter from the starting blocks. He raced out, picked up the first bird and brought it back then went back for the other two. He dropped the last one at Jamie’s feet then sat there wagging his tail as if to say Can we play some more? They both patted him, saying Good boy Max! Good boy! Jamie gave him a couple of dog-treats from his pocket.
‘Bloody good shooting, Jane!’ said Bill. ‘You were unlucky with your second shot.’ She looked disappointed that she hadn’t got both, but Bill said ‘It’s not easy taking a bird in flight, especially as this is your first time. If it’s any consolation; at this range and with the spread of shot your barrel was probably less than half an inch off target. That’s pretty good for a newbie!’ Jane smiled and thanked him, feeling somewhat consoled.
They picked up the birds and climbed back down the bank to the car. Jamie opened the door and Max jumped in then he put the three pheasants in a bag on the floor. Bill was admiring his shotgun and reloading it.
‘Excellent gun, Jamie! Thanks again, mate; I love it. I’m going to enjoy using this.’ Jamie smiled and said ‘No problem, Bill.’
They turned round at the next available spot then drove Bill back to the bottom of his drive. He kissed Jane and shook Jamie warmly by the hand, thanking them again and hoping to see them soon. He put the barrier back in place and waved goodbye as they drove off. They took a slow drive back and Jamie rested his hand on her leg; she looked across at him and smiled.
‘You did really well back there,’ he said. ‘I don’t mind admitting I might not even have got the first one. You’re a natural, and I need to practise more!’
Jane smiled. ‘Well, you know, some of us women have just got it!’ They looked at each other and laughed and Max barked loudly from the back.
They arrived home after stopping off to check the snares and picking up one rabbit, parked the BMW in Jane’s garage then carried the remaining boxes of things into the bungalow. They could sort out what was going into each house later. They usually cooked and ate in Jamie’s kitchen, but tonight they decided to cook on the range in Jane’s kitchen for a change. They prepared a rabbit c
asserole between them, with sea beet and sea kale along with other tinned vegetables, lentils and some herbs. Jamie lit a fire in the lounge and they sat on the sofa with a glass of brandy each, with Max sprawled on the carpet in front of the fire. While the food cooked they chatted about the day and how nice it had been to surprise Bill and Emma with their visit and the things they’d taken for them.
After they’d eaten and washed up Jamie went outside for a smoke and sat down on a patio chair after wiping it dry. He sipped his brandy and listened to the waves breaking on the beach. The night sky was clear and full of stars after the rain had passed and he leaned back, looking up at the inky blackness. There was no longer any light pollution from human habitation and he was seeing it just as people would have done three hundred or three hundred thousand years before. Jane came out and stood behind him, placing her hands on his shoulders. He reached up and touched her hand.
‘You know something, Jane? Only a short time ago I was feeling pretty ambivalent about whether I lived or died, after everything that’s happened. For a long time I thought what’s the point? But something made me carry on regardless and I just kept on surviving and doing stuff… And now, since meeting you, I feel differently. It’s so much better now there are two of us to share everything. There seems to be a reason to carry on; to live, to love, to help and support each other… I guess it’s just human nature. And now there are Bill and Emma and the kids, too.’
‘I know what you mean. I felt similar things, too, though I don’t think I ever felt any ambivalence towards staying alive. For me, it was always a case of I must survive, though I don’t really know why. I just felt that I had to. I think maybe I still had some small hope that, despite the odds, I might meet someone to share things with that would make life easier and more pleasurable under the circumstances.’
‘And you have!’ he said, looking up at her with a smile. ‘Well, I think I’m going to turn in and get an early night.’
‘Will you stay here tonight? I’d like to just lie there and hold each other.’ Jamie said he’d like that, too, so they closed the place up and left Max in the lounge by the fire. They left the kitchen door open so he had access to his water bowl and went upstairs.
They lay there holding each other for over an hour before eventually falling asleep; occasionally talking quietly but mostly silent. After months of seeing nothing but death and rotting corpses the pleasure of lying next to another warm body was immeasurable. They took comfort in the physical contact and felt a sense of healing from their grief and their worries.
Seventeen
The weeks flew past for them as spring moved into summer. As the weather improved and the temperature increased, their crops started to shoot up and they were busier than ever in the garden. By early summer they were eating fresh mixed-leaf salads every day. Their beans, peas and spring onions had done well generally and they were already harvesting them, too. They had to experiment a bit with different preserving techniques; not without their share of failures. Their first attempt at lacto-fermentation with some young beans didn’t work out and they had to throw away the first few jars after they went mouldy. They realised what they had done wrong and the second batch was good, though they had to wait a few weeks to find that out.
Once they knew what they were doing with the process they set to work with the peas and the beans. They also cooked up many vegetable dishes with sugar, vinegar and spices, much as they had been doing with the meat dishes, and heat-treated them in the preserving jars so they would keep for long periods. They ate as much fresh produce as they could, picking things as and when they needed them; any surplus they might not get through in time was preserved for the winter.
They got into a routine of working in the garden, going out fishing when conditions allowed, and checking and relocating the rabbit snares on a regular basis. They found new locations to lay them with Max’s invaluable help and rotated the snares between them all. Max had put on weight and was back to his normal size and fitness level. They tended not to do much hunting using the guns as they wanted to preserve their ammunition, but whenever they were out and saw a pheasant they would shoot it for the pot or to preserve.
Another regular, but time-consuming and tiresome task was the washing of clothes and bed-linen. They had tried washing things in the sea but everything dried salty and sticky and made things uncomfortable. Instead, they had to drive just over two miles to the rivers and streams along Sluice Lane, near the golf course. It wasn’t ideal because of debris and weeds, but after the second time Jane had the bright idea of breaking into the leisure centre at the retail park and using the swimming pool to do their washing, which was far easier and also cleaner. The water was chlorinated and still fresh, and they bathed themselves at the same time.
As it got warmer more fish moved into the shallower coastal waters and they had better success fishing, eating fresh fish on the day it was caught and preserving any surplus. They usually smoked or pickled the oily fish like mackerel, while the white fish were either salted and dried or cooked and sealed in preserving jars. They visited the other smaller supermarkets and food shops near them, where they broke into the warehouses or storerooms behind the stores and found further stocks of food and drink, along with other useful items. They collected large amounts of salt, vinegar, sugar and oil for preserving food, which would last them a long time. They also put out many containers of sea water to evaporate so they could collect the salt and bag it for future use. The empty areas of both gardens were full of different-coloured plastic bowls and dishes containing evaporating seawater.
As the herbs in their gardens grew bigger they harvested them on a daily basis for extra flavouring in their cooking and preserving. Now that fresh salads and vegetables were becoming available they didn’t need to use tinned produce as much, and their diet became better and far more pleasurable. Nettles had shot up in many gardens near them, which they picked sometimes and added to soups and casseroles for extra vitamins and minerals.
It was by no means an easy time for them, though, and for every few successes there was a failure or setback of some sort. They sometimes went for several days without getting any rabbits: either of them would come back empty-handed from checking the snares and shake their head, looking despondent. On the days when it was calm enough to take the boat out Jamie sometimes would sit there fishing for several hours without catching anything. At these times they had to make do with tinned produce as they were reluctant to use the preserved food that they were storing for winter. Sometimes, if they’d had a few days without catching any fish or rabbits, they had to go out hunting for pheasant with the guns, which was time-consuming and sometimes unsuccessful. Occasionally they got ducks from Egerton Park, though the birds there were becoming scarcer and more wary. They also lost some salads and vegetables in the gardens to pests, and not everything grew as well as they’d hoped. Covering things with fine mesh netting helped in the fight against pests, and they wished they had done it sooner.
It was frustrating for them frequently: they tried to stay optimistic but the failures, losses and setbacks often got them down and they would snap at each other, then apologise and make up. They had been aware that survival and self-sufficiency would be difficult, but the reality was far harder than they had imagined and it was a full-time occupation. Before the plague, if you tried growing food and it didn’t work out you could always go to the supermarket and buy fresh produce; it was very different, though, when what you grew was all you had.
Between May and the middle of June they made a few more visits to Bill and Emma. They would have liked to have gone more often, but had lots of things to do on a regular basis. Bill and Emma were delighted to see them and on each occasion they would stay for lunch and chat for a few hours, always coming away with a small gift of eggs, cheese or milk. Bill loved his new shotgun and it had become his first gun.
On the morning of one of their intended visits, Jamie had a fantastic couple of hours fishing, bringing h
ome four bass, two pouting and sixteen mackerel. He always took out two or three rods with different rigs set up, one usually being for mackerel; he hit a shoal and was pulling them out two or three at a time before the shoal moved on. They took one of the larger bass and four mackerel for their friends, who were very grateful as they didn’t have fish these days. Bill and Emma noticed the change in them as they grew closer, and also that they looked generally happier and more confident due to successes in their endeavours. They also saw when things weren’t going so well due to setbacks and failures, when the couple would appear tired and not their usual selves.
By the middle of June, though, their cupboards and shelves were slowly filling up with preserved food for the coming winter and they realised they were going to need more preserving jars. They visited the retail park and found some in three stores there, but they needed more, and Jamie remembered that there was a kitchen shop in Battle. They were a bit reluctant to go back there after their last encounter, but they reasoned that they had weapons, and if they were quick and careful there shouldn’t be a problem. It was a case of having to go, as they needed as many preserving jars as they could get. They agreed that if they got there and things looked dodgy they’d turn round and come back.
They took two shotguns- a sawn-off and an over/under- plus a hunting rifle, and Jamie had the Smith and Wesson in a homemade holster on his belt, made from an old leather bag he’d found in a charity shop. They had practiced more with the rifles and Jamie had become far more proficient, while Jane had become an excellent shot. They drove to Battle in the Toyota pickup and stopped by the Abbey, waiting there for a couple of minutes and looking up the high street with binoculars. Max could sense some tension in them; he whined quietly and Jamie stroked him. There was a red pickup parked in the road further up the hill, but no sign of anyone around. They drove slowly up the high street, then turned the truck around in the road and parked outside the kitchen shop, facing downhill. Jamie went inside while Jane stood on guard with the rifle in her hands and the shotguns within easy reach in the cab. Just in case anything happened, she put a lead on Max and tied it to the grab-handle above the passenger door as she didn’t want him running off. He could sense something was wrong as his hackles were up and he was whining again; Jane stroked him and he licked her hand.
The Hoffmann Plague Page 15