Twenty-nine
The weather started to change as autumn took hold: the temperature dropped, the wind increased and the leaves on the trees turned to beautiful hues of gold and bronze before starting to fall. The area surrounding the farm was dotted with small woods and copses and looked very picturesque. They would all take a day off from their work now and then, and Jamie, Jane and Megan began exploring the countryside around the farm to get to know the area. Megan’s wounds and head injury were fully healed by then and her dizzy spells and nausea had stopped. Max always accompanied them and they found new places to lay snares for rabbits.
They always took an Ordnance Survey map with them and Jamie started teaching Megan map-reading skills. He showed her how to use a compass to navigate and how to read the land’s topography from the map. Jane, while admitting to be no expert, had a fair knowledge of herbs and plants and would stop now and then to show them a particular plant when they came across one that she knew. It wasn’t the best time of year for it, though, as most things were now dying back for the winter. On one such walk they came across a small copse that hadn’t been managed for decades at least. Jamie had done some conservation work years before and had learned a bit about woodland management.
‘Do you see here, Megan, where the trees all have multiple trunks coming out from the base?’ Megan nodded. ‘Well, this is called coppicing. It’s a way of managing the woodland, both to keep it under control and to provide wood for many uses. It’s been done in Britain for thousands of years, but not so much in recent times.’ She asked how it was spelled and wrote it in the notebook she carried with her.
‘Many deciduous trees were coppiced, such as hazel, ash, sweet chestnut, birch and willow. The tree is cut back to its base at regular intervals, causing lots of new shoots to grow. Those new shoots grow up straight and when the time is right they are cut down and harvested to make fencing, firewood, stakes, tools and many other things. And then the shoots grow again and the whole process is repeated.’
‘How long does it take for them to grow back?’ Megan asked.
‘That depends on the type of tree, and the uses people had for the wood,’ he answered. ‘It could be a three, five or seven year rotation for some trees, or longer for slower-growing varieties. They would coppice one area per year and then move on to the next place the following year. Eventually they’d develop a cycle where there was wood to be harvested every year. A tree that’s coppiced regularly will never die of old age because it’s continually regenerating.’
Megan found this interesting and said she would read up on it from the books they had at home. Jamie wondered aloud if it was something they should start doing to provide wood in years to come and Jane agreed.
The work back at the farm had continued and within two weeks of them moving in the stable was finished. They hadn’t known how many horses they should cater for, but they had built six stalls in the barn, each with its own gate and water trough. They made several trips to Sarah and Georgie’s place to help them gather more hay and straw from the farms near them, which would be shared out between them. There were other farms in the area around Hooe where they found more stocks as well. In early November they made further trips into Bexhill to collect more timber and materials for storing at the farm, visiting all the DIY stores and builders’ merchants in the town.
In addition to the equipment the sisters had already got for them, they also visited an equestrian centre not far from the farm, where they picked up other equipment and sundry supplies. There were carcases of several dead horses in the stables there; whether they had died of the plague or of dehydration from being trapped they didn’t know. From damage to some of the stalls, though, it looked like some horses had managed to escape, and they found six roaming in the surrounding fields. They went home and returned with a bag of apples and carrots and the horses came to feed from them. Even though they didn’t plan to take any back to the farm just yet they wanted the horses to get to know them and get used to being around people again.
In the second week of November they made two trips to Sarah and Georgie’s and brought back the two horses and the pony that the sisters had got for them. Once the horses had settled into their new surroundings they took them out for short rides in the fields around the farm. Bill and Emma had ridden often in recent years, and it didn’t take long for Jane to get back into the swing of it. Jamie was unsure at first, though, and felt uncomfortable.
‘I think I prefer my horsepower to be under the bonnet of a vehicle!’ he said one day, and they smiled at him and chuckled.
‘Don’t worry, mate, you’ll soon get the hang of it,’ Bill replied.
Jane had to resist laughing at the sight of him sitting there on the horse looking terrified, but was understanding with him. At night, though, when they were alone together, she would tease him playfully about it. The cart was repaired by Bill and Jamie and they trained both horses to pull it, in the yard at first and then on short road trips nearby. Sarah and Georgie came over on several occasions to help out and to check they were doing things correctly.
Jamie, Jane and Megan also became involved in the daily running of the farm and helping to tend to the animals, although that was primarily Phil and Sophie’s role. They got to know them a lot better during this time and the young couple would come over in the evenings for a drink and a chat. On their many visits during the year, prior to moving there, Phil and Sophie had usually been busy around the farm and they hadn’t had the chance to get to know them as well as they would have liked.
In mid-November they drove into Bexhill to collect salt from the bungalow and refill the containers, and then went to visit Matt and Zoe to see how they were settling in. They had made one trip back two weeks before to collect the salt, but hadn’t had time to visit them then. The couple were delighted to see them and invited them inside. Jane introduced Jamie to them and they all shook hands.
‘I’m sorry we haven’t come sooner,’ said Jane, ‘but we’ve been really busy with things back at the farm.’
‘That’s okay,’ said Zoe, smiling, ‘we understand. We’ve been pretty busy ourselves as well.’
They went through to the large kitchen, which was lovely and warm from the Aga. Matt made coffee for them while Zoe showed them around and then they sat at the kitchen table chatting. Matt asked them how they were settling in at the farm and they told them what they had been up to, with building the stables and getting the horses. It turned out Matt and Zoe hadn’t known about fuel deterioration, and that vehicles might be unusable within a few months.
‘Bloody hell!’ said Matt. ‘I had no idea. That’s a real shock to us. How long have you known?’
‘We found out at the end of June or early July, I think,’ Jamie replied, glancing at Jane for confirmation and she nodded. ‘Our friends Sarah and Georgie told us about it, from research their father had done before he died. To be honest, we hadn’t thought about it before that, either. We’ve been planning for it ever since. I must add, though, that this isn’t set in stone; there wasn’t much in the way of hard data on it, apparently. It’s possible that the remaining fuel might last much longer and we may have use of vehicles for another year, but we didn’t want to take any chances.’
They told the couple they had been making trips to gather anything they might need for the future while they still had usable vehicles. Matt and Zoe said they should do the same thing as soon as possible, in case they did lose the vehicles. As their motorhome was rather uneconomical, Jane suggested they break into some houses nearby to get the keys to other vehicles they could use, to which they agreed.
The couple had been using the snares Jane had given them, but it had taken many attempts before catching any rabbits. They’d been to Sainsbury’s warehouse and some smaller supermarkets and stocked up on provisions, for which they thanked Jane again, and had also visited the gun store near Hastings. They now had three of the smaller 20-bore shotguns and had shot some rabbits, ducks and pigeons with them.
They had prepared the garden for planting vegetables and had sown seeds in pots in the conservatory for planting out when they were big enough. They had a water butt outside that collected run-off from the roof, which they were filtering and boiling, much as Jane and Jamie had done. Jamie asked them if they had bikes and they said they did, so he told them about the rack and paniers he had made to carry water for his own bike, but had never got to use.
Matt smiled. ‘Great minds think alike! I’ve built a trailer that fits onto the bike and it can hold a couple of large water containers. I’ve taken it to Egerton Park to test and it works fine.’
He took Jamie out to the garage to show him and Jamie was impressed and said what a great job he’d made of it. When they got back to the kitchen Luke and Amber came in from walking on the beach. They said hello to the visitors and Luke said they had found a boat on the beach, going back towards town.
‘Yes,’ said Jamie, ‘that’s ours. I converted it to a rowing-boat earlier in the year and have been using it for fishing when the weather was good. You’re welcome to borrow it when it’s calm enough, but it’s not the right weather for it now. All we ask is that you put it back in the same place and tie it up securely, with the tarp over the top. We plan to come back to the bungalow for fishing trips in the spring when it’s warmer.’
They both thanked them and Matt said he would go to the fishing tackle shop in Sackville Road soon to stock up on gear. He planned on getting beach-casting rods as well to be able to fish from the beach until the weather became good enough to take the boat out. Megan had brought Max’s ball so she and the twins took him outside to play with him.
When they had gone Zoe turned to Jane. ‘Would you mind expanding on the troubles you hinted at when we met by the railway, please? I feel the need to know.’
Jane told them everything: being shot and nearly gang-raped by the three thugs, then being saved by Jamie; the two incidents in Battle and Megan’s shooting three months earlier. The couple were shocked and horrified by what they heard. Matt said how glad they were to have shotguns now, and both said how pleased they were that Megan was okay.
‘Well, I don’t think you should get hooked-up on it,’ said Jane, ‘but just be aware when you’re out and about, that’s all. You can’t take anything for granted now, and make sure you check stores and warehouses before going inside; we always stand outside listening for a minute first. I know we haven’t seen any more survivors in Bexhill, but they could come in from other areas. I mean, for all we know, there might still be other people left in the surrounding countryside who could make their way here. I’m not saying they’re going to be hostile or dangerous, but they’re likely to be wary and on edge, like I was when we met. And… I know it’s horrible to think about, but you’ve got to be prepared to use those guns on people if it comes to it, to protect yourselves.’ Zoe and Matt looked mortified at the prospect.
‘Jane’s right,’ said Jamie. ‘You mustn’t dwell on it, but you’ve got to be aware of the possibility. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. If someone had told me a year ago that I was going to kill four people in the space of five months this year, I’d have said they were crazy! But you do what you have to do when the time comes.’
Jamie looked down and Jane reached over and put her hand on his. It went quiet for a while as the couple thought about what they’d been told. Matt looked at Jamie with fresh eyes; it was hard to imagine this nice, unassuming man having killed four people. Zoe broke the silence and asked them if they would stay for lunch. Knowing the couple weren’t set up properly yet and were still living from tinned produce, they thanked them but declined the offer, saying they had things to do, but secretly not wanting to use up their supplies.
They sat and talked for half an hour longer and then called Megan back from the garden. Jane gave them directions to the farm and said they were welcome to visit, or if they needed help with anything. They were appreciative and thanked them both warmly for the visit and for the advice. Jane and Zoe hugged and Matt and Jamie shook hands, saying they hoped to see each other again soon. On the way home they agreed that Zoe and Matt were very nice and they could see the friendship developing over time. They also thought the couple needed to wise-up a bit more about surviving in the world they were now living in!
By the end of November they had collected two more horses from the fields by the equestrian centre and had them settled at the farm. Jamie was getting more confident in the saddle and didn’t look terrified every time he mounted a horse, which Jane was pleased about. Megan and Sally were learning to ride the pony and, like most young people, seemed to have no fear about such things and approached it with excitement and enthusiasm. Peter was the same, though he was four years older than Sally and had done some riding before. Phil and Sophie were somewhere in between; they still had some of the exuberance of youth, but also the wariness of slightly older people.
Between the three households at the farm they had been working on the land over the past month, preparing it and sowing winter vegetable crops for the following spring. Jamie, Jane and Megan had settled well into their new home and had got used to having much less space. It seemed cosy to them now and needed far less wood to heat than the bungalow had done.
In the evenings since moving in they had continued with Megan’s education, as they thought it was important to do so. It was a relaxed learning environment and without the constraints of school Megan loved it and became enthusiastic about subjects that she had previously shown little interest in.
Along with the essential subjects of reading, writing and arithmetic, they taught her history, geography and domestic skills such as cooking and sewing, as she would need to be able to repair clothes in future years. As it was relevant to them they told Megan about the original Black Death: a combination of bubonic and pneumonic plagues that had devastated Europe for over four hundred years, on and off. They also told her of the 1918 - 1920 flu pandemic, which had been cited as possibly the most deadly pandemic in recorded human history; killing between fifty and a hundred million people around the world in less than three years. Megan was astonished by this; she was so used to hearing that someone had had “the flu” that she had trouble equating the two things. However, the new variant or mutation of the plague that had happened nearly a year ago made that pandemic seem small by comparison.
There were also lessons, some practical, on many subjects that had never appeared on any school curriculum before, to do with survival in the new world. These included setting traps for animals, map-reading, making fire, making water safe to drink, identifying edible plants, how to strip down a shotgun or rifle, and many more useful things that she was going to need to know in the years ahead. She seemed to absorb it all like a sponge and they made it a fun process. Once a week they had a quiz night to test her on things she had learned that week, with different treats on offer as prizes. Sometimes they would be food or drink prizes and other times they would be things she wanted to do.
One morning in the last days of November, Jamie, Bill and Jane were in the top yard by the stable when they heard a vehicle approaching in low gear on the rough track up to the farm. From their slightly elevated position they could see almost to the road, apart from the last fifty yards that were beyond a bend in the treeline. An army Land Rover appeared round the bend, bumping through the pot-holes. As a precaution Jamie went back to the house, coming out with his sawn-off over his shoulder and a handful of cartridges, which he put in his pocket, then the three of them walked down to the main yard to meet it. They stood by the small lawn in front of the mobile home waiting, and as the truck entered the yard Jamie and Jane recognised the occupants.
‘It’s Major Cunningham; he’s the doctor who treated Megan,’ said Jane for Bill’s benefit. ‘And that’s the nurse we met when we picked her up on the Sunday.’
The vehicle stopped and Cunningham and the woman got out and walked over to them, smiling. ‘Hello Jane, hello Jamie. Nice to see you again. This is Lieuten
ant Karen Chambers.’
The Lieutenant was in her late thirties and pretty, with short blonde hair and dimples in her cheeks when she smiled.
‘Hello, Major,’ said Jane, ‘and hello Lieutenant; nice to see you, too. This is Bill Anderson, who owns the farm.’
They all exchanged greetings and shook hands.
‘How is Megan doing?’ Cunningham asked.
‘She’s doing very well, thank you, Major,’ said Jamie, ‘and she’s fully recovered- thanks to you!’
Cunningham smiled, as did the Lieutenant. ‘I’m very pleased to hear it; that’s great news.’
He removed his glasses, ran his hand through his hair and then put the glasses back on. ‘Well, the reason we’re here is to have a chat with you, if we may. I’ll explain more in detail if you have time, but to cut a long story short the camp at Tunbridge Wells is closing in two weeks’ time and the unit is disbanding. We’ll no longer be army and Karen and I are looking for a place to settle in this area. When it happens we wondered if we might stay with you for a short while until we can sort something out.’
Thirty
‘Well,’ said Bill, ‘why don’t we all go into the house and sit down, rather than standing out here in the cold?’ They all agreed and crossed the yard to the house. Emma was in the kitchen and introductions were made.
‘Hello Major, Lieutenant; it’s nice to meet you,’ said Emma.
‘Please, just call us Tom and Karen,’ said Cunningham.
Emma offered to make tea for everyone and then Megan came in with Sally, followed by Phil, Peter and Sophie.
‘Well, hello Megan!’ said Karen. Megan smiled, went over and hugged her.
‘Hi Karen, hi Doctor Cunningham. It’s nice to see you again.’
‘Hello Megan,’ said Tom. ‘Wow! You look well, and much better than the last time we saw you. You’ve filled out, too.’
The Hoffmann Plague Page 27