by Wood, J N
‘Good, so am I. Just glad you were there. If it had just been me and Jack, I’d have probably ended up leaving the bits in my face. I wouldn’t have trusted Jack to do it.’
Shannon sat herself back down and picked up her coffee. ‘When you get the chance, you should definitely get checked for Hepatitis and the rest.’
Gee leaned in once I’d sat down. ‘Earlier I go for walk,’ he whispered. ‘I think we can escape.’
I looked at the walls and to the corners, expecting to see security cameras or some other kind of monitoring equipment.
‘Why are you whispering?’ I whispered back.
‘They probably watch us,’ Gee replied, a deadly serious expression on his face.
Michael sat back on his chair, a big grin on his face. ‘Gee thinks we’ve been imprisoned and they’re spying on us, in case we have some kind of valuable information.’
Gee sat up straight. ‘I do not think that,’ he said, his voice returning to its normal volume.
‘I don’t think we need to…’ I paused and leaned in to whisper, ‘Escape,’ before sitting back up and speaking normally. ‘We just have to sit tight and wait until the quarantine period is up.’
‘I walk around here for hours,’ Gee said. ‘There is no sound of people. Where are thousands of people they talk of? Only sound is hissing of dead.’
‘We’re not in the camp,’ I said. ‘We’re between the–.’
‘In daylight you can see inner and outer fences from outside,’ Gee interrupted. ‘I only see two, maybe three people guarding inner fence. Not thousands of people.’
‘Oh right,’ I said, not really sure how to respond.
‘Gee has got his conspiracy head on today, that’s all,’ Shannon said, placing a hand on Gee’s arm. ‘He’s not going to do anything stupid until after the twenty four hours is up. After that, and if they’re still keeping us locked up, I’ve given him permission to go crazy and smash the place up.’
‘How are the Rodriguez’s doing?’ I asked.
‘They’re very quiet,’ Michael replied.
A cup of coffee was suddenly slammed onto the table, startling everyone, apart from Gee I noticed, who sat there like a statue.
‘Oops sorry,’ Ali said, a grimace on her face. ‘Didn’t mean to bang it down that hard.’ She sat down on one of the chairs. ‘This place is weird. Apart from the hissing, it’s really quiet out there.’
‘Don’t you start,’ Michael said. ‘You and Gee would make the perfect couple.’
Gee and Ali shared confused glances.
Standing up, I said, ‘I’m gonna get a coffee. Then you can take me outside for some fresh air. I can see what you’re all talking about then.’ I quickly scanned the room, looking for Jack. He wasn’t in there. ‘Anyone seen Jack?’
‘Yeah he’s outside,’ Ali said. ‘He’s been staring at that container in the soccer field for ages.’
‘Football pitch,’ I corrected.
With a wave of her hand, Ali replied, ‘Whatever.’
I made myself a coffee, with two little pots of milk, the kind you find in a hotel room. There was also a large bowl full of plastic wrapped pastries. I moved the cheese ones aside, and grabbed a cinnamon Danish.
Ali and I made our way outside. At the end of the chain link corridor, I could see Jack in the fenced off tennis courts.
As we approached him, I said, ‘Morning Jack, or afternoon.’
As he turned, I noticed the hissing sound coming from the south, still sounding like crickets.
‘Hi,’ Jack said. ‘I’m just trying to get the sheriff’s attention, to see if he’ll let me look at the list.’
I peered through the fence. ‘Have you seen him? Is he definitely in there?’
Jack turned again to gaze at the container. ‘Nope, not seen anyone, apart from those few guys at the far fence,’ he said, pointing towards the other end of the football pitch.
There was another fence similar to the one around the tennis courts, although it looked a lot sturdier. There were large concrete posts situated along the area that was visible to us, and the chain link fence seemed to be attached to the posts. I could see two men standing on what may have been platforms or small stages.
Ali placed a hand on my shoulder and spun me around. ‘The zombies are just on the other side of that,’ she said, pointing to the south.
Beyond the tennis courts was a running track, on the other side of that was some kind of playing field, and on the other side of that there was a wall of shit. That was the best way to describe it. It must have been about fifteen feet high, made up of corrugated metal mostly, but really anything the people could get their hands on by the look of it. There were large wooden sections, parts had been bricked up, and some of it looked like concrete breeze blocks.
‘So that’s the outer fence then?’ I asked.
‘Yep, doesn’t look too secure, does it?’ Jack said.
‘Nope, looks like a bag of shite.’
The sun was shining but it was still a bit cold, Jack was even shivering.
‘Come on then, let’s get back inside,’ I suggested. ‘Just be patient Jack. Sheriff Hopper, or whatever he was called–.’
‘McCallany,’ Ali said.
‘Yeah that’s the one. He said he was more than happy for you to look at the list once we’re out.’
With a small groan, Jack spun around and started towards the school. Ali and I exchanged a glance before I nodded towards Jack.
‘Why can’t we hear the people in the camp though?’ Ali asked. ‘It’s literally just there.’ She was pointing towards the camp.
‘They’ll be staying as quiet as possible,’ Jack said, without turning back. ‘So not to draw the attention of the zombies. They don’t like noise around here.’
‘It’s not working,’ Ali said.
Jack made an exaggerated shrug. ‘I don’t know. Maybe there’d be a lot more trying to get in if there was more noise.’
‘See, what I tell you?’ Gee said, as we walked inside. ‘We are being held against our willies.’
‘Nobody is holding my willy,’ Michael said, laughing.
The kids found this especially funny, they were almost in hysterics.
‘Held against our wills Gee,’ Shannon said. ‘And you’re right. We are, but only until tomorrow.’
‘That is what I said, willies,’ Gee said, this time drawing out the word willies even more so, eliciting more high pitched laughter from the three young boys.
‘Nope, you’re saying willies Gee,’ I said.
Seth, Jonah and even the very quiet Max started repeating the word willies, a couple of times actually doing very good impressions of Gee’s thick Lithuanian accent.
‘Boys,’ Sandra scolded, albeit through a smile. ‘Stop saying willies please.’
Sat on one of the bottom bunks near the kids, Theo actually let out a chuckle, before glancing at his older brother and stopping himself. Pete looked back at him, giving him a small smile and a nod.
Steve’s blood splattered face suddenly flashed through my mind, the expression he was making as he handed me Max. He’d looked like he’d been resigned to his fate, almost relieved it was all over after saving the boy.
A shiver ran through my entire body.
Michael was pointing towards the only window in the room. ‘Erm…everyone. I just saw two people walking around out there.’
Jack was first up onto his feet, his chair skidding away from him. I followed him up and looked out through the wire mesh fixed to the outside of the window. Two women were disappearing into the hole we’d all clambered out of in the early hours of the morning.
Shannon shrugged her shoulders. ‘Shift change?’
About an hour later, Elliot and Martin pulled themselves out of the hole.
Not long after we’d seen the two women disappear, I wandered outside to wait. Jack, Shannon, Michael and Ali soon joined me.
Upon seeing us, Elliot waved and told us to stay near to the school, and
not to enter the tennis courts. They both walked over to us and stopped a few feet away.
Elliot hooked a thumb towards the sheriff’s shipping container. ‘Don’t want him seeing us get too close while you’re in quarantine. Otherwise he’ll make us join you. So let’s just keep it at this distance. Okay?’
Ali pointed at Martin. ‘But you frisked us this morning.’
Elliot smiled and held his hands up. ‘True, but the sheriff doesn’t know we weren’t wearing the full protective clothing, the gloves and the masks. Does he?’ He gave the container a furtive glance. ‘Let’s keep that between us yeah?’ he said, tapping the side of his nose with his finger.
‘So is that your shift over then?’ Michael asked.
‘Yeah. We’re heading to the pub for a few,’ Martin replied. ‘It’s over by the water. You should pay it a visit once you’re settled into the camp. It’s called Pea’s Place, can’t miss it.’
‘How does all this work?’ Shannon asked. ‘I’m assuming money is no good?’
‘Canadian dollars are still good for trading,’ Elliot said, ‘If you have any. The ATMs aren’t working. We have to work for credits now.’ He put his hand in his pocket and came out with a playing card between his thumb and forefinger. ‘This is a credit now, believe it or not. This is how you get fed. Very hard to forge one of these.’
‘What if I just found a pack of cards?’ I asked.
‘Then you’ve won the jackpot, and I’m your new best friend,’ Martin said.
‘What? Seriously?’ I said. ‘That’s fucking ridiculous.’
Shit, my cards are in my bag, the bag I left on the bus.
Elliot showed me the queen of diamonds in his hand. ‘It’s gotta be signed by one of twelve people, who kind of run the camp.’ He leaned in and winked. ‘Hard to make a playing card, but quite easy to forge the signatures.’
‘How do you buy beers then?’ I asked. ‘With the playing card system?’
Elliot screwed up his face. ‘That’s a bit more complicated. Trade, favours, information, Canadian dollars, if you have any.’
What the fuck does that mean? That’s very helpful.
‘Who are these twelve people?’ Ali asked. ‘Is it all policed by the sheriff?’
Elliot laughed. ‘It’s not policed at all, well, I suppose it’s kind of self-policed. The sheriff is just in charge of people coming into the camp. He did have a lot more people working for him, when there were more refugees coming in.’
‘The twelve people?’ Ali reminded him.
‘Yes. There are twelve work groups with twelve bosses. But like I said, the sheriff isn’t the boss of anyone no more.’ He put the playing card back into his pocket, and then lifted his hands up with his fingers and thumbs spread out. ‘We’ve got the Fencers. Medical. Zombie Patrol. Erm…Caterers.’ He was counting them off with his fingers as he said each one. ‘Shepherding,’ he said, pointing at himself, and then at Martin. ‘Fishing. Plumbers, which is one of the most important jobs in here. Then there’s Retail, Border Control, that’s the sheriff, and then…there…is…Martin, what are the last two?’ The thumb and forefinger on his right hand sprung back up.
‘Scavengers and Cleaners,’ Martin replied.
The thumb and finger curled back into Elliot’s fist. ‘And that’s it,’ he said.
‘Why does the sheriff do it?’ Jack asked. ‘Surely he should be in the camp doing sheriff stuff? Where is he from?’
‘He’s from here, Blaine,’ Elliot said. ‘I think he only had a couple of deputies working for him before the fall. They probably got into Canada straight away, before the wall went up. He wouldn’t be able to cope with the amount of people in there now. I think he’s got some kind of deal with the Canadians. When you get out of here,’ he said, pointing to the school behind us. ‘He’ll take all your details. Name, age, etc. He’s not doing that for his own weird personal records. They asked him to do it, in exchange for something. Just what I think anyway.’
‘And that’s what Pea told you,’ Martin said.
Elliot looked to his partner. ‘He didn’t tell me all of that, just some of it.’
‘Why didn’t he follow his deputies into Canada?’ Shannon asked.
Elliot turned to gaze at the container. ‘Waiting for somebody, wife, kid, parents, I don’t know. He’s the quiet type, doesn’t like to divulge too much information about himself.’
Martin very loudly cleared his throat, causing Elliot to flinch and turn back to look at him.
‘Beer,’ Martin said under his breath.
Elliot smiled at us. ‘Yes, so…we’ll see you on the other side.’
Martin gave us a brief wave, before they both turned and headed towards the padlocked gate in the corner of the tennis courts. Martin murmured something into his radio as they walked. Just as they reached the gate, the door on the container swung open, and the sheriff emerged from inside.
‘Hey, Sheriff McCallany,’ Jack called out.
The sheriff quickly raised his finger to his lips, and mouthed the word, ‘Quiet.’ He then lowered his hand and tapped his watch with the same finger. ‘As soon as you get out,’ he softly said.
Jack looked at his watch and said, ‘Shite,’ before setting off towards the school.
Michael sighed and looked to his wife. ‘Sounds like it might be like the wild west in there.’
‘At least they’ve got different work groups organised,’ she replied. ‘It won’t be complete chaos.’
We followed Jack and headed back inside.
‘I hope there’s more than one pub. One pub!’ I exclaimed. ‘Can’t be one pub for all those people. It’s gonna be fucking heaving.’
Ali laughed. ‘That’s your biggest worry at the moment?’
‘Well, one of them.’
I suppose the right thing would be to ask her how she’s doing.
‘Hey Ali,’ I called out to her back. She turned to look at me, stopping halfway to the door. I waited until Jack, Michael and Shannon had gone back inside. ‘How are you all doing? The last couple of days have been fucking terrible.’
She raised her hands, saying, 'No. Stop right there please. Thanks for asking Chris, but just no. I’m not going to talk about it until me and my family are definitely safe. If I went over it all now, I think I would just crumble.’
‘Okay, that’s fair enough.’
Thank fuck for that.
‘Thank you for asking though.’
‘No problem.’
‘You looking forward to going to the pub?’ she asked. ‘Even if it is going to be, what did you say, heaving?’
‘Yeah, I wouldn’t say no to a pint. How much will a beer cost? How many credits do you get per hour, at whatever job I might get? What if I don’t get a job? Do I just starve to death?’
‘All reasonable questions,’ Ali replied, smiling. ‘I have no idea.’
‘They were rhetorical. I didn’t actually expect you to know the answers.’
‘We’ll soon find out everything,’ she said.
We had been sat in our room for what felt like days, when there was a knock on the door in the corner. I think we all must have tried the handle of that door in the time we’d been there. It must have been locked from the other side.
After a few seconds of just staring at each other, Michael walked over to the corner. ‘Hello?’ he timidly called out.
‘It’s McCallany. Please step away from the door. I’m just going to roll in your food and then leave you to it.’
Michael took three or four steps backwards. ‘Okay, go ahead Sheriff.’
The sound of keys jangling and being inserted into the keyhole made everyone sit up in anticipation. The door slowly creaked open. An old fashioned dessert trolley rolled into the room on squeaky wheels. The sheriff appeared behind it, pushing the trolley through.
Once it had cleared the door, he stopped. ‘Dinner is served ladies and gentlemen.’ He suddenly pointed at Jack. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Don’t ask.’
I foll
owed the sheriff’s gaze to see Jack, his mouth open, as if he was about to speak.
‘Bon appetit,’ the sheriff said, before grabbing the door handle and pulling it closed. The keys jangled again as he locked it.
‘What have you done to him?’ I asked Jack.
Jack raised his palms to the ceiling. ‘Nothing.’
‘You must have done something,’ Sandra said.
‘I think it might be something to do with you shouting at his container this morning,’ Ali said. ‘Do you not think Jack?’
‘I was just calling his name,’ Jack replied. ‘Just trying to get his attention. And there was more waving than shouting.’
‘Fuck’s sake Jack,’ I said. ‘He has to sleep as well. Best be careful. We don’t know him. He might make it difficult for you to check the list if you piss him off.’
‘Yeah, yeah, alright. They should have told us they don’t like shouting around here at the very beginning,’ Jack said, as he made his way to the food trolley.
‘We’ve got fish and potatoes,’ Michael said, as he leaned over the food. He took in a deep breath through his nose. ‘Looks like tuna steaks. We’ll have to slice the portions in half, but they smell delicious.’
It also tasted delicious. We all sat at one of the long tables in the middle of the room. Nobody was talking, all far too busy eating. I looked around at the paper plates in front of everyone, hoping that someone might be a vegetarian or a vegan, but there was very little fish left.
No chance of an extra portion.
‘They wouldn’t feed us this if we were their prisoners Gee,’ Michael said.
Gee responded by turning the corners of mouth down and shrugging his shoulders, before placing a butter soaked potato into his mouth.
‘What job do you think they’ll give you Chris?’ Ali asked.
‘No idea. I’ve never been fishing. I reckon I could throw some scraps of metal at the outer fence. I’ll probably be in the Zombie Patrol.’
Jack laughed. ‘Why, because you’re such a badass?’
‘A badass? You’re from Norwich Jack. You’re not allowed to say that out loud. And no, not because I think I’m a badass. I can’t do anything else. I doubt there’s much call for a graphic designer around here.’