Autumn exodus, p.3
Autumn - Exodus, page 3
He crawled along with more speed than any of them expected. Sanjay urged Ruth to follow him, ‘You next.’
She put one hand on the next rung, then stopped. ‘Everyone’s out of the Tower, aren’t they? We haven’t left anyone behind?’
Sanjay hesitated just for the briefest of moments, thinking about Nick Hubbard and the others. Their decision, not yours. Leave now or you’re stuck here forever. ‘We’re good,’ he said, hoping he sounded more convincing than he felt. ‘Go, Ruth. I’ll sort the ropes.’
Ruth climbed across the ladder, bracing herself when the end of the pier lurched again, almost tipping her off.
Sanjay raced across to the mooring to untie the last rope. It had been badly tied and came away easily, and he was about to drop it into the water when the jetty dropped again.
Ruth scrambled up onto the deck of the boat and turned around, but all she could do was watch as the ladder fell and was swept away. ‘Hold onto that bloody rope, Sanj,’ she screamed. The end of the pier collapsing now, coming apart under his feet. The London Sunset drifted out into the river.
The distance between Sanjay and safety was increasing and he knew it. In a split-second of frozen terror, he imagined various versions of his own demise: being left here alone, drowning in the stagnant Thames, being torn apart by the endless hordes of the living dead that occupied London... He could see multiple nightmare scenarios, but only one possible way out.
As the end of the pier broke away, Sanjay wrapped the rope around himself, gripped it tight, then ran to the end of the woodwork and jumped.
It was impossible to know what hurt more, the pain of smashing into the hull, or the intense shock of dropping into the foul, ice-cold water. They hauled him up onto the deck as Sanjay clung onto the rope like his life depended on it, because he knew that it did.
3
‘So, what’s the plan?’ Orla asked. ‘I’m assuming there is one?’
She looked around at the others on the bridge, hoping for inspiration but getting nothing back. Chapman stood at the controls, staring out at the expanse of grey water ahead of them. ‘There was a plan,’ he said, ‘but to be honest, it didn’t go much further than getting you lot out of the Tower.’
‘People are gonna start asking.’
‘Fuck ‘em,’ he said, and he meant it.
Orla turned to David. ‘Look, even if it’s vague, we need to tell them something. People need something to hold on to. They know we’re not just going to keep sailing down the Thames indefinitely. Once the buzz of getting away from the Tower has worn off, they’ll start asking questions.’
‘Why are you looking at me?’ he asked.
‘Because people look up to you, Dave. And they listen to you. They trust you.’
‘But what if I don’t want that responsibility?’
‘We’re not asking you to take all the responsibility.’
‘It feels that way.’
Sam interrupted. ‘I’d do it, but they wouldn’t like what I’d tell them. I’d be too honest.’
Joanne laughed. ‘You’re such a miserabilist, Sam. It’s the frigging zombie apocalypse, for crying out loud. I don’t reckon things can get much worse.’
‘You’d be surprised.’
‘You think about this stuff too much.’
‘Somebody has to. I just choose not to share a lot of what I’m thinking. Go too far down the rabbit hole, and the few of us who are left will realise that trying to restart the human race is frigging futile.’
‘That’s a bit over the top, even for you,’ David said.
‘You think? I’m underplaying it if anything. I’ll tell you lot, because I know you can take it, but I also happen to think Orla’s right; we need to give people something to keep them afloat, a reason to keep going.’
‘Go on then, how bad do you think this is really going to get?’
‘For starters, there are about four hundred nuclear reactors dotted around the planet. That’s four hundred potential meltdowns or explosions, right? Four hundred Chernobyls, but each one will be far, far worse because no one’s left to put out the fires or take any kind of action to contain the radiation. I’d say it’s pretty much a given that’s going to bite us all on the arse before long one way or another.’
He paused, unsure if he should continue, but then did it anyway.
‘Do you think London’s the only city that’s been razed? My guess is most towns and cities will have suffered some fire damage, some of them have likely been completely destroyed. Now that’s bad enough, but think about the cumulative effect of all that destruction, all the ash and soot and other crap that’s been thrown up into the air. I don’t think we’re talking about nuclear winters or anything on that kind of scale, but it’s definitely going to take its toll. We could be looking at reduced levels of sunlight, reduced quality of sunlight, changes to the surface temperature of the planet... it might become harder for us to grow crops. And while we’re on the subject of growing, one thing that probably will do well is weeds. They’ll be unchecked and they’ll start eating into things. Assuming there are buildings and other structures still standing, they won’t be maintained. Foundations will be weakened, metal supports will start to rust... to me it feels pretty much inevitable that everything we’ve put up will come down, probably sooner rather than later.’
He stopped. Rant over. He’d said enough.
‘You’re a proper ray of sunshine, aren’t you, mate?’ David said.
‘He does my head in when he talks like this,’ Joanne said. ‘It’s never as bad as he says it is. It’s not like we’re starting from scratch again, is it?’
Sam shook his head. ‘You’re right, but how much of that knowledge is going to be accessible? I mean, everything we need to know will be in a book somewhere, but how do we find it? Entire libraries, archives, histories have been downloaded; how much information is stored solely on computers we’ll never be able to access, or lost forever in the cloud? And if we do get hold of the information we need, what do we do with it? Say you get hold of the instructions for how to make a wind turbine, where do you get the parts? How do you source the materials to make spares? Everything’s always been complicated, but at least we had the infrastructure before, and the engineers, the manpower. Now there’s just us, and hell, not everyone could even climb the ladders to board the fucking boat.’
Chapman looked back over his shoulder. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you people. We might be the last humans left alive. We’ve just rescued a couple of hundred people from almost certain death; can’t you just be a little bit positive, for crying out loud?’
‘Believe it or not, I am,’ Sam said. ‘I know I might not sound it, but I’m up for the challenge. If we can get far enough out of London and we manage to stay alive long enough to see the end of the dead, then we might still have a fighting chance. We’re not going to be able to rebuild everything from the ashes like that prick Dominic Grove was always talking about doing, but people lived thousands of years without computers; I reckon we can do enough to build ourselves half-decent lives.’
David wiped a section of misted glass clear and peered out across the swollen Thames. Bloated bodies lapped with the waves. What looked like the upturned roof of a building floated past. ‘Sam’s right. I don’t know about you lot, but I have to believe there’s still a chance. I’m clinging onto the idea of getting back to Ireland and my kids. And before anyone starts on me, I know the odds of them being alive are pretty much zero, but I’ve got to try. That’s all I’ve got left to aim for. If I lose that last little bit of hope, then there’ll be no point in going on. So yeah, Orla, you’re right, we need to give the others a reason to keep going. Give me a bit of time to make something up and I’ll go and talk to them.’
#
When they’d been spread out in the chaos outside the Tower of London, the group had seemed sparse. Now that they were all crammed into the party boat, though, their numbers appeared more substantial. Georgie kept herself occupied ticking folks off her register. They’d lost another seventeen people today, she calculated. Two hundred and twenty-six left alive.
Marianne was traumatised. Her body ached, she was freezing cold, and she could barely move. Someone had found her a chair and she sat there unresponsive, her head in her hands. She didn’t even acknowledge Selena when she brought her over a cup of coffee.
The bars on the party boat had been reasonably well-stocked, most likely in readiness for some social occasion that never took place. They’d also manage to salvage some food, carried over from the Tower in backpacks. Steve Armitage and Phillipa Rochester – the group’s stalwart catering double-act – instinctively set to work, as much to keep themselves occupied as for the good of everyone else. They scraped together enough to give something to eat to everyone who wanted it; a few decent mouthfuls doing enough to calm nerves and stave away hunger pains.
Ruth stood at a window with Vicky, Selena, and Omar. Outside, she saw that the fire had spread far beyond the area they’d already seen. At first, she thought this was likely a continuation of the fire that had raged for days around the Tower, but they were too far away, and not everything between the Tower and here had been razed. No, this was likely the result of other uncontrolled blazes such as the one that had consumed the landmark buildings in and around Canary Wharf. Hang on, perhaps this was Canary Wharf? The world looked nothing like it used to, but the twists and turns of the Thames they were following indicated that it probably was. All those impressive skyscraper office blocks, the financial hub through which trillions of pounds used to move every day, had been reduced to blackened stumps that were indistinguishable from anything else, all of it now valueless. The distinctive, circular husk of the nearby O2 Arena at Greenwich confirmed her suspicion, but for the most part, it was hard to discern anything from the vast mounds of rubble. Big Ben, the Sistine Chapel, the Empire State Building; even the most iconic landmarks all looked the same once they’d been reduced to piles of broken bricks and concrete.
Now, if her geography was correct, they were about to pass Surrey Quays. They’d left people behind there – friends of Joanne’s – but there was no talk of mounting a rescue mission. Did they even need help? The area was still heaving with undead activity, but if those folks in their ivory tower had been as smart and well-protected as she’d been told, maybe they’d be better off staying put? Right now, it seemed a safer option than being on this boat with a couple of hundred others, sailing towards uncertainty.
On both sides of the river the dead were now more diffuse. Unlike the many thousands that had wedged themselves into every available space and surrounded them at the Monument, here they had space to be able to roam freely. Would this help the group when they left the boat and stepped ashore? It didn’t matter. They’d have to deal with whatever they came up against. The only thing Ruth knew with any certainty was that they weren’t going to be able to stay on the water indefinitely.
4
The Thames Flood Barrier had collected vast drifts of shite. Over the months, it looked like an entire flotilla of boats had become trapped, some upright, others capsized, and an unfathomable number of bloated bodies clogged the water between and around them, packing out the spaces. There were scavenging birds everywhere, swooping to peck at the plentiful supplies of flesh, feasting on the juicy scraps like a swarm of oversized locusts. The fouled waters on the other side of the barrier were slightly clearer. It felt like they’d crossed a significant threshold at last.
The wooden dancefloor on the top deck of the boat proved quite useful, the large open space lending itself to an impromptu townhall meeting. There was a small, raised stage at one end: a narrow performance space big enough for a DJ or a couple of musicians. David hesitated before stepping up. ‘I don’t know what to say.’
Orla urged him forward. ‘Just tell them they’re safe. Just tell them what you’re thinking.’
Reluctantly, he took a deep breath and coughed to clear his throat. It was already quiet, but it immediately became quieter still. ‘Can I just have a couple of minutes, please? Look, everyone, I’m no Dominic Grove—’
‘Thank fuck for that,’ Gary shouted from the back.
‘—but I thought it would be a good idea to tell you what condition we’re in and what’s going on. Before you ask, I don’t have a lot of information, and there’s no real plan as such, but I think it’s important we do this. We’re going to need to work positively and collectively if we’re going to get through this in one piece. Everyone must do their part. Understand?’
He paused for their response, half-expecting to be bottled off the stage. He got little back other than a couple of nodding heads and a few mumbles. There was no dissension. He kept going.
‘The good news is we’re well on our way out of London. Georgie reckons we lost quite a few people this morning, but other than that, we’re in reasonably good shape as far as I can see.’ He paused. Did he sound disingenuous? ‘Christ, I’m not a public speaker. I really wish I could spin the bullshit like Dominic used to, like all our worthless politicians did for a century, but I can’t. I’m just one of you, the same as everyone here, and all I can be is honest. I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing, but that’s how it is. The reality of our situation is that we don’t have a lot of fuel and we have even less food. We don’t know where we’re going, where we’ll end up, or what we’ll find when we get there. My guess is we’ll try to stay on the river for a while longer, maybe make a stop for supplies if we can, then we’ll look to find ourselves somewhere safe. Christ, I’m not even sure what safe looks like anymore. Logic says there will be fewer bodies, the further we get from the centre of the city, but hell, what’s logic got to do with anything these days?’
‘And that’s it?’ Audrey said, standing up to make herself heard. She was midway along the length of the room, holding onto a metal pillar as the boat rode the waves.
‘What else do you want me to say, Audrey? We’re all in the same boat here, figuratively and literally.’
A couple of people laughed at his comment. Audrey didn’t. She remained stony-faced. ‘We need to have a better plan. We can’t just keep running.’
‘Well, if you’ve got any suggestions, I’m all ears. We don’t know what things are like anywhere. We know what places used to be like, but until we actually get somewhere and see for ourselves, we won’t—’
Audrey shook her head violently. ‘We need to have a little faith and trust that—’
‘Look, I’m not going to start an argument with you about your beliefs at this stage, but we need a lot more than just hoping and praying. If anyone has any suggestions as to where we should go, then I’m all ears.’
Selena got to her feet. Everyone knew what she was going to say before she said it. ‘Ledsey Cross.’
There were audible groans. David gestured for people to quieten down. He was beginning to bitterly regret speaking up. ‘Look, Selena, I know Ledsey Cross is important to you, and we might well end up there eventually, but we need to face facts and start being realistic. We need to find somewhere safe, and we need to do it fast. We can’t simply aim for somewhere that’s several hundred miles away, not yet. There’s too much at stake. It’s taken us three months to get out of London, for crying out loud.’
‘You’re both right,’ Vicky said, silencing everyone. ‘We need to find somewhere immediately, but Ledsey Cross must be where we end up eventually.’
‘I’m sick to the back teeth of hearing your Ledsey Cross bullshit,’ Audrey said. ‘You need to be realistic.’
‘That’s rich, coming from you.’
‘I know the place has an appeal and you’ve got an association with it,’ David said, ‘but I have to admit, I’m still struggling to understand your obsession with it. It worries me that you just want to go there out of some misplaced loyalty to your friend.’
Vicky shook her head. ‘Kath would want us to go, sure, and I made her a promise to try and get Selena there, but there’s more to it than that. I haven’t been completely honest with you. I’ve not told you the full story.’
‘Go on,’ David urged.
‘I don’t want anyone to think I’ve misled you or that I’m trying to manipulate the situation, but I can’t ignore the facts. I didn’t want to say too much before because I didn’t know if we were ever going to get out of the capital.’ She paused, struggling with her wretched cough again. Ruth passed her some water, and once the brief fit had passed, she continued. ‘I strongly believe that everything and everyone we need in order to live long and comfortable lives will be there. I think we have to go.’
‘You’re going to need to give us more to go on than that,’ Marianne said, sounding less than convinced. ‘We’ve all seen the photos and the messages, but I’ll be honest, right now I don’t know if I could physically keep going long enough to make that kind of a trip.’
All eyes were on Vicky. ‘I assume everyone knows what we’re talking about here? Kath was still in contact with her friend Annalise after everyone died. She’d been living in Ledsey Cross for years. It’s an intentionally remote place, the area’s not easy to get through, it’s well away from large population centres. It’s up in the hills around the Yorkshire Dales. There’s a single road that leads to it, passes through a village called Heddlewick.’
‘Christ, could there be a more Yorkshire-sounding name?’ Orla said.
‘Kath said that once you get to Ledsey Cross, you’re on your own. When we talk about a self-sufficient community, we’re not just talking about houses with solar panels on the roof and wind turbines in the garden. Those things are there, sure, but Kath told me that the planning went far deeper than that. There are reservoirs and lakes in walking distance, so they have decent supplies of fresh drinking water and fish. They also had access to more farmland than we’ll ever need. I mean, all that bullshit Dominic used to spout about growing crops on the parkland around Hatton House... he was living in cloud cuckoo land. Up there, though, they have established and maintained farms that were already supporting the community.’ She paused. Had she given them enough? ‘I guess what I’m saying is that Ledsey Cross wouldn’t just be a good place for our immediate survival, it’s a place where we’ll be able to live longer-term. That’s how the people up there were thinking, planning for the future. Even though they’re a distance from the surrounding cities, the last time we spoke, they were talking about putting up fences at a distance to keep out whatever dead managed to find them. Imagine that.’
