Zombielandia (Book 2): No Safe Harbour Read online

The last thing that I saw as we sailed away from May and into the open sea was Becky, axe still in hand, biting down on one of the remaining Navy left on the island along with another half a dozen or so rotters, they’d gotten her, she was one of them now, destined to walk May until she herself rots into the ground with the rest of their kind.

  The rafts turned tail once they realised they couldn’t keep up with the Hope and headed back towards the Vigilant.

  I had no idea where we were heading; just that David was taking us away from May and hopefully away from danger.

  Chapter Eleven

  It must have been past midnight when we made harbour, I recognised the Gamebird next to us and realised David had took us back to Inchkeith Island.

  I’d been almost too frightened to look at the faces in the dark. I knew I had hold of Emily’s hand still, I thought bless her, it had probably gone numb, but she’d never complained, she’d just cuddled in to keep warm. She in turn had clung on to Jaffa cat with everything she had and had cried quietly into his fur. Babs and Luke were gone, this little girl was all I had left in the world now and I was all she had. Her mother and brother, my wife and son had been shot in the back by the cowards back on May as they’d boarded the Hope. Luke had been dead before he hit the deck and Babs had died in my arms not long after. I had wanted to just hold them both forever, but I remember Amy taking them from me and doing what I knew needed to be done.

  The other survivors helped carry the bodies of those who had died on board up to the light house with us and we laid them in one of the out buildings and covered them the best we could. We then made our way into the light house and attempted to make it as comfortable as we could for the night ahead. Margaret had a fire going and a brew on within no time at all. Thank God for Margaret I thought, someone to bring us all back to reality and take care of us when we needed it most.

  Eventually I brought myself to look in to their faces. There was my Emily, my world now. Also there was, David, Margaret and Maddison, Simon and young Lucy, his wife and sons gone too, and then Amy, John and Anthony. Everyone else had been killed or was missing back on May. All those children were gone, our future gone, our safe haven gone. It hurt me too much to think about what we were going to do now, I had no doubt the Vigilant would know where we were, they had suffered dozens of losses at our hands, but I was sure that once they’d licked their wounds they would be after us. It was more than just May and it’s bounty that they were after, they’d been coming for us of that I was sure now and I reckoned they would keep coming until they thought we were all dead. They saw the Hope heading back out to sea with survivors on board, they would have been tracking us if they could, if not it wouldn’t take them long to work out where we’d gone. They certainly weren’t going to take this lying down.

  Chapter Twelve

  None of us slept much that night or said much to one another. When we got up in the morning we set about burying everyone that had died on the Hope, Babs, Luke, Lorna and little Michael. The rest of our dead were back on May. I thanked God for small mercies; at least I had the chance to bury my family and knew that they weren’t walking around May, rotting away.

  I suppose there was a slim chance that someone might have survived, maybe even taken prisoner by the Navy and now on board the Vigilant, but I doubted this, unless they had been injured as everyone that was thought to be alive made it aboard the Hope.

  I wasn’t up to doing much after the burials, we all said a few words, Simon made markers for the graves and I spent the rest of the day with Emily making it look nice for mummy and Luke. If it wasn’t for Emily I dreaded to think what I might become, it was this little girl that was the only thing in this shit hole of a world that was keeping me alive.

  The rest of the guys left us alone, they were busying themselves doing the usual fishing, hunting and foraging, the stuff we needed to do to survive.

  Chapter Thirteen

  In the evening we eventually retired to the light house. The rest of the guys were already discussing what we should do next. We had limited resources on Inchkeith which is why we’d left the Island in search of May in the first place, granted, there were less of us now, but it still wouldn’t sustain us for long. We were armed only with what we’d left May with and what we had stowed aboard the Hope. Everyone agreed that it was pointless going back to May. The Navy would have looted anything of value by now any way. Wherever we were going we had to do it without being detected by the Vigilant, which probably meant we had to either go by land or stick as close to the coast line as possible.

  I wanted to go back to Togston and Simon was keen to join us with his Lucy. It had been a while since we’d last been there, but hopefully everything was as good as when we’d left. Margaret and David were keen for everyone to stick together, but Amy and John wanted to try and return to their campsite in Devon. They didn’t care how long it took to get there, but they needed an experienced sailor if they were to stand any chance of getting there and David was the only person capable of that now. We did have the use of the Gamebird again, which would help if the group did decide to go separate ways, but we all knew we’d be stronger together.

  I felt that I had to go back to Togston if only to tell Linda and Derek about Babs and Luke, I owed them that, after all it had been my decision not to take them back to Togston and stay on May where I thought we would be safer.

  We finally agreed that we would take the two boats to Amble in the morning. Once we were there and if everything was okay we would get settled. Then if anyone still wanted to move on at least they could prepare better for it by taking on board supplies and at least getting some rest before the long journey ahead of them. I hoped that once we got them back to Togston and saw the set up there that they would change their minds and agree to stay with us. At least we were going to be together for a while longer, we’d lost too many people to lose any more just yet.

  Chapter Fourteen

  We left at first light the following morning and stuck as close to the coast as we could as planned, it also made for easier navigation and the chance of being able to escape to shore should we need to do so. I was aboard the Hope with Emily and Maddison. David was up front with Margaret and the other five guys were on the Gamebird with Amy and John skippering it.

  The mood was as expected, subdued, we were all just going through the motions. There was no excitement about the thought of returning home as I had had that last time. After all, it was where Babs and I had first set up home together, where we had gone back to after we had been married at St. Johns, where we’d brought Luke and Emily back to after they were born, where we’d spent all those Christmas’ and birthdays. We had so many happy memories. But now I had to go back there the day after I had buried her and our son, knowing that they would never return there. I had a wave of dread come over me at the thought of what I had to do when I got there. How was I supposed to tell Linda and Derek that their only child and grandson were now buried on some godforsaken island in the middle of the Firth of Forth!

  Chapter Fifteen

  The day passed by quite uneventfully, some idiots decided to take pot shots at us as we passed by Berwick, they were probably just looking for an easy target to bag themselves some loot, we didn’t bother firing back, we just saved our ammo and sailed out of range of them, no one else needed to die today we thought and it was good to know that there were still other groups of survivors out there as well as ourselves.

  It was late afternoon by the time we made it to Coquet Island, we moored the two boats and made our way up to the light house, a couple of rotters had washed ashore, Amy and Maddison dispatched them with the boat hooks, not that they would have done us any harm anyway by the state of their decomposition, but the two girls may have got close to them or something, so better to be safe than sorry and they kind of creeped us out anyway.

  It didn’t look like anyone else had used the light house since Simon and his family had last been there. So we tried to make ourselves as comfortable
as possible. David and Margaret went off fishing again, I would have thought they’d have had enough of the sea for one day, but they were doing their best to look after the group as usual and try to keep things as normal as possible for the children. It wasn’t really the season for mackerel to be honest, but they were optimistic and it gave them something to do.

  I just spent the rest of the day playing with Emily and Jaffa cat. Emily was seven now and so understood a lot of what was going on. I found it hard to act happy for her, I just kept thinking of the amount of times I’d promised myself that I was going to protect her and Luke from the shit world that we were living in now. I’d failed pretty fucking dramatically in that department lately! I decided I was going to prepare her for the shite and not hide her from all of it any more. The world we’d known had gone forever now. Our bubble had been burst and I doubted we were ever going to be truly safe anywhere. I needed to prepare this little girl for the life she had ahead of her. I could hide her away somewhere, but what kind of life would that be. She had seen horrors that no child should ever see and now it was time to start teaching the children what they really needed to know in order to survive.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The following morning we agreed that a few of us would go on a scouting mission to Togston to make sure that there weren’t going to be any problems getting there, it had been a few months since our last visit, so anyone or anything could have come by this way in that time.

  It was decided that I would go with Amy. David would drop us off in the Hope and then return to the Coquet. I would have liked to have taken him with us as he had been with me the last time, but the group couldn’t afford to lose him should anything go wrong. He was our main source of food now and the only real sailor left amongst us.

  I spent as much time as I could with Emily before we left and told her that Daddy had to go to work like I had many times before when things had been normal.

  I kissed her and left her playing with Lucy and Simon. I knew Simon had my back, we had an unspoken understanding that should anything happen to either of us, we’d take care of the children, and I knew of course that the rest of the guys would as well, but it didn’t make it any easier to leave her.

  Amy and myself armed ourselves with one of the shot guns and some spare shells, we took radios too so that we could communicate with the Hope and the Island. I also took the Gamebird’s book hook for quieter dispatches.

  Chapter Seventeen

  I would have liked to have sailed into Amble quietly, but the sea was rough and David had quite a struggle to get the Hope safely in to the Harbour. We thought we might have to turn back at one point, but we persisted and after empting my breakfast over the side of the boat a few times, we finally made it.

  Once again rotters lined the harbour, welcoming us home.

  David moored the Hope up against the jetty and came as far as the boat house with us; we were going to fill up a few barrels of diesel for him to take back to Coquet.

  CRUNCH, Amy dispatched a rotter on the way. Once we got to the pump it was clear to see that someone had been there since we had last been and sure enough, the pump was dry. We checked around for more rotters, but couldn’t see any moving ones, just a whole lot slowing decomposing into the earth having no doubt been picket clean by sea gulls and the like. I wondered that if you ate a sea gull that had fed on a rotter, would you become infected. Same as fish I thought, they must have been feasting on the rotting corpses, who knew, I just made a mental note not to put sea gulls on the menu any time soon.

  We agreed that David could spend an hour or so trying to syphon off some fuel from the many boats still in the yard. He had his radio to keep in touch and was to head back to Coquet at any sign of danger.

  I pointed out the Sea Warrior, still up on its trailer, not that one though David, leave that one be for now I told him.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Amy and myself set off in the direction of the COOP. CRUNCH, CRUNCH, we quickly dispatched a couple of rotters on our way, and yes, they were well and truly rotten now, which I took to be a good sign. Fresh rotters could only mean people were still dying. Hopefully with time, the rotters would slowly do just that, rot away into the ground.

  When we got to the COOP it was also not as we had left it. I hoped it had been the guys from Togston that had took everything, after all we had told them about these places and the best ways to get to them. The bikes we had left were also gone, not that it mattered, as neither Amy nor I really had a clue how to ride one anyway. We were planning on working it out on the way!

  We radioed David to tell him we would be going the whole way on foot so we’d be back later than we had first anticipated. He was busy syphoning off fuel still and wished us luck.

  It was only about an hour’s walk under normal circumstances. I’d walked it many a time after a drinking session with Derek in Amble and we’d decided to save the taxi money and try and walk ourselves a bit more sober before having to deal with the wrath of the wife and mother in law. How I wished I was heading home for a tongue lashing now!

  We started to walk down Acklington road, it was still fairly blocked with broken down vehicles and general debris. You could see rotters still inside the odd house we passed which meant nobody had been in them recently and so no doubt someone could find supplies in them if they needed too.

  It was quite eerie walking amongst the debris, there was only the very occasional rotter, which I quickly dispatched with the boat hook. We turned off the main road by the farm house at Togston and made our way along the bridleway which wasn’t as overgrown at this time of year, it must have died back a bit over the winter. We soon reached the wooded area and as we finally looked out over Togston everything looked well. However, I could make out a couple of figures on top of the water tower in the distance. Maybe the guys had upped security since we’d been away. I wasn’t overly concerned though; the good thing was that there were still people alive and where we had left them. They may have needed to change, who knew if anyone else had been through here since my last visit.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I radioed David back at the Hope to update him on our progress, but there was no answer, I tried a few times, but couldn’t get him. We’d used the radios on much longer ranges than this before, so if he had it on, he’d hear us. Maybe the engines were running or he was struggling with the high seas again. I’d try again when we got there I told Amy.

  We headed out of the woods and towards Togston; my heart was beating fifty to the dozen as we approached the back lane along from the bridle way. However we hadn’t got far when we were suddenly surround by armed men. I recognised a few of them from before the outbreak and had known them quite well. It’s me I said, I used to live here, I’m Linda and Derek’s son in law, I believe they are still living here.

  They do Phil replied, he’d been out of sight at the back of the group. Its okay he said to the rest of the group, you can lower your weapons, I know him.

  The rest of the group did as he’d asked. He then went on to say that things had changed a lot since we were last there.

  A group calling themselves the Sisterhood of Judgement had attacked a group of them when they were out scavenging for food and had held them hostage until they’d been let into Togston. We weren’t fighters then he’d explained, we just wanted our people back, and so we let them in. They were mainly women; it may have been us being naïve, but we thought they would be alright, probably just frightened and looking for somewhere safe like everyone and desperation had led them to take our people hostages.

  Once in Togston though, we couldn’t have been more wrong, they demanded we all brought our weapons to the garden area in the main street or they would start executing the hostages who they had lined up where everyone could see them from the houses that line either side of the road.

  What choice did we have, so we obeyed and gave up our weapons to them.

  They almost immediately freed all the women and children and the
n lined all us men up in the same place.

  The few men that were with them acted like servants, collecting the weapons up for the women and then standing as if waiting for further instructions.

  The head honcho, Sister Adele, stepped forward and spoke to everyone. We didn’t know she was in charge of the sisterhood at the time, but it didn’t take us long to find out Phil said.

  She said that all the women and children under the age of twelve were free to go about their business as usual as long as they obeyed the rules of the sisterhood. The men were to be individually tried by Adele herself, and if found guilty of any crimes against women, would be executed. She asked the women present to come forward if they had any information that they’d like considered in the trials. The men were then ordered to be taken to the tower where we were to be held until the following day when we would all be tried together. The half a dozen men that they’d brought with them were ordered to arm themselves and escort us to the tower and hold us there until the following morning.

  On our way the men had spoken freely to us. They had said for us to just do as they said and we would be fine. We were told that the sisterhood would care for and protect our families whether we were alive or not. We were told that if we had done no harm, that we would be kept alive and looked after, but we’ll belong to the sisterhood. We’d be able to see our families, but would not be allowed to live with them. We’d basically be second class citizens, slaves if you like and expendable if they deemed us to have no use to them. They went on to say that the older guys had been advised to hide their aches and pains and try to act as strong as they could and for us all to think of ways that we could be of use to the sisterhood.

  Chapter Twenty

  They had been held in the tower that night, clearly the sisterhood must have scoped out the area before taking Togston or how had they known about the tower and how it could be adapted to hold prisoners fairly easily.

  They had been held in the tank itself, a hole had been cut into it and a ladder put in place for them to climb down into it before being removed. There was no way to climb up the smooth concrete walls of the tank.