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  I told Sandie a little bit about my past too, how I also had gone to university, but had studied mathematics at Newcastle University. I told her how I had funded it by working various retail jobs. When I’d graduated, I hadn’t really known what I’d wanted to do, I’d tried working for the Inland Revenue, but found this was too boring and not what I wanted to do. I’d always liked working with my hands and had always become bored very easily. This is why I’d gone back into retail and where I’d met my wife Barbara. She’d been on a work placement and I’d been an evening supervisor. We were engaged within three months and married less than a year later. Fifteen years later, we were still happily married with two children.

  I had still been working in retail when the outbreak had happened. I was managing my own store now in Alnwick, not far from home. I had often thought about my store and what had become of it. I remember how myself and one of my supervisors had joked about how our store would have been a great place to survive should there ever be a zombie apocalypse! After all, we sold everything and you could drop all the shutters from inside and be fairly secure. Who knew, maybe he was still there now, surviving the apocalypse quite happily with his partner! I had thought that maybe if the chance arrived I might check the place out and find out what had become of it, after all, it might come in useful at some point.

  Sophie and Paul had relieved us at two in the morning as planned. I remember going to bed that night thinking how we had gained a great new member to our group in officer Rigby. She was a trained Doctor and a Navy officer with some of the best military training in the world. Definitely someone that was going to make a massive difference in helping us to survive in this world.

  Chapter Forty Two

  We set off early the next morning, not everyone was awake, but it didn’t matter. I just thought, the longer they slept, the less of this nightmare they’d have to endure. Lia and her kids had joined us on the Hue and Sandie had joined David on the Saltwind. Amy and John stayed aboard the Gamebird.

  Luckily for us the road bridge at Kilbowie was open and we were able to travel straight through under it. I remember thinking at the time that maybe this was going to be our lucky day and that we’d left the worse of things behind us, little did I know then what we had ahead of us!

  After passing under Kilbowie bridge we entered Clydebank town centre where the canal ran straight through the centre of it. We passed a massive floating Fish and Chip shop called McMonagles. God I could have eaten some good old British fish and chips with lashings of salt and vinegar at that point!

  As we approached the shopping centre there was a large pedestrian bridge next to the Dunnes store. It was also raised, which made me think that this route was definitely being used by more people than us, or at least had been at some point.

  As we approached Dunnes we saw them. There were rotters everywhere. Too many to see or count. I don’t know what it was that had attracted them there. Maybe it was just instinct or habit or memories of what they’d done before they’d turned. Maybe they’d just been there all along or maybe some sort of noise had attracted them. Whatever it was, there was hordes of them. They were both sides of the canal and as soon as they heard the noise from the boat’s engines they were at the canal edge in their droves. We stuck rigidly to the centre of the canal. But the sheer number of them meant that the ones at the front were being pushed into the canal by the hordes of others behind them.

  We were going as fast as we could, which to be honest, wasn’t very fast, about 7 MPH top speed. As we approached the foot bridge they were falling off it and into the water in front of us. We could see that they were going to fall onto the boats as we went under the bridge. But we couldn’t stop as the ones in the water were starting to mount up on top of each other and they could be seen emerging from the water due to the sheer volume of them.

  Everyone was awake and up now. All the adults were on the decks and armed. We stared to fire at the ones on the bridge ahead of us. They were still falling from the bridge, some that we’d “killed”, and others that we hadn’t. The Saltwind went under the bridge first. It was so hard to shoot a moving target; none of us other than Sandie had any experience with fire arms. We managed to take some out, but they were landing on top of the Saltwind, still “alive”. I saw Sandie on the deck with her machine gun taking them out without any problem at all. It didn’t take the Saltwind long to get through as it could travel considerably faster than the house boats.

  The Gamebird followed closely behind, towing us on the Hue. We couldn’t even come close to matching the speed of the Saltwind and soon the rotters were on both the Gamebird and the Hue. Luckily John was protected within the control area, so could carry on steering the boats forwards. I could see Amy and Maddison firing away. They seemed to be holding their own, good girls I thought.

  Becky and I were over run with the fuckers on the Hue; it was far bigger than the Gamebird, so more area for them to land on. Hayley was blasting away from an open window and I was on the front deck, whilst Becky was on the rear deck. They were literally pouring into the water around us.

  The Gamebird got through and Amy jumped onto the Hue to help us. It was just shot after shot. Lia was blasting away too with her automatic from one of the windows as well now. We’d hoped to save the ammo, but I guess, then was a better time than ever to use it! We eventually got under the bridge and through to the other side and managed to clear the boat.

  The Hope had held back. Sophie and Paul had been firing away too from a distance, but the canal was now so full of rotters that there was no way they were going to get through. At least that’s what I thought at the time. Paul radioed through to us to put some distance between ourselves and them and to cut our engines, which we did. Paul then reversed the Hope back up the canal from where we’d come. The rotters started to move towards them, following the sound of their engines, they were drawing them away from the foot bridge. They both continued to fire their guns as well as sounding the boats fog horn in order to make as much noise as possible. It was working, they were drawing them away, and I could also see that the ones under the water that were still “alive” were slowly moving down the canal towards the Hope too. They were dispersing. Maybe the Hope did have a chance after all? God I hoped so. There was nothing we could do. If we fired we would draw them back and cause them to block the waterway again. This way the waterway was slowly clearing.

  Then Just as the ones on the side of the canal were almost on the Hope, Paul stuck the Hope into full throttle ahead. It cut through the water, slicing and cutting its way through the canal. The water turned red. All you could hear was THUD, THUD, and THUD as the Hope crushed and sliced its way through the rotters in the water. It started to slow as it got closer to the bridge due to the sheer volume of bodies and rotters still in the water. But it had just enough momentum to skim over the top of them and out the other side.

  We were by no means safe. As soon as the Hope was clear of the foot bridge we started all the boats up again. We knew from the maps that there was another foot bridge just around the next bend in the canal. We needed to learn from what had just happened to us and do things smarter this time.

  We radioed for the Saltwind to go ahead and let us know if the foot bridge was raised or not. David radioed back to tell us it was, but the hordes of rotters were there as well. We told them to blast ahead as fast as they could down the canal and then cut their engines and let their emersion carry them further down the canal. I hoped that would attract fewer rotters to the waterway. We needed to do this as quickly as possible this time, rather than all guns blazing as we had just done. We all cut our engines and used the barge poles and the boats emersion to move us along. We were still attracting them, but not in the same numbers as before.

  As the Gamebird passed under the foot bridge there was still some that fell from the bridge above. CRUNCH, Becky smashed the first one through its skull with her trusty axe. CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH, we dispatched them quickly and quietly. Once we were t
hrough and a few hundred yards further down the canal, Paul started up the Hope and they just blasted their way under the bridge without any problems this time.

  We had learned a valuable lesson that day. Just because we had all this fire power now, it wasn’t always going to be the best option when it came to killing rotters.

  Chapter Forty Three

  We continued slowly up the canal and past what would once have been a nice park area. The hordes of rotters were soon behind us and we managed to navigate through the four manually operated Bog House locks without much trouble. We had a little bit of company from a few local rotters, but they were quickly dispatched with the use of Becky’s axe. We covered a lot of distance that day. We had to navigate our way through a system of five locks at Cloberhill and another two just past the Temple road bridge. But we got good at it fairly quickly. We were still in built up areas, so encounters with the local rotters were inevitable. But, as it was at Bog houses, we dealt with them without any fuss.

  Eventually we came to a large aqueduct at Mayhill, the Kelvin aqueduct. We decided that this would be a good place to stay that night. We could see for miles around and the only way to get to us on the aqueduct would have been the same way we’d got there, by the canal’s waterway and as far as we knew, rotters hadn’t learned how to sail boats!

  We met on the Hue as usual that night in order to discuss what our plan was going to be the next day. Although we’d travelled just over half of the canals length, we’d put the hardest obstacles behind us and had a lot of long stretches of open countryside not too far ahead of us and by the look of the maps the remaining locks were much more spread out.

  We felt quite safe that night, high up on the aqueduct and looking out over the valley below. We lit the stoves and had our first hot meal for a few days. We took the same watches as we had done the previous night, only that night we didn’t feel as on edge as we had been.

  After my watch with Sandie, I crawled into bed with Babs and the two kids. The kids were sleeping, but Babs was still awake. I cuddled up to her, God how I wished for time alone with her. Maybe one day soon I thought. We chatted quietly for a while. Mostly about how things had been before all the shit had begun. The two kids had gone to school in our village and Babs had been a stay at home mum looking after them, me and our home. We’d been married eight years before Luke had come along. He had been our little miracle after everything Babs had been through, we’d never expected to be able to have children, then Emily came along not long after and our little family had been complete. I knew then as I always had that I was going to do everything and anything I could to protect them and try to give them as normal an upbringing as we could in this world. We would keep searching until we found somewhere safe to call home again. If only we had never left our site in Devon, we were safe there until the Navy had come along and taken us away. I could only hope that we would find somewhere as good again, if not better. Maybe we’d find that back home in Togston; I remember thinking that I could only hope that things would be okay there. We chatted into the early hours before finally falling asleep in each other’s arms.

  Chapter Forty Four

  We woke the following morning to the sound of the engines starting up. Bless, I thought, the guys must have left us to sleep. I got up and showered myself and the kids before going up top to see the rest of the guys. Everyone else on the Hue was just lazing around too, so I felt a little less guilty about sleeping in. I went out onto the forward deck and radioed over to John on the Gamebird. Everything was fine, John had said, we’d just let you guys rest a while; we’ll be on our way in a bit.

  We headed off not long after, everyone was fed, cleaned and rested and ready for the day ahead. It wasn’t long though until we came to the first of a series of locks at Maryhill. I remember there being five of them in quick succession. It had turned out that Maryhill had been a large built up area with a lot of new developments along the canal side and built up areas only meant one thing, more rotters!

  Becky, Lia, Amy and I climbed off the boats in order to operate the locks. They had all been manually operated ones that we’d worked several times before. Ken had taught us all how to operate them before his death. We were armed with our boat hook, axe and crowbars, but also carried our guns as well, just in case. Maddison and Hayley also kept watch from the Gamebird. They had climbed on top so that they had a good view.

  We’d gone through that same routine several times the day before, but the locks hadn’t been in such built up places as Maryhill was. There was a small lock keepers cottage next to the first lock. We had a look inside, but couldn’t see any signs of life or any movement. The locks were only big enough to take two of our boats at a time, but we had been used to this too. The Gamebird and Hue went first. The engines were cut as the boats slowly descended in the lock, so we took the opportunity to have a closer look inside the keeper’s cottage. We needed to keep on top of our supplies as it wouldn’t take us long to get through what we’d found on the Hue and Gamebird, after all there were twenty of us at that point again with the addition of Sandie, Lia and her kids.

  Becky and I broke our way in through one of the windows. I always took it as a good sign when places were locked up. It had normally meant that they were undisturbed since the outbreak.

  Amy and Lia had stayed outside to keep watch of the boats and to warn us if anything was approaching.

  We entered into a small living area. It had a coal fire, which meant it had a coal bunker somewhere too. I remember thinking to myself; we’ll be having that for the boats. There was a well-stocked drinks cabinet, which we emptied, for medicinal purposes of course. There was a small kitchen area through a door from which we managed to get a few tins, bags of rice and pasta as well as a few condiments, but nothing major to write home about. We took the cleaning and bathing stuff from the bathroom and then moved into the bedroom. Something stirred in the bed, CRUNCH! Becky smashed it through the skull with her axe. It must have been the lock keeper. He must have locked himself in before he’d turned. We checked the cupboards for bedding supplies which we had been short of and also any clothing that there was. None of us had a lot of spare clothing to change into, only the few items we’d managed to bring from the Somerset. Babs would be able to knock us up something with the stuff we found until we could lay our hands on something better. She had been a sewing machinist before going on maternity leave to have Luke. I drifted back into the past again, remembering Luke being born at Wansbeck hospital. Hey, you with me here, Becky had said and I snapped out of it. We loaded what we had into anything we could find to carry it and headed back out to the boats.

  The guys had manoeuvred the Gamebird and Hue out with the barge poles and were waiting for the water to rise again before repeating the process with the other two boats. We loaded a few bags of coal onto the Hue and Gamebird. I’d never actually seen David smile before, but when Becky handed him the bottle of rum and smoking backy we’d found in the keepers’ cottage, he had a smile from ear to ear!

  We soon had the second two boats through the lock and moved them along to the next one which had only been a couple of hundred yards further down the canal. We had managed to use the tow ropes and barge poles to move the boats; we were trying to stay as quite as possible.

  There had been a pub marked on the map not far from the second lock, Becky and I spoke with the rest of the guys and they agreed it was a chance we could take, but we agreed to wait until we had all four boats safely through the fifth and bottom lock.

  Chapter Forty Five

  It took us a good hour or so to get all four boats through the five locks and we’d done well not to attract any attention to ourselves. There were houses and more high rises overlooking the canal at this point. The guys moored the boats up slightly further down the canal from the bottom lock.

  John joined Becky, Lia, Amy and I and we set off in search of the pub! It wasn’t a drink we had been looking for though, but more supplies to keep us going. Pubs normally se
rved meals and would almost certainly have a stock of dried goods and if not they’d sure to have crisps and snacks. David radioed through to us once we were on our way. Hey guys don’t forget the Rum! We all laughed, I guessed he was getting a taste for it again, I supposed a Royal Navy officer would be able to take his place at the helm of a fishing boat! We’d thought it would be best for Sandie to remain with the guys on the boats in case there was any trouble there.

  As we headed into the streets of Maryhill, it was clear that we weren’t the first people through there since the outbreak. There were decomposing corpses everywhere, buildings had clearly been broken into and stripped of anything of use already. We discussed turning back at that point, but thought there was no harm in continuing; at least someone had already taken out most of the rotters, which made our life a little bit easier, we just hoped that they had left something behind for us.

  As we walked down the main street towards the pub, they started to emerge from the wood work, so to speak. There hadn’t been many. We just stuck together in one group and then one of us would break off and dispose of them. Normally it was Becky.

  Finally we made our way to the pub. The sign on the front of it said The White House Bar. However it had been clear from the outside that it had already been raided and stripped of anything of use. We looked at the map again. There was mostly just normal run of the mill housing, an old hospital and some shops down the high street. We guessed if they had striped the White House, they’d have stripped the shops too.

  We were heading back to the boats when I had thought about something I’d seen on the map. What about the old people’s home? I had said. What? Had been the chorus of response from the rest of the guys. The old people’s home, they must cater for up to fifty people or so by the looks of the size of the place. It wouldn’t be my first choice of places to raid, pretty unappealing if you ask me. Let’s go for it then, Becky had said, what we got to loose, we’re here now.