After eating they retired to the lounge with coffee and sat talking for a couple of hours, looking out at the garden and the fields beyond as the sun moved westward. Max lay stretched out in front of the fire, having eaten the rabbit remains. Jane was feeling slightly easier in her mind after talking to Sarah, though she was still very nervous. She felt relieved, however, that she would have the help and support of the two sisters in the future. It was now late afternoon and they made ready to take leave of their friends. Sarah and Georgie came out to the car with them and they hugged each other.
‘Remember,’ said Sarah, ‘we’re always here for you if you need any help or advice. Come round whenever you like.’ Jane was grateful and thanked them both.
‘I almost forgot;’ said Jamie, ‘Bill and Emma are coming to ours next Friday for lunch, and we were hoping you’d come, too. It would be great for you to meet each other. In fact,’ he added, ‘you’ve already met Bill before.’ He explained about Phil and Sophie going to their place for a course the previous year and both women remembered them, and Bill vaguely, as they’d only met him briefly. They said that would be great and promised to come.
Jane drove off down the track, stopping at the bottom for Jamie to open the gate and close it behind them, then turned left and drove back towards Sidley. They chatted as they went, but Jamie fell silent as they passed the turning to his brother’s house and hung his head; Jane took his hand and gripped it. They came back to the main road and turned left, over the roundabout and into the high street. Just as they passed Lidl they caught movement to their right and saw a figure come out of a small supermarket. They couldn’t believe their eyes and Jane braked to a halt immediately. Standing on the pavement was a young girl waving at them; she had a dirty face and matted, long blonde hair, but was wearing a pristine green dress.
Twenty
They got out of the car and, as a precaution, Jamie reached into the back seat, picked up the sawn-off and slung it over his shoulder by its strap. They crossed the road to where the girl was standing and Jane knelt down in front of her. She looked about ten or eleven, and was rather thin and under-nourished. Jamie stood a couple of feet away, looking around and listening.
‘Hello, honey, my name’s Jane and this is my partner, Jamie. Are you okay?’
The girl nodded. ‘Kind of… but not really; I’m scared. Is it okay to be scared? Mummy and Daddy said I mustn’t be, but that was a long time ago.’
‘Oh, honey, of course it’s okay to be scared – I’m scared and so is Jamie. What’s your name?’
‘My name’s Megan.’
‘And how old are you, Megan?’
‘I’m twelve now. It was my birthday yesterday. I know because I’ve been looking at my diary every day. That’s why I’m wearing this dress. All my clothes were dirty and I wanted something nice to wear for my birthday. I found this dress in the charity shop down the road.’ Jane wanted to cry but she managed to remain composed.
‘Well, happy birthday for yesterday, Megan. Are you on your own, or do you have any family?’
Megan shook her head. ‘Mummy and Daddy died in February from the sickness. They’re in their bedroom. It started to smell bad a long time ago and there were lots of flies, so I had to put tape over the bottom of the door.’
‘Oh, Megan, I’m so sorry.’ Jane looked up at Jamie; his jaw was set and she could see that he was struggling to keep it together. ‘How did you manage to survive, Megan?’ she asked.
‘Mummy shut me in the cellar when they thought they might get sick. Daddy had filled it with lots of food and drink, and with candles, buckets and blankets. They said I mustn’t be afraid and I mustn’t come out until help came, but no one came. They got very sick and one day it went quiet. I waited for ages, but no one came. Is everyone dead?’
‘Nearly everyone, my love. How long were you down in the cellar?’
‘Three weeks and six days. I checked my diary, wondering when it would be safe to come out. When no one came after all that time I thought I should come out as it smelled really bad in the cellar because of the toilet buckets.’
‘You’re a very brave girl, Megan, and your mum and dad would be proud of you. What have you been doing since then?’
‘Well, I carried all the food and drink that was left up to the house and I’ve been sleeping on the sofa in the lounge. It was really cold and I had to put lots of blankets on it. I didn’t want to go upstairs because Mummy and Daddy were up there, but I had to. All my clothes were in my bedroom, so I took them all downstairs. The electricity and the water worked for a while and then it stopped and there was no television. I put lots of bowls and pans and plastic boxes out in the garden to collect rainwater.’
‘That was very good thinking, Megan; good for you! You’re a clever girl.’
‘But all my food ran out, so I’ve been going to the supermarkets and I’ve managed to find some food. Also, I’ve been getting food from the houses in the streets nearby where the doors were open, or climbing through windows. There are dead people in all of them and it’s been awful. Have you seen many dead people?’
‘Yes, my love, I’m afraid we’ve seen lots of dead people. It’s been awful for us, too, and we’ve been just as scared as you have.’ She looked up at Jamie with a silent question and he nodded without hesitation. She turned back to the girl.
‘Megan, would you like to come home and stay with us? We live a couple of miles away, by the sea. We could look after you now; would you like that?’
She gave Jane a big smile and said ‘Yes please, I’d love to,’ then burst into tears. Jane hugged her, fighting back tears herself. ‘Do you need to get anything first from your home?’
‘Well, I’d like to get a photo of Mummy and Daddy if that’s alright, and my grandma, too. And I’d like to get my teddy. I know I’m twelve now, but I still like my teddy; is that okay?’
‘Of course it is, Megan; you just show us where to go.’
They got back in the car and Jamie took the other shotgun off the back seat and put it in the front so Megan could sit down. They introduced her to Max, who promptly licked her face, making one clean patch on her left cheek, and she laughed for the first time in five months. Jane and Jamie looked at each other with heartbroken expressions on their faces. The girl’s laughter amidst the ruin that lay about them was something they had never expected to hear, and this felt like the best thing they’d done since the plague had begun. They drove up a side street under Megan’s direction and stopped outside her house. Jane asked her if she would like them to go in with her, but she declined.
‘It’s okay, thanks; I only need a few things and I won’t be long. What will I do about clothes? Only, all of mine are ruined and filthy and I don’t think I want to wear them any more.’
Jane smiled. ‘Don’t worry about that, honey; we’ll go shopping tomorrow and get you some new clothes.’ Megan thought for a second then nodded and went inside.
She came back out two minutes later clutching a couple of framed photos, her teddy bear, a diary and her favourite blanket. She put them on the back seat, climbed in and they drove off. They had to stop off on the way home at the latest locations where they had snares set, and picked up two rabbits, which was great news.