‘How’s he doing?’
Matty was changed and sitting propped up in bed. His left tracksuit leg was rolled up to his knee and Mark was gently dabbing at a long cut with a towel. Beside him was a bowl of steaming water.
‘Better’ he said, ‘the cut is long, but it’s along the muscle rather than across, it should heal ok if we can hold it together. Do you have sterile strips?’ he asked.
I was impressed by his knowledge of first aid, it was much better than mine. I put the cups down on the bedside table and went to get the first aid boxes.
Frank and I had raided the pharmacy and collected all the medical kits we could find around the estate. Then we had collated the supplies and outfitted two cases with all the best bits. I had surgical strips in abundance. I passed the kits to Mark who, for the first time, looked impressed. ‘Good, can you get Freya?’ was all he said. I wanted to help but I barely knew Matty, He would probably be more comfortable with Freya.
I went back to the kitchen and looked at the food Mark had brought from my food stash. I put the pasta on to boil, and waited with Alex. Soon enough Freya came back into the kitchen.
‘He seems ok for now. Mark is just finishing up.’ She said. ‘What happened to everyone?’
‘I definitely saw them catch Alisha and Jasmine,’ I said.
‘And Eddie and Kai were running back along the towpath, the soldiers would have caught them pretty quickly if they stayed on the path,’ said Freya.
‘Jack climbed over the fence with us, but he didn’t follow us into the village, I think he climbed the bank up to the motorway,’ said Mark, walking into the room carrying the bowl and bloodstained towel. He carefully poured the water down the sink and then refilled the bowl and left the towel to soak.
‘Did you see where Ruth went?’ I asked, ‘or Liam or Drew?’
‘I think I saw Liam go into the water.’ said Taz.
‘There was a boat tied up on the opposite bank he might have been aiming for.’ added Leila.
‘Ruth wasn’t tall enough to make it over the fence, I didn’t see where she went,’ said Mark. He slumped in down onto the floor by the heater. He hadn’t changed or dressed his own cut.
‘Right,’ I said, looking at him assessingly, ‘let’s sort you out, and then you guys can decide where you want to sleep.’
I rescued the bowl from the sink and got a fresh towel. Whilst I cleaned up Marks graze on the side of his head, I explained about the three bungalows that were prepped and secure. Leila and Taz decided to take the first, Freya decided to stay with me to take care of Matty, and Mark and Alex agreed to keep the one he already had the keys for.
We tidied up and then, although I was still exhausted, I left the house to go for a walk around the estate and up to the station, see if anyone else had made it back. As I walked past the familiar front gardens and houses, I savoured the joy of being home, but mixed in with the happiness was worry and guilt. It was my fault they had been caught, I had led the escape and I had stopped when we had been so close to safety. Stopped because I was tired, and stayed to eat and play on my phone. If we had just walked a bit further we would have been safe. I had to correct the mistakes I had made; I had to get them back. There could be no celebrating being home until we were all here, together.
There wasn’t anyone at the train station, but as I walked around the estate, I noticed that a couple of houses seemed to be occupied. There were lights on and I could see shadows of movement through the windows. I made a note to go back the next day and see if they were inclined to be sociable. Back home Freya was feeding Matty and the rest had left to sort out their new homes. I found my phone charger and plugged in my phone. I was shattered so I left all the things I should have been doing and went to bed.
The sound of movement in the house woke me next morning. I lay there for a second thinking of the things that needed to be done. We needed to get the garden started as soon as possible; there were six mouths to feed now, and the dried goods would run out eventually. I wanted to see who else was living on the estate and I wanted to try to locate the others; find out where the soldiers had taken them. That last point seemed impossible. I had no idea how we could track them down. I wondered suddenly if my message to Vik had been sent. It hadn’t so I resent it and then, groaning with muscle fatigue, got up.
The day progressed pretty well. Matty stayed in bed, resting, but the others helped weed the garden as we waited to see if anyone else would turn up. The carrots seed I had sown before I had left were now delicate seedlings about an inch high, we had returned just in time to put down some slug killer before they were all eaten. The potatoes had also started to sprout under the fleece. I felt the pot method would be better, so I got Freya and Alex started on sterilising the potting compost and dug up some of the potatoes for replanting. Leila and Taz started pruning back the rose to give the fruit trees more room and Mark, giving me a sardonic look, picked up a spade and started digging a new bed. I was waiting for a message or call from Vik and it made me anxious, I drifted from task to task, but by lunchtime the garden was looking much better.
Sitting down to lunch of pasta and tomato sauce I took out the seeds from my backpack and lay them on the table. Everyone perked up at the sight.
‘Wow Miss, where did you get those?’ asked Alex.
I smiled, ‘You can call me Zoe, it seems silly to call me Miss’ I spread out the seeds, ‘I picked them up from the garden centre at the start of the outbreak, I was growing food already, so when the food shortages started I was ok.’
‘Where is the garden centre?’ asked Leila, ‘can we go and get more stuff?’
‘I think there are people living there,’ I said, ‘a family with three children, I’ve met the kids a couple of times but not the adults.’
‘Should we go and have a look?’ said Taz.
‘Eventually,’ I said, ‘first let’s go talk to the people living round the corner; they weren’t here when I left. It could be people that have returned, or it could be people that have moved out from London.’
I took Leila and Taz with me, they were friendly and open and unthreatening, I filled up a couple of bottles of filtered water as gifts and then we walked around past the school up to the houses in Foxglove. The house I had seen lit up the previous night had been Nina’s house. She and her two children had disappeared after the travellers from London had camped in the cemetery, but I wondered if she had returned.
I left Leila and Taz at the top of the garden and walked down and knocked on the door. It remained closed. ‘Nina?’ I called, ‘Is that you?’
There was a noise from inside, then the curtain at the window next to me was pulled aside. Nina’s face stared out at me. I smiled and gave a small wave and her face disappeared as she walked round to the door. It opened slowly. ‘Hello?’ she said weakly.
I was struck immediately by how thin she had become. ‘Nina, it’s Zoe,’ she looked at me blankly, ‘we met in the summer, do you remember?… when we all met up at the school… and the kids were all playing in the hall?’ I paused before each sentence waiting for a response, but it wasn’t until I mentioned the children that I got one, and it wasn’t what I was expecting. Her eyes welled up with tears which dripped down her face, she stared at me, unmoving.
‘Nina,’ I asked, ‘Where are William and Rachel?’
She turned around, still silently crying and walked back into the house towards the stairs. I quickly waved at Leila and Taz to come in and followed her up.
At the top of the stairs she turned right and walked into a brightly painted room with two small children’s beds. Lying in the centre of the beds, unmoving, were two small shapes. I walked closer, horrified, it was William and Rachel, but pale copies of the chubby, lively kids they had been. Although they were dressed in clean, colourful clothing, their faces and hands were thin, the shapes of their skulls showing through, their chubbiness had gone and they lay there, their chests rising and falling faintly. As I stared at William his eyes opened ‘mummy,’ he whispered. I stopped, I had thought they were dead and the relief hit me like a sledgehammer.