I went in, grabbed some food and sat down.
‘Ok,’ said Mark, ‘the ride there was uneventful, but when we got to the road, we found that the buildings next to the path we had chosen were being used as a military base. The fence had been extended north all the way to the road.’
‘The council members like their game of golf apparently,’ said Jack.
‘We rode back a way and stashed the bikes in a field, then we walked back looking for a way to get through,’ said Freya. ‘We managed to avoid the patrols but the only place we could get over the fence was right by the base. There was a gate there which was just about climbable.’
‘For Freya,’ said Mark, ‘I couldn’t get over, so I crawled into a hedge in the field on the other side of the road, covered myself with the towel and waited.’
‘Once inside the fence it was easy, there were only a few early morning joggers,’ said Freya, ‘I made my way across the train tracks and down to the hostel, looking for a good tree to climb when suddenly a load of twigs fell in my face. I looked up and there was Jack, right in the middle of the very tree I would have picked.’
‘So how did you end up there, Jack?’ I asked, ‘had you escaped already?’
‘Sort of, only I was never really caught; I climbed up onto the motorway, there was a truck up there, so I jumped in and hid behind some boxes. I was hoping to get out before the soldiers left but didn’t get a chance. When the others were caught, they were put into the same truck with two guards. Ruth saw me but not the others, their hands were zip-tied otherwise I would have tried helping them get away.’
‘Did they look ok?’ I asked, ‘Did anyone get hurt?’
‘No, they were all fine,’ he said, ‘Jasmine and Alisha were wet through, but the soldiers gave them a blanket.’
I nodded in relief, the two girls had seemed the least able to take care of themselves, and I had been worried that they would be left cold and wet.
‘When we reached the town, the truck got waved through the gate without any checks and they were really slapdash at the hostel, just pushed them out and escorted them inside, leaving the truck unguarded. It was easy for me to slide out. I was trying to work out a way to get them free when I saw Freya stumbling about below me.’
‘But where did you sleep?’ I asked.
‘Oh, there are plenty of empty houses; it doesn’t seem like a normal settlement camp, more like a place for council members and army families.’
‘Once I found Jack I wanted to leave immediately, but he said there would be too many people on the golf course to cross safely,’ said Freya.
‘So we went for a look around town,’ said Jack. ‘Did you know there was a hydroponics shop there?’
‘Is there?’ I was excited; more irrigation kit would be so useful.
‘Yeah, and it wasn’t guarded at all,’ said Jack.
‘Aren’t they using it then?’ I asked.
‘Like I said, they’re pretty slapdash, although there was a sign on the door saying, ‘council property’ the front shutters were open, and the door wasn’t locked,’ replied Jack.
‘Oh, I brought you a present,’ said Freya, she reached into her backpack which was under the table and pulled out a blue and green rectangular box about ten inches long.
‘Oh, this is great!’ I said, immediately recognising it, ‘I have one of these, it’s an Autopot.’ the rest of the kids looked blankly back at me. ‘It has a float inside that opens and closes a valve that controls the flow of water… it’s an automatic watering system,’ I said, excitedly.
‘I knew you’d like it,’ said Freya.
‘Did they have a lot of them?’ I asked.
‘Yes, a shelf full, a couple of different types.’
‘But that won’t help us get Ruth and the others back,’ interjected Mark. ‘We need to know if we can get them out, Jack refused to answer any questions before we got back,’ he said, a shade disgruntledly.
‘So were they in the hostel?’ I asked.
‘Yes,’ said Freya, ‘in a bedroom at the back, on the first floor, we were very lucky, we could see right into their room.’
‘I watched them for the rest of Saturday and on and off on Sunday,’ said Jack, ‘by the time I had worked out where they were, they were free of the zip ties but locked in. They were let out of the room for meals but not at any other time.’
‘What about bathroom visits?’ I asked, ‘how did they arrange that?’
‘Their room had a bathroom attached,’ said Freya, ‘but it didn’t have a window.’
‘How big were the windows in the bedroom?’ asked Mark. ‘Could we get in that way?
‘They were tall windows where you pull the whole window up and down to open and close it, a pair of them, starting low down, about a foot off the floor,’ said Freya, using her hands to mime pushing something up and down.
I nodded in recognition ‘sash windows, I know what you mean.’
‘They didn’t open,’ said Jack, ‘I saw Kai and Eddie trying to force them, several times.’
‘They had window seats,’ said Freya, ‘Ruth spent a lot of time sitting in one.
‘What about a back door?’ asked Alex ‘was there a way to get in?’
‘There was a door into the kitchen, but they didn’t go there, they used the other room at the back for meals.’ said Jack.
‘Was the door locked?’ asked Taz.
‘Yeah, I tried it Saturday night; I was hoping to break them out.’
‘Someone opened the door whilst we were watching, Monday morning,’ said Freya, ‘they unlocked it, got something from the shed and then went back in and relocked it. Then they hung the key on a hook by the door, you could see them putting it back through the kitchen window.’
‘Is there any way we could get the key?’ I asked.
‘Well normally I would use a fishing rod’ said Jack, ‘but that’s if the keys are by the front door and we can get through the letterbox. Back doors are harder.’
‘So who had keys to the front?’ I asked ‘or were there always people inside to let visitors in?
‘It’s hard to say,’ said Jack, ‘I’m pretty sure they left one guard behind when the staff went home in the evenings.’
‘Staff?’ I queried.
‘Yeah, they had other people staying in the hostel, people who weren’t locked in their rooms,’ said Jack, ‘they were in the rooms upstairs at the front and used the front rooms downstairs during the day.’
‘Did you find out who they were?’ asked Mark.
‘No, well I couldn’t exactly ask anyone,’ he said.
‘Some new guests arrived on the Monday,’ said Freya, ‘early, just after I had found Jack. I went to look round the front and saw them with their suitcases being greeted at the front door.’
There was a silence as we thought about that.
‘So it’s not a prison?’ I asked.
‘No,’ replied Freya, ‘I think it’s just a hostel for visitors to the town. They’re just locking Ruth and the others in to keep them from escaping before they transfer them up North.’
It didn’t sound promising; I couldn’t think of a single idea that didn’t have serious problems. If we could get a ladder, we might be able to break the window to the room, but it would be noisy and dangerous. That type of window usually had thick glass in, which would break into shards and rain down on whoever was holding the ladder. I could perhaps pretend to be a new council clerk and knock on the backdoor and swipe the key somehow, but they would expect me at the front door not the back, and they would lock the door after I had left. The fishing rod idea sounded good, but we needed a hole for access.
‘Was there a cat flap?’ I asked hopefully.
‘No,’ said Freya. ‘Remember it was a community centre before the outbreak.’