The Bitter End (10 page)

The Island lay ahead. The frame of a new building stood bare and skeletal beside the market. It was an election year and Nicholas was busy fulfilling many of the promises he’d made four years ago and probably not thought about since. He had successfully held a referendum that meant, for the first time, a General could serve more than two terms. The people milling around the Village Hall were either registering to run against him or protesting about something.

The boat reached the jetty and Ben jumped out. He wrapped the rope around a pole and tied it off. By the time he had finished Aaron and Anthony had joined him on the dock. Anthony held a scruffy leather folder.

The deck was slippery beneath his feet and in places he had to step over cracked wood and rotten panels. The whole thing would need replacing eventually but, for now, they were just making repairs where they were needed and using the resources to build a pub.

Ben led the way through the people who had gathered outside the Village Hall. He recognised some of them but didn't stop to say hello or find out what they were doing there.

It was light and airy in the hall. A skylight had been installed and there was now a walled off section at the rear where Nicholas conducted his private business. Two men stood in front of the door.

"The General is busy," said one. He looked ten years younger than Ben but he was about a foot taller and tough.

"We've got an appointment," said Ben. Another new initiative, not so long ago there was no need to make appointments to see Nicholas.

"Wait here," said the other man. He was smaller than the first but had a permanent expression of anger. It struck Ben how much things had changed recently, once upon a time he had known the name and face of everyone in the village but these two were completely new to him. They didn't appear to recognise him either.

"What's your name?" said the little man.

"Ben."

The little man disappeared into Nicholas's office and the big man stood there watching them suspiciously. A moment later the little man returned.

He nodded at them, "in you go."

Anthony and Aaron followed Ben through the door into the small office. It smelled of tobacco and thick smoke hung in the air.

"What can I do for you?" said Nicholas. He sounded tired and he looked old. His mouth hung down at the corners, he was starting to get jowls.

Aaron opened the battered folder and placed it on top of the scattered papers on Nicholas's desk.

"What's this?" he said.

"It's a plan for a journey to London," said Ben.

They watched in silence as Nicholas bent his head to the document and started to read. After a couple of minutes he began to shake his head.

"Oh no. No, no," he said.

Ben looked at Anthony and Aaron but they didn't seem to know what to say.

"No this won't do at all," said Nicholas and looked up. "You can't really expect me to approve this."

"Why not?" said Ben.

"The resources, the man power." He closed the folder, he couldn't have read it all. "There's no way."

"But what about the medicine?" said Ben.

"The medicine that's twenty-years out of date?"

Ben had not considered that. It had been twenty years since he'd encountered a sell by date. "The supplies then."

Nicholas shook his head. "We've got supplies."

"They won't last forever."

"No but neither will anything you find in London. We need to focus on sustainability; farming and fishing. We can't continue living on the remains of the old world Ben."

The words rung in his head even after they had left the Village hall; 'we can't continue living on the remains of the old world.' Even as they climbed onto the boat and pushed away, in silence, it was all he could think. The worst part of it was that Nicholas was right. Maybe London would keep them going for a while longer, maybe decades, but eventually it would run out and the longer they waited the harder it would be.

It would be difficult for him to transition to a life of farming but at least he had seen a farm. There were people, now adults, living in the village who wouldn't be able to picture a farm and they certainly wouldn't be able to run one. If they continued to live off the old world until his generation was gone what would happen to those they left behind?

No one spoke as the boat cut through the water. The splashes of the oars sounded monotonous, the laughs and screams of the children they could hear were painful. Ben tried to shrug it off, it just wasn't meant to be. He tried to ignore the fact that he was disappointed, that he had been looking forward to one last trip. That wasn't going to be his life. His life was here in the village and now it always would.

1

Kirsty Lorimer looked at her three friends and tried to bite back the sense of revulsion she felt. Margaret, Anne and Charlotte sneered at her, their faces masks of disdain.

"You wouldn't dare," said Margaret.

No, she wouldn't, if they wanted to know the truth. Never in a million years. If her father found out she was even considering it he would kill her.

But her father wasn't there. He was at the pub where he was probably drinking himself silly on out of date scotch. She had the whole boat to herself which was why she'd thought it would be fun to invite her friends over. That and it was far less likely he would come home and beat on her if there were witnesses.

"Kirsty's scared of vamps, Kirsty's scared of vamps," they sang together.

"Obviously I'm not," she said but they carried on singing. Who was scared of vampires, maybe the grownups but maybe they just said that to keep them from wandering off.

"If you're not scared why won't you go?" In the gloom of the boat she couldn't see who was talking, maybe Margaret again.

"Because I can't," she said.

"Because you're scared," said Margaret (she was sure it was Margaret now), there was more than a trace of nasty beneath her jokey tone.

"No I'm not."

"Why won't you go then?"

She desperately tried to think of a reason not to go to the Back Field but nothing came to mind.

"Told you she was chicken," said Margaret. She turned back to the other two girls. "Come on, lets leave the chicken alone. She probably only wanted us here because she's afraid of the dark."

"I am not," said Kirsty.

Margaret dismissed her with a "whatever," and started walking towards the door. Anne and Charlotte followed.

"Wait," she said. "How would we even get there?"

Margaret paused and then slowly turned around to face her. "We've got a boat haven't we?"

"Yeah but, won't someone see us?"

"If you're too scared..."

She didn't know what came over her, later she would wonder if she had been tricked, somehow it felt like it. She didn't want to go to the Back Field, it was dark and cold outside and her father would be mad if he got home and she wasn't there. Although, he would be mad if he got back and she was there, though so she couldn't win on that score. The truth was she didn't want her friends to go, mean as they were she didn't want to be alone.

Kirsty Lorimer pushed past the other girls and walked up the stairs. She opened the door and went out onto the deck. A summer wind coming off the water made her shiver but she didn't stop. If she stopped she would lose her nerve and she was determined not to give Margaret another excuse to laugh at her.

She climbed down into the boat and waited. She hoped that the other girls had been bluffing and that they would back down now they saw she was prepared to go, but they didn't. One by one they climbed down into the boat with her and then Margaret untied them before climbing in herself.

Kirsty and Charlotte rowed the boat across the village. There were lights on in some of the homes and she briefly considered screaming but she wasn't being kidnapped. She was going of her own free will and that made it seem even scarier. If something went wrong she would have no one to blame but herself. She could have let them call her chicken and leave but she hadn't.

It had been more than a year since the woman had died on Back Field. Supposedly it was a vamp but Kirsty had heard the woman had killed herself because she was married to the General who used to beat her and that she hated him but couldn't tell anyone because he was the General. No one really believed that there had been a vamp on Back Field because where had they come from? Sanctuary was the only village in the area and vamps weren't known for wandering far from their own lands. It just didn't add up.

Even if there weren't vamps on Back Field it was still a scary place. As they approached it seemed like a black hole, there were no lamps and a full moon hung low in the starry sky. Kirsty looked at the other girls but couldn't see their faces clearly enough to work out whether they were scared as well. She thought they might be but there was no way any of them would admit it.

When the boat stopped Kirsty jumped up. She was determined to get this over with as soon as possible and the best way to do that, she decided, was to show them that she really wasn't scared. She stepped off the boat and onto the soggy mud beach.

"There, are you happy?" she said turning around to face them.

The three girls sat in the boat and looked at her. The moon threw her shadow over them so she couldn't see them clearly. "You're still scared," said Margaret.

"You're the one sitting in the boat," she said.

"But I'm not scared," she said.

Kirsty wasn't so sure about that. "Why don't you come and join me then?"

She thought Margaret might be shaking her head.

Kirsty did not think about the weakness of her situation. She was standing on Back Field while Margaret and the other girls (probably scared) were in the boat and showing no signs of getting out. She did not consider what might happen if she pissed them off. "What's the matter?" she said. "Are you scared?"

She heard the water crash against the side of the boat but it took her a moment to realise what was happening. "See you in the morning," said Margaret.

"Hey what are you doing?"

"If you're so brave you can spend the night there," said Margaret.

Kirsty saw the boat move further away and a sickening fear descended upon her. "Come back," she said.

She heard oars on the water and muffled voices. Maybe Charlotte or Anne were trying to tell Margaret to go back but she would never know. Then all she heard was Margaret laughing and soon the boat had disappeared from sight.

The water settled to a black mirror and she trembled. It was just a joke, she told herself, they weren't really gone or, if they were, they would be back soon. They were her friends, they wouldn't really leave her out here all night by herself. She wrapped her arms around herself and wished she'd worn more than a t-shirt and jeans, even in the summer the nights were cold on the river.

In the distance she could hear music. Sound carried across the otherwise silent village. There were lights bobbing up and down on the river and she watched those, convinced that they would give her the first sign that the boat was coming back. If they trying to scare her it had worked.

The wind rustled the leaves on the trees far behind her and she shivered. She wondered how much time had passed and then told herself she was being silly, it could only have been a few minutes since the boat disappeared.

The music in the distance stopped and she heard voices. Joking drunken voices and a splash. Then more laughter. The glow that hung above the island faded and then disappeared. It was getting colder. One by one the lights on the river went out and the darkness seemed to grow exponentially. It became clear to Kirsty that the girls weren't coming back for her, at least not that night. There would be arguments, maybe Anne or Charlotte would try to talk Margaret out of leaving her there, but she wouldn't listen and ultimately neither of the two girls would get the boat and come and get her themselves.

Her father might get home from the pub and wonder where she was but if he was drunk (he would be drunk) he would crash out on his bed before worrying about her.

The wispy clouds parted to reveal a black canvas sprinkled with diamond stars. The wind became colder and she shivered. She was reluctant to leave the muddy beach in case the girls surprised her and actually did come back but, eventually, she gave the idea some serious consideration.

Upon the field there was a small forest, just a cluster of trees really. Sometimes people went there to forage for mushrooms and nuts. It was also, she reminded herself, where the General's wife had been killed but of course that was just a story. She hadn't been killed by a vamp because vamps didn't stray this far from the big cities. She would be perfectly safe.

Still she didn't go. Still she watched the river and even as the distant boat lights went out she held on to the hope that the girls might come back for her.

They did not. She stood on the beach until there was no light in the village, until the cold was so deep that she could feel it in her bones. Silent tears streamed down her cheeks and they felt warm on her icy skin.

Kirsty realised that she couldn't stay on the beach all night. If she did she would get sick. If she fell asleep there she might not wake up and when the water rose above her head she would drown.