The Bitter End (5 page)

"Bring the boat over Hann," he said.

She examined him for some secret cue that he didn't want her to bring the boat to shore but if he was giving one it was too subtle for her to detect. She turned the key and the diesel motor groaned into action, chugging away beneath her.

Dennis had always parked the boat at night so she was not used to the delicate movements required to get it to shore. After several unsuccessful attempts Ben and Cora appeared on deck and threw the front and rear ropes to shore so Dennis and Frank could help pull the boat in.

Cautiously she stepped off the boat onto the shore. A yellow rubble path was mostly hidden by long grass.

Frank offered her his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you dear."

She put his age at about fifty but he might have been younger. These had been tough times and she was sure she wasn't the only one who looked a few years older than she actually was.

"Frank wants to come with us," said Dennis. He was practically jumping up and down on the spot and she realised that he was excited.

"We don't have room," she said, not unkindly.

She was not overjoyed at the idea that Dennis had invited a complete stranger to join them. Maybe he was excited but how much could you really learn about someone in fifteen minutes. He might have been a murderer for all they knew. "Sorry Mr Shorehill."

"Frank, please," he said, "and space won't be a problem. I have my own boat."

His voice was soft and his accent well-to-do
 
not to murder them all.

"You should see it," said Dennis, "it's something else."

She ignored him and continued to look at Frank, he didn't wilt or budge under her hardest stare. "If you have a boat," she said, "why do you need us?"

He shrugged and for the first time she thought his true character might be coming out. His cheeks reddened. "Its been a long time since I've had any company," he said. "My dear wife, she..." he turned away.

Hannah didn't need to hear the rest. He'd lost his wife to the creatures. The vampires, as the kids called them, although the term worried her. Films, television and books had softened the image of vampires and these creatures were anything but soft. She worried that calling them vampires made them seem less threatening.

"I'm sorry," said Frank, pressing his fingers into his eyes. "It’s still difficult to talk about."

She nodded, she was sorry for him, she really was, but she had to think about her family. "Dennis, can I have a word with you?" she said.

He nodded and followed her a few steps away from the old man. She watched him over Dennis's shoulder. He just stood there with his hands clasped behind his back looking out at the fields.

"Are you out of your mind?" she said in a whisper which she could only hope portrayed her anger.

"What?" he said.

"What do you mean, 'what'? You can't just go around inviting random strangers to come along with us."

"He's not random, he's fine."

"How do you know? How do you know it's not all some act so he can gain our trust and then when we let our guard down he'll kill us all while we sleep?"

He laughed but then saw that she wasn't joking. "He's not going to kill us."

"How can you be sure?"

"I ... I just ... Just trust me. Okay?"

She almost exploded at him but she kept her voice down. "No Dennis, it is not okay. What if he does something to one of the kids?"

"He's not going to hurt the kids," said Dennis but she could see she'd managed to rattle him. That worked for her.

She spoke more softly, "you don't know that. You can't know that."

He nodded, went quiet for a moment. "What if we tell him he has to stay on his boat and tell the kids they can't leave ours?"

She thought about it.

"If we tell him he can't come there's nothing we can do to stop him following us."

She thought about the gun under the bed. She thought there was something they could do. But Dennis had a point and she didn't think she had it in her to shoot a (probably) innocent man.

She nodded. "But if he tries to come on our boat..."

"He won't," said Dennis, some of the old excitement returning to his voice.

"But if he does..."

"I'll deal with him," he said and she could tell by his expression that they were both thinking the same thing.

"Okay then," she said and Dennis kissed her on the lips before rushing back over to Frank Shorehill to give him the good news.

Frank left and returned a few minutes later in his boat. It really was something special and seeing it gave Hannah even more reason to be wary of him. It wasn't a canal boat but a speed boat, painted a dull black it looked like the sort of thing the military might have put together.
 

That evening they moored their boats next to each other and ate fresh fish that Frank had caught earlier in the day. He sat on his boat and they on theirs. He made no attempt to cross the divide as he told them all about how he had found himself on the river.

He told them that when the creatures got into his house he ran. He wasn't proud of the fact but he had seen what they could do and that once they found his wife, Margaret was her name, he knew there was nothing he could do for her. So he'd run. Their house was by the river but he wasn't particularly aiming for the water. They didn't own a boat or anything so when he realised where he was going he thought that he would have to swim for safety.

He found the black boat waiting for him. The keys still in the ignition. He didn't need any more of an invitation than that and took it away.

He had been wondering the river aimlessly, living on the dried astronaut food he'd found aboard. But he was lonely, he missed his wife and he was plagued by nightmares of her coming back as one of those creatures that everyone was calling a vampire.

6

It took three more days to reach Sanctuary. That's what they called it 'Sanctuary'. They were long uneventful days spent watching the green fields float by beside them. They didn't see any more creatures but they tended to gravitate towards the cities, where there were more people, so it wasn't surprising and did little to soften the fear that came from the knowledge that they were still out there.

She thought the kids had begun to suspect that something was going on. They asked more questions about where they were going. Hannah tried to dampen their expectations as she didn't want them to be too disappointed when they found there was nothing there.

Frank turned out to be quite charming. He didn't make any attempt to talk her into letting him on their boat but he didn't protest when, two days after she'd made Dennis promise he wouldn't come aboard, she invited him herself. He brought fresh fish and helped her cook it. They talked long into the night and passed around the bottle of twenty year old whiskey he'd bought with him. Ben and Cora fell asleep on the floor.

The next morning, the morning of their
 
arrival, she was hung over. She thought that, judging by the way he moved, stiffly, as if he were balancing an egg on his head, Dennis was hung over as well. They weren't expecting to arrive until late in the afternoon but, as they would later learn, the little community of Sanctuary, had grown significantly since Dennis's map had be drawn.

Two boats sat stationary on the water ahead of them, effectively blocking any further progress along the river. "Dennis," she called down into the boat.

His head appeared a few moments later. He climbed out and saw the two boats. "Cut the engine," he said and she did as he told her. A moment later Frank did the same but she could still hear the engines of the two boats ahead, running to keep them stationary against the river current.

They drifted towards the two boats. She couldn't see anyone on them. The kids appeared behind Dennis, looked about to ask what was going on and fell silent when they saw the two boats ahead.

"Sentries," said Dennis. "They've got to be." But he didn't sound sure. Behind them Frank had appeared on his boat. He didn't need to ask what was going on.

She waited for something to happen but nothing did. They kept drifting towards the two boats and she thought that if someone didn't do something soon they were going to run into them. Her hand twitched over the key but Dennis took hold of it. "Wait," he said.

She saw people walk onto the decks of those two boats. Dennis smiled and waved at them.

All of the people on the boats were men, dressed in light green combat trousers they looked like they were out for a day of fishing. The big guns they carried, however, told a different story. She turned to look at Dennis but he didn't seem worried. She tried her best not to worry either but it didn't do any good.

"River's blocked," said a fat man. They were only a few metres away now and in the silence of the new world it was easy to hear them talk.

Dennis looked at her but she didn't know what he saw in her expression.

She heard the engine on Frank's boat start up and her first thought that he was going to leave them there with the men and their guns. But instead he manoeuvred his boat past them and up to the two boats blocking their path.

She could hear him talking to the men but couldn't make out what was being said. her heart pounded in her chest. Her breathing was shallow. She realised that she had put almost as much faith in the safety of this place as Dennis.

After what seemed like an eternity Frank turned around. "Follow me," he said.

Dennis started the engine and took the tiller from her. She was pleased. Her hands were shaking and she didn't think the would have been able to navigate the narrow twisting river ahead.

They travelled slowly with Frank taking the lead. She desperately wanted to stop him and ask what he'd said to the men on the boats but then she thought about it and wondered if she wanted to know. She liked Frank but she wasn't sure she would like the answer he would give.

The further along the river they went the more boats they saw. Big boats, small boats, in between boats. Some of them had people standing on them, watching them travel past, most of them looked empty though. The bank gave way to a reed marsh that she didn't think anyone could walk on and then river started to open up.

On the wider stretches of river the boats that they saw jutted out towards the centre. They were more frequently occupied here and tied together in threes, fours and mores. Neither Hannah nor Dennis spoke.

It would later seem that she had felt a sense of dread as they arrived in Sanctuary but it wouldn't be the truth. She felt confused, certainly, a little apprehensive, perhaps, but not dread.

Frank led them to what at first appeared to be an island in the middle of the wide stretch of river. As they got nearer, however, she saw that it was actually man made. A floor of wooden boards floating like a boat. There was a hut, or shed in the middle and a long boat moored at either end.
 

They circled the island and moored next to Frank. Hannah was too stunned to say anything. She watched in mute astonishment alongside Ben and Cora as two men walked out of the hut and helped to tie up their boats. No time at all seemed to pass before Frank was standing before them.

"The General would like to see us," he said.

"General?" said Dennis. He sounded as stunned as she felt. "Who's the General?"

But Frank just smiled a knowing smile. "Trust me," he said.

Dennis nodded and took her hand. He turned to her. "You'll wait here with the kids?"

She nodded but Frank interrupted. "The General wants to see you both," he said.

"Oh no," said Hannah, suddenly sure they had walked into a trap. "No, no way. I'm not leaving them."

"Bring them with you," said Frank. "There's room inside."

She looked at him and scowled. "Who are you?"

He actually laughed like Santa Claus as well. "All will be revealed my dear. You have nothing to fear."

Dennis climbed onto the island and she handed Cora to him. Then Ben jumped across and she followed.

The island wobbled beneath her feet and sounded hollow. She didn't like it, not the island, not the community, not the way they were being treated, not one little bit. But she followed Dennis into the dark hut.

Candle stubs burned around the single room building giving off a flickering light and making the air hot and moist. Large men with guns stood on either side of the door, four more stood behind a long table and five chairs.

On the table there were large sheets of paper open. Hannah couldn't see what was printed on them. She felt as if she had stepped into another world. The third she had lived in recently.

A woman of about forty with short grey hair that still had remnants of brown sat in the middle chair. The other four people at the table were men.

The woman had been hunched over the papers when they entered but she sat back and put her hands in her lap as they approached. Frank walked up to her, leaned across the table and kissed her on the mouth. "It's good to see you again Margie," he said.

Hannah didn't know what to think. She held Cora's hand more tightly and waited to see what would happen next.