Plague Of The Revenants (12 page)

“None of it makes any sense,” I said to Reverend Thorpe and Kit when the three of us were alone a
little later. “I can just about see why one band of survivors might seek to rob another but then why take the others with you? Why not just leave them be, or kill them if you’re feeling especially cold blooded?”
“Do you think their stories can be believed?” Asked Kit.
“Well if they were going to lie I’d have thought they could come up with a better story than that.”
“It doesn’t bode well,” said Kit pessimistically.
“If it’s true you’re certainly right,” I acknowledged. “There were twenty of them, and they were armed, about the same number as we have here if you discount some of the elderly. If what the Marstons say is true than whatever happened to their camp could well happen to us if we’re not careful.”
“At least we’ve got two new people who can help us,” said Reverend Thorpe, trying to sound cheerful. “And the two children are hope for the future.”
I smiled at this. “Always looking on the bright side,” I said with a sigh.
“I suppose it was inevitable we would run into problems,” muttered Kit. “I suppose we’ll have to move on at some point.”
“I don’t see why we can’t stay here as long as we need,” I said. “Provided we’re sensible. Of course the food stocks aren’t going to last forever. We’ll need to grow crops, raise animals and that sort of thing and that means building a moat or at the very least strong walls around this whole area. Besides,” I said with a shrug. “I don’t see we’ve got any other place to go. I doubt the government or armed forces have survived in any reasonable numbers to make a difference and there certainly isn’t going to be any help coming from overseas. Last I heard on the news they were just as badly off as we were. If anywhere else comes up that’s better we can be off there. Until then we’re going to have to make do. I doubt the Marstons’ will be the last survivors we pick up in which case it’s good to have the church still here as backup.”

In the event Reverend Thorpe was quite correct. The discovery of the complete family unit had a big effect on the morale of the rest of the survivors and further contributed to the feelings of hope.
We didn’t mention the story of the Marstons’ flight to the others. For the time being we had seen no danger ourselves. What reason did we have to be scared?
Three days later the work was complete. It was a triumphal moment walking the full length of the newly finished tunnel with Kit, Thorpe and Frey. Frey was very much the man of the hour and he revelled in the praise. For the past few weeks we’d had hope. Now, at last, we had something to celebrate. I thought the tunnel looked superb. It was well constructed and secure. We were expanding, we were branching out. We had found more survivors and we were accommodating them. These truly were the halcyon days of the camp.
The two sitting rooms were kept as they were as was the kitchen. The older but still active members of the group provided the cooking and alternated between her and going to sit in the sitting rooms in front of the fire. Mrs Dell, the lady with dementia, had a room of her own with a fireplace so she didn’t get too cold, the orphan children all slept together in another of the rooms with a fireplace. The Marstons’ all slept together in one room. Frey and his wife had a room. Stan shared a room with Gloria. Their relationship remained on and off and rows were common. On the occasions I was able to get them out scavenging they invariably managed to pilfer cigarettes and the odd bottle of whisky. I let this slide as long as they didn’t overdo it. Everyone else had a room each, all except myself who elected to stay put in the clock tower of the church. Officially I told them this was because somebody needed to be around to keep an eye on the place but in truth I still valued my solitude.
The first night we moved in we decided to have a party to celebrate. We celebrated with quite a feast in which we stuffed ourselves. Although we didn’t go out of our way to find alcohol we usually brought back a bottle or two from the drinks cabinets of the houses we looted. Stan and Gloria partied hard in a way that they didn’t deserve, for it was not as if they had worked particularly hard for this moment. They managed to get themselves hideously drunk in quite a short space of time.
“You don’t like them,” said Kit, coming up to me and passing me a cup of whiskey.
“I don’t suppose we can choose whom we save,” I muttered. “It was like your father said. All the same they’re hardly harmonious to the rest of the group. I’m worried they could cause friction unless they start getting their act together. They’ve had enough time to get themselves together. It’s time to take them in hand, get them doing a bit of real work. I won’t have them leeching off us.”
“At least Dev is turning out alright.”
I nodded and looked at the boy sitting to the side, by himself as usual. Despite the fact of them having survived weeks together he rarely spoke with Stan and Gloria, rarely spoke to anybody for that matter although he always appeared up for a game with the children and would sometimes sit up and read to Mrs Dell.

Everybody moved into the farmhouse except me.
I remained in the church, on the first floor in the clock room. I told them it was because somebody needed to stay and keep an eye on the place but really I liked to be alone. My eight years in jail had given me a taste for solitude.
Weeks passed. Now we had security we needed to do something about the inevitable boredom. Even though we were now well into autumn, possibly even early winter, Reverend Thorpe still thought it important to get outside. Fortunately we still had enough fence posts left over to fence in a sizable part of the garden, which pleased me greatly. There was some disagreement with how this new space would be used. I wanted to grow plants and vegetables whilst Reverend Thorpe wanted to devote the area to some leisure space for the survivors. In the end I bowed to his judgement. We could fence in more of the outside space later. For now keeping up morale was the key. For the first few days we somewhat rested on our laurels. We had all the food we needed and were keen to enjoy the fruits of our hard work. I went out with Frey and we started to fence off the garden and a meadow. This time the fence was no so secure and held together with wire which stretched to eight foot high. It would not stand up to a sustained attack from a horde but it should keep out the odd one or two that still came by. The grand plans progressed. We were going to go even further, were going to turn the ditches around the church and farmhouse into an impenetrable moat. I calculated that doing so would give us forty acres in which to grow food. The only problem was where to find the materials. We had already looted most of what was in the lumber yard and a tour of the proposed perimeter showed that the unirrigated land was boggy and would be almost impossible to build on without proper drainage. We could have done with a builder to show us how to do it but in the meantime we put our heads together and schemed.
It was a chilly winter’s morning and I had slept poorly in the cold of the clock room. With nothing to get up for I wrapped the blankets tightly around my cold body and attempted to sleep in. It was mid-morning when Hammond finally roused me from my slumbers. “Come and look at this,” he said excitedly. I followed him up the stone steps and stepped into the bracing chill at the top of the tower. Here the icy wind had gotten up and I didn’t know how Hammond stood it all day, especially at his age. Hammond handed me the binoculars and pointed far off to the east. I put them up to my eyes and looked closely. A green vehicle, possibly even a military truck, was snaking slowly along a road some ten miles into the distance, only just visible on the horizon. “I’ve only just noticed it,” said Hammond. “It must have been stopped up somewhere looting supplies. I only saw it when it started to move along the road again.”
“Any idea where it might have come from?”
“None at all,” sighed Hammond. “I don’t even know whether it’s coming or going. You think we should be encouraged or worried?”
“A bit of both,” I said, thinking back to what the Marstons’ had told me on their first night here. “We need to keep an eye on this sort of thing, and we’ll need to know if they come any closer. At the very least we don’t want them to start stirring the hordes up.”

One night Kit came to see me.
“We haven’t been out much these past few days,” she said. “And we’re getting low on supplies.”
“How much more have we got?”
“Another three days of good eating,” replied Kit. “Possibly a week if we went down to starvation rations.”
“There’s still a long line of cars out there with rich pickings,” I told her.
“You want to make another big run.”
“I think so,” I said. “We can take a couple of trucks this time, leave one in reserve. That way we should be able to set ourselves up rather nicely for the rest of winter. In the meantime myself and Frey have almost finished fencing off the garden and the meadow. We should be able to start planting crops come the early spring. I’m going to take the three newcomers.”
“You mean Dev, Stan and Gloria?” Said Kit with some surprise. “Are you sure about that?”
“I insist upon it,” I muttered. “They’ve been freeloading off us ever since they got here. If they’re not prepared to help with the building work they can come with me on a more dangerous assignment.”
“Won’t it be a little too dangerous?” Replied Kit doubtfully. “We don’t want to lose them if we can help it.”
“They’ve already survived hell in that joinery,” I told her. “Let’s see just what they’re made of.”
“They survived because they hid,” said Kit. “This is different.”
“If people are lazy and refuse to pitch it will breed resentment,” I told her.

As usual I was up early the following day and made my way over to the farmhouse. Stan and Gloria tended to sleep in, sometimes until the early afternoon having kept people awake with their chatting, laughing and sometimes lovemaking well into the night.
It was not yet light but I went straight into their room and shook them away without ceremony. “We’re going out on a raid and you’re coming with us,” I told them dangerously. “You need to prove yourself, let us know you can survive and make yourself useful and because you’re all young and fit that means you’re coming with us on a mission.
Stan moaned and tried to pull the covers back over his head, but I would not be put off. “It’s dark,” he moaned. “We won’t see the revenants in the dark.”
“It’ll be light soon,” I said. “By the time we’ve got up and ready, got the van sorted it’ll be more than light.”
“But they’ll be ice on the road,” protested Gloria. “Is it even safe to drive when there’s ice?”
“Depends on how you drive,” I told her. “And you’re right, it’ll be really cold so be sure to wrap up warm. Still, look on the bright side. Last time we raided that row of cars we came back heroes. Do this and people won’t expect much off you for a little while yet.”
“Why us?” Asked Stan. “There are loads of others who haven’t been out yet. We’ve been out on raids and stuff.”
“We’re young and there are people expecting things of us because of it. You’ve lived well these past few weeks, far better than if you’d remained in that depot,” I said.
“We’re emotionally scarred,” whinged Stan. “You don’t know what it was like having to hide out in that place day in, day out.”
“Don’t let the others hear you talk like that,” I snapped angrily. “You think you’re emotionally scarred? Try telling that to some of the people who saw their children eaten alive by those fucking monsters. We’ve all got stories to tell and nobody else wants to hear them. Just keep your mouths shut and do as you’re asked. There’s been talk about you, do you know that? Talk that you’re not helping as you should be. This is your chance to prove yourselves. One mission and all that talk can be at an end.”
Stan looked at me and sighed heavily. He could see I would not be swayed. “When are we going?” He asked wearily.
“Meet downstairs in ten minutes to help Kit and Paul load the vans up,” I told them cheerfully. “It’ll be chilly as well so stick your coats on.”

Just before we left I climbed up to the top of the tower to get Hammond’s advice concerning any hordes we might run into.
The policeman still kept his watch from the tower, day in, day out. I sometimes wondered if, like me, he craved the solitary life. “Be careful,” warned Hammond. “I’ve seen smoke coming from that direction this last day or so.”
“Smoke?” I said with some concern. “A lot of it?”
“Hard to tell when it’s so far away,” replies the policeman. “Like I said, it may not mean anything. I see lots of fires and you must have been through some burned out shells yourself. It might not mean anything.”
“Where there’s smoke there’s life,” I muttered with concern.
“Not necessarily,” replied the policeman. “You’d be surprised at what can catch fire when it’s left to its own devices. I never stop seeing smoke rising up from the town.”
“What about the green truck? Any sign of that?”
“I’ve been keeping an eye out for it but it hasn’t come back,” replied Hammond.
“Probably just as well,” I said. “We’ll be travelling that way today and I’d rather not run into any nasty surprises aside from the revenants.”
“Who knows?” Said Hammond. “Maybe there are survivors that way. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye out.”
“I just hope they’re friendly,” I said quietly.

I took Gloria and Stan along with me
in one truck, considering them the weakest of the three. Dev, who was a nice guy and tried his best, rode in the other truck with Kit and Paul. He at least was starting to show some potential. As we drove and as Stan and Gloria continued to moan I began to wonder if I had made a mistake and was putting us all at risk. After all, the two of them were pretty inexperienced at this sort of thing and if they decided to run as opposed to fight they might just end up killing us all. I tried my best to ignore them and kept my eyes peeled the whole time. The revenants staggered along the road, turned to look at us and stretched out their arms like demented hitchhikers. It was good to get out and about, it was good to get back to taking on the revenants. The last thing we needed was to become soft and complacent. I looked towards my two companions and noticed how they instinctively recoiled whenever they saw a revenant. Stan closed his eyes and started to rock back and forth. “We’re going to be killed,” he breathed softly.
“We weren’t killed last time and there were half as many of us,” I said sternly. “As long as everyone does what they’re told we’ll all come back again.”
“As long as we do what you tell us more like,” muttered Gloria sulkily.
“That’s right.”