Zombielandia (10 page)

The guys had manoeuvred the Gamebird and Hue out with the barge poles and were waiting for the water to rise again before repeating the process with the other two boats. We loaded a few bags of coal onto the Hue and Gamebird. I’d never actually seen David smile before, but when Becky handed him the bottle of rum and smoking backy we’d found in the keepers’ cottage, he had a smile from ear to ear!

We soon had the second two boats through the lock and moved them along to the next one which had only been a couple of hundred yards further down the canal. We had managed to use the tow ropes and barge poles to move the boats; we were trying to stay as quite as possible.

There had been a pub marked on the map not far from the second lock, Becky and I spoke with the rest of the guys and they agreed it was a chance we could take, but we agreed to wait until we had all four boats safely through the fifth and bottom lock.

Chapter Forty Five

It took us a good hour or so to get all four boats through the five locks and we’d done well not to attract any attention to ourselves. There were houses and more high rises overlooking the canal at this point. The guys moored the boats up slightly further down the canal from the bottom lock.

John joined Becky, Lia, Amy and I and we set off in search of the pub! It wasn’t a drink we had been looking for though, but more supplies to keep us going. Pubs normally served meals and would almost certainly have a stock of dried goods and if not they’d sure to have crisps and snacks. David radioed through to us once we were on our way. Hey guys don’t forget the Rum! We all laughed, I guessed he was getting a taste for it again, I supposed a Royal Navy officer would be able to take his place at the helm of a fishing boat! We’d thought it would be best for Sandie to remain with the guys on the boats in case there was any trouble there.

As we headed into the streets of Maryhill, it was clear that we weren’t the first people through there since the outbreak. There were decomposing corpses everywhere, buildings had clearly been broken into and stripped of anything of use already. We discussed turning back at that point, but thought there was no harm in continuing; at least someone had already taken out most of the rotters, which made our life a little bit easier, we just hoped that they had left something behind for us.

As we walked down the main street towards the pub, they started to emerge from the wood work, so to speak. There hadn’t been many. We just stuck together in one group and then one of us would break off and dispose of them. Normally it was Becky.

Finally we made our way to the pub. The sign on the front of it said The White House Bar. However it had been clear from the outside that it had already been raided and stripped of anything of use. We looked at the map again. There was mostly just normal run of the mill housing, an old hospital and some shops down the high street. We guessed if they had striped the White House, they’d have stripped the shops too.

We were heading back to the boats when I had thought about something I’d seen on the map. What about the old people’s home? I had said. What? Had been the chorus of response from the rest of the guys. The old people’s home, they must cater for up to fifty people or so by the looks of the size of the place. It wouldn’t be my first choice of places to raid, pretty unappealing if you ask me. Let’s go for it then, Becky had said, what we got to loose, we’re here now.

We headed off in the direction of the home. I hadn’t held out much hope as a lot of the houses we had passed on the way had already been broken into and raided too, so why wouldn’t they have raided the home too?

We rounded a corner and into the street that the home was situated in.

BANG! Fuck! Someone had just taken a shot at me! Fuck this Becky said, let’s just get back to the boats, no fucking tinned prunes are worth dying for!

We were just about to turn and head back when we heard someone shouting.

Up here, sorry, I thought you were one of those restless dead fuckers! The restless dead, I thought, I liked that. I looked up and could see an old man pointing a shot gun at us through a second floor window.

I shouted up to him, we’re just looking for supplies, we don’t mean anybody any harm, and this is your place, so we’ll be heading back now.

He shouted back, wait, I’ll come down and let you in, there’s more than enough in here for an old timer like me.

He disappeared from the window. The gun shot had attracted a few rotters to the noise. CRUNCH, CRUNCH, Becky and I took them out with our trusty weapons.

Sure enough a few minutes later the old guy had opened the front door of the home and beckoned us in. We had gone inside and he bolted the door behind us again. Follow me he said and don’t open any of the doors, I’ve got the fuckers locked in their rooms, its better that way. I asked him who he was on about. The restless dead he said, the residents, they’re all still here, I couldn’t see the point in wasting shells on them, so I just locked them in their rooms, mind, they’re starting to stink the place up a bit. He wasn’t wrong about that!

He told us that there was only him left alive in there. Most of the residents had turned early on in the outbreak and he’d just locked their doors as they were all in their rooms anyway. The carers had abandoned them a long time ago, before anyone had actually turned.

I smuggled my old shot gun in when I first came in this place, I couldn’t bear to leave it behind, and it’s been locked in my locker. Bloody pleased I did now. His name was Edward, Edd for short he’d said.

Nobody’s ever really bothered me here, so I’ve just stayed he said. If they come into the street, I shoot them, but there isn’t that many around here anymore. A gang came through here about a year ago, a nasty looking bunch; they cleared out a lot of the houses, looking for supplies like you guys I guess. They never bothered with this place though. Maybe they figured it wasn’t worth the bother, but there’s a canny pantry full of stuff in the kitchen. You’re welcome to take some; I’ve stocked up my room with more than enough to last my lifetime.

We followed Edd to the kitchen which was on the ground floor. Sure enough, the pantry was stocked with catering sized tins and dried goods. Edd also showed us where there were some granny type shopping trollies we could use to transport the stuff. We loaded up a trolley each and also asked Edd for some spare bedding which we got from the laundry room.

Why don’t you join us, I had asked him and the rest of the guys had agreed. He had been there by himself for almost two years now. But he was adamant that he wanted to stay. I’m eighty eight years old and I’ve been living in this home for the last twenty of them, I’m just fine where I am he had said.

We had tried to talk him round, the more experience the better we’d learned on our journey so far, and we knew Edd would add value to our group. We were now in a world without technology and we were going to need old timers like Edd to show us how things had been done before.

We left him some shot gun cartridges and a spare radio. It should work for about thirty miles or so, so if you change your mind, just give us a shout we had told him.

We stayed and had a drink with Edd and then he showed us out again. As we passed the living area I couldn’t help a little smile to myself. All the residents Zimmer frames were lined along one wall. Walkers, I thought!

Chapter Forty Six

We loaded the supplies onto our boats and set off again. We made great progress the rest of that day. The canal once again had a much more rural feel to it after we’d left the junction at Stockingfield. Once we’d passed through Bishopbriggs we were well and truly out in the countryside again. At Cadder we passed through a pleasant wooded area with wonderful picturesque views of the Kelvin valley to the north. We continued east from Townhead Bridge and under another bridge before safely navigating our way through Wyndford lock. We carried on a few miles further east before mooring up for the rest of the afternoon and that night. There were thirteen more locks leading down into Falkirk left to navigate at that point and they would take us back into built up areas again, but once we were through them we would be back at the coast again.

We all met up on the Hue as we did every night back then and discussed our plan of action for the following day. There was no way we were going to be able to take the Hue into the North Sea. It couldn’t run by itself and it would have been impossible to tow it in the sea. We had also doubted whether or not we would be able to take the Gamebird out into open waters too. It would be too risky for anyone on board. The Saltwind and the Hope were fishing vessels that we had used many times before, so we knew we could use them. But we were heading into autumn then and the weather was so interchangeable and there was no cover on them for more than a couple of people in each cab.

We decided to strip the Hue of what we needed from it the following morning and take the other three boats. That way we could move quicker and if we found something better, we’d leave the Gamebird too. We were going to be heading for the coast, so we hoped that we would find something suitable on the way, after all once we were on the Firth of Forth there would be many harbours both small and large, so there was sure to be something.

Chapter Forty Seven

The following morning we stripped the Hue as planned. Anthony and Becky joined Paul and Sophie on the Hope and Margret and Maddison joined David and Sandie on the Saltwind. This meant that mine and Lia’s families could squeeze onto the Gamebird and at least we’d be able to keep the children warm and comfortable for a day longer. We did our best to build some temporary shelters on the back on the Saltwind and Hue; it was just something to keep the worst of the weather off the guys on there and our supplies.

We had thirteen locks to navigate that day. The final two being sea locks that would take us finally to the Firth of Forth, not far from the port of Grangemouth and then from there, the North Sea and home.

We set off at first light. We radioed Edd to tell him we were on our way and would keep in touch with him as long as we could. He hadn’t changed his mind, which was a shame, but he wished us luck on our journey ahead. I figured he had almost found what we were searching for, a safe haven where he could see out this thing in reasonable comfort, but we were looking more long term. We needed somewhere that we could put down roots and give the children a life as normal as possible and also to start to rebuild something from all the shit that was around us. We had wished him well before setting out on our final leg through the canal system.

The first three locks came in fast succession and we quickly navigated our way through them as we had before using the ropes and barge poles. The landscape once again became more built up. We safely navigated our way through a further four locks, we’d had company at a few of them from rotters, but nothing that we couldn’t handle. At least that was one thing that this journey had done for us. It had trained us how to efficiently take out these rotters! After the industrial area at Bainsford the canal swung sharply north along another canal called the Carron cut, we navigated our way through a fairly new lock and entered a small marina.

It was a lovely place with a few house boats moored up on one side. On the other side there was a large building that looked like a shopping centre, but we couldn’t be sure as it had been burnt out at some point and so was just an empty shell. We could see movement in the distance around the burnt out buildings, rotters by the looks of the way they had been wandering around aimlessly. There had been a few of them around the marina area too, so we didn’t stop and just kept heading north. The boats that we had seen wouldn’t have been any better than what we had already and we had thought it would have been too big a risk to take to be honest. We wanted back out into the open water of the Forth and on to the North Sea as soon as was possible, where there would be no more locks and rotters to contend with and we would be much more within our comfort zone.

We entered the river Carron at a large sea lock which was overlooked by a motorway above. We reached the Forth itself by sailing down the Carron a few hundred yards. Once in the Forth we grouped the three boats together and tied the Gamebird to the Saltwind. We dropped the anchors on the Saltwind and Hope.

Chapter Forty Eight

We all gathered on the decks of the boats, adults and kids alike. The atmosphere was jubilant. Everyone was kissing, hugging and high fiving and making as much noise as we wanted to. I felt free again. We’d achieved something amazing and were all proud of ourselves. Even the kids picked up on the atmosphere and were joining in the celebrations. We took a moment to remember the ones that we’d lost on our journey so far. Ben, George, Frank, Alan, Liz, little Kathy and more recently Ken and Gav. They’d all played a part in getting us to that point. David handed a bottle of scotch around and we all toasted the ones we’d lost and thanked them all.

We hadn’t really planned what we’d do once we reached the Forth, we knew the ultimate plan was to get to the North Sea and then on to Amble and home, but what we were going to do along the way and where we were going to stay each night was something we hadn’t planned in any real detail. We didn’t really care to be honest, there was no real hurry anymore, all we needed to do was get there as safely as possible and without losing anyone else.

We studied the maps and saw that there was a small island called Inchkeith two hours sailing away at the Gamebird’s top speed. It was smack in the middle of the Forth. We decided to head for Inchkeith island, even if couldn’t find somewhere to land on the Island, there may have been a safe mooring for the night.