Survivors of the Sun Read online

  ‘There is no damn Mrs Johnson any more. When the power went out, she went on and on about that bloody daughter of hers, so I kicked her out, her and her bloody cats and with a bit of luck they are all dead and good riddance.’

  As taken aback, as Georgia had been at her unexpected reception, this last statement totally stunned her. She had a sudden vision of Mrs Johnson struggling down the road in her silver mink, grasping on to two wire cat cages, the cats yowling their displeasure as she went.

  ‘How could you?’ she said, before she could stop the words.

  ‘Oh let me tell you it was easy, believe me it was easy, and you can just fuck off as well and take the brats with you, get the hell out of my house.’ He was yelling now, spittle flying from his mouth.

  She stepped back, the reek of alcohol almost making her eyes water. That he was more than a little drunk was obvious.

  ‘I…,’ but what Georgia was about to say was swamped by another tirade

  ‘This is my time now, I finally got rid of that woman and I am going to enjoy my life. This is my house now, my house I tell you,’ and as he spoke he slammed his fist down on the table, sending china crashing in all directions.

  Georgia had been about to beg with him to let the children stay, but after that last outburst she knew she would die first. Nothing could induce her to leave them here, not under these circumstances.

  Instead, she held up her shaking hands in submission. ‘Okay, okay, I am sorry, you are right, we will leave. I need a little time to wake the children and pack up, and then we will go.’

  There was another heavy silence and Georgia just stood there, her legs not ready to move.

  ‘So, what the fuck are you waiting for,’ he snarled, ‘piss off and go.’

  She backed towards the kitchen door and then paused.

  ‘Mr Johnson?’

  ‘What now?’

  ‘The children haven’t eaten; can I at least get them some breakfast before we go?’

  He took two steps towards her, his face crimson, and for a moment, Georgia thought he would strike her.

  ‘What part of fuck off, don’t you understand?’ he screamed. ‘Do I have to get my shotgun to see you off my property?’

  Georgia fled. She was trembling so violently, the shock of this total unexpected reception so terrible, she ran up the stairs two at a time, terrified she was going to be sick, nearly tripping as she reached the landing.

  Now what? She had absolutely no idea what they was going to do now. The whole state was in collapse, they had no home, and they had nowhere to go. No idea where Nathan or Maggie, or anyone she knew had gone. They had supplies to last them maybe five days if they were very careful. In all her planning and thinking, she had never really thought past delivering the children safely to the family fold. She had not for one minute considered what she, herself, would do afterwards, and she realized that somewhere deep down she had hoped that the Johnsons, considering the situation and their strong Christian beliefs, would have taken her in as well.

  Now she was feeling like a hare, in a truck’s headlights, the horn blaring, confused and dazed and rooted to the spot in absolute fear. She paused outside the bedroom door, calming herself, this was going to be hard enough, without letting the kids see how upset she was. Ten deep breaths, she told herself. Ten deep breaths and all will be good in the world. Feeling slightly calmer, she went into the bedroom.

  With the drapes half pulled, the room was still in shadow. She peered round the door. Amazingly, they were still asleep; the kitchen was obviously far enough away, that they had not heard a word. ‘Poor innocent wee things,’ she thought, hating that she had to wake them up.

  ‘Jamie, Rebecca,’ she gently shook them, ‘wake up.’

  ‘Deedee honey, wake up.’

  As Jamie stretched, Badger leapt up, instantly wide awake and pranced all over the bed, waking everyone up. Deedee giggled as Millie frantically licked her ear. Ant barked to be put on the floor.

  ‘What is it?’ Rebecca asked sleepily.

  ‘It’s getting late, you have to get up.’

  ‘Are Grandma and Grandpa back yet?’

  ‘No,’ she lied. But was it a lie? Not entirely, it was true that Grandma wasn’t back, and that man with the flabby belly, and filthy mouth downstairs in the kitchen, probably wrapped around Lola at this very moment was definitely not the grandfather they knew.

  ‘Even so, we have to leave.’

  ‘Why? Why do we have to leave? We only just got here,’ Deedee wailed.

  ‘Yeah why?’ Jamie echoed.

  ‘Because we do,’ Georgia snapped. ‘All of you get up, and get dressed, now.’ Jamie’s eyes went totally round, shock showed on all their faces, sending guilt through her.

  ‘I am sorry kids, I didn’t mean to sound so cross, but a situation has arisen and it means we can’t stay.’

  Hastily she helped them find their clothes and packed up the bags, half scared he would hold to his threat to go and get his shotgun. The kids had been through enough, and that would be the final straw.

  ‘Bastard,’ she thought as she stuffed the dirty, still damp clothing into the top of her backpack. She had not liked him very much the first time she had met him, and now she hated him; hated him more than she had ever hated anyone.

  Millie was scratching urgently at the door.

  ‘She has to go potty,’ Jamie said, ‘shall I take the dogs out?’

  ‘No,’ Georgia exclaimed, panic racing through her at the very thought of Jamie going downstairs on his own. The dogs can go potty when we leave. We won’t be too long.’

  However, Millie, who normally held on at any cost, decided she couldn’t wait, and before anyone could stop her she squatted and let loose a stream of pee on the carpet. Ant raced over, sniffed the spreading puddle and immediately added her two bits worth, balancing on her front legs in her weird way.

  ‘Oh no,’ Rebecca said.

  Georgia felt laughter coming from deep within, she tried to hold it back, but couldn’t and she burst out laughing. The children looked at her. She could tell they thought she was losing the plot.

  ‘What’s so funny,’ Rebecca asked, ‘Grandma will be really mad when she finds out.’

  ‘Believe me it’s funny, I will tell why you one day.’

  ‘Why not now?’ Deedee asked.

  ‘There is a time and a place for everything, and believe me now is not the time or the place,’ she said as she hurriedly pulled on her pack. As the straps settled onto her shoulders and took the full weight of the pack, she wanted to cry. This was way too hard, way too heavy. Her shoulders, in spite of the rest, screamed out at her. She could not possibly walk and carry this again. Not again, not today.

  ‘Get it together,’ she told herself. This is not about you. She took a deep breath.

  ‘Okay, who is taking the shopping caddy?’

  ‘I will,’ Jamie said.

  ‘Great, so are we all ready?’

  ‘Yeah, oh wait,’ Rebecca said. She ran into the bathroom and grabbed the tube of conditioner. ‘For our hair,’ she said, as she stuffed it into Jamie’s pack.

  ‘Hey, not fair,’ Jamie protested.

  ‘Well, I am carrying it, so stop complaining.’

  ‘Yeah but I will have to carry it next.’

  Georgia felt as though she was about to snap. ‘Okay enough you two, we need to be real quiet as we make our way downstairs. Understood?’

  ‘Uh huh,’ Jamie said.

  ‘How come?’ Rebecca asked

  ‘Let’s just say that we aren’t welcome here.’

  As they quietly made their way down the hall, the dogs pacing silently behind them, Georgia’s heart was racing. Ant was bitching in her bag, she did not want to be in there right now.

  ‘Stop it, Ant,’ she hissed. She paused, hesitating in front of the weapons display. Quick as a flash, she unhooked the bow, and removed the arrows. Their need was greater!

  Slowly, they made their way down the steps. Half wa
y down, she stopped and leaned over the banister, looking down the corridor towards the kitchen door, there was silence, then a giggle. She froze; had that come from the lounge? She waited a moment longer, but there was no sound of anyone heading their way. ‘Okay, all clear,’ she said softly.

  She pulled open the front door, the dogs bounded out, Badger squatting as soon as she reached the lawn, and once they were all out, she started to pull the door shut behind her.

  ‘Wait!’

  Georgia jumped, her nerves were so taut that she nearly screamed.

  It was Lola. She had pulled the door open slightly and was holding out a plastic shopping bag. She was now wearing a t-shirt, a long one that nearly reached her knees. Georgia doubted there was very much under that though.

  ‘Here take this quickly, he thinks I have gone to the kitchen to get some peanuts.’ When Georgia did not reach out for it, Lola added, ‘it’s some food for the children.’

  Georgia took it awkwardly with her free hand, it was heavier than she expected and nearly dropped it.

  ‘I don’t really know what’s going on,’ Lola continued, ‘but I have nowhere to go myself, and he told me he was single and when I found out how much food he had…,’ her voice trailed off. ‘But believe me, I am out of here soon as I find some…,’

  ‘Lola, what’s keeping you?’ Grandpa Johnson’s voice boomed from somewhere behind her.

  Lola started. ‘Coming Hon, couldn’t find the nuts.’ As she spoke, she held up the can, winking, as she showed it to Georgia. ‘Better go.’

  Georgia was stunned. ‘Thank you.’ She whispered back but the door was already shut.’

  She turned to see the children standing staring at her. Jamie had an accusing look on his face.

  ‘That was Grandpa’s voice,’ he said.

  ‘Yeah,’ Rebecca agreed, ‘it was definitely Grandpa.’

  ‘Was that nice lady your Grandma?’ Deedee asked Rebecca, looking very bewildered.

  ‘Yes, it was Grandpa’s voice,’ Georgia sighed. ‘And no, that wasn’t Grandma.’ So much for that.

  ‘Let’s go, I will explain later.’

  They trudged down through the back garden, their shoes making mushy noises; the ground sodden after last night’s torrential rain.

  Had that rain been radioactive? Had the big meltdown happened? Were they all contaminated? She remembered the hot showers they all had and felt just a little better, but only a little.

  They made their way out through the side entrance and walked to the end of the road. There, Georgia stopped, her bowels suddenly felt like liquid, her legs began to tremble, and for a moment, she found it hard to breath. The children stood patiently next to her, their lives in her hands, and she was terrified, more afraid than she had ever been. She had no idea which direction to take and she had no idea where they would go.

  ‘Failure is not an option,’ she said to herself, then she slipped off her pack, sat down on the street, and despite all her good intentions not to break down in front of the children, she began to cry.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Georgia, fighting back her tears, suddenly became aware that the children were sitting down next to her. Rebecca had her arm across her shoulders and Deedee was patting her back. ‘There, there,’ Deedee said, ‘it will all be better soon.’ This set her off again, and the tears began streaming down her cheeks.

  Jamie was peering at her, his face close to hers, consternation in his eyes. ‘Was Grandpa unkind to you? He can be really angry sometimes, but he probably didn’t mean it you know, that’s what Mum says anyway.’ As he spoke, he gently patted her leg in a reassuring manner.

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ she mumbled, her vision blurred by tears.

  ‘Why? What’s the matter, what did you do?’ Deedee asked.

  Georgia shook her head; there was so much the matter, how could she even begin to explain.

  ‘I don’t think she did anything wrong, I think she’s tired,’ Rebecca said, peering round at Deedee, ‘and her feet must be sore because of her heavy pack, that is why she sat down.’

  ‘Are your feet really sore?’ Deedee asked Georgia, ‘cause, I could carry your pack for a while, if you want.’

  Georgia gave a watery smile at this, the thought of Deedee carrying the pack, which was nearly as big as Deedee herself, was of course very impractical. ‘Oh Deedee, that is so sweet of you,’ she said sniffing.

  Jamie made a snorting sound. ‘I think it would be too heavy for you Deedee, but maybe what we need to do is get Georgia a horse.’

  ‘And just where are we going to get a horse?’ Rebecca asked.

  ‘I have a much better idea,’ Deedee said, looking very pleased with herself.’

  ‘Tell us then,’ Jamie said a little impatiently.

  ‘Well, I think we should go to the zoo and get an elephant. There’s a really nice elephant there, and you can ride him, and he has lots of room on his back, he could carry all of us.’

  Georgia burst out laughing, and then desperately tried to make it sound like a coughing fit, so as not to hurt Deedee’s feelings. Deedee sympathetically patted her back, to help with her cough, as Georgia wiped away her tears with the front of her t-shirt. When Georgia could bring herself to talk again, she gave the children an edited version of what had happened in the kitchen.

  ‘So you see,’ she finished up, now we have no one else to turn to, and nowhere else to go and I have no idea what to do.’

  ‘We could go to your brother’s house,’ Jamie said after a short silence.

  Rebecca gave him a withering look. ‘Georgia’s brother lives in Australia, dummy.’

  ‘Yes, I know, I think Australia would be a good place to go to, we could live like Crocodile Dundee.’

  ‘Oh, I think that’s a wonderful idea,’ Deedee exclaimed, jumping to her feet, as though ready to leave then, and there.

  ‘We would never be able to get all the way to Australia,’ Rebecca said, and her voice had a slightly regretful edge to it.

  ‘Well, we could if we went and got the elephant,’ Deedee insisted.

  ‘No we couldn’t,’ Rebecca said more firmly this time.’

  ‘We could too.’

  ‘No, we couldn’t, and anyway, elephants can’t swim.’

  ‘They can too,’ Deedee exclaimed, and then looked over at Georgia as she dug the toe of her shoe into a crack in the sidewalk. ‘Elephants can swim, can’t they?’

  Georgia could not help but smile at her earnest appeal. ‘Well I think they can swim, but not all the way to Australia.’ As she spoke Badger came over to see what Deedee was doing.

  ‘I told you so,’ Rebecca said.

  ‘Well I don’t care,’ Deedee said, I think we should go to Australia anyway.’

  Jamie who had remained mute as the girls argued between themselves, stood up and brought the whole discussion to an end by announcing that perhaps they should have something to eat, and then think about it, because he for one was starving.

  Now there was a sensible suggestion, and one she should have thought of herself.

  ‘You must all be hungry,’ Georgia said.

  The three of them nodded.

  ‘We can’t eat here, it’s best if we find somewhere safer. Rebecca, you know this area best, I think a good place to go would be like a public building of some sort, maybe a school, or a post office, or…,’

  Rebecca thought for a moment, adjusting her bag, which was threatening to slip off her shoulder.

  ‘How about the park?’

  ‘Is there any shelter there?’ Georgia asked

  ‘Yeah, lots of trees.’ Jamie nearly got lost in there last summer.’

  ‘Did not.’

  ‘You did so.’

  ‘Perhaps you only thought he was lost?’ Georgia interrupted.

  ‘I wasn’t lost, just didn’t know where Rebecca and Mum were.’

  Rebecca gave a derisive snort and then fell silent.

  Glad that’s sorted!

  ‘Actually, Rebecca
, I was not thinking of trees as shelter, but an actual building.’ A public building would be, she decided, the best idea, uninviting exterior, and nice solid walls, nothing worth looting and no reason for public servants to stick around.

  ‘There is a church over there, see, you can just see its steeple.’ Jamie pointed across the road as he spoke.

  Or a church, that was an idea too. Looking over the tiled roofs, Georgia could indeed see a church steeple. She guessed it was about two streets away.

  ‘That might be just the thing. Let’s check it out, if it looks safe, we can have breakfast there.’

  Rebecca frowned. ‘Oh, I don’t think we should eat in a church.’

  Georgia, who had begun the arduous task of loading up all her gear, paused and then said, ‘I think it will be perfectly all right, I am sure that God would not mind, and we will make certain that we tidy up after ourselves.’

  They found their way to the entrance easily enough. Pushing upon the thick oak door, they were surprised to find it unlocked. It creaked heavily as it slowly swung open.

  Georgia quickly looked up and down the pews, but there was no one around. Millie and Badger tore down the center aisle in a most undignified way and disappeared under the hem of a heavy set of crimson drapes, hanging behind the rostrum.

  ‘Where shall we sit?’ Rebecca asked?

  ‘Let me check out the rest of the church first,’ Georgia said, and followed the direction the dogs had taken. Behind the curtain, there was a short corridor with several doors.

  The first one was a small room with a toilet and a basin. Out of habit, she turned on the taps. No water. Had the water now been cut off in Belton as well? Or, was Grandpa Johnson the only one with running water, she wondered, as she closed the door and crossed the hall to check the next room.

  This door opened on to another short hallway, empty apart from a coat rack, and an exit door. The third room appeared to be the vestry. It was small, but very well appointed. With the lower halves of the walls covered with a deep reddish wood paneling and the upper halves painted an olive green. There was a closet against one wall, and through the partially open door, she could see several clothes hangers.