Survivors of the Sun Page 16

  In the very center of the room was a large wooden desk, upon which were laid out several garments, all very ornate, regal almost. She knew that one of the garments was called a chasuble, but was not quite sure how she knew that. It seemed, they had been laid out in preparation of a service.

  Behind the desk was an old-fashioned coal fireplace, with blue tiles depicting angels, no, not angels, she realized as she looked closer, chubby faced cherubs. The whole room had a somewhat oppressive feel to it, despite the two windows that looked out across the lawns. It would however, if they decided to stay, make a very suitable room for sleeping in.

  She walked over to the window, and lifting the catch, found that it opened outwards. If the need arose, they could easily get out.

  They spent most of the day in the church, the height of the building, and a multitude of windows, made it the perfect place to survey the surrounding area. Georgia stacked the backpacks and the rest of their possessions, against the wall under the window. She hesitated about placing the shotgun there as well, but in the end, she lay it across the packs, along with the bow and arrows. The shotgun was really heavy and cumbersome and it was a relief to be free of it.

  She massaged her shoulder as she knelt down and opened the shopping bag that Lola had handed her. It contained a pecan pie, four fruit cups, a small thermos bottle (which proved to have coffee in it), a full container of creamer, vanilla flavored, and a handful of sugar sachets. She had also put in a large can of cat food. At the very bottom of the bag, were four polystyrene cups, four plastic spoons, a plastic knife, a can opener and a stack of napkins.

  She smiled to herself as she unpacked it all. It was a magnificent spread and it had really been very thoughtful of the blonde woman. And as much as she had wanted to disapprove of her, she now found it impossible to do. She gave a little chuckle, remembering the cheeky wink Lola had given her as she had slipped back indoors. Who knows, maybe under different circumstances they could have been friends.

  They breakfasted leisurely, on their impromptu feast, while sitting on the thick rug in the vestry. The dogs sat hopeful of tidbits from the children, but eventually gave up and ate the handful of dog biscuits that Georgia had put out for them. The cat food she would keep till the evening.

  She gave each of the children a drink of water from their precious supply. They would, if they were careful, have enough to get them through the day and into tomorrow. The dogs had already been watered. Badger had disgraced herself earlier, and shocked Rebecca into total silence, by somehow getting up into the font, and slobbering noisily as she drank deeply.

  It was warm in the vestry, even after the rain of the day before and outside it was so quiet. Georgia gave an involuntary shudder, the silence got on her nerves. There seemed to be a bit more smoke in the air today, the air appearing hazy even inside the church.

  After breakfast, the children played a few rounds of crazy eights and she sat down at the desk. She had earlier picked up the chasuble and the other garments and hung them up in the closet, nervously wiping her hands on her jeans before touching them. They were after all, holy items, and she was worried that she would mark them with her less than immaculate fingers.

  She did not want to waste any of their drinking water to wash her hands with, and somehow the idea of washing her hands in the font, seemed sacrilegious even though Badger had already ‘christened it’ so to speak.

  The map book and the maps were spread all about the desk. Georgia traced her fingers down the map, tapping it on Belton. Flipping the map back and forth she searched for inspiration as to what they should do, where they should go, trying to work out where there were rivers. That was vitally important, sooner rather than later, they were going to run out of water.

  She felt her eyes-lids drooping and shook herself awake, it was not even mid-morning yet, and here she was falling asleep as she sat. However, the room was warm, she had eaten well, and had hardly any sleep in the last week. In the background, the children were murmuring in half whispers, a soothing sound that finally lured her into sleep. She slipped easily into dreams, confused unremembered dreams.

  She woke suddenly to the sound of a toilet flushing. She sat bolt upright. Rebecca and Jamie were still sitting on the rug, the cards spread before them.

  ‘Damn,’ was her first thought, she knew exactly what had happened. Deedee had gone to the toilet and flushed it. And all the time she had been worrying about water, there had been a cistern, full of perfectly good uncontaminated water, water that she could have boiled up and it would have kept them supplied for several more days! How could she have been so stupid as to forget about that essential source?

  There was no point being mad at Deedee, and in fact she wasn’t mad at her, but she was furious with herself. Again and again, it seemed she missed the obvious. She had to get a grip. Mistakes now could be fatal.

  One of the maps had fallen to the floor. She picked it up and spread it out again, then laid the compass on top of it. It was all very well to have a compass, but it was less than useless when you had no idea how to use it. She stared at it in disgust, and it seemed to her that it stared back most unhelpfully.

  She considered asking the kids if they knew how to use a compass, but decided against it, surely she could work it out.

  ‘Oh how silly, it’s not that hard, she suddenly realized and a smile spread across her face. If I lay it out on the map, and line up north, then, ah ha, yes. So, if I place it right over Belton, and north is here and we need to go… well, that she didn’t know yet.

  ‘We could always just stay here in this church and not go anywhere,’ she thought to herself. And when their food ran out? What would they eat?

  Her fingers kept running down the map in a southeasterly direction, past Chester, pausing at Bethel. Damn pity it was so far, and…, wasn’t that a good thing? Wasn’t that an advantage? Bethel was an isolated country settlement. Practically a hamlet, except that it had a tavern, and a church, both equally important.

  In the end, the decision of where to go was easy. There really was only one choice. They would go to Bethel. Survival was about water, food, shelter and warmth, and Bethel would provide all of those things and have the added bonus of being relatively far away from any nuclear power plants.

  And just like that, it was settled. Where they would go was no longer an issue. Now all she had to be concerned about, was reaching Bethel and getting enough food as they travelled. There might be houses or shops on the way that she could raid for food, but then again there might not be, in which case they would somehow have to manage from what they could forage.

  ‘In Australia, it would have been so much easier, - not because it was better,’ she thought to herself, but because she knew what she could and could not eat in the wild.

  Here in Missouri, the only wild plant she recognized as edible was the dandelion, and they would never survive on that alone. (Aside from the fact that they would all be peeing all the time.) What they needed was a book of edible plants found in the wilds of Northern America. And maybe something with survival tips. Tips like, how to avoid being eaten by a bear. Now that would be really helpful.

  ‘Actually,’ she said, not realizing at first that she spoke aloud, ‘actually what we need, is a library.’

  Rebecca looked up. ‘There is a library in Belton.’

  ‘There is?’

  ‘Yes, I used to go with Grandma.’

  ‘Is it near here?’

  ‘I think it…,’

  Georgia didn’t let her finish, out of the corner of her eye she had seen a movement through the window. There was a small group of people outside, heading towards the back of the building.

  ‘What is it?’ Rebecca asked, starting to get to her feet.

  Georgia motioned with her hand, ‘Shush, get down, people outside,’ and Rebecca sunk back down immediately.

  At the same time, Georgia slid off her chair and crawled over to the window, peering out carefully from the side, making sure that she
was in shadow. She watched until they had disappeared out of sight and then she bounded over to the back wall, grabbing the chair. She balanced on it, and she peered out through one of the clear pieces of glass in the tiny stained glass window.

  The people were in plain view. For a moment, she felt the urge to leap off the chair and grab at the bags, telling the kids to run for the side door. However, as she continued watching, she realized that they were carrying a body, wrapped in what appeared to be a comforter.

  She felt like an intruder, surreptitiously watching their obvious grief as they lowered the body into a freshly dug grave. One of the men had climbed down into it, and had gently taken the lifeless form into his arms as the others had passed it down. Then he was out of sight for a moment.

  Once he was back with the others they stood, their heads bowed in prayer. She heard the low murmur of their words, through the closed window.

  ‘We commit his body to the ground; earth to earth; ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Lord bless him and keep him, the Lord make his face to shine upon him and be gracious unto him and give him peace.’

  One of the men picked up a spade, and started shoveling clods of dirt into the hole. A woman fell to her knees grasping at the dirt, her curly hair hiding her face, but her anguish clearly visible.

  The woman’s companions gently pulled her back to her feet, she looked as though she would just crumple into a heap again, but she stood stoically, letting the handful of dirt she had been clinging to, drop to the ground.

  It suddenly occurred to Georgia that they might well be planning to come into the church and she hastily stepped down off the chair.

  ‘Stay here, and don’t move,’ she whispered to the children.

  The three of them nodded, upturned faces alarmed. That tore at her, she hated to see them like this. Nevertheless, right now, perhaps, it was a good thing, because it meant they would do as she told them.

  ‘I am just going to wait behind the curtains, to see if they come in. If they do, we will lock this door and get out the window, okay?’

  They all nodded again.

  Silently she slipped out of the room, grateful that the dogs were unaware of any danger, sleeping peacefully in a patch of sunlight. How long would that last if the strangers came into the church?

  She stood behind the thick curtains, parting them ever so slightly, waiting for sounds of them coming up the steps, and pushing the door open. All the while, her heart was thudding in her chest, her palms sweaty. After a moment, she saw them slip silently past the side windows, a tight group, heads bowed, then they were out of sight.

  They did not enter the church and after what seemed an eternity, she ran, crouched over, between the rows of pews and with shaking hands opened the front door just a crack.

  They were gone and it was as if they had never been there. She did not know whom they had buried, or even if it was an adult or a child and they had vanished so completely that for one wild instant she wondered if she had imagined them.

  One moment they had been there, and then they were gone, but they had been there! - Hadn’t they? She felt confused. She felt so very lost.

  She had lost…, what exactly? She thought for a moment, her fingers still on the door. She had lost practically everything. In less than a week she had lost her husband, her home, her sense of continuity, of community, of normalcy.

  Her life now consisted of a series of scattered, still life memories. Somewhat similar to a poorly edited movie, the best parts lying on the cutting room floor, sound clips missing. Family life, laughter, routine…, so much, all gone and replaced by uncertainty and fear and…,

  Why hadn’t she just approached that group? They might have been able to help. Instead she had remained hidden, watchful and afraid; even when clearly, there had been no cause for unease. Then suddenly she understood why. It was because she had lost something else as well. She had, quite simply, lost her ability to trust in people. The ugly side of humanity that she had witnessed over the last days had taken that away.

  Her hand still on the door, she looked up at the sky, and to her cynical mind, it seemed dirty and grey with shame. What had humanity been thinking? That even their planet was disposable, to use and toss away, like an empty plastic soda bottle? Unfortunately, there wasn’t a great machine somewhere in the sky, put your quarter in, and roll out another world.

  Georgia sighed, somehow she was going to have to make do with what was left of this one. Quietly she closed the door, turned and slowly made her way back to the children.

  Chapter Nineteen

  When Georgia stepped into the vestry and found the children, wide eyed and anxiously waiting, her throat suddenly tightened. They were so young and vulnerable, and as she looked at them, huddled together under the window (still clutching their playing cards), she felt a wave of emotion flood through her.

  She was angry with herself that she had brought them here to Belton, to their grandparent’s house. It was, she recognized, her feelings of inadequacy that had led her to make that decision. But still, that was no excuse. The contempt of Johnson’s words rung in her ears. It stung that there had been a streak of truth in them, as much as she hated to admit it.

  He was a bastard, but he was right in one sense, she had thought to dump the kids there. The first time the going got tough, she tried to hand over the responsibility to someone else. While ‘dump’ was not really the word she would have used, it was in essence, what she would have been doing. She had told herself that they needed to be with family, blood ties and all that, but the fact was that they had been left in her care. Whether she liked it or not, they were her children now.

  ‘Is it safe?’ Jamie asked.

  ‘Yes, it’s okay, they have gone,’ she said as she sat down.

  ‘Everything is going to be alright, I promise,’ she whispered to them and then leaned over and kissed Deedee’s forehead. ‘We are going to get out of here, first we will stop at the library and then we will leave Belton.’

  ‘And are we going to go to Bethel?’ Jamie asked.

  Georgia nodded, somewhat surprised. ‘Yes, how did you guess?’

  ‘Well, it’s the one place Dad would think to come and look for us.’

  As they had been talking, Georgia caught sight of Rebecca’s expression, an odd mixture of dismay and doubt, but before she could wonder if Rebecca was going to disagree with their new destination, her face softened to one of hope. ‘Do you really think Dad will go to Bethel?’

  Georgia nodded again, ‘Of course he will,’ if he is still alive. This last thought she kept to herself, digging her fingernails into the palms of her hands, do not even think along those lines. She took in a slow deep breath to calm herself and then continued, ‘Jamie is right, it is the one place where your dad would go to look for us, it will be safe down there, and he would know that. I know we have a long trek ahead of us but I promise all of you it is going to be the adventure of a lifetime. I imagine we will see things we have never seen before and we will camp out in the forest under the stars.’ And hopefully not see things like bears and…,

  Deedee, who had been surreptitiously, checking Rebecca and Jamie’s cards, suddenly leaned forward, the game forgotten. ‘Like real explorers?’

  ‘Yes, we will be just like explorers.’

  ‘So how long do you think it will take?’ Jamie asked.

  ‘I am not sure,’ Georgia said. ‘It depends on how fast we can travel. At the moment, we are only managing about two miles an hour, and Bethel is about 320 miles, on the freeway.

  ‘So 160 hours?’ Rebecca asked, a look of doubt on her face.

  ‘That’s forever,’ Deedee said in a way that showed she was really rather impressed by that.

  ‘Well, it isn’t that simple, for a start I don’t think we should be travelling along the freeways. I was looking at the map…,’ she paused, reaching over to take it off the desk. ‘Here, I will show you.’ Spreading it out, she laid the map on the floor between them. ‘We are here, and w
e need to get here,’ she explained as she ran her finger along the map. ‘These little green symbols are nature reserves, and I think we should travel through them as much as possible. It will take longer that way, possibly adding an extra eighty miles to the trip.

  Rebecca gasped, ‘Four hundred miles?’

  ‘Thereabouts, Georgia agreed, ‘to start with, we can follow the railway tracks out of Belton, down to here and then when it begins to curve we can cut across country. All in all, it could take us…,’ she paused, ‘let’s see, two hundred hours of walking at let’s say six hours a days, avoiding the heat of the day, that would be about thirty three days. That is if we walked without any breaks, but I imagine that we would need to stop at least every third day to forage for food and rest up. So probably, all up, it could take us six or seven weeks.’

  ‘Wow, that’s a long walk.’ Jamie exclaimed

  ‘The question is, do you think you guys can do it?’ Georgia asked.

  Rebecca nodded slowly, ‘I think so.’

  ‘What about bears?’ Deedee asked.

  Funny how she had been wondering the same thing.

  ‘I guess we will worry about that, if and when we come across one, but I seriously doubt we will. There are not so many of them in Illinois.’

  ‘Well if Rebecca can do it, so can I.’ Jamie said.

  ‘So can I,’ Deedee echoed.

  Georgia felt a sudden flutter of excitement in her stomach, her earlier despair had dissipated in the face of constructive decisions. Perhaps after all, she could do this. She just had to take one step at a time, and so far, she was going well. They had eaten and worked out where they were going to go.

  They left the church shortly afterwards and made their way to the library. The dogs trotted next to them, showing no sign of wanting to run ahead or investigate interesting smells along the way.