For Those In Peril (Book 2): The Outbreak (34 page)

‘You
think this is going to blow over eventually?’ I watched him closely and saw the
slightest flutter of his eyelids which suggested that he didn’t, but that he
wasn‘t ready to admit it openly.

‘I
have to stay positive, otherwise what would be the point of trying to do
anything? Anyway, if we all work together, I think we can get a real community
going, and even if we end up here in the long term, we’ll still be safe. There’s
space to grow things around here, and we’ve been picking up farm animals as and
when we come across them.’

I eyed
him sceptically. ‘You know how to deal with animals?’

‘Well
…’ There was an awkward silence. ‘No. And to be honest, we don’t really know
much about growing things either, but this is where the locals come in. If we
can get them to move here, we can protect them, provide them with a level of
security they can’t get anywhere else, and in return, they can help us by doing
the farming and helping to maintain everything. It’s a fair trade, isn’t it?’

I
considered this. ‘I can see how it’s beneficial for you, but I can see why
you’re struggling to convince anyone else.’

‘Yes,
we are rather.’ He let out a sigh. ‘I think we really messed up when we first
arrived. Nick slipped back into his old habit of throwing his weight around, and
it just annoyed everyone. We lost a lot of goodwill because of it. That’s why
I’ve come up with a new plan; something that will really benefit everyone.’

Despite all he’d said, I couldn’t help but notice he still hadn’t answered
Sophie’s question about why he was so interested in Claire and this left me
feeling uneasy. ‘So what’s your new plan?’

He
swept his arm towards the building behind him. ‘Come inside and I can tell you
all about it.’

I
figured I had nothing to lose by listening to what he had to say. ‘Okay.’

Gordon
turned to the others. ‘Nick should be around here somewhere. If you can find
him, tell him I said he should show you around. That okay with you?’

Daz
grinned. ‘No problem!’

He was
clearly looking forward to exploring the marines’ settlement. Tom and Sophie
seemed pretty keen, too. I, however, wondered why they’d been dismissed. It had
been very subtle, but it was clear that I was the only person Gordon wanted to
discuss his plans with.

‘Just
make sure you stay together.’ I looked at my watch, ‘and be back here in an
hour. We’ll need to be heading off to Canna soon after that if we’re going to
get there before it gets dark.’

‘Will
do, Cap’n!’ Tom gave a playful salute as he turned and walked off, following Daz
and Sophie who were already halfway across the grass, heading for the animal
enclosures.

Gordon
waggled the now half-empty whisky bottle at me, ‘You want a top-up?’

I
stared down at my glass and swirled the dregs of the previous round. ‘I should
probably leave it at that. I’ve still got a few hours of sailing to go tonight.’

I
might only have known him for less than an hour, but I’d quickly warmed to
Commander Buchanan-Smith, or ‘Bucky’ as he was known to those who served with
him. His hair was thinning, with a smattering of grey, but he was still
well-built. He’d served in the navy for almost twenty years, reaching the rank
of commander before all this happened. Since arriving on Rhum, he’d put his
time, and his extensive experience, to good use, and they were well on their way
to establishing a very reasonable facsimile of a fully functioning settlement
capable of supporting a sizable population, complete with electricity, and hot
and cold running water. They were still using diesel generators for the time
being, but they’d already gathered a large number of solar panels and a couple
of wind generators, which Gordon hoped to have up and running before they
finally ran out of fuel.

‘Go
on. Another little bit won’t do you any harm.’ He leaned forward and poured a
splash of whisky into my glass. He did the same to his own, then picked it up
and rolled it between his palms for a second before taking a sip. ‘So, you’re no
doubt wondering what my new plan is, and why I‘m so interested in your doctor
friend.’

I
settled back in my chair, feeling the effects of the whisky warming my blood. ‘I
most certainly am.’

‘Well,
as I see it, there are three things we can offer people.’ He ticked them off on
his fingers as he spoke. ‘Security, food production and medical help. From what
I’ve seen, the locals don’t feel they need our protection, and they’re probably
right about that, at least for the time being, and they can probably handle the
food side of things better than we can because they know the area. But there’s
one thing they can’t really provide for themselves, and that’s the medical help.
If we can set up some sort of medical facility here, with a proper doctor in
residence, then we’d have something which would make it attractive for people to
come here, wouldn’t we? Something which they can’t really do for themselves, or
get elsewhere.’

Definitely.’ I drained the last drops of whisky from my glass. Suddenly
everything had become clear. ‘But I should warn you, you’ll struggle to get
Claire to agree: she’s a pretty independent person and she’s not exactly big on
the military.’

‘Yes,
that was the impression I got when we ran into you the other day.’ He scratched
his chin thoughtfully before looking up. ‘Any ideas how I can go about getting
her onside?’

‘I
don’t know.’ I mulled this over. ‘Probably by getting her equipment and medical
supplies. Providing  antibiotics when Tom needed them really helped get you into
her good books back at the blockade.’

Gordon
put his now empty whisky glass on the table that separated us. ‘I can see I’ll
need to put some more thought into this.’ He glanced at his watch and I did
likewise. He stood up and pulled on his cap. ‘We should be getting you back to
your boat so you can be on your way.’ At the doorway he stopped and held out is
hand. ‘Thanks for coming, and for hearing me out. You’ve given me something I
can work on, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s a big step forward.’

‘Man,
those guys are so cool!’ We were all in the cockpit having left Rhum half an
hour before. The winds were fair and we were on time to reach Canna by ten. Daz
was at the helm while Tom and Sophie sat opposite me on the lee side of the
boat. Daz was filling me in about their time on the island. ‘We ran into them up
in the woods behind the house an’ Nick, he’s a lieutenant y’know, he’s
second-in-command after Gordon, an’ he’s in charge of all the marines, he showed
us how to use his assault rifle.’

‘He
even let us fire it!’ Sophie was jubilant, then nervous. ‘Whatever you do, don’t
tell Mum. She doesn’t like guns much.’

‘It’s
just a pity you couldn’t hit a barn door from two feet away.’ Daz needled her.

‘It’s
harder than it looks!’ Sophie punched him playfully on the arm. ‘Anyway, it’s
not my fault I’m not a natural, like you.’

I shot
Daz a questioning look. He smiled, ‘Nick said I must have a natural instinct for
shootin’ an’ that I was really good for someone who’d never even fired a gun
before.’

Sophie
folded her arms, scowling. ‘It must be all those computer games you played.’

I
glanced at Tom. ‘So what about you?’

‘He
was too chicken to even give it a go!’

Tom
stuck his tongue out at Sophie in response. ‘It wasn’t that; I’m just not that
into guns. Anyway, I had other things on my mind.’

I
raised an eyebrow. ‘Oh yeah, what was that?

‘I’m
not really too sure,’ Tom leaned back in his seat, ‘but there was something odd
going on there. There’s a path behind the Big House through the trees, and we
were walking up it when we saw a bunch of the marines up ahead. They were
crowded around what looked like a hole in the ground, all laughing and joking
with each other. They were pushing one another towards the edge. I got the
impression there was something in there, something alive, but before we could
get close enough to see anything, Nick spotted us and shouted at the others to
get back to work. That’s when he came over and offered to show us how to fire
his gun.’

‘So
what d’you think was going on?’ I was curious to hear Tom’s views.

‘I
don’t know.’ Tom’s forehead furrowed. ‘Nick said it was just an old septic tank
that had collapsed in on itself, but, I don’t know … that didn’t seem right. I
could’ve sworn I heard something moving around in it.’

I
turned to Daz and Sophie. ‘What about you two? Did you see anything unusual?
Anything which seemed odd?’

They
looked at each other and then shrugged.

Daz
spoke first. ‘I didn’t see anythin’.’

‘Me
neither.’ Sophie swiped a stray hair away from her face. ‘And anyway, Nick seems
really nice. Why would he lie to us?’ 

Chapter
Sixteen

‘So
how did you get on?’ Claire and I were in the cockpit drinking a couple of the
beers she’d been given as a thank you for helping out with the birth. Although
she hadn’t been keen on us going to Rhum in the first place, she now seemed very
eager to hear about what we’d found there.

‘Pretty good, actually. Gordon seems to have his head screwed on the right way,
and if they can really achieve half the things he’s planning, it’ll be very
impressive. I’m just not too sure he can actually do it though, or even if he
can get enough of the people around here to go along with him.’ I sipped my
beer. ‘Oh, and I might have dropped you in it .’

Claire
looked concerned. ‘What d’you mean?’

I took
another mouthful of beer. ‘He’s very keen to get all the survivors around here
together on Rhum and set up a community there, and he seems to think the key to
doing that is to offer them something they can’t get anywhere else.’

‘Like
what?’ Claire was eyeing me suspiciously.

‘Like
some sort of medical facility, complete with its own doctor.’

‘And
by that, you mean
me?’
Claire took an angry swig of her beer. ‘I hope you
told him where to shove it!

‘Well,’ I rubbed the back of my neck, ‘no.’

Claire
glared at me. ‘What did you tell him?’

I
picked nervously at the label on my beer bottle. ‘I told him that his best
chance of getting you on his side was to get you medical supplies: equipment,
medicines, and so on.’

Claire
slammed her bottle down onto the seat beside her, sending beer foaming out over
the top. ‘You told him
what
?’

‘It’s
true, isn’t it?’ I replied defensively.

‘I
suppose,’ she conceded.

‘And
if he can get you stuff like that, then you’d be able to do much more for the
people around here, wouldn’t you?’

‘That’s true.’

‘So if
he made you an offer, would you take him up on it?’

Claire
picked up her beer again and drained what was left. ‘If it means I can treat
people better, then I might. There’s only so much I can do with what I’ve got
with me, and I’ve already run out of almost everything useful. We’ve been lucky
so far; there’s not really been anything I haven’t been able to handle, but our
luck’s got to run out some time, hasn’t it?’ She got up and leant on the side of
the boat. ‘I don’t know. I’d need to think about it. I wouldn’t want to get
stuck there, and I’m not too sure I’d want Sophie to be around those marines all
the time either, but I can see the benefits of having somewhere with proper
equipment in case of emergencies.’

***

‘What’s that over there?’ We’d left Canna early that morning and we were just
getting ready to turn into the sound between Mull and the mainland when Daz
called out. ‘Over there. You see it?’

I
stared in the direction Daz was pointing, but with the wind blowing at a steady
twenty-five knots, it was difficult to spot anything amongst the swell and
breaking waves. ‘What did it look like?’

‘Dunno. It looked big, though, six, maybe eight feet long.’ Daz craned his neck,
trying to find the object again. ‘Might’ve been a whale or somethin’.’

‘It
could’ve been a leatherback turtle. I’ve seen them out here before.’ I glanced
up at the sails, checking how they were set. ‘We need to come about.’

I
watched as the others scuttled around the deck, dressed in their waterproofs and
life jackets. The seas were rough, but they weren’t so bad that safety harnesses
had to be worn. Nonetheless, care needed to be taken. ‘Daz, one hand for
yourself and one for the boat.’

 ‘What?’ Daz sounded confused.

‘I
mean, always hold on with one hand whenever you’re doing anything outside of the
cockpit.’

He
gave me a double thumbs up. ‘Gotcha!’

Tom
and Sophie laughed.

‘Daz,
stop messing around.’ I gave the boat, and the sea, a quick once-over, then I
picked a spot between the approaching swells.  ‘Ready abou …’

‘WAIT!’ Daz was standing on his tip toes, peering into the distance.