Zombielandia (12 page)

Babs had managed to bring the cushions from the Gamebirds sofa to the our room, so at least the kids had something comfortable to lie on that night, but by no means did I think this was going to be a permanent arrangement.

That evening we ate well, surf and turf by the means of fresh fish and rabbit that the guys had done well to get for us earlier that day. It was fair to say that Margaret had done well to make sure that everyone managed to get a good meal with the two small rabbits and fish and our meagre supplies.

After we’d eaten that night and the kids had been put to bed I finally got to talk to Lia and Sandie about our situation. Lia was a country girl and had been bought up in a rural area similar to myself and my family and so she agreed that we needed to find somewhere much more sustainable. Sandie on the other hand surprised me, she wanted to stay, I could see her point, the Island had good views across to the mainland and we could easily fortify the one and only way onto the island. She was happy to go out and scavenge for supplies and was sure we could create a comfortable life on the Island. I didn’t agree, we were yet to spend a winter on this Island. I doubted whether we’d even get off the island in our small boats once the river started to swell more as the weather got worse. But as someone who was used to being at sea, it didn’t faze her.

I showed Lia and Sandie the maps I’d been studying. There was a much larger Island and only a few hours sail away, The Isle of May. It was situated at the mouth of the Forth and as such may be a bit more exposed, but it was three times as big as Inchkeith. There would be better fishing waters. Less populated ports and more importantly to me it would give us a bit of land that we could work and keep animals. Lia loved the idea and Sandie was more acceptable to it now that she could see what I had planned.

I gathered everyone in the living area and told them my concerns about the Island we were on and especially with winter approaching. I then went on to tell them about May Island. They all listened intently and when I’d finished speaking the room was silent. I could understand why, after everything they’d been through to get to somewhere they had felt safe for the first time since the outbreak for some of them and here was me proposing that they leave it behind with an idea to go to a bigger Island that may not be any better and may be populated and may even have rotters on it.

David spoke up first, and how far did you say this island was away, I passed him the map, about three hours sail away I’d estimate, but you’d know better than me I told him. I needed David or Paul on side, there was no way I was going to be able to sail one of the boats; I didn’t have the knowledge or the experience. I could steer the Gamebird down a canal, but taking one of our boats into open waters with my family aboard was not something I was prepared to do. So my destiny was once again in someone else’s hands.

David studied the map, yes, I agree, about three hours on the Hope. He passed the map around and everyone else had a look at it. Paul spoke up, why don’t we send a small party out first thing to have a look, if we set off at sun rise we can get there, have a good look around and be back before it gets dark. We need to have a look at this place before we make any decisions. To my surprise, everyone was in agreement. So it was decided that Paul, Becky, Sandie, Lia and I would set off the following morning in the Hope. I could tell Babs wasn’t very happy so I took her into the kitchen for a chat. She had been worried, she didn’t want us to be separated, I tried to make her feel better by reminding her of all the supply runs we’d had to do back at the site, often away all day. I tried to assure her that this was going to be no different and that we were properly armed these days, but I could tell she was more worried than usual.

I reminded her of the promise we’d all made to Keith back on the Somerset, that whoever got to our home in Togston first would leave a note as to where we were heading for. For all we knew, he was still heading there now and by moving to May island we were even closer to home and would be able to make a trip home one day to find out what had happened there. I don’t think she felt any better, but the thought of home cheered her up a bit.

Chapter Fifty Three

We had gone for a walk down to the Hope with a few supplies for our trip to the Isle of May. Everyone else was still back at the light house. It was a pleasant evening and it had been nice to be alone with Babs for the first time in a long while, it felt good just to be able to hold her hand. We went onto the Gamebird to take a shower. It felt so good to hold her again. It had been too long since we had been alone together. We almost fell into the shower, the water pouring over us, Jesus, the relief was unimaginable. We just sat on the shower floor for ages afterwards, the water still pouring over us, husband and wife together again, whispering gently to each other and hoping that no one was going to disturb us any time soon.

Eventually the water had turned cold, so we took that as our cue to leave. We dressed and had a slow walk back up the hill to the light house. It was an eerie sight looking over towards Scotland’s capital city and not a light in sight, and then I had seen the warm glow coming from the light house and could imagine the guys inside and what they would be doing. We went to bed early that night, after all, we had a busy day ahead of us and wanted to be well rested.

Chapter Fifty Four

We had set off early the following day as planned. Thankfully the good weather had continued into the morning. Most of the other guys had got up to see us off and to wish us luck. We planned on getting there as quickly as possible. I was pleased Sandie had chosen to come with us as she was one of the ones that were going to take the most convincing that moving island was a good idea.

The journey to the isle of May went without any issues. We arrived in harbour around ten in the morning. There were two harbours indicated on the map. We chose to land at Kirk Haven as it looked closer to a lot of the buildings on the map.

As we entered the natural harbour, much to our dismay, there had been another boat, much larger than our own already moored there. It was named the May Princess and looked like a small ferry capable of holding a lot of people, up to a hundred people Paul had thought.

Shit, I thought I’d made a massive mistake at that point. There was the potential to be over a hundred people on the island and only five of us. Surely they would have seen us coming though? There was no one there to greet us and no sign of any rotters either. There was however plenty of grey seals and hundreds of birds, even at that time of year.

We landed at the harbour and all five of us got off. We were well armed which was going to be one advantage we’d have over a boat full of day trippers and twitchers.

We headed straight for the May Princess. The access ramp had been lifted, but we still managed to struggle aboard it. It had been locked from the inside so one could get in. However we did have one of our crow bars with us, so it didn’t take us long to gain access.

We entered into a large seating area; clearly it was only a ferry for day trips and not for ocean voyages. The passenger area was empty as were the toilets and observation deck. We had headed to the control room next. There was movement inside, we banged on the door before entering and a rotter appeared at the window, the captain I presumed by the remains of his uniform. It had looked like he was the only one in there. He must have locked himself in there to hide from someone or something before he’d turned. You could tell by his state of decomposition that he had turned some time before.

We forced the door open. CRUNCH, Becky dispatched him with her axe in the usual way. We threw him overboard into the water below. The engine room and the rest of the boat were clear; it had only been the captain.

I asked Paul if he could sail something as big as the May Princess and he’d said no problem, it was more like what he had been used to sailing rather than the small boats we’d been using. Only problem with it he’d said was that it would take a hell of a lot of fuel to run. But I thought if we had the fuel, we could go anywhere in that thing.

There was a sort of ships log in the control room and a passenger list. It looked like it hadn’t been the busiest of times for the captain. There had been twenty seven passengers in total and three crew members and him from what we could tell. There must have been people already on the island too. Things would have needed to be maintained and there would have been people to cater for the visitors. We thought that we were looking at between thirty and forty people or rotters or even a combination of both.

Paul checked the fuel levels, there was more than enough to do several trips back and forward to the mainland at Anstruther harbour, and so if the crew were still alive, surely they’d have made the trip back home?

We also found tourist maps of the island in the passenger area. There was a light house of similar size to the one on Inchkeith that used to house three light house keepers and their families. There was another smaller, older light house that had been turned into a bird observatory with sleeping for up to six visitors. There was a visitor centre with toilet blocks. A tennis court, picnic areas, but more importantly a solar powered power station and a small fresh water loch.

There was also a list of the local wildlife. There was an abundance of different kinds of protected birds with advice to stick to the marked path ways. I noticed that rabbits and woodcocks were on the list.

We could live quite comfortably on the island, if not for the small problem of the thirty or so residents, whom we had no idea where they were, or what they were. The May Princess’ log showed that they landed here in the very early days of the outbreak, but we were only a few hours journey from Newcastle, so these areas would have been some of the first places hit. At least if they were rotters, they’d be fairly well decomposed, I’d thought and hence be easy to take out. If they had been people, then chances were they would be unarmed; this was a conservation area, so I would imagine weapons of any kind would be the last thing we’d expect to find.

We had discussed taking the May Princess and just returning to Inchkeith and telling the guys what we’d found and then maybe coming back with more people and taking the island.

Then Sandie had said, fuck it, let’s go for it, let’s take this place, we’re the five best zombie killers we’ve got and we’ve got the slayer with us too, referring to Becky. We can take this place and be back in time for tea!

Chapter Fifty Five

We decided against radioing the guys back on Inchkeith, we were still within range and had told the guys about the May Princess, but that was all. We didn’t want to worry them unnecessarily.

We set off up the hill along an overgrown track towards where we expected to find the visitor centre from the map. The first thing we came across was a ruined chapel and further down the track an over grown picnic area. There were human remains scattered all over the picnic area and outside the visitor centre.  They were just bones now; the flesh would have been consumed either by rotters or the thousands of birds that inhabited the island. At least that had accounted for a dozen or so of the visitors.

The visitor centre, named the Mouse House, had been left open to the elements, probably for almost two years. It was a wooden structure and it hadn’t faired very well, it would have been exposed to all weathers with no protection or maintenance and as we had entered it, we could see that some of the local bird life had started to inhabit it too.

The visitor centre was abandoned, but when we had checked out the kitchen area, we had been pleasantly surprised how many tinned goods were still there. Any dried and fresh stuff had long since been consumed by the birds and vermin. I have to admit, one of the things that had excited me the most was the full coke machine in the dining area, I knew I’d be taking the crow bar to that later!

There was a cross roads outside the centre, so we checked the map and took the path that would take us to the four unmarked buildings next to the loch. We ventured along the over grown path way. The first building was some sort of bird ringing room and was full of all sorts of bird watching stuff, but again, it was uninhabited. The two smaller buildings were for the care of sick and injured animals. There were a lot of medical supplies in one of them and the other one had been full of cages and pens containing the skeletal remains of dead birds and probably seals.

The forth and larger building was an observatory with small café area and toilets. Again it had long since been abandoned. It had started to become a mystery as to where the rest of the visitors and residents were.

The path way started to incline towards the main light house which was situated in the centre of the island and at its highest point. A small building stood next to it which held a generator and had solar panels on its roof. It would have provided the power for the light house and other buildings on the island. Paul had said that it hadn’t been running for quite some time.

The light house had been unlocked and open to the public, there were boards documenting the history of the light house and the island. The living quarters were very similar to that of Inchkeith light house. There were a few human skeletal remains in the visitor area, but other than that there was no sign of people or rotters again.

We headed off to the last building marked on the map, the older, Low light house. Our adrenalin started to kick in big style as we’d walked down the hill towards it, the rest of the visitors must have been there, it was the only place left for them. The low light house was unlocked too and as every other building on the island was totally abandoned and had been for some time as well.