Aftermath

stranded and cut off as we are.”
    “Bollocks.”
    “She’s right,” Jackson said, speaking just to Jas initially, but then turning around so that he could address everyone in the room. “It’s all about economies of scale now. The world’s too far gone to pull back from the brink. We’ve got no choice but to go right back to basics, and no matter what you say, Jas, Donna’s right. Your world is going to keep getting smaller and smaller until it’s just you. They’ve already anticipated that on the island. And because of their location and their attitude, they’re going to try and build something from the ruins instead of just picking meat off the bones, as you put it. I don’t know about the rest of you lot, but I think our best bet is to leave here with these people and head for the island.”
    “I don’t,” Jas said, his voice loud enough for everyone to hear, but also strangely unemotional and detached. In the expectant pause before he spoke again, the only sound was the steady low thumping of the generator outside. It sounded like a headache felt. “Leaving the mainland would be a mistake,” he continued, “and it’s atake you’ll find hard to put right. They’re not going to operate charter helicopter flights to fly you back if things don’t work out, are they? Anyone who leaves here will be risking everything. We’d be completely cut off. What happens if things go wrong? Where’s the escape plan?”
    “If we do it right we won’t need to escape,” Lorna said. Jas looked at her with disappointment.
    “I thought you’d understand, Lorna. You should know better than most that you always need an escape plan. Do you remember what happened when we were at the flats, or have you already forgotten about Ellie and Anita?”
    She shook her head. Several low and uneasy sounding conversations began to spring up.
    “Of course I haven’t forgotten them,” Lorna said. “You’re just scaremongering.”
    “No, I’m not,” he said. “This is an important and valid point. For those of you who don’t know, Ellie and Anita were with us a long time back, right at the beginning. They both got sick and died. We don’t know what killed them or why it didn’t finish the rest of us off, we just packed up and moved on rather than hang around and find out. So tell me, if there’s an outbreak of something like the disease that killed Ellie and Anita on the island, where are you going to run to?”
    “What do you think the source was?” Cooper asked.
    “Don’t know,” Jas replied. “We assumed it was the bodies. We were surrounded by masses of them.”
    “Problem solved, then. We don’t have any bodies on Cormansey. Nothing to worry about.”
    “We assumed it was the bodies,” Jas said again, “but I’ve long wondered if that really was the case. No one else got sick after them, and we were all exposed, some of us considerably more so, in fact. It might have been something else—something they both ate, something they smoked, something naturally occurring. Don’t forget, we’re moving into an age now where our chances of getting ill are going to increase. Smallpox, TB, the Black Death … who knows what might make a reappearance to bite our arses.”
    “Donna’s right—now you are just scaremongering,” Cooper said. “The risks of getting contagious diseases are hardly going to increase when there’s no one else left to catch them from. Look, I still don’t understand why you’re doing this. We came here to offer a solution, not to cause more problems.”
    Jas stood up and pointed accusingly at him.
    “Have you not listened to anything I’ve said? Your bloody solution might well turn out to be the cause of the problems. The bottom line is, isolating ourselves on an island is just too big a chance to take. We can’t risk it. I won’t risk it, and if anyone else here has got any sense, they won’t either.”
    Jackson alsoo his feet. He’d had enough.
    “We’re not going to get anywhere like this. I suggest we all sleep on it. Make your decisions overnight. Those who want to leave can go first thing. The rest of you can stay.”
    Jas nodded his agreement. He remained where he was for a few moments longer, but there was nothing left to say. He left the room, meeting over. Several others—Kieran, Bayliss, Ainsworth, Paul Field, and Melanie among them—left with him.
    Cooper helped himself to a can of lager and downed it at once. Around him, other people began drifting