Aftermath

Jackson explained. “Some of the things Jas said last night were right. This is a big decision for people to make, and wMorning,#x2019;t rush them. Cooper here has kindly agreed to give us all a little more time to make up our minds about what we want to do.”
    “We’re flying back to Chadwick this morning,” Cooper began. “We’re going to—”
    “I’m coming with you,” Harte interrupted. “You said.”
    Cooper shook his head. “We need you here. Look, we need to get back to the marina to let Harry and Michael know what’s going on. In the meantime, you and Jackson will be organizing this end of things, finding out who’s going and who’s staying and getting things packed up.”
    “But why me? You don’t need me for that. Anyone could do it.”
    “You know the area better than most,” he explained. “You’ve spent a couple of weeks scavenging around Chadwick, and you know where to find the boats we’re planning to take. Your man Driver has agreed to transport everyone, but he needs your help to get there. This is important, Harte.”
    Harte just looked at him, feeling deflated and unexpectedly angry.
    “This is bullshit,” he spat, turning his ire on Cooper. “I agreed to come back here on the condition you’d get me out again.”
    “And that’s still going to happen. It’s just that you’ll be leaving here by bus, not helicopter, that’s all. What difference does it make? We’re going to wait for you in Chadwick until midday tomorrow, so come the end of the week you should still be on Cormansey. These people need you, Harte; Jackson and Driver most of all. I think it’s the least you can do after running out on them like that.”
    Harte tried to argue with Cooper but he couldn’t. There was no point.
    *   *   *
     
    Just past midday. A clear sky and a cool breeze. Jas was standing on the top of the gatehouse with Kieran. Below them the rotor blades on top of the helicopter had just started to spin. Their noise and speed increased rapidly, blowing clouds of dust across the courtyard and sending people scattering, looking for cover. The aircraft rose majestically, and Jas watched it effortlessly climb.
    It was gone in a matter of minutes. All the noise and bluster disappeared in a remarkably short period of time.
    “So what do you think?” he said to Kieran. Kieran stared into the distance, looking as far as he could see in the general direction the helicopter had taken.
    “I’m guessing fifty-fifty,” he answered. “Maybe more will want to go than stay. The grass is always greener, and all that shite.”
    “And that’s all it is,” Jas said, “shite. Most of the people here are just sheep, following the rest of the herd. If you told them to swim the Channel because there’s no dead bodies in France, most of them probably would.”
    “They’re not that bad.”
    “Some of them are.”
    Kieran thought for a moment before asking, “So what are we going to do?”
    Jas walked to the other side of the gatehouse roof and looked out between the battlements over the dead world beyond the wall. Kieran followed him. Down below he could see what was left of the dead, still drawing ever closer even after all this time, the noise of the helicopter piquing their unwanted interest this morning. Christ, they were pitiful-looking creatures now. He watched one of them, one leg broken, the other missing, as it lay on its belly and slowly dragged itself across the muddy grass. Another tried to move past one which had expired against the trunk of a tree. In its clumsiness the two rib cages had become entangled, and now the corpse which still moved was dragging the other behind it.
    The dead appalled Jas. He didn’t admit as much to anyone else, but they still scared the hell out of him too. How could anyone not be afraid of monsters such as these? Foul and hideous, ungodly beasts which would stop at nothing to reach the living. Detestable fuckers with no consideration for their own physical condition, less anyone or anything else’s. Even today, months after death when their physical bodies had deteriorated to such a repulsive extent, they were still a threat. There was nothing human about them now. They were evil: driven to keep attacking until they could no longer function. He wondered how anything could be filled with such relentless, remorseless hate.
    “We can’t let anyone leave,” Jas said, finally responding to Kieran’s question. “Can’t they see what they’re