Them or Us

you by.”
    I know he’s being deliberately overdramatic and playing to his captive audience, but the thing is, there’s a part of me that knows he might be right. I am different from the rest of the useless, brain-dead fucks that inhabit this poisoned, dying country. My problem is I’ve always struggled to accept responsibility, and I don’t see why I should start trying to change things now. Surely it’s too late? Joseph looks at me expectantly for an answer, and I do all I can to look anywhere else. Tracey glares at me. Parker and Todd are a little less vicious but no less hopeful. Dean holds his rifle, looking like he’s about to point it at me to try to force me to help. I look from face to face, then find myself looking straight at Chloe and Jake again.
    Deep breath.
    “Okay, I’ll ask you once more, how do you think you’re going to get everyone onto a boat? Assuming you can find one, that is.”
    “No one said that was what we were planning,” Todd says. “When Pete, Joseph, and me first started talking about this, we ruled that out right away. We knew that if we had to get away fast, we’d end up bringing the boat to the people, not trying to take the people to the boat.”
    “What, here? Are we close to a river or…?”
    He’s shaking his head at me. Joseph explains.
    “We were going to split up. Peter and I were going to find the boat with Todd. Everyone else was going to head to a prearranged point farther down the coast and wait for us.”
    “What prearranged point?”
    “We hadn’t got that far,” he admits.
    “Great.”
    Every nerve in my body that still feels anything is screaming at me to shut up and get out of here, but there’s something screaming equally loud at me not to. As hard as it is for me to accept, Joseph’s right. When I think about everything I’ve seen and been a part of in Lowestoft these last few days, I know I can’t just turn my back on these people. There’s more decency and civility here in this cramped bunker than there is in the rest of the country combined. Besides, I’m just fooling myself if I think I’m going to get far on my own. My body is well and truly fucked, and I’m living on borrowed time. My choice now is simple and stark: Whether I’m left down here or I manage to crawl back up to the surface, I can either die alone or try to do the right thing by these Unchanged. The last Unchanged.
    There’s a hushed, expectant silence throughout the bunker.
    “Southwold,” I eventually say.
    “What?” Joseph asks, looking confused.
    “That’s where you need to go. That’s your ideal meeting point, ten miles south of Lowestoft. Get everyone down there, then get a boat from one of the yards in town and sail it down the coast. With a little luck you’ll find something near the ocean. Southwold is a dead place now. It’s your best option. Probably your only option.”
    “So will you help us?”
    I pause again. Am I completely sure about this? Think carefully.
    “I’ll do what I can,” I hear myself answer, regretting the words before they’ve even left my mouth.
    “We’ll need supplies. We’ve got nothing.”
    “There’s a house I was using. It’s more than a mile outside Lowestoft. I’ve got a load of stuff there I’m never going to need. If we’re careful we can collect it on the way through to the boatyard.”
    “We need to get moving, then,” he says. “Let’s clear this place out and be ready to get out by morning. We should move fast, while they’re still distracted with their damn infighting and before they start looking for those corpses up there.”

 
    46
    THEY WERE BETTER PREPARED for this day than I’d expected, but Peter Sutton’s death and my unannounced arrival at the bunker have forced the Unchanged to drastically alter their plans. We left as dawn broke. Using the van I brought the children here in and the delivery truck that Sutton already had hidden in the cowshed (it’s obvious now that he had it ready for a day like today), Joseph and Parker are driving the bulk of the group down to Southwold, where they’ll wait at the lighthouse, if it’s still standing. I’m on the way back into Lowestoft with Todd and Dean in the dead soldiers’ jeep. We’re going to clear out the stash of supplies from the house I was using, then load the whole lot into the biggest boat we can find that’s still seaworthy. Then, if by some miracle we manage to sail through Lowestoft and out the other side, we’ll