Chapter Eleven
Day Three Hundred and Four
It would take a lot more time to prepare for a trip to Essex, so the men had decided to wait a week. However, something else had happened during that time.
May-Li went into labour.
For three days and nights, she had constantly screamed. Tee or Elektra or Faith had stood outside her door in case of news.
In the bathroom, Tania, Maria and Kazima were assisting with the water-birth. But May-Li had never known so much agony – at least, physical – in her life.
Now, she'd had the baby.
Tee and the others were told during school hours, by Theo, that May-Li had delivered a day. The boy was to be named Lee.
Tee just hoped that the men's stupid idea would at least be under control, especially if no other babies had been born by the time she or Jody were sixteen.
Day Three Hundred and Sixty-Five
A year, the newspapers were saying. A whole year under the infection.
From the Faroe Islands, Mike read it with dread. A whole year that had been wasted. The children should have been growing up, living elsewhere. Kazima and Carmen would now be sixteen. Tee would be sixteen in November.
He just hoped that they were still alive. Whether they would be better off dead if they didn't have to suffer, he didn't know.
He had seen Ryan, Mo and Tyler a few times. Ryan was taller, his hair darker and he had learnt some Faroese. Mo was skinnier, had new glasses and could now speak a few Danish phrases. Tyler could say hello in ten different languages and goodbye in eight. That was due to his foster parents being practically a refugee shelter.
They had all been interviewed (without Mike's knowledge) about life in a new country and whether they thought they'd see the girls again. Their addresses hadn't been released, but everyone knew who they were.
Mike was furious. But he knew he had to stay calm.
What he was doing, however, was a sneaky plan. He would rescue the girls himself. He should have done it from the beginning. He would save them.
At the mansion, Rhodes insisted that four of them would go down and set the house up. He ordered that Neil and Leroy go 'with their wives'.
Elektra felt sick at that. He was most certainly not in charge of her!
But Neil, Elektra, Leroy and Maria were in the coach, travelling down, just after sunrise.
They stopped off at three petrol stations, taking packets of biscuits, fizzy drinks, crisps, a few chocolate bars and for some odd reason, some lettuce that had been left behind. But even though Neil kept hanging the chocolate near Elektra's face, she refused to budge.
Neil shrugged, "Eh, doesn't matter anyway. When you're a perfect wife and mother, you'll listen to me."
Elektra made a face. This disgusted her.
But when they arrived at the house, they noticed that the river, which had been about twenty feet in front of the house, was now swamped over the street, spreading a disgusting muddy pool over the tyres.
Neil groaned, "Hey, Leroy, can you get past this?"
Leroy made a face as he drove through the slew of thick mud. "I doubt it. We can't go down this road, that would be suicide."
They managed to turn round, but then another car fell out from a dust-covered garage nearby and crashed on them. The coach turned over three times before landing in the sludge.
All four screamed.
Elektra didn't know how she did it, but she'd managed to push a window open and broken the latch, so she could pull herself out.
The coach was being pulled quickly down a hill, before slowing by a tree. Elektra took a chance and leapt high.
She just managed to grab it and swung, her legs kicking underneath her into the filthy water.
But she strained, grunting, as she pulled herself up onto the branch, clinging on for dear life.
Standing on a windowsill further down, she noticed Maria gripping onto a drain. She was standing at a second-storey window, but the water was just less than an inch below her. It was terrifying.
As Elektra looked, her blood ran cold. She could see some bodies. Rotting flesh. The infected. The dead bodies were being dragged down the water.
She didn't know if putting her foot in the water would cause her to become infected, but she didn't dare risk anything.
She just looked across and saw the water pounding through.
It was several hours before they were found, by Neil and Leroy in an orange raft they found at what had been a seaside hotel. Elektra and Maria struggled against them, refusing to get in, but Neil argued, "Just get in! You're dead if we leave you, anyway."
He was still frowning and furious when they grabbed a large car on a nearby hilltop. He shoved Maria, then Elektra, in the back seat and put the car in gear.
Elektra and Maria, bloodied, bruised and wet, looked helplessly at each other. Even being in a flood was comparable to being these men's wives.
Day Three Hundred and Ninety
Tee sat by the window again. The moving out had been a bad idea, but Rhodes had substituted for that. While she, Elektra, May-Li and Maria had gone to the hotel, the others had moved into rooms at the mansion.
Tee's room had been redone when she came. The curtains were taken down, the television locked away and the bath plugged up. But she still got scared whenever she heard Rudy's voice, in case he wanted something.
She had just less than four months. And even then, that was if Rudy didn't go against his word and hurt her early.
This just made her feel terrible. How could she have to live for the rest of her life in a disused motel with children popping out? Rhodes had just said the other day that they would stop as soon as each of them had ten children.
That meant a hundred and thirty kids to care for. Maybe more if other women turned up.
How could she manage to do all that? Rudy had argued, saying technically he'd be doing more, trying to grow and steal food, to support them and defend them from anyone who may try and 'steal' them, such as soldiers or the Red Cross.
Her 'duties', he told her, repeating word for word what Rhodes had told them, were having babies, cooking and making sure the house was tidy. Not that Tee didn't like cooking or eventually having children, but she wanted so much more than to be just a giggly, 1950s housewife.
At least he wasn't hitting her every day, like Neil did to Elektra.
They'd got some news from the mansion around a week after May-Li gave birth – Faith was about six weeks gone. Earlier today, Tee and Rudy had gone back to the mansion to get some food that had been found in another village, as well as clothes and some cooking utensils.
Tee had seen Faith, standing by the main door, looking utterly done for. Then Schmuel had stood by her, putting an arm around her.
According to Faith, when Tee had asked, no-one knew who the father was.
At dinner, the men had sat down, whilst the girls had done their best. They'd spent almost two hours rushing around the filthy kitchen – indeed, there were still grease stains over the floor where some boiling oil had been thrown, presumably at an infected – and there had been little to go on.
Eventually, they'd managed to make bread rolls (with the recipe books and May-Li and Maria supervising), and some tomato soup with fresh tomatoes.
As Tee finished it off with a sprig of parsley, they took the bowls out.
Neil had frowned when Elektra presented him with his bowl and bread rolls. He looked up, disgusted and annoyed, and had demanded, "Why isn't it a bit more filling? I wanted something filling, you stupid cow!"
Elektra looked terrified, which was a very nasty look for Elektra, then paced back and stammered. Neil drew to his full height and then used his riding crop (which was attached to his belt) to beat her three times round her back.
Then he told her, "Do something nice next time."
Dave, Leroy and Rudy seemed to enjoy the meal, saying it was better than the ridiculous uncooked meals that Rhodes had insisted on recently, with Rudy telling Tee that she cooked almost as good as his mother.
But Tee dreaded the day she'd turn sixteen. It wasn't just her; what about Jody? Or Britney? Or even worse, Floss and the twins?
She knew the awful future that was right now being acted out. But she knew that no matter what happened to her, she would try her best to escape this hell.
Day Four Hundred and Forty
Mike had had enough. He had talked to every officer he could think of and asked them if he could get some weapons to fight back.
Nobody had listened to him, causing him to ask everywhere on the island for over three months. Now, he had just got some – and he could manage to borrow from an old collection this guy up north, who had far too much stuff hoarded from wars across the world, had were a few hand grenades and a spear.
He was told that this was all he could get, but Mike was sure there was enough somewhere.
As he walked back to his flat, the officer that had stood on the dock on the very first day approached him.
"What do you want?" Mike asked him, fed up.
The officer smiled at him, "I know you want some weapons. Follow me. I'll get you some."
Mike had no choice; when he followed him to a storage locker a few streets away, he watched the officer open the door.
Mike's eyes grew wide as he saw what was there.
Rifles, hand grenades, bayonets, handguns and an axe, lined up against the walls and on the walls and on metal tables.
Mike was lost for words. The officer slapped a hand on his shoulder and told Mike, "Let's get started."